Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012

What we asked you Monday on asuherald.com:

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Vol. 90 Issue 35

Informing Arkansas State University since 1921the herald

asuherald.com

What do you think of the recent college memebase craze?

Burning for beauty

Lindsey BlakelyNews Editor

SGA President Hunter Petrus has proposed a new program at ASU where students can rent bicycles from the Red Wolf Center.

At their meeting on Tuesday, the resolution was brought up and passed with no negative comments towards the idea.

During a five-minute discussion, Petrus talked about what the program entailed and what stu-dents can expect when go-ing through the program.

“We’re looking to buy 10 bikes that will be kept at the Red Wolf Center,” Petrus said. “From there, students can use their stu-dent I.D. to rent the bike for a day.”

Issues such as financing, maintenance and storage were brought up by other senators during the debate and it was extended for two more minutes.

“The bikes that we want to buy are $329 and we want 10,” Petrus said. “We’ve also factored in maintenance and upkeep

See SGA, page 5

I think it's great 82%

What is a memebase? 18%

Hear something funny or interesting on cam-pus? Tweet it to @OverheardAtASU and you could see it printed in The Herald!

Of interest online

Mardi Gras photo spread Red Wolves take down Murray State

CrossFit crazeattracts students

Ashley HelliwellStaff Writer

From the popular and highly praised programs such as P90X and Insani-ty, the newest fitness craze is CrossFit.

“CrossFit is a communi-ty, working out together as a social phenomenon, in-stead of the lone wolf work out, with headphones run-ning on a treadmill,” said Bryan Kieffer, a CrossFit trainer at CrossFit Natu-ral State.

Originally geared and performed by law enforce-ment agents and military personnel, CrossFit has grown from 13 affiliate gyms to more than 3,000 gyms worldwide.

The intent of CrossFit is to ultimately change the culture of fitness.

“People have stuck to the same routine of back,

biceps, chests, triceps and running three to five miles a day, and having the idea that it is fitness,” Kieffer said.

CrossFit focuses on 10 general physical skills: cardiovascular/respira-tory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, co-ordination and accuracy.

Although running three to five miles a day is better than sitting on the couch, the goal is to introduce functional movements over time that changes the body, but also the attitude toward fitness.

“CrossFit focuses more on changing lives, we want to emphasize the importance of a healthier lifestyle, not just the im-portance of exercise,” said CrossFit trainer Luke Mc-Cartney.

See CROSSFIT, page 5

Alexandria Forte, a senior criminology and so-ciology major of Conway, just started working out regularly at the Red WOLF Center. She visits the center every other day to run and cycle.

Clint Roberts, a freshman criminology major of Jonesboro, stays in shape by visiting the Red WOLF Center five days a week.

"I try to do something different everyday," said Jeremy Taggart, freshman criminology major of Jonesboro. He works out in the Red WOLF Center at least five days a week.

Lennon Smith, a freshman of Caruthersville, Mo., does ab workouts in the Red WOLF Center. He does this particular workout every Tuesday and Thursday, but visits the center five days a week.

How do you stay in shape? Ashley Helliwell/Herald

Erin Roussell does a 300 meter run with a 60 pound sandbag on her back during a CrossFit workout.

Beth Bright/Herald

SGA passes resolutionto allow bike rental

RALLYING THE TROOPSCoaches encourage attendance at panel discussion

Lindsey BlakelyNews Editor

Three coaches and Dean Lee, the athletic director, met with students on Mon-day in a panel discussion of the sports at ASU.

Women’s basketball coach Brian Boyer, men’s basketball coach John Bra-dy and head football coach Gus Malzahn appeared for a crowd of about 50 stu-dents and were questioned about their respective teams.

“We’re always thrilled to have student involvement,” Lee said about students at games. “Just having you there is highly contagious. It makes it truly, truly spe-cial to have your involve-ment at the games.”

Boyer, who is in his 17th year at ASU and 13th as head coach, said he really appreciates the attendance levels the women’s basket-ball team gets.

“There are 340 divi-sion 1 women’s basketball teams,” Boyer said. “The lowest we’ve been ranked in attendance is 75th.”

While Boyer said they have great attendance lev-els, he said he wants more students to show up.

“Currently our main audience is higher than 85 or lower than 8,” Boyer said. “We want to contin-ue to build with your age group.”

Coach Brady said suc-cessful athletic teams need

a large fan base.“I’ve never seen an ath-

letic program that was successful, and not have the support of its student body,” Brady said. “We want to create an environ-ment that with the stu-dents intimidating the op-posing team. You can do it here.”

Brady stated that with 14,000 students at ASU, it’s not impossible to get 1,000 to attend a game.

At the event, sponsored by SGA, they handed out free visors to the students in attendance.

Gus Malzahn started off by laughing and saying he liked everyone’s visors.

“I have high expecta-tions,” Malzahn said. “I

want us to be a Top 25 school, that’s my goal. But, it takes everybody.”

Malzahn also talked about what the football team is looking like under his new direction.

“We have a unique group,” Malzahn said. “Our offense is at a fast tempo. We have a staff of young and old. I love being a part of something and building it up. I’m just excited to be here now.”

Students were able to ask questions of the coach-es and sophomore Zach Brogden, a journalism ma-jor of Marion, started off by saying he was disappointed in the turnout of student attendance at basketball games.

“There aren’t enough incentives for students,” Brogden said. “We need a student section. I want to be able to say ‘you suck’ at a game.”

John Brady responded by saying he also wants better student attendance and is willing to do what it takes to get it there.

“The university has in-vested a lot of money into athletics,” Brady said. “We want students to make football and basketball an important part of social life here. We’ve got to do a bet-ter job of connecting.”

Brady also said he’s will-ing to meet with groups and invite them to the games himself.

Boyer interjected by say-ing that he doesn’t expect every student to make it to a game, but that many stu-dents don’t even know who the players are.

Gus Malzahn agreed with the other two coaches and said all of the programs work together.

“We made a huge state-ment at the GoDaddy.com Bowl, we had a great en-vironment,” Lee said. “We need to do that more often. We need to sell tickets and travel and pack the stadi-ums. Football is at an all time high.”

Lee finished up by an-nouncing that the new football schedule will be up by March 1 and there will be a spring football game on April 14 at 1 p.m.

Andrea Cox/HeraldSGA president Hunter Petrus addresses the senators on Tuesday.

Lindsey Blakely/Herald

Head men's basketball coach John Brady and head football coach Gus Malzahn, along with athletic director Dean Lee and head women's basketball coach Brian Boyer, spoke to a room full of students on the direction of ASU athletics and how their attendance at sporting events can make all the difference.

I'm not a fan 0%

The Herald is a public forum. Its content is written by students, for students, faculty and staff of Arkansas State University. Student editors of The Herald have the authority to make all content decisions without censorship or advance approval.OPINION

The Herald is located in Room 224 of the Communications Building.

The Herald is published twice weekly during the fall and spring semesters and is distributed around the Jonesboro campus. Its content is normally written by students. “Our View” represents the opinions of the editorial staff. Columns, letters to the editor, cartoons and other content on the opinion page are the views of the author. Content does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Herald.

Editorial Number Advertising Number(870) 972-3076 (870) 972-2961 asuherald.com

— Our View —

Work during collegeCollege is one of the busiest, most stressful

times of a person’s life. Aside from classes and assignments, the cost of attending college can take its tole on the average student.

As the cost of college tuition continues to rise each year (including here at ASU), students are finding it necessary to work to help ease the financial strain.

According to a survey done by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, 49 percent of college freshmen work to pay for college.

While some would say there is far too much stress in balancing school and work at the same time, there are actually many benefits to having a job while in college.

According to a study done by Boston University in 2009, students who work in college tend to have higher GPAs. This is mainly because those who work are forced to better manage their time and organize their work load, which nearly always leads to better grades.

But working also teaches us how to deal effectively with other people. Interacting with people at school and people at work are two very different things, but learning how to communicate with both gives us skills we will use for the rest of our lives.

Of course, working in college may be harder for some people, and it may not always work around our school schedules. But having a job during college, despite the drawbacks, often brings a great return on investment.

Students who take jobs relating to their fields gain much-needed job experience and can use this to build their resumes for after college.

In this economy, it’s important that each of us do whatever necessary to make ourselves stand out to future employers.

“Our View” is written by the editorial staff. The opinions are not necessarily reflective of the student body, faculty or administration of Arkansas State University.

PAGE 2 Thursday, Feb. 23 The Herald

- Sara Krimm, editorsara.krimm@smail.astate.edu- Lindsey Blakely, news editorindsey.blakely@gmail.com- Jeff Davidson, opinion editorjeffrey.davidson@smail.astate.edu

- Abdullah Raslan, photo editorabdullah.raslan@smail.astate.edu- Haley Johnson, features editorhaley.johnson@smail.astate.edu- Daniel McFadin, sports editordaniel.mcfadin@smail.astate.edu

- Rachel Carner, online editorrachel.carner@smail.astate.edu- Rachel Meredith, ad managerrachel.meredith@smail.astate.edu Bonnie Thrasher, adviserbthrasher@astate.edu

Interracial dating: skin or soul?

Last week CNN report-ed that interracial mar-riage is now more accepted in society. As a black wom-an, I often wonder why we do the things we do.

So I got to thinking after reading this article about the reason more black women are dating white men or some other race.

For years it seems, black men have been dating white women and women of other ethnicities, but it is far less common to see a black woman dating a white man or anyone out-side her race.

So why is the black woman venturing outside her race at all? I think it has something to do with what’s available and the environment we’re in to-day.

With more black wom-en in college compared to black men and more white men in college compared to black men, I think the

black woman is simply looking for her intellectual equal.

If you’re a college-aged woman looking to date, and men from your own racial background are not available, wouldn’t it make sense to start looking out-side your race for potential suitors? After all, a man is still a man no matter what color he is.

Being on the same in-tellectual level also means there is potential for them to be within the same or higher financial status level, which if you con-sider some statistics (and certain stereotypes), white men still outnumber black men in terms of education and income.

The College Board re-leased a report last year that said 28 percent of African-American men ages 25 to 34 had obtained an associate’s degree or higher as of 2008, while the comparable figure for white men was 44 percent and for Asian men, 70 per-cent.

We as people are usu-ally attracted to others

who have similar interests and ambitions, so it seems only logical that the races would begin to mix at some point.

This acceptance of and comfort with interracial dating is also a result of people realizing we really aren’t that different. We’re living in a different world than our grandparents lived in.

They wouldn’t have dreamed of stepping out with someone of a differ-ent race even if they want-ed to, so why shouldn’t we be bolder and love who we want to in 2012.

When I read this arti-cle, I thought about one of my favorite movies about this subject—“Something New”.

In the movie, Sanaa La-than’s character Kenya, a black woman, and Simon Baker’s character Brian, a white man, fall for each other, but because she has this idea of her “ideal black man,” she is hesitant to commit.

When her “ideal black man” does come along, Ke-nya discovers they have

nothing in common and he is not what she wants. She realizes she is in love with Brian, and of course they get married in the end.

This is a prime example that despite what society says or what your friends and family say, the heart wants what the heart wants, and we have to be bold enough to live by what we want.

I’m not surprised inter-racial marriage is more ac-cepted, but I am surprised it took so long and that it’s such a big deal.

Whether you’re black, white, Hispanic, Asian or Indian, it really doesn’t matter; skin is skin. All it’s really doing is holding all our insides in; it doesn’t make us who we are.

I’ve dated outside my race, and I can honestly say that dating a white guy is no different from dating a black one. It’s the soul of a person that I’m interested in and what matters most, not what they look like on the outside.

Hearton is a senior jour-nalism major of Augusta.

“This comfort with interracial dating is also a result of people realizing we really aren’t that different.”

Raven Hearton

ASU brings back fond memories

with Professor Cherisse Jones-Branch

Why do you think it’s important that we celebrate Black History Month?

I think it’s probably one of the only times that teaches on the history and accomplish-ments of African Americans. But I have mixed feelings on this. Black history is really a part of American history, so why focus mainly on this one group?

It certainly informs and draws in people who normally don’t pay attention to it. But I think teaching black history should be a year-round endeavor, not something we designate to one month.

In your opinion, how far have blacks come with regards to civil rights?

A mighty long way, and a mighty long way still to go. Now I certainly don’t have the same struggles my parents and grandparents had, but it’s not to say there aren’t struggles at all. It’s an ongoing struggle, and there are still more obstacles to overcome. Civil Rights is an ongoing movement and will be for some time.

What specific areas are there still struggles, and how much progress does society still need to go with civil rights?

There definitely need to be gains in educational access, but also in the way African Americans are perceived. By and large, blacks are looked upon negatively by many Ameri-cans.

Certainly, there needs to be progress with gays and lesbians, women, Latinos—work is not done for any of these groups. So we definitely can’t become complacent. As a nation, we’re just not there yet. But every step forward, big or small, is progress. We’re moving in the right direction so I’m optimistic.

About Cherisse Jones-Branch:

Associate professor of history

Ph.D. Ohio State University

Teaching specialties include United States history, African American history and Women’s history.

Received Dean’s Research Award and Faculty Research Award from Arkansas State University, and Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award from Strong-Turner Alumni Association

While browsing around YouTube the other night, I managed to find a lot of old television commercials from my childhood (the 1970s and 1980s). It is a nostalgic journey into my own life’s history with a sound track to boot.

Seeing advertisements for McDonald’s and Burger King brought back many memories of birthday par-ties, Saturday afternoons and being with friends.

Though most of you will not remember, the BK catchphrase “Have It Your Way” defined an era for millions of kids back in the days of vinyl records, eight-track tapes and roller skating under disco lights.

I have a clear memory of the day I saw BK’s Car-away Road location under construction. It was 1973 or so and the idea of two burger joints in Jonesboro seemed almost surreal. I can also picture the old Wal-Mart store where Kroger now stands.

This was a time when virtually nothing existed past the U.S. 63 bypass (I-555) south on Stadium Boulevard other than a gas station and one or two other businesses. The road was two-lane, by the way.

Speaking of points south of the bypass, I learned

how to drive on the gravel surface extending from the Jonesboro Bowling Center all the way to my house. We call it Caraway Road and that’s what it was then.

Sometimes, I drive the same route and mentally note the rows of houses, small businesses, schools, etc. It’s certainly proof of how much my hometown has progressed.

ASU is almost unrecog-nizable compared to what I remember of it from the time my aunt lived in Ar-kansas Hall back in the mid-70s. Caraway extend-ed all the way through campus and intersected with Aggie Road, which also served as a major thoroughfare.

Once in a great while, I drive along Aggie and can still see the venerable Twin Towers and Delta Hall hovering on the land-scape (the Red Wolf Cen-ter occupies much of that space now).

I also see the south side of the College of Busi-ness building and recall the many times I cheered for ASU at the old Indian Fieldhouse. It was a cozy place to be on game nights, but you had to be careful when rain was falling out-side because it just might land on your head (there were known and not-so-well-known leaks).

The aroma of popcorn and hamburgers filled the air, not to mention

the spirit of fans raising their voices higher and higher while the pep band cranked out tunes like “Jesus Christ Super Star” or “Soul Man.” Sparky the Chicken roamed the crowd, usually looking for unsuspecting kids to grab and embarrass in front of everyone. Ah, memories.

Another piece of my own history at this university was molded when then-Memphis State brought its men’s basketball pow-erhouse to christen the Convocation Center in early December 1987.

I stood on the front row of the student section and screamed for two hours, along with nearly 11,000 other fans (the Tigers had about 2,000 of their own in the building). It was a goose-bump kind of night, even though we lost by a point or two.

One thing I can point to as linking the past and present together is spend-ing much of my campus time in Wilson Hall. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I look forward to step-ping into a new building where political science, history and other students will only know Wilson as a relic of a different time.

For now, it’s back to YouTube and more com-mercials.

Childress is a graduate student in political science of Jonesboro.

CHALK TALK“It is a nostalgic journey into my own life’s history with a sound track

to boot.”

Anthony Childress

Raven HeartonStaff Writer

Tanning for some people has become a necessity when it comes to looking good. The sun, tanning beds, tanning lotions and oils are giving people everywhere that perfect sun-kissed glow.

According to howstuffworks.com, before having a tan became the norm, people with tanned skin were consid-ered low class because having a tan meant they spent a lot of time outside working in the fields or building things.

Well-to-do young ladies would stay indoors and pro-tect themselves with hats, umbrellas, gloves and long sleeves.

Suntan.com said in ancient Rome and Greece, women used make-up containing lead poisoning to make them-selves look lighter. Unfortunately, this led to many deaths.

Early in the 10th century, arsenic was used to whiten a woman’s skin and later during Queen Elizabeth’s era, women used heavy white powder to brighten their faces. They would then apply a very thin blue line on their fore-heads to give a translucent appearance.

But times have changed and women and men are clam-oring to get to the tanning bed to avoid looking “pasty.”

“I tan to keep a good color throughout the year,” said Stephanie Buhler, a freshman physical therapy major of Paragould. “I don’t want to look like a ghost all the time. I feel better when I have a little color.”

Chelsea Fife, a mental health counseling grad student of Paragould said she tans to avoid being pale and to clear up her skin.

“Sometimes I feel less attractive whenever I have a pale face. When I have a breakout, I’ll just go to the tan-ning bed and it helps dry the pimples right up. It sounds weird, but it works,” Fife said.

The believed origin of the tan goes all the way back to 1923, when French fashion designer, Coco Chanel, took a trip to the French Riviera and returned with a sun-kissed glow. A trend and an industry were officially born.

Suddenly, it was everyone’s ambition to have that golden flush of color and being pale made you “dull as dishwater.”

More and more people began to flock to beaches to lay out and many people suffered severe sunburns. A sun-tan became a symbol of having money and extra vacation time.

In achieving that “little color,” dermatologists and physicians noticed a growing number of people with skin cancer.

It also became known that prolonged exposure to the sun would cause aging and dry skin. To prevent this problem, sunscreens like Coppertone began to pop up ev-erywhere.

In 1953, headlines about sunscreen said “Don’t Be a Pale Face” and “Tan Don’t Burn.”

Despite the warnings, a new way to achieve a tan was developed in the early 1970s by German scientist Friedrich Wolff.

Wolff was using artificially produced indoor tanning UV light to study athletes and how they might benefit

from more exposure to sunlight. During his studies, he noticed a side effect on the ath-

letes—“the golden glow of a healthy tan.”Given the popularity of the tan at that time, Wolff used

his scientific knowledge to create the first indoor tanning beds, but even this new invention didn’t come without risks.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said tanning lamps may be more dangerous than the natural sun be-cause people can use them at the same intensity year-round, exposing their whole bodies at once.

“I do think about the consequences of tanning so much,” Buhler said. “It’s scary to think that lying in a tanning bed for like six minutes could cause cancer. It has caused me to reduce the amount of time I spend tanning.”

“I think about it sometimes,” Fife said. “I have these spots on me that are kind of like moles and I wonder if it’s from tanning too much. I once had a large spot on my chest that I was worried about and I had it checked. Luckily it wasn’t cancerous.”

In addition to the potential health risks, tanning is also very costly when it comes to paying for it.

Both Buhler and Fife said they can pay up to $200 in a year on tanning all in the name of beauty.

“I think it’s strictly an appearance thing, and beauty comes at a high price. People want to look good and hav-ing a tan is associated with looking good and being pale is

associated with looking not so good,” Fife said.With beauty being such a high priority for women and

some men, it’s no wonder that they would resort to using a tanning bed to look better.

Buhler said she started tanning for pageants and prom because her skin looked prettier against her dress when she had more color.

Fife was also involved in pageants and said tanning was a huge part of it.

“When I was doing pageants, I would tan every day,” she said. “Judges would count off if you weren’t tan enough. They would never say that was the reason, but you just knew that’s why they did it.”

As revolutions in tanning continue to emerge, sunless tanning has become very popular.

Today there are several brands that have tanning lo-tions that when used over a period of time would give all the glow and not the burn.

Spray tanning has also become very popular. Accord-ing to recent statistics, spray tanning represented about 11 percent of the tanning industry’s revenue last year and is projected to grow to 17 percent by the end of this year.

“Everyone who is famous you see in the media is tan, and that’s the look people are going for,” Fife said. “Thinking a tan is going to make you look better is more of a mind thing than the truth.”

PAGE 3 Thursday, Feb. 23 The Herald

Campus Corner

Academy Awards Air SundayKari Henderson

Staff Writer

With the Adele sweeping all her victories at the Grammys, the question now is who will walk away the most at the Os-cars? “The Help” and “Moneyball” have quite a buzz about tak-ing several awards, number one being best picture.

With themes of racial inequalities and spouse abuse as un-derlying themes, “The Help,” based on Kathryn Stocketts best selling novel, displayed scenes of all sorts of emotions allowing viewers to stay on the edge of their seats. Performances from stars such as the recent phenomenon Emma Stone and strong actress Viola Davis added to the intensity behind the serious story line.

The wonderful collabo-ration of well known Brad Pitt mixed with comedy celebrity Jonah Hill make “Moneyball” a movie worth seeing.

The film takes Ameri-ca’s favorite pasttime to a new level as the main focus is on the statistics behind drafting players.

The big screen is used to seeing Pitt in all types of charac-ters, and it was no surprise how natural he seemed in the role of Billy Beane, former baseball star and now a team manager. But the biggest shock might have been Hill playing a serious role.

Most of Hill’s movies revolved around comedies like “Super-bad” and “Get Him to the Greek” but this time Hill takes on the serious role as Peter Brand, a mathematical genius who develops an equation to draft the perfect baseball team medio-cre players.

Meryl Streep hopes to earn her second Grammy for best ac-tress in a leading role for “The Iron Lady” and third Grammy total. This role for Streep is much like all her infamous roles-

powerful. She portrays the first and only female British Prime Minister Maraget Thatcher and her triumph to overcome struggles as a woman in such a position.

Many critics argue though that Streep proved herself to be a far better actress than the script allowed, saying the film re-mained dull and left viewers who knew much about Thatcher quite confused.

Glenn Close has a good chance of stealing the award with her performance in “Albert Nobbs” where her character pretends to be a man so she may work in a prestige hotel but meets a man and tries to untangle the web of lies her life has become.

Close’s make-up for her character Albert is also spectacular. Make-up artist Matthew W. Mungle is nominated for his fan-tastic transformation.

George Clooney might just sneak behind Brad Pitt for his role in “The Descen-dants” for best actor in a leading role. Clooney plays a recently widowed father of two daughters who tries to use love and a sliver of comedy to heal his broken

family.Other nominations for Best Picture include “The Artist,” “The

Descendants,” “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” “Hugo,” “Midnight in Paris,” “The Tree of Life” and “Warhorse.”

Along with Clooney and Pitt in the race for actor in a leading role, Demian Bichir, Jean Dujardin and Gary Oldman are also up for the award, while Streep and Close have competition with Viola Davis, Rooney Mara and Michelle Williams.

All in all the films are worthy for the nominations, but only few will win.

Who will take home the most golden men? Who will add to their pre-existing collection?

The show airs Feb. 26 at 7 pm. Tune in and find out just who wins big.

“All in all the films are worthy for the nominations, but only few will win. Who will take home the most golden men?”

Burning for beauty

Photo credit: oscars.com

Photo credit: myfactoryrep.com

SPORTSPAGE 4 Thursday, Feb. 23 The Herald

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Can you hear it? It’s the roar of some of the most technologically ad-vanced racing engines in the world barreling down the track at a speed near-ing 200 mph.

Yes, everyone, it is NASCAR season, and the first official event for the Sprint Cup, the Daytona 500, will take the green flag at the Daytona In-ternational Speedway this Sunday at 12 p.m.

Some might laugh at NASCAR, or the Nation-al Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, claim-ing it is not a legitimate sport. We’ve heard it all before.

NASCAR fans are nothing but a bunch of hayseed Southern hicks who sit around drinking beer while watching cars go around in circles.

Many fans, drivers, and yes, even some of the TV commentators have those strong accents that make some want to make fun of the league.

But to the astonish-ment of many, NASCAR remains the second most popular sport in the na-tion, only behind profes-sional football.

Racing against 42 oth-er cars at 200 mph takes much practice, skill, teamwork and physical strength.

Drivers may even lose somewhere between 5-15 pounds of body weight in a single event, due most-ly to the heat and sweat they produce.

Interestingly, NA-SCAR is one of the few sports that have actu-ally brought significant changes to the way we live.

Whether you realize it or not, the stock cars you see barreling around the track at incredible speeds have a tremen-dous amount of science and technology behind them.

The incentive to drive faster, safer and more efficiently has led to an abundance of research and data which engi-neers have begun to use in our own cars.

According to an article on livescience.com, titled “NASCAR Technology makes Passenger Cars Safer,” one of the most important innovations to originate from NASCAR (and other racing series) technology is the use of lightweight body mate-rials. Newer and better materials are extreme-ly important for today’s cars, for they produce lighter vehicles, which translates to better gas mileage. However, good MPG’s aren’t the most important thing.

These new lightweight materials are now be-

ing constructed in a way to remove the impact of a crash away from the cockpit. Carmakers used to construct cars to ab-sorb the energy while minimizing the damage, but thanks to NASCAR, carmakers are now fo-cusing on constructing parts that absorb the en-ergy by flying away from the car.

You might have seen the results of this tech-nology. Wrecks today in-volving newer cars tend to be far more dramat-ic, with pieces of the car flying off in the event of a major collision. While it leaves a bigger mess to clean up, by and large the passengers stay much safer.

Another important piece of technology is the introduction of a special material called Impaxx, an advanced type of door cushioning. Thanks to NASCAR’s own use of this material in their ve-hicles, race car drivers have been protected from serious injury, and car-makers have seen its val-ue.

According to live-science.com, nearly 2 million cars now have this same material, pro-tecting passengers in the event of a T-bone colli-sion.

One more very impor-tant safety feature adopt-ed from NASCAR is the SAFER barrier, a spe-cial type of barrier con-structed with steel and foam that has the abili-ty to absorb much of the energy from a collision. State highway depart-ments from across the country have begun us-ing this same material in barriers across inter-state highways, greatly protecting motorists.

Car streamlining, key-less ignition, onboard computer systems, and nitrogen-filled tires are just a few of the things NASCAR helped to de-velop and which define our cars today. To some extent, disc brakes and other standard automo-bile equipment had its roots in racing technolo-gy as well.

So while it might be easy for some to disre-gard NASCAR, there is no question that this sport has brought more improvements to the way we live than any other sport. The extreme con-ditions race cars under-go give researchers great testing grounds for im-proving our own vehicles, making us safer as we go out on the road. Maybe it’s just something to con-sider as the new Sprint Cup season makes its re-turn to Sunday program-ming.

What the howl?NASCAR and our Safety

Jeff DavidsonOpinions Editor

Daniel McFadinSports Editor

The winds of change are finally making their way to the Sun Belt Conference.

After a year where the NCAA saw schools like Texas A&M, West Virgin-ia and Missouri change their conference affilia-tions, the Sun Belt Confer-ence remained relatively unchanged until now.

On Feb. 16, the Sun Belt announced it had appoint-ed current Western At-lantic Conference (WAC) commissioner, Karl Ben-son, to the same position, a job held for 13 years by Wright Waters.

“We are grateful to Com-missioner Wright Waters for his outstanding leader-ship over the past twelve years and we are delight-ed to announce the ap-pointment of Karl Benson as our new commission-er,” said Sun Belt Confer-ence and Troy University President Dr. Jack Hawk-ins, Jr. in a Feb. 16 tele-conference.

“In choosing Commis-sioner Benson as our new commissioner, we have hired a leader who has a clear vision for the future direction of our league. I am convinced our best days lie ahead of us,” Hawkins continued.

Benson, who will be-gin his duties as the Sun Belt’s Commissioner on April 1st, will be just the fifth person to hold the po-sition in the leagues 36 year existence.

During the teleconfer-ence, the focus of many questions asked of Benson concerned whether there were any imminent plans

for the conference to ex-pand.

Benson commented that the conference’s main fo-cus is on the schools cur-rently in the Sun Belt, the 10 football participating schools, and UALR, a non-football institution.

“I think that there’s an advantage to getting to at least 12 to take advantage

of additional post season opportunities,” said Ben-son. “Know that in the coming weeks, the Sun Belt board will establish a committee that will look to evaluate the current mem-bership and the future membership.”

The only changes to the Sun Belt’s line up so far are the departure of the University of Denver, a non-football school, to the WAC conference and the full addition of South Ala-bama to football in 2013.

Benson also shied away from the issue of whether the conference will look to add any schools from WAC, which is in the midst of its own turmoil, having only five members to partici-pate in football with the departure of Nevada, Ha-waii and Fresno State.

“There may be sensi-tivity and perhaps some awkwardness,” said Ben-son. “I think everyone un-derstands that once you change positions that you are now responsible and obligated to that confer-ence. I will certainly do that with the Sun Belt.”

Benson’s was preced-ed as commissioner by Vic Bubas (1976-90), Jim Lessig (1990-91), Craig Thompson (1991-98), and Wright Waters from 1998 to 2012.

Karl Benson named Sun Belt CommissionerCurrent WAC commissioner to take over April 1st

Zach LottStaff Writer

Returning to Tomlinson Stadium for their home opener after a three-game road trip, the Arkansas State Red Wolves baseball team got a strong effort from the pitching staff and four RBI from center field-er Michael Faulkner to de-feat Murray State 11-3 Wednesday afternoon.

Starting pitcher Levi Shordon was nearly un-scathed through four in-nings of work, surrender-ing only an unearned run in the top of the first in-ning when MSU shortstop Travis Isaak scored on an error after catcher Stuart Levy couldn’t handle the throw at the plate.

Shordon gave up three hits while walking two and striking out one.

Meanwhile, ASU’s of-fense was largely dormant during that span until the bottom of the fourth, when third baseman Claude Johnson knocked in pinch runner Ryan Emery on a ground out.

Levy and shortstop Dustin Jones both smacked RBI singles two at-bats lat-

er, while Faulkner added a run on a fielder’s choice ground out.

“[We] were anxious ear-ly in the game. They threw some off speed stuff at us, but we did a good job of adjusting, and I think get-ting a big inning kind of relaxed everybody a little bit,” said head coach Tom-my Raffo.

The cushion provided by the four-run inning al-lowed Raffo to go to his bullpen early on to give other pitchers a look.

Bradley Wallace was called upon to replace Shordon.

“Shordon kept the game under control for us. All we asked him to give was twelve outs, and he did a fantastic job. We knew what we wanted to do on the back end: give some guys some work,” Raffo continued.

MSU battled back in the fifth, cutting the deficit to one after left fielder Ty Stetson was driven in by Isaak, who in turn scored on a triple from center fielder Mike Kozlowksi.

The bullpen would stifle the Racers for the rest of the afternoon, with Daniel

Wright, Brandon Farley, and John Koch combining to replace Wallace, con-ceding only one hit. Farley struck out five in his two innings on the mound.

The Red Wolves’ of-fense, however, would strike again.

After Faulkner hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth to make it 5-3, he belted a two-run double in the eighth that began a six-run inning.

“That double was really key. I was looking for a ball I could drive in the gaps to get the runners in…. [The]

ball fell my way, I got that double, and that got that inning starting,” Faulkner said. “It’s very important to hit it in the gaps, es-pecially in this park. This park is a pitcher’s park, so you can’t really depend on home runs and balls over people’s head.”

The win is the first of nine-straight home games for Arkansas State, who will play a three-game weekend series against Evansville starting Fri-day at 6:00. Saturday and Sunday’s games are set for 1:00.

WAC.com

Karl Benson was appointed the fifth commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference on Feb. 16. Benson served in the WAC for 17 years.

Red Wolves take down Murray State in home openerFaulkner leads the way with four-RBI performance

Travis Sharp/Herald

Sophomore infielder Claude Johnson attempts to tag out a Murray State runner Wednesday at Tomlinson Stadium

NEWSPAGE 5 Thursday, Feb. 23 The Herald

BriefsVolunteer ASU Council applications for the 2012-2013 school year are now available in the

Leadership Center. Available positions are as follows: President, Day of Service Chair, Alternative Spring Break Chair, Issues & Awareness Program Chair, ASU Blood Drive Chair, Social Media Marketing Chair, and Student Engagement Chair. Applications are due Friday, March 16th at 4pm. For more information contact jcherry@astate.edu, or call the Leadership Center at 870-972-2055.

The ASU Blood Drive is March 6th and 7th from 9am-7pm in Spring River Room. Donors and Event Volunteers are needed. Email jcherry@astate.edu to schedule your donation or volunteer time.

The ASU Day of Service is March 10th from 9am-2pm. Sign up your student organization today to serve. Email Shelby.brooks@smail.astate.edu for more information.

The Leadership Center is currently accepting resumes for a Graduate Assistant for the Fall of 2012. This position will work with the ASU WolfTracks Yearbook program. The ideal candidate should have design and photography knowledge, and have past experience supervising others. All qualified candidates should send their resumes to jcherry@astate.edu. The deadline to submit a resume for this position is Friday, March 16th at 4pm.

The International Justice Mission is holding a fund raiser at Local Culture this Sunday from 5-7. 20 percent of the proceeds go toward IJM and fighting human trafficking.

On February 29, from 12-4 p.m., Special Agents from the FBI will present a seminar on terrorism, evidence response and white collar crime. This event will be held in the Auditorium of the Student Union and is free to all in the campus community and interested community professionals. For additional information please contact Rodney Carmack in the College of Business or Brent Cox with the Regional Center for Disaster Preparedness Education.

The Red Wolf Center and Student Activities Board are sponsoring Beach Bash at the Red W.O.L.F. Center on Wednesday, March 7, from 8-11p.m. There will be beach ball volleyball, baggo, pickle ball, limbo contest, muscle beach contest, hip hop dance class, and much more! For more information please contact the Red W.O.L.F. Center at 972-3800.

The Black Student Association will be hosting our annual All Black Affair, a semi-formal event, celebrating Black History, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. in Centennial Hall. The event will include a live DJ, prize for Best Dressed, and free food. All Black Affair Tickets will be on sale for students for $5 for singles and $7 for couples on the first floor of the Student Union from 11a.m.-2p.m. daily. For more information, contact Alicia Rose at alicia.rose@smail.astate.edu or see any Executive Board member.

SGA, CONTINUED

Campus CrimeFeb. 19

On Feb. 19, a student patrol member was giving a male student a ride from Arkansas Hall to the Pi Kappa Alpha House. The member reported that when he stopped by the front doors to let the male off of the golf cart, a man wearing all white, a green safety vest and a hard hat verbally accosted him. The man yelled, “What the f--- is UPD doing on our property, you can’t be here unless we call you.” The referral was sent to student affairs for review.

Feb. 22

On Feb. 22, Officer Chris Kirksey was dispatched to the Northpark Quads in reference to a fight. According to the report, Jonathan Allen had found urine in the floor and bathtub of his bathroom and had gone to confront his suitemate, Joseph Johnson.

According to Johnson’s statement, he

was awakened by Allen who was yelling, “who pissed in the damn shower.” Allen then proceeded to make phone calls to unknown individuals and proceeded to say that he was going to “whoop his ass.” Allen then entered Johnson’s room where they began to wrestle.

According to Allen’s statement, when he woke up he found urine on the bathroom floor and went to confront Johnson. He then told Johnson to have it cleaned up before he went to class or “they would have the roommate from hell until either of us moved.” He then told Johnson “you ain’t gone see no real nigga until today.” When Johnson replied with, “apparently you are,” Allen went into his room where they bumped chests and bear hugged and eventually Allen put Johnson in a headlock.

— Compiled by Lindsey Blakely, News Editor

Knowing your rights

Zahra Billoo, civil rights attorney and execu-tive director of the Council on American-Islamic relations in the San Francisco Bay area, spoke to a group of students Wednesday night on knowing their rights when interacting with law enforcement officers.

“We are concerned with the direction our country is going in terms of the erosion of civil liberties,” Billoo said.

She talked about working with people whose civil rights and liberties are violated because they are Muslim or perceived to be Muslim, and explained the proper steps of how to handle a situation when a law enforcement officer comes to your home to ask questions.

“If you remember nothing else that I say, always remember you have a right to remain silent and a right to an attorney,” she said.

Billoo said that these are important rights for every American to remember, not just Is-lamic Americans whose civil liberties are being violated.

“The Bill of rights are not there for innocent people versus. guilty people — they’re there for all of us,” she said. “As Americans, I strongly be-lieve we have an obligation to assert our rights.

Billoo will give another lecture tonight at 7 p.m. in the Fine Arts Recital Hall titled, “Islamo-phobia: Religious Freedom in the U.S.”

-Sara Krimm, Herald Editor

Yuri Shimizu/Herald

of the bikes and that brings the total of the program to about $5,500 which SGA will fund.”

Petrus said the Red Wolf Center is also spon-soring the bill and will fund the stage part of the bike program.

“We’re hoping to even-tually expand the program to where students can sign a renters agreement and use the bike for an entire year,” Petrus said.

The current price of in-dividual bicycles are not

discounted and Petrus said he hopes to get a dis-counted price before pur-chasing the bikes.

“Other universities have bike programs that get their students moving and we want to bring that to ASU,” Petrus said.

The resolution was passed and will now be sent to the university council.

Other issues that were covered during the meet-ing was the approval of the addition of two new

graduate student senator positions.

The positions will be filled at the next meeting.

Kelsey Gage, a junior early childhood education major of Jonesboro, filled the college of education seat.

The college of fine arts and the college of nurs-ing and health professions seats are still open.

Next year’s senator ap-plications are available in the SGA office of the Lead-ership Center.

CROSSFIT, CONTINUEDThe program consists

of constantly varied, high intensity and functional everyday movements. “Ev-ery day in some form peo-ple are squatting, pulling, lifting, running; CrossFit is those same movements that are daily aspects of life,” McCartney said.

CrossFit workouts are incorporating cardio and weight lifting, also re-ferred to as Olympic lifts. Snatches, squats and cling and jerks are all major weight lifting exercised used in CrossFit work-outs.

The design of the pro-gram is training a person to move a large load a long distance, doing it as quick-ly as possible. “CrossFit is all about power out put, “Kieffer said.

The spread of CrossFit

is credited largely to the military, but with each gym or person affiliated with CrossFit and the dai-ly web postings CrossFit has snowballed.

Everyday is a unique and different work out. Each work out from the affiliat-ed gyms is posted online to allow others to access and follow the CrossFit meth-odology without having to attend a gym.

Junior nursing major Erin Rousell began doing CrossFit workouts on her own at the Red Wolf Cen-ter after being introduced by her family.

“I have always been in-terested in fitness, I have been certified as an aero-bics instructor, but never thought I would be able to do these kinds of lifts if I had not started doing

CrossFit,” said Rousell. “We have our own lingo

within the CrossFit family, “ Rousell said. The work-out of the day is referred to a “WOD,” the gym is known as a “BOX” along with other acronyms for different exercises or work out sequences.

“CrossFit is for the ev-eryday ordinary person who is trying to live a bet-ter lifestyle, and if you are determined to change your life, CrossFit will defiantly do it” Rousell said.

The uniqueness behind CrossFit is the commu-nity.

“CrossFit is hard, but what keeps you pushing through and going back the next day is the encour-agement you get from oth-er people, CrossFit is com-munity” Rousell said.

Robert HoltNews Reporting Student

The iAstate app for smart phones and mobile devices has been adding to its uses recently, and get-ting attention for doing so by the ASU community.

Released to users on Oct. 22, 2010, the app fea-tures school news, sports updates and schedules, campus maps, depart-ment contact information, and event calendars.

The user-friendly tool was and still is available to download for free on the Apple App Store and the Android Market, and has been getting plenty of

student use. Along with the multiple

other uses, one target au-dience for the technology is students who are new to the ASU Jonesboro campus and need a help-ing hand to get around.

“I used it a lot last semester,” said junior transfer student, Stepha-nie Bonds of Batesville, in reference to her start at ASU.

In the recent months, the app has really stepped up its content and use ac-cording to students.

Brooke Knowles, a sophomore communication disorders student from Cabot said, “I downloaded

the app when it first came out, but the content didn’t seem to get updated, and was the same information as the ASU Daily Digest emails. But now it is up-do-date and very handy.”

With an increase in use and awareness, students have been taking advan-tage of the technology that was uniquely designed for the university.

Blackboard Mobile, a branch of Blackboard Inc. (which is the company behind a large number of other technologies at ASU) fashioned the app with others members of the ASU community in mind.

iAstate app helps students

Kayla PaineStaff Writer

Service is now avail-able 24 hours a day, seven days a week for students having issues with the ASU network and its com-ponents.

Information Technol-ogy Systems has started outsourcing help desk ser-vices to Perceptis, a com-pany in Cleveland, Ohio. The service started Jan. 17.

Just as before, the of-fice on campus takes the calls from students who need assistance with tech-nical issues from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday-Friday. After 5 and on the week-ends, the calls are being sent to Perceptis.

A survey was conducted during the fall semester that asked how ITS could improve its services.

The lack of continual

ITS help desk support was a reoccurring issue com-mented on.

It wasn’t news to ITS that students were unhap-py with the issue. For the past three or four years, there has been talk about outsourcing.

Contracting Percep-tis was the alternative to hiring more personnel and costs less, said Darla Fletcher, director of En-terprise Technical Servic-es. Negotiations started in the fall and it is a year-by-year contract.

Fletcher said that most calls they receive that re-quest assistance concern being locked out of an ac-count, blackboard or ban-ner problems.

But now there is an op-tion to call the help desk instead of going into panic mode. Not only can stu-dents, faculty or staff call the help desk, they can

chat or email the system. “I thought my Wi-Fi

connection would never work again, but the help desk was so great in tell-ing me what I needed to do,” said Krystal Caroli-na, a senior biology major from North Little Rock.

Other benefits that ITS finds from now having a continual IT help desk support is that it makes the university more com-petitive. University of Vir-ginia, Lesley University and Fitchburg State Uni-versity also use Perceptis to aid their support lines.

It has also relieved ITS of congestion from calls during busy times of the semester and the back-log of calls on a Monday morning.

Fletcher warned that the help desk cannot as-sist in fixing some prob-lems, but assures that it can help with most.

ITS offers 24-hour assistance to students

NewsPAGE 6 Thursday, Feb. 23 The Herald

Students Celebrate Mardi GrasAbdullah Raslan

Photo Editor

The Student Activites Board threw a party Tues-day night, celebrating Mar-di Gras.

This annual event took place in Centennial Hall of the Student Union.

Guests were greeted with a card and palm reader to keep up with the Mardi Gras theme.

The celebration continued inside where a black light casino room had been setup.

The room was prepared with everything from poker tables, card dealers and black light.

Followed was hypnotist Chris Jones, who was a crowd favorite.

Staci Vandagriff/Herald

Participating students experience the horror hypnotist Chris Jones have made them believe. Students were made to believe they were trapped in a roller coaster and can’t get out.

Andrea Cox/Herald

Chris Wallace, junior undecided major of San Diego, Calif. gets his palm read before entering the party.

Staci Vandagriff/Herald

Students get wild after being hypnotized.

Staci Vandagriff/Herald

The Acansa Dining Hall staff took the time to decorated the hall with balloons, streamers and mardi gras masks

Andrea Cox/Herald

Deonte Harris, sophomore computer science major, won big during black light casino night.

Background photo by: Andrea Cox

Arkansas, like many other states, is seeking a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education regarding the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

Lauren Taylor, a senior history education major of Jonesboro said, “No Child Left Behind is ridiculous. It punishes schools for low performance and increases its standards so that eventually everyone will fail.”

Deborah Owens, an associate professor of reading at ASU-J, said NCLB has definitely affected the way colleges prepare future educators. She said NCLB and the Common Core State Standards (Common Core) that were recently implemented in Arkansas have affected ASU’s Teacher Education program.

In former president George W. Bush’s proposal of NCLB, the goals were to close the achievement gap by increasing accountability and using annual

academic assessments; improve literacy; expand flexibility and reduce bureaucracy; reward successful schools and sanction schools that fail to meet standards; promote informed parental choice; improve teacher quality and increase school safety.

According to whitehouse.gov, on Sept. 23, President Barack Obama announced that his administration planned to “provide relief” from NCLB to allow states to continue education reforms meant to focus on college preparedness.

The Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) voted in July 2010 to adopt Common Core. Common Core’s focus is more to prepare students for post-secondary education and the workforce. According to commoncorearkansas.org, Arkansas applied Common Core this fall to kindergarten through second grade and should be applied to all grades by the 2014-2015 school year.

Taylor said Common Core seems to be much more student-centered and much less results-driven than NCLB.

Part of Common Core encourages teachers to integrate more technology in their classrooms, which in turn causes classrooms in colleges of education to be equipped with more technology. ASU’s Teacher Education program has introduced the SMART Board in its classrooms as a way to help future educators cater to future classes of “digital natives.”

“It is changing the way we teach,” Owens said of NCLB and Common Core.

Owens said it can be frustrating teaching college classes to students who are products of an NCLB education because it has changed the way students learn. She added that the standards set by NCLB have made life more difficult for those coming into college.

“Teachers taught to the test for their own survival,” Owens

said.Standardized testing

increased when Bush signed it into law Jan. 8, 2001 and Owens said she thinks it is here to stay. With NCLB, the standardized test scores of students reflect on the teachers and the teachers reflect on their universities; Owens said this is not good for colleges.

Owens said standardized testing increased by NCLB and continued by Common Core may “eliminate cooperation and collaboration” among teachers because of the pressure of accountability, merit pay and ultimately financial security.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, states seeking a waiver from the standards of NCLB must set a plan in motion to better prepare students for college and careers while implementing a student and teacher evaluation process beyond just test scores.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2009 there were 7.2

billion teachers in the United States; that is 7.2 billion teachers who are subject to the standards of NCLB and the continuing education reform.

Under NCLB, schools that fail to meet proficiency standards are in danger of being shut down, causing students to be plugged into other schools. In Owens’ opinion, this can be damaging to a student’s education because standards and teaching methods vary in different schools: where a student may excel in one school, the same student might fall behind in another.

“They need to give us a waiver,” Owens said.

Receiving a waiver from the standards of NCLB would grant Arkansas schools the flexibility to reform education programs more specifically. This flexibility would remove the pressure of NCLB’s 100 percent proficiency expectations for 2014 and lengthen schools’ timelines for more effective education reform.

Ark. looks to waiver No Child Left BehindLeah McDaniel

Staff Writer

Pre-law club learns about law school options

Sue-Ann McClellan, assistant dean of admissions at the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law in Memphis, spoke to pre-law students last Thursday about the many opportunities and advantages to attending law school in Memphis. This was the Pre-Law Club’s first meeting of the semester.

“Our school is known for our strong passage rate, 93 percent, which is the highest passage rate of any law school in Tennessee,” McClellan said. The state average for passage rates at Tennessee law schools is 79.8 percent.

The Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law has been in Memphis since 1962.

It recently moved from the main campus of the University of Memphis.

McClellan said the law school received a portion of its funding about two years ago to make the move after they were given money by the state and also by donations.

In addition to the high passage rate, McClellan said the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law is also located in a great area that is full of internship opportunities, including more than 30 placements available for government internships.

McClellan also said a prospective law student should try to attend a law school that is in the region that you want to practice. She stressed that in the lawyer business, as with any profession, networking

is critical. The more people that a prospective law student is in contact with, the better the student’s chances are of snagging a great job.

The Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law is also offering a bonus incentive to students in the counties surrounding Memphis. If a student lives in a county that touches Shelby County, such as Crittenden, Marshall and Tunica counties, the out-of-state tuition is waived and the student will only be required to pay the in-state tuition to attend the school.

The in-state tuition for the 2011-2012 year at Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law is $15,710; the out-of-state tuition is more than double that amount at

$37,582. Josh Waters, a junior

economics/pre-law major, is a member of the ASU Pre-Law Club. He is currently searching for a law school to enroll in after graduation.

“I was able to go tour the University of Memphis Law School back last semester with the Pre-Law Club and it was very nice,” Waters said.

Waters said he was only considering UALR Bowen Law School and the University of Arkansas School of Law before the meeting.

“One to two ASU students are enrolled every year at Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law,” McClellan said. The school has a total enrollment of 424 students for 2011-2012.

Caleb HenningtonStaff Writer

Sue Ann McClellan, from University of Memphis, spoke to the Pre-Law Club at their meeting last Tuesday.

Chelsea Weaver/Herald