Friday, April 8, 2011

Vol. 77 No. 25 asurampage.com

Pg. 2 A Day Without Shoes

Pg. 5 Dry campus vs. wet campus

Pg. 4 Talent Show

Rainy day funds to not benefit the university

Megan EllisStaff Writer

Students may see an increase of up to 9.9 per-cent of their tuition and fees on their Fall 2011 school bill.

According to a news release, if tuition and fees increase for the 2011-2012 school year, the increase will be no more than 9.9 percent.

ASU faces a possible $5.5 million reduction in the current budget.

M i c h a e l Reid, vice president of Finance and Administra-tion, said ASU is working on budget cuts, but they are trying to mini-mize its impact on stu-dents and personnel.

“We’ve been very re-strictive on hiring over the last six months,” Reid said. “We have a lot of va-cant positions out there that we just haven’t been filling.”

The Legislatures deci-sion to dip into the Eco-nomic Stabilization fund does not benefit higher education, Reid said.

“The money from the fund will benefit public education and health-care,” said Trent Thomas, Representative Drew Dar-by’s chief of staff.

ASU is currently

ranked in the middle among other universities.

“Our intention is that we don’t want to see our

tuition [costs] place us out of range with any of the other schools,” Reid said.

The university will look at every aspect, in-cluding class size, appro-priate increase of tuition and fees, and decrease in section offerings.

“How much can you push in each area without really impacting the edu-cational experience of our students,” Reid said. “The last thing we want to see is the educational experi-ence diminish.”

The primary goal is to be more efficient and the

last resort will be po-sition cuts and a raise in tuition fees.

“For the most part, we are looking at what we can do to be more efficient,” Reid said. “It’s just a little bit of everything to try to come up with that difference.”

Reid said pro-posed budgets may

not be decided until late this summer and tuition rates are likely to be de-cided in mid-May.

Budget cuts: Up to 9.9 percent in tuition and fees

Student vote: Concealed hand-guns voted down

Graphic by Tim Lester

Andy AtterburySports Co-Editor

The No. 2-ranked ‘Belle softball team went 3-2 at the Lone Star Con-ference Crossover Tour-nament in San Angelo April 1 through 3.

On the opening day, the ‘Belles (30-5) (6-2) were shut out for the second time all season against No. 3 Midwest-ern State.

The girls rebounded and defeated Southeast-ern Oklahoma 6-3 in the second Friday game. Sophomore shortstop Chelsey Walters and freshman left fielder Morgan Spearman both had two RBIs in the win.

“We aren’t playing real well right now, but we certainly don’t need to hit the panic button yet,” Head Coach Travis Scott said.

Central Oklahoma dropped the ‘Belles 9-1 in their only Saturday matchup.

“It was a long week-end,” junior pitcher Claire Molina said. “It sucks that we lost twice but it’s a humbling expe-rience.”

The ‘Belles came back Sunday and beat Camer-on University 12-11 with help from senior center-fielder Brittany Astle’s two home runs and five RBIs.

Molina pitched her second complete game of the tournament and struck out nine in the ‘Belles’ 6-3 win over East

Central University in the final game.

“[Sunday] was a big day for us,” Scott said. “We were able to bounce back after playing [poor-ly] the first few days to get some wins. We hit the ball hard today, which will hopefully get our confidence up going into next week.”

Eastern New Mexico rolls into San Angelo Fri-day for a three-game LSC series against the ‘Belles. The Friday night game is slated for 7 p.m. and Saturday’s double header starts at 1 p.m.

“We work hard ev-ery day,” Molina said. “We’re a little exhausted right now. We just need to find that extra moti-vation to keep us going even harder.”

Photo by Ashley RomoSophomore Kacie Easley reads signs for the pitch Friday against Southeastern Oklahoma.

‘Belles search for motiva-tion after shut out, reboundSoftball: 3-2 at tournament

Scott DykowskiEditor-in-Chief

Hector Romo and Vincent Perez won the vote for student body president and vice presi-dent Wednesday night by 57.5 percent.

Eight hundred and eighty-two students vot-ed.

Perez said he was pumped about winning and ready to move for-ward.

Romo plans to do that by completing the projects he started as vice president with former Student Body President Austin Osmanski.

In this election, 67.4 percent of the students who voted chose to not

allow concealed hand-guns on campus. The newly elected student senators will write their recommendation to Rep-resentative Drew Darby, Romo said.

The duo plans to fill the senate seats, a goal Romo set during his ten-ure as vice president.

Romo said they plan to continue to increase SGA’s transparency and promote the True Blue campaign.

“Come talk to me whenever,” Romo said. He said he also plans to fill the student spots in the Student Fee Commit-tee and other such com-mittees.

“The students in those positions are good students, but they aren’t the type of students we need,” Romo said. “We want outgoing students.”

He said he wants stu-

dents to understand why they pay those fees.

The student body voted in 12 senators, and the new student senate will meet Monday at 5 p.m. with President of the Senate Vincent Perez. A single senator needed five votes to take office.

Will Boaz and Laura Perez won 34.1 percent of the student vote with 293 votes.

Sixty-nine students voted for Jessica Shepard and Will Franke, making up eight percent of the vote.

Romo, Perez electedAmendmentsConcealed handgunsYes 32.6 percentNo 67.4 percent

Secession line Yes 85.4 percentNo 14.6 percent

GPA requirementsYes 82.1 percentNo 17.9 percent

A majority of the students voted against allowing conceald handguns on campusThis allows SGA to estab-lish a line of secession if the president step down, such as last FallRequires the candidates possess a 2.5, instead of a 2.0, GPA to run for presi-dent or vice president.

Voting trendsBoaz

Romo

Shepard

.

.

.Comparing Elections

“How much can you push in each area without really impacting the educational experience of our students? The last thing we want to see is [that] diminish.”

Michael Reid, vice president of Finance and

Administration

The Ram Page welcomes submissions for the Life: In Focus Photo Contest from ASU students, faculty and staff.

The staff judges will choose the top two photographs in each category. The Ram Page will publish the winners April 22.

Artistic illustrAtion: Create a graphic using digital ed-iting software, or create an image of original work by hand.

E-mail to rampage@angelo.edu

Hand-deliver to the Ram Page office, B324 on the third floor of the Por-ter Henderson Library.

nAture/Architecture: Capture an image of animals, plant life, scenery or architecture.study AbroAd:

Submit an image you have taken from an ASU study abroad program. Include the place and semester.

Submit:Categories:Photo Contest12

Deadline: April 18, 5 p.m.

Marissa Williams, President, BSA

Major: Interdisciplinary Studies-Higher Education for Student Development/Sport and Recreation AdministrationClassification: Graduate StudentFrequented website: Facebook and The Chronicles of Higher Education (looking for jobs)Music: Hip Hop & R&BHobbies: Scrapbooking, CookingRestaurant: Papasito’s Cantina and Cork and Pig

Black Student AlliancePurpose: To increasing the awareness, understand-ing, and appreciation of the black culture on campusand in the community.Events: Recruitment of new student leadersEligibility: Membership is open to all who are willingto be active membersAdvice: “Get involved, voice your opinions, and stand up to make a positive change on campus,” Williams said.

Friday, April 8, 2011Page 2 Campus News

Phot

o by

Ash

ley

Rom

o

BSA

Williams

with

Marissaand

Megan EllisStaff Writer

Sophomore Dana Choi will take over as the Ram Page’s editor-in-chief this Fall.

“My main concern is just main-taining the Ram Page’s standard of accuracy,” Choi said.

Choi said there will be inevitable changes with the paper, but no plans are in the works yet.

“I don’t necessarily see changes [now] but with new staff, a new year, and new ideas there are definitely going to be changes,” Choi said.

Although there are no detailed plans of change, Choi said, a new staff will hopefully provide im-

provement with new ideas.“The biggest thing I’m focusing

on now is finding new staff mem-bers,” Choi said.

Choi is currently the copy editor at the Ram Page. She began working for the paper in Fall 2010 as a staff writer. She had previous experience working with her high school news-paper and yearbook.

“I was really excited when I heard I got the position,” Choi said. “I put a lot of time and effort into the Ram Page and I’m excited to have the opportunity to become more in-volved in it.”

Choi said she wishes that more people would read the Ram Page.

“I would like for the Ram Page to be what it should be: one of the primary sources for news and infor-mation on campus,” she said.

Photo by Pam Belcher2011-2012 Ram Page Editor-in-Chief Dana Choi will start work in May.

Photo by Ashley RomoStudents go barefoot in support of TOMS ‘A Day Without Shoes.’

Scott DykowskiEditor-in-Chief

A group on campus will take donations next week to help with food shortage issues to sup-port the victims of the earthquake that hit Japan Thursday, and the earth-quake and tsunami that hit last month.

“Oh my word, we have to help,” junior Au-brey Sloan said. “There’s no question. The people there are already in dire need and so many people are displaced – there are people who are going to starve to death.”

The students travel-ing to Europe to study biology July 6 through August 6 plan to take do-nations in the Houston Harte University Center, the cafeteria and along-side the Tri-Beta blood drive from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The Center for Interna-tional Studies requires each group to commit to com-munity service that helps with hunger – most groups help locally, volunteering at Meals on Wheels, Meals for the Elderly and the Soup Kitchen.

“I think the effects

from the earthquake and tsunami that occurred in Japan are tragic,” said Dr. Robert Dowler, trip fac-ulty sponsor. “The death toll is now over 12,000, with an estimated 15,000 still missing.”

Sloan said she takes for granted how easy it is to stop and buy Starbucks or McDonald’s while Ja-pan has very little.

“We do have it good here, and when we have tragedies in our country, we help,” she said. “Peo-ple are still volunteering in New Orleans – so why not in Japan? Nobody on campus has made an ef-fort to do anything for relief for that. I’m glad we’re able to forerun it.”

Senior Austin Osman-ski said they chose to help Japan because, as a Study Abroad group, interna-tional issues are as relevant as local issues to them.

“The radioactivity has affected the crops, and they can’t eat simple things like milk or let-tuce,” Osmanksi said.

The group is sending the funds to Japan via the American Red Cross, Dowler said.

“It's important for students to understand what is happening on the other side of the world and do what they can to help,” he said.

Study Abroad: International issues relevant

Goals: Fill staff, in-crease readers

Mile in their shoes: TOMS and AMAS collaborate

New editor to maintain accuracy

Japan faces earthquake Thursday, group to raise money to fight hunger

Barefoot walksraise awareness

Mark McDanielStaff Writer

Students, faculty and community mem-bers gathered Tuesday to walk a mile in the shoes of those who are less for-tunate, or rather, a mile without shoes.

Many students recog-nized the annual TOMS

One Day Without Shoes in the University Cen-ter, an event sponsored by TOMS Shoes to raise awareness of the need for shoes in Third World countries.

“The purpose of this event was to encourage students to learn that we are lucky enough to live in a society where we have money to buy shoes,” Multicultural Pro-grams Specialist Adriana Balcorta said. “But not ev-erybody is as lucky as us.”

T h e event be-gan in the U n i v e r -sity Center with the s h o w i n g of a TOMS documen-tary and some shoe-less activi-ties, and once it fin-ished, over 45 students w a l k e d from the UC to the c a f e t e r i a and back b a r e f o o t ,

AMAS member sopho-more Isaias Martinez said.

“While we walked, we carried two buckets of water and passed them around so everyone could experience what a child has to go through in less fortunate countries,” Mar-tinez said. “We’re glad that everybody who par-ticipated was able to go through what a child has to in another country.”

Many students dis-covered that the walk was a little harder than they thought it would be.

“We just walked for 20 minutes, and I had my socks on, but you could still feel the rocks on your feet and it hurt a little bit,” sophomore Faviola Di-mas said. “The buckets of water were really heavy too.”

Balcorta said although this was an AMAS-sup-ported event, the new TOMS club planned and organized it. The TOMS organization was ap-proved by the SGA, but is still waiting for approval from the Center for Stu-dent Involvement, so in order for the event to go forward as planned, it

had to be sponsored by AMAS.

“There was a student interested in starting a TOMS club, but she didn’t get all the paperwork in on time and AMAS decid-ed to join in support,” Bal-corta said, “because that’s what AMAS is all about, supporting diversity and supporting things that we are not used to.”

According to the TOMS website, Black My-coskie founded TOMS Shoes in 2006 when he saw the extreme poverty and poor health condi-tions during a trip to Ar-gentina, as well as chil-dren walking without shoes. One Day Without Shoes is the day in April TOMS asks people to go without shoes to raise awareness of children growing up barefoot and the impact a pair of shoes can have on a child’s life.

In its third year, people of all ages got in-volved, according to the TOMS website. In 2010, over a quarter of a million people went barefoot at over 1,600 global barefoot events.

Scott DykowskiEditor in-Chief

Students put out a fire on campus Wednesday, and police put a different fire Tuesday.

Students Jerica Horn, Jennifer Valdivia and Amy Fogleman put out a fire Wednesday around 12:30 p.m. at Centennial Village under a tree by Parking Lot 2 – the University Po-lice Department believes a discarded cigarette started the fire.

UPD believes a weed-eater struck a rock and

caused a fire at the LeGrand Multi-Sports Complex Tuesday, which UPD extin-guished at about 2 p.m.

Sandra Graves, athlet-ics secretary, reported the fire when she saw smoke, Chief of University Police James Adams said.

Both fires were quick-ly extinguished and no one received injuries, Ad-ams said.

“However, given the fire danger and wind, it could have quickly spread,” he said.

Damages remain under $100.

Students douse fireFlames: Two fires ignited on campus

See photos and extended coverage online

at asurampage.com

Friday, April 8, 2011

Dana ChoiCopy Editor

ASU’s graduating class might anticipate some dif-ficulty in finding jobs in San Angelo, but nursing and teaching jobs are not as limited as expected.

NursingA lot of skilled nursing

facilities rely on Medicaid and Medicare, said Susan Wilkinson, associate pro-fessor and Department of Nursing head. Cuts in those programs’ budgets will result in layoffs and fewer available positions.

“We’ll have to wait and see what the Con-gress does and what the state legislature does in terms of a budget,” she said.

It will not be too dif-ficult for graduates from the nursing program to find jobs because of the wide variety of available nursing jobs, Wilkinson said. However, some of them will not find their ideal jobs immediately.

“Two years ago, they would get the job of their dreams,” Wilkinson said.

Though graduates still get jobs, the jobs they find may not fit the type of nursing they want to do, she said.

There seem to be many jobs, but also a lot of com-

petition, said senior Mor-gan Vickery, a second-year nursing student.

“Most of the students here seem to have a job at Shannon or Community,” Vickery said, “but we haven’t heard back [from Austin] yet. There’s just so much competition go-ing on.”

Last spring, all stu-dents in the graduating class had a job by the time they graduated, Wilkin-son said.

Shannon Medical Center, one of the major medical institutions that hires ASU graduates, hired 48 nurses this year, said Nurse Recruiter Gil-lian Hughston. It hired 41 graduate nurses, most of whom were ASU gradu-ates, and 7 licensed voca-tional nurses. Last year, it hired 56 nurses.

The number is slightly lower than last year’s, but not by much, Hughston said. The medical center initially expected to hire 20 to 25, but in the end it needed 48 nurses to com-plete the staff.

“We’re still very care-ful about staying lean and not hiring too many nurs-es we might not need,” she said.

About 100 nurses will graduate from ASU this year, Wilkinson said.

“I’m sure not ev-erybody will get a job in San Angelo, but not everybody in our class comes from San Ange-lo,” she said.

There is not much competition for ASU’s nursing program in this region, Wilkinson said.

“We’re the only RN program between here and Abilene...and south, from here to San Anto-nio,” she said. “[ASU graduates] don’t have to compete with other graduates right around the same area, so they have less competition for jobs.”

If less jobs become available, employers will probably look for com-petitive grades and expe-rience as aides, assistants or techs, she said.

Vickery said she hopes to intern to learn about how certain facili-ties operate before look-ing for a job at an inten-sive care unit.

“I feel like they want you to get experience first and then move to the more intense units in hospitals with more criti-cal patients,” she said.

EducationWhile there is a va-

riety of nursing jobs, fu-ture educators may not find a job immediately because of state budget cuts.

“Right now, we’re in a very interesting and dif-ferent time in the school districts,” said Jamie Highsmith, public infor-mation officer for San An-gelo Independent School District. “That is because of the state budget crisis

here in Texas.”Highsmith said these

are the most severe bud-get cuts she has seen in her 29 years of business.

“We don’t know how much less money we’ll get from the state,” she said.

However, Highsmith said SAISD expects to lose about 10 percent of its op-erating budget.

SAISD typically hires about 100 people every year, she said.

“That might be a

little bit less this year,” Highsmith said, “but we don’t know because our budget gets approved [by the school board] in August and we’ll still be doing a little bit of hir-ing even then.”

SAISD will not renew 29 contracts this year because of budget cuts, Highsmith said.

“It makes sense that we would be hiring that many less than 100,” she said.

However, 25 current teachers might retire or choose to not return to the school district this year, Highsmith said. Those teachers will have to the end of June to decide whether or not to stay.

SAISD will still definitely hire many new teachers this year, though not as much as usual, she said.

“I think any ASU graduates who are inter-ested in working for us should definitely send in their applications,” she said. “We certainly will be hiring new teachers.”

Highsmith said there is no specific field SAISD wants to fill the most.

“There’s not a certain area that’s going to be more prominent than an-other one in hiring,” she said. “It will be just ‘teach-ers as needed.’”

SAISD has 17 elemen-tary schools, three middle schools, one ninth-grade campus and two high schools, Highsmith said.

Jobs not as limited as expectedNursing, teach-ing jobs: Less, but available

Photo Illustration by Ashley Romo

FeaturesPage 4 Friday, April 8, 2011

Students draw entertainment-thirsty crowd

28th Annual Student Talent Show

Mariah PowellFeatures Editor

Filled with stepping, singing, strumming and laughing, the 28th Annual Student Talent

Show took place Tuesday in the C.J. Da-vidson Center.

“The hardest part of putting the talent show together was picking

the contestants,” said sophomore Karina Maldonado, entertain-ment chairperson of UCPC. “We

had a lot of auditions which made choosing difficult.”

Ten acts made it past audi-tions and into the talent show.

Senior Jamie Westfall was the last of the perform-ers, and she won the crowd singing “It’s Raining Men”

by The Weather Girls.She said she knew it

would be fun and some-thing different for her.

“It’s a song I’ve al-ways wanted to sing, but I have always been scared to be-

cause I normally stick to country,” Westfall said. “I grew up with my

parents playing it, so I decided

to go through with it.”

Westfall said she has been

s inging s i n c e

s h e w a s able

to talk.“It was fun to win,” Westfall said. “This is

only the second talent show I have done since I’ve been here and the second talent show I have won in my life.”

Before, she could not participate in the tal-ent shows because she was in UCPC or too in-volved with theatre.

Westfall won $150 in prize money, which she said would go toward her rent.

Freshman Zachary Mosley came in second place with his piano skills and rendition of “End of the Road” by Boyz II Men, and Jazmin Williams in third with “Fallin’” by Alicia Keys.

“All the performers were good,” Interna-tional Student Service Counsel Meghan Pace said. “I was impressed and actually had a hard time trying to decide which was better.”

This is her second year judging the talent show.

“This year’s show was better than last year’s,” Pace said. “These performers were better than the overall performance we had last year.”

She said all the students did an excellent job this year.

“It takes a lot of courage to got up there and perform, and I wish I was as brave as they are,” Pace said.

Comedian Ronnie Jordan was the special emcee of the night.

He said the best part of coming to ASU was seeing new talent on the rise.

“I like to see new dreams flourishing,” Jor-dan said. “I did not do any talent shows in col-lege, but I ended up doing what I loved to do.”

Jordan said he has been a comedian for ten years.

“I would definitely keep Rio Valesquez [doing stand-up comedy] on the radar because he was pretty funny,” Jordan said. “He knew his crowd. Outside comedians do not know the local stuff, but Rio used all of his tools to be funny to his audience. There’s nothing like watching a comedian around his own people.”

Jordan said he loves how ASU runs a tight ship.

“I go to a lot of schools and they have clus-ter bombs,” Jordan said. “Everyone here is one unit and things are organized. It’s a Grade-A operation.”

Maldonado said they saw Ronnie Jordan perform last semester at a National Associa-tion of Campus Activities Conference.

“He was hilarious, so we thought he would be someone great to have on campus,” she said.

Junior Samantha Quiroz said she liked Ronnie Jordan’s and Rio Valesquez’s comedy.

“It was fresh and original jokes,” Quiroz said. “[Ronnie Jordan] talked about college students and Rio talked about Mexicans so I can relate.”

Maldonado said putting the show together was a lot of work, but it was fun.

Photos by Pam Belcher(Top) Zachary Mosley shows off his piano skills and takes second place.(Right) Jamie Westfall recieves her check for $150 for win-ning the 28th Annual Talent Show.(Below) Luke Perkins performs a song.

April 9: AMAS Spring Car Wash will be at Autozone in front of HEB, from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Interior wash is $5 and interior and exterior is $7. They will also be selling fresh fruit and water. “Be A Big for A Day,” presented by the Residential and Big Brother Big Sister Progam, come out

and be a BIG to children for a day at Centennial Village from 12 - 3 p.m. There will be lots of games and food.

April 11: Spring Cleaning Ends. Donate your old clothes to Good Will Boxes are in the library (by the elava-tor), in the UC and in Centennial and Texan halls.

ArthurStarring: Russell Brand,

Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Nick Nolte, Greta Gerwig

Genre: Comedy

HannaStarring: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander, Olivia Williams

Genre: Action/Adventure, Suspense/Thriller

Soul SurferStarring: Dennis Quaid,

AnnaSophia Robb, Helen Hunt, Jeremy Sumpter, Craig T. Nelson

Genre: Action/Adventure

Your HighnessStarring: Dennis Quaid,

AnnaSophia Robb, Helen Hunt, Jeremy Sumpter, Craig T. Nelson

Genre: Comedy

ASU Events

3 X $150CASH WEEKLY!

WEDNESDAYS

MISS

contest

midnightrodeosanangelo.com

James Lann

Wed.April 13th

brantleygilbert

FridayApril 8th

FREE B4 10PM!

Photos by Pam BelcherRio Valesquez makes people laugh during his stand-up comedy act in the talent show.

Page 5

PUBLISHING POLICYPublished every Friday and available to students, one copy per student, the student newspaper of Angelo State University is a public forum, with its student editorial board making all deci-sions concerning its contents. Unsigned editorials express the views of the majority of the editorial board.Ram Page welcomes all letters. Please include your name, classification/position and a phone number and/or e-mail ad-dress for verification purposes. Letters must be signed and be no more than 350 words. The paper reserves the right to edit letters for grammar and clarity, and all letters are subject to laws governing obscenity, libel and privacy. Deadline is 5 p.m., Mon-day. Submission does not guarantee publication. Letters may be mailed, e-mailed or submitted at the newspaper’s office, Room 324 on the third floor of the Porter Henderson Library. Opinions in letters are not necessarily those of the staff, nor should any opinion expressed in a public forum be construed as the opinion or policy of the administration, unless so attributed.

Ram Page Staff

2010-2011A n g e l o S t a t e U n i v e r s i t y

Editor: Scott DykowskiManaging Editor: Tim LesterCopy Editor: Dana ChoiPhoto Editor: Ashley RomoSports Co-Editor: Andy AtterburySports Co-Editor: Lauren WildeFeatures Editor: Mariah PowellOnline Editor: Jason HelmsStaff Writer: Mark McDanielStaff Writer: Megan EllisPhotographer: Pam BelcherCartoonist: Dana ChoiCirculation Manager: Jamin Goecker Advertising Manager: Sara Beth Criner Adviser: Dr. Cathy Johnson

Ram PageASU Station #10895

San Angelo, Texas76909-0895

Editor: rampage@angelo.edu Managing Editor: rampagenews@angelo.edu Features Editor: rampagefeatures@angelo.edu Advertising: rampageads@angelo.edu

Editor: (325) 942-2323 Newsroom: (325) 942-2134 Advertising: (325) 942-2040 Fax: (325) 942-2551 Member of

The Texas Tech University SystemAssociated Collegiate Press

Texas Intercollegiate Press Association

“No, because my field is growing.”

Class of 2011

“No, because there is always going to be a need for nurses.”

Class of 2013

“No, because there is always a need for legal assistance.”

Class of 2012

“No, I don’t think so.”

Class of 2013

Do you think it will be hard to find a job in your field when you graduate?

“I’m hoping being a Physics major will help me out.”

Class of 2013

SidewalkSurvey

What’s

Arianna Miller, sophomore

James Morris, sophomore

Lauren Heare,senior

Keifer Perkins,junior

Destiny Rudd,sophomore

on ?mindComment with your thoughts

on allowing alcohol on campus & other issues at

www.asurampage.com

Letter to the editorI am an exchange stu-

dent from South Korea, and I have a special con-cern about Japan’s earth-quake, and the related tragedy as a resident in its neighbor country.

All the nations on our globe are aware of Japan’s earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear radiation contam-ination from the heavy damage to the Fukushima power plant. Now Japan encountered a serious national disaster, and the country can hardly be re-stored in a short time. The earthquake and the deadly tsunami spawned 18,000 deaths and left almost half a million people homeless in Japan. The nuclear ra-diation from the damage to the nuclear power plant leaves a serious concern to human health. Still, recur-ring earthquakes threaten people and put people in danger of becoming refu-gees.

The disaster does not finish here. It continues to leave people in pain as a result of the rebound ef-fects in the economy. Now Japan’s economy is left

“frozen” with closed fac-tories such as Toyota, Nis-san, Sony, Toshiba, and so on. None of these compa-nies anticipate when to resume their production. Economists analyze that Japan’s damage to the economy is estimated at about $100 billion.

As Japan was a big contributor to Katrina vic-tims in the United States, as well as to the entire world’s disasters, it is time for Japan to benefit from countries in the world. Al-though San Angelo, Texas is not concerned with frequent earthquakes, it is an important thing to understand their tragedy and help these victims. I strongly encourage our university students to take action to donate even though we cannot par-ticipate in relief projects directly. I request your newspaper to spread more recognition of Ja-pan’s devastation and ulti-mately to provide the ac-tual help that Japan needs to restore.

The Japanese govern-ment is trying to restore

the nation from this trag-edy. However, the most historic earthquakes left the whole nation in hor-rible devastation, without any clear expectation of complete restoration. It is

never too late to help peo-ple. It is our turn to take action as an educated per-son on this globe.

MiRae Kimsenior

We think the campus should stay relatively alcohol-free for safety and professionalism.

A university is not an ap-propriate place for alcohol. The purpose of higher-level of education is, well, education. Allowing alcohol, which im-pairs judgment and does not positively contribute to people’s health or capacity of learning would be counterproductive.

It would be much easier for minors to access alcohol if it

were allowed on campus. Yes, minors get alcohol regardless of whatever rules are set forth – but that is not a good enough reason to allow the presence of alcohol.

We can think of a few rea-sons to allow alcohol on cam-pus. The sale of alcohol at sporting events may attract older students to support ASU athletics. Also, whether or not it is allowed, people have and will continue to drink on cam-

pus anyway.However, we see more cons

than pros. Alcohol often leads to problems. A change in policy would only justify drinking on campus and might delude some students into thinking they do not need to exercise as much responsibility as normal. More students than normal bringing alcohol on campus and not ex-ercising as much caution could strain the university police--not a good idea.

Should the university allow drinking on campus?

Staff Editorial

Staff Vote: 8-2

University shouldstay alcohol-free

Wordsfrom theWeb

If moving the tutoring center to this location is a bad idea, where would be a better one? Since the tutoring center opened, it has been moved every year. The location at the dorms was terrible as there was no space and commuter students remained unaware of its existence. The current loca-tion at MCS is not much bet-ter. The desks are incredibly small and the one room makes it hard to have multiple tutor-ing sessions going on without yelling over each other. While the closing of the lab may be inconvenient for students at first, the centralized location of all tutoring services is much needed. Now instead of run-

ning all over campus for help with various courses, students will be able to come to one place. The computers will be a huge asset to the tutors and students because tutors will be able to use the internet to help students. As of now, tutors do not have this option and some-times struggle to recall some-thing they learned 3+ years ago.

While this may not be your choice of locations, the admin-istration cannot seem to find any other place for the center. I hope that wherever the cen-ter is moved to, it stays there. Having the center is a huge as-set to students.

Anonymous

Do we have enough computers on campus?

Friday, April 8, 2011

To the above comment, wouldn't students have looked for it if they really needed tu-toring? Does the computer lab offer more desk space than regular desks? Will no one try to talk over each other in the computer lab? "Having the

center is a huge asset to stu-dents." Having the computer lab is probably a bigger asset to students. I don't think more students use tutor labs more than they use all the computer labs.

Anonymous

Instant Noodles Dana Choi

Yes33%

No, the campus should stay dry

60%

It doesn’t matter, people drink on campus anyway 7%

Non-scientific poll from www.asurampage.com

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Page 6 SportsFriday, April 8, 2011

Andy AtterburySports Co-Editor

Angelo State track and field raked in 11 NCAA Division II provisional qualifying marks and one automatic qualifying mark at the Texas Tech Open Saturday in Lubbock.

Senior thrower Wade Goode’s 54.39-meter discus throw gives the No. 6-ranked Rams their first automatic qualifier this year.

“It’s very exciting to see that our work in practice is starting to come out in meets,” Goode said. “I’m working at staying consistent with my throws and have hit two big throws, two weeks in a row. That’s some-thing I’m very happy with.”

The team of sophomore

Guy Henry, junior Trevor Rog-ers, senior Brian Holik and ju-nior Nick Smith provisionally qualified in the 4x100-meter re-lay with a time of 41.08. Smith also qualified with his 10.26 second 100-meter dash. Sopho-more Robbie Thayer, senior Ter-ence Holland, sophomore Isidro Garcia and Holik qualified with a 3:12.09 4x400-meter relay.

“It was a very exciting meet,” Head Coach James Reid said. “Any time we get anyone on the [qualifying] list it makes us feel good. From a coaching stand point, we’re moving in the right direction.”

Junior jumpers Jacob Mc-Donald and Andrew Alli-son both qualified with their 4.95-meter pole vaults.

“For the athletes it’s a good confidence booster for them,” Reid said. “They’re out here busting their tails every day, all week long.”

Junior Kelsey Wilson also vaulted her way to a qualifying mark with her 3.75-meter vault for the No.20-ranked ‘Belles.

Freshman Tiffany Wilcox, sophomore Theresa Sue, soph-omore Bree Bennett and se-nior Makayla Myers qualified in the 4x100-meter relay with their 46.76 time. Wilcox also ran an 11.99-second 100-meter dash to provisionally qualify.

“We’re on the path we need to be on right now,” Reid said. “The kids who are older and have the experience are doing really well right now. The younger ones are begin-ning to come around; we saw that this past weekend.”

The team heads to the Texas Relays in Austin from March 6 through 9.

“We’ve got a good crew go-ing and we expect good things to happen down there,” Reid said.

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11 qualify at Texas Tech OpenTrack: Athletes headed ‘in the right direction’

Andy AtterburySports Co-Editor

Ram baseball lost the first two games of a Lone Star Con-ference series against North-eastern State April 1 and 2, but took the third game to end their 10-game losing streak.

“It was a tough series, but it felt good to end the losing streak,” junior third baseman Marcellous Biggins said.

The RiverHawks took an early 5-0 lead in the Friday game, but the Rams (18-17) (12-12) fought back to take the lead in the top of the fifth inning. Northeastern State (5-24) (4-21) scored seven runs in the bottom of the fifth and won the game 13-8.

“If we catch two fly balls then we sweep,” Head Coach Kevin Brooks said. “We didn’t make plays we needed to make at times we needed to make them.”

Game One of Saturday’s double-header needed an extra inning after the teams traded the lead back and forth. The River-Hawks won the game 6-5 in the bottom of the eighth inning.

“We just have to get tough-er,” Brooks said. “We were do-ing that early in the season. We were doing a great job of push-ing through and getting it done. We just have to get back to that. And we need to do it quickly.”

The Rams’ bats came alive in Game Two. Junior center fielder Joe Leftridge went 3-4 with four RBIs in the Rams 14-11 win. Junior left fielder Garrett Harris was 3-3 at the plate with four RBIs.

“The big thing is we have to play well,” Brooks said. “I really don’t feel like we have played well in the last couple weeks and we need to turn it around.”

Next up to bat for the Rams is a LSC series against Central Oklahoma in San Angelo on April 8 and 9.

“Their record is not good, but they have been in every game,” Brooks said. “They are a team that we have always struggled with. How we do, win or lose, has a lot less to do with them than us.”

The first pitch of the se-ries is Friday night at 7 p.m. The double dosage of baseball starts at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

“This is a big series for us,” Big-gins said. “If we can take care of busi-ness we can turn it around.”

Baseball: Men drop two to RiverHawks

Rams end series with a win

Andy AtterburySports Co-Editor

A Claire Molina curveball once knocked the teeth out of an opposing batter. She saw the ball coming, there was just nothing she could do.

“She was up to bat and the curveball came,” Molina said. “In-stead of turning away from it, she turned in to [the pitch] and the ball went straight in to her mouth. I apologized to her 10 different times. She was cool with it, but her team hated me.”

They even skipped her in the

high-five line at the end of the game.

A lot of teams hate it when a southpaw, ace pitcher with a 1.64 ERA and a 15-2 record with nine complete games, two shut-outs and 85 strikeouts steps on the mound against them.

“I’m 5’4”,”Molina said. “I’m not intimidating. I think I’m just a nice person.”

Not everyone agrees.“She goes out to the mound

with this crazy look and it’s just scary,” teammate Carly Peters said. “Except she is the quietest, sweetest person on our team.”

The San Bernardino, Calif. native has a curveball, screw-ball, drop curveball, rise-ball and drop-ball in her arsenal of pitches.

“My best pitch is the rise-ball,” Molina said. “That’s my strikeout pitch.”

Peters said Claire sometimes goes in to “Molina Mode” during games.

“Molina Mode is when people are hitting off her and she gets mad… I can’t even describe it.” Peters said. “It’s a competitive an-ger, it’s not unhealthy.”

The two-time Lone Star Con-ference South pitcher of the week said she is a very competitive ath-lete.

“I love coming into a game with the bases loaded and no outs,” Molina said. “I love the challenge.”

Molina said one of the reasons she is pitching well this season is because of the stellar ‘Belles de-fense.

“Anytime someone hits a ball off of me, I feel like my defense is right there to pick it up,” Molina said.

Claire, Carly and the No.2-ranked ‘Belles are on top of the LSC South with their 30-5 overall record.

“We have a great team,” Mo-lina said. “We have a lot of big hit-ters. I feel like it’s a real team effort this year.”

Softball: Molina gives all credit to her teammates

Photo by Ashley RomoJunior Claire Molina pitches Friday against Southeastern Oklahoma

‘Molina Mode’ on mound