10.24.13

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Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013 | Volume 209 | Number 43 | 40 cents | iowastatedaily.com | An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890.

New chef cooks up diversity ISU Dining prepares new cuisines for students on campus

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Caitlin Ellingson/Iowa State Daily

Anastasios Kyprianos is the newest addition to ISU Dining as a chef at the Knoll. He prepares unique food for events and functions led by ISU President Steven Leath.

By Brian.Keck @iowastatedaily.com

SU Dining has hired a new Knoll chef, Anastasios “Tasos” Kyprianos. Kyprianos will be working at the Knoll preparing food for many functions led by President Steven Leath. “[We serve] donors, ambassadors, senators’ private dinners, the things that fund scholarships and programs,” Kyprianos said. Kyprianos began working as a university chef at Oakland University. He then moved to Simpson College to work as their executive chef before coming to Ames to work as the Knoll chef. Kyprianos, who said he likes to cook with a French-Mediterranean flair, hopes to bring his favorite type of cooking to Iowa State. “Adding chefs from different

backgrounds helps us be better and in turn helps our students have a better experience,” said Brittney Rutherford, marketing coordinator for ISU Dining. “Everyone comes from somewhere different and with a diverse staff we are better able to meet the needs of all our students.” ISU Dining tries to create the best atmosphere for all by hiring chefs with different strengths that look to benefit different types of students, said Nancy Keller, director of ISU Dining. “We are able to match people with the position,” Keller said. “[Kyprianos] comes to us as someone with very well-rounded experience which will be beneficial to us, because when he is not working with the president, he will be able to benefit us in other ways.” ISU Dining prides itself as a team to offer the best experiences to students, Rutherford said. “A lot of teamwork goes on here in order to pull off big events. Not just one entity of ISU dining can do that,” Rutherford said. “We are all ISU Dining, and we are all in this to-

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Drink Pink night supports cancer research By William.Byal @iowastatedaily.com For the past two years Colleges Against Cancer has partnered with and several bars — including Paddy’s, Sips, Cy’s Roost and Outlaws — for a “Drink Pink Mug Night” event. This year, the bars will start selling the $5 pink mugs at 7 p.m. on Thursday, with all pro-

ceeds going toward breast cancer research. “The proceeds from the mug sales are what’s going to the American Cancer Society,” said Briana Brunsvold, junior in elementary education and president of Colleges Against Cancer. “The mugs are super awesome. They’re bright pink, and they have a big ribbon on them.” Last year, a total of 1,400

mugs were sold. This year, in hopes of a higher turnout, Rob Roe, senior in psychology and manager at Paddy’s Irish Pub, said a total of 1,600 mugs are going to be available and equally distributed among the bars. “I know we all truly believe in the cause, and we’re more than willing to support and help when we can,” Roe said. “This is just our avenue we’re able to

take to help.” Brunsvold encourages student to go out for mug night and show their support for breast cancer since it is huge type of cancer and affects so many people today. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer through-

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Professors discuss separation of religious studies, theology By Max.Dible @iowastatedaily.com

Courtesy of Antonia Hutzell

A participant in the LIFE program plays along with an Xbox Kinect. This program is designed to keep older adults on their feet and on their way to living a healthier lifestyle.

Video game program keeps adults moving By Antonia.Hutzell @iowastatedaily.com Three ISU professors are working to teach older adults how to live a more active lifestyle. Sarah Francis, assistant professor of food science and human nutrition; Jennifer Margrett, associate professor of human development and family studies; and Warren Franke, professor of kinesiology, developed the LIFE — Living well through Intergenerational Fitness and Exercise — program that teaches older adults how to be active through the use of video games. The LIFE program is led by young adult volunteers who show the older adults how to use the Kinect for Xbox gaming system to play games. They also lead them in interactive games such as crosswords and storytelling. “The goal is to increase physical activity in older adults, as well as offering benefits to the younger adults,” Francis said. “The program reduces negative stereotypes that younger adults hold about older adults and it actually promotes better expectations regarding

aging.” The three professors wanted to reach out to the older adults in retirement community centers, churches, wellness centers and congregate meal sites in rural areas that did not have the resources available to them for exercise and bring the program to them. “With the Kinect, you can have multiple people playing. At a site with 10 participants, you may have two people playing but the rest of the people can shadow play. That way everyone can participate,” Franke said. As a result of the first pilot program, the LIFE program created a website that contains practical tips and exercises that are available for anyone to use. “The point is to increase the level of activity above what they would normally do in a way that is fun,” Franke said. Ciara McCarty, junior in kinesiology and health, volunteered at a LIFE program site and said it was a great experience. “I enjoyed seeing how much fun

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Separation of church and state is a tenet of American democracy, but separating faith from academia can be murky in the field of religious studies, especially where it intersects with theology. Hector Avalos, professor of philosophy and religious studies, defined the discipline. “Religious studies centers on the study of the role of religion in culture,” Avalos said. “It is a descriptive, not a prescriptive enterprise. In other words, a scholar of religious studies attempts to describe different religious beliefs that exist in our world, and not prescribe what religious beliefs people should follow.” Theology is a point of contention both in how it relates to religious studies, and whether it has a place as an academic pursuit in a public university at all. “Theology, in its more literal sense, is discourse about God or the study of God,” Avalos said. “It presupposes that there is a god and that human beings can discover the nature and actions of God in the world,” Avalos said. Anne Clifford, associate professor of philosophy and religious studies, explains in her pending book, “Creation Theology and the Natural Sciences,” why there is apprehension about the academic intermingling of theology and religious

studies. The book is set for release in early 2015. “Among religious studies scholars, some hold it appropriate to set the discipline of theology apart from religious studies, because they associate theology with defense of traditions about God, especially by Christians,” Clifford writes. Proponents of keeping the two disciplines separate believe religious studies is a discipline that should study religion from an outsider’s perspective, Clifford said. “They envision theology as being done by insiders, who are practitioners of a particular religion … who have a ‘confessional commitment’ to the religious convictions of the church to which they are affiliated,” Clifford writes in her book. Avalos said he believes the separation of religious studies and theology needs to be taken a step further. “Personally, I don’t think that theology is a legitimate academic enterprise because there are no objective methods to verify any claims about the entity called ‘God,’” Avalos said. “It has no place in a public university due to constitutional issues regarding the separation of religion and state.” Brian Eslinger, lecturer in the department of philosophy and religious studies, cited a personal experience in a theology class taken at Creighton

University, a Catholic Jesuit school. “That particular teacher taught that a certain answer to religious questions was right and others were wrong. Not all schools that teach theology take this exclusivist approach,” Eslinger said. “Such an approach violates the promise of freedom of conscience of the First Amendment ... and is a support for a particular religious view point over others.” The opinions of Eslinger and Avalos, however, are not shared by everyone. “[Some] scholars argue that since most religions are oriented to community-forming experiences of a transcendent reality-deity, theology is integral to the study of religion,” Clifford writes. Avalos acknowledged the relationship between theology and religious studies, adding a caveat. “I do think that religious studies can study the theology of different religions, but it does not center on establishing any theology to be true or normative,” Avalos said. Eslinger echoed this sentiment as well. “In my classes, my goal is to try to understand the worldview and beliefs from the perspective of the believers, not to judge them as right or wrong,” Eslinger said. “This study demands a level of academic distance so that we can seek to understand each tradition.”


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