TECHNICIAN
thursday september
20 2012
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Michelle Obama reaches out to students Lindsay Schaefer Staff Writer
First Lady Michelle Obama urged students to take their futures into their hands while she visited universities in North Carolina Wednesday. First on her trip was North Carolina Central University in Durham. Later that evening, she spoke at East Carolina University in Greenville to advocate for students and education. Her speech at NCCU came 15 days after her keynote speech from the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, where she inspired the crowd and reassured Americans President Barack Obama is just like them. “After our convention, I’m feeling pretty fired up and ready to go myself,” Michelle Obama said, while opening her 20-minute long speech. She started out talking about her admiration for her husband and focused on his integrity throughout the duration of the speech. “What truly made me fall in love with Barack Obama was his character,” the first lady said. “Did you hear me? It was his character. It was his decency, honesty, compassion and conviction.” Though Michelle Obama’s speech focused on her husband’s achievements and personality, she said the president has more plans for the nation for another four years. “My husband is nowhere near satisfied,” she said. “He knows there is plenty of work left to be done and it is gonna take a lot longer than four
years to rebuild an economy from the ground up.” Before Obama spoke, the energy from the crowd filled NCCU’s gymnasium up to its maximum capacity of 3,100 people. The crowd did the wave, stood up, sang, waved posters and chanted, “Four more years.” Harmony Cross, Miss NCCU of 2012-2013, spoke before Obama took the stage, and talked about the importance of the student vote. “If you ever doubt yourself, if you ever think your vote doesn’t matter, I want you to remember that it only takes one person to make a difference,” Cross said. Congressman David Price, U.S. Representative for North Carolina’s fourth congressional district, prefaced Obama’s speech, saying 2012’s presidential election has consequences that will persist after the next president’s term is complete. “We face a critical choice in this election and many, many questions, but none are more critical than education,” Price said. “This is a personal issue for President Obama and the first lady. They went to college on student loans and worked hard to pay off those student loans.” In her speech, Obama said her husband lived the struggles “average Americans” face every day. She also spoke about women’s rights and the importance for women to have equal opportunities. “When it comes to standing up for the rights of women, ladies, we know Barack will always have our back,” Obama said. “He knows when women struggle to meet the
GREG WILSON/TECHNICIAN
First Lady, Michelle Obama, addresses crowd at N.C. Central University.
demands of their jobs and the demands of their families. He will always, always fight that women can make their own decisions about our bodies and about our healthcare.” Obama talked about the president ending the war in Iraq, passing the Affordable Care Act, giving more grants to students who can not afford education and cutting taxes for small businesses.
“Newspapers were using words like meltdown and calamity — banks weren’t lending, companies weren’t hiring,” Obama said. “A lot of folks wondered whether we were heading for a Great Depression. This is what welcomed Obama to the Oval Office. Instead of pointing fingers and placing blame, Barack got to work.” After the event, Simone Turner,
a senior in family and consumer sciences, discussed why Obama’s campaign affects her personally. “I feel that Obama is helping me by making college more affordable so that I can go to school,” Turner said. Ernestine Daniels traveled from Butner, N.C. to listen to Michelle
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Chick-fil-A changes donations stance
insidetechnician
Staff Report
See page 3.
Chick-fil-A is taking a step back from its statement against gay marriage. The Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday that the restaurant promised it will not donate money to groups that oppose gay marriage. Chick-fil-A also announced it will issue a statement of respect for all sexual orientations in an internal document to the relief of Chicago Ald. Proco “Joe” Moreno. Moreno publically opposed the anti-gay marriage stance of Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy and considered the restaurant’s latest promises to be a “big win,” according to an article in the Chicago Tribune. The company will distribute a statement titled “Chick-fil-A: Who We Are” to all corporate employees and restaurant operators, Moreno said. He continued that the statement will emphasize Chick-fil-A’s commitment to respect all people, regardless of their sexual preference. Anthony Martinez, executive director of The Civil Rights
STANCE continued page 3
UK university deports foreign students
GRAPHIC BY SARAH TUDOR
Wi-Fi crashes leave students offline Taylor O’Quinn Correspondent
Last week students were interrupted from their online sessions due to multiple issues with N.C. State’s main servers. There were two different issues that caused these servers to seemingly crash. The problems that began Sept. 12 were directly related to an IP address allocation on the wireless network, according to the Office of Information Technology. This means the software that produces the IP addresses was malfunctioning and not allowing new IP addresses to be assigned. This problem affected, for the most part, freshmen using any device that was not previously regis-
tered through the University’s Nomad System. Once the Avent Ferry Technology Center successfully determined the root cause of the issue, they immediately rebooted the IP address servers and resolved the problem. Even though the solution to Wednesday’s issues could be made quickly, the same could not be said about the bigger issue the employees of the Avent Ferry Technology Center faced the following day. The issue Thursday involved heavy malfunctions in the authentication process that verifies the University’s UnityID credentials. Students use the UnityID’s to access almost everything N.C. State-related online. This caused
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an issue when it came time for students and faculty to access their MyPack accounts, as well as websites such as Moodle and WebAssign. The source of this issue was the controller for the UnityID processes, which had to be completely restarted, resulting in the major server crash that occurred last week. Many students and faculty were affected by both server issues of last week. However, one case in particular stands out. Robert Moore, a sophomore in chemical engineering, logged into his MyPack Portal account
WI-FI continued page 2
Meditation: the new medication See page 6.
Wolfpacks tops Deacons to continue win streak See page #.
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