TECHNICIAN
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technicianonline.com
Students to get loan forgiveness in settlement
News & Observer to sell its downtown headquarters
News & Observer, the place where the Technician prints, has reached a deal to sell its headquarters at the corner of Martin and Salisbury streets for $20.2 million. The deal has taken months of negotiations between the newspaper and the developer group, Above the Fold. The developer group plans to renovate the area in phases, the first being renovating the printing press spaces into retail space. Later phases have not yet been planned but will likely include the building and creating apartment or hotel space. The N&O buildings date back to the 1950s but have been in that location since 1907. SOURCE: News & Observer
Gov. Pat McCrory says he does not want Syrian refugees in NC
Monday, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory joined more than 12 mostly Republican governors to ask the president to stop the flow of Syrian refugees into the United States. From the beginning of 2014 to last month, McCrory said that 59 Syrian refugees have settled in North Carolina. He told reporters in Charlotte that he wanted to keep North Carolina citizens safe. He sent a formal letter to President Barack Obama to ask that he not send any more Syrian refugees to North Carolina. Other North Carolina politicians support McCrory’s move. U.S. Reps. Robert Pittenger of Charlotte and Richard Hudson of Concord both got behind bills to slow the settlement of refugees. SOURCE: News & Observer
insidetechnician
FEATURES See page 6.
FEATURES NCSU’s experimental class on the science of happiness See page 6.
SPORTS Pack falls short of NCAA Tournament See page 8.
2015
Raleigh, North Carolina
Missy Furman Correspondent
Wake’s annual budget is $1.14 billion, and the wage increase adds $93,000 in expenses, possibly more in future years. However, commissioners believe the higher pay will bring benefits like boosting the economy, improving worker performances and reducing employee turnover. “Creating higher paying jobs will allow those employees to spend more money within our economy, supporting small businesses and their workers,” Commissioner Sig Hutchinson said to the News & Observer. Nearly a year ago, Commissioner Matt Calabria advised county staff to review employee pay. One of the top priorities of the Commissioner Board is to address poverty. About 120,000 Wake residents currently live in poverty.
Although Burlington Labs is home to NC State’s very own nuclear reactor, students will be glad to know that no radiation is emitted from the building. NC State, before its most recent reactor, has had three. The first three have long been decommissioned but the fourth, better known as PULSTAR, lives out its days from within Burlington Labs. The state of North Carolina, service activities and research grants fund the maintenance and operation of the reactor. Since 1972, the reactor has had three main goals that are comprised within its mission statement: explaining the reactor’s dedication to research, teaching and extension. According to Scott Lassell, the manager of the Nuclear Services Center at NC State, scientists from the Manhattan Project, the research and development project that produced the first nuclear weapons during World War II, helped establish the first academic nuclear program here at NC State. At the core of PULSTAR, there are radiation levels that are considered lethal. This radiation, however, is not dangerous because of how the reactor is constructed. There is no access to the area of lethal radiation because it sits at the bottom of a 20-foot tank that is filled with water. The water acts as a shield so that the radiation cannot cause any danger or harm to health. This allows students and employees to work around the reactor and for students to be able to walk around campus safely. Essentially, the water biologically shields the dangerous radiation. Since PULSTAR is not a power reactor, it should not be associated with the potential dangers and harmful effects of power reactors. Power reactor cores are much bigger and get hotter, and their fuel is more radioactive. The water in power plants cools the fuel. Because it cannot get hot enough, PULSTAR is a safe reactor, so there are no prob-
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ARCHIVE/SORENA DADGAR
Protesters pause their march in front of a McDonald’s during the Shaw University’s Fight for $15 rally Wednesday. They chanted, “McDonald’s, McDonald’s, you’re no good! Pay your workers like you should!” Rally participants protested for a higher minimum wage of $15 and union rights. Fast-food workers, childcare providers and educators were among those represented at the rally.
Wake County employees to receive wage increase Staff Report
Effective Dec. 1, 75 county employees — such as county customer service representatives, nurses’ aides, library assistants and animal shelter attendants — will now earn $13.50 an hour, instead of the previous $11.08 an hour. The Wake County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously about the decision Monday. County employees are now guaranteed to earn at least $28,080 a year. With the new wage, Wake is the fourth county in the state of North Carolina to adopt a wage ordinance. The Universal Living Wage Organization developed a calculation in which Wake’s wage ordinance is based upon. The organization’s idea for the calculation is that an employee who works full-time should be able to afford a one-bedroom apartment and meet his or her basic needs, such as food and transportation.
NC State celebrates Transgender Awareness Week Staff Report
NC State is celebrating Transgender Awareness Week to raise visibility of transgender and gender nonconforming people, address issues that transgender individuals face, educate the public and advocate and take action. Events on campus include a “Cultural Values about Gender and Violence in the Trans* Community” workshop, Transgender Day of Remembrance which will commemorate transgender individuals who were murdered during the past year and a film screening that discusses gender identity and sexuality in indigenous communities. The Transgender Day of Remembrance is the pinnacle of the week. It is a vigil where the names of the transgender individuals
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Before the iPad there was Bitzer’s PLATO
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Don’t overREACT, Burlington Lab reactor is safe
IN BRIEF A government settlement stated Monday that more than 80,000 students who attended for-profit schools will have $102 million in private student loans forgiven. Attorney General Roy Cooper announced that 2,881 students in North Carolina will receive $4.1 million in debt relief as part of the deal. The for-profit schools in North Carolina include The Art Institute in Raleigh and Charlotte. The settlement with Education Management Corporation will pay out an average of $1,370 per North Carolinian student. The settlement also requires EDMC to disclose accurate information about the total cost, average debt, default rate, job placement rate, average earnings and ability to transfer credits associated with its programs. SOURCE: News & Observer
tuesday november
TRANSGENDER AWARENESS WEEK WEDNESDAY, NOV. 18 CULTURAL VALUES ABOUT GENDER AND VIOLENCE IN THE TRANS COMMUNITY 6:30 p.m.–8 p.m., Talley 4101 This workshop will create a space for dialog where participants can explore the role of cultural values in perpetuating antitransgender violence and their own role in creating or re-envisioning those values. FRIDAY, NOV. 20 TRANSGENDER DAY OF REMEMBRANCE (TDOR) 6 p.m.–7:30 p.m., Wolf Plaza TDoR is an annual observance for transgender individuals who were murdered during the past year. Following the Reading of the Names and memorial
performance there will be a Call to Action and a chance to reflect by painting a section of the Free Expression Tunnel. MONDAY, NOV. 23 TWO SPIRITS FILM SCREENING AND TALKING CIRCLE 6 p.m.–7:30 p.m., SAS 1216 GLBT Center and Multicultural Student Affairs have collaborated to screen this film, which discusses gender identity and sexuality in native communities with particular focus on the life of Fred Martinez, who was killed due to his Two-Spirit identity and expression in 2001.
ARCHIVE/GAVIN STONE
University Police is implementing new technologies to keep campus safe, including Social Sentinel, an online database that tracks suspicious behavior on social media and updates to WolfAlert. They have also produced new active shooter education videos to show people how to react in an emergency situation.
University Police use new online tools to better serve Brenden Parsons Staff Writer
University Police is implementing new technology that will make NC State a safer campus. New technology implementations include Social Sentinel, an online database that tracks suspicious behavior on social media, updates to WolfAlert and new active-shooter education videos that are available online. These new implementations are a way for police to stay better connected and keep students, staff and visitors safe when on campus, according to University Police. Social Sentinel Social Sentinel monitors suspicious behavior at major events such as football games and the Rolling Stones concert at Carter-Finley Stadium in July. University Police adopted Social Sentinel six months ago, but are still in the process of learning how to use it.
Social Sentinel works almost like a search engine, according to Major David Kelly. Police type in keywords to the database that would indicate a threat on campus. However, the new software only tracks behavior on public social media accounts. Students who have private Facebook and Twitter accounts will not have their information visible on Social Sentinel. “The sole purpose is not to dig into the personal information of people around the area, but it enables us to better monitor real-time concerning behavior,” Kelly said. In several of the last mass-shooting incidents around the U.S., the individuals responsible often posted things on social media as a preemptive message of what they were about to do. Brooke Bennes, senior studying bio-
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