THE DAILY ATHENAEUM
“Little good is accomplished without controversy, and no civic evil is ever defeated without publicity.”
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Thursday March 31, 2016
Volume 128, Issue 120
www.THEDAONLINE.com
Merow administration takes charge by caity coyne city editor @caitycoyne
The 2015-16 West Virginia University Student Government Association Board of Governors officially finished its term last night when members turned their seats over to the 2016-17 governing board. Before the brief ceremony, now-former members of the B.O.G gave heartfelt goodbyes to their colleagues and messages of good luck to their successors. “I couldn’t be more proud of everybody that’s involved in SGA right now. For next year’s administration and this year’s administration, really,” said George Capel, now-for-
mer student body president. “All the people we have are so accomplished, so hardworking and so passionate.” The meeting was bittersweet, with several Board members in tears as they realized their term governing with the people who had “become their family” was at an end. The incoming Board, led by Student Body President Julie Merow and Student Body Vice President Mac McIntyre, was voted into office after an almost completely unopposed race in March. This time last year, when Capel and Ashley Morgan, now-former student body vice president took the board, they made several promises to the student body: Create a student
summit with representatives from all parts of the University, earn a WVU student a seat on the Morgantown City Council and make a “statewide day of service” in every West Virginia county with a WVU Extension Services office, among other things. While these goals were not necessarily accomplished, Capel believes his administration was crucial to setting up the necessary components for future administrations to finish what they started. For example, a main component of Merow’s platform includes the creation of a student senate consisting of two delegates from every college at WVU. “We ran into a lot of obstacles and logistics that I’m certain (Merow) will
find her way around,” Capel said. “To set up something that big, you’ll need to start from day one because it’s going to take all year.” Last night, Merow announced her current plans for April 2016; pass a constitutional amendment for the creation of the student senate, and a constitutional amendment granting athletic counselors the same voting rights as governors. For city council, Billie Murray, SGA city council liaison, and Matt Blair, SGA attorney general, currently hold active seats on the city’s Human Rights Commission. These are positions that students have never
see SGA on PAGE 2
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Newly elected Vice President Mac McIntyre begins the new session for the WVU Student Government Association.
Mylan Park officials name new athletic facility by jamie mason staff writer @news_with_jamie
Shelby Thoburn/THE DAILY ATHENAEUM
International conservationist and carnivore ecologist, Mordecai Ogada presents “Conservation Revolution and Wildlife Tourism in East Africa: The Fallacy of Selling Intrinsic Values Based on Exotic Perceptions.”
Ecologist discusses dangers of conservation in Kenya, East Africa by amy pratt
staff writer @dailyathenaeum
A carnivore ecologist who has worked with cheetahs, lions and hyenas visited West Virginia University Wednesday evening to give the Maurice Brooks lecture. Mordecai Ogada works to end the current model of conservation in Kenya and other parts of East Africa. He wants to save the animals, but conservation is hurting the people. Ogada explained the origins of conservation have caused many of the problems with it today. Conservation began in the Victorian era when the British colonized Kenya. British game wardens were hired by nobility and the wealthy to keep common-
ers — Kenyans — off game land so they could hunt. This created a history of conservation as a luxury that was detrimental to the local communities in east Africa. “It was conservation so we can exploit it. This theme still runs very deep through conservation, even today,” Ogada said. “There’s a lot of people that base conservation on tourism. That is something of a fallacy. Tourism should be a byproduct of conservation. It cannot be the basis for conservation.” Ogada explained conservation efforts take away grazing lands for the locals’ livestock. This destroys their livelihood and makes them reliant on conservation organizations. These conservation facilities cannot employ
enough people to support communities. “The l i v e s t o c kbased economy is being squeezed, it’s dying. We say tourism can provide employment, but the kind of tourism that is done here provides very little employment,” Ogada said. And, those who do work for tourism companies are often used as props to create an exotic experience for tourists. Ogada also examined the irony of local poachers being arrested for hunting game for meat to eat, while people are allowed to hunt game for exotic meals in luxury restaurants. “These people are doing the same thing, but what is the difference between them?” Ogada asked. The answer: race, he
said. The white tourists may enjoy high-end exotic food, but the local people cannot hunt for survival. Jessica Bland, a senior biology student who attended the lecture, traveled to South Africa as part of a research trip. While there, she noticed similar problems to what Ogada described was happening in eastern Africa. “You can definitely see the tourism of it. In some ways, it does help. You can see it does bring employment, but it does have an impact on agriculture. And you can see it on an economic level,” Bland said. “There’s a lot of places that are just very poor. But then you go and see
see AFRICA on PAGE 2
A $25 million project finally has a name. On Wednesday evening, Mylan Park officials released the name and final plans for the Mountaineer Center for Wellness and Education, a project announced in November 2015. The Mountaineer Center, which will include an aquatics center and a track, is set to break ground this spring. After discussion with residents, Mylan Park officials decided ‘Mountaineer’ was essential to the name of the complex. “We continued to meet and talk about what we wanted to be and how we wanted to be identified,” said Ron Justice, president of the Mylan Park Board. “…We are in Mountaineer Country.” Although this plan excites many Monongalia residents, this is not the first time they have had this feeling. This is the third time the city has attempted to build an athletic center like the one proposed, according to Justice. Justice and other officials are ensuring this plan does not fall through so Mylan Park can provide Monongalia County residents with a center they’ve been wanting. “The biggest difference is we have collaboration with WVU, Conventions & Visitors’ Bureau, Inc., County Commission (and) the city of Westover,” Justice said. “We’re all working together, versus just one entity trying to do it… that’s the difference.” Unlike many things in the Morgantown area, this center will be available for usage by students as well as residents. Justice said both members and non-members could have access to the complex.
Justice said he has been clear from the beginning the Mountaineer Center is for the community. “Quality of life is very important in the community, and working together to enhance the quality of life is something we all strive to do,” Justice said. “I think it’s very important that from the youngest child up to the oldest person in the community, they have an opportunity to take advantage of the center.” The Center’s architecture was tackled head on by Paradigm Architecture. Paradigm, whose home office is in Morgantown, is aware of the area’s geography and what features are necessary for an athletic center to be successful. Paul Walker, the lead architect from Paradigm, said the center will attract people from all over the region. The complex will include a one mile cross-country course around the complex, a quarter mile track, a “first class walking surface” on the outside perimeter of the competitive track and more than 250 parking spots, according to Walker. The aquatics center will be home to a competitive pool, a community recreational pool, a splash pad for children and a therapy pool for healing and medical purposes. “Its great to see the interest in the community in a project I think is one of the most exciting projects that’s taken place in Morgantown in some time,” Walker said. “It’s just very exciting to be a part of.” The aquatics center was modeled after Virginia Tech’s complex and the track and field center was modeled after many other state of the art NCAA facilities. “The aquatics (center) is definitely needed because it gives us a year-round op-
see MYLAN on PAGE 2
CyberWVU to compete in national cyber security competition by john mark shaver staff writer @johnmarkshaver
Starting tomorrow, cyber defense will be the name of the game as West Virginia University’s cyber-security club meets seven other teams from the tri-state area in a hacking competition at Johns Hopkins University. After qualifying for the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition last month, CyberWVU is more ready than ever, according to the club’s vice president and graduate
electrical engineering student Jacob Tyo. “I’m not even nervous because we’re at the point to where there’s so much unknown about (the competition), and there’s so much to deal with, we don’t even have enough to get nervous about,” Tyo said. This year’s competition, titled “Operation Cyber Bailout,” will pit the students against cyber-security professionals, having the teams defend the systems, infrastructure and information of simulated financial institutions.
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“The scenario for this year’s competition is one cyber-security professionals face every hour of every day, and it’s one of the reasons the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition is such a respected testing ground for these students,” said Lewis Lightner, MidAtlantic CCDC director, in a press release. “We give them real-world scenarios, real-world equipment, and throw some of the best ‘bad guys’ in the world at them to see how they can handle the challenge.” CyberWVU will compete
with several other schools from the east coast, including Towson University and University of Maryland. “We’re certain our systems are going to be broken into,” Tyo said. “That’s the whole point of the competition. It’s going to happen. We’re going to focus on (getting) a set methodology on what to do, how to resecure (the system) and make sure nothing bad happens.” Tyo also said the team is focusing heavily on backing up information, as other teams in past competitions have been disabled from the
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CUTTING THE COST Budget cuts to remedy state deficit only hurt residents OPINION PAGE 3
get go. “In previous years, we’ve heard of people getting their systems broken into and then all of their stuff will get deleted or broken,” Tyo said. “They’re pretty much done for the whole competition because they didn’t have any backups or anything like that.” Another challenge facing the team is the possibility of being split up, according to CyberWVU President and senior computer science major Brian Sizemore. “Every member of our team has domain-specific
knowledge in different areas that allows us to work well together as a team,” Sizemore told WVUToday. “In this competition, we may actually be separated from each other, which means we have to be prepared to work outside our area of expertise.” The skills learned from the competition will transfer into real-life abilities, and can make the competitors stronger candidates for jobs in the cyber security field. In fact, before the com-
see CYBER on PAGE 2
SMOKED WVU swept by little known Canisius SPORTS PAGE 7