Northern Iowan t h e u n i v e r s i t y o f n o r t h e r n i o wa’s s t u d e n t - p r o d u c e d n e w s p a p e r s i n c e 1 8 9 2
NOVEMBER 16, 2012
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VOLUME 109, ISSUE 24
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
FRIDAY
CEDAR FALLS, IOWA
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NORTHERN-IOWAN.ORG
ELECTIONS
Bipartisan event celebrates end of election BRIAN FREESE Staff Writer
FOOTBALL
One last go-round
The Panthers have a chance to pick up their third straight win this weekend, but despite a promising alltime record versus Missouri State, they shouldn’t get comfortable. < See PAGE 9 OPINION
Don’t write off those who signed secession petitions
Columnist Smith argues that readers should not dismiss those whose names are affixed to states’ petitions to secede. < See PAGE 4
STUDY ABROAD
UNI Italy capstone course earns top national honors
The capstone in southern Italy was ranked No. 1 among short-term programs by Abroad101. < See PAGE 6
University of Northern Iowa students celebrated the end of this year’s election season on Monday night in the Maucker Union ballroom with cookies, punch, lemonade and live entertainment. Students were seen relaxing with their friends, though some of them brought homework to the party. The focus of the celebration was the end of elections, but students made no claim that everything about the elections was negative. Adam Shannon, a junior computer science and mathematics major, said, “A lot of the people who were put into office are interested in making UNI a better place for students.” The night kicked off with a performance from HalfMasted, a UNI improv comedy troupe, which according to their Facebook page is “comprised of students, graduates and dropouts.” Initially, they took five word suggestions from the audience, which consisted of “Furby,” “red,” “seven,” “goosefraba” and “airplane.” Each of the five cast members came on and off stage as their word was said, in a scene which took place in the bathroom of a bar. Plenty of jokes and toilet humor brought laughs from the crowd. Other acts they performed
OPINION
Politeness is not just a notion of the past She hates to be rude, but columnist McKone wants to take a moment to pick on others’ manners. < See PAGE 4
VOLLEYBALL
Panther profile
Read about Panther powerhouse Jenny Willms. < See PAGE 9
INDEX I SPY AT UNI......................2 OPINION............................4 CAMPUS LIFE....................6 SPORTS.............................9 GAMES............................11 CLASSIFIEDS...................12
Courtesy Photo
University of Northern Iowa student attendee; Victoria Hurst, sophomore political science major and chair of UNI College Republicans; and Corey Cooling, junior physics and philosophy double major, make paper cranes at “Election 2012: Thank God It’s Over Celebration” on Nov. 12.
included a reverse-alphabet conversation about “Zenon, Girl of the 21st Century” and a sketch using the arms of cast members and the bodies of audience members to make complete people. Their final act was a sketch involving mystery guests at a bar mitzvah. The mystery guests included Mordecai from “Regular Show,” a man whose feet were all of the Power Rangers and a squash who, upon his character being found out, said, “I’m going < See ELECTION 2012, page 7
to go be a centerpiece somewhere.” UNI Jazz Band Four finished out the night playing some slow tunes along with some up-tempo jazz while attendees discussed why they were so glad they never had to see another campaign ad on YouTube. At least not for another four years anyway.
Courtesy Photo
Senior English major Mandy Paris and graduate student in public policy Keenan Crow watch improv troupe Half-Masted perform at the “Election: 2012: Thank God It’s Over Celebration” on Nov. 12.
NATION
Petraeus scandal a reminder that email isn’t private JESSICA GUYNN
Los Angeles Times
If the director of the CIA cannot keep the FBI from rummaging through his private Gmail account, what digital privacy protections do ordinary citizens have? Precious few, privacy advocates say. “When the government goes looking, it can find out pretty much everything about our lives,” said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. That’s because the main law governing digital privacy – the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or ECPA – was passed in 1986. At the time, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
was a toddler. The Web was in its infancy, and social networking had yet to be conceived. No one predicted that, as the Web surged in popularity, people would begin storing their entire digital lives – emails, instant messages, Facebook status updates, photos, medical records, tax returns – on far-flung computer servers rather than on their home hard drives, where the information has broader legal protection. Privacy watchdogs for years have warned that the antiquated federal statute – and conflicting interpretations of the statute from different courts – has not kept up with how people today use the Web, giving more legal rights to letters and docu-
ments stored in your filing cabinet than to emails and other electronic communications. But attempts to reform federal law in Congress and in the courts have foundered. “People worry about their password to protect their privacy. This illustrates how useless that is,” Pace Law School professor Ann Bartow said. “Unless there are substantive changes in the law, people just have to assume their email is accessible to the government without their permission and without their notification.” Requests from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to access private accounts regularly flood companies like Google Inc. The request to access the private Gmail account of Gen. David
Petraeus was one of them. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, law enforcement officials say, such requests are routine and more necessary than ever to fight crime and terrorism. But civil libertarians say the Petraeus scandal should serve as a wake-up call to ordinary citizens that anyone’s privacy can be invaded. “In the pre-digital world, if the government wanted to find out what was going on in your bedroom, it needed to get a warrant to enter your bedroom. At least then you knew what was going on,” said Jim Dempsey, vice president for public policy for the Center for Democracy & Technology.