September 23, 2015

Page 1

TECHNICIAN                   

vol.

xcvi xxxii issue

technicianonline.com

technicianonline.com

wednesday september

23 2015

Raleigh,North NorthCarolina Carolina Raleigh,

IN BRIEF Shack-A-Thon takes over Brickyard Darryl Hunt to discuss issues of wrongful conviction today

The Park Scholarships Social Justice Series will host a discussion with Darryl Hunt, a man who at age 19 was wrongfully convicted of the 1984 murder of 25-year-old Deborah Sykes. Hunt was proven innocent using DNA evidence in 1994, but the long appeal process kept him in prison for another decade. Hunt founded the Darryl Hunt Project for Freedom and Justice in 2005 to aid wrongfully convicted persons. Hunt will speak in Dabney Hall, room 222, at 6:30 p.m. today. Richard Rosen, professor emeritus at UNC School of Law and founder of UNC law school’s Innocence and Capital Punishment Projects, will follow Hunt’s discussion. The event is free and open to the public. SOURCE: NC State Park Scholarships website

Chancellor’s fall address date set

Chancellor Randy Woodson will give his annual fall address at 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 5 in the newly renovated Stewart Theatre. Woodson, now in his sixth year at NC State, will review the university’s recent successes in fundraising, academics, research and outreach. He is also expected to discuss goals for the coming year as well as NC State’s increasingly improving national reputation. SOURCE: NC State News

Scott Skinner Correspondent

On Sunday, nearly two dozen shacks appeared in the Brickyard in the name of charity. Shack-A-Thon is an annual charitable event that raises funds to provide housing for lowincome families in Wake County. The consistent enthusiasm for Shack-A-Thon’s message is apparent in the games of corn hole and lively chatter that take place all along the makeshift streets of “Carpenter Court” and “Drill Drive.” More than 20 organizations have shacks set up in the Brickyard and are working to raise money by selling a variety of items, from T-shirts to baked goods with the goal of raising money to assist Habitat’s efforts. According to Habitat for Humanity, 1.6 billion people live in substandard housing, and the organization, with the help of the NC State chapter, is working to reduce that number.

SHACK continued page 3

LAUREN KRUCHTEN/TECHNICIAN

Several students in 22 shacks from 50 organizations on campus hunker down in manmade shacks for NC State’s yearly tradition of Shack-A-Thon on Sept. 22. This year Shack-A-Thon has a goal of raising $65,000 for Habitat for Humanity in order to construct a Habitat home. The shacks raise money by selling baked goods, raffle tickets, student-made products and a variety of other things.

Counseling Center video addresses mental health stigma

NC Legislature approves Medicaid privatization

In a 33-15 vote on Tuesday, the Senate passed House Bill 372, which restructures Medicaid. Although there were fewer than five minutes of debate, the topic has been the center of discussion for months. The bill is currently on its way to Gov. Pat McCrory for his signature. The bill would allow the state to enter into contracts with three companies that would offer statewide health insurance plans for Medicaid recipients. “We are finally going to put some controls in the Medicaid system,” said Sen. Ralph Hise, a Spruce Pine Republican, to The News & Observer. “I think it’s an exciting day for our state and future budgets.” SOURCE: The News & Observer

Man accused of trying to kill children, reportedly had troubled past

The wife of the man who has been charged with trying to kill his three children this week sought a domestic violence protective order against him before they married. According to a document successfully ordered in Durham County by, Alan Tysheen Eugene Lassiter’s girlfriend at the time, Ashley Ivey, complained of verbal threats. “He verbally threatened to throw hot oil in my face and cut my hair off. He also threatened to take my son from me for a long time,” Ivey wrote in the complaint. “All this started because I didn’t want to marry him. Things of this nature have happened in the past.” SOURCE: The News & Observer

Gavin Stone Assistant News Editor

PRANESHA SHASHWATH KUMAR/TECHNICIAN

Hans Seebaluck and Mike Occhipinti are founders of the Youth Government Association. Seebaluck is a sophomore majoring in international studies and minoring in business. Occhipinti is an online tutor of business and marketing. Best friends since high school, the founders are emphatic about the difference students can bring in politics. They strive to increase student participation in politics and have created a record by registering about 4,000 students to a voting list in just eight days. They have implemented many innovative methods to streamline registering and voting process for students and said this is just the beginning.

Staff Writer

Hans Seebaluck and Michael Occhipinti are two idealistic young people with big plans for the youth vote effort in Raleigh. Together they formed Youth Government Association (YGA), an active, non-partisan group that aims to educate and empower students to pay attention to local politics. According to Seebaluck, a junior studying international studies, YGA’s goal is to get students involved in local politics so they can form their own opinion.

“Every day that I’m alive is a victory ... ” - Baysha Bernales, a student featured in the Stop the Stigma video

YGA students work to combat voter apathy Abby Pugh

Stigma, defined as a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality or person, is what stands between many students struggling with depression and a happy life, and it’s what drove Daniel Goldstein and Noah Martinson to go out into the Brickyard a year ago to ask students to talk about their struggles with depression and thoughts of suicide. “We were just having conversations about the stigma as-

“We’re not here to dictate those opinions, just to make sure they have them,” Seebaluck said. Specifically, they want to raise the youthvoter turnout in Raleigh by 10 percent, a benchmark which they expect to surpass. Seebaluck and Occhipinti (who also goes by Michael Valor) have been best friends since their first day of high school where they gravitated toward one another in the back of the class and discovered their simi-

sociated with suicide and how difficult it is for people to talk about in an open and honest way,” said Goldstein, a social worker at the NC State Counseling Center. “We know that it’s happening, we know that people are impacted by this and we thought there was kind of a gap in how big of a problem it is and how little it was being discussed in an open way.” To their surprise, many students opened up to them, and three agreed to speak on camera for a video that was shown at this year’s World Suicide Prevention Day vigil on Sept. 10. Baysha Bernales, a doctoral student studying physics who is currently taking a leave of absence from school; Wyatt Bond, a junior studying middle-school education; and Claudia McDonald, a sophomore studying business management, gave candid accounts of their suicide attempts, what led them to that point and what stopped them from going all the way, whether it was luck, a concerned stranger or a pause to remember good things. For Bernales, the opportunity to speak about her experi-

YGA continued page 3

STIGMA continued page 2

Case Commons to relocate basketball players insidetechnician

Andrew Cochrane Correspondent

FEATURES Blackbird, Fly talks strings and stroytelling See page 6.

NC State basketball players will have access to a new athletic residence hall, predicted to open in the 2018-19 school year. This new living space for men and women basketball players will be named Case Commons Residence Hall. Its purpose is to relocate the players to a central location on campus, allowing them the opportunity to take full advantage of all aids and facilities available

on college grounds. The budget for this project is estimated at $15 million. The cost per bed is estimated at $240,000. The cost per bed at the average dormitory is between $50,000 and $70,000. “We wanted to publicly state that this project is privately funded by the Wolfpack Club,” said Chris Boyer, senior associate athletic director for External Relations at NC State. “We wanted to make sure students knew this wouldn’t affect any student fees.” “While the money isn’t coming

from student’s pockets,” Boyer said, he understands the concern that the NC State community may have over the potential cost of such a project. Boyer clarified that “$15 million is just a number someone threw out.” An exact figure won’t be available until a designer is hired this fall. While there is no designer on board yet for the project, Boyer confirmed that the residence hall will have 62 beds, with just over half available to non-athletes. The application process for these rooms is unknown at this time.

Students have expressed speculation regarding the necessity of the dorm. “I’m not sure we need a whole dorm designed for [basketball players] even if other students will live there,” said Alex Gay, a junior studying mechanical engineering. “A lot of players seem to move to off-campus apartments and housing, but if it’s not coming out of my tuition, have at it.” Other students suggested more

DORMS continued page 2


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.