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Becky HardyWriter
the Board of trustees has ap-proved an 8 percent tuition increase beginning fall semester.
The hike translates to about $330 per semester.
Auburn’s 2011–12 in-state tuition and fees totaled $8,698 and out-of- state tuition totaled $23,290, accord-ing to the university website.
“Funding for Auburn that cov-ers faculty salaries, building main-tenance, debt and pretty much ev-erything else comes from two main sources,” said Don Large, executive vice president and chief financial of-ficer of Auburn University.
The two main sources are state ap-propriations and student tuition.
“Historically, about 15 years ago, state appropriations covered about two-thirds of the budget and tuition covered about one-third of the bud-get,” Large said. “Now, after $100 million in cuts since 2008, we have raised tuition to cover about $60 mil-lion of that cut.”
Students are not happy about the increase.
“i think it’s not right at all since we pay so much already, especially out of state,” said Nick Magnella, fresh-man in aerospace engineering. “Just because they’re spending money to make more parking and the new track center doesn’t mean they can up the price.”
This year Auburn also has to deal with extra budget cuts from the state.
“We presented the tuition increase for the fall (knowing) the state is go-ing to cut us another 5 percent, which is about another $12 million
total,” Large said.Auburn’s main campus will face
cuts of $8.5 million. The remainder will be cut from Auburn’s Montgom-ery campus, AUM, agricultural ex-periments and extensions.
“The tuition (increase) will give us about $6 million for (the main cam-pus budget), so we’ll be short about $2.5 million just in revenues from this year,” Large said.
Large said more budget reduc-tions will be put into effect equally throughout all colleges on Auburn’s campus to compensate for the extra
$2.5 million that is yet unfunded.“We’ve been trying to stay away
from classrooms, and so far we’ve been able to do that,” Large said.
Lauren Nix, freshman in second-ary education, said Auburn has in-creased tuition too much.
“They already increased the park-ing, so it makes no sense that they would increase tuition,” Nix said.
Auburn’s budget has experienced cuts since 2008 because of the econo-my as well as less money coming into the state for education, Large said.
“We’ve asked the students to help
cover about half of that, and then we’ll make the cuts for the other half, but pretty soon that’s not going to work,” Large said. “The state’s got to come forward or we’ll have to start charging more for tuition, or we’ll have to start making bigger cuts.”
Auburn’s board decided to in-crease tuition to cover about three-fourths of the budget cut.
“The board understood that if you want to maintain the quality that we have here at Auburn, then it does take a certain amount of dollars to do it,” Large said.
Coleman McDowellSportS eDitor
After a semester of work from industrial design students in tin-Man Lau’s 4000-level studio, four models were selected as poten-tial designs for a new student me-morial.
Chris osterlund, former SGA executive vice president, said the students have stepped out of their comfort zone and embraced this unique project.
“these students aren’t land-scape architects,” osterlund said. “They have never dealt with any-
thing like this before. But they have taken it and run with it. This concept is outside of their realm, but they have been unbelievable. i couldn’t think of a cooler op-portunity for Auburn students to
TUITION AND FEES COMBINED COST2005 – 2012
IN STATE
OUT OF STATE
SOURCES: University of Georgia
Study (2008), Findthebest.com,
usnews.com, Collegeview.com
The Auburn PlainsmanThursday, April 26, 2012 www.theplainsman.com Vol. 118, issue 29, 18 pages
A Spirit thAt iS Not AfrAid
What do you think about a free Plainsman Mobile App?Visit our website and VOTE!
Tuition hike result of budget cuts
InsIdE Campus » A2 | opinions » A8 | Classifieds » A10 | Sports » B1 | intrigue » B5
Student memorial designs revealed for Ross Square
Lane Jones CAMpUS BeAt reporter
Graduation this year will be held in the Auburn Arena in four ceremo-nies spanning two days.
The location was changed when the coliseum closed to events.
“the number of students at Au-burn has increased, retention has in-creased, and the graduation rate has increased so the number of gradu-ates has increased,” said Dale Cole-man, faculty co-chair of gradua-tion. “When they closed the colise-um and opened the arena, the floor seating remained the same, but we lost about one third of the audience seating.”
Coleman said the SGA suggested the stadium as the location for last year’s graduation, but the gradua-tion committee vetoed the idea this year because of the extreme heat.
“The feedback we’ve gotten over the past several years from the stu-dents is that they would like one big ceremony, where everyone’s there and they can be with their friends to celebrate the day,” he said. “When that didn’t work, and we couldn’t
do that in the stadium because the weather didn’t cooperate, we had to move to the next largest space: the arena.”
The ceremony May 6 at 1 p.m. will include graduates from the College of Agriculture, the College of Archi-tecture Design and Construction and the College of Human Scienc-es. The ceremony at 5 p.m. will con-sist of graduates from the College of Business.
The ceremony May 7 at 10 a.m. will include graduates from engi-neering, Forestry and Wildlife Sci-ences, the School of Nursing and the College of Science and Mathematics. The ceremony at 2 p.m. will be only graduates from the College of Liber-al Arts.
“For this semester, we actually have four speakers–one per ceremo-ny,” said teresa Whitman-McCall, di-rector of campus and communi-ty events. “Quite a few of our alum-ni wanted to come back to Auburn, and one who was not an alum who wants to come.”
» See GraduaTIOn, A2
Farewell ColumnsA look back from seniors on the
Plainsman staff.
OpiniOn A8
» See MEMOrIal, A2
Falcons owner, Coke vice president top graduation speakers
2011-12 SEC Tuition & FeesALABAMAIn-state $8,600Out-of-state $21,900
GEORGIAIn-state $9,472Out-of-state $27,682
TENNESSEEIn-State $ 8,396Out-of-state $25,538
LSUIn-state $6,318Out-of-state $19,321
OLE MISSIn-state $5,790Out-of-state $14, 796
KENTUCKYIn-state $9,128Out-of-state $18,740
ARKANSAS In-state $7,174Out of state $17,606
TEXAS A&MIn-state $8,418.52Out-of-state $23,808.52
MISSOURIIn-state $8,928Out-of-state $20,820
MISSISSIPPI STATEIn-state $5,809Out-of-state $14,670
FLORIDA In-state $5,700Out-of-state $27,936
SOUTH CAROLINAIn-state $10,168Out-of-state $26,352
VANDERBILT$42,774
TROTTER TRAINS FOR NFL DRAFT
Summer Concert Series Different genres perform at
Town Creek Park in May.
COmmunity A6
Bloodhound Bar and restaurant
Former location of Olde Auburn Ale House deliv-ers upscale food in a casual environment.
intrigue B5
COUTRESy OF INDUSTRIAl DESIGN STUDENTS
The four student memorial ideas were presented by University students and will be on display in the Student Center during the fall semester.
ACCORDING TO UNIVERSITy
wEBSITES
Campus A2 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, April 26, 2012
The Plainsman is a place where students can go for everything Auburn, but it doesn’t always feel that way.
Moving into next semes-ter and beyond, as editor-in-chief I am looking forward to a few changes around the newsroom.
The Plainsman website is going to be redesigned in or-der for users to have infor-mation presented to them in a creative and aesthetically pleasing format.
Look for more frequent photos and videos pertain-ing to student life, as well as up-to-date Twitter and Face-book updates to keep you in-formed wherever you are.
A free mobile app is also in the works–a way to access all of The Plainsman content with the touch of a button on almost any smartphone. This will also put Auburn’s brand in the Apple and An-droid app store for anyone to access and download.
This semester our staff has drastically improved the amount and quality of the content posted online. We will strive to continue this progress and continue to
keep the students and Au-burn community informed.
Feedback is also an im-portant and crucial part of the Plainsman process, and I want to encourage every stu-dent, faculty and staff mem-ber to let us know how we’re doing through comments online and letters to the ed-itor.
Our opinions email is [email protected]. Submit your thoughts here and look for them to be published in the follow-ing week’s publication and online.
Social media is also go-ing to be a focus for our staff moving forward. Tweeting live events, covering new movements on campus and keeping our followers updat-ed through constant and in-formative tweets is impera-tive.
Every student organiza-tion should also have equal representation and be held accountable for their ac-tions. Constant coverage of these groups is important and informing students of campus events in a time-ly and consistent manner is important.
The Plainsman will con-tinue to tell truthful, inter-esting stories every week , and I look forward to being it’s editor.
EditorialMiranda dollarhide Editor-in-chief Madeline hall Managing editor Nikolas Markopoulos Copy editorNick Bowman Associate copy editorLaura Hobbs Assistant copy editorRebecca Croomes Photo editorChristen Harned Assistant photo Danielle Lowe Assistant photo Chelsea harvey Campus editorLane Jones Campus reporterBecky Hardy Campus reporterKate Jones Intrigue editorHayley Blair Intrigue reporterKristen Oliver Community editorAlison McFerrin Community reporter Coleman McDowell Sports editorRobert E. Lee Sports reporterPatrick Tighe Sports reporterSarah Newman Design team leaderRachel Suhs Design teamMelody Kitchens Online team leaderVictoria Rodgers Online team
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A SPIRIT THAT IS NOT AFRAID
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Graduation» From A1
april 18 — south College streetTheft of one ladies’ Rolex wrist watch, one 1-oz. gold buffalo and one 1-oz. gold eagle reported.
april 19 — Gatewood driveTheft of one John Deere blower, one Redmax chainsaw, one Black & Decker grinder, one John Deere edger and one John Deere weed eater reported.
april 19 — Gatewood driveTheft of one steel chainsaw, one steel weed eater reported.
april 19 — dekalb streetTheft of one .40 glock pistol with trace laser sight and extra magazine, one Glock 22 holster, one pair Costa del Mar sunglasses, one pair Ray Ban sunglasses and 23 prescription adderall pills reported.
april 22 — lee road 12Burglary of one push lawn mower, one window air conditioner, one air compressor, one wood-burning stove system, two Stihl chainsaws, one Poulan chainsaw and two large tool-boxes of assorted tools reported.
april 23 — Martin avenueBurglary of one emerald, diamond and yellow gold ring, one blue topaz, diamond and yellow gold ring, one ruby, diamond and yellow gold ring, one sapphire, diamond and yellow gold ring, one diamond yellow gold ring, one heart-shaped diamond yellow gold necklace and one gold necklace with Egyptian writing reported.
— Reports provided by Auburn Department of Public Safety
Crime reports for april 19 – april 23, 2012dui arrests in the City of auburn april 19 – april 25, 2012
■ Chelsea l. reynolds, 21, ashland, ala.North Donahue Drive at West Glenn Avenue April 19, 1:57 a.m.
■ Michael J. schearer, 28, Fla.Opelika Road at North Ross Street April 20, 4:46 a.m.
■ Marian M. Mcdonald, 28, KoreaOpelika Road April 21, 3:04 a.m.
■ Qu H. steves, 43, KoreaSouth College Street April 22, 1:49 a.m.
■ Heath r. truitt, 37, decatur, ala.Moores Mill Road at Estate Drive April 22, 3:23 a.m.
■ Jason l. lovett, 35, opelika, ala.Shelton Mill Road April 24, 2:33 a.m.
■ andrew r. Meadows, 19, Mobile, ala.Dekalb Street April 25, 1:39 a.m.
■ alexander F. randolph, 24, shahturkz, Ukraine.North Dean Road at East University Drive April 25, 3:48 a.m.
memorial» From A1
The speakers on May 6 will be Ronnie Baynes, coordina-tor of recruiting and officiat-ing development with the Na-tional Football League, at 1 p.m. and Arthur Blank, own-er of the Atlanta Falcons and co-founder of The Home De-pot, at 5 p.m.
The speakers on May 7 will be Kirby Bland, surgeon-in-chief at UAB hospitals and clinics, at 10 a.m. and Javi-er Goizueta, vice president of The Coca-Cola Company, at 2 p.m.
“Each person directly
speaks with the students that are graduating,” Whitman-McCall said. “For instance, Mr. Baynes is an education graduate so we put him with that. Arthur Blank is a pre-dominant business person, he’s actually international-ly known for his career – and then Kirby Bland. He’s a med-ical doctor who graduated from the College of Sciences and Mathematics. Javier Goi-zueta is a graduate in the Col-lege of Liberal Arts.”
Whitman-McCall said the ceremonies include the most important aspects of gradua-tion, as determined by a sur-vey sent out to graduates and
their parents.“One tradition that we’ve
had historically is the read-ing of the graduate’s name,” she said. “Every student has the opportunity to walk on stage, have their name called out, shake their dean’s hand and president ( Jay) Gouge’s hand. We don’t want to take that away at all so, historical-ly, if we do have a lot of grad-uates, it takes a little longer.”
Johnson Hardy, senior in biomedical sciences, said he prefers this year’s format for graduation.
“I assume that in the stadi-um last year, all colleges grad-uated at once and it was very,
very, very long from what I heard,” Hardy said. “I knew people who took iPods just so they could sit and listen to their music during the grad-uation. I think it being much smaller, much more intimate and much quicker–I’d rath-er graduate with a bunch of people I know than a bunch of people I don’t.”
This year’s graduation cere-monies should last around an hour and a half.
“We hope this is a great day for them and for their fami-lies,” Whitman-McCall said. “We try to do the best we can to make the day memorable for them.”
work on something that is for Auburn students. Who better to design something that will embody the Auburn spirit?”
The memorial’s location is planned for Ross Square, lo-cated behind Samford Hall, and was created with the idea of unifying the Auburn stu-dent body.
“The idea came after the deaths of the students last spring,” Osterlund said. “We as a collective student govern-ment wanted to look into the grieving process and the way it was handled. The way the deaths were addressed didn’t seem along the same lines as the Auburn family, that kind of iconic theme of our student life.”
After researching case stud-ies in the psychology depart-ment, the results showed that the response to a tragedy must be consistent.
“There was one characteris-tic that was common through-out all of the research: you have to address all deaths the same way,” Osterlund said. “If you glorify one death more than another, you lose some-thing and you don’t give a person their ability to be ac-knowledged.
“you want a common plat-form that you address a death on.”
Even though the University had a way of dealing with the death of a student, Osterlund wanted something to unite the student body.
“Families are sent a posthu-mous enrollment verification,
a flag that has been flown in front of Samford and hung in the Student Center and flow-ers are sent, but what about the student body?” Oster-lund said. “When do they get a chance to come together and grieve as one? It seemed like the solution was a com-mon place, a location, a physi-cal memorial that symbolized the Auburn spirit that lives on through the student body.”
A final model presentation for Ross Square was present-ed to Auburn officials April 23, but three major tasks are still to be completed.
“Now that we have four de-signs we have to decide which model to pick,” Osterlund said. “Then we have to continue to get money and get Board of Trustees approval.”
Where the money will
come from is a common ques-tion posed to Osterlund.
“Initially we tossed around ideas for some sort of fund-raiser, but after talking to developers they thought it would be best to make it the central student gift for the stu-dent giving campaign,” Oster-lund said.
Osterlund said he thought displaying the four models in the Student Center during the fall semester and having stu-dents vote on which design they liked best could garner support and excitement for the project.
With many variables still left to be decided, a strict timeline has not been set.
Osterlund hopes by this time next year, SGA will have taken the steps to begin con-tracting out the project.
COOURTESy Of iNDUSTRiAl DESiGN STUDENTS
The first model preserves the view of Mell Street and adds a continuously flowing river at the center for a relaxing environment.
Robert E. [email protected]
Beyond the page
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While final exams are be-ing distributed and gradua-tion looms around the corner, SGA, Best Buddies and other organizations are joining to host a special needs pep rally for 30 mentally and physical-ly challenged students from Selma.
The students are in grades 7–12 and will make their cam-pus visit May 3.
“This is an awesome oppor-tunity to expand the Auburn family and show these kids what it’s like to be an Auburn student,” said SGA President owen Parrish. “Lets give them a snapshot of what it’s like to enjoy Auburn and really go
out of our way to be closer to the Auburn family and reach out and show them what it’s all about.”
The group is being led by William Bowman, CEo of Vi-sually Impaired People.
“once a year, (Bowman) takes a field trip somewhere,” said John Sasser, president of War Eagle Girls and Plains-men. “Last year he went to the University of Alabama and was not happy with the way he was treated there, so that’s why he called us.”
VIP is a nonprofit organi-zation dedicated to provid-ing low-vision educational programs, support and men-toring to the blind and visu-ally impaired of Selma and
throughout Dallas County, ac-cording to their website.
The group will begin the day with a talk from former foot-ball coach Pat Dye at the ath-letic complex. They will then tour most of the athletic facili-ties and go to the Auburn Are-na for the pep rally.
Though the tour will be planned, the pep rally will be a complete surprise to the group.
“Basically we are trying to provide what a lot of organi-zations that work with special needs children and adults are providing and trying to pro-vide equal opportunities,” said Lauren Swindle, president of Best Buddies at Auburn. “They have been traveling around Al-
abama and this is one of their stops.”
According to its website, Best Buddies’ mission is to establish a global volunteer
movement that creates oppor-tunities for friendships, inte-grated employment and lead-ership development for people with intellectual and develop-mental disabilities.
They are completely fund-ed by fundraising and Swin-dle said the group continues to grow every year.
The pep rally will involve multiple athletes, cheerlead-ers, members of SGA, the War Eagle Girls and Plainsmen, Aubie and as many students as possible.
“We feel like this is a need that Auburn can handle and we’re going to do the best we can to make these kids feel right at home,” Sasser said. “I think (Bowman’s) goal is to
bring the kids here and make them feel equal like the col-lege students. I think it’s pret-ty unique. It should probably happen more often.”
Students interested in at-tending should be at the are-na by 11 a.m., and the pep rally will begin at 11:30 a.m.
After visiting the arena for the rally, the group will have lunch at the Student Center with members of Best Bud-dies. They will then take a bus tour around campus and end at the bookstore with various gifts to take home.
“It’s a time to enjoy the Au-burn spirit with each other and with those kids before we leave for the summer,” Parrish said.
Campus reaches out to special needs students
Christen harned / assistant Photo editor
dudley hall is hosting an art exhibit this week titled immersive. the ex-hibit got its title from the style of the art pieces showcased, which play with lighting and depth of field to immerse the viewer in the artwork. the exhibit will be on display until May 17.
“this is an awesome opportunity to expand the auburn family and show these kids what it’s like to be an auburn student.”
—owen parrish SGA PRESIDEnT
AU VIEW
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Bradley RobertsWRiTeR
The College of engineer-ing has ended the search to replace Larry Benefield, the dean of the college for the past 14 years.
Chris Roberts, department chair and Uthlaut professor of chemical engineering, will be-come the college’s new dean effective July 1.
Roberts said he faces tre-mendous pressure following Benefield, who has served Au-burn in the College of engi-neering for 33 years.
“Larry’s been an excellent dean, and the college has ad-vanced in many capacities un-der his leadership,” Roberts said. “The expectations on me now are very high. A lot of that is trying to fill his shoes and a significant measure of self-in-flicted pressure because i want to live up to that standard.”
Roberts, who received his master’s and doctorate de-grees from the University of Notre Dame, has been at Au-burn for close to 19 years.
“For the last nine years i’ve been the chair of the depart-ment of chemical engineering and the Uthlaut professor of chemical engineering, and i’ve done research in energy and nanotechnology,” he said.
Jim Killian, director of com-munications and marketing for the College of engineering, said the University began its search looking nationwide for a replacement for Benefield.
“When we advertise for a
faculty or leadership position it’s posted nationally,” Killian said. “A few months ago it was narrowed down to four appli-cants, and those four appli-cants came on campus. They had an hour to meet with stu-dents and an hour to meet with faculty.”
Killian said he didn’t think Roberts’ prior tenure in the college weighed too heavily on the hiring committee.
“i believe the decision they came to was that Dr. Roberts had the skill set and qualifica-tions to place him above all the other candidates,” Killian said.
Roberts said he felt hon-ored, humbled and excited to be provided with this opportu-nity to serve the College of en-gineering.
“i’m really looking forward to taking on the work of ad-vancing this college to be one of the premiere engineering
colleges in the South and this nation,” Roberts said. “Truly, this college has the capacity to be one of the best engineering schools, and i look forward to helping to shape that.”
Roberts said he wants to make student success the theme for the college.
“The dean’s highest priori-ty should be the student body,” Benefield said.
Benefield said he believes Roberts was an ideal candi-date to fill his position.
“Dr. Roberts has done an ex-cellent job in leading the De-partment of Chemical engi-neering into the future,” Bene-field said. “He set high goals for the department, particularly in attracting world-class facul-ty members and top-perform-ing students. i believe he will bring the same sense of ener-gy and leadership into his new role as dean of engineering.”
Benefield said he looks for-ward to his retirement allow-ing him to focus his time on what matters most.
“i recently became a grand-father, and i certainly plan to make the most out of it,” Bene-field said. “The College of en-gineering has taken up much of my energies over the past three decades, and even my friends have wondered what i will do in retirement and what hobbies i may pick up. i think it’s going to be fun, maybe challenging, in charting a new direction.”
Roberts said he hopes he can make a lasting impression on the college.
“i want this college to be known for having research and education programs that im-proved the quality of life and the industrial competitiveness of our region and our nation,” he said.
Engineers receive new leadershipCollege of Engineering recruits first new dean in 14 years
Contributed by the College of engineering
Chris roberts will replace larry benefield as dean of the College of engineering starting July 1. roberts has served the college for 19 years as a professor and as the chemical engineering department chair.
RBD Library Hours During Finals WeekApril 27: Open 24 hours
April 28: Open until midnight
April 29: Open 1 p.m. through all night
April 30–May 3: Open 24 hours
A5Thursday, April 26, 2012 www.theplainsman.com Community
Community People of the Plains» Page a7
Band tours alabama» Page a6
Sydney CallisWriter
the fourth annual Lee County Gathering Old time Music Festival is returning to Alabama’s musical roots Thursday through Sunday at the Lee County Historical Society Museum in Loachapoka.
each day will include opportuni-ties for people to come and listen to music historically connected with Al-abama.
Bob taunton, coordinator for the event, said after attending similar music festivals in the mountains he wanted to bring one to Alabama. The event is a collaboration with Alabama State Council on the Arts.
“this area of Alabama is rich in musical heritage and we’ve kind of gotten away from it over the last sev-eral years because of pop music and
recording music industries,” taunton said. ”We wanted to do what we could to bring it back.”
Singing and dancing classes will be offered, as well as lessons with pro-vided instruments such as the fiddle, harmonica, mandolin, ukulele, dulci-mer and steel drum.
Other classes will teach Sacred Heart Christian singing, Negro spiri-tual singing and clogging. There will also be dance contests each evening.
it is $50 to take classes at the festi-val, and that price includes all of the weekend’s events. People are also wel-come to come and just listen to the music.
tickets for the weekend event not including classes cost $20. Attendees can also purchase a one-day package that includes classes, performances and jams for $25.
“There will be a lot of jamming on site where individuals meet up with each other and just start playing tunes on their own,” taunton said.
Performing and teaching at the festival are Linda Smith, Ginny Cli-ett and Deby Libby, who comprise the dulcimer group t.N.t, or The Nut-ty trio.
Smith said they formed in 2006 to share their love for the dulcimer, a stringed instrument native to the Ap-palachian region. together they aim to teach younger generations how to play to keep traditions of the past alive.
“We’ll be team teaching a progres-sive series of beginner to novice lev-el classes this year on Friday and Sat-urday,” Smith said. “We can have any-one playing the dulcimer by the end of the weekend.”
Smith said one of the good fea-tures of the Lee County Gathering Old time Music Festival is its emphasis on teaching the instruments as well as playing them.
Joanna Vogt, freshman in early childhood education, said she appre-ciates the emphasis the festival places on introducing new people to the mu-sic from the area.
“i think that the music festival is a really great idea and a really good way of teaching the community about in-digenous music,” Vogt said.
taunton said he thinks it is impor-tant to reintroduce the music, songs and dances of historic Alabama to new generations.
“i have an idea what young kids are dancing to, but in my day it was
Alabama returns to musical roots with annual music festival
Heather AllenWriter
Kroger customers will notice a difference at the store this week as police officers perch on the roof of the building during their annual fundraiser benefitting the Special Olympics.
The Auburn Police Department is hosting its annual Cops on top event beginning Friday at 8 a.m. and end-ing Saturday at 10 p.m. at the Dean road Kroger.
“Officers will be on top of Kroger and also by the front entrance of the store and the parking lot,” said Capt. James tatum of the APD. “We are asking the community and supporters to join our efforts to help us make this a success.”
Police officers will be stationed on top of the build-ing and on the ground to help raise awareness and funds for the Special Olympics of Alabama, tatum said.
Cops on top is a national movement to support the Special Olympics.
“For 38 continuous hours, different officers from the police division will be participating to raise money,” ta-tum said. “The money will assist and help people with intellectual disabilities compete in the games.”
Officers will have collection buckets and t-shirts for sale to benefit the cause, tatum said.
Last year, the state of Alabama raised more than $85,000. The APD ranked third in the state with its fundraising, collecting $14,300 from the community, tatum said.
“As i put it, we are raising money to try and help the innocent of the innocent,” tatum said. “i am our divi-sion’s coordinator, and i have been doing this on and
off for over 20 years now. it is a great cause.”Kroger is hosting the event for the second year and
is excited to see how much money customers will do-nate.
“it was a very successful event for them last year,” said John Moore, manager of Kroger. “Our customer base at this store is very loyal. Whether it’s Girl Scouts selling cookies or a local church group doing a car wash, our customer base is always very generous to support those groups.”
Moore says his store enjoyed the event so much last year that he wanted to make sure they could host it again this year.
“i actually called him before he called me because we really enjoy doing it,” Moore said. “it adds a little more excitement to the everyday retail business.”
Megan Chard, junior in psychology, knows how im-portant the event is to the children.
“i have worked with autistic kids that have partic-ipated in the Special Olympics,” Chard said. “i think Cops on top is a unique fundraiser that gets people’s attention. You can get your normal errands done while also donating to a great cause. it is very convenient for everyone.”
tatum is grateful for the support Kroger has given to the cause.
“Kroger has been very helpful, and they have been a great partner with us as far as providing the facili-ties and assisting us with the event itself,” tatum said.
For more information on the Special Olympics or the Cops on top event, contact Capt. James tatum at 334-501-3159.
Cops volunteer for Special Olympics
Boys & girls Clubs cater to children’s needsAlison McFerrinCOMMuNitY BeAt rePOrter
Denzel Washington. Jennifer Lopez. Mario Lopez. earvin “Magic” Johnson. These famous names were once all part of the same club, a club with a local branch that currently enrolls more than 500 children each year: the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Lee County.
“We have some kids who, when parents come to pick them up, they’re crying, don’t want to go home in the afternoon,” said Wanda Lewis, pres-ident of the Lee County chapters.
The local club, which is part of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, began in 1989 and is open to children at two locations: Boykin Street in Auburn and toomer Street in Opelika. The clubs operate 2:30–6:30 p.m. on school days and offer a full day’s worth of activities when schools are closed, like during summer and spring break.
eva Henderson, who’s in her second year as Auburn unit director, said coming to the club gives the children a sense of belonging.
“As human beings we always want to belong,” Henderson said. “By them becoming members they belong to something, and a lot of them come here for the staff, looking forward to see-ing certain staff that are here (and) looking for-ward to seeing their friends.”
Children at Boys & Girls Clubs are involved in activities that highlight the club’s core values: education and Career Development; Sports, Fitness and recreation; Health and Life Skills; Arts; and Good Character and Leadership. Club meetings feature homework help, guest speak-ers, crafts and other activities.
“they always have a good time, but at the same time we want to give them some skills while they’re having fun,” Lewis said.
As a nonprofit organization, the club operates with a small paid staff and always counts on vol-unteers.
“We can always use more volunteers,” Lewis said.
She said many volunteers come from the uni-versity, like those service-learning students from the College of education who help with tutoring.
“During the summer months the College of Math and Science comes in and they do projects with the kids … A lot of the athletes will come in and read with the kids … it’s a good resource to have right there at Auburn,” Lewis said.
Hilary Hermecz, senior in journalism, has spent her senior year volunteering at the club.
“it’s just a good place for them to develop,” Hermecz said. “Looking back i wish i would have gotten involved in something like this ear-ly in college.
“Not only does it help build your resume and things like that, but … it just feels really good do-ing something like this, to know i’m helping, and those kids mean so much to me.”
For people interested in volunteering, Lew-is said they should fill out an application, either going by the Auburn or Opelika unit to pick one up or printing it from the website at bgcleeco.org.
Lewis said they try to tailor volunteers’ work to their interests.
“if they come with some arts background or skills or there’s a hobby that they would like to
incorporate, then certainly we’d like to invite them to do that,” Lewis said.
Henderson said they are especially seeking male mentors of color to meet with children weekly—a one-year commitment.
“All the mentoring would be at the club, and they just come and spend time and talk to them,” Henderson said.
Lee County’s clubs held one of three annual fundraisers April 13, a bowling tournament that has become popular with families and business-es, Lewis said.
“it’s not a huge fundraiser, but it’s a good
awareness building mechanism,” Lewis said.the event raised about $2,000 toward the
club’s $550,000 operating budget.“We don’t want to turn anybody away who
wants to come to the club for financial reasons,” Lewis said.
School-year membership costs $50 for the year, and summer membership costs $30 per week, but Lewis said they try to offer scholar-ships for those who can’t afford it.
“if we are full, that’s another thing, but we
Hope BurlesonWriter
What began as a sketch on a restaurant napkin, Auburn City-Fest is marking its 12th anniversa-ry this year.
Auburn’s largest free outdoor festival will take place Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Kiesel Park.
CityFest, featuring live enter-tainment for attendees of all ages, has attracted 12–15,000 residents from the surrounding area each year, said co-coordinator Meg rainey.
“We have the Children’s imag-ination Station, which has a full range of children’s activities like inflatable games going on throughout the day,” rainey said. “New this year is the Knology Chil-dren’s entertainment Stage fea-turing internationally-known magician, juggler, comedian, all-around-entertainer Paul Miller. His performance is tailored spe-cifically toward children, so he is very entertaining; the kids love him.”
For attendees interested in dance activities, Auburn universi-ty Swing Dance Association, Celt-ic traditions and east Alabama Community Ballet will perform.
At the front of the park, music lovers can get their fix with fea-tured entertainers from Birming-ham, the Newgrass troubadours. Local favorites John and the Con-
ners and Destiny Brown are also slated to take the stage.
in addition to the entertain-ment and numerous activities, festival-goers can shop at the arts and crafts vendors.
Bradley Dennis, Auburn res-ident and incoming freshman, said his favorite thing about City-Fest is “walking around to the dif-ferent booths and look at the odds and ends of what everybody has (to sell). You always find some interesting stuff at the different booths, and you can always find good deals up there too.”
items usually available for pur-chase include paintings, pottery, sculpture, prints, jewelry and hand-woven baskets.
Other attractions geared to-ward adults include a showcase
auburn continues CityFest tradition
» See cityfest, A6
» See old time, A6
» See boys & girls, A6
LEE COUNTY
GATHERING OLD TIME
MUSIC FESTIVAL
What: Four days of music his-torically connected with Ala-bama
Where: Lee County Historical Society Museum
When: Thursday–Sunday
Cost: $20 per ticket, $50 for ticket and classes
Rebecca cRoomes / Photo editoR cole Jacobs, junior in finance and member of sigma alpha epsilon fraternity, bowls with the interfraternity council team for charity Friday. the annual tournament raises money for the boys & Girls clubs.
“i think it’s just a lot of family fun, and you can meet different people from auburn and just have fun listening to the music …”
—Bradley DennisAuBurN reSiDeNt
Community A6 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, April 26, 2012
The Auburn Plainsman
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Students staying in town this summer are invited to attend Auburn’s Parks and recreation May Concert Series, a set of free weekly concerts at Town Creek Park.
The concerts will be held ev-ery Thursday from 6–7:30 p.m. and feature musicians from sev-eral different genres.
“We wanted to offer some-thing for everyone,” said Meg rainey, public relations special-ist for Auburn Parks and recre-ation.
The lineup includes the bands Crossroads, Martha’s Trouble, Auburn Knights Orchestra, Pan-gea and Dave Potts.
Crossroads, the series’ first band to perform, is a local five-piece cover band. Singer Jessi-ca Wilson, junior in elementa-ry education, also writes origi-nal songs.
“We play a variety of my gen-eration’s ‘60s and ‘70s kind of rock ‘n’ roll, as well as coun-try music from your generation like Taylor Swift or Martina Mc-Bride,” said Mark Wilson, Jessi-
ca’s father and one of the band’s lead singers.
The band has close ties to the University.
“All of our members are either Auburn University graduates or current students,” Wilson said.
Martha’s Trouble is an indie folk duo originally from Toron-to. Jen and rob Slocumb consti-tute the husband-and-wife duo that relocated to Auburn six years ago.
“We were touring a lot in the Southeast and were always gone from Canada,” said lead sing-er Jen Slocumb. “it made sense for us to relocate to the South-east. rob’s parents retired here seven years ago, and we would come visit when were in town touring.”
Auburn offers summer entertainment
of local nonprofits, the chil-dren’s art exhibition, which often attracts parents, and the ArtFest tent.
Dennis said the event is an opportunity for members of the community to network and enjoy what the area has to offer.
“i think it’s just a lot of family fun,” Dennis said. “And you can meet different people from Auburn and just have fun listening to the mu-sic or going around to all the booths and looking at the ex-hibits. it’s just a good way to spend a Saturday.”
Other Auburn residents
who have never attended CityFest before are making their way out to Kiesel Park for the festival.
“i have not been to City-Fest before, but i’m looking forward to going this year,” said Auburn resident Feli-cia reese. “After my son, Jor-dan, went last year and had a blast, i wanted to take him and my other son, Kameron, back. So we are all super ex-cited about going. i think it will be fun we can do togeth-er as a family.”
For more information about Auburn CityFest, visit auburncityfest.com or con-tact the Auburn CityFest headquarters at 334-501-2930.
cityfest» From A5
the twist and stuff like that,” Taunton said. “But this, this is old fashioned dancing where you treat each other like gentlemen and ladies. i think new generations would love it.”
As an added incentive, Taunton said this festival will feature an unexpected guest after the playwright concert Friday.
“We also have a big sur-prise at the end of the con-cert Friday night, but i can’t divulge what that is, but it’s spectacular,” Taunton said. “it’s going to be a huge sur-prise.”
don’t want anybody to be turned away because of in-ability to pay.”
Lewis said they abide by the club’s mission to assist “those who need it most.”
“That could mean a kid who’s parents are making $1 million a year, but if the par-ents are not there in the after-noons to support them or to nurture them or to validate their value, then … they need us too,” Lewis said.
The local club’s current fundraiser is “Change for a Chance,” where you can take your loose change to the Au-burn unit at 400B Boykin St.
Old time» From A5
bOys & girls» From A5
» See ConCerts, A7
SU
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summer swing■ Opelika Municipal Park■ 7 p.m.
5/8
noontunes■ Courthouse Square■ Until 1 p.m.
opelika Farmer’s Market■ Courthouse Square■ 2 p.m.
13th Annual Member tournament■ Saugahatchee■12 p.m.
opelika Unplugged■ event Center Downtown■ 7 p.m.
5/10
Farmer’s Market■ AG Heritage Park■ 3–6 p.m.
5/9
May Concert series■ Towns Creek Park■ 6:30 p.m.
6/5
Concert Series infoParks and Recreation’s May Con-cert Series will take place every Thursday from 6–7:30 p.m. Musi-cians from several different genres will be featured, and the cost is free.
6/21
7/6
Mailing Address
Auburn Student CenterSuite 1111HAuburn, AL 36849
Contact
Phone 334–844–4130Email [email protected]
PolicyThe opinions of The Auburn Plainsman staff are restricted to these pages. These unsigned editorials are the majori-ty opinion of the 9-member editorial board and are the of-ficial opinion of the newspaper. The opinions expressed in columns and letters represent the views and opinions of their individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the Auburn University student body, faculty, administration or Board of Trustees.
SubmissionsThe Auburn Plainsman welcomes letters from students as well as from faculty, administrators, alumni and those not affiliated with the University. Letters must be submitted be-fore 4:30 p.m. on the Monday for publication. Letters must include the author’s name, address and phone number for verification, though the name of the author may be with-held upon request. Submission may be edited for gram-mar and/or length.
The Editorial Board
Miranda DollarhideEDitor
Madeline Hall MAnAging EDitor
Kristen olivernEwS EDitor
Chelsea HarveyCAMpuS EDitor
Kate JonesintriguE EDitor
Coleman McDowellSportS EDitor
Sarah newmanDESign EDitor
nik MarkopoulosCopy EDitor
rebecca CroomespHoto EDitor
With valid student I.D. Alcohol and gratuity not included. Expires May 31,2012.
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Community A7 the Auburn plainsman Thursday, April 26, 2012
Abigail o’BrienwritEr
For Lee County District At-torney robert treese, prose-cuting evil and enforcing jus-tice in the Auburn-opelika area is a fight he thoroughly enjoys.
“i love the job,” treese said. “it is a roller coaster of all sorts of different things at any given moment, but i do ab-solutely love taking the big swing.”
treese hails from Sel-ma in Dallas County, and he completed his undergrad-uate studies in sociology at Auburn. He later attended the Jones School of Law at Faulkner university.
treese said he’s always had an interest in justice.
“Since i was in the fifth grade i wanted to be a lawyer,” treese said.
treese was elected Lee County’s district attorney in november 2010, and he was immediately thrown into ma-jor cases, including the cap-ital murder trial of Courtney Lockhart and the more recent Harvey updike case.
For treese, the unpredict-ability of the courtroom is something he is used to.
“one minute you’re cook-ing with gas and the next min-ute … you’re in flames.”
while giving their best is important for treese and his team of prosectors, he said he has to make sure to stay hu-man.
“The minute i am not ner-vous before i go into a jury trial … and the minute i see stuff—the kinds of things that prosecutors see at crime scenes and the photographs of those scenes and some of the horrors that we see way too often—the second it doesn’t affect me, i am gone,” treese said.
treese said his efforts as district attorney are fueled by his love for the communi-ty and recognition of the re-sponsibility he holds. He said it’s his job to make sure Au-burn-opelika residents are able to keep the community they currently have.
“people have the right to be
completely living their lives blissfully with not having to worry about something ugly and evil walking around and winding up in their backyard,” treese said. “i hope it doesn’t happen, but that’s what i’m here for—that’s what every-body in law enforcement’s here for.”
Sheriff Jay Jones works reg-ularly with treese in the law enforcement process, detect-ing, investigating and appre-hending criminal activity and then presenting it to treese.
Jones said he and treese have a great relationship, and he appreciates the way treese works hard to communicate things clearly.
“He is very thorough in re-gard to circumstances and situations and … very keen on getting all the facts,” Jones said.
Jones commented particu-larly on treese’s love for peo-ple and his high standards for upholding the law equally and consistently across cases.
“He, like most of us here, re-ally loves the area and wants to make sure … that these functions, if they’re gonna be done, they’re gonna be done right and they’re gonna be done to the benefit of the public who are being served,” Jones said.
Kisha Abercrombie, senior assistant district attorney, also said treese’s high stan-dards are something he is particularly known for.
“His heart is in what we do,” Abercrombie said, “and he al-ways does the right thing re-gardless of who the individu-als involved are.”
treese said he works to make decisions on an unbi-ased basis, focusing on the facts and the law, and while the job forces experience with tragedies and tough trials, both Abercrombie and treese said justice is worth it.
“it’s that feeling, that mo-ment, when they come back and say ‘guilty,’ and just the sense of relief that overcomes that person, that victim,” Ab-ercrombie said. “when they hear that, they feel vindicat-ed. They feel that justice has been done.”
treese agreed, saying for him it’s about the opportuni-ty to make lasting and signifi-cant changes in people’s lives and inspire hope for a better tomorrow.
“you can make a dent in your little world,” he said. “that’s what humanity ’s about is hope—even in the darkest times.”
County DA applies law equally
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South Pacific■ Center for the performing Arts■ See website for show times
4/26
Second Annual April Fest■ Au Hotel and Conference Center■ 5:30 p.m.
Old Time Music Festival■ Loachapoka Historical Village■ April 26–29
Cops on Top■ Kroger on Dean road■ 8 a.m.
The Return■ Event Center Downtown■ 7:30 p.m.
Auburn CityFest■ Kiesel park■ All day
4/27
Sundilla: Doug and Telisha Williams■ unitarian universalist Fellowship■ 7:30 p.m.
4/28
The duo has released 11 al-bums, the newest of which is a children’s lullaby CD inspired by their two young children, Slocumb said.
Concert-goers should ex-pect to hear original music from the pair.
“original music is some-thing you can’t always find in a lot of college bars, so it’s some-thing different,” Slocumb said.
Bands will perform in the pavilion by the silo.
“There’s a lawn where there is plenty of space for people to spread out, bring picnic blan-kets, camping chairs and pic-nic baskets to enjoy a leisure-ly evening outdoors,” rainey said.
the May concert series is at town Creek park, while the fall series is held at Kiesel park, rainey said.
“one of the things we like to do with all of our events is
rotate around to our different parks and facilities so that citi-zens can experience the parks in a different way,” rainey said.
town Creek park generally has bigger crowds because it is closer to town, wilson said.
“we get a lot of people who just walk up,” wilson said. “And it’s a little more airy than Kiesel. people can stretch out their blankets.”
Because it is free and open to the public, it’s a good option for students on a budget.
“we know students are on a limited income, so you can bring a picnic out and enjoy a concert for free,” she said.
one year, two students made a dinner date out of it by bringing a bistro set and setting up a small table with chairs under some trees, rain-ey said.
“They were near enough so they could hear the music, but away enough that they could enjoy their nice dinner,” she said. “it was really cute.”
concerts» From A5
Rock band’s tour comes to AlabamaKristen oliverCoMMunity EDitor
For heavy metal fans stay-ing in Auburn this summer, Montgomery has a band com-ing in June that might be for you.
Straight Line Stitch will be playing June 2 at Liquids Club in Montgomery.
the band consists of vo-calist Alexis Brown, bass gui-tarist Jason white, drummer ian Shuirr and guitarists Kris Hawkins and Kris norris.
“on tour, we’ll be out for two months just trying to get busy,” Brown said.
She describes their tour as very energetic.
“we take our performance really seriously,” Brown said. “we try to have fun and just hang out. it’s always a fun vibe. we know that it’s our job, but we have fun doing it.”
the band played its first stop of the tour tuesday in Bowling green, Ky.
“it went really well,” Brown said. “it was fun; it was a real-ly intimate show and a good time, a great way to start off the first day of the tour.”
the tour follows the suc-cess of their second album, re-leased in 2011 and titled “The Fight of our Lives.”
the album reached no. 5 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.
“we wrote the album ‘The Fight of our Lives’ at a time when we were sort of really angry,” Brown said. “we just put out an album that was just talking about what we’ve gone through and just about the fight, you know, having to fight for things that you love.”
the band is working on a third album now, and Brown said while they are on the road they do a lot of brainstorming
together.They are hoping to be in the
studio recording by the end of the year.
“My favorite thing about the band is definitely the touring, the camaraderie, the kinship that we have as a band,” she said. “Another favorite thing is just having the freedom of expression and writing. Those are my favorite things about the band … you just go through adventures every day.”
the band originates from Knoxville, tenn. it has exist-ed since 1999, but has gone through major changes since then.
Brown joined as vocalist around 2003.
“they were always play-ing shows,” Brown said of the band before she joined. “i met them through my old band from my hometown in Clarks-ville, tenn. we put on some shows and just hit it off. we be-came really good friends.
“My band was falling apart. They had singers before me … and i guess when they weren’t really working out, they called me to try out. it was funny any-ways because when we first met them i fell in love with the band and always wanted to join. i’ve never looked back.”
“My favorite thing about the band is definitely the touring, the camaraderie, the kinship that we have as a band.”
—Alexis BrownVoCALiSt, StrAigHt LinE StitCH
Thursday, April 26, 2012 www.theplainsman.com Community
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Women’s rights must be protected
Growing up in the Deep South as a Democrat, I’ve learned how impor-tant it is to respect views that oppose mine. I do respect them; if someone has good backing for why they believe a certain way then that’s fine—we all have different backgrounds, person-alities and religious beliefs.
I’ve been a Democrat since I start-ed paying attention to politics in high school, but I was brought up in a moderately liberal family. I am pro-choice and against the death penalty.
I’m writing in response to an edi-torial piece that was written express-ing the exact opposite views from mine. While I fully respect the writ-er and her opinions, I’m speaking on behalf of myself, a Democrat with se-rious concern for woman’s health is-sues, my college organization and my party.
I’ll start with the death penalty. Fundamentally I do not think it is log-ical to kill another human being to prove that murder is wrong. I under-stand that if we kept everyone alive in the jails for lifetime sentences then it would be exorbitantly expensive to feed and take care of them, as well as incredibly difficult to find space for all of them in our prisons. It’s a logis-tics issue. However, in many cases it is more expensive to sentence people to death because of the appeal process. I also think that in legalizing marijua-na we would free tons of space in the jails by freeing people who don’t need to be in jail anyway, but that’s a topic for a different day.
I believe that no person should be permitted by the government or any other group to kill another hu-man being. It’s still murder, even if the society or a governing group says it’s OK. Killing to show that killing is wrong just doesn’t make sense, espe-cially with the risk of putting some-one to death who hasn’t committed a crime. Troy Davis, anyone?
Personally, I believe abortion should only be used as a last resort—if the woman’s life is in danger by car-rying the pregnancy or in labor—or in cases of incest or rape. I don’t believe I could ever have an abortion myself, but the key to that whole statement is “personally.” No, I don’t think abor-tion should be used when it doesn’t have to, but that’s my opinion.
I still believe it is a woman’s health issue because it is something that’s going on inside of her body. I don’t have the right to put my opinions on her and control her with them, nor does the government or anyone else. No one but the woman herself should be making decisions for her health and her body.
On the point of the fetus, the only place where it is “proven” that the child is alive at the point of concep-tion is in a religious document. I’m not trying to disrespect anyone; I’m an Episcopalian and I have a very strong faith, but in a country where freedom of religion is a founding law, we should not have laws that are even vaguely based on something from the Bible, or from a text of any other re-ligion. Our Deist Founding Fathers made very certain to protect the free-dom to believe or not believe as the individual sees fit. I think that this is a very important point because we do not know when the life begins in a fe-tus.
We do know that absolutely, the woman who is pregnant is very much alive. We should protect her rights as our first priority.
As an individual, I would not choose to have an abortion. As a woman, I support all women in mak-ing their own decisions regarding that issue. But it should be theirs to make and no one else’s. As for the death penalty, there are much better ways to protect society from a mur-derer than for someone to take that person’s life as well.
Natalie Donnelsophomore, history
Welcome change comes with resolution
The SGA senate passed a resolu-tion recognizing the need for “gender identity” and “gender expression” to be included in the campus Anti-Ha-rassment and Non-Discrimination Policy April 16.
I sat in the back of the room as the vote was called, nervously clutching the hands of fellow Spectrum mem-bers sitting beside me. When the de-cision was announced, I could not have been happier. I could not have been prouder.
I myself believe that gender is a purely social construct, and under-stand that for some, biological sex and gender identity don’t match up. No matter what one’s personal be-liefs, though, it is simply unaccept-able to deny any student protection from harassment, be it on the basis of race, gender identity, or anything else. As Auburn students, we all de-serve equal protection by the admin-istration.
One of the points brought up in Senate discussion focused on the housing situation. Senator-at-large Walter Whatley seemed concerned by the possibility of students hav-ing transgender roommates without their knowledge or consent. What he failed to recognize is that transgen-der students have issues with hous-ing already.
Those in the process of transition-ing who are still legally listed as their birth sex have no choice but to be placed in a room based on that if they live on-campus. This can lead to un-comfortable situations for both par-ties involved.
On the other hand, if Auburn final-ly started to take notice of transgen-der issues, to promise those students that they would be protected as much as everyone else, then logistical issues such as housing could be actively and openly dealt with.
I extend my gratitude to those who have worked so hard on getting this resolution passed and who will con-tinue to work until it is implemented on Auburn’s campus.
Megan Reynoldsfreshman, French
Our new SGA president is ei-ther terribly under-informed or actively disingenuous.
In his EXTRA, dated April 18, 2012, he claims the proposed 2012–13 parking changes will en-sure that every AU student will be “guaranteed” a place to park.
Here are some facts straight from Don Andrae, manager of Parking Services (confirmed by phone April 18, 2012): Active C-zone permits currently distribut-ed by Parking Services: approxi-mately 11,000. Capacity of the 3 “central campus lots” which will convert to “Proximate C”: 1,500. Capacity of all remaining C-zone areas, including three remote lots (West Thach, Veterinary Scienc-
es, Intramural Fields), and vari-ous roadway strips: 1,400. Initial proposed number of Proximate C-zone tags to be granted by ran-dom drawing: 1,700.
Let’s assume that after Park-ing Services surveys the initial impact, they raise the number of PC permits to: 2,000. So, if we want to do a little math to mea-sure our collective parking mis-ery, now and later: current ratio of C-zone parkers to all C-zone spaces: 11,000/2,900 = 3.79:1. Ra-tio of remaining C-zone parkers who will fight for space after 2,000 PC permits have been issued: 9,000/1,400 = 6.43:1 (a 70 percent increase).
We all understand that not all
AU students are on campus at-tempting to park at the same time. Yet the simple math above means one thing: When Parrish tells us that all these changes will make it better for all AU students, he is quite wrong. Further, Don Andrae estimates the earliest that AU can furnish additional C-zone spaces is “mid-2015.”
If you must commute and care about getting to your classes on time, start mobilizing, talk to your SGA and GSC senators and don’t let this plan happen without a fight.
Michael Pukishgraduate student, electrical and computer engineering
Parking numbers promise woes
College education not the answer for everyone
Deciding whether to pursue a college education isn’t the easy de-cision it once was.
The dollar is falling in value al-most constantly. The rising costs of living—food, gas, energy, insur-ance—means families have few-er dollars even before they send their son or daughter off to school. The rising costs of school—tu-ition, rent, new gyms, meal plans, dropped-class fees, hang tags—means staying in school is more expensive than ever before.
There are fewer jobs for gradu-ates than there’s been in our entire lives. A statistic released this week shows that one in two graduates is in a job for which they’re overqual-ified, or they have no job at all.
It’s a hard reality that the bene-fits of a degree are being outpaced by the costs.
We believe a college degree is still a wise investment, but stu-dents must understand that pil-ing themselves with debt has be-
come a risk that may not pay out. There’s not much of a dent to be made in $70,000 of debt if a grad-uate is working in retail.
A change in mentality must fol-low a change in economic outlook. High schools are still hammering students with the notion that a fully actualized American is one with a college degree. This simply isn’t true.
The hardworking men and women of the blue collar world deserve the respect and admira-tion of our culture. An education of the hands and body is no less worthy than an education of the mind.
High schools need to prepare students for the world in which they live, not the world we wish ex-isted. Instead of legislation like No Child Left Behind, we need pro-grams that encourage more high schools to send students uninter-ested in college into their com-munities to discover the fields of
work that interest them.A college education is no lon-
ger the only wide avenue to ed-ucation. The explosion of infor-mation available on the Internet means there’s little stopping any-one from self-education. Too of-ten do we view life in stages. Ed-ucation does not, and should not, only occur from the ages of 5–22.
Ultimately it falls to parents to steer their children in the direc-tion best for them. We future par-ents should understand that our children may have talents and in-terests that lead down a path that doesn’t involve a college educa-tion.
Don’t push them away from a career because it involves honest work and not memos and Micro-soft Excel.
If they’re encouraged to pursue work that truly matters to them, they’re far more likely to one day own that work instead of letting it own them.
Like every other student at Au-burn I have a few concerns with the new “improvement” to our parking situation.
First, pretty much all that this new parking pass is going to do is drastically improve the parking predicament for the 1,700 peo-ple that are lucky enough to win a chance to purchase the Proxi-mate C parking pass, but seriously piss off the rest of Auburn’s com-muters.
I also don’t understand how you have decided to eliminate 90 percent of the C-zone parking and double the cost of a C-zone park-ing pass, and expected there not to be a flood of complaints imme-
diately after you sent the email. In the most recent email you said that there would be a guaranteed spot in one of the three Proximate C lots to pass holders at all times,.That means there are always go-ing to be unused spots which will be a huge waste of the time and effort to make parking more orga-nized, but ultimately less efficient.
My last complaint: I honestly do not believe that the gained rev-enue will be used to improve the Tiger Transit system.
The only other thing that you are promising the people that get screwed out of a Proximate C-zone parking pass and get stuck with a $60 C-zone pass is that you
are working on an app that will tell you where the Tiger Transit is in real time and how many people are on it.
Really? That is absolutely ridic-ulous.
Congratulations, you have just made Auburn parking even worse than it already was, which I didn’t think was possible. Thank you for proving me wrong.
Robert Bakerjunior, aviation management
Frustrated by parking changes
“Now, after $100 million in cuts since 2008 we have raised tuition to cover about $60 million of that cut.”
- Don LargeEXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF
FINANCIAL OFFICER, AUBURN UNIVERSITY
QuoTe of The Week
Opinions A9Thursday, April 26, 2012 www.theplainsman.com Community
Everyone tells you that your col-lege years are the best time of your life, so enjoy it while you can. I can say with confidence that my time here has been incredible, blessed, tough at some points, exciting and all those other fun adjectives.
I do hope, however, that the rest of my life isn’t downhill from here. I def-initely don’t believe it is.
Venturing into the “real world” will be different and challenging, but I’m looking forward to it. I’m actually quite ready to not have to take anoth-er test, write another paper or read a certain book because someone told me to.
What I leave you with now are a few highlights from my Auburn ex-perience and a few regrets I had of things I wish I had done. I encour-age you to learn from my list and do the things you want to while you still have time. Forever and always, War Damn Eagle!
First, studying abroad in London.One of the best times of my 21
years of existence was studying abroad in London with the Auburn English Department. I went on the trip not knowing a soul, but by the time we came home, I had a new little family. It’s hard to find a better deal than you’ll have with all the group rates, set tours and local trips. Once you’re out of college, your time and ability to travel becomes extremely limited, so take advantage while you can.
Second, going to the 2010 SEC and National Championship games.
A lot of football games run togeth-er in my mind, but these two will al-ways stand out. Those tickets will be a hard gift to top (Thanks again, Dad). I will never forget the overwhelming-ly orange crowd, the flood of relief and excitement after Wes Byrum’s field goal, the confetti floating down and the random rolls of toilet paper streaming through the air.
Three, working for The Plainsman.Working for the paper has given
me so many opportunities. I’ve got-ten work experience, I’m constantly informed of what’s going on around campus and Auburn, I traveled to Orlando and New York City for con-ferences, and most importantly I’ve made some great friends. Getting in-volved with a campus organization is one of the best experiences and I can’t recommend it enough.
I wish I had gone to more sport-ing events like soccer, track and field, and equestrian.
I always went to football games, frequently attended gymnastics and baseball, and I occasionally went to some swim meets and basketball games. Don’t get me wrong, those were always fun, but I wish I had at-tended an event for every Auburn sport at least once. We have a lot of incredible teams that deserve more attention than they receive.
I wish I had traveled to more away games for football.
As I discovered this past fall, trav-eling to away games is a lot of fun. First off you get to road trip with friends and explore new places. Sec-ondly, you get to cheer on your team where you are definitely outnum-bered. It is a good feeling to walk out of a stadium head held high after a game where everybody thought you would get creamed (i.e. South Caro-lina).
I wish I had volunteered more.Although it seems like every week
is crazy and busy, college students actually have a decent amount of free time on their hands. I did a cou-ple projects every now and then, and loved visits to the Human Society, but I know I could have done more on a regular basis. I encourage you to find some way to give back locally, wheth-er donating goods, labor or your time.
Madeline [email protected]
Experience all Auburn has to offer while here
I’m not a senior. I’m not a senior. That’s what I’ve been telling myself the last couple of days. It’s so odd how as a kid you wish to grow up and as an adult you wish to be a kid.
tuesday I became an alum in my sorority—my home for four years—and today I relinquish my position as Intrigue Editor—a position not
even on my radar beginning junior year.
College is a mighty interesting time. We are somewhat on our own, but are in the bubble we call Au-burn. I’m not talking about failing at finances and having your parents bail you out. I’m saying even if you get a parking ticket or F on a test, you can talk your way out of both—learn from mistakes without serious consequences.
I feel the idea of college has be-come degree equals job. the idea is very misconstrued to me. Don’t misunderstand, I want a job when I
graduate and feel I am prepared for one. However, college is a time to ex-plore ideas, meet diverse groups of people, disagree on issues and find your passion and yes even fail—not solely prepare for a job.
Auburn has taught me to be a leader, to have compassion and hu-mility and live life to the fullest. Iron-ically all of these lessons have come outside the classroom. I cherish my journalism degree, but it’s what pro-fessors and faculty have pushed me to do outside the classroom that means the most.
If I could give one piece of advice,
it’s to explore every corner and niche our wonderful University has to of-fer. For me it was Alpha Chi Ome-ga, Camp War Eagle, the Auburn Plainsman and service learning. Ex-plore what your political interests are, push yourself to meet as many people as you can, run a half mara-thon. Go join a club, experience life, be an advocate for a cause. Leave Auburn knowing yourself.
That will get you a job or at least give you the confidence to find the right one for you.
I am a senior. Here I am world, whatcha got?
College was about more than preparing for a jobKate [email protected]
Farewell Columns
I’ve never been one to set goals.I know I was supposed to. I know
they are a good thing to have. I know that those who put them on paper are more likely to achieve them.
I’ve never seen the point.It’s not because I’m afraid of fail-
ing to reach them. It’s not because I don’t know what I want out of life. It’s not because I don’t have any.
I have one, and it’s not something that needs to be written down.
For as long as I’ve been a student, I’ve not worried about my GPA or my standing among my peers. I’ve not tried to set myself apart by join-ing every organization imaginable or replying to every business or hon-ors fraternity email in my inbox. And I’ve definitely not listened to anyone who tried to tell me differently.
My experience at Auburn has been just that: mine.
I’ve pursued the degrees that in-terested me, joined the clubs with the most personable people and worked at the most enticing jobs.
Nothing I’ve done has been to build my resume or achieve a posi-tion of authority or earn a paycheck. I’ve only ever done what I thought I would genuinely like, never because someone told me I should.
I realize I am in a fortunate po-sition, and that others without like means may not have the luxury of such choice as I, but this is no excuse to live to strangers’ standards.
I’ve always been of the persua-sion that tireless effort and honesty are rewarded, and my final semes-ter at Auburn has (again) proven my case. My role as copy editor of The Plainsman is something I cannot
have traded for anything (except glo-rious, glorious free time and a smid-gen more sanity). Coupled with 18 hours, this semester has been noth-ing short of a bitch.
But it’s over. I’m done. I’m done with classes; I’m done with the Plainsman; I’m done with college.
I’m graduating in just more than a week, trekking to D.C. for an intern-ship thereafter and beginning a ca-reer in Houston in the fall. I never wrote any of these things down.
tireless effort and honesty are re-warded, and they are rewarded with the definition of achieving a goal: success.
Work hard, be honest, live to your own standardsNik [email protected]
Take advantage of your opportunities in college
I didn’t know a single soul when I moved to Auburn four years ago. I was six hours from home and com-pletely unfamiliar with the city—the first place I learned to drive to was taco Bell, because that was where I turned around every time I missed the road for my apartment complex.
I’ve come a long way since then. I now belong in Auburn and Opelika as much as I have ever belonged any-where.
I owe a lot of that to being a jour-nalism major and being a part of The
Auburn Plainsman staff.Because of my involvement on
staff, I have eaten at the taco truck, partied at Woofstock, enjoyed acoustic music at Sundilla and in-terviewed a U.S. Navy veteran.
I’ve been present at a manufactur-ing facility groundbreaking. I’ve met President Jay Gogue. I’ve become an expert in nearly every aspect of Au-burn’s campus and community.
OK, maybe not an expert, but I’ve certainly had a lot of experiences I would have missed out on if I hadn’t been a Plainsman staff member.
I probably never would have eaten at Mrs. Story’s Dairy Bar. I wouldn’t know where to find the Miracle Field. I can almost guarantee I never would have visited Pioneer Park for Second Saturday.
I graduate in 11 days, and if I knew I was leaving Auburn for good then I would be devastated.
there was a time when I said I would never want to stay in a col-lege town if I wasn’t actually in col-lege. But now that I face the pros-pect of leaving the Loveliest Village on the Plains, I feel a sense of pan-ic at the thought of not calling this place home.
For those for whom graduation is still a distant expectation, I would say not to waste a minute of your time here. Four years goes by faster than you think.
Volunteer. Get a job. Eat at a hole-in-the-wall (I recommend Sara Jay’s). Study abroad. Visit city parks—town Creek Park is a great place to not study.
I would also encourage you to—as cheesy as it sounds—“find your-self ” while in college. this is the time when you will make your pri-orities, your goals and your beliefs your own.
I have found my closest fiends at the tenth Street Church of Christ in Opelika, and I’m glad to be around for another few years if only to con-tinue to be with them. My faith has grown since I came here, and that’s the most valuable thing I’ve gained in my time here—making my faith my own.
You have to find what’s important to you, because if you do that, you can’t help but remember college as a good experience.
Auburn alumna status … here I come!
Alison [email protected]
MY PROFESSORS BECAME , MY CLASSMATES BECAME COMPANIONS, & MY BECAME FAMILY.
That recycled shit they feed you at your first campus tour about the Auburn “family” and life–long friends, etc, is, against all odds, absolutely true.
Leaving Auburn is going to be an experience laced with all sorts of emotion. I am not sure if I should lean more toward the side of “future is so
bright I need shades” or “*sob* I’m leaving every-one I’ve ever loved *sob*.”
While these are extremist, I know I will feel a bit of both. The excitement of starting my life, us-ing my degree to its fullest power and scoring that kickass job is satisfying. But all of it, at least for the first few weeks (maybe even months), will be tinged with sadness.
I would estimate about 80 percent of my gang are staying for another few semesters. We have been together since freshman year, and I’m leav-ing school and heading home for a bit, most likely, to continue my job search.
Did I mention that “home” for me is 12 hours
away from Auburn? Yeah, this does not help with the sadness.
Although I have to stay focused on my future, that’s what I’ve been preparing for the last four years. The day I get to email my teachers, col-leagues and friends about the cool job I got will be one of the brightest days, and not to mention, the most traffic my inbox will have seen in a while.
Getting a job is premier for me, but the joy I will gain from telling everybody about it will make me feel amazingly accomplished.
A great career means nothing without people in your life to give you praise, to be proud of you.
Auburn can give you both.
Sarah [email protected]
For those about to write, I salute you
Of all the things I’ve done at Au-burn, I’ve received no greater hon-or than the title of Plainsman editor.
When I was given the editorship last spring, I was hungry to make a change.
I wanted to revive the twitter ac-count, create a blog, increase multi-media, fix the website, etc.
As I look back, I accomplished some of those goals, but many still hang in the balance.
A friend recently asked me if I
thought I was a good editor, and to be honest, I don’t know.
taking on this job was scary as hell, and most of the time I was try-ing not to mess everything up.
What I do know is that The Plains-man family taught me what it means to be a journalist.
From late night copy sessions to spastic Wednesday afternoons, I’ve had the privilege of calling some of the hardest working people at Au-burn my staff and my friends.
While some of them are moving on to different things, I hope they will look back at The Plainsman with only the fondest memories.
For the group staying behind, take advantage of everything the Plains-man has to offer.
Be bold.try new things and don’t be afraid
of the consequences. Greatness hap-pens when you aren’t afraid to be great.
Challenge everything. If there is one thing I regret, it was not push-ing the envelope harder on the “se-rious” issues.
The University isn’t your friend. You’re the watchdog. Act as such.
Never give up. there will be days when pages
shut down unexpectedly, and it’s five minutes until deadline, but carry on. The rewards will be far greater than the stress pimples.
Most of all, treat the Plains-man with respect. to quote football coach Gene Chizik, “This place was
made great before you got here.” As I finish the last thing I will ever
write for The Plainsman, I feel a debt of gratitude for all of the things it has provided me.
Thanks for the good friends. I’ll never forget my New York ladies, new and old.
thanks for the knowledge and leadership skills that have helped build my college and professional career.
Thanks for turning a goofy sopho-more journalism major into a confi-dent journalism graduate.
As for next year’s editor, I’ll leave you with the last sentiment the pre-vious editor-in-chief rod Guajardo left me—give’em hell.
War damn Plainsman.
Miranda [email protected]
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Crossword
Check first Summer issue
for answers
On Stands May 17th
16
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67
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2
1
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1
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586
34 2
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SudokuDiffi culty: Hard
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SudokuDiffi culty: Hard
Sports B1Thursday, April 26, 2012 www.theplainsman.com Sports
Track and field» Page B4
Andrew Yawn Writer
ty Megahee was raised with a baseball in one hand and a bat in the other.
“i was one of those kids the dad had out in the backyard when i was 2 teaching me how to swing,” said Megahee, volunteer assistant coach of Auburn’s baseball team. “i played every sport growing up, but baseball was my first love and i stuck with it.”
these days, the 29-year-old Megahee is still sticking with it and has taken on a mentor role in his third year with the tigers.
M e g a -hee cur-r e n t -ly works pr i m a r i -ly with the team’s catchers, after he coached the outfield for his first two sea-sons.
As a volunteer coach, Megahee is neither employed nor paid by the University.
instead, he coaches out of his desire to help players improve.
“(it’s important) just to refine their skills and knowledge and the basis for continuing to play the game,” Megahee said.
His value to the team is not lim-ited to the field, however.
Megahee also handles the team’s communication with the academic support staff to ensure the players he coaches on the di-amond avoid making mistakes off of it.
“Part of my role here is dealing with players on a day-to-day ba-sis,” he said. “i try to be a good in-fluence … and try to to prepare these guys to continue playing baseball to have success on the field and also have success in life.”
Megahee is a product of that formula.
After playing infield for Mercer University from 2004–05, Mega-hee graduated and became a vol-
Callie WardWriter
Some people have the honor of saying they were a collegiate ath-lete, but not many can say that they were once a collegiate athlete in two sports.
For All-Amer-i c a n sp r i n t -er Harry Ad-ams, coming to Auburn meant playing foot-ball. But that changed when he chose track instead.
“i came to play football , and when they recruited me they said i could do both,” Ad-ams said. “i had to choose one of them, so i just chose track.”
B o r n a n d raised in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Adams has been playing football and running track all of his life, and he is now tearing up the record board on the track.
track coach ralph Spry said Ad-ams was quite a sprinter in high
school, and although he didn’t run track his first two years at Auburn, he hasn’t missed a beat since joining the team.
“He’s got that track background, he’s got the work-ethic, he has all the
resources and a lot of good peo-ple around him,” Spry said. “So i think it’s just a match made in heaven, and we’re really for-tunate he was willing to come to track and field from football.”
Adams said at first football was fun, but his tran-sition from foot-ball to track oc-curred because of all the chang-es made to the coaching staff.
“(track) wel-comed me with open arms,” Ad-ams said . “i knew half of
them before and they were telling me to come out, so i just came out there with them. it was like i already knew
Trotter training for draftrobert e. LeeSPortS BeAt rePorter
Former starting quarterback Barrett trotter left graduate school after finishing just one semester.
Now he is training for the NFL Draft, working out with Canadian Football League teams and prepar-ing for a future in football.
“January 19 was the last day to enter the draft this year, and i think i was the last person as a ju-nior to declare i wanted to be in the draft,” trotter said. “i knew i wasn’t going to be at Auburn playing football, and i had planned on just staying in school and finishing out the next year, and then i just de-cided to enter the draft.
“A week later i talked with my agent and he sug-gested i go somewhere to train.”
trotter’s high school coach, Fred Yancey of Bri-arwood Christian School, said trotter will be pre-pared no matter where he goes.
“We talked quite often about what was going on with his recruitment and all that,” Yancey said. “He’s one of these guys that was a great high school quar-terback, and i knew no matter where he went he would be a great player.”
Yancey coached trotter during his 14–1 senior season and said despite trotter’s ups and downs at Auburn, he is a great player.
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with Barrett trotter’s game as a quarterback,” Yancey said. “He can make every throw, he’s plenty mobile, especial-
ly for the pro-style (offense). it wont surprise me if he does very well. i think Barrett’s got a great op-portunity to show folks that he’s very, very capable.”
After trotter’s last game versus Virginia in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, his former coach Gene Chizik ad-mired his performance coming in relief of injured starter Clint Moseley, who replaced trotter in the seventh game of the 2011 season.
“i couldn’t be more proud of a young guy than i am of Barrett trotter in so many ways off the field,” Chizik said. “The way that he handled everything in the middle of the season and what a fitting end to his season—he finished it the way he started it.”
trotter has been working out for several CFL teams, including Calgary, toronto and edmonton.
“if that’s where i get to go play, you’re making good money and still playing football and having fun,” trotter said. “i think it’d be a cool opportuni-ty and right now i’m not shutting down any poten-tial options. Any time i can get out there and get in front of some people and throw the ball and run, hopefully it will help me get a job in the future.”
trotter is now spending his time in Nashville training and waiting for the NFL Draft. He said if he had not submitted to the draft he would have con-tinued his education at Auburn, adding that his ex-periences under center are something he wouldn’t trade for anything.
Courtesy of todd Van emstBarrett trotter finished his auburn career with 1,248 yards and 11 touchdowns. He is training for the nfL draft, which runs from thursday through saturday,
roBert e. Lee / sports Beat reporterformer quarterback Barrett trotter throws to team-mates before last year’s game against south Carolina.
“… you look back and you wish there were certain things that would have gone a different way. In the end you have to walk away and be happy the way things turned out, and I definitely am.”
—Barrett trotter ForMer QUArterBACk
» See TroTTer, B2
» See ADAMS, B2
» See MegAhee, B2
» See golf, B2
adams sprints into record books
adams
meGaHee
Volunteer mentors Tigers
Coleman McDowellSPortS eDitor
The Auburn women’s golf team returned home from Fayetteville, Ark., and headed straight for toomer’s Corner to celebrate their second consecutive SeC title and third in the last four years.
“it is just amazing,” said coach kim evans. “We have won a few of these, but this one is one of the most im-portant. i could not be happier for the team. they played their hearts out and never quit. on a golf course as tough as this one, that’s what it took to win.”
Last year the tigers won the SeC Championship with a weekend score of even-par at the Auburn Uni-versity Club. Blessings Golf Course in Fayetteville played much tougher. The course gave teams fits each round and played even tougher with heavy winds af-
fecting play each day.“everyone tells you that it is a tough golf course and
you don’t believe it until you get here and play it,” ev-ans said. “With the wind today, it really made it tough. i was so proud of our players for keeping their heads up and taking it one hole at a time; that was so impor-tant today.”
Auburn started the final round with a one-stroke lead over host Arkansas and finished the day holding that same one-stroke margin.
The tigers lost the lead early on the back nine to the razorbacks, but recovered to finish with a total of 52-over for the weekend.
Senior Patricia Sanz made her first career tourna-
Women’s golf celebrates SEC titleCourtesy of todd Van emst
the women’s golf team rolls toomer’s Corner after winning the seC Championship sunday.
TWEET US!@PlainsmanSports
Sports B2 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, April 26, 2012
unteer coach at his alma ma-ter for three years before tak-ing the same position at Mon-mouth University in New Jer-sey in 2009 for one season.
Auburn assistant coach Link Jarrett coached Megahee at Mercer and said he has al-ways showed that he possess-es the skills necessary to be-come a successful coach.
“He was a student of the game … a very hardworking, intelligent player, and those usually turn out to be good coaches,” Jarrett said.
Megahee’s experience as a player has helped him quickly form a close rapport with the Tigers.
“They feel really comfort-able going to talk to Ty,” Jarrett said. “He has a lot of interac-tion with them on study hall, class schedule, what they’re signing up for and how their grades are coming along, so I feel like they can go to him about anything.”
Being the youngest of the coaches doesn’t hurt matters, either.
“I don’t feel like I’m that far removed from playing and be-ing in their shoes,” Megahee said.
Megahee wanted to be a coach at his own high school
program initially, but he said the college opportunity was too good to pass up.
Megahee also helps run the summer Auburn Base-ball Academy camps, allowing him to make a living and help youths trying to fulfill their dreams.
“That’s one of the joys you get out of coaching is seeing guys get better, and that’s what we try to do in our camps,” he said.
Megahee’s dedication to Auburn during his tenure has been admirable, and if he con-tinues, Jarrett said it will earn him a head coaching job one day.
“The more experience and the more knowledge and the more relationships he has, as time goes on that will give him the chance to eventually be-come a head coach, and I see that happening for him,” Jar-rett said.
While Megahee said a head coaching position is definite-ly a goal of his, for now he has a more immediate target in mind.
“I’d like to go to Omaha,” he said. “I was never able to go as a player. I’d like to go as a coach and coach in the Col-lege World Series.
“We came close a couple years ago and hopefully we’re on that track again this year.”
them.”Since joining the team,
Adams has not only shined on the track, but has been a friend to his teammates.
“I’ll call Harry for any-thing—if I need help with homework, if I need some ad-vice,” said sophomore sprint-er Keenan Brock. “I don’t think words can describe
how I would call him a friend.”Brock said since he has
known Adams, he has been goofy, intelligent and a hard-worker dedicated to the sport.
Adams recently ran a 20.10, which is the second-highest time in the world in the 200 meter, Spry said.
This weekend Adams will compete in the 4x100 at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia.
Auburn will get to claim
Adams for one more year un-til he reaches his ultimate goal of graduation.
After college Adams hopes to be successful person in whatever he does, whether it be his job, running or rais-ing his son to be a great young man.
“He’s one of the best sprint-ers in the nation, and I think what you’ve seen of Harry Ad-ams is just the tip of the ice-berg,” Spry said.
ment win count, winning the individu-al title with a tournament score of 3-over par.
Sanz also fought to the 18th hole, as she finished one stroke ahead of Marina Alex of Vanderbilt and two ahead of Emi-ly Tubert of Arkansas.
The senior’s final round 77 was four be-low the final-round average of 81.
“I could not be happier for Patti; she has worked so hard this year and to win this tournament is amazing for her,” Ev-ans said. “After a few holes on the practice round day, I pulled her aside and told her that this course really played to her style and that this was her time. She really took
that to heart and had a great three days.”Sanz finished tied for 14th last year in
the SEC tournament and tied for sixth as a freshman.
“I’m the happiest person in the world,” Sanz said. “This came at the best time. I’m a senior; our team won; I just couldn’t have asked for anything better. To accomplish it is amazing. This is one of the most important tournaments we play all year. I’ve been struggling some this season and the coaches believed me. I kept reminding myself to stay positive, stay in the present and remember that this is a hard course for everyone.”
Auburn’s next tournament will be May 3–5, and the location will be announced Monday when the NCAA regionals are selected.
UPC: UPDATES AND EVENTS
Screen on the GreenWednesday, August 15Greenspace at 8 PM
Follow us @AuburnUPC Like us @AuburnUPC
For Event Information visit www.auburn.edu/UPC OR 334-844-4788
Save the date for these Fall 2012 events:
Block PartyFriday, August 17
Greenspace at 7 PMFree food, entertainment and fun!
Take our spring survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/UPCSpring or find it at
www.auburn.edu/upc
Have ideas and suggestions for the fall? Send them to us at [email protected]!
Committee Applications available online August 1st!
A big thank you to all our runners!
“At the beginning of the sea-son I was definitely really ex-cited for the potential of get-ting to start and all the things I’d been working for,” Trotter said. “There were definitely a lot of ups and downs in the season. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but you look back and you wish there were cer-tain things that would have gone a different way.
“In the end you have to walk away and be happy the way things turned out, and I defi-nitely am.”
TroTTer» From B1
ADAMS» From B1
MegAhee» From B1
golf» From B1
Courtesy of todd Van emstBarrett trotter passes the ball during the arkansas st. game.
Courtesy of todd Van emstCoach Kim evans with seC Individual Champion Patricia sanz sunday.
“He’s one of the best sprinters in the nation. I think what you’ve seen of Harry adams is just the tip of the iceberg.
—Ralph Spry HEAd COACH
Thursday, April 26, 2012 The Auburn Plainsman Sports B3
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Versatile utility player nears graduationEthan BernalWriTEr
For senior utility player Justin Bryant, playing for the Auburn Tigers baseball team was once a childhood fantasy. Now, nearing the end of his Auburn career, Bry-ant is thankful he has achieved his goal.
“i grew up an Auburn fan,” Bry-ant said. “Never for one second did i think i was going to play for Auburn; it just never occurred to me. i’m from a smaller high school, so i wasn’t really recruited by bigger schools. i thought junior college would be my best route.”
After graduating Oneonta High School in 2007, Bryant went to play baseball for itawanba Com-munity College in Mississippi for two years before being recruited to the Tigers during a practice one
afternoon.“The number came up on my
cellphone and it was (recruiting coordinator) Scott Foxhall,” Bry-ant said. “When he said he was from Auburn University, i was al-ready sold.”
Bryant has played a unique role for the Tigers. in his three years on the team, he has played at short-stop, second base, third base, left field, right field and pitcher.
“i’m really not sure how all that got started,” Bryant said. “i guess they had the confidence in me that i could do the job they want-ed me to do. it plays into my ad-vantage that they let me do that because if it gives me the most chances of being on the field.”
Playing the wild card role has its drawbacks, however.
“i like playing everywhere, but
it would be nice to have a place to call home,” Bryant said. “There’s not much physical strain of doing any of it. it’s just about having the confidence and the mindset to be able to do everything.”
Along with the difficulties of swapping positions, Bryant also had to overcome a right elbow in-jury in 2011 that required Tommy John surgery, causing him to miss the season.
“The rehab process was a long, drawn out deal because you have to take baby steps, and i don’t have good patience, so baby steps don’t work for me very well,” Bry-ant said.
After being put back on the ac-tive roster and being reunited with his teammates, Bryant had to see how his restructured elbow would stand up in SEC play.
“it does get tight from time to time, but that comes with having surgery,” Bryant said. “i used to go out and could pick up a baseball and throw it no big deal. Now i take a little bit longer to get loose.”
Bryant is also planning for life after graduation. He is getting married to his high school sweet-heart, Katie Young, in June.
“i’ve thought about doing dif-ferent things, but it’s kind of hard for me to get away from the game that i’ve played every day of my life,” Bryant said.
Bryant hopes to pursue coach-ing after graduation, possibly at-tending graduate school and as-sistant coaching with the Tigers.
“i’m just trying to keep the game in my life and not just totally walk away from it after this year,” Bryant said.
Daniellelowe/assistantPhotoeDitorBryantplayedsixpositionsduringhisauburncareer.
Tigers snap losing streak, take momentum into ColumbiaCallie WardWriTEr
After taking the series against Arkansas at home last weekend, Auburn’s softball team will now travel to South Carolina.
“Our team is hitting bet-ter, we’re pitching great, play-ing great defense and have the momentum going into the South Carolina series,” said se-nior pitcher Jenee Loree.
The women started out 16–0 in the first half of the sea-son, and although they’ve had a few losses and injuries since then, Loree said they still have the confidence they need as a team to finish strong.
“We went through a lot of injuries, tough injuries, and we have to stay together as a team and that’s what we’ve done here on out,” Loree said. “We know we have each and every one of our players’ backs, and we’ll do anything for any one on the team, so we’ve got to stay together.”
Loree said the team is feel-ing good about the series this weekend, and with their talent they should be able to sweep the series and keep the drive going into Mississippi State the following weekend.
Senior shortstop Lauren Guzman said compared to other SEC schools, South Car-olina’s has one of the better away environments.
“They’re a classy organiza-tion and school,” Guzman said.
“it’s different. You have to learn to make yourself want to prove them wrong instead of taking it personal.”
Even though the end of the season is near, Guzman said the team is still focusing on things they’ve been doing wrong in order to finish the season as strong as possible.
“As the season goes on, you know, your body starts to feel it, and you don’t want to over-do yourself in practice,” Guz-man said. “So we’ve started fo-cusing more on what we’re do-ing wrong and what we need to focus on, instead of general-ly like we would in the fall.”
Looking past this weekend,
the team is hoping to win its fi-nal two regular season series, make it through the postsea-son and reach its goal by play-ing in the College World Series, Guzman said.
The end of the regular sea-son not only brings an end to softball and being part of a team for some of the seniors, but, as Guzman describes them, a family.
“Throughout the season we’ve had our ups and downs,” she said. “You have sisters, you fight with your sisters, but at the end you realize you are family and you guys come to-gether. When we come togeth-er it’s a beautiful thing.”
reBeccacroomes/PhotoeDitorsecondbasemanlaurenGuzmanturnsadoubleplayFridaynightinthefirstofathree-gameseriesagainstarkansas.thetigerswonFri-dayandsaturday’sgamesintheseries.
Sports B4 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, April 26, 2012
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Track prepares for final meet before SECsAli JenkinsWriTer
The No. 19 Auburn track and field team will showcase its talents in two different meets this weekend with a se-lect group traveling to Phila-delphia for the 118th Penn re-lays and a larger group com-peting in Troy, Ala., for the Coach O invitational.
“The Penn relay is a pretty elite meet,” said coach ralph Spry. “it’s mainly relays, but there are a couple of events that are open events, like the 100 meter, maybe high jump, things of that nature. Most of our top athletes will go to Penn relays, but there are some that we are trying to keep ready for conference championships, and there aren’t races for them at the Penn relays.
“Those folks that are going
to Troy University are folks that we are probably going to end up taking most of them to the conference champion-ships; we’re just giving them one more shot to stay sharp and try to get a little better and try to progress and peak a lit-tle bit headed into the confer-ence.”
After posting 27 new per-sonal bests at the War eagle invitational last weekend, the Tigers are poised for a strong showing next month at the na-tional championships.
“i am really excited about where we are and what we did last weekend,” Spry said. “Most of our top athletes already have solid marks to get them to the first round of the NCAA Championships, so that’s go-ing to allow us to go to the con-ference championships and
just focus on the competition.”Among the group traveling
to Philadelphia are sprinters Keenan Brock, Marcus row-land, Harry Adams and Mi-chael DeHaven. The quartet will compete in the 4x100 me-ter and 4x200 meter relays.
“What we’re trying to do is just stay focused and do the same thing we did at the Tex-as relays: be of one accord, make sure everyone is healthy and don’t let anything dis-tract you,” rowland said. “it’s a big event. it’s like a festival up there, so we’ve just got to stay focused and not worry about the distractions and we will get the job done.”
Brock echoed rowland, say-ing the size and diversity of the meet are what set the Penn relays apart from all other events.
“it’s just like going to world trials and Olympics—people from all over the country, Ja-maica, everyone coming in to see colleges run and the U.S. run,” Brock said. “it’s a great way to showcase your speed and what’s upcoming.
“We just want to go to Penn and grab a pinwheel and may-be a Penn record.”
Danielle lowe / assistant Photo eDitorsophomore V’alonee robinson participates in the long jump during the war eagle invitational saturday afternoon.
“what we’re trying to do is just stay focused and do the same thing we did at the texas relays.”
—Marcus rowland SeNiOr SPriNTer
Thursday, April 26, 2012 www.theplainsman.com Intrigue
B5Intrigue Trash donations» Page B7
Hayley BlairIntrIgue BeAt reporter
With all the controversy over new parking regulations and pric-ing, the tiger transit is a solution more students are beginning to use.
Clarence Cobbs, a representa-tive from groome transportation, which rents out buses and drivers to the university, said he works with tiger transit officials every day to analyze the number of students who use the transit and arrange the buses to be more efficient.
“rex (Huffman) gathers all the ridership data, and if we see an in-crease in ridership in one particu-lar area we adjust the route,” Cobbs said. “If we see the ridership has shifted, we’ll shift buses to accom-modate that.”
Because of parking concerns, a large population of students have started using the West parking transit bus, Cobbs said.
“We don’t have much parking left on campus anymore,” Cobbs said. “The best place to park is West parking, so a lot of the students are parking in West parking, which is why we increase the buses over there.”
Michael Watson, a driver on the West parking transit bus, said the transit offers a safe, stress-free way to get to classes on time without the added hassle of finding a park-ing space.
“For one thing, they don’t have to worry about paying parking tick-ets,” Watson said. “Second thing is, we can get them to class within about 10 minutes. You don’t have to deal with traffic. You don’t have to deal with parking your car way on the other side of campus and walk-ing over here. Just use the bus.”
Students are also beginning to
Leighton LindstromWrIter
From a young age, fairy tales and Disney royalty encourage children to follow their dreams.
Laurel Schweers, senior in human development and family studies, took them at their word and used a child-hood trip to Disney World to start her career as a photographer.
Schweers said on her first trip at age 6 she used a whole roll of film from the disposable camera her mom gave her on one parade.
“I just have this distinct memory of being at that parade and wanting to take the perfect pictures,” Schweers said.
Schweers is now charging for her photography services and building a business. With experience shooting engagements, family portraits and Christmas card pictures, Schweers is beginning to shoot weddings as well.
paige robinson, senior in public relations and a bride-to-be, said she liked Schweers’ relaxed style and at-tention to detail.
“I just felt really comfortable with her,” robinson said. “She was profes-sional, but she’s really creative and she just encouraged us to do whatev-er we wanted, so it was really natural.”
one photo with an orange, green and brown vintage couch was done particularly well, robinson said, and the couple ended up using it for their save-the-date announcement.
now that Schweers is adding pho-tography sessions to her to-do list, she has had to learn how to balance her schoolwork with photoshoots, editing pictures and blogging about her business at laurelschweerspho-
tography.tumblr.com.Schweers said she does most of
her photoshoots on the weekends because she has to make time to at-tend her classes and study during the week. She said while coordinating
schedules with clients can be diffi-cult, she has discovered a valuable ad-vantage to being a student and pho-tographer simultaneously.
“An advantage is being around so many people in the Auburn commu-nity,” Schweers said. “I’ve been able to get the word out more by putting pic-tures on Facebook or online, and hav-ing other people be able to see them makes it easier to have a lot of peo-ple in the community know about it.”
Laura Howard, Schweers’ room-mate for the past two years, has seen firsthand how Schweers has grown as a photographer during her time at
Kendall WangmanWrIter
three hand-carved bison skulls import-ed from Bali overlook a mahogany bar, while servers in black t-shirts printed with the words “bacon and bourbon” race around a large, dimly lit restaurant. Below a light fix-ture adorned with antlers is a long, commu-nity-style table.
A traditional Southern restaurant scene may be what meets the eye when students vis-it Bloodhound Bar & restaurant, but it is also attempting to revamp Auburn’s music scene and make its customers feel at home.
Bloodhound’s brick walls and concrete floor have housed a wide variety of businesses, beginning with Auburn’s first newspaper, The Auburn Bulletin. The space eventually trans-formed in 1999 into what was Auburn’s only brewery, the olde Auburn Ale House.
Bloodhound’s owner, Matt poirier, bought the historic space after the Ale House went under.
“This is a really old building, so definitely as things progressed we found out some of the equipment was too old and had some struc-tural issues,” poirier said.
Despite some challenges, the rustic and raw interior of the building oozed potential, he said. Bloodhound’s location downtown, tucked away from the hustle and bustle of Col-lege Street, is located next to the municipal parking deck.
“It’s in proximity to toomer’s Corner, but it’s not necessarily on the main strip, so visibility is lower,” poirier said. “But I also like that it’s kind of out of the way.”
poirier said Bloodhound’s location un-doubtedly poses a challenge not being right
on the strip, but it’s not completely unknown.“I think people know that we’re here; they
just have to know that it’s different,” poirier
said. “When people walk by they’re really sur-prised at how much it has changed.”
poirier said the location’s previous owner allowed others to manage it.
“He was an absentee owner, and I really think that was the big problem,” poirier said. “So my wife and I try to be here all the time.”
In comparison to other local restaurants, poirier said Bloodhound is “like nothing else in Auburn.”
“We’re delivering an upscale product, but in a casual environment,” poirier said. “our pre-sentation may not be as fancy as Hamilton’s, but I think our food quality is just as good.”
poirier said he followed his intuition when
envisioning a plan for the restaurant. He pre-viously owned a mortgage business and had worked with the restaurant industry, but was a novice when it came to operating his own.
“I have 12 years of experience in the res-taurant field and it’s always been a passion of mine,” poirier said.
poirier said Bloodhound offers variety to its customers.
“We have a little bit of everything,” he said. “We created a high-quality, one-page menu and have an outdoor patio. It’s a big space, a lot of different rooms with live music happen-
Bacon, bourbon and bands
Rebecca cRoomes / Photo editoRthe entrance to bloodhound bar & Restaurant enhances the southern atmosphere also found inside.
Rebecca cRoomes / Photo editoRLaurel schweers has been taking photographs since she was 6 years old.
Rebecca cRoomes / Photo editoRthe tiger transit operates 19 lines with an average of three buses per route.
Looking through the lens of Laurel
“When people walk by they’re really surprised at how much it has changed.”
—Matt poirier BLooDHounD oWner
Buses gain popularity
» See Bloodhound, B6
» See laurel, B6» See transit, B6
Bloodhound Bar & Restaurant is making an impression on the
downtown scene, bringing high-quality
food and music
“i just have this distinct memory of being at that parade and wanting to take the perfect pictures.”
—Laurel Schweers SenIor, HDFS
Intrigue B6 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, April 26, 2012
use the Opelika Road and East University transit buses after finding parking at the mall or Winn-Dixie, Cobbs said.
“Winn-Dixie is OK with it, and so is the mall,” Cobbs said. “Students are able to park on the outskirts on the parking lot, so they have a place to park and the buses can pick them up there.”
Rex Huffman, who oversees the contract between Auburn and Groome Transportation, has recognized the increase and hopes more students will begin to see the value of the transit system.
“We’re the solution to a lot of your parking concerns,” he said. “We go to all of the park-ing lots. I just wish people would use us more.
“As a student, that’s what I would be interested in—how to make the most of the tran-sit system.”
Watson said he’s had bad experiences with Auburn’s
parking system for years, and he hopes to help students avoid similar situations.
“When my wife was in school here, I don’t know how many parking tickets I had,” Watson said. “They didn’t have the transit when she was in school here.
“All of her classes were in the Haley Center, and there was no access to parking any-where. And if she got a park-ing place, every time she got a parking ticket. It wasn’t that much—only $2—but that adds up.”
Auburn, especially when the line between business and her personal life is crossed.
“Every time we walk any-where she’s 10 feet behind us snapping pictures either of us or buildings,” Howard said. “She always has her camera at-tached to her.”
Schweers said the best part about her photography is hav-ing the ability to make people feel worthy and beautiful.
“I feel like I just get into this zone where everything fades away and nothing else really matters,” she said.
Schweers said she ultimate-ly hopes her photography busi-ness can combine her three greatest passions: her faith, photography and helping oth-ers. She had the opportunity
to do this when she went on a spring break trip to Port St. Joe, Fla., in 2011 to volunteer with First Baptist Church of Ope-lika.
On the last day of the trip, word had spread about Schweers’ photography, and she was able to take and print pictures for locals.
“I think we can sometimes take for granted how much pictures can mean to people,” Schweers said. “There was this one lady that had just had twin babies, so it meant a lot to her to have pictures of her ba-bies.”
Schweers said she hopes to intern in Birmingham this fall before graduation in Decem-ber, and she wants to eventu-ally be able to support herself with her photography alone.
“It’s not just going to be handed to me on a silver plat-ter; a job’s not just going to fall in my lap,” Schweers said. “I re-ally have to work at it and not give up during the obstacles that may come.”
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ing on one side.”The centerpiece of the main
room is the long dining table for community seating.
“That was actually in my parents’ wedding and was built by my dad and uncle,” Po-irier said. “I liked the idea of community seating because it will bring people together, and I want people to feel like family when they’re here.”
Other personal touches in-clude shotgun shells sealed into the the bar and framed family photos along the walls.
“Those are the little things that make a place feel like home,” Poirier said.
Poirier posted sneak peek photos and status updates about the restaurant’s renova-tion and music lineup on Face-book to spark interest and build “a Bloodhound following before it even opened.”
Katy Nichols, junior in psy-chology, was recently hired as a server. As an Auburn native, Nichols has seen her share of Auburn businesses come and go.
“I think Bloodhound is here to stay,” Nichols said. “It’s hon-
estly so hard to tell because we’re just starting out.”
Poirier said Bloodhound’s bar also sets them apart.
“You can go to Mellow Mushroom and they have a great selection of beer, but they don’t have any other alco-hol,” Poirier said. “Or you can go to Hamilton’s or Amster-dam’s and have a full bar, but they might not have a wide se-lection of beers. We have both the beer and liquor drinks.”
Poirier said they want peo-ple to not only come for the food and drinks, but also for the music.
“We just want to get the
word out that we have a live music venue and that it’s sep-arate from the restaurant,” Po-irier said. “It’s not necessarily the same thing.”
Poirier’s vision for the bar includes catering to an old-er college crowd while creat-ing a more sophisticated at-mosphere.
“After 9 p.m. the lights are going to go down lower and the music a little higher,” Poiri-er said. “It will definitely turn into more of a bar scene.”
Bloodhound will offer drink specials.
“I can’t say we’re going to do the 32-ounce, $2 Styrofoam cup, ‘get wasted’ thing,” Poiri-er said.
Nichols said Poirier does hope to cater to an older, “business-like” crowd, but Bloodhound’s live shows will inevitably draw a younger fol-lowing.
“We’ll have a lot of the same bands that used to play at the Independent before it shut down,” Nichols said.
Bloodhound hopes to offer something for everyone.
“You may not like every-thing here, but there’s some-thing you will love,” Poirier said.
Bloodhound» From B5
transit» From B5
laurel» From B5 ““I just felt really
comfortable with her. She was professional, but she’s really creative and she just encouraged us to do whatever we wanted, so it was really natural.”
—Paige Robinson SENIOR, PUBlIC RElATIONS
“We go to all of the parking lots. I just wish people would use us more. As a student, that’s what I would be interested in.”
—Rex Huffman CONTRACT OvERSEER
Traffic
Know Style
Emma Fox
“My favorite part of my outfit is
the colors! I like that fact that it is comfortable and it (puts) me in the springtime mood.”
Rae’Mia Escott
junior, English and com-
munication
Banana French Toast
Kerry’s recipe of the week
Ingredients:1 egg1/2 banana1/4 cup milk1/2 tspn vanilla 1/2 tspn cinnamon2 slices whole wheat bread
Directions: Preheat a pan over medium heat. In a blender, combine the egg, banana, vanilla ex-tract and cinnamon. Blend un-til mixture is smooth. Soak the bread in the mixture and trans-fer to hot pan. Cook for 2–3 minutes per side. Top with re-maining banana, maple syrup or nut butter.
Serves: 1
Contributed by Kerry Fannon
““I liked the idea of community seating because it will bring people together, and I want people to feel like family when they’re here.”
—Matt Poirier BlOODHOUND OWNER
Thursday, April 26, 2012 The Auburn Plainsman Intrigue B7
Susan Ann CookWriTer
With the end of spring se-mester comes the abundance of vehicles waiting to haul stu-dents’ belongings from cam-pus, as well as the closely mon-itored trash containers over-flowing with items students deem unusable.
Auburn University Pub-lic Safety has placed cameras by each of the trash contain-ers not to keep students from “dumpster diving,” but to pre-vent possible health risks.
“it can be hazardous,” said Amy Mosley, administrative assistant of student housing. “Say there’s a resident with di-abetes that has hypothermic needles. if you’re dumpster diving, you may accidentally step on it. We wish we could go though each of the bins and get all the good materials out, but it would be dangerous.”
According to Auburn Uni-versity recycling Coordinator Leigh Jacobson, Auburn re-moved 5,098 tons of nonrecy-clable materials from campus from October 2010 to Septem-ber 2011. A high percentage of this waste is from on-campus residents.
Sarah Smith, resident as-sistant for Oak Hall and se-nior in rehabilitation servic-es, said she experienced more waste problems from a fresh-man dorm than she has with the mostly sophomores and juniors who live in Oak Hall.
“We don’t have any commu-nity trash cans in the building to eliminate any excess trash, but dumpsters are located throughout all the Quad, Hill and Village, so it is conve-nient for residents to drop off their trash on the way to class,” Smith said. “At the end of every year, residence Life encourag-es residents to leave any item that is in good shape down-stairs in their lobbies.”
For the last 20 years the Uni-versity has been working to re-
duce waste from its on-cam-pus residents. Mosely said the housing and residence life de-partment sets up tents each year to divert as much trash as possible to local charities.
“We host a ‘Check-Out for Charity’ where we set out tents for Salvation Army where resi-dents can drop off household items like furniture or cloth-ing,” Mosley said.
Mosley said the tents are placed close to the large roll-ing trash bins outside the dorms to both capture atten-tion and make it easier for stu-dents to drop off their items.
“We try to prevent them from throwing away really good items,” she said. “We put the tents as near to the large roll-offs as we can so they will
say, ‘Oh, i’ll donate as much as i can instead of throwing out things that can be reused.’”
residents are encouraged to donate food, furniture, clothes and cleaning supplies.
“it’s a good way to pass along the good items to people who are in need and also helps the residents with having to move less stuff,” Smith said.
The Auburn Waste reduc-tion and recycling Depart-ment handles solid waste and recycling containers for all res-idential dorms.
"Larger containers are pro-vided to accommodate the volume of waste during move out, but it is up to the residents to do their part and dispose of materials appropriately by ei-ther donating usable goods, recycling paper, cardboard, bottles and cans or by throw-ing away nonrecyclable goods in the large trash bins provid-ed at each site," Jacobson said.
Last year Auburn recycled 2,314 tons of material, which was an improvement from the year before, when the Univer-sity disposed of a third more trash by not recycling.
Mosley said she hopes recy-cling efforts will continue to improve during future years through programs like ‘Check-Out for Charity.’
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everything is new after graduation. New jobs come with new homes with new roommates in new towns, but Meredith MacLean, senior in supply chain management, said she’s not finished with the Auburn experience.
“Auburn is good about pro-viding an experience instead of just an education or a group of friends that you have to main-tain on your own,” MacLean said. “Auburn really stress-es the Auburn family and the Auburn experience, and while that’s pertinent to students, it’s also pertinent to alumni.”
Betsy robertson, communi-
cations manager of alumni af-fairs, said the Auburn Alumni Association is a perfect avenue for alumni to stay connected.
“Particularly with new grad-uates, we love to encourage them to find an Auburn club in the area where they find their job,” she said.
robertson said Auburn clubs are stationed through-out Alabama, and plenty more are located outside the state.
“We actually have a total of 98 Auburn clubs around the country,” she said, “so almost anywhere you go in major cit-ies there is going to be a group of alumni there that our new graduates can meet, network with and have an instant set of
friends.”MacLean said she hopes to
visit Auburn regularly, espe-cially on fall Saturdays.
“if for no other reason but to see my friends and partici-pate in Auburn festivities, i will come back for game days,” Ma-clean said. “Ticket or not, be-ing in Auburn on game day Saturday is something i will continue to do forever.”
Jason Herbert, senior in ac-counting, said he will contin-ue to make the trek back to his “second home.”
“i will definitely come back for football games for the ma-jority of my life,” he said. “i don’t know how many a year, but i hope one day to have sea-
son tickets.”robertson said the AAA
provides a hospitality tent for every home football game.
“it’s a place where alumni can come,” she said. “if they’re members, they get in free and can pay a nominal fee for guests. Anytime a young alum-nus is coming back for a home football game, coming to the hospitality tent is a great way to have a built-in tailgate party without all the hassle.”
There is a $50 fee to become an annual member of the AAA, and it is $850 for a lifetime membership.
“They can start out by being an annual member and renew-ing every year if they can’t af-
ford a life membership,” rob-ertson said. “if somebody is interested in a life member-ship, we’ve got an installment plan for folks who can pay over time.”
The membership fees and other funds raised by the asso-ciation are used to better the University, robertson said.
“We raise money for schol-arships here,” she said. “We ac-tually just started a program called Alumni Walk, which is set to break ground this sum-mer. With that, alumni and friends of the University can buy one of several types of pav-ers, whether they’re bricks or stone or granite slabs, and have their name inscribed on
them and their graduation year. The proceeds of that pro-gram go to scholarships.”
Herbert, who will start at the Jones School of Law at Faulkner University in August, said he plans on giving back through scholarship opportu-nities like the Alumni Walk.
“As a student, i have a lot in-vested in Auburn, and i want to keep it that way,” Herbert said. “Just because you go here four years, your time with Au-burn isn’t over after that. Obvi-ously, you can still come back for football games, but Au-burn, at least for me, was a great place, and i also believe i have an obligation to give back.”
Rebecca cRoomes / Photo editoR
“We wish we could go though each of the bins and get all the good materials out, but it would be dangerous.”
—Amy Mosley ADMiNiSTrATiVe ASSiSTANT
OF STUDeNT HOUSiNG
Intrigue B8 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, April 26, 2012
