Tuesday, October 27

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27

STUDENT DEATH POLICY Page 6

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CAMPUS OCT. 23

OCT. 21

3:12 a.m. | Underage consumption of alcohol

8:17 p.m. | Drug Violation

Newland Hall

A student was arrested for possession of marijuana

OCT. 22 9:48 p.m. | Underage consumption of alcohol

Rivers Street East Tunnel

OCT. 21 4:59 p.m. | Larceny Summit Hall Under investigation

Kidd Brewer Stadium A student was arrested for underage consumption of alcohol.

OCT. 21

OCT. 22

Leads exhausted

10:50 p.m. | Underage consumption of alcohol

Alex Gates @theappalachian PHOTO EDITOR Samantha Cordialini @samcordialini GRAPHICS EDITOR Jennifer Rhodes @theappalachian VIDEO EDITOR Dylan Dow @theappalachian WEB MANAGER

CRIME LOG A student was arrested for underage consumption of alcohol

Justin Perry @justincperry VISUAL MANAGING EDITOR

3:06 p.m. | Vandalism Rankin Science Rock Garden

Bowie Hall

OCT. 20

A student was arrested for underage consumption of alcohol.

11:30 p.m. | Drug Violation Gardner Hall A student was arrested for posses-

OCT. 22

sion of marijuana

9:43 p.m. | Vandalism Frank Hall Under investigation

OCT. 19 11:58 p.m. | Vandalism Appalachian Heights Parking Lot Under investigation

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FROM CONCEPT TO RETAIL IN 90 DAYS ‘CREATING AN EXPERIENCE’ IN PRODUCT DESIGN

BY KELSEY HAMM A&E EDITOR

S

tudents in the Industrial Design Program combine design, tech and business knowledge to complete a five credit hour studio senior project course.

When customers consume a product, from a Coke can to a candle, they are connected to a long process of design and manufacturing not wholly visible in daily life. For product designers at Appalachian State University, the trinkets used by the general population on a daily basis become a future and lifestyle.

Three years ago, industrial design program coordinator Richard Elaver and professor Donald Corey collectively sold design work at Boone Art Mart. Now, the senior level studio in the industrial design major offers students a similar opportunity. The class combines necessary industry processes, like sketching, prototyping, and computer-aided design with skills found in the ASU entrepreneurial department.

“When we started, the class was a half semester long and now it’s grown into a full-scale five credit design studio,” Elaver said. “This is no longer just a design project, but an entrepreneurial project where students come up with an idea, a business plan, a marketing strategy, and pricing – it’s kind of grown over time.”

This year, Elaver challenged students to create a product related to outdoor adventure, encompassing activities from kayaking to music festivals. Kevin Brown’s designs target road trip culture and people who travel for an extended period of time.

“I’m designing a backpack that starts out as a blanket, where people can have a place to eat or lay down,” he said. “It’s a flat platform you can put all of your stuff into, and it folds into the backpack. It went back to the hitchhiker handkerchief-on-a-stick idea and turning it into a more modern idea.”

The class, Brown said, is incredibly time-consuming, an expected and perfectly reasonable requirement for a product design senior. For now, he is focused on proof of concept or “the dirty work,” and figuring out how the product actually works.

“For me, proof of concept is taking the idea, making a pattern, and sewing the whole bag together and seeing if what I drew will actually work. It’s in this transition phase where I drew it up on paper and now I have to make it useful,” he said.

Carl Weaver is designing a product for birdwatchers, a hanger for bird feeders that doubles as a plant holder and place for other items that attract birds to an area. He originally started with a scoop feeder idea, he said, but ultimately chose a product more universally applicable

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and timely.

“I chose birding for the process, and, out of three, I narrowed down my ideas before I began my sketches and research so I wouldn’t limit myself by designs that already exist,” Weaver said. “From that, I picked certain ones I wanted to move forward with and created new forms from them. I like the idea of a bird silhouette, it’s something I’ve carried through this whole process.”

The production process for both items is complex. By the end of the project, students will undergo sketching, target market profiling, comparative product research, experimental research, and observational research during preliminary planning, in addition to manufacturing and cost estimates, business plans, branding, packaging and actual product production. The entrepreneurial department partners with the students for all business aspects of the operation.

It’s a new concept for many students to include cost of labor and a search for production resources for projects, Elaver said. Often, students produce through service bureaus who make products in high-grade materials at a low cost.

“A lot of time students are simulating larger scale production processes where they’re making molds out of silicon rubber to make multiples instead of machines using steel molds to make thousands,” Elaver said. “But it aligns well with a lot of mass production processes.

One student today is working on a tea bag and a tea process, and another student is working on a squirt gun to use as a regular water bottle.”

Elaver calls a degree in product design a “permit to learn.” While in school, students learn computer-aided design and take a design for manufacturing class. In most classes, students learn to prototype their projects.

In the final class, students produce physical and identical products at a low enough cost to retail.

“It’s one of those things that’s ever-evolving,” Weaver said. “You can’t do things linearly, you have to try one thing and leave. Your design will change depending on whether or not you can use a certain material or process, or feasibility. You just kind of keep bouncing around for a while and a lot of it comes from form variations.

“At the end of the semester, each student will sell their product in a culminating pop-up shop, Elaver said.

In previous years, the Plemmons Student Union and the Turchin Center have hosted the shop during Art Crawl.

Elaver said the true magic lies in this final culmination, where many of the students sell their product for the first time. In previous classes, students scrap their projects after one prototype. The shop affords students an opportunity to receive returned value for their time and creativity.

“At the end of the semester the students

Photos/Designs Courtesy of Kevin Brown

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kind of hate me,” Elaver said. “I put them through the ringer, on design, design process, packaging and purchase displays and branding, and a business plan. A lot of these guys are design majors because they don’t want to do that kind of stuff. When they get to the end of the semester, and we do the shop, and somebody hands them 20 bucks that they’ve made, they smile and their attitude changes.”

The students often break even, Elaver said, for their time and money spent on the project. Goods sold at previous pop-up shops can still be found in Boone today, Elaver said.

“One student put his work in Footsloggers and as far as the last time I checked, two years after the class he was still selling them there. He was selling these little koozies with climbing rope, really simple, and he was working on a totally different thing than what he had done the entire semester, and it sold better. It fit right in with the theme and he kept selling them.”

The job placement and business competition aspect of the product class is a big success, Elaver said.

“Three years ago a student won a business pitch competition and it was great for me to see an undergraduate design student competing with students from Vanderbilt, Harvard, and Wake Forest,” Elaver said. “He took his business pitch and received $5,000, and it lit up our whole student community about these business projects and got our students interested in the business school.

Since then, we’ve have several other students win business pitch competitions.”

Students are “cleaning house” on business competitions, Elaver said. Previous design majors have won $10,000 at a national pitch competition in Texas and a people’s choice award from a competition at Wake Forest. Graduates Carl Weaver now work for various design firms including Kickkerland Design Inc. One student’s umbrella project landed him a position at a luxury fashion boutique in New York.

“This shows me the value of the stories these students are telling,” Elaver said, “not just the product ideas, but this class is really encouraging them to dig into stories and relevancy and backing up their product with research. A good idea is one thing, but something you can actually tell about to a consumer who has a need – that goes really well into a business pitch.”

Elaver presented information about the senior studio to an international conference in the U.K. last year, resulting in an exchange with a sister school in Belgium. He said the partnership opened his eyes to design students who produce their products through a mass distribution channel and identify potential buyers.

“It is much more real world,” said Elaver. “They produce hundreds of thousands of units – they have to find the funding and the manufacturer, and that ties it back to industrial design. There’s not a lot of manufacturing around here to go to, but I would love to get there.”

The field of product design itself is growing internationally and on public consciousness, Elaver said, with the Harvard Business Review featuring “The Evolution of Design Thinking” on the cover of the September 2015 issue. He estimates over half the students in the major at Appalachian transferred in from another school or department after learning about the field.

“I always ask when new high school students come in, ‘How do you know product design exists?’” Elaver said. “I didn’t even know it was a field until I graduated with a degree in metal smithing, and then I went out and tried to find a job and this is what I ended up working in. For incoming students, I teach a class called intro to product design. I get a lot of students from other majors, but they have to know the field exists to have an interest.”

The department is taking measures to attract more students. The new applied design department on campus affords new opportunities for publicity and creativity, Elaver said. Previously, one technology department hosted everything from technical photography to building construction. Now, apparel design and merchandising, interior design, and industrial design (split into product and furniture departments) are

"There's a lot happening here and it's just very creative, and not only creative, but it has an endgame.

It's not just creating a visual just for the visual, it's creating an experience."

housed under one program.

“It’s the weirdest field,” Elaver said, “and sometimes I ask, how do I explain this to my family? They might ask what it is and I would reply, its lawnmowers and watches and glasses and everything. If you go into a Target, it’s there – if you don’t go into the field, it can be hard to communicate.”

Brown originally entered college with plans of becoming an engineer. He found the classes boring, and continued his search for the “cool” part of engineering. A self-described “Lego child,” Brown constantly found himself enjoying hands-on work.

After college, Brown plans to apply for internships in footwear design. His minor is apparel development.

“There are product design firms which are the middle man’s,” said Brown, “and companies will contact them with an idea for a project because they don’t have inhouse designers. You get way more variety in your work as opposed to working for a company like Vans, where all you’re going to do is design shoes and maybe some apparel. At a firm you can do anything from electronics to toys.

Weaver’s background includes being a previous intern as an engineering drafter for Deco Lav and Suite Simplicity. He also worked for Williams-Sonoma Home, West Elm, Pottery Barn and PB Teen.

“With Deco I worked with sinks, but it’s like a bowl that sits on top of a counter,” Weaver said. “We did hotels and casinos all over the country. So we worked with them for a while and fortunately got a job offer to work with Sonoma when they shut down. I was doing re-upholstery furniture, designing their frames.”

Weaver said product design is a calling.

“In some ways, you don’t know you want to do it until your immersed in it or you visit and see this cool studio,” Weaver said. “There’s a lot happening here and it’s just very creative, and not only creative, but it has an endgame. It’s not just creating a visual just for the visual, it’s creating an experience.”

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CARING FOR THOSE CLOSEST NEW STUDENT DEATH POLICY PLACES EMPHASIS ON THE SURVIVORS

BY KEVIN GRIFFIN STAFF REPORTER

N

otifications concerning student deaths were a frequent sight in the inboxes of students last year, but that is set to change with a new student death protocol that changes the way student deaths are reported and handled.

The new policy will resemble accepted procedures used in years past. Wherever a death occurs, law enforcement is expected to be the first group on the scene. Law enforcement will be responsible for notifying families, summoning medical personnel and starting an investigation.

Within the university itself, J.J. Brown, the dean of students, will be responsible for notifying other officials within the university hierarchy about a student death.

What has changed is the way news of a death will be communicated to the university. In the past, campus-wide emails would be sent out saying that a student had died. Now, notifications will only go out when law enforcement and university officials determine there is a threat to the campus community as a whole, Vice Chancellor for Student Development Cindy Wallace said.

Deaths from causes like suicides, accidents and overdoses would not be reported for the most part.

Medical examiners determine the cause of death and in many cases the cause of the death is not communicated to university officials, Brown said.

The focus of attention in the wake of student deaths will go to what the student death protocol refers to as “affinity groups,” which include friends, roommates, teammates and other individuals who had close associations with the deceased.

A new group called the Student Postvention Response Team will be responsible for coordinating the response to a student death.

The group will include representation from the Office of Student Development, Dean of Students office, University Police, and the deceased’s academic department, among other potential parties.

They will also work with student development to determine if any notification will be made to the campus community. In addition, they will work to identify and reach out members of the deceased affinity groups.

Counseling services and the CARE team will set-up meetings with the members of the affinity groups.

The CARE team will also set up a grieving room in the student union to allow those close to the deceased, as well as other members of the campus community, to pay their respects.

While law enforcement is responsible for notifying families, the university will provide various services to the deceased’s family, including setting up accommodations, providing psychological support and help with securing the student’s belongings.

A black memorial book will be set out in front of the Dean of Students office, becoming available for all students to sign, and will ultimately be given to the family.

All families of deceased students are invited to the annual Student Memorial Program, but students are discouraged from holding private memorials to deceased students because of concerns that these private memorials might inadvertently glamorize death in way that might lead to “imitation or contagion issues,” according to the student death protocol.

Instead, students are encouraged to engage in community service activities to honor the deceased.

The postvention response team will meet one month after a student death to assess its handling of the situation and establish guidelines for future incidents.

'Nobody sends out campus-wide emails' Before this semester, the university had no formal death policy before this semester, Brown said.

The new policy had its roots in conversations that university leaders were having with other UNC figures about increasing safety on college campuses, Wallace said.

One aspect of those conversations was the distinction between handling crisis situations, which require special proceedings, and providing care to a university community.

That distinction became important early in the 2014-15 school year, when Anna Smith went missing and was ultimately found dead.

Throughout the year, officials held conversations with students, faculty and staff about the incidents. Wallace said that many of those individuals said that the campus-wide announcements were creating anxiety on campus.

In spring 2015, the Office of Student Development began to study the policies and protocols used in the UNC system as well as from more than 50 universities across the country.

“Nobody sends out campus-wide emails, nobody," Cindy Wallace Wallace said. "So we said, where our intention was to communicate and to get out factual information, what we felt was that we were not indeed doing what we intended to do.”

The campus community must be notified when crisis situations arise, but student deaths that do not pose a threat to the community do not fit that category, Wallace said.

“It’s a private tragedy that impacts a circle of people, and that is the where we started developing our policy,” Wallace said.

The new policy will allow the university to better serve those most directly affected by deaths.

“Is it our role to focus on the cause of a student’s death, or is it our role to respond appropriately to the loss of that precious loss and the people that are in that person’s circle?” Wallace said. “I think that’s what we determined was our most important job.”

"Is it our role to focus on the cause of a student's death, or is it our role to respond appropriately to the loss of that precious loss and the people that are in that person's circle?"

NEW STUDENT DEATH POLICY The new death policy taking effect this semester will limit official campus-wide communication of students deaths

LAW ENFORCEMENT Law enforcement will be contacted immediately to secure the scene, begin investigation, contact the appropriate emergency personel, and notify family members. A Campus Safety Alert will only be sent out if there is an ongoing threat.

CARE TEAM The Care Team coordinates support services for those affected by the death. A “Grieving Room” will be made available but limited to family, faculty, staff, and students. At least one counselor from the Counseling and Psychological Services Center will be in attendance.

STUDENT POSTVENTION RESPONSE TEAM The Student Postvention Response Team will determine what, if any, notifications will be made to campus. In most instances only affinity groups consisting of their residence hall, classmates, professors, and other members of significance will be informed as opposed to campus-wide notification.

Student Viewpoints Stanley Broaden, an intern in the Office of Student Development, assisted in research for the policy and helping to write portions of the policy.

“I like the way it’s set up because it makes sure all the correct parties are informed and that there’s a centralized form of communication so that information that does get out is the correct information,” Broaden said.

SGA President Carson Rich spoke with Wallace and Brown over issues of messaging.

Rich said that he saw some level of mixed opinions on messaging.

While some students he spoke with appreciated the messaging, others found that the messages caused unnecessary stress and distractions, Rich said.

“Something to keep in mind when these tragedies happen is to respect the ones who are in those circles of concern,” Rich said.

The student death memorial wall in B.B. Dougherty Infographic by Ashley Felts

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O P I N I O N

SANDERS CAMPAIGN COULD BROADEN OUR DISCOURSE

Want clean diesel?

There’s a defeat device for that.

BY PAIGE ANDERHOLM OPINION WRITER

BY KEVIN GRIFFIN OPINION WRITER

B

ernie Sanders' successful performance in last week’s debate has raised important questions about our political future. Would Americans really be willing to elect a self-described Democratic socialist?

The automatic answer would seem to be “no.” For generations now, socialism has been aligned as perhaps the most anti-freedom force that exists in the universe.

Yet, it seems strange that the stigma surrounding the word also limits the freedom of our discourse. If you can attach the label "socialism" to some idea or policy, it makes it almost impossible for that idea to advance at all.

And Americans seem to have a hysterical fear of socialism while not seeming to have much understanding of the concept.

The fact that the Affordable Care Act, perhaps the most conservative health care reform alternative that is not nothing, can be challenged on the basis of its socialism illustrates the point.

Having this type of limitation on our discourse does nothing but hurt us.

After all, is it not the point of this country that we to decide how the country will be run?

I do not consider myself a socialist, but I do believe that the concept of the public sector has taken such a hit over the last four decades that having a self-described socialist is just what we may need.

For university students in particular, this conversation matters.

A December 2014 Government Accountability Office report found that the cost of higher education is increasingly falling on students, with tuition making up a larger percentage of college revenues than state government funds between 2003 and 2012.

Even if you have reservations about Sanders’ free college plan, the fact that he is putting the idea out there forces us to consider it. Even if that plan is not adopted, we still might get to a place where we can at least reinvest in higher education.

Conservatives in the 1980s were successful in defining a dichotomy between big government and small government, that in many ways is still with us.

This false and hypocritical paradigm has itself stigmatized any sort of spending on social welfare. Meanwhile, things like costly tax cuts and wars somehow seem to pass small government muster.

Looking at government purely based on size obscures the real question: What should government do and not do?

Our fear should be arbitrary government; government that is unjust, needlessly wasteful and disconnected from its citizens' concerns.

Within that context, we can have discussions over important things like cost and implementation of certain policies. But to get there, we have to raise the barriers we have erected around certain ideas.

Bernie Sanders is by no means perfect. While I like a number of his ideas, I think that some in his fanbase have become cultish, responding to any criticism of the man or his policies with hysteria.

Still, I think he is doing a service to the country by putting these ideas out there. He is normalizing in a way that expands the acceptable policies that we can consider.

B

y now you've probably heard about the recent scandal involving the German car manufacturer, Volkswagen, and their diesel vehicles.

On Sept. 18, the EPA issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to Volkswagen AG, Audi AG and Volkswagen Group of America.

The notice states that four cylinder VW and Audi diesel cars include defeat devices, software that can detect when an emissions test is being conducted.

The EPA’s allegations include model years 2009-2015, though it has been rumored that the software could be in cars as early as 2007.

Consequently, the level of nitrogen-oxide emissions is “up to 40 times more pollution” than allowed under U.S. emission standards.

The man behind these numbers, John German, is the U.S. co-lead of the International Council on Clean Transportation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to reducing vehicle emissions.

He and his team had noticed data suggesting high nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel cars in Europe and wanted the emissions data of American diesel cars that had to comply with more stringent standards to take back to Europe as a guiding example for improvement.

Instead, what they found was anything but admirable.

As the ICCT investigation initially began, back in 2013, German and his team abandoned the typical emission lab tests and took a VW Passat and Jetta, and BMW X5 out on the road.

They found that outside the lab, “the Passat had emissions five to 20 times the standard. The Jetta was worse. It was 15-35 times the standard.” The team first thought their equipment was malfunctioning. But, “when they got to the X5, they were recording very, very low emissions again – so they were like ‘OK – it wasn’t our equipment.’”

By May 2014, German had finished his report and gave all of his team’s data to the EPA; a courtesy copy was sent along to Volkswagen as well.

In December 2014, after the EPA announced VW was fixing its software to solve “some vehicles" emissions problems,” the company swore to multiple agencies necessary action would be taken.

But one year after German’s report went to the EPA, the California Air Resources Board tested the supposedly "fixed" cars and the emission levels were still higher than VW advertised.

Finally, in September, 16 months after German’s data was first sent to the company and the EPA, Volkswagen admitted to the use of defeat devices.

Volkswagen, a manufacturer known for its “clean diesel” TDI engines, had been given the chance to fix the problem last December. Inexplicably, however, they ignored the issue and continued to offer up other excuses for the discrepancy in nitrogen oxide emissions.

With 11 million vehicles affected worldwide and the EPA ordering a recall of 482,000 vehicles, the words of VW’s U.S. CEO, Michael Horn, are fittingly simple-minded: “We have totally screwed up.”

Anderholm, a sophomore Geology major from Greensboro, is an opinion writer.

Griffin, a senior journalism major from Madison, is an opinion writer.

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Photos courtesy of Bernie Sanders’ Campaign

SUBMIT ANNOUNCEMENTS

App News is a service of the Division of Student Development. Email dycheab@appstate.edu.

Submissions should not exceed 100 words and must include the event title, date/time, location and cost, and a contact email, phone and/or URL. Announcements will be edited as needed and will run as space allows. Preference is given for events that are free or have a nominal cost.

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WHAT TO DO WIND DOWN WEDNESDAYS 5:30 p.m. every Wednesday (except Nov. 25) through Dec. 2, Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. Free and only open to App State students.

Students will participate in a short guided meditation (20 minutes) followed by the opportunity to create an artistic response to the mediation experience. All art supplies will be provided. Class size is limited to 25, on a firstcome basis. No registration required.

Sponsored by Active Minds and Yes Plus, in collaboration with The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts.

THE GOBBLER 5K Hosted by the ACT Office, The Gobbler is open to all runners and walkers. The race benefits the ACT Office’s scholarship for international service learning: the Leigh Lane Edwards Scholarship Fund.

The race begins at 8 a.m. Nov. 14, Duckpond Field. Registration: $15-$16. Go to http://thegobblerboone.weebly.com to register, or email wolschlager@appstate.edu for information.

HUGHLENE BOSTIAN FRANK VISITING WRITERS SERIES Black Mountain College literary historians William C. Rice and Katherine Chaddock will read from their works at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27, Parkway Ballroom, PSU. Free.

STUDENT FLU SHOTS The Mary S. Shook Student Health Service is offering a student flu shot clinic, 5-7:30 p.m.

Oct. 28, Roess Dining Hall. Open to full- and

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27

part-time students. No appointment necessary.

Bring a valid AppCard, and $15 will be charged to your student account and appear on your next tuition bill.

BOONE CREEK CLEAN-UP Meet at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 29 at AMB, 163 Boone Creek Drive.

The ASU Sustainability Council has adopted the section of Boone Creek that flows past Appalachian Mountain Brewery and Boone Mall.

ASU faculty, staff and students are invited to participate. Volunteers will receive a 10 percent discount on purchases at Appalachian Mountain Brewery for the rest of the night.

The group provides gloves and other supplies. Participants should wear old clothes and sturdy shoes—rubber knee boots are especially helpful. Email englandle@appstate.edu to sign up in advance.

Biblical Texts on Final Judgment,” Rodney Duke

TURCHIN FALL LECTURE SERIES All lectures are at 7 p.m. in the Turchin Center Lecture Hall. For information, go to http:// tcva.org/exhibitions.

• Nov. 11: “Beth Hetland” • 2 p.m. Nov. 6: “Cartoon College,” film screening in conjunction with the exhibition At the Junction of Words and Pictures: The Tenth Anniversary of The Center for Cartoon Studies,” followed by a panel discussion with Alec Longstreth and Jen Vaughn.

BELIZE INTEREST GROUP

Ash Beckham, known for her TEDx talk “Coming Out Of Your Closet,” will speak at 7 p.m. Nov. 10 at Legends. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the event is free and open to the public.

The talk is sponsored by APPS. Beckham speaks about empathy, respect, and the power of having real conversations.

The Office of International Education and Development (OIED) is organizing a Belize Interest Group meeting at 2 p.m. Nov. 16, in Beacon Heights, PSU. The meeting will be held to meet face-to-face with campus colleagues engaged in and/or with interest in Belize, share with different campus colleagues the nature of work people are doing in Belize; and develop a “united” strategy for Appalachian to engage with Belize.

Faculty interested in Belize or doing work in that country are encouraged to attend. For more information, email lutabingwajl@appstate.edu.

LECTURE SERIES

FACULTY/STAFF BOOK CLUB

The Fall 2015 Lecture/Seminar Series: Philosophy and Religion in the Contemporary World is presented by the Philosophy and Religion Department. Presentations begin at 5:30 p.m. in room 114, Belk Library.

• Nov. 10: “What the Hell? How to Interpret

The fall book club will read and discuss the themes in “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel Pink. The book club will meet at 10 a.m. Nov. 24 in Belk Library.

Book club members will be expected to se-

ASH BECKHAM TALK

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29

cure their own copy to read. The book is available in the library system and for sale online.

Email maidenev3@appstate.edu.

TUTORING CENTER OPEN Visit room 208 in D.D. Dougherty and fill out a tutor request form. The tutoring lab is open 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday.

Call 828-262-3060 or email apputs@ appstate.edu. Go to lap.appstate.edu/tutoring.

FREE GUIDED MEDITATION Held noon-12:30 p.m. in Attic Window (room 137C), PSU. Hosted by Wellness and Prevention Services. No meditation experience necessary. Drop-ins welcome.

Benefits of meditation can include a decrease in anxiety and stress, an increase in emotional stability and creativity, increased ability to focus and concentrate, lower blood pressure, a decrease in tension related pain, and improved immune system.

NAVIGATING COLLEGE The group will explore healthy lifestyle choices and the impact of alcohol and other drug use in college. Students are invited to the Wellness and Prevention Services office to join a mindfulness-based group focused on the impact of alcohol and other drug use while in college, incorporating resilience building, high risk substance use prevention and harm reduction strategies by way of stress reduction, healthy decision-making and group support to assist in personal growth and success as a college student.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30

“Lawless” screening

“The Shining” screening

“The Gift” screening

“The Gift” screening

7 p.m.

Greenbriar Theater, PSU Free

7 p.m.

Greenbriar Theater, PSU $1

7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

I.G. Greer $1 advance, $2 door

7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

I.G. Greer, $1 advance, $2 door

Visiting Writers Series: Book Reading with William C. Rice and Katherine Chaddock

Student Flu Shots

RMI Career Fair

“The Shining” screening

7:30 p.m.

Parkway Ballroom, PSU Free

6th Annual Community Candlelight Vigil Hosted by the LGBT Center 7 p.m.

Sanford Mall Free

5-7:30 p.m.

Roess Dining Hall $15, charged to AppCard

Behind the Scenes Tour 2 p.m.

Roess Dining Hall Free

Genus Dance Crew Auditions 7 p.m.

Varsity Gym

1-4 p.m.

Boyles Lobby, second floor, Peacock Hall

7 p.m.

Greenbriar Theater, PSU $1

Trick-or-Treat for Tots

Employee Health Fair

5-7 p.m.

East Campus Residence Halls (check in at East Hall parking lot) Bring one canned good/non-perishable item

8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

Grandfather Mountain Ballroom, PSU

Costume Contra 7:30 p.m.-midnight Legends $3-$5

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3

Football: Appalachian State Mountaineers vs. Troy University

Friction Quartet Guest Concert

AppSits Meditation Club Meeting

“This Changes Everything” screening

6 p.m.

Recital Hall Free

6:30 p.m.

Tater Hill, PSU Free

7 p.m.

I.G. Greer Free

7:30 p.m.

Kidd Brewer Stadium Tickets required

“The Gift” screening 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

I.G. Greer $1 advance, $2 door

Halloween Monster Concert 8 p.m.

Rosen Concert Hall Free

Landon Bratt Student Voice Recital

Tai Chi

2 p.m.

Recital Hall Free

5 p.m.

Turchin Center Free (students only)

iASE (International Alternative Service Experience) Spring Break Info Session Hosted by the ACT Office 7 p.m.

Rough Ridge, PSU Free

S P O R T S

KEEPING TRADITION

All 13 senior AHO Rugby players pose postgame for photos.

AHO RUGBY FINISHES SEASON STRONG, TRADITION IS CONTINUED

BY BRENT GILMORE INTERN SPORTS REPORTER

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ith a dominant performance, AHO Rugby finished the fall regular season Saturday with a 73-0 victory over UNCG. With the victory, AHO Rugby improved to 4-1.

The game was a blowout, as App State pummeled UNCG for 80 straight minutes.

“The crowd was awesome, we normally don’t have it this big,” AHO Rugby player Ross Miller said. “With it being our last match it feels awesome to have this many people out here.”

As a unit, the team played to perfection, having very few mistakes and capitalizing on big plays. App State also delivered some brutal hits throughout the game, making it an overall satisfactory performance to end the season on.

There was a large crowd that came out for the game, including many alumni that played rugby at App State.

“I always love to come back and watch,” said AHO Rugby alumnus Jeff McGalliard. “It’s fun talking with the other alumni on how we used to play when we were young and fast. We love to reflect on the past.”

The AHO Rugby team has a strong tradition within the club. The team was founded in 1976 and has grown in success ever since. AHO was named club team of the year by the university in 2014 and has gained recognition within the rugby world as well, being known as one of the top rugby club college teams in the nation.

The victory against UNCG prepares the team for the playoffs and to follow in the footsteps of the previous AHO Rugby teams and try to match their success. Previously, the AHO Rugby team was very successful, being ranked eighth in the nation, so it’s no easy task following in the footsteps of this team.

“It feels good to have all this support, it’s a lot more fun to score when you have this many people cheering you on,” current AHO Rugby player Daniel Van Driesen said.

“We’re a lot closer in where we need to be in terms of playoffs,” Miller said. “We’ve improved a lot from week one and that’s where you always want to be. I feel confident where the team is right now.”

The team finished the season 4-1 and will travel to Coastal Carolina for the Southern Rugby Conference playoffs.

The playoffs are set to kick off Nov. 7.

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Dylan Dow

S P O R T S

REDEMPTION IN THE SUN BELT

WOMEN’S SOCCER PREPARES FOR THEIR SECOND TOURNAMENT

BY JESS LYONS SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER

A

their tournament after game one with a 0-1 ppalachian State Univerloss against Georgia Southern University. sity's women's soccer team On Friday, the team flipped the script and will take on their second Sun Belt Conference tournament in took down Georgia Southern during a home game with a final score of 1-0, their Atlanta, Georgia, on Nov. 4. The tournasecond to last game before the tournament. ment will last anywhere from one to five “Since I’ve been here we have never days, depending on the performance of the won the first tournament game,” senior Mountaineers game-by-game. goalkeeper Megan Roberson said. “We’ve The team will go into the tournament always lost it 1-0 and I think for us it’s ranked as the fourth seed and play their going to be putting that first goal away in first game against University of Arkansas-Little Rock. App State hasn’t lost to the the first tournament game. I think once we put that first goal away, nothing is going Trojans since joining the Sun Belt, boastto stop us ing a 3-0 win from going over them in forward.” the 2014-15 Roberson season and and Keys a 1-1 tie have both against them expressed this season. how crucial it “The betis to start the ter the seed first game of we have, the the tournabetter the ment differfirst round ent than usual will be for us,” senior Sarah Strickland in order to succeed. Like forward Kethe players, brina Keys Strickland said. “We’ve also recoghad a hard nizes how a change in mentality and pace time winning the first round before so I will help the team thrive in the upcoming think that if we have a good seed and do it after winning that first round, we’re golden tournament.

“The girls in this program love it so from there.” much they don’t want it to end,” Strickland If the team wins their first game against said. “That last game, the fear of the finaliUALR, they will move forward to play in ty of it all is real. This year we’re not going the semifinals, and then move forward to to play like it’s our last game, we’re going the finals if they win that game as well. to play to compete and not to think about With a 5-3-1 record for their Sun Belt the finality of it all.”

Conference season, head coach Sarah With a new perspective on the tournaStrickland expressed the key to the team’s ment and a good seed entering the toursuccess in the upcoming tournament. nament, the Mountaineers hope to change “For the tournament we want to peak at their standard tournament play and get to the end, and I think last year we didn’t do the finals. that,” Strickland said. “Although we were playing great soccer at the end, we had a lot of injuries and we were trying to figure things out.”

Last season the Mountaineers ended

This year we're not going to play like it's our last game, we're going to play to compete and not to think about the finality of it all.

Senior forward Jenn Bass has one goal on four starts this season.

Lindsey Honkomp

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S P O R T S

FLIPPING FORTUNES

THE MATURATION OF A HIGHLAND GAMES ATHLETE

BY CHRIS WARNER SPORTS EDITOR

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arrett Blatnik, an Appalachian State senior, approaches the caber – a roughly 20-foot tall, telephone-pole-like structure – for a second attempt. He stands it up and bends over to brace it against his shoulder. Hidden beneath his black and gold kilt, his legs explode with enough force to lift the caber into the air.

He backpedals seven or eight steps. Then four or five more. Just as it appears that the wooden mast, which triples Blatnik’s 6-foot-3 stature, has gathered too much backwards momentum, he readjusts his hands to reassert control.

He slams his shoulder into the wooden log, steps forward as the beam begins to reverse motion, and belts out a reverberating roar as he pulls the bottom of the timber mass towards himself. The motion is so powerful he leaves his feet, generating enough force from his 275-pound frame to turn it end over end – a perfect score.

It’s the first time he has ever successfully flipped the caber, an elusive feat many Highland Game competitors never accomplish. Perhaps more surprisingly, at 22, it’s only his sixth time competing, and he’s already overcome the event that sandbagged his scores in previous games.

The caber is one of nine events that comprise today’s Scottish Heavy Athletics, or the Highland Games. The sport’s tradition is believed to date back to almost 2000 B.C., but its documented history begins well over a millennium ago to Scotland, when Malcolm III began using the contests in 1040 A.D. as a method of selecting the most battle-ready soldiers.

Today, kilted fanatics gather to celebrate Gaelic tradition with music, dance, libation and competition. Athletes gather to showcase feats of strength by throwing objects for distance, flipping structures and tossing bags of hay with a pitchfork, known as a “sheaf,” for height.

For Blatnik, getting involved with the Games was a family affair.

His brother Justin Blatnik, a graduate from Appalachian State, had been throwing for roughly three years before Garrett Blatnik got involved. During his time in Boone, Justin Blatnik met Travis Gardner, a Highland Games athlete, who introduced him to the competition.

Garrett Blatnik, a multiple-sport athlete for the majority of his life, said his interest in the sport began when his brother asked him to practice with him in the backyard. Because the Games are not wildly popular in the U.S., most competitors, including professionals, end up practicing in backyards or open fields.

“After football, I wasn’t able to compete in anything, and I didn’t feel like I was strong enough to get into powerlifting, so it gave me something to do,” Garrett Blatnik said.

Although he doesn’t officially count it, Garrett Blatnik “threw” in his first Games in the second weekend of October in 2013, but didn’t join a league or really even practice until the following June.

He said his first Games, in which he competed in only the sheaf and the weight over bar events, was a disaster.

“They taught me on the fly,” Blatnik said. “I was in the point between getting really hurt and somehow walking away unscathed, so that was sort of nice.”

But on June 13, 2014, Garrett competed for the first time as a member of the Highland Games League.

The Highland Games League organizes a men’s and women’s series in the fall and spring, selecting events from across the Southeastern U.S. for its league members to compete in.

Ted Leger, founder of the league, selects six events for each series, and keeps a running total of the results. The overall winner at each event receives 100

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points for the win, second place receives 90, and so on.

But being a Highland Games athlete has its trials.

Garrett Blatnik, like virtually every amateur athlete in the sport, foots his own bill for the cost of travel, food and equipment. Athletes that are not a member of the Highland Games League must even cover the costs of injury.

“In Clover, I saw two athletes on the same exact day tear their biceps,” Leger said. “One of the guys had insurance through work, so he was OK. The other guy didn’t. He’s still paying for that.”

Leger said that many athletes in the HGL live almost paycheck to paycheck, utilizing their vacation days in order to compete, which is why his league offers insurance coverage to members for injuries.

And while each individual Games has prizes for winners, they are often workout supplements, vouchers to certain stores, or other small rewards, meaning the athletes compete primarily for the love of the sport, Garrett Blatnik said.

But after finally flipping the caber in Wilmington in April and still finishing second, Garrett Blatnik said he decided he “needed to get his ass in gear,” to win.

He drove to Asheville multiple weekends to practice with Gardner to improve his game. One weekend the two traveled to Denver, North Carolina, to train with former pro Highland Games athlete Eric Frasure.

The following weekend, Garrett Blatnik’s game exploded.

He traveled to Ormond Beach, Florida, and threw alongside Gardner and the other “A,” or higher level competitors, despite technically competing against the “B,” or lower class in the standings.

He shattered his previous records in three events, even out-throwing Gardner in one of them.

Garrett Blatnik’s performance in the lightweight throw surprised him most.

“I blacked out,” Garrett Blatnik said. “I don’t know how I did it. I just remember starting to throw, looking down to see my toes at the toe board, and thinking ‘What just happened?’”

For the first time, Garrett Blatnik won first place, and it wouldn’t be his last.

He carried that momentum into the rest of the season. Including Ormond Beach, Garrett Blatnik placed first in the last five games of the Highland Games League series.

Out of a possible 600 points, he finished the season with 590. The next closest competitor in the “B” category finished with 410.

At season’s end in August, Garrett Blatnik made the jump into the “A” category, where he’ll compete going forward.

“He did rise up pretty quickly,” Leger said. “The thing is, yeah, you can rise up pretty quickly, but once you’re with the ‘A’s,’ it’s a whole different level.”

Stephanie Moe, Garrett Blatnik’s girlfriend, travels to the majority of his Games to watch him compete and said his transformation as a Highland Games athlete has been impressive to follow.

“To see [Garrett] go from not knowing what he was doing to winning by such a large margin in only a year has been awesome,” Moe said. “He’s just so committed to getting better.”

Although Garrett Blatnik hopes to be invited to become a paid pro by 25, it’s the comradery of the games that makes enduring the costs on a college budget worthwhile.

“I see about 10 to 15 of the same guys every weekend that I throw,” he said.

“That’s been 14 weekends alone this year. They’re some of my closest friends.

They’d do anything for me, and I’d do anything for them.”

Chris Warner