march 3, 2010, issue 22

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theSCOREBetter nOW than laterThe Lady Aggies have their sec-ond MEAC loss this season, and prepare to go into the conference.

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friday: Mostly Sunny | High 49°

Wednesday

WEATHERtheWORDWhat On earthhaPPened sga?This has been one of the most controversial years in history for Student Government at A&T. This election fi asco is the icing on top.

Page 6

theYARDsPring BreaK PlanningCheck out some solid advice from The A&T Register for your spring

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ONLINEhaPPening in the neWs nOWKeep up with breaking news on our Web site. Slideshows, videos and more are available online.

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aSG petition collects 22,000Students across the UNC System protest tuition increase

Last weekend the University of North Carolina Association of Student Governments met in Greensboro on the campuses of North Carolina A&T and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. While the ASG had other business and legislation to handle, the weekend culminated with the collection of well over 22,000 signatures protesting the $200 tuition increase the North Carolina General Assembly has put in place.

The petition states that each signee opposes the 8 percent ($159.52) tuition

increase currently included in the 2010-2011 state budget, because the current increase exceeds the tuition increase cap. Furthermore, if the N.C. General Assembly cannot repeal the increase, petitioners request that all money raised through the tuition increase stays within the individual university budget, instead of the State budget.

“I’m feeling really good, we’re pushing around 21,900 signatures as of right now,” ASG President and North Carolina Central University Law student T. Greg Doucette said. Doucette, along with the other offi cers, are still counting signatures, and he says he is confi dent that ASG

has far more than 22,000. “I think the Board of Governors is already very impressed with the amount of signatures. This gives them ammunition to push GA to repeal the $200 increase.”

Doucette described the total as “two A&T’s” worth of students.

Vice President of Internal Affairs Valerie Dudley says that she is extremely proud of the role A&T played in the petition. Considering A&T’s size to other institutions, she says A&T was critical in the total. A&T was responsible for about 1,800 of the 22,000 signatures.

“I’m so excited just because we can see how the students

really care about themselves. That is over 10 percent of the student body and those signatures were captured in just two weeks,” Dudley said.

“It was good to see that students were involved in the actual SGA process. For the population we have as far as our students, and the percentage of signatures, we had a larger ratio than some other larger schools. UNC Wilmington had about 2400 signatures, and they are signifi cantly larger than us.”

The impact of this petition has yet to be seen, but ASG seems confi dent that this will be a large tool for getting the GA to

DEXTER R. mULLINSEditor In Chief

See PETITION on Page 2




Students across the UNC System protest tuition increaseLast weekend the University

of North Carolina Association of Student Governments met in Greensboro on the campuses of North Carolina A&T and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. While the ASG had other business and legislation to handle, the weekend culminated with the collection of well over 22,000 signatures protesting the $200 tuition increase the North Carolina General Assembly has put in place.






Pierce is new vice chancellor

Dr. melody Pierce


After a conference call meet-ing, the Board of Trustees con-fi rmed Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr.’s appointment of Dr. Melody C. Pierce as the new Vice Chancellor of Student Af-fairs in a teleconference just moments ago.

Martin also worked with Pierce when he was chancellor of Winston Salem State Univer-sity.

In a press release, Martin ex-plains why he selected Pierce out of the four other fi nalists.

“Dr. Pierce brings more than 25 years of experience in higher education, student affairs and

enrollment services,” Martin said. “She is the ultimate professional and student advocate who

will strengthen our focus to holistically develop young people into successful, contributing citizens.”

Dr. Judy Nazirah Rashid, who was appointed interim vice chancellor on Feb. 8 to replace retired Vice Chancellor Sullivan A. Welborne Jr., will continue in the post and serve on the Chan-cellor’s Senior Cabinet until Pierce assumes her duties no later than July 1.

Pierce was named vice chancellor for student affairs at Win-ston-Salem State University (WSSU) in 2001 by Martin. From 2006-2008, she was vice chancellor for student affairs and en-rollment services providing leadership, coordination and bud-getary supervision for 15 units.

Prior to 2001, Pierce served in a variety of administrative roles including vice chancellor for student affairs at Southern Univer-

See VICE ChaNCELLOR on Page 2

ELECTIONS STaRT WITh NO PRESIDENTIaL CaNDIDaTE

For the fi rst time in elections history at North Carolina A&T, there will be no Student Government Association presidential candidate on the ballot on election day. Due to confusion, the two candidates who were running for this position were both disqualifi ed because the requirements to run for this position were not fulfi lled by either candidate.

For the last few years, many people have thought that as long as someone has been elected to SGA in any position, that individual would not have to obtain signatures. Because both candidates were elected to their positions, neither of them collected signatures, thinking that they wouldn’t need to.

“We’ve never had people who have ran [for SGA President or executive offi ce] that were only members of the class offi cers association. If they did they had previous experience as a member of the senate,” said Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Development Denise Iverson-Payne. Iverson-Payne advises the Elections Committee, but

doesn’t make any decisions on how they operate.

“You’ve got a special situation going on right now. We’ve got a person who has been a class offi cer for three years, and has never been in the senate. The other candidates’ only experience is just this year being elected to class offi ce. Those experiences do not qualify.”

W H A T HAPPENED

C u r r e n t Junior Class President W a y n e Kimball Jr. and S e n i o r Class Vice President Sir Lawrence Conley had both applied to run for the position of president. When looking at the qualifi cations and requirements as stated in the SGA Constitution, the issue of who is eligible and who is not begins to unfold.

The SGA Constitution states in Article VI, Section I,

subsection f, the requirements for the offi ce of SGA President. In order for a potential candidate to be qualifi ed, they must meet the GPA requirement of a 2.5, have at least 60 credit hours, and must have been a member of the Executive, Legislative, or Judicial branch of SGA.

If a candidate has not been

a member of these groups, they must obtain signatures from 1/3 of the total campus enrollment for the fall semester. This year 1/3 of the 10,614 students we

had enrolled in the fall would be 3,538.

However, the Constitution also states in Article VI, Section IV, under class president, Sub section g, that class presidents must serve as ex-offi cio members of the Executive branch.

But this contradicts Article V, Section I, which specifi es that class offi cers are not executive branch members. As it reads now, the only members of the SGA that are recognized as

Executive branch members are the president, v.p. of internal affairs, v.p. of external affairs, secretary, treasurer, attorney general, and Mr. and Ms. A&T.

Part of the confusion is due to the designation of where class offi cers belong in the realm of student government. According to Iverson-Payne, class offi cers were not an actual part of SGA until about 2005, when Dean of Students Dr. Judy Rashid brought them in. Prior to that, the class offi cers were considered individual organizations, just like the many other organizations on campus.

At the time the class offi cers reported to the Council of

Elections Committee decides to create “run-o� ” election for SGA President as a resultDEXTER R. mULLINS

Editor In Chief

Those experiences do not qualify.”

W H A T HAPPENED

C u r r e n t Junior Class President W a y n e Kimball Jr. and S e n i o r Class Vice President Sir Lawrence Conley had both applied to run for the position of president. When looking at the qualifi cations and requirements

class offi cers are not executive branch members. As it reads now, the only members of the SGA that are recognized as

Executive branch members are the president, v.p. of internal affairs, v.p. of external affairs, secretary, treasurer, attorney general, and Mr. and Ms. A&T.

to the designation of where class offi cers belong in the realm of student government. According to Iverson-Payne, class offi cers were not an actual part of SGA until about 2005, when Dean of Students Dr. Judy Rashid brought them in. Prior to that, the class offi cers

See ELECTIONS on Page 2

COngratulatiOns Mr. a&t fOr Winning 2nd PlaCe in the Mr.

hBCu COntest

PrOfile On the life Of

dr. ernest MOrantneXt issue

theYARD2 The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, March 3, 2010

even

ts

3Wednesday

thursday

4

Being the Minority on a hBCu Campus

Memorial Student UnionRoom 214

4 p.m.

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the a&t register is published every Wednesday during the fall and spring semesters by students at North Carolina A&T State University. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Register’s newsroom (subject to availability). All subscription requests should be directed to the Business department. the a&t register has a weekly circulation of 5,000 copies on-campus and in the community and is a member of The Associated Press, The Associated Collegiate Press and the Black College Wire.

friday

5theBLOTTERFebruary 242:08 amEast Market St.-DWICase Closed by Arrest

4:02 amBarbee Hall- LarcenyCase Closed by Arrest

6:00 pmNew Fitness Center-LarcenyCase Closed

7:30 pmMoore Gym-LarcenyClosed due to Exhausted

Leads

11:55 pmBenbow Rd.-Drug ViolationCase Closed by Arrest

February 2612:00 pmAggie Stadium Lot-Vehicle

AccidentCase Closed

2:15 pmSullivan St.-Vandalism

Case Closed

2:30 pmCurtis Hall-DisturbanceCase Open

4:45pmSummit Ave.-FraudCase Open

February 278:05 pmWilliams Cafeteria Lot-Hit

and RunCase Open

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10:10 pmMitchell Dr.-LarcenyCase Closed

11:00pmBarbee Hall-LarcenyCase Open

if you ever see anything suspicious or need assistance call Campus Police

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6sPring BreaK thrOugh

MarCh 12

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dessert with the deansMemorial Student Union

Stallings Ballroom6 p.m.

Miss a&t Movie nightMemorial Student Union

Exhibit Hall8 p.m.

are you safe?Proctor Hall

Room 160 Auditorium7 p.m.

aCM full Body MeetingMcNair Hall

Lecture Room 17 p.m.

aggie alert sign upMemorial Student Union

Lobby (Mural)12 p.m.

army rOtC BriefingMerrick Hall

Room 125 Auditorium3 p.m.

fafsa day General Classroom BuildingRoom A213 Computer Lab

4:30 p.m.

Women empowerment Program

Memorial Student UnionStallings Ballroom

7 p.m.

aCM Movie nightMcNair Hall

Lecture Room 17 p.m.

ny/nJ Connection full Body Meeting

Marteena HallRoom 103 Auditorium

7:30 p.m.

Men and Women’s Basket-ball vs. norfolk stateCorbett Sports Center

6 p.m. and 8 p.m.

state nC 4-h horse BowlMemorial Student Union

Stallings Ballroom9 a.m.

girl talkMemorial Student Union

Exhibit Hall7 p.m.

state nC 4-h horse BowlMemorial Student Union

Stallings Ballroom9 a.m.

ASG Petition reached 9 percent of UNC System

work with the BOG in allowing the institutions to repeal the $200 increase, and allow the schools to keep the money instead of pumping it into the state budget.

Doucette says that the proposed increase, if not repealed, would be a major loss to students, and that the increase signaled a return back to the politics of the early 2000s, when the G.A. used tuition to balance the budget.

“You have about 22,000 students, which breaks down

to about 44,000 parents, represented in this petition,” Doucette said. “That’s over 60,000 voters speaking out for hundreds of thousands more.”

While the petition signing period may be over as of now, the movement itself is not. Dudley says more action will be coming.

“I just want everyone to keep their eyes peeled there are more things coming as far as this tuition petition is concerned,” Dudley said. “Some more things are in the works, and I definitely appreciate the students becoming active in their governmental process.”

PETITION From page 1

Photo by ShaNTE maThES • The A&T RegisTeR

ThE FaRm The NC A&T farm is a daily functioning farm as well as a research and teaching facility that is located five minutes from campus. Five goats were born this past weekend more are expected as one mother cleans off her baby.

inFOCUS

Presidents. The class officers were given their own portion of SGA in the Class Officers Association. The President of the COA is the senior class president, and they are given their own regulations in Section V of Article VI in the SGA constitution.

However, they are not currently considered a part of the legislative, executive, or judicial branch of government, which are all three branches of government. This creates yet another problem, because now the class officers are constitutionally not even a part of SGA, even though they are listed under the constitution in Article VI, as officers of SGA.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NOW AND WHO IS

RESPONSIBLE

Elections Committee Chair Kanetra Washington was faced with a unique situation. Never in the history of A&T has this happened. At least two appeals had been filed in the wake of the two candidates being disqualified.

Washington said that because Elections Committee only has the power to enforce what guidelines the constitution lays out for them, all she was able to do was follow the constitution.

Washington contacted A&T University Legal to gain clarity on what the University defined as “ex-officio” and what that meant in terms of the election. The University legal department clarified it with this statement, which was sent out in the body of a letter to all students at approximately 6:31 p.m. last night:

Article V, Sec 1 defines the officers of the executive branch. President of a class is not on that list. A class president serves on the SGA Executive Board, ex officio, meaning by virtue of the office he/she holds. (Sec. 4.g.) Article VI, Sec 1.f. states that a candidate for President of the SGA may run without obtaining the required number of signatures when a person has served the requisite period of time “in an elected office as defined by the constitution as part of the Legislative, Executive, or Judicial Branch of the Student Government Association. . . .” While not as clear as it could be, the phrase “elected office as defined by the constitution” appears to mean those offices identified in Article V, Sec.1. It is certain, however, that a class president is not an elected officer of the Executive Branch. Thus, the class president does not meet the requirement to avoid the need to

obtain signatures to run.With this information, the

committee decided to reopen the position of SGA President, and create a separate “special election” for SGA President.

“The committee decided that

this was fair, and that it gave everyone equal opportunity to run,” Washington said.

Should Kimball and Conley choose to run, they both will have to obtain 3,538 signatures, 1/3 of the campus population, by March 16, the Tuesday after students return from spring break.

“We [Elections Committee] asked Dr. Rashid about the signatures and spring break, but because of the timeline, we decided to go forward with the process,” Washington said. “They [the candidates] will still have the same amount of days as the regular candidates did, but they will have to work around spring break. They still will have Wednesday through Friday of this week, and the Monday and Tuesday we return.”

Overall, the majority of this situation seems to stem from an issue with the SGA Constitution, which the SGA Student Senate has the power to correct. While the senate has had some positive moments this year, it has also been faced with numerous controversies, such as the homecoming situation with SGA President Syene Jasmin, and the embezzlement case with Attorney General Daniel Davis. However, the handlings of both of these incidents are part of the duties of the senate.

Anyone who wants to run for SGA President has from 12 a.m. this morning until 5 p.m. tonight to submit an application on OrgSync.com.

ELECTIONS From page 1

Anyone will now be able to run for sgA President in the special election

sity, vice president for student affairs at Albany State Univer-sity, assistant vice president/di-rector of residence life and the student union center at Chicago State University, and director of student life at the University of the Virgin Islands.

In addition, she served with the New York State Education Department, the State Universi-ty of New York, Michigan State University, Stephens College, Lincoln University, and South-ern Illinois University.

Pierce has been a SACS Re-affirmation Committee Campus Visit consultant, she has sought grant activity to support WSSU’s Division of Student Affairs, and she has led major student affairs partnerships like the Mission of Good Hope Project to South Africa, collaboration between WSSU and Wake Forest Uni-versity in 2007 and 2008.

Presently, Pierce is a member of the Crosby Scholars Board of Directors and the Board of Di-rectors of the Northwest North Carolina Chapter of the Ameri-can Red Cross in Winston-Sa-lem.

She has received national academic and civic awards and is actively affiliated with many professional organiza-tions, associations, activities, conferences and workshops.

Pierce received a bach-elor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s in child and family studies from Southern Illinois University.

Her Ed.S. in higher and adult education is from the University of Missouri and Ph.D. in college and univer-sity administration is from Michigan State University.

V. ChaNCELLOR From page 1

Where were you when this happened? We were there. You could be too. Contributors meetings

are every Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the General Classroom Building.

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Students should plan spring break trips thoroughlyEvery year college students

prepare for a special spring break to Miami, but they lack the knowledge of how inexpen-sive a trip can be.

Specifi cally, many North Carolina A&T students become overly excited about this time of year. There is no school, no studying and for most, no home-work.

That is the way to start a spring break after having a se-mester full of dreadful home-work and papers. It does not matter if spring break costs will leave students totally broke in the end.

However, no college student wants to be broke right? It actu-ally seems like spring break is the time of the year that no one cares about being broke. Stu-dents save so much money just to waste it all on a spring break that is not carefully planned and thought out.

Before planning a trip stu-dents should save money. They have to fi gure out about how

much money they are going to need for hotel and transporta-tion costs and also check for deals and low-budget trips.

Next is planning to save the money for spending. Take note, however, most of these places do not have the same prices that they have in North Carolina.Most college students just want to take that special trip, that once-a-year trip when they get to relax and have a great time.

There are a few students who do not take a spring break or they go to a smaller beach. The few who do not take a big spring break or take a small spring break are the ones that either have not saved the money or who have chosen to save their money for some-thing better than spring break.Students should set limits to their spring breaks.

What most lack is money management. If students man-aged their money they would save more money on spending. The fi rst step is knowing not to buy everything that is seen. When a limit is set that should be it. Take a bank card with

exactly that amount to manage money better.

There are so many steps in obtaining a great and inex-pensive spring break vacation. Students should make plans a month or two in advance.

Steps include booking cheap fl ights, searching for inexpen-sive hotels and hotel deals, the amount of money a person will bring, the amount of people that will be going, and the actual place they will go.

Some of the popular spring break trips consist of places like Cancun, Mexico, Palm Beach, Fla. and Miami. A poll at A&T indicated most students chose Miami as the “hot spot” for their spring break.

“In March, around 200 stu-dents book our hotel for spring break,” said Ingrid Holert, the hotel manager at the South Beach Plaza hotel in Miami. “We give deals to students with large groups. The bigger the group, the better the deal.”

Many of the hotels have deals for groups of more than 20 guests and some have even better deals for groups of more

than 50. The hotel prices in Mi-ami either remain the same or are higher around spring break, which is why it is better to go in large groups. The Nxlevel enter-tainment group offers affordable deals to Miami on spring break. Nxlevel is an entertainment group that allows any person — college student or not — to participate in their spring break activity after signing a liability form. They offer inexpensive hotel deals as well as inexpen-sive transportation deals and give you time to pay the bal-ance.

For example, this year they have offered deals on hotels from $280 for four to a room, $380 for three to a room and $550 for two to a room at some of the four-star hotels in Miami.

“We have done this trip three times since 2006. We decided to do this trip for people who need a way to get down to South Beach, Miami, Florida, for a great spring break” said New-ton Dennis, a Nxlevel associate. When asked if they get hotel deals, Dennis said “defi nitely, we get hotel deals because we

have such a huge number of people going with us, so they work with our travel agent.”

Transportation can be a ma-jor distraction in taking a spring break trip, depending on how early a person knows what they are going to do. There are plenty of traveling options for getting to Miami for spring break. Here are the top 4 traveling options.

1.) Taking a plane Taking a plane can cost more

than other types of transporta-tion but getting there quicker can make it better for the price. “I purchased a round trip plane ticket for $189 for spring break to Miami because I wanted to get there fast and get back fast. I am fl ying Delta and I used cheapair.com to fi nd my fl ight,” said Mercedes Pleasant.

2.) Taking the train The train takes much longer

than a plane but the price is not too bad. Taking a train to Miami will take about 21 hours and cost between $118 and $130.

3.) Carpooling Many friends decide to

carpool and split the price of re-fi lling the gas tank between one

another. That serves a cheaper way that would take up to 14 hours. Say that there are 5 peo-ple splitting the gas in a Chevy Impala. It takes about $40 to fi ll the tank, which leaves about $8 for each person to pay every time it is fi lled up.

4.) Charter BusNxlevel offers round-

trip on a charter bus for $125 traveling to Miami. The charter bus comes with ac/heater con-trols, televisions, DVD players, reclined seating and a bath-room. They use the services of Evan Tours, which is based out of Charlotte.

It all depends on the price and the time. Out of the choices, car pooling may be the cheapest because the price is split between the people riding together.

Many people take Nxlevel entertainment up on the offer and choose to take their deals because of the price.

This is also a reason that many students at NC A&T go to Miami for spring break. Look for the deals and not just a good time.

CHELSEA HAIZLIPContributor

Students host ‘Is Haiti Cursed?’ panelists“Something happened a long

time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the Devil. They said, we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the Devil said, okay it’s a deal,” said Reverend Pat Robertson in front of entire the nation on tele-vision.

Did Haiti indeed make a pack with the devil? Thursday, Feb. 25 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Mc-Nair auditorium, Project Haiti presented “Is Haiti Cursed,” to discover the truth behind that statement.

The program was delayed because a member of the panel did not show up, but Angela Al-len, a member of Project Haiti, opened up the program to save time.

Allen guided the program until it was time for the panel discussion. The moderators of the program were Malcolm Eu-

stache, the president of Project Haiti, and Kiana Byrd, a mem-ber of Project Haiti.

“I know now that whatever I do or give will be benefi cial to someone, especially those who have nothing… I just want ev-eryone of African American descent to be reminded that this could have been us and we are our brother’s keeper,” said Byrd.

Before Byrd and Eustache guided the program through a series of questions for the distin-guished panelist, they reminded the audience of how important it is to keep Haiti relevant.

The panelist consisted of Dr. James Wood, Dr. Tiffany Quaye, Professor Derick Smith, Profes-sor Bryan Turman, and SGA President Syene Jasmin.

This panelist of respected professors and student lead-ers from the A&T community joined in this discussion of the political and spiritually history of Haiti.

“If you say real talk then I probably won’t trust you, clearly Robertson does not know what he is talking about. If he is talk-ing about voodoo, then Haitian

voodoo has more roots in Ca-tholicism than it has in any kind of devil worshippers…so Haiti is not cursed,” said Turman.

The fi rst question presented to the panelist was “Is Haiti Cursed?”

Most of the panelist agreed and stated that Haiti was not cursed, except for one.

Smith, a political science professor, said “Haiti is cursed in a sense that it has been cursed by other countries because Haiti used to be the richest country in the world and then they had to buy their freedom from France and landed in debt.”

The Haitian Revolution has often been described as the larg-est and most successful slave rebellion in the Western Hemi-sphere.

If it was not for their decision to rebel against the French and take their freedom back, many people of African descents would not have decided to fi ght for their freedom. This is direct-ly linked to African Americans because Haiti created the dom-ino effect of fi ghting for one’s freedom.

After the panel discussion,

the fl oor was opened up to the students who had burning ques-tions. Questions were asked to panelist about on a wide vari-ety from the difference between voodoo to why Haiti is impor-tant now.

There was even a miniature debate between two of the audi-ence members about Christian-ity.

The panel discussion came to a close, but not before the Jay-Z ticket giveaway.

Malcolm Eustache, president of Project Haiti ended the pro-gram and said, “We all sat down and decided that we needed to do something, not a rally but an event that would educate stu-dents about Haiti.

They saw the earthquake and the devastation it caused to Haiti, but they don’t understand what made the earthquake so devastating was the condition that Haiti was in prior to the earthquake.”

If you are interested in join-ing Project Haiti please contact Malcolm Eustache at [email protected] or Sy-ene Jasmin at [email protected].

CHELSEA KINGRegister Reporter

Student chased into Williams Cafeteria by

armed attackers

On Friday afternoon, the North Carolina A&T State University Police respond-ed to a call that involved a male student being chased by two unknown assailants from Curtis Hall to Williams Cafeteria. At the time of the investigation, it was believed that the attackers may have been armed.

“We got a call that we had a person, who we later identi-fi ed to be a [victim], was be-ing chased by two unknown individuals and as a result we shut down the cafeteria,” Chief of Police Glenn New-ell said.

Newell also stated that al-though the university police searched all areas on cam-pus, they were led to believe that there was no threat to the

university community.Police offi cials temporarily

locked down Williams Cafete-ria around 3 p.m. to search for the suspects.

“I received a phone call from a manager saying that thought that someone had entered the building with a gun and left, and we put the building on lock down,” General Manager of So-dexo, Todd Meiners said.

The procedure for the lock-down of the cafeteria according to Meiners included securing exterior doors, making sure stu-dents and staff were away from windows, as well as keeping ev-eryone on the inside was safe.

“We don’t sit around and start screaming somebody has a gun,” Meiners said.

“We just say we gotta situ-ation outside, could you move away from the windows, and the university police is working on something out there.”

Newell confi rmed that an ar-rest has been made, and the in-vestigation is still on-going.

Interested in working for The A&T Register in 2010-

2011?Stop by the newsroom

(GCB 328) for an application.

Writers, editors and graphic designers needed.

MALCOLM EUSTACHE & KELCIE MCCRAE

Managing Editor &Opinions Editor

theWORLD4 The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, March 3, 2010

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Turkey urges ‘no’ vote in U.S. on Armenia genocide

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey this week feels more threatened by a few U.S. lawmakers than it does by its neighbors or alleged coup plots or even Kurdish mili-tants.

Turkish politicians fear if a U.S. congressional panel recog-nizes the World War-I era kill-ings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide, that would not only damage ties with its longtime U.S. ally but hurt U.S.-led efforts to help Turkey end a century of enmity with archrival Armenia.

Ahead of Thursday’s vote at the U.S. House of Representa-tives Foreign Affairs Commit-tee, Turkey issued blunt warn-ings urging the Congress to “act with responsibility,” and its lawmakers lobbied in Washing-ton against yet another resolu-tion on the stinging issue.

This time, however, they do

not have the U.S. administration on their side.

Past U.S. administrations have defeated similar resolu-tions through public cajoling about U.S. national security interests and behind-the-scenes lobbying.

So far, however, the Obama administration has taken no pub-lic position on the measure and President Barack Obama said as a candidate that he believed the killings were genocide.

A positive vote would allow the resolution to be considered by the full House. House Speak-er Nancy Pelosi has said she will wait to see the committee result before deciding whether to bring it up for vote.

At stake is friendly U.S. ties with Turkey, NATO’s sole Muslim member, which is a key supply route for U.S. troops in Iraq.

Turkey is also a symboli-cally important member of the U.S.-led coalition forces in Af-

ghanistan, even though Turkish forces only patrol the Afghan capital and do not fi ght the Tali-ban, fearing a backlash from Muslims.

Armenian-American groups have sought for decades to get the U.S. Congress to call the killings genocide.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as the fi rst genocide of the 20th century.

Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been infl ated and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

“A symbolic issue could cost cooperation between Turkey and the United States,” said Ilter Turan, a professor of political science at Istanbul’s Bilgi Uni-versity.

In 2007, when the House Armed Services Committee passed such a resolution, Turkey

promptly recalled its ambassa-dor, and U.S. offi cials feared the Turks might cut off American access to a Turkish air base es-sential to operations in Iraq.

After intensive lobbying by top Bush administration of-fi cials, the resolution was not considered by the full House.

Turkish leaders now also warn that a positive vote would also threaten a landmark agree-ment with Armenia, signed in October under the auspices of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The agreement envisaged the two neighbors establishing dip-lomatic ties and reopening their shared border.

“Turkish-US relations are experiencing their most suc-cessful period in history,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.

“I hope that they will not be damaged by such initiatives.”

SELCAN HACAOGLUAssociated Press

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in 2010-2011?Stop by the newsroom

(GCB 328) for an application.

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EVA VERGARA & MICHAEL WARRENAssociated Press

PELLUHUE, Chile (AP) — The 40 retirees enjoying summer vaca-tion at a seaside campground nestled under pine trees knew they had to move fast after Chile’s powerful earthquake struck.

They didn’t make it. The tsu-nami came in three waves, surg-ing 200 meters (yards) into this Pacifi c Ocean resort town and dragging away the bus they’d piled into, hoping to get to high ground.

Most of those inside were the retired Chileans, and only fi ve of their bodies had been found by Monday, fi refi ghters and wit-nesses said.

Pelluhue’s horror under-scored the destruction wrought by Saturday’s pre-dawn 8.8-magnitude quake, which killed nearly 800 people and set off spates of looting in shattered towns without food, water or electricity.

Most of the deaths came in communities along Chile’s south-central coast — those closest to the quake’s epicenter — in the wine-growing Maule region that includes Pelluhue.

Survivors here found about 20 bodies, and an estimated 300

homes were destroyed. Most residents were aware of

the tsunami threat; street signs pointed to the nearest tsunami evacuation route.

The ruins of homes, televi-sion sets, clothes, dishwashers and dead fi sh cover the town’s black sand beaches.

“We ran through the highest part of town, yelling, ‘Get out of your homes!’” said Claudio Escalona, 43, who fl ed his home near the campground with his wife and daughters, ages 4 and 6.

“About 20 minutes later came three waves, two of them huge, about 6 meters (18 feet) each, and a third even bigger. That one went into everything.”

“You could hear the screams of children, women, everyone,” Escalona said.

“There were the screams, and then a tremendous silence.”

Chile’s National Disaster Offi ce on Tuesday raised the known toll of quake dead to 796 from 723 and destruction is widespread and food scarce all along the coast — in towns like Talca and Cauquenes, Curico and San Javier.

In Curanipe, the local church served as a morgue. In Cau-quenes, people quickly buried their dead because the funeral home had no electricity.

Aftershocks continued to roll through the region: 131 of magnitude 5 or greater struck in the fi rst 72 hours after the big quake.

The region’s biggest city, Concepcion, suffered waves of looting before some 1,500 troops arrived to enforce an 8 p.m. to noon curfew that fi nally brought calm by Tuesday.

Nearly every store had been looted, some even set on fi re, in a city still lacking food, water and electricity.

President Michelle Bachelet said 14,000 soldiers and ma-rines were deployed for security across the region and authorities began handing out packages of food and water in the disaster zone.

She met later with U.S. Sec-retary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who brought in 25 sat-ellite telephones and promised much more aid to come.

“We stand ready to help in any way that the government of Chile asks us to. We want to help Chile, who has done so much to help others,” Clinton said

Argentina already had fl own in a fi eld hospital.

Brazil and Peru also were already preparing cargo-plane-loads of supplies, hospitals and doctors to fl y in.

After the quake rocked the

gritty port town of Talcahuano, Marioli Gatica and her extended family huddled in a circle on the fl oor of their seaside wooden home, listening to the radio by a lantern’s light.

They heard fi refi ghters urg-ing citizens to stay calm and stay inside.

They heard nothing about a tsunami — until it slammed into their house with an unearthly roar.

Gatica’s house exploded with water. The family was swept below the surface, swirl-ing amid loose ship contain-ers and other heavy debris that smashed buildings into oblivion all around them.

“We were sitting there one moment and the next I looked up into the water and saw cables and furniture fl oating,” Gatica said.

Two of the giant containers crushed Gatica’s home.

A third grounded between the ocean and where she fl oated, keeping the retreating tsunami from dragging her and other relatives out to sea.

Her 11-year-old daughter, Ninoska Elgueta, clung to a tree as the wave retreated.

All the family survived except Gatica’s 76-year-old mother, Nery Valdebenito, Gat-ica said. “I think my mother is

trapped beneath” the house.Firefi ghters with search dogs

examined the ruins of her home. The group leader drew his fi n-ger across his neck: No one alive there.

Close to 80 percent of Tal-cahuano’s 180,000 people are homeless, with 10,000 homes uninhabitable and hundreds more destroyed, Mayor Gaston Saavedra said.

“The port is destroyed. The streets, collapsed. City build-ings, destroyed,” Saavedra said.

In Concepcion, rescuers who had paused in a search for sur-vivors resumed their hunt on Tuesday at a toppled 70-unit apartment building.

Firefi ghters had pulled 25 survivors and nine bodies from the structure.

Chile’s defense minister has said the navy made a mistake by not immediately activating a tsunami warning.

He said port captains who did call warnings in several coastal towns saved hundreds of lives.

In the village of Dichato, teenagers drinking on the beach were the fi rst to shout the warn-ing when they saw a horseshoe-shaped bay empty about an hour after the quake.

They ran through the streets, screaming. Police joined them, using megaphones.

The water rose steadily, surg-ing above the second fl oors of homes and lifting them off their foundations.

Cars were stacked three high in the streets.

Miles inland along a river valley, cows munched next to marooned boats, refrigerators, sofas and other debris.

“The maritime radio said there wouldn’t be a tsunami,” said Rogilio Reyes, who was warned off by the teenagers.

Dichato Mayor Eduardo Aguilera said 49 people were missing and 800 homes were destroyed.

Some people fl ed to high ground, only to return too early and get caught by the tsunami, he said.

The World Health Organiza-tion said it expected the death toll to rise as communications improve.

For survivors, it said access to health services will be a ma-jor challenge.

In Geneva, U.N. humanitari-an spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said Chile was seeking tem-porary bridges, fi eld hospitals, satellite phones, electric genera-tors, damage assessment teams, water purifi cation systems, fi eld kitchens and dialysis centers.

theBIZThe A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, March 3, 2010 5

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WASHINGTON, DC – Last Fri-day, President Obama signed an executive order renewing the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the White House East Room.

According to an article on March 2nd, by Scott Jaschik in Inside Higher Ed, President Obama discussed the impor-tance of HBCU’s at the White House ceremony.

“It was because of these schools that America’s middle class was filled with black doc-tors and educators and judges and lawyers and engineers and entrepreneurs.

And today, it’s becacuse of these schools that one out of every two wide-eyed freshmen who arrives on their campuses with big backpacks and bigger dreams is the first in his or her family to go to college,” Obama is quoted as saying.

The Nation’s 105 HBCUs are located in 20 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and serve more than 300,000 undergrad-uate and graduate students.

These institutions continue to be important engines of eco-nomic growth and community service, and they are proven ladders of intergenerational ad-vancement for men and women of all ethnic, racial, and eco-nomic backgrounds, especially African-Americans.

Among its provisions the Executive Order:

* Establishes the White

House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universi-ties to be housed in the Depart-ment of Education.

Headed by Dr. John Wil-son, the Initiative will lead the Obama Administration’s work to partner with federal depart-ments, agencies and offices, as well as other public and private partners to focus on five key tasks: strengthening the capac-ity of HBCUs to participate in Federal programs; fostering private-sector initiatives and public-private partnerships that would include promoting spe-cific areas and centers of aca-demic research and program-matic excellence; improving the availability, dissemination, and quality of information concerning HBCUs to inform public policy and practice; sharing administrative and programmatic practices within the HBCU community for the benefit of all; and exploring new ways of improving the re-lationship between the Federal Government and HBCUs.

* Establishes a President’s

Board of Advisors on HBCUs that will advise the Obama Administration on matters pertaining to strengthening the educational capacity of these institutions.

Apart from the Executive Order, President Obama has demonstrated his commit-ment to strengthening educa-tional opportunities at HBCUs through his FY 11 Budget which includes:

* $98 million in new money

for HBCUs at the Department

of Education. This includes a 5% or

$13 million increase for the Strengthening HBCUs pro-gram and support for the $85 million in mandatory funding for HBCUs in the pending Stu-dent Aid and Fiscal Responsi-bility Act.

* $20.5 million for the

HBCU Capital Financing pro-gram, to provide HBCUs with access to financing for the re-pair, renovation, and construc-tion or acquisition of educa-tional facilities, instructional equipment, research instrumen-tation, and physical infrastruc-ture. This funding will support $279 million in new loans in 2011, more than $100 million more than in 2010.

* $64.5 million for the

Strengthening Historically Black Graduate Institution pro-gram, a $3.1 million or 5% in-crease.

* $103 million for a com-

prehensive science and tech-nology workforce program at the National Science Founda-tion designed to engage under-graduates at Historically Black, Tribal, and Hispanic-serving colleges and universities by re-aligning and building on exist-ing programs. The President’s budget request would increase funding for these activities by over 14%.

* An increase in the Pell

Grant maximum award to $5,710 in 2011 – an increase of $160 over the 2010 level – and a provision to increase that rate

faster than inflation in future years.

In 2011, students attend-ing HBCUs will receive about $900 million in Pell Grants, an increase of nearly $400 million since the Administration took office.

Students attending HBCUs will also benefit from provi-sions included in the Presi-dent’s higher education pack-age, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), currently pending before Con-gress and reflected in the Presi-dent’s FY 11 Budget.

SAFRA deepens the Presi-dent’s commitment to Pell, includes an expansion of low-interest Perkins Loans and fur-ther simplifies federal financial aid forms. SAFRA would also provide increased support for Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) including HBCUs and helps MSIs through programs such as the American Gradu-ation Initiative that lends new support for community colleg-es, and the Access and Comple-tion Fund, which would make grants to states, institutions of higher education, and other or-ganizations to support innova-tive strategies to increase the number of students entering and completing college.

President Obama is work-ing to provide students a com-plete and competitive educa-tion from cradle to career by ensuring that students, fami-lies and communities have the resources and opportunities needed to improve educational outcomes.

Obama signs executive order promoting excellence for HBCU’s

In 2011, students attending HBCUs will receive about $900 million in Pell Grants, an increase of nearly $400 million since the administration took office.

Staff Reports

Senior liberal studies major Ricky Alexander said that he has always been a drummer and came out of his mother’s womb with a pair of drumsticks.

“It’s always been inside of me to play the drums and I just want to share what I have with the world,” Alexander said. Which is why in July of 2005, he came to establish Sounds Creative.

Sounds Creative is a business that offers music lessons to people on any instrument, from piano to drums. Alexander said that his slogan is “It Sounds Creative only when you make it,” because he wants to build up musicians with their own authentic sound.

Alexander said that his own musical inspirations came from his pastor, gospel drummers, and non-gospel drummers such as Spanky, Calvin Rodgers, Steve Smith and Joe Morello. His inspiration to go into business came from people constantly asking him who taught him how to play.

“What inspired me to do Sounds Creative is I wanted to do something where I could show somebody else how to play the drums,” said Alexander. “I just really want to show people how to play, and that’s really the bottom line. Right now we’re just doing percussion instruments. That means if you want to learn how to play the drums, snare drums, bongos, timpani, or any percussion instrument I could show you how to play that.”

Lessons are broken down into increments of 45 minutes and one hour. Charges are $20 for 45 minutes and $30 for one hour, based upon the time frame of the individual and how they want to schedule the appointment. Appointments can be scheduled Monday through Friday, and weekends after 5:30.

Alexander said that he usually works with kids but lessons are open to anyone in any age group who has an interest to learn to play.

Alexander stated that he is currently working alone, but he is trying to recruit more musicians to partner with him to expand his business so more lessons can be taught on a greater variety of instruments.

The Greensboro native said that even though he knows music of many forms, from

Latin to gospel to jazz, he still wants to employ others to teach so that more people who desire to learn can be serviced. But his vision goes beyond simply expanding the numbers of his clientele.

Alexander said, “What I want to do ultimately is form a school of music, a music academy that does not only music, but vocal and the arts, such as dance, ballet, chorus and orchestra. I want to evolve into all of that. And that’s what I will evolve into later on in the years.”

Alexander said that he is already in talks of getting a new classroom at 1031 Triton Plaza on Summit Avenue. He stated that his goal is to build his academy within four to five years so he is already working on bringing more musicians and reaching out to kids as well to bring his complete dream into reality.

“Ultimately, Sounds Creative is a way to witness and bring more people to Christ and to inform more people about music,” he said. “There are a lot of people out there who wish that they could have learned to play music while they were young and I want to bring that back to them and let them know that they can still learn and it’s not hard.”

The business-savvy musician has said that A&T has contributed greatly to his growth and he considers being a black entrepreneur a great success because there are so few in the world. He said that he hopes for his own contribution to the world to speak more of A&T. With models such as the A&T Four and others produced in the Aggie nation, he said that he feels there is a greater standard to be met within the Black community.

“Being a part of A&T and being a black male in the United States, it makes me take more pride in my school because I’m walking history right now. It inspires me to go after greatness because I’m a great man,” said Alexander.

Another phrase that inspires the young entrepreneur is “I’m too great to be this far behind.”

“Greatness is within and that is something that I will just continue to recycle within my mind,” Alexander said. “I’m a great man and I know that I am great. I want to let the world know that I am great, just by how I handle myself, having a unique character and a character that draws people to me.”

Local music lessons that ‘sound creative’

local business

MArCUS THOMpSONRegister Reporter

rALEIGH, N.C. (Ap) — When North Carolina's Wake County decided to do away with race-based busing to desegregate schools, local officials came up with a novel solution to main-tain balance.

The new method of assign-ing students by their socio-eco-nomic background rather than race helped to keep campuses integrated.

Adopted in 2000, it quickly became a blueprint for other school systems.

That policy, however, has never sat well with many sub-urban parents — often white and middle class — who argue that the student assignment plan sends their kids too far from home. And a new school board, swept into office by those vocal parents, appears poised to scrap it in a vote expected to take place Tuesday evening.

Dozens of parents and stu-dents lined up to speak against the policy as discussion began late Tuesday afternoon.

Curtis Gatewood, a black

man, urged the board not to dump the diversity plan and decried "white racists." His comments were interrupted by jeers.

"If you want to go to hell, don't expect to take our children with you," he said to the board as authorities approached to calm him down.

The issue has revived the term "segregation" and the brought the weight of history into recent school board meet-ings. Some parents and students around the state capital have im-plored the newly elected leaders to back away from their plan to drastically alter the diversity policy.

"Please preserve the New South. Don't take us back to the Old South," parent Robert Sie-gel told the school board.

Reversing the diversity rules would follow a cascade of simi-lar shifts around the South, and particularly in North Carolina, which once was a model of de-segregation.

Now the state is increasingly starting to mirror an era many thought had past.

u See SCHOOLS on ncatregister.com

N.C. public schoolsfacing possible reversal

of diversity rulesMIkE BAkEr

Associated Press

theWORDThe A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, March 3, 2010 6

Editor’s note:The opinions expressed on The Word are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the staff of The A&T Register. All house editorials are written and revised with input from the editorial board, staff, and are approved by the editor. All submissions must be sent to [email protected] to be considered for submission and should be no longer than 250 words. Submissions must be recieved by the Sunday prior

to publication at 5 p.m. to be considered. The A&T Register reserves the right to edit all submission content for clarity and grammar. Submissions become the property of The A&T Register and will not be returned.

What happened to Student Government?

TRUMAINEMCCASKILL

We still need our HBCUs to existFor the past few years the

question of “are HBCUs still relevant” has become more and more frequent, but no one speaks about the real issues be-hind HBCUs.

When asking about their relevance, it is hard to not ask about the relevance of a minor-ity’s education in this country. “Does America really value the education of thousands of young black men and women,” is the question everyone should be asking.

Historically Black Col-leges and Universities provide more than just an education. They provide an experience for young black men and women that they would never get a chance to encounter at a pre-dominantly white institution (PWI).

Our comfort level is higher, and students at HBCUs are taught more than ever that thinking outside of the box is not enough.

In order to overcome the struggles of being a minority in America, you must realize there is no box.

We do not learn in a fantasy world here. We are educated to know that in America the fight is not fair and if we plan on “beating the system” we have to work 10 times as hard as our white counterparts.

We have been taught this since the first HBCU was founded in 1837.

We stress so hard about re-membering our history and re-specting our roots, while many of our “educated elite” forget about the value of these great institutions. These schools are not just historical, but they are still monumental in destroy-ing this education problem we

still face in America to-day.

Yes, many H B C U s face great financial is-sues, but too many Afri-can Ameri-cans don’t even take the

time out to ask how this came about.

So for the record, the Brown vs. Board of Education deci-sion was a gift and a curse for black America.

Although it may have helped black people seek ac-cess into PWIs, it also helped HBCUs lose much support and money from the very people they had been helping for all those years.

And despite many financial and resource disadvantages, the GPAs of African American students attending college are still higher at HBCUs than at PWI. Also, HBCUs produce over half of all African Ameri-can professionals.

Need more supporting evidence?Well they also gradu-ate 70% of African American dentists, more than 50% of the nation’s African American teachers, and graduate, on aver-age, 75% more African Ameri-cans than PWI.

In addition to that, 9 of the 10 colleges that graduate most of the African Americans stu-dents who go on to earn PhD’s are HBCUs.

Yet we seem to forget.People such as Erykah

Badu, Sean Combs, Common, Nikki Giovanni, Samuel Jack-son, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Spike Lee, Ronald McNair,

Rosa Parks, Jerry Rice, Keenan Ivory Wayans, and Oprah Win-frey have all called an HBCU their home at one point in their life. And look at the influence these men and women have had on the world.

So with these names facts being presented, why would anyone think that HBCUs are irrelevant? Especially consid-ering the fact that 66.3% of mi-nority students fail to graduate at a PWI.

I’m not saying that learning at a white school automatically dooms you for failure. I know many black students who at-tend PWIs and do just fine.

However, many of them also say that the main problem they had with PWIs is that many of them felt the education system was not designed for them. They felt that if used wisely you may succeed in this world; however it’s more designed for minorities to work, not lead.

Students who attend HB-CUs learn the same material as students at PWIs; however our education seems to always be seen as inferior to others. Why?

Just because our college ex-perience may not be the same as everyone else, does not mean our education should be seen as less relevant.The things we say, do, eat, and even talk about are all different in some form. But that does not make either one bad or less relevant. It just makes HBCUs and PWIs different.

And since we live different lifestyles and learn in different environments, the way we learn and educate may also have to be different.

Yet at HBCUs we do not say we produce leaders. We simply

just do it.For example, in the year

2000 Xavier University in New Orleans produced more successful African American medical school applicants than John Hopkins, Harvard, and University of Maryland com-bined.

And let’s not forget about Spelman and Bennett Col-lege who produce over half of the nation’s African American women who go on to earn doc-torates in all science fields; that is more than the Ivy League’s Seven Sisters combined. And I don’t think I need to even go into detail about the engineers from this great institution of NC A&T SU.

I have always supported my HBCUs and I will continue un-til the day I die.

However I hate it when people who have never stepped foot on a black campus, or even spoke to one of our alumni, feel that these institutions hold no power or value in our society.

HBCUs have been around for hundreds of years and will only continue to stay around if black America as a whole continues to support our young men and women. A failure to support HBCUs will ultimately result in the failure to support African American education as a whole.

Because if America does not see our true value then we are destined for doom. So it’s up to us, the products of these great institutions, to keep our schools alive. For if our HB-CUs fail then we all fail.

So if we truly feel that HB-CUs are relevant then the stu-dents and alumni better speak up soon before our schools tru-ly become a thing of the past.

Attention teachers: Do you suffer from the ‘Boring Teacher Syndrome?’Attention teachers:

Is your class one of the last ones to get filled during regis-tration week? Is that class cur-rently registered at the maxi-mum number of students, but half of the students barely have a regular attendance record? Do students always have their heads down, eyes closed, yawn excessively, have their phones out texting, continuously surf Facebook and always seem to have to leave early?

If you have two or more of these problems, you are the lat-est victim of ‘Boring Teacher Syndrome.’ This disease means you are failing to engage your students and probably have a high ‘class drop rate’ each se-mester your course is offered.

Students are only enrolling in your class because of degree requirements. They fear coming to your office to express con-cerns to only be talked to death.

Your class can ruin anyone’s day and there is even a possibil-

ity that your colleagues avoid you as well.

This illness most commonly affects teachers at the collegiate level.

While they may be the most qualified in their subject area, the achievement of multiple degrees, a past position in that field and a tenured teaching position causes the professor to lose sight of why they chose that career in the first place.

It is no longer about filling empty minds with the tools they need to be successful; instead the effects of ‘Boring Teacher Syndrome’ causes professors to walk into classrooms complete-ly unprepared, not even know-ing what direction they want to go in.

Students have sat in count-less classrooms where the pro-fessor rambles about topics that, many times, have nothing to do with the subject the class is sup-posed to be about.

Although many students may not admit it, the classes

students suc-ceed in most, has structure, the profes-sors gener-ally sticks to the syllabus and genuinely seems excited about teach-ing everything about their

field. If more teachers did these things, this illness would not even be an issue.

What’s bad is that even when students attempt to get something clarified, asking a teacher suffering from ‘Boring Teacher Syndrome’ a question, just traps them in another long-winded conversation that leaves that student frustrated and an-swerless.

Students are also placed in a lose-lose situation because when we go to other members of the class and ask them the same question (in the event that that they are not lost as well) that

same professor gets annoyed, and that student runs the risk of gambling their grade being based on a perceived attitude verses actual performance.

Teaching for so many years has numbed your teaching abili-ties to the point that you may be acknowledgeable about the material, but the execution of teaching it to a new set of stu-dents, who are unique in learn-ing style and knowledge level, is not up to par.

What worked for previous classes may be a completely failure with others, so not only is there a need for more effort towards getting to know your students, but also their learn-ing style. Adjustments to your teaching style to accommodate these differences need to be made.

Before writing this, I talked with a few teachers and asked, “What am I supposed to do when the classes I’m paying over $20,000 a year for are put-ting me to sleep?” They generi-

cally responded for me to “ask questions to make the class in-teresting.”

Personally, I do not see how that solves the problem. Ques-tion asking is for when you do not understand or when you want to know more about some-thing specifically, not for when a teacher has stumbled off track and needs to be guided back to reality.

I believe that is the job of the administration, but they cannot fix what they do not know is broken, right?

So here is my advice: Deans, Assistant Deans, and whoever else can be in charge of fir-ing recommendations, take note from high school and el-ementary school principals, and squeeze into your schedules a day of random unannounced classroom visits.

Then you can see first hand the misery students are sub-jected to. This may seem a little elementary, but it is part of your job description to make sure

these professors give the best education possible to the stu-dents enrolled.

How can you be sure this is happening if you do not take the initiative to find out? Believe it or not, those end of the semester surveys are a joke.

Sure, students could stop by your office one day to discuss these issues, but your work day is from 8am to 5pm.

For those students who are concerned enough to voice their experiences, our days are filled between those hours as well and for several hours after that with classes, jobs, meetings and lec-tures, so sometimes dropping by is not convenient for us either.

‘Boring Teacher Syndrome’ is not something to be taken lightly, especially since it is highly contagious among teach-ers.

The reputation of your de-partment and this university is at stake, and that is not some-thing A&T can afford to gamble with.

LARIALAND

DEXTERMULLINS

As I sit in the news-room some three hours behind our deadline writing this column, I can’t help but wonder what in the hell has happened to Student Govern-ment as a whole.

Let’s just look back at the last few months, shall we? As an institu-tion, our Student Government has embarrassed us over and over again. Our SGA President and his Chief of Staff went on the news and called Gucci “gang affiliated,” and we could have easily been sued for slander.

Our Attorney General was caught embezzling money to pay for fliers for a Greek letter organization.

Our SGA Student Senate didn’t impeach the Attorney General because a majority of them hadn’t read the materials provided to them in advance, and many more were “ready to go home,” or didn’t want to im-peach him not because he wasn’t guilty (as he clearly admitted it), but because they weren’t sure what to do “after we don’t have an Attorney General.”

The A&T Register has been given untold anonymous tips and emails collectively and to indivdual editors about the dis-function and division of the Ex-ecutive Board members.

And now,we are about to em-bark upon a general election with no presidential candidate.

It’s almost like we are stuck in a state of stupidity, where no one knows who is supposed to do what, how to do what, or when to do it. But when something goes wrong, everyone wants to find someone else to blame.

I’m almost certain that there are a number of candidates who will fuss at the Elections Com-mittee, blaming them for the sit-uation we have gotten into now. However, for once I am going to defend the Committee. This is not their fault. That’s right I said it. It’s not the Elections Com-mittee’s fault.

How can I say that? Let me make it clear for those of you who may not see where I’m coming from:

You cannot say that it is the Elections Committee who wrote Article’s V and VI in the SGA Constitution, which is the root of this mess. You can, however, blame the SGA Senate for not ratifying a Constitution prop-erly since 1995, and then again in 2008.

You cannot say that it is the Elections Com-mittee’s fault that no one truly knows the power of a financial disclosure form, nor can you blame them for the fact that as many of you are read-ing this, you don’t even know what the words fi-nancial disclosure mean.

If any SGA candidate truly wanted to win, they would take the time to request a copy of their competitions financial disclosures and utilize that in-formation to help them in their campiagn to make themselves look more economical and not above the people, or to remove the competition when they ex-ceed the limit.

It isn’t the Committee’s fault that the SGA Constitution has over 1,200 typographical errors, the suggestions provided to fix it over the last four years have been ignored, and no more than about five senators even know how to truly do their jobs.

It is the fault of SGA, and be-cause all of us are a part of SGA it is collectively the fault of ev-ery student on this campus.

We have each allowed for the culture of lazy, foolish, Qwuita and Qwan behavior to take over the one thing that students had left: leadership.

SGA as a whole has lost its in-tegrity, its focus on governance, and its role as an advocate for the students. Programming isn’t leading, and complacency isn’t standing up for the people.

By sitting by and not bothering to do anything about the joke of a Constitution we operate un-der, we have allowed ourselves to completely remove the class officers from the SGA. They are not executive, legislative, or ju-dicial, so if they are not any of these things, what are they?

Who do people have to repre-sent them if their own class of-ficers that they elect don’t really have any place in the govern-ment? Do the senators realize what they are not doing?

We as a group have allowed SGA to get into this mess, and because every student is a part of it, we as a group are going to have to get SGA out.

As soon as people realize that it is not SGA’s job to plan Homecoming, SpringFest, gym jams, and pagaents, and they realize they are supposed to actually advocate for them and improve the life of the student, things will get better. But until then I just ask, what the hell?

7The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, March 3, 2010

theSCOREAGGIESRUNDOWNmEN’S bASkEtbAll

Morgan State 14-1 23-9Delaware State 10-5 15-11S.C.State 10-6 16 -12Norfolk State 8-7 10-18UMES 8-7 10-19Hampton 8-8 12-17Bethune-Cookman 7-8 16-14N.C.A&t 6-9 10-20Howard 6-9 7-23FAMU 4-11 8-21Coppin State 3-12 8-20

UPCOmING GAmES:Thursdayvs. Norfolk StateCorbett Sports Center8 p.m.

Mon.-Sat.MEAC TOURNAMENTWinston-Salem, N.C.

tEAm mEAC OVR.

WOmEN’S bASkEtbAll

N.C.A&t 13-2 20-9Hampton 11-4 16-11Morgan State 11-4 16-12Howard 10-5 15-12Bethune-Cookman 9-6 15-13FAMU 8-7 17-10UMES 7-8 10-15Coppin State 5-10 10-17S.C.State 5-11 10-18Delaware State 4-11 6-22Norfolk State 0-15 4-21

UPCOmING GAmES:Thursdayvs. Norfolk StateCorbett Sports Center6 p.m.

Mon.-Sat.MEAC TOURNAMENTWinston-Salem, N.C.

tEAm mEAC OVR.

bASEbAll

Delaware State 3-3Florida A&M 2-3-1Norfolk State 2-3-1N.C.A&t 2-4Bethune-Cookman 1-7Coppin 0-3Maryland-Eastern Shore 0-8

UPCOmING GAmES:Wednesdayvs. Appalachain St.War Memorial Stadium3 p.m.

Saturdayvs. New Jersey Institute of TechnologyWar Memorial Stadium1 p.m.

Sundayvs. NJITWar Memorial Stadiumnoon

tEAm OVR.

NASCAR SUSPENSIONDAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — NA-SCAR has suspended a crew-man from the Truck Series for violating the substance abuse policy.William Hileman is suspended indefinitely. He is a crewman for the Ray Hackett Racing. He is the third person suspended this season by NASCAR for violat-ing its drug policy.______

CHARlOttE bObCAtSDALLAS (AP) — One of Michael Jordan’s first acts since reach-ing a deal to buy the Charlotte Bobcats: losing two games of H-O-R-S-E to guard Gerald Henderson. A trash-talking Jordan attend-ed the Bobcats’ shootaround Monday morning before their game against Dallas, challeng-ing the rookie Henderson to a shooting competition after the workout._____

The Associated Press

Aggie softball team win home tournament

Photo by kENNETH HAwkiNS • THE A&T REgisTERwUDi ALFOrD and the Lady Aggies have not lost more than one conference game during the regular season since 2007. The ladies won their third straight regular-season title saturday.

BETTEr NOw THAN LATErMEAC champions suffer second loss as conference tournament approaches

On Monday night the North Carolina A&T women’s basketball team lost their second game this season to a MEAC op-ponent.

A&T was defeated 73-69 and dropped to 13-2 in the MEAC.

MEAC Player of the Week Ta’Wuana Cook led the Aggies with 27 points.

Jaleesa Sams recorded 11 points and 9 rebounds, and Amber Calvin added 11 points.

Erin Hawkins led the Bears with 23 points, and Corrin Adams added 18 points, seven assists and eight steals.

With 9 minutes to play in the first half the Aggies were down 21-12 and by half-time they found themselves on the losing end of a 10-point deficit; the Bears led A&T 42-32.

Morgan State would extend their lead to 13 before A&T went on a 16-2 run to gain a 48-47 lead.

During that span, Cook scored 12 points alone.

A three-pointer by Hawkins gave the

Bears a 71-69 lead and eventually the game.

A&T had a chance to tie the game but Cook missed three free throws, which sealed the victory for Morgan State.

“This is tough on Tweet because it came down to her free throws,’’ said A&T head coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs.

“She has meant so much for this pro-gram, and this is the type of thing that will motivate Tweet as we go into the tourna-ment.”

“This could have been a game in the tournament, and we would have been out.”

On Saturday night the Aggies clinched the regular season MEAC title with a 72-53 victory over the Coppin State Eagles at the Physical Education Center in Bal-timore.

This title marks the Aggies third straight.

“People really didn’t believe we could pull this off because we didn’t have our big guns coming back,” said Bibbs.

“I treasure all three titles, but I appre-ciate this one a little more because we’ve gone through a lot as a team this year,

but the ladies hung tough, and we got it done.”

In a commanding victory, Tu’Wuana Cook led the Aggies with a career-high 33 points, including 26 in the first half in 10 for 15 shooting, including six three pointers. Jaleesa Sams added 11 points for A&T.

Coppin State was led by Jeanine Man-ley with 17 points and seven rebounds.

Lakeytah Irving recorded 10 points. Cook’s 33 points pushed her ahead

of former A&T player Amber Bland on the Aggies’ all-time scoring list and be-came the second player in A&T history to score more than 1,600 points.

Cook is now A&T’s second all-time leading scorer.

“One thing I’ve learned about Tweet, when you need her to come through, she will come through,” Bibbs said.

“We’ve had tremendous play from our seniors,.”

“But we’ve also managed to get ev-eryone involved.”

“You make it difficult on teams when they don’t know who to stop from game to game.”

Photo by kENNETH HAwkiNS• THE A&T REgisTER

TAVArUS ALSTON and the Aggies will have a first round matchup in next week’s MEAC tournament.

The Lady Aggies softball team beat Appalachian State 12-3 in the championship game of the N.C. A&T Softball invi-tational Sunday afternoon.

After losing to the Moun-taineers 3-0 on Friday, the Ag-gies (4-1) won four straight games to win the title. Senior Channing Statham, Bianca Al-sobrook and Lillian Bullock had three RBIs apiece for the Aggies.

Bullock hit her 30th career home run in the fourth, and Yamaha White added three hits and scored a run. Luper earned the win on the mound by strik-ing out six over six innings to improve to 2-1 on the season.

Alsobrook hit an impressive .571 (8-for-14) for the tourna-ment with two doubles and four RBIs to earn all-tournament honors. White was also an all-tournament selection after se-curing eight hits and scoring six times over five games. Philpot was the only other all-tourna-

ment selection for N.C. A&T. Philpot went 2-0 and did not give up a run over 10 innings pitched in the tournament.

After taking an early 3-1 run lead thanks to a three-run first inning, the Aggies exploded for five runs in the fourth. Senior Britney Reddick and White started things off with back-to-back singles. After fresh-man Hope Fletcher advanced the runners with a groundout, Ryanne Hill followed with a single through the left side of the infield to score Reddick for

a 4-1 Aggies lead.Mountaineers starter Hannah

Dow then tossed a wild pitch that allowed White to score. Her troubles continued when she walked senior Jessie Lar-son. With runners on first and third, the Mountaineers turned to Caitlin Wainright. Wainright had not surrendered a run over her first 8 1/3 innings pitched during the tournament. But not even she could slow down the Aggie attack.

Statham greeted her with a groundout that scored Hill for

a 6-1 Aggies advantage. Bull-ock, the Aggies all-time leader in home runs, was not a gra-cious host either. She drove Wainwright’s 2-1 pitch over the right-center field fence for a two-run shot that gave the Ag-gies a convincing 8-1 lead.

The Aggies delivered the fi-nal blow with a four-run sixth that included an RBI single by Statham and a three-run RBI double from Alsobrook.

The Lady Aggies will host St. Bonaventure Friday at 1 p.m.

LAUrEN mOrgANRegister Reporter

STAFF rEPOrTSA&T Athletics

DOUg FErgUSONAssociated Press

Woods back at home

JACkSONViLLE, Fla. (AP) — Tiger Woods is closer to competing again.

Woods is back home after a week of family counseling in Arizona and is trying to get back into a routine that includes fitness and his first significant practice in 15 weeks, a person with knowledge of his schedule said Tuesday.

Woods returned to his home near Orlando on Saturday and has been hitting balls on the range at Isleworth, not far from where he ran his SUV into a fire hydrant and a tree in a middle-of-the-night accident on Nov. 27 that set off shocking revela-tions of infidelity.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because only Woods is authorized to release such information, said golf’s No. 1 player still has not decided when he will return to competition.

Woods was photographed hitting balls at Isleworth on Feb. 18, the day before he ended nearly three months of silence by speaking to a small group of associates at the TPC Sawgrass in a 13½-minute statement that was televised around the world. Those photos of Woods were ar-ranged to counter the paparazzi trying to follow his every move since Thanksgiving.Woods has not practiced in earnest since winning the Australian Masters in Melbourne on Nov. 15 for his 82nd victory worldwide.

“I do plan to return to golf one day, I just don’t know when that day will be,”

Woods said in his statement at Sawgrass. “I don’t rule out that it will be this year.”Woods said he had attended inpatient therapy “for the issues I’m fac-ing” for 45 days, from the end of December to early February.

He said he was leaving the next day for more therapy, with-out saying what kind. The per-son who spoke to The Associat-ed Press said he went to Arizona for a week of family and mar-riage counseling with his wife, Elin.Woods said at Sawgrass of his infidelity, “As Elin pointed out to me, my real apology to her will not come in the form of words; it will come from my behavior over time. We have a lot to discuss; however, what we say to each other will remain between the two of us.”

News of him getting back into a routine is sure to begin speculation when he might re-turn to the PGA Tour. Woods announced on Dec. 4 that he was taking an “indefinite break” to try to salvage his marriage.

To date, he has missed only two tournaments he typically would have played — Tor-rey Pines and the Match Play Championship — although he had been leaning toward play-ing Pebble Beach this year be-cause it will host the U.S. Open in June.Woods is not likely to play next week in the World Golf Championship at Doral, where he has won three times.

When he does return, he will have a different logo on his golf bag, replacing AT&T, if he can find a deal.

Aggies can’t find a way on the roadPriNCE ASkEw

Register Reporter

A week ago the Aggies folded under the pressure of a packed Greensboro Coli-seum crowd as they blew a 15-point lead in a loss to Winston-Salem State.

On Monday they collapsed once again, losing to Morgan State 81-67 in a game that was nationally televised on ESPNU.

With a little more than 12 minutes remaining in the game, the Aggies were holding on to a 50-40 lead.

They were in position to defeat the MSU Bears, the MEAC’s No.1-ranked team.

But then, the Aggies hit another one of those scoring droughts we have seen so many times this year.

In the first half, Morgan State 23-9 (14-1 MEAC) was able to jump out to an early 14-point advantage.

Bears guard Reggie Holmes torched the Aggies in the first half for 21 points.

No one else for Morgan State seemed to be able to knock down a basket, how-ever, and the Aggies were able to get back into the game.

A 10-4 run capped by a Tavarus Alston three-pointer at the buzzer gave A&T a 37-32 lead going into the half.

Another 10-4 run to begin the second half allowed the Aggies to pull ahead by double digits.

After that came the turning point in the game, when the Bears got hot from the

field and the Aggies went cold. A 28-9 run over a seven minute span

saw Morgan take a 64-56 lead. The Aggies would only score another

nine points in the final six minutes of the game.

“When the score was 50-40, we stopped playing,’’ said head coach Jerry Eaves.

“We turned the ball over too many times and that’s when the momentum switched.

“It seems that keeping focus is hard for us to do.”

The Bears shot 57 percent from the field in the second half, including 50 per-cent from three.

Holmes finished with 32 points. He was able to knock down eight of his 13 three-point attempts.

Thomas Colman led the way for A&T, recording his 10th double-double of the season with 16 points and 14 rebounds in the loss.

Alston also had 16 points, but only five in the second half.

This game followed a 77-65 loss to Coppin State on Saturday.

Eagles guard Michael Harper scored 30 points on the Aggies.

Robert Johnson led A&T with 18 points.

The Aggies 10-20 (6-9 MEAC) will close the regular season on Thursday at the Corbett Sports Center against Norfolk State at 8 p.m.

It will be senior night for Alston, Johnson, Dwane Joshua and James Porter.

The MEAC Tournament will begin Monday and the Aggies will likely play in the first round.

“We’re just going to keep work-ing,’’ Eaves said.

“We’ve proven we can compete with every team in the conference, so we’re looking forward to the tourna-ment.”

AROUNDSPORtS

SOftbAll

Florida A&M 3-2Howard 1-1Morgan State 1-2South Carolina State 2-5Norfolk State 1-3Bethune-Cookman 1-5N.C.A&t 4-1Coppin N/ADelaware State N/AHampton N/AMaryland-Eastern Shore N/A

UPCOmING GAmES:Fridayvs. St. BonaventureLady Aggies Softball Complex1 p.m.

Tuesdayvs. Eastern KentuckyLady Aggies Softball Complex1 p.m.

tEAm OVR.

Pearl Cleage, author of “Mad at Miles: A Black Woman’s Guide To Truth,” was on hand last week at the Paul Robeson Theater

to see the stage adaptation of her essays and to take part in the fishbowl discussion “Good Brother Blues” based on a portion of the play.

A panel of men was brought together to view the final act of the play entitled “Good Brother Blues”, in which the three women discuss what they want in a man.

The women in the audience were then moved into a separate room so that the men could have an honest conversation about what they saw.

Some of the comments from the men seemed to be controversial to the women, but others were in agreement with the act and believed that they were in fact a “good brother.” Afterwards, Cleage attended the 8 p.m. performance by the professional cast, and autographed books and took pictures with fans.

Farone Williams, a recent graduate of A&T, felt that it is the responsibility of both the male and female to show integrity for themselves and display whether they are a good mate.

“If I attract women who are scandalous, I need to look in myself and change myself because I don’t want to attract those kinds of women.

Some women talk to the same type of guys that abuse and misuse them and wonder why they still go through hurt. You have to change who you talk to.”

He also said that he liked the “Good Brother” portion but felt that it was a little too general.

“I didn’t really feel like it was a man bashing play; it made me look in myself and see what is wrong with me and what I can do to change myself so that they won’t have that perspective of me.

I love the piece especially from theatrical point of view but it order to make real change with men, we need it there in plain English.”

Martamique Ajoku, a sophomore English major, said she enjoyed the play and connected to the actors because of a personal experience.

“I thought it was phenomenal and very moving. My mother was abused when I was very little and many things mentioned in the play are relevant today about the abuse.

Men openly view women as anything less than beautiful and wonderful creatures that we are and Cleage did a great job writing it,” said Ajoku.

Cleage, who was present for the discussion, was surprised at some the things the men had to say on the panel.

“One gentleman said that women should not feel bad about the word ‘ho’ because there are some women who fit the word.

That’s not the issue for me; the issue is personal responsibility. People know when they hit somebody and they know it is wrong and they know when they call someone out of their name that it is wrong.

I was taken back by the fact that some

of their responses to the part of the piece that is least confrontational and the most welcoming,” said Cleage.

Overall, Cleage enjoyed the play and the adaptation by Donna Bradby. She didn’t envision it at all because they were written as solo performances to be done by her.

She did like the “Facts of Life” portion, which was a military-themed part of the play.

“It was really amazing what they were doing just as soldiers and it was wonderfully staged.

I liked that is was both dramatic and funny at the same time and just the fact that they can do all that marching around. I really enjoyed that a lot.”

Cleage said, “I did not know what to expect, but when Donna asked can she put it together that way, I told her that she could and I trusted she would do something interesting.

It is a wonderful feeling to know that I wrote these pieces 20 years ago and they now have found a audience and raise questions people want to talk about.”

Cleage added that the underlying message that she wanted people to take from the play was for men and women to talk truthfully to each other about relationships and how they really feel about what they need and want from each other.

“One of the big problems with relationships is that we lie to one another and after awhile we do not remember what the truth is.

We must figure out who we are, what kind of relationship we want, and what we are trying to put together,” said Cleage.

Scene heard&

Jay-Z tour comes to

Greensboro!

Jay-Z’s BP3 tour made its stop in Greensboro on Sunday, February 28th.

The tour took place at the Greensboro Coliseum at 7pm.

Jay-Z is yet another name added to the growing list of major artists holding shows in Greensboro.

Greensboro is becoming a must stop location for all major concerts.

The show sold out, and according to Jay-Z, was the highest grossing show on his tour thus far.

The concert line up included J. Cole, Trey Songz, Young Jeezy, and Jay-Z as the headliner.

Special guest, Memphis Bleek also appeared during Jay-Z’s set. Jay-Z opened with his hit song, “Run This Town” and closed with the legendary “Encore.”

People of all ages and races came out and rocked with Jay-Z until around 11 p.m.

Ashley Peterson, a sophomore marketing major said the concert was amazing and that she wanted to relive the experience all over again.

“If there were a concert in my hometown during spring break I would buy another ticket right now. I will definately be attending his next concert!”

-Sylvia Obell

thescene8 The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, March 3, 2010

1. How many of ya’ll went to see Jay-Z but still haven’t bought books? 2. Do you know that spring break is next week? 3. Did you hear the earthquake in Chile tilted the Earth’s axis? 4. How was the CIAA tournament? 5. How many games did you go to? 6. Were you yelling Aggie Pride at parties celebrating a basketball tournament that A&T doesn’t play in? 7. How long did it take you to get back to Greensboro? 8. How are we getting all this snow if the world is getting warmer? 9. With yesterday’s snow, doesn’t spring look like a punk? 10. Like spring was looking real disrespected? 11. Do you think Al Gore was lying? 12. Did you hear about the dude who got robbed in the cafe? 13. Isn’t the food bad enough? 14. Now we gotta worry about getting robbed? 15. Are you glad the Winter Olympics is over? 16. Do you feel like less of an American because you didn’t care about Lindsey Vonn? 17. Did you watch the hockey gold medal game? 18. Would you have watched if Lebron or Kobe put on some skates? 19. Did you know that Lebron is changing his number to #6? 20. Do he and Kobe not realize that no matter how much they try, they will never be better than Jordan?

20QueStionS

The A&T Register’sguide to what’s going on this week in arts and entertainment.

Brooklyn’S FineSt star-ring Don Cheadle, Richard Gere, Wesley Snipes and Ethan Hawke will open in the-aters on Friday. In the course of one chaotic week, the lives of three conflicted New York City police officers are dra-matically transformed by their involvement in a massive drug operation. - J.V.

2012 starring John Cusack, Thandie Newton, Amanda Peet, and Chiwetel Ejiofor is avaliable on DVD now. The movie is an epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors. It is based on the prediction that the end of the world will happen on De-cember 12th of that year.

- J.V.

FlaminGo court-liFe in three condoS will take place at the Broach The-atre Co. tonight at 7 p.m. Tick-ets are $10 for students. This three-part play takes place in three condos and has audienc-es laughing at the truth they see in what might be their own neighbors. The original play was wirtten by Luigi Cre-atore. - J.V.

Soled out Sneaker ShoWcaSe presented by S.U.A.B. invites all A&T sneakerheads for the first ever sneaker exhibit on March 5th, 2010 in Stallings Ballroom in the Student Memorial Union at 7pm. Fresh sneakers are highly required and fake ones will not be allowed. - J.V.

hotli

st

March 3rd-9th

on Screen

on StaGe

on ShelveS

on campuS

Melanie Fiona performs at ‘Art and Soul’

Last Wednesday, the seats in Harrison Auditorium were filled with students in attendance for the “Art and Soul” concert presented by the Student Union Advisory Board (SUAB). Students were given free admission in exchange for canned foods and water to be donated to Haiti.

The event featured fellow Aggies, local artists from the Greensboro area and the main attraction of the evening, headliner Melanie Fiona.

The first act to perform was Aggie alum, Santos accompanied by his guitar.

He performed two songs, one of that was about the meaning of love, which mentioned to the couples in the audience to learn to love.

The next performers were fellow Aggies who were introduced as “Candace and Dominique”.

The crowd reacted in cheering as Candace Thompson sang and Dominique added her poetic flair to the performance.

“I really enjoyed Candace and Dominique’s performance,” said sophomore Renee Smith. “Candace has a great voice and I like how they intertwined poetry and singing.”

The duo performed recording duo Floetry’s song, “Say Yes.” Thompson’s performance really got the attention of the audience as she sang a few high notes of the song.

The last act before Fiona was another Aggie, Lawrence Locke. He performed a few songs and also did a little spoken word.

Audience members had mixed feelings about the opening acts.

Timothy Lane said, “The opening acts were ok, they were not bad at all.”

However, junior music major Tristan Cooper said, “I was not into the opening acts at all, the opening acts really made me want to leave early, they didn’t entertain me at all.”

Fiona interacted with the crowd before beginning her performance.

She began to perform songs from her album. Fiona seemed very excited as she continued to perform one of her songs, “Give It To Me Right.”

She teased the audience as she swayed her hips and danced along with her background singers.

Fiona, continued to sing more of her songs, but in the middle of her set, she decided to play a game with the crowd.

She said she wanted to know if the crowd knew good music and began playing older songs to see if the crowd knew them.

The crowd participated by singing the songs with her.

Fiona said she was tired of singing other people’s songs and went on to perform her number one hit song, “It Kills Me.” The audience appeared to be awed by her performance.

Fiona walked off stage and continued singing while in the audience.

She also allowed members in the audience to display their talent. One female impressed her by rapping about Haiti and Fiona.

One audience member also beat boxed while she sang one of her songs.

The crowd cheered when her entire performance was over. Three lucky audience members were able to meet Melanie Fiona by answering questions about SUAB.

Although Cooper didn’t care for the opening acts he did enjoy Fiona’s performance.

“Melanie was really good…but the sound quality of the

music was bad, but vocally she is good,” said Cooper.

Tracy Bell, a junior music major, said, “I thought her performance overall was pretty good, she was good with the crowd.” Bell said Fiona did a good job of reading what the audience wanted to hear from her.

“At the beginning nobody was really familiar with her new songs that were on her CD, but she actually adapted to the situation by bringing out songs that people actually knew and then kind of tweaked her song in there. But overall I thought it was good,” said Bell.

Photo by Kenneth hAwKinS •The A&T RegisTeR

it KillS Me R&B artist Melanie Fiona performs in harrison Auditorium last Wednesday for the “Art and soul” concert presented by the student Union Advisory Board. she performed her hit single “it Kills Me” among others.

MAKAilAh FennellRegister Reporter

‘good Brother Blues’ sparks discussion with ‘Mad at Miles’ author

lAPorShA lowryScene Editor

The Black Eyed Peas con-tinue to tear up the Billboard charts with their catchy dance songs. This song is now exception, with its bass that rocks hard on your speakers and the dance breakdown at the end is tight.

-L.L.

Black eyed peas“imma Be”

preSS playu

Jay-Z feat. alicia keys“empire State of mind”

I’m not from New York, but I did like the song when it was an anthem for actual New Yorkers. However, when everybody started singing that they were from “NEW YORK”, it got old, really quick.

-L.L.

preSS pauSeII

Cleage

march 3, 2010, issue 22

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