The Herald for April 26

Thursday, April 26, 2012

What we asked you on Monday on asuherald.com:

SportS, page 4CampuS Corner, page 3 newS, page 6

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Vol. 90 Issue 50

Informing Arkansas State University since 1921the herald

asuherald.com

Do you agree with ASU's disputed "Intellectual Property" proposal?

ASU student to run for Green Party ticket2012 senior art exhibition Native son: Thompson back for more of the Natural State

No 80%

Yes 0% Hear something funny or interesting on cam-pus? Tweet it to @OverheardAtASU and you could see it printed in The Herald!

Of interest onlineWhat proposal? 20%

Athletic bands in search of new directorCaleb Hennington

Staff Writer

The ASU Fine Arts Depart-ment will be making some big changes regarding faculty in the fall semester.

The department is search-ing for a new director of athletic bands to take the place of long time director, Ken Carroll, who has been moved to director of

jazz studies. The former director of jazz

studies, Ron Horton, is leaving ASU to pursue opportunities for him and his family in Pittsburgh, Penn.

Horton has been the director of jazz studies at ASU since the fall of 2006. Since teaching at ASU, Horton has directed ASU’s pre-mier Jazz Band, the ASU Jazz Lab Band, and the ASU Pre-

Collegiate Jazz band, as well as teaching Private Improvisation Lessons, Introduction to Fine Arts and Music and Music con-nections classes.

Although Horton doesn’t plan on teaching at another universi-ty in Pittsburgh, he has enjoyed working at ASU for the past six years.

“I have had a lot of fun work-ing with ASU students, and they

have made a tremendous impact on my life,” Horton said. “I really am happy that I had the chance to share some of the things I’ve learned with the people of Arkan-sas, Missouri and Tennessee,” he continued.

Horton’s departure left an open spot available for the director of jazz studies, but the department had no trouble finding a worthy replacement for Horton by ap-

pointing Ken Carroll, the current director of athletic bands, as the new director of jazz studies.

Tim Oliver, director of bands, said Carroll was selected as a re-placement for Horton because of his qualifications.

“[Dr. Carroll] has a large and extensive background in jazz studies. He was here before Dr. Horton, in 2002,” Oliver said.

See BANDS, page 5

Students triumphat Governor's Cup

Charmaine Foster Staff Writer

For the first time in ASU history, a team of students from the College of Business placed first in their division and brought home $6,000 in prize mon-ey at the 2012 Governor’s Cup.

The Governor’s Cup is a prestigious business plan competition where 53 teams from Arkansas’ colleges and uni-versities compete for a total of $272,000 in prizes.

Since beginning in 2001, it has given out over $1 million in prize money to students and their faculty advisors.

At the competition, business plans are judged based on creativity and in-novation as relates to ventures in the seed, start-up or early stage of develop-ment.

Recent College of Business gradu-ates Brandon Boone, Cody Brown and Doug Strickland developed the busi-ness plan Cam-Ah-Co, which received the Best Agriculture Award in the graduate division.

The plan, Cam-Ah-Co, is an equip-ment company which specializes in the production of a Seed Press unit.

This Seed Press unit would allow farmers to be profitable while being en-vironmentally conscious in the efforts of extracting bio-oils and feed products from the Camelina seed.

The Seed Press unit would also work to further the development of eco-effi-cient fuels and a healthier food market. Cam-Ah-Co’s goal would be to give

See TRIUMPH, page 5

NAACP chapterto be revived

Casey RinaldiStaff Writer

The first meeting of the new Arkan-sas state chapter of the National Asso-ciation for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday May 5, at the Jonesboro Public Library, inside the “Round Room.”

George Grant, a retired dean of the library who served from 2003 to 2009, and Troy Adams, a professor of Sociol-ogy, will be spearheading the chapter’s revival after it went dormant in the ‘90s.

“The way NAACP chapters are es-tablished is that a person in the com-munity recruits memberships. In order for a chapter or a branch to be established, you have to have a mini-mum of 100 members, so someone has to get it started, and we’re the one’s do-ing that,” Grant said.

Now that the chapter has acquired over 100 members (around the 120 mark with promises for more accord-ing to Grant, though he did not have an exact figure), they can reestablish themselves and begin to elect officers, which will be the purpose of the inau-gural meeting in May.

Positions available will be president, vice-president, secretary and treasur-er, as well as positions on various com-mittees and a board of directors. After-wards, the organization will apply for recognition at both the state

See NAACP, page 5

Strut your stuff

Photo courtesy of Jodie Cherry

Leonard Jones, a junior social science major of Stockton, Cali., and mem-ber of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, participated in the 'Strut Off' during a NPHC minority recruitment event.

'Healthy apps' may turn smart phones into life-saving devicesAbdullah Raslan

Photo Editor

With a mixture of multi touch technology and GPS recognition, smartphones have become a vital part of the lifestyles of nearly 100 million Americans according to Geekwire.com.

With many people having their phones attached to them as if they were their organs, now they can check their actual organs vi-tal functions with the comfort of their own mobile device.

Software applications (or apps) available at the Apple and Android store now can save peo-ples lives.

With health conscious apps categorized as “Health and Fit-ness” and others that are famil-iar, there is no excuse not to stay healthy.

The free app “Heart Rate” on the iPhone takes advantage of the phones camera as well as it’s fixed LED light.

After placing the index finger on the camera, the LED light starts flashing sensing and count-ing the hearts pulse rate.

The phone's camera senses your blood pressure and displays a very close estimate of the ac-tual reading of the pulse.

Other apps like the “Pocket First Aid & CPR from the Ameri-can Heart Association” comes on

both platforms, the iPhone and Android.

The app includes up-to-date emergency information from the American Heart Association, illustrations and information about topics such as CPR, chok-

ing, bites, bruises and more.The apps navigation includes

training photos and videos of the CPR procedure , essential medi-cal information incase of emer-gency and a first aid basics sec-tion.

The “Zombies, Run!” app offers an alternative to jogging.

Instead of counting your calo-ries on the treadmill, the app gives the consumer the opportu-nity to run from zombies.

A story line gets fed to the us-ers ears via headset creating a whole new world filled with zom-bies.

The app puts the user in a sit-uation where they hear zombies coming towards them and all they have to do is survive.

The apps description on the Apple stores says “Zombies. There’s only one thing you can do: Run!”

With a high price of eight dol-lars, the app is considered high compared to other jogging apps that cost less than one dollar.

A costumer review reads “Like most people out there I laughed at the price, but after I got over

the shock of paying $8 I couldn’t be happier.”

PJ Faulkner, a sophomore nursing major of Paragould, said if jogging isn’t your cup of tea and you choose to meditate instead, “Serenity: Chill Out” is the app to relax your mind.

Faulkner said he finds himself using the app whenever he needs to relax.

The app has 30 different “moods” ranging in different mood settings like romantic, fresh spring, summer, and galax-ies hurling though space.

For example, if you are in the mood to sit on the porch and watch two birds chirping in the distance, there’s a mood for that.

If you wanted to listen to the sound of a piece of log burning on a bed of fire, there’s an app for that.

The app also offers a zen gar-den where you can try to achieve nirvana.

No matter what situation you are in, as long as you have a smartphone you should be able to handle any medical emergency until the professionals show up.

When students gradu-ates from high school they have already spent three-fourths of their life in school. Taking a year off would benefit a large por-tion of these students.

In a time when the “non-traditional” is more common, it is still an American cultural norm to go to college straight out of high school. Many say this is when people find themselves, experi-ment, make mistakes and choose direction in life.

“American Interest” re-ports 75 percent of college freshmen are unprepared for college, and of those students it took six-to-seven years for them to graduate rather than the usual four. “USA Today” reports that 56 percent of non-traditional students graduate in four, and 20 percent graduate within three years.

Working before college prepares you to decide to continue education as a means to a better job.

Many 18-year-olds have not experienced much past the comfort of home. Tak-ing time off would allow students to enjoy them-selves before settling into college. Traveling would allow them to experience

new things and be intro-duced to new ideas.

Another reason stu-dents should wait before entering college is that they are not fully devel-oped. In the United States a person is legally an adult at 18, but technically a person is still a child. Sci-ence has proven that the frontal lobe of a person’s brain is what truly makes a person mature, and it doesn’t fully develop until the early or mid-20s.Until this part of the brain ma-tures people are more apt to take risks such as try-ing drugs, participating in crime and having unpro-tected sex.

If people cannot make adult decisions that affect their welfare then how can society throw them into adulthood at 18?

For many, the first year of college is also the first time they live on their own. It’s the first time they can do what-ever they want and not have to answer to anyone, presenting a world of opportunity.

For many, the first year of college is a time to experience and come into contact with different people and traditions. Most of the time this is a good thing — it enriches lives and ideas.

However, sometimes peer influence or pres-sure can be too much

for young people and they go with the crowd, wheth-er it be participating in a criminal act or trying drugs.

According to a Time Magazine article, “Time Out: Gauging the value of a gap year before college,” students in Britain and Australia commonly take a year off to participate in foreign service. The year gives them time to ma-ture.

People who have had a year to engage in different, worthwhile experiences can use those experiences and matured thoughts to bypass the dangers asso-ciated with the first year of college. They are simply better equipped to handle certain situations.

Rainwater is a news re-porting student.

The Herald is a public forum. Its content is written by students, for students, faculty and staff of Arkansas State University. Student editors of The Herald have the authority to make all content decisions without censorship or advance approval.OPINION

The Herald is located in Room 224 of the Communications Building.

The Herald is published twice weekly during the fall and spring semesters and is distributed around the Jonesboro campus. Its content is normally written by students. “Our View” represents the opinions of the editorial staff. Columns, letters to the editor, cartoons and other content on the opinion page are the views of the author. Content does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Herald.

Editorial Number Advertising Number(870) 972-3076 (870) 972-2961 asuherald.com

— Our View —Internet elections may

help the processIn an April 11 post of “PoliticalHowl,” written

by Herald staff writer Kayla Paine, a new organization called Americans Elect is seeking to put a presidential nominee on the ballot using the internet, without going through the traditional two-party system process.

For those voters who are tired of the traditional two-party election process, this organization hopes to garner bipartisan support and avoid the often nasty political fights that typically ensue.

With the right use of social media and a strong base of people supporting the measure, we think such an organization could strengthen the political system and help get candidates focused on the issues that are truly important.

Sadly, however, Americans Elect may wind up being a type of third party organization, and historically, third parties have never been that effective in the American political process.

Of course, one of the major goals of Americans Elect is to move past the political party bickering and choose a candidate that works for Americans, not party interests, and many may sign onto this simply for that reason alone.

Others, however, may support it because they are looking for the “perfect” candidate.

Certainly, many college students might throw their support behind this effort, simply because they are tired of the usual political bickering or they just want a candidate that doesn’t carry around so much political baggage.

But the problem with this line of thinking is that every politician, young or old, will always have weaknesses.

In reality, we must decide which weaknesses in a candidate we care to overlook. And yes, we may even have to settle for the “lesser of two evils.”

If anything though, we hope Americans Elect will encourage the traditional two-party candidates to see that citizens are tired of putting party ahead of country. Once candidates realize this, we can anticipate true change to occur.

“Our View” is written by the editorial staff. The opinions are not necessarily reflective of the student body, faculty or administration of Arkansas State University.

PAGE 2 Thursday, April 26 The Herald

- Sara Krimm, [email protected] Lindsey Blakely, news [email protected] Jeff Davidson, opinion [email protected]

- Abdullah Raslan, photo [email protected] Haley Johnson, features [email protected] Daniel McFadin, sports [email protected]

- Rachel Carner, online [email protected] Rachel Meredith, ad [email protected] Bonnie Thrasher, [email protected]

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New voter laws in U.S. hurt minorities

A number of states, 38 to be exact, are consider-ing new laws they say are aimed at tackling voter fraud.

Unfortunately, these new laws, being pushed by Republican majority state legislatures, intentionally dilute the voting power of a number of minority groups.

These laws are being considered before the up-coming presidential elec-tion, an apparent attempt by these states to prevent some groups of people from voting.

Perhaps the most popu-lar measure being con-sidered by states is the requirement that voters show a government issued identification at the polls. This requirement prevents millions of Americans from voting in numerous ways.

Although most Ameri-cans have a government-issued photo ID, studies show that as many as 12% of eligible voters nation-wide do not; the percentage is increased for students, low-income voters, seniors, people of color, people with disabilities and seniors.

Lori Minnite, a profes-sor of political science at Barnard College, who has

spent the last eight years studying the role fraud has played in U.S. elections, says the Republican battle against voter fraud is a strategic ruse.

Rather than protecting the election process from voter fraud, a problem that barely exists, Minnite says the true aim of Republican efforts appears to be voter suppression across the partisan divide.

According to Minnite, investigating voter fraud has become a Republican tool over the last 20 years because it justifies ques-tioning the eligibility of thousands of would-be vot-ers, often targeting poor and minority citizens that live in democratic areas.

Playing the role of vigi-lant watchdog gives GOP politicians an excuse to en-act laws that do not have any legitimate value and detract from the strength of our electoral democracy.

One state, Wisconsin, recently passed a Repub-lican-backed law that eliminated the ability of students to vote on cam-pus using their university-issued ID. Now, the law requires them to present a government ID with a val-id address and expiration date, rendering university IDs useless.

This obvious attempt to disenfranchise stu-dents is not representa-tive of a democratic so-ciety which prides itself

on fair elections. In 2011, Arkansas con-

sidered a law that would require voters to provide a government-issued ID or proof of citizenship in order to cast a ballot. In 2011, the measure passed the Arkansas House of Representatives. Rep. Bry-an King, R-Green Forest, said his proposal would help prevent voter fraud, a signature excuse to disen-franchise and intimidate minority voters.

Fortunately, the Senate State Agencies and Gov-ernmental Affairs Com-mittee killed the measure, and it did not become law.

In Wisconsin, citizens will not have to show pho-to ID during the election to recall their Republican governor, Scott Walker.

The (majority conserva-tive) Wisconsin Supreme Court refused to reinstate the voter ID law that the NAACP and Hispanic groups argued would take away voting rights from thousands of elderly and minority voters.

The new push for re-strictive voting laws is expected by conservative candidates who wish to di-lute the vote of those who oppose them.

What is most shocking is that this appears to be a Republican phenomenon as Democrats (except per-haps, southern Democrats) are more than likely not to restrict access to voting.

Our long established history of voter intimida-tion and restricted access to the polls make me ques-tion the legitimacy of any of these voter ID laws.

In the south, the U.S. Dept. of Justice still has to ensure voting districts and voting laws do not vio-late the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Even our highest court in the land has ap-proved the constant moni-toring of states that have a history of violating the most basic principles of democracy—voting.

Government should be afraid of the people. Peo-ple should not be afraid of their government.

This election season, make sure you know the requirements to vote, and share those requirements with your friends and co-workers.

When the public be-comes better informed, politicians are unable to take advantage of those who may have a harder time standing up for them-selves.

Voting is a right of any eligible U.S. citizen, re-gardless of your age, your educational status, or your race. Republican politi-cians should not be in the business of watering down this most fundamental right.

Varney is a graduate student in political science of Green Bay, WI

“This obvious attempt to disenfranchise students is not representative of a democratic society which prides itself

on fair elections.”

Andrei Varney

On April 21 the world was supposed to wake up to streets bleeding the mes-sage of “Stop at Nothing” after Friday’s Cover the Night event hosted by the non-profit organization, In-visible Children.

The Kony 2012 Cover the Night was an event that called Stop Kony 2012 supporters to plaster their towns with posters urging people to “Stop at Nothing” to take down the Ugandan leader of the Lord’s Resis-tance Army, Joseph Kony.

However, according to news reports, most of the world woke up to streets of sparsely scattered post-ers or nothing at all. The Stop Kony 2012 campaign that stirred up controversy by utilizing social media seems to have fizzled out just as quickly.

In Jonesboro and on cam-pus, it seems as if the Stop Kony 2012 campaign seems to have been forgotten by most people, save for a few flyers here and there. While some places seemed to have forgotten about covering the night, others took the idea to the extreme with graffiti messages and other types of property damage.

After the Cover the Night in Boston, the Boston Massacre memorial now

reads “Kony 2012” in red spray paint, just one of the infamous counts of prop-erty damage because of this event.

A status update to In-visible Children’s Face-book page on April 24 said, “Cover the Night was about building the local and global community up, not tearing it down. Some people chose to act in direct opposition to the event’s purpose, and they hurt the cause. We are really disappointed to hear about the property damage that occurred on April 20, and Invisible Children is taking action to help the af-fected cities clean it up.”

Invisible Children’s vid-eo, “Stop Kony 2012” went viral almost immediately after its release in early March. And since then, the Kony movement has gained a huge amount of support as well as criticism.

Has the movement whose video became the most viral video to date already lost its spark? Is the Stop Kony 2012 Movement just a bandwagon people are already sick of? Has support and criticism of Invisible Children’s cam-paign to stop the Ugandan warlord already become old news?

Perhaps people have al-ready found new “hashtag causes” to re-tweet.

Others might question the legitimacy of the Invis-ible Children organization as a whole. The controversy regarding the distribution

of funds within the orga-nization is one that made many people shy away from supporting the cause. A blog called “Visible Chil-dren” offers a “critical view” of the Kony 2012 campaign. And on March 7, a blog post titled “We got trouble” criti-cizes Invisible Children and encourages people to inves-tigate on the organization themselves.

The recent event involv-ing the hospitalization of Invisible Children co-found-er, Jason Russell on March 15 also seems to have de-terred further support for the cause. San Diego Po-lice reported that Russell was running through the streets in his underwear and acting in a “bizarre and irrational manner” that would be better handled at a hospital. However, no ar-rest was made.

Details concerning the lo-cal Cover the Night event were not found. Information about the event on the Fa-cebook page created to help rally support and volunteers is as sparse as the “Stop at Nothing” posters hung in Jonesboro Friday night.

While not all together ineffective, Invisible Chil-dren’s Cover the Night event to make Kony’s crimes known to the world did not experience the amount of success Invisible Children had hoped for.

McDaniel is a news re-porting student.

“Perhaps people have already found

new ‘hashtag causes’ to re-tweet.”

Leah McDaniel

Kony 2012 “Cover the night” seems to be a flop“If people cannot make adult decisions that affect their welfare then how can society throw them into adulthood at 18?”

Jessica Rainwater

Students should wait before entering college

PAGE 3 Thursday, April 26 The Herald

Campus Corner

Allie McKinleyStaff Writer

This July, beautiful and talented women from across the state will compete for the title of Miss Arkan-sas.

Among these women will be ASU’s own Chelsea Treadway, a senior biology major, who was crowned Miss Arkansas State Uni-versity on Feb. 15. However, she is not the only ASU student who will be competing for the crown.

In fact, there are five women from ASU, including Treadway, who will fight for the title. The students won in local preliminaries, which quali-fied them to compete in the Miss Arkansas pageant.

The additional ASU students competing are:

Norma Lopez, a sophomore the-ater major, who was crowned Miss Batesville on Aug. 5, 2011.

Ashley Gage, a sophomore early childhood education major, who was crowned Miss Crowley’s Ridge on Feb. 4.

Maegan Inzer, a senior commu-nication disorders major, who was crowned Miss Greater Jacksonville on Feb. 25.

Last but not least is Mollie Park-er, a freshman radio television ma-jor, who was crowned Miss Cotton Belle on March 10.

These young ladies are among the 48 contestants fighting for the crown July 11th – 14th at the Hot Springs Convention Center. They will compete in Interview, Talent, Lifestyle and Fitness in swimsuit, and Presence and Poise in evening gown. Each contestant also must discuss her chosen platform, a so-cial or community issue of concern to herself and the society at large.

Over $75,000 in scholarships will be awarded, with the winner of the pageant will go on to represent Ar-kansas in the Miss America pag-eant. The reigning Miss Arkansas, Kristen Glover of Stuttgart, will be on hand each night of competition.

For the second year in a row, there will be free tickets for some students available at the Miss Ar-kansas pageant.

On July 13th and 14th, fraternity and sorority members will be able to watch the final night of prelimi-nary competition and the crowning night for free. Greek members are asked to wear their letters or pin in order to gain complimentary ad-mission.

A similar offer exists for junior high and high school spirit squads, who are invited to attend the first two nights of Preliminary competi-tion for free. The squad members must arrive in uniform to get in for free.

Both groups are asked to check in between 6:30 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. each night to claim their free tick-ets. They are also asked to bring their support signs to hold up when cheering on their favorite con-testants during competition each night. The show begins each night at 7:30 p.m.

Five students to compete in Miss Ark. Free admission for greeks

Haley JohnsonArts and Features Editor

Families Outreach, Inc. will debut its newest fund raising effort at the ASU Farmer’s Market on Saturday, May 5, 2012. Families Outreach will host a booth at the Farmer’s Market for the 2012 summer season. The booth will offer a combina-tion of fresh vegetables, herbs and eggs.

“We’ve been working really hard getting every-thing together for the Farmer’s Market Booth,” said Families Outreach intern and ASU public relations major Morgan McKenzie. “We’ve been working in the Garden of Hope to grow the pro-duce and we can’t wait to see the turn out. We’re hoping for huge success!”

All produce available at the booth is home-grown in the Garden of Hope, located at 556 CR 712 in Jonesboro. The Garden of Hope is a com-

munity garden cared for and operated by Families Outreach.

All proceeds from the booth directly benefit Families Outreach and their partnership with Christian Life Centre in Durban, South Africa. Christian Life Centre cares for orphaned children affected by HIV/AIDS.

The church has seven home units, with the ability to care for 42 children. They also have a preschool and elementary school for children in the orphanage and surrounding community, and offer meals to 200 children five days a week.

Families Outreach, Inc. is a local non-profit agency with a threefold approach: assist couples through financial adoption grants, develop active partnerships with orphan care providers and mo-bilize adoption and orphan advocates. For more information about the Garden of Hope or Families Outreach, please visit www.familiesoutreach.org.

Kayla PaineStaff Writer

Riceland Hall in ASU’s Fowler Center need-ed a dirt floor, stringed lights and lemonade to better accommodate the crowd on Saturday night. Bluegrass group Dailey and Vincent played to an almost full house of enthusiastic fans in the 970-seat hall.

Judging by Saturday’s performance, it was evident the group loves to perform. Seeing a bluegrass performance live is much more en-joyable than listening to the recorded album. It’s hard to stay seated when dancing could be taking place. The audience would clap and sing along to the music, and jokes were told, mak-ing the group personable.

Gina Hughes from Searcy, a junior dental hygiene major at ASU-Beebe, said Dailey and Vincent is her favorite group, and she willingly drove to Jonesboro for the performance.

“They were excellent and so much better live; I really want them to come back one day,” she said.

The group won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s award for Entertainer of the Year three years in a row starting in 2008, but did not win the 2011 title.

Not only has the group won Entertainer of the Year award, it’s also been recognized for its musical talent, winning many awards with the IBMA and Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America.

The six-person ensemble consisted of Ja-mie Dailey on the acoustic guitar and vocals, Darrin Vincent on the string bass and vocals, Christian Davis on the acoustic guitar and vo-cals, Jeff Parker on the mandolin and vocals, B.J. Cherryholmes on the fiddle and Jessie Baker on the banjo.

The vocals were strong, crisp and harmoni-ous. Dailey and Vincent said they came togeth-er because their voices seemed to naturally fit and they knew that great things could be done in bluegrass.

Davis sang a strong bass, which resonated through the room yet didn’t overpower the oth-er vocals. After an a cappella performance by the group, some of the audience gave a stand-ing ovation.

Each member showcased musical talent with no one lacking. Although each member brought a lot of individual skill demonstrated by the multiple solos, they worked well as a unit.

Cherryholmes and Baker are both young performers, but impressed the oldest of blue-grass fans bringing much applause after each solo.

This was Baker’s second performance with the group and he has really been enjoying the experience.

“We’re serious about the music, but they all understand if I make mistakes because I’m still new to performing with them, but it’s been great,” he said.

The group covered songs by The Statler Brothers, John Denver, Johnny Cash as well as some old hymns.

Ending the night, Dailey and Vincent sang “By The Mark” as a duo. The two started their partnership in 2007 singing the tune.

In the past few years, there have been more young people attracted to bluegrass music be-cause of popular bands like Mumford and Sons, Old Crow Medicine Show and The Tallest Man on Earth.

Although the bands are put into the genre of folk and aren’t full-blown bluegrass, they showcase banjos and mandolins, drawing peo-ple into exploring bluegrass.

“Bluegrass is really hard for the younger generation to get into because there is an age gap, but because of the Americana and folk-like bands becoming popular, hopefully the youth will find bluegrass and be impressed and like the genre because so much effort goes into playing this music,” Cherryholmes said.

The group’s new album, “The Gospel Side of Dailey and Vincent” is offered at Cracker Bar-rel Old Country Store.

Families Outreach launches newest fundraiser

Concert Review: Dailey and Vincent

The 2012 senior art exhibition will host it’s open reception tonight at 5pm in the Brad-bury Gallery located at the Fowler Center. This years artists are, Steve Adair, Lau-ra Flowers, Shelly Gibson, Adam S. Hogan, Bryanna Jaramillo and Dylan McAlister. The QR pictured is used to promote the exhibition. Scan the code to recieve more information.

Chelsea WeaverStaff Writer

Warped Tour, like many other festivals, will be back again this sum-mer and promises to be just as exciting as in years past.

The skateboard shoe manufacturer, Vans, among others, has spon-sored the tour every year since 1995, and attendance figures for last year’s tour were estimated between 16,000 and 20,000.

The tour’s more recent line-ups have featured a diversity of alternative rock genres, such as hardcore, pop punk, and metal.

Since the 2000s the tour has featured as many as 100 bands per show, traveling all over the country to major cities.

The closest Warped Tour that comes to Arkansas State is St. Louis, which is about a four hour drive from campus.

The show kicks off June 16 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and will wrap up Aug. 5 in Portland, Ore.

Tickets for shows in each city can be purchased at van-swarpedtour.com, and other in-formation about the lineup may

be obtained at that website as well.

Taylor Burrington, a sopho-more interdisciplinary studies major of Cabot, described his past experience of Warped Tour to be crazy and hot.

“The crowds were huge and the shows were great. The whole atmosphere was just in-credible,” he said.

Apart from a typical venue, which is inside and sometimes offers poor acoustics, Warped Tour and other summer festi-vals are usually outside in a field or park large enough to ac-commodate the large number of people who attend one date.

“I don’t think anything com-pares to venues like that,” Burr-ington said.

With so many bands on the tour and each playing only one day, Warped Tour has several

different stages so several different bands can play simultaneously. Although this is a great feature uti-lized by many festivals, it forces fans to choose, but allows a listener to walk around and sample sever-al different bands at once.

Mark Reider, a fresh-man social science major

of Cabot, went to Warped Tour for the first time last year.

“I had never been to a large music festival like that before, so it was really just a new ex-perience for me. It was cool get-ting to see some of my favorite bands all in the same place. That doesn’t happen very of-ten,” Reider said.

For music fans who have nev-er been to an outdoor summer music festival, Warped Tour is a great place to start. With tickets costing only $28-35 and many genres to choose from, it is one of the cheapest tours featuring many big bands of today’s alter-native rock scene.

“I want to go back because Warped Tour is never the same two years in a row. I’ll get to have a similar experience with new friends to go with and new bands to see,” Reider said.

Warped Tour ‘never the same two years in a row’

SPORTSPAGE 4 Thursday, April 26 The Herald

Zach LottStaff Writer

Spring practice is over, and Gus Malzahn and his coaching staff are ready for the next phase of the 2012 season: recruiting.

In a press conference Monday morning, the Ar-kansas State head coach gave his final thoughts on the spring season and unveiled his plan for in-state recruiting, a five-day, 215-school blitz-krieg dubbed “A-State Ambush.”

ASU will visit every high school in the state this week to establish re-lationships with coaches and administrators. The plan aims to discover tal-ented players who would otherwise be overlooked because of their schools’ lack of pedigree.

“That’s why we want to hit every school. There’s traditional schools that

players come out of, but we want to go to every football-playing school just to turn over a rock, to try to see if there’s any up-and-coming players,” Malzahn said. “We’re big believers in the coaches in this state and the play-ers in this state, and this is going to be the founda-tion of our program.”

Malzahn also touched on the end of spring prac-tice, praising his team’s improvement throughout April as they adjusted to new offensive and defen-sive schemes. He was es-pecially complimenta-ry of senior quarterback Ryan Aplin, comparing him to Paul Smith, who was the 2007 Conference USA player of the year under Malzahn’s tute-lage at Tulsa.

“Ryan’s got the abil-ity to make plays when things break down. He’s a very good decision mak-

er. He can make all the throws,” Malzahn said. “The game’s slow to him. We’re really going to be relying on Ryan a lot.”

He went on to note the

strides made by the de-fense, who struggled in the spring game much to the chagrin of defensive coordinator John Thomp-son. Malzahn said that

the defense became confi-dent in the last “three to four practices” and “were able to turn loose and re-ally play fast.”

Speed was also a focus on the other side of the ball, as Malzahn and of-fensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee installed a more up-tempo edition of the offense used by former Red Wolves head coach Hugh Freeze.

“At first, we really stressed the tempo and really challenged our guys. It started to get a little bit slower for them as the spring went on,” Malzahn said. “Playing fast will be an advantage for us. They definitely improved.”

That compliment was extended to the offensive line, which lost three starters, including for-mer first team All-Sun Belt center Tom Casti-law. Malzahn said of-

fensive line coach J.B. Grimes “mixed and matched” different play-ers this spring in an ef-fort to find his best five linemen.

Malzahn added that both the offensive and defensive lines need to add bulk before the sea-son begins.

“Summer is very crit-ical to our development, not only skill-wise but also strength-wise…. up front, getting stronger is a big, big emphasis,” he said.

Summer workouts, which are voluntary, will begin next month, while fall camp will be in Au-gust. A preliminary depth chart is due at the end of the week.

Arkansas State’s first game, a road match-up against the 2011 PAC-12 champion, the Oregon Ducks, is slated for Sept. 1.

Spreading the WordFootball coaching staff visiting 215 high schools in five days as part of the “A-State Ambush”

Daniel McFadinSports Editor

While John Thompson may be a new face to the Arkansas State football program, the 56-year-old is no stranger to the world of college football.

Thompson was appoint-ed by head coach Gus Malzahn on Feb. 25 after the abrupt departure of Keith Patterson for West Virginia.

“When you say timing is everything, that’s right. The timing was perfect, that’s one. Two, I think Gus Malzahn is going to do something big,” Thompson said.

“Being at Arkansas State and being in Arkan-sas, the moon and the sun really lined up right.”

A native of the natu-ral state, Arkansas State’s newest defensive coordina-tor has been a figure in the sport since his days of play-ing the game at his alma mater, Central Arkansas, where Thompson played for two seasons at defen-sive back.

“The only reason I played college ball was because I wanted to be a coach. I wasn’t good in col-lege at all, I was a walk on,” Thompson recounted.

Born in El Paso, Tex-

as, Thompson was raised in Wilson and McCrory be-fore attending high school in Forrest City where his father coached football.

“My dad was a coach un-til I was a sophomore in high school,” Thompson said. “I wanted to coach be-cause I saw the impact he had. I saw what I thought was a great life, but real-ly wasn’t worth it. He was gone all the time. I saw how he treated players and

treated people and I saw that being a fun life.”

That impression at a young age put Thompson on a road that has led him to coach at 13 different uni-versities, including Arkan-sas State, over the course of the last 30 years.

Thompson has coached his way through campuses at Arkansas, South Caroli-na under the leadership of the “Ole Ball Coach” Steve Spurrier, and one season

experiencing the “aura of Florida,” in 2002.

“I wish I had stopped and smelled the roses at some of those places more than I did instead of just focus-ing in on trying to win and getting close to the players. I’m glad we did that, but also I guess I should have stepped back and said ‘this is pretty cool,” Thompson said.

With the move from his previous position at Geor-gia State, Thompson makes his third foray into the Ar-kansas college scene.

“There’s always been something unique about Arkansas. There’s no ma-jor cities, at least nothing that compares to Atlan-ta, or something like that. There’s just a connection with everybody no mat-ter where you’ve lived,” Thompson observed.

That is a connection Thompson has carried with him from his time as a player at UCA, to his two seasons at the Universi-ty of Arkansas, where he coached the second best pass defense in the SEC and one year as the athlet-ic director of UCA while it made the transition to the Division 1 level in 2006.

“At UCA, I was learn-ing to be businessman. It was on-the-job training,”

Thompson said. “Being at my alma mater meant a lot to me. I wanted to do that the right way. So much of that was trying to make sure people understood that it was a huge step for-ward, and they’re doing very well.”

Thompson enjoyed his tenure at UCA, but lament-ed not being able to have a close relationship with the coaches and players.

However, possibly Thompson’s biggest chal-lenge came at his last stop of four years at Georgia State University in Atlan-ta.

There he was a key fig-ure in the creation of GSU’s football program from the ground up.

The school will join the Sun Belt conference begin-ning next season.

“At Georgia State, be-ing with Bill Curry was really something special,” Thompson remembered. “We did not have a desk, we did not have a football. I think our first meeting, we put our notebooks in our laps, we did that for a lit-tle while.”

Once the GSU staff signed its first recruiting class, the team did nothing but practice for a year be-fore competing for the first time in the 2010 season.

“It was pretty unique, it was cool to be able to do that. Now that program is off and running. That pro-gram is really going to ex-plode I think, with the me-dia market and the amount of talent that is around there,” Thompson said.

Now Thompson takes the reigns of a defense that finished 24th in the na-tion in 2011, with first year head coach Gus Malzahn at helm, the second defen-sive coordinator in a short period of time.

Ultimately, Thompson’s decision to make the move to Jonesboro came down to family.

“It was a good time for our family. [My wife], Charleen and I have an 8th grader. I felt like it was a good time to get them here. We just felt very positive about it.”

With 30 years of coach-ing under his belt, the For-rest City native still feels like he has a lot to bring to the table.

“My dad use to say, ‘you don’t get smarter, my back has just been against a wall that many more times’,” Thompson recalled. “My back’s been against a wall a lot in coaching, hopefully I can use that wisdom here at Arkansas State better than ever.”

ASU Press Release

Arkansas State head women’s basketball coach Brian Boyer an-nounced Tuesday that Memphis Central High School standout Jalen O’Bannon has signed a National Letter of Intent to continue her basket-ball career at ASU.

O’Bannon, a 6-1 for-ward, averaged 7.8 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 1.4 blocked shots during her senior season, helping the War-riors to their fourth con-secutive District 16 AAA championship and tour-nament championship. Central posted a 49-1 District 16 AAA record during O’Bannon’s four seasons.

During her senior sea-son, she was also named to the Region 8 all-tour-nament team after help-

ing Central to the Re-gion 8 championship and the Substate champion-ship.

The Warriors also ad-vanced to the state tour-nament in all four of O’Bannon’s seasons, win-ning the Class AAA title during her junior year.

She was the recipient of the Warriors’ sixth-man award following the 2011 title run. Central also captured the Region 8 and Substate cham-pionships in four con-secutive seasons with O’Bannon as a member of the team.

“I am excited to final-ly get Jalen signed,” said Boyer. “We have been recruiting her for some time now and even of-fered her back in the fall. Jalen is a very gift-ed basketball player that has both good size and athletic ability. She fits

the motion offense very well because she is a post player that also has very good perimeter skills.”

“Central High School has been one of the most successful programs over the past few years, not only in Memphis, but it has been one of the best programs in the nation,” added Boyer. “Coach Bray challenges her team and prepares them very well to make the ad-justment to the college game. We felt like with this recruiting class we had to get better physi-cally, and Jalen helps us do that.”

A member of the Dis-tinguished Honor Roll at Memphis Central, where she also played volleyball and ran track, O’Bannon is the daughter of Cher-yl O’Bannon and was coached by Niki Bray at MCHS.

Courtesy of ASU Sports InfoJohn Thompson is the defensive coordinator for the Arkansas State

football team.

Courtesy of ASU Sports Info

A map from astateredwolves.com shows where in Arkansas ASU’s football coaching staff has visited through Wednesday.

Boyer signs O’Bannon to 2012 class

Native Son: Thompson back for more of the Natural State

NFL Draft: • Two former Arkansas State football player are predicted to be taken in this weekends draft. Linebacker Demario Davis and defensive back Kelcie McCray are predicted by ESPN analyst Todd McShay to be taken in the third round and fifth roud respectively. The Draft begins tonight with the first round at 7 p.m. on ESPN. Rounds 2-3 will be held Friday night beginning at 6 p.m. and rounds 4-7 being aired Saturday beginning at 11 a.m.

Track and Field: • Sprinter Sharika Nelvis was awarded her second consecutive Sun Belt track athlete of the week. bring her total for the year up to four. Nelvis broke the ASU record for the 200-meter run at the Vanderbilt Invitational with a time of 23.35. Her time in the 200 is currently ranked 10th in the NCAA West Division Rankings. ASU hosts the Red Wolf open this weekend at the ASU Track

Men’s Golf• : ASU finished 11th in the Sun Belt Conference Championships with a combined score of 930 after shooting a final day score of 313. The Red Wolves were led by Christian Helmbold, who finished tied for 29th place with a 231. Sawyer Radler followed Helmbold with a 234 to finish tied for 34th place, and both players carded a team-best 74 during one of the three rounds.

Baseball: • The Red Wolves (21-18, 10-6), travel to Middle Tennessee for three game series beginning Friday. ASU’s next home series is scheduled for next weekend against South Alabama.

Sports Briefs

NEWSPAGE 5 Thursday, April 26 The Herald

BriefsThis is a campus-wide invitation to a going away reception honoring Dr. Glen Jones,

hosted by the Office of Academic Affairs. Please mark your calendar and plan to join us May 8, from 3-4:30 p.m. in Centennial Hall. Remarks will begin at 3:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served.

A course focusing on Service and Leadership will be offered on Wednesday s from 4pm-5pm, Fall 2012. This course will be worth 2 credit hours and can be used towards a leadership minor at ASU. The course name is Intro to Leadership 101, and the CRN is 60572.

Sign up now for Summer I or Summer II horseback riding classes at the ASU Equine Center. We will offer the beginning Equitation class (ANSC 1602) in the first summer term and Intermediate Western Equitation (ANSC 1612) in the second summer term. Both classes will meet MRWR in the morning hours to beat the heat.

BANDS, CONTINUED

Campus CrimeMarch 22On Saturday, Officer Robert

Peevey was on foot patrol in Col-legiate Park when he saw a vehi-cle parked at the building five en-trance. From the vehicle, he heard someone yell, “Shut the f--- up” to a vehicle that had just passed them. Peevey then made contact with the passenger, Quitin Sparkman, and asked who said it. Sparkman admit-ted to yelling.

While speaking with Spark-man, Peevey said he could smell a very strong odor of burnt marijua-na coming from inside the vehicle. He then asked Sparkman and Ah-mad Tucker if they had been smok-ing and they both replied with yes. When asked if there was anymore in the vehicle, they both replied no. Peevey had the two, and the other passenger, Henry Pilcher, step out of the car and he patted them down and searched the vehicle.

During the search, Peevey found a small burnt marijuana cigar in a cup and another small burnt marijuana cigar on the center ashtray. Next, he located a small amount of marijuana sitting on a paper towel and all over the floorboard. No one admitted to the marijuana being theirs. Peevey referred the three for a drug viola-tion and found the substance to be 1.1 grams.

March 21On Sunday, Officer Ron Smith re-

ceived a call about a suspicious per-son on University Loop East. He ob-served the subject walking north, with his head down and appeared to be struggling.

Smith reported that when he made contact with the suspect, An-drew Hilton, he was having trouble speaking and was struggling to keep from falling. He was sat down and Officer Ryan Crawford arrived to assist in the arrest. When Crawford asked Hilton to stand, he replied with “I really don’t want to.” Hilton was assisted to his feet, handcuffed and taken to the Craighead County Detention Center.

Officer Brian Bailey received a

phone call on Sunday from Loret-ta Goodwin stating that her son had been assaulted on the ASU campus the weekend prior at an Omega Psi Phi function. According to the re-port, the victim, Spencer Goodwin, received several injuries to his eye. Loretta stated that he had to have surgery to repair a hold that is be-hind his eye as a result from the as-sault. Loretta said she didn’t learn the identity of the suspect, Elroy Brown, until five days later.

Following the phone call, it was reported that the assault actually happened at The Grove and that the victim is not an ASU student. The in-vestigation was forwarded to the Jonesboro Police Department.

March 21On Saturday night, at around

12:47 a.m., Officer Robert Peevey reported being on foot patrol in Ar-kansas Hall when he smelled a very strong odor of burnt marijuana. He found the room that it was com-ing from and when he knocked on the door, he heard movement. After about two minutes of knocking and announcing who he was, Alexander Goff answered the door. Accord-ing to the report, when he opened the door there was a very strong odor of marijuana and Goff’s eyes were bloodshot. Peevey also report-ed hearing the shower running with an extreme amount of steam com-ing from the bathroom.

After entering the room, Peevey asked to search the room and was allowed. After looking inside the re-frigerator, Peevey located a glass bong, a half full water bottle con-taining whiskey and am empty glass mason jar. The jar had a strong odor of marijuana. Peevey then located a silver metal grinder. Next, Peevey located a blue glass jar with a cork top containing marijuana along with two pill bottles, also containing mar-ijuana. Peevey also found a half gal-lon bottle of Ten High whiskey. Goff was referred for drug and alcohol violation.

— Compiled by Lindsey Blakely, News Editor

Though the director of jazz studies position has al-ready been filled, the ques-tion now is who will take over as director of athletic bands for the next semes-ter?

Oliver, along with other members of the Fine Arts Department, including Carroll, already have start-ed the process of searching for and selecting a new di-rector.

Oliver said the new di-rector would have to have certain attributes that are expected by ASU and the community of Jonesboro.

“The new director will have to be an expert in the field, someone who un-derstands the demand of teaching a large marching band, someone who is able to serve the community of

Jonesboro, and is able to teach music education,” Oliver said.

Meanwhile, Oliver also said he expects the new director to have infectious enthusiasm and passion, and be someone who is able to create great things.

These expectations are what the marching band has come to be known for at ASU.

Joseph Anderson, sopho-more RTV major from Jack-sonville, Ark., said Carroll is one of those teachers who makes you want to do better, not just expects it.

“Dr. Carroll will be a good jazz director, he’s done it before,” Anderson said.

Carroll’s influences on marching band students are visible to many in the

department of music.Oliver said he has seen

the marching band grow since he has been at ASU in enrollment, visibility, and level of commitment.

“Three of the last four years the enrollment in the marching band has broken ASU history records,” Oli-ver said.

Oliver also said the suc-cess of the athletic depart-ment has also helped to create a great vibe and at-titude around the march-ing band.

The new director will be selected after the end of this semester and Oliver hopes to have someone of-ficially hired by June.

“The new director will start from day one of hiring with myself and others as mentors,” Oliver said.

TRIUMPH, CONTINUED

farmers the “choice” of how they sell and distrib-ute the different products from their Camelina crop.

The students developed this plan in a fall 2011 Small Business Manage-ment course administered by Erick Chang with sup-port from Kevin Humphrey and Steve Green from the College of Agriculture and Brian Rogers from the Ar-kansas Biosciences Insti-tute.

This cunning proj-ect impressed the judges and earned the graduate students an unexpected $6,000.

“My initial reaction was shock,” stated Strickland, who acted as Operations Manager of the project and holds a psychology de-gree with a minor in busi-

ness administration, “We had worked hard on the development of the busi-ness plan but really did not know it would win at the state level.”

For winning the Best Agriculture Award, the stu-dents received $5,000 from Farm Bureau along with a plaque commemorating their success. The students were also awarded an ex-tra $1,000 for being named finalists in the overall busi-ness plan competition.

More than money, how-ever, the competition gave experience and confidence.

“The competition defi-nitely contributed to ones skill-set,” said Strickland, “I feel I am better prepared for any career field.”

Cam-Ah-Co was one of six ASU business plans

submitted for the compe-tition. The undergraduate team made up of Kathy Winston, John Whisnant, Morgan Sharp, Chandler Young and Jesse Woods were also named finalist in the Agriculture under-graduate division, for their plan for Natural Solutions, a Camelina feed supple-ment company.

“We are extremely proud of the Cam-Ah-Co team and all the students who par-ticipated in the Governor’s Cup,” said Dr. Len Frey, dean of the ASU College of Business, “It is our goal to make the entrepreneur-ial spirit systemic across the campus as it will help move Arkansas forward in the future.”

and national levels by acquiring membership funds.

“We solicit memberships, both youth and adult. We send money to the state president, they send us business cards and they basically certify the chap-ter as nationally affiliated, so it’s kind of a certification process,” Grant said.

Membership dues are $15 annually or $400 life-time for youths (individu-als under 21), and $30 an-nually or $750 lifetime for adults. People can also make individual donations of any amount they choose as well.

Grant also noted that the library was chosen primarily for convenience but it will likely not be the association’s permanent home.

“We may end up meeting at some churches or some other community locations in the future,” he said.

Grant explained oppor-tunities for ASU students to be involved with the NAACP.

“There is an ASU chap-ter, but I’m not sure how active it is. However, we encourage that students will be welcome to partici-pate in any programs and projects that we may be

involved in. We are going to involve them as much as we can, but the relation-ship among the chapters is something we’ll have to ex-plore,” he said. “We won’t compete with them, we’ll cooperate with them.”

Grant said that he was a youth member and was involved with the NAACP back in the 1950’s as part of the Civil Rights Move-ment and has also been a member of chapters in Bal-timore, Md., and Orlando, Fla.

Regarding the organiza-tion’s plans going forward from the election, Grant noted that while an agen-da has not been formally drawn up, there will be a number of programs that the organization can con-tribute in, such as voter registration, youth enrich-ment programs and HIV/AIDS prevention pro-grams, yet nothing is set in stone to receive the new chapter’s support. They are only being considered for adoption.

Grant also wished to clear up a common mis-understanding about the NAACP and its purpose.

“In the past, we have been perceived as primar-ily a civil rights organiza-tion, but it’s much more

than that now. Civil rights is still an agenda, but there are things having to do with youth violence preven-tion, HIV/AIDS prevention financial aid literacy work-shops and a lot of other programs that we think we could benefit from having a national connection so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” he said. “If you benefit from the experi-ence of others, you can get it launched much faster. We’re looking at NAACP promoting the welfare of the community.”

Grant offered his final thoughts on the soon-to-be established chapter and what he hopes it will be able to do for all of Jonesboro.

“We want to contribute to the community. We are more than just civil rights. We may be concerned with some fair employment rights or something, but this is about more than that,” he said. “We want to contribute, through the NAACP programs, to the improvement of life in the city. That’s our focus.”

For further informa-tion, you can contact Grant at (901) 218-3135, or via e-mail at [email protected]. For more information about the NAACP, visit http://www.naacp.org/.

NAACP, CONTINUED

NewsPAGE 6 Thursday, April 26 The Herald

“I spent a year teaching English in China at a University and living among the Chinese in the far north while school was out of session. I would later be threaten by the foreign affairs officer at my University and I would watch my Chinese friend get arrested by the police; but that would all come later. China is undergoing the biggest economic expansion in the history of the world. Never has so many people’s lives been made better in such a short time span. It makes the United States look like it’s going backwards. Everything you ever heard about China is true and a thousand things you cannot imagine.”

Arkansas State University has a relationship with Shandong University of Finance and Economics in China.

“Here is my story as an English Teacher there.” - Arnold

Buy it on now at Amazon.com

Jessica RainwaterStaff Writer

The University Police Department and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF) Police will be more strictly enforcing the law not to trespass on the railroad tracks near the recently closed off Caraway Road.

Since the closing of Caraway Road on campus, UPD has observed many students still crossing the ditch to cross the railroad tracks on foot despite being urged to use only the designated crossings provided on the new Marion Berry Parkway.

The BNSF Police recently contacted UPD and requested assistance in making sure students were aware of the illegality of crossing the railroad tracks at Caraway and University Loop.

The BNSF Police has posted “No Trespassing” signs to help pedestrians be more aware of where they are not legally allowed to cross the railroad tracks. Both UPD and the BNSF Police will be monitoring the area and enforcing this law.

The primary goal of BNSF Police and UPD enforcing this law is the safety of the pedestrians. In a recent safety message

sent to students from UPD, they outline several precautions for proper railway safety.

The safety message reminds students that the only safe place to cross the tracks are at designated roadway or pedestrian crossings and that railroad tracks, trestles and yards are private property and being in these areas is considered trespassing.

BNSF also wants students to be aware that it can take a train up to a mile to stop and that trains overhang the tracks by about three or four feet in each direction, so pedestrians are warned to stay at a distance.

Pedestrians should also refrain from crossing the tracks immediately after a train has passed. The tracks should be clear in either direction before pedestrians begin to cross.

If the red lights are flashing, do not duck under or around the gates, and never try to hop aboard a train.

The violation of these safety precautions by any pedestrian that is observed trespassing at Caraway and University Loop can result in that pedestrian being ticketed or fined. Trespassing on this area near these railroad tracks is considered criminal trespass on land and is a Class B misdemeanor resulting in a $165 ticket.

UPD to more strictly enforce law near tracks

Zach RoachStaff Writer

His face won’t be found on flashy billboards, in ob-noxious campaign commer-cials or even behind a desk in a swank campaign head-quarters.

Jacob Holloway, a Jonesboro native and ASU graduate student, seeking an MSA in Agricultural Science, is running under the Green Party Ticket for the U.S. House of Repre-sentatives in the first Dis-trict.

Holloway, 25 years old, is no stranger to the Ar-kansas political arena. He was instrumental in bring-ing the Wall Street move-ment to Jonesboro last fall, ran for a seat on the Jonesboro City Council in 2010 and worked on the 2006 Arkansas Democrat’s Coordinated Campaign and with John Kerry in 2008. But the turning point in his political career came four years ago, when Hollo-way was functioning as the state-wide Vice President for the College Democrats of Arkansas.

At that time, Holloway was a student at Universi-ty of Arkansas in Fayette-ville where he penned an editorial for the University paper that U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor’s campaign and cer-tain members of the Demo-cratic Party found offen-sive.

“I became vocal about his support of certain Bush administration policies, specifically the telecom-munications companies spying on Americans and I was showing support for Rebekah Kennedy, who was the Green party candi-date in ’08,” Holloway said. “Then basically, I got a call from the Pryor chief of staff telling me to either support the party’s issues or leave the party.”

Holloway said the fallout from that experience left him questioning his and

the core values of the Dem-ocratic Party. With more soul searching, commu-nity outreach and research he reached the decision of switching his party affilia-tion, and “going green.”

Later in 2008, Holloway openly helped his friend and fellow U of A student, Abel Tomlinson run for congress in the 3rd District under the Green Party ticket.

Since then, Holloway has had no qualms about changing parties.

The Green Party, along with other third parties, is slowly coming to gain prominence on national and state levels. The state party even garnered na-tional attention in the 2008 election cycle when Richard Carroll, a former boilermaker, gained a seat in the Arkansas House of Representatives for the 39th district. That year also marked the first time the Green Party had a sep-arate primary ballot in the state.

But even with campaigns gearing up for the final stretch, Holloway insists he is running his campaign the old fashioned way.

“I’m calling people around the state, using social media to spread the word and make connec-tions,” he said. “In other countries, corporations can funnel billions into cam-paigns and it is known as bribery. But here, it’s called campaign contribu-tions. Needless to say, I won’t be taking donations from corporations.”

Even when election cam-paigns have taken cynical, bitter tones, Holloway re-fuses to launch smear cam-paigns, or negative attacks, fitting in with his motto of empowering the people.

“You can’t empower people with negativity. I’m a spiritual person and have studied lots of East-ern thought, and I can say that even with the tragedy

of today’s world, it doesn’t matter the outcome, but how one responded to the situation. Negativity will get us nowhere, but only compound our troubles.”

Besides economic equity among Arkansans citing that one shouldn’t have to worry about losing his or her job or homes to “crimi-nal Wall Street banks,” or to corporate outsourcing of labor to other countries for “slave-like wages.”

Holloway also wants to see the Dennis Kucinich idea of single payer health-care implemented.

“The current health care laws just aren’t drafted correctly,” he noted. “There is no excuse for not taking care of the sick.”

What Holloway is stressing that he will offer to the 1st district is “real hope and change” that ev-ery Arkansan can believe in; something he believes never really came from the 2008 presidential election.

“I’m not in this for politi-cal gain, power or vindic-tiveness. No, I am doing this to make people think and talk about issues and things that don’t have voic-es otherwise,” he said.

“Look at Ralph Nader. He never held a political of-fice, but the change he ad-vocated as an activist and consumer advocate netted more legislation than any other congressman. The same with Martin Luther King. He never was elected and he held more influence than most could dream of.”

Even if he is not elected, Holloway noted he will not go away without having of-fered a fair fight.

“Ultimately, the acts of people are important. But it is the ideas that can en-dure as a legacy. There are lots of people who were never in the system, but looked beyond convention and changed it. But in the end, it is about always staying truthful to your message.”

Special Olympians win big

The Special Olympics competition was held Saturday at the ASU track facilities. Around 240 school age athletes and around 150 adults showed up to compete. Competitions included: walks, dashes, soft ball throw, tennis ball throw

and the running and standing long jump. Pictured Left: Chris Holden won the gold

medal in track and field. Pictured right: Special Olympians look on as

the day’s events unfold at the track facilities.

Shan Huang/Herald

ASU student to run for Green Party ticket