Technician - November 20, 2013

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TECHNICIAN

wednesday november

20 2013

Raleigh, North Carolina

technicianonline.com

OIT strained by long-term cuts Jake Moser News Editor

RAVI CHITTILLA/TECHNICIAN

Fred Cubbage, a professor of natural resource policy and economics, speaks at an organized gathering on the Brickyard to protest the University’s announced sale of the Hofmann Forest.

Students organize protest of Hofmann Forest sale Staff Report

About 30 people gathered in the Brickyard Tuesday afternoon for a student-organized rally to protest the sale of the Hofmann Forest and make sure the 79,000-acre tract is preserved. A group of students, including Claudio Kriegel, a senior in psychology, Ezekiel Overbaugh, a senior in plant biology and Caroline Hansley, a senior in interdisciplinary studies, organized the event to share ideas and concerns among the student body, according to Overbaugh. “No single person is responsible for the protest to-

day, although Claudio and I discussed a Brickyard meeting previously. If it were not for the organizing efforts of Caroline the event would not have taken place the way it did,” Overbaugh said. “It was intended as a way to voice our opinion on [the Hofmann sale] and show solidarity with the foresters leading the cause.” Currently, the contractual agreement between the N.C. State endowment board and the forest’s buyer, Hofmann Forest LLC., doesn’t guarantee the land won’t be developed into commercial or residential property. Protestors were concerned

after a 2009 prospectus was released last week, which included detailed strategies for developing the forest. Though Hofmann Forest LLC. said it won’t follow through with these plans, the protestors demanded a clause be written into the Hofmann contract. Ernie Averett, an N.C. State alumnus and owner of Flatwood Farms in Oxford, N.C., attened the rally and said he is pessimistic about trusting the buyer’s plans to preserve the land. “When this sale is over, this buyer will do whatever he chooses with the land,”

HOFMANN continued page 2

State-appropriated budget cuts are limiting the Office of Information Technology’s ability to become a more effective resource for students, faculty members and staff. OIT absorbed $1.1 million in recurring budget cuts this year due to the state’s 20132014 budget reduction, according to a University announcement. As a result, the department eliminated almost 11 positions and now has to prioritize and realign its resources.

“This budget reduction and accompanying loss of positions will have a lasting impact on the organization’s ability to provide timely responses to requests for various campus services,” according to the announcement. Though the department was required to cut 10.75 positions, only one employee was laid off, because 9.75 positions recently became vacant. However, Marc Hoit, the vice chancellor for the Office of Information Technology at N.C. State, said these unfilled positions will

limit the University’s ability to assist the N.C. State community. “[We’re losing] needed services, and these cuts are reducing our capacity to do work,” Hoit said. According to Hoit, the employee was laid off because losing his or her service would be less detrimental than cutting other programs. OIT’s budget has been cut four of the past five years, and this year will result in an additional 5 percent cut, according to Hoit.

OIT continued page 3

Student login information stolen by ‘phishing’ hackers Jacqueline Lee Staff Writer

Hackers gained access to several student accounts this month by sending out 5,000 deceptive emails, according to the Office of Information. OIT reported 20 students had their accounts compromised this month from emails containing a link to a fake Google Drive or Google Doc login site where students’ login account names and passwords were stolen. The fake emails are often titled “Important

Document” or the familiar Google doc link title “I’ve shared an item with you.” Students can look at the URL address to tell whether a link is a phishing attack by seeing if the link starts with https://drive.google.com or https://docs.google.com. If the URL is different, then it is a hacking attempt, according to Tim Gurganus, an IT security officer at N.C. State. This technique is known as phishing, a social engineering attack in which a victim

PHISH continued page 3

Women’s interest in computer science plummets, panel says Brittany Bynum Staff Writer

Panel members from Women in Computer Science and NCSU Libraries discussed the declining number of first-year female undergraduate students in computer science majors, which they fear may lead to a lack of innovation and diversity in the field on Tuesday. First-year female undergraduate are not showing much interest in computer science majors, as the number of female students decreased by 79 percent between 2000 and 2011, according to a panel discussion Tuesday. The event began with a documentary, She ++, which was created by two female undergraduate students from Stanford University. It featured women who were involved in organizations such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Pinterest. According to the documentary, American businesses need 1.4 million workers in computer science, but only 30 percent if those positions will be filled. The women who appeared in the documentary said that the course, “Intro to Computer Science,” is known as a “weeder” class because it intimidates women. They said that

the difference between men and women who take this course is that women blame themselves for not understanding the material while men will blame the course. At N.C. State, only 12 percent of female undergraduate students are majoring in computer science, according to Lina Battestilli, a teaching assistant professor in computer science-engineering. A panel, consisting of Sarah Heckman, teaching assistant professor at NCSU, Tiffany Barnes, associate professor in computer scienceengineering, Melanie Donny-Clark, senior software engineer at Google, and Andrea Villanes, a recent graduate and former WiCS officer, discussed the film’s concepts. Villanes said women bring a different perspective to computer science because they think about their community when it comes to developing new products. She noted the importance of targeting girls early to get them interested in the computer science field. Battestilli has held summer camps at N.C. State for younger girls and boys to create apps. She said she noticed that the boys are more likely to create apps pertaining to games, but the girls wanted to create educational apps.

SOURCE: HUBERT BURDA MEDIA

Ayna Agarwal, pictured above, along with Ellora Israni wrote and directed a documentary about women involvement in computer science, and how interest in the subject has dropped by 79 percent since 2000.

“You need diverse people for different perspectives,” Barnes said. Another reason the panel members suggested that women were not interested in computer science is that people in the industry are stereotyped as anti-social. However, Donny-Clark said women shouldn’t be deterred from

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the field because there’s no way to generalize everyone interested in computer science. “It’s fun,” Donny-Clark said. “Women shouldn’t miss out on it because it’s not a ‘girl thing.’” Heckman said the stereotype would change if pop culture would embrace computer science as a ca-

reer for everyone. They also described it as a very creative field and anyone at any age can start in it. “There is a need for images that show computer science as a great field to be in.” Heckman said.

SHE ++ continued page 2

SPORTS Club sport spotlight: women’s basketball See page 8.

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