Technician - June 19, 2014

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TECHNICIAN

Partisan politics slow student-loan reform

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Student Orientation kicks off Monday; 4,300 set to attend

Jacqueline Lee

Ravi K. Chittilla

Staff Writer

Editor-in-Chief

Beginning next week, the first batch of 4,300 incoming students will attend New Student Orientation. This year, administrators hope to show students more paths to finding success during their time at N.C. State, according to Michael Coombes, interim director of New Student Programs. “A few of the big things that we’ve changed is really trying to beef up some of the programming to provide very, very concentrated focus on student success,” Coombes said. “One of the things are our firstyear student objectives which our institution has adopted.” The four areas the University is emphasizing are Study Abroad, Service Learning and Leadership, Undergraduate Research and Career Development. Activities such as studying abroad can have dramatic effects on a student’s development, Coombes said. “We have students that go anywhere from the coast to Nicaragua,” Coombes said. “Students that go on these trips may find out that they’re tremendously interested in sustainable development, which may alter their career path and track significantly.” Coombes said students who par-

FILE PHOTO BY JOHN JOYNER/TECHNICIAN

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama signed an executive order to expand federal student loans.

raising taxes, according to Greene. “They’re using it more as a political weapon because they know Republicans will never agree to increasing taxes,” Greene said. Because it is so widely known that the bill would not have passed in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives, Democrats could’ve proposed the bill to gain the turnout of young voters in the midterm elections, according to Greene. “Part of what Democrats are try-

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Raleigh, North Carolina

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Although the federal government has made recent efforts to bring tuition debt relief to students, partisan politics have gotten in the way of bringing reform. President Barack Obama signed an executive order on June 9 to expand the program letting students pay 10 percent of their monthly income toward their student loans. However, the recent bill proposal written by Sen. Elizabeth Warren to allow some students to refinance their loans did not pass in the House of Representatives. Steven Greene, a professor in political science, said the key component to reforming student loans is working out how it’s going to be paid for, which must happen by either imposing more taxes or by cutting programs. The News & Observer reported the rejected senate bill would have been financed by a tax on citizens with an income greater than $1 million. Now that Republicans have the majority in the House of Representatives, as opposed to in 2012, Democrats would have known the bill would fail, Greene said. Because the bill essentially relies on increasing taxes, Democrats in the Senate never intended on it becoming policy in the short term. This is because, historically, Republicans have always been opposed to

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ing to do is anything they can to get young people actually turning out to the polls in the midterm elections, since it’s an issue that resonates with many of them,” Greene said. Only 11 percent of voters were from age 18 to 29. They reported the majority of votes swayed Democrat, as opposed to other

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ticipate in these activities tend to be more successful than those who don’t. “We’re really trying to get them to focus on what that student success looks like and how we can support students,” Coombes said. Coombes said in conjunction with current national dialogue, the Orientation will also spend a significant amount of time engaging students in discussions about consent, sexual violence and other Title IX topics. “It’s not something that our campus is immune to, so students must understand the rules of our community,” Coombes said. Coombes said sexual violence dialogue has changed in the past few years, so the way the University handles it must evolve with the dialogue. “It can become difficult to deliver so many messages at one time in a way that is engaging, but also meaningful,” Coombes said. “The reality is if I just say something to you, it won’t mean much. We need to engage students in order for them to understand.” NSO will run from Monday until July 24, and students will attend based on the colleges in which they were accepted. “Orientation is the one time that you potentially have the entire class

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Researchers work toward 3-D printing organs Viggy Kumaresan Correspondent

Binil Starly, the director of industrial engineering and systems engineering lab for Engineering Biological Tissue Systems at N.C. State, is leading research into 3-D printing

technology that could lead to huge advances in the future, including the production of human organs. The applications of 3-D printing for biomedical purposes are almost endless. One of the main areas involves the testing of drugs. Currently, researchers grow liver cells

and insert the drugs that are being tested into the liver to see if the drug is safe and efficient. The problem with this method, Starly said, is the testing is all done two-dimensionally in animal cells, but human cells grow three-dimensionally in the body.

These studies are also ruling out drugs that could potentially be useful to humans, according to Starly. Starly said Penicillin was an example, saying that certain influential drugs used today wouldn’t make it through the long legal acceptance process.

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“If [Penicillin] were to be invented and tested today, it would not go through, because it is lethal to pigs,” Starly said. “Drugs can be lethal to animals, but not to humans, so we are losing out on so many drugs.”

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Technology helps improve accuracy of football calls

FEATURES Sustainable strawberries See page 6.

Katherine Waller Correspondent

of lower utility bills and maintenance costs,” said Energy Management program coordinator Claudia Powell in a press release from Sustainability at N.C. State. “LED technology is particularly favorable when replacing energy intensive bulbs or those in hard to reach or heavily utilized spaces.” Jerry Atkinson, a building technician, said lights used in the office now draw less than one amp of-

Researchers from N.C. State and Carnegie Mellon University have partnered with Disney Research to develop a technology that will take the guesswork out of tricky referee calls in American football. By placing a low-frequency transmitter inside a football that relies on magnetic fields to indicate positioning. With the transmitter integrated into the football, the ball will still be within the standard deviation of acceptable professional football weight. David Ricketts, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and senior author of a paper describing the work, explained how the football-tracking system works. “Basically, the football emits a magnetic field like a magnet,” Ricketts said. “We put antennas around the field to measure the magnetic

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FOOTBALL continued page 2

FILE PHOTO BY VICTORIA CROCKER/TECHNICIAN

FEATURES Forestry professor receives BOG Award for Excellence in Teaching See page 6.

The inside of the Constructed Facilities Laboratory is used for testing large to full-scale structural systems under a wide variety of environmental conditions on Centennial Campus.

Constructed Facilities Lab gets eco-friendly upgrades Katherine Kehoe News Editor

SPORTS Pack wraps up outdoor season See page 8.

The N.C. State Constructed Facilities Lab recently received an eco-friendly lighting upgrade that replaced inefficient interior lighting systems in several research areas, stairwells, conference rooms and offices with highly efficient LED technology. “Replacing traditional lighting systems with LED technology provides financial benefits in the form


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Technician - June 19, 2014 by NC State Student Media - Issuu