Facebook: ASUHerald Twitter: @ASUHerald/@ASUHeraldSports YouTube: ASUHerald

ARTS & FEATURES FEATURES OPINION SPORTS

THE HERALDInforming Arkansas State University since 1921

Vol. 89 Issue 24 www.asuherald.com Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010

PAGE 3 PAGE 6 PAGE 2 PAGE 4

Student-teacher relationships shouldn’t be underrated

‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’

‘Dear Mrs. Caraway, Dear. Mr. Kays’ Red Wolves look to sink Navy

Only @ asuherald.com

Results from Monday’s poll question:

Do you think bullying is a problem on campus?

Link to Sarah Campbell’s international student blog, ‘Bring ASU The World,’ where students can share photos and experiences!

Online25% Definitely

42% No

33% I don’t know

Samuel G. SmithOnline Editor

Three proposals deal-ing with issues related to ASU’s involvement with online education and the recent news that ASU ad-ministrators held positions in areas that would possi-bly pose a conflict of inter-est are being presented at Friday’s Faculty Senate meeting.

The first proposal, sub-mitted by professor of his-tory Alex Sydorenko, cites several grievances related to the involvement of the ASU system with private online education company Academic Partnerships, formerly Higher Educa-tion Holdings. The pro-posal document cites a lack of shared governance in decision-making, a lack of student choice in course of-ferings and a “web of inter-twined interests,” among others.

Sydorenko declined to be interviewed.

William Maynard, as-sociate professor of history and former faculty senator, said this proposal was a faculty collaboration with advice from the American Association of University Professors. According to its website, aaup.org, its purpose is to “advance aca-demic freedom and shared governance, to define fun-damental professional values and standards for higher education, and to ensure higher education’s contribution to the com-mon good.”

Maynard said the AAUP provides legal resources to faculty and a national perspective to events and issues on individual cam-puses.

The proposal calls to cre-ate a Faculty Senate com-mittee to review the ethical

concerns in the partnership ASU has with AP and to enact a moratorium, a tem-porary ban on activity, on any new involvement with the company or with any other “for-profit private” business until the existing relationship is “fully inves-tigated.”

“I think the bottom line here is the institution is be-coming more interested in money than it is in educa-tion,” said Bill Rowe, pro-fessor of art. “There may be laws broken here.”

According to the propos-al, for each course devel-oped with AP the depart-ment chair for that course currently receives $1,000, faculty members devel-oping the course receive $4,500 and departments receive bonus payments of $500.

Beverly Boals Gilbert, Faculty Senate president and professor of teacher education, said faculty compensation for develop-ing online courses is fair.

“Historically, we have been doing that since we began putting courses on-line,” Boals-Gilbert said. “In addition to your regu-lar teaching load, that is very time consuming.”

Jack Zibluk, professor of journalism and Faculty Senate president-elect, pointed out faculty only re-ceive compensation if they develop online courses. Faculty members devel-oping traditional courses taught in the classroom receive no extra compensa-tion for their work.

The second proposal, au-thored by professor of com-munication disorders and faculty senator Mike Mc-Daniel, deals with faculty primacy and would give faculty and colleges the op-portunity to vote on

See SENATE, Page 5

Faculty Senate to take actionProposals drafted in response to conflict of interest claims, distance learning

“There may be laws broken here.”

-Bill Rowe, professor of art

Michaela KaberlineStaff Writer

New and revised system policies and issues around campus were discussed on Tuesday at the Student Gov-ernment Association meeting. Patrolman and crime pre-vention officer Tracy Simpson started the meeting off with a campus update.

“More cameras at Collegiate Park have been put up,” Simpson said. “More cameras are still to be put up around that area. We are still working on the lighting issues on Banks Street and getting lights in front of the Red W.O.L.F. Center, especially around crosswalk areas.”

With the holidays coming up, Simpson wanted to let students know that if they are not staying on campus they need to take valuable items home.

“A lot of break-ins happen during holiday vacations,” Simpson said. “You think everyone is gone home, but we still have a few students that stay on campus during breaks. Make sure that the door to your room is locked and try to take all your valuable items home so you won’t have to worry about it being stolen over the holidays.”

The new ASU System proposal for Persona Non Grata [PNG] was the next big topic discussed. According to a handout that was passed out at the meeting, the purpose of this system is to prohibit persons who have exhibited behavior detrimental to the university community from being present in any system locations and at any system functions.

This policy is in addition to and does not supersede student conduct procedures or employee disciplinary pro-cedures currently in place on any campus. The policy is said to be in effect beginning Dec. 3, but the date is still pending.

“This new policy means that no matter which branch of ASU you go to, whether it’s Jonesboro, Newport, Moun-tain Home and so on, you can be kicked out of all the ASU campuses,” SGA President Adrian Everett said. “So if a student gets the Persona Non Grata status in Jonesboro, they will not be allowed on the Newport or the other ASU branch campuses.”

A student can be labeled with the Persona Non Grata status if they demonstrate detrimental behaviors such

See SGA, Page 5

SGA discusses proposals, holiday safety

Lindsey BlakelyStaff Writer

International Education Week, sponsored by the Inter-national Student Center, came to a close Thursday with a talent and fashion show called “Parade of Nations”.

Elisabeth Chan, the academic coordinator for the In-ternational Student Center, said the themed week began on Monday with a conversation and game night.

“Anyone who is already involved with conversation partners came and people who weren’t involved, but in-terested in the program,” she said. “We had games and food for all of the international students and other stu-dents on campus.”

Tuesday consisted of the international café. Individu-als and groups brought presentations that represented their international experiences.

“The students were able to express their travels and what they have done as international students,” Chan said. “We also had food and drinks for the participants and visitors.”

On Wednesday night, the organization put together a movie night.

The students watched the Australian film “Look Both Ways” in the auditorium of the Student Union.

Chan said the biggest event, however, was Thursday’s talent and fashion show.

“The ‘Parade of Nations’ was in Centennial Hall from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.,” she said.

“There were dancers wearing traditional clothing, singers and poetry. The students who were manning dif-ferent posters also wear special clothing, most are from their country.”

Chan said her favorite part of the week is that it gave students a venue to show their culture.

“It really gives students a time to talk about their ex-periences and what they’ve done,” Chan said.

See DIVERSITY, Page 5

Casey RinaldiStaff Writer

The American Recov-ery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009 and was designed as an economic stimulus pro-gram that would direct in-vestments to the states for a number of years. ASU is currently receiving some of the funds of this act in order to improve the ASUJ campus.

According to recovery.arkansas.gov, the act’s four main goals are, “To preserve and create jobs to maintain economic activ-ity, to provide investments in technological advances in science and health, to invest in transportation,

environmental protection, and other long-term infra-structure improvements and to stabilize state and local budgets.”

The site also states that, “currently, the state of Arkansas is expected to receive $3.17 billion in one-time, additional federal revenues, as administered by state government, over the life of the Recovery Act.”

Signs have been posted on some campus buildings hailing the implementa-tion of the ARRA.

Al Stoverink, assistant vice chancellor for Fa-cilities Management, ex-plained how the act would influence the ASU cam-pus, in addition to how the funds were obtained.

“Dr. Potts and Dr. How-

ard led an effort in col-laboration with the college deans, Student Affairs di-vision and the Finance and Administration division to brainstorm and compile fa-cility needs and prioritize those in conformance

See STIMULUS, Page 5

Campus making renovations with stimulus money

Beth BrightStaff Writer

On Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Adminis-tration (FDA) sent warn-ing letters to manufactur-ers of alcoholic beverages containing caffeine stimu-lants, stating the combina-tion of the two ingredients are unsafe.

For years people have mixed alcohol with caffein-ated drinks and with new “high octane” beverages, like Four Loko, causing more cases of alcohol poi-soning and even death on campuses across the na-tion, it is important for Ar-kansas State students to understand the concerns surrounding such behav-iors.

Amber Martin, associ-ate counselor for ASU, said

she recently received infor-mation about Four Loko. “Whenever I get this kind of information, it gener-ally means the trend has reached our area and after reading up on Four Loko, I’m concerned for anyone

who will try this,” Martin said.

Retailers and health of-ficials are concerned about the increase in binge drink-ing that this drink may cause. Four Loko contains

See BINGE, Page 5

Caffeine-stimulating alcoholic beveragesmay be unsafe, lead to binge drinking

Campus celebrates international diversitywith week of events

Shan Huang/Herald

Siddique Aboobucker, a molecular bioscience major, talked about the Islamic community Tuesday at the International Cafe in Centennial Hall. Students exchanged cultural food, drinks and talked about international

Emily Speck/HeraldBeverages like Four Loko, pictured above, combine caffeine with al-

coholic beverages. The FDA sent manufacturers of such beverages let-ters Wednesday warning them the beverages are dangerous.

Abdullah Raslan/HeraldKylie Hornback from Jonesboro

stops to read the American Recov-ery & Reinvestment Act posted on the side of the Business Building Wednesday. ASU is currently re-ceiving funding from the program to renovate areas of campus.