TECHNICIAN
monday october
27 2014
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Male models, party bus to bring student voters to polls Lindsay Smith Correspondent
On Nov. 4, students in need of a ride to the polls will have the option take a party bus equipped with snacks, prizes and shirtless male models courtesy of Cosmopolitan magazine. Universities from across the country applied to Cosmopolitan’s #CosmoVotes party bus contest, hoping to bring the party bus to campus and encourage more students to get to the polls and vote on Election Day. Camden Willeford, the associate director of publicity and communications for Student Government and a sophomore in management, applied to the contest on behalf of NC State. As a major participant in student government, Willeford submitted an application informing Cosmo of the reasons why NC State deserved the bus more than other major competing schools. “This is a huge election,” Willeford said. “We are a pretty big deal, even though we are a southern state—any party could win.” North Carolina is not only a swing state in the upcoming senatorial election, but is also a swing state for presidential elections. The entire United States Congress could be determined by this election, and it is up to all North Carolina citizens who vote. Willeford said it is important to get freshmen and sophomores to begin voting early. When asked what inspired him to enter NC State in the contest, Camden Willeford said, “I do it for the people.” Although the shirtless male model aspect of the bus may tend to excite more females than males, it creates a fun, exciting voting atmosphere for students, Willeford said. Anything that gets more students to go out and vote is worth it.
NICK FAULKNER/TECHNICIAN
Students dress up for a Halloween Bash hosted by the College of Design. McDaids Irish Pub was rented out and transformed into a club which also invited the public to enter, serving as a fundraiser.
Halloween Bash draws crowds to McDaids Pub Rachel Smith Correspondent
Students dressed in costumes and danced the night away with two DJs and an industrialstrength bubble machine at the College of Design’s annual Halloween Bash at McDaids Irish Pub Saturday night. This year’s Atlantis-inspired
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underwater theme, Bash Beneath the Blue, was one of the most well attended bashes to date. More than 280 people attended the event, according to Allison Menius, a senior in environmental design and architecture and president of the Design Council. Students came dressed in costumes, whether they fit the theme or not, rang-
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the struggle between maintaining the tradition of having it in the Pit [and] the integrity of the late-night event,” Menius said. “We decided that it was more important to keep the Design Bash later at night than keeping the location the
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Student researches dwindling cheetah populations in Africa Grace Callahan Assistant News Editor
See page 4.
FEATURES
ing anywhere from colorful fish to Pokémon trainers. However, this year’s bash had to be moved indoors to McDaids Irish Pub located on Hillsborough Street due to a law the City of Raleigh recently passed that prohibits amplified sounds outdoors past 11 p.m. “In planning the Design Bash this year, we were faced with
John Wilson, who received his Ph.D. from NC State, was among the team of researchers who discovered human activity was the major reason behind the declining cheetah population while at two study sites in South Africa. In the early 1900s, there were about 100,000 cheetahs in the wild. That number has recently plummeted to only about 10,000. The common assumption has been that cheetah populations have been declining due to competition from larger predators such as kleptoparasitism, or prey stealing, according to Wilson. “A cheetah has no chance against a lion,” Wilson said. “A lion will charge the cheetah off its prey, and the cheetah can’t defend itself.” However, new research shows that other predators aren’t to blame, according to Wilson. “We’ve now shown that assumption doesn’t necessarily hold,” Wilson said. “It’s more searching for
the prey that causes them to suffer, and that’s what humans contribute to.” Fenced-in conservation areas and industrial development in South Africa have forced cheetahs to cover vast distances to both avoid people and find any quarry. “If any animal has to work harder to avoid humans, that’s going to affect them,” Wilson said. “Energy that they invest in avoidance of humans, they could have used to feed their babies or to find food.” Wilson said the research he conducted studied energy expenditure, or how hard the cheetahs had to work to find and kill prey. After using GPS points to measure how far the cheetahs walked, the team realized walking to find prey caused all cheetahs to spend massive amounts of energy, according to Wilson. To measure how hard a cheetah works, the team used a doubly-labeled
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SPATIKA GANESH/TECHNICIAN
Shakti Butler, Ph.D., filmmaker, founder and president of World Trust Education Services, held a talk called “Cracking the Codes: System of Inequity” facilitating Annual Fall Diversity dialogue, as part of the Think and D.E.W., on Thursday at the Costal Ballroom in Talley Student Union.
Speaker challenges diversity status quo Rachel Smith Correspondent
Fi lmma ker a nd t he founder and president of World Trust Shakti Butler spoke to students and guests participating in NC State’s the fifth-annual Diversity Education Week Thursday evening. World Trust is a foundation that works to eliminate social and racial injustice through transformational educa-
tion. Butler’s speech, titled Cracking the Codes: Systems of Inequity, was part of the Fall Diversity Dialogue. Throughout her speech, Butler showed videos, posed questions and encouraged audience discussion about the importance of promoting racial equality. At the beginning of her speech, Butler asked NC State students and community members in attendance to close their eyes,
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take three deep breaths and imagine themselves in their favorite place. Next, she asked the audience members to think of their personal gifts to society. “All of these qualities and gifts that you have are a part of your moral compass,” Butler said. “Sometimes we don’t take the time to take stock of the wonder of who we are
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