LOOK WHO’S Louisiana Tech legend, Karl Malone, speaks about life on and of the court. PAGE 8 PAGE 7 IN THE KITCHEN AILLET’S ANCESTRY The great-granddaughters of legendary coach, Joe Aillet, reflect on his legacy. The student voice of Louisiana Tech University Talk Tech January 25, 2013 www.thetechtalk.org T he Volume 87 Number 13 PRSRT STD NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION US POSTAGE PAID RUSTON, LA PERMIT NO 104 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED > see CONSPIRACY page 6 > see ORGSYNC page 2 KELSY KERSHAW Staff Reporter By the end of the school year, brick space should be replaced with green space where the old College of Business building now stands. Sam Wallace, director of facil- ity and support services, said that the old building has had some is- sues that needed tending since it was built. “At the moment, there is a firm coming in that is removing as- bestos-containing materials from the building,” he said. “When the building was constructed, asbes- tos was a common product used in a lot of the materials.” Wallace said the materials would be disposed of properly and once it is finished, the contractor in charge of demolition will come and demolish the building. “The reason we built the new building was because the old building had structural issues that required some repair or the build- ing being abandoned,” he said. “The repairs were in excess of the value of the building.” To solve all of the issues, Tech had to spend a little over half the value of building a new building, he added. It has not been determined what will happen with the land af- ter the building is torn down, but right now the plan is green space, Wallace said. “It’s not a real good location for parking,” he said. “You’re at a 90- degree turn and there is not a lot of space to put cars.” The general consent is to leave it as landscaped green space, which for a rural setting like Rus- ton and a campus like Tech, is very appropriate, Wallace added. “If you look at the size, the building is right up against the road,” he said. “There is not a very large site between it, University Hall and Keeny.” Students are happy to see phys- ical improvements taking place on campus, especially Christopher Berry, a junior sustainable supply chain management major. “I’m a firm believer in expand- ing campus and building new facil- ities,” he said. “It really helps with our publicity and recruitment.” Berry said the old building was kind of an eyesore to our cam- pus so getting rid of it will only RANEY JOHNSON Staff Reporter Students at Tech may be checking their news feed, but it will not just be on Facebook, it will also be on the new campus organization management site, OrgSync. “OrgSync is like a clearing house because everything is right there in a central location,” said Adam Collins, coordinator of multicul- tural affairs and adviser to the National Pan- Hellenic Council and Student Government Association. The process of getting organizations into the system began last year, said Barry Mo- rales, director of student development and adviser to SGA, KLPI and Union Board. “This year we are growing the system be- yond just the organization itself to where we want the students themselves to be a part of the system so it becomes a social network,” Morales said. Collins said now that members of organi- zations have profiles on OrgSync, emails and messages can be sent, and if personal profiles have numbers, the site can even be used to text. “If we send a message to a group, it goes to everyone that we designate to receive it, so we don’t have to use snail mail or email,” Col- Old business building to be demolished by end of school year KELSY KERSHAW Staff reporter For different historical tragedies, people conjure up conspiracies. Andrew McKevitt said these theories are not valid. McKevitt, an assistant professor of history, said he thinks conspiracy theories are a way for people to redirect their anger or frustration in some other realm. Some people believe the Sandy Hook shooting was an organized conspiracy by the Obama Administration to provide a solid foundation for them to pass the proposed gun laws, however, McKevitt said he disagrees. “People use theories to make themselves feel better about tragic events,” he said. “Events in which the standard explanations just are not enough.” He said a lot of conspiracy theories sur - round historical events that lead into social upheaval or economic downturn. “For example, with 9/11, there were 18 Conspiracy theories create chaos KELSY KERSHAW Staff Reporter Pelvic thrusting, cuddling, kissing and making faces at invisible Martians are only four things that hypnotist Sailesh made stu- dent volunteers do in front of their peers. On Tuesday in the Tonk, 20 students sat on stage while they focused only on the sound of Sailesh’s voice and fell into a deep sleep. To begin the show, Sailesh had 20 emp- ty chairs on stage and he told the audience that the first students to fill those chairs would be his volunteers. Sailesh has been doing hypnosis shows for 18 years, and through his years as a hypnotist, he has performed for diverse audiences. “I used to play around with it at a bar I worked at,” he said. “I used to be the head doorman and swing manager, and I got talked into doing a stage show.” He said it all just kind of took off from there and now it is his career. He said he thoroughly enjoys what he does. The show at Tech was designed to be family-oriented in the first half and more college-student oriented in the second half. “Hypnotists want people to believe they have the power to make people do whatever they want them to, but they don’t,” he said. “The power is in the peo- ple’s minds.” There are two parts to the human mind: the conscious and subconscious, he add- ed. “The hypnotist just puts the conscious mind to sleep,” he said. “The rest is the subconscious mind at work.” He said on average, students will go into a hypnotic state 60-65 times a day for a few seconds or minutes. It normally happens while driving, making a phone call or on a deeper level in situations in- volving meditation. “Anyone can be hypnotized, but it is up to them,” Sailesh said. “People remember everything they do when in a state of hyp- nosis.” Madison Montgomery, a sophomore nursing major and hypnosis volunteer, said she remembered everything she did while she was on stage. “One thing I remember is that I was re- ally tired, as far as feelings go,” she said. “I really enjoyed it, though.” Union Board provides entertainment for students through hypnosis Photo by Tyler Brown Twenty Tech students volunteered to be hypnotized on stage by Sailesh at his hypnotist show hosted by Union Board. OrgSync becomes popular on campus Photo by Deepanjan Mukhopadhyay Sailesh has been practicing hypnotism for 18 years. Dazed and confused Photo by Tyler Brown The old College of Business building is planned to be replaced for potential green space for the campus. > see COB page 2 > see HYPNOTIST page 3
Transcript
LOOKWHO’SLouisiana Tech legend, Karl Malone, speaks about life on and of the court. PAGE 8 PAGE 7
IN THE KITCHEN AILLET’S ANCESTRYThe great-granddaughters of legendary coach, Joe Aillet, reflect on his legacy.
The student voice of Louisiana Tech University
TalkTechJanuary 25, 2013 www.thetechtalk.org
The
Volume 87 Number 13
PRSRT STDNON-PROFIT
ORGANIZATIONUS POSTAGE
PAIDRUSTON, LA
PERMIT NO 104
RETURNSERVICE
REQUESTED
> see CONSPIRACY page 6
> see ORGSYNC page 2
KELSY KERSHAWStaff Reporter
By the end of the school year, brick space should be replaced with green space where the old College of Business building now stands.
Sam Wallace, director of facil-ity and support services, said that the old building has had some is-sues that needed tending since it was built.
“At the moment, there is a firm coming in that is removing as-bestos-containing materials from the building,” he said. “When the building was constructed, asbes-tos was a common product used in a lot of the materials.”
Wallace said the materials would be disposed of properly and once it is finished, the contractor
in charge of demolition will come and demolish the building.
“The reason we built the new building was because the old building had structural issues that required some repair or the build-ing being abandoned,” he said. “The repairs were in excess of the value of the building.”
To solve all of the issues, Tech had to spend a little over half the value of building a new building, he added.
It has not been determined what will happen with the land af-ter the building is torn down, but right now the plan is green space, Wallace said.
“It’s not a real good location for parking,” he said. “You’re at a 90- degree turn and there is not a lot of space to put cars.”
The general consent is to leave
it as landscaped green space, which for a rural setting like Rus-ton and a campus like Tech, is very appropriate, Wallace added.
“If you look at the size, the building is right up against the road,” he said. “There is not a very large site between it, University Hall and Keeny.”
Students are happy to see phys-ical improvements taking place on campus, especially Christopher Berry, a junior sustainable supply chain management major.
“I’m a firm believer in expand-ing campus and building new facil-ities,” he said. “It really helps with our publicity and recruitment.”
Berry said the old building was kind of an eyesore to our cam-pus so getting rid of it will only
RANEY JOHNSONStaff Reporter
Students at Tech may be checking their news feed, but it will not just be on Facebook, it will also be on the new campus organization management site, OrgSync.
“OrgSync is like a clearing house because everything is right there in a central location,” said Adam Collins, coordinator of multicul-tural affairs and adviser to the National Pan-Hellenic Council and Student Government Association.
The process of getting organizations into the system began last year, said Barry Mo-rales, director of student development and adviser to SGA, KLPI and Union Board.
“This year we are growing the system be-yond just the organization itself to where we want the students themselves to be a part of the system so it becomes a social network,” Morales said.
Collins said now that members of organi-zations have profiles on OrgSync, emails and messages can be sent, and if personal profiles have numbers, the site can even be used to text.
“If we send a message to a group, it goes to everyone that we designate to receive it, so we don’t have to use snail mail or email,” Col-
Old business building to be demolished by end of school year
KELSY KERSHAWStaff reporter
For different historical tragedies, people conjure up conspiracies. Andrew McKevitt said these theories are not valid.
McKevitt, an assistant professor of history, said he thinks conspiracy theories are a way for people to redirect their anger or frustration in some other realm.
Some people believe the Sandy Hook shooting was an organized conspiracy by the Obama Administration to provide a solid foundation for them to pass the proposed gun laws, however, McKevitt said he disagrees.
“People use theories to make themselves feel better about tragic events,” he said. “Events in which the standard explanations just are not enough.”
He said a lot of conspiracy theories sur-round historical events that lead into social upheaval or economic downturn.
“For example, with 9/11, there were 18
Conspiracy theories
create chaosKELSY KERSHAWStaff Reporter
Pelvic thrusting, cuddling, kissing and making faces at invisible Martians are only four things that hypnotist Sailesh made stu-dent volunteers do in front of their peers.
On Tuesday in the Tonk, 20 students sat on stage while they focused only on the sound of Sailesh’s voice and fell into a deep sleep.
To begin the show, Sailesh had 20 emp-ty chairs on stage and he told the audience that the first students to fill those chairs would be his volunteers.
Sailesh has been doing hypnosis shows for 18 years, and through his years as a hypnotist, he has performed for diverse audiences.
“I used to play around with it at a bar I worked at,” he said. “I used to be the head doorman and swing manager, and I got talked into doing a stage show.”
He said it all just kind of took off from there and now it is his career. He said he thoroughly enjoys what he does.
The show at Tech was designed to be family-oriented in the first half and more college-student oriented in the second half.
“Hypnotists want people to believe they have the power to make people do whatever they want them to, but they don’t,” he said. “The power is in the peo-ple’s minds.”
There are two parts to the human mind: the conscious and subconscious, he add-ed.
“The hypnotist just puts the conscious mind to sleep,” he said. “The rest is the subconscious mind at work.”
He said on average, students will go into a hypnotic state 60-65 times a day for a few seconds or minutes. It normally happens while driving, making a phone call or on a deeper level in situations in-volving meditation.
“Anyone can be hypnotized, but it is up to them,” Sailesh said. “People remember everything they do when in a state of hyp-nosis.”
Madison Montgomery, a sophomore nursing major and hypnosis volunteer, said she remembered everything she did while she was on stage.
“One thing I remember is that I was re-ally tired, as far as feelings go,” she said. “I really enjoyed it, though.”
Union Board provides entertainment for students through hypnosis
Photo by Tyler BrownTwenty Tech students volunteered to be hypnotized on stage by Sailesh at his hypnotist show hosted by Union Board.
OrgSync becomes
popular on campus
Photo by Deepanjan Mukhopadhyay
Sailesh has been practicing hypnotism for 18 years.
Dazed and confused
Photo by Tyler Brown
The old College of Business building is planned to be replaced for potential green space for the campus. > see COB page 2
> see HYPNOTIST page 3
KAAMILYA SALAAMStaff Reporter
As rain falls and the temperature drops, a well-lit gallery invites visitors in with the sounds of birds chirping, trees creaking and the wind whispering.
These are the sounds of the Louisi-ana Purchase Juried Exhibition.
The Louisiana Purchase Juried Exhi-bition held at F. Jay Taylor Visual Arts Center is a multimedia show for two- and three-dimensional works exploring any theme.
The School of Art received more than 165 submissions for a total of more than 800 pieces of art, many of which were from the region.
Jes Schrom, an assistant professor of photography, said the purpose of such an event is to bring widespread at-tention to the university, the School of Art and the community by showcasing contemporary artwork from all over the country and taking advantage of the opportunity to bring in well-known cu-rators as jurors.
“This is the second national juried show we have had here at Louisiana Tech University,” Schrom said. “We be-gan this show in 2001, and it is held ev-ery two years.”
“It brings in contemporary artwork from all over the country for students, faculty and the community to view in person.”
Schrom said having the exhibition gives the School of Art the opportunity to bring in well-known curators as ju-rors, further enhancing participants’ ex-periences with a juror’s talk, award cer-emony and a discussion about the show.
The sole juror for the Louisiana Pur-chase Exhibition was Paul Manoguerra, chief curator and curator of American art at the Georgia Museum of Art at University of Georgia.
“The fun part about being a juror for an exhibition like this is the variety of artists and types of art through the me-dia submitted...,” Manoguerra said.
In addition, Manoguerra said the fact that he gets to be completely subjective and have a say as the sole juror is also fun.
“There are only two ways to go about being completely objective: You can either be objective like a journal-ist or embrace the subjectivity and go with your own feelings and emotions,” Manoguerra said. “That’s what I did.”
Manoguerra said being subjective worked for this exhibition because he was able to pick what he likes and pick a theme at the same time.
“So I picked the theme I liked and I
enjoyed it,” Manoguerra said. “I went with the landscape and the human pres-ence within the landscape.”
When looking for a theme, Manogu-erra said he was trying to find a way to make the exhibition interesting to visi-tors and himself.
“One of the trends that I saw again and again as I was looking through im-ages that had been submitted as entries was landscape coming up as a motif,” Manoguerra said. “That’s something that I personally enjoy as my own re-search interest, so when I saw it con-stantly coming up I said that’s a great theme.”
Manoguerra also said the theme came easily because various media were used.
Some were prints, textiles, photo-graphs and three-dimensional pieces of artwork, but all had a landscape theme.
“Many of the artist entries for this Louisiana Purchase Exhibition had landscape themes,” Manoguerra said. “It was by far the largest jury of works that had landscape themes.”
Although several individuals through-out the region and country entered the exhibition, only four could be chosen as winners.
The winners chosen are Gregory Martin, Best in Show; Jennifer Torres, Juror’s Choice; Tamara Roberto and Alison A. Smith, Honorable Mention.
Email comments to kms042@latechedu.
RANEY JOHNSONStaff Reporter
Each year many students apply to graduate schools wondering how they will pay for tuition. Many seek out schol-arships and loans to help take care of some of the costs, but a few are given full scholarships.
Timothy Chase Green, a senior biol-ogy major, found his chance to pay for the medical school he was accepted to in December through the Reserves Of-fice Training Corps.
Green was informed in February 2012 that he was one of two to receive a Reserve Officer Training Corps schol-arship.
“I was really excited when I heard that,” Green said. “I figured I had a good chance of getting the scholarship, but when I was told I was one of only two, I was really excited.”
Green said he could not believe that he stood out to the Air Force to be one of two to receive the scholarship.
“Originally I was told there was go-ing to be 25 slots given to Air Force cadets, so I thought I had a one in 25 chance,” Green said.
He said there might have been more than 25 applicants so he probably had a lesser chance. There is a formula in
which they put applicants through in or-der to be considered for the scholarship, Green said.
“Part of the formula is your grades and another part is your commander ranking,” he said. “That is your rank-ing among your class of ROTC cadets and also your physical fitness scores. They put all of that into this formula, it puts out a number and basically if your score is high enough, they give you a scholarship.”
Green said at that point he had to get really serious about applying to medical school and ended up applying to osteopathic medical schools, a medical practice similar to a medical doctor except the physician uses body manipu-lation similar to what chiro-practors do.
“I applied to several of those schools, and in December I found out I got an interview at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine,” he said. “It was their Carolina campus in Spartanburg, S.C.”
The process of getting accepted in-volved an interview that lasted several hours, tours of the school and presenta-tions Green said.
“A couple of days later, they let me know that I was accepted,” he said.
Green said at the end of his fresh-man year he really started to worry about how expensive medical school would be and how he was going to pay for it. He said he started looking at dif-ferent options, and Air Force ROTC was
the best option. “I thought it was a great
deal,” Green said. “I turned to that and it really paid off for me.”
Green said to even be con-sidered for the scholarship, he had to go to basic training for four weeks between his soph-omore and junior years.
“My next step was be-coming a flight commander,” Green said. “I had to put in a memo stating I wanted to be considered for scholarship
for Air Force ROTC to go to medical school.”
Green said personally he thinks that he has received a lot of invaluable ex-perience out of Air Force ROTC that is going to help him when he goes to medical school.
“You have to really learn to manage your time and they really teach leader-ship that you cannot get many other
places,” he said.Green said with his Air Force ROTC
scholarship, he will have to serve a mini-mum of one year for every year that the Air Force has paid for him to go to school.
“Since I did Air Force ROTC, I al-ready have a four-year commitment and then they will be paying for four years of medical school also, so I will have a minimum of eight years commitment,” Green said.
Green said after his eight years of service he plans to return to his home-town, Famerville, to be a family care physician. He also said his plans are to most likely retire with the Air Force, be-cause he can retire within 20 years.
“I’m definitely glad I did ROTC,” Green said. “It is not easy and it takes a lot of dedication.”
Green said just to be a pre-med stu-dent alone requires a lot of work, but to tack on ROTC takes just that much more work.
“If someone is considering joining ROTC, they just need to expect to work really hard and try to stand out as best they can,” he said. “Just work hard and stay on top of grades because grades are the biggest thing.”
have positive effects.“It will make Tech look bet-
ter,” he said. “I believe Tech has done a great job imple-menting new facilities and by tearing this building down, we continue heading in the right direction.”
Wallace said he and some of the Tech administration have worked with some of the architecture students at Tech to form concepts for what could possibly be done with the green space.
“We’re talking about may-be installing an amphitheater or just another general meet-ing area for organizations,” he said.
Tearing down the old build-
ing will affect some of the sur-rounding buildings, but it will only be positive, Wallace said.
“It will improve University Hall because right now it is jammed up against it,” he said. “There’s some nice landscap-ing around University Hall and it has some nice features that you really can’t see because of the old building.”
He added it should not hinder the Wesley Foundation across the street in any way, but it may give it more visibil-ity.
“I think it will also help safety in pedestrian cross-ing,” he said. “It will be a more visible entryway and people won’t be competing with cars as much.”
Wallace said there are a lot of things that need to happen
before the demolition can be completed, but the general thoughts for a predicted com-pletion date are in the April time frame.
There are a few different companies and firms who are part of the demolition process so they have to work with and around each other’s processes to be successful efficiently, he added.
“It is going to be a safer area and I think it is going to improve the aesthetics of that area of our campus,” Wallace said. “Down the road, there may be some landscaping but right now the final improve-ments have not been deter-mined.”
The Counseling and Career Services Center will host a pro-fessional image seminar from 3-4 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 29 in the Wyly Tower of Learning.
The seminar will cover the basics of how to dress for a job interview. It will also address appropriate professional wear in any career atmosphere or job setting.
The event is free of charge and open to all students.
For more information con-tact Ron Cathey, director of the Counseling and Career Servic-es Center, at 318-257-4336 or [email protected].
Stone Theatre to present ‘Proof’ play
The Louisiana Tech Uni-versity theater department will hold a production of “Proof,” at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 29 to Feb. 2 and Feb. 5 to 9 in the Stone Theatre.
“Proof ” is a 2001 Tony Award-inning play for Best Play, the 2001 Pulitzer Prize winner for Drama and the 2001 Drama Desk Award winner for Out-standing Play.
The play, directed by Paul B. Crook, is about the daughter of a brilliant mathematician who dies from a prolonged men-tal illness. She must struggle with her self-identity in a world where she fears her own level of genius could bring about the same tragic fate as her fa-ther and prove that her father’s mathematical proof was really written by her.
Tickets are $12 for adults, $8 for seniors and children un-der 14, $5 for students with a valid ID and $7 for groups 10 or more.
For more information con-tact Rowan Johnson or Rachael Pace at 318-257-2930. Tick-ets can be purchased online at www.latechuniversitytheatre.com/tickets.
LTCA presents St. Louis brass group
The Louisiana Tech Concert Association will host the St. Louis Brass Quintet Monday, Jan. 28 and Tuesday, Jan. 29 from 7:30 p.m at the Howard Auditorium, Center for the Per-forming Arts.
Founded in 1964, the St. Louis Brass Quintet is one of America’s longest standing brass quintets.
The group was originally formed by members of the St. Louis Symphony to play chil-dren’s concerts around the St. Louis area.
Soon though, they expanded to present full length concerts funded by the National Endow-ment for the Arts, the Missouri Arts Council and the Mid-America Arts Alliance.
Now, 40 years and more than 2,500 engagements later, the only original member still in the group, and the only one who actually lives in St. Louis, is trombonist Melvyn Jernigan.
Contact the Howard Center Box Office at 318-257-3942 to buy tickets at the cost of $12 for adults and $5 for students. The box office hours are 1:30-4:45 p.m. Monday to Friday.
For more information con-tact the theater office at 318- 257-2930.
Decision-making workshop to be held
For students still search-ing for that perfect occupation, there will be a Career Decision- Making Workshop from 3-5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 28 and from 2-4 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 29 in the Career Center.
At this two-day, fast-paced workshop, students engage in an assessment of their skills and abilities, work interest, tem-perament and gain access to online career information.
Participants must register with Linda Smith in the Coun-seling Center at 318-257-4336
For more information con-tact Ron Cathey, Career Center director, at 318-257-4336.
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A show to remember
Photo by Deepanjan Mukhopadhyay
The art exhibition showcased contemporary artwork with submissions from throughout the country. This is a photo of Jennifer Torres’ “Ironscape” made out of cast iron and stoneware.
Tech ROTC cadet aims high, wins
lins said.Morales said he also wants it to be an opportunity
for facilitating a lot more resiliency and efficiency for organizational status.
“There is a community campus page where stu-dents can update and upload their organiza-tional events, for example, and it will come to one of us. One of us will approve those events for submission and then it will be available to all students who are in the Org-Sync system,” Morales said.
Collins said it will be much more likely for a student to find out what is available if he or she is already in the system compared to just a flier that is around campus.
“Unfortunately there are fliers packed on top of fliers,” Collins said. “If the fliers aren’t moved through, you do not know that they are there.”
Collins said OrgSync also helps organiza-tions post meeting announcements and documents. He said this information gets sent out to all students in the system.
“The students must create profiles to be able to re-ceive the information,” Collins said.
Morales said organizations must sign up on Org-Sync to be officially recognized by the university. He said organizations can still exist on campus without being on OrgSync, but the organization will not be of-ficially recognized.
“They will not have access to student funding nor will they have access to facility reservations for free, so there are advantages to be recognized,” Mo-rales said.
Morales said the site has had few, if any problems, with students except for the difficulty that comes with any change.
“It takes time for students to buy into the new system,” Morales said.
Collins said there are older stu-dents who only know the paper packets and now they are being
told they have to go to a computer and use OrgSync.“The other side of it is students are comfortable
with their social media, and we are adding something else,” he said.
Collins said some students wonder why they can-not just use Facebook for information.
“We have no problem with Facebook, but we have to have a mechanism that we have some control over,” Collins said. “We don’t have that kind of autonomy over Facebook. This software provides us with pro-grams that are in line with what we are trying to ac-complish.”
Collins said a lot of times students may not be fully aware of the use of OrgSync.
“We are working on better marketing and promoting of the use of the system through putting a tag on the home page of Tech’s website so that you know it is there,” Collins said.
Collins said this will help students access OrgSync through Tech’s web page directly without having to figure out where they need to go to access it.
“I am thoroughly excited about using this as opposed to a package of paper,” Collins said. “I like being able to access it from my
home, and I like being able to upload information and get it to the people quickly. The access to it is 24/7.”
Give them an inch; they take a mile. In this case if you don’t give them an inch they won’t take the sandwich at all.
The controversy of a photo posted by an Australian man to Subway’s Facebook page show-ing a famous footlong sandwich measuring as 11 inches has caused uproar around the globe.
It has some Tech students questioning whether they are getting what they pay for when visiting restaurants, while others do not see why there is such a focus on the scandal.
Tania Johnson, a sophomore communication design major, said she is not surprised about the sandwich being shorter than advertised.
“They aren’t the only com-pany cutting the corners,” John-son said. “That’s why we shake the handle before we hang up the gas pump. I say if you’re go-ing to get 11 inches you should dine in and get some extra re-fills. Like Madea says, ‘I gotta get them before they get me, cause if they get me, everybody getting got.’”
Although Johnson expects shortcomings like this from businesses, her roommate Ac-qunette Nathan, a senior fam-ily and child studies major, said she does not think the sandwich measuring shorter is worthy of the attention it is receiving.
“I’m sure the length of the bread isn’t 12 inches every time but is this really something to raise a ruckus about?” Nathan said. “People get cheated at res-
taurants all the time. At McDon-ald’s, I’ve ordered a 10-piece chicken nugget and only got nine. I am sure I’m not the only one it has happened to and I don’t see people going crazy about that.”
The Tech Talk was unsuc-cesful in getting an employee to go on record to discuss the issue.
Similar to Nathan’s response, an employee at a local Subway restaurant, who wished to re-main anonymous, explained that the incident could happen if a worker is not doing his or her job according to restaurant procedure.
“The bread pans are molded to only bake 12-inch loaves,” the Subway worker said. “The only way it could come out shorter is if a worker doesn’t let the dough
sit, so it can self-rise.”The worker said he has not
encountered any complaints since the story broke.
“Business has been normal,” the Subway worker said.
Business will continue to flourish with students like Victor Saber, a junior business man-agement major, who said he gets what the problem is, but he does not think people should be so caught up in the issue.
“Personally, I get what the big deal is but I don’t think we should be making too much of a big deal out of this,” Saber said. “I mean to me, a sandwich is a sandwich, no matter how long, short, big or small it is. It’s still a sandwich.”
Olivia Gorsuch, a freshman secondary math education major and sandwich artist for Subway, constructs one of the shop’s famous footlongs.
SGA’s executives work off the clock
Subway’s footlong comes up short
RANEY JOHNSONStaff Reporter
Some members of the Stu-dent Government Association are concerned that those hold-ing the top four executive po-sitions do no clocking in with time cards to show that they have worked their office hours as other members are required to do.
The SGA executive posi-tions are president, vice presi-dent, treasurer and secretary.
The issue was first raised at the Dec. 18 meeting by Eric
Post, a member of the cabinet.Unlike the executives, all
other members must clock in to show they worked one office hour each week.
Adam Collins, adviser for SGA, said if things do not get done, it falls on the executives’ shoulders.
“I am not going to sit around and not let anything get done,” he said.
Collins said in the SGA there are salaried employees and there are hourly employees.
“If you are a salaried em-ployee, you are expected to
get the job done,” Collins said. “There are no time cards.”
Allison East, SGA vice president, said she agrees with her adviser and the executives spent a lot of time discussing the issue with Collins.
“During the discussion, sen-ators overwhelmingly agreed with the executives,” East said. “I think it showed we were do-ing what was right.”
East said each executive works a minimum amount of hours a week: the president works 18 hours, the vice presi-dent works 16 hours and the
treasurer works 12 hours. Will Dearmon, SGA presi-
dent, said he spends much of his time in meetings and per-forming other duties.
“Those office hours are not limited to work solely within the confines of the office it-self,” he said.
Collins said the executives often work more than the mini-mal amount of hours they are required to work.
“Most of the time the sena-tors and the cabinet members do not see all of the meetings and functions required that
the executives have to attend, sometimes last minute,” Col-lins said.
East said at times executives are going in and out of the of-fice to do things for SGA and it would not make sense for them to constantly clock in and out.
“An unexpected meeting with a vice president or last minute corrections to a presen-tation for an SGA event done at 10 the night before would eas-ily be classified as part of ex-ecutive duties,” Dearmon said. “However, clocking in to ac-complish this would be highly
illogical and a waste of time.”Collins also said those ex-
ecutives serve on an excessive number of committees and some meetings they attend may last up to four hours.
“We are here for the stu-dents and we are here work-ing for the students for more than 20 hours a week,” East said. “The time cards are such a small issue. I think we are wasting time and not creating progress.”
She said she knew she wanted to vol-unteer to be hypnotized before she even got to the event.
“Normally, I would be really embar-rassed by the things I did on stage,” she said. “It was just really fun and hilari-ous.”
Students in the audience agree with Montgomery that the show was hilari-ous, especially Thao Nguyen, a fresh-man biology major.
“It was so funny,” he said. “I have
not laughed that hard in a long time.”Nguyen said this was his first hyp-
nosis show to attend but he is glad he went.
“I had my doubts at some points, but I know it was real,” he said. “It’s not like Sailesh selected his volunteers ahead of time.”
After witnessing the hypnosis, Nguy-en said even though he was thoroughly entertained, he will never volunteer at a hypnosis show.
“I don’t want to kiss guys and em-barrass myself,” he said.
Hypnosis is not just about embar-
rassment Sailesh said, it is about deep relaxation.
“Volunteers will feel better than they have ever felt in their lives,” he said.
He said his favorite part about doing the shows is making people laugh.
“I love when people come up to me after and say ‘I haven’t laughed that hard in such a long time,’” he said. “That is when I know I did my job.”
Sailesh said he has seen lots of crazy things over the years but there is one particular moment which has stuck out to him and been ingrained in his memory.
“I had a guy on stage at one of my shows who got hypnotized and came back for another show with his moth-er,” he said. “The whole time he was on stage his mother just kept crying and I didn’t know why.”
After the show Sailesh said he went up to the guy’s mom to apologize be-cause he thought he had offended her since she cried through the whole show.
“She looked at me and said, ‘That’s the first time I’ve heard my son talk without a stutter,’” he said. “After that I worked with him for about six months and he hasn’t had a stutter since.”
Whether it is strictly entertainment, or providing life help, Sailesh said he enjoys pleasing his audience and pro-viding them with experiences.
Montgomery said she was very pleased with the show. She will attend another hypnosis show, and she plans to volunteer again.
“This is a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity,” she said. “It was on my bucket list, and I’m just really happy I was able to experience it.”
Molly BowmanAustin ViningHannah SchillingDerek J. AmayaRebecca AlvarezNatalie McElweeGrace MooreReina KemptAllison EastChad MerrittJessica Van AlstyneDeepanjan MukhopadhyayRod WaynickJudith RobertsT. Scott BoatrightDr. Reginald OwensMichael LeBlancMichael LeBlancDr. Reginald Owens
MANAGEMENT
TalkTechThe
The student voice of Louisiana Tech University
IN OUR OPINION
4 • The Tech Talk • January 25, 2013
FROM THE EDITORGood eats
MOLLY BOWMANEditor-In-Chief
After successfully getting my Subway sandwich at 12:35 in the middle of the night,
I thought there can’t be anything much better than a 24-hour res-taurant for a little piglet like me.
No, I’m not ashamed that I was going for my second dinner. I knew I was going to be up late doing work so I decided to reward myself.
Food is one of the few things in my life that is constant and I can always count on it making me happy.
Feeling giddy about my late-night graze session, I had the en-ergy to finish studying and editing stories.
Later that day as I was scroll-ing through the AOL news feed, I saw a link to the Huffington Post about a 3-year-old girl in Canada who swallowed a piece of glass in a Subway sandwich.
I cringed in discomfort. My faith in food slightly wavered.
The little girl suffered cuts in her mouth, cheeks and tongue. There ended up being several pieces of glass in the rest of the sandwich.
OK, so one piece of glass would have taken the cake, but for there to be multiple pieces of glass, some as big as half the size of a pinky fingernail? That is a se-rious problem.
The article mentioned other cases in which a nose ring was found in a McDonald’s breakfast burrito and a razor blade was found in one of their breakfast meals.
How is that even possible? There must have been some re-ally careless employees preparing food behind the counter.
At this point, I don’t think I would want to know there was a nose ring in my burrito if it was minute. I would have rather eaten it and not known it was there.
It’s just like when you eat a hot dog and take that startling bite into a bone fragment. You just have to pretend it’s not there and
keep on eating.I know for me ignorance is
bliss a lot of times. I would rath-er lie to myself to make me feel better than to harp on something that isn’t really detrimental to my physical health.
I’m not saying I would rather ignorantly eat glass or a razor blade though.
Unfortunately, finding foreign objects isn’t that uncommon when you are dealing with food that is being prepared by other people.
These things are what you call mealbreakers. According to the Huffington Post, a mealbreaker is a nasty, non-edible surprise that is found in food while it is being consumed.
This can be very dangerous, not to mention unsanitary, and the Canadian girl was fortunate enough to have only minor inju-ries.
Food distributors have a lot of power in their hands. They have control over what customers knowingly or unknowingly put in their mouths.
This makes me nervous think-ing about all the times I have eat-en out and let other people pre-pare my food.
A majority of the time you don’t personally know the sand-wich artist behind the glass at Subway. They could be slipping things in your food if you have ir-ritated them with a complicated order.
Check twice before you put that veggie sandwich in your mouth. For all you know that sus-picious bean sprout could actually be a needle.
I suggest you play it cool, don’t ask for substitutions and leave a large tip the next time you go out to eat, just to be safe.
Next time I’m going to rethink grabbing a bite of fast food at midnight and concoct something from home. The fridge will be my oyster.
Molly Bowman is a junior journalism major from Shreveport who serves as editor for The Tech Talk. Email com-ments to [email protected].
It has happened to the best of us.You are sitting in your chair, quietly waiting for
class to start. Then another student slides into the chair next to you.
Any other day, you would not think twice about your classmate, but today, you cringe from their company.
The student has a box of tissues next to their stack of notebooks. The person coughs, sniffles and you real-ize you have been chosen as the next victim of what-ever disease this person is harboring.
What can you do? Move your chair a few inches over? Use your shirt as a gas mask so you do not inhale the germs? Get up and move across the room while spraying Lysol in his or her general direction?
Sometimes, you get lucky and escape the path of the illness. Other times, you start feeling the throbbing of your head and the sinus pressure as soon as you leave the classroom.
We believe if you have a contagious illness, you should be considerate of the students who have man-aged to stay healthy this quarter and stay out of class. Our immune systems will thank you.
Your professors, on the other hand, may not. In college, many professors trust you as adults to
attend class and do not take points off of your grade for missing. There are many, however, who think atten-dance is so important, they count it as part of your grade.
Professors usually will not accept an “I won’t be in class, I’m sick” email, either.
So, what do you do? Most students stare at their dwindling bank account and mountain of work to do and refuse a doctor’s appointment, along with a doc-tor’s excuse. Instead, they opt for infecting the rest of the class with whatever germ has made their life miser-able.
Weighing the pros and cons of the situation, that sniffling student who sat down beside you picked the right choice, but this could have been prevented.
Many professors do not understand why students cannot go to the doctor to get a doctor’s excuse when they are sick, and refuse to excuse them without one. How could they understand? When they are sick, a sign posted on the door before class is a good enough excuse for them.
During this awful flu season, the tissue boxes on the classroom desk multiply, the sniffles and coughs echo-ing during lecture are impossible to muffle and you can practically feel the germs crawling on your skin.
This is not the fault of the students. Professors who refuse to accommodate sick students are to blame.
To those professors who do understand the sick students’ struggles, we thank you on behalf of our im-mune systems. Your empathy has saved many of us.
Not everyone can afford a trip to the doctor. Not everyone can afford to give up points for not being in class. These factors lead to a classroom filled with sick students, spreading it to others.
When students walk all the way to class in the freez-ing cold and are met with a “class cancelled” sign, they forgive professors for their wasted time and material changing. When a student misses class because they are sick, professors should forgive them, accommodate them and thank them for not being the student you want to spray Lysol at and slowly back away from.
Sick students stay in school
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WRITE TO US
A NEWS PAINTINGNew media, same problem
REBECCA ALVAREZNews Editor
Last August, a 16-year-old girl was raped in Steubenville, Ohio, by two Steubenville
High School football players after a night of partying.
The night of her rape, other teenagers who witnessed her rape took video footage and Insta-gramed pictures of her being held by her ankles and wrists while she was unconscious. Nearly five months later, the entire world does not just know her story, but they have witnessed it in real time after the video and photos were leaked and went viral in early January.
Both football players were charged with rape and are now awaiting trial.
We think we know how the sto-ry will end: They will get convict-ed, locked up and the girl can start the healing process and move on—but that might not be so.
While there are incriminating tweets, Facebook posts, photos and videos floating around in cy-
berspace, these boys might get off the hook because the inter-national hype the case has stirred could lead to an unfair trial.
Local officials have told many publications like Huffington Post and the New York Times that the amount of attention the case has gained through the circulation of the videos and photos on the Internet has led to a “trial by the media” that could interfere with the investigation process by intim-idating potential witnesses, keep-ing them from coming forward.
On top of interfering with the trial process, the defense attor-neys argue that their clients could be judged based on rumors and half-truths circulating through the social media, not on the evidence presented in court.
Alas, social media has extend-ed its tentacles to yet another area of society: the justice system.
For the sake of fair trials, this undoubtedly poses a problem. As the defense argues, it could keep new witnesses from stepping for-ward and it can definitely affect
the opinions of potential jurors; but what makes social media dif-ferent from the media of the past? Hasn’t the media always been a problem? I don’t see a difference, but the interference is still a dan-gerous problem.
However, if it were not for so-cial media, the young girl’s case would have never come to light—the case stayed relatively quiet until the videos and photos were leaked by Anonymous activists, a group of hackers that opposes Internet censorship.
It would not be surprising if a small town like Steubenville—where the population is approxi-mately 19,000—did not want to deal with trying a case like this, especially if it involves teenagers who play for the high school foot-ball team that is the town’s pride and joy; which is probably why the investigation and trial process had not begun to pick up momentum until just recently when the town came under fire by the media.
In this way, social media could probably do more good than most
are willing to admit.Whether rumors or facts cir-
culate online, the pressure put on officials to provide answers would keep them from losing momen-tum on investigations.
The only harm I see social media causing affects fair trials, but even then, I cannot help but come back to the conclusion that mainstream media always had the same influence on trials in the past as many are claiming social media has now. The influence of media is nothing new, and while it should be monitored and limited as much as possible, it is inevita-ble. If a case is going to receive national attention, there is no way to avoid outside influence on a trial.
The nosey, badgering nature of the media has not changed, and a new tool changes nothing.
Rebecca Alvarez is a junior journal-ism major from El Paso, Texas, who serves as a news editor for The Tech Talk. Email comments to [email protected].
THOUGHTS FROM AN INTROVERTGive Beyoncé a break
NATALIE MCELWEENews Editor
January 21 — a day people gathered to celebrate free-dom like no other.
We took a day to remember the man who had a dream and to watch as a man took the oath to become the President of the Unit-ed States for the next four years. What an amazing day it was for our country and for our future.
As I watched the presidential inauguration, I found myself dis-tracted by the announcements at the bottom of the screen.
They would either alert me that a famous music artist was about to perform or that Michelle Obama had made it to the top of another fashion list yet again. I couldn’t help but be disappointed with its award-show vibe.
This day was supposed to be about the continuation of our country’s magnificent freedom, not about celebrities and fashion like every other day of the week.
When I got on the Internet the
next day, I was shocked by one headline. No, it was not about a crime nor was it about the amaz-ing events of the previous day. It was about Beyoncé.
Apparently, there is a con-spiracy that she lip-synched “The Star-Spangled Banner” during the Inauguration.
With a little research, I found that Beyoncé pre-recorded her performance just as the other performers did as a part of a stan-dard procedure for the ceremony.
According to The New York Post, Beyoncé decided at the last minute to rely on what she had recorded rather than singing live.
It was suggested in the article that Beyoncé had little time to practice with the Marine Corps band beforehand, and it was ad-vised that the pre-recorded track be used instead.
I don’t understand why people would care enough about this for it to make it to national headlines, but then again, Snooki makes headlines on a weekly basis.
Adding to the controversy,
Kelly Clarkson performed live at the ceremony. This led to fans and viewers comparing the two artists.
Just because Kelly Clarkson sang “My Country Tis of Thee” live at the ceremony does not mean that she is better than Be-yoncé, in any way. Why should anyone compare them to one an-other? Beyoncé is her own person.
At the last inauguration, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Per-man decided to go with their pre-recorded performance as well due to the chilly temperatures.
In my opinion, that does not take away from their talent and does not decrease their credibility as musicians.
I feel the same about Beyoncé. She can sing.
We all know it. We’ve all heard it. That girl has a set of pipes on
her. Enough said. So what if she decided to
go with her pre-recorded track? Does that mean she didn’t sing it? No. Does that take away from the
meaning of the day? No. Should people really concern themselves with how Beyoncé sang the song? No.
If Beyoncé wanted to make sure her performance at one of the most important events in American history was perfected, that’s her business.
People should not have gone or watched the inauguration to see people perform anyway.
If you go to a Beyoncé concert and she lip synchs all of her songs, then that would be a problem. I think people should relax and go easy on her until they have mul-tiple hit records and a successful music career of their own.
Whether Beyoncé sang live or not, we still live in one of the best countries on the planet, our land is still the land of the free and our star-spangled banner yet waves.
Natalie McElwee is a senior jour-nalism major from West Monroe who serves as a news editor for The Tech Talk. Email comments to [email protected].
Insight
ALICE ESSIENStaff Reporter
Political corruption, mis-chievous accumulation and exploitation of jurisdiction loop holes can all be found in Allen Hughes’s latest film “Broken City,” a film that depicts how government decisions affect lives of their citizens.
With a name like “Broken City,” it is no surprise that ev-ery character is either rotten to the core, a liar, a schemer or the bearers of seriously damaging secrets.
Mark Wahlberg stars in the film as Billy Taggart, a former New York police detective who got kicked off the force after a questionable shooting.
Now a private eye, is hired to spy on the mayor’s wife, Cath-leen Hostetler (Catherine Zeta-Jones) by the mayor himself, (Russell Crowe), a dominate politician who is in the midst of his campaign for reelection.
Though the film has a star-studded cast, the plot lacked character development and left me confused for the majority of the film.
The film begins with Billy Taggart murdering the assail-ant accused of raping and mur-dering his girlfriend’s sister in a NYC project. Taggart is relieved of all charges and manages to get clean and sober with the help of his girlfriend Natalie Barrow (Natalie Martinez).
Everything about this movie
was essentially conventional. Wahlberg played his typical troubled tough guy with a hot exotic girlfriend, but as usual he does it so well that the au-dience is too captivated to re-alize they have seen it before. His character’s determination to redeem his good name and strive for justice fuels the plot of the movie.
Zeta-Jones plays her usual perky, polished trophy-wife role but amps it up a notch as Cath-leen Hostetler, adding scan-dalous mischief and infidel-ity to the equation. There was nothing extremely remarkable about her performance.
Russell Crowe gave the most remarkable performance of the cast, considering his charter may have been the most developed. He embod-ied every aspect of a corrupt
politician from voter deception to strategic manipulation. His performance, if not Oscar wor-thy, does deserve an honorable mention.
Brian Tucker, the film’s writer, does an excellent job at keeping the audience puzzled with each plot twist and aston-ishing revelation. Once the film comes together in the end, the method to his madness is evi-dent.
Although the majority of the film was shot in the Carrollton neighborhood of New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana, Hughes did an excellent job making sure the setting resem-bled New York.
The film showcases many of the Big Apple’s well-known monuments and landmarks and mimics New York-style liv-ing.
By the end of the film, the theme is apparent that in order for true justice to be served, no crime must go unpunished and no one man is above the law.
Overall, the movie was a roller coaster of plot twists and turns; I was confused until the end. It was slightly abrupt and left a lot of unanswered ques-tion that arose in the movie.
However, I would recom-mend others to go see it, espe-cially if they are into elaborate crime dramas and political strife.
People always say old fash-ion, sayings, music and life styles will eventually come back around after they have faded away.
This is certainly true of fash-ion as girls today are caught wearing leggings as pants with an oversized sweatshirt, but those fashions are from the ‘80s.
Music seems to be coming back at a faster pace, as ‘90s artists are the ones trying to make their way back into the spotlight.
Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake are both recording a new album while Destiny’s Child is also reuniting behind the scenes.
Sol Salgado, a sophomore accounting major, said there is no reason for artists not to try to make a comeback.
“If they succeed, great; if they fail, that is their embar-rassment,” he said. “Timberlake never left, but Spears, on the other hand, needs to call it quits because one comeback attempt is enough.”
He said he has always been a fan of Timberlake because ev-erything he does is done whole-heartedly, but Spears is better off as a featuring artist.
“Britney Spears is kind of old news,” he said. “She has a fam-ily and is only making the new album to get attention here and there.”
Lauren Jackson, a junior family and child studies major, said both Spears and Timber-lake will probably be able to
make a comeback, but it will be short-lived.
“Our generation will be inter-ested and intrigued because that is whom we listened to when we were young,” she said. “The younger generation are not likely to pick up on it for long before return-ing to the music they previously listened to.”
Jackson said pop is a unique type of music that changes with the time, so artists have to change with it.
“If they want to go big, their music needs to be reflective of where they are in life at that particular mo-ment,” she said. “If they do not like their music, they will not be able to convince any-one else to like it.”
Scott Levin, an as-sistant professor of English, said he thinks Spears is only attempt-ing another shot for the money and ego, but Timberlake sim-ply does it because he can.
“Artists always at-tempt comebacks,” he said. “To be honest, Britney has been try-ing to make a comeback ever since she married Kevin Fed-erline, and Justin is talented, as both an actor and musician. I wouldn’t doubt him.”
Levin said when artists at-tempt a comeback, it can be a win or lose situation, depending on the artist.
“There are certain artists whom you might consider old that have been making records their entire lives—The Rolling
Stones, Bob Dylan and more recent art-ists such as Pearl Jam and Radiohead,” he said. “There are other artists who have seen their time come and go, but are always attempting to regain that moment—bad decision.”
Single artists are not the only “oldies” attempting a second chance though; the women of Destiny’s Child are getting back together and ready to hit the stage.
Jackson said she is not sure how that is going to work out though because Be-yoncé Knowles will always outshine the others.
“I think they are getting together more for publicity,” she said. “Beyoncé was better from the begin-ning and that is not going to change.”
Salgado said Destiny’s Child might be reuniting because Be-yoncé is getting old and ready to settle down, so this would be her last big gig.
There are even rumors that Destiny’s Child will be perform-ing at the Super Bowl.
Your poise and gracious nature serve you well now, Aries. The best thing you can do today is spend time around other
people. Go to a party or other social gathering tonight. The evening is bound to be a resounding success as you radiate warmth and energy and people respond in kind. Allow everyone the pleasure of basking in your glow.
TaurusApr 20 - May 20
Creativity and romance are a good combination, Taurus, and today both are in top form. Why not get out the good stationery and craft a love note that will set that special someone’s heart aflutter? Cater to your romantic nature, ideally with a partner at your side. Even if you’re alone, a
bubble bath will do wonders for your soul.
GeminiMay 21 - Jun 20
Is a bit of redecorating in order? This is a perfect time to spruce up your home. Rather than rush into a project that you might later regret, Gemini, it’s better to spend the day with color and fabric swatches. Once you’re happy with a scheme, then you can pick up a paintbrush. Think hard
before making a decision.
CancerJun 21 - Jul 22
You have the creative ability to make a real go of your music or writing. Why not put it to better use? Are you
afraid to take the risk? Today you may be inspired to rise above your fear as you read a book or hear a piece of
music that moves you to want to create one of your own. It’s never too late to get started, Cancer.
LeoJul 23 - Aug 22
Prosperity isn’t just around the corner - it’s here, Leo. Your finances are looking better than ever. Don’t rely on
this money, however. The whole point of a windfall is that it’s unexpected, and thus can be used for luxuries or indulgences that you wouldn’t normally allow yourself. If you begin to spend a windfall before it arrives, it’s no
longer a windfall but just another paycheck.
VirgoAug 23 - Sep 22
You’ve never looked better, Virgo. As a result, people are drawn to you and you have an unusually large circle of
friends. This is fun but time consuming, as everyone seems to want a piece of you. Try to keep your feet on the ground.
Don’t let your vision become clouded by all the flattery you receive.
LibraSep 23 - Oct 22
You’ve always been interested in the arts, and now you want to explore that interest on a deeper level. A visit to a museum isn’t likely to do the trick, Libra. Instead, why
not enroll in a class or sign up for a lecture series? A few artists, in particular, capture your interest. Make it a point
to concentrate on them first.
ScorpioOct 23 - Nov 21
Errands seem to rule the day. You spend most of it in the car, running hither and yon. Don’t be surprised if you run into an old friend you haven’t seen in a while. The casual pleasantries you exchange could develop into something more. Perhaps you will discover a common interest and decide to build a business based on it. Keep your eyes
(and mind) wide open.
SagittariusNov 22 - Dec 21
The planetary configuration makes you likely to reap the benefits of all your hard work, Sagittarius. The little
windfall you receive is nice, to be sure, but don’t think of all of it as fun money. Put a good amount aside in a savings or investment account. You can use the rest to kick up your heels a bit. Why not invite a friend to dinner at the nicest
restaurant in town?
CapricornDec 22 - Jan 19
Keep your mind on the present, Capricorn. As much as you’d like to be somewhere else, your daydreaming is getting out of hand. If you’re sincere in your desire to explore other lands, begin some research. For now it’s better to focus on any problems that make you want
to run away. Open a dialogue with anyone with whom you’ve had a misunderstanding. You will find this brings
immeasurable relief.
AquariusJan 20 - Feb 18
There’s passion in the air today, Aquarius. You can feel it. The feeling is so strong that the air almost pulsates.
What are you going to do about it? If you’re in a romantic relationship, plan an intimate evening together, free of
chores and daily tasks. If you’re single, peruse your little black book and see if there are any relationships worth
warming up.
PiscesFeb 19 - Mar 20
Has the opposite sex always been so attractive? Today they seem especially so, Pisces, and capture your attention
right and left. One person, in particular, you’ve always considered a platonic friend, but today seems interested
in you romantically. Perhaps this person is just picking up on your vibes. He or she may make a wonderful partner, so
Across1. Portland’s place 7. PC linkup 10. River to the Moselle 14. Straight man 15. “Xanadu” band 16. Vogue rival 17. Lady of Spain 18. Obtain, slangily 19. Answered a charge 20. Tending to depreciate 23. Explosive weapons 26. Small bill 27. Montana city 28. If ___ be so bold... 29. ___ be an honor 30. Human limb 31. Restaurant in Greece 33. Bearded beast 34. Computer key 37. Compass dir. 38. Fitting 39. In 40. Grazing spot 41. Fall from grace 42. Bemoan 43. Values highly 45. In shape 46. Shoshone language member 47. Converse competitor 48. Lingo 51. Explosive stuff 52. Lock of hair 53. Carousel 56. Sleep like ___ 57. Whopper 58. Light reddish brown
62. Golfer Ballesteros 63. Pay stub? 64. Prima ballerina 65. Keep it, to an editor 66. Actor Gibson 67. Meal
Down1. CIA forerunner 2. Hwy. 3. Eternity 4. Farewell 5. Meanies 6. Type of tide 7. Fable 8. Wonderland girl9. Denier’s words 10. Dissepiment 11. Distribute 12. Tip off 13. Color anew 21. Revolve 22. Sudden 23. Seizes with teeth 24. Muscat native 25. Connoisseur 29. Two cents, so to speak 30. Parsley-family herb, used for flavoring 32. A chicken’s tooth? 33. Slum area inhabited by a minority group 34. Parisian pupil 35. Big rigs 36. Durango dwellings 44. Dangling item of jewelry 45. Cease to remember 46. Imaginary
Across1- Strike breaker; 5- Atoll unit;10- Flat sound; 14- Woody's boy;15- Lend ___; 16- Jazzy James;17- At the same time; 20-Synopsis; 21- Procession; 22-Abner's adjective; 23- Cat; 24-Lunatic; 28- Roman moongoddess; 29- No. cruncher; 32-What you put on snooze; 33-27th president of the U.S; 34-Gen. Robert ___; 35- Direct; 38-Observed; 39- Contented sighs;40- "Siddhartha" author; 41-Trauma ctrs.; 42- CPR experts;43- Throws; 44- Till bills; 45-More than one male; 46- Tips off;49- A superior court writ; 54-Divide up; 56- Soon; 57- Rub outor remove from memory; 58-What's ___ for me?; 59- Sailsupport; 60- Angered; 61- ___boy!; Down1- Pouches; 2- Gator's kin; 3-That's ___!; 4- City on the Rhine;5- Medical; 6- Slowpoke; 7-Letterman rival; 8- Chow down; 9- Quilting; 10- Visionaries; 11- Greek portico; 12- Collar fastener;13- Freelancer's encl.; 18- Italian sausage; 19- Mission control gp.; 23- Breathes fast and hard;24- Pool stroke; 25- Change; 26- Nostrils; 27- Oil-rich Islamic theocracy neighboring Iraq; 28-Wood strips; 29- Category; 30- In itself; 31- Yellow-fever mosquito; 33- ___ Amore; 34- Farmfemales; 36- Gambler; 37- Girl in a Beach Boys song; 42- ___'acte (intermission); 43- Shaped likethe Big Top; 44- Praying figure; 45- Parsonage; 46- First man; 47- Musical Horne; 48- Narrativepoetry; 49- Kind of ticket; 50- Et ____ (and other men); 51- Aromatic herb; 52- Israeli guns; 53-Stiff bristle; 55- Hosp. procedure;
LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16
17 18 19
20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36
37 38 39 40
41 42 43 44
45 46 47
48 49 50 51 52
53 54 55
56 57 58 59 60 61
62 63 64
65 66 67
Go back | Print | Help
BestCrosswords.com - Puzzle #1 for July 27, 2012
Across1- Portland's place; 7- PC linkup;10- River to the Moselle; 14-Straight man; 15- "Xanadu"band; 16- Vogue rival; 17- Ladyof Spain; 18- Obtain, slangily;19- Answered a charge; 20-Tending to depreciate; 23-Explosive weapons; 26- Smallbill; 27- Montana city; 28- If ___be so bold...; 29- ___ be anhonor; 30- Human limb; 31-Restaurant in Greece; 33-Bearded beast; 34- Computerkey; 37- Compass dir.; 38-Fitting; 39- In; 40- Grazing spot;41- Fall from grace; 42- Bemoan;43- Values highly; 45- In shape;46- Shoshone languagemember; 47- Conversecompetitor; 48- Lingo; 51-Explosive stuff; 52- Lock of hair;53- Carousel; 56- Sleep like ___;57- Whopper; 58- Light reddishbrown; 62- Golfer Ballesteros;63- Pay stub?; 64- Primaballerina; 65- Keep it, to aneditor; 66- Actor Gibson; 67-Meal; Down1- CIA forerunner; 2- Hwy.; 3- Eternity; 4- Farewell; 5- Meanies; 6- Type of tide; 7- Fable; 8-Wonderland girl; 9- Denier's words; 10- Dissepiment; 11- Distribute; 12- Tip off; 13- Color anew;21- Revolve; 22- Sudden; 23- Seizes with teeth; 24- Muscat native; 25- Connoisseur; 29- Twocents, so to speak; 30- Parsley-family herb, used for flavoring; 32- A chicken's tooth?; 33- Slumarea inhabited by a minority group; 34- Parisian pupil; 35- Big rigs; 36- Durango dwellings; 44-Dangling item of jewelry; 45- Cease to remember; 46- Imaginary; 48- Accumulate; 49- Sublease;50- Orchard; 51- Sheer fabric; 52- Govt. security; 54- Grab, slangily; 55- ____-friendly: not tootechnical; 59- Narrow inlet; 60- Overhead trains; 61- Permit;
Difficulty HARD
CROSSWORDPUZZLE www.bestcrosswords.com
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guys who actually carried it out and for some people that just wasn’t big enough,” he said. “They want or need explanations on a bigger, grander scale.”
Elton Taylor, a senior history major, said he also does not agree with the Sandy Hook con-spiracy.
“I watched the video on it and the creator made some interesting points, but I do not be-lieve that the government would stage a fake massacre in order to push its own agenda on gun control,” he said.
Taylor, like McKevitt, said he does not be-lieve in the validity of conspiracy theories.
“I know they exist, but I refuse to believe that there are government agencies or secret pur-poses for tragic events,” he said. “It seems far-fetched to me.”
Caitlin Snell, a sophomore chemical engi-neering major, said she thinks differently. She said she believes in theories on occasion, de-pending on the event and the evidence behind it.
“I think conspiracies can do a lot of damage or a lot of good,” she said. “It is important for people to think for themselves and to research major events instead of simply believing every-thing they hear.”
Conspiracy theories are good motivation for people to question the things they are told, Snell added.
McKevitt said he does not think the pub-lic knows everything that happened with the Sandy Hook shooting, but just because there is mystery does not mean there is a conspiracy theory.
“The mystery is where the conspiracy theo-ries are created,” he said. “In situations where there is darkness, such theories are grown.”
Some people do not trust the government
or the media’s explanation of events, he added.“Someone could hear a rumor and that
will ultimately fuel a theory,” he said. “We’ve reached a new age in communication technol-ogy which allows for more rapid and intense spread of such theories.”
McKevitt said this new technology could also shed light where there has not been light before, but for a lot of people, he thinks theories are just entertainment.
To most people, he said he thinks theories are viewed as rumors or gossip.
Taylor said he thinks theories give “believ-ers” a sense of community or belonging.
“There are a bunch of people connected by the belief that things are not what they seem,” he said. “Happenings such as the Sandy Hook shooting are surrounded with secrets and lies.”
Conspiracy theories develop a cult following, Taylor added.
“Some people cannot accept the spontane-ity of a tragic event,” he said. “9/11 was a tragic event that happened without any foreknowledge of the American citizens or its government, but some people want to add extra aspects to it in order to explain it away.”
To these people, the government is often viewed as an entity that seeks to push its own agenda through hiding or creating controversial events, he said.
“They pull at the heartstrings of citizens,” Taylor said. “They think the government is using tragedies to achieve some sort of goal, such as stricter gun laws associated with Sandy Hook.”
McKevitt said when big world-changing events occur, some people have a hard time ac-cepting and it can lead to future problems.
“In context, such occurrences create fertile soil for conspiracy theories,” he said. “They become outlets for people who have political, cultural or social frustrations.”
ed them on their efforts to sacrifice their Satur-
day in order to help their community.
“I think this is one of the largest crowds I’ve
seen for The Big Event,” he said.
Also in attendance for the opening ceremo-
nies of Big Event was Ruston Mayor Dan Hol-
lingsworth.
“Doing things unselfishly for others is one of
the best things you can do for yourself,” he said.
Half an hour later, the students dispersed
throughout Ruston to serve their community
through various tasks such as raking leaves,
mowing yards or walking dogs.
Allison East, a sophomore class senator,
served as acting director of The Big Event on
behalf of SGA.
East said more goes into planning The Big
Event than she initially realized.
“There are organization applications, job site
applications, newspaper ads, food, T-shirts and a
lot more,” she said. “Matching organizations with
houses is probably the most difficult part.“
While performing various tasks, East said
participants are able to meet some interesting
people with various life experiences.
“They also get the satisfaction of helping
Big Event rakes in participants
Photo by Grace Moore
Megan Ratcliff works to clean up mounds of leaves and pine needles during SGA’s Big Event. This was one of many different tasks participants took part
in to help clean up their community.
SGA works
to improve
attendance
Sexual health report card unsatisfactory
> see EVENT page 3
> see REA page 3
> see HEALTH page 3
Tech is ranked 131 out 141
in Trojan’s 2011
sexual report card.
Go to
www.thetechtalk.org
to view full list
REA
DORMDRAMA
Can roommates learn to
live with each other?
PAGE 9
The student voice of Louisiana Tech UniversityTalkTechJune 28, 2012
www.thetechtalk.orgThe
Volume 87
Number 1
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NON-PROFIT
ORGANIZATION
US POSTAGE
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PERMIT NO 104
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REQUESTED
Vizza crowned Miss Louisiana
Find out where horse lovers go to escape the stresses of school
PAGE 7
Miss Tech to
compete for
national title
Miss Tech, Lauren Vizza, was crowned Miss Louisiana in Saturday’s pageant. Vizza will compete in the Miss America pageant next.Photo by Deepanjan Mukhopadhyay
REBECCA ALVAREZ
News Editor
The lights dimmed, the au-
dience let out a loud roar and
the band’s song resonated
throughout the theater. Within
moments 35 young women
took the stage, each of them
knowing that by the end of
the evening, only one of them
would be wearing the crown.
Last November she was
named Miss Louisiana Tech
2012. Seven months later, Lau-
ren Vizza stood alone as she
was crowned Miss Louisiana
2012.The senior political science
major went the distance Satur-
day in the 2012 Miss Louisiana
Pageant and now has the op-
portunity to travel to Las Vegas
to compete for the 2013 Miss
America title in January.
“It’s a dream come true,”
she said. “Never did I imagine I
would win: I’m in shock.”
Despite winning the swim-
suit contest during the prelimi-
naries Thursday night, winning
the Miss Louisiana Pageant
was one of the last things she
ever expected to accomplish,
Vizza said.
“No matter how many pre-
liminary awards you get—you
could win them all—you still
find reasons to convince your-
self you’re not going to win,”
she said. “Even in the top two
I was in shock; I didn’t expect
it at all.”Prior to participating in pag-
eants, Vizza played soccer at
Caddo Magnet High School
and attended Tech to take the
field as a Lady Techster, but re-
curring knee injuries ultimately
ended her sports career.
She said she still feels the
effect of the knee injuries and
must be attentive and cautious
because she dances for the tal-
ent portions of the contests.
“My biggest challenge to
overcome has been my knee,”
she said. “I have to be in shape
to dance, and overcoming the
injuries is very important.”
Saturday, after she was
named in the Top 10, Vizza
performed a dance to Adele’s
“Set Fire to the Rain,” in which
she executed numerous acro-
batic moves.
Talents showcased by the
other finalists included playing
instruments and singing.
Six of the women Vizza
competed against were also
Tech students.
Mallory Cox, a senior math
major and reigning Miss Lafay-
> see PAGEANT page 5
AMRIT AWAL
Staff Reporter
Despite experiencing
more than $3 million in
additional state appropria-
tion budget cuts and the
elimination of 203 admin-
istrative and teaching staff
positions over the past few
years, Louisiana Tech’s pri-
ority is to provide a quality
education.
Tech President Dan Re-
neau said though the 43
percent reduction in funds
over the last five years has
drastically impacted the
university, he still has faith
in the university’s future.
“Obviously, there’s al-
ways some efficiency you
can create,” he said. “After
what we’ve been through,
I’m not sure how much effi-
ciency is left. When you get
through with the fat and get
through with the muscle,
you’re down to the bone.
However, we’re about as
efficient as I know we can
be.”Reneau said Tech has
been able to be efficient by
cutting down on its operat-
ing costs and eliminating
some of the educational
plans not affecting pro-
grams.Many faculty members
who also share Reneau’s
confidence have a positive
outlook for the future of
Tech. Larry Jarrell, a market-
ing and analysis instructor,
said he is confident the
president’s leadership will
continue to protect the uni-
versity during harsh finan-
cial times.
“We’re very fortunate
at Tech to have Dr. Reneau
as our president,” Jarrell
said. “He’s already given
some consideration in an-
ticipation that there would
be some additional budget
cuts. He does a great job
at financial planning for the
future, so we’re not in such
a precarious position as
other universities.
“Of course, we can’t
continue to make cuts be-
cause it will hurt the servic-
es we can provide, but right
now we’re in really good
shape.”However, Jarrell also
said the university should
be cautious about the bud-
get situation because it
could eventually have an
unfavorable effect on edu-
cation.“It will eventually hurt
us, because the reality is
that it does take money to
run an institution and pro-
vide services,” he said. “We
try to use the finances ef-
ficiently as possible, but
there’s always going to be
some weight. We’ve got to
be able to turn this around
at some point.”
Jarrell said he believes
the education budget
should not be decreased at
any cost because it is a key
to prosper and develop the
nation.“We need to do some-
thing where they don’t
Education a
priority in the
midst of
budget crisis
> see BUDGET page 2
Pikes enter rebuilding phaseSubmitted Photo
A member of the Ruston emergency response team takes in the scene at the May 19 fire at the Pike house.
REBECCA ALVAREZ
News Editor
It has been one month since
flames engulfed the Pi Kappa
Alpha house May 19 and left
six Tech students and their fel-
low Pikes with nothing but one
standing wall. Many saw the
last wall as a symbol of the ob-
stacles the organization would
have to overcome to find stabil-
ity once again.
With reconstruction plans al-
ready under way, the fraternity
calls the fire a mere bump in the
road, said John Foster Chestnut,
fraternity president and a junior
finance major.
“The chapter has great
alumni support,” he said. “I
have been working with them
very closely, and there has been
progress made as far as the lay-
out and gathering materials.”
The plan is to break ground
as soon as the state fire mar-
shal releases their report on
the house, he said. Once it is
released, the site will be leveled
and construction will begin.
Although the report has not
been released, efforts to raise
necessary funds continue.
“The entire Ruston commu-
nity has been very supportive
throughout this time,” Chestnut
said. “Many different sororities,
fraternities and local businesses
have reached out to us and it
has been greatly appreciated.”
Greek organizations, like the
sorority Phi Mu, have held fun-
draisers to help the Pikes to a
quick recovery, he said.
Amber Ball, a junior Span-
ish major and Phi Mu member,
organized a car wash fundraiser
upon receiving news of the fire.
“When I first heard about
it, I didn’t realize how tragic it
actually was,” she said. “People
were shrugging it off because it
was just a frat house, but people
don’t realize it was an actual
home for six of those guys.”
Ball said once she realized
the extent of the damage, she
thought something had to be
done immediately.
The night after the fire, Ball
and several other Phi Mu mem-
bers agreed to cook dinner for
the men who lived at the house
> see PIKE page 2
ZACH GRIFFITH
Staff Reporter
One of Tech’s landmarks
was falling apart right in
front of our eyes, and most
students are not aware of its
significance.
The brick pillars next
to the College of Business
are undergoing refurbish-
ments to keep them stand-
ing in place because they are
Tech’s original entrance to
school. Sam Wallace, director of
facility and support services
in Tech’s finance and admin-
istration department, said
these original remnants out-
date every building on Tech’s
campus, and renovation of
the bricks was long overdue,
Wallace said.
“If you had been walking
by the columns over the last
couple years you would have
noticed pieces of the bricks
falling off,” he said. “There
has been a lot of damage oc-
curring over the last couple
of years.”Hannah Lang, a junior po-
litical science major, said she
walks by the pillars every day
on her way to school, but she
never knew they were Tech’s
original entrance.
“I’ve noticed they were
falling apart,” she said. “I fig-
ured that was just how they
were made to look.”
The bricks date back to
the early 20th century and
the material used to make
bricks in that time period is
not strong enough to with-
stand the wear and tear of
multiple decades, he said.
Wallace said any porce-
lain brick would eventually
begin to deteriorate in time
due to the relentless pound-
ing of elements such as
freezing temperatures and
rain.“Along with the repair we
are going to use a masonry
sealant on the pillars to try
to extend the life,” he said.
“Because those bricks are
real soft, deterioration will
continue unless we try to do
better at preserving them.”
The mason used recycled
bricks from the original Hale
Hall that was rebuilt in 2004
during the repair to keep
some authenticity in the col-
umns. “To us it was important
to be historically significant
more than just satisfy ap-
pearance,” Wallace said. “We
looked for a good mason in
the area that does quality re-
pair work in Ruston to keep it
looking original.”
He said since the bricks
from Hale Hall have meaning
to the campus, their historic
appeal outweighed the logic
of buying used bricks that
would blend in better with
the original.
“We tried to keep the re-
pair as original with meaning
to the campus as we could,”
Original university
entrance receives
brick makeover
> see PILLARS page 3
PAGE 6
MOVIE REVIEW
See how Tom Cruise revives the ’80s rock scene
theFOCUSED
GAMESon
Follow three Tech athletes as
they shoot for Olympic gold
PAGE 8
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January 25, 2013 • The Tech Talk • 7
More Talk
“I am inspired by who he was and strive to live up to his example.”
MEREDITH GILBERT
KELSY KERSHAWStaff Reporter
There is no question about it, Joe Aillet’s family loves Louisiana Tech, and this love and this legacy continue to live on through his three great-granddaughters who currently attend the university.
Olivia Landry, Meredith Gilbert and Juliana Pettiette are the first of Aillet’s great-grandchil-dren to come to Tech.
“My whole family loves it,” Landry, a sopho-more art education major, said. “I have been coming to games since I can remember.”
Gilbert, a senior biology major, said being one of Joe Aillet’s great-granddaughters creates a strong feeling of pride.
“From the day you’re born you are surround-ed with Tech logos,” she said. “I’m pretty sure I’ve seen every Tech item there is.”
She said her grandparents have a part of the Tech field goal post that was torn down after fans rushed the field after a big win over Colora-do State in 1990 that earned the bulldogs a berth in that season’s Independence Bowl.
Like Landry, Gilbert said she has been attend-ing Tech games for as long as she can remember.
“We tailgate every home game,” she said. “It’s a funny feeling to see some of the photos that are hanging up in the family home on banners hanging off the stadium and on trading cards and websites.”
Pettiette, a junior family child studies major, said she did not realize how many people actu-ally knew, or knew of, her great-grandfather until she came to Tech.
“I just kind of figured out how big of a deal it was,” she said. “Now is when I really appreciate it, seeing how many people in the community still recognize him and his name.”
All three great-granddaughters said they do not normally tell people that Joe Aillet is their great-grandfather.
“If I do tell them, their first reac-tion is ‘That’s how you say it,’” Gil-bert said. “Just FYI, it is ‘eye yay’, you say it like the first two letters are reversed.”
Pettiette said her friends think it is a really big deal when she first tells them who her great-grandfa-ther is.
“They are kind of in shock at first because we don’t publicize it,” she said.
The impact he left on the uni-versity and people he interacted with is inspiring, Landry said.
“Over Thanksgiving break, I met a woman who knew him and she told me how much she respected him, and how kind and loving he was,” she said. “I was so incredibly humbled by how highly she spoke of him.”
Gilbert said she admires his humility and it is motivating to her as a student and as an indi-vidual.
“I am inspired by who he was and strive to live up to his example,” she said. “I hope that I have that kind of greatness that he had in me.”
It makes her proud that the university chose to honor her great-grandfather in such a significant way, Gilbert added.
“He never raised his voice at his players and he earned their respect, and the nickname Gentle-man Joe,” she said. “He was also a man who lived
and loved his faith; he was a founding member of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, the only Catholic church in Ruston.”
The virtues that he possessed and the suc-cess he achieved throughout his career are val-ued deeply by his family, Gilbert said.
“He valued education, faith and family,” she said. “He truly cared about people, and that’s a family value that has been passed down through
the generations.”The tradition of attend-
ing Tech has also been passed down through generations of the family, Pettiette said.
“There are eight kids in my mom’s family and all of them came to Tech,” she said. “It is exciting to continue the legacy.”
Even with all the Tech pas-sion, Gilbert said she never felt pressure to come here when she was looking at colleges.
“It was really cool to know that I would experience some-thing so many people in my
family had experienced,” she said. “Another ben-efit would be the family gumbo recipe, which is super good.”
Being the great-granddaughter of such a pres-tigious man makes her feel like she is never really away from home, Gilbert said.
“I used to live across the street from the sta-dium and I loved seeing his name all the time,” she said. “It makes me feel at home.”
Knowing how amazing her great-grandfather was swells her pride, she said.
“He had good self-discipline, was a constant scholar, had several degrees and had high aca-demic standards for his players to meet,” she said. “He was a really great man.”
She added, his career was his way of life, it was not just a job to him, and it was a passion.
“He saw college athletics as a way to better you as a person and a way to get an education,” she said. “All of this from a man who started life
as an orphan.”Other than constant pride, a regular day in the
life of Joe Aillet’s great-granddaughters is similar to any other Tech student, Landry said.
“I wake up, usually late, go to class, do my homework and hang out with my roommates and friends,” she said.
Pettiette said the same thing, but she also said she participates in other organizations on cam-pus.
“I want to continue his legacy,” she said. “I feel a motivation to be involved on campus and in a variety of organizations and to keep his name re-membered.”
While Pettiette enjoys her sorority, Gilbert said
she became a student recruiter because of the legacy she has inherited.
“I wanted to do something specific for the uni-versity and it was an opportunity for me to learn more about Tech’s history,” she said. “I want to pass on the legacy as part of the Aillet family but also as a Tech student.”
She said she loves walking around with pro-spective students and sharing a campus so dear to her heart with them.
“It makes me feel like I’m doing something for the university,” she said. “Something just like my family before me.”
Aillet’s great granddaughters stand at the entrance of the stadium named for their late great-grandfather.
JULIANA PETTIETTE MEREDITH GILBERTOLIVIA LANDRY
A photo of head coach and athletic director Joe Aillet from the 1950 Lagniappe.
All photos by Tyler Brown
Photo courtesy of Joyce Chandler
8 • The Tech Talk • January 25, 2013
Doesn’t he remind you of ...
first saw Michale Kyser in the Lambright Intramural Sports Center just a few days before school started in September of 2011. I
have an eye for picking up who’s an athlete, so right away I knew he was recruited to play here at Louisiana Tech.
It was either my discern-ing eye or the fact that he was abnormally tall at 6’10” and he wore the Bulldogs practice shorts. But I’m going to say it was my discerning eye.
He was standing tall and slender with a wingspan as wide as a mini coupe. I snapped out of my fascination with his athleticism and went on about my life. Months later I would see him again running down the Karl Malone court and watch-ing the way he played brought me to become fascinated again.
Of course, as a 20-year-old freshman, I saw a lot of room for improvement like his strength and aggressiveness or his general collegiate basketball IQ. He received inconsistent and limited playing time that year, but I started to look for-ward to his maturation in the future yet focused on the team at the moment.
The next year, Kyser burst out of the wood works with energy and defensive presence. He improved steadily from his first year. A thing that I noticed more so was how he played and I caught a migraine trying to figure out why this guy’s style of play caught my eye.
He doesn’t really look to score on offense as he rarely ever posts up, I wondered why someone of his height doesn’t do so. I noticed his role is to set good screens, pick and roll, catch alley-oops and get several rebounds. Also on defense, he has become a blocking machine and even when he isn’t blocking shots; his presence alone makes guards think twice before driv-ing in the lane.
His unselfishness on of-fense and his impact on defense makes a big difference through accomplishing the little things.
Kyser ranks at No. 11 in re-bounds with 6.3 a game in the Western Athletic Conference and No. 1 in blocks with 3.3 a game.
I feel like as a sports editor, my job is to break down a bas-ketball player’s game but doing so for him just wouldn’t do the trick. This guy reminded me of somebody in every single way and my migraine would never go away until I figured it out.
And one day it clicked. Mi-chale Kyser is the premature Tyson Chandler.
Chandler is the center for the New York Knicks, and he previ-ously played for the 2011 NBA champions Dallas Mavericks and the New Orleans Hornets. He is arguably one of the best centers in the league and won Defensive Player of the Year in 2012.
Kyser and Chandler are alike in so many ways that it’s kind of scary. From body type to skin tone to the way they play.
Of course, Chandler is a NBA veteran with the cockiness and spunk of someone who has proven himself. I’m pretty sure Chandler was a lot like Kyser in his developing stage.
I think Kyser can learn so much by following Chandler and that has made him so suc-cessful because he could defi-nitely follow his footsteps.
All Kyser needs to do is build his aggression along with his IQ and pray to God he grows an-other inch or two and I promise he will be NBA-caliber by the time he graduates from Louisi-ana Tech, no questions asked.
Maybe he’ll give me a shout out when he gets drafted for opening his eyes.
Reina Kempt is a senior journal-ism major from Baton Rouge. Email comments to [email protected].
Sports Talk
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FROM THE SPORTS DESKFROM THE SPORTS DESKREINA KEMPTwith
Legends: Grilling Karl Malone
DEREK J. AMAYAAssociate Managing Editor
This is the second entry of a series about Tech’s most prominent athletes.
He is 6-foot-9 and not hard to find.Former Louisiana Tech Bulldogs
basketball player and NBA legend Karl Malone commands the grill at his own Teriyaki Grill like he commanded the hardwood floor.
“I am the grill master,” Malone said. “The others are really good at grilling, but I am the master.”
During the 1980s, Malone totaled 1,716 points in three seasons, ranking him sixth all-time on the Bulldog career points list.
After leaving Tech, the two-time Olympic gold-medal winner became the second all-time leading scorer in the NBA with 36,928 points for the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers.
“I always played with a little bit of an attitude,” he said. “Its like me against the world. People looked at me like I wasn’t good enough to play for Tech, and then people said I couldn’t play for the NBA coming out of Louisiana Tech.”
The one person who did not doubt his ability to play was his mother, Shir-ley Malone.
“I went for a walk with her one day and said, ‘Mom, one of these days I’m going to be famous and take care of you,’” Malone said. “A lot of people
would have said to get on. She stopped, put her hand on my head and said, ‘You know what? I know you will.’”
Malone had to pay his first year through college because he did not handle his grades. He said he had a 1.99 GPA.
“If I would have went to another university, which I ain’t going to throw mud at, I would have had a 2.0 to play,” Malone said. “I came to Tech and that 2.0 went to a 1.99. I didn’t get bitter. It was my fault.”
He said he never went to bed at night with a basketball in his hand, saying he was going to play in the NBA. He played the game that everybody was watching. They were proud of him, and he was
proud of his alma mater.While he is proud of his college ca-
reer, Malone feels there is a need for change at Louisiana Tech.
“No one ever really wants to discuss the issues,” Malone said. “I’m Tech to the core. I went here. Tech was good to me, but I was good to Tech.”
Malone feels like this because every athlete who has an opportunity, has a choice. He committed himself to Tech, and when he decided to move back to Ruston, he wanted to be more involved with the school because Malone and Tech gave each other opportunities to know one another.
“We have yet to have everybody on board as far as athlete, student and fac-ulty,” Malone said. “There is a discon-nect somewhere. When we are trying to build something special here at Louisi-ana Tech, there has to be some sort of connection.”
Malone said he has presented ways to solve issues such as parking on cam-pus at various sites but said nobody wants to implement his ideas.
“Even though I did not come up with the idea, it still is a great idea,” Malone said. “I don’t know if people realize this, but we are getting smaller. Tech enroll-ment is down every quarter.”
Malone, who has children attending Tech, said many Tech supporters think the school is with the times, but there is always room for improvement.
“If you and I were to do something wrong, real people would hold them-selves accountable,” Malone said. “If you choose to forgive me, it’s up to you. Around here, when it’s great, you see one or two people all the time. When something bad happens, you don’t see anybody.”
Malone said he is not one of those guys who has frequent ideas on chang-ing things, but as a businessman, he thinks outside of the box and wants to execute all of his plans.
One of his ideas, Bulldog Trans-portation, is a way for students to get around campus instead of parking and getting parking tickets. Add a transpor-tation fee, and he thinks this idea will be possible because students will be will-ing to use what they pay for.
Malone also has thoughts on the bowl game situation. He said he would have accepted the In-dependence Bowl against University of Louisiana-Monroe.
“If we would have gotten our asses kicked, we would have gotten our asses kicked,” he said. “If the alumni have to say something, they know where I am.”
“The Mailman” promises to deliver for the school he said gave him just as equal opportunity as he did for them.
“I am Karl Malone and I approved this message,” Malone said.
Up close and personal with Whitney FrazierREINA KEMPTSports Editor
In 2011, Whitney Frazier joined the Lady Techsters basketball team by way of El Dorado, Ark. She made an imme-diate impact upon her arrival including making the WAC All-Freshman team and the WAC All-Defensive team. She became the first Louisiana Tech fresh-man to ever earn all-defensive team honors.
The Tech Talk Sports Desk con-ducted an exclusive interview with Fra-zier to get on a more personal level.
RK: When did you first fall in love with basketball?
WF: It must have been the fourth grade.
RK: Why did you choose Louisiana Tech?
WF: It’s a good program and it has a lot of history, and I want to be a part of it.
RK: How do you balance school and basketball?
WF: It’s actually easy to me. It’s the same as high school, and I had a job then, so this isn’t so bad.
RK: What are your goals as a college player?
WF: I want to be remem-bered and I want to accom-plish something great like breaking the rebound re-cord.
RK: What is your go-to move?
WF: I like the hesi-tation move. As a post player, they’re not ex-pecting it from me.
RK: What is the most memorable game you have played in thus far?
WF: When we played Utah at Utah. I scored 25
points all in the second half.
RK: How do you deal with a loss?WF: Sometimes it depends on the
game. If I play well and we lose by one point, I don’t take it so hard on myself but if we lose bad and I didn’t play well, I take it out on myself because I didn’t show up.
RK: Who is your favorite team-mate?
WF: Kanedria (Andrews) is my best friend on and off the court. We played in high school and AAU basketball to-gether.
RK: How is your relationship with head coach Teresa Weatherspoon?
WF: It’s great. I feel like I can talk to her about anything, and she always will give me good advice.
RK: The craziest thing that ever happened on the road?
WF: The bus almost left me in the trip to Houston.
RK: Any pre-game ritu-als?
WF: I sit down in my locker and pray. Then I get my legs rubbed
down in Flex-all. I GOT to have it.
RK: How does it feel to play on this level in front of your family?
McNeail, Bulldogs go for win on ESPN3 DEVIN KINGSports Reporter
“White Out” was the theme for Louisiana Tech men’s basketball team in a mental and physical game against Idaho last Thursday.
This tough victory is credited to head coach Michael White saying ear-lier in the week, “No starting role is promised.” White shook up the start-ing lineup and started junior guard Kenyon McNeail, who hit a critical 3 point shot to give the Bulldogs a vic-tory against Idaho, 72-66.
The performance of McNeail against UTSA Jan. 12 as they won 73-71 and the magnitude of the game overshadowed the performance of Ken-ny “Speedy” Smith, who scored 22 points and ac-counted for eight assists and four steals. Smith was the team’s lead-ing scorer in the victory against Idaho.
White said Smith and McNeail are two players he’s the hardest on.
“I demand a ton from Smith because he is our floor general and at times he is what makes us go,” White said. “He is a re-flection of me and my coaching staff.”
Fans gathered in the Thomas Assembly Center were not the only people able to watch the game. ESPN 3 and Cox Sports Television broadcasted the game and gave critics a chance to get a glimpse of Bulldog basketball.
Following the televised game, White changed the starting line up against Se-attle University last Saturday. He start-ed sophomore guard Raheem Appleby instead of McNeail, who started in the previous game.
Freshman guard Alex Hamilton and junior guard Jaron Johnson both led the team in scoring with 15 points against Seattle.
Despite the lack of production the starters, the Bulldog’s bench outscored
Seattle’s bench 60-12 to ultimately lead the ’Dogs to a 78-71 victory.
“Our last couple of games, our bench has bailed us out,” White said. “I don’t think we can continue to depend on that. It is great, but our starters need to play better.”
The ’Dogs’ victory over Idaho and Seattle improved their overall record to 16-3 and 7-0 in conference play at the time of press. This is the first 7-0 con-ference record since joining the West-ern Athletic Conference.
Now that the Bulldogs are on an eight-game winning streak, the question be-comes can they keep this streak alive against Utah State?
If the Bulldogs want to keep their winning streak alive, they will need to get off to a better offen-sive start and stop Utah State junior guard Pres-ton Medlin.
“I felt defensively against Idaho we were good, but offensively we struggled,” White said. “Against Seattle we didn’t get off to a great start, but we continue to find ways to win.”
The ’Dogs will try to slow down Medlin, who leads the WAC averaging 20.7 points per game. He is second in the WAC in
3-pointers made with 2.8 per game.“Offensively, Utah State is as good
as anybody in the conference,” White said. “They can score with their backs to the basket, and they can pound you inside the paint.”
Even though they are in first place in the WAC, White doesn’t feel like they are playing like the best team in the conference. This Saturday, the Bulldogs will look to extend their winning streak to nine games as they compete against Utah State on the road.
Bulldog fans can watch Tech take on the Aggies at 8 p.m. on ESPN3.
