Issue 8, Vol. 7

INTRODUCING THE QUEENS OF THE DRAG AGE

NEWS Guns on campus passed by lawmakers | Page 2 PERSPECTIVE Will Slim Shady please stand up? | Page 5

GSA sponsored drag show returns to NIC | Page 7

theSentinel

ENTERTAINMENT The Sword casts a spell over Spokane | Page 11

THE OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF NORTH IDAHO COLLEGE

MONDAY | MARCH 24, 2014

WWW.NIC SENTINEL .C OM

Volume 7 | Issue 8

Footsteps comes to NIC Connor Coughlin Staff Writer

Wrestling champions Giulio claims national title, NIC finishes 6th as a team at Nationals Sports Page 12

DIVIDED WE STAND

Students and faculty in philosophy struggle to find common ground T.J. Gossard Staff Writer Philosophy Club hosted a Curriculum Council Summit on February 19, where impassioned students met with faculty to discuss the possibility of adding three classes into the curriculum: environmental ethics, history of modern philosophy and history of ancient philosophy.

While little opposition is being given to environmental ethics, the classes the philosophy students stressed the most—both the history classes—are the ones faculty aren’t quite agreeing on. While arguments were given from both sides on this summit, the meeting didn’t quite meet a point of closure, and seemingly created more questions than answers.

The students set up this meeting to hear the voices of the philosophy department, whom they felt had not made clear the reasoning behind their opposition. “The point was to get the discussion going, have [the faculty] show up, and give their point of view,” said social and behavioral sciences instructor Ed Kaitz. “And I

think the students deserve to hear from them.”

Within the department, there are three instructors who do not want to see the classes passed. “The interesting thing to me was the three other instructors who do have a vote—they didn’t say anything,” said Kaitz. These three instructors were Laura Templeman, Pat Lippert and Michelle Lippert. Opposition from those whose votes didn’t count within the department, though, brought up arguments.

One of the major reasons was the core curriculum—which has recently gone into a moratorium to be reassessed by the State of Idaho.

No classes are being accepted into the core curriculum, so the students are requesting the classes serve as electives. According to philosophy instructor Pat Lippert, this doesn’t necessarily resolve the issue.

“We’ve gotten to a situation where we’ve just paused with regards to courses and everything because the largest impetus is from the State of Idaho,” Lippert said. “It’s redoing its general ed. and it’s going to take a while, and then when we

come back out of that we’re going to have to consider new classes as how they fit into the new courses of general ed. and they’re starting with the courses that we already have.”

Kaitz has spoken to the division chairs of seven different universities and verified with all of them that given the syllabi he has created for the classes, they would be willing to accept them. This leads to another, more contentious question: if a fouryear university accepts something taught at our two-year college, what will happen with the discrepancy between the class levels (1-200 level classes vs. 3-400)? The school that is accepting the class determines how many credits it’ll be accepted as— but there’s some question as to the legality of it.

During the Philosophy Summit meeting, adjunct philosophy instructor Tom Flynt brought up Idaho statute 33-2102 of “Courses of Study” which says: “A community college established pursuant to the provisions of this chapter shall give instruction in academic subjects, and in such nonacademic subjects as shall be authorized by its board

of trustees. The academic courses given and the instruction therein shall be of the same standard as the same are given and taught in the first two (2) years of any other state institution of higher education, and credits therefor shall be accepted by other state institutions for credit toward a baccalaureate degree.”

However, nobody else is really worried about it, as technically multiple classes would be breaking that law currently, and some instructors are certain it’s wrong. “I just don’t know how to address someone who says they are illegal, especially if we know, number one: it’s false,” Kaitz said. “And number two, that that same argument has been being made for almost four years. So I’m not really sure why it keeps coming up.”

Regardless, if classes are accepted at higher-level universities, they’ll only be satisfying the course load of so-many points (100-200), instead of the higher-level requirements transfer students need in order to graduate from four-year

See DIVIDED | Page 2

NIC to change athletic conferences due to budget Garrett Cabeza Sports Editor It's official. North Idaho College's sports teams will move from the Scenic West Athletic Conference to the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges. The decision was made March 13 at NIC's Edminster Student Union Building by NIC's board of trustees.

NIC’s outdoor sports - mens and womens soccer, mens and womens golf and softball -will move to the NWAACC this fall while the indoor sports teams - mens and womens basketball and volleyball - will make the transition in 2015 or 2016.

Wrestling will remain in the National Junior College Athletic Association.

One of the notable changes that will take place once teams start to move to the NWAACC is the opportunity for teams to compete for conference championships only.

In the SWAC, teams compete for conference and national championships. But NWAACC teams don't compete for national titles.

The conference switch is expected to save NIC about $600,000 a year, mostly in travel and scholarship costs.

QUOTABLE

“Footsteps: A Journey of Many” makes its annual return to NIC, bringing with it many exhibits highlighting social injustice issues.

Several NIC clubs put on their own exhibits. Many of the clubs were veterans of the event and made their return with a series of new displays. Others, such as Phi Theta Kappa, made their debut with gripping presentations.

Groups of students move through the exhibit led by their host Evanlene Melting Tallow, the American Indian Student Advisor. As they come to each display, it exposes them to an issue of injustice in an upfront and raw manner.

Upon entering the exhibit participants find themselves in the Sociology Club’s presentation of financial inequality in the educational system.

Two schools are contrasted from one another. The upper-class school features the voice of a happy and hopeful student while the povertystricken school has the voice of a downtrodden child who hates going to school.

The NIC drama club, “Actors, Vagabonds, & Such,” presented a video reenactment of two parents fighting from a child’s perspective.

With its profane language and displays of violence, the video manages to capture the brutal reality of domestic disputes.

The interactive exhibit encouraged students to walk in another person’s shoes, even if it were only for a few minutes. Participants took part in a quiz in the Phi Theta Kappa display which was complete with a psychedelic light show, obscure and loud noises, “scratch ‘n sniff” stickers, and terrible tasting candy. Faced with the sensory overload that comes with ADHD, students found the quiz impossible to finish.

Continuing through, participants are shown the sheer level of racism towards American Indians that exists in the realms of pop culture. The American Indian Student Alliance exhibit presented a video displaying these acts of racism.

The Veteran’s Club put on a broad exhibit. From showing war in video games versus war in real life to how easy it is to be injured or killed by an IED, a number of different topics were covered.

The Gay-Straight Alliance’s exhibit shows participants the unnaturally high rate of homelessness among LGBT youth. A chosen person in each group was given a small plastic bag and 10 seconds to collect all their belonging from the simulated bedroom to illustrate the difficulties many LGBT people face.

Clubs interested in participating in “Footsteps” submit proposals to Erikson where they are then deliberated upon. Student representatives of the clubs chosen are then brought in to discuss budgetary requirements and the details of the individual projects. At that point clubs begin to construct their exhibits in preparation for their showings.

“Footsteps” found its start at NIC after Heather Erikson, the Assistant Director of Student Development, and a group of students attended a similar event at the University of Montana called “The Tunnel of Oppression.” After a year of planning, the first “Footsteps” event opened in 2012, finding success with over 300 students passing through the exhibit.

A public comment session was held at the beginning of the meeting in which anyone who hadn't previously given their opinion on the matter had the opportunity to voice their opinion. A few NIC student-athletes spoke including basketball players Devon Loy and Bryce Leavitt and soccer player John Ray. Leavitt, who transferred from Washington State University to NIC after last season, wanted NIC’s teams to remain in the SWAC. “One of my coaches at WSU committed to helping me find the right community college for me and his first option was North Idaho College,” Leavitt said. “His reasons were that NIC played in the best junior college league in the nation, they could offer full scholarships and that NIC was respected by four-year institutions everywhere. My assistant coach also specifically told me to not go to an NWAACC school because they don’t offer full scholarships and are not well-respected by four-year institutions.”

Leavitt said playing at NIC this season has helped him gain recognition from four-year schools.

“I am now being recruited by Ivy League schools for basketball such

“Let’s go back to the old days of G-funk, when Dre beats meant more than headphones...

Perspectives Page 5

as Cornell and Columbia because of the exposure I got from playing in the Scenic West Conference,” Leavitt said.

Loy, a Coeur d’Alene High School graduate, transferred to NIC this season after playing for a NWAACC school last season. He said coming from a NWAACC school to a SWAC school made a big, positive change.

“I did not receive athletically or academically the help that I needed at an NWAACC school,” Loy said.

After Loy and his family decided it was best to transfer to NIC, Loy said NIC has helped him in the classroom and on the court.

Most of the schools in the NWAACC are located in Washington and Oregon, with many schools like Wenatchee Valley, Walla Walla, Yakima Valley, Columbia Basin, Spokane and Big Bend within four hours away.

NIC’s closest conference rival is the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, which is about a nine-hour drive. NIC’s softball team travels to Western Nevada College of Carson City and the College of Southern Nevada in Henderson.

NWAACC schools also provide partial scholarships to its studentathletes instead of full scholarships

like NJCAA and SWAC schools can provide.

The athletic budget has an operating budget of $2.14 million. NIC’s enrollment declined 10 percent last semester and 11 percent this semester.

Enrollment is expected to decline up to another 10 percent in 2015. With enrollment down, departments from across NIC’s campus are expected to make budget cuts.

NIC athletic director Al Williams has said that possible NIC recruits were being put on hold because he didn’t know if NIC was going to move conferences or remain in the SWAC. Williams has also said that scheduling for the fall sports season would be an issue if a decision was not made promptly.

The NWAACC wouldn’t accept certain NIC teams. NIC had to make the decision of sending all of its teams (except for wrestling) to the NWAACC or none of them at all.

The trustees voted 3-1 to change

WHERE TO START News...........................2

Sports.........................12

Perspectives............4

Games..........15

Features.......................7

TOOL.........16

class days left

27

UNTIL SUMM

Break

ER

News tip? Story idea?

Contact Thomas Hansen 208-769-3388 tchansen@students.nic.edu

Campus News

page 2

www.nicsentinel.com

monday, March 24, 2014

The Idaho legislature passed legislation permitting guns on college campuses, prompting statewide change Christina Villagomez Webmaster

Campus administrators are struggling to find effective ways to alter existing policy in light of the new law passed by legislature allowing guns on campus.

Under the law as it was passed, beginning on July 1 any person with an enhanced concealed carry permit will be allowed to have a gun on campus, whether student, faculty member or security personnel.

Alex Harris, director of student development said that while the existing policy can be modified, bigger questions remain about how security will adjust.

“I’d say on a whole security would rather this not happen, but now it has

happened there will be a lot of work and ongoing work to address the perceived and real issues that come out of this,” Harris said. “We’re waiting on a lot of answers.”

Answers to important questions, Harris said.

Currently, NIC is in the process of cutting 2.2 million dollars from it’s budget, but updated training for campus security may cost as much as a half million dollars.

“You’re really going in the opposite direction of what we’ve prepared for,” said Graydon Stanley, vice president for student services said.

Stanley said the state is not expected to help bridge the gaps.

Another concern is whether or not to arm campus security.

Currently, Idaho state law prevents a college or university from swearing in officers unless they belong to the state, an additional cost.

“If we chose to arm officers without swearing them in we’d definitely be a rare bird,” Harris said.

Harris said he also worries about the subtler effects on campus life.

“It’s not necessarily whether its more safe or less safe, it’s the way it changes the environment. How does this change the difficult conversation of giving them a poor grade on a test, or a meeting in a room?” Harris said. “I think what this comes down to is how it

changes the perception of safe.”

Stanley, for his part said he hopes things will stay the same.

“I think two years from now, un-

less there’s an incident, I don’t think there will be much to talk about, I think it will become the new normal,” Stanley said.

Welding’s new pad?

Students band together

New building proposed to house displaced welding program

Latino Club’s Yuda Bands sale earns $1,631, supports Guatemalan youths seeking college educations

Abbe Breeding Staff Writer

Students and faculty from the welding program were given a new option for relocation at the board of trustees meeting March 13.

By June 2016 the welding program will have to be moved to a leased facility or the proposed building.

The relocation of the welding program does not come as a surprise to the staff of the training center since NIC has already extended their lease multiple times.

“A decision will need to be made at least two years prior for the proper preparations to be made,” said Director for Workforce and Community Education Marie Price.

Dean of Professional, Technical and Workforce Education Mike Mires said the company, Outotec, has been very nice to work with. They have extended NIC’s lease for many years, but they need the property that NIC leased for expansion.

“For a program that I would say has great status in the trades area, we seem to move it too much, especially for what I would call one of our star programs,” Mires said. “We should have a home for it.”

Mires said there are a couple possible options for the replacement of the training center and a more permanent option is desired by the staff concerning the relocation.

“Its the most expensive program ever to move and we keep trying to find temporary places for it,” Mires said.

Jacklin Seed Products made an offer to lease NIC a place for the new training center and to also absorb some of the retrofitting costs for the welding program.

“This arrangement is temporary at best,” Mires said.

Jacklin is offering NIC at least a five year lease and the estimated cost for NIC is around $40,000 a year, without the retrofitting costs.

“The one thing about a lease is one

>DIVIDED from page 1

universities.

This doesn’t necessarily stand as something that might deter students.

They’d be learning higher-learning concepts Without spending the higher university cost—which would increase their education early on and allow them to tackle more challenging classes in the future. Pat Lippert said he disagrees with this.

“The amount of money you’re going to save in relation to the amount of money you’re going to spend is not that big,” said Lippert. “It’s not that huge.”

Lippert said he also disagrees with it on a moral level. “It’s just a differ-

DID YOU KNOW?

day you are going to have to move,” Mires said.

Mires idea for the relocation of the training center is to create a permanent home for the welding program.

For NIC to build a new facility from the ground up will cost as much as $2.4 million in construction costs, but it would be a permanent solution.

“The cost for a temporary solution would be less expensive but by the time we would have to move the welding program again it would probably cost that much,” Mires said.

Mires said that the welding program is a self-support operation and with the proper planning and delivery it tends to bring some money back to NIC. The revenue created by this program would come directly back to the college.

The permanent solution would also open up the possibility of hosting non-credit training for companies that want training in the trades areas. Not only would this be a great use of the space but it also has the potential to bring back revenue for the college, Mires said.

Another great use of a new training center is to potentially use it for NIC’s aerospace program.

“We could reconfigure the training center to offer a number of things that right now we just can’t deliver,” Mires said.

The new training center that has been prosed is designed to accommodate the same amount of students that it currently supports, with the possibility of an additional 10 more students.

“We are running almost 60 students through the program every year. If we had more room we would run more. It always has a waiting list,” Mires said.

“It will allow some expansion,” Mires said. Most of the expansion will be to accommodate non credit courses training and NIC could provide a lot of that to companies if we had the place to do that.

ence of mission, and how we understand the mission of what we do. And I understand my mission as preparation for that business of being a major in whatever, so I want to teach a good ethics class to a person who’s going to major in social science, and also mechanical engineering, and that’s what we do first, and what we do and should do best.”

Flynt also brings a criticism to the table about accepting the classes: if more classes are accepted, the population interested in that field will thin out, and more classes will be dropped. This has already happened once with Asian Philosophy, and he notes that students had to push to maintain suitable interdisciplinary course enrollments.

T.J. Gossard Staff Writer With a goal of selling 350 “Yuda Bands”, the NIC Latino Club hosted plaza tables in the SUB from Feb 24-March 6.

For every 175 Yuda Bands sold, a youth is sponsored for a year’s worth of education.

“While our original goal was to sell 350 bands, we ended up selling 233. That means we raised $1,631 for the organization.

I’d call that a success,” said Scott Estes, the Latino Club adviser.

One of the two students chosen for sponsorship is named Ana Odilia Armira, a 19-year-old in Xeuyju, Guatemala, who wants to become a chef and says “It’s hard for me to study because my parents are so poor and the money they make isn’t

enough for us all. My mother is sick and she needs medicines all the time so I need support to continue my school,” Ana Odilia Armira said.

The second student is named Alexander Elias Armira (not related to Ana Armira), a 9th grader living in San Martin Jilotepeque, Guatemala.

“My parents work hard to pay for school, but the money they make isn’t enough for us all since my brothers and sisters are studying too. My pastime is to help my parents,” Alexandar Elias Armira said.

Alexander Elias Armira favorite class is English, and he would like to study electronics.

Estes says of the process for choosing whom to sponsor, “I lead a group of students to Guatemala each year for a study abroad

experience, so I have a personal connection to the Guatemalan people. This year, two of our members are going on the trip, so we decided it appropriate to choose the two from Guatemala.“ Estes also stated that the Latino club is concerned about projects that give back to the local and global community, which is why they were enthusiastic to bring the cause to the NIC campus.

Club President, Corinne Ready, was satisfied with the project.

“Many people commented on what a great thing we were doing and thanked us. I totally think the event was a complete success even if we only sent one child to school, and we just want to thank everyone at NIC for rallying and supporting the cause!”

The Yuda Bands, sold for $7 each, were made by paid Guatemalan families. Chris Patterson/Sentinel

Yet for these particular classes, the philosophy club got over 100 signatures from students claiming they would want to take new classes. Also, through their publicity they managed to get 30 students into Asian Philosophy this semester.

“Those signatures are not necessarily translating to students in classes; hence we had to close the Asian philosophy for low enrollment,” said Carol Lindsay, Division Chair of Social and Behavioral Sciences. “So I hope that enthusiasm is going to translate into more students signing up for courses, and I guess we’ll see that in fall, whether that will come to fruition or not.”

However, they missed the deadline to add the courses to the course cata-

log next year. The earliest students can see these classes now would be spring of 2015. And students can only hope to see them if the department comes to an agreement on the classes, so that the classes can be added to the curriculum council discussions.

While all of this would appear to be discouraging to philosophy students, or create a tension between students and faculty, Lindsay said she thinks otherwise.

“This has been a hot topic, students and faculty are involved, and I would like to say I think that’s a very healthy thing, and I know that people are feeling passionately on both sides of the issue, but in my view it’s a really healthy thing that we’re having all

these discussions about it. So, I really hope it doesn’t get painted as a negative thing.”

Meanwhile, in the development of this story and resultant of the meeting, the philosophy club has changed its mind. “We saw firsthand how entrenched the opposition is towards these classes,” said Philosophy Club President Dave McKerracher. “Having seen this firsthand, we realized the best additional courses are the most unlikely, so we’re changing our approach...” And Volunteer Coordinator Kara Burnham says, “If the department doesn’t want to add Ancient/Modern because they think there would be educational overlap, then we should refocus our efforts on classes that would be easier to accept.

Before gaining Hollywood fame, Christopher Walken was a lion tamer and a music theatre dancer.

www.nicsentinel.com

NEWS

the sentinel | 3

UI faculty, atmospheric science team talk scientific testing in the upper atmosphere Thomas Hansen News Editor A speaker from the University of Idaho (UI) told tales of urine and fishy astronauts at a lecture titled “Fishnauts: A NASA Stor y” in Molstead Librar y March 7.

The speaker was Ed Galindo, the Director of the Natural Resources Tribal Cooperative at the University of Idaho, and a faculty member in the UI NearSpace Engineering Program.

Galindo regaled the audience, made up largely of younger students in high school and below, with stories of experiments he’s done with Shoshone-Bannock students over the years with NASA and his Fishnauts projects with UI. Alongside Galindo were three of his students from the Vandal Atmospheric Science Team (VAST): Kevin Witkoe, the flight director; Jake Liddicoat, in charge of their photo equipment; and Forest Tanner, the assistant flight director, and previously their communications lead. The three students ended the talk by answering questions from the audience with Galindo about their experiences with their atmospheric balloons.

During the lecture, Galindo said that many of the experiments they conduct are part of creating closed systems to use on the Moon or Mars to provide fish and plants for sustenance.

Their current project, Fishnauts, is looking at the capability of fish eggs to survive around 10,000 feet and beyond.

Galindo was also involved in the previous “Spuds in Space” aimed at testing the ability to grow potatoes in soil from Mars and the “Fun with Urine” experiment, which fulfills the painting needs of astronauts by turning urine into paint.

Galindo also talked about two flights that went wrong, to showcase the dif ficulties of working on VAST. The VAST balloon has evolved over the years as the team attempts to make the potentially unpredictable nature of balloons controllable.

VAST also spoke about the newly-opened exhibit on their atmospheric balloon, set in the Molstead Librar y.

Pictures taken by the VAST balloon in the upper atmosphere, signed by attendees of the lecture. Thomas Hansen/Sentinel

The exhibit included a balloon and a capsule, informative posters, and a small galler y of pictures taken from the upper atmosphere by the balloon’s visual equipment.

Galindo also invited attendees of the lecture to sign their names on the galler y.

The talk, Galindo said, was an attempt to bridge a gap between NIC and UI. “What we want to do is stir excitement- stir the excitement pot, but also show that, ‘hey, we’re neighbors,’” Galindo said. “We want to share our assignment with our fellow institution here, Nor th Idaho College.”

Galindo said that the two institutions, NIC and UI, should be working more closely together than they are now.

“I know there are some really good students here, and maybe they’re doing something that I’ve never even thought about!” Galindo said.

“I don’t know that, because I haven’t talked to them.”

Attendees look at the atmospheric balloon on display in Molstead Library. Thomas Hansen/Sentinel

Promoting Cigarette Cessation

CAMPUS SECURITY LOG

NIC has taken further action with its tobacco-free guidelines by making its tobacco cessation program more convenient for students.

“We just want to get the word out,” said Pat DeSmet, family nurse practitioner at NIC’s Student Health Services department.

“We’ve always known that there are a percentage of people interested in stopping smoking and we’ve also known it can take five tries to get there, so if someone makes the decision that they at least want to increase their awareness, then that’s the place you begin, with bits of information.”

Student Health Services partnered with Panhandle Health to not only provide educational classes and awareness on quitting, but also to provide individual counseling for free.

DeSmet, headed up the recent changes with the cessation program.

“There has been controversy about whether this campus is tobacco-free with good intentions, or if there are some spaces where compromises can be made,” DeSmet said.

Student Health Services and Panhandle Health held, for one month, an hour long weekly tobacco cessation program focusing on education and quitting techniques.

DeSmet said that a fair amount of people were eliminated from the

use of the program because of their schedules so they partnered with Panhandle health to do a retool of the services.

Linda Harder, Senior Health Educator Specialist and Tobacco Cessation Coordinator at Panhandle Health will meet with students on an individual basis on campus, working with their allotted time and schedules.

“I do a participant centered approach, because there really isn’t a one-size-fits-all with tobacco cessation, that way it can really gear towards where the individual is coming from and what their goals are,” Harder said. “Whatever works with them, I want to be available to help.”

Harder said that one of her other main goals is focusing on making resources available.

“I use the American Cancer Society’s fresh start program, which the evidence programs have shown over time and research to be successful. They are very specific, they deal with cravings, withdrawal system, changing behaviors, understanding tobacco addiction, and how to prevent or deal with relapse,” Harder said.

Only about 4 percent to 7 percent of people are able to quit smoking on any given attempt without medicines or other help, according to a study done by the American Cancer Society.

NIC’s Health Services is overflowing with lists of free resources,

endless pamphlets and handouts, and “quit packets” for smoking and non-smoking tobacco users, including a to-the-point list of the top 10 ways to quit.

David Noll, an NIC student majoring in medical billing and coding, was a smoker for 30 years and has now gone over a month without a cigarette. He said he saw a flyer for the cessation program and decided it was time to quit smoking.

“My dad was a smoker, he ended up with a lot of health problems. I’m getting to that age now, and I don’t want that: quit while you can. You have to set your mind to it, and if I can set my mind to it, anyone can,” Noll Said.

“It was very helpful, I was able to talk to her, ask questions, and tell my experiences from day to day,” Noll said about utilizing the one-on-one sessions with Harder after attending the program’s weekly sessions for a month, “I think in the long run it was better off for me.

Noll’s advice for those addicted to tobacco? “Whether you’re still young or whether you’re my age, do it while you can.”

The college’s tobacco-free purpose statement reads, “The purpose of this guideline is to reduce harm from second hand smoke, provide an environment that encourages individuals to be tobaccofree, and establish a college culture of wellness.”

5

1

6

Student Health Services provides classes, counseling, resources to help students quit smoking Annie Stonebreaker Staff Writer

7

8 4

9

3

2

Roadsign Apocalypse 1

Feb. 23 - Due to weather conditions, a vehicle struck the campus map sign on River Avenue.

2

Feb. 25 - A vehicle struck a post on College Drive.

3

Feb. 28 - A vehicle struck and knocked over a crosswalk sign at Hubbard and College Drive.

4

March 4 - Student citation for open alcohol containers in Residence Hall.

5

March 5 - An ambulance responded to a student’s medical emergency at Fleet Services.

6

Mar ch 11 - Security responded to reports of a disruptive student at Molstead Librar y.

7

March 19 - An individual repor ted the theft of personal property from Winton Hall.

8

March 19 - A vehicular hit and run was reported at the Meyer Health and Science Building parking lot.

9

March 20 - Police and security r esponded to the Student Union Building and made contact with a non-student concerning his activities.

Perspectives

Perspective tip? Story idea?

Contact Haley Kurle 208-769-3388 hnkurle@students.nic.edu

page 4

www.nicsentinel.com

monday, MARCH 24, 2014

EDITORIAL

NWAACC move responsible choice With so many pros and cons about North Idaho College moving from the Scenic West Athletic Conference to the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges, most of the NIC board of trustees decided the positives outweighed the negatives and the switch was made on March 13.

But was the switch the right decision? Well, that definitely depends on who you ask.

One aspect that everyone probably agreed on was that nobody wanted this to happen.

But NIC seemed to be faced with two options.

The first one was moving all of NIC’s teams, except for wrestling, to the NWAACC in the next two years. The second option was keeping some of NIC’s teams in the SWAC to compete for national titles and cutting the other teams completely. The board of trustees chose the first option.

After all the accomplishments NIC teams have made over the years, cutting teams would be a tough pill to swallow.

Making the move to the NWAACC was probably the most financially responsible thing to do.

The move should save about $600,000 in travel and scholarship expenses.

No matter how you look at it, March 13 was a sad day in the history of NIC athletics.

Once all the teams move to the NWAACC, rivalries with the College of Southern Idaho and Salt Lake Community College - just to name a couple schools - will be gone. In fact, the NIC softball team probably made its last visit to the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls on March 7 and 8.

The ability to recruit internationally and compete for national titles will not be there either.

NIC’s new rival will probably be Community Colleges of Spokane, which could make for interesting games in the future.

It’s time to look forward in what soon will be a new era in NIC athletics. Go Cards.

theSentinel Awards Associated Press Five-Star All-American Newspaper

Editorial Board Christina Villagomez Webmaster

National Pacemaker and Newspaper of the Year

Haley Kurle Design Editor

Three-Time Robert F. Kennedy Award-Winner

Thomas Hansen News Editor

Society of Professional Journalists National First-Place General Excellence Award

Tyson Juarez Features Editor

National Hall of Fame

Garrett Cabeza Sports Editor

National Society of Professional Journalists First-Place Online

Beau Valdez Photo Editor

Idaho Press Club General Excellence Award

Rachel Single-Schwall Photo Assistant Geoff Carr Adviser

Contributors Abbe Breeding Alicia Grant Zaas

DID YOU KNOW?

Bridget Rogers Staff Writer Who uses the N-word anymore? Apparently players in the National Football League use it so much that it soon may become a 15-yard penalty.

While the NFL considers this rule, with good intentions, it could spoil the intensity and hard edge this game requires from its players.

By eliminating a certain word from trash talk on the field and in the locker rooms, this rule will interfere with the job they’re paid to do.

Interfere is the key

word here.

Are players behind this possible rule or are Caucasian men who run the NFL fed up?

We expect our favorite team to demolish the opposing team, and we insist players subject their bodies to a lifetime of pain and accept they may have brain damage after their career is over, but we can no longer let them say the N-word in the heat of battle.

There’s one major problem this ruling has overlooked, the basis in choosing one word that is offensive to one race.

It’s pointing the finger at Caucasian players and stopping African American players from using what is to them, an ac-

ceptable word in communicating to other African Americans.

If a rule like this is put in place with no consideration of all other ethnic slurs, than therein lies a huge problem.

As the first ever openly gay man has entered the NFL draft, I think the league should be more concerned with the safety and future well-being of a, so far, unaccepted type of player.

African American football players are not being picked on by white guys, in fact, most recently it has been the opposite.

African American players like Richard Sherman, of the Seattle Seahawks, are weighing in on this, “It’s almost racist,

to me. Why wouldn’t all curse words be banned then.”

Football has long been a sport where men settled their differences on the field.

While you and I may get fired from our jobs for saying the N-word, football players have never been made to censor their trash talk. Why ask them to now?

The Competition Committee, made up of eight NFL coaches and managers, have been meeting in Florida this past week debating the possible rule.

If the committee recommends this new rule it will then be voted on

by NFL team owners on March 23.

Annie Stonebreaker Bridget Rogers Chris Patterson Connor Coughlin

Why I stopped believing in God Staffer addresses concerns about his lack of faith, religion

Dave McKerracher Dusty Hamrick John “Risky” Boltz Leo Schnepf Robby Palmer

Letters to the Editor Policy he Sentinel welcomes letters to the Editor.

Those who submit letters must limit them to 300 words, sign them legibly and provide a home phone number in order to verify authenticity. Some letters may not be printed because of space limitations, or because they: 1) are similar to a number of letters already received on the same subject;

Potential new NFL rule penalizes racial slurs on the field

Alex Rodal Cubillas

T.J. Gossard

T

A N-word that’s not NFL

2) are possibly libelous; or 3) are illegible. The Sentinel reserves the right to edit letters. Letters may be mailed to the paper, e-mailed, faxed or brought to Room 203 of the Siebert Building. The Sentinel’s address is 1000 W. Garden Ave., Coeur d’Alene, ID, 83814.

You can also fill out a form on The Sentinel’s website, nicsentinel.com, that will

John Boltz Staff Writer I became an atheist in 2006 when I started asking tough questions about the Bible and the god that I prayed to.

My pastor would always give me an unsatisfactor y answer, stating that I must have faith, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe in something without a logical reason.

Of course the Bible itself just seemed to form more questions, and the more I researched, the further away I got from being a “believer.”

I wrote this article for one reason; because I’m often asked, “How could you be an atheist?”

my momma. I never People are often ofreally questioned my fended by the idea. It belief; it was just a part seems that it doesn’t of me. matter which god I I felt great about choose, as long as I being a choose one.

Christian However, “I do not and was I am a nonbeliever just think God is confronted the idea like them. I evil, or good. by of someone am an atheist I don’t think watching over to ever y religion just as he is a grand me, but that all changed they are to ever yone but manipulator in 2006. My momma their own. or a bully passed away I do not with a and I had think God is magnifying questions. evil, or good.

If God has I don’t think glass. I do this grand plan he is a grand not think and there is manipulator nothing that or a bully that God can do with a magnieven exists.” we about it, then fying glass. I what is the do not think point in praythat God ing? even exists. As a matter This was the first quesof fact, I know it. tion that led me to atheism.

I used to pray ever y No matter where you are day; I attended Bible in life, never let anyone tell studies and went to you that you shouldn’t church on Sunday with

ask questions! Asking questions is a principal part of life and learning.

Being an atheist is something that you can be proud of; it means that you refuse to believe in something without evidence.

If you are a believer, consider examining your beliefs. Some people are deeply offended with the idea of challenging their religious belief, but that’s how we debate, and I don’t give religion any special treatment.

Know the difference between scientific and religious belief.

What religious institutions claim is the nature of reality is known, and they know it because of an old book written 2,000 years ago. Scientific belief is not necessary a belief system, because it is constantly evolving and changing as new evidence is

See ATHEIST | Page 5

Christopher Walken and Jack Nicholson both originally auditioned to be Han Solo in Star Wars

perspectives

5 | the sentinel

Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? staffer reminisces on Marshall Mathers’ golden era

T.J. Gossard Staff Writer There I was just being a student. English class.

Teacher was giving examples of controversial topics, so a clear choice was Eminem. He’s controversial. I get it. He crossed some lines.

Yeah, totally.

“Eminem has gotten his act together, he’s much better now.” Class consensus.

Huh? No, man. That ain’t right.

Whatevs. Ain’t no need to bring a ruckus. But one day I overhear chatter from passersby, they’re criticizing someone’s character— “He seems like one of those people who just never quite grew out of Eminem.”

Huh? Why is this considered a character type by pop-culture regurgitates?

I sought solace. I found fel-

>ATHEISM from page 4

introduced about the world around us.

Its true, science does not have all the answers, (scientist are working on them).

However, just because something is unanswered, does not mean that a God becomes the answer.

I guess you can say I am an atheist because I found no credible or convincing evidence given by theists.

Science may not be able to answer the questions either, at least not realistically in my lifetime, but I think it better to be content in not knowing an answer than to accept a bogus answer as something authentic.

People ask me about death, “ If you don’t believe in an afterlife aren’t you scared?” Truth is if I were

low Eminem defenders, but something was odd: they illustrated that his latest album harkened back to the classics, even superseded it.

Hold up, slow up, stop— control.

It’s time to come up, hold my own weight, and defend my crown.

Eminem is one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all times.

That’s right.

Let’s go back to the old days of G-funk, when Dre beats meant more than headphones, and they used to thump—but now they blast, right?

Granted, I was .5–5 years old during these times.

But when I was 7? Oh man. You bet I was screaming, “Hi, kids! Do you like violence!?” with the irony knowingly paraded.

The most horrific violence portrayed by Biggie and Snoop Doggy Dogg (far mightier than the lion we know today) and the introspective, spiritually trying West Coast hip-hop of Nas and 2pac meant nothing to me in context at the time, much in common with all radio of the time.

There was a split in the world of hip-hop, reaching its apex in the death of 2pac, when popular hiphop suddenly dwindled.

Jay-Z heartlessly meandered while R. Kellys and Ja Rules produced passable dance singles.

Hip-hop was in a ter-

scared of a death without an afterlife, it wouldn’t make it any less true. I do not fear death any more than someone with a religious belief. I won’t even know I’m dead.

I have had plenty of religious debates; most of my friends are religious. So I know a lot of the “favorite” arguments that believers have. Allow me to address them.

The first is the God of the Gaps argument. This argument is basically the assertion that “ God exists because he says he does.”

If that’s all you need as a base to your belief, a belief based on zero indisputable, tangible evidence of the existence of any God. Then I will not try to convince you otherwise, however if your mind requires more than “because He said,” If you are the type of person the think

rible condition.

But I listened to whatever, because I was 7.

Until Eminem.

Eminem was the first artist to ever make me consider the different kinds of ways you could approach delivering an artistic message, or place your identity into music.

In the “Slim Shady LP” and “Marshall Mathers LP,” when he started rapping about what he thought of current pop bands, I became a much more discerning person.

He actually had a message, and it was something new and critical. It meant something strong. Any jabs he takes now are cheap and play more for laughter than for anything critical: Michael Jackson to Bill & Monica prods alike.

He’s not controversial any more, not even in the darkness of his content: there is one song on each of his first two albums in which he paints a dark psychological narrative portrait of his familial life and fears in which he murders his wife and even disposes of the body with aid from his child in one of them.

But they’re not the winking “yep, I’m being insulting!” stuff he does now or during his Encore-era albums, it was legitimate: you could understand from his lyrics that this body disposal was a tangible fantasy he might have had and why it might have provided him with comfort to express these dark thoughts.

He used to be a genuinely conflicted human being.

critically about your beliefs and decisions, then read on.

The most popular argument put forth for religion is the “Every creation must have a creator.” An antidote often given to me in favor of this argument is; If you found a painting, you wouldn’t assume it evolved, you would know that there was a painter.

I believe this argument would have been more convincing in the time before Darwin, What we know about the story of evolution is that, natural selection is not random at all. Sure ,I would know painters painted the painting, painters create paintings. But if the argument is that all complicated thing must have a creator, then who created god? And to say that he is an exception is to commit another

Nowadays any internal conflicts he talks about concern how his stardom inflated his ego, but gosh darn it now he’s conflicted about that ego… who cares?

We get it; he was successful and did drugs and now he’s not doing drugs and trying to comeback.

However, all that I can see of a comeback is a string of songs about a comeback.

Where’s the comeback?

He also used to tell challenging, three-part narrative structures about the dangers of idolizing hip-hop stars in songs like “Stan.”

Now he delivers uninventive monologues about relationship problems like “Love The Way You Lie.” He’s not the same rapper at all.

And as far as flow is concerned: he currently has an unusually strong tendency to repeat melodies while making minor changes in the delivery and adding different interjecting rhymes or hooks throughout an entire song.

He used to change his delivery and scheme multiple times throughout a single verse. A great comparison point is “My Name Is” to “Rap God.” The sound in itself has changed to such an extent that it’s a different creature completely.

The beats on his first two albums were childlike, carnivalesque, dark, cinematic and rough around the edges, and used to have subtly layered instrument tracks progressing through chord progressions.

I miss you, Slim.

logical fallacy.

Both belief and nonbelief have both been used for good and evil. It makes me annoyed when religious people attempt to take the moral high ground and ignore the very blood past that religion has.

The Bible has both good and bad moral ideals. But good moral people do not get their morals from the Bible, because if you are picking and choosing from the moral ideas and selecting the good ones then you already had morals to begin with. Morals should not be based on a book written 2,000 years ago.

There are countless other unconvincing arguments put forth by theist.

But before you decide what you believe, ask yourself it you have a logical and credible reason to.

Review: Dragon slays note-taking anxieties Dragon Dictation software perfect for busy students, those who hate to type

Dusty Hamrick Staff Writer Technology today is amazing! Look at Stephen Hawking, completely disabled, and paralyzed, and yet a Professor of Mathematics and the greatest scientist of all time. Technology was his catalyst. How could he have conveyed his thoughts and amazing intelligence had it not been for technology?

Technology is not limited to the great minds of our generation. The ambitious students of today want to capture the key concepts of a class lecture, but often miss important details because their pen

and paper can’t keep notes as quickly as the teacher is speaking. With a digital voice recorder and Nuances Dragon Dictate software, students can save time and put an end to cramped fingers, missed concepts, and hours of typing by hand.

Dragon is speech recognition software that is trained to recognize your voice with amazing accuracy. The more you use it and train it the more accurate it becomes. I found that I had to do a few corrections in the beginning, but it does do better with time.

Unfor tunately, Dragon software is not yet perfected to recognize multiple voices. However, research is under way to

deliver real-time captioning and transcription of class lectures and other media.

Despite the fact that Dragon software is “speaker dependent” speech recognition that can learn only one voice, it can still be used as a transcription solution and time saver for students, instr uctors, journalists, freelance writers, researchers, and novel writers alike who need to get lecture, inter view, meeting, or novel content in writing, with the use of a digital voice recorder.

Simply record whatever you plan to transcribe with Dragon (Premium edition or higher) and download the audio file to your PC or Mac (my per-

sonal favorite) and listen to the recording through your Dragon headset, activate your Dragon microphone and “re-speak” the recorded audio file as you hear it. Dragon turns “your voice” into text as quickly as you can speak the words, and the words of other voices as “you” repeat them. This is called “parroting” or “voice writing”.

I use my Dragon software for writing assignments and to write emails. Careful though, your emails can turn out quite lengthy.

I make a long commute to and from school, during this time I can work on my book through use of my digital voice recorder or a writing assignment then download the audio file when I have time.

See DRAGON | Page 6

Monday, march 24, 2014

CAMPUS VOICES

Should NIC stay in the SWAC or move to the NWAACC? Patrick O’Farrell n 18, theater, Blanchard, ID

“Yes, because it’s financially more feasible and we shouldn’t care about our reputation in regards to that.”

Jess Howell n 20, nursing, Fernwood, ID

“I think we should all be in the same league.

There’s no reason for us to degrade ourselves, people should take more pride in their school and pay attention to their sports more, and maybe we could get some more money coming in.”

Megan Larson n 21, admin. assistant, Metaline Falls

“No, I feel bad for them, so no, we shouldn’t, because we need our teams.”

Zach Devorak n engineering, Uniontown, WA

“It’s kind of cool that we’re actually competing against a big league, but then they want to drop us to a smaller league so it’s a limiting opportunity. I mean it’s kind of like punishing the athletes because of the school’s enrollment so it’s cool that they’re doing a really good job but I don’t think it would be a good thing to do.”

Cody “Hawk” Slonim n 35, elementary education, CDA

“If it saves money for students, then hell yeah.”

Benaiah Cheevers Staff Writer

n

Ethan Schlussler Photographer

perspectives

6 | the sentinel

Monday, MARCH 24, 2014

When your backyard is a National Park Growing up in Big Sky Country inspires staffer’s passion for nature, conservation Photo courtesy of United States Dept. of Agriculture

Abbe Breeding Staff Writer Flathead Valley Montana, located on the western edge of Glacier National Park, is one of the most breathtaking, rustic places in the country. Every year it attracts thousands of tourists who are drawn in by its astonishing mountains and vast freshwater lakes. Only a lucky few are fortunate enough to grow up in such an extraordinary place; my family and I happen to be some of them.

The boundaries there are not defined by large cities or amusement parks but instead the splendid natural wonders: the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River, Flathead Lake, and the “The Crown of the Continent,” better known as Glacier National Park.

Growing up in a place as rugged and beautiful as the Flathead Valley made me into the outdoorsy environmentalist that I am today, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“The Crown of the Continent” earned this nickname in 1855 by George Bird Grinnell after he explored its untamed wilderness, but he wasn’t the first to enjoy its beauty.

Its incredible glacier-carved peaks were first sacred to the Blackfeet Indians, who were the first inhabitants of this pristine area.

To this day Glacier National Park (GNP) is still sacred to the Native Americans of this region because of its astonishing beauty. It even earned the tribal name of the “Backbone of the World.”

Glacier Park has remained an outdoor paradise, and it attracts an average of two million visitors each year.

Tourists are drawn to its preservation of more than one million acres of meadows, alpine lakes, rugged peaks and glacial-carved valleys.

The park’s most prominent attraction is its glacier-carved terrain that features the melting remnants of glaciers that formed in the last ice age 10,000 years ago.

Growing up in an area close to Glacier National Park opened my eyes to climate change and pollution.

I have witnessed the effects of climate change because of my close proximity to Glacier Park.

>DRAGON from page 5

Today, students with certain physical and/or learning disabilities, which represents 10-20 percent of all postsecondary students, higher learners with various disabilities face significant challenges if not barriers when it comes to capturing class notes. Students can request a note taker for lectures. That’s awesome, but this is often an inefficient process, forces students to rely on others and reveals to the other students that they have a disability by having a note taker. Dragon Dictate may be the answer.

One solution is for instructors to use Dragon Dictate during their lectures; they can then have their lecture transcribed to text, instantly. This makes Dragon an excellent accessibility solution for schools and universities.

In my opinion all instructors who do any lecturing at all should at least record their lectures and be made available to students through Blackboard so that students can review/watch the lectures at a later date. To me, there is just so much readily available and easy to use technology not to make use of it for the benefit of all students.

As if all of this technology isn’t awesome enough, now Nuance offers Dragon Naturally Speaking (Premium Edition or above) customers a “free” Dragon Recorder app download for their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch (4th gen) and now Dragon Dictate for Mac3, that allows dictation anytime, anywhere, capturing high-quality audio files. The app then wirelessly transfers the audio files from the mobile device to the users PC or Mac and produces an accurate written dictation of the audio file.

Although Dragon Dictate is a little costly, it has come down in price considerably as of late, and there is an educational discount so be sure to mention that you are using it for educational purposes. The home edition is now $59.99, from $99.99. Dragon Premium 12 is now $119.99, down from $199.99, and I had the painful pleasure of paying $179.99, down from $199.99 for Dragon Dictate for Mac, v4.

And I don’t regret it a bit!

I’ve seen the glaciers slowly retreat and disappear.

Of the 150 glaciers in GNP that existed in 1900 only 25 now remain.

Preserving the beauty of nature should not only be applied to in National Parks.

It should permeate all walks of life. I gained my perspective about the environment from growing up close to this incredible place, and I am fortunate to have it.

Glacier National Park is home to some of my favorite memories, from fly-fishing and whitewater rafting in the summer, to cross country skiing and snowshoeing in the winter.

Without these fond memories I might view Glacier National Park and the wilderness simply as something to be developed, rather than viewing it as something to be cherished and protected, and for that I am truly thankful.

Throughout my life I have been exposed to the amazing aspects of nature that live right in my backyard.

I no longer question or doubt how crucial it is to preserve and respect our world.

A majority of the world’s population is disconnected from the planet we inhabit, and I am one of the lucky few that doesn’t feel that way.

I have spent the larger part of my young life outdoors because of the Flathead Valley.

I live my life completely immersed by the nature and wilderness that surrounded my hometown. Many ignorant people crit icize this rural life as “too boring” or “too small” but little do they know about what they are missing out on.

Growing up in Montana did have its drawbacks, but the positives out weighed the negatives.

Where else could the size of our backyard be determined by how adventurous you felt that day or how much you were intent on exploring.

While I didn’t grow up 20 minutes away from Disneyland, I did grow up with the freedom to explore and develop my own imagination.

There were no boundaries of what I could discover by spending the day outside hiking in GNP or camping on the edge of Flathead Lake.

I have experienced the positive effects of growing up in the outdoors and it changed me for the better.

Because of this I have formulated a strong opinion about the environment

and the world we live in.

Someday I hope to protect the quality of the natural environment and educate the population about environmentally harmful human activities.

My connection to the environment comes from my fond memories in my past and it helps me make more environmentally conscious decisions in the present.

The Flathead Valley reminds me how important our natural world is, and how incredibly lucky we are to have it.

The wilderness is a magnificent and unfinished place and growing up in the Flathead Valley taught me that.

Even though I have physically left the Flathead Valley to start college, it will always be a part of who I am today. Montana and the Flathead Valley will always be home to me, and will forever live in my heart and my mind.

Now my current address may say Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, but I still wake up ever y morning knowing where my true home is, I am thankful that Montana showed me what life is really about.

When good shows get cancelled The struggle is real for fans left in a lurch by network’s decisions

Alex Rodal Cubillas Staff Writer

TV ¬rules the daily lives of thousands of millions of people around the world. From toddlers all the way to grandma and grandpa, everyone has a show or network that they enjoy watching. However, every network has an audience that it targets with different types of TV shows or broadcasts. For example; E! News targets people between the ages of 18-34, MTV targets people ages 12-34 and the CW targets people 18-34.

These three networks are among thousands of networks that earn billions of dollars in revenue per year by televising shows ranging from reality or fauxality to teen dramas and fantasy. But what happens to these shows when or if they are not very successful?

Well, with just the snap of their fingers network executives can prevent any further de-

velopment of shows that lose ratings. Some of the shows that get cancelled do, however, have a loyal fan base but just because ratings and money earnings weren’t up to par with expectations, their shows get cut.

We have all had TV shows that we have fawned over and that were cancelled. I alone have lost three of my favorite TV shows in the last four years. It started with the loss of “Heroes” in 2010, then with the loss of “Merlin” in 2012 and finally the loss of “90210” in 2013.

When these shows were cancelled I was immediately distraught because when they got cancelled we—the loyal fan base—were not given a closing chapter; instead we were left with an eternal wonderment of what could have been.

Cancelling shows without giving the fans that supported the show a proper ending is like cutting off in the middle of the Super Bowl and not allowing fans to know who won the game.

Networks make billions of dollars per year, and not giving the fans a proper finale that their favorite show deserves is a big slap to the face since the audiences were the ones that supported the series from the beginning.

Many shows end in the middle of a great plot or story arc that could have gone farther.

Instead, it seems that the networks are more

concerned about banking in on more money than they really need and forget about the people that helped maintain their wealth.

These multibillion-dollar networks have too often denied us the right to have a final season or a closing episode for a series to, at the very least, allow us to close that chapter of our lives as well.

I have suffered greatly at the loss of some of my favorite shows such as the ones listed above, but I refuse to lose hope that someday these shows will be picked back up by some network and finished off gracefully.

In the meantime I criticize the networks for choosing to abandon great shows like “90210” and “Merlin.” I will forever more wonder if Naomi Clark will ever find true love, or will Arthur ever rise up from the dead to rule once again over a troubled land, and how the heck did Merlin stay alive for hundreds of years?

These, my friends, are the questions that will haunt me for maybe the rest of my life, but within my grief I shall bathe in hope, or Heroes will be coming back to a television soon. So maybe if the demand is great enough, some of our favorite shows can come back from the grave.

Features

Features tip? Story idea?

Contact Tyson Juarez

208-769-3388 lubusamongus16@gmail.com

www.nicsentinel.com

page 7

Introducing the queens of the drag age Men and women participate in drag fashion show in SUB Robby Palmer Staff Writer This is the show your conservative mother warned you about, with electric colorful attitudes showing their “good” sides for the night.

“I’m just here because I love men who dress up as women,” Mikayla Smally said. ”Hopefully I can get some makeup tips.”

The drag queens had more than just eye shadow and lipgloss to grace the attendees with.

Lake Coeur d’Alene room locked, popped and rocked all night long March 18 at North Idaho College.

College is a time of learning, discovering and finding new and exciting career pathways.

Not only do students find their calling to personal careers, but also to their personal lives.

The show even got support from those with religious backgrounds.

“I’m here to support the LGBT community,” Christian Isaaclaboy said. “I heard about the Christians picketing the last time, so I came to represent them this time in a good way. I think this is what us Christians should be doing.”

Big beautiful dresses, big beautiful hair, big beautiful make-up and a big and beautiful crowd adorned the evening. The best queens around town put on the performances. Playfully Singing, masterfully lip-syncing and dancing, even doing cartwheels down the center aisle-which was quite impressive in the dimly lit but colorful conference room.

Naomi Delish was serving up the MC work, casually keeping the crowd upbeat and smiling even though it was hard not to. The crowd was ecstatic with love, compassion and unity,

even giving up a couple dollars here and there for the queens and their performances.

The female cross dressers were going all out with Justin Beiber-esque clothes and facial hair. The scene was undoubtedly a dream come true for gay students who maybe, publicly got to be themselves for the very first time or just there for the party.

“Let’s Quentin Tarantino this back around,” Delish said.

After a quick intermission and a few cheesy one-liners, the show was moving again with performances from the lovely Savannah So-Real, Cindy Rarity Gemstone and the lady killer, Chase R. Harder, who did a lively performance of a Ne-yo song while stirring the crowd into a rhythmic clapping frenzy.

Other notable performances included the beautiful Madeline Majesty, who arguably pulled off a Sharon Stone style seduction piece that made the crowd awe in drag queen mysticism. The drag host Naomi Delish even pulled out those signature cartwheels in her performance.

The night even brought newcomers to the art of drag as the audience was invited up onto the stage and believe it or not; the first LGBT boy/girl band straight from the North Idaho made its appearance complete with hip gyrations, shimmies and Michael Jackson spins.

They dipped into a Liberace bathtub and dried off with a bedazzled retro hooded hair dryer, but this wasn’t just a time for celebration. It was a time for mourning and true action from the community.

“This is our civil rights,” yelled out a supporter.

As this was and still is a discrimination issue. The gay community still deals with

Most students have probably seen the pictured white van camped on campus before, but few have likely inquired into why.

The van is a “Mobile Counseling Unit,” and veterans can be provided counseling services there. Sometimes for this reason it is also called an MVC: “Mobile Veterans Center.”

While there is a communitybased outreach VA clinic in CDA that offers that offers PTSD treatment only, veterans need to be registered with the VA and

Tyson Juarez

Dragshow participant Roxanna Hardplace lip-syncs to “Jailhouse Tango” from the musical “Chicago.” T.J. Gossard/Sentinel

murder, hate groups and opposition from established religions on a daily basis. All while living in a state where discrimination bills are being passed and homosexual opponents are frequent.

Community supporter Jamie Sebby and many others made their voices clear, that even from a once absent community in northern Idaho,

gay people are not alone; they have love, support and people that will fight for them.

It is safe to say they have a battle to fight. With support at a highpoint, one could see them accomplishing this goal.

Moving ahead from an old age societal viewpoint, to being completely free in who they are in a new, what shall they call it.

are more than 300 in the U.S. They were a grassroots agency that started as Vietnam veterans just helping each other out that the VA caught wind of to turn into a government agency— which made it all become professionalized to veterans who were getting psychology and social work degrees, helping veterans. It also went from serving Vietnam veterans to all veterans, which has helped to access rural veterans and veterans in their community, instead of making someone have to drive from Sandpoint to Spokane.

A physical inquiry into the MVC is an experience: mechanical steps slowly eject from the high entryway to allow easy access, and one may be immediately surprised upon entrance to see well-furnished, bright golden oak cabinets that are welcoming, before the MVC counselor flips on a generator for some electricity and a light vibration rocks the cabin on wheels. The inside is armed with full communication technology: satellite access to phones, Internet, and video conferencing.

The MVC Readjustment

See Veterans | Page 10

NIC faculty display works of art

Wind Symphony performs traditional songs that inspire audience to tap toes NIC art student Emily Mittman examines the faculty art displayed in the “Corner Gallery.”

Many of the pieces displayed in the gallery were created by faculty members who work with all differents kinds of mediums from photography to sculpture.

Rachel Single-Schwall/ Sentinel

DID YOU KNOW?

Finding a better Inspiration

Features editor

Clinical van helps veterans to cope with mental illness, battle, military sexual trauma have a mental health diagnosis in order to access it. However, there are no such requirements through the MVC—if a veteran has seen battle or military sexual trauma, that service is available for them. The van/ MVC is centered on providing counseling from veterans— always having veterans helping veterans.

The MVC is part of an agency that falls under the VA umbrella but it’s not under medical centers—they’re under readjustment counseling services (RCS). RCS oversees all vet centers, of which there

COMMENTARY

Christian rock needs to step up

Local veterans van comes to NIC T.J. Gossard Staff Writer

monday, march 24, 2014

Connor Coughlin Staff Writer Enter into the doors of Boswell Hall’s “Corner Gallery” and viewers will find themselves entangled in a diverse and visually enchanting body of art produced

by NIC’s own faculty. The “Faculty Art Exhibit” is an exhibition of faculty members who are currently engaged in teaching art courses at the college.

What the artwork share in common is the level of maturity, creativity, and hard work that went into the creation of the pieces.

As well as diversity of subject matter, the artists made use of a wide range of mediums throughout the exhibition.

On display was art that used oil, acrylic,

and watercolor paint, charcoal, graphite, photography, mixed media sculptures, and digital collage.

Most of the gallery held standalone pieces but there were few that told an entire story, relying on each other’s similarities in composition, style and colors to create a sense of continuity. Among others, Allie Vogt, the painting and drawing instructor, accomplishes this with seven-piece body of work entitled “Around the Table.” Geometric in nature, the series tell a story of abstract recollections and interpretations from being around the family table during her childhood years.

The “Faculty Art Exhibit” runs until March 28.

When I think of Christian rock a few things come to mind: low cut v-necks, meaningless tattoos, and a knack to sound like a complete ripoff of every song ever written by U2.

It’s really true and to me it kind of takes away from the whole idea of letting your religious beliefs be a muse for your artistic creativity.

As someone who is a Christian, I think that forced lyrics are lame and uninspiring.

Whenever I look at a Christian rock band’s lyrics or even the band’s demeanor itself, I get a feeling that the record labels that they are signed too have a lot of influence on how these bands conduct themselves as artists. They seem like they have an image to keep up with and it is obviously showing.

It also puts out an image for the band that makes them only appeal to church goers when they should be trying to connect with everyone whether they believe or not. The writing needs to be more effective.

I think passionately writing about a subject should come from the heart and not because you are trying to conform yourself with a certain image because you have to.

You should speak your inspirations with truth and with as few gimmicks as possible.

Also a lot of these bands are seriously ripping off U2 and it’s pretty apparent.

Recently I saw an interview that featured Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan in which he explained that religious content may be the future for mainstream rock as long as the bands get away from this trend of wanting to sound like Bono and the gang.

Bands like Starfield and Switchfoot fall into this category as they play soft alternative rock inspired licks with unimaginative and repetitive lyrics over the top.

Religious lyrics do have a chance to make its way into the mainstream, there is a lot of potential to write some meaningful lyrics since the topic is so personal and that’s just my point. “Christian” musicians should write material that is more personal to their experiences and feelings, rather than trying to squeeze Jesus’ name into the song as much as possible.

They should write music that expresses the feelings of love and joy without overly advertising the fact they belong to a certain church.

Now don’t take what I say too personally, I believe that religious lyrics can be great but when they are forced, I won’t be picking up the album anytime soon.

Tyson Juarez is an editor for The Sentinel. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Sentinel. Respond to this column online at nicsentinel.com.

Christopher Walken choreographed his own dance in the Fat Boy Slim video “Weapon Of Choice”

8 | the sentinel

special

Monday, october 21, 2013

features

10 | the sentinel

Film Club success

Monday, march 24, 2014

Say Cheese!

Club’s first screening attracts large crowd Tyson Juarez Features Editor The new and up-coming North Idaho College Film Club held their first event and it was considered to be a great success.

The group screened the movie “Fight Club” which had attracted a crowd of around 33 people to the event.

“We picked something that the audience knew about and also something some of them may not know as well,” said Jess Howell, 20, nursing, “either way it’s a film that invigorates the thought process.”

The club provided an array of pizza, popcorn, and soft drinks to enjoy before and during the show.

After the movie, the Film Club encouraged viewers to stick around to discuss the

film as they had been handed a question sheet before the film. The sheet contained questions that the audience should consider while viewing the movie.

“The film has a lot to do with philosophy,” said Howell.

Many of the students who went enjoyed themselves and found it to be a good escape from their school lives.

“Events like this gets us out of the dorms,” said Josh Galloway.

The club screened a dark but comedic short film before the film entitled “Free Pie” which told the stor y of a man who finds out something terrible happened to his son.

The club plans to produce its own short films in the future and plans to do some more events with the Philosophy Club as well.

BPA member Josh Straub, 29, Graphic Design, gets ready to take a picture of two students who will soon be photoshoped into a setting of choice. All members of BPA made it to Nationals and decided that a unique fundraiser would be the right way to gain money for the trip. Tyson Juarez/Sentinel

A journey through time and music Choir students performance dedicated to Franz Schuberts ‘Mass No. 2 in G Major’ Connor Coughlin Staff Writer

Students performed alongside University of Idaho soloists and NIC’s chamber singers who all payed tribute to Shubert. Rachel Single-Schwall/Sentinel

The NIC Choral Union gathered in the Boswell Hall Schuler Performing Arts Center in order to take its audience on a musical journey through the Baroque, Romantic, and Renaissance eras.

Presented by the NIC Music Department, the concert opened with the NIC Chamber Choir alone performed a myriad of classic vocal pieces including Johann Pachelbel’s “Nun danket alle Gott.”

The bulk of the performance was dedicated to composer Franz Schubert’s “Mass No. 2 in G Major.” Under the lead of Max Mendez the Choral Union, a combined choir, 70 total students sang out rich and grandiose harmonies persisting of religious prayers and sacred chants completely in Latin.

Alongside the 70 choir members were the accompanist, Carolyn Jess, and three soloist performers Nathan Heard, Wesley Saunders, and Karen Hunt.

All the soloists are currently students studying music at the University of Idaho.

The performance was simple and straightforward with a structure that is seen commonly in traditional mass pieces. But there is a profound beauty in its simplicity. The vocals of the three soloists called out loudly across the auditorium in a call-response with the large chorus, weaving their raw voices into a complex wonder of concord that carried with it the Romantic ideals of spontaneity and transcendence.

Franz Schubert was an Austrian composer who lived a short life in the 19th century. In the span of his career he produced a prolific amount of chamber music and operas, the “Mass No. 2 in G Major” being one of his most well-known. The Mass is simple and concise.

Known as the shorter of Schubert’s Masses, the total performance is made up of six movements that last well under a half hour; far less time than most other concerts put on by the NIC Music Department.

>Veterans from page 7

Counselor is named Dante Rumore, a LICSW from the Spokane Vet Center who got out of the Marine Corps in 2004. From there, Rumore graduated from NIC and got a bachelors degree from University of Idaho, as well as achieving his masters in social work. “I now had resources and a direction on doing something that’s very near and dear to my heart, which is serving combat veterans, but also serving veterans in rural communities and my whole life I’ve lived—except at various points during service—in rural communities and knowing that a communities’ veteran population goes unserved—you know, more than 60% of our veterans live in rural or smaller or rural communities, while most of the resources lie in cities or metropolitan areas.”

“I think that strengthens that network, that safety net for some of them, to let them know that, ‘Wow, not only can I be seen for pressing clinical needs, but there’s also someone that understands what it’s like to be a veteran returning to school,’ and some of those challenges,” Curley Lawson, Multicultural and Veterans Adviser, said. “And for that population there are some challenges that aren’t always understood or even anticipated by the veteran coming back to school. It’s hard to get a degree if you are perpetually on the edge in a classroom or if students are having issues with having a service animal.”

Nez Perce tribe member gives emotional testimony Robbie Paul speaks of Native American hardships, mistreatment in modern age Robby Palmer Staff Writer

and Clark and the Presbyterian leader Henr y Spalding.

Merriweather Clark brought new and technologically ncient Nez Perce advanced tools such as spirits filled the Lake gunpowder and magnifying Cda room at North glasses to the Nez Perce who Idaho College with saw them mostly as magic. a mission to tell their real story But as this was all new and Monday march 10. groundbreaking times “I’ve had for both parties. The enough!”

Nez Perce quickly Robbie Paul envisioned more white said, as she was men would come and referring to Chief they did not see the Joseph’s mutual future being bright for surrender. This their people. was to be the “Do them no last war fought Harm,” a Nez Perce by northwestern women called out.

Native Referring to the Americans. negotiations between In their native Clark and the Nez language of Perce. The womenNiimmiiputimtwho had stayed with a a dialect of white family in Canada Sahaptin- The Robbie Paul most of her life- knew Nez Perce name they were powerful for themselves but did not see them as the is Nimmiipuu, meaning, “The bloodthirsty, slave owning People.” settlers we would all later learn Paul was a fourth generation to revile. mother of the Nez Perce tribe, Presbyterian Henry Spalding historically located in much of the on the other hand imposed a northwest including North Idaho and south western parts of Canada certain alien way of life to the Nez Perce.“ If you’re gonna be today. a Christian you have to cut your She recalled many of the first hair, wear white mans clothes, contact accounts such as Lewis

A

and the nor thwest Native live in a house, cut the ground American tribes. “This was for farmland.” Paul discussed. ver y impor tant to us,” said She also claimed that the Nez Paul. “Cr yers” or messengers Perce knew of the “Book of from each tribe would relay the Power,” or the Bible, and that word of the this carried treaty to much spiritual “Hear me, my chiefs, I am each tribe. power.

To the tired. My heart is sick and Since 8,000 Nez Perce, sad. From where the sun people could not spiritual power now stands, I will fight no be spoken was like gold to at once to the western more forever.” in these settlers. “ days, this The tribes Chief Joseph was how competed for the word of missionaries the treaty so they could was spread. be Christianized because they Even so, not all Nez Perce wanted more spiritual power.” agreed to this treaty. Some chiefs said Paul. “This was before were not even invited to the we (Nez Perce) knew the treaty gathering. All while The violence that would be taken treaty was not being upheld by out on us.” The Nez Perce and the settlers once they learned other neighboring tribes were of the yellow rock (Gold) and blissfully ignorant to the white purposefully reduced the Nez mans true goals of conquering Perce Reservation out of greed. and converting them. The Eventually a battle broke spiritual power of the Bible was out on June 15,1877 of the what the Nez perce were after non-treaty Nez Perce by who and they did not truly reap the vowed not to give up their repercussions till sadly, it was fer tile land and move into a too late. reser vation.

The 1855 treaty in Walla Chief Joesph, Looking Walla was headed by Paul’s Glass,White Bird and many great great grand father and other chiefs led over 2,000 men this what really cemented women and children. While relations between the settlers

Battling over four states,tr ying to get to a peaceful sanctuary. 800 Nez Perce warriors including 1,000 women and children died.

The mutual surrender of the Nez Perce happened on Oct 5,1877, to General Oliver O. Howard at the Battle of Bear Paw Mountain, as both sides were worn out and troops withering away. “...Hear me, my chiefs, I am tired. My hear t is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.” - Chief Joseph after the mutual surrender of the Nez Perce and U.S cavalr y at the Battle of Bear Paw Mountain.

Paul’s stor ytelling reminded the way of great stor ytellers centuries old, with hear t and conviction and tr ue tears of common ancestors. Too not only be impressed by the rich histor y but the accuracy makes for a tr uly once in a lifetime stor y. Can you trace your ancestor’s roots with such emotion and validity?

One must remember where America comes, and from the values we must bestow upon our own land from hundreds of years of states and presidents to more appropriately, tribes and chiefs.

www.nicsentinel.com

Features

the sentinel | 11

Tour headliners the Sword played a set that was absent of gimmicks or fancy lighting. The group simply came out in a flurry of rock n’roll on a chariot of lightning. Tyson Juarez/Sentinel

A mystical night with the Sword Highly praised Texas stoner rockers get medieval at local underground venue, the Hop Tyson Juarez Features Editor Deep within the dark lands known as Spokane, there lay a venue that attracts only the bravest of rock n’ roll warriors and wenches. This haven of loud music and rock is known as The Hop. On one fortnight, four wizards of stoner metal, known to many as the Sword, cast their magic and killer guitar solos upon the crowd, leaving many in a daze of harmony and awesomeness.

This was the third time the Sword has visited Spokane, and they left a notably good impression on the city.

The Sword played a tight set, showing off some of their hits and other numbers that had the audience raving in outlandish mosh pits even though it was made clear before the show that

the band preferred the audience not to cause any fights. With music as heavy as theirs, it was no wonder the audience had a tough time following the rules. It is metal after all.

The members of the Sword were quiet, straight to the point, and came out swinging. From start to finish the band did not quit bringing on heavy Black Sabbath inspired riffs that had the audience experiencing something as mystical as riding in a Millennium Falcon made completely out of dragons.

The fact that the show was located at The Hop made it personal for the audience, as it did not contain any rails to separate the crowd from the stage nor were there many security guards, so people could walk right up and lean right on the band’s monitors.

The crowd got bigger and bigger, and by the time the

opening acts O’ Brother and Big Business finished playing, there was barely enough room to get a good fist or glorious metal horns in the air.

Many dedicated metal heads clad in gaudy metal attire and equipped with the shiniest of unkept waist long hair, payed tribute to their shiny golden metal gods.

Those lucky enough to be right on the stage were able to exchange high fives with their idols, only to never wash that left hand that “touched Kyle Schutt’s fret hand.”

Overall the concert was a blast of electric fury that kept the audience interested and no one was leaving early.

The metal wizards of space and time had done their jobs well, and audience members left the venue with destroyed ear drums and grins wider than the sun.

Their spell had been cast, and it was effective.

Illustrations by Connor Coughlin/Sentinel

Not about to press the reset button anytime soon Local video game store owners celebrate one year anniversary, discuss hardships Chris Patterson Staff Writer Would you give up everything for your dreams? Give up your collections, time, and money for all gone for a dream that you wanted to turn into a reality? One year ago, two video game gurus did just that.

Local gaming store Press Start to Play, owned by John Kropff and Tanner Roberts, celebrated their one-year anniversary on March 1.

Roberts, with his expertise and knowledge of video games, reached out to Kropff, previously manager at

GameStop, with the idea of opening their own gaming store, together they made their dreams a reality and opened up Press Start to Play one year ago.

Roberts has played videogames ever since the Sega Genesis first came out, but when the Nintendo 64 came out, it sparked his passion for them. Although he was a Geek Squad supervisor for Best Buy, he spent most of his free time researching and collecting new video games.

Kropff has been collecting video games since he was 12 years old.

Before Press Start opened Kropff had a collection of over 2,200 games, 1,600 of which he donated to Press Start to Play. It takes a lot to donate your life’s collection to a business, but to Kropff it’s worth giving his collection for a dream.

Giving it their all is an understatement for these dedicated store owners. Roberts and Kropff both quit their jobs and decided to dedicate all of their time into making Press Start to play a successful business.

“I really like it because I was waiting for a retro game store to

open and I also like that they hold tournaments every week,” said Jess Howell, NIC. “There is always something going on at Press Start, and that’s what I love about it.”

The two store owners do tournaments every week for roughly 15 video game enthusiasts. They offer a variety of different tournaments to appeal to a larger group of gamers.

Hosting these tournaments is not an easy task for these two dedicated storeowners; it requires a lot of time and preparation.

“Yeah, it is hard work, but it something that I love doing,”

Roberts said When asked if they were excited about their first year both of the store owners only expressed positive comments.

“I’m excited, we lasted a year and usually the first year is a critical part in a business, and we did it. We got through our first year,” Kropff said.

Roberts enthusiastically gave his partner a high five and patted him on the back to show his gratitude.

"We learned a lot our first year, and we will continue to learn and grow into a successful business," said Roberts.

Photo by Chris Patterson/Sentinel

www.nicsentinel.com

SPORTS

the sentinel | 13

NIC rugby club battles tough Cougar team WSU rugby squad proves too strong for Cardinals, NIC expected to join rugby conference next spring Garrett Cabeza Sports Editor As a junior college rugby team, it’s tough competing against fouryear schools, especially when that team invites some of its Pac-12 football players to play rugby.

The Washington State University rugby club beat the North Idaho College rugby club 59-19 March 15 on the Cougars’ campus in Pullman, Wash.

NIC’s Jim White scored two tries and two conversions to lead the team. He had one try and conversion in each half.

A try is worth five points and a conversion is worth two.

Eric Fisher scored his first try of the season for NIC in the second half.

White said he was happy with how NIC competed, scoring 19 points against the Cougars. He also said Washington State is always strong in the spring season because it recruits football players.

NIC’s Kyle Gates suffered a concussion during the game.

Washington State is one of nine

members of the Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference (NCRC).

It holds the second place spot in the NCRC Eastern Division with a 6-3 overall record.

Central Washington, Eastern Washington, Boise State and Idaho make up the other four schools in the Eastern Division.

The Western Division consists of Oregon, Washington, Western Oregon and Western Washington.

The conference is expected to expand starting next spring by opening up two new divisions - Division II and III. NIC will be a Division III team next spring if the conference does expand.

The Cardinals previously beat Seattle University’s rugby club 31-22 on March 1 in Seattle.

White led the squad with two tries and three conversions.

Zach James, Ashton Clark and Thomas Thompson each scored a try a piece for NIC. The Cardinals will play Reed College March 29 in Portland, Ore., and then Whitman College April 5 in Walla Walla, Wash.

NIC’s Jim White keeps his legs churning against Washington State University’s rugby club March 15 on WSU’s campus in Pullman, Wash. The Cougars beat the Cardinals 59-19. Photo courtesy of Joshua Martinez

Best in Idaho to best in country in no time at all

NIC wrestler V.J. Giulio won 4 state titles in high school, added national title weeks ago Garrett Cabeza Sports Editor

V.J. Giulio swept the competition away this season at the national tournament in Spokane. Beau Valdez/Sentinel

>BASKETBALL from page 12

win.

“We just couldn’t get anything going offensively but we used our defense to kind of push us over the top,” NIC guard Bryce Leavitt said.

NIC’s Shikei Blake paced the Cardinals with 16 points and Braxton Tucker scored 10 points, all of them coming in the first half.

Salt Lake, which beat NIC all three times in the regular season, beat the Cardinals 89-72 for a fourth time in the second round of the tournament on Feb. 28.

“We didn’t shoot it well and Salt Lake, they played really well,” NIC head coach Jared Phay said.

“They’ve been a very dominant team ever since they came up to our place that last home game that we played them.”

Salt Lake led 38-24 at halftime.

Neal Monson scored 21 points for the Bruins. Will Dorsey led the Cardinals with 19 points, followed

by Bryce Leavitt with 18 and Blake with 13. NIC finished the season with a 21-11 record.

Leavitt was named to the Region 18 first team, Tucker earned second-team honors and Dorsey earned honorable mention.

“It was a great accomplish-

ment,” Leavitt said. “We have a really, really tough league so getting any awards in this league is tough and something that you should be proud of.”

Besides sophomores Jason Wheelock, Nate Rathbun and Leavitt, the rest of the Cardinal basketball team is eligible to return next season. Tucker is verbally committed to Portland State University.

Salt Lake beat CSI 62-49 in the SWAC championship game March 1 and advanced to nationals after routing 22nd-ranked Mesa Community College 75-59 March 8 at Salt Lake Community College.

Women The North Idaho College womens basketball team saw its season come to an end at the Scenic West Athletic Conference tournament, losing in the semifinals to College of Southern Idaho 76-68 on Feb. 28 in Ephraim, Utah.

The Lady Cardinals finished the season 22-10.

NIC took down Colorado Northwestern in the first round, winning 75-60.

Colorado Northwestern came out with a “nothing to lose mentality,” NIC head coach Chris Carl-

It’s something you couldn’t script in Hollywood - a wrestler winning a national championship and then proposing to his girlfriend on a podium for everyone to see. But that’s exactly what happened a few weeks ago.

North Idaho College wrestler V.J. Giulio, a four-time state champion from American Falls, Idaho, won a national title in the 197pound weight class at the NJCAA Wrestling Championships March 1 at the Spokane Convention Center.

Soon after claiming his individual championship, he proposed to his girlfriend Jordan Moyer on the All-American podium.

“She doesn’t like being the center of attention very much and I wanted to put her out of her comfort zone and embarrass her a little bit and just make it super memorable. I think I did,” Giulio said. “I think it worked out.”

Giulio said he knew that he was going to propose if he won a national title, so that gave him “a little extra motivation for the tournament.”

“Every match I was like well, if I don’t win this match, then I can’t propose at the end of it,” he said.

As for the championship match atmosphere, Giulio said “those are the moments I live for.”

The wrestling mat was elevated on a stage with lights focused on the mat and the rest of the room fairly dark.

“That’s the reason I love this sport because it’s just you,” Giulio said. “It’s you and one guy, go at it and do battle. That’s where I shine. Every state championship I ever wrestled in and now the national championship I just wrestled in, it’s just where I excel. It’s where I feel like I belong. It’s just the best feeling on the planet.”

Giulio was also named the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler.

NIC placed sixth as a team in the national tournament with Taylor Kornoely (285 pounds) and Derrick Booth (174) earning sixth place finishes for the Cardinals.

Giulio and NIC head coach Pat Whitcomb said he wrestled his best at the end of the season.

Whitcomb said the last month of the season Giulio was “focused” and “hitting on all cylinders.”

Giulio came into the tournament as the third-ranked wrestler in his weight class, but was ranked

No. 1 in the three previous polls.

He finished third in last season’s national tournament when the Cardinals proceeded to share the national title with Labette Community College.

However, Giulio lost in the quarterfinals.

“It was heartbreaking obviously coming up short,” Giulio said.

“I didn’t expect to lose. You never expect to lose. It turned out to be kind of a blessing because without me losing that match we wouldn’t have won the national title.”

With Giulio losing in the quarterfinals, he was able to rack up more pins and as a result, gave his team more points than perhaps he would have if he blazed through the tournament undefeated and crowned a national champion. He finished the tournament with five pins.

Whitcomb said it was “pretty devastating” when he lost last season at nationals as he was the topranked wrestler in his weight class and his sights were set on winning a national championship.

Giulio had about 20 minutes to regroup until his next match was set to start.

Giulio said Whitcomb told him after the loss “‘you get five minutes for yourself and then after that, I don’t want to see or hear anything about that match. We need you to come back as strong as you are and win these next matches for us if we’re going to have a chance at this.’”

“It kind of made it in my mind about the team, not about me anymore,” Giulio said. “That’s really what it boils down to is I needed to wrestle back, and wrestle hard for my team.”

Whitcomb said “what speaks more volumes to me is his character from coming back last season (in the tournament).”

So how does the national champion Giulio come to NIC and win a team and individual national championship?

Well, his dad coaches all levels of wrestling in American Falls, including freestyle wrestling, middle school wrestling and high school wrestling. Giulio has been wrestling since he was four years old with his dad coaching him through high school.

“I didn’t have anyone else in my corner until I came to college,” Giulio said.

Giulio won four state titles at American Falls High School.

son said.

Katie King and Ryleigh Swagerty did especially well coming in off the bench to help clinch the win.

The loss to Southern Idaho knocked the Lady Cardinals out one game short of nationals.

“If we played the whole game with the same intensity as we did in the second half, we might be going to nationals right now,” Carlson said.

Sophomore Renae Mokrzycki led all players with 26 points and 11 rebounds and Georgia Stirton added 16 points, helping NIC close the gap in the second half.

Both Mokrzycki and Stirton received first team all-SWAC honors and Mokrzycki earned SWAC all-tournament recognition. In addition, freshman Kara Staggs was named honorable mention.

Carlson earned his tenth

The high school weight classes are different than college weights.

His freshman year he won at 135 pounds, sophomore year at 160 and junior and senior years he took home the state championships at 189 pounds.

“It was a fun run,” Giulio said.

“It was just a blast, especially going through it with my dad.”

Giulio said he was undefeated his senior year in high school and estimated his record to be 42-0 with about 36 pins.

He was recruited by four-year schools out of high school, including Arizona State University and St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minn., where he will be wrestling next season with former NIC wrestler Ryan Zumwalt.

Zumwalt helped NIC win its 14th national title last season by finishing second at the national tournament at 165 pounds.

Giulio chose the University of Wyoming in Laramie out of high school, where he wrestled for a year.

“I had a full ride, so it was kind of hard to pass it up,” Giulio said.

“It was close enough to home and everything like that. But I left it because it just wasn’t a good fit.”

Giulio said wrestling in the open tournaments at Wyoming was a bit of a wake-up call.

“That was kind of an eye opener,” Giulio said. “I lost like six matches that year and so coming down to NIC, it was kind of like a middle ground, right in between D-I and high school. It was a perfect transition.”

Giulio’s dad contacted Whitcomb after Giulio’s time in Laramie.

Whitcomb said Giulio’s dad wrestled at the University of Montana at the same time he wrestled at NIC. Whitcomb won two individual and two team national titles at NIC in 1986 and ’87.

Whitcomb said Giulio is “very athletic” and “explosive” and would fit into the NIC wrestling program.

Whitcomb said that some wrestlers don’t transfer their high school wrestling success to the college level. He said he’s had four-time state champions that didn’t handle the pressure well, but “V.J. didn’t miss a beat.”

Giulio now looks forward to wrestling for St. Cloud State, which recently finished sixth at nationals, and head coach Steve Costanzo.

“He (Costanzo) likes me,” Giulio said. “I like him. He’s the kind of guy that I want to wrestle for.”

straight 20-plus win season and is gearing up for next year without three of his strongest sophomores - Stirton, Mokrzycki and Jansen Butler.

Having lost as many as four starters before, Carlson is excited for the development of his current freshmen.

“It’s the nature of junior college and we have to learn to adjust quickly,” Carlson said.

AD PAGE

14 | the sentinel

Monday, march 24, 2014

Registration will open in April University of Idaho Phone: 208-667-2588

Lewis-Clark State College Phone: 208-666-6707

1031 N. Academic Way, Coeur d’Alene ID 83814

www.nicsentinel.com

GAMES

the sentinel | 15

Comic by Connor Coughlin/Sentinel

Crossword ACROSS 1. South African porridge 4. Poisonous plant 9. Ski site 14. Nice yes 15. Make a speech 16. The Jungle author 17. Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian __” 18. Checked out 19. Flirt

20. None (2 words) 22. Billy __ 24. Corn or wheat 25. Home of the Quakers (abbr.)

27. Ancient stringed instrument 31. Big __ (Georgetown’s conference) 32. Island nation 33. Corn portion

34. Psychoanalyst who loves Greek mythology 36. Acquire information 38. To sprinkle on in a holy manner 40. Lampoon 42. Bird wake-up call?

43. Master Swiss chocolatier 44. One of Queen Ur-

sula’s minions 45. Mini or tutu 47. “__ my every order and you might survive” 51. Foreboding prophecy 53. To endure 54. Legally Blonde blonde 55. Aid and __ 57. Take-off or touch-down site 59. A gravelly-voiced singer 62. Got Up 65. Estimated Time of Arrival 66. Like some suspects 67. Woulda, __ a, shoulda 68. Crimson 69. Beach memento 70. Wrangles 71. 180 degrees from NNW

11. Mom’s club 12. Titanic goddess of the dawn 13. Compass direction 21. Choose (2 words) 23. Genetic coding 25. Seductive frowning 26. Omega 28. Currently, of the Tiger 29. Steak preference 30. Sea eagle 32. In Rome, X 35. Tear 36. Denoted an incorporated business (abbr.)

37. One or the other 38. Excuse me!

39. The river that run backwards 40. A bitch’s lover 41. Picnic guest, often 42. Head honcho 43. Covers a jar 45. Science society (abbr.)

46. Show of lowbrow taste 48. Glue brand 1. Like a cat on a 49. Causes to rejoice mouse 50. Ten years 2. __ Borealis 52. Passes through the 3. Mulitcolored horses nose 4. In the near future 56. Seed pod 5. Strong desire 57. Shared (like a se6. Not bon cret) 7. Had a meal 58. Puts together 8. Surrendering 59. Like GUTS or 9. “Mobile” or “matic” Metro prefix 60. __ Wednesday 10. “Wingardium 61. Take to court Leviosa,” for 63. __ the line example 64.Yours, mine, and __’s

DOWN

Tool

16 | the sentinel

Monday, MARCH 24, 2014

the

Spokane Arena Beau Valdez Photo Editor

Tool. March 4 2014. Spokane Arena. When I read those words back in January, I was ecstatic.

You see, I’m an older college student.

I graduated high school in 1999, just a few years after Tool was formed. Tool has won three Grammy Awards, performed worldwide tours, and produced chart topping albums in several countries. I’ve been to the midnight release for three of those albums.

When I read that they were going on their first tour in years, and that the first show of the tour was right here in Spokane, I did what any aspiring photojournalist would do- I emailed the band’s man-

copy of this form I can send it to management for approval and will provide you with further confirmation.” I printed out that form, signed it and sent it right back.

Four more days go by. It’s the day of the show and the RCA lady never wrote back with confirmation. Then it happened.

My phone alerted me to a new email. it was the lady from RCA records. “Yes! Apologies for the delay,” the email read.

“You are approved to shoot the first song from the stage pit, no flash...Thanks Beau, enjoy the show!” I started dancing around like a fool. I was going to photograph one of my favorite bands ever.

March 4. I can’t believe this is even happening. I found the nearest security guard and told them I was there to pick up a photo pass. They took me to the will call booth where more papers needed to be signed, and then I was given my Tool photo pass. The security guard then had me follow her to the security office where I could stash my camera bag, and

agement company explaining my position

there were some formalities to discuss.

and requested a photo pass for the show.

I was led through the inner sanctums of

Days went by with no response. Days

the Spokane Arena so we could avoid the

turned into weeks. Then it happened. I

thousands of people that were crowding

got the reply back from Tool’s manage-

the halls.

ment. They could not authorize any press

The security guard then proceeded

passes, but forwarded my message to a

to tell me how this was going to go. We

woman at RCA Records who might be

would be taken out to the stage pit for the

able to help me out.

first song, and then we would get taken

Then it came, the response from RCA. “Apologies for the late response. Will

back to the security office.

Then came the words that made me

get back to you closer to the date of the

feel nauseated: “If you don’t have a ticket,

show,” it said. That was January 28. Three

you gotta leave after the first song.” What

more weeks went by. The outlook for a

in the hell?! The lady at RCA said enjoy

Tool press pass was looking grim- three

the show! No time to argue. It was time.

weeks until the show and still no reply back from the lady at RCA.

I was led out through the crowd of thousands of fans down to the stage pit.

Then I got another email from her on

“Holy shit. This is happening.” I thought.

February 20. “Unfortunately we are un-

The lights went out. The crowd went wild.

able to accommodate an interview this

The next thing I knew, one of my fa-

time around, however I will get back to

vorite bands of all time was playing right

you about a photo pass closer to the date

in front of me! They opened their set with

of the show.” Disappointing but not sur-

“Hooker With a Penis.” I took photos like

prising. Not all hope was lost.

crazy. The rumors are true, Maynard

Another week passed. By this time the

likes to hang back in the shadows and

show was only five days away and I still

make it hard to get photos of him.

didn’t know if I was approved for a photo

Then the song ended and I was ush-

pass.

February 28, Another email from RCA

ered back to the security office. I put my camera away, grabbed my bag and head-

came. “Hey,” it said. “ In order to shoot

ed out the door. As bummed as I was for

the Tool show I will need a signed copy of

missing the rest of the show, I still had a

this photo release. Once we have a signed

huge grin for the rest of the night.

Clockwise: Maynard James Keenan, vocalist for Tool. - Justin Chancellor plays his bass at the Tool concert on March 4. - Adam Jones plays his guitar at the Tool concert on March 4. - Danny Carey takes his place behind the drums on March 4 - (Beau Valdez/ Sentinel)