Thursday, Aug. 29, 2013 | Volume 209 | Number 4 | 40 cents | iowastatedaily.com | An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890. | A 2010-11 ACP Pacemaker Award winner
White House calls for punishment of Assad GSB By Charles.O’Brien @iowastatedaily.com The possibility of war is on the lips of the international community as tension between Syria and the United States and its allies has continued to increase. Syrian rebels claim nearly 1,300 Syrian citizens have died in a chemical weapon attack
exercised by the Syrian government last week. The United Nations has been investigating the claims. President Barack Obama and his administration currently are preparing for military action, which the White House is calling a “punishment” for the Bashar al-Assad ran government. Obama has stated that the action taken would not include
soldiers on Syrian soil. The administration is calling the punishment a very limited attack, which Richard Mansbach, professor of political science at Iowa State, said would mainly consist of long range airstrikes and missile strikes against airfields and chemical factories in Syria. Obama said a year ago that a “red line” was drawn with Syria
over the possible use of chemical weapons. Many are saying that the line has been crossed when Syria allegedly issued a chemical attack against its own citizens. James McCormick, professor and chair of political science at Iowa State, said he believes Obama’s credibility is at stake if
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GSB, City Council seek shared student input Campustown development project brings out opinions By Katie.Grunewald @iowastatedaily.com
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Yanhua Huang/Iowa State Daily
Members of the Ames City Council talk with a student at WelcomeFest. The recent new of the Kingland Systems project in Campustown has prompted more discussion on the City Council and students working together and sharing input.
hen it comes to the redevelopment of Campustown, the Ames City Council, and the Government of Student Body said they shared a responsibility with Iowa State students to have an informed student body. The recent news of the Kingland Systems development project had several students surprised and taking to social media the past few days, but this was not “new” news. “This case started to come before council back in March, long before the students left,” said City Council member Jami Larson. “Our previous liaison on the council, I think she had taken it to GSB, but this kind of happens every summer when we have a turnover of GSB and within the student population.” The most recent discussion of the project was at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Alexandra Harvey serves as the student liaison on the Council, a unique position that many college cities do not offer. Harvey is a student at Iowa State and a nonvoting member of the City Council. “The key is making sure Alex tells us about issues,” Larson said. “She’s told us recently about lighting issues on Mortensen Road, issues related to the greek houses and now this issue in Campustown related to the new development, so she’s dong a good job.” GSB Sen. Zach Bauer said he sees Harvey’s position as being unused by ISU students. “Most people don’t even realize that we have a student that sits on City Council, and the students don’t really care that much about City Council,” Bauer said. “They just come to school, and I don’t think that’s really doing their part.” The Campustown development project seems to have come out of nowhere for a lot of students, and the blame for that has been pointed at several different groups, organizations and people. “There’s no one place to point the finger. There’s lots of different ways students can get information about what’s going on in the city,” said GSB President Spencer Hughes. “Part of the responsibility lies with the students themselves to figure out what’s going on.
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waits on accounts By Lissandra.Villa @iowastatedaily.com
When a deficit in the Government of the Student Body’s capital projects account was made public in August, GSB had to begin the process of figuring out how it would cover the balance it needed to bring the account back from the negative. The balance of the capital projects account currently could not be reported by GSB. “Basically, we’re finishing up the fiscal year, and our accounts haven’t been finalized by the final reviews,” said Finance Director Dan Rediske, referring to GSB’s inability to report a final balance. As of last week, however, the capital projects account was reported to be less than by $102,286.50. Last week, some members of GSB assumed the situation, which appears to be caused by a miscalculation of enrollment numbers in the allocation process of spring 2012, would be resolved immediately at the first Senate meeting of the year by transferring the balance of its investment account into the capital projects account. The GSB Senate met for the first time on Wednesday evening at Memorial Union, but a transfer of the money, which would require a twothirds vote approval from the senators, did not appear on the agenda. “Now that Dan [Rediske] has worked more with the Campus Org Accounting Office to get more information about the situation ... we understand that the numbers are still a little fluid at this point,” said Spencer Hughes, president of GSB. “So Dan has chosen to wait until we know what the numbers are before acting.” Hughes added that waiting would not affect GSB operations. The transfer of money from the reserve account to the capital projects account would relieve the debt in the capital projects account. Reclaimed money would further replenish the capital projects account. “I was just as surprised as most of us,” said Khayree Fitten, inter-fraternity council senator. “We worked with the facts that we had, and so at first I felt a little guilty because I did push and author some of the more expensive expenditures that we had the last fiscal year.” The meeting included a visit from Anna Prisacari, the president of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate.
Students establish their own majors Combining programs could make new degrees Delaney.Vierkandt @iowastatedaily.com ISU students are establishing their own majors, ones apart from the list that the university already offers. According to Jane Jacobson, program director of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, students are able to go through a process to receive an interdisciplinary major in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “If there are students who find that they have a particular interest that cannot be accomplished through the standard majors that we have, or the combination of majors and minors, they can propose an
interdisciplinary studies major,” Jacobson said. If students decide to create their own major, they need to contact Kathleen Timmons, academic adviser in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Students start in a meeting with her where she explains the process and helps them get started. “Then they are expected to identify faculty people here at Iowa State who might have a similar interest or can kind of understand the goals of the student,” Timmons said. Timmons explains that this major incorporates coursework from several different disciplines, but they are all related in a particular way. Once an interdisciplinary major, women’s studies has become an offered major at Iowa State. “In the past, that’s how women’s stud-
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Photo Illustration: Brian Achenbach/Iowa State Daily
Students can make their own majors aside from the ones already offered. If a student has interest in a particular field outside of a standard major, they can propose their own major.
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