THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1920
TECHNICIAN
WEDNESDAY AUG.
20 2014
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Red zone poses increased risk for new students Katherine Kehoe News Editor
The first six weeks of the fall semester are considered a red zone for rape and sexual assault at any university, and the risk is particularly high for incoming freshmen. Though rape and sexual assault can happen at any time of year, the annual uptick is a result of perpetrators choosing to prey on the vulnerability of incoming students who are unaccustomed to the new environment and seeking new friendships and acceptance, according to Otis McGresham, the director of interpersonal violence and advocacy within the Women’s Center. “A perpetrator of sexual violence will perpetrate,” McGresham said.
“It’s a methodical, kind of hunting sort of mentality. When you are selecting targets to perpetrate sexual violence upon, they’re looking for people who are in an inexperienced environment, people who are more vulnerable so they can prey on that vulnerability.” McGresham said it is difficult to give advice to students about how to protect themselves and others from sexual violence because the only people who can stop it from happening are the perpetrators, but trusting your gut and speaking up when you see something dangerous happening are the best ways to help keep people safe. “On one end there is the actual act of sexual violence and on the
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Respecting the Pack BY CAIDE WOOTEN
C
hancellor Randy Woodson leaves his handprint on the wall at the southern end of the Free Expression Tunnel Tuesday afternoon at Respect the Pack. The event, hosted by Student Government, aimed to spread a message of equality for all people in the university community. Students were able to leave their handprints in support of diversity at NC State in the Tunnel and enjoyed several performances by campus organizations.
NCSU women prepare The Technician for sorority recruitment now to publish four days a week
Grace Callahan Staff Writer
Sorority recruitment, otherwise known as rush, will take place Sept. 5 – Sept. 10. It is an opportunity for women at NC State to learn more about the nine Panhellenic sororities that the university has to offer and to find which one is the best match for them. “Right now, we already have about 380 girls, and we should get to around 500, which is our goal for every year,” said Morgan Shelton, vice president of recruitment for the Panhellenic Executive Board. “This year we seem to be a little ahead of where we’ve been in the past years.” Open House will take place in the McKimmon Center on Sept. 5, giving girls the opportunity to meet with the different Panhellenic sorority chapters. House Tours begin on Sept. 6. House tours are chance to walk through the chapter’s houses and talk to different sorority members to learn about the philanthropy and the kinds of service they do. The chapters get to show their personalities on Sept. 7, which is Skit Day. Sept. 9 is Preference Night, and the women rushing get to narrow down which sorority is the best fit. Sept. 10, Bid Day, the pledge classes are revealed and the women are welcome into the chapter. Although registering for rush costs $75, the money is put back toward the girls who are rushing. “It goes toward meals and also pays for transportation because we
Staff Report
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Beth Buckley, a then junior in business administration, and Kendele McGee, then junior in Elementary Education jump in excitement as they see new members of their sorority arrive on Bid Day Sept. 12, 2012.
use buses to take girls from campus to Greek Court and from Greek Court to Greek Way,” Shelton said. To register to rush, each girl must fill out an online application questionnaire. “It’s important to take the application seriously because it tells us a little about themselves and is an opportunity to introduce themselves before they get to meet everybody,” Shelton said. “We also use it for statistical information and to figure out how many freshmen and sophomores we have.” Preparations for sorority recruitment begin far in advance of the actual events. “A lot of the preparation happens at the beginning of the summer,”
said Mary Gray Cunningham, the rush chair for Sigma Kappa. “It’s really a year-long process.” “I’ve been preparing ever since I’ve received my position in December,” Cunningham said. “I started asking girls who just gone through rush for suggestions for the upcoming year.” Greek Life and the process of sorority recruitment have undergone a few changes since last year. “The transformation of Greek Village is underway and a lot of new houses are being built,” Cunningham said. “Also normally Rho Chis aren’t allowed to affiliate with their
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Effective immediately, the Technician will publish four days per week, as opposed to the five-day model of the past. The change comes due to a significant decrease in funding to all of Student Media, which has been funded by advertising and underwriting revenue. “Both our national and campus advertising fell precipitously,” Patrick Neal, director of Student Media Advising, said. “No knowledgeable authority we know of can say when — or if — those revenues will ever return to levels seen historically. This is not just a chal-
lenge for the Technician; this is a challenge all university newspapers are facing.” Also affected by the decrease in funding are other outlets of Student Media, such as Agromeck, Windhover and the Nubian Message. “Agromeck is going to a paid model this year,” Neal said of the university’s yearbook. “We can no longer afford to give away books that cost about $65 each to print.” As for Windhover, the literary magazine, and the Nubian Message, Student Media is searching for sponsors to cover the former’s printing budget, while the latter has, reduced the frequency of its publications from 20 to 17 issues per year.
Hillsborough St. non-profit seeks more student input Karima Boukary Correspondent
Students will soon have the opportunity to serve on a committee for the Hillsborough Street Community Service Corporation, which aims to collect more student input and suggestions about future plans for Hillsborough Street’s businesses, construction and events. In 2009, a partnership between NC State, the city of Raleigh and the business owners on Hillsborough Street created HSCSC to be an independent, not-for-profit, business improvement district. Jeff Murison, HSCSC’s executive director is now working toward getting student members added to the Board of Directors so they can be more engaged in the decisionmaking process. “About a year ago we expanded the board that runs our organization to include more members and have more diversity as stake-
holders,” Murison said. “And that included a Student Government representative.” This new committee will be made up entirely of students to provide more input about Hillsborough Street development and activities than what is received from the Student Government representative alone. Creating a committee of student leaders and other students from NC State to give input to the board who will be making decisions is a way for business owners to better communicate with the university and learn more about what students want, according to Murison. “This is really a continuation of that process, getting stakeholder groups more ways to communicate with us and for us to get more information back to them,” Murison said. Senior Class President Molly Bas-
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