The 2010 census is fast ap- proaching, and college campuses will not be left out; census workers will deliver forms to UA dormitories and fraternity and sorority houses after April 1 to be filled out and returned, a U.S. Census Bureau of- ficial said. About six weeks ago, census workers visited each of the group quarters on the UA campus and met with the heads of those quar- ters, such as resident assistants and house mothers, said Carl Henson, manager of the local census office. Census workers were told how many individuals were living in the quarters so they could deliver the correct number of forms needed, and times to do the actual counts were set up for after Census Day April 1, Henson said. Census forms will be left with the facility heads, and they will have about five days to distribute and then collect com- pleted forms, he said. “Each college can elect to do the census slightly different,” said Laura Waldon, partnership spe- cialist in Boston for the Census on Campus campaign and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender com- munity. But students must fill out the forms to get an accurate count, she said. “If the school was just to give a number, that wouldn’t give that snapshot of America that the U.S. Census Bureau is trying to get, and it wouldn’t allow those students to be given visibility on the census,” Waldon said. The U.S. Census Bureau counts University of Arkansas | Fayetteville, Ark. VOL. 104, NO. 25 | Single Issue Free About you. For you. For 104 years. Page 1|WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2010 6 WWW. UA TRAV.COM MORE NEWS. LESS PAPER. UATrav.com The sterling silver necklace hangs halfway down Whitney Byrd’s chest and rests in the mid- dle of a thick scar, which is hidden under Byrd’s T-shirt. On her right forearm she has another scar, this one less hidden and freshly cut. Byrd, 18, was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, the most common type of skin cancer, in July last year. After a breakup in early 2009, she would lay in a tanning bed 20 minutes ev- ery day. This went on for three months until the sun came with spring, and she took her tan to the poolside. Friends warned Byrd she would get cancer, she said, but she loved her golden-bronze skin and wanted to keep it, darken it. Her complexion did get darker. But the dark skin came with ab- normal moles, and she visited the dermatologist. He diagnosed her, and she had surgery in July and October of last year. The cancer grew back and she had another operation in January, and again two weeks ago. Removing the cancer from her chest in October scared her most. “I looked down, and I seri- ously saw my muscle tissue,” she said. Tanning bed owners earnestly deny that their tanning beds are to be blamed for cancer, while research suggests that UV light directly correlates to skin cancer. Legislators from New York and Pennsylvania introduced to Congress in January the Tanning Bed Cancer Control Act, which aims to tighten regulation on the tanning industry by increasing taxes, regulating the amount of UV rays emitted, and re-establish- ing a limit indoor tan-goers can be exposed to (which is currently once every day). The standards governing tanning beds were last updated in 1985, according to Maloney. House.gov, New York Rep. Caro- lyn Maloney’s official Web site. “We’re seeing younger and younger people,” said dermatolo- gist Missy Clifton, who runs Pre- mier Dermatology in Bentonville. “A lot of them come in because of tanning.” Another dermatologist, Eric Stewart of Ozark Dermatol- ogy Clinic in Fayetteville, said he sees one to two cases of invasive melanoma at his office each year. Some salon owners blame irre- sponsible managers for indoor skin damage, not tanning beds and absent government regula- tions. “It’s not the tanning beds – it’s the owners that are being irre- sponsible with the tanners,” said Julie Bryan, four-year owner of Renaissance Tan in Fayetteville. That’s one part of the prob- Proposed tanning policies would protect skin, burn salon owners Brian Lofton Staff Writer ROBERT GAUTHIER/LOS ANGELES TIMES/MCT Tanning has grown in popularity since tanning regulations were set in 1985. To address the increase in usage and cancer cases, Congress is considering a Tanning Bed Cancer Control Act, which would increase taxes on tanning and regulate the amount of UV rays emitted from the beds. Student participation in U.S. census to affect community Taniah Tudor Assistant News Editor Powell takes the lead page 10 SPORTS Where science meets fashion page 6 LIFESTYLES See TANNING on Page 5 See CENSUS on Page 5 Census targets Facebook users Americans can now keep up with the decennial population count in ways never before imag- ined by the U.S. Census Bureau, thanks to the advent of the Internet and social networking technology. These technological advances will be used to reach out to demograph- ics commonly underrepresented in the census. New efforts in place this year for the decennial count include a Web site, Facebook campaign and blog from Census Director Robert Groves. The Facebook site is not just designed to target the frequently underrepresented 18- to 25-year- old demographic, but rather to reach Facebook users of all ages, said Rich Gerdes, assistant regional census manager. The Census Bu- reau Facebook page has more than 6,600 subscribers. One of the most significant ad- vantages of advertising for the cen- sus through Facebook is the fact that it uses a minimal amount of the Census Bureau’s approximately $340 million advertising budget, Gerdes said. “Really, there’s no cost because we’re paying someone anyhow, so it’s just their time and effort,” Gerdes said. Gerdes is the assis- tant manager for the Kansas City region, which encompasses Min- nesota, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma. Gerdes said it is too early to determine whether the Facebook page will be a successful method of advertising, but he suspects re- sponse numbers will be down in 2010 because of the slow economy. Difficulties in the housing market mean that many questionnaires will be sent to vacant houses, he said. “We’re right in the middle of the heat of the battle,” he said. Non-response errors are “a constant issue” when sampling an entire population, said Janine Parry, associate UA political science professor and director of the Arkan- sas Poll, an annual public policy poll of the state. Although she’s not sure if the new media campaign will increase the accuracy of the census, Parry said she is convinced it was the in- tent of the bureau. This year also represents the first time the census director has maintained a blog designed to keep followers updated and defuse myths related to the census. Gerdes said the blog has been well-received so far and probably will be continued even when the decennial census is finished. In addition to introducing a wave of advertising in new media, census officials hope to garner high responses by presenting the shortest questionnaire ever, Gerdes said. The 10-question “short form” asks respondents to provide their name, age, race, sex, date of birth, if they are of Hispanic origin, whether they own or rent their home, and marital status. Parry said she thought the shortened questionnaire was a good move by census officials be- cause it will help eliminate partial responses and non-responses. “Non-response error is the big- gest issue, statistically,” she said. “If someone shows up on your door- step and tells you something is go- ing to take 25 minutes to complete, most people are going to say they don’t have the time.” In the 2000 census, the long form was more than 50 questions and was estimated to take nearly 40 minutes to complete, according to the Web site of that census. Although citizens cannot yet fill out census forms on the Inter- net, the idea is currently in the ex- perimental phase, according to the bureau’s Web site. However, Gerdes noted that the data is more reliable when not filled out online. Nick DeMoss Senior Staff Writer Professors ‘make the grade’ at the UA Bailey Elise McBride News Editor See SURF on Page 5 See GRADES on Page 2 108 UA students receive SURF grants for research As the participant finishes the experiment, Alia Biller, a senior psychology major, hands him a $10 bill and thanks him for com- ing. Her participants come from a small pool, students currently en- rolled in Arabic classes, and this $10 incentive, possible through the Student Undergraduate Re- search Fellowship awarded to her, allows her to gather the number of participants she needs. SURF grants were awarded to 108 UA students enrolled in the arts, architecture, business, edu- cation, engineering and the sci- ences this year, more than double the number of UA students who received grants in 2008-09. The SURF grant enables “stu- dents to engage in learning be- yond the classroom and allows them to have a strong connection with the faculty,” said Suzanne McCray, director of the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards. The program was created in 1992 with a start-up grant from the National Science Foundation and is designed to provide high- achieving students the funds to conduct in-depth research in various fields while fostering positive relationships between student researchers and faculty mentors. The funding is now in the hands of the state of Arkansas and is administered through the Arkansas Department of Higher Education. Of the 108 students awarded, eight are from the Dale Bum- pers College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, three from the Fay Jones School of Architecture, 51 from the J. William Fulbright Col- lege of Arts and Sciences, eight from the College of Education and Health Professions, 16 from the College of Engineering and 22 from the Sam M. Walton Col- lege of Business. Biller’s research in psychol- ogy focuses on the phonological relationship between Arabic and English. Her participants look at English and Arabic translation pairs on a computer screen and have to decide if the translations are correct. Some words in Arabic have English embedded in them, such as the word for library, “maktaba,” which has the Eng- lish word “tab” in it. Biller mixes in these words and measures how long it takes the participant to decide if the translation is true or false. She is working with UA psy- chology faculty member William Levine, who helped her come up with the idea for research. Levine and Biller met every week for ideas and “once we came up with Saba Naseem Staff Writer JORDAN JOHNSON Contributing Photographer The U.S. census has a Facebook page that is intended to target not only college students but Facebook users of all ages. Have you ever had a teacher who really “made the grade”? Ac- cording to the professor-ranking Web site RateMyProfessors.com, the University of Arkansas places seventh among the nation’s uni- versities with the highest-ranked professors. “That’s something on a uni- versity level to be really proud of – because like a team, you don’t want to base your product on one or two stars, but on a whole team,” said Carlo DeMarco, the vice president of University Rela- tions for mtvU, which oversees and owns RateMyProfessors.com. “For the UA, it shows the school is doing a good job and it shows the students care and get on and rate their professors well.” The UA has 1,694 professors listed on the Web site. Instructors are rated on easiness, helpfulness, clarity and rater interest. They can also be given a chili pepper if the student considers them “hot.” Web sites like RateMyPro- fessors.com have recently been linked to grade inflation. Accord- ing to a Duke University study, the average college GPA rose from 2.93 in 1991 to 3.11 in 2006. Ka- plan recently conducted a study on professor-ranking Web sites and found that 45 percent of stu- dents who had visited these sites were influenced to take a given course based on “the easy grad- ing reputation of a professor.” “Our research shows that many of today’s college students are looking at multiple factors when picking out courses: overall teacher quality that will result in a good learning experience, but
Transcript
The 2010 census is fast ap-proaching, and college campuses will not be left out; census workers will deliver forms to UA dormitories and fraternity and sorority houses after April 1 to be filled out and returned, a U.S. Census Bureau of-ficial said.
About six weeks ago, census workers visited each of the group quarters on the UA campus and met with the heads of those quar-ters, such as resident assistants and house mothers, said Carl Henson, manager of the local census office.
Census workers were told how many individuals were living in the quarters so they could deliver the correct number of forms needed, and times to do the actual counts were set up for after Census Day April 1, Henson said. Census forms will be left with the facility heads, and they will have about five days to distribute and then collect com-pleted forms, he said.
“Each college can elect to do the census slightly different,” said Laura Waldon, partnership spe-cialist in Boston for the Census on Campus campaign and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender com-munity. But students must fill out the forms to get an accurate count, she said.
“If the school was just to give a number, that wouldn’t give that snapshot of America that the U.S. Census Bureau is trying to get, and it wouldn’t allow those students to be given visibility on the census,” Waldon said.
The U.S. Census Bureau counts
University of Arkansas | Fayetteville, Ark.VOL. 104, NO. 25 | Single Issue Free
About you. For you. For 104 years.Page 1|WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2010
6
WWW.UATRAV.COM
MORE NEWS. LESS PAPER. UATrav.com
The sterling silver necklace hangs halfway down Whitney Byrd’s chest and rests in the mid-dle of a thick scar, which is hidden under Byrd’s T-shirt. On her right forearm she has another scar, this one less hidden and freshly cut.
Byrd, 18, was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, the most common type of skin cancer, in July last year. After a breakup in early 2009, she would lay in a tanning bed 20 minutes ev-ery day. This went on for three months until the sun came with spring, and she took her tan to the poolside.
Friends warned Byrd she
would get cancer, she said, but she loved her golden-bronze skin and wanted to keep it, darken it.
Her complexion did get darker. But the dark skin came with ab-normal moles, and she visited the dermatologist. He diagnosed her, and she had surgery in July and October of last year. The cancer grew back and she had another operation in January, and again two weeks ago. Removing the cancer from her chest in October scared her most.
“I looked down, and I seri-ously saw my muscle tissue,” she said.
Tanning bed owners earnestly deny that their tanning beds are to be blamed for cancer, while research suggests that UV light
directly correlates to skin cancer.Legislators from New York
and Pennsylvania introduced to Congress in January the Tanning Bed Cancer Control Act, which aims to tighten regulation on the tanning industry by increasing taxes, regulating the amount of UV rays emitted, and re-establish-ing a limit indoor tan-goers can be exposed to (which is currently once every day).
The standards governing tanning beds were last updated in 1985, according to Maloney.House.gov, New York Rep. Caro-lyn Maloney’s official Web site.
“We’re seeing younger and younger people,” said dermatolo-gist Missy Clifton, who runs Pre-mier Dermatology in Bentonville.
“A lot of them come in because of tanning.”
Another dermatologist, Eric Stewart of Ozark Dermatol-ogy Clinic in Fayetteville, said he sees one to two cases of invasive melanoma at his office each year. Some salon owners blame irre-sponsible managers for indoor skin damage, not tanning beds and absent government regula-tions.
“It’s not the tanning beds – it’s the owners that are being irre-sponsible with the tanners,” said Julie Bryan, four-year owner of Renaissance Tan in Fayetteville.
That’s one part of the prob-
Proposed tanning policies would protect skin, burn salon owners
Brian LoftonStaff Writer
ROBERT GAUTHIER/LOS ANGELES TIMES/MCT
Tanning has grown in popularity since tanning regulations were set in 1985. To address the increase in usage and cancer cases, Congress is considering a Tanning Bed Cancer Control Act, which would increase taxes on tanning and regulate the amount of UV rays emitted from the beds.
Student participation in U.S. census
to affect community
Taniah TudorAssistant News Editor
Powell takes the leadpage 10
SPORTS
Where science meets fashionpage 6
LIFESTYLES
See TANNING on Page 5See CENSUS on Page 5
Census targets Facebook usersAmericans can now keep up
with the decennial population count in ways never before imag-ined by the U.S. Census Bureau, thanks to the advent of the Internet and social networking technology. These technological advances will be used to reach out to demograph-ics commonly underrepresented in the census.
New efforts in place this year for the decennial count include a Web site, Facebook campaign and blog from Census Director Robert Groves.
The Facebook site is not just designed to target the frequently underrepresented 18- to 25-year-old demographic, but rather to reach Facebook users of all ages, said Rich Gerdes, assistant regional census manager. The Census Bu-reau Facebook page has more than 6,600 subscribers.
One of the most significant ad-vantages of advertising for the cen-sus through Facebook is the fact that it uses a minimal amount of the Census Bureau’s approximately $340 million advertising budget, Gerdes said.
“Really, there’s no cost because we’re paying someone anyhow, so it’s just their time and effort,” Gerdes said. Gerdes is the assis-tant manager for the Kansas City region, which encompasses Min-nesota, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma.
Gerdes said it is too early to determine whether the Facebook page will be a successful method of advertising, but he suspects re-sponse numbers will be down in 2010 because of the slow economy. Difficulties in the housing market mean that many questionnaires will be sent to vacant houses, he said.
“We’re right in the middle of the heat of the battle,” he said.
Non-response errors are “a constant issue” when sampling an entire population, said Janine Parry, associate UA political science professor and director of the Arkan-sas Poll, an annual public policy poll of the state.
Although she’s not sure if the new media campaign will increase the accuracy of the census, Parry said she is convinced it was the in-
tent of the bureau.This year also represents the
first time the census director has maintained a blog designed to keep followers updated and defuse myths related to the census. Gerdes said the blog has been well-received so far and probably will be continued even when the decennial census is finished.
In addition to introducing a wave of advertising in new media, census officials hope to garner high responses by presenting the shortest questionnaire ever, Gerdes said.
The 10-question “short form” asks respondents to provide their name, age, race, sex, date of birth, if they are of Hispanic origin, whether they own or rent their home, and marital status.
Parry said she thought the
shortened questionnaire was a good move by census officials be-cause it will help eliminate partial responses and non-responses.
“Non-response error is the big-gest issue, statistically,” she said. “If someone shows up on your door-step and tells you something is go-ing to take 25 minutes to complete, most people are going to say they don’t have the time.”
In the 2000 census, the long form was more than 50 questions and was estimated to take nearly 40 minutes to complete, according to the Web site of that census.
Although citizens cannot yet fill out census forms on the Inter-net, the idea is currently in the ex-perimental phase, according to the bureau’s Web site. However, Gerdes noted that the data is more reliable when not filled out online.
Nick DeMossSenior Staff Writer
Professors ‘make the grade’ at the UA
Bailey Elise McBrideNews Editor
See SURF on Page 5
See GRADES on Page 2
108 UA students receive SURF grants for research
As the participant finishes the experiment, Alia Biller, a senior psychology major, hands him a $10 bill and thanks him for com-ing. Her participants come from a small pool, students currently en-rolled in Arabic classes, and this $10 incentive, possible through the Student Undergraduate Re-search Fellowship awarded to her, allows her to gather the number of participants she needs.
SURF grants were awarded to 108 UA students enrolled in the arts, architecture, business, edu-cation, engineering and the sci-ences this year, more than double the number of UA students who received grants in 2008-09.
The SURF grant enables “stu-dents to engage in learning be-yond the classroom and allows them to have a strong connection with the faculty,” said Suzanne McCray, director of the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards.
The program was created in 1992 with a start-up grant from the National Science Foundation and is designed to provide high-achieving students the funds to conduct in-depth research in various fields while fostering positive relationships between student researchers and faculty mentors. The funding is now in the hands of the state of Arkansas
and is administered through the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.
Of the 108 students awarded, eight are from the Dale Bum-pers College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, three from the Fay Jones School of Architecture, 51 from the J. William Fulbright Col-lege of Arts and Sciences, eight from the College of Education and Health Professions, 16 from the College of Engineering and 22 from the Sam M. Walton Col-lege of Business.
Biller’s research in psychol-ogy focuses on the phonological relationship between Arabic and English. Her participants look at English and Arabic translation pairs on a computer screen and have to decide if the translations are correct. Some words in Arabic have English embedded in them, such as the word for library, “maktaba,” which has the Eng-lish word “tab” in it. Biller mixes in these words and measures how long it takes the participant to decide if the translation is true or false.
She is working with UA psy-chology faculty member William Levine, who helped her come up with the idea for research. Levine and Biller met every week for ideas and “once we came up with
Saba NaseemStaff Writer
JORDAN JOHNSON Contributing Photographer
The U.S. census has a Facebook page that is intended to target not only college students but Facebook users of all ages.
Have you ever had a teacher who really “made the grade”? Ac-cording to the professor-ranking Web site RateMyProfessors.com, the University of Arkansas places seventh among the nation’s uni-versities with the highest-ranked professors.
“That’s something on a uni-versity level to be really proud of – because like a team, you don’t want to base your product on one or two stars, but on a whole team,” said Carlo DeMarco, the vice president of University Rela-tions for mtvU, which oversees and owns RateMyProfessors.com. “For the UA, it shows the school is doing a good job and it shows the students care and get on and rate their professors well.”
The UA has 1,694 professors listed on the Web site. Instructors are rated on easiness, helpfulness, clarity and rater interest. They can also be given a chili pepper if the student considers them “hot.”
Web sites like RateMyPro-fessors.com have recently been linked to grade inflation. Accord-ing to a Duke University study, the average college GPA rose from 2.93 in 1991 to 3.11 in 2006. Ka-plan recently conducted a study on professor-ranking Web sites and found that 45 percent of stu-dents who had visited these sites were influenced to take a given course based on “the easy grad-ing reputation of a professor.”
“Our research shows that many of today’s college students are looking at multiple factors when picking out courses: overall teacher quality that will result in a good learning experience, but
Susan Cooney is the city clerk for West Fork. After attending a state university for wildlife biol-ogy, she worked for 20 years in various veterinary clinics, ani-mal shelters and kennels, and she also worked as a pet-sitter. Six years ago, Cooney began her own waste-removal business called the Poop Fairy.
What exactly does your service entail?
I come in and remove dog poop. Some people stop using their back-yard and just let the dog take over, but after I do my job, they’re able to use their backyard.
How did you come up with the name Poop Fairy?
I was pregnant at the time and watching TV when there was a Fayetteville public service message about the public parks (encourag-ing) people to clean up after their dogs. Then this chunky guy with a moustache who was wearing a pink ballerina (outfit) came on the advertisement and said, “What? Did you think the poop fairy would clean it up?” and I thought, “Yes, the poop fairy will do it!”
How bad is the smell you deal with daily?
It’s really not as bad as it seems, even though it can be really bad. I’ve worked with animals for so long – now I either don’t have good sense of smell or I’ve trained myself not to smell it.
How long does a job normally take?
It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to do a yard or 25 minutes for a big-ger yard.
What do you wear when you’re doing the job?
I use Parvosol, a (canine) parvovi-rus-killing disinfectant to disinfect the soles of my feet, but I rarely step in anything. I use bags to touch things, and the first time I clean someone’s yard, I use latex gloves.
What do you do with the waste?
Right now I use a dumpster, so it goes to a landfill. I don’t have enough clients (for a compost). Someday, I’d also like to use a di-gester to make it into gas. If I was able to get enough clients, I’d love to do that.
Have you seen any crazy things when you’re working?
One time I was cleaning for a rent-al (house) and they had rabbits along with the two dogs and they never cleaned up. The rabbits had burrowed holes in the yard and the owners had blocked the holes with the rabbit poop and grass clip-pings.
What is a common mistake that people make in the care of their pet’s poop?
(A client) was using hay to cover the poop and it does not work. It absorbs the pee and compacts the poop, but it doesn’t go away. Never use grass clippings or hay and don’t think that mowing the lawn gets rid of it.
How does this work compare to your past work?
It’s a different situation because I’m a mom. I loved helping the ani-mals recover when I worked at the veterinary clinics, but that career was a totally different atmosphere. It was competitive and I wouldn’t have had a future if I didn’t con-tinue (pushing myself).
Have you thought of hiring more help?
If my client base grew to 150, that would require me to hire someone else to help. I don’t have a lot of clients, but they’re all really loyal. They are so happy and enthusiastic … and really relieved when I fin-ish my job.
Presentation to highlight cultural differences
The Registered Student Organization “EuroAmerican Crosscultural Understanding” will present a lecture about cultural differences in areas such as religions, health attitudes and dating at 5 p.m. March 10 in CHEM 132.
Volunteers needed for Regional Science and Engineering Fair
UA faculty, staff and students are needed to help with the Northwest Arkansas Regional Science and Engi-neering Fair Friday, March 12, at the Arkansas Union. Contact Lynne Hehr at [email protected] to volunteer.
Sierra Club to show documentary
The Sierra Club will show the documentary “Split Estate” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 16, in the Law School Courtroom. The documentary discusses the environ-mental and health impacts of producting natural gas from shale formations.
Biophysicist Steven Block to address bioterrorism in Maurer Lecture
Biophysicist Steven M. Block will speak on “Facing the Growing Threat of Bioterrorism” as the 2010 Robert D. Maurer Distinguished Lecturer at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 18, in Giffels Auditorium. A reception will fol-low. The lecture is free and open to the public. Block will also deliver a colloquium titled “The Biophysics of Gene Regulation, Studied One Molecule at a Time” at 4 p.m. Friday, March 19, in the Paul Sharrah Lecture Hall (Physics Building 133).
Take the NSSE Survey by March 26 for your chance to win prizes
Students should check their e-mails for their invitation to participate in the National Survey of Student Engage-ment, a questionnaire designed to gather feedback on students’ college experiences, both in and out of the classroom. Students who complete the survey by March 26 will have their name entered into a drawing for a $50 iTunes card. About 20 cards will be given away.
BRIEFLYspeaking
THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER | Page 2 |WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2010 NEWS
CORRECTIONSThe 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].
The Arkansas Traveler, the student newspaper at the University of Arkansas, is published every Wednesday 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 reflect the opinion of The Traveler. The editorial that appears on the left side of the opinion page is the opinion of this newspaper.
The editor makes all final content decisions.
The Arkansas Traveler is a member of the Arkansas College Media Association,and the Associated Collegiate Press.
Susan Cooney, also known as “the Poop Fairy,” stands beside her poop-mobile in West Fork. Cooney started the business in 2004 to help people reclaim their yards and provide a useful service to Benton and Washington counties.
April RobertsonSenior Staff Writer
GRADESfrom Page 1
also instructors who don’t like to award a lot of C’s and D’s,” said Jeff Olson, vice president of research at Kaplan Test Prep. “While it makes sense that students would opt for more lenient graders, it also helps explain the recent prevalence of grade inflation.”
DeMarco said that he sees the site as a tool, or only one piece of a student’s decision-making pro-cess.
“When I was in college, I asked
my friends and other students for their recommendations,” DeMar-co said. “RMP is essentially doing the same thing, but rather than depending on the opinion of one or two people, it allows you to call upon a much larger voice.”
Other conclusions of the Ka-plan survey include that, overall, students consider RateMyProfes-sors.com to be more reliable than not, and 69 percent of students who log on use the site to select their classes.
“People have to take that into consideration that the landscape of higher education is a lot differ-ent than it was in 1991,” DeMarco
said. “I really think they’re not out there looking for an easy A – they’re trying not to get screwed by a professor and instead take a class from someone who will teach and inspire them.”
The site, which boasts more than “6,500 schools, 1 million professors and 10 million opin-ions,” is used by UA students for various reasons, from leaving multiple bad ratings for teachers they don’t like to searching for the hottest professor for a given class.
“I use it to help pick out my professors, and I actually refuse to take a class unless the profes-sor has ratings and has at least a
B average (what I’d hope to get in the class) on their ratings,” said Jena Detter, a junior psychology major at the University of Kansas. “I also use it when studying to see what past students say about what they concentrate on (lecture vs. book).”
Rebecca Howard, a doctoral candidate in the history depart-ment, said she wants a few scary ratings from students “so all the slackers don’t flock to my class-es.”
“Also, I’m a little concerned about which professors in the his-tory department were rated ‘hot,’” Howard said.
THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER |UATRAV.COM WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2010| Page 3 CENSUS
Come see our entire chef staff create special dishes in this week’s featured dining hall.
American Community Survey probes deeper than census
The American Community Survey is stirring up questions among respondents by probing to a deeply personal level in order to obtain demographic information for the United States government’s records.
Although not part of the de-cennial census, the ACS asks the same questions that formerly comprised the long-form census questionnaire, Rich Gerdes said in a phone interview. Gerdes is the assistant manager for the Kansas City region, which encompasses Minnesota, Missouri, Iowa, Arkan-sas, Kansas and Oklahoma. It is conducted throughout the decade as opposed to once every 10 years as part of an effort toward greater accuracy, Gerdes said.
Like the decennial count, the information obtained by the annual ACS is used to help de-termine the proper allocation of federal funding worth more than $400 billion to local communi-ties. The data are used to manage federal programs or comply with federal laws, regulations or court decisions, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Web site.
Unlike the decennial count, however, the ACS is conducted every year in areas with a popu-lation of more than 65,000 and serves to supplement information gained by the census, according to the Census Bureau’s Web site.
Three-year estimates are available for areas with a population of more than 20,000, and five-year estimates are available for areas with fewer than 20,000.
The federal government needs to know about the social, economic, housing and demo-graphic characteristics to make the necessary appropriations of funding, according to a summer 2009 statement from the Census Bureau. Questions cover a variety topics including fertility, ancestry and health insurance coverage.
The census itself asks only for respondents’ name, age, sex, date of birth, telephone number, His-panic origin, race, permanence of residency, if they own or rent, and household relationship.
The information, Gerdes said, is available for public viewing and is commonly used by government agencies, companies and schools to help decide where to place fa-cilities. Of course, there are no names attached to the informa-tion, Gerdes added. Doing so would be illegal.
“At the Census Bureau, we take great pride in making sure we don’t release any information,” he said. “There are definite penalties if we do.”
The personal nature of the ACS has some Americans questioning how much the government should know about their personal lives.
“Everywhere we look these days, we are either being watched, taxed or some bureaucrat is plac-ing another bit of information in
our government files,” Constitu-tional Attorney John Whitehead said in a post on the Rutherford Institute’s Web site.
Whitehead added that he felt the ACS was an example of “the federal bureaucracy ... thrusting its expansive tentacles toward us in an attempt to invade every as-pect of our lives.”
Americans are legally obligated to respond to the census and could be fined up to $5,000 for failing to do so, although such prosecution
is a last resort, according to a Cen-sus Bureau press release. The re-lease states that although the law makes it a crime not to answer the decennial census, the ACS and other mandatory censuses, and authorizes the courts to impose a fine of up to $5,000 for failure to respond, the Census Bureau views this approach as a last resort.
The ACS began in 2005, when Congress voted to allocate money for purposes of studying the na-tion’s demographics, Gerdes said. The ACS counts 2.5 percent of the population of each county each year as it’s sampling distribution.
Nick DeMossSenior Staff Writer
Fayetteville Public Schools to reap benefits from census
Fayetteville Public Schools of-ficials have been preparing ways to promote the importance of the census. Students will be asked to relay the “complete count” mes-sage to their parents.
“The U.S. census is critically important to public schools, since more than $400 billion are al-located each year,” said Alan Wil-
bourn, public information officer for the school district. “It’s hard to pinpoint a direct benefit for Fay-etteville Public Schools, though accurate reporting of populations and subpopulations (the identifi-able divisions among an overall population) is directly tied to fed-eral funding of school programs.”
FPS enrollment has grown since the 2000 census, especially in the number of Hispanic students. In 2000, the total enrollment was 7,961 – 5 percent of whom were Hispanic. This year, the enrollment is 8,566 – more than 9 percent of whom are Hispanic.
U.S. Census Bureau officials didn’t contact FPS for the 2000 census, Wilbourn said, but the cen-sus this year is “much more orga-nized and proactive.”
Andrew Yoakum, athletics coach and government and street law teacher at Fayetteville High School, has told his students how important it is that the census questionnaire be completed.
“In class, we talked about the importance of a census and the purpose and what happens when people in an area do not fill it out,” he said. “As (the form distribution date) gets closer and more ads are seen, we will discuss the effects in greater details.”
Students have the ability to influence their parents while en-couraging them to answer the questionnaire, Yoakum said. Giv-ing the parents correct informa-tion will enable them to feel more comfortable when completing the form, he said.
A major way that FPS is looking to reach out to students and par-ents is with fliers, toothbrushes and rulers that are provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, Wilbourn said.
Residences also will receive au-tomated phone calls encouraging parents to participate in the census, he said.
“The automated phone system uses 20 phone lines to call students’ home phone numbers to remind them of meetings, deadlines, etc. Every student has some sort of phone number listed, whether it’s a home or cell phone,” Wilbourn
said. Residents in areas where there
is a high concentration of Spanish speakers will receive census forms in both English and Spanish, ac-cording to Civilrights.org.
To accommodate the Spanish-speaking families in FPS, officials will mail fliers in Spanish and send automated phone messages in Spanish to remind parents to complete the questionnaire, Wil-bourn said.
The FPS Web site contains a feature story about the importance of the census, he said, which en-courages everyone to participate because federal and state funding depends on accurate numbers. Furthermore, both the Web site and the FPS television channel (channel 14 on Cox cable) will present public service announce-ments about the census, he said.
The census will guide the pro-grams that need support for the next 10 years that could lead to some big changes for Fayetteville, Yoakum said.
“The census is very important because it not only gives us a count of the population, but it also has (an effect) on money granted to this area. It could have a huge im-pact on programs, jobs and many other things that many of us take for granted,” he said.
Students, parents, teachers and community members all need to be represented in the census, because the end result will affect the “future of education here in Fayetteville,” he said.
Jordan JohnsonContributing Writer
The Arkansas Traveler welcomes letters to the editor from all interested readers. Letters should be at most 300 words and should include your name, student classification and major or title with the university and a day-time telephone number for verification. Letters should be sent to [email protected]. Letters appear in the order they were submitted as space permits. The editor reserves the right to edit or refuse letters on the basis of length, accuracy, fairness, liability and sensibility.
Editor: Tina Korbe | Managing Editor: Kimber Wenzelburger
VisitUATrav.com
for daily news updatesOPINIONPhone: 575.8455 | E-mail: [email protected]
THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
It was in March of 1774 that Patrick Henry gave his famous “Give me liberty or give me death” speech. When he arrived at Richmond’s St. John’s Church, Henry prob-ably did not expect to give a speech that would resonate through generations to come because of its power and rhetoric – Henry just knew what he was doing was the right thing to do. Despite the fact that it was against popular opinion, Henry spoke the truth to compel his fellow delegates to vote to put Virginia into a stance of defense, and was willing to accept the consequences for his words and actions.
Although I am definitely no Patrick Henry, I recently faced a tough choice in which popular opinion and the right thing to do were in opposition. My issue was whether to file an election complaint against a candidate for ASG president who had been openly campaigning and mudslinging, when he was unable to even officially announce his candidacy until March 28 at noon, nearly a month away.
It was a tough choice. Could I put my integrity and objectivity as News Editor at stake to do what was right and protect the right of other students planning to run? It is important to prevent others from being unknowingly punished by a rumor mill they can’t even technically defend themselves against yet, especially when the rumors being spread are blatantly false, but, as a member of the media, it seems equally important to just stay out of the ASG’s business and report whatever happens.
Already, this year’s election is getting out of hand. Flagrant and unscrupulous banter from certain candidates, who are not even official candidates yet, has already brought
both individuals and even Greek houses into conflict over how to handle the situation at hand. Out of respect for the ASG, however, we have not printed these rumors and have waited to cover the election until official campaigns can be announced.
It is unfair to make blanket statements blaming all potential candidates or the ASG for the embarassing and inappropri-ate behavior of some among their ranks. However, the actions I have observed and the numerous violations I have heard about, and the lack of action by the ASG elections committee to address serious concerns, must be taken into account as the election draws closer and closer.
In the end, I filed an election complaint because it was the right thing to do, and because the person against whom I filed it acted innappropriately. The others who joined me in filing election complaints at the same time would probably agree with this statement and that this candidate’s actions were out of line.
Unfortunately, the ASG Elections Committee did not agree with us. Again, the ASG fails to take action when setting a strong
precedent and example seem so important.Not only did they not agree with us,
however, they decided to notify both the candidate in question and those of us who filed election complaints in the same e-mail, taking away any chance I might have had at objectivity when The Traveler interviews and endorses candidates election week.
This week, the fraternity of the candidate I questioned denied a request from others planning to run to come speak at their house based on the fact that they would be voting 100 percent for him.
All together, it seems that, so far, this elec-tion is coming down to a petty rumor mill, with all the dirt coming from one side.
Frankly, if this is what we have to look forward to next year in the ASG, I will be glad to no longer serve as our News Editor.
For those who might be at Greek houses that will not accept all candidates, you can rest assured that we at The Traveler will con-tinue to report fair and objective accounts of what is going on. We will conduct unbiased interviews of the candidates, providing you with the answers to the tough questions that might not get asked anyplace else. And, finally, we will endorse a candidate based on a serious consideration of all the facts, not just rumors.
We will continue to hold up our obliga-tion as the newspaper of the UA campus, and will wait hopefully for the ASG to fullfill theirs.
Bailey Elise McBride is the News Editor of The Arkansas Traveler. Her column appears monthly. Her opinions in this col-umn do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Editorial Board.
The story of the census – its importance and its implications – seems to be relatively controversy-free. And the president’s call for all countable individuals to participate in it – and, thus, to ensure the maximum possible amount of representation and funding for their communities – seems to be one of the most disinterested requests we’ve ever known a politician to make.
Who could possibly argue that the census is not important?After all, as Assistant News Editor Taniah Tudor reports in the
article “Student participation in U.S. census to affect community,” the results of the census affect college tuition, grant and loan programs; states’ representation in Congress; and how more than $400 billion of federal funding each year is spent on infrastructure and services like hospitals, schools and public works. Clearly, it matters.
And what selfish motive could the president – or any other government official – possibly have to request that U.S. inhabitants comply with census requirements?
Why, the Constitution itself mandates the “enumeration” of persons. That means the president not only has the right to request participation – he has the right and even the obligation to require it. When President Obama allocated $340 million to an unprecedented promotional campaign for the census, then, he must surely have been motivated by the desire to do his job well.
But, as we moved beyond census PR pamphlets in our research, we discovered another side to the story. We realized it’s possible that the census is important to politicians for another reason: It helps to determine not only the number of Congressional representatives a state receives, but also the shape of the Congressional districts that elect those representatives.
We learned that, on the census forms themselves and especially through the American Community Survey, government officials ask a number of questions that are unrelated to the census’ primary pur-pose. Of course, the Bureau of the Census provides a justification for each of these questions. It doesn’t, however, explain why citizens can be fined if they choose not to answer.
We also remembered that, as with all government funding, the funding at stake is not money that comes from the government, but money that comes through the government – and from taxpayers.
None of this is to say we think the census is not important or that census promoters do, in fact, have selfish aims. On the contrary, we agree that the census is incredibly important and that all UA students should fill out their forms.
Still, this is a reminder to think critically – not just about the census, but about all relevant issues, including the upcoming ASG elections – but, for that, see News Editor Bailey McBride’s column, at right.
Cheers,
Tina KorbeEditor
No need for liberty or death, just give me a fair election
LETTERTO THE EDITOR
Lincoln is an Extremist
When Senator Lincoln filed for re-election at the state Capitol she pledged to battle “extremes” in both parties. However, Lincoln’s rhetoric fails to match up with reality. Lincoln’s latest TV ad further demonstrates her lack of intelligence and failure to connect with Arkansans on issues that are creating real problems for our working class. In the ad, Lincoln is championed for standing up against wasteful government programs and is made out to be a hero for being in opposition to the publichealth care option.
What Lincoln’s ad does not tell you is how she accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from insurance com-panies to help obstruct real and meaningful healthcare reform. Instead of support-ing something that would have greatly benefited poor and working class Arkansans, Lincoln decided, instead, she
would put her own personal interests first! Her ad also failed to tell you how she supported the massively un-popular Wall Street bank bail-outs that never did anything to fix the serious problems with our economy. Fur-thermore, Lincoln supports unrestricted free trade, like NAFTA, which is dismantling the U.S. economy, shipping jobs overseas and is the real cause of America’s immigra-tion problems.
At the Capitol, on filing day, Lincoln said, “We’re not giving up to extremism.” The truth is that Lincoln is the real extremist by put-ting corporate profits and her own re-election before the needs of Arkansans. It’s time to teach Blanche Lincoln a lesson about progressive politics—support Lt. Gov. Bill Halter for Senate!
Jacob HollowaySeniorAgricultural Economics
Page 4 | WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2010
The United States has found itself locked in a menacing Catch-22. Americans’ rights to free speech and assembly, as well as our his-torical respect for free thought and progressive activism, has made it possible for radical groups and propagandists to reduce national politics to a childish tantrum.
The change in American media is partly to blame. Since Watergate and the consequential resigna-tion of Richard Nixon, the way in which the presidency and politics have been covered has become less dignified. The age of nonpartisan reporting has ended, and, some-times, reporting even descends into outright fear mongering. Opinions are too often passed as news by men like Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Keith Olbermann and Michael Moore. Not only does this confuse us as a public, but it also creates an ‘us versus them mentality’ which splits Americans into two halves in a way that almost completely eradicates the chance of compromise.
The government itself does little to reconcile this split. Liberal and moderate members of our popu-lation felt dejected and ignored under the conservative thumb of
the Bush administration. They voted for “change.” After more than a year, little change has happened. The population of conservatives is outraged at (among other things) the bailout, and Obama is now also losing his massive following among the left, which might lead to a loss of majority on Capitol Hill in the coming election.
In the midst of all this, many activist groups and even militias have formed. Uncivil antics by these groups have included exploit-ing their kids (What else do you call a parent using their child to hold up a sign that reads “How will I pay for this?”), creating Joker-like images of the president and even flaunting likenesses of him as Hitler. These sorts of behavior should offend Americans rather than be perpetrated by them.
It’s almost as if people have forgotten that the system, though broken down party lines, can still be used to our advantage.
If you are as frustrated as I am with the stalemate of Congress, instead of acting disrespectfully, write your representative, or better yet, get someone better to do his or her job.
Stop the Spring Break onslaughtIt’s that time of year again. The sun is just now starting to
shine through the clouds, as the winter weather seems to finally be moving behind us. Spring Break is right around the corner, and all students simply want is to bask in the glory of summer approaching. Unfortunately, that’s not possible … at all.
The two to three weeks before the Spring Break holiday seem to be jam-packed with papers, midterms, exams and projects that are all coincidentally due on the same day or the same week. Having three tests and a paper due the week before Spring Break can turn a college student into a stress-ridden, hair-pulling, grouchy machine that might break down and never make it to Spring Break.
While UA students are not paying tuition to sunbathe all day at the baseball stadium or to sit on a patio for an afternoon, we’re also not paying tuition to face week after week of a work-load that could bring even the best of us to the brink of insan-ity. In reality, though, we already experience a couple of weeks with that much cramming, studying and stress: It’s called finals week, and there should only be one a semester.
Some teachers might not have the ability to make their test schedule more flexible, but others do. This is not a complaint about having to take the exams, write the papers or finish the group project; this is a complaint about sheerly not having enough time during the days leading up to the assignment’s due date to complete these tasks adequately.
Spring Break might be less than two weeks away, but, by the look of students across the UA campus, it seems like we’re only two weeks away from the summer break. If, instead of assigning tests, papers and projects for the same two weeks as every other professor on campus, instructors spread them out and scheduled them more in accordance with Spring Break in mind, they might just give students the relief they need during the final weeks before break to effectively learn assignments, study for tests and digest information in a healthy way. When students have to stay up all night to cram for a test, none of the information sticks past the minute the test ends, anyway.
lem. Jordan Kouba, a friend of Byrd’s, was 14 years old when she first went tanning. Tanning salons are required by law to re-fuse anyone below 16, and those younger than 18 need parental consent.
“Some place on Weddington let me in,” Kouba said.
After only three months of tan-ning lightly, new moles showed up on Kouba’s already-freckled skin, so she visited the dermatolo-gist. The skin doctor said she had BCC – the same as Byrd – and removed it by cutting open part of her breast. This all happened before her eighth grade year
“I’ve seen 6- and 7-year-old girls go in there, and their parents let them tan,” Kouba said.
UV rays are beneficial, but only in very small amounts. Skin
cells produce an important vi-tamin – Vitamin D – when the rays contact the skin. Without it, health issues like heart disease and depression can arise.
But the skin produces 50 times more than it needs in just 20 min-utes of sun exposure, according to Vitamindcouncil.org. Less than one minute of sun exposure a day will suffice.
Since Byrd’s sophomore year, she’s lived at the same apartment complex where she received free
tanning, the same place that caused the scars on her arm and chest. In May last year, she took a job working at the front desk of the complex. One of her duties was to prepare the tanning beds for residents who wanted to use them.
They would ask Byrd about the bandages on her body, and she would tell them. They would then look at her perplexed – but un-convinced – and say, “Twenty minutes, please.”
everyone living in the country, including all college and interna-tional students who are studying at the UA, on April 1. If someone living in the group quarters can-not be contacted, basic information that satisfies the requirements of the bureau can be given by the UA, Henson said. Census procedures are in compliance with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, which protects students’ private information, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Counting off-campus students is the bigger problem, said Michelle Chavez, the Northwest Arkansas census coordinator and partner-ship specialist. Students who live off campus will receive their census form in the mail in March and let-ters to make people aware that cen-sus forms will be arriving shortly have already been sent.
The Census Bureau is trying to promote awareness and also clar-ify to students where they should count themselves, Chavez said. This is the first time many students will participate in the census without their parents.
Campus officials are asked to promote the 2010 census at orien-tations, during Welcome Week, and in organization and group events, according to the U.S. Census Bu-reau Web site.
Scott Flanagin, director of communications and outreach for Student Affairs at the UA, has helped generate public service an-nouncements through UATV and other university media to promote the census on campus. Everyone in Student Affairs is doing something to promote the census on campus,
Flanagin said. “We are trying to encourage
students on different levels, from all different departments, to count themselves in,” Flanagin said. About 19,000 students attend the UA, and “that’s a huge number to capture,” he said.
There are an estimated 14.1 million undergraduates and 3.1 million graduate students attend-ing college, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Census data af-fects college tuition grant and loan programs; states’ representation in Congress; and research done by college faculty, students, librarians and community leaders.
The information the census collects also helps to determine how more than $400 billion of federal funding each year is spent on infrastructure and services like hospitals, schools and public works projects for cities, according to the U.S. Census Bureau Web site.
Fayetteville applied for funding and was awarded close to 24,000 from the Federal Partner Support Program for census outreach ef-forts, said Karen Minkel, strategic and internal consulting director for
the city and a member of the Com-plete Count Committee. Most of the efforts are geared toward students, who are historically undercounted and have a lower response rate, she said.
The Complete Count Commit-tee is made up of Mayor Lioneld Jordan and representatives from the UA, Fayetteville Public Schools, the Chamber of Commerce, Latino groups and others, Minkel said. City officials wanted the commit-tee to consist of individuals from previously undercounted groups or those who speak to a wide range of people, she said.
Made up of community leaders and state, local and tribal govern-ments, CCCs are one of the core strategic elements of the 2010 census. The committees plan and implement census awareness cam-paigns that address the special characteristics of their communi-ties, according to the U.S. Census Bureau Web site.
Right now, the city receives about $4.3 million from the state based on the population, Minkel said. Because of the rapid growth of the area, the current population
of Fayetteville was determined in a 2006 Special Census, which was conducted by the U.S. Census Bu-reau and paid for by the city, she said.
The Fayetteville CCC has a lot of census material aimed at students – bookmarks at the library, coast-ers in the bars and restaurants on Dickson Street, and even messages on the JumboTron at basketball games, Minkel said.
Students are targeted because it is more confusing for them to know where they are supposed to be counted, whether at the univer-sity or in their hometown, Minkel said. Though she thinks students have been previously undercount-ed, she did add that she believes the count is getting closer to an accu-rate number.
“I know the university is doing all it can to make (the census) easy for students and accessible,” Min-kel said.
2010 census assistance centers, which provide information and census forms, will be set up lo-cally at Harps Food Stores and the Fayetteville Public Library, Henson said.
an idea, we read various articles every week through which we formed the specifics for the re-search,” she said.
In the biology field, senior Amen Ismail studies the effective-ness of synthetic crowding agents in mimicking real cells.
“I’ve been working on this project for about three years now,” Ismail said. “We take the protein and compare its stability when it is surrounded by synthetic crowd-ing agents to the stability of when the concentration of the protein itself is increased. So far, we’ve found that they are not mimick-ing the cell.”
The SURF grant “shows you there is a system to encourage what you are doing,” Ismail said. “Receiving the grant provides in-centive, especially since there is a lot of time involved in research.”
Ismail has presented her re-search at four national conferenc-es in Memphis, Tenn., San Diego,
Boston and San Francisco and is drafting a paper to be published.
Research is not limited to the science majors. Connor Scogin, a senior international business major, is analyzing how foreign aid “was involved in the recov-ery of post-Korean War South Korea and how it helped lead to long-term, sustainable economic growth” and is “applying the les-sons learned there to the current recovery effort in Afghanistan,” he said.
Students received from $1,650 to $2,900, totaling $241,760 this year, with the university providing matching funds for each student. Faculty mentors received $1,000, and $400 was given to students for travel costs associated with their research.
“The SURF grant provides me with money to purchase supplies that I will use in the lab and also provides me with a stipend, which I use for everyday expenses, such as paying for rent, food and other bills,” said Danielle Frechette, a junior biological engineering major.
Receiving the SURF grant is a
competitive process, McCray said. Some people receive national rec-ognition for research that SURF did not cover.
“It’s always great to win, but students shouldn’t be disappoint-ed if they don’t get it, “she said.
If a research project is not funded by SURF, it is reviewed by the Honors College, which supple-ments those students who don’t receive the grant.
“The first two times I applied, I didn’t get it,” Ismail said. “How-ever, I wasn’t discouraged by it. I reapplied every year and got it this year. The first time you apply it takes a week of researching and writing, but the result can defi-nitely be rewarding.”
The application process in-cludes a one-page abstract, a five-page proposal, a resume, a mentor letter and two additional letters of support.
Applying for the SURF grant “is critically important,” McCray said. “The experience is invalu-able if you are a recipient and it speaks volumes to people at the national level.”
NEWSUATRAV.COM | THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2010 | Page 5
Please take notice that recently the F.D.A. issued a public health advisory stating that
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resulting in blood clots, stroke, heart attack and death. The F.D.A. also issued a
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If you or someone you know suffered a blood clot, stroke, heart attack, or worse,
while taking Yaz, Yasmin or Ocella, you may have a potential claim against the
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If you have an interest in pursuing your potential legal remedies and claim for
monetary damages, then please contact the Branch Law Firm for a free consultation
at 1-800-828-4529. All inquires are Confidential.
2025 Rio Grande Boulevard
Albuquerque, NM 87104!
STUDENT MEDIACALL FOR EDITOR/STATION MANAGER APPLICATIONS
The UA Student Media Board is accepting applications for the following editor and station manager positions
for the 2010-2011 academic year:
The Arkansas Traveler editorRazorback yearbook editorKXUA radio station managerUATV station manager
Applications should include a cover letter to the board and a platform outlining the applicant’s plans for the organization. Packets are due in The Traveler office, Kimpel Hall 119, not later than noon March 19, 2010.
To be considered, candidates must meet the following criteria:
Be a student in good standing at the UA
Have completed at least one full semester of applicable experience on the Student Medium for which he or she is applying.
Meet the requirements for student officers in the University Student handbook.
For more information, please contact Steve Wilkes, Director of Student Media.575-3406 • Kimpel Hall 119 • [email protected]
The 2010 Census Portrait of America Road Tour van, the Decennial, arrived Wednesday, March 3, at the Jones Center in Springdale. The Census Portrait of America Road Tour van travels across the nation to encourage members of the community to participate in the 2010 census.
TANNINGfrom Page 1
Drink UpStudents experience pressure to drink in collegeWednesday in Lifestyles
Check Traveler Top 5 next week for the top 5 mixed drinks.
Top 5 reasons we love March
Spring break1.
2.
Because what-ever your Spring Break destination, it has to beat be-ing in class.
March Madness
St. Patrick's Day
Green Beer & Leprechauns. An excuse for us all to be Irish.
Warm(er) Weather
Spring Fashions
The beginning of spring welcomes sun, birds and breezes and brings us all back to Old Main lawn.
TravelerTop 5
3.
4.
5.
Brackets, bubble bursting & up-sets; nothing like skipping class to watch the tourney.
In preparation for spring break and summer va-cation you need to be thinking, “I look fly. I look good.”
St. Patrick’s Day history spans from cen-turies of tradition and celebration, mixed with equal parts myth and joviality. What be-gan as a religious feast day has since trans-formed into a more informal, international holiday, celebrated everywhere from Canada to New Zealand, Argentina to Montserrat. As the years have passed, the original intent of St. Patrick’s Day has been adapted to fit the changing times, although Ireland still carries the brightest torch for good old St. Patrick.
St. Patrick’s Day was originally declared a feast day within the Catholic Church to hon-or the patron saint of Ireland, according to an Irish Culture and Customs informational Web site. St. Patrick was not born in Ireland, but is speculated to be of Scottish or British descent. As a child, he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Ireland. While in captiv-ity, he dreamed of God and was divinely led to escape back to Britain.
Out of devotion, St. Patrick joined a mon-astery to become a bishop, after which he was led again to Ireland to spread salvation. St. Patrick succeeded in converting the Gael-ic Irish, mostly pagans at the time, to Chris-tianity, and traveled all throughout Ireland, opening schools, missions and monasteries and doing good for the people of Ireland. He died March 17, 461, and that day was com-memorated to honor his legacy in Ireland.
In early Irish history, St. Patrick’s Day was a nationally recognized religious holiday demanding participation from every citizen. Businesses closed and people gathered for morning Mass before celebrating with lavish meals, music, dancing, drink and laughter. Falling in the middle of Lent, St. Patrick’s Day was a welcome break from the auster-ity of the fasting season, and thus became a nationwide party day in which everyone was only happy to participate.
In modern-day Ireland, the St. Patrick’s
Day festivities have become a chance to share Irish tradition with the world, as well as encourage tourism. Last year, about 1 mil-lion people took part in Ireland’s St. Patrick’s Festival in Dublin, a multi-day celebration featuring parades, concerts, outdoor theater productions and fireworks shows.
The cheerful spirit of St. Patrick’s Day has continued into its modern interpretation in the United States. It is common to see green shamrocks – used by St. Patrick to explain the Holy Trinity to the pagan Celts – and ad-vertisements for green beer across the States
when March 17 rolls around.Irish immigrants in the U.S. use St. Pat-
rick’s Day to celebrate their heritage and in-troduced the tradition of bagpipe and drug parades. In 1962, Chicago became famous for dyeing its river green when pollution-control workers realized that the dye used to detect illegal sewage discharges would coincide nicely with the holiday. Continuing with this strange tradition, many other pools
and canals are dyed green, such as the White House fountain.
UA students won’t be left out, however, as they plan to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in style.
Sarah Arnold plans to keep the holiday traditions alive with her fashion choices.
“I always wear everything green, from my head to my toes: green jacket, green shirt, green pants, green socks and shoes with my green backpack,” she said. “I do this every year so I don’t get pinched.”
Sophomore Trish Byron is organizing a green event to celebrate the day.
“My friends and I are planning on hav-ing a little shindig in which we make green beer (which is very easy to make: just add five to six drops of green food coloring) and just have a good time,” she said. “We feel that drinking and eating is the best way to celebrate the day. Also, I’m sure there will be lots of green involved, not only with the beer, but also our attire and food. I’m pretty sure green food coloring was made espe-cially for St. Patrick’s Day.”
In Northwest Arkansas, several St. Pat-rick’s Day celebrations are occurring around the area and on the UA campus.
The Kappa Delta Shamrock Talent Show will take place from 6 to 10 p.m. on St. Pat-rick’s Day in the Union Ballroom.
Irish dancers will perform at the Fayette-ville Public Library at 5 p.m. on the holi-day.
A St. Paddy’s Day Pub Crawl will take place in Eureka Springs, led by the Free Form Kazoo Marching Band.
On Tuesday, March 9, Soul Restaurant will host a St. Patrick’s Day Cooking Class, “an ex-citing night of great Irish food standards with a twist.” To reserve a seat or find out more information, call (479)-442-0800.
Bands Ayurveda and Open Addiction will perform at George’s Majestic Lounge March 17 to celebrate the holiday.
St. Patrick’s Day celebrations plans in the works
Erin RobertsonSenior Staff Writer
Science and fashion: two completely opposite ends of the spectrum, right? Not any-more, according to Identity Apparel, a fashion line that builds DNA into clothing.
The unique concept origi-nated at an art exhibit when Dylan Ferguson, co-owner of the company, saw a portrait of DNA and loved the mixture of science and art.
“Why can’t we make a clothing brand that does that?” Ferguson asked.
The sophisticated line combines the science of tech-nology with high-end fashion garments to make something “as unique as yourself,” Fer-guson said.
The Canada-based com-pany takes a sample of the customer’s genetics and builds it into the clothing. There are three distinct lines that rep-resent the individual’s iden-tity, with garments ranging in price from $90 to $105.
The Fingerprint Line takes a fingerprint from the cus-tomer and imprints it into the clothing of his or her choice. The customer may also choose the color and design of the imprint as well as a comple-menting graphic to fit his or her individual style.
The Kiss Line and the DNA Strand Line work the same way, taking the customer’s lip imprint or DNA sample, through saliva, to imprint into the garment selected.
After placing an order on the Identity Apparel Web site, the company sends the cus-tomer a collection kit includ-ing detailed instructions and any necessary tools, such as a mouth swab, bright red lipstick or a fingerprint ink strip.
COURTESY PHOTO
Identity Apparel: Where science meets fashion
Mille AppletonSenior Staff Writer
COURTESY PHOTOSSee FASHION on Page 8
Gorillaz have been one of pop’s wackiest successes since “Clint Eastwood” invaded air-waves nearly a decade ago. It’s hard to believe a cartoon band lasted this long, even harder considering the group releases new music about once every five years.
Of course, it’s all the brain-child of former Blur front man Damon Albarn, a challenging and prolific songwriter, and illustrator Jamie Hewlett. The duo stays busy with an endless roll of side projects, thus Plastic Beach, the group’s newest album, comes a full half-decade after the fluke commercial suc-cess of Demon Days.
Plastic Beach is a braver record in every way, especially in its bevy of guest spots. Albarn wipes Snoog Dogg of grit and leaves him alone in a sterile soundscape. He employs the influential mutter of former Velvet Underground singer Lou Reed in a barroom piano jam. Veteran rap troupe De La Soul makes “Superfast Jellyfish” the jam of the spring.
It’s worth noting that many of Albarn’s collaborators are washed-up music legends. The word here is “rebirth.” He treats these musicians as actors in his
CD REVIEW
Gorillaz’ “Plastic Beach” a great beached
whaleBrady Tackett
Assistant Lifestyles Editorfor New Media
COURTESY PHOTO
See Gorillaz on Page 8
“Do you dabble in music ‘cause you were worried you weren’t going to get laid enough?”
– Jon Stewart, questioning Robert Pattinson’s foray into music, on The Daily Show
LIFESTYLESUATRAV.COM | THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2010 | Page 7
Delta Delta Delta
Sunday, April 19 , 5 – 8 pm at the Tri-Delt house.
Tickets are available from any Tri-Delt or at the door for $5.
is hosting their annual
Pancake Pig Out
Come support our awesome philanthropy, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
The concept is a unique one, walking on a piece of webbing tied between two trees. There couldn’t possibly be much to that. But ask junior Morgan Barnes, and it’s a whole different story.
Although balancing has always been an essential part of athletic training, slacklining differs from older practices and has been grow-ing in popularity over the past few years.
“It’s different from tightrope walking; the general idea is that there is slack in the line, so it moves
and that’s part of the difficulty in it,” Barnes said.
Barnes has been slacklining for three years, and, along with climb-ing and hiking, it has become part of his typical outdoor routine.
“There’s no reason why your body should be able to do it at all, and it’s kind of like climbing,” he said. “The first couple times you do it, you’re going to get beat down a lot and you’re going to fall, but it’s all about learning and developing little things.”
The idea might be simple, but
Rachel Moore is a senior math major with a philosophy minor; she plans to graduate in fall 2010. Her plans after graduation, however, do not include the typical graduate school track, or really anything involv-ing complex equations and linear theories. Moore is cur-rently in the midst of writing her first cookbook, and after graduation, she will enroll in culinary school to pursue her dream career.
Moore began writing her cookbook, “The Vegan Book of Secrets,” as a Christmas present for her family two years ago as a way to give a meaningful gift without spending much cash. What began with only 30 recipes now has more than 115, and is continually evolving.
“In the last year and a half, I’ve decided that my passion is really cooking and creating art through food,” Moore said. “My mom’s mom – my grandmother – was a really good cook and was al-ways creating big, elaborate Southern meals, and, when I was young, I got to be her helper in the kitchen. It has been something I’ve always done but I haven’t realized how much it is my passion until now.”
Moore’s cookbook is composed of entirely vegan recipes, inspired by her “100 percent vegan” lifestyle. She chose to rid her diet of any meat or animal byproducts “one, because it’s cheaper, and also because it makes less of an impact on the Earth,” she said. “Your diet affects your carbon footprint more than driving a car or all the other things you think of first, so that’s why my fiancé and I decided to make that switch.”
Moore became interested in vegetarianism in high school, but she made the transition to a vegan lifestyle in college.
“My grandparents always kept a huge garden, so I was around veg-etables a lot,” she said. “But my parents have a traditional diet so I’m kind
of the oddball in the family. When I made the switch to just vegetarianism I didn’t (struggle) too much – I’m not a big fan of meat. But in the switch to veganism, it was hard to give up dairy. I really love cheese and yogurt, and those flavors are hard to recreate and to mimic in their basic form.”
Moore said she keeps a garden in the summer and tries to can produce for the winter months, as inspired by her grandparents. She also believes in the importance of eating locally and responsibly for the health of the
planet. Through those phi-losophies, Moore has begun to eat eggs again, a typical no-no for vegans.
“It’s because I know the farmer,” she said. “If I can get it from a farm 10 minutes away and I know the guy who raises the chickens and that they’re treated well, then I think it’s OK.”
With all of the hype sur-rounding food bloggers, it is a wonder that Moore doesn’t have her own vegan URL.
“There are so many (blogs) out there and I follow so many of them, but I don’t have my own,” she said. “And I’ve been scolded so much for not having one. But I know I should, so I probably will sometime in the future.”
Moore plans to finish her cookbook and potentially start that blog after gradua-tion, also when she will enroll in culinary school. Both the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., and the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culi-nary Arts in Portland, Ore.,
have captured her attention, but the ultimate location has yet to be deter-mined. Moore, who was born and raised in Benton, and has spent her life in Arkansas and is ready for a change.
“I really like Fayetteville,” she said. “I’ve never lived anywhere out of the state and I think I’d like it – it’d be a good growing experience for me.”
As for the final product of “The Vegan Book of Secrets,” Moore is favor-ing the option of selling it electronically on the online marketplace Etsy rather than going through the costly endeavor of printing. She has big plans and even bigger dreams to fund and, besides, she’s too busy in the kitchen.
Students introduce unique hobbies
SPICY SOUTHERN COLLARD GREENS
INGREDIENTS:
1 bunch collard greens1 small-medium onion, sliced4-5 cloves garlic, minced1 cup vegetable stock/broth (water can also be used, but the stock ismore flavorful)1/4-1 tsp red pepper flakes (the more you add, the spicier the dish will be!)3 tbsp olive oil2 tbsp apple cider vinegarsalt, to taste
DIRECTIONS:
Wash the collard greens thoroughly, and remove the center rib. Slicethe greens into thin ribbons and set aside. Place a large pot overmedium heat, and add the olive oil and red pepper flakes. When theoil is hot, add the onion and garlic. Season this with salt, andsaute until the onions are lightly browned (about 5 minutes). Add thecollard greens, and saute until they begin to wilt (about 3 minutes).Pour the vegetable stock/broth into the greens. Cover the pot,increase heat to high, and cook until the greens are completely wiltedand tender (about 5 minutes). Stir the apple cider vinegar into thegreens, and let cook for 1 minute more. Taste and add more salt ifnecessary. Serves 2-4 (depending on portion size).
Student writes her own cookbookErin Robertson
Senior Staff Writer
Harry Potter fans alerted: Quidditch club started on campusHailey Ray
Contributing Writer
Walking the line
COURTESY PHOTO
COUR
TESY
PHO
TO
ASHTON MARTIN Contributing Photographer
Mille AppletonSenior Staff Writer
See WALK on Page 8
Muggles, mudbloods, witches and wizards in disguise: The wait is over. The most popular sport in Harry Potter’s world has arrived on the UA campus – Razorback Quidditch, founded by junior Amanda O’Connor and sophomore Jen New-come.
The Harry Potter fantasy game involving 14 students running around on broomsticks might seem like an un-likely Registered Stu-dent Organization, but Quidditch is sweeping college campuses around the nation. More than 200 univer-sities and colleges have organized Quidditch teams – including Ar-kansas Tech, Hendrix and even Harvard and Yale – that partici-pate in the World Cup through the Intercollegiate Quidditch As-sociation. The UA Quidditch team hopes to take a team to Arkansas Tech in late April for a tourna-
ment, Newcome said.To avoid breaking the Interna-
tional Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, participants use muggle versions of the usual Quidditch equipment. The seven players on each team are required to have a charm-free muggle broom between their legs at all time, although they may purchase an official IQA broom
through Alivans.com.The three chasers on each
team vie for control of the quaffle, a slightly deflated muggle volley-ball, and try to launch it through one of their team’s three hoops, guarded by the opposing team’s keeper. Each goal is worth 10 points. Meanwhile, the two beaters from each team try to knock the
quaffle out of the chasers’ grasp by hitting them with one of the two bludgers, which are muggle dodge balls.
The biggest difference between IQA Quidditch and wizard Quid-ditch is the snitch. A small, golden, winged ball in the wizarding world is, in IQA Quidditch, actually a muggle dressed in gold sprinting
around campus. “They recommend a
cross-country runner, someone with gymnastics training, maybe, and any-one who can run for 20 minutes,” O’Connor said.
The person who agrees to be the snitch can solemnly swear that he or
she is up to no good; the snitch has almost no rules.
The seekers are required to keep their brooms between their legs, but the snitch has free reign to tackle them, hide or lead them almost anywhere on campus, freshman Alex Wilson said. Catching the snitch gains the team 30 points, a much smaller number than in typical wizard
Quidditch because the snitch is only a muggle. If the snitch has not been caught in 20 to 30 min-utes, it returns to the main Quid-ditch field.
Matches will probably be host-ed on Old Main lawn, Wilson said.
The UA Quidditch team re-ceived funding from both the Residents’ Interhall Congress and the Associated Student Govern-ment to help fund a residence hall
tournament April 10. Any student who wants to participate will have a chance and will receive a Razorback Quidditch shirt, too, O’Connor said. Prizes also will be awarded to the winners of the tournament.
Razorback Quidditch players hope to have a world cup team soon, Newcome said. A traveling team will be established in the fall, as students show their dedication
to the group.The group also plans to sup-
port literacy as it becomes more established, a goal shared by the IQA in tribute to J.K. Rowling, the sport’s creator and advocate for increased literacy.
Any student interested can reach Razorback Quidditch on Facebook or by owl at [email protected].
LIFESTYLES THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER | UATRAV.COM Page 8 | WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2010
good friends cool Place
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I love living at Hill Place because everything is so convenient. I have so much fun at the Resident Activities - I especially love Breakfast on the Go! What’s better than free food? The staff is always going out of their way to make everything better for me!
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Hill Place is an awesome place to live and has treated me well this semester. They host many events during the year, including a pool party at the start of school sponsored by Red Bull. It was a great time with free food, drinks and friends…and the girl to guy ratio is pretty good too!
many enthusiasts take it to another level by trying to do tricks or, most impressive to Barnes, yoga while slacklining.
“What kept me pursuing it was whenever you see people that can do yoga on a slackline – that’s pret-ty awesome,” he said. “I can hold the beginning of tree pose and then once I start to get up straight it’s re-ally hard to hold balance.”
The hobby can easily turn into an extreme sport, depending on where the line is placed. One of the most highly regarded walks for slackliners is the Lost Arrow Spire gap in Yosemite National Park. The highline spans 55 feet at a stagger-ing height of 2,080 feet. Every year, new records are set for height and outrageous tricks.
But it isn’t just the new heights that push slackliners to continue; Barnes said he loves the commu-nity the activity builds at the UA.
“It’s really good – like out on the Union Lawn and stuff – because a bunch of people will just walk up and ask what you’re doing and … you get looks of bewilderment,” he said. “As long as we get enough people out there, it’s really fun and we get a lot of people to try it.”
The sport also has physical ben-efits, like learning breathing con-trol and the skill of balance. Barnes also has seen how it has affected his hiking and climbing.
“Whenever your feet are stronger, hiking is better,” he said. “You’re not as sore in your toes and you know how to manipulate your feet and your legs to get out of awkward positions like rolling your ankle.”
Although the sport might look like just a fun pastime, Barnes expressed the exhaustion it can cause.
“It’s a mental drain along with a physical drain,” he said. “While you’re in focus you’re trying not to think of other things to distract you. You’re thinking about a point to focus on and trying to hold your body and register how your feet are moving and how your body is mov-ing.”
The line recently received praise during its premiere at Fashion Week in New York City and looks for more affirmation during Montreal Fashion Week in March. Though the cloth-ing may be more expensive than college students would normally spend, Ferguson is optimistic about its appeal to the college crowd.
“The most positive com-ments we’ve been getting are from the college crowd, and I think it’s because, if the stu-dent is involved in science and engineering, they find it inter-esting. Engineering students because of the complexity, and the science crowd because it’s what they do,” he said.
He believes the idea of the design and attending college go hand in hand.
“Everyone goes to college and are finding who (they) are and why – (their) identity at school. This brand really al-lows you to show how unique you really are,” he said.
Another unique concept about this clothing brand is its relationship with chari-ties. Each line is linked to a notable charity that receives 10 percent of proceeds each month. The Kiss Line is in partnership with The Breast Cancer Research Foundation; the DNA Strand Line is asso-ciated with Avert, an interna-tional organization to avert HIV and AIDS; and the Fin-gerprint Line connected with the Trillium Childhood Cancer Support Centre.
“If somebody is going to pay money for your product, then why not (divert) some of the money to a good cause,” Ferguson said. “The combi-nation of being able to help people is fantastic.”
The owners are currently working on getting the prod-ucts into stores.
giant production, and Plastic Beach proves him a brilliant director – he rouses unexpect-edly great performances from almost all of them.
The secret to Gorillaz lies in this pluralistic approach, and Plastic Beach is its realization. It’s as if the shattered pieces of world culture washed up on a beach, and Albarn, with the
help of some friends, was there to reassemble them in his own demented way.
Speaking of pollution, the muse is an imagined island, composed of all the ocean’s floating trash. Plastic Beach is as a concept album should be: strange and messy and full of wit. Hewlett’s stylized version of the future is impossible and idyllic. The main characters aren’t cartoon characters any-more – they’re environments.
The result is a great beached whale of an album, one that
was really written for sunshine. Albarn has a knack for breezy, winding melodies, as heard in the title track and “Broken,” the record’s best song. Elsewhere, the charming, carbonated sound of the band’s 2001 debut bubbles to the surface (“Super-fast Jellyfish,” “On Melancholy Hill”).
Still, Albarn wrote more than 70 songs for this record, and some of that blubber remains, sandwiched between distinct pop gems. Mos Def’s contribu-tions to “Stylo” and “Sweep-
stakes” are especially disap-pointing – the latter sounds like M.I.A. with the cream filling sucked out. Two other songs relegate the funk-cacophony of Hypnotic Brass Ensemble to musical wallpaper.
Regardless, it’s a thrill to hear Albarn evolve from rock star to curator. He’s become a socially conscious prophet and vital pop musician. Plastic Beach is an undeniable success, especially in timing – I can’t think of a better soundtrack for Spring Break.
FASHIONfrom Page 7
GORILLAZfrom Page 6
Hockey as a sport has never received much acknowledgement here in the Natural State. However, the sport has found the UA campus, and it just so happens that the UA Razorback hockey team is on the brink of making history.
After only two years since its in-ception, the UA Razorback hockey team will play in the National Championship tournament in Ft. Myers, Fla., this week, compet-ing among 15 other schools from around the nation, including the University of Florida, University of Colorado and the defending na-tional champions, Saginaw Valley State. The Ice Hogs are fresh off of win-ning their first SEC championship title Feb. 28, beating a strong Florida Gator team, 6-2.
The Razorback hockey team consists of 25 student athletes who have devoted countless hours and resources to support the hockey program and bring the team to national relevance. The Hogs are coached by Rick Desjardins, whose intense and fiery spirit has radiated through this group of players and helped bring them to their current state.
“We’re one of the hardest working teams in practice, and we take that right to the game. The coaches set the bar high for the players, and the players have accepted that,” Desjardins said. Razorback hockey is a club sport, meaning none of the players are on scholarship, so most of the expenses must be paid for by the players themselves. The Hogs compete in the
American Collegiate Hockey Association in the South Confer-ence of Division III. The Ice Hogs have posted an astounding record of 25-5 this year, and hope to build on that by bringing home a national championship. The national championship tournament starts off in pool play, where the Razorbacks must take on the University of Colorado, Hope College and Fredonia State before they reach the semifinals, where they will most likely face last year’s national champion runner-up, Florida Gulf Coast University. If Arkansas can handle these teams, they will face a to-be-determined team Saturday, March 13, for the national championship. The Hogs’ first game is against the Uni-versity of Colorado at 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 10. More infor-mation on the Razorbacks’ journey to the national champion-ship can be found on the team’s Web site, Razorbackhockey.com or ACHAhockey.org.
UA hockey team on the brink of making historyGrant Holden
LIKENESS IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TO GIRLS & SPORTS COMICS
LEVEL: MEDIUM
COMPLETE THIS GRID SO EVERY ROW, COLUMN, AND 3X3 BOX CONTAINS EVERY DIGIT FROM 1 TO 9 INCLUSIVELY
ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19) TODAY IS A 7. You hear what others say but don’t believe it. That’s good, as long as you allow them to explain their positions. Strike out in a new direction. TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20) TODAY IS A 5. Argument inspires opposition. Enthusiasm inspires cooperation. Which would you rather have today? It’s your choice.
GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 21) TODAY IS A 9.You find yourself attracted to cre-ative people. In fact, by day’s end, you discover a new emotional path. Share the joy.
CANCER (JUNE 22-JULY 22) TODAY IS A 5.If at all possible, spend time with friends and share a unique adventure. You need a vacation day! Take one.
LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22) TODAY IS A 7.Spend time working on personal relationships. The more aware you are of the needs of others, the easier it is to satisfy your own.
VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22) TODAY IS A 7.By the end of the day you’ve shared your plan with co-workers. Be prepared to meet emotional objections with practi-cal ways and means.
LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22) TODAY IS AN 8.“Mad hatter” doesn’t begin to describe today’s energy. It’s crazy. One minute you’re confident, the next minute you’re flat. To maintain optimism, start off with your favorite breakfast. Tea?
SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21) TODAY IS A 9.Family activities capture your attention early in the day. It seems like guys-versus-girls is the only way to play the game. Avoid contact sports.
SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21) TODAY IS A 4. As long as you maintain an open mind, imaginative ideas fit right into your thinking. You see two ways to accomplish goals. Choose one and stick to it.
CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19) TODAY IS A 6.If you feel down in the dumps to-day, know that physical exercise helps. A walk around the block or a spin on the dance floor works wonders.
AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18) TODAY IS A 6.Too much to do today and not enough time! Or so it seems. By midday, you’re into the flow and moving along nicely. Break bread together.
PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20) TODAY IS A 8.Turn a new page in your book. Now is the time to plan a unique social activity. Create fun, and expect everyone to act like a kid. This will be fun.
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UATRAV.COM | THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2010 | Page 9
SPORTSSophomore guard Court-
ney Fortson and seniors Mike Washington and Stef Welsh are names that jump out as poten-tial leaders on the Arkansas roster.
Fortson stands out because of his on-court demeanor, Washington and Welsh for their seniority.
But with the Hogs stum-bling down the stretch of their second consecutive losing sea-son, no leader emerged to take charge of the struggling team.
That’s something freshman forward Marshawn Powell is determined to change as the Razorbacks (14-17, 7-9 South-eastern Conference) face Geor-gia in the opening round of the SEC Tournament.
“I believe this is my team,” Powell said. “Not taking any-thing from Mike or Stef or Cox, I know those are the seniors. I’m taking it and putting it on my back. The team needs a leader and we haven’t had that all year. It’s my turn to try it.”
Leading by example has never been a problem for the Newport News, Va., native. He let his play do the talking while earning a unanimous selection the freshman All-SEC team. Powell averaged 15.5 points per game and pulled down a team-best 6.7 rebounds per contest.
“He’s skillful, he can han-dle, shoot, block shots and rebound,” said Welsh, also a Newport News native. “Noth-ing he’s doing is surprising me. I feel like he’s just scratching
the surface. If he stays humble and coachable, as he’s been all year, he’s going to be a really good basketball player for the Razorbacks and have a very special pro career.”
Razorback coach John Pelphrey has lauded Powell as the Hogs’ hardest worker throughout the season. The 6-7, 220-pounder arrived on campus overweight with a broken wrist and promptly shed 30 pounds by the start of preseason practice. Powell has started all 31 games this sea-son, averages 31.1 minutes per game and is one of just three Hogs to play in every contest.
“I surprised myself to be honest,” Powell said. “I thought I wasn’t ready at all to be thrown into the situation I was thrown into. I handled it very well. With the injury to (redshirt sophomore forward) Mike Sanchez and me having to play 30 minutes a night, I would have never expected it.
“I was somewhat prepared for it, but somewhat had to get into it. My coaches and team-mates didn’t do anything but encourage me.”
The season hasn’t been without ups and downs. Powell has scored more than 20 points seven times, including three times in a four-game stretch during conference action. But, he’s been held to less than 10 points in three of Arkansas’ last four games and has shot just 7-for-28 in the Hogs’ last two losses.
“It’s been frustrating to be honest,” Powell said. I really would love to play well every game, but of course no one
can play well every game. Even Kobe (Bryant) can’t play well every game. My teammates keep encouraging me to keep shooting and they’re going to fall sooner or later.
Arkansas’ late-season skid has coincided with Powell’s of-fensive slump. The Razorbacks have lost five consecutive games and blew an 11-point lead with five minutes remain-ing in Saturday’s 68-66 loss to Ole Miss.
“We’re not really over (the loss),” Powell said. “We’ve got to hold that one (close), that’s like a grudge. We gave that game to them. We talked about that in film and understand
what we did wrong and how we let them get back in the game.”
Washington was a pre-season first-team All-SEC selec-tion and entered the season as the Hogs’ top low-post player. But as Powell performed at a high level, opposing defenses began to alter their game plans to account for him.
“The first half of the season teams didn’t know me so they played me straight-up, one-on-one,” Powell said. “But now (since) I’ve been playing pretty decent over the course of the season, I’ve been getting into people’s scouting reports the second half of the season.
“I take it game by game. I’m trying to figure out new ways to score and get team-mates open.”
Powell has made an effort to vocalize his leadership as the year progressed.
“I think he’s grown in that department this year with be-ing more vocal and wanting to step up and make plays down the stretch of basketball games,” Welsh said. “He’s done a little bit of everything.”
Welsh recognized Powell’s potential as a sophomore at Arkansas when Powell attend-ed a UA basketball camp. The
Sports Editor: Matt Watson | Assistant Sports Editor: Harold McIlvain II
Bringing the cheeseBaseball Hogs host Wisconsin-MilwaukeeThis weekend in Sports
Powell ready to put the team on his backJimmy Carter
Assistant Sports Editor
Beaming with confidence: Magee, Razorbacks ready for stretch run
Appreciating the purity of preseason baseball
FILE PHOTOFor the second straight week, senior Casey Jo Magee is No. 1 in the nation on beam. The Razorbacks host Pittsburgh on Friday at Barnhill Arena.
COMMENTARY
GYMNASTICS
See LEADERSHIP on Page 11
Basketball trio
earns SEC honors
BASKETBALL
The level of dedication from senior Casey Jo Magee has been infectious for the No. 7 Arkansas Razorback gymnastics team.
The Eugene, Ore., native said she had looked forward to the season more than any other with big goals in mind – and that’s just what is happening.
Magee, who was named the Southeastern Conference Gymnast of the Week, set a school record with a 39.650 all-around last week and is ranked No. 1 in the nation on the beam, a program first.
Arkansas gymnastics co-head coach Rene Cook said Magee worked hard enough in the offsea-son and the results have followed throughout this season.
“Casey Jo has definitely come into her own,” Cook said. “Her con-fidence is super high. She has just put in a lot of work - and not just in the gym. She has really focused her lifestyle to excel for this team.”
A teammate commented the other day to Cook that Magee is simply a champion – and not just as a member of the Razorbacks, who will host Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. Friday in Barnhill Arena.
“That champion mentality is in and out of the gym,” Cook said. “That’s where you see the confi-
dence. She has done everything she can do create an opportunity to have success.”
Cook said it has been a special season for Magee because she has put the time in to be successful, and the results have shown it.
“It’s nice to see that maturity grows and obtain success at the same time,” Cook said. “You can do all those things and still not have success. You just have to have faith in the process.”
The attitude is something Mag-ee – and the rest of the Razorbacks – have used to great successes this year, as the team has the school record score and have hopes for a national championship.
“There really is a high level ex-pectation among each team mem-ber,” Cook said. “We know we are right where we want and need to be to achieve our goals. It’s just a matter of taking advantage of op-portunity.”
With only two meets left before the SEC Championship, the Razor-backs are looking to use back-to-back home appearances to vault into a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Re-gionals.
“We have an opportunity to pass a few teams,” Cook said “But we need to keep a few teams away from us. If we want to hit strong meets, that sets us up for a great opportunity at the SEC champion-
ship.”Coming off the program’s
third-best all-time score of 196.925 at Minnesota last week, the Razor-backs are gaining the momentum they need heading into an impor-tant non-conference stretch.
With freshmen like Natalie Bo-honsky and Amy Borsellino step-ping up and filling key rotations, Cook said the Razorbacks are find-ing more and more confidence each week.
“There is a faith and trust you gain each week with your team-mates,” Cook said. “As coaches, we don’t know how they are going to react - but we do more so now be-cause we have been through this.”
The newfound depth has helped the Razorbacks lineup all around by taking pressure off oth-er athletes.
“That helps the whole team,” Cook said. “With Bohonsky on bars, now Casey Jo can have a little breather in a sense there isn’t as much pressure to perform perfectly. With the whole lineup being strong, it spreads out the pressure.”
Cook said adding Borsellino on vault will help now – but particu-larly in the postseason.
“We need her to be on that event for us in the postseason,” Cook said. “She can be a huge
Harold McIlvain IIAssistant Sports Editor
See CONFIDENCE on Page 11
The Southeastern Conference honored Arkansas freshman forward Marshawn Powell and sopho-more guards Courtney Fortson and Rotnei Clarke this week.
Powell, Clarke and Fortson are Arkansas’ three leading scorers and have combined for 53 percent of the Razorbacks’ scoring and 66 percent of their made 3-point field goals.
“Good for all three of those young men,” Arkan-sas coach John Pelphrey said. “I’m very proud of them. Hopefully now we can move on to the SEC tournament on Thursday.”
Fortson was named All-SEC second-team by league coaches, despite being suspended for the first 14 games of the season. Fortson returned to lead Arkansas in scoring and assists, and averaged 18.1 points, six assists and 5.3 rebounds per contest.
“A second-team award is pretty good,” Pelphrey said. “Courtney obviously gave our basketball team a big shot in the arm whenever he was able to get back. He’s earned the respect of other coaches in the league and is a big part of us having a chance to win games.”
Powell was selected to the freshman All-SEC team, joining Kentucky guards John Wall and Eric Bledsoe and forward DeMarcus Cousins as unani-mous selections. Powell averaged 15.1 points and a team-best 6.7 rebounds per contest.
“Marshawn was a unanimous pick, that’s out-standing,” Pelphrey said.
Clarke was Arkansas’ representative on the SEC Community Service team. He served Thanksgiving meals at the Fayetteville Juvenile Detention Center and played with children at a local game stop at Christmas.
Clarke also spoke for church groups and Fellow-ship of Christian Athletes events. On the court, he averaged 15.5 points per game and needs just three 3-pointers to break Scotty Thurman’s single-season school record of 102 3-point field goals set in 1995.
“That’s big-time, it talks about character and putting the focus on somebody beside yourself,” Pelphrey said. “He’s had a great year. For the longest
JONATHAN GIBSON Staff Photographer
Freshman Marshawn Powell was unanimously selected to the all-freshman team and ranks No. 3 in scoring - with 15.1 points – and No. 2 in rebounding – with 6.7 per game.
Jimmy CarterAssistant Sports Editor
See AWARDS on Page 11
Did you know?Arkansas baseball’s seven-game win streak, snapped Sunday, was
its longest since 2006.
Every year about this time, baseball purists always talk about the high hopes every team has during Major League Spring Training.
Every club’s official record is un-blemished.
Every roster is full of (mostly) healthy players.
Every organization gauges the potential immediate impact of its young players, and how much veterans can contribute in the clubhouse as well as on the field.
As frigid weather and dark days wane away, baseball players start fresh with sunny days in warm-weather Arizona or Florida with new chances and new expectations.
But spring training is just as much for the fans as it is anything else. For many, March Madness isn’t just a basketball tournament – it’s the feeling baseball fans get when they feel the long, cold offseason finally coming to an end.
Every sport has preseason play, but
NFL players spend all their time com-plaining about injury risks or contract holdouts, while the entire NBA season is a like a pre-season since more than half the league goes to the playoffs anyway.
People plan vacations around baseball spring training. Whether it’s the sands of Surprise, Ariz., by day and the Grand Canyon by night, or Jupiter, Fla., by day and the sands of Florida’s Atlantic coast at night, Spring Training is as much a cultural event as it is preseason practice.
Before the wear and tear of a 162-game slate gets to players and the six-game mental drain takes its toll on the coaches, everybody’s excited to take to the diamond in March.
Even once the season has started, teams are still on cloud nine knowing that a season’s never lost in April. No one wins a marathon by sprinting the first mile. Even the Nationals won’t be mathematically eliminated until at least June or July.
Baseball managers like to muse about games counting as much in April as they do in September. You know who led the American League in wins on May 1 last season? The Toronto Blue Jays. They ended up missing the playoffs by 28 games. Without the proper seeds, April showers just bring late season disappointment.
But nobody really loses in March. Yeah, the Cardinals are 1-5 in spring
contests. Who cares? Albert Pujols is more worried about his one-month-old son than his on-base percentage in scrimmages. Matt Holliday’s is two months into his 84-month (seven-year) contract.
Once the clock strikes 7 p.m. on April 4, the real games begin with the Yanks-Sox on ESPN. Most of the country hates both of those teams these days, but baseball is baseball, and there’s just something magical about the begin-ning of the spring and the beginning of baseball.
Matt Watson is the sports editor for The Arkansas Traveler. His column ap-pears every Wednesday.
Razorbacks struggled to get consis-tent contributions from the power forward position in 2009 and Pow-ell, ranked among the nation’s top 50 players by Scout.com as a high school senior, was tabbed as an in-stant impact player.
“The first time I saw him play my sophomore year, he was a must get,” Welsh said. “I know, after how our season went last year, he was what we were missing. I knew with the type of offense and with his skill set, he was going to come in and be able to produce.”
Powell has produced and the hard work has paid off. Powell joined Kentucky phenoms John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe as unanimous selections to the freshman all-conference squad.
“It just shows where hard work can take you,” Powell said. “I came in every day since I’ve got here pre-pared to work.”
Now Powell is prepared to lead.
THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER | UATRAV.COM WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2010 |Page 11SPORTSIt’s the award season, NBA editionCOMMENTARY
It seems as if it is the season for award shows right now.
The Academy, Grammy, Golden Globe and People’s Choice award shows have all aired and handed out some hard-ware. Celebrities have walked the red carpet and put together acceptance speeches.
Sports have the summer-time award show in the ESPYS, but it just feels right for a league like the NBA hand out some awards of its own right now.
It is the season for award shows after all.
It doesn’t seem like team have played over 60 games and are preparing for the stretch run. The usual suspects are still atop the standings in every division.
Cleveland, Boston and Orlan-do are atop the Eastern Confer-ence with the Lakers, Denver and Dallas leading out of the Western Conference. But there have been a good number of surprise teams and unlikely players that have stepped up this season.
And in today’s society, it’s all about giving out awards. It’s only natural to take a look at who might take home some of the more coveted league awards (and some made up ones) at the end of the season.
So go get your best tux on and get ready for the NBA award show. This article can wait. Suited up yet? Good. Here we go.
Hey, that guy isn’t as bad as I thought award: Nate Robinson, Boston Celtics.
After racking up nearly a month full of DNPs with the Knicks, Robinson showed he could do more than just win a dunk competition by dropping 41 points on the Hawks in January.
The 5-9 guard and former first round pick still has only started two games this year - but that kind of fits this award title. Nate is not quite good but not quite bad.
Rookie of the year award: Brandon Jennings, Milwaukee Bucks.
Sure there were some ques-
tions about Jennings after skip-ping college and heading to play professionally overseas. Some wondered about the attitude. But rarely was talent questioned with Jennings, and it has shown dur-ing his rookie campaign.
The point guard is averag-ing 15.8 points, 6.1 assists and 1.3 steals a game and is making the Bucks an interesting team to watch. Yes, the Bucks.
The shooting percentage from month-to-month has dropped from a 49 percent in November to a 30.7 percent in February. But at the same time the turnovers have decreased, too.
Tyreke Evans of the Kings is clearly going to win this award in the long run, but give me Jennings who brings a spark and swagger to a team that is actually winning - and will actually make the playoffs.
The same can’t be said for Evans or Stephen Curry, despite their better statistics.
Wow, this guy still plays award: Theo Ratliff, Charlotte Bobcats.
The 36-year-old is still getting things done - but not by much, as he is averaging 13 minutes a game this year.
But evidently he is still worth having on a roster. Ratliff, who started the year on the Spurs, was traded for a protected second-round draft pick in 2016. Really? A second round pick?
Six years from now, the 42-year-old Ratliff will still be having an impact on the NBA.
Lindsey Hunter needs to be an honorable mention here. The 39-year-old Bull got minutes this
year before being waived by the team and then being hired as a player development assistant.
MVP award: LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers.
This one is too easy. King James has put together four straight Player of the Month awards this season and now has won the award eight of the last 10 months, dating back to 2009.
That isn’t bad. And just in case you were wondering, no one has swept the monthly award in one season. LeBron is looking at doing just that, as he is averag-ing 30 points, 8.5 assists and 7.2 rebounds while shooting 51 percent from the field.
The we suck award: New Jersey Nets.
Not much should be said here. This award has been locked up for a while.
Most improved player award: Kevin Durant, Okla-homa City Thunder.
I’ve written in this space about this guy a couple times - maybe more than that.
But I can’t say enough about Durant. He is a franchise guy who wants to stay close to home and win with a group of young guys around him. He is a refresh-ing talent - both on and off the court.
OK. These guys are good. But next level good award? Atlanta Hawks.
Most awards are suppose to be, well, certain. The nature of a title of sorts is to be punctual and to the point, not inquisitive.
That isn’t the case with this award - or the Atlanta Hawks. They took the Celtics to a game seven last year, but it’s hard to take the next step when you are a poor road team.
They are outstanding at home, but do they have what it takes? Only time will tell.
Harold McIlvain is an assistant sports editor of The Arkansas Traveler. His column appears every other Wednesday.
score for us and we are trying to get her in on floor. We need her level of difficulty in the championship season.”
Cook said she knows how im-portant the SEC Championship meet will be, but the Razorbacks are focusing on solidifying the ro-tations with Pittsburgh this week.
“There have been some key routines people have done great jobs stepping in when needed,” Cook said. “But I think we are getting to more where we need to be with the fourth, fifth and sixth routines.”
CONFIDENCEfrom Page 10
period of time early in the season, we were in trouble if he wasn’t making shots. He set the bar so high that when he does miss it kind of takes us all by surprise.
“Obviously he draws a lot of attention from the opponent. He’s gotten better at driving and has become a master at ball-handling. I think he’s had an outstanding year.”
Wall was voted SEC Player of the Year, although Pelphrey said he voted for Cousins. Cous-ins was awarded Freshman of the Year. Kentucky finished the regular season 29-2, but Van-derbilt coach Kevin Stallings was awarded Coach of the Year over first-year UK coach John Calipari. The 20th-ranked Commodores are 23-7.
“I think coach (Pat) Riley with the (Los Angeles) Lakers, all the years he won a championship I’m not sure he ever won coach
AWARDSfrom Page 10
of the year,” Pelphrey said. “Its kind of ironic how those things work for a coach. Obviously Cal deserves a lot of credit.
“The year even ranks up there with some of the great seasons in Wildcat history and when you do that it tells you what type of job you did.”
LEADERSHIPfrom Page 10
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Tennis tops South Carolina, Rebels and Bulldogs up nextOLYMPIC SPORTS NOTEBOOK
After losing to the Florida Gators 7-0 at home in the George M. Billingsley Tennis Center to begin SEC play on Fri-day night, the No. 52 men’s ten-nis team (9-4, 1-1) rebounded with a 4-2 win over the No. 41 South Carolina Gamecocks on Sunday.
“We opened up SEC play this past weekend at home against Florida and South Carolina,” coach Robert Cox said. “Against Florida I think we just fell flat against our face. We just played flat and got discouraged early and they just jumped on us. But we bounced back real well and beat a very talented South Carolina team and that’s what we needed at this time.
“We needed to get this first SEC win behind us so we could play a little looser, but it was a good team effort. This just shows what can happen when you give it your all.”
The Hogs began the contest against South Carolina quickly down 1-0 after losing the dou-bles point with a clean sweep, which included a loss by the No. 26 ranked duo of junior Chris Nott and senior Dmitry Lebedev.
In singles play, sophomore Nikolas Zogaj lost his match 6-4, 6-1 to put the Hogs down 2-0, but then Lebedev won 6-3, 6-4 over USC’s Alexander Kon-stonov and the Razorbacks nev-er looked back.
Sophomore Matt Walters and freshman Gregoire Leh-mann each won their respective matches to put the Hogs up 3-2. Walters had been down against his opponent, Ivan Cressoni,
but he rebounded with a strong return after falling behind 3-1 and managed to pull back to tie the score at five all before win-ning the first set 7-6 (4) and the second set 6-2. Lehmann won his sets 6-4, 7-5.
Nott, the No. 57 singles player in the country, defeated the Gamecocks’ Diego Cubas (ranked No. 65) 6-4, 7-6 (4) to seal the 4-2 victory for the Hogs.
Cox said he was proud of the team’s efforts to rebound after playing from behind down and then sealing the victory at home.
“We fell down early after losing the doubles point and it’s very tough to win four singles matches against an SEC oppo-nent, but we did just that and it was a great win at home,” Cox said.
This weekend the Hogs trav-el east of the Mississippi River to take on the Ole Miss Rebels and the Mississippi St. Bulldogs. Last year, the Razorbacks lost to Ole Miss 5-2 and lost to Missis-sippi St. 4-3, with both contests in Fayetteville.
Cox conceded that the sched-ule doesn’t do the team any fa-vors as they continue their SEC schedule.
“It doesn’t get any easier as we go on the road and play Ole Miss, a top 15 team, at their home and Mississippi St is al-ways a tough place to play, but we’ll be ready,” Cox said.
The Hogs will take on the Rebels at 2 p.m. Friday in Ox-ford, Miss., and then head to Starkville, Miss. for a 10 a.m. match against Mississippi St. on Sunday.
Softball Takes 3 of 5 at Home
The softball team wrapped up the Razorback Invitational at Bogle Park in Fayetteville last weekend with three wins and two losses. The team topped Eastern Illinois 9-1, Drake 5-0 and Southern Mississippi 2-1 while also losing to No. 20 Lou-isiana-Lafayette 5-2 and Iowa State 2-1.
“It was just awesome to be home and not have to travel and weather the cooperated,” coach Mike Larabee said. “The fans were outstanding. Three [wins] and two [losses] was a pretty good weekend. The highlight of the weekend was our pitching staff and that was an area going into the season I was concerned about, but right now our team’s ERA is 1.88, so our pitchers are doing a great job of keeping our team in the game.”
The pitching staff is led by junior Kim Jones and freshman Hope McLemore. Jones has a 1.19 ERA and 17 Ks in limited 17.2 IP, while McLemore has been the team’s workhorse with 52 Ks in 50 IP while still boast-ing a miniscule 1.38 ERA.
According to coach Lara-bee, the team’s major flaw has been untimely hitting a lack of production from the bottom of the lineup. The top five hitters in the lineup are all currently batting over .270 with two play-ers over .350 including three-hole hitter Sandra Smith’s .407. Clean-up hitter Miranda Dixon leads the team with six home runs. The bottom four of the lineup, however, fails to include a hitter batting over the Men-doza line and two of the hitters are below .150.
“From an offensive stand-point, [I’m] very disappointed in the amount of runners we left on base. We had the bases loaded six times. The good thing is we’re getting runners on base, [but] the bad thing is we’re not getting them across the plate. There is a significant drop-off at the bottom of the order by mostly players who haven’t had a lot of playing time in the program.
“It’s just about getting that confidence up. Hitting is conta-gious, so hopefully eventually it’ll start clicking.”
Up next, the team will host the Arkansas Invitational this weekend at Bogle Park. Op-ponents will include Louisiana Tech, Southeast Missouri State and SIU-Edwardsville.
“I really think that we can compete and beat anyone on our schedule if we play our ‘A’ game,” Larabee said. “On the other hand, if we don’t come ready to play, any one of those three teams can knock us off. We’re going to the point where
SEC is about to start and we re-ally need to make sure we are playing at a high level. The SEC is going to be tougher competi-tion that what we have played so far.”
Men’s Golf Prepares for
Seminole Intercollegiate
The men’s golf team finished sixth of 16 teams last weekend at the Border Olympics held in Laredo, Tx. The Hogs’ final score of 888 placed them behind Tex-as State, who led the way with a final score of 876, Oklahoma, Lamar, UT-Arlington and SEC rival Auburn.
“Obviously we didn’t have a very good weekend down there,” coach Brad McMakin said. “Actually we led after the first round including David Lingmerth having a bad day, so we were expecting to build the lead and go from there. But we had two bad days back-to-back and ended up finishing sixth, so it was a disappointing week-end.”
Senior Dalton Owens led the way for the Hogs for the first time this season with an eight-over par which gave him a tie for eighth overall in the competition. He was followed by sophomore Ethan Tracy who tied for 25th overall. Seniors Jamie Marshall and Lingmerth finished 28th and 41st, respec-tively.
This weekend the Hogs, who were ranked No. 25 before the Border Olympics, will take part in a 14-team competition at the Seminole Intercollegiate hosted by Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla. SEC opponents included in the mix include Mississippi St, South Carolina and Vanderbilt. Other notable opponents in-clude Baylor, Cincinnati, and North Carolina in addition to host Florida St.
Coach McMakin felt that it was a good thing to be facing tough competition on back-to-back weekends and also felt that the team will rebound from the previous tournament.
“We leave tomorrow for Florida St. It’s going to be a really good field headed up by South Carolina who is ranked No. 5 in the country and Flor-ida St. is ranked No. 4 on their home golf course, so it’s going to be a tough week. I think we’ll bounce back well. Last week gave us a good check for the guys finding out that after UCLA we were kind of walking on clouds and felt pretty good, so I think [last weekend] brought us down a little bit and we’ll bounce back this week.”
Razorbacks Enter 23 Team Tournament in New Orleans
The women’s golf team will
travel to New Orleans this week-end to take part in the Tiger/Wave Golf Classic hosted by LSU and Tulane at the English Turn Golf and Country Club. It will be the team’s third tournament of the spring.
The team will be looking to improve upon its eighth and 13th place finishes in the pre-vious two tournaments this spring. The competition this weekend will be tough as com-petitors include SEC foes Ala-bama, Auburn, Georgia, Ken-tucky, LSU, Mississippi St, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Vanderbilt as well as Louisville, North Car-olina St, Notre Dame, Purdue, TCU, Tulane, Virginia and Wake Forest among others.
“It’s an extremely tough field for us this weekend,” coach Shauna Estes-Taylor said. “There are 23 teams with many of them in the Top 25.”
Individually, junior Kellie Shean has led the team in every category this season. She leads
the team with a 72.5 stroke av-erage. Coach Estes-Taylor said that after Shean and freshman Victoria Vela, the team’s remain-ing three spots in the lineup are up in the air.
“It’s just matter for us just getting a lineup together. Kellie Shean has been really solid for us. Victoria Vela as a freshman has come in and really adapted well to our system. The rest we are just searching and waiting for people to step up for the last three spots,” Estes-Taylor said. “This weekend in New Orleans, Kristin Ingram will be play-ing in the 5th spot and Tiffany Phelps and Corinna Rees will be playing in the fourth and third spots for us.
“It’s the time of the year where we really need to solidify our spots in the lineups.”
The team will have two more tournaments after this weekend before the SEC Championship hosted in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on April 16-18.
Clint LinderStaff Writer
NCAA DIVISION I INDOOR TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPSMarch 12-13, 2010Host: University of ArkansasFayetteville, ARRandal Tyson Track Center
