Wednesday, Jan. 14 2015 | Volume 210 | Number 78 | 40 cents | iowastatedaily.com | An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890.
City Council suggests new criteria for housing By Stephen.Koenigsfeld, Katie.Titus @iowastatedaily.com
Blake Lanser/Iowa State Daily
Members of the United States Armed Forces recently had soliders relgious affiliations branded on their worn dog tags. Students in the Army ROTC at Iowa State are also carrying the same religious branding. The branding identifies how to treat a person who has died during or outside of combat.
Faith comforts in military Religion provides hope during tough times
By Emily.Eppens @iowastatedaily.com Walking through an unsafe green zone in Baghdad, Iraq, Mindy McGregor turned to her faith to get her through the situation. McGregor was not prepared when her battalion gave her a mission to take two military vehicles across the green zone, a term that designates unsafe areas of Iraq, during her deployment in 2004. McGregor, a representative at the Van Meter Veteran’s cemetery and a human resource officer in the military, had never been commanded to carry out a mission in a green zone. “I was the oldest person in the group, I was with a bunch of 20-year-old soldiers,” McGregor said. “The whole time I was praying, ‘Please Lord, please Lord, let us just get there [safely] and get back.’” Having a faith while in the military is not uncommon. Service men and women often feel the need to have a belief system to help them cope with their heavy work burdens and digest the possibility of life after death. “I can see where [the soldiers] would need that comfort,” said Jeanna Hampel, an assistant at the Van Meter Veteran’s cemetery. “It gives hope to those serving, especially overseas.” Though Hampel has not served in the military, she works closely with active duty members and their families. She and Mc-
Gregor are in charge of reserving plots and managing services and events within the cemetery. When choosing a plot for themselves or their spouse, soldiers and their families have the option to pick from 60 different religious symbols or emblems for their tombstone. These range from the familiar Christian cross to less dominant religious symbols, such as a tribal emblem or an eagle. If an individual feels that they do not relate to any of the symbols, he or she does not have to request one for the tombstone. “I only recall one time when someone made a rude comment [about a religious symbol],” McGregor said. “Someone made a comment about the Muslim star. Other than that, people have been very respectful.” McGregor said the person who made the comment about the Muslim star said they did not think that the symbol should be included because of the political and religious controversy around the Muslim faith. While some service members practice religion regularly, Hampel said that many of the servicemen and women she has met go through a phase of uncertainty regarding religion. Unlike McGregor, who said that her experience has brought her closer to her faith, some servicemen and women experience the opposite effect. Don Hills, a now non-active army medic, explained that when serving in an Iraqi war zone, there
is little time to think about faith when serving in combat. “Honestly, you don’t have time to think about the afterlife when bullets are flying by your head,” Hills said. “If you stop to think, you die. I’ve seen people stop and think, and they have died.” Hills said he started to question his religious beliefs while serving. “When you see a friend who is a good person bleed out in front of you, you really start to question things,” Hills said. “You start to wonder why a God would let that happen.” Hills served as an Army medic and later a firefighter. During his service, he saw many people, including friends, with incurable injuries and death. “I have to believe there is a God. I have to believe I will be able to see [lost friends] again,” Hills said. For some ROTC college students, the military-religion mix helps them see their faith more clearly, while others remain at a neutral standpoint. Mason Swanstrom, sophomore in interdisciplinary studies and ROTC student in the National Guard, said nothing much has changed in the two years he has served. His friends accept him for his beliefs and he accepts them for theirs. “It kind of depends on who you are around, it’s not really widely publicized,” Swanstrom
RELIGION p4
Digital storage gives access to research By Kelly.McGowan @iowastatedaily.com Student, faculty and staff scholarly work is saved and shared around the world for free, thanks to the library’s digital repository. Anyone can download ISU research, publications, reports and creative work from 795 disciplines using the online source. The site has had over 2.6 million downloads since its start in 2012. A grey dot falls on a live world map on the web site’s home page each time a document is downloaded. “It impresses and almost mind boggles me how global the impact of this is,” said Ben Spick, senior in anthropology, who is the digital repository student assistant.
Work has been downloaded from over 200 countries and territories, including Cuba and Iran. Since its launch, there have been three downloads from North Korea. “A lot of research is hidden behind what is sometimes called a paywall, where you can only access research through certain journals if you have the money to buy a subscription,” Spick said. To provide journal access to students, some of these subscriptions cost the ISU library tens of thousands of dollars per year. An individual “JPASS” access to JSTOR, one source of academic articles, costs $19.50 per month for non-students. Spick said these costs create barriers and the repository frees
DIGITAL p4
In the first City Council meeting of the year, the council discussed the implementation of a residential highdensity evaluation tool for the Ames community. High-density housing, which mainly consists of housing in apartment buildings and complexes, has been an issue within the city since midNovember. The set of criteria used to understand what high-density housing will be classified as includes six steps: 1. Location and surroundings 2. Site features 3. Housing types and design 4. Transportation 5. Public utilities and services 6. Investment and catalyst For ISU students, what is determined as high-density housing could determine where students can live after undeveloped parts of the city develop. The CyRide board president, John Haila, said his main concern was the increased enrollment pushing developers to look for more and more high density housing. This is pushing development to the outskirts of the city, he said. “Ridership is up 70 percent, 1.4 to 7 million this year,” Haila said. “We’re buying used buses more so now than ever and with the pressure on the system because of the students. We have no problem with them coming, [but] there is a pressure.” Haila said as there becomes more high-density housing, students will expect a ride, no matter where they are. Haila’s statement sparked even further discussion about CyRide and its transit system throughout the night. City Council Member At-Large Matthew Goodman said “the distance from Iowa State has to be a piece” of the conversation. While some members remained adamant about how CyRide would play out as a factor in high-density housing development, some council members, such as Peter Orazem, keyed in on other details. “We don’t have good understanding of what the composition is in these buildings,” Orazem said. “We assume these are all students but that may not be the case.” Orazem said finding out what the demographics were in each highdensity building would help better forecast Land Use Policy Plan (LUPP) amendments in the future.The Ames City Council also discussed a hydraulic analysis of Riverside Manor. The city previously contracted with HR Green. The HDR model results showed increases in the water level of a 100-year flood upstream. Now, the city was provided with four options for a hydraulic analysis. It was discussed whether to continue with the 100-year flood evaluation model, or if it would be a better option to have an evaluation model for 500-year floods, considering there have been two 500-year floods since 1993. In order for the City of Ames to go with the 500-year model, Kelly Diekmann, director of Planning and Housing for the City of Ames, suggested it will cost around $3,500 to fund the project and consultation. “Peoples’ homes and lives are worth more than $3,500,” said council member Gloria Betcher. It was moved that Diekmann would look into how much money the 500-year flood evaluation model would cost the city, and it would be further discussed at the Jan. 24 meeting.
MLK Legacy Series begins with concert By Danielle.Ferguson @iowastatedaily.com
Jonathan North/Iowa State Daily
Harrison Inefuku was hired to launch the digital repository initiative in 2012. Today, he is the digital repository coordinator for Parks Library.
A “Let Freedom Ring” concert will kick off the university’s Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Series. A carillon concert will play Wednesday in honor of King, performed by TinShi Tam, carilloneur. The series begins Wednesday with the concert and will continue with additional events: 6 p.m. Monday, at Ames Middle School 3:30 p.m. Jan. 22, at the Memorial Union 7 p.m. Jan. 29, at the Memorial Union