TECHNICIAN
tuesday febuary
4
2014
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
SG bill adds vice president to ballot Brittany Bynum Staff Writer
1 in 5 female students is sexually assulted while only 1 in 8 student victims report it
SOURCE: YAHOO NEWS/GRAPH BY AUSTIN BRYAN
Obama task force to address sexual assault on campuses Jacqueline Lee Staff Writer
The Obama administration has already addressed sexual assault in the military and now it wants to tackle this problem on college campuses, where 1 in 5 students are reportedly assaulted or raped. In January, President Barack Obama created a task force of administrative officials in an attempt to increase federal enforcement in the prevention of sexual assault at colleges and universities. The report said the task force hopes to help university police forces that aren’t trained adequately enough to handle these cases. Though this is a prevalent problem on college campuses across the country, another issue is that victims tend not to report these crimes. According to a memorandum by the White House Council on Women and Girls, 1 in 5 college students have been assaulted and only 12 percent of them reported violence. The task force has about three months to determine
the best ways for colleges and universities to deal with these crimes. Obama asked them to make sure federal agencies step in when campuses do not effectively address sexual assault. At N.C. State, there were 11 reported sexual offenses in 2011 and six reported offenses in 2012, according to the annual N.C. State Security and Fire Safety Report. Campus Police Chief Jack Moorman said despite the council’s report, N.C. State is proactive about dealing with sexual assault on campus. “Sexual assault is an issue that N.C. State University takes very seriously and that we work very diligently to address,” Moorman said. According to Moorman, the campus police department has several Rape Aggression Defense classes. One class the department offers is specifically designed to train women in intense self-defense skills so that they can better defend themselves. There is also a class for men to raise awareness of the
OBAMA continued page 3
Tenure-ending law sparks controversy
Student Government had a rift in its line of succession last year when the former student body president stepped down during his term. In response, Student Government passed a new bill that established the student body vice president position. Student Government Bill 69 was enacted to prevent the problems that arose when former Student Body President Matthew Williams resigned and to lessen the workload of the Student Body President position, according to AJ Rackl, press secretary for Student Government and junior in aerospace engineering. Rackl said prior to the bill, the line of succession went from student body president to student senate president and then to the student senate pro tempore. Most Student Government members agreed that this line of succession wasn’t an ideal situation and decided to change things, according to Rackl. Rackl said although Parker has done a “fantastic” job as president, he had no experience working with the Executive Branch of Student Government. Rackl said Parker stepped into an executive team that he didn’t choose. Though the team didn’t share the same goals as Parker, it was willing to work with him. “The introduction of a student body vice president will lessen the chance of this discontinuity within the Executive Branch, should a succession like this happens again,” Rackl said. The SBVP will be elected using a joint ticket with the student body president. SBVP candidates required to have served at either half of Executive Cabinet meetings or half of Student Senate meetings in a given session, according to Student Government Bill 69.
JOHN JOYNER/TECHNICIAN
Student Body President Alex Parker listens as chancellor Randy Woodson addresses the class of 2017 at convocation.
Carson Shepherd, College of Humanities and Social Science Senator and sophomore in political science, said the Student Senate passed the bill on Jan. 22 and will be enacted immediately, meaning the SBVP will become an official position on the ballot for the spring 2014 election. “Having two candidates running together will change campaign dynamics and how the candidates will work to appeal to the general population of students,” Shepherd said. “It will definitely add both more competition and excitement to the campaigns.” The position also alleviates internal duties of the Executive Branch for the student body president so the president has more time to deal with his external responsibilities, such as attending Board of Trustees and university functions, being
BILL continued page 3
STUDENT TRAINS FOR TRIP TO MARS: PAGE 6
Estefania Castro-Vazquez Staff Writer
The North Carolina Board of Education’s struggle to implement new rules for tenure for K-12 schools has caused a lot of controversy, according to Wake County School Board members. The North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation requiring school principals to select the top 25 percent of teachers, in terms of performance in their schools. Principals will then offer those teachers a contract giving them a $500 raise every year for four years. The catch is, if the offer is accepted, the teacher must give up his or her tenure. Only teachers who have been teaching for at least three years will be eligible, according to Jim Martin, a chemistry professor at N.C. State and a member of the Wake Country School Board. The new legislation is part of a broader set of state-education laws which includes Read to Achieve and the masters pay policy, according to Michael Maher, assistant dean for professional education and accreditation. Maher said this series rules proposed by the legislative rules are considering teachers to be somewhat similar to technicians rather than professionals because they will only be allowed to sign one, two or four
year contracts. Martin said rather than helping teachers, the new laws are hindering them. “They’re just counterproductive,” Martin said. “If you want the best people going into teaching, you have to make it an honest-to-goodness profession.” Kevin Hill, assistant social-studies program coordinator who previously served as a school principal for 14 years, said he doesn’t agree with most of the legislation, and many supporters are just ill-informed about what tenure actually provides for a teacher. “People are misguided and think we have a lot of lazy and crummy teachers, and that this is a way we can get rid of them, but that’s not the case,” Hill said. “All that tenure ensures is that a teacher who is dismissed has the right to appeal.” After talking to several teachers, Hill said he hasn’t spoken with many that want anything to do with the contracts. Martin said he felt the legislation arbitrarily makes the assumption that only 25 percent of teachers are doing a good job while there is no data to support this. Once a principal chooses a teacher, that teacher must then be approved
TENURE continued page 2
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHARLES PARRISH
Charles Parrish, a senior in biological engineering, practices the finer points of his Mars One training in full technical gear at the Mars Desert Research Station.
Hunt ranks high on ‘beautiful’ library list Mona Bazzaz Staff Writer
The James B. Hunt Jr. Library is the 14th-most-beautiful library in the world, according to bestvalueschools.com. It is the only library from North Carolina to make the top-50 list, and it outranked famous libraries in Germany, Sweden and Japan. David Hiscoe, director of communication strategies and external relations of N.C. State libraries, said he
and other N.C. State faculty members were surprised the library has received the level of international attention that it has. “Word about Hunt has gone international,” Hiscoe said. “We did a lot of marketing to spread the word about Hunt Library, and one of its purposes was to raise the profile of N.C. State, which it has indeed accomplished, but we never know when something wonderful like this is going to show up in the press.” Judges ranked the libraries using
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several categories, and they looked not only at external and internal appearance but at the amenities available, surrounding environment and history of the building. Though its clean, sleek and contemporary appearance was noted in the ranking, it was also praised for its eco-friendly design. “Thirty-one percent of the materials used in the library’s construction are recycled in origin, light-
HUNT continued page 3