PAGE 4 | TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2013 | THE BALL STATE DAILY NEWS | BSUDAILY.COM
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| THE DAILY NEWS COMIC
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
WEEKENDS IN COLLEGE ARE ALWAYS THE SAME Every weekend is the same. The whole campus appears in the windows of the houses on the outskirts of the academic buildings, raising red plastic cups to their lips. The deteriorating, crippled houses play host to anywhere between 10 and 100 college students. Well, it’s almost the whole campus. You remain in your dorm room, watching B movies on Netflix. Every weekend is the same. Thus far, the college life has been downright impossible to adjust to. It’s not like high school, and now you are hours away from the unconditional support of your family. If you’re being completely honest with yourself, you feel utterly lost. College isn’t at all what you expected, hoped, it would be. And now here you are again, another weekend wasted watching Netflix alone in your room. You tell yourself, “Next weekend will be different, I’ll make sure of it.” So you decide to go to one of the parties in the crippled houses, being put on by one of the clubs you’re in. You walk in the door and are greeted by convincing smiles and drunken shouts. “Hey! It’s…” And you realize that they don’t remember your name. You’ve seen them every Wednesday evening since the first semester, but they still can’t remember your name. But you decide to let it slide this time, because at least you’re out of your room. You float through the house, trying to be social, but that’s not a skill that comes naturally to you, and so you end up standing against the wall awkwardly, hoping to just go by unnoticed. You begin to wonder why you came out tonight at all. You’re starting to miss the comfort of your lonely little room. “I noticed you don’t have a drink in your hand, can I get you something?” Shocked that somebody noticed you, even more so that they spoke to you, you don’t say anything right away, but then you release the three fatal words, “No thanks, I don’t drink.” This shouldn’t be a big deal, right? You are in college and you don’t drink, you should be proud right? Well, this guy certainly doesn’t think so. The look on his face projects that he has been horribly and personally offended by your last statement. “Oh, well here! Try my drink.” It’s a mix of cheap whiskey, quail and cookie dough-flavored vodka, and pop, or whatever. You laugh awkwardly. “I don’t drink. Thanks, though.” Again, he is so hurt by these words. “How about this, I’ll go mix up a <insert alcoholic beverage here> in the kitchen and I’ll be right back.” B movies on Netflix are starting to sound pretty good right about now. He makes his way back to the kitchen, leaving you standing there, debating whether or not you should run for it. You don’t choose quickly enough, though, and he comes back bearing a red cup in each hand. “It’s a mix of blank, blank, and blank. It’s delicious!” He’s making it awful hard to reject his offer, but you stand your ground. “You can go ahead and have it, since I’m not going to, thanks.” All around you can hear slurred words and shouting. People are dancing to the music, bass shaking the walls. People running to and from the bathroom. Eventually, the guy will give up on his noble quest to cure your sobriety and begin chugging down the drink he made for you — the chosen one that would surely change your mind. He moves on to find someone less “boring,” aka “sober.” Standing against the wall again, you give yourself a goal time. “I’ll stay for x more minutes before I go home.” Shortly before you reach your goal time, however, that guy from earlier falls and hits his head on the table on his way down as he passed out. Immediately, you rush over to him. The only other people who saw his fall were laughing in their drunken stupor. You check to make sure that he’s not bleeding, and thankfully he just has a bump on his forehead. You roll him onto his side to make sure that he doesn’t choke on his own vomit. Then you see someone on the couch starting to retch. You run and grab a trashcan and put it in front of her. “Can somebody give me a ride home?” you hear someone shout over the music. “I’m too drunk!” A unanimous response. All except one. You find the poor, slobbering bloke and tap his arm, “I’m sober and can take you home.” So you load him into your car (and give him a napkin to wipe away his drool). When you arrive at his house, you help him to his door and tell him to drink some water before he goes to bed. He turns and says, “Hey, I know I see you every week, and I’m sorry that I don’t remember your name — you’re real quiet — but thank you.” You drive back to your dorm with a sense of accomplishment, and contentment that he made it home safely. And you realize that even though you aren’t into the “party culture,” that you still have a place within it, a role you can play. Furthermore, that in the end, the very people who try to push you to get drunk may be the ones who benefit most from your sobriety. Eva Cross egcross@bsu.edu
Austin Russell draws “Existentia Academica” comics for the Daily News. His views and opinions don’t necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. Write to Austin at abrussell@bsu.edu or follow him on Twitter @arussthebus.
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The Daily News encourages its readers to voice their views on legislative issues. The following legislators represent the Ball State community:
U.S. SEN. DAN COATS 493 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC, 20510 (202) 224-5623
REP. SUE ERRINGTON Indiana District 34 200 W. Washington St. Indianapolis, IN 46204 1-800-382-9842
U.S. SEN. JOSEPH DONNELLY B33 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 (202) 224-4814
SEN. TIM LANANE Indiana Dist. 25 200 W. Washington Street Indianapolis, IN 46204 1-800-382-9467
U.S. REP. LUKE MESSER U.S. 6th District 508 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 (202) 225-3021
COSTS: Professors say full class time is important
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Hicks said although skipping classes could be costly to the university by lowering graduation rates, the real damage is to student’s academic performance. “As a professor, I assume that students are rational adults and if they choose not to attend, they are making their own benefitcost analysis,” Hicks said. “When students don’t attend, I don’t formally grade upon it, but I can tell you lack of attendance is probably the leading indicator of failing a class or doing very poorly in it.” Cierra Payton, a freshman communications major, said the amount of money she is paying for class wouldn’t really change her mind about skipping class. “In the morning, when I am really tired and I don’t really want to go [to class], I don’t
think I would think about that,” Payton said. Boylan motivates his students to attend his class by telling all of his Personal Finance for Fiscal Wellness classes what they pay each week to take his onecredit hour course. “When I announce how much it costs to be in my class for a day I think sometimes there is some surprise, but I think they are also kind of like, ‘Wow, they’re trying to get my money’s worth out of the class. And I’ve never thought about a class in that term,’” Boylan said. When Gabriella Snyder, a freshman business major, looked at how much individual classes cost in her business class, she decided not to skip many classes. “I didn’t really think about it as a money figure, so it was interesting to think about that way,” Snyder said. “I will pay my
student loans after I graduate. I think its more important to go because it affects [my] future.” Boylan said he also tries to make the most out of the time he has with students. “I believe that I am ripping [students] off if I cut class early,” Boylan said. “I believe that I need to work the entire time. I want to give you your full $50 worth.” In-state students pay about $0.31 per minute of class time in a 15-credit hour course load. Terry King, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said teachers cannot change their class from the scheduled time without approval from his office. “The vast majority of faculty members are quite diligent about meeting their classes — which must be their highest priority,” King said. “Occasionally a faculty member might
miss a class due to illness, or a professional obligation may require a faculty member to be away from class. In these cases it is the obligation of the faculty member to contact the department chair ahead of time, if possible, and advise how the class is being covered. If a student thinks that a class is being canceled for an inappropriate reason, then I encourage the student to let me know.” According to the Faculty and Professional Personnel handbook, professors are given only 12 sick days every year, in the hopes of discouraging them from canceling too many classes. Hicks said he very rarely cancels class. “As a professor, I am very anxious to have every opportunity to explain my discipline to students. The only thing that would make me cancel class would me being very ill,” Hicks said.
Ball State graduate immortalizes EIL: Speaker encourages students to have goals David Letterman in comic biography | CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Vancouver company produces illustrated stories of celebrities RACHEL PODNAR CHIEF REPORTER | rmpodnar@bsu.edu
A Ball State alumnus was working on a comic book about late-night television host David Letterman when he realized he had a personal connection with a location in the book. Fall 2011 graduate David Hopkins, who currently interns for Washington-based Bluewater Productions and their Fame comic line, did not expect to find a personal connection to Ball State when he was assigned to the Letterman comic. “I didn’t really think anything about it,” Hopkins said. “When I started looking at the art I was like ‘Holy crap, I was here, I was there.’ I was a TCOM major and all of my classes were in [Letterman’s] building. I remember
when he was there, walking by in the crowd.” Bluewater Productions publisher Darren Davis said the Fame line continues a tradition of biographical comics that began in the 1940s. Their books are available as iBooks on the app store, as part of the digital publishing revolution. The company has also written about celebrities like Nicki Minaj and Justin Bieber. Hopkins wonders if Letterman will see his work and said he thinks he would appreciate it. “I think he would like it only because it’s in favor of Letterman,” he said. “Even when they highlight things in his life the sex scandal, it is portrayed in light of he made a mistake, he owned up to it and America forgave him.” Davis said it is likely Letterman will see his comic. Bluewater has had contact with him in the past on other comics and has contacted him several
BLUEWATER PRODUCTIONS WHO
Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and and the cast of Glee have two volumes WHAT
FAME series WHEN
Started in May 2010 HOW MANY
More than 30 biographies SOURCE: bluewaterprod.com
times about his own. Sometimes celebrities partner with Bluewater and a portion of sales are donated to a charity of the celebrity’s choice. “I was a Sigma Chi and he was also a Sigma Chi in college, I wanted to help a brother out,” Davis said. “I grew up obsessed with celebrities in LA. [To hear Hopkins had a connection with Letterman], I was really happy.” Hopkins lettered the comic—
meaning once the writing and art was assembled, Hopkins worked on the layout and added in extras like dialog, text and sound effects. Although a letterer’s work is not what a comic reader notices first, the telecommunications video production major compares the importance of his work to a video editor. “If an editor is doing their job well, you don’t even know there is an editor but soon as they mess up, it is really jarring and it jolts you right out of the movie,” Hopkins said. “That’s how it is for comics. [As a letterer], you want to keep it seamless and make sure the reader is engaged in that world.” While at Ball State, Hopkins started a weekly comic online called Super Cute, with a college friend. That initial interest in comics led to a comic-focused podcast, which now has a following of around 7,000. The podcast led him to his internship at Bluewater Productions.
Three years passed before Jackley decided to quit her job and jump into the world of microlending. “I begged my way into an internship that gave me an excuse to go talk to 150-or-so entrepreneurs that got $100 grants to start their businesses,” Jackley said. The people she talked to were taking grants and not loans, which is a process that does not fall into the microlending category. Jackley said that it was “close enough.” “If you’re aiming for a dream job and you get something close, sometimes that can be all you need,” she said. Sticking to that dream and what is most personally rewarding is one goal that Jackley said seems to be most important in her experience. “A lot of people make bets on how they spend their time or how they choose their careers based on either what they know can work and not on
DN PHOTO ERIC DEBUYSSER
Jessica Jackley speaks during the Excellence in Leadership presentation Monday in Pruis Hall. Jackley emphasized that workers should focus on what they enjoy to be more productive in business.
what is enjoyable or what is rewarding,” Jackley said. “I think the people that do that are a lot happier and are showing out a lot more creatively.”