the herald for march 28
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The Herald for March 28TRANSCRIPT
ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
ONTHEWEB www.ASUHerald.com
Informing the campus and community since 1921
Volume 92, Issue 41
TrackThe track team heads to UCA on Friday to compete in its instate meet.
Sports 6
Thursday, March 28 , 2013
This week in history:In 2003, the SGA announced that they were considering changing the Indian mascot, which received positive re-marks from several fans.
“ “Those who continue to text and drive despite state bans need to frequently be reminded they are putting themselves and their fellow drivers at risk.
Days left until Summer
Break
Opinion|2
QuoteableWhat’s InsideOpinion.........................2#Life...............................3
Sports............................ 6News..............................4,5 33
Takako Okumura | Staff PhotographerJohn Pratte
TEACHERS, 4
LYNDSEY PATTERSONSTAFF WRITER
BUSINESSES, 4
SGA discusses gun possibilities
Titillating teachersPick-a-pepper results surprise professors
Caitlin LaFarlette | Photo EditorTravis Marsico
Caitlin LaFarlette | Photo EditorHolly Hall
Kim MyoungHyang | Staff PhotographerKaylynne Glover
ASU attempts to help small businesses
Acrotastic!
As students prepare to register for classes for the fall, many find themselves venturing into the world of Ratemyprofessor.com.
Some look for the easiest professor or the most fun professor, while others look for that little red chili pepper that makes their class something to look forward to attending.
Kaylynne Glover, Pre-professional biology and chemistry adviser, has taught at ASU for five years and is one of the professors students have rated as “hot.”
“I really don’t know what to think,” Glover said regarding her title. “I’m flattered, obviously.”
With a 15-month-old son, Glover is married and said she hasn’t always been considered “hot.”
“I wasn’t ‘that girl’ in high school,” Glover said. “I’m really unused to the ‘hot’ label.”
Another professor that was rated with a chili
pepper is John Pratte, dean of the College of Sci-ences and Mathematics who has been at ASU for seven years. “This is a clear sign that there is some serious money to be made in vision care on campus,” Pratte said. “I have to think that students are ruining their eyes staring at mobile devices too long and are sitting way too far in the back of class.”
Pratte couldn’t believe he got a chili pepper on the website. “You do realize that I look like my picture on the Internet, right? That should tell you right there that someone is playing a practical joke.”
Travis Marsico, assistant professor of bota-ny, has been at ASU for more than three years, teaching, researching, advising, mentoring and curating ASU’s herbarium. “Being rated with a chili pepper on RateMyProfessor is a real honor,” Marsico said. “From the professor’s perspective,
As the Dow Jones indus-trial average continues to reach record highs on Wall Street, it is still a challenge for small to medium-sized businesses to find steady footing in an uncertain econ-omy that comes with a post-2008 housing crisis world.
However, one on-cam-pus organization is trying to make it easier for fledging entrepreneurs to get a leg up on their dreams of making a living as their own boss while bringing jobs to Northeast Arkansas.
Sitting west of the Dean B. Ellis library, the Delta Center for Economic Development (DCED) is overseen by Ex-ecutive Director Alan McVey and is the base camp for a program constituting three different locations in Jones-boro that nurture small busi-nesses until they can thrive on their own.
“Most of the work that we do is with business and indus-try from a training, produc-tion-efficiency standpoint, trying to increase their level of production or enhance their level of profitability to sustain their businesses,”
McVey said. “Indirectly, we hope we’re having a positive impact on job opportunities for ASU students.”
McVey, who worked with the Arkansas Department of Economic Development before joining the DCED in 2006, said he’s always had respect for small-town com-munities after living in and commuting to work from Des Arc, a town about 60 miles from Little Rock.
“We’re home to corporate headquarters in Arkansas. At the same time, when you drive through communities, whether it’s Little Rock or Jonesboro or small commu-nities like Marked Tree, we have to recognize that small businesses add up to around 70 to 75 percent of our eco-nomic growth.”
McVey aims to keep that growth alive with programs like ASU’s Incubator and Cat-alyst. The DCED’s Incubator, or the Kruger Drive facility, is located in Jonesboro’s Indus-trial Park. The facility hous-es a 3,000-square-foot space that can be used as a distri-bution center and for light manufacturing. The DCED has worked with companies such as Nestle, Unilever and
DANIEL MCFADINSENIOR STAFF WRITER
Caitlin LaFarlette | Photo EditorMembers of the Chinese Acrobats perform in Centennial Hall Tuesday evening as part of Cultural Week. The ladies spun plates while doing headstands and flips across the floor.
By a show of hands, on Tuesday evening, the senators of the Student Government As-sociation (SGA) voiced their opinions to opt out of faculty and staff carrying concealed handguns on campus.
The board of trustees has put it into the hands of the Chancellor, the Secured Govern-ment Oversight Committee, Hunter Petrus, and Faculty Senate, according to Petrus.
“Although students can’t carry, I would like to see what (SGA’s) feelings are regarding opt-ing out or not opting out,” Petrus said. “So far,
the administration is leaning towards opting out at this point in time.”
Senator LaTasha Moore was in support of ASU-Jonesboro opting out.
“I know some schools have active shoot-er issues and other dangers, but I would feel more comfortable if our school decided to opt out,” Moore said.
Cpl. Traci Simpson explained that any fac-ulty and staff that wanted to carry a handgun would be required to have a license to carry.
“They would have to go to a concealed handgun class and they would have to qualify with that,” Simpson said. “They’re not just go-
ing to pass (handguns) out.”
Senator Chad Easton explained that the process of getting a license to carry is very ex-tensive.
“In order to obtain a conceal to carry li-cense you have to have your fingerprints run through the FBI, the FBI researches you and it takes 3 months usually, on average to get back, and it needs to be renewed every five years,” Easton said.
Petrus documented the vote and the com-ments.
“At this point in time, what we will do is I
will report back to them,” Petrus said. “I will have the vote and I will include your com-ments about making sure faculty and staff are given extra background checks and personal-ity checks are reported back to them and that every voice is heard.”
Simpson explained to the senators that fac-ulty and staff would have to make a responsi-ble decision whether or not they would want to carry a handgun.
“Think of it this way, when that professor straps on that gun on their hip or put it in their purse, they have it in their mind that if they had to use it, will they?” Simpson said.
TANYA GIRALDONEWS EDITOR
SGA, 4
THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013 PAGE 2ASUHERALD.COM
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Our View
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Many individuals see bullying as a teenage or adolescent problem, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Univer-sity students across America face the same sort of abusive behaviors as their younger siblings do in grade school.
Instead of college being a new chapter in life it is riddled with the same distresses as previous chapters. This is due to the fact that characters from previous chapters don’t disap-pear, just age.
Bullies are known to have higher substance abuse rates, greater mental health problems and have increased aggres-sive behaviors as adults. Sound familiar?
As imagined, these findings simply reinforce that bullies still exist in the adult world. In fact, according to the book “And Words Can Hurt Forever” by Garbino and deLara, bul-lying behavior that is not corrected becomes more violent as individuals age.
This means even though there is hope that individuals mature and there is a reduction of bullying, the bullying that exists is higher in intensity.
Here all along people have tricked us into thinking that the university was full of adults. It is supposed to be a place where ideas are shared freely and people feel safe to express themselves.
Just the sheer nature of the term bully creates images of bigger kids taking lunch money at recess. While this may please our internal bully-radar it falls very short definitional-ly of a true bully; a person who acts habitually cruel to others that are perceived weaker.
Bullying still exists on our campus and takes various forms. The genesis of cyber bullying has helped bridge the gap from the schoolyard to everywhere there is internet access, which sadly includes university life.
Whether the bullies choose to leave hateful Facebook posts or cruel Tweets the cyber attacks can be just as harmful on students.
According to Ark. Code Ann. §6-18-514 “Electronic act” means without limitation a communication or image trans-mitted by means of an electronic device, including without limitation a telephone, wireless phone or other wireless com-munications device, computer, or pager.
Under Arkansas laws it is not permissible to bully due to race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, socioeconomic status, academic status, disability, gender or gender identity, physical appearance, health condition, or sexual orientation.
Knowledge about bullying problems is vital in correcting years of ignorance. As author and founder of The Bullying Epidemic Foundation, Kathleen Patel says, “With ignorance comes fear- from fear comes bigotry. Education is the key to acceptance.”
As an educational institution it is time to reverse the big-otry, fear, and ignorance prevalent in our world. In this week celebrating cultures let’s call to end this unnecessary harm to our student body.
“Our View” is written by the editorial staff. The opinions are not necessarily reflective of the student body, faculty or administration of Arkansas State University.
An un-bully-vable problem
Recently Amanda Knox’s acquittal has been over-turned and she is facing the Italian Court order of a retri-al for the murder of Meredith Kercher.
While a person who has committed a crime deserves due punishment, this retrial is problematic from a variety of angles.
It is very important to re-member Amanda Knox is an American. Here in the United States, no person can be tried for the same crime twice.
This is a double jeopar-dy which is unconstitution-al. Readings from Frank Schmalleger’s Criminal Jus-tice: A Brief Introduction would indicate this unconsti-tutionality.
Recent news says that the court in Italy is not requiring Amanda Knox to be pres-ent for a trial. From a logi-cal standpoint how is it even possible to force someone to stand trial for a court if they are not required to be present in said court?
Assuming a retrial would take place, how would a sen-tence be carried out with Amanda Knox being on American soil?
Would the Italian gov-ernment contact the United States government and re-quest our country to surren-der Knox to Italian custody?
Would the Italian govern-ment possibly attempt to use force for her surrender to Italian custody?
Or would they resort to Interpol? These are issues that must be considered carefully.
Other articles question that there is not enough ev-idence for Amanda Knox to even stand a second trial.
Moreover, a reading of an-other article from NBC News states a lack of evidence hold-ing up in court is the grounds for Knox’s conviction being overturned in the first place.
With a lack of evidence of Knox’s involvement then,
as well as a lack of evidence for Knox’s involvement now, how are they even going to carry out a trial?
Moreover, these sources state Knox’ Italian boyfriend, Rafael Sollecito, may have also been involved, a suspect who was also acquitted.
If there was or is evidence against him, then he should not have been acquitted. If there was or is evidence against Knox, she should not have been acquitted.
The bottom line, however, is there must be evidentiary support a person commit-ted a crime. Readings from Frank Schmalleger’s previ-ously mentioned book would indicate this important point.
Basically, there must be an investigation of the crime, the evidence must point to the person suspected of commit-
ting the crime, and the suffi-cient evidence must hold up in court to convict the person suspected of committing the crime.
Readings from this book would also indicate convic-tions are usually overturned because of the lack of evi-dence.
Given all of these facts, if Amanda Knox is going to face any justice, then legally speaking, she is going to have to commit a different crime, be charged with such, and prosecuted for such, just as it was in O.J. Simpson’s situ-ation.
I am not defending Aman-da Knox. I am not saying she did commit the murder, but I am not saying she did not either. Anyone who commits a crime deserves due punish-ment.
I am just saying since the conviction was overturned, a retrial will carry a great deal of problems.
If they are going to retry Amanda Knox, they are go-ing to have to find some way to legally work around these problems.
Jason Holland is a crimonolo-gy major of Jonesboro
I generally frown upon laws restricting someone’s actions. So long as one is not infringing upon the rights of someone else, it is not the au-thority of the government’s to limit personal behavior.
The desire to prohibit what one deems unsuitable, whether it be the consump-tion of alcohol, the uttering of racially-charged language or the ownership of a firearm, stems not from a proper re-spect for liberty but out of a tyrannical urge to control the actions of others.
But just as your freedom to consume alcohol doesn’t extend to you the right to operate a vehicle while ine-briated, your freedom to text doesn’t mean you should be able to similarly threaten public safety.
Texting while driving is an example of your exercise of liberty endangering the lives of others and therefore falls within the government’s regulatory power, as the main function of government is the protection of rights.
There is a wealth of evi-dence demonstrating the risk those who text while driving pose not just to themselves
but also to others. The U.S. Department of
Transportation sponsored a 2009 study conducted by the Virginia Tech Transpor-tation Institute that showed the risk of crashing increases 23 times when the driver is texting.
It also found reading a text message distracts a driver for nearly five seconds on aver-age, or the same as driving the length of a football field at 55 miles per hour.
In 2010, the National Safe-ty Council estimated that 28 percent of auto crashes -- that’s 1.6 million collisions each year -- involve cell-phones, including at least 200,000 from texting. Texas A&M’s Transportation In-stitute conducted a study
in 2011 and found texting while driving doubled a par-ticipants’ reaction times and made them 11 times more likely to miss a flashing light they were periodically re-quired to respond to.
Furthermore, crash sta-tistics come from police re-ports that often lack infor-mation on whether a driver was distracted at the time of a collision, meaning the risk could be even higher than the data suggests, especially considering that more than 1 trillion text messages were sent in the United States in 2011 alone according to the telecommunications group CTIA.
We already have a law in Arkansas prohibiting all driv-ers from texting while behind
the wheel, and any effort to remove it would be irrespon-sible. While most other states also prohibit texting while driving, a federal ban would go against the principle of federalism and its mecha-nism within the Constitution, the 10th Amendment.
While talking on your cell-phone is risky enough, there is no reason to check your messages while driving.
If you feel it is imperative for you to check a text you re-ceive while driving, pull over to the side of the road or pull into a parking lot. The best option is to turn your phone off while driving to avoid the temptation.
Those who continue to text and drive despite state bans need to frequently be reminded they are putting themselves and their fellow drivers at risk.
So be mindful of your fellow drivers and don’t let something as inconsequen-tial as a text message maim, or kill, you or anybody else.
Zach Lott is a sophomore his-tory major of Jonesboro.
“In 2010, the Nation-al Safety Council es-timated that 28 per-cent of auto crashes -- that’s 1.6 million collisions each year -- involve cellphones...”
- Zach Lott
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Have an opinion?
Texting and driving laws are acceptable
When double jeopardy doesn’t exist“If they are going
to retry Amanda Knox, they are go-ing to have to find some way to legally work around these problems.”
-Jason Holland
“Glass, record video.” “Glass, take a picture.” “Ok Glass, Google search for New York City skyscrapers.”
Responding much as Apple’s Siri does, Google is making progress on its newest item, Google Glass. Worn just like glasses, this device has a small computer-like screen controlled by your voice. If the user wants to search for something, whatever they are look-ing for will pop-up in the little screen. The user can also share live feed with others. The device has a small touch pad for control and a button on top to take pictures and shoot vid-eos.
Google Glass has many different functions. The glasses can show the user directions, send a text message, translate words to different languages and, of course, take videos and pic-tures.
The glasses are not available to purchase just yet. They are expected to be released to-ward the end of the year or the beginning of next year, but this has not been confirmed by Google yet. However, Google held a compe-tition asking people to post a message either on Twitter or Google+ about what they would do with the glasses. These chosen individuals are called “Glass Explorer’s.” According to the Huffington Post website, Google began con-tacting the 8,000 chosen explorers on Tues-day. The glasses are available to those explor-ers for $1,500. The explorers have to travel to New York, Los Angeles or the San Francisco Bay area in order to pick up their glasses.
According to Google, the glasses weigh less than normal sunglasses. At the moment, the glasses are not ready for prescription lenses. Google said they are working on it so people won’t have to take off their prescription glass-es in order to use the Google glasses.
Google Glass frames are made from titani-
um and will come in charcoal, tangerine, shale (gray), cotton and sky colors.
Although the glasses haven’t been released yet, a bar in Seattle has already declared the glasses will be banned from the building. Ac-cording to forbes.com, Seattle’s 5 Point Café has banned the glasses to protect their cus-tomers’ privacy.
Other states are also showing concern about people’s privacy and people’s safety when they are wearing the glasses. According to Fox News, West Virginia is already putting a law into motion about not being allowed to drive while wearing the glasses. Concerns about violating the “two-party consent” law in California, Washington and Nevada are also being brought into the spotlight. In these three states it is illegal for a person to record a conversation without the consent of the peo-ple involved.
Other concerns include not knowing when Google Glass is recording. A social media at-torney in Toronto, Arif Mahmood, told Fox News that it could be possible for the glass-es to record without the wearer of the glasses even knowing. However, one of the Google Project Glass advisers Thad Starner disagrees and told Fox News “Project Glass actually encourages better privacy in public places. There’s a signal on the glasses that show when it is recording.”
Google has posted several videos to their Google Glass webpage in order for potential buyers or people interested in the glasses to see how Google Glass works. Google hasn’t stated an official release date or a price, but it is expected to be released for less than the price of the $1,500 “explorer” glasses.
Anyone who is interested in receiving alerts about Google Glass can visit the website at www.google.com/glass. Follow the ‘How to Get One’ link and fill out your name and email address.
DreamWorks Animation’s newest family film, “The Croods,” presents another moralis-tic, entertaining film for all age groups, espe-cially its target audience – children.
The prehistoric film’s main moral lesson is to let go and try new things. According to Grug, voiced by Nicolas Cage, anything new is bad. However, Eep (Emma Stone) rebels by venturing out of the cave to discover new things.
In doing so, she meets Guy (Ryan Reyn-olds) who is on the “trail toward tomorrow.” Unfortunately, the Croods’ cave is destroyed and they are forced to accompany Guy on his adventure.
The Croods are informed the world is end-ing. Guy and Grug constantly bump heads on what is the best solution for survival. To make things even more interesting, Guy is crushing on Grug’s teenage daughter, Eep. But, Grug learns that life is about give and take, and ex-ploring new things isn’t bad.
The movement of settings from barren land covered in dust and maggots to green grass in the new land is a foreshadowing of the relationship between Grug and Guy. Grug is stubborn and his attitude constantly clashes with Guy’s attitude.
Grug is an old-fashioned character whose philosophy is if you leave the cave, you will die. He feels being sheltered in the cave is the only way to survive. Guy’s style is the oppo-site; he knows the world has more to give and living is the only way to get it.
Eep is free spirited like Guy. Although she does have similar traits as her father, she
doesn’t want to stay locked inside the cave. Despite disagreements, Grug and Guy are able to learn from one another and Grug fi-nally gives in and lets his emotions connect him with Eep to build that father-daughter relationship.
Luckily, the rest of the family, Ugga, Gran, Sandy, Thunk and Eep are open-minded throughout the journey. After all, the key is to survive the end of the world. Who would you side with?
The characters are different, yet some are bland. Ugga (Catherine Keener) is the moth-er of the family who spends most of her time just caring for her and Grug’s daughter, Sandy (Randy Thorn).
Thunk (Clark Duke) is the slow-minded brother, but Gran (Cloris Leachman) keeps the humor going with her comical remarks directed toward Grug, her son-in-law.
Somehow, the bland personas work be-cause of what the characters are: cavemen. Grug, Guy and Eep’s outspoken personalities created drama and a family oriented atmo-sphere, and this leads to the typical happy ending.
This comedy has a different sense of humor compared to other children’s movies. The set-ting is nothing but rocks and dirt in the be-ginning because they’re cavemen. There isn’t a princess or anything magical, yet it’s enlight-ening.
The movie was good, fresh and relatable in a sense. No, we aren’t cavemen, but it’s im-portant to know whatever the status, we don’t have all the answers and it’s ok to sit back and become a student.
Northeast Arkansas is situated in the per-fect location for finding the best in American entertainment. In Jonesboro the arts are alive and well, yet often go unnoticed by the mass-es. One comedy group, The NEA Comedians, is trying to change the comedy scene for the better.
The NEA Comedians are a relatively new collection of less than two dozen performers, ranging from first time rookies to veterans with a few years of experience under their belts. The group was largely the creation of professional comedian Gypsy Collins who corresponds with his fellow jesters via Face-book.
“I started as a spoken word poet in the late 90s. I use to make beer money winning poet-ry slams in Little Rock at the real punk pizza place called Vino’s,” Collins said. “After a year or so I had a lot of people come up to me and tell me my poetry was funny and I should try stand up, so I did.”
The stand-up group usually works the small scene, commonly at local bars and restaurants on Main Street. Favorite haunts include small shows at Black Arrow Tattoos and their biggest event, the monthly NEA Comedians @ 311, located at 311 Church St. But the individual members are not restricted to simply performing with the group. Some have traveled, performing in typical and not
so typical venues from Memphis to St. Louis and beyond.
“I’ve never done the same place twice yet,” says member Bo Grace, a 28-year Jonesboro local. “I did it once at a club in Memphis, and here at a predominately black illegiti-mate bootleg club a few years ago. I seemed to do well each time real-ly. People re-membered it.”
Ty p i c a l -ly, the
s h o w ’s s t a y straightfor-ward. Everyone takes turns on stage to give their set in a first come, first serve method and a five minute time limit is given for each act, though loosely enforced, allow-ing for some to linger for a few extra laughs. The content of the acts predictably differ from person to person and much is clearly meant for a mature audience.
“It is truly freeing to be able to put all your faults and fears in a joke form and have people
laugh at them because they are going through the same stuff,” Collins said. “I consider my style as dumb jokes for smart people. I dis-cuss race, social issues, drugs and sex jokes. I’m not for the faint of heart.”
Another routine member, Drew Brown, a 23-year-old of Swifton and 2012
g r a d u -ate of
ASU, d e -
scribes his act as
“deadpan.”
“I have a robotic monotone voice and I’m not very emotionally expressive, so me just being my-self on stage apparently translates to deadpan humor,” Brown said.
But no matter the style, each comedian has received their fair share of laughs and blank stares, but that’s to be expected. Some have even made money in the process, but feel
there’s a richer reward. The NEA Comedians are not simply about the act or paychecks. Making people feel good and creating a jovial atmosphere is only one part of the game.
Brown considers “the rush” he gets from performing as a rewarding part of his routine.
“I do not have any experience being on stage and performing in front of people, so I feel a huge rush every time I do comedy. It’s a really addictive aspect of stand-up,” Brown said.
Bo Grace agrees with Brown’s feelings, “I just kind of feel this glazed over peaceful feeling when I’m the invulnerable guy on the stage who can say anything and people will laugh about it instead of punching me.”
Overall, the NEA Comedians are meant to be an experiment for young jokesters to work with compatible people, hone their skills in public performances, and find those perfect places that fit them just right.
“This is not one person trying to do some-thing to get famous. There is a group of like-minded folks out there that feel just like I do: The joy is in making folks laugh,” Collins said. “People who live busy lives but give up their free time to try and get a local art scene happening. If anything I want people to know that comedy does happen in Jonesboro and they have amazing comedians around here. The more the people come out to support local artists the better the comedy scene will get.”
THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013 PAGE 3ASUHERALD.COM
BRIAN RANDALLSTAFF WRITER
ADEEJA ANDERSONSTAFF WRITER
MICHAELA KABERLINESTAFF WRITER
Courtesy of GoogleGoogle’s new Glass technology could pave the way for future innovations in “smart” technology. The device has not yet been given an official release date or price range, but is expected to cost less than the “explorer” price of $1,500.
The joke’s on JonesboroLocal comedy group seeks to change Jonesboro art scene
Dreamworks sets ‘The Croods’ in stone
Google develops futuristic smart glasses
THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013 PAGE 4ASUHERALD.COM
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Caitlin LaFarlette | Photo EditorUPD officer Traci Simpson speaks at SGA Tuesday afternoon about working towards making RAD classes available for college credit.
SGA, Continued
Takako Okumura | Staff PhotographerLab manager Raquel Torres works in the Catalyst center.
“That’s something we have to think about every morn-ing or every night when we (UPD) strap on our gun on our hip. Are we willing to use that if it came to that point.”
Simpson also told SGA that the Rape Agression De-fense (R.A.D.) course has taken one step closer towards counting for college credit.
“So far the Student Affairs office gave us the go-ahead. So keep your fingers crossed that hopefully this last hur-dle, we can get over it and we
can offer it for college credit,” Simpson said. “If not, we will just continue to offer it for free for females.”
The Senators passed their resolution of a proclamation to thank the executive coun-cil with a unanimous vote.
This was the last SGA meeting for the 2012-2013 year. The next meeting will be on April 9 at 5:30 p.m. on the 8th floor of the Dean B. Ellis Library and the new senate will be appointed.
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Minimum Qualifications for Membership 1. Full-time student (12 credit hours per semester) 2. Must have completed two full academic semesters at time of application (24 credit hours) 3. Minimum 3.00 Grade Point Average 4. Free of Disciplinary Action
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Chancellor's Ambassadors
it is one of the best things to come out of that website.”
Marsico was excited when he realized he got the chili pepper next to his name on the website.
“Nothing is sexier than knowledge, and it is best to be a life-long learner,” Marsico said. “So, for people committed to a life of research and education, the pepper just gets hotter and hotter with
time. Please come see me again in 20 years to determine my hot-factor then.”
Holly Hall is an assistant professor of journalism and also carries the chili pepper on the website. “At first I was worried the email I received about it was spam. And then I thought perhaps it was an early April Fools joke,” Hall said. “When I realized it was legit, and
having just turned 40 this year, it was a nice surprise.”
According to Hall, this isn’t the first time she has received compliments from students. “A student did comment that I was ‘foxy’ in an evaluation a few years ago. I hadn’t heard that term since the 1970s,” Hall said. “Can this accolade go in my tenure and promotion portfolio?”
TEACHERS, Continued
Nordex, a German com-pany that produces wind tur-bines, which occupied the in-cubator while building their new facility in the Industrial Park.
According to the fall issue of ASU’s “Measure” maga-zine, 84 percent of companies that graduate from Incubator programs, like the one oper-ated by the DCED, go on to stay in their local community.
The Incubator is an ad-dition to the Catalyst Inno-vation Accelerator, a 9,000-foot collection of 10 offices and 18 laboratories located on the first floor of the Ar-kansas Biosciences Institute (ABI), which is devoted to the growth of companies related to any field within STEM (Science, Technology, Engi-neering and Math).
“You won’t find that kind of wet lab space, connected to that type of research facility, anywhere else in this part of Arkansas,” McVey said. “You would almost have to travel to St. Louis or the Memphis area to find that.”
McVey said the hardest part of someone trying to start a new business is get-ting through what some call the “Valley of Death,” when fledging business owners
have trouble raising enough capitol to “sustain their idea.”
For some, this is where Charles Fullen comes in. A management consultant for the non-profit group alt.Con-sulting, which also has an of-fice in the Delta Center, Ful-len’s group helps very small businesses get bank loans, write out their business plan and any other problems they encounter.
“It’s a good fit in that (the Delta Center is) working with communities from a commu-nity stand point and we’re working in communities from an individual business standpoint,” said Fullen.
Under the alt. umbrella fall divisions like alt.Capital, which provides micro loans, alt.Energy which works with farmers and municipalities to save money on electricity and fuel bills and the recently acquired Delta Made, which works with home based busi-nesses to promote their prod-ucts.
“Together we can go into a community and offer some economic development tools that they might not have,”
said Fullen. alt.Consulting also provides assistance to entrepreneurs who are seek-ing to retire and transfer control of their venture to capable hands. This part of the business, called “Keep it Local,” tries to seek interest from ASU students who are on the verge of graduating.
“We have some that, for one reason or another, they want out of the business,” Fullen said. “We try to transi-tion them to some young en-trepreneur that’s coming out of college who doesn’t have any money.”
This process gives gradu-ates the ability to take control of a small business without having to raise a lot of their own capital.
Fullen admits alt.Consult-ing, which has worked with 300 companies in the last year, can do more to attract the attention of students at ASU.
“We do have some stu-dents that come over and they’re at the point of grad-uation. Some of them come back after graduation and say ‘hey, I want to start a business
and here’s my idea,’” Fullen said. He then makes sure the student knows the details of starting a business, and exactly what they’re getting into.
Fullen, a 1976 ASU grad-uate with an accounting de-gree, said the most important piece of advice he has for any student about to graduate who wants to own their own business is to do their re-search. Seeking out informa-tion on the Internet can po-tentially lead them in a more profitable direction than they were expecting.
When his group is success-ful, and Fullen estimates they are 75 to 80 percent of the time, it’s completely worth-while. Through the process, they become somewhat akin to “godparents” for the aspir-ing entrepreneur’s plan.
“Their success, it tugs at your heart,” Fullen said. “It really means something to us when you can drive by a business and say, ‘those guys, we were really able to help them.’”
BUSINESSES, Continued
ASU has given a test run to the Saferide program that allows students to visit and have safe transportation to downtown Jonesboro.
Improving the Saferide program was a priority that Hunter Petrus, president of SGA, had at the top of his agenda.
For two years SGA, ASU administra-tion and Jonesboro officials have worked on the program through the Jonesboro Economic Transit System (JETS.) It is a program that allows students easier ac-cess to downtown Jonesboro from the ASU campus.
“We need to continue providing bet-ter transportation for the safety of stu-dents going downtown,” Petrus said.
Petrus said that this program would allow students to get a ride from the campus to downtown, which would be a safe and economical alternative to each student driving downtown.
The first official test of the program was performed March 2 along with Rockabilly Boogiefest presented by the ASU Museum.
JETS provided a special express ser-vice between the ASU Military Science Building and downtown Jonesboro.
People were able to catch a ride at the intersection of Aggie Road, Univer-sity Loop West and Marion Berry Park-way on campus, and they were dropped off at Huntington Avenue. The service drove between downtown and the cam-pus every 15 minutes, from 7:30 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. The fare was $1.25 for an adult with a discounted rate for ASU students at 60 cents.
Petrus said there hasn’t been more discussion since the official test, but the program’s draft will be under discussion soon.
“At first, we will work on the budget, and then actions will be taken,” he said.
A date for the next official test is not scheduled yet.
“We can continue to improve it,” he added.
Cody Garner, a senior business major of Jonesboro likes going downtown on the weekends and drink with his friends. He hopes the bus program would be car-ried out soon because it would be a safe way to get students home.
“Most of the time, one of us has to opt out of drinking and be our designat-ed driver.” Garner said. “If there’s a shut-tle like that, I would be happy to use it, then all we can enjoy drinking and have a fun time together.”
According to Arkansas Drunk Driv-ing Statistics, 194 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes in the state in 2011.
One successful example comes from the University of Texas who partnered with Capital Metro Transportation to offer the students shuttle rides to and from the campus on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights to prevent the stu-dents from driving drunk. The bus trav-els to bars and concerts, providing free and safe transportation.
The program also helps internation-al students, who don’t have a car, taking them around town.
Emin Afandiyev, a freshman mechan-ical engineering major, of the Republic of Azerbaijan, is one of them.
“It’s more difficult for us to get to the bars and restaurants in downtown than those who have cars here,” he said. “It would be nice if the bus plan would be carried out.”
Several international students use the shopping shuttle, provided by the Inter-national Program for those who don’t have a car. The shuttle runs three times a week, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. It departs in front of the OIP and trav-els to the Turtle Creek Mall, Wal-Mart, Kroger and Caraway Plaza.
“The shopping shuttle helps me a lot, but it still limits our field of activities in town,” Jungmin Lee, a business major of South Korea said. “If there was a shut-tle going downtown at night, I would be happy to use the service.”
Petrus said the new SGA would try to continue his goal to increase safety and provide better transportation ser-vice for both domestic and international students.
March 15Officer Robert Peevey was
on foot patrol when he no-ticed the door to one of the Northpark Quad buildings was propped open. After se-curing the doors, Peevey re-ported walking the second and third floors of the build-ing.
After six minutes, he went to the same door and noticed that it had been propped open again.
According to the report, Peevey had dispatch review the stairwell video and give a description of the person propping open the door. The female in the video was wear-ing a blue jacket, red shorts and blue shoes.
After a few minutes, Peevey watched a male at-tempt to open the door. Peevey approached the male and asked who had propped the door open for him.
After the man contacted the person who had propped the door open, a female matching the description of the girl in the video came downstairs.
Peevey asked the suspect, Kadreanna Scofield, if she was the one who propped the door open and she re-plied yes. Peevey advised her that a residence hall violation would be completed.
March 16Officer Russell Gray was
dispatched to Collegiate Park in reference to an assault in progress.
After observing, and re-porting, a suspicious vehicle,
Gray spoke with the victim who said the vehicle was the suspect attempting to leave the scene. Gray reported the victim crying and shaking and said that the suspect, Sherwin Jones, had been kicking her door attempting to get in, but didn’t place his hands on her.
Jones was issued a Persona Non Grata (PNG), and banned from Collegiate Park and a student referral for assault.
March 20Officer Steven Wilson re-
ported working on a case in-volving three juveniles who needed to be picked up by parents.
When Derrick Moton ar-rived to pick up his child, Of-ficer Wilson requested his ID.
After running his ID through the system, a war-rant came back out of Cross County. Moton was notified of the warrant, handcuffed and then told that he would be patted down for contra-band. Moton told Wilson that he had marijuana in his sock.
After a full pat down, Wil-son found two sandwhich bags of marijuana weighing .9 ounces in the bag.
Moton was taken to the car and driven to the Craig-head County Detention Cen-ter, where he awaited pickup for Cross County.
-Compiled by Lindsey Blakely, editor-in-chief
A tweet sent mocking a girl’s appearance, a Facebook post degrading a student’s sexu-al orientation and blogs started to “hate on” a fraternity member. All of these are forms of the vicious and cruel electronic phenomenon known as “cyberbullying.”
Cyberbullying is one of the most malicious and most elusive forms of bullying and con-tinues to be a problem in high schools and colleges throughout the country. Cellphones and the Internet offer bullies an anonymity not found with face-to-face confrontation, as well as a much larger audience for the disgrac-ing of their victim.
In a study published last February, by the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, research-ers found more than 25 percent of teens said they have been threatened or harassed online or through texts.
“Cyberbullying is neither an epidemic nor a rarity,” Justin W. Patchin, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, said. “Now, it seems, cyberbullying occurs and is reported at an almost constant rate.”
Dan Olweus, an intervention research and developer of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Plan, said, “There has not occurred a marked increase in the prevalence rates of cyberbully-ing over the past five or six years.”
His findings are mirrored by the data col-lected by the Cyberbullying Research Center showing e-bullying occurrence remaining relatively constant over the 10-year period studied.
But low occurrence statistics are of little comfort to bullied victims. Kristy Russell, a counselor with the ASU Counseling Center, has seen firsthand the effect electronic bully-ing can have on victims.
“A lot of times we’ll see people recluse, they’ll stop going to school, they’ll want to ho-meschool. They’ll drop out of college, they’ll get a job where they can just fall into the crowd,” Russell said. “Another one of the ef-fects would really be the loss of who they are. Their confidence goes to nothing, and they become a totally different person.”
Bullying has become more public, which has only made things worse. “If it’s out on Facebook, if it’s on Twitter, everybody’s see-
ing it, so you feel like you have no escape. Once your name has been slandered, it’s hard to recover from that sometimes,” Russell said. “And really, the most horrifying effect of bul-lying is suicide.”
Though online verbal threatening may be less common in college students than teens, slander and name disgracing are prevalent and can pose a real problem for those seeking internships, jobs and employment opportuni-ties.
One infamous website known for the slander and libel appearing on it, is Topix. Although originally conceived as a nation-al and local news sharing forum, comment-
ers utilized the site for malicious purposes, from spreading reputation-marring gossip to sparking accusatory debates.
“Topix was (originally) created to inform people. It was more of a social media type thing, but it’s become more of a rumor mill than I think they wanted,” Russell said. “Ba-sically, anybody can go on there and write something about somebody and then other people can write under it. So (website users) can talk about people, slander them, whatever they want to do.”
Topix became a topic itself when the small-town communities it catered to began using the site as an additional means for gossip.
Commenting on this phenomenon, New York Times writer A. G. Sulzberge said, “The same websites created as places for candid talk about local news and politics are also hubs of unsubstantiated gossip, stirring wide-spread resentment in communities where ties run deep, memories run long and anonymity is something of a novel concept.”
Measures were taken by Topix to remove slanderous content, but a decreased flow of website visitors prompted site operators to once again loosen the rules.
While discussion moderators could, and do, help mitigate some of the negative con-tent circulating on Topix, there are too many discussions going on simultaneously for chat police to effectively monitor.
“There are a lot of moderators on (Topix), but typically they let a lot of things go. I think some things go further than people want them to,” Russell said.
The Internet offers an anonymity many cyber bullies find appealing. If they can avoid being associated with their crimes, they rea-son that they can potentially avoid any re-percussions whatsoever. As many as 20 per-cent of teens have engaged in cyberbullying at some time, reports the Cyberbullying Re-search Center.
However, the perpetrator is not immune to experiencing the harmful effects of their elec-tronic bullying. Aside from the obvious con-sequences of tarnishing their own reputation, or even facing judicial prosecution, some bul-lies do end up regretting their actions.
“There are a lot of clients that we see who have remorse,” Russell said.
Some e-bullies target other people in order to make themselves feel better. Russell said. “When somebody is hurt, they want to hurt back. They want to retaliate. I think that’s a rising problem, and that’s something we’re seeing quite a bit.”
For bullied victims, recovery is possible. Russell said, “Obviously I’m a counselor, so I believe counseling is one really great thing. Also, being able to talk through it.” Having a support system of trusted friends is essential to every healthy recovery. And most impor-tantly, Russell said, “Just because one person says it, doesn’t mean that’s who you are.”
THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013ASUHERALD.COM PAGE 5
Kim Myoung Hyang| Staff PhotographerJETS provides the bus which stops in front of ASU Military Science Building, the intersection of Aggie Road, University Loop West and Marion Berry Parkway during the daytime on week-days.
Campus Crime
Bullying invades the Internet, social media
TANYA GIRALDONEWS EDITOR
Xinzhong Zhao| Staff PhotographerPhoto Illustration
BETHANY GALLIMORESTAFF WRITER
Saferide gives safe rides
The Arkansas State base-ball suffered a 10-4 loss at No. 11 Ole Miss last night at Ox-ford-University Stadium and Swayze Field.
The Red Wolves led 4-2 after 5 ½ innings but could not hold the lead as the Reb-els rallied to eight runs in the seventh and eighth runs to hand A-State is third loss against an SEC opponent this season.
A-State fell to 15-8 overall on the year, while Ole Miss improved to 22-4 on the year.
“We did some good things tonight and saw some posi-tives out there,” head coach Tommy Raffo said. “We had a couple of good innings and were able to manufacture some runs, but then they came back and had a couple of big innings late and when you are playing a team at home you can’t allow that to happen.”
ASU broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the sixth with a pair of runs to take a 4-2 lead.
Ryan Emery started the in-ning with a single to left-cen-ter and Logan Uxa reached when he attempted to move Emery to second with sac-rifice bunt, but a throwing error by the Ole Miss first baseman allowed the A-State left-hander to reach.
Emery advanced to third on the error, while Uxa moved to second on the play.
Emery scored on the next at-bat when Claude John-son sent a single to the left side and Austin Baker fol-lowed with a single down the left field line that allowed to Uxa score and give the Red Wolves a 4-2 advantage.
The Rebels loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom half, but Seth McWil-liams pitched out of the jam without allowing a run to cross the plate.
McWilliams struck out Will Allen for the first out of the inning and then got pinch-hitter Holt Perdzocok to fly out to short left field and Stuart Turner was thrown at home trying to tag up on the
play to end the inning. The lead would not last,
however, as Ole Miss scored five run in the bottom of the seventh to take a 7-4 lead.
The Rebels were aided by two fly balls to shallow left and center field than just fell out of the Red Wolves out-field that helped extend the inning.
The Rebels tacked on three more in the bottom of the eighth inning to set the final at 10-4.
Ole Miss took a 1-0 lead after the first inning but the Red Wolves bounced in the top of the second inning. Johnson reached base after being hit by a pitch and Ryan Roberts continued his hot hitting at the plate by driving in Johnson with an RBI dou-ble to right-center field.
Roberts moved to third af-ter a sacrifice bunt from Aus-tin Baker and scored on an infield single from Alex Potts to give ASU a 2-1 advantage in the top of the second in-ning.
The Rebels wasted little time in erasing the early defi-cit, getting the run back in the bottom of the inning when Sikes Orvis scored on an RBI single by Preston Overbey.
Orvis led off with a bloop single to shallow center field and then moved into scoring position after Woodhouse was called for a balk.
Cody Woodhouse start-ed the game and went 3.2 innings, but was lifted in the bottom of the fourth inning after putting two runners on base.
Freshman Tanner Ring replaced him and proceed-ed to get a groundout to get A-State out of the inning before any damage could be done.
The Red Wolves will trav-el to Miami, Fla., for a three-game Sun Belt Conference series with Florida-Interna-tional this weekend.
Tommorrow night’s game is set to begin at 5 p.m. central time, while Saturday’s contest will have a 3 p.m. start.
Sunday’s game will start at 10 a.m. to help accommodate A-State’s travel schedule.
ASUHERALD.COM THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013 PAGE 6
Xinzhong Zhao| Staff PhotographerJunior sprinter Richard Williams trains during practice Tuesday afternoon.
PRESS RELEASESPORTS INFORMATION
LYNDSEY PATTERSONSTAFF WRITER
ZACH LOTTSTAFF WRITER
Outdoor track season kicked off for the ASU Track and Field team last weekend in Louisiana and will contin-ue as the team travels to com-pete in Conway this weekend. The UCA Open will begin Friday morning at 10 a.m. and continue into Saturday afternoon, taking place at the Bill Stephens Track/Soccer Complex.
Distance coach Kyle Chandler uses the results of each meet to help design the team’s workouts.
“We’re early in the season and excited to see how a vari-ety of athletes, some of whom are competing for the first time, will perform,” Chandler said. “These performances should provide a solid base-line from which we can build workouts around in helping athletes improve throughout the remainder of the season.”
Each meet prior to the conference meet is used for athletes to practice events and earn seeds that will ul-timately benefit them for the conference meet. This weekend’s meet will be an opportunity for the team to continue this conference preparation through compe-tition.
Head track and field coach Jim Patchell is excited about the upcoming meet.
“This will be our first trip to UCA for a meet. They have a new mondo track similar
to ours so we are looking forward to competing there,” Patchell said. “We use our early meets as opportunities to work on some things so that we can be at our best when it counts at the conference meet. Hopefully we will have good weather and be able to get some things done this weekend.”
Hosted by the UCA Bears, the UCA Open will include Division I, Division II, and Di-vision III schools. Competition will include various schools from with-in Arkansas, in-cluding University of Arkansas- Pine Bluff, and Sun Belt Conference ri-val University of Arkansas- Little Rock. There will also be teams from Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma.
For more in-formation about the ASU track and field team, includ-ing the outdoor season sched ule and results, please visit www.asta-teredwolves.com.
Track and Field team prepares for UCA meet
Xinzhong Zhao | Staff PhotographerSophomore pitcher Levi Shordon winds up to throw the ball during a baseball game this season.
Spring is a time of birth and rejuvenation, signaling the end of brutish cold, and, most importantly, it serves as a reminder that baseball is just around the corner.
But there’s football to think about, too. As the saying goes, football is a year-round sport, and time spent in the 15 prac-tices allowed in the spring by the NCAA is crucial for coaches looking to install new schemes and players seeking to shoot up the depth chart.
New Arkansas State head coach Bryan Harsin and his staff kicked off spring practice on March 11 and, after taking time off for spring break, the latest incarnation of the Red Wolves returned to the practice field and began diving into Harsin’s offensive scheme.
Much like Gus Malzahn, Harsin emphasizes tempo, but he says his first concern is execution.
“I want (the offense) to operate successfully, number one,” Harsin said. “If we have to go out there and slow the pace down on the offensive side to be successful on our plays, we’ll do that. Now, we’d like to create to where we can do that with some speed in what we’re doing.”
Some of the largest changes on offense are positional shifts. Junior running back Frankie Jackson was moved to the defen-sive secondary, as was sophomore Rocky Hayes, who was re-cruited as a cornerback but saw significant time on offense last season. Hayes will be used on both sides of the ball.
On Tuesday, the team worked on situational drills empha-sizing red zone offense and third down offense in addition to maintaining tempo. Harsin says one of his main concerns is
physicality on both sides of the ball, especially in the run game. A strong run defense is also the top goal of new defensive
line coach Steve Caldwell, who said his players aren’t devel-oping as quickly as he’d like but are adjusting well to concepts carried over from last season.
“The thing I have to remember (is that) I’m their fourth coach in four years,” Caldwell said, adding that he wants play-ers to exit camp exhibiting “great technique, but we’re not close to that yet.”
Having defensive coordinator John Thompson back for a second season provides stability and continuity for the de-fense, and Thompson says he’s been able to dig a little deeper into his scheme.
Thompson and Caldwell singled out players such as Ryan Carrethers, Kyle Coleman and Eddie Porter as upperclassmen who have excelled in practice, while those like Chris Stone and Quintaz Struble were mentioned as younger players who could make an impact, as well.
On special teams, the main focus is on who will punt. Spe-cial teams coordinator Kent Riddle said senior kicker Brian Davis is competing for the job, but sophomore Luke Ferguson and freshman Max Coffin are also in the mix as the coaches would prefer not to tax Davis by having him pull double duty.
ASU will host a high school coaching clinic this weekend as part of spring practice, giving local coaches the opportunity to see the Red Wolves’ coaching staff in action, and next week will give the community a chance to see how the team is de-veloping, as the practice on April 5 will be open to the public.
After that, the spring game on April 13 will be the last chance to watch the team before the fall.
Football program springs to lifeCourtesy Photo | Sports Information
Head coach Bryan Harsin instructs players during spring football practice on Tuesday afternoon.
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Red Wolves fall to Rebels