Friday, April 8, 2016 | Volume 211 | Number 132 | 40 cents | iowastatedaily.com | An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890.
STUGOV
BOARD OF REGENTS
Regents to pay for website upgrade Global Reach chosen as firm to develop project By Michaela.Ramm @iowastatedaily.com
Charlie Coffey/Iowa State Daily Dan Breitbarth and Megan Sweere are concluding their terms as Student Government president and vice president, respectively.
“Until every single person on campus feels like they have a voice in the conversation, then we really aren’t reaching our goal of diversity and inclusion because that includes everybody. It has to be every single person.” Megan Sweere
STUGOV VICE PRESIDENT
Controversial year opens eyes of StuGov leaders By Danielle.Ferguson @iowastatedaily.com
W
hen Dan Breitbarth and Megan Sweere started their reign as president and vice president of Iowa State Student Government in the spring of 2015, overcrowding, faculty transparency and incorporating Veishea traditions back into campus were at the top of their to-do list. That is, until dozens of students overtly expressed their disappointment with university administration the week after a Donald Trump-inspired protest led to a white woman ripping the poster of a Latino student protester, sending the campus community into a semester of tempest debate. It was a pivotal moment. “Discussions on diversity jumped to the top of my priority list, that’s for sure. It was at the forefront of my discussions and of my priorities,” Breitbarth said. “The week after it happened, Monday through Friday, I met with student groups until 10 or 11 at night to try to identify stuff. It was eye opening.” It was during this time and the weeks after that Breitbarth and his team worked with administration and leaders of multicultural student organizations to organize the open forum in September that further exposed minority students’ experiences of racism, bigotry
DIVERSITY p4
The Iowa Board of Regents will hire a web development firm based in Iowa State’s Research Park to design, develop and implement a new official website for the board. The board, the governing organization that dictates all five Iowa public universities, including Iowa State, will pay $20,186 to Global Reach Internet Productions. Global Reach, which has been located in Ames for more than 15 years, is a company that offers web design and development services to its clients. For the regents, Global Reach will design, develop and implement a new website that will comply with the organization’s needs and requirements, as well as be simple to navigate, according to the contract signed last week by the two parties. The work on the site will be completed by July 11. The total cost of $20,186 for a new official website will include $8,000 for design, development and training; $5,570 for content transfer and other expenses; and $1,200 for content review and recommendations, The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported. The Board of Regents will pay half of the cost midway through the project, and the final half after the regents’ acceptance.
BOR p8
Department head to depart Iowa State Candidates named to fill distinguished professor’s position By Andria.Homewood @iowastatedaily.com
David Scrivner / Iowa City Press-Citizen
Former ISU wrestler Kyven Gadson celebrates his pin against Ohio State’s Kyle Snyder in the 197-pound NCAA Championship at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Mo. on March 21, 2015.
Gadson’s golden dream NCAA wrestling champion comes face to face with Olympic goal By Ben.Visser @iowastatedaily.com Kyven Gadson sat down in his living room with ISU wrestling coach and Olympic gold medalist Kevin Jackson after his junior year of high school. It was Gadson’s 17th birthday, and Jackson was trying to recruit him. Jackson laid out a six-year plan for Gadson. This is year six. “Year six ended with me becoming a gold medalist,” Gadson said. “That was the plan, and that was the goal.” On Sunday in Iowa City, Gadson will have the opportunity to get one step closer to that goal — wrestling in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. He’ll wrestle in the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Trials at 97 kilograms (213 pounds) at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Gadson was born in Iowa City, and he has family and childhood
friends there. It’s a special feeling for Gadson to have the Olympic Trials in his hometown. “It’s awesome,” Gadson said. “It feels right for me. I wrestled in that room growing up. For it to come all the way back around, with me having a chance to become an Olympian, it feels right. “It feels like it’s supposed to happen.” Gadson may have a little homemat advantage, but the field in his weight class is stacked from top to bottom. Gadson is the No. 7 seed. The field is so strong that 2012 Olympic gold medalist Jake Varner, a former ISU wrestler, isn’t even the top-ranked wrestler at the weight. He’s seeded at No. 2. The top-seeded wrestler at 97 kg is Kyle Snyder, the youngest world champion in freestyle wrestling history. Snyder won the World Championship in 2015 when he was 19 years old. Snyder wrestled at heavyweight for Ohio State in the 2015-16 season. He defeated Nick Gwiazdows-
ki in the National Championship to cap off his undefeated season. The last American to defeat Snyder was Gadson in the 2015 NCAA Championships. Gadson pinned Snyder in the second period of the match. In Iowa City, Snyder will automatically be in the finals because he is the 2015 world champion. Gadson will have to get through his bracket and then beat Snyder twice — best two out of three — to make it on the U.S. Olympic team. Gadson does have one thing going for him if he makes it to Snyder. Gadson is undefeated against him. “We’ve wrestled twice, and I’ve won twice,” Gadson said. “But ultimately, when it comes down to it — if I don’t get through the mini-tournament, then it doesn’t matter. If I don’t beat him twice, then it doesn’t matter. “That’s the beauty of the sport. Each time out there it’s different, but it’s still the same. You’re in a
GADSON p7
David Jiles, distinguished professor and chair of electrical and computer engineering, will be stepping down from his position after accepting a position in Washington, D.C., and the finalists to replace him are set. Work has been done to fill the position since the beginning of the spring semester. After many weeks, the search committee has named its four finalists. The committee is looking for a suitable person who has strong leadership skills, a strong vision for the electrical and computer engineering department, ability to do research and a positive stance on diversity and inclusion, said Steven Mickelson, professor of agricultural and biosystems and member of the search committee. While two of the four finalists have already visited campus, the other two will have open forums for students and faculty to sit in and ask questions. *** Min Song - department chair and professor of computer science and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Michigan Technological University • Visited March 24 and 25 Song is the founding director of the Institute of Computing and Cybersystems at Michigan Technological University. He is the Dave House Professor and department chair of computer science as well as a professor of electrical and computer engineering. He serves as a communications society director of conference operations for the institute of electrical
Courtesy of Iowa State University
David C. Jiles was selected as a Jefferson Science Fellow and a scientific adviser to the Department of State. Jiles will step down as the ISU electrical and computer engineering department chair.
and electronics engineers. Song, as a National Science Foundation (NSF) program director, has managed 11 programs and initiated three new programs in the field of wireless communications networks. His career spans more than 26 years in the industry, academics and the government. His research interests are design, analysis and the evaluation on wireless communication networks, network security, cyber physical systems and mobile computing. He has received more that $3.4 million in research funding from the Department of Energy, NSF, NASA and other private foundations. Song has also published more than 160 technical papers. *** Aylin Yener - professor of electrical engineering at Penn State University. • Visited Monday and Tuesday Yener has been an electrical engineering professor since 2010 after being a visiting associate
COMPUTER p8