Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015 | Volume 210 | Number 81 | 40 cents | iowastatedaily.com | An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890.
Shao, boyfriend stayed in hotel in Nevada, Iowa before death By Makayla.Tendall @iowastatedaily.com Former ISU student Tong Shao may have died in a Nevada, Iowa, hotel, a previously sealed search warrant stated. On Sept. 26, Ames Police Detective Chad Lovig was reviewing Xiangnan Li’s — the main person of interest in the homicide case of Tong Shao and her boyfriend — phone records and found that a recent call had been made to Budget Inn and Suites in Nevada.
After speaking to the owner of the hotel, Ken Patel, Lovig found that Shao and Li had stayed at the hotel Sept. 5-7. Shao was with Li during their check-in Sept. 5 and was last seen walking alone in the lobby in the afternoon of Sept. 6, according to the warrant. Patel told Lovig that Li and Shao have stayed together at the hotel on other dates in 2013 and 2014. According to the warrant, Li left “sometime in the overnight hours of Sept. 6 into the early morning of Sept. 7,” which was
“unusual for Li as Patel said he normally has had to ask Li to leave the room after the check-out time of 11 a.m.” Li and Shao were also seen using a gold-colored car during their stay. Shao’s body was later found in the trunk of gold Toyota Camry she owned in Iowa City. Patel told Lovig he did not see either Li or Shao leave the hotel, but their car was gone on the morning of Sept. 7, a day before a text message from Li’s phone was sent to Shao’s roommates presumably
from Shao saying she was texting from Li’s phone in Iowa City. Police later determined Li had his cell phone in Chicago on a layover to China at the time the message was sent. After Iowa City police found Shao’s body in Iowa City on Sept. 26, they found Shao’s head wrapped with a towel with a tag labeled “Premium Quality.” According to the warrant, Lovig found several towels with the same tag in the laundry room at Budget Inn and Suites. “It is possible her death may
Looking back on MLK The legacy of an influencial activist still rings true today By Berenice.Liborio Danielle.Feruson @iowastatedaily.com When Senior Vice President Thomas Hill was 18 years old, one of his role models was killed. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn., which shocked and disappointed both Hill and the rest of the nation. “[When] it happened, it was almost like it was in the neighborhood,” Hill said. “There was so much hope resting with him. I mean he was that beacon, the hope ... and to have him be taken
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away from us, it was devastating.” Hill attended Arkansas State University, about 70 miles from Memphis, where King was assassinated. Hill participated in marches after King’s assassination, a time when people were upset and took to the streets. “Unfortunately, things got out of hand because there was some destruction that took place — people breaking windows and those kinds of things,” Hill said. Old Iowa State Daily articles following King’s assassination said ISU students held gatherings and demonstrations in remembrance of King. “Reaction to the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was seen on the Iowa State Campus yesterday in the form of an active demonstration in the Commons, Memorial Union, and a silent vigil on the steps of Beardshear Hall,” according to an April 6, 1968 Iowa State Daily article.
The same article also describes a demonstration where about 50 black students gathered in the commons of the Memorial Union with trays and glasses of water. “All the demonstrators then stood; one Negro proposed a toast to ‘black unity on campus.’ Then, before the disbelieving stares of onlookers, they threw their glasses on the floor, turned over the tables and chairs and walked out,” according to the article. In an article from the April 9, 1968, edition of the Daily, 70 students and Ames residents participated in a march in Des Moines on April 7, 1968, in remembrance of King. Nearly 50 years later, after the death of Michael Brown went viral, another set of protesters took to the streets to share their voices. Michael Brown was fatally shot by police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Mo. As days passed, hundreds of citizens responded in protests — some of which turned violent by both protesters and police — in reaction to the shooting. Hill said he believes the events in the Ferguson case, though not the same situation, may bring back old issues relating to the Civil Rights Movement. “You feared the police more than you feared other folk be-
cause they legally had guns and had the authority and all that and they abused that during the civil rights era,” Hill said. “And so what’s happening with Ferguson — while it’s not exactly the same thing — it’s along those lines. You have the people who swore to protect and serve and those are the ones who are in some instances the ones hurting.” Iowa State multicultural organizations have voiced their own thoughts by holding protests on campus, including a
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Makayla Tendall/Iowa State Daily
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Demonstrators from the Ames and ISU community march across campus in a silent demonstration Dec. 12 , 2014.
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Marchers and Dr. King himself protest to end segregated schools, gain voting rights and demand more equal rights on Aug. 28, 1963.
have occurred in the hotel room at the Budget Inn and Suites in Nevada, Iowa,” Lovig said in the warrant. Patel told Lovig that surveillance cameras at Budget Inn and Suites did not record and were live-feed only. In previously released search warrants, police spoke to a friend of Li’s who told police that Li had called her, and he was upset after he overheard Shao “saying things about him that were not nice.” Shao’s homicide case is still under investigation.
Loan education office hosts grand opening By Danielle.Feruson @iowastatedaily.com A 30 minute conversation has the power to ease the minds of students who feel overwhelmed when it comes to paying for their college education. Jennifer Schroeder, program coordinator for the new Student Loan Education Office, said that a one-on-one conversation with an adviser from the office can show students all of their options to properly manage loan debt and/or lay out a personal budget. The Student Loan Education Office is a partnership among the Government of Student Body, the Division of Student Affairs and the Office of Student Financial Aid. The office opened in August 2014, but is having its ribbon-cutting opening ceremony Tuesday, at 10 a.m. The event is open to the entire university community outside the office at 0680 Beardshear Hall. President Steven Leath, Vice President of Student Affairs Tom Hill, Office of Financial Aid Director Roberta Johnson and Government of Student Body President Hillary Kletscher will be at the opening to share a few remarks, followed by refreshments until about 11 a.m. Since its opening, the office has seen more than 600 students for individual advising appointments and has done 39 financial presentations, which reached just over 2,000 students, Schroeder said. “We were busy and we hope to be busier this spring and moving forward,” Schroeder said. Students who had previously scheduled individual appointments came in for various reasons, such as student loan entrance/exit counseling and personal finance budgeting. Students who are borrowing private loans for the first time have to come into the office for budgeting and debt-management counseling. Schroeder said there was an even distribution of both in and out of state residents, undergraduates of all classifications and even some professional and graduate students. The biggest concern Schroeder said she hears from students is borrowing the whole amount offered on their financial aid award letter, but not necessarily needing all of it. “We can have that discussion and say, ‘You’re requesting x number of dollars, but I think you really only need this amount,’” Schroeder said. That conversation can be an eye-opener for some, she said, especially with freshmen. “We ask them, ‘Do you plan to borrow like this for the remainder of your time here?’ and overwhelmingly students, especially as freshmen, haven’t thought about that,” Schroeder said. “I think it’s starting to get them thinking about it holistically and not just one year or semester at a time.” Even if students don’t have that full conversation with an adviser from the office, Schroeder said the free information they provide will sometimes kick off a discussion with the student’s parents to how they are paying for college and, if they borrow money, how much is necessary. “We also talk about other ways to cut expenses: splitting costs with a roommate, shopping around for textbooks, looking for student discounts. We’ve talked to them about different ideas to lessen their need for loans or money in general,” Schroeder said. About 62 percent of ISU undergraduates graduate with student debt, down from the 74 percent 10 years ago. The average amount of student loan debt an ISU student graduating with debt takes on is
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