oct. 25, 2011
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The student-run newspaper at the University of ArkansasTRANSCRIPT
PAGE 1 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2011 Vol. 106, NO. 25 UATRAV.COM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2011VOL. 106, NO. 238 PAGESUATRAV.COM
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In July 2011, Arkan-sas law changed, and now anyone under 21 who has been drinking may face the charge of minor in posses-sion of alcohol, a UAPD of-ficial said.
“If you have alcohol in your system and you are a minor, that now constitutes, in Arkansas, the same as be-ing physically in possession of alcohol,” said UAPD Sgt. Greg Foster.
With the number of freshmen on campus, UAPD
officials hope this law will further curtail the under-age drinking problem, said UAPD Lt. Gary Crain.
Some students who don’t drink have worries about this law change.
“I think it’s a little irra-tional since there are ways to raise your blood alcohol level without drinking alco-hol,” said Victor Montalvo, UA freshman from Dallas.
The worry from Mon-talvo is that they will be tar-geting minors for random blood alcohol level tests, he said.
“Essentially, it’s going to
be an additional charge. If they are intoxicated, and we are going to charge them with public intoxication, then we can also charge them with minor in posses-sion,” Foster said.
“This charge could result in a fine of up to $250,” said Casey Jones, Fayetteville city prosecutor. “We will uphold the law as stated and continue to do our jobs.”
On this campus, the law hasn’t really shown a change in behavior. That is be-cause no one really knows about the change, Crain said. “We should make sure
that everyone under 21 un-derstands that the law did change this year. It’s anoth-er tool that we have to help resolve that issue.”
Most students don’t have negative thoughts on the law change.
“It doesn’t matter how I get caught. It just mat-ters that I get caught,” said Chris Stoddart, UA fresh-man from Rockwall, Texas.
If someone is breaking the law and gets caught, it doesn’t really matter what they are charged with, they are in trouble either way, Stoddart said.
Change in State Law Means BiggerFines for Underage Drinking
by AMANDA POGUEStaff Writer
! e UA administration is pushing an initiative among freshmen to take the Strength-sQuest poll, which allows stu-dents to see their top " ve talents.
It is a tool for the under-standing and identifying of your natural talents and strengths, said Adrain Smith, director of Strengths-Based Initiatives.
! e UA administration’s goal is to have a strengths-based di-vision of the student a# airs de-partment.
“StrengthsQuest is taking what you are naturally talented in instead of just " xing weak-nesses,” Smith said. “Weakness building prevents failure, but strength building leads to suc-cess.”
! rough StrengthsQuest, students are able to con" rm what they already know about themselves as well as possibly discover hidden talents.
“Deliberative was my highest strength, and I feel that it was on point,” said Nelly Muyia, a fresh-man who took StrenghtQuest. “It gives you a starting point, and it’s nice to know what you are good at.”
For students who would like to evaluate their strengths fur-ther, strengths coaching sessions are available.
“You have these strengths, but you don’t know what to do with them,” Muyia said. “It’s good to have someone help point you in the right direction.”
Strengths coaching sessions are to help students better un-derstand what their strengths mean and how to use them.
UA EncouragesFreshmen to
Take SkillsAssessment
Testby CICELY SHANNON
Staff Writer
! e UA recycling program is the grand champion of Re-cycle Mania 2011 in the South-eastern Conference, according to UA o$ cials and recyclema-nia.org.
Recycle Mania is an eight-week competition among col-lege and university recycling programs in North America and Canada. Schools com-pete in di# erent categories to see which institution can col-lect the largest amount of re-cyclables per capita, the larg-est amount of total recyclables, the least amount of waste per capita and acheive the highest recycling rate, according to the recyclemania.org.
! e UA recycled 10.89 pounds of material per per-son and only produced 34.53 pounds of trash per person during the competition, ac-cording the website. ! e UA tried to collect a total of 200 tons of recyclables for the competition but fell short at 130, said Gary Enzor, manager of Razorback Recycling.
“Last year, we were fortu-nate and won the grand cham-pion category in the SEC,” En-zor said. “I think that was the second time in four years that we have won the grand cham-pion category.”
! e UA defeated other colleges of the SEC in the Per Capita Classic and waste
minimization categories, which contributed to winning the grand champion category,
Enzor said. ! e Stephen K. Gaski Per
Capita Classic category is a competition in which schools compete to collect the largest combined amount of paper, cardboard, bottles and cans per person and is the origi-nal contest of Recycle Ma-nia, according to the website. ! e waste management cat-egory measures the schools’ production of municipal solid waste per person and rewards schools that generate the least amount of combined waste and recyclables.
“Our o$ ce does public awareness on recycling, and we manage the annual Recycle Mania competition on cam-pus,” said Nick Brown, direc-tor of the o$ ce for campus sustainability. “We collect and manage data on what other SEC schools are doing and this year we out-performed all the others.”
! e competition is paid for by the general operating fund for Razorback Recycling. ! e next competition will begin on Feb. 5, 2012 to March 31, according to the website. Stu-dents can get involved just by taking the time to look for the correct recycling bin, Enzor said.
“! e thing to keep in mind is, just don't throw it away — recycle it instead.”
UA Named Grand Champion of Recycling in SECby LANDON REEVES
Staff Writer
A team of researchers, in-cluding UA faculty, sta# and students, spent two weeks this summer studying the discovery of a large tract of fossilized dinosaur foot-prints.
! e tract, which is as large as two football " elds, contains the preserved foot-prints of several di# erent species, said Stephen Boss, professor of geosciences and leader of the research proj-ect.
! e team included several faculty and sta# of the geo-sciences department, as well
as a geosciences graduate student and two undergrad-uate students, in addition to various other researchers.
! e tracks were discov-ered in June a% er a heavy rain washed o# a layer of clay covering the tracks and re-vealed them.
“! ey were quite well preserved,” Boss said, “and there were quite a number of them.”
Because the site is on private property, o$ cials could not reveal the exact location of the tracks, which are somewhere in southwest Arkansas.
Dinosaur Tracks Found ByUA Faculty and Students
by JANNEE SULLIVANStaff Writer
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In This Issue:
Student Loans Increase at UA! e number of stu-dent loans increased in 2011.
Page 2
UA O! cals Will Not Add a Dance MajorA dance major will not be revived for UA students.
Page 3
Starting FasterArkansas is working to curb slow starts that have resulted in double-digit hal" ime de# cits in three of the last four games.
Page 8
Faster Communi-cation Can Mean Bad GrammarRise of texting and social media can encourage poor grammar.
Page 7
Make a Di" erence DayHundreds of UA students expected to volunteer for the event.
Page 7
Student Veterans: From Boots to BooksDespite veteran ser-vices at the UA, more needs to be done to help student-veterans adapt.
Page 4
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LOGAN WEBSTER STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERUniversity of Arkansas Police Department, in accordance with Arkansas state law, will now charge any minor with alcohol in their system the same as a minor with alcoholic products in their possession.
see TESTon page 3
SAMANTHA TUCKER STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERFreshman, Marc Zack, sets a good example on campus by recycling his used Dr. Pepper bottle on Monday afternoon.
COURTESY PHOTO
see TRACKSon page 2
Vol. 106, NO. 25 UATRAV.COM
UA Encourages
Razorback Quidditch:An Up-and-Coming Sport
Page 7
NEWS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2011 PAGE 2
The women and men of the University of Arkansas Police Department, in partnership with the community, are committed to protecting the future of Arkansas by promot-ing a safe and secure environment.
The Transit and Parking office handles parking permits and passes and transit for students, including bus routes and GoLoco Ride Sharing. Students with parking violations can contact the office to appeal their citation.
NEED TICKETS? CALL 1-800-982-4647
NEED A RIDE AT NIGHT? CALL 575 - 7233
NEED EMERGENCY HELP? CALL UAPD 575-2222
HAVE A TICKET? CALL 575-7275 TO RESOLVE IT
Otherwise known as 575-SAFE, the mission of the Safe Ride program is to provide students with a safe means of transportation from any uncomfortable or inconvenient situation. Safe Ride brings you home safely.
Don’t forget to call early and reserve your student football tickets for the 2010-2011 season. The ticket office is located on Razorback Road next to Baum Stadium.
CAMPUS NUMBERS
The Arkansas Traveler, the student newspaper of the University of Arkansas, is published every day during the fall and spring academic sessions except during exam periods and university holidays.
Opinions expressed in signed columns are those of the individual writers and do not necessarily refl ect the opinion of The Traveler. The editor makes all fi nal content decisions.
One copy of The Arkansas Traveler is free to every member of the UA commu-nity. Additional copies can be purchased for 50 cents each. Mail subscriptions for delivery within the continental United States can be purchased for $125.00 per se-mester. Contact the Traveler Business Manager to arrange.
CONTACT
STAFF
The Arkansas Traveler strives for accuracy in its reporting and will correct all matters of fact. If you believe the paper has printed an error, please notify the editor at 575.8455 or at [email protected].
SABA NASEEMEditor [email protected]
MATTIE QUINNManaging [email protected]
LAUREN LEATHERBYFeatures [email protected]
JIMMY CARTERSports [email protected]
ZACH TURNERAsst. Sports Editor
CANNON MCNAIRSales [email protected]
JAIME HOLLANDAccount [email protected]
ZACHARY FRYAccount [email protected]
SAMANTHA WILLIAMSEnterprise Editor
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CHAD WOODARDAsst. News Editor
KELSI FORDAsst. Features Editor
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CRIME REPORT:
UA students borrowed nearly $75 million in the last school year; nationally, college students borrowed more than $100 billion, according to school records and ! naid.org.
In June 2010 national stu-dent loan debt surpassed $800 billion, and so far the rate of loans increases nearly $3,000 a second, according to ! naid.org.
" e number of student loans disbursed to UA stu-dents has increased each year since 2008.
From 2008 to 2009, 7,491 UA students borrowed more than $67 million from 2009 to 2010 students borrowed more than $71 million and from 2010 to 2011 students bor-rowed nearly $75 million, or an increase of nearly 11 per-cent since 2008.
Of the students who bor-rowed college money, the average debt a# er gradua-tion will be a little more than $20,000, according to colleg-eboard.org.
" is is lower than the na-tional average, which is slight-ly more than $23,000, with a little more than 65 percent of students using student loans, according to ! naid.org.
UA tuition was $7,174 for in-state students and $17,606 for out-of-state students. When room and board are added to the cost of tuition, one year at the UA would cost more than $15,000 for in-state students and nearly $26,000 for out-of-state students, ac-cording to Collegeboard.org.
Student loans has increased along with the number of stu-dents attending the UA.
Enrollment was 19,194 in 2008, 19,849 in fall 2009, 21,405 in fall 2010 and 23,199 in 2011, or an increase of near-ly 21 percent since fall 2008.
Arkansas Challenge Schol-arship recipients has increased as well.
" e number of Arkansas Challenge recipients from fall 2010 to fall 2011 increased from 4,001 to 5,449, or a little more than 36 percent.
" is scholarship has helped one UA student avoid using student loans.
“I have the Arkansas Challenge, so that pays for most of my tuition,” said Karis Heinze, a sophomore psychology major.
Arkansas Challenge recipi-ents awarded the scholarship in the 2011-2012 year receive $4,500 at a four-year school and $2,225 at a two-year school, according to the Ar-kansas Department of Higher Education.
Heinze lived at home for her freshman year and had a scholarship that disbursed $1,500 for one year since that time her father has agreed to help pay the remaining cost of her tuition if she attempts to ! nd other scholarships, she said.
Heinze thought about go-ing to college out of state, but that would have been much more expensive than the UA, she said.
“If I had looked to go out of state then I would have had to take out student loans, which means I would have had to have been more ! nan-cially responsible,” she said. “" at would have added a lot of stress to my life and could have caused me to struggle ac-ademically.”
Annual tuition at the University of Missouri was $21,784, the University of Oklahoma was $19,278 and the University of Texas was $32,506, according to Colleg-eboard.org.
Depending on the institu-tion, Heinze saved more than $25,000 a year by attending the UA.
Even though the UA has scholarships for current stu-dents, Heinze said it was dif-! cult to attain those scholar-ships.
“As a current student I feel it is hard to be in the know about scholarships, you re-ally have to actively pursue it to know about them,” she said.
Heinze will graduate with-out student loan debt, but she still has to work during week-ends to pay for living expens-es, groceries and gas, she said.
Student Loans Increase at
UA and Nationallyby CHAD WOODARD
Asst. News Editor
Friday, October 7Arrest On Warrant (Contempt Of Court, Failure To Appear on original charges of Possession Of A Controlled Substance and Possession Of Drug Paraphernalia out of Rogers Police Department)A non-a$ liated person was arrested in the Harmon Avenue Parking Garage.
Possession Of A Controlled Substance; Possession Of Drug Paraphernalia" ree students were arrested at the Sigma Nu Fraternity House.
Public Intoxication; Disorderly Conduct;Obstructing Governmental OperationsA student was arrested in the east parking lot at Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity House.
Domestic Battery Third Degree occurredbetween 2:00 p.m. and 2:18 p.m. A student reported a physical altercation with an acquaintance at Duncan Avenue Apartments. Theft Of Property occurred between 9/29/11 and Friday 10/07/11A student reported someone stole the radiator cover from his vehicle while the vehicle was parked in the Harmon Avenue Parking Garage.
Saturday, October 8Public IntoxicationA student was arrested at Gate 17 at the football stadium.
Public IntoxicationA non-a$ liated person was arrested at Gate 16 at the football stadium.
Public IntoxicationA non-a$ liated person was arrested at Gate 14 at the football stadium.
Public Intoxication; Disorderly ConductA non-a$ liated person was arrested in the football stadium.
Sunday, October 9Public IntoxicationA non-a$ liated person was arrested in the east parking lot at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity House.
Public IntoxicationA non-a$ liated person was arrested in the Harmon Avenue Parking Garage.
Breaking Or Entering; Theft Of Property occurred.A non-a$ liated person reported someone stole three purses and a bottle of liquor from his vehicle while the vehicle was parked in Lot 74. Theft Of Property occurred.A sta% member reported someone stole her bicycle from the bicycle rack on the south side of Reid Hall.
Monday, October 10Theft Of Property occurredA student reported someone stole his bicycle from the bicycle rack on the north side of the Arkansas Union.
Criminal Mischief occurredA student reported someone scratched the side and rear of his vehicle while the vehicle was parked in the Harmon Avenue Parking Garage.
" e tracks will hopeful-ly lead to scientists acquiring more information about what this area was like in the Creta-ceous Period, Boss said.
“We really needed to pre-serve the site in a way that will be useful to other scientists,” Boss said. “Since the owners probably aren’t going to grant access to the site, we did a three-dimensional scan of the site, which will allow others to reconstruct the site on a com-puter, and all that information will be useful to other scien-tists, probably more accurate-ly than if they actually had ac-cess to the site.”
“We know that 120 million years ago, dinosaurs walked right through here,” said Brian Platt of the University of Kan-sas, who worked on the proj-ect along with Boss.
Among the questions re-searchers and some UA stu-dents are asking is, why were these dinosaurs in Arkansas?
“Dinosaurs rule, I would never have thought they once lived where I live,” said fresh-man Jackson Been.
“We’re not sure what the animals were doing here,” Boss said, “but clearly they were here in some abun-dance.”
TRACKSfrom page 1
NEWSPAGE 3 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2011
! irty years ago, the UA dance program was alive and well: it boasted two shows a year, toured throughout the U.S. and booked choreographers to set pieces for the dancers.
“It was a series of events that began with not enough interest to support the pro-gram, lack of funding and not enough faculty members to teach the required classes,” said Susan Mayes, a health science instructor and for-mer dance instructor.
Students like sophomore Kaylie Pearson wish the pro-gram would be revived, she said.
“I’m sure a lot of people would be interested in a mi-nor or major in dance,” Pear-son said. “A lot of people danced in high school and would love to continue it if
it were o" ered, even as just a minor.”
Although lack of partici-pation was an issue in the late 1980s, Courtney Van Dor-ple, member of the UA Pom Squad, said a lot of women on the squad would be inter-ested if the school o" ered a dance minor or major.
“It’d be great to take class-es as a squad, that way we could work on our technique as a whole,” Van Dorple said.
Funding seems the biggest obstacle to reviving the dance major or minor.
“It’s very expensive to fund the arts and all that it requires,”Mayes said.
Although the UA dance program is no longer around, students interested in dance shouldn’t put up those dance shoes just yet.
Professors like Mayes still of-fer courses in dance, like dance education activity and dance ed-ucation. Free dance classes are also o" ered in the HPER.
No Plans to ReviveDance MajorDriving Under the Influence
by CARISSA KELLYContributing Writer
“Coaching sessions are for discussion and re# ection,” Smith said. “! ey are to help students better use their strengths and set goals for themselves.”
Students who would like to have a 30 minute to one hour coaching session can send an email to [email protected]. ! e cost of taking Strengths-Quest is covered in the First Year Experience fee. Stu-dents who are unable to locate their access code to take the poll can also send an email to [email protected].
LOGAN WEBSTER STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERTodd Jenkins, assistant director of Greek Life participates in the Greeks Advocating Mature Management of Alcohol’s drunk driving awareness program. The organization provides continuous alcohol education and encourages responsible, mature use.
TESTfrom page 1
! e number of Arkansas Challenge Scholarship recipi-ents increased from fall 2010 to 2011, according to enroll-ment records.
Over the last year, tradi-tional students, who are in-coming freshmen, category in-creased from 1,820 to 3,295, an increase of 81 percent.
Non-traditional students also increased from 300 to 509 students, or nearly 70 percent.
Not every category showed increases from the previous year.
Continuing recipients, stu-dents who already have re-ceived the scholarship, de-creased from 583 to 468 stu-dents, almost 20 percent. Cur-rent achievers, students who enrolled in college within 12 months a$ er graduating from high school, decreased from 1,298 to 1,177, a little more than 9 percent.
! e number of recipients
increased from fall 2010 to fall 2011 by more than 36 percent.
! e increase in Arkansas Challenge Scholarship recipi-ents has been one factor in higher UA enrollment.
! e number of incom-ing freshmen increased in fall 2010 to fall 2011 from 3,810 to 4,447, more than 19 percent. ! e total undergraduate en-rollment rose from 17,247 to 19,027 in the same years, an increase of more than 10 per-cent.
! at higher number of Ar-kansas Challenge recipients has been one reason freshman enrollment has increased, said Suzanne McCray, vice chancel-lor for enrollment.
! e increase in student population has been a concern for the administration, and a 25,000 cap on enrollment has been proposed, McCray said.
“We want to serve students in the state, so the cap would not have an impact on Arkan-sas students,” she said.
“Students may not have been able to leave their com-
munity [before the scholar-ship] and now, because of the scholarship, they can,” she said.
! e scholarship provides $5,000 to recipients award-ed in the 2010-2011 school year for students at four-year schools and $2,500 to those at two-year schools, according to the Arkansas Department of Higher Education website.
! at amount decreased, however, for the 2011-2012 school year and is $4,500 for four-year schools and $2,250 at two-year schools.
“Forty-% ve hundred cov-ers a good portion, but not all,” McCray said.
Regardless of the decrease, one UA student would not be able to attend the UA without the scholarship.
“! e Arkansas Challenge Scholarship is kind of like a big thing for me, since it changed over to the lottery I actually get more than when I started my freshman and sophomore years,” said Ariel Anglin, se-nior interior design major. “So it has been a great help and
helps me not have to take out even more loans that I already have.
“If I didn’t have the scholar-ship I would probably have to go to, like, UALR where it is a lot cheaper, but I wouldn’t be doing what I want to do,” she said.
“[! e scholarship] has al-lowed me to do something that is outside of the box, that’s always been something that I want to do, something very di" erent,” she said.
Anglin is a mentor in the Leadership by Design pro-gram, which is a class for fresh-
men and transfer students en-tering the Fay Jones School of Architecture, she said.
“We teach them about stress management, how to play to their strengths and then at the end we teach them how to plan their schedules,” she said.
However, the UA would not have Anglin as a mentor with-out the Arkansas Challenge Scholarship, she said.
“I mean, they would have another mentor, but not nearly as good as me,” she said jokingly.
by CHAD WOODARDAsst. News Editor
Arkansas Challenge Scholarships Increase in 2011
Average retail gasoline prices in Arkansas have risen 9.5 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $3.33/g yesterday. ! is compares with the national average that has increased 6.3 cents per gallon in the last week to $3.49/g, according to gasoline price website ArkansasGas-Prices.com.
Including the change in gas pric-es in Arkansas during the past week, prices yesterday were 67.0 cents per gallon higher than the same day one year ago and are 9.6 cents per gallon lower than a month ago. ! e nation-al average has decreased 12.0 cents per gallon during the last month and stands 66.3 cents per gallon higher than this day one year ago.
GasReport
CHAD WOODARD ASST. NEWS EDITORAriel Anglin helps one student with his schedule for the spring semester. Anglin is one of 5,449 students who receive the Arkansas Challenge Scholarship at the UA. Without this scholarship she would not be able to attend the UA, she said.
PAGE 4 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2011 EDITOR: SABA NASEEM MANAGING EDITOR: MATTIE QUINN
Scan here to go tothe Opinion section
on uatrav.comTHE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
OPINION
For most students, stress arises from events such as ! nal exams, bad break-ups, unfor-giving professors or a " at tire on the interstate.
We’re so dramatic.For other students, stress
means courage under ! re, liv-ing for your buddies rather than yourself and making life and death decisions on a routine ba-sis.
# ese students are veterans.# e UA Veterans Resource
and Information Center al-lies with the Veterans Upward Bound program to support stu-dent veterans and help ease the
transition from military life to student life.
“# ey are used to being in uniform, and having a certain structure,” said Erika Gamboa, director of VRIC and Army Re-serve veteran. “Whereas they come here, and they have to create their own outline that changes each semester. # ey have these di$ erent life experi-ences that make them not like your typical freshman.”
Student veterans are leaders: mature, goal-oriented, humble and motivated.
# e exact number of student veterans at UA is unknown, but at least 500 students receive mil-itary educational bene! ts such as the variety of GI Bills and scholarships available. Some of these students are not veter-ans themselves because a law enacted a% er 9/11 allows some educational bene! ts to be trans-ferred to veterans’ dependents.
Although the university does have programs to help student veterans, including the boots to books elective class, administra-tors should do more.
One thing Gamboa consis-
tently hears is a need for a place to gather where veterans’ re-sources are all in one place. # e VRIC consists of Gamboa’s of-! ce and limited space shared with O$ Campus Connections.
“We need the VRIC, Veter-ans Upward Bound and the VA certifying o& cial from the reg-istrar’s o& ce all in one place, but they tell us there is no space,” Gamboa said.
Yet there is space and money for the plan to build and expand sports-related installations. Pri-orities are incredibly out of or-der.
Other comparable institu-tions, such as Mississippi State University and Texas A&M, have veterans services that are far superior to those o$ ered at UA.
If you don’t know a veteran on our campus, you should at-tend any of the myriad of spe-cial events during the week-long Veteran’s Day celebration. # e November 7 through 12 events are open to all students and aimed at recognizing vet-erans for their service as well as presenting an opportunity for
students to become acquainted with this particular group of nontraditional students and to understand the sacri! ces they have made.
Student veterans continue to face numerous challenges in-cluding homelessness. # ey also have an increased likelihood of mental health issues, including anxiety, depression and PTSD, according to a 2011 survey by a University of Utah psychologist.
With the U.S. military pres-ence in the world being reduced by sweeping troop withdrawals in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is all the more important to remem-ber veterans. # e Remembrance Day National Roll Call will be held on November 11, in which the names of fallen service members who participated in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom will be read.
Emily Hilley-Sierzchula is a Traveler columnist, majoring in journalism.
Her column appears bi-monthly.
# e next economic crisis will center on student debt, which ap-proximately two-thirds of those with college degrees have. Col-lege students are borrowing twice as much to pay for school, as they did a decade ago, according to a report from the College Board. Already —and especially because of the current job market— the amount of people not being able to pay back their student loans has in-creased to 8.8 percent of graduates a% er two years, according to the Department of Education.
# is is the sad story of a broken loan.
According to an infograph-ic from the “Consumerist,” sev-eral of the biggest “private” loan-ing groups, such as Sallie Mae buy loans that banks give to hundreds of thousands of students. # is amount is o% en backed and guar-anteed by the government—if the borrower can’t pay back the loan because, say, they don’t have a job, which is plaguing many college graduates, the government pays Sallie Mae the balance. Sallie Mae is essentially guaranteed a risk-free pro! t from the “investment,” be-cause it will get that loan back plus interest no matter what.
Of course, the government is going to try to get its money back. # e student loan debt is sent to a collections agency, such as Gen-
eral Revenue Corporation, the biggest in America, which just so happens to be owned by Sallie Mae. GRC adds collection fees and gets to keep a large portion of the money it takes from the borrower before handing it back to the gov-ernment. It can take this money by getting the IRS to take your tax re-turns, take as much as 10 percent of your wages —15 until some “re-forms” signed by President Barack Obama— or ! ling lawsuits.
# ere’s no time limit to this, ei-ther, and a lawsuit could be ! led at any point in the future. One way or another, the money does get taken. Make it to retirement with any student loans still unpaid, and part of your social security checks could be taken. Even parents aren’t safe; sometimes the cosigners end up having to pay. And it’s very rare to get rid of the debt by ! ling for bankruptcy. # at was ensured back in the seventies, when a couple sto-ries of doctors and lawyers bank-rupting their way out of student debt was made public. In fact, it’s one of the only things you can’t get rid of if you go bankrupt.
So it looks like the government and Sallie Mae, among many other lending groups, is better o$ when someone can’t pay back their loans. # is backwards logic means that there’s no reason for there to be regulation in college tuition rates, which has nearly tripled when adjusted for in" ation since 1990, partly fueled by the incredible rate at which universities hired admin-istrators (an 85 percent growth) and sta$ (a 240 percent growth) and not nearly as many profes-sors, according to the Washington Monthly.
So there are a lot of loans be-ing given to people who simply will not be in a position to repay them. And this debt is o% en not able to be “forgiven,” and the debt own-
ers have it guaranteed that one way or another, they’ll make money o$ the whole process. # is debt can be chopped up just like any other debt, bundled up into packages called Student Loan Asset-Backed Secu-rities and sold o$ to other banks, according to ! e Rolling Stone.
Sound familiar?# at’s because this is pretty
much a mirror image of what hap-pened with mortgages just a few years ago. Frankly, student loans have become a bubble, and every bubble bursts. And just like the last major bubble to burst, the buildup will have been there for years, al-most no one will be sounding the alarm beforehand and you’ll hear TV personalities frantically asking the camera, “How did this hap-pen?”
It’s hard at the moment to even truly calculate how much debt there is for student loans. Recent headlines state that the number is more than $1 trillion, supposedly citing the New York branch of the Federal Reserve. While the actual numbers put out didn’t match this claim, Fed o& cials revisited its sta-tistics, and it’s been found that the numbers had been severely under reported. # e way it gets this infor-mation is by digging through sam-ple reports from Experian, a credit report company. Apparently, in what is a bit of an embarrassment to the Fed, several loans were mis-categorized as “Miscellaneous” and weren’t counted. # is means that the numbers will jump much high-er the next time it is reported. What is known, however, is that the total amount of education debt has in-creased past credit card debt.
And frankly, that is scary.Last year, Arkansas’ default
rate was at 11.74, according to the “Hu& ngton Post,” meaning a little over one in 10 college graduates in Arkansas stopped paying o$ their
loans before two years are up. UA graduates have an average debt that is slightly higher than the Arkansas state average, at $20,171, although only 43 percent of us actually grad-uated with debt in 2009, which is roughly 15 percent lower than the state average, according to Peter-son’s Undergraduate Financial Aid and Undergraduate Databases, us-ing numbers reported by colleges across America.
So how do we deal with this? If you can, try to go without getting many loans—there are still schol-arships available to students al-ready in college, many of which go unclaimed. Or try to ! nd a way to work part time and save up some money—paying o$ some of your debt early helps avoid getting too much in interest. Or, like some of those in the Occupy Wall Street movement, talk to your represen-tatives and try to get them to pass protections for those who have been saddled with student debt.
Additionally, there are services the UA administration provides through the Treasurer’s o& ces. Some loans have speci! c ways you can get loan forgiveness, such as if you perform military service or volunteer work with AmeriCorps or the Peace Corp, teach or practice medicine or serve in public interest or non-pro! t positions if you’ve studied law.
You’ll likely see stories about student debt on the news soon enough, and hopefully it’ll be ad-dressed as part of the next set of issues for the 2012 election. Until then, the only thing that remains to be done is make the most of the education on this campus, hope for the best and hold on, because it’s going to be a bit of a bumpy ride.
Chris Sonntag is a Traveler col-umnist. His column appears bi-monthly, every other Tuesday.
# e Arkansas Traveler welcomes letters to the editor from all interested readers. Letters should be at most 300 words and should include your name, student clas-si! cation and major or title with the university and a day-time telephone number for veri! cation. Letters should be sent to [email protected].
EDITORIAL BOARDEDITOR
MANAGING EDITOROPINION EDITOR
ENTERPRISE EDITOR
Saba NaseemMattie QuinnJordain CarneySamantha Williams
FROM THE BOARD
Student Loan Debt Threatens Our FutureMCT CAMPUS
Uncommon Perspective
by CHRIS SONNTAGTraveler Columnist
Traveler Quote of the Day“If you have alcohol in your system
and you are a minor, that now constitutes, in Arkansas, the same
as being physically in possession of alcohol.”
- UAPD Sgt. Greg Foster, “Change in State Law Means Bigger Fines for Underage Drinking,” page one
Economic Report: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
The Center for Business and Economic Research at the Sam M. Walton College of Business released a 2011 “State of Northwest Arkansas” which deals with various things that influence the economy in Northwest Arkansas includ-ing employment growth, bachelor degree attainment and the medium income across the region.
We have the lowest unemployment of our target group which included Lexington, Ky., Gainesville, Fla., Hunts-ville, Ala. and Austin, Texas.
Despite having a lower level of unemployment, we have a higher level of poverty than most of the other regions in our group—excluding Gainesville, Fla.
The report, which is approximately 30 pages long, gives an in-depth look at the highs and lows of the Northwest Arkansas economy during the past decade, and is a good place to start for students wanting to better understand how Fayettevile ranks compared to the rest of the country.
Student Veterans: From Boots to BooksUntraditional Way
by Emily Hilley-SierzchulaTraveler Columnist
ASG Vacancy ElectionsIt’s that time again.Students can start voting for the Associated Student
Government Senate vacancy elections Tuesday. Voting takes place October 25 and 26.
There are 11 Senate seats available, and unlike regular ASG elections the seats are not designated to a particular college.
Campaigning during vacancy elections is essentially the same as a normal election—Facebook groups and sidewalk chalking. How effectively that reaches people outside of the ASG sphere, or students that don’t already know about ASG, we’ll let you decide. We have our doubts.
Senate should be at capacity after the vacancy elections with 39 people running for the 11 seats. Hopefully a full Senate will mean more legislation for senators to consider and debate.
ASG members also approve budgets and requests for funding from cabinet members and outside organizations.
Students that don’t get elected to Senate can still serve as a proxy when members miss meetings. (For those that wonder how effective that is to actually becoming a mem-ber of ASG, the ASG secretary was a Senate proxy last year.)
HPER Lot Closing Increases Parking Squeeze
By now students are well aware of the space crunch caused by the record enrollment— our residence halls are full, our classes crowded and trying to drive across campus during the day is a headache-inducing experience.
In about two-and-a-half weeks Lot 67, next to the HPER building, will be closed permanently, so construc-tion of the new athletic facility can be built.
While we have nothing against the new facility, closing more lots around campus—Lot Two, 36, the lot the Nano-technology building was built upon, now Lot 67 and with paid parking on Dickson Street, students can no longer park for free at a spot that was a common go-to— puts more pressure on students with already hard-to-find spots.
Arkansas started slowly for the fourth consecutive time in the 29-24 win over Ole Miss Saturday.
! e Razorbacks surrendered 17 unanswered points to open the game trailed 17-7 at hal" ime. ! e Hogs haven’t been the # rst team to score in a game since its 38-28 win against Troy on Sept. 17.
“We’d all prefer to get a big lead, and keep a big lead, but football is a game of adjustments and a game of momentum,” Arkansas senior defensive end Jake Bequette said. “We’ve been able to overcome some early de# cits, but we’ve got to # gure out why we’re starting slow, and we’ve got to correct it.”
! e Razorbacks have faced a double-digit hal" ime de# cit three times in four game, but Bequette said he’s not sure what the answer is.
“! at’s a great question,” Be-quette said about how to start games faster. “! at really falls on the leaders of this team, including myself, to try to get the team ready to play faster from the opening whistle.”
! e Razorbacks scored 22 un-answered points in the second half to extend their lead to 29-17, with points coming o$ of two touch-downs, two # eld goals and the # rst safety of the season.
“I know we were ready to play on Saturday, but for some reason, for the last three or four games, we haven’t started very fast and really kind of dug ourselves into a hole, which is not good.” Bequette said.
A" er the Hogs got o$ to a bad start in Arlington, Texas, against
Texas A&M, trailing 35-17 at half-time, the coaches said they moved the defense back to an old defen-sive alignment. Arkansas out-scored the Aggies 25-3 in the sec-ond half, rallying for a 42-38 win.
In the two games since, other hal" ime adjustments have been made and the results have been ev-ident by the Hogs outscoring Texas A&M, Auburn and Ole Miss 64-10 during the second half.
“I think we’ve made some re-ally good second-half adjustments in the last three or four games,” Be-quette said. “! at’s really a credit to our coaching sta$ %and our players, who have seen some little things that maybe give us a little bit of an advantage. But it’s going to be on us to start fast, because we always have a good game plan going into the week. We’ve just got to execute it.”
Although the games haven’t always been pretty the last four games, coach Bobby Petrino said the second-half comebacks have been encouraging.
“! ere are a lot of%people that want to talk about the things that are wrong, all the negatives - which I understand,” Petrino said. “! at’s part of the business, but I like to look at the things that are positive. Our toughness, our character and our heart. ! e thing that%showed up so much at hal" ime and in the second half was our competitive spirit and the fact that our leaders stayed positive.”
Petrino Disputes Ware’s Analy-sis
Arkansas’ game against Ole Miss was broadcast by the SEC Network and included color com-mentary from former Houston quarterback and 1989 Heisman
winner Andre Ware.During the # rst half of the
game, as the Razorbacks strug-gled on o$ ense and fell behind 17-0, Ware said the Hogs’ running backs were “tipping” the direction of their runs by how they aligned their feet pre-snap.
“I don’t believe it,” Petrino said. “Good for (Ware), but I don’t be-lieve it.”
Arkansas’ trip to Nashville, Tenn., to face Vanderbilt Satur-day is being broadcast by the same crew on SEC Network.
Wilson Named Award Semi# -nalist
Arkansas junior quarterback Tyler Wilson was named one of 16
semi# nalists for the annual Davey O’Brien award, presented to the nation’s top quarterback.
Wilson has thrown for 2,011 yards and 12 touchdowns in seven games, leading the Razorbacks to a 6-1 start and a No. 10 BCS rank-ing. ! e Greenwood, Ark., native was the only quarterback from the Southeastern Conference to be named a semi# nalist.
! e award selection commit-tee will narrow the list down to three # nalists and those will be announced Nov. 21. His inclusion on the list came one week a" er be-ing added to the Manning Award watch list, also presented to the top quarterback in the nation.
PAGE 5 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2011 SPORTS EDITOR: JIMMY CARTER ASST. SPORTS EDITOR: ZACH TURNER
Scan here to go tothe Sports section
on uatrav.com:THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
SPORTS
Arkansas fans should be thrilled Mike Anderson is coaching the Ra-zorbacks.
! ey shouldn’t expect a miracle in his # rst season, though.
He has a tough task in front of him.
! e Hogs’ returnees, with the exception of Marshall Powell, are role players. ! e incoming recruit-ing class is highly-touted, but relying heavily on freshmen isn’t the recipe for success unless you’re Michigan in the early 90s or Kentucky now.
Arkansas should be more com-petitive and exciting than in recent memory, but there are a lot of ques-tion marks for the Razorbacks.
Here are some predictions for the upcoming season. ! is is based
o$ previous seasons, recruit high-light tapes, a few pickup games and the Primetime at the Palace scrim-mage, so take it as seriously as the people that believe LeBron will be better than Jordan in time.
5 Predictions for 2011-12
1. B.J. Young will lead the team in scoring.
Junior forward Marshawn Powell might prove me wrong, but Young is easily Arkansas’ best play-maker. ! e true freshman is an ad-ept ballhandler, has great quickness and can # nish around the rim.
Young shot better than 70 per-cent from the # eld as a high school senior. Don’t expect that this season, but he should have a big o$ ensive impact for the Razorbacks and will be a top-tier guard in the Southeast-ern Conference by the end of the season.
2. Rickey Scott will average at least 20 minutes per game.
Scott struggled with injuries and didn’t play much – 12.4 minutes – when he was healthy as a freshman. Expect a di$ erent player this season.
Anderson said he’s the best # t for
his system on the team and when you watch him sky for rebounds then lead the break on a consistent basis, you’ll agree. He’s a big, athletic guard that will earn a lot of playing time.
3. Arkansas will have at least two players on SEC All-Freshman team.
Young, forward Hunter Mick-elson, guard Ky Madden and for-ward Devonta Abron will all play major minutes as freshmen, both out of necessity and because they’re talented.
Young was the headliner of the 2011 recruiting class and is the easi-est pick to end up on the All-Fresh-man team. Madden, Abron and Mickelson will all have major roles.
4. A true freshman will lead the team in rebounding.
! is would be Mickelson or Abron.
Of the returning players, Powell is an undersized 6-foot-7 power for-ward. Seniors Michael Sanchez and Marvell Waithe could contend for the rebounding title, but the fresh-men get the nod now.
Mickelson is an active 6-foot-11,
236-pounder that led the team in re-bounding during early scrimmages and should also lead Arkansas in blocked shots. Abron is a 6-foot-8, 255-pounder banger that will get major minutes because he’s skilled and the Razorbacks’ best physical player inside.
5.There won’t be off -court drama.Almost as much as his lack of
winning, former coach John Pel-phrey’s inability to run the program o$ the court drew the ire of Arkan-sas fans.
Anderson ran a tight ship at UAB and Missouri. When he had trouble in Columbia his second sea-son, he handled it # rmly and didn’t have issues the rest of his tenure.
He’s the boss. He’s made it clear he won’t tolerate o$ -court issues.
5 Predictions Sure to Be Wrong
1. Arkansas will make the NCAA Tournament.
Arkansas can make the postsea-son. ! e Razorbacks probably will.
! e NIT is the better bet, though.
! e SEC still isn’t highly regard-ed as a basketball league this season,
but look at the schedule and pick out 10 conference wins. It’s tough to # nd eight.
Don’t set expectations too high. It’s a young team and a new system.
2. The Razorbacks will be a good rebounding team.
Mike Anderson’s teams at Mis-souri and UAB weren’t recognized as good rebounding teams. Arkan-sas isn’t a physically imposing team this season.
! e Razorbacks don’t have much depth inside and none of the interior players are standout re-bounders. An athletic and decent-sized backcourt will have to help on the boards.
3. The Hogs won’t miss Rotnei Clarke.
Anderson said identifying a knockdown shooter is one of his main priorities.
Bad news, coach. He le" town in June.
Arkansas has several decent shooters, but don’t expect anyone to hit 40 percent from 3-point range. Walk-on Kikko Haydar might be the best shooter on the team.
4. Michael Sanchez won’t miss any games.
A more interesting prediction would be an over/under on how many games Sanchez will miss. Four seams fair.
! e # "h-year senior has strug-gled to overcome injuries his entire career and missed the start of prac-tice a" er undergoing a surgical pro-cedure on his back. Arkansas needs his toughness and experience, but it’s almost become more a question of when he’ll get hurt than if it’ll hap-pen.5. Bud Walton Arena will start selling out.
Fans love the hire and are ex-cited for Anderson’s return, but the enthusiasm isn’t all the way back yet. ! ere will be better attendance than in recent memory, but it will take time to reengage a fan base that has sat through a decade of bad basket-ball.
All bets are o$ if Arkansas gets o$ to a hot start in nonconference play and wins some games early in the SEC, though.
Jimmy Carter is the sports editor for ! e Arkansas Traveler. His col-umn appears every Tuesday. Follow him on Twitter @jicartersports.
Extra Points
JIMMY [email protected]
Hogs Have Hardwood Question MarksCOMMENTARY
Johnson Earns SEC Honor
Arkansas junior running back Dennis Johnson was named South-eastern Conference O$ ensive Play-er of the Week for his performance in the Razorbacks 29-24 win at Ole Miss.
Johnson ran for a career-high 160 yards and one touchdown on 15 carries, helping the Hogs come back from a 17-0 second-quarter de# cit for the win.
“Dennis did a great job for us,” Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said. “He ran the ball really well and showed his speed and quickness. I thought it was the most decisive he’s been all year on his cuts.”
Johnson has run for at least 100 yards all three times he’s gotten 13 or more carries in a game during
his career.“He certainly was the hot hand
the other day and we fed him as much as we could,” Petrino said.
He helped spark a running at-tack that has struggled at times this season and entered the game ranked No. 9 in the SEC, averaging 129.3 yards per game. His 52-yard touchdown run put the Hogs on the board with 5:11 le" in the # rst half and started a run of 29 unan-swered points.
“DJ is low, so a lot of defenders pretty much confuse short and lit-tle,” junior fullback Kiero Small said. “DJ is not a little guy. He’s compact. A defender better bring his A-game or he’s going to be surprised when he gets to DJ. ! en he’s fast. You saw the burst on that long run. Once he gets into the open # eld, you can pretty much count it a touchdown.”
by JIMMY CARTERSports Editor
FOOTBALL
BASKETBALLVOLLEYBALL
Santos Leading RazorbacksSophomore Raymariely San-
tos began her Razorback volley-ball career as the back-up setter last season, but as the primary setter on Arkansas’ roster this year, Santos has recorded seven double-doubles and started every match for the Ra-zorbacks.
Santos recorded a career-high performance of 54 assists and 16 digs two weeks ago against the Georgia Bulldogs to earn her sixth double-double of the season.
! e Puerto Rico native also led the Razorback o$ ense to a .421 at-tack percentage against McNeese State earlier in the season, the eighth-highest attack percentage in program history.
“I just # nd some inspiration be-fore games,” Santos said. “! at re-ally helps a lot. I just love the game, and I really have fun with what I’m doing. I really have fun seeing my girls going at it and being success-ful, so that really makes me happy.”
One of the main motivating factors for Santos, a native of Puerto Rico, is the distance from her fam-ily.
“! is has been my dream since a long time ago,” Santos said. “Just not being able to have my family with me, I think that’s a big inspira-tion. ! ey’re back in Puerto Rico, so I am the only one here and they can only see me over the internet.”
As a setter, Santos faces a dif-ferent kind of pressure and mental responsibility than her teammates.
“We’ve been talking a lot about her routine, about how she ap-
proaches every practice and being aggressive, smart and setting what she’s got,” Arkansas coach Robert
Pulliza said.Some of those responsibilities
include knowing what combina-tions to run on serve receive, free balls, attacks and trouble situations, plus how to adjust them from dif-
ferent areas on the court. “Sometimes Robby and I talk,”
Santos said. “He’s like, ‘Obviously your title is not as big as a quarter-back, but he’s the head of the game. Now, you are the head of our game. If the girls see you down, they’re go-ing to be down, and if you’re up, they’re going to be up, so make sure you stay steady and have fun.’”
! e Razorbacks (14-8, 6-5 Southeastern Conference) moved to second place in the SEC West this weekend, one game behind LSU.
“I know we are a really, really good team,” Santos said. “To win the NCAA tournament is all we want and it’s all I want.”
Arkansas host the Tigers (14-7, 7-4 SEC) Wednesday in Barnhill Arena at 7 p.m. in a match that will be nationally televised by ESPNU.
Hogs Picked Sixth in SEC
Arkansas was picked to # nish sixth overall in the Southeastern Conference Monday by the media.
! e Razorbacks return two starters from a team that went 18-13 and missed the postseason last year, resulting in coach John Pel-phrey’s # ring. New coach Mike Anderson will add a consensus top-10 recruiting class to the re-turning roster.
Kentucky was picked to win the league. Vanderbilt was sec-ond, Florida third, while Alabama and Mississippi State were tabbed fourth and # " h, respectively.
Red-White game set for
Sunday
Arkansas will play its Red-White game Sunday at 3 p.m. in Bud Walton Arena, the UA an-nounced Monday.
Admission is free for the public, but fans are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items for col-lection and distribution to area food banks.
“Using a Razorback basketball preseason event to collect items for area food banks is something that we did for years,” Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said in a press re-lease.% “It is my hope that every-one will be able to donate to a great cause. ! ere is no reason that the citizens of Northwest Arkansas should go hungry.”
by MARTHA SWEARINGENStaff Writer
Hogs Trying to Fix Slow Startsby ZACH TURNER
Asst. Sports Editor
by JIMMY CARTERSports Editor
GARETH PATTERSON STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Arkansas junior running back Dennis Johnson was named SEC Offensive Player of the Week for his 15-carry, 160 yard performance against Ole Miss
Raymariely Santos
RYAN MILLER STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Arkansas has struggled in the first half of the last four games, facing double-digit halftime deficits against Alabama, Texas A&M and Ole Miss.
CROSSWORD
SUDOKU
TODAY’S SOLUTION
SOLUTION
There was a man who entered a local paper’s pun contest. He sent in ten di! erent puns, hoping that at least one of the puns would win. Unfortunately, no pun in ten did.
Q: What’s green and walks through walls?A: Casper the Friendly Pickle
Q: Who is Scooby-Doo’s evil twin?A: Scooby Don’t
Q: Did you hear about the robbery at the fl ower shop?A: It was a violet crime.
ACROSS1 Whack2 Glade target3 “Hello, Dolly!” surname4 Part of a best man’s toast, maybe5 Josh of “True Grit” (2010)6 Comedian Smirno! 7 Cordwood measure8 Bard’s nightfall9 Many pop-ups10 Madagascar mammals11 Asteroids maker12 Syntax problem13 Newsstand booth18 When said three times, a WWII " lm21 Order from on high23 Valuable stash24 Tony’s cousin25 Bandy words26 It’s " ve before Foxtrot27 Light-headed insect?30 Railroad switch31 Smidgen32 Indigo dye source33 Styled a# er34 Whizzes36 “$ e Canterbury Tales” estate manager37 Gin % avoring38 Quick look42 Dipstick43 Door to the street44 Brusque45 Kisses and then some46 Kate’s TV roommate47 Regal topper48 Frère de la mère49 Blunt, as truth52 “Houston, __ had a problem” 53 Nice warm times54 Dimbulb56 Verb associated with blame57 Neruda’s “__ to Conger Chow-der”
DOWN
Crossword provided by MCT Campus
1 Gaucho’s weapon5 What two lanterns in the Old North Church signi" ed10 Shenanigan14 “Paradise Lost” setting15 Assessed16 Holder of small tools17 Symbolic gi# s19 José’s hand20 Like some ink cartridges21 Vitruvian Man is on some Italian ones22 Exasperate25 Pago Pago resident28 Sosa’s 1,667, brie% y29 Conspiracy theorist’s worry30 Zeno, notably32 Styled a# er35 Soother for men39 Stadium sound40 Shake41 Victory goddess42 __ Deion: NFL nick-name43 Bk. a# er Proverbs45 Indigenous language50 Selectric selection51 Became one lane, say55 Hammer feature56 President’s option, and a hint to the puzzle theme in 17-, 22-, 35- and 45-Across58 Soprano Te Kanawa59 Gets zero mpg60 First name in bike stunts61 Fall runner’s goal, per-haps62 Requirements63 Take it easy
Di! culty:
PAGE 6 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2011 Comics, Games, & Much Much More!
THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
DOWNTIMELAUGH IT UP
THAT MONKEY TUNE Michael A. Kandalaft
BREWSTER ROCKIT Tim Rickard CALAMITIES OF NATURE Tony Piro
WELCOME TO FALLING ROCK Josh Shalek BLISS Harry Bliss
to sign up for it,” the sophomore education major said.
Kaity Dye joined a group us-ing GPS units to show children around the campus. Technical problems ensued, and instead the group just roamed campus, rewarding the ! rst child to spot a location with candy.
" is year Kaity Dye will serve
as one of three project leaders for the Ozark Folkways project. Up to 50 volunteers will spend the day doing yard work, paint-ing and clean up at the Winslow nonpro! t organization. " e or-ganization is dedicated to the preservation, instruction and development of regional arts and cra# s, according to its web-site.
MADD starts at 9 a.m.
THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
FEATURES PAGE 7 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2011 FEATURES EDITOR: LAUREN LEATHERBY ASST. FEATURES EDITOR: KELSI FORD
Scan here to go tothe Features section
on uatrav.com:
Since the rise of texting and social networks in today’s me-dia, “their” seems to be “alot” of poor grammar as people care about “they’re text message's
content more than there gram-matical correctness.” See what I mean?
In the previous sentence, it’s easy to see the glaringly incor-rect use of “their,” “there” and “they’re” and its various forms, plus “a lot.” " is is an example
of how grammar is used on such forms of media. If that is annoying to read, you’re in the same boat as many students and professors at the UA who read texts, Internet pages and Youtube comments and ! nd many instances of incorrect
grammar usage. Carol Rachal, a UA journal-
ism professor, teaches an In-troduction to Journalism class in which she instructs AP style and correct grammar to bud-ding journalists. As a college professor, she’s realistic, but grades tough when necessary.
“We all make mistakes so I try not to be too picky,” Ra-chal said. “It depends on the as-signment. If it’s the ! rst home-work assignment, which is a biographical assignment, then I will circle the mistakes and not deduct points; however, if I tell them they are being graded on their grammar, spelling and punctuation, yes, I will deduct points.”
" e Internet more than likely holds the record for most in-stances of poor grammar us-age. Jennifer Davenport, a ju-nior English major, believes it comes from hastiness more than $ agrant misuse.
“Bad grammar is more forgiv-able if it’s something on the In-ternet, because when you sub-mit it so quickly, there’s o# en a lapse in thinking and writing,” Davenport said. “I think it’s not so much that they’re lazy, so much as they’re hasty. " ey move too quickly through the sentence, and they don’t realize that their error occurred.”
Rachal also has a similar view on the matter.
“I get the impression that people think it’s okay to make mistakes in terms of not paying
attention to how they are writ-ing when it comes to some so-cial networking sites,” Rachal said. “Also, there are those who don’t know how to use correct grammar; and then you have the people who just don’t care – it’s not important to them. I think people should make an e% ort to use correct grammar, spelling and punctuation. Un-fortunately, bad habits are easy to learn and hard to break.”
Is this really that big of an issue, though? Most students would agree it’s annoying to see the occasional incorrect use of grammar, but it’s not a pressing concern. Mason Sams, a junior history major, believes the big picture matters more than the tiny details.
“If it’s constant and really ob-vious, like if something is in-tentionally spelled wrong, that gets a little irritating,” Sams said. “From a history major perspective, however, it’s not as important. In an essay, it’s more about the content than what you’re saying. It’s not that grammar isn’t important, it’s just that it takes a backseat to what you’re saying.”
At the same time, being a “grammar Nazi” online can seem a little overbearing at times.
“With the whole ‘grammar Nazis’ thing, I think having skills in grammar is an example
Faster Communication Often Leads
to Worse Grammar
by NICK BROTHERSStaff Writer
LEAH YOUNG FEATURES DESIGNER
" is Saturday, hundreds of UA students, and millions of people across the nation, will join to-gether to volunteer for the an-nual Make a Di% erence Day.
Each year on the fourth Satur-day of October, USA Weekend, HandsOn Network and many other organizations sponsor the national volunteering day to motivate Americans to reach out to their communities and lend a hand.
“Being surrounded by a crowd of hundreds of students, all coming out to help, is an inspir-ing sight,” said senior Keely Dye, the UA Make a Di% erence Day chairman. “Students are much more motivated to help when they can work with fellow stu-dents and friends and truly ob-serve the impact of their work.”
Dye became involved with MADD her freshman year. She and her roommate wanted to gain volunteer hours through a fun MADD project, she said. A# er participating in MADD again her sophomore year, Dye decided to join the Volun-teer Action Center, the campus group responsible for organiz-ing MADD.
Dye started volunteering for other on-campus events through the VAC, but MADD remained her favorite. When it was time for MADD last year, Dye be-came even more involved. She began helping with publicity, distributing $ yers and working tables in front of the Arkansas Union and at service fairs.
“My responsibility [as chair-man is] to organize the morning to make it as e& cient as possi-ble,” she said. “I make sure that
volunteers are able to ! nd their assigned projects, get their T-shirts and have an awesome ex-perience.”
As Dye urged everyone she knew to volunteer for MADD her junior year, she had a par-ticular in$ uence over one fresh-man – her younger sister, Kaity Dye.
“My sister was on the com-mittee and they needed more volunteers, and she was asking everyone in the whole universe
Make a Di! erence Day Sends Volunteers
Throughout Area
by HAILEY RAYStaff Writer
MADDon page 8
Mutemath’s “Odd Soul” Rocks Hard
Odd Soul – Mutemath8.5 out of 10
" roughout rock n’ roll his-tory there have been bands of all kinds that have sought af-ter a new, more controversial style compared to their current popular sound. " e successes
of these bold moves seem to swing both ways— either re-sulting in a $ op, or getting the perfect amount of di% erent in their sound. Mutemath's al-bum “Odd Soul,” released Sept. 27, has undoubtedly allowed Mutemath to achieve that per-fect amount of di% erent as they bring a new and daring bold-rock sound to their discogra-phy.
Mutemath consists of Paul Meany (vocals, keyboards), Darren King (drums), Todd Gummerman (guitar) and Roy Mitchell-Cárdenas (bass). Gummerman is a newcomer to the band, replacing veteran Greg Hill, and Gummerman establishes himself consistently as a talented guitarist through-out the album. Mutemath has released two albums prior to “Odd Soul,” both of which fell more into the electronic-pop-rock genre.
With “Odd Soul,” the sounds are much heavier and aggres-sive. " e band does a nice job
bridging the gap between ex-perimental, rock, blues and funk. All the elements of rock are there, but it’s unique from the conventions of the genre.
" eir style is similar to the newer sound of Switchfoot, maybe to some of the heavier sounds of " e Black Keys and maybe even a technologically advanced White Stripes; mean-ing they’re similar in rock mel-odies, but with a much more complex and full sound. It’s a fun musical style to listen to, that’s for sure.
" e drumming/percussion on this album is exceptional. Darren King goes hard on every track. King carries every song and his skills are just showy enough. " e entirety of “Cavalries,” the ! lls of “Prytania” and “Tell Your Heart Heads Up” are great examples of what this guy does. " e awesome drumming is easily
COURTESY PHOTO
bY NICK BROTHERSStaff Writer
MUTEMATHon page 8
Gry& ndor is down 150 points, and the snitch has yet to be caught. " e seeker $ ashes by on his Firebolt and catches the snitch, securing his team the victory.
" e idea of using brooms to play a sport may seem lu-dicrous, but since the spring of 2010, Razorback Quidditch players have been doing just that, by using their imagination and athleticism to play this rec-reational sport.
" e idea came from the group’s ! rst president, Aman-do O'Conner, who got the idea from seeing it online and then looking up the up-and-coming Quidditch game, said Ethan McCormick, president of Ra-
zorback Quidditch. “About 15-25 people come
consistently throughout a given semester,” McCormick said.
As found on the International Quidditch Association website, Quidditch is a magical non-pro! t sport that aims to inspire young people to live active and social lives. " e ! rst Quidditch game was played on October 9, 2005 at Middlebury College when students discovered how to play this enchanting game without any magic.
“Joining Razorback Quid-ditch is as simple as showing up for practices in the Univer-sity Gardens at 3 p.m. on Sun-days,” said Jim Curry, Minister of Muggle/Wizard Relations.
“Being surrounded by a crowd of hundreds of students, all coming out
to help, is an inspiring sight.” - Keely Dye, UA MADD Chairman
RYAN MILLER FILE PHOTORazorback Quidditch players enjoy an early evening game of Quidditch. Last spring the team won second place in a regional tournament.
by STEPHANIE EHRLERStaff Writer
QUIDDITCHon page 8
GRAMMARon page 8
FEATURES TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2011 PAGE 8
on Saturday, Oct. 29. First participants meet on the Union Mall for a rally where they receive their free T-shirts and a free breakfast provided by Starbucks, Sonic, Einstein Bros. Bagels and other restaurants, Keely Dye said.
More than 800 volunteer op-portunities are available to stu-dents through more than 30 dif-ferent projects.
“It’s a great way to give back,” said Marie Morris, a senior ma-joring in biology and Spanish on the T-shirt committee. “I think it’s really important to make sure you’re doing your part to be a
good citizen.”Artistic students can volun-
teer with Habitat for Humanity, and help paint a mural inside the Restore depicting the strength of family. Early risers can help set up the Down & Dirty 5K and Clean and Green 1-Miler put on by the Crop, Soil and Environ-mental Science Graduate Student Club. ! ose who are busy on Sat-urday can help with the Seven Hills Homeless Center Zombie Walk on Friday night, an event that raises awareness about pov-erty and homelessness.
A number of activities cater to those who prefer to get their hands dirty or enjoy the out-doors. Potter’s House ! ri" is
looking for volunteers to bundle # rewood, and Butter# eld Trail Village Retirement Community needs volunteers to assist the el-derly in wheelchairs as they tour the botanical gardens.
Most of the projects will be completed by mid a" ernoon Sat-urday.
“If you haven't volunteered be-fore, this is a great way to start,” Keely Dye said. “You can volun-teer with friends, get a cool T-shirt, and make an impact.”
“It’s kind of crazy how many things wouldn’t get done if peo-ple didn’t volunteer for it,” Kaity Dye said. “! ere are so many or-ganizations that completely rely on volunteers.”
MADDfrom page 7
of your intellect, and it shows how you’re grown up,” Sams said. “Sometimes though, like on Facebook, you o" en see someone having an argument on there, but except they spelled ‘your’ wrong, and then the next comment is just a star and then a ‘you’re.’ It’s kind of petty. ! at’s when being a ‘grammar Nazi’ is irritating.”
Even though it’s easy to spot incorrect uses of grammar, it’s something everybody does from time to time. Kristen Hoover, a sophomore advertis-ing and public relations major, admitted that she has regret-
tably made the mistake before when texting.
“When you’re texting and you’re in a hurry, you don’t have time to really correct yourself,” Hoover said. “I try really hard not to make those grammati-cal mistakes, but I know I de# -nitely have. Whenever I do, I’m
a little upset with myself. Espe-cially if I was caught getting it wrong. You know, it’s like, ‘aw, really?’”
So the problem is real. Sure, it’s a simple and honest mis-take, but it’s a constant thing. Try as the typical “grammar
Nazi” might, the battle for cor-rect grammar and against apa-thy is constant.
“We # x it by making an e$ ort to speak and write correctly. We # x it by having professors note incorrect grammar, spell-ing and punctuation on written assignments,” Rachal said. “It
needs to be more than just about content. It’s the overall paper. Ev-erything counts. ! at’s how you get the message across. If no one
ever corrects mistakes, then people will think it’s okay to make mistakes. It won’t matter. I just know that it’s important to speak and write correctly, and I do not understand why some people are so averse to doing so.”
GRAMMARfrom page 7
“Unfortunately, bad habits are easy to learn and hard to break.”
- Carol Rachal, UA Journalism professor
one of the most standout things from the # rst couple of listens.
! e guitar and bass also re-ally bring it on multiple occa-sions throughout the album, especially on “Odd Soul,” “Al-lies,” and the break down in “One More.” ! e bass and gui-tar merge into each other and both have especially beefy, en-casing ri$ s in the songs on the album. O" en, there’s this over-coming desire to want to get out your air guitar and rock out along with the music.
Paul Meany also isn’t afraid to stretch his voice and shout when he needs to. ! e vocals are never overbearing. ! ey are harsh when they need to be, and so" er and melodic when the song calls for it. ! e only thing is the distortion mic that he uses o" en clouds his voice, unlike the strength it gives oth-er vocalists.
Nothing screams “instant classic” or steals your heart right away here, but the album is a great compilation of music, and it grows on you. It’s argu-able that the tracks on here - although fun - begin to sound similar a" er a while with not a lot of variety. Even then, it’s hard to be nitpicky about the album; it really is a satisfying piece of music.
Mutemath, as far as Odd Soul goes, is a true air-guitar/air-drum band. It just makes you want to rock along with them, and it’s easy to get into. To re-view this album in two sen-tences: Odd Soul rocks. It rocks hard.
Standout Tracks:“Odd Soul,” the # rst track,
sets the mood for the entire al-bum. ! e song is bold, and rig-orous, and it % at out rocks with its hard hitting % ow. “Tell Your Heart Heads Up” starts o$ with a staggering drum # ll, and then gets going into a excellent, com-plete rock song. It’s one of the most fun songs to listen to on the album. “Equals” has a nice Strokes-esque tone to the gui-tar that is reminiscent of the band’s older albums. Lyrically, the song is pretty inspiring, too.
Musicianship: 9! e aggressive, varied and
impressive drumming and the bold, funky and tenacious ri$ s from the guitar and the bass re-ally solidify this album. Meany also has a commanding ten-or voice and isn’t afraid to go places with it. ! e music hooks the listener in and keeps them there.
Originality: 9Not your average rock
band here. Mutemath does an awesome job of combin-ing a blend of unique rock elements to their music. At first, it sounds like alterna-tive rock, and then it gets experimental and funky and even slightly electron-ic. The tones of the instru-ments all sound great as well. They sound thick and hit hard, something rock bands sometimes hold back. It’s a cool album to listen through.
Lyricism: 8Nothing is exactly a
revelation here lyrically, but it’s written well enough and is indeed likable. The most important thing is that the lyrics are solid, and there aren’t any songs that seem to falter.
MUTEMATHfrom page 7
“Our Facebook page [Razor-back Quidditch] is open for anyone to join and see all of our upcoming events and connect you with our listserv.”
Quidditch, made famous by the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, was created for witch-es and wizards, but the muggle (non-magical) students of UA have quickly mastered the game.
While Harry Potter is known for skillfully zooming around on his Firebolt, Razorback Quid-ditch players use Scarlet Falcon brooms, which may not % y, but they allow the player to use their imaginations by mounting their brooms and playing the sport as accurately as they can.
“Players just need to bring water and wear weather-appro-priate workout clothes,” Curry said. “It’s a very physical sport and we want our players to stay healthy. We supply the brooms, balls and hoops.”
! e positions of Quidditch include the chaser, keeper, beat-er, seeker and snitch. Chasers act as the main scorer by run-ning a volleyball, which serves as the qua& e, to the goals. ! e keeper acts as a goalie defend-ing the goals against the oppos-ing team, and the beater tries to knock out other players. ! e most important ball, the snitch, is not actually a golden ball with wings, but rather a player who runs with a tennis ball while the seeker chases a" er trying to catch the snitch runner and, thus, ending the game. Players must also watch out for dodge-balls, which act as bludgers, that force the player return to their goalpost before resuming play.
“While some schools hold
tryouts for each position, we throw new players into matches trying out any and all positions until they # nd one that suits them best,” Curry said. “We are proud to be a 100 percent ac-ceptance team.”
! ere are more than 100 Quidditch collegiate teams worldwide and about 12 high school teams nationwide.
“We’ve played many great teams from around the south in-cluding Texas A&M, TCU, LSU, Kansas, Oklahoma City and Hendrix,” Curry said. “Tourna-ments are the best chances to play other schools.”
! e Fourth Quidditch World Cup is taking place in New York City in November, where teams from across the world will come to compete and socialize with other Quidditch players, ac-cording to the International Quidditch Association World Cup website. More than 2,000 students camp out for this ex-travaganza that includes all-day live music, wizardly gear sales and championship Quidditch matches. ! e Arkansas team will not be attending this year, but they expect to represent the Razorbacks in the 2012 World Cup.
Students who do not want to participate in playing Quidditch
can still be a part of the team. Annual Quidditch t-shirts are made, and students can aways help set up for practice or just come to support and watch the game.
! is muggle sport has be-come a platform for Harry Pot-ter fanatics to bond with others who share their appreciation for the epic series.
“Personally, Razorback Quid-ditch has given me some of my closest college friends on and o$ the pitch,” Curry said. “! is semester alone we’ve been known to gather for A Very Pot-ter Musical watch parties, and we get together on Wednes-day evenings for conditioning workouts.”
Sports bring people together through teamwork and compe-tition, but the Quidditch players also have created lasting friend-ships o$ the # eld too.
“Some of my best friends are people that I have met through Quidditch,” said John Banks, captain of Razorback Quidditch. “I # nd that we spend a lot of time just talking as a group about a wide range of topics but with a heavy emphasis on Harry Potter since that is the mutual interest that brought us together.”
QUIDDITCHfrom page 7
This Week in HistoryBolshevik commu-nists led by Vladimir Lenin stormed the palace in St. Peters-burg and deposed the provincial gov-ernment. A civil war ensued, which would end in a communist victory in 1920.
! e United Nations was formally established by the United Nations Charter between the # ve members of the Security Council.
Women’s nylon hosiery went on sale for the # rst time in Wilmington, Del.
! e Treaty of Westphalia was signed, ending the ! irty Years War, greatly shi" ing the bal-ance of power in Europe, and serving as the basis for modern nation-states.
Oct. 25, 1917
Oct. 24, 1945
Oct. 24, 1939
Oct. 24, 1648
VIA HISTORY.COM, COURTESY PHOTOS