TECHNICIAN
tuesday august
28 2012
Raleigh, North Carolina
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Gadhafi-sympathetic Libyan students protest in Washington Noah Rouse Correspondent
Students gathered in front of the Watergate building in Washington D.C. Aug. 15 to protest a lack of support from the post-Moammar Gadhafi government in Tripoli,
Libya. When secret service agents apprehended a man ranting inside of the Watergate complex, he had allegedly told one of the building’s employees he would blow up the historic building. Authorities later learned the man was a Libyan national who was
studying abroad and had been part of a student protest in front of the Libyan embassy, which is housed inside the Watergate building. The students, part of a group that drove from the Missouri University of Science and Technology to Washington D.C., had been protesting for in-
creased support from the government in Tripoli, who they claim has not been providing them with the same support they received under the Gadhafi regime. Abdelmajeed Ali, a Libyan graduate student studying abroad at MS&T was one of the protest lead-
ESPN stages campus protest Jake Moser Staff Writer
ESPNU shot a commercial on campus Monday for N.C. State’s Friday football game against the University of Tennessee. ESPNU, a television channel owned by ESPN, specializes in college sports and organized a fake protest in anticipation of Friday’s game against the Tennessee Volunteers. The commercial, shot at the Bell Tower, includes N.C. State students protesting the Volunteers in order to support the Wolfpack. Almost 100 protesting, sign-waving students showed up Monday for the commercial, thanks to Megan Hornbeck. Hornbeck, a sophomore in communication and Spanish, is a campus connector with ESPNU who regularly provides material for the channel’s online and on-air productions. For this commercial she was responsible for bringing students to the event and helping produce the finished product. Hornbeck thinks the result will be a positive one. “I hope that this will give our school a little more publicity and expand our fan base,” Hornbeck said. “I would like to see N.C. State mentioned more than UNCChapel Hill, and I think the student body coming together before our first game will get everyone excited for the coming season.” The upcoming commercial will consist only of Monday’s footage from the protesting N.C. State students. UT previously shot its own commercial at its campus in Knoxville, and the ESPNU crew has also travelled to Wake Forest University and the University of Georgia. Thirty minutes before ESPNU arrived, students decked out in N.C. State shirts, hats and vari-
Deputy News Editor
Seven years after the University began entering the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Collegiate Traffic Bowl, teammates Zachary Bugg, Thomas Chase and Tyler Fowler took home the grand championship title. The Traffic Bowl is a Jeopardy!style game, but all the clues come from transportation engineering manuals. The game features clues taken from several engineering manuals, general transportation trivia and the history of the ITE. The game was well-suited for the three graduate students in civil engineering, whose concentrations
Women’s Center loses its edge, according to some Staff Writer
JOHN HUNTING/TECHNICIAN
Cameron Waldbart, a senior in enviromnental technology, joins dozens of other students in a mock protest Monday, Aug. 27 2012. They pretended to denounce the Tenessee Volunteers for an ESPN film crew. The crowed braved the heat to support the Wolfpack for the big game.
ous other red accessories began to gather around the Bell Tower. Some were tweaking their signs while others discussed the game or did homework. Photographers checked their cameras as a “No Volunteers in Wolfpack Country” sign was completed. Even a dog wearing an N.C. State shirt was in attendance. When the camera crew arrived from Wake Forest, everyone assembled on the Bell Tower steps. ESPNU crew member Jordan Appel explained the concept for the commercial and also encouraged students to make a post about the event on their Twitter feed. After T-shirts were given to those not wearing red, the mock protest began. Students holding signs marched in a circle in front of the Bell Tower while others protested on the steps behind them.
were in transportation engineering. Each of the winning students has also been involved in research at N.C. State’s Institute for Transportation Research and Education as part of their graduate studies. Bugg said the bowl was started by the international organization Institute of Transportation Engineers, which has about 10,000 members across 90 countries. However, only the United States and Canada participate in the game due to differences in international transportation engineering. “They’re trying to get students involved and get the crowd to be very diverse,”Bugg said. According to the ITE Collegiate Traffic Bowl program, the objectives
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LIBYA continued page 3
TeShima Brennen
“Tennessee game is near: We won’t volunteer” and the N.C. State fight song were chanted. Sign-holders marched around while others chanted and held up the Wolfpack symbol with their hands. A select group of students were interviewed by crew members. The interviews were designed for the students to acknowledge volunteering is a good thing, but they are choosing to ignore it in order to support N.C. State. The commercial shoot ended with the protesters chanting and marching away from the Bell Tower. Appel was impressed with the outcome. “Everything was pretty awesome,” Appel said. “We staged a protest, made signs, and got students to come out in the middle of the day. This is one of the best
Quizbowl wins national Traffic Bowl Laura Wilkinson
ers. “There are many students that have lots of problems regarding the scholarships they got from the government,” Ali said. “Students are struggling to figure out how to
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of the competition are to encourage students to become more active members in the Institute, to enhance their knowledge of the traffic/transportation engineering and planning profession and of the Institute itself and to strengthen the programs of the ITE student chapters. The N.C. State team defeated UNC-Charlotte in the North Carolina round of competition in November in Raleigh, and then moved to the southern district in Lexington, Kentucky in April, defeating the University of Alabama and the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. The final game in the southern district was
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shoots we’ve ever had.” Student opinion was similar, and sophomore civil engineer Russell Riley was glad he could participate. “I found out about the event on Facebook and thought it would be a fun thing to do,” Riley said. “I’ve been looking forward to football season and supporting the Wolfpack all year. Plus it’s never a bad time to be on TV.” The commercial will air during ESPNU’s new show, “ESPN Unite.”The show, which is heavily driven by social media sites, involves the crew going around to different colleges and making sports comedy pieces, although it covers professional sports as well. The show also aims to document what life is like on these college campuses, according to Appel.
With a harsh letter of resignation from a former staff member in May, the future leadership of the Women’s Center came into question. Now, it seems the same issues are being brought up and several key people are shedding light on what they call the center’s demise. The Women’s Center has historically played a big part in helping survivors of sexual or violent relationships find the help they need through counseling, a 24/7 hotline and more. However, the center’s role has started to change, according to some. “ T h e Wo m e n’s C e n t e r is not a safe place to send people,”LaSonya Harris, a senior in sociology, said. According to Harris, the Women’s Center was once a place where survivors could turn to for help. They had a 24/7 hotline called the Relationship and Sexual Violence Phone Line (RSVP) and were very knowledgeable of both on- and off-campus services for survivors of Relationship and Sexual violence. Michelle Clayton, also a senior in sociology, agreed with Harris that this is no longer the case. “The Women’s Center has been going downhill for about a year now,”Clayton said.
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Raleigh Little Theatre rocks on ‘Rocky Horror’ See page 6.
University Theatre readies for another packed season See page 6.
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