Students’ voices from across the ASU campus were heard Tuesday night when the Student Government Association organized a town hall meeting with four of the university’s upper administration.

Chancellor Tim Hudson, Provost Lynita Cooksey, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Rick Stripling and Russ Hannah, the associate vice chancel-lor for finance, all took questions in an hour-long forum designed to shed light on students’ biggest worries.

SGA President Hunter Petrus em-ceed the forum, opening the night by allowing the audience to ask questions that they felt only the administrators could answer.

The first question to hit the floor came from the iPad initiative introduced at last week’s faculty senate meeting.

The chief information officer of ITS, Mark Hoeting, presented the idea that freshman use iPads as a part of their First Year Experience course, which could also be used to fulfill the needs of the rest of their schedule.

Several students asked about the iPad initiative, including questions about whether or not they would be able to use the newer technology in their own schooling.

Katie Calaway, a junior political sci-ence major of Jonesboro, said she had previously used iPads in her classes and said they were helpful in the learning process.

“The only problem I see is when the professors aren’t completely familiar with new technology,” Calaway said in the forum. “I think that when they can’t understand how to use Blackboard, it’s going to be hard for them to know how to incorporate an iPad into the class-room. I think it’s going to be a challenge for them to fully be able to successfully use them within their curriculum.”

Cooksey took this question by intro-ducing a new training instructors will go through to become more familiar with the iPad’s use in the classroom.

“If they don’t know how to use the iPad’s effectively, then it’s just another useless gadget,” Cooksey said.

Cooksey also mentioned the benefit

of cheaper textbooks for students with the iPad.

“Once you have the iBooks app on your iPad, then the books will become yours,” Cooksey said. “We’ve recom-mended to the faculty that they find books with electronic versions. These are usually a lot cheaper than the physi-cal copy of that same book.”

While an excited murmur went through the crowd of students at the thought of cheaper textbooks, one stu-dent raised the question of the future of textbook stores.

“If we push for iPads and ebooks, what will happen to our bookstores,” Sophomore Rod Warren, of Conway, asked Cooksey.

Cooksey stated that textbooks in some areas will not offer an ebook, but that others have been really embracing the newer technology.

“I think we will eventually see an al-most paperless environment,” Cooksey said. “But I don’t think textbooks will totally go away.”

While iPads are certainly an en-hancement to student education, several

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LINDSEY BLAKELYEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Xinzhong Zhao | Staff PhotographerStudents inquire about a range of topics including refund checks, wi-fi availability, and the iPad initiative Tuesday night at the campus forum meeting.

Students prompt administrators SGA hosted a town hall forum where students voiced their concerns

Staci Vandagriff | Staff PhotographerSecretary of Defense Leon Panetta recently decided to allow female mlitary personnel on the front line. One female ROTC student stated that women can do the job as well as males.

Pentagon chief Leon Pa-netta’s recent decision to open front-line positions to women within the United States military has been a source of debate both among members of the military and civilian citizens. Even days after the announcement, the dispute over allowing wom-en in combat still continues, even on the ASU campus.

fessor of political science, said the previous policy was implemented mainly because of a social habit. “It was based on a long-standing assump-tion that women are weaker physically and mentally less rugged [than men],” Buzby said. “But that attitude has been shifting over time as women take more of a role in society.”

“We are becoming more gender neutral,” Barbara

Warner, an assistant profes-sor of political science, said. “I don’t see that this is some-thing that we can roll back, or that we would even want to roll back.”

Another major concern is whether women are capable of withstanding the physical strain placed upon front-line soldiers. “There are going to be some standards wom-en will not meet, especially when it comes to upper-body strength,” Warner said.

“I think that the infantry-man concept would be very harsh of a career [for wom-en], and that it would cause higher casualty rate,” one ASU ROTC student said.

Additional concerns have been expressed over the suit-ability of women to serve in elite combat units such as the Navy SEALS or Green Berets.

“I am sure some women will fail in that role just as

surely as some men will fail in that role,” Buzby of the political science department said. “But I’m just as sure that there are some women in the military that will certainly succeed in that capacity.”

In the words of one female ROTC student, “Women for years have already been on the frontline in combat and have sacrificed their lives. We can do the job just as good as any of our male counter-parts.”

Hans Hacker, an assistant professor of political sci-ence, agrees. “Women have demonstrated that they can do their job in military units, that’s what most people are concerned about.”

In addition, some feel that the new allowances will not present “Since 230,000 wom-en have already experienced combat, I do not think there is that much of a change,”

Hackler said. “It’s a big step symboli-

cally,” Warner of the political science department said. “It is policy catching up with re-ality.”

This historic decision is also reflective of the Obama administration’s commit-ment to equality and mul-ticulturalism, according to Warner.

“It is interesting that Pres-ident Obama is starting his second term trying to accom-plish some of these things, moving towards greater equality and inclusiveness,” Hackler said.

One ROTC student summed up the feelings of many female personnel in the wake of this decision. “I am happy that the armed forces are allowing us as women to do this. Now we just have to take it one step at a time and achieve.”

Military lifts ban on front line femalesBETHANY GALLIMORE

STAFF WRITER

ASU is going through the process of creating another campus. Unlike ASU-Beebe and ASU-Searcy, this campus is located not only out of the state, but out of the country.

While Chancellor Tim Hudson travelling back and forth to Querétaro, Mexi-co, Yvonne Unnold, chair of world languages and cultures and ASU-Querétaro project director, is meeting up with other faculty and campus leaders to discuss details, ac-cording to a press release.

“I’m responsible to move the project forward and lead it to success,” Unnold said.

While Unnold has led many programs abroad and has been in international ed-ucation for a many years, she has never been part of a proj-ect as big as this. “This will be an interesting experience,” Unnold said. “It’s not like I have to reinvent the wheel, we have our wheel here. It’s the same standards, the same type of processes, the same quality.”

The sister campus is meant to have the same format as the Jonesboro campus, from curriculum to sports to the same dining experience. “We are literally building a uni-versity like (ASU-Jonesboro), but in a smaller scale which means we won’t be offering all the majors, but we will be offering the same gener-al education requirements we have here,” Unnold said. “There will be lots of oppor-tunities for transfer and ex-change.”

The new campus will not be a spanish-based or busi-ness-based school. It will open many different doors

for all.“We will not drain this campus, we will hire new people,” Unnold said. “But for our own people here there will be opportunities to help shape, create and to become involved.”

Niya Blair, assistant dean and director of the Multicul-tural Center believes that the sister campus will encour-age all students, particularly minority students, to study abroad. “I think it will be a great addition to the Multi-cultural Center,” Blair said. “The Multicultural Center’s goal is to really increase our initiative and outreach to our Hispanic student population here and I think this is just another element to be able to do that.”

Blair hears within the community the effect of hav-ing a successful international program at ASU. “Our inter-national students have had a positive impact not only on our campus, but also in the Jonesboro community,” Blair said. “By having this campus in Mexico will be a positive impact for the community as well.”

The initial construction will begin as early as this spring and the goal is to open the campus in the fall of 2015.“We are networking with a lot of people here, across campus, because ev-eryone wears a different hat and we are building a very similar campus,” Unnold said. “We are talking about aca-demics, we’re talking with provosts, deans and faculty.”

Querétaro has become one of the most progressive states within Mexico and along with the construction of ASU-Querétaro, an entire community will also be built.

Planning process begins for ASU-Querétaro

TANYA GIRALDONEW EDITOR

PLANNING, 4

Hindsight is 20/20. The idea is simple; if I knew then what I know now my choices would have been different. In situations where people recognize immediately they have made mistakes they call for a “mulligan” or a do-over. Congress recently found themselves in just such a position. In August 2005 Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana and devastated New Orleans and the surrounding area. Since that time there have been literally thousands of official reports on the failure of FEMA, Homeland Security, Local and State Government, and the overall efficiency of the Federal Government in administering assistance.

In October of 2012 we were once again faced with a horrific storm hitting our shores. According to the New York Times, “(Hurricane Sandy) affected 24 states, including the entire eastern seaboard from Florida to Maine and west across the Appalachian Mountains to Michigan and Wisconsin, with particularly severe damage in New Jersey and New York. Its damage

is estimated at over $63 billion”. This set Congress up for another shot at disaster relief, but as could be expected they got things wrong again. Congress had passed legislation within 11 days of Katrina; it was more than 30 days before any such measure was passed for Sandy. After seven years, innumerable reports, dozens of documentaries, and even several Senate hearings, how did we fail so massively again? The answer is found in the content of the relief bill that was passed. Initially it had been set forth with $31 billion for immediate assistance, but by the time Washington finished it was loaded with pork barrel spending. In simple terms, pork barrel is

the appropriation of federal government spending for localized projects. They are added into legislation in order to garner money for a specific region or project that has special importance to the Congressional official. While schools and businesses were closed, tens of thousands were without electricity, and hospitals were overcrowded, our representatives failed to act while instead rustling up material to tout on the campaign trail in their districts.

Here are some of the items in the relief spending bill according to the NY Post: $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security; $150 million for fisheries in Alaska; $2

million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs; $13 billion would go to “mitigation” projects to prepare for future storms. It also included $41 million to fix military bases; $4 million for repairs at Kennedy Space Center in Florida; $3.3 million for the Plum Island Animal Disease Center and $1.1 million to repair national cemeteries.” Additionally, only 15 percent of funds designated to the areas impacted would be released in 2013. That means that 85 percent of the $60 billion passed will be spent on future projects, which doesn’t help those in need today.

Without question this was another huge debacle by our representatives in Congress. Given the opportunity to perform at a level worthy of their office they failed. In the future there should be no “mulligans” for this type of epic blunder. Hold them accountable with the one tool we do have, our votes.

Ken Corbit is a senior communications major of Jonesboro

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Our View Hurricane Sandy relief needed soonerA call for civility in gun debates It is terrifying to think that a fellow human being is con-

sciously able to massacre innocent lives. But perhaps even more terrifying is that in the aftermath of such events we are tearing at each other instead of having a reasonable discussion about how to stop such tragic acts.

It seems that week after week we are shown shaky video footage of crying victims who have witnessed yet another shooting.

But, instead of having civil talks with one another about how to work out a compromise, each conversation turns into a fight that’s become more and more personal and demoral-izing. Our country’s leaders and citizens seem incapable of speaking about this issue without resorting to name calling and vicious argument.

On Wednesday, former House member Gabrielle Giffords addressed Congress speaking slowly while reading from a hand-written note.

As she struggled through each word, it was clear she is still recovering from her near-fatal shooting that occurred two years ago.

While the Arizona Democrat delivered a riveting speech to a silent audience, it was apparent that the people in the room were still very divided over her plea for more gun restrictions.

Sadly, a short time later, the room turned again into a vi-cious environment as congressmen and women forgot the captivating moment of Giffords’ request and again began to personally attack one another.

This is the pattern that most Americans seems to follow when discussing a solution to gun violence.

We seem to have forgotten the situations that have prompt-ed us to so passionately and urgently engage in a debate about guns in our society.

Following the tragedies of Virginia Tech, Columbine, Au-rora and Newtown, we called for kindness to each other, and that call should be remembered in the aftermath of these hor-rible incidents when we as a nation discuss what needs to be done to restore sanity and safety.

While we are divided over what is the best solution, we should not be divided about the manner in which we should behave as we seek a resolution.

We must act responsibly, bravely and respectfully. The need to find solutions to this difficult problem is too

important to end in polarizing fights. The need to provide a better nation for our children is too important for this conver-sation to simply end in more violence.

We need to have reasonable discussions and level-headed conversations. This situation calls for us to listen with patience and to speak with thoughtfulness.

After all, the example we set as we engage in this debate is one that future generations will look to as a model of how to behave in times that demand difficult discourse.

Although the country may remain divided about Giffords’ proposed solutions, her final comment is universal to all.

“America is counting on you.”

“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.

Gender roles for women have been changing steadi-ly over the last century. In the early 1900s most women were raising their children, working in the home, and occasionally doing domestic work such as being a seam-stress. When World War II broke out and all eligible men were drafted for war, it was time for the women to go to work and fill the traditionally male monopolized jobs. The women of the 1940’s built air-planes, tanks, guns, and am-munition for the war effort. After the war was over the men came home and were ready to return to work, but the women had found a sense of identity and pride through working. These women were not ready to go back to the home. More women were entering into the work force, furthering their education, and establishing their identi-ty in the United States.

Women were first able to enlist in the Army in 1948. On July 7, 1976, 119 women joined the Corps of Cadets at the United States Mili-tary Academy at West Point. Their jackets could not have tails, like the men’s jack-ets, because it would draw to much attention to their backside. Women in the mil-itary had to prove to their superiors, other servicemen, and their country that they deserved to defend the US alongside men. Even though these women have been prohibited from fighting in ground combat, they have been in extremely danger-ous environments. Hundreds have died in the Iraq war

serving in support positions and in street wars. Women have been able to fly in com-bat since 1993 and the Navy allowed women to be on sub-marines in 2010.

Many believe that allow-ing women to service equally with men will stop the gender related issues within the mil-itary. Sexual assault has been a big concern since women first began serving in the mil-itary. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Martin Dempsey

sent Leon Panetta a memo earlier this month entitled, “Women in Service Imple-mentation Plan.” The memo read: “The time has come to rescind the direct combat ex-clusion rule for women and to eliminate all unnecessary gender-based barriers to ser-vice.” Panetta’s plan will give the military till January 2016 to argue if certain military roles should remained closed to women.

Questions such as “Would

women be required to sign up for selective service?” are being raised in response to the new legislation. Others are wondering if women who are already in the military and, had signed up knowing they would not be fighting in ground combat, will oppose the plan. Many women in the military publicly support this decision but privately question their physical abili-ty to fight a man in hand to hand combat.

If you openly support this issue you’re a feminist; if you oppose the decision you are a sexist. The truth is that women are no longer at home barefoot and pregnant. They are in the work force and as Americans we need to be working on gender equality.

Lakin Cathey is a fresh-man business administration major of Heber Springs

Women have earned combat role“If you openly sup-

port this issue you’re

a feminist; if you

oppose the decision

you are a sexist.”

-Lakin Cathey

“The idea is sim-

ple; if I knew

then what I know

now my choices

would have been

different.”

-Ken Corbit

Hear anything funny? Tweet it to

@overheardatasuto see it in The

Herald!

distracti...

Charles Craig was introduced to the world of “Capes and Cowls” in comic books in 1987 at the age of 6 after watching Richard Don-ner’s “Superman II.”

Flash forward 26 years and Craig is the new co-owner of the comic book shop, “The Rogue’s Gallery,” during a time of uncertainty in the comic industry’s future.

The store’s manager, Dave Albert, has restarted the shop four times during an era when print, the form comics have been pub-lished in since rising to prominence with the debut of Superman in 1938, has been rivaled by the mail order and digital distribution of comics through websites like comixology.com.

A former insurance agent, Craig and his co-owner and friend Richard Davidson, are the third set of owners in eight years of the store, formerly known as “Galaxy.” Given the state of the current economy Craig described his business as a luxury.

Through a brand discount made possible by Diamond Comics, the only middle-man distributor of comics in the United States, Craig, Davidson and Albert a r e

able to impart a 15 percent discount on all products in the store, from comics to play-ing cards, role playing games and collectible statues.

Albert believes there are multiple bene-fits to comic readers taking their business to small, local stores like his, the only indepen-dent comic shop in Craighead County.The store is located at located at 2322 E. Mat-thews.

. Among the positives are the personal customer service and a potential reader’s ability to sample a new title of a comic.

“Online stores, you’re looking at pic-tures. (With) us, you can come in and pick up the issue, decide to try an issue without committing for two months like you would have to for mail order,” Albert said.

Albert is aware of what digital comics could mean for the future of stores like his, but believes a large part of keeping read-ers coming to his store is making sure they would rather visit his store than wait for a mail shipment.

“Yes, (online services) give better dis-counts, but the grassroots of it, of keeping the money in the community with people you’ve gone to for a long time and the fact that the discount is enough to keep them here instead of going online, it’s really that simple,” Albert said.

While he prefers the physical side of the industry, Albert admits there are pros for reading a digital comic, especially to some-one who may have to travel for long periods of time or those who simply can’t afford to buy large amounts of comics in a store.

“Over the next couple of years, I can see a lot of people going to digital; it’s just so easy to pick up your Nook or your iPad, pick up your e-Reader and buy a comic,” Craig said.

Comic enthusiast Chip Carroll uses both the print and digital media, and only reads “Green Lantern” comics digitally for more ar-tistic reasons. Carroll, an ASU history gradu-ate student, lives in Jonesboro.

“The digital comics are so pretty. You have these very vibrant colors,” Carroll said. “These colors just pull under that light and it almost gives the comics life.”

However, Carroll said the print comic book is much easier to share with a friend. Digital subscribers can’t transfer a comic

from one device to another.While the switch to digital has had a major

impact on the book and newspaper industries, its effects have yet to fully reach “Rogue’s Gal-lery.” Just two customers have left to switch full-time to digital, leaving about 140 readers with files in the store.

Among those is Adam Larson, a non-tra-ditional senior majoring in health and disas-ter preparedness. Larson reads “Deadpool” and “Suicide Squad,” and admits to having a couple of titles ready to go on his e-reader, though he prefers a physical copy.

“I like to have the paperback or hardback in my hands and see the artwork,” Larson said. “I always preferred that; maybe I’m old fashioned.”

Larson, of Hot Springs, has been a custom-er at the store for eight years and visits to play the tabletop game “Hero Clix,” read comics and socialize with his friends.

Most of the store’s customers are ASU stu-dents, who have been the strongest influence on the longevity of the store Albert said, even with the closing of Caraway to campus two years ago.

“What is really bringing a lot of people into our store has been “The Walking Dead TV” show. That kills for us,” Craig said. Many cus-tomers who seek out the zombie comic end up reading three or four more titles months later.

Before “The Walking Dead” premiered on AMC in 2010, Albert only sold three copies of the comic version at any given time. Al-most three years later, with the show drawing just over 10 million viewers a week, about 25 readers now have the zombie series in their file.

With the continuing struggle between dig-ital and print, Craig and Albert still believe in the value of comic shops to the local commu-nity and the comics they’ve loved since first discovering them in the 80s, whether it be the traditional “Capes and Cowls,” vampires and zombies, or a small independent series just waiting to be discovered.

“There’s a comic out there for everybody,” Albert said. “You just got to be willing to in-vest five minutes to find out.”

The extended version of this story can be found at www.asuherald.com

THURSDAY, JAN. 31, 2013 PAGE 3ASUHERALD.COM

DANIEL MCFADINSTAFF WRITER

Local comic store attracts students

Windows 8 free for studentsColorful tiles, a new home

screen and various applica-tions on the start-up page are just a few new items on the list of why Windows 8 is much dif-ferent from Windows 7.

On Jan. 17, the IT depart-ment sent out an email to inform students they could download various software to their computers for free in-cluding Microsoft Office 2013, Windows 8 and Windows 7. On Jan. 18, the ASU IT store posted a link for students to visit to download the software.

Although the IT store and IT department announced the link was available to students, some students still weren’t aware of the release or that it was free to students with a valid ASU student email.

Senior chemistry major of Dumas, Taylor Lemonds said he was unaware of the software release.

“I knew we had certain software available to ASU students,” Lemonds said. “But I didn’t hear about Windows 8 being re-leased to students for free.”

Other students were waiting several months before they could download Windows 8 for free through the school.

“Since I work at Best Buy, I was able to kind of play around with Windows 8 while I was at work,” said Erika Schrunk, freshman business marketing major of Cabot. “I was going to download it to my computer a few weeks ago, but I would have had to pay for it. So, I’m glad I decided to wait until it was re-leased to students for free.”

Schrunk said one of her favorite features of Windows 8 is the live tiles feature. These tiles act as the start-up pop-up menu Windows 7 had. Windows 8 allows you to change some applications on the live tiles to fit your needs better. The live tiles hold applications such as the weather, email, Internet Ex-plorer, calendar and social media sites.

“Although it took me three and a half hours to download, I think Windows 8 is a lot more efficient for multitasking than Windows 7 was,” Schrunk said. “It’s hard to find your way around Windows 8 at first just because you’re used to the way Windows 7 was, but eventually you start figuring things out and it’s much simpler. The whole start-up menu is different, but I love the interaction with the live tiles and applications.”

Freshman journalism major of Washington D.C., Katherine Dickerson said she thinks Windows 8 is really a step-up for

Windows. “Just from what I’ve heard and seen, Windows 8 is way

cooler than Windows 7,” Dickerson said. “I am a Mac-user, but if I had a PC, I would definitely download it.”

Students can find out how to download the new and old software by looking at the ASU IT Store’s Facebook page for the link, going into the store and asking for the link or through numerous emails sent out by the IT department.

Sophomore business management major of Bentonville Megan Michel said she used the link provided at the end of the email sent out by Darla Fletcher in order to download Win-dows 8.

“I know the IT department said students were having prob-lems with a broken link to the software at first,” Michel said. “I waited until they said the link was fixed before I tried to download it. It took longer to download than I expected, but you’re getting a whole new system, pretty much.”

Michel said she likes the new Windows software because the home screen is more like a tablet.

“I enjoy the live tiles,” she said. “It makes getting to different applications a lot easier when you can put them into your live tiles, such as the webcam. I used to have to search and search for my webcam application, but now I can just open it off my live tile. It’s a little bit more confusing at first, and I’m still try-ing to figure out how to get to different things.”

Students can find the link to the software downloads at www.facebook.com/asuitstore or in their email from the IT department. They can also go to http://astate.onthehub.com.

Caitlin LaFarlette | Photo EditorBrandon Perry, a junior criminology major of Mount Vernon, plays with the new Windows 8 operating system in the IT store Wednesday afternoon.

Alejandra Hernandez | Staff PhotographerMatthew Howard, a junior history major of Paragould, reads issue #16 of the Batman Comics at Rogue’s Gallery.

MICHAELA KABERLINESTAFF WRITER

The country duo Florida Georgia Line has recently swept the feet of country gal fans and caught the attention of Big Loud Mountain Records.

Brian Kelley, 27, of Ormond Beach, Fla. and Tyler Hub-bard, 25, of Monroe, Ga. were signed to Big Loud Mountain in December of 2011. The two were later partnered with Re-public Nashville label records producing, “Cruise,” which sold more than 1 million singles and hit No. 1 on the Country Air-play charts.

The lead single, “Cruise,” from their debut album “Here’s to the Good Times” had huge country artists like Keith Urban and Taylor Swift tweeting about the hit song. “Can’t stop play-ing cruise by @FLAGALine! Crazy cool toon!!!!!” posted coun-try artist Keith Urban on Sept. 23. Swift tweeted on Sept. 26 about the tune as well. The debut single speaks of falling for a girl that makes the duo, “…roll my windows down and cruise.”

The hot single simmered into an opportunity for the duo to go on the 2012 Country Throwdown Tour and open up for big time artists like Jake Owen, and Love and Theft. The two scored about 200,000 digital hits, and peaked at No. 1 on the iTunes Country Singles Chart. Florida Georgia Line has been at No.1 for the Billboard Country Charts for four consecutive weeks (It crossed over Taylor Swift’s 10 week run with her lead single, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”).

Taylor Raymond, a freshman occupational therapy major of Cabot, said, “I am not familiar with the band, but I enjoy listening to the song “Cruise.”

Florida Georgia Line had two EPs released before “Here’s to the Good Times.” “Anything Like Me,” the first EP released in 2010, featured singles like “Black Tears,” which was recorded by country artist Jason Aldean, and the co-written collabora-tion with Jesse Rice, “Never Let Her Go.” The rookie duo’s second EP, “It’s Just What We Do,” was released in May of 2012 and consists of 5 songs that are listed on “Here’s to the Good Times.”

The album features a single called “Stay” that is a contin-uous love theme from the song, “Cruise,” except this time it talks about getting back a loved one after letting her go.

The single, “Dayum, Baby,” is performed with Sarah Buxton and the let loose single, “Party People,” is collaborated with Jaren Johnston of The Cadillac Black.

“It’z Just What We Do,” introduces a new element of hip-hop to country music. The song is a “kick-back, relax…” rhythm that feeds off the title of the album. It’s all about stringing a guitar, sipping on Bud Light and dancing by the firelight.

Florida Georgia Line is currently on the Luke Bryan: Dirt Road Diaries Tour. From writing songs and performing from the back of a tailgate Chevy Tahoe to becoming rising star-doms, the dynamic duo knows how to celebrate the good times.

Florida Georgia Line ‘Cruise’ to big times

ADEEJA ANDERSONSTAFF WRITER

THURSDAY, JAN.31, 2013 PAGE 4ASUHERALD.COM

FORUM, Continuedstudents became con-

cerned with the university’s advancement in academia.

The administrators point-ed out that their number one goal is to finish the liberal arts building.

“Our first major push is to complete the construction on that building,” Cooksey said. “When it’s completed it will take some major stress off of the older classrooms and the larger number of students. We will still be using Wilson, but this new building will give us some much needed space.”

Naturally, the talk of build-ings brought up the older res-idence halls such as Kays, Ar-kansas and University Hall.

Logan Mustain, a fresh-man international business major of Benton, said that during his time as an Ori-entation Leader the biggest concern was dorm-life.

“The buildings suck, hon-estly,” Mustain said. “They’re old and they aren’t appealing to freshmen. They see the buildings they have to live in and they aren’t as excit-ed about coming to ASU for school.”

Stripling addressed the aging buildings, stating that building new residence halls is a much different process than an academic building.

“You are basically paying ‘rent’ to live in the buildings each semester,” Stripling said. “So, when it comes to build-ing new halls, we don’t have to ask the state for money. We can use the money that the students pay each year.”

While Stripling made the initial answer sound easy, he followed with a more settling statement.

“In reality, those build-ings house a lot of students, it would be extremely hard to build replacements that are as efficient,” Stripling said. “We know that they’re old, but we are constantly updat-ing the buildings and reno-vating them to make sure the students are comfortable and in a nice hall.”

Hudson added on to Stripling’s comments, stating that new residence halls are dependent on the university’s success. Although the univer-sity has added new residence halls for honors students, ROTC students and even a STEM Den, the university would be hard pressed to add a residence hall large enough to house the number of fresh-man that the current houses do.

“The residence halls are a different form of revenue, which is directly related to our student body,” Hudson

said. “To build additional res-idence halls, that requires our success as an institution. We have draw in, and keep, more students and we will continue to build new residence halls.

Jacob Yates, a junior busi-ness finance major of Jones-boro, tailed the discussion on Residence Life by asking if the university had considered a housing option for visitors.

“I was an Orientation Leader as well, and one prob-lem that we always saw was when students from out of town had a hard time find-ing a place to stay,” Yates said. “The hotels that are available are on the other side of town, I just think it would be easier if there was something close, if not on, our campus.”

Hudson took the group by surprise when he said he had been talking about this op-tion already.

“We’ve had very prelim-inary talks about the possi-bility of this, but that doesn’t mean we are definitely going to build this. Right now I’m just talking with different people about the possibili-ty of it,” Hudson addressed. “The state won’t support this, so we would have to do it ourselves. Hotels aren’t al-ways guaranteed to succeed.”

Hudson said a hotel on campus could bring in more revenue to the university once it pays itself off.

“It would be a great way to host visiting athletic teams, it would be an especially great tool for hosting speakers and anyone we are looking to add to our faculty,” Hudson said. “We are certainly entering into conversations, but I’m not sure yet where these con-versations are going to go.”

After an hour, the town hall forum was called to a close and students were asked to email the adminis-trators any specific questions they had, or if they wanted further details on any ques-tions already answered.

“The administrators thor-oughly enjoyed the session,” Petrus said the following day. “I got feedback from all of the administrators, and they all said they wanted to do it again.”

Petrus organized the fo-rum in an effort to somewhat mimic what former SGA President Adrian Everett had instated in the past.

“His format was a little dif-ferent, in that during his term he only had SGA administra-tion,” Petrus said. “But, I’m really glad that we were able to get some of the upper ad-ministration from the univer-sity.”

Petrus said his job as pres-ident is to get the students’ voices across to the admin-istrators, however it’s more difficult than it sounds.

“One person isn’t always enough to get everyone’s concerns voiced,” Petrus said. “Hudson understands that students don’t always get all of the answers they need. Our administration, thankfully, promotes transparency.”

Petrus said the SGA had hoped to do a town hall fo-rum in the fall semester, but with such a busy time, the planning never worked out.

“Seeing how successful this one was, I regret not do-ing that one in the fall,” Petrus said. “Every date that we tried to plan wouldn’t work with everyone’s schedule. It was a busy semester for everyone involved and so it never end-ed up working out. But, Hud-son has said that he definitely wants to do it again. It’s going to be a suggestion made to the next SGA president.”

Petrus said the most com-mon questions stemmed from academia and the new buildings and programs on campus.

“A lot of questions were directed to Cooksey,” Petrus said of the newly appointed provost. “She handled it well and answered every question sent her way.”

Petrus said SGA Secretary Courtney Bolin took care-ful notes on the forum, and would be sending them out to the administration soon.

“Every panelist took notes on what the students were saying, they’re a very pro-active team,” Petrus said. “I believe that open dialogue is what fuels the fire when it comes to our university suc-ceeding.”

SGA Vice President Aus-tin Copenhaver, a senior RTV Major of Jonesboro, said he’s thankful that the panelists were so willing to listen.

“I’m very appreciative that we have an administration dedicated to reaching out to students,” Copenhaver said. “They always want to satisfy our wants and needs as stu-dents.”

Petrus said he believes dis-cussions such as these will lead to an escalating bright future for ASU.

“In 10-15 years we won’t be the same university as we are now, just as we aren’t the same university we were four years ago,” Petrus said. “It’s discussions like these that re-ally allow the administration to see where change needs to happen.

ASU-Querétaro will be construct-ed as the center of a new development, Unnold said. “Poten-tially included in the larger development are residential areas, a shopping center, a bio-sciences re-search lab, schools, and recreational ar-eas, including a golf course,” Unnold said. “It’s an undertaking, but we have such strong support in Mexico and we are working so closely with the government and the entire educa-tion sector.”

With the sur-rounding businesses come new internship opportunities not found in Jonesboro. “ASU-Jonesboro stu-dents will be able to participate in the ASU-Querétaro pro-fessional internship program and obtain first hand, on-the-job, experience in some of Querétaro’s top international industries and en-terprises,” Unnold said. “Many of which are already expressing interest in providing in-ternship opportunities for students taking classes at ASU-Querétaro.”

Faculty and staff are already expressing their excitement for the project and how it will benefit all. “It’s an exciting opportunity, not only for ASU but for the Multicultural Center to look at the future of having students

from their campus to come here and be able to talk about their culture,” Blair said. “Stu-dents, faculty and staff can learn from them.”

The ultimate goal is to provide students the international education experience and a high quality education but to also become global citizens. “It’s going to be the first American university in Mexico. It’s going to the very first university in all of Central America,” Unnold said.

Xinzhong Zhao | Staff PhotographerYvonne Unnold, chair of world languages and cultures, is responsible for the ASU-Querétaro project.

PLANNING, Continued

THURSDAY, JAN. 31, 2013 PAGE 5

LOVE SPORTSContact Cara Prichard

cara.prichard@smail.astate.edu

For information about sports writingMeetings are held every Monday at 5 p.m. on the

second floor of the Communication Bldg. in the Herald office

ASUHERALD.COM

ZACH LOTTSTAFF WRITER

CARA PRICHARDSPORTS EDITOR

Caitlin LaFarlette | Photo EditorSophomore Jess Heeps-Eriksen focuses during an afternoon prac-tice. The Lady Red Wolves tennis team is starting the season off on the right foot following their 6-1 season opener win over the Uni-versity of Central Arkansas Sugar Bears in Little Rock on Jan. 24. The team’s win over UCA was their fourth-straight season opener win and third-straight match win against the Sugar Bears. The Lady Red Wolves are gearing up to take on the Lady Trojans of Troy on Sunday, Feb. 3 at 9:00 a.m. at the Ridgepointe Country Club.

The Arkansas State Lady Red Wolves shot 55 percent from the floor and staved off a second-half rally to earn their first seven-game win-ning streak in six years as they buried the South Al-abama Lady Jaguars 72-61 Wednesday night at the Con-vocation Center.

Sophomore guard Hanna Qedan led the Red Wolves with 16 points, while Ashley Olvera, Quinishia McDow-ell and Jalen O’Bannon all scored double figures as well.

ASU erupted at tipoff, quickly putting together a 17-2 run utilizing quick ball screens to provide easy looks.

The Red Wolves led by as many as 15 points in the first half, but the Jaguars exploit-ed ASU’s defensive strength – three-point defense – to climb back into the game. Ju-nior guard Meghan Dunn hit three three-points in the first half.

USA scored seven points in the last minute-and-a-half to narrow the deficit to eight, but O’Bannon hit a jump-er with .33 remaining to put ASU up 38-28 to end the half.

“You couldn’t ask for a better start. Offensively, our tempo, our pace was really good to start the game,” ASU head coach Brian Boyer said. “Defensively, one of our big keys was being aggressive and chasing them off the three-point line. We did that early enough, and it allowed us to get out and get our of-fense going to get a big lead.”

The teams traded blows for the first ten minutes of the second half, and South Alabama cut the lead to

eight, but a 10-0 ASU run in the middle minutes provided cushion against the Jaguars’ 8-0 run in the final two min-utes.

USA dominated on the boards, collecting 35 re-bounds, including 16 offen-sive ones, against the Red Wolves’ 24, a major factor in the Jaguars’ second-half rally, according to Qedan.

“We gave up a few crit-ical offensive rebounds to them, and that’s really their game. That’s what they need to score,” Qedan said. “They need second and third shots, and we gave up a few of those, and once we kind of tried to take that away and run in transition we got in better shape.”

ASU will return to the court against North Tex-as Sunday afternoon. The Mean Green defeated Lou-isiana-Lafayette Wednes-day night to keep the divi-sion-leading Red Wolves within two games.

“It’s another game that’s more important to us than it is to (our opponent) because it’s on our home court,” Boyer said. “As I keep saying, look at Feburary. This win streak is great, but this win streak is a must for us, and we need to continue it because we’re go-ing to spend a lot of time on the road in Feburary.”

“(The winning streak) is good right now, it’s just that we can’t relax. We can’t get comfortable with everything because we still have plenty of season left. We still have a lot of tough games coming up,” Qedan said.

The Red Wolves look to extend their streak to eight at 2:05 p.m. on Sunday at the Convocation Center.

Can’t stop the Lady Red Wolves

The Arkansas State University foot-ball team isn’t a stranger to change. The Red Wolves have endured the task of having four different head coaches in four years and while winning back-to back Sun Belt Conference champion-ships.

Beginning with the 2013-2014 football season, the school not only has to adapt to a new coach, but also to new conference opponents.

On Jan. 22, Sun Belt Conference Com-missioner Karl Benson announced Florida Atlantic University and Middle Tennessee State would be leaving the Sun Belt Con-ference for Conference USA, effective June 30, 2013.

It had been announced in November that the two teams would leave in 2014, but the two universities paid a reduced early exit fee of $700,000, allowing them to leave the SBC this year.

As a result of the early exit, ASU was left with one opening in its 12 game schedule for the upcoming season. The gap was filled when the athletic depart-ment announced it had closed a deal with the University of Missouri for the SEC for a home-and-home series.

ASU will travel to Columbus, Mo. on Sept. 28 to play Missouri for the first time since playing the Tigers at Arrowhead Stadium in 2005.

The addition of Missouri gives the Red Wolves five non-conference games for 2013, including visits to Auburn on Sept. 7 and Memphis on Sept. 21. ASU will host SWAC member Arkansas-Pine Bluff for the season opener on Aug. 31 and WAC member Idaho on Oct. 12.

It also was announced in 2012 that the University of North Texas and Florida In-ternational University would also leave for Conference USA before the start of the 2013 season.

The conference has already replaced North Texas and FIU with Georgia State University and Texas State University. They also added the University of Tex-as-Arlington last May to balance out the number of schools without football pro-grams within the conference.

This leaves the Sun Belt Conference with eight football programs for the 2013 season: Arkansas State, Georgia State, South Alabama, Louisiana-Monroe, Lou-isiana-Lafayette, Texas State, Troy and Western Kentucky.

“Each team will lose a conference game and there will be an imbalance of conference home and away games for each team,” Benson said. “But it’s only for one season and it shouldn’t really be a problem.”

Benson expressed there are many teams interested in joining the confer-ence at this time and they are hoping to announce two universities within the next

60 to 90 days to add for the 2014 season. “We’ve made it clear that we need to

replace Florida Atlantic and Middle Ten-nessee,” Benson said.

But the commissioner stressed they don’t want to rush the process by adding just any school and they want to be “very selective” with their choices.

“We want to make sure we get two of the very best out there and that they’ll fit geographically. We really want two qual-ity teams and we believe this conference has a bright future,” Benson said.

Since the Sun Belt Conference merged with the American South Conference in 1991, there have been a total of 13 univer-sities that have come and gone as mem-bers, including the four this year. Though this is over a span of 22 years, conferences like the SEC and the Big 10 have, for the most part, remained the same since then.

ASU is one of five original universi-ties that have remained in the conference since the merger, including the Universi-ty of South Alabama, Western Kentucky, Arkansas-Little Rock and University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

Since the SBC started sponsoring foot-ball in 2001, the Red Wolves will now be one of the three original football programs remaining in the conference alongside South Alabama and Louisiana-Monroe.

ASU will be joined by ULL and ULM as the longest serving members of the Sun Belt Conference.

COLE TURBEVILLE STAFF WRITER

Change of scenery for Sun Belt

Alejandra Hernandez | Staff PhotographerSenior Rachael Gittings and junior Ashley Rucker bowl during an afternoon practice. The Lady Red Wolves will compete this weekend in the Prairie View A&M Invitational.

The Arkansas State women’s bowling team is prepared to keep their momen-tum coming off a third place finish at the Mid-Winter Invitational that was held in Jonesboro Jan. 11. The Lady Red Wolves had the best record for the tournament.

Although winning the whole tourna-ment seems ideal to most sports, accord-ing to junior Ashley Rucker, the NCAA picks teams for nationals by looking at the record, not the number of tournaments won.

“I was hoping that we could have fin-ished higher, but we went 11-2 for the weekend which is the most important part,” Rucker said.

Their next competition will be the Pra-rie View A&M Invitational that is held in Arlington, Texas this weekend, Feb. 1-3. This tournament is a little bit different

than any other they have competed in this season. Senior Rachael Gittings thinks the team really needs to bring their “A-game.”

“This tournament specifically is im-portant because we have East Coast teams traveling to this invitational,” Gittings said. “Luckily we have the opportunity this season to be able to see them more, but knowing they’re attending makes this a crucial tournament to perform our best and work as a team.”

Head coach Justin Kostick, who grad-uated from the University of Nebraska, is excited that his team will be competing against his alma mater.

“There are six teams at this tournament that made the national championship last year including us, so this is a very solid field, but I always like going up against my alma mater Nebraska,” Kostick said. “I think our players like to go up against them too because they know I’m from there.”

The best way to stay on top of things is to practice consistency and model pos-sible situations to better the performance reaction, or at least that’s the case for the Lady Red Wolves.

“We focus on fundamentals and qual-ity shots during practice. We also like to put ourselves in pressure situations by doing in team competitions as well as cre-ating scenarios on any level is a way we mentally prepare ourselves for what could possibly come,” Gittings said.

The team is compiled of nine women who have very impressive backgrounds. Rachael Gittings, Ashley Rucker and Sar-ah Lokker are members of the junior team USA and Rucker and Lokker both have a chance to represent the country in Puerto Rico at the Pabcon Games.

The team competes this Friday, Feb. 1 through Sunday, Feb. 3 in Arlington, Tex-as.

Bowling team prepares to beat the best

HOWL

The flu outbreak is more severe in 2012-13 than in previous flu seasons. Anyone can get the flu, but pregnant women, people 65 and older, people with disabilities, peo-ple with chronic health con-ditions and travelers and peo-ple living abroad are more susceptible to it because of their weak immune system. College students are also at high risk to be affected by the flu.

Influenza, usually called the flu, is an infectious viral disease that affects the up-per and/or lower respiratory tract and can be spread by coughs, sneezes or nasal se-cretions.

Influenza viruses are al-ways changing It is import-ant to get a flu shot each year so the body can develop im-munity to the most recent strains of the virus.

It takes 10 days to two weeks after getting a flu shot for the antibodies that pro-vide protection against the flu viruses to develop in the body.

For the flu vaccine to pro-tect a person depends on his or her health and age. Usu-ally, the flu shot works best in older children and young healthy adults. Vaccinated

people who do get the flu will have less severe symptoms and shorter time of being sick compared to those who are not vaccinated. Stepha-nie Benoit, a sophomore un-decided major of Jonesboro said, “I did not get the flu shot and do not plan to because I do not like needles and can just treat myself with cough syrup if I do get the flu.”

Laura Carlisle, an Ad-vanced Practice Nurse and assistant director at the Stu-dent Health Center said, “College students’ immune systems are fully developed but they are more prone to getting the flu due to close contact in classes and living in dorms, and students un-der stress does not help their health either.”

The Student Health Cen-ter and Student Nurses As-sociation offered the flu shot for two days during the first week of classes of this semes-ter.

“It was a good turnout compared to the flu clinic that was in October when students had to come to the health center,” Carlisle said.

Flu shots will be given at the center until the end of the flu season. The flu shot is $15 and will only be charged to students’ accounts.

Right now the center is out of the vaccine but has placed

an order for more. The cen-ter will inform students when vaccines are restocked in the Health & Wellness section of the A-State Daily Digest.

If students do not want to wait for vaccines to be ac-cessible in the health center, there are flu vaccines avail-able at local health units, doctor’s office, pharmacies, and drug stores in town. The costs of the flu shot at these places are $17-$32.

Most of the places ac-cept all health insurance and walk-ins are welcome. The least expensive place to the get the flu shot is at Target’s pharmacy.

Many experts suggest good hand washing for at least one minute with warm soap and water, especial-ly after coughing or sneez-ing, covering the nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing, using alcohol-based hand cleaners when soap and water are not available, and avoid touching eyes, nose, or mouth.

The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) is getting large numbers of cases of the flu and hospital care from all around the state. “Since coming back to school for this semester there have been twenty people with positive cases of the flu on campus,” Carlisle said.

THURSDAY, JAN. 31, 2013ASUHERALD.COM PAGE 6

JONATHAN MILLERSTAFF WRITER

Protect yourself against flu Shooter awareness tips offered

Arkansas State University is home to 14,000 students who come from all over the country and the world. While students focus on their studies throughout the semester, they should also be aware of their own safety as well.

Last year there were 10 reported school shootings across the country, and this year there have already been seven.

Though no campus ex-pects a shooting to ever oc-cur, the possibility of one happening is possible. It is very important for students and faculty to have an idea of what they would do if the situation were to ever occur.

During every student’s First Year Experience class at ASU, it is mandatory that each student attend a brief-ing by the University Police Department on being pre-pared for a shooter situation. This seminar is held to pres-ent lifesaving information that each and every student needs to know. Along with this briefing, the UPD have listed a checklist and a video on what to do if a shooter is present.

The active shooter check-list consists specific areas

for a student to focus on if a shooting occurs, such as se-curing immediate area and contacting authorities.

These areas have an ex-planation and a break down of how to carry out these instructions on the websites link.

If it is known that a shoot-er has entered the building you should work together, “lock the door, spread out, turn out the lights, grab a book or computer that can be used as protection, and stay quiet” said Lt. Jared Long of the UPD.

Though it is unlikely ASU will experience a shooter drill on campus, the UPD train for these types of sit-uations. The student’s role, if this situation occurs, is to secure the immediate area (such as the classroom) and contact authorities as soon as they can.

On March 24, 1988, Craig-head County experienced a school shooting at Westside Middle School. Andrew Golden and Mitchell John-son, then 13 and 11, pulled the fire alarm to lure their classmates outside where they then fired upon the stu-dents outside of the school. They killed one teacher, four students and wounded 10 others. They were both sen-tenced to confinement until

the age of 21, which is the maximum sentence available under Arkansas law for Juve-nile offenders.

Preparation for a shooter scenario occurred at the Val-ley View School district as faculty and staff participated in a shooter drill on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. They had someone act as a shooter and break in unannounced into one of the many school buildings. The faculty and staff at Valley View were briefed beforehand with spe-cific instructions on what to do when the disaster scenar-io took place.

Terry Terrell, a sixth-grade math and science teacher at Valley View said, “this drill was designed to be very realistic with ac-tors, guns and procedures or guidelines to follow in the given situation. When the SWAT team came to rescue me from my closet, I could not help but scream because I was so nervous when they opened the door.”

Arkansas State University police take this seriously and urge students to learn how to protect themselves just in case they need to one day.

The tools are available for students to be aware on how to protect themselves and know what to do in case an emergency ever arises.

JENNIFER WELLSSTAFF WRITER

Caitlin LaFarlette |Photo EditorStudents try out swing dancing Monday night at Michael Guenther’s ballroom dance class in the HPESS.

A

Paige Walker |Staff PhotographerHannah Wright, a senior biology major of Calico Rock, takes her foul shots at the intramural games on Tuesday at the Red Wolf Center.

Caitlin LaFarlette|Photo EditorPat Glascock, associate director of counseling services, speaks with students Tuesday afternoon about healthy ways to handle grief as part of her Lessons From Lions! presentation.

Caitlin LaFarlette|Photo EditorMegan Michel, a sophomore business management major of Bentonville, learns the swing dance Monday evening at the ballroom dance club meeting.

Paige Walker|Staff PhotographerBlake Carter (left) passes to Hunter Saffell (right) during the intramural games on Tuesday at the Red Wolf Center. Carter’s team, Nine25, won 51-21 over their opponent.

Students participate in a variety of events including intramurals, dance class and sessions offered by Counseling Services.

of a Week