july 12, 2012
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July 12, 2012 of the ParthenonTRANSCRIPT
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July 12, 2012
VOL. 115 NO. 136 | MARSHALL UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER | MARSHALLPARTHENON.COM
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BY Adam RogersSPORTS EDITOR
A smile can brighten al-most anyone’s day, and some people are very well known for their smile.
Monday, another Son of Marshall began watching over the Thundering Herd community.
J.T. Rembert, who was a linebacker for the Marshall football team from 2001-04, died while vacationing with his family in South Carolina.
Although he was a great football player for the Herd, Rembert will be remembered most for the man he was.
“When he smiled it touched your heart,” Tamera Rembert, J.T.’s sis-ter and a Marshall graduate, said. “You knew, no mat-ter if you were sad or mad, that smile would change how you felt about a situation. He had a way of making sense of things that didn’t make sense. When he flashed that
smile to you, it reassured you that things were going to be ok.”
“He became a man at Marshall,” Yvonne Minge, Rembert’s mother, said.
“He exemplified all the qualities you would want in anyone,” former Marshall head coach Bob Pruett said. “(He was) a leader, had a great personality, did things by example, took care of business, was compassion-ate, hard working and he was
a very loyal guy. He just did a lot of great things. We were fortunate to have him for the so few years we did because he certainly made an imprint and a great impression on a lot of people.”
“Everybody liked him,” Mike Hamrick, Marshall Di-rector of Athletics, said. “He always had a smile on his face, was always positive and al-ways tried to help out. It’s just sad that we lost a guy like that at 29 years of age, very sad.”
Horry County Deputy Cor-oner Tony Hendrick said the preliminary cause of death was pulmonary embolism (blood clot).
Rembert, 29, was pro-nounced dead at Grand Strand Regional Medical Center in Myrtle Beach.
His wife Shannon, who is expecting a daughter this fall, and their 2-year-old son, Keegan, survive Rembert.
Former Thundering Herd great J.T. Rembert dies
REMBERTSee REMBERT | Page 5
BY TYLER KESNEWS EDITOR
Last Sunday a group of local high school students said goodbye to Hun-tington and said konnichiwa to Japan as a part of new cultural program.
The trip is chaperoned by Azusa Yamada, Marshall University’s Japan Outreach Initiative program director and Miho Egnor, a Spanish teacher at Huntington High School.
The group will be in Japan for two weeks,
and will spend that time in the Kanto and Kansai areas of Japan, learning about the country and witnessing first-hand how the country was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
“Earlier this year, the College of Lib-eral Arts hosted the presentation of the documentary, Wave: Restart from the Rubble, a film that showed the after-math of the devastating earthquake that crippled the region in March, 2011,” said Dr. David Pittenger, dean of Marshall’s College of Liberal Arts. “All who saw the film were greatly moved by the will and determination of those who had lost everything to retain their dignity and restore their community. Now, stu-dents from Cabell County and Lawrence County, Ohio, will be greeted with open arms by members of a Japanese com-munity who welcome our students as guests in their country.”
The trip is funded by the Laurasian Institution, a non-profit, non-govern-mental group founded in 1990, and the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership.
Students will also spend three days in a Japanese home, learning about the traditions and the customs of the country.
“We want the students to establish friendships, ongoing relationships,” Yamada said. “We don’t want them to stop the relationships when they leave.”
Next spring, 23 Japanese student will be staying in the Huntington area, and will spend three days in local homes.
Two of the 23 students on the trip right now will be attending Marshall in the fall, and will major in Japanese.
Local high school students visit JapanMarshall professor involved as chaperone
YAMADA
BY JOHN GIBBMANAGING EDITOR
Marshall University’s new Biotechnology Incubator and Applied Engineering Complex will bear the name of Arthur Weisberg after Marshall’s Board of Governors voted and ap-proved the matter earlier this month.
Weisberg is the founder and CEO of State Electric Supply Company, a retail-whole-sale distributor of electrical and electronic supplies with showroom and warehouse facilities. With more than 40 locations nation-wide and the fact that his career started off by him selling hardware supplies out of the back of his truck, Weisberg’s story is one of “rags-to-riches” quality.
Weisberg’s family has contributed a large monetary donation to the MU Foundation to help construct the new engineering facility. The amount of the donation is disclosed be-cause of the wishes of the Weisberg family.
Matt Turner, Marshall’s chief of staff, said Weisberg has shared a positive relationship with the university.
“Art Weisberg believes in the direction that Marshall is heading,” Turner said. “He is ex-cited to see the re-emergence of engineering at Marshall.”
Engineering is now one of the fastest-grow-ing majors at the university and Weisberg wants to contribute to the successful re-establishment of Marshall’s engineering degree program, which was re-launched in
2006. The modern engineering laboratory fa-cility on 3rd Avenue also bears the Weisberg family name.
The new Biotechnology Incubator and Applied Engineering Complex is part of a $114 million capital improvement plan that Marshall recently began implementing with the construction of the parking garage and the demolition of the Veteran’s Memorial Fieldhouse. Construction on the engineer-ing complex could begin as early as October when construction bids are finalized.
The new facility will be located between the Arthur Weisberg Family Engineering Labora-tories and the Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology
Center on 3rd Avenue and will consist of more than 141,000 square feet of classroom, laboratory and office spaces. The structure will also serve as home to the College of In-formation Technology and Engineering.
Weisberg is from the Huntington commu-nity and said he understands how important Marshall is to the future of Huntington.
“This area has tremendous potential to grow,” Weisberg said. “By providing fi-nancial resources to help Marshall grow in engineering and related disciplines, it will not only help my business develop and prosper but it also assists the growth of the greater Huntington area and the entire state. I love Huntington and I know this gift will make a lasting difference.”
Weisberg continues to support Marshall because he believes in the leadership of Pres-ident Stephen J. Kopp.
“Dr. Kopp is a true visionary leader who delivers on his promises,” Weisberg said. “I strongly endorse his bold initiatives and accomplishments.”
Turner said the university is extremely grateful for Weisberg’s support.
“He has made a lot of things possible at Marshall,” Turner said. “Art Weisberg is a true philanthropist and his gift will have a significant impact on students for years to come.”
John Gibb can be contacted at [email protected].
BOG approves name for engineering complexCOURTESY OF MARSHALL UNIVERSITY
An artists’ rendering of Marshall University’s future Biotechnology Incubator and Applied Engineering Complex.
WEISBERG
All Good Music Festival moves to new venue | More on Life!
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BY SARAH HAGERTYTHE PARTHENON
Marshall University alumna Tiffany Bajus returns to her alma mater as the university’s newest communications specialist.
Starting in June, Bajus said she is focusing on the uni-versity’s social media and publicizing upcoming events by using hash tags on Twitter. Her job helps out the recruitment of-fice by using social media to get people interested in attending Marshall.
“The more positive things we are getting out to new students, such as the accreditation for the pharmacy and physical therapy school, the more students want to come here,” Bajus said. “Week of Welcome, parent’s weekend, video stories about orientation and the international recruits program are some of the things I have been working on.”
Making the most of her time at
Marshall, Tiffany was involved with the Public Relations Stu-dent Society of America (PRSSA), during which she was given the opportunity to go to the national conference in Detroit, Mich. with fellow PRSSA students.
“As a student there were a lot of things that I didn’t realize about campus and how much work goes into planning events for the stu-dents,” Bajus said. “Now seeing the administration side of the uni-versity, I see how everything works and it is a very different experi-ence from when I was a student here.”
Starting off her college career at Fairmont State University ma-joring in elementary education, she later transferred to Marshall University to branch out and meet new people. Bajus graduated from the W. Page Pitt School of Journal-ism and Mass Communications at Marshall University with a degree in public relations in 2010.
“I had college classes with the same people I went to kinder-garten with,” Bajus said about Fairmont State. “It wasn’t really
the college experience, so I needed to get away.”
She also interned at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena for a se-mester where she was offered a full-time job as the marketing and sales manager before she graduated.
“I had two classes left when I was offered a job at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena,” Bajus said. “I hadn’t even received my degree yet.”
As the only one working in the marketing department, she did everything from web placement and social media to public rela-tions and media relations for the arena.
“Anytime a newspaper or TV sta-tion wanted to do a story on one of our events, the story was ran by me first,” Bajus said.
Her knowledge and work ex-perience paid off when she won a scholarship to attend the Event and Arena Marketing
Conference in her first year of working at the Big Sandy Super-store Arena.
Brian Sipe, general manager for the Big Sandy Superstore Arena, said that Tiffany was one of their greatest assets at the arena.
“Though she was young, she had work ethic like someone who’s been working in the busi-ness for years. She earned and deserved that scholarship,” Sipe said.
After working for the Big Sandy Superstore Arena, Tiffany was of-fered a job as a communication specialist for Marshall University.
“I hated to see her go, but I knew that this position was what was best for her,” said Sipe. “Marshall University gained an invaluable as-set to the campus with Tiffany and I am sure they are already reap-ing the rewards of having her on staff.”
Sarah Hagerty can be contacted at [email protected]
NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
BY VINCENT ESPINOZATHE PARTHENON
Six months ago the A.D. Lewis Center consisted of a gym floor with loose sand and wood, a game room with one table for coloring, an empty pool with cracks in the cement and the subtle smell of urine filling the building, then Maria Hill became director.
The A.D. Lewis center was founded in 1976 and was first run by Hill’s fa-ther. Having worked for Huntington Police De-partment, Hill became aware of the job opening and decided to apply upon recommendations from people in local office.
“The faculty just didn’t care or have the drive to keep the place running correctly and the lack of funding became a real is-sue as well, Hill said.
“I saw it as an oppor-tunity to give back to the community I grew up in and make a difference.”
Hill says that the center felt like home to her grow-ing up and that many of the children that her fa-ther helped that felt the
same have come back to contribute to helping re-vive the center.
“Children became so close to my father that some of them actually called him Dad,” she said.
Upon becoming the new director, Hill was told that the pool was going to cost $25,000. Within her first month she began to re-ceive donations from all sorts of places stretching from the NAACP to just local donations. A $40,000 check was presented by the Governor to help con-tribute to fixing the pool.
“Within six months of being in charge she has already filled the pool and put new floors in the gym,” said Robert White, an employee at the center. “Now the game room has a pool table, ping pong, air hockey, and foosball. The place has done a complete 360.”
With the center pros-pering at its new changes, Hill said that the hardest part is over, but the whole project is far from finished.
Vincent Espinoza can be reached at [email protected]
Local woman leads renovations on A.D. Lewis Community Center
With many still without power, Marshall is doing all it can to help out.
That’s why the university will be housing 275 work-ers from Appalachian Power brought in to restore power across the state.
“Our Huntington cam-pus has been fortunate to have power throughout this week, so President Kopp has offered our facilities and any assistance we can give to the state and local emergency services,” said Dr. Karen Kirtley, senior vice president for admin-istration. “We have been on standby to house local elderly residents; however, Appalachian Power quickly restored power to the high-rise housing facilities and thus far our residence halls have not been needed for that purpose.”
Appalachian Power asked the school about housing the workers after hotels in the area filled up.
“We are glad to be avail-able for Appalachian Power and its workers,” Kirt-ley said. “I know they are working long days in this remarkable heat to get all of us back up, so we will do what we can to help.”
Marshall’s Huntington campus got its power back the Saturday after the ini-tial storm, but the South Charleston and Point Pleas-ant campuses didn’t receive power until the following Monday.
Appalachian Power has more than 5,000 workers currently in the state.
International program strengthens MarshallBY BISHOP NASHTHE PARTHENON Behind every set of eyes is the story of what they have seen.
Marshall University offers students new experiences and opportunies to students from around the world.
“They don’t just have the United States to choose from. Countries from all over the world are competing for these students,” Dr. Clark Egnor, Executive Director of the Center for International Pro-grams said.
“Those students are the talent that industry, gov-ernment and everyone needs to make themselves competitive.
Egnor is no stranger to the advantages an international education and world travel can offer.
After visiting Japan as a young student, the
Huntington native returned to the islands after receiving his bachelor’s degree at Bos-ton University.
During his five-year stint in Japan, he met his wife and continued to grow his affin-ity for overseas interaction.
Since receiving his mas-ter’s degree in English from West Virginia University and returning to Huntington in 1994, Egnor has worked with joy in cultivating the interna-tional program.
By understanding the dis-tinct advantages of drawing talented students from across the globe to Mar-shall, he believes that the international programs is giving an edge not only to the university, but to the community and nation at large.
“Countries are trying to attract talented people to come to their country and
study with the idea that af-ter they graduate, they will stay in their country and continue to contribute to their economy,” Egnor said.
One of the current fruits of the international program is Chloé Pasquet.
As a French student work-ing on her master’s degree in business, she was drawn by the allure of the “American Dream.”
“Anything basically is pos-sible through hard work with education,” Pasquet said. “If you take the approach and work through it again and again you’ll get it. That’s what I believe.”
Pasquet had previously studied at Marshall in 2010, and enjoyed her stay enough to return from France for her advanced degree.
Making many new friend-ships and being immersed in a different culture
connected her with her new surroundings.
“I’ve definitely changed within the two years I’ve been here,” Pasquet said. “I even noticed it when I went back to France. I had some ways of acting that I learned from here that I don’t think I’m go-ing to get rid of easily.”
Like those seeing the value in attracting bright inter-national students, Pasquet wishes to work and remain in the United States.
The influential experiences of Marshall’s international students are not simply lim-ited to time and proximity spent around the university.
When Dishari Mukherjee received her master’s in Fo-rensic Science from Marshall it wasn’t even close to the end of the road.
The 28-year old India-native continued to work in Bacterial Source Tracking
Project at the university and will persue her Ph.D. in Biochemical Studies at Michigan State University.
“The Center for In-ternational programs is probably the most power-ful entity in our lives as international students here,” Mukerjee said. “The staff has always been very helpful and knowledgeable.”
Like Pasquet, Mukherjee has enjoyed her stay on cam-pus immensely and credits the helpful atmosphere.
“Most of the students are extremely dedicated to their studies and focused on ex-celling,” Mukherjee said. “At the same time, there is no cut-throat competi-tion between students and there is a general atmo-sphere of camaraderie.”
Bishop Nash can be reached at [email protected].
BAJUS
Marshall houses out of state Appalachian Power workers
News briefs
Pew study says health care law not a priority for many
By Taylor BalkomTHE DAILY REVEILLE, LOUISIANA STATE U. VIA UWIRE
Despite widespread pub-licity, two independent studies show many people don’t know or don’t care about the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on President Barack Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Independent studies by Pew Research Center and Kaiser Health showed many citizens didn’t know the Su-preme Court issued a ruling on June 28, and others didn’t know the ruling’s outcome.
The Pew survey found 55 percent of Americans knew the law was upheld, 30 per-cent were unsure and 15 percent thought the law was found unconstitutional.
This is despite 77 percent of those surveyed saying they were following the court’s decision “very closely.”
Similarly, the Kaiser study found only 59 percent knew the Supreme Court upheld the law, 18 percent thought the court hadn’t
acted and 17 percent were unsure.
A majority of those polled are also tired of the debate. Kaiser found 56 percent of the public said opponents should stop trying to block the law and deal with other issues.
Laura Moyer, Louisiana State U. political science professor, said in an email that the results weren’t surprising because polls usually show Americans have low levels of knowl-edge about the Supreme Court.
“Even for a high-profile case like this, most people are not paying attention,” Moyer said.
She also said the fact that CNN and Fox News initially reporting the law was re-jected instead of upheld could have contributed to the confusion. The Supreme Court’s case syllabus, a three-page summary of the court’s opinion, according to Moyer, precedes the lengthy verdict.
“It appears that the re-porters for CNN and Fox stopped reading the case syllabus at the bottom of page two and the conclusion that the individual mandate
was constitutional under the Constitution’s taxing power appeared at the top of page three,” she said.
Both polls still showed an almost even split between support and opposition of the ruling.
Pew reported 36 percent of those surveyed approved of the decision, while 40 percent disapproved.
Likewise, Kaiser’s poll said 47 percent approved and 43 percent disapproved, a “statistical tie,” according to Kaiser Health News.
Cami Johnson, LSU en-gineering junior, said she was aware of the ruling and knew it was upheld, though she doesn’t follow the law “closely enough.”
“I would say I understand the basics of what is going on with the healthcare law, but I would also definitely not pretend to understand all of it,” Johnson said.
Pew’s survey was taken June 28 through July 1, sam-pling 1006 adults with a percent error of 3.6 points, and Kaiser’s was taken June 28 through 30, sampling 1,239 adults with a margin of error of +/- 3 percent-age points.
Benefit pig roast this weekend to send disabled individuals to free camp
A benefit pig roast will be happening this Saturday night at the Elks Lodge No. 313.
Fourth Avenus will be blocked off between 10th and 11 streets for the event.
All proceeds from the event will benefit week-long camp for disabled individuals.
The band Another round will be performing.
Cost is $10.
Only 55 pct. knew bill was upheld
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Huntington Art Walk scheduled for July 19BY SHANE ARRINGTONEXECUTIVE EDITOR
The third Thursday of the month isn’t just another day in downtown Huntington.
For the past four months the Huntington WV Art Walk has seen the city play host to a myriad of artists showcasing various crafts at a multitude of locations fanning out from Heritage Station. This month’s art walk is scheduled for July 19 from 5-9 p.m.
“Local businesses feature a dif-ferent artist each month to help the talented people we have around here gain exposure in the com-munity,” said Elaine Whitfield, manager of The Red Caboose. “The art walk gives those artists
the chance to put themselves out there and gives them a venue to sell their art.”
Ben Durfee, a Barboursville resident who studied at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, said he looked forward to the chance to display his work dur-ing the Art Walk.
“I was approached by Paula Ve-ga’s to show some of my art for the Art Walk,” Durfee said. “The event is a great opportunity for me as an artist to share my passion for draw-ing and painting with everyone. It’s also a chance to get my name out there which could hopefully lead to freelance work.”
Whitfield said Huntington is catching up with more es-tablished ar t scenes in the area.
“Ashland has had an Art Walk for years now and of course Charleston has a thriving scene,” Whitfield said. “Huntington is really coming along however. Business and artists are com-ing together and we’ve had good turnouts so far.”
But Whitfield said the turnout can always be better, so if you al-ready know about Huntington’s Art Walk tell your friends, family and even strangers if you’re sociable enough.
Those looking to showcase their work at the Art Walk can go to http://art-walk.info/venues to see what’s available and contact the businesses.
Shane Arrington can be con-tacted at [email protected].
Here’s a list of those scheduled to participate in the July 19 Art Walk.The list is subject to change. Adell’s Antiques: Katt Clark – native american artCrumpets and Tea: Eddie Evans – singer/musicianCustom Framing by Jenks: Belinda Vance – embroideryFinds & Designs Vintage: Nitelily Glamour – steamchick jewelryMiAppa: Dale Harless – watercolor Artist Joey O’Brian – hand-made wooden crosses Larry Thurmand – laser-cut woodworkPaula Vega Cakes: Ben Durfee - digital paintingsRiver & Rail Bakery: Alison Grieco - paintings St. Mark’s: Glen Berry – fine art photographySip Wine Bar: Joanna Donchatz – Weaving and textilesCreations By BG: Beth and Graham Rankin – handcrafted wood andcork items, unique fabric bagsThe Old Village Roaster: Jill Farley – handmade jewelry N.F. Brown – musicianThe Pottery Place: Brett Sherman – sketch artistVisitors Center: Laura Moul – photographyWatercolor Dreams Gallery: Kay Record – vintage garden, shabbycottage, linins, primitive and salvage architecture
New venue for All Good music festival BY JOANIE BORDERSLife! Editor
For its 16th annual music and camping event, All Good Festival will find a new home in Thornville, OH.
July 19-22 nearly 50 bands and hundreds of music lovers will gather for a weekend for a diverse blend of rock, bluegrass, funk, elec-tronica, hip-hop and unforgettable memories.
All Good will take place at the Legend Valley Concert Venue and Campground in Thornville, OH, located 30 minutes east of Co-lumbus, OH. The campground, formerly known as the Buckeye Music and Lake Center, has hosted several notable Grateful Dead per-formances. Apart from numerous other reasons, the venue was cho-sen for its access to better roads and a shorter entry wait time for campers.
Julie Ellis, Huntington resident, has been to All Good the last five years and says that the festival is more than just music; it is a com-munity too.
“There is such a sense of unity among the festival goers that you don’t get at bigger festivals,” Ellis said. “We are all there to see the same kind of music and there is definitely a sense of unity that goes
along with that.”Ellis said in her past years as an
All Good attendee she has noticed a wide range of people attending the festival.
“It’s definitely a different kind of people that have been faithful to their favorite bands and seeing this kind of music for a while,” El-lis said. “There are a lot of older people at the festival, but a couple of younger ones too. It’s definitely a more distinct crowd.”
This year All Good will hosts bands such as The Allman Broth-ers Band, The Flaming Lips, Michael Franti, Lotus, Dark Star Orchestra, Big Gigantic and many more.
Unlike other major music fes-tivals, All Good does not make its attendees choose between acts. Housing two side-by-side main stages, none of the scheduled con-certs overlap, allowing festival goers access to every show so they don’t miss a thing.
Tickets are still available at www.allgoodfestival.com/tickets as well as VIP packages that include exclu-sive concert viewing and camping close to the main stages along with numerous other benefits.
Joanie Borders can be contacted at [email protected].
TOP: One of two main stages that All Good offers to allow fans to never miss a band. MIDDLE: Fans gather to watch concert in front of a main stage. BOTTOM: One of the many camp sites that fans call home during the weekend long festival. LEFT: Aerial view of All Good Music and Camping event.
PHOTOS COURTSEY OF ALL GOOD MUSIC FESTIVAL
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The Parthenon, Marshall University’s student newspaper, is published by students Mondays through Fridays during the regular semesters, and weekly Thursdays during the summer. The editorial staff is responsible for news and editorial content.
SHANE ARRINGTONEXECUTIVE EDITOR
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The following are the results from last week’s poll question: “What was your favorite newly-released film?”
What is your favorite thing about Marshall?n Campus Environmentn Athletics n Locationn Facilities n The Squirrels
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BY KRISTEN POWERSU. MISSOURI VIA UWIRE
As college students, we all need technology to function, but some of us crave it. Whenever one of my professors doesn’t use Blackboard, students get annoyed because the sys-tem makes accessing study materials and grades much easier. Cellphones have gone far beyond making calls and texting. I person-ally get lost and frustrated without a GPS, and the games and apps on smart-phones have given many of us the means to kill time.
Smartphones are so prev-alent that providers are reportedly worried about the possibility of a spectrum crunch — (the idea that we could “run out” of airwaves)for data signaling because of increased smartphone and Wi-Fi use. Even if that never happens, our fears of a theoretical spectrum crunch reflect how technology use is being taken to the extreme. As a result of our increased consumption of technology, social networking in par-ticular, we have to deal with aspects of our social identi-ties that never have existed before, and it is starting to have an unhealthy effect.
Online networks place a pressure on us to be avail-able at all times. Of all the social networks out there, the one that seems to have nearly universal member-ship is Facebook. With its more than (901 million users as of March 2012), Facebook’s massive social network is severely distort-ing how we perceive our relationships with others. Some openly fret about their number of “friends” on Facebook, which is often in the thousands for more pro-lific users.
The idea we can maintain a contact network of this size in which people are any-thing more than a number on a web page is completely implausible. Research has shown (the brain cannot handle more than 100 to 150 meaningful connections)with other people in one’s immediate day-to-day life.
Social networking has its purpose, but it is important we keep the purpose of sites like Facebook in context and avoid using it as a replace-ment for meaningful social interaction. Solely commu-nicating with someone via text can get boring, and a lot of nuanced emotions can get lost when not commu-nicating in person. Because of this, these sites should primarily serve as a sort of Rolodex, not as a social register or replacement for direct interaction.
Another distressing side effect of our increasingly large electronic identities is once you put something online, it exists indefinitely, which could be harmful for younger generations. If every thought I had as a 14-year-old was docu-mented on Twitter, I would be living under a rock from embarrassment.
What’s more, the legacy you leave on the Internet could outlive you, giving others the freedom to ma-nipulate it. At the Coachella Music Festival this year, holograms of the late Tu-pac Shakur and Nate Dogg appeared onstage. Though this performance helped increase the sale of Tu-pac’s records by nearly 600 percent, some privacy advocates voiced their dis-approval, and rapper Waka Flocka Flame complained record companies were (“getting paid off a dead man’s body.”)
Most of us aren’t particu-larly worried about being regenerated as a hologram postmortem, but the in-creasing size of the average person’s online presence is making it increasingly dif-ficult for us to control the information we choose to share with people. As so-ciety increasingly judges people based on their on-line identities, this lack of control can be extremely frustrating. Because of the unhealthy effects of online social networking, I sug-gest we leave our laptops and make an effort to con-nect more with our friends face-to-face.
Social Networking is bringing us down
Column
EDITORIAL - SHANE ARRINGTON, EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Don’t let ignorance win the daySo House Republicans voted Wednesday to repeal Presi-
dent Obama’s health care reform law … I would love to sit here and pretend like I am surprised but who would I be kidding.
This is an issue that seriously bothers me. Not only that there are people who are just hateful and ignorant, but … well that’s pretty much it really.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, sums up the ignorance of the masses in this answer to a question by Fox News’ Chris Wallace:
“Let me tell you what we’re not going to do. We’re not go-ing to turn the American health care system into a western European system.”
Guess which countries the World Health Organization ranks in the top two slots in the world health system – France and Italy. Guess where they are – western Europe.
Of course McConnell isn’t the only leader of the Repub-lican Party blind to the facts. House Speaker John Boehner,
R-Ohio, gave this wonderful quote during the July 1 edition of CBS’ Face the Nation:
“Gov. Romney understands that Obamacare will bank-rupt our country and ruin the best health care delivery system in the world.”
As stated above, the United States isn’t the best, or even the number two, health care system in the world … it’s the 37th.
Now granted, being 37 out of 190 countries ranked by the WHO is not too bad, but for a country that prides itself on being the best of the best, 37 does not come close. Saudi Arabia may have stoning as a legal form or punishment, but at 26, they are ranked 11 spots higher than we are … but nooooo, nothing needs to be changed.
I ask, no beg, residents of Ohio and Kentucky, please stop putting these ignorant people in office. Please stop allow-ing these hypocrites to push policies they would not want to follow themselves – what type of health care do you think
BY TRENT CASONU. OKLAHOMA VIA UWIRE
How do you get an English major off of your porch? Pay for the pizza.
I see this idea constantly in articles, cartoons and blogs, and it drives me crazy: “A liberal arts degree is useless in this job market.”
I don’t know if the intended purpose is to scare away potential liberal arts stu-dents or to pressure universities to focus more on vocation-specific types of train-ing or just to make people like me furious.
The liberal arts, as I understand it, are a field of academic studies meant to develop the intellectual abilities of the student, as opposed to occupational training, which prepares the student for a specific job.
I’m 30. I’ve been out there in the job mar-ket since I was 18, doing everything from working behind a counter to construction to working on a fishing boat to serving on the ground in Iraq. I don’t mind manual labor — I never have — and as such, I will forever have a Plan B that I know won’t kill me.
I’m not in college to obtain a degree; I’m in college to obtain an education.
If, after grad school, I find myself back on a building site or back in a uniform, so be it. If that happens, I know I’ll have the wherewithal to make the most out of any situation life throws at me. And believe me, life can throw a curveball.
The obsession with the liberal arts degree and the downplay of the educa-tion gained is a big problem right now, I think — the idea that it is the degree and not the education that gets a person where they want to be in life. For some professions, the degree is certainly im-portant, but it’s the quality of learning that takes place while earning the de-gree that seems to generally determine how successful one is likely to be.
Of course I want my physician to have
a degree from a reputable institution, but more than that, I want him to really know what he is doing. If you haven’t had a bad doctor experience, please trust me: Graduation from medical school alone isn’t enough. If it was, people wouldn’t have the wrong limbs occasionally amputated, or in my case, the wrong medicine prescribed (almost fatally).
The bachelor’s of arts today is the vestigial remnant of the once mighty Trivium (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy). Since classical antiquity, this education model has created citizens as opposed to strictly workers. Most of the notable minds we encounter in our studies at the university level had such an educa-tion, including almost all of those credited with founding this country, though most of them had law degrees as well.
The result of this kind of educational worldliness, obviously, is the ability to
ask and begin to answer questions that are bigger than ourselves and even our societies. The really big ideas don’t just occur to people — they are sought out, historically, by people who took the time to train their brains to do the work. Not to say that getting a liberal arts degree will make you John Adams or Thomas Jefferson, but at least you will be able to read their work and follow along.
While degrees shouldn’t matter as much as the quality of education, they do in many cases, and a sad reality is still reality: Your bachelor’s of arts might not be enough. The same goes for the business majors and the biology majors and everyone else, really.
To be competitive in a non-entrepre-neurial setting, it’s a good idea to go beyond the four-year degree, even if you have to work while you do it. A minor in a business or computer science field also can help widen your job-searching net. Give yourself as many tools as you can to succeed, but the last thing you want to do is graduate from college having learned to do a job but having failed to learn how to live and what it is that you love.
It’s a scary world out there, and grad-uating into it can be overwhelming. Don’t let the fear of not owning a yacht stop you from pursuing what you are passionate about. This country desper-ately needs many more people capable of thinking on their own, drawing their own conclusions and acting on those instead of what is popular or partisan.
Don’t let public opinion convince you that critical thinking and knowledge of humanity are unnecessary and frivolous. On the contrary, you can use those skills and knowledge to adapt to any work or living situation, which in this ever-changing modern economic landscape will be more useful in the long run.
Don’t come to college to get a degree — get an education
THURSDAY, JULY 12, 2012 MARSHALLPARTHENON.COM| | 5
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T.J. Rembert came to Marshall in 2001 from Columbia, Md., and stayed part of the Hun-tington community after graduation.
Tamera Rembert said there are currently no ar-rangements for a funeral, but there will be a candle-light vigil at Oakland Mills High School in Columbia, Md., Friday at 8:30 p.m.
Creig Minge, Rembert’s father, said playing at Mar-shall allowed J.T. to live his childhood dream of being a D-I football player.
Yvonne Minge said her son saw himself as hav-ing four families: his high school family, his biologi-cal family, his teammates and the Huntington community.
Tamera Rembert at-tended Marshall from 2004-08 and said J.T. was the only reason she decided to join the Thundering Herd family.
“He was the only in-fluence on me going to Marshall,” she said while fighting back her emo-tions. “I would come to games and come in the summer-time to visit him. He always showed me a good time, he showed me the family he had found in Huntington and that it was a great place. I knew that if I came there, he would look out for me. I knew that I would have family there if I came.”
Hamrick said he came to know Rembert over the last few years since becoming the Director of Athletics and said it was an emo-tional time in the athletic department when the news
hit Monday.“When we found out yes-
terday, here in the Shewey Building, it was a very sad-dened group of people,” Hamrick said. “Everyone was hanging their heads because everyone knew J.T and the kind of person he was. He was a classy guy.”
Rembert was a captain for the Herd in 2003 and 2004 and finished his career with a career game in the 2004 Fort Worth Bowl with 13 tackles, a school record for tackles in a bowl game.
“He wanted to make ev-ery tackle,” Pruett said. “He worked hard to play as close to perfect as possible. When we played Cincinnati in the bowl game, that was his last game so he wanted to play his last game as his best game.”
Rembert’s best season came in 2002, when he played in 13 games and
collected 33 solo tackles and assisted on 39 others. He had 4 1/2 tackles for loss, two quarterback sacks, two interceptions and a 34-yard fumble re-turn for a touchdown.
Rembert is the third member of the 2003 and 2004 Marshall teams to die. Johnathan Goddard died in a motorcycle accident on June 14, 2008 and teammate Donte Newsome was shot and killed outside a Hun-tington nightclub.
Rembert started the Johnathan Goddard Me-morial Golf Tournament, which raised funds for the Johnathan Goddard En-dowment Scholarship.
Tamera Rembert said the family plans to continue both the golf tournament and scholarship in God-dard’s name and this year’s golf tournament will honor Johnathan and J.T.
Tamera Rembert said the family also plans to form a scholarship and memorial website for J.T.
Adam Rogers can be contacted at [email protected].
RembertContinued from Page 1
J.T. Rembert, who played for the Marshall football team from 2001-04, died Monday, July 9, while vacationing with his family in South Carolina. Rembert is the third member of the 2003 and 2004 Marshall teams to die. Johnathan Goddard died in a motorcycle accident on June 14, 2008 and teammate Donte Newsome was shot and killed outside a Huntington nightclub.HERDZONE
“He worked hard to play as close to perfect as possible.”
> Bob Pruett, Former Marshall football head coach
By Levon MinassianDAILY CALIFORNIAN, U. CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY VIA UWIRE
A letter sent July 2 to Pres-ident Barack Obama and top-ranking congressional officials signed by leaders from more than 100 Ameri-can universities calls for new legislation to allow for-eign-born students to stay in the country longer after their student visa expires upon graduation.
According to a report by the Partnership for a New American Economy, an im-migration reform group composed of mayors and businessman who organized the letter effort, more than three-fourths of all patents which come from the top ten American research uni-versities have had at least one foreign-born student involved.
The letter comes in an attempt to retain many for-eign-born students within the math, science, engineer-ing and technology fields due to their importance to the nation’s research ca-pabilities and economic growth, according to the letter.
“In 2009, students on tem-porary visas were 45 percent of all graduate students in engineering, math, com-puter science and physical sciences — earning 43 per-cent of all master’s degrees and 52 percent of all PhDs,” the letter reads. “After we have trained and educated these future job creators, our antiquated immigra-tion laws turn them away to work for our competitors in other countries.”
The group’s report, “Patent Pending: How Immi-grants are Reinventing the American Economy,” also finds that approximately 54 percent of patents were awarded to foreign-born in-ventors who are most likely to face visa hurdles, like stu-dents, postdoctoral fellows and staff researchers.
U. California ranks first in the number of patents produced by any Ameri-can university nationwide, according to the report. Campus Graduate Assem-bly President Bahar Navab noted that many UC Berke-ley graduate students face the uncertainty that comes from an expiring visa after graduation.
“There definitely are international graduate students who are facing ex-piring visas and can’t find jobs in the US, and thus are forced to leave the country for work,” Navab said in an email. “Similarly, there are international graduate stu-dents who face pressure to graduate earlier than some of their peers because there often aren’t enough funding sources for international students.”
One such UC Berkeley international graduate student is Mechanical En-gineering Ph.D. candidate Shashank Nawathe, who is originally from India and currently studying with an F-1 student visa that will expire six months after he earns his degree next spring.
Nawathe said it would be good for policymakers to find a way to give recent graduates more time to find jobs before their visa expires.
“Students tend to take up whatever jobs they can find, even if this means taking unpaid internships to extend their stay in the country,” Nawathe said.
Nawathe also said his
impression was that only a small minority of about 10 percent of graduate stu-dents end up leaving the country immediately after graduation but that this de-parture is usually due to an attachment to their home countries, which students want to return to with their newly acquired knowledge.
While it is crucial to advo-cate for what Navab called “comprehensive immigra-tion reform,” she said it should not be forgotten that domestic students are also facing a system of mixed incentives. She cited the case of UC Berkeley School of Law students who went into school with the goal of pursuing public inter-est or government jobs and instead leave school to find jobs based on the highest amount of pay due to exces-sively high levels of student debt after graduation.
“Many of our graduate students, especially profes-sional students, are facing increasing levels of debt and are facing limited job markets,” Navab said in the email. “We need school ad-ministrators to advocate for all of us.”
Letter to Obama asks legislators to help extend visas for foreign-born students
By Trey ScottDAILY TEXAN, U. TEXAS VIA UWIRE
With a defense that will be among the best of any not in the Southeast-ern Conference, and the triumvirate of talented running backs Malcolm Brown, Joe Bergeron and Johnathan Gray, the Longhorns have enough pieces to contend for a Big 12 Cham-pionship come November.
They won’t mean anything, though, if David Ash doesn’t take the next step as quarterback.
With voluntary workouts under-way, the heat is on Ash, who was 3-3 last season as a starter. To be fair, he was thrust into the role without much warning; this time a year ago, with Garrett Gilbert in the lead at quar-terback and Case McCoy and Connor Wood behind him, Ash was preparing to redshirt. You know what followed. Ash looked much more comfortable in the spring, though, completing five of six passes for 83 yards in the Orange-White scrimmage.
“I thought I played better football this spring than I did last season,”
Ash said afterward.You’d hope so, considering he com-
pleted just 57 percent of his passes and threw eight interceptions to four touchdowns. Co-offensive coordi-nator Byran Harsin spoke of Ash’s development in the spring.
“The anxiety of not knowing where to go in practice, what the drills are or where we go is gone,” Harsin said. “The anxiety of not knowing what the formation is or not knowing how to call the play in the huddle is gone.”
Ash was wide-eyed as a freshman, at times unwilling or unable to take complete control of the offense or the huddle. The fact that he’s feeling more comfortable and not looking over his shoulder means that he’s probably ready to be just the guy the Longhorns need: a game manager. I wouldn’t put much stock in a quar-terback controversy this fall.
The days of throwing the ball 58 times a game (Colt McCoy vs. Ohio State, 2009) or asking a quarterback to amass 336 yards of offense (Vince Young vs. Colorado, 2005) are long
gone. If Texas has that kind of spe-cial quarterback, then great. If it doesn’t — and most teams do not — then Texas will just need one who will protect the football.
Take Alabama’s AJ McCarron: not considered a once-in-a-lifetime quarterback by any means, he guided Alabama to the BCS Champion-ship. McCarron wasn’t asked to win games — just not to lose them. In 328 attempts, McCarron only threw five interceptions. Had Ash attempted that many passes, the numbers proj-ect he would have thrown 15 picks.
Yes, to a fan base spoiled from years of watching Young and McCoy, it sounds a little boring, especially in the age of the quarterback, where ex-ceptional names — Griffin III, Luck and Newton, most recently — bub-ble up every year. David Ash doesn’t need to be nearly as good as any of those guys, not with the other parts Texas has in place.
He just needs to be a lot better and smarter with the football than he was as a freshman.
Ash doesn’t need to be a world-beater for UT to win By Andrew Beaton
THE DUKE CHRONICLE, DUKE U. VIA UWIRE
Duke football player Blair Holliday suffered head injuries while jet ski-ing Wednesday and is now in critical condition, ac-cording to a release from Duke Athletics.
At 3:57 p.m., head coach David Cutcliffe tweeted that Holliday is in “critical but stable condition.”
The accident occurred on Lake Tillery in North Carolina after which he was flown to the UNC Trauma Center in Chapel Hill, according to a state-ment released by the Duke sports information depart-ment at 1:54 p.m.
Teammate Jamison Crowder, also a sopho-more wide receiver, unintentionally collided with Holliday while both were on jet skis, the sports information office con-firmed. Crowder refused
treatment on the scene.A rescue team responded
at 5:02 p.m. Wednesday, Lt. John Howell, a North Caro-lina Wildlife official, said. The accident occurred at about 5 p.m., shortly before the team’s response, and the investigation is in its prelim-inary phases, Howell said.
Earlier Thursday, a for-mer high school teammate of Holliday’s tweeted that he is in a coma.
At 11:04 a.m., Iowa State wide receiver Brett Med-ders, who attended the Oaks Christian School in California with Holliday, tweeted, “ay yall pray for my high school teamate Blair Holliday. Collided with another jet ski on a lake and is in a coma. please RT and PRAY.”
Holliday, a sophomore wide receiver, was slated to start in 2012. As a fresh-man he played in 10 games and caught three passes for a total of 30 yards.
Jet ski accident leaves Duke football player in critical condition