CYAN MAGENTA
October 4, 2012
new U Even
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W W W. V S U S P E C TAT O R . C O M
VOLUME 84 ISSUE 7
On the Web
Inside This Issue
w w w. v s u s p e c ta t o r. c o m
- OPINIONS: “Home Tweet Home: What Valdosta has to say about the debates”
- FEATURES: “The end of the world?” - SPORTS: “Blazers’ backs against the wall”
Today at VSU MIDTERM - Today is midterm, which is also the last day to drop a class. Remember, each dropped class counts towards the five withdrawal limit for undergraduate students.
IVOTE, UVOTE, WEVOTE V-State Dining hosts a voter registration drive in from of Palms Dining Hall from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free Buttons and info sheets about social and economic issues on the Nov. 6 ballot are available.
SCIENCE SEMINAR This week’s Science Seminar will be presented by Dr. Yakov Y. Woldman (VSU Department of Chemistry) at 4 p.m. in Powell Hall. The title of his talk is “Nitric Oxide: Biochemistry and Detection.” For more information visit http://valdosta.edu/cas/scisem/ Yakov.shtml. CRACKING THE MAYAN CODE - The Department of Modern and Classical Languages will present “Cracking the Maya Code,” a PBS Documentary at 7 in the UC Theater.
EXTREME TACO EATING Hosted by V-State Dining at 1:30 pm in Palms Dining. The first place winner will receive a $25 gift card to the VSU bookstore, and the second place winner will receive a great VSU tshirtSign up at Palms or Hopper, or email vstatedining@valdosta.edu.
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Von Kennedy A S S T . F E AT U R E S EDITOR VSU’s Web Content Manager John Bennett and Computer Support Specialist Kathy Sundin are excited about the launch of the new website and community feedback. There were two sessions held Tuesday night to preview the new VSU website. “If you’ve never been to VSU, you would never know our campus was so beautiful,” Bennett said. “That means we weren’t doing a very good job on the website.” The new website features robust changes of interactivity and ease of navigation. One major change is the server system upgrade from Adobe Contribute to Hannon Hill Cascade. Contribute and Cascade are both content management systems that help VSU web managers publish departmental webpages to the VSU website. With the addition of Cascade, VSU’s server will correct typos and errors for instructors’ pages, make it easier for professors to publish and delete information online for students to see and allow File Transfer Protocol, or FTP, access to instructors on their own sites. The renovated homepage features the return of the academic “Valdosta State University” logo with the West Hall dome in the background and a video during the first week of the site as an introduction for students and others on how to use the new fea-
S TA F F W R I T E R vmdominicis@valdosta.edu
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Question of the week Did the presidential debate change your mind? A. No way, my mind’s made up. B. Yes, I learned a lot. C. I didn’t watch it. Vote online at www.vsuspectator.com!
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and many students and organizations are opening up to the cause. According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most common kind of cancer affecting women in the United States. The women of Zeta Tau Alpha and the Collegiate Women of VSU are doing their part in making sure that VSU is aware of the effects of breast cancer and how early detection is key in breast cancer awareness. “We want to stress to the campus that it's never too early to start examinations and that breast
How do you feel about hookah? I've never tried it
42%
I think it's gross
26%
I enjoy it regularly
16%
I partake occasionally
16%
See SITE, Page 2
New Features:
Source: VSU Information Technology http://valdosta.edu/it/css/wks/documents/VSUHomePageNavigation.pdf
cancer can affect anyone," Sloane White, member of ZTA, said. ZTA has hosted a number of activities to show support and make students more aware of breast cancer and its hazards. On Saturday, the sorority hosted its annual Pink Out Game during the Blazer football game against Edward Waters College. Tuesday, ZTA also hosted Big Man on Campus, a male beauty pageant. The men compete to look their best in hopes to winning the title Big Man on Campus. "It is probably our most entertaining event because the boys competing put on such a good show,” White said. “Our chairs for the event have worked really hard this year to make it bigger
and to raise more money for the fight against breast cancer." The American Cancer Society said for 2012, there are 226,870 new cases of invasive breast cancer is the U.S. alone. Breast cancer not only affects one in every eight women in the U.S. every year, but one in every 1,000 men. "For me personally that is why I joined Zeta Tau Alpha,” White said. “My senior year of high school my aunt was diagnosed and it really affected our family. When I came to college and saw that ZTA helped women like her—and that by me joining, I would also be helping—I knew it was my home. I know a lot of our sisters feel the same way." Hannah Smith, a freshman unSee CANCER, Page 2
WGST kicks off Domestic Violence Awareness month Jennifer Gleason MANAGING EDITOR
Last Week Poll Results
tures. SGA President Ryan Baerwalde and faculty members are featured speakers on the introduction. Bennett said few people come to the website and are interested in reading its content, but the new site will change that. Four buttons known as “Audience Segmentation” will bring the most important links on campus to prospective and current students as well faculty and alumni in one click. Campus-wide emergency alerts will be featured in yellow at the top of the homepage as well as being sent to student, staff and faculty emails and cell phones. Any alerts featured on the homepage will be taken down the moment the threat has disappeared. The global navigation feature will display links about VSU, athletics, admissions and campus life. There will be a social media scoreboard that allows every VSU organization to have their site visible in one domain on the website. For now, until all are added, the scoreboard only features official VSU social media sites managed by Bennett. Organizations can email Bennett at jobennett@valdosta.edu to have their sites added. Along with these features, an A-Z directory will direct you to every department on campus instantly. However, department pages will not look any different until
1. VSU Academic Logo – Returns visitor to home page 2. Header Navigation – My VSU – One stop for popular links (VSU email, Banner, BlazeVIEW) for students, faculty and staff A-Z Index – Replaces department drop down box for quick access to VSU departments and services Search Bar – Two ways to search: Entire Site or Campus Directory 3. Global Navigation – Links to: About VSU, Admissions, Academics, Campus Life and Athletics pages 4. Expand Button – Expands global navigation menu 5. Audience Segmentation Pages – categories for main VSU visitors 6. Popular Links – Popular links for each specific audience 7. Audience Segmentation Pages – Pages designed specifically for main VSU visitors 8. News/Events/Featured Sites – Links to popular News, Events and Featured Sites 9. Maps and Directions – Links to VSU maps 10. Quick Links – Popular links available in the page footer 11. Social Media Page – Links to new Social Media landing page
Smoking areas Campus orgs spread breast cancer awareness in near future Veronica Dominicis
Friday
Linda Mitchell’s “Truth in Animals” art exhibit is on display in the Fine Arts Gallery through Oct. 5.
New homepage goes live vtkennedy@valdosta.edu
NAACPVOTER DRIVE From noon to 3 p.m., NAACP hosts a voter regristration drive on courtyard between Georgia Hall and Langdale Hall.
Don’t miss your chance!
Check out Joe Adgie’s analysis of the Presidential Debate!
jlgleason@valdosta.edu
The month of October, for the Women and Gender’s Studies department (WGST), is Domestic Violence Awareness month. WGST has planned a few events to help spread awareness of domestic violence—particularly domestic violence against women. Some of the faculty and staff from WGST involved in the cause are: Dr. Tracy WoodardMeyers, Teresa Paliwoda, Helen Wishart, Dr. Mark George, Andrea Ramirez, Felicia Hilson and grad assistants, interns and students in the department for work-
study. Dorothy Sumner, secretary of WGST, has been working with the cause for about two years. “We all work as a group to get the word out,” Sumner said. “A lot of times domestic violence is not something that’s out there […] it’s not always deemed as important of an issue. Sometimes, when a person does not feel comfortable talking about [domestic violence issues] they’ll come [to WGST] about it, and talk to a female here.” According to statistics released by the Domestics Violence Resource Center, one in four women could experience some form of domestic violence in their life.
Reportedly, 50 percent of men who abuse their wives will abuse their children as well. WGST is working to put the focus on domestic abuse and find healing for those struggling through it. “We usually start [planning] at the end of the month—of October of last year—we were already looking at this year what we were going to do, how we were going to do it,” Sumner said. The month will be full of campaigns and events to enlighten the community. This week began with their purple ribbon campaign. See WGST, Page 2
Joe Adgie M U LT I M E D I A E D I T O R
Other topics discussed:
jmadgie@valdosta.edu
Pretty soon, those who want to smoke may have to do so in a designated area. A possible restriction on smoking was discussed at the first SGA town hall meeting of the semester. The SGA voted to form a subcommittee to draft legislation for these new smoking restrictions. The proposed legislation would be sent to the Faculty Senate. “This smoking policy, if enacted, we would have designated smoking pits,” Reginald Merritt, SGA senator, said. Merritt added that the smoking pits would be, at the least, 30-feet away from a window, entrance, exit, or air intake system. While these new restrictions on smoking may be off-putting to some, Merritt added that this policy would still be light compared to other schools around the state. “Other schools, like UGA and West Georgia, have a smoking policy where [there is] no smoking on campus, even in cars,” Merritt said. “So this is kind of lenient and not as radical or extreme as it may come off.” Enforcement for the smoking policy would come in the form of an enhanced police force, whose ranks would be bolstered by student patrol officers. An idea that was mentioned during last week’s SGA meeting. These student patrol officers would help the VSUPD while the department is in the process of hiring new officers, according to Amber Worthy, SGA vice president.
• Two senators elected: Airy Hall and Ja’Marrius Thomas • Ryan Baerwalde, SGA President, was contacted by a reporter from the Wall Street Journal who intends to do a story on how HOPE cuts are affecting students. • Baerwalde and other Georgia SGA presidents formed a “Student Advisory Council” on the future of HOPE. • SGA meets every Monday night at the UC Cypress Room. “We aren’t making many changes,” Ololade Fagbohun, SGA senator, said. “The old rule right now is 25-feet, we just changed it to [30], and [we’re] making sure there’s a designated area at smoking pits.” Fagbohun explained that the distance was increased because once a person was 25-feet away from one building they were within 25-feet of another building—thus making the 25-foot rule ineffective. SGA senators, however, have been quick to point out that this is not a ban on smoking. “In the past Spectator, it talked about how we discussed smoking bans, and I had students in my class saying, ‘I’m going to write a petition against that,’” Lorraine Dawkins, SGA senator, said. “We need to be clear that we’re not trying to ban smoking entirely from this campus, but rather designate areas.”