The Lion's Roar 03/01/2016

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MARCH 1, 2016 VOLUME 87, ISSUE 20

’ THE LION S ROAR S O U T H E A S T E R N L O U I S IA NA U N I V E R S I T Y

A Student Publication

Campus Life Page 2

Opinions Page 3

Arts & Entertainment Page 4

Sports Page 6

News Page 8

LionsRoarNews.com

Graduates to Students rally for higher education at state capitol wear custom gowns BY WILLIAM SCHMIDT Assistant Editor

BY MORGAN LEDET STAFF REPORTER Commencement in May 2016 is getting a new look. This year’s graduation ceremony is going to be yelling “go green, go gold,” with the new custom made regalia. The undergraduates will be the first in university history to be wearing custom made gowns for commencement. “At first I was nervous about the new gowns because I received a letter in the mail explaining that they were changing the style,” said senior communication major Morgan Beard. “The next day they unveiled the picture and I love them.” The new gowns are green and will have the official Southeastern “S” logo on it. The “S” will be embroidered on both sides just below the shoulders. The gown will also have a matching green cap along with a green and gold tassel. “We have been ready to change that gown to something that looked more like Southeastern,” said Alumni Director Kathy Pittman. “We thought the time was really right for us to go ahead and look into this.” The Alumni Center worked with Oak Hall to get custom gowns for this spring’s graduation. “We work with Balfour for the Grad Fair and one of their recommendations was they work together with a company named Oak Hall, who does custom gowns,” said Pittman. “Oak Hall put several robes together and we ran it past the administration and they had some students and some faculty, and this is the particular one that they picked that they felt best represented Southeastern. We’re really pleased with it. I think it’s a good looking piece.” There are many factors that the Alumni Association had to consider before making the final decision to get custom gowns this year. “We have been talking about it with Grad Fair and the Alumni Association works with Gamma Beta Phi putting grad fair on and we’re the lead organization now,” said Pittman. “We decided that we have looked at this a couple times before and at one point we thought it was cost prohibitive, but it really isn’t. It’s only going to be like 10 dollars more to get a custom gown. We decided the timing was right, the price was right and we really wanted to do this to make Southeastern special. We want them to be proud to be alumni.” The masters and doctoral graduates will still be wearing the black gown, but these will now feature the Southeastern “S” starting with May 2016 commencement. “They will be custom,” said Pittman. “They have the logo on them. We asked the company to guide us on this because we thought about doing the green and they said traditionally most schools go with the black because of all the different hooding colors. We decided we would still do the custom gown, but they would be black rather than green.” Pittman also thinks that finally deciding to have custom gowns will make an impact on students. “I think it’s something that people will keep forever too because it’s theirs and its special,” said Pittman.

Over 2,000 university students from across the state joined in a rally on the steps of the State Capitol with one goal in mind: to advocate for higher education to be spared from more budget cuts. The rally entitled Bring H.E.A.T. (Higher Education All Together) took place on Feb. 24 and included music by Southern University Marching Band the “Human Juke Box,” speeches on the purpose, mission and importance of higher education, a word by Governor John Bel Edwards, charge to support higher education and more. Bring H.E.A.T. took place to show the legislators that the students cared about the decisions on higher education. “To show the legislature, state and the nation how much higher education means to students and our state, the COSBP, Council of Student Body Presidents, organized this event with the help of The Board of Regents,” said senior political science major Alexis Quackenbush. “We really wanted to take a stand. We wanted our voices to be heard as well as our fellow students. The legislature needs

The Lion’s Roar / Heather Jewell

Student Government Association Presidents from universities across Louisiana led their peers to the State Capital in Baton Rouge where they joined together in a rally to fight cuts to higher education. to know just how much students, as well as the state of Louisiana, is affected by these budget cuts. We cannot continue to cut from our education system.” Students who attended wanted to show support for those who currently have TOPS, as well as to stop legislators from hurting their personal situation.

“I am a student and if they make any cuts that cut my degree program, it puts me in a bad situation,” said junior occupational safety, health and environment major Charles Black. “Also, I feel for the people on TOPS and I feel if they are actually actively using TOPS, they’re meeting the

requirement of TOPS, then it shouldn’t be taken away from them.” Other students went to Bring H.E.A.T. because they believed in the political process and the part they play. “I went to the higher education rally because as a political science major, I feel it

is important to participate in all parts of the political process,” said senior political science major Erin Fernandez. “As a student, I feel that my attendance was necessary for a couple of reasons. It is important for the legislature to know that college

see RALLY pg. 8

Social media impacts students’ studies BY KELLI MEYNARD Staff Reporter

Students today have easy access to the internet, as well as apps on their smartphones. This can cause problems for them when trying to be productive. Social media sites can be distracting and prevent students from getting their work done. “I think social media is good and bad,” said junior business management major Alexis Chustz. “Good in the aspect of keeping in touch or in the loop with friends’ new gossip, but bad in the aspect of being distracting or starting drama. Also, if a college student doesn’t have self-control about how often they are getting on social media, then that can be bad, but that’s not social media’s fault.” For those students finding it hard to concentrate, they can use a free website blocker designed to block the internet or desired websites. The website is called stopprocrastinatingapp.com

and helps boost concentration and performance by not allowing you to get back on the internet or certain websites that distract you the most. For example, it can block Facebook for a certain amount of time. The annual survey of student Internet habits has found that 64% of US students have suffered significant procrastination because of online distraction. Students are worried about missing out on what is happening somewhere else rather than focusing on what is happening right now. Another problem caused by checking social media is anxiety from that fear of missing out. Not being able to check social media can cause students to become anxious and make it even harder for them to focus on what they are working on, but Stop Procrastinating could be the key to getting students to be more productive when doing homework and studying. Junior business management

major with a concentration in Human Resources Micah Hamner agrees that students are affected by social media and not only that, they also are starting to possess obsessive traits over it. “I believe that social media does affect college students,” said Hamner. “Especially in the sense of how connected people feel with each other. In other words, I feel like people are now measuring their self-worth by social media. Did people put me down as their woman crush Wednesday, how many people told me happy birthday, how many pictures am I in and so on. It’s also the same for Snapchat. People looking to see how many stories they are in or see how many people view their stories. It has become unhealthy. Cause when they don’t see the results they are looking for, people get hurt, offended and don’t feel important. Plus the drama it causes.” Many students are rushing

through their work so that they can get back on social media. The problem with this is that the quality of students’ work is not as good as it could be if

the student were to forget about social media instead and focus. To download this application, go to stopprocrastinatingapp. com.

The Lion’s Roar / Kelli Meynard

Freshman criminal justice major Alexis Guerra gets distracted by social media apps while trying to study in Sims Memorial Library.

‘Animal Planet’ star to speak at Science on Tap BY IAN FISCHER Staff Reporter

Courtesy of Public Info

Southeastern Louisiana University biologist Chris Murray holds crocodile he captured while doing his summer research in Costa Rica.

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The next Southeastern Science on Tap will feature a lecture from university biologist, Animal Planet star and crocodile enthusiast, Dr. Chris Murray. Murray is a crocodilian biologist who works in the Department of Biological Sciences. He has been on Animal Planet in the TV series “Gator Boys,” and in a documentary called “Monster Croc Invasion.” His lecture, How the Croc Ate the Farmer: Filming Controversial topics as a Biologist, will be on Tuesday, Mar. 1. It will address nature television and will be an opportunity for people to learn from someone who has had experience with large, dangerous animals. The lecture is free and open to people of all ages. “Crocodiles fascinate me,” said Murray. “I’m also interested in evolution ecology, biological philosophy and functional morphology, but mostly crocs.” Murray began working with the “Gator Boys” when working in South Florida in summers and

Weather Tuesday H 79 L 45

winters when he wasn’t attending school. “Gator Boys” was a reality-TV alligator nature series which ran on Animal Planet from 2012 to 2014. He was surprised to have been involved in real scientific research during the series. “I don’t know if that’s the case for other reality TV but in that case it was,” said Murray. After working with the “Gator Boys,” he established a research program in Costa Rica which led him to be involved with another Animal Planet show: “Monster Croc Invasion.” According to a blog post he wrote in May 2015, they aimed to learn exactly why there were more males in a population than females and if that was causing a negative interaction with people living near the crocodiles. “I had the goal of being factual and scientifically accurate and not intimidating to anybody,” said Murray. “Which is hard to find in terms of content right now on Animal Planet or Discovery and stuff like that.” Murray has interesting memories working with

see MURRAY pg. 7

Reminders Wednesday H 70 L 43

The Presidential Preference Primary and Municipal Primary will be taking place March 5.


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