november 11, 2010 issue
DESCRIPTION
This is the November 11th, 2010 issue of The Johnsonian, Winthrop University's campus newspaper.TRANSCRIPT
Students can get down and dirty in a course offered at Historic Brattonsville next semester: anthropology 345: fi eldwork in archaeology.
The course is designed to give students practical hands-on experience in completing archaeological surveys and excavations, said Christina Brooks, professor of anthropology and sociology.
This is not the fi rst time the course has been offered, but it is the fi rst time anyone has been allowed to excavate a site at Brattonsville.
Brooks, who will teach the class, and her students will be examining a slave cemetery on
the property.“This is exciting because no one
has been allowed on the site,” Brooks said. “Winthrop students will be the fi rst to explore this unique site.”
Historic Brattonsville is a 775-acre Revolutionary War site, which re-enacts the his-torical context of the the co-lonial day and age through the story of the Bratton family.
The class is just the
CAMPUS NEWS 2-5
OPINION 6-7
HEALTH & SCIENCE 8-9
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 10-11
CULTURE 12-13
SPORTS 14-15
Questions? Contact us [email protected]
Serving Winthrop since 1923
INDEX
Foreign food, films and performances.International Education Week schedule.See Culture, page 9
Volleyball in 4th place with two games to go.See Sports, page 10
THURSDAY November 11, 2010 WINTHROP UNIVERSITY Issue 11
NEWS
NEWS
Winthrop Police use bait bikes to catch thieves.See News, page 4
WHY WAIT TILL THURSDAY? READ MYTJNOW.COM.
Former soccer coach sues Winthrop
The former head soccer coach and founder of the women’s soccer program at Winthrop fi led a sexual discrimination lawsuit against the college and three of its employees last week, according to a fed-eral court fi ling.
Melissa Heinz’s con-tract was not renewed in November 2009, just af-
ter her team lost the Big South Championship to High Point University in a penalty kick shootout.
Heinz alleges her termi-nation was a “retaliatory fi ring” that stemmed from her complaints about “in-equitable treatment of her program,” according to her fi ling.
She is suing Winthrop University, President An-thony DiGiorgio, Athletic Director Tom Hickman and the men’s head soc-cer coach Rich Posipanko for creating an unequal work environment that she claims violates Title IX
federal mandates, accord-ing to the court document.
The decision to sue came after a process of “healing from being hurt and frus-trated,” Heinz said in a phone interview this week.
Winthrop never stated a reason for fi ring Heinz, she said.
Among her complaints fi led in the suit, Heinz al-leges the men’s soccer team has its own practice and game fi elds, while the women’s team prac-
tices inside the track oval. She said her players were housed three to a room in hotels during away games, while only two players from the men’s team had to share a room.
The suit also claims a 27-percent salary dispar-ity between Heinz and her male counterpart, Po-sipanko. Posipanko also benefi ted fi nancially from summer soccer camps housed on campus, a benefi t Heinz claims in
the court fi ling she was not privy to.
“Coach Heinz persis-tently documented her complaints about dispa-rate treatment in letters and e-mails addressing in-adequate budgets, lack of publicity, lack of staffi ng comparable to the men’s teams and the inequities in summer camps,” the offi cial court fi ling states. “Her requests for gender
BY ANNA DOUGLAS
See COACH page 4
Melissa HeinzFormer women’s
soccer coach
DIGGING FOR HISTORY
Students in archaeology class will be first to dig at Historic Brattonsville’s slave cemetery
Students in professor Christina Brooks’ fi eldwork in archaeology class dug at this site in fall 2009. Next semester, students will excavate a slave cemetery at Historic Brattons-ville. Photo courtesy of Christina Brooks.
BY JONATHAN MCFADDEN
NEWS
WU sets aside $6M to renovate Phelps
BY JONATHAN MCFADDEN
Leitner Construction will tackle the job of renovating Phelps Hall in the upcoming months.
After being shut down for almost six months, Phelps will be fi ne-tuned and updated starting late November or ear-ly December, said Walter Har-din, associate vice president for facilities management.
Phelps was shut down to students during the summer so its ventilation and plumbing systems could be renovated.
During that lapse, 32 com-panies attended a pre-bid con-ference to determine which
one would obtain the job of renovating Phelps.
Thirteen of those companies submitted a bid.
Leitner Construction, the same company that construct-ed the DiGiorgio Campus Cen-ter, submitted the lowest bid and was awarded the job.
Phelps’ renovation by Leit-ner Construction is just phase two of the overall renovation plan for the residence hall.
Before Leitner Construc-tion can begin reconstructing Phelps, it must undergo demo-
See PHELPS page 2
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
‘Aparecium Hogwarts!’Roddey turns into magical school
BY JESSICA PICKENS
Students can now be accept-ed into Hogwarts.
Hogwarts in Roddey Apart-ments that is, and sophomore English major Catherine Da-vies is the headmaster of it all.
The Roddey Apartments will be decorated like Hogwarts and students will take classes and interact with different Harry Potter characters while touring Roddey.
“The reason I decided to do
this was because Harry Potter has had such a huge impact on so many people’s lives,” Davies said. “We’ve been involved in it for almost 10 years! Since it’s coming to an end, I feel like it needs a proper sending off.”
On the night of the fi lm’s re-lease, Nov. 19, there will be a Harry Potter quiz at 7:30 p.m. with several Harry Potter re-
See POTTER page 7
HEALTH & SCIENCE
Professor, students use chicken embryo eyes to research sight
Using cells from a chicken embryo eye, one chemistry, two biology students and a profes-sor studied the development of the visual system. Each student worked on a different aspect of the project.
Assistant professor of biology
Eric Birgbauer worked with the students to study how the eye system works and how the sig-nals are sent to the brain to al-low sight.
Photoreceptors detect light and send it to cells in the visual system, Birgbauer said. Reti-nal ganglion cells (RGC) then transmit the messages from the photoreceptors to the brain. The
ganglion cells are neurons in the eye that send out axons dur-ing development that grow and make connections to the brain.
“These axons need to be guid-ed up to the brain and then to the correct position in the brain,” he said.
Several specifi c brain regions process vital information, Birg-bauer said.
“These processing centers need to be connected to each other and in the right order,” he said.
The centers wire themselves, so they have to know how and where to connect in the brain, Birgbauer said. In the visual system in mammals, the fi rst step in brain processing occurs in the LGN and superior col-
liculus. This means the visual input the eye sends to the brain along the axons of the RGC must go to these areas. In order for this to happen, the areas in the brain must be wired right during development so the axons can grow and connect in them.
“If they got wired to the wrong processing center, it would not
BY AMANDA PHIPPS
See EYES page 6
See DIG page 4
THURSDAYNovember 11, 2010
CLAIRE BYUNNews Editor
[email protected] JONATHAN MCFADDEN
Assistant News [email protected]
2
lition and asbestos remov-al by EHG Corporation.
“They [EHG Corpora-tion] have done work on campus before and they do a really good job,” Hardin said.
Leitner Construction will start the renovation process 90 days after EHG Corporation’s start date for demolition.
Actual renovation for Phelps will probably be-gin sometime early in the spring semester, said Cyn-thia Cassens, director for Residence Life.
Once Phelps is re-opened, the 67-year-old residence hall will feature more handicap accessibil-ity and sinks in the actual bedrooms instead of the bathrooms.
Cassens said decisions regarding the gender mix of Phelps once it reopens can’t be determined until almost a year from now.
Winthrop submitted a
proposal to bidders draft-ed almost a year ago. In the proposal, adding a ramp in the lobby and the new sink arrangement were discussed.
Winthrop is currently in the state process of award-ing a bid, which includes a protest period.
During this period, oth-er bidders have the chance to protest the award.
“To do this, they must show cause,” Hardin said.
Causes can range from having improperly li-censed subcontractors to adding or deleting some-thing from the specifica-tions, Hardin said.
“In my 24 years, we have had only a few bid pro-tests,” Hardin said. “They are not the norm, but the protest period is manda-tory.”
Jack Leitner, vice presi-dent of Leitner Con-struction, said there is no reason to believe that companies will find any
causes to protest Leitner Construction’s bid.
Winthrop and Leitner Construction have main-tained a good relation-ship since the 1970s, when Leitner’s father, Max Leit-ner, began doing projects at Winthrop.
Leitner said Winthrop is a good place to work, and it’s fortunate they were able to get the renovation job.
The bid’s cost is within Winthrop’s budget, Har-din said.
Hardin did not reveal the budget amount for renovations, but on Nov. 5, Winthrop’s Board of Trustees passed a $6-mil-lion allowance to finance Phelps’ renovation.
The board is hoping ren-ovations won’t cost more than $5.2 million.
Renovation is expected to be completed in the spring of 2012, and Phelps is anticipated to reopen in fall 2012.
PHELPS • from front
By Monica [email protected]
With the arrival of the new DiGiorgio Campus Center came the report of students claiming they are running out of café cash quickly in it its food court – quicker than when the campus still had Dinkins.
Director of Dining Ser-vices Pam Yorkovic said students are probably spending so much more cash this year than last year because the new food court has a larger array of food stations than Dinkins had.
“Last year, the Dinkins Food Court was away from the main campus, requiring students to cross the street to ac-cess the location,” she said. “Also, Dinkins was a small, outdated facility with limited options and limited seating.”
Sophomore mass communication major Kalene McDonnell said she definitely feels as if café cash is disappearing quicker because she lives in the Courtyard and is required to have a meal plan.
She went with the straight $800 café cash plan and said she is down to $400 now.
“It’s harder than you think to get rid of,” she said. “I have to eat un-healthy more often than I like to.”
Junior exercise science major Kyrsten Fandrich said she does not miss
the old food court be-cause of how convenient the campus center is.
She also said she is not one of the students com-plaining about the sud-den decrease in café cash in their student accounts.
“I feel like my cafe cash is never ending,” she said. “I get $825 per se-mester on the plan I have now, but there weren’t any better deals.”
Fandrich said she thinks students are quickly running out of money because the prices of food on campus are ex-pensive.
“DIGS and the food court in Courtyard are the only places I really go, and I use my café cash there,” she said. “Every-thing is pretty expensive. I buy half a gallon of milk for close to $4.”
Yorkovic said the new food stations in the cam-pus center offer a variety of menu items meant to appeal to students; Zoca Mexican features six va-rieties of fresh salsa.
Topio’s Pizzeria uses fresh-pressed dough and pizza sauce made fresh daily.
Burger Studio bakes homemade buns each morning and has 30 as-sorted toppings to top burgers, along with the signature hand-cut fries.
Fandrich said although the food court offers more food selections than Dinkins did, she misses having Subway and Java City on campus.
“I think there’s more variety in food selection,
though I do miss places such as Subway and that Java City,” she said. “But Einstein and Starbucks are doing a pretty good job so I’m not too upset by it.”
Yorkovic also pointed out that another big dif-ference between the two locations is the hours of operation.
The campus center has extended hours; last year, Dinkins closed at 7 p.m. during the week and was closed on Saturdays.
In the campus center, Markley’s is open Sunday through Thursday nights until 9 p.m. and Star-bucks and Einstein Bros. are open until 11 p.m.
“Locations are also open longer hours on the weekends,” Yorkovic said. “As a result, partici-pation in the retail dining locations has increased over last year.”
McDonnell said the only thing she misses about Dinkins is Subway. Otherwise, she found Dinkins to be uninviting.
“It was just another building I didn’t go in if I didn’t have to,” she said. “The DIGS is open and inviting, and is a cool hang-out spot.”
A new Subway addi-tion at Winthrop is still in question.
“Currently, we are looking at new locations on campus for Subway, but have nothing to con-firm,” Yorkovic said.
Dinkins vs. DIGS Foundation supplies president with $20,000 housing allowanceBy Claire [email protected]
As appropriated in his contract, Presi-dent DiGiorgio will receive an annual $20,000 housing allowance from the Winthrop Foundation.
This past May, the Foundation had it’s thrice-yearly meeting to discuss allocat-ing money for President DiGiorgio’s off-campus housing.
Originally, Winthrop was to pay the off-campus living fund, but due to complicat-ed paperwork the Foundation agreed to pay, said Brien Lewis, executive director of the Foundation.
“Sometimes the Foundation is the ap-propriate vehicle, and sometimes the
university is the appropriate vehicle to pay,” Lewis said. “We take great care to make sure the right entity is paying the right expense.”
In return for paying the president’s ex-penses, the university will pay for certain Foundation mailings, according to the minutes the Foundation supplied.
“I think it really is a balance of trade off,” Lewis said. “Instead of money being put into category X, it’s put in category Y. It’s not additional money; it’s just put in a different category.”
Specifics on the mailings and reasoning why the Foundation is now paying for the expenses could not be answered by press time.
On-campus Subway not ruled out, says WU Dining Services director
Dinkins is closer to Withers. I’m in Withers all day. I don’t like walking over here (DIGS).
Kelly ReedSenior elementary education major
“”I like DIGS. I feel like there’s more to do here and it’s a place where more students seem to come.Quinten AshJunior exercise science major
“”
THURSDAY November 11, 2010 3
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By Norie YoungSpecial to The Johnsonian
Campus Police have the hook, and some criminals are taking the bait.
Bike theft on Winthrop’s cam-pus has become a serious issue, so much so that now the campus is being watched.
Campus Police are currently positioning bike lures on racks around campus to catch thieves. The bait bikes come equipped with a tracking device so author-ities know when they have been moved.
The device works similar to a GPS system and uses satellite positioning. Using this method, the bikes can be followed and hopefully lead to the people tak-ing them. These trackers are the same type of gadget used to track cars; the department cur-rently uses three of them.
In 2009, 20 bikes were stolen while 11 were stolen this year. Four of those 11 were baits. Those baits led to four arrests.
Campus Police have decided to take a more proactive ap-proach to this problem.
“The bikes were put out in the middle of September, and we have already arrested four per-sons stealing bikes,” chief of po-lice Frank Zebedis said. “It ap-pears right now we will reduce bike theft by more than 50 per-cent on campus during the 2010 year.”
Ashley Frances, junior English literature and language major,
went through an inconvenient situation after leaving her bike in front of Bancroft, where it was stolen last year.
“I made the mistake of leaving it there for a week. I really regret doing that,” Frances said. “I had
the advantage of being able to walk places because I lived on campus, and so I planned on just getting my bike later.”
Frances said she never imag-ined her bike would be one of the 20 stolen last year.
She had no car, so losing her only means of transportation made traveling to places off campus a hassle.
It was not revealed whether other Winthrop students or members of the community are
committing the robberies, but Zebedis is hopeful that with this new approach bike theft can be stopped on campus.
New GPS tracking system helps hook bike thefts
In order to reduce the amount of bicycle theft on campus, police installed GPS systems into four unmarked bikes. This year, the tracked bikes have led to four arrests. Photo illustration by Stephanie Eaton • [email protected].
By Claire [email protected]
Combining classroom learning with real-world experience, one student group is taking a school project to a whole new level.
A group of six students, all healthcare majors and minors, were paired together to organize an event for Agape Hospice. The project was meant to entail a pro-posed marketing plan for the healthcare business, but this group took it one step further.
“For the class itself you’re just sup-posed to develop a marketing plan for the event, but we’re fortunate enough to actually get involved,” said Logan Graves, group member.
The event, called Life Blooms Eter-nally, is a memorial for those touched by hospice.
“The event will consist of 500 fl oral umbrellas gracing the land surrounding the Winthrop Lake in honor of Novem-ber being National Hospice Month,” said Lindsay Roddey, group member.
The idea was inpsired by a New York artist who hand-painted umbrellas and placed them in a park to honor the lives lost during the Sept. 11, 2o01 attacks.
“It’s going to be like a fi eld of wild fl ow-ers,” said Ellie O’Brien, group member. “Each umbrella is in memory of someone who died in hopsice.”
All the group members, including Briana Deal, Jillian Ussery and Casha Brimer, have spent two months planning the event, working alongside Agape Hos-pice.
Beckie Cunningham, vice president of sales and advertising of Agape Senior, has helped the students organize the me-morial. A budget of $10,000 was provid-ed by Agape, and the students are aiming to fundraise half that amount.
“This is a really good fundraiser and we’re working really hard on it,” O’Brien said. “We just want to educate people about hospice.”
The group members, who meet twice weekly, are excited about shining a differ-ent light on the concept of hospice care.
“A lot of people think hospice and they
think ‘bad,’ because people are dying,” Brimer said. “But it really instills hope because most hospices do a memorial of the deceased.”
Along with caring for the loved one in life, Roddey said Agape checks on the families of deceased relatives for 15 months after the loved one’s death.
“They really care about the family and friends,” Graves said.
The memorial will take place at Win-
throp Lake Nov. 12-14, and a memorial service will be held that Sunday at 4p.m. Students are encouraged to attend the memorial, and, if wanting to volunteer, students should contact Roddey at [email protected].
“It’s not all about death, it’s about life and how life blooms eternally,” Graves said.
Students serve community through marketing project
Preparing for the weekend-long memorial at Winthrop Lake, the group members ordered 500 fl oral umbrellas. There are 5 different designs, and all will be placed along the lake. Photos by Claire Byun • [email protected].
first phase of a potential part-nership between Winthrop and Historic Brattonsville.
“While the partnership has not officially been formed, the course next semester is the be-ginning of what I hope to be a long relationship with Historic Brattonsville,” Brooks said.
The course will be held on Saturdays at the historic site which is on Cherry Road.
“This Saturday schedule will hopefully allow this course to fit in nicely with students’ sched-ules,” Brooks said.
Senior art history major Sar-
ah Earle said if she has room in her schedule, she may consider taking the class.
Earle, who is currently en-rolled in Brooks’ introduction to archaeology class, said she has an interest in the subject and has considered making an-thropology her minor.
Giving up her Saturdays won’t be a problem, either. The only thing she thinks it would hurt is work on the weekends.
There’s also a more aesthetic appeal.
“I think it’ll be fun to dig around in the dirt,” Earle said.
THURSDAY November 11, 2010 4
DIG • from front
By Jonathan [email protected]
Model United Nations (UN) will celebrate its 35th year an-niversary with a 1976 Security Council and 27 high schools in attendance at its annual conference in March.
Model UN, cross-listed as political science 260, teaches students about current events and assigns them a country to represent as a diplomat.
Each student takes on the role of that country and must act and react as that country’s government would in response to certain situations, such as nuclear war or genocide.
Students are also required to give speeches.
But the class, which fulfills an oral communication degree requirement, is not as intimi-dating as other speech cours-es, said Kayla Barber, junior political science major.
Barber, who took the course her freshman year and repre-sented the U.S., now acts as one of the student coordina-tors who organize the con-ference that more than 300 high school students usually attend.
This year’s conference features 27 registered schools with students representing 65 different countries and will bring in the highest number of high school students who have ever attended a Model UN
conference, Barber said.Not only that, but a high
school from France is consid-ering attending Winthrop’s Model UN Conference, which takes place March 30 - April 1, Barber said.
With such a large number of high school delegates, Model UN is going to need some manpower.
“I myself can’t help 65 coun-tries,” Barber said.
Barber said college students are the real backbone of the conference and are needed to mentor the high school students.
Students interested in taking Model UN have two sections to choose from. One section meets on Mondays and Wednesdays, while another meets on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The class capacity is 65 students.
Some new features to com-memorate 35 years for Model UN include a revamped web-site that gives online speech lessons, rewritten rules of the conference and the 1976 Security Council, which will feature countries no longer in existence, such as the Soviet Union and East Germany.
“It’s going to be big,” Barber said.
The course fulfills the global perspectives and social science degree requirements and fin-ishes in April with no written final exam.
Model UN preps to celebrate 35 years
PETTY LARCENY (HEADPHONES) (10/28/10)
At 7 p.m., a student went to the Winthrop Police Department to report his $300 black-Monster Beats by Dr. Dre headphones were stolen from his book bag.
He said the last time he had the headphones was around 8 p.m. on Oct. 24. He went on to say he noticed they were missing around 7 p.m. on Oct. 27.
He said he usually keeps the headphones in his book bag. He said one time the bag was out of his sight was around 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 26.
He placed the bag in one of the cubbies at the Winthrop Bookstore in the DiGiorgio Cam-pus Center for about 15 minutes.
The bag was also out of his sight during study hall at the Winthrop Coliseum when he left the room to use the restroom.
A reporting officer contacted the manager of the bookstore and asked if there was a camera covering that area, but she said no.
The officer also asked if anyone turned in any headphones. Again, she said no.
This case has been administratively closed due to a lack of leads.
PUBLIC DISORDERLY CONDUCT; POSSES-SION/CONSUMPTION OF BEER UNDER 21 (10/30/10)
At 10:30 p.m., a reporting officer was on assignment at an event in the Student Activity Center when he observed three males getting in and out of a parked blue SUV in the parking lot.
The officer also noticed the males were drinking beer from glass bottles in plain view.
When the officer approached the three, one of the males placed his Budweiser beer bottle
back in the vehicle on the driver side floor-board. Another male began pouring his beer out on the pavement just outside of the driver door. The other male walked behind the vehicle and tried to hide his Budweiser beer bottle under it.
The officer gathered up all the beer bottles, poured out the rest of the beer and threw the bottles in a nearby trash can.
The officer then had the males show their I.D.’s and learned all three of them were under 21.
The officer told them they would be issued a citation for possession of beer by persons under 21 and trespassed from Winthrop. The officer also told them they were prohibited from entering the event.
At this time, one of the males, who is also an employee at Popeye’s, became loud and belligerent toward the officer. The male told the officer he could talk to him any way he wanted and could not be prevented from at-tending the event.
At this point, the male was arrested and transported to Rock Hill City Jail.
The other two males were cited and re-leased. In addition, they were trespassed from Winthrop’s campus.
The arrested male was not trespassed from Winthrop due to his employment at Popeye’s, but was referred to his supervisor.
INTIMIDATION OF WITNESS (10/30/10)
At 9:38 p.m., a reporting officer was sent to Walgreen’s to meet with a student in regard to an unknown male, believed to be a stu-dent, who communicated a threat to her.
When the officer arrived, he met with the student in the pharmacy section. The student said she was walking to meet her friend in front of Richardson when she saw two males with another male, presumed to be a student.
The male who was thought to be a student said to the female student’s friend, “I’m going to punch your friend in the face because she set my friends up.”
The student said she encouraged her friend to leave and not talk to the students, but that is when she said the angry male said, “I’ll punch you in the face too.”
The student said she and her friend thought the comment was directed toward another friend of theirs who had filed an earlier report with Campus Police.
The student was asked if she could identify the angry male by a photo, but she said she would prefer not.
She only filed the report because that is what she had been instructed to do.
The officer said a report would be made in regard to the incident and a follow-up call
would be made to the student.The student said she did not want to press
charges.
Compiled by Jonathan McFadden
Unlike Weezy, these culprits got off easy.
www.mytjnow.com/police-blotter
POLICE BLOTTER
Students put their knowledge to the test as they bore into the ground, practice for next semes-ter’s anthropology course. The class will be held Satur-days in historic Brattonsville. Photo courtesy of Christina Brooks.
equity were ignored or rejected by Winthrop, Dr. DiGiorgio, and A.D. Hickman.”
Smith replaces Heinz
Winthrop athletics hired for-mer Radford University coach Spencer Smith to replace Heinz in February 2010.
Heinz claims in the suit that her successor has an inferior re-cord to hers, has never coached women’s soccer and is getting paid more than she did while at Winthrop.
Smith spent 16 years at Rad-ford as head coach of the men’s soccer team. During that time, he was named Big South Coach of the Year in 1994 and 1998. His program earned one Big South Championship win and appeared in the NCAA College Cup twice.
While at Winthrop, Heinz re-ceived Big South Coach of the Year in 2006 and NCAA Na-tional Division One Coach of the Year for new soccer programs in 2003. Winthrop also won a Big South Regular Season Champi-onship under Heinz in 2006 and appeared in the championship game in 2009.
The coach was not aware of the unequal environment in the athletics department before she came to Winthrop, she said.
Because she was starting a new program, she said she knew the team would have to prove it-self in order to gain more schol-arships and more attention.
“Maybe I was naive (then),” she said. “But I didn’t start pay-ing attention to it until time went on.”
Student-athletes in the pro-
gram were largely unaware of the disparities, Heinz said, be-cause as a coach she didn’t want to put that stress on her team.
Heinz said her termination from coaching at Winthrop has resulted in her inability to land another Division One coaching job.
She is currently head coach at Valdosta State University in Georgia. She was hired by the Division II Gulf South Confer-ence school to begin a women’s soccer team in January 2010.
Proud of 2010 season
The women’s soccer team earned six All-Conference awards this year and the new coach Smith was named Big South Coach of the Year.
Heinz said she is proud of the team.
“Nothing to take from (Smith), but he didn’t bring in any players of his own,” she said.
She said that while at Win-throp, she prepared for the suc-cessful season Winthrop is now enjoying by bringing in good re-cruits and only graduating one starting senior.
Officials from the Big South Conference did not comment di-rectly on Heinz’s suit, but said, “The Big South Conference does discuss Title IX and Gender Equity issues with its member-ship, however, specific plans for compliance vary from campus to campus and is an institutional issue.”
Winthrop released a state-ment on the lawsuit, saying, “As of Monday afternoon, Winthrop officials have not yet received a copy of the lawsuit, so it would not be appropriate to comment based on third-party descrip-
tions. In general, athletic pro-gram decisions at Winthrop are always made in the best interest of our student-athletes and the individual sports program in-volved, and any allegation to the contrary will be demonstrated to be without merit in the appro-priate venue.”
Of the 10 colleges in the Big South Conference, the majority of schools have less than five fe-male head coaches in their ath-letic departments. Every school in the conference except for UNC-Asheville has a male ath-letic director.
• Winthrop employs two fe-male athletic head coaches cur-rently for volleyball and golf, and one female coach for the spirit squad.
•High Point has a female golf and lacrosse coach.
•Charleston Southern employs four female athletic head coach-es for basketball, cross country/track, golf and volleyball.
•Presbyterian College’s la-crosse team is led by a female head coach.
•Gardner-Webb has a female volleyball head coach.
•Coastal Carolina employs five female head coaches for golf, soccer, softball, tennis and vol-leyball.
•Liberty has a female lacrosse and soccer head coach.
•Radford employs one female head coach for volleyball.
•UNC-Asheville employs five female head coaches in basket-ball, soccer, cheer squad, volley-ball and tennis.
• Virginia Military Institute has a female water polo head coach.
Information obtained from each respective university’s website.
COACH • from front
WU students dig partnership with historic site
Letter to the editor
Where is the respect?As a student who is
finishing out his 11th se-mester at Winthrop (don’t worry folks, graduated in 4 years,
another semester and I will have a masters) I find myself becoming frustrat-ed with those who don’t respect
our community. I proudly view Winthrop as my home. Yes, home. If that’ s not school spirit, I’m not sure what is!
But, my issue comes with the respect that is given on this campus. Walking home from class this evening I watched a car drive the wrong direction down a one-way street. I gave the driver a strange look, then walked up to the window and politely asked if she knew she was going the wrong
way.She abruptly told me
she “ knew that,” and she was just picking someone up. Then, she rolled her window back up. I walked away stunned. Besides the $237.50 ticket she could have earned (Likely SC Code of Laws 56-5-950), she disrespected our com-munity. Why would some-one blatantly disregard simple rules(and state laws)? This can be applied back to illegal parking, throwing cigarette butts on the ground, and talking back to people.
How would you feel if I went to your house and parked on the lawn? Or, maybe I decided to park in your driveway while I visited another friend. You would likely be upset that I was disrespecting your house.
Or, maybe I was done with my fast food meal
and just dropped the wrapper on your lawn. You wouldn’t care right?
Think about it when you are on Winthrop’ s campus. This is our home. What impressions are you leaving on others and what positive mark are you making with the campus community? Help be that positive change, and have pride in your campus.
Evan RussoGraduate student seeking Mastersbusiness administation
Letters to the editor are accepted at any time
from students, faculty and staff and commu-nity members. Please send your thoughts or comments to editors@
thejohnsonian.com.
THURSDAYNovember 11, 2010
CONNOR DE BRULEROpinion Editor
Our Say
About The Johnsonian
The Johnsonian is the weekly student newspaper of Winthrop University. It is published during fall and spring semesters with the exception of university holidays and exam periods.
EditorANNA DOUGLAS
Managing editorTIFFANY BARKLEY
News editorCLAIRE BYUN
Assistant news editorJONATHAN MCFADDEN
Opinion editorCONNOR DE BRULER
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Health & science editorAMANDA PHIPPS
Arts & entertainment editorJESSICA PICKENS
Assistant arts &entertainment editorALISON ANGEL
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My youth minister was murdered the day before Valentine’s Day.
I found out the next day that my great friend, Missy Wylie, was killed by her abu-sive husband, while her 8-year-old son, Pearson witnessed it all.
I was distraught. Missy was simply a wonderful
woman, in every way. As my mentor and friend, she created an insepa-rable link between my family, my church, my thoughts and myself. Whenever I needed to sit down and get some things off of my chest, I had Missy. She made herself available to anyone who needed a kind word or a helping hand. The memories I have of her will last a lifetime. Melissa Wylie was the youth minister at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, in Clem-son, S.C.
I also thought a lot about the hus-band, who was arrested and taken to jail shortly after the shooting. What could cause a man to kill a woman he had once called his love? Where does domestic violence come from?
To me, it seems like the abuser has a of lack of control in the relation-ship.
When that man pulled the trigger, he convinced himself that by shoot-ing his wife in the right shoulder, he was gaining his manhood back, getting what he rightfully deserved: power. Missy had always done things on her own in their marriage, going
out to church alone, organizing mission trips and charity events with my youth group, while her husband stayed home.
He felt threatened in the re-lationship, like many men with successful female partners do. Honestly, I think he probably didn’t want to kill her. He just wanted to put her back in her place. The thought of his wife
being better known, better respected, and more loved, scared him.
The balance of power in a relation-ship is a precarious one, teetering on the edge a knife-edge. What he saw was the balance being tipped out of his control. In the end, he couldn’t even control his own fate. Missy’s husband was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole.
There is a deep-seated sense of power over women still lingering among modern males. As a man, I feel no one should feel a sense of su-periority over his or her partner, no matter the situation. On Valentine’s Day, we are supposed to recognize the love felt within ourselves, but I found no trace of love from Missy’s husband to her.
Guys, you have to respect women as equally as you would anyone else. It seems like a no brainer, but some men still aren’t doing it.
What we all need is a chance to realize the importance of love in relationships we cherish, because you never know when they might be gone.
David ThackhamGuest columnist
“I can’t go on. I’ll go on.”-Samuel Beckett
We live in a pass or fail society. From an early age we are taught by our parents and in school to do our best to achieve success. Well success takes on many forms for different people. Success is never de-fined to us when we are children, and we commonly mistake it for material wealth or fame. The media propagates this misconception. The problem, how-ever, is not our obssession with success but our beliefs on how it is achieved. We believe in the one chance, the di-vine moment: all of our success will be won in a singular instance of glory. In our society, one is a success or a failure. This notion is excrement. Television shows like “American Idol” and “The X Factor” are good examples. Besides the fact that these contest programs are genuine drivel, they are teaching viewers several nega-tive and dangerous messages. 1) Your success will be determined by one mo-ment in your life. 2) Your fate is in the hands of someone else’s judgment. In every episode, people line up in front of three high-profile individuals and sing. It’s not always good, but it’s not always bad. The contestants typi-cally cry when the all-too-inevitable rejections are given, and young viewers are taught that, if they are not amazing at singing, there is no hope for a career in music. Every singer I regularly listen to probably couldn’t get past the first round on any talent show. Eminem’s hit single for the “8-Mile”
soundtrack perpetuated the same idea: “You got one shot/ do not miss your chance or blow/ cuz op-portunity comes once in a lifetime.” The idea has permeated our modern slang. When someone trips or makes a mistake, a harsh “FAIL!” or “EPIC FAIL!” will fol-low. Grading systems in school are no better. For the purpose of ranking
school effectiveness, we have created a system that breaks children’s spirits and creates an aversion to learning. I was often penalized for not under-standing or asking too many questions in grade school. I will never forgive my elementary teachers for how I was treated. I was a broken man at 10 years old. Intelligence cannot be ranked. This goes back to Alfred Binet’s first IQ test: a miserable system primarily used to exclude ethnic minorities from jobs in the early 20th century. In order to succeed we must fail a few times. We need to think beyond success and failure. Life is a constant struggle. It is unending pain. We will all suffer con-stantly until our deaths. There is no divine moment of grace. Persistence is the only maxim worth learning in this life. Our society should be teaching people to keep trying. There will be many opportunities in life. Everything keeps moving forward. It is a stream, not a mountain. There can be no peak, no climax of success or achievement. It is a constant flow of events. Sometimes they’ll be good and other times quite negative. The only true way to be a failure in life is to give up.
Connor de Bruler Opinion editor
Society loves failure Friend’s domestic violenceexperience impacts student
Illustration by Courtney Niskala •[email protected]
The spirit of openness and transpar-ency is alive and well at Winthrop this week.
In October, The Johnsonian sent a Freedom of Information Act Request to the president’s office inquiring about the cost of the DiGiorgio Campus Center dedication ceremony.
This week, Winthrop responded by providing us with invoices and other financial documents related to the cer-emony.
Winthrop spent a total of $13,325.12 for the two-day celebration, according to documents provided by the president’s office.
As stated in an earlier editorial, “The Johnsonian’s aim in requesting this particular financial information is not to uncover or expose any wrongdoing by the university.
We requested this information because the ceremony took place in a public uni-versity’s building to honor the current
leader of a state agency.”In an effort to give credit where credit
is due, The Johnsonian thanks Winthrop and those staff members involved in pre-paring the response to our request.
Next week, we will run a full news story with more details about the expen-ditures and funding sources.
We will also include a comparison of the expenditures to the cost of a similar dedication ceremony for the West Center in 2007, based on information volun-
tarily provided by the university.We’re appreciative of Winthrop ad-
ministrators for allowing conversation to take place on this matter.
The finest educational institutions pride themselves on empowering a com-munity of students and faculty to speak their minds and make decisions for themselves while consistently providing forums and information for those things to take place.
Kudos to you, Winthrop.
WU reveals ceremony cost after TJ request
work,” he said. “I am interested in learning how these correct connections are formed.”
Axons have “growth cones,” which are motile structures at the tip of the axon that sense the brain environment they are growing through and lead the axon to the right place, Birgbau-er said. The growth cones read the molecules in the brain en-vironment and determine if the axon should connect there, grow further or avoid that region and grow somewhere else.
“They act as the leaders of the axon,” he said.
Specifically, Birgbauer and the students are looking at what molecular signals are involved in guiding the axons to the brain. They are looking at the LPA (ly-sophospholipid acid) and S1P (sphingosine-1-phosphate) mol-ecules to see if they are involved in this process.
“We suspect LPA and S1P might be involved as molecules in the brain that may guide ax-ons away from the wrong plac-es,” Birgbauer said. “They may also be involved in an injury response to prevent axons from growing if there is an injury.”
Birgbauer and the students are currently working with four receptor types of the axon used to detect LPA in the brain envi-ronment to see which one may be important to the develop-ment of the visual system.
“In experiments in the cul-ture dish, when we add LPA, the growth cones of the retinal ganglion cell axons collapse and stop growing, at least temporar-ily,” he said.
This process may be able to guide the axons because if the axons grew to an area they didn’t normally grow that secreted LPA, they would collapse and avoid that region, going instead to the region they should grow, Birgbauer said. He compared this to the LPA molecule “smell-ing bad” to the axons, which they would then avoid.
The brain guides the axons us-ing inhibitory molecules, which it places in regions the axon should not grow and uses mole-cules that attract the axons in re-gions they should grow, he said.
“What each axon detects and what it “smells like” depends on the receptors on the growth cone
and how the cell interprets the signals from these receptors,” he said.
Different students are cur-rently involved with the project and have been involved in the past.
Pathways Involved
Students previously estab-lished that LPA and S1P are in-volved in axon guidance. One of these students was senior chem-istry and biology double-major Canaan Whiteneck, who worked with Birgbauer from the sum-mer of 2008 to fall 2010.
Whiteneck worked with the LPA and S1P receptors to under-stand the signaling that occurs inside the cell that mediates the LPA/S1P induced growth cone collapse.
He used inhibitors to block the receptors and saw if blocking them caused growth cone col-lapse. Through his work, he dis-covered that both LPA and S1P were involved in this process.
S1P was originally going to be used as the control because it does not cause growth cone collapse in mice, Whiteneck said. However, when tested with chicken embryo RGC, it did cause growth cone collapse.
“It was not expected,” he said. After he saw S1P had an ef-
fect, Whiteneck began to work on understanding if it had a similar effect that LPA does. He confirmed S1P did cause growth cone collapse, which is the effect LPA has in the chicken embryo retina.
Junior chemistry major Jarod Fincher confirmed Whiteneck’s data this year and is currently working on discovering the pathways LPA and S1P activate.
The axon guidance molecules guide the RGC to grow from the retina of the eye to form the op-tic nerve, according to chemistry major Jarod Fincher’s lab re-port.
Fincher worked on under-standing which molecules are involved in axon guidance. The molecules LAP and S1P have been determined to cause growth cone collapse in the chicken embryo, according to the report.
Fincher’s report states: “These molecules LPA and S1P bind to G-protein coupled receptors which activate one of four pos-
sible intracellular path-ways that, when activated, can lead to growth cone collapse.” He is currently working with the mol-ecules to determine which of the four pathways they use.
Fincher does this by inhibiting one of the G-protein coupled receptor pathways that LPA and S1P activate.
He used the Gi pathway inhibitor Pertussis Toxin (PTX) and the G12/13 pathway inhibitor “Rock” to block two of the possible GPCR pathways that LPA and S1P use, he said.
“The results indicated that the Rock inhibitor prevented growth cone col-lapse in LPA, but remains incon-clusive with S1P,” Fincher said. “There is also data that suggest LPA uses the Gi pathway from the PTX studies. More studies are being done with the PTX in-hibitor to gain more conclusive results.”
These results can help explain which pathways are important in the guidance of axons, Finch-er said.
“If the pathway is inhibited and there is no growth cone col-lapse, we know the molecules use that pathway,” he said.
The future may consist of more possible inhibitor studies, Fincher said.
“After we have enough data on those, we can look at other in-hibitors and get more inclusive results,” he said.
Fincher heard about Birgbau-er’s biomedical research experi-ence through the biomedical di-rector Kim Wilson, who helped him get into the lab.
“I was amazed at how aca-demically successful he was, and I just couldn’t think of a greater opportunity ” he said. “To have the opportunity to work with someone who has achieved what Dr. Birgbauer has is an honor.”
Whiteneck said he enjoyed his experience when he worked in Birgbauer’s lab.
“Undergraduate research is amazing,” he said. “It gives you an edge (for graduate school.)”
Virus construction
To test the role LPA receptors play in axon guidance, biology
major Josh Owens worked on constructing a virus that will knock out the LPA. There are five types of LPA receptors the LPA chemical binds to, he said. These are involved in the visual system. Owens is working with the LPA4 receptor.
The virus siRNA infects em-bryonic chicken retinas, but is harmless to humans, he said. Viruses work by modifying the genetic sequence of what it is attacking. His goal is to modify the virus so it will knock out the LPA4, a process known as “gene knockout.”
“We are making (the virus) do what we want it to do,” Owens said.
He has not modified the vi-rus yet, but once it is complet-ed, Owens will place it into the chicken embryo retina and study the affects, he said. This will help them determine the role LPA4 plays in axon guidance.
“If LPA4 is knocked out and something goes wrong (in the retina), we know the LPA was important for axon guidance,” he said. “A number of things could happen when it is knocked out.”
Owens said he will keep work-ing with it until the virus is mod-ified.
“There is a reason it is called research instead of just search,” he said. “We will know some-thing when we do the experi-ment, which makes it worth do-ing.”
Each student worked on dif-ferent aspects of the same proj-ect, Owens said. Eventually they will need to be finished with
their part before the project can continue.
“Right now it looks as if we will all be finished at the same time,” he said. “That is when the cool stuff will happen.”
The Purpose
Once each aspect of the proj-ect is completed, it will be tested in the chicken embryo, Birgbau-er said.
“(The research) is more com-plicated in the embryo, but it is more real,” he said.
LPA occurs in high concentra-tion around injuries, Birgbauer said. The hope is that under-standing axon guidance can help scientists use this knowledge for therapeutic processes.
If the inhibitors were removed, injured retinal cells may be able to regenerate nerves.
“If the optic nerve is damaged, it is permanent,” he said, “but if we could induce regeneration of this nerve and reconnection to the right place in the brain, we could restore sight for people with this injury.”
Other scientists have been re-searching this.
“There are many things going on that show some promise,” Birgbauer said.
The hope is that the receptor for LPA may become a drugga-ble target, he said.
“We would have to validate that it is worth making a drug against,” Birgbauer said. “There is a way to go before it can be therapeutic for patients.”
THURSDAYNovember 11, 2010
AMANDA PHIPPSHealth & Science Editor
By Amanda [email protected]
Wearing coats and gloves, Win-throp students filled trash bags with bits of waste along a portion of Mt. Gallant.
SOAR, Serving Others and Re-flecting, and SEAC, Student En-vironmental Action Coalition, adopted two miles of Mt. Gallant through the “Adopt-A-Highway” center in York County, environ-mental division leader for SOAR and SEAC member Sydney Smith said. Smith is a junior internation-al business and finance major with a minor in environmental studies.
Two SEAC members and three SOAR members joined together to clean the highway on Saturday Nov. 6 from 9:30 a.m. to noon, student director for SOAR Amber Jackson said.
Smith said the group got in-volved to have a project nearby.
“We wanted a local project that would make a visible impact,” she said.
Smith called the Adopt-A-High-way center and signed up SEAC and SOAR to adopt a portion of a highway.
She said any group can be in-volved as long as it does four clean-ups a year.
SOAR has been adopting high-
ways as part of the group’s envi-ronment division since the group’s inception, Jackson said.
SOAR and SEAC adopted the portion of Mt. Gallant last fall, Smith said.
After they accomplished four clean-ups, the green Adopt-A-Highway signs were put up on the road.
“They read: Winthrop SEAC and Winthrop SOAR, Smith said.
To meet the four clean-ups nec-essary a year, SEAC and SOAR do two clean-ups a semester, she said.
Smith said this is a rewarding experience.
“You can instantly see a differ-ence,” she said. “The roadways look so much better, plus we col-lect tons of recycled materials.”
Jackson said it is a growing ex-perience.
“It makes you get outside of your comfort zone,” she said. “It allows you to appreciate your environ-ment.”
Smith also said it is a learning experience.
“Despite the fact you are picking up nasty beer bottles and candy wrappers, it is always a fun event to participate in,” she said. “It real-ly opens your eyes to how disgust-ing our planet gets when people don’t clean up after themselves.”
Professor, students study visual system
Eric Birgbauer looks at the retinas of chicken embryos to study axon guidance. Photo by Kathleen Brown • [email protected]
EYES• from front
Winthrop SEAC and SOAR adopted two miles of Mt. Gallant through the “Adopt-a-Highway” program last fall. Photo by Kathleen Brown • [email protected]
Winthrop organization members adopt highway
Joining the community:
lated prizes.“The grand prize is a Harry Potter
Snuggie,” Davies said.So far, 70 students have requested an
“acceptance letter” for the event, and almost all of the Harry Potter character roles have been filled.
Students requested acceptance letters by e-mailing Davies. Letters were mailed to students on Nov. 10.
Davies’ roommate Amy Moore said they have sent the most acceptance letters to
commuter students.“One of our commuters
12 year old son is having his birthday on the same day,” said Moore, sophomore bi-ology major. “She wanted to know if he could come to the event to celebrate his birth-day.”
Currently, Davies is in the process of looking for “Pre-fects” or tour guides.
Davies has never celebrat-ed a Harry Potter release as large-scale as this time.
“The regular agenda for Harry Potter premieres is to stay up until midnight, see the movies decked out in Harry Potter merchandize, and then repeat four or five more times,” Davies said.
Davies became a Potter fan when she was 10 years old when she read the first book.
“Being British, I’ve been im-mersed in it since it started,” she said. “I’ve been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida. I’ve loved it for basically half my life.”
The Harry Potter event will take place
from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 19, in Roddey Apartments.
During the celebration classes, on Po-tions, Divination, Transfiguration and Charms will be taught, and students will meet the book characters.
The seventh Harry Potter film, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” premieres on Friday, Nov. 19.
“It’s an event many will enjoy, and that I’m enjoying bringing to life,” Davies said.
THURSDAYNovember 11, 2010
JESSICA PICKENSArts & Entertainment [email protected]
ALISON ANGELAsst. Arts & Entertainment Editor
7
Roddey transforms into Hogwarts for movie release
By Jessica [email protected]
Terpsichore is the Greek goddess of dance. It is also a club on campus.
The Terpsichore club originated in 2003 but has been inactive for a couple of years, said junior dance major Megan Friend.
“The last time it (the club) was regis-tered on campus was in 2003. The group met sporadically during Fall 2008 during my freshman year, but it fizzled out and went completely inactive,” Friend said. “One of the dance department professors approached me the end of last spring and asked me to try to lead the organization and bring it back to campus.”
The club is for students who are dance majors or simply like to dance.
“The Greek origin of the word Terpsi-chore, joy of dancing, guides the organi-zation’s purpose,” she said. “Terpsichore is a channel for students delight in the art of dance, providing them with the oppor-tunity to seek fellowship with like-mind-ed peers and giving them a creative outlet for expression through dance.”
Terpsichore is open to all majors, not just dance majors, Friend said.
“It is not exclusive to dance majors or to people who know how to dance; they
just need to appreciate it,” she said.Throughout this semester, Friend has
been rebuilding the Terpsichore club and planing events.
Some upcoming Terpsichore events in-clude:
· Nov. 9 and 11: “Flashmob” style of improvisational performance in different locations across campus during Common Time. These performances will have 3-5 dancers moving in stretchy lyrica body bags.
· Nov. 20: Dance convention for kids from the Blackmon Road community to come and enjoy. Terpsichore members and dance majors of every classification will work on warm-ups and combinations with the kids in the dance genres of jazz, modern, and hip hop.
·December: Possibly go to see the upcoming ballet-centered movie “Black Swan.”
Currently the club has 17 members and meets on Mondays from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in Johnson lobby.
“We are students who love dance, who are excited about promoting dance to the world around us and who use our love of dance to help other people.”
Greek muse guides dance lovers, club
Get in on the act
Write for Arts and Entertainment
E-mail us at [email protected] or [email protected].
Harry Potter fans can dress up as their favorites, win Snuggie, prizes with trivia
POTTER • from front
Sophomore English major Catherine Davies and her roommate Amy Moore, sophomore biol-ogy major, decorate posters in Roddey Apartments to celebrate the release of Harry Potter. Photo by Paul Ricciardi •[email protected]
WANT TO GO?
What: Harry Potter trivia
Where: Roddey
Apartments
When: Nov. 19
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Other: Winner wins a Harry
Potter Snuggie
THURSDAY November 11, 2010 8
Upcoming on-campus films:
Saturday, Nov. 13: “The Other Guys”- Disgraced New York City police detectives take on a high-profile case.
Wednesday, Nov. 17: “The Tilman Story”- Docu-mentary about football player and soldier Pat Tilman.
Sad music soothes soulI have one really terrible
habit: I love depressing music.
Don’t get me wrong, I can’t get enough of those happy upbeat tunes like MGMT and Shakira that keep us all going.
But sometimes it’s time to tear the wallpaper down light a few candles and bask in the sadness and self-pity in which so many artists live.
There are a select group of artists I’d like to point out whose work I find to be the saddest-without getting cheesy.
The first band I’d like to write about will make you feel so low they actually call themselves “Low.”
The group is comprised of a husband and wife duo from the gray skys and frostbitten nights of Duluth, Minn.
Both of them are devout Mormons and home school their children to make their touring easier.
They sound like a wholesome group of people until you actually listen to their music. With songs like “Whore,” “In the Drugs” and “You May Need a Murderer,” “Low” is one of the most negative, downbeat groups I have ever listened to.
Another downer to listen to is the ever-elusive solo artist Smog.
His subject matter ranges from tap-ping his girlfriend’s phone to drowning butterflies in a bottle of wine.
The music itself creates the illusion of a soothing mellow mood with angelic acoustic guitar and ethereal back-ground voices.
But nothing can soften the severity of his bitter tormented lyrics: “I hope you don’t mind if I touch your private life, slap it on the table and split it with a knife.”
Johnny Cash produced some tre-mendously dark songs at the end of his career, none of which are as intense as his version of “I See a Darkness” by Bonnie Prince Billy.
The song melodically ruminates on the pressing issue of homosexual marriage in the United States and the
consequences of unrealized love. Billie Holiday does a wonderful
cover of the Hungarian hit single, “Gloomy Sunday.”
The song “9-crimes” by Damien Rice takes the cake as far as dark music goes.
There’s nothing to say that the song can’t say for itself. Just re-member to bring an understand-ing friend and a box of tissues if you choose to listen.
There is only one song, however, that could ever break man: the anti-Iraq war ballad “All Systems Red” by Calexico.
I haven’t met anyone who didn’t burst into tears listening to it. One line says, “And the words forming barely have a voice. It’s just your heart that’s breaking without choice.”
People have burst into hysterical cry-ing fits at concerts because of this song.
Remember not to wallow too much in the negativity. Listening to this music too often can change your outlook on the world around you.
Happy music, however, can feel unreal and pointless. Sometimes sad music can be more intellectually stimu-lating. It’s more pensive, cerebral and self-aware.
Keeping a balance is the key.
Connor de BrulerOpinion editor
His subject matter ranges from tapping his girlfriend’s phone to drowning butterflies in a bottle of wine.
“”
Band rocks homecomingA Winthrop favorite will
be returning Nov. 12 with a free concert to rock Home-coming.
The Lloyd Dobler Ef-fect hails from the streets of Washington D.C., and brings a fusion of rock and latin beats unlike any other.
The band has been to-gether for over eight years and has toured mainly the college circuit for the majority of that time.
The four-piece group has released a recent CD called “A Mute Reminder” which showcases its unique sound in 12 tracks.
The first single from the CD, called “Meet Me in London,” is ar-guably one of the best of the new tracks.
With a great guitar riff and a solid beat, the song’s catchiness cannot be denied by even the least enthusiastic of music lovers.
“Might be Love” is a favorite off their self-titled album.
The band manages to take even the most complicated subject matter and transform it into three minutes of the catchiest tunes you’ll ever want to blast in your car with the windows down.
Even the more serious songs the Lloyd Dobler Effect offers are filled with smooth beats that are almost reminiscent of jazz in the way they flow steadily.
“Fingertips” is one of the slower songs on the new al-bum, but even it is filled with solid guitar riffs.
The smoothness of singer Phil Kominski’s voice as he tells you he’s lost feeling is enough to make you forget the song’s true message.
If you liked the steady pop-rock of the 1990s, you’ll love the Lloyd Dobler Effect.
The band sounds like Matchbox Twenty at times on the new album and can play an amazing live show guaranteed to get you moving, thanks to
their trademark catchy melodies. “A Mute Reminder” is a great CD
that will translate to a great live show you can dance to.
You can check out the band at this year’s homecoming party as they per-form tracks off their new album.
The homecoming party is at 9 p.m. on Friday, Nov.12 in the DiGiorgio Banquet Hall.
It’s free, so be sure to come check out a band that will surprise you!
Alison AngelAssistant Arts and
Entertainmenteditor
CROSSWURD PUZZLE
Across4. Last name of assistant arts and entertainment editor.5. School ranked number four in Volleyball.7. Last name of Winthrop’s police chief.10. Location where Winthrop’s new spring course Fieldwork in Archeology will be held.
Down1. Name of Winthrop residence hall currently closed for construction.2. Name of building on campus where the Winthrop International Center has been moved.3. Name of Winthrop club that is named after the Greek goddess of dance.6. Name of the residence hall that is turning into Hogwarts for the movie release.8. Campus organization helping with adopt a highway program. (acronym)9. Technology used on Winthrop’s campus to make reading easier for visu-ally impaired. (acronym)
Barbie shapes youthShe was a fashion icon;
everyone wanted to be her and all the guys loved her.
No, I’m not talking about Heidi Klum, Lady Gaga or Marilyn Monroe.
Barbie is the young lady I’m referring to.
From 1959 until the late 1990s, Barbie ruled the realm of girl’s toys. The commercials were fun, colorful and had catchy little ditties to describe the doll and her abilities.
From Rappin’ Rockin’ Barbie to Talking Barbie, Mattel covered the bases of talents and careers.
Between my two older sisters and I, my fam-ily easily owns over 200 Barbies.
Pink heaven
My reminiscing of child-hood toys began last week when, on a whim, I started to watch 1980s and 1990s Barbie commercials.
I had a good chuckle over most and smiled as I remembered the ones I owned.
Every birthday or Christmas, my family would travel to that toy castle known as Toys ‘R Us and walk down the magical pink aisle.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Toys ‘R Us had two or three aisles dedicated to Barbies, with a special glass case for the collec-tors Barbies like “Titanic” Barbie or Eliza Doolittle Barbie from “My Fair Lady.”
Now you are lucky if you can find half an aisle at Wal-Mart or Toys ‘R Us with whatever they are passing off as Barbies.
From the time I was three years old until fifth grade, I played Barbies. When I was younger, my sisters Erin and Andrea and I made up elaborate story lines such as a flood or tornado that ravaged our Barbie town.
Once our Barbies even had a costume contest and
mine won, wrapped in toi-let paper to be a mummy.
Sun Sensation fun
All three of us had Sun Sensation Barbie (in-troduced in 1992) and we pretended they were triplets. Our names were Penny, Jenny and Minnie; I of course got stuck with the dumb name Minnie since I was the youngest.
I remember those magi-cal days of playing Barbies with my sisters in Dothan, AL like they were yester-day.
Being jealous of Erin’s Peaches and Cream Bar-bie and Andrea’s Califor-nia Dreams Barbie and making up silly romance stories.
Now I look at the Barbies in the stores and on TV and wonder what happened.
I remember in the late 1990s , Mattel wanted to change Barbie’s look to be more realistic and more like a real woman. But the Barbies I see today aren’t realis-tic or attractive.
Bad makeover
They look anorexic, flat-chested and have big heads. Kate Moss isn’t what I call a real woman and she seems to be the guide for today’s Barbie doll.
I remem-ber the last few Barbies I asked for
as gifts. I know part of my disinterest was that I was getting older but part of it was that Barbie was becoming ugly and unimaginative.
The Barbies of the 1980s and 1990s had cool features, such as Hollywood Hair Barbie where you sprayed a clear substance on her hair and it turned pink. Or Bath Time Fun Barbie where you sprayed brightly col-ored foams on her bathing suit in the shape of differ-ent outfits.
Now the Barbies I see all wear little black dresses or other trendy fashions of today and are just supposed to be Paris models.
Maybe little girls of to-day have changed, but the ones I babysit still enjoy watching mermaid fins change color in water and cutting and styling hair.
I hope one day the little girls of today can experience the same joy I had growing up with my beloved dolls.
I only wish I could go back to being six years old when my biggest problem was what Barbie should wear on her dream date.
Jessica PickensArts and
Entertainment editor
WANT TO GO?
What: Lloyd Dobler
Effect
Where: DiGiorgio
Banquet Hall
When: Friday, Nov. 12
Time: 9 p.m.
THURSDAYNovember 11, 2010
ALEXIS AUSTINCulture Editor
International Center moves to Dinkins
By Alexis [email protected]
The ghost of Tillman will no longer haunt the International Center.
During the first week of October, the International Center, along with the other programs of University College, moved to Dinkins. Previously, Dinkins served as the student center, and University College programs were spread throughout various buildings on campus.
“There are some benefits to moving to Dinkins,” the director of the International Center Angie Edwards said. “It’s nice to have a building as University College. I get to see the dean more often,
we can refer students to Dr. Disney in the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards, there is classroom space and more student traffic than in Tillman.”
Administrative specialist for the International Center Virginia Tawse said the new location is also beneficial to students.
“It’s great for students. We have a close proximity to classes. It’s not as intimidating as Tillman and it’s more inviting to students,” she said.
The International Center, once in Tillman 206, is now in Dinkins 218.
Those who work in the office are responsible for recruiting international students, helping them get acclimated at the university and providing
resources for students interested in studying abroad.
While the space may seem smaller to those who are used to the Tillman office, it’s actually the opposite.
“The total square footage is not smaller,” Edwards said. “It’s just laid out differently.”
The International Center spans across eight offices. These include the main reception area, resource room, conference room and five offices. Each professional has his or her own office. The reception area also has computer kiosks and a flat-screen TV.
“It’s different,” assistant director of the International Center Lindsey Hill said. “It’s not bad to re-learn space. The
parking is amazing, but I do miss the flow of office space.”
The professional offices are no longer next to each other, and the workspace graduate assistants used is now divided.
Since being at Winthrop, the International Center was also in the Cerra House and temporarily in various offices in Tillman. Hopefully, this is the last move for the International Center Edwards said.
“It would be nice to be on the other side of Oakland Avenue, but I don’t like moving, and we’re fortunate to have a dedicated space,” she said.
New location more ‘inviting’ for WU students
International Education Week
It’s not bad to re-learn space. The parking is amazing, but I do miss the flow of office space. Lindsey HillInternational Center assistant director
“”
Next week is International Education Week. The International Center will be hosting events throughout the week. Most of the events are free, so if you have time, check them out.
Monday Nov. 15Event: “Friends Beyond Borders: The Cultures of Close Friendships”Time: 6-7:30 p.m.Place: Kinard AuditoriumCost: Free
Tuesday Nov. 16Event: Global Learning Initative GamesTime: 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.Place: Campus Green (rain location: West Center)Cost: Free
Event: “The Linguists” Time: 8-9:30 pm.Place: Kinard AuditoriumCost: Free
Wednesday Nov. 17Event: Study Abroad session and brown bag lunchTime: Noon-1 p.m.Place: Dinkins AuditoriumCost: Free
Event: Taste of the World International ShowcaseTime: 6-7:30 p.m.Place: Plowden AuditoriumCost: $2
Thursday Nov. 18Event: International Food FestivalTime: 11 a.m.-1 p.m.Place: Thomson CafeteriaCost: Free for students with a meal plan
Event: “Chinese Culture and Education”Time: 6-7:30 p.m.Place: Carroll Hall Whitton AuditoriumCost: Free
Friday Nov. 19Event: “Library Resources Without Borders” and brown bag lunchTime: Noon-1 p.m.Place: DIGS Room 114Cost: Free
For more information, contact the International Center at (803)323-2133 or [email protected]
The clocks with different times around the world remain in International Center’s main reception area. The office was moved to Dinkins so that all University College programs would be in one place. Photo by Stephanie Eaton • [email protected]
Nov. 15-19
THURSDAYNovember 11, 2010
CHRIS McFADDENSports Editor
Women’s soccer season comes to an abrupt end
The Winthrop women’s soccer team lost in the semi-final round of the Big South Conference Soccer Tournament on Saturday to High Point University 1-0.
The Eagles entered the tournament on a hot streak after they won five of their last six games. The hot streak help Winthrop earn the number-one seed in the tournament, where they beat their first-round opponent, VMI, 3-1.
Under first-year head coach Spencer Smith the Eagles improved from a 2-5-2 2009 conference re-cord to a 6-2-1 2010 con-ference record
Men’s soccer team ends season with a loss
A disappointing regular season came to an end on Wednesday for the men’s soccer team with a 1-0 loss to UNC-Asheville.
The Eagles were picked in the preseason to fin-ish in second place by the conference coaches, but instead finished in sixth place.
Winthrop will start the Big South Conference Tournament with a game against Gardner-Webb on Thursday. The Eagles de-feated Gardener-Webb 2-1 this season.
Winthrop won the 2009 Big South Conference Championship and earned a spot in the NCAA Soccer Tournament, where they played Duke University.
SPORTS BRIEFS
By David [email protected]
There is no doubt that off the court the Winthrop women’s volleyball team would make an excellent host.
Their infectious smiles and gracious hospitality come through as welcom-ing and not intimidating.
On November 18-20, that welcoming persona will become down right frosty for their visitors as the Eagles host the 2010 Big South Conference Tournament.
“We want to defend our home court,” senior set-ter Kellie Sellers said. “We don’t want teams coming in here and walking all over us.”
Winthrop succeeded in building an imposing home court advantage during the season.
At press time, the Ea-gles, 4th place in the con-ference, secured a 5-1 re-cord at home.
As important to their season as home court has been, equally important is the strategy head coach Sally Polhamus devel-oped to get the team battle ready for conference play.
“I wanted to get [the team] mentally and physi-cally ready,” Polhamus said.
Polhamus led the team through a daunting non-conference schedule hop-ing the Eagles would gain experience for conference
play.The scheduled included
matches against nationally ranked competition, such as Clemson University of South Carolina, William & Mary and the University of Wisconsin.
Although the team’s re-cord against their non con-ference foes (3-9) wasn’t awe-inspiring, Polhamus was more concerned with the positives her squad gained.
“We took advantage of a strong schedule,” Pol-hamus, in her third year as Winthrop’s head coach, said.“It was a good start because it taught us to trust in our systems, made a lot of players come up in their roles and really gelled us as a team.”
Home, Sweet Home Considering how the Ea-gles have played at home this year, having the con-ference tournament in the home confines of Win-throp Coliseum should be a distinct advantage.
“We are really comfort-able here” Sellers said.
The team hopes fans will add to that advantage.
“We really love everyone coming out to support us,” Palmer said.
Polhamus believes that although they “can’t over-look their opponents,” the advantage of “sleeping in our own beds” will be beneficial to their perfor-mance on game day.
“Bread and Butter”Playing fundamentally
sound volleyball has been
key to Winthrop’s success.Passing and serving,
which Coach Polhamus describes as the “bread and butter of volleyball”, will need to be a focal point of the Eagles’ play.
“If we’re consistent on that, I don’t feel that there will be any lapse in com-posure and execution,” she said.
The team has been por-ing over video and statis-tics, and using unorthodox practice techniques, such as practicing with small Nerf balls.
Using Nerf balls helps the team be more efficient and strike the ball with better precision.
Keep poisedAt an away game against
Gardner-Webb, the Eagles
quickly jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the second set.
Winthrop got compla-cent with the big lead and watched as the Bulldogs went on an 11-2 run, which gave them the lead. The Eagles went on to lose the set 25-22.
Sellers lamented the Ea-gles’ tendency for content-ment.
“If we jump out on other teams, we tend to get a lit-tle comfortable with our-selves, so if teams make adjustments we can lose focus, and start dropping points in streaks of 3 or 4,” Sellers said.
Palmer felt mental prep-aration was key in over-coming complacency.
“The game is all about momentum, so if we are down a few points some people might get frustrat-ed,” she said. “We have to make sure we’re prepared for the match and keep positive throughout the game, because if one per-son gets down we all get down.”
Volleyball team looks to spike rivals in run to conference title
The Winthrop volleyball team will host the Big South Tournament this year. Photo by Kathleen Brown • [email protected]
My Bad
Last week’s page 10 did not give credit to the photographers who took the pic-tures on that page. Stephanie Eaton took the top photo and Kathleen Brown took the bottom photo.
THURSDAY November 11, 2010 11SPORTS
By Chris [email protected]
Did you know, at press time, Winthrop’s volleyball team had a 5-1 home record versus conference op-ponents?
Did you attend any of those winning games?
Looking at the at-tendance figures for those games, probably not.
During the home winning streak, Win-throp’s game against High Point University had the highest at-tendance, with a grand total of 560 people.
The Winthrop Coli-seum has a capacity of 6,000.
While, admittedly, volleyball is not a mainstream sport, the
lack of fan participa-tion was also evident in basketball, which is a mainstream sport, and arguably Win-throp’s most popular sport.
The total attendance at a home game versus Liberty University last year: 2,204. Not even a half-full coliseum.
Winthrop has a win-ning tradition many schools across the country would envy.
After all, the school’s nickname is the “Cam-pus of Champions.”
If an outsider at-tended just about any of Winthrop’s sporting events, they would probably think the school had one of the worst athletic pro-grams in America.
This could not be further from the truth.
Winthrop has Big
South Conference Championships in men and women’s ten-nis, men’s basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball, men’s cross country and men’s soccer.
Still year after year the attendance at games is consistently low.
The athletic depart-ment tries several ways to get students involved in campus sports.
There are incentive programs where prizes are given to students for simply attending home games.
Coaches are fairly accessible, and even spend some of their time meeting students to in order to encour-age fan participation.
As any sports fol-lower knows, home court advantage is a crucial part of a team’s success.
Opponents should be intimidated as soon as they get off their team busses because they know the Win-throp fans are going to be loud, rowdy and full of enthusiasm.
The players on Winthrop’s teams also give fans a reason to want to attend sport-
ing events.For the most part,
the athletes stay out of trouble and are ap-proachable. They do not act as if they are above the rules and regulations regular students have to fol-low.
They act, which is not the case on other campuses, like they are one of us. Like fellow classmates who are here to get an edu-cation like the rest of us, but just-so-happen to play sports.
These are athletes represent Winthrop and the student popu-lation well.
Walking around campus or sitting in classrooms, a com-mon complaint among students is a lack of things for students to do.
One thing that can alleviate some of the boredom is attending a sporting event. The atmosphere is fun, teams give it their all and the players are one of you.
Do yourself a favor and take a chance, attend a game and see what you have been missing.
‘CAMPUS OF CHAMPIONS’ Teams deserve better support from fans
The basketball team is one of the many WU teams with championships under their belt. Johnsonian file photo
By Hannah SchwartzSpecial to The Johnsonian
Not only is attending a Winthrop ath-letic event a fun time, but going can also win you prizes.
By being part of the Eagle Empire, you can get rewarded for just showing up to games.
Eagle Empire is an incentive program that rewards students for attending Win-throp games.
Each time a student’s ID card gets swiped at a game, that student receives one point.
Some games are worth two points, such as games that occur during a break, or games with traditionally low atten-dance, such as tennis and track and field.
For every five points earned, a new prize level is reached.
After five points, the prize is a free drink at the concession stand. After 10 points, the prize is a free t-shirt.
Other prizes include a restaurant gift certificate after 15 points, a visor or a hat
after 20 points and shorts or a pair of flip-flops after 30 points.
According to Aimee Kline, Director of Event Management and Promotions, around 1,500 students attend a game of some sort during the year, and between 200 and 250 students reach at least the 15-point level.
At the end of each athletic season, the over all point winner also receives a prize.
Every student is automatically entered into the Eagle Empire program just by going to a game.
Points can be tracked either by visiting winthropeagles.com or by visiting the Eagle Empire table set up at every home sporting event.
The Eagle Empire was implemented eight years ago in order to help encour-age students to come to games.
The program hopes, that by giving out prizes to those who attend games, more students will show up to root for the Eagles.
Winthrop fans winners at sporting events alsoFans given gifts when they come cheer on WU teams
Got Skills?
Show them off as a sports reporter for The Johnsonian!
Contact Chris McFadden at [email protected]
Or, come to a weekly meeting at 8 p.m. in the DiGiorgio Campus Center Room 104.
Visit The Johnsonian’s Facebook page for live
updates from the Homecoming game this
Saturday!We’ll keep you updated on the big
plays, the score and the MVP’s of the game!
The men’s basketball team plays at home
Nov. 13 against Queens College at 4 p.m. in the
Coliseum.
FACEBOOK.COM/THEJOHNSONIAN
12THURSDAY November 11, 2010 THE JOHNSONIAN
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