TECHNICIAN
wednesday october
3
2012
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
New BOG committee meets opposition
Elizabeth Moomey Staff Writer
Two words have been thrown around about the recent North Carolina Board of Governor’s picks: conservative and controversial. On Sept. 13, the BOG announced 27 new members for its UNC Advisory Committee on Strategic Direc-
tions. The members will serve 2013 to 2018 and will decide the terms of financial spending, academic standards and the missions of North Carolina’s colleges and universities to further prepare students for the workforce. NC Policy Watch, a progressive, nonprofit and non-partisan public policy group, has been critical of
recent appointments in particular. New members include North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis and North Carolina Senator Phil Berger, who recently signed the largest budget cuts in the UNC System’s history. Other members are Robert Ingram, the former president and chief operating officer of GlaxoSmith-
Kline, a pharmaceutical company, donated $96,000 to the Republican Party and N.C. Chamber President Lew Ebert, who is said to be more interested in the tax-cutting agenda of the Republicans than supporting important public investments in key state institutions like universities, according to N.C. Policy Watch. The high amount of conservatives
Dan Allen project postponed
has already caused backpedaling on a policy that would set a certain percentage of tuition increases to low-income families to help them send their children to a UNC school. The policy also mentioned decreasing the amount of liberal arts pro-
BOG continued page 3
Bell Tower electric system under repair Jessie Halpern News Editor
Taylor O’Quinn Staff Writer
The Dan Allen Drive gate project that was scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 4-7 has been postponed until further notice, according to the N.C. State Transportation website. Instead, crews will be working on a new traffic signal at the intersection of Dan Allen Drive and Yarbrough Drive. This project will take place Wednesday at 8 p.m. until Thursday at 6 a.m. According to Public Communication Specialist for NCSU Transportation Christine Klein, Dan Allen Drive will remain open, but traffic may be reduced to one lane on this portion of the street and traffic assistance will be provided. Since this is only preliminary work, the signal will not yet be activated. Route 7 of the Wolflink Shuttle will take a detour through Gorman and Hillsborough streets from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday. All evening service of the Wolfline will be stopped for fall break after 10 p.m. Wednesday. The service will run for a limited amount of time for faculty and staff members Thursday and Friday. Klein said Routes 6, 7 and 8 will also operate on limited schedules. The Dan Allen Deck pay lot will be closed Friday to accommodate two construction jobs. A permitted area of the Dan Allen Deck will be open from the Hillsborough and Yarbrough street side only. Signs will be posted to remind drivers about the closings. “Anyone who normally parks in the Dan Allen Deck pay lot will need to use the Coliseum Deck pay lot,” Klein said. The Dan Allen Gate was a piece of a 10-year project ‘puzzle.’ Klein said the construction of the Dan Allen Gate has been postponed so N.C. State may conduct further traffic pattern studies in conjunction with the City of Raleigh.
CONTRIBUTED BY READYFORCE
A Hacker Tour representative talks to students at the College of Engineering Career Fair Tuesday. The Hacker Tour is led by Readyforce, a social networking site that helps students get jobs with start-up companies.
Hacker Tour stops by engineering career fair Jessie Halpern News Editor
Readyforce, a social networking company that connects students with jobs at start-up companies, will be on campus Wednesday at the College of Engineering Career Fair. The company is visiting N.C. State as part of its Hacker Tour, an expedition to appear at 25 campuses across the country in eight weeks. Traveling on the tour bus is Anna Binder, vice president of client services, and two other Readyforce employees who act as tour managers. Readyforce works like a “dating site” for professionals because it’s all based on online profile matching, according to Binder. “The student profile emphasizes what students are passionate about, not so much what they have experience in because a lot of students don’t have experience,” Binder said. “There is a place to showcase interests and relevant coursework as well.” Once a profile is made, Binder said students can start searching for the companies who are also members of Readyforce—mostly tech start-ups ranging from small to large. In their search, students are able to learn about specific companies through information and video before requesting to be “introduced.” Once that request is sent, the company gets an email notification to
view a student’s profile. Three weeks, 10 campuses and 1,300 additional student profiles later, Binder said the tour is going strong. “Eventually, we want to be the place where every student starts their career, but we’re starting out with engineering students and tech startups,” Binder said. “We live in the land of startups, and all startups are desperate to hire engineers, so it was a natural place to start.” Though the Hacker Tour is focusing on engineering, Readyforce does not. Binder said the site is open for and used by students of all majors who wish to connect with any of the 100 companies registered thus far. The Hacker Tour arrived on campus Tuesday afternoon, and Binder said her team has been impressed. “When you show up to the career fair, there’s a small army of students in red to welcome you,” Binder said. “No one was stressed out, and everyone was helpful.” One aspect Binder said she found surprising is that the career fair is open to students from other schools, as well as alumni. “That is unheard of, but it really makes the fair attractive,” Binder said. “I think it’s awesome.” The Hacker Tour has set up in an engineering building on Centennial Campus and is easily found by looking for their colorful tour bus. Binder’s focus has been helping
Sign up for Campout ends tonight at 10 p.m.
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students on campus learn about start-ups and getting them to sign up on the website, but connecting with employers isn’t the only incentive to visiting the tour. “No one leaves our booth without a T-shirt,” Binder said. Readyforce is a startup company itself, yet with only a few years under its belt, the organization has raised more than $14 million. Based in San Francisco, the company was created as a means of improving the job search for students, according to its website, readyforce.com. “Readyforce was founded on the belief that the traditional job search process is broken,” the website said. “This is true for both job seekers and hiring companies. We exist to make the job search process better and easier.” Binder became involved with the company after working in human resources for most of her career. “The thing I spent the most time on was figuring out how you attract, recruit, hire and motivate people to do amazing things,” Binder said. “When I left my last job, I really wanted to do something that was connected to the work that I’m passionate about and made it easier for college students to connect to jobs that they’re excited about.” In addition to connecting students with other companies, Readyforce is also looking to hire software engineers.
N.C. State’s Bell Tower has been silent for more than one week due to old parts and lightening damage. The Bell Tower has been synonymous with N.C. State for more than 60 years, and assistant vice chancellor for facilities, Jack Colby, said it hasn’t lost it’s voice—at least since he’s been at the University. “This is the first time as far as I know that the Bell Tower’s sound system hasn’t worked in at least 10 or 12 years,” Colby said. Associate vice chancellor for facilities, Kevin MacNaughton, said the Bell Tower’s chimes come from an electronic system run by an office in Holladay Hall and not an actual bell. “We believe the root of the problem was lightening damage,” Colby said. “We’ve had other issues relating to lightening damage in the tower before, but those involved the light system.” Colby said the original problem was looked at and fixed last week, but because of the age of the components in the tower, one of the electronic systems broke. The Facilities Department has been working with a company in California for more than a week to replace the parts and they have recently been shipped, Colby said. “The system is very old, and with older technology, it’s far more difficult to obtain replacement parts and make repairs,” Colby said. “The best case is that we’ll have it fixed by the end of the week, but it all depends on when we get those parts.” Colby said there are several planned events that require the Bell Tower to chime in the near future and fixing it as soon as possible is a priority. As of Tuesday, no students have made any inquiries about the Bell Tower’s lack of sound, according to Colby.
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classifieds sports
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Registration to attend this year’s Campout ends tonight, Oct. 3, at 10 p.m. Students who attend Campout will receive six extra loyalty points, increasing the chance of receiving men’s basketball tickets when the season starts, including a ticket to the UNC game. This year Campout has partnered with Primetime with the Pack — the former Red and
White game — to kick off the basketball team’s season. Primetime with the Pack includes two intersquad scrimmages with the men’s basketball team and a three-onthree basketball tournament for students. Primetime with the Pack will be open to the public. Primetime with the Pack has also been chosen as one of five midnight madness kickoff events to be shown on ESPNU. The event will be held in the PNC Arena Friday, Oct. 12, and there is
a limit of 3,500 people who can attend. Similar to previous years’ Campouts, there will be random checkpoints throughout the night and students must follow the N.C. State Code of Student Conduct as well as Campout guidelines. Wolfline buses will be running between main campus and the PNC Arena, though there may initially be traffic delays due to State Fair traffic near the arena.