TECHNICIAN
UNC-System officials gather to discuss safety on campus Jacqueline Lee
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2013
N.C. cities poised to converge into one ‘megalopolis’ Estefania Castro-Vazquez
Staff Writer
Correspondent
VICTORIA CROCKER/TECHNICIAN
The Campus Security Initiative held a public forum at the James B. Hunt Jr. Library on Monday. Students, staff, law enforcement and concerned community members travelled from across North Carolina and its universities to voice their opinions about campus safety concerns.
through solutions.” According to Karrie Dixon, senior associate vice president for academic and student affairs for the University of
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Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Representatives from public universities across North Carolina met at an open forum held Monday night at the Hunt library to find ways to make campus safety policies consistent state-wide. Chancellor Randy Woodson and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Chancellor, Harold Martin, co-chaired of the discussion. Conversation topics included changing the college drinking atmosphere, finding ways to improve campus safety against crime and sexual assault. “With this forum, we are gaining a different perspective from a broad based group of community leaders and representatives,” Martin said. “Our goal is to gain big ideas that will clearly help us think
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North Carolina System, the discussion was part of the 2013 UNC Campus Security Initiative to evaluate processes in promoting campus
safety. Representatives from all seventeen UNC-System schools attended the form,
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North Carolina may soon join the line of the east coast megalopolis that runs from Boston to New York to D.C., with the term “urban crescent” now being used to describe the area from Charlotte to the Triad to the Triangle. Though North Carolina has steadily grown throughout the past years, the effects of this growth are more noticeable now than ever, according to David Marshall, the vice president of marketing and communications for the Greensboro Partnership. There are several factors that could be contributing to North Carolina’s growth including the appeal of the university systems, the large number of skilled laborers and the cost of living, accord-
ing to Marshall. James Sauls, the Raleigh economic development manager, said the city has grown rapidly since it was founded and that the companies, the talent and the high-quality of life seen in North Carolina make it an attractive place to live in or relocate to. Sauls said that because these regions are so spaced out, it is unlikely the state will see a pattern of commuting from one area to another, limiting the development of a megalopolis, but the economic emphasis on technology does make these regions particularly attractive. Though there has been growth patterns visible in other regions of the state, Marshall said he believed the most growth has occurred in
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Raleigh’s noise-permit process under review Joseph Havey Deputy News Editor
There’s at least one downside to the rapid rate at which Downtown Raleigh has been adding bars, restaurants and other nightlife attractions: the noise. Some Raleigh residents complain that the loud sounds coming from bars and clubs are keeping them from going to sleep. Currently, the Raleigh City Council is reviewing a process to obtain noise permits because the current process is cumbersome. According to The News & Observer, each permit requires a city council hearing, and the bar hearings took about two hours at last month’s council meeting. Jeff Murison, executive director of the Hillsborough Street Community Services Corporation, said this type of problem is common for growing cities. “There is a natural opportunity for these types of issues to come up when a city experiences success,” Murison said. “It happens regular-
ly in many cities, from New York to D.C.” To help create a new process for noise permits, Raleigh officials have asked the Downtown Raleigh Alliance for advice. “DRA was asked by the Law and Public Safety Committee of city council to convene a task force of stakeholders to identify the main issues and to identify areas of consensus,” said David Diaz, president of DRA. “Our goal is to be is to be a facilitator and bring expertise on how other downtown organizations have handled this in other cities, but not to take a specific position on any one issue.” Diaz said this doesn’t mean he and other members of DRA lack any bias. It only means the organization will admit to the bias in front of the group when presenting an opinion, versus trying to get everyone in the group to compromise, he said. “The main lesson from other cities is that this is a
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insidetechnician FEATURES Professor makes prehistoric discovery See page 6.
SPORTS Pack downs UCLA, finishes fifth See page 8.
PHOTO COURTESY OF: LINDSAY ZANNO
Lindsay Zanno, an associate professor of biology and the director of the Paleontology and Geology Research Labroartory at N.C. State discovered a new dinosoaur species this year. This is the first discovery of a large carnivorous dinosaur in 63 years in North America. Previous discoveries included the Tyrannosaurus rex.
Professor discovers new dinosaur remains Sasha Afanasieva Staff Writer
Paleontologists from N.C. State discovered a giant carnivorous dinosaur that lived in North America 98 million years ago, shedding new light on evolution and filling gaps in history. Lindsay Zanno, an associate professor of biology and the director of the Paleontology & Geology Research Laboratory, originally discovered the dinosaur, known as Siats meekerorum or Siats for short. Zanno made her discovery in 2008 in the Cedar Mountain Formation, which is located in the southeastern part of Utah. The specimen was 30 feet long, weighing about 9,000 pounds at death. Some estimates suggest that an adult Siats was 11,000 pounds and may have been as big as Acrocanthosaurus, which was up to 38 feet long. “I was headed to the Chicago Field Museum to do a postdoctoral fellowship there, and we decided to look area in Utah for new dinosaurs,” Zanno said. “In our first few days there we stumbled
upon the Siats.” Zanno said she targeted rocks in a 60 million gap from the Jurassic to early Cretaceous periods in order to find the location of where a fossil might be. “We have a 60 million year gap in Western North America during which we didn’t know who the reigning predators were,” Zanno said. This makes this the first discovery of a large carnivorous dinosaur in 63 years in North America. Previous discoveries were the Tyrannosaurus rex and the Acrocanthosaurus. Zanno said it took two years to fully excavate the dinosaur, and most of the work was done in the summer when temperatures easily reached 120 degrees. According to Zanno, the excavation site ended up being the size of a swimming pool. After the excavation, it took another year to remove the rock around the bones so the bones could be studied. Zanno worked with Peter Makovicky from the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History during the discovery, excavation and research. “When we found the remains, we knew
it was a large predator, so that was exciting for us,” Zanno said. “It wasn’t until we finished doing the research that we found that we had the first type of this predator in North America. The Siats is part of a group that is known from Europe and Asia but it had never been found here in North America.” Zanno said the fossil is only 20 percent complete but it is providing a surprising amount of information. “The specimen that we have of Siats is a juvenile individual, and we know that because the bones in the skeleton are not fused together, telling us it was still growing,” Zanno said. The discovery proved significant in answering some questions about how the Tyrannosaurus rex came to be one of the top predators millions of years later, according to Zanno. “We also found teeth of a very little precursor to the Tyrannosaurus rex, and it was clear they couldn’t compete with animals like Siats during that time,” Zanno said.
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