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2nd best place to work Sara Awad Staff Writer
Imagine going to work where you get to meet Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, managers value you and you feel like you are on a college campus. For people working at SAS, a software company started in Cary by N.C. State faculty member Anthony James Barr and SAS CEO and N.C. State alum Jim Goodnight, this is reality. Senior in business administration Virginia Webb said she chose to intern at SAS because she heard it was “the biggest information technology company in the world.” Her statement comes as Fortune Magazine ranked SAS as the second best place to work in the U.S. for 2012. Google currently holds the top spot, but SAS held the number one spot in 2010 and 2011. Employee satisfaction hailed from a number of factors that included the people, amenities and
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A recently conducted poll shows Democrats, 73 percent students do not want to ban semi- of who support it. automatic weapons nationwide. Although most stuAccording to the Pack Poll, a dents oppose a nationwide semi-annual representative survey gun ban, most were not in of N.C. State undergraduates, 57 favor of having guns around percent of N.C. on ca mpus. State students Twenty-nine oppose a napercent of stutionwide semidents strongly automatic gun oppose the idea ban. of having a conThis is relacea led carr y tively consispolicy on camtent with the pus while only 17 data found by percent strongly the Gallup Poll, support it. which showed Partisanship Alex Dowcett, a junior in that 51 percent again had a sigenvironmental engineering of Americans nificant impact are not in favor on opinions in of a semi-automatic gun ban. Sta- this poll. Eighty-three percent of tistically, men are more likely to op- Democrats oppose concealed carry pose the ban while women are more on campus, a greater percentage likely to support it. Republicans than the 63 percent of Republicans oppose the ban more often than who oppose such a policy.
“Having increased access to guns ... [when] the most minor incidents can become volatile especially scares me.”
asketball is like a presidential election: you can win all the individual statistics — i.e., the popular vote — and still come up short.
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Out of the timeout, Miami guard Shane Larkin pushed up a contested lay-up that hit rim and missed, but Johnson was there for the put-back with only .8 seconds left on the clock. Johnson’s basket put Miami up by one point. Freshman guard Rodney Purvis’ three-quarter court desperation shot hit rim but bounced out as the buzzer sounded to end the game. Head coach Mark Gottfried emphasized how proud he was of his team’s resilience in a loss that’s hard to swallow. “That’s a heartbreaker,” Gottfried said. “I thought we played extremely hard and never quit. I’m disappointed, but at the same time, I’m proud of our effort. ” With Brown sidelined by an ankle injury sustained in last Tuesday’s game against Virginia, Gottfried’s
Wolfpack Women defeat Demon Decons See page 8.
COURTESY OF CATAWBA COUNTY SHERRIF’S DEPARTMENT
Politics were not the only factor that appeared to have an impact on students’ opinions. Other factors that may have played a role in shaping opinions included students’ upbringing. Students whose parents own a gun are twice as likely to support concealed carry on campus as students whose parents do not. The Pack Poll gathered these statistics from an online survey conducted Jan. 28-29, in which about 26,000 students were emailed questions about their opinions on
gun laws. Of the 26,000 who were contacted, 891, or 34 percent, responded. According to Jake LaRoe, a researcher at the Pack Poll, this is a high response rate compared to the 9 percent response rate normally seen in industry polls, which can likely be attributed to the brevity of the survey and the exclusiveness of the network of survey recipients.
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AP credits may become a thing of the past Jessica Hatcher Staff Writer
job was sure to be a challenge. Operating a limited seven-man rotation, Gottfried elected to start junior center Jordan Vandenberg in place of junior forward C.J. Leslie. The decision was likely made to rest Leslie for the end of the game. Vandenberg, who made his first career start as a member of the Wolfpack, played only seven total minutes and registered one block and a steal. Purvis started the game at point guard, flanked by �freshman forward T.J. Warren and senior guard Scott Wood. As the game played out, Purvis shifted to wing, and Lewis assumed point guard duties. The game was defined by spurts by both teams. Coming out with tenacious defense and physical frontcourt play, the Hurricanes found an early rhythm, jumping out to an 11-7 lead at the first media timeout.
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inside technician High cotton ties redefine style
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SOURCE: PACK POLL
STORY BY WILL RAYNOR | PHOTO BY JOHN JOYNER
No. 19 N.C. State outrebounded, outshot and was more efficient in every imaginable category than No. 14 Miami Saturday. The only statistic it was bested in happens to be the only one that matters — �the final score. State lost against Miami, 79-78, Saturday afternoon in PNC Arena. State played the game without junior starting point guard Lorenzo Brown. Miami forward Reggie Johnson converted a last-second tipin as the Hurricanes handed State its first home loss of the season. With 47 seconds left and the score 78-77 in the Wolfpack’s favor, Miami gained possession after freshman guard Tyler Lewis missed a jumper in the lane. After the Hurricanes got the rebound, they immediately called timeout with 10.9 seconds remaining.
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STORY BY TIM GORSKI | GRAPHIC BY TREY FERGUSON
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More than 2,400 incoming freshmen received course credit from Advanced Placement classes this fall, according to registration and records. However, many institutions are modifying their policies considering AP classes. Dartmouth College recently announced it will no longer accept AP credits towards graduation, effective 2018. Hakan Tell is a classics professor and chairman of Darthmouth College’s Committee on Instruction. “The concern that we have is that increasingly, AP has been seen as equivalent to a collegelevel course, and it really isn’t, in our [the college’s] opinion,” Tell said in an interview with NPR. Jim Martin, professor of chemistry and a representative for the Wake County Board of Education, agrees. Martin explained that colleges are straying away from providing AP credit because AP courses are becoming centered around test preparation more than the actual learning process. “I see that a significant amount of AP is teaching people to pass the AP test,” Martin said. Kristin Stroud, a sophomore majoring in fashion and textile brand management, affirms this notion. “I do not feel like I gained the same quality of education [in AP classes] because we simply aim towards passing a test rather than learning true fundamentals and material,” Stroud said. Preparing for standardized exams encourages students to focus solely on recognition based learning, Martin said, adding that this is problematic because it is not practical in real-life situations. “The way I teach reflects the way my life is as a chemist. When I’m working, I don’t get answers
to choose between,” Martin said. Martin said he finds students in his higher level chemistry courses who have received credit for a prerequisite through AP credits perform at a much lower rate compared to those who took the prerequisite courses at the University. “People who have been trained with the standardized form of learning get a culture shock,” Martin said. Martin said high schools should require more intensive and challenging classes that teach fundamental skills such as critical thinking, independent learning and problem solving rather than merely passing a test. Stroud said she feels like she gets more of an education from her courses now. “I think AP classes had more ‘busy-work’ and were far more time-consuming than my classes now. I feel like my classes now provide me an ample amount of time to study and actually learn the material rather than simply memorize it for a test,” Stroud said. According to Martin, AP classes can be helpful for students. “However, there’s a difference between a class being helpful and being substituted for college credit,” Martin said. Another problem with AP classes is that they discourage students from taking other enriching classes. “I see this as a member of the Board of Education; there are a lot of students who take AP courses because of the impact they have on a weighted GPA,” Martin said. Martin asserts this discourages students from taking other courses that broaden their experience. “I always encourage students to take as many drama classes as they can; you might not need to perform a drama in career, but you need the communication and presentation skills that a drama class might teach you,” Martin said. Martin said he does not think
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