GEORGIA REGENTS UNIVERSITY
www.grubellringer.com
VOLUME 56, ISSUE 14
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014
Sheriff calls for backup By Richard Adams editor-in-chief
mon while surrounded by the new tools of the trade: bicycles and golf carts flanked by the newly formed contingency of civilian officers tasked with providing a point-of-contact with law enforcement downtown. “Downtown has been a great topic of conversation since I’ve been in office,” Roundtree said. “And, again, we feel that downtown is safe – but the problem is the perception of safety. And that’s what we wanted to
A new kind of law enforcement officer will be patrolling downtown Augusta beginning this summer. Augusta-Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree announced the addition of S.M.A.R.T. (Safety Management and Response Team) officers to the department at a press conference at the Augusta Com-
erase from people’s mind: the perception.” City commissioner and mayoral candidate Alvin Mason said he was present at the press conference to represent the commission and show its support of Roundtree’s strides in protecting the city and its people’s investment in downtown. “We talk on a routine basis in terms of how we can better keep the perception of Augusta (and change the idea) that it is
Patrons get down country style
unsafe,” Mason said. “On a consistent basis we are having that kind of dialogue.” Mason said Roundtree’s innovative approach to the issue of crime prevention downtown was commendable for several reasons, but especially because of its financially responsible solution to the matter. “One of the great things about this particular initiative is that he did this without asking for additional funds,” Mason
AMY THORNE | STAFF
see SHERIFF on PAGE 3
SAAM aims to educate
By Jessica Sager copy editor
Darius Rucker rocks the Lady A Pavillion in Evans at the 10th annual Drive for Show, Rock Fore! Dough concert April 8, also featuring Randy Houser and Will Hoge. See RUCKER ROCKS OUT on PAGE 6 for more details.
said. “I think that’s a great thing when you’re cash-strapped.” Roundtree said the patrols will cover the area from Riverwalk to Green Street and from Fourth to 15th streets. While the officers will not have guns, they will carry radios and non-lethal weapons. “The only thing they won’t be able to do is carry firearms and to physically make arrests,
Georgia Regents University is hosting events throughout April for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The purpose of SAAM is to raise awareness on campus and in the community about sexual assault, said Shannon Nix, counselor and interpersonal violence outreach coordinator at Georgia Regents University. “Rape is something people don’t like to talk about,” Nix said. “I happen to be someone who actually likes to talk about it, raise awareness about it. It’s
one of those things that we need to be talking about really more than one month a year, but we at least have April to recognize it and so we try to really maximize that here at GRU.” Julianna Johnston, president of the Women’s Studies Student Association, said the association has been involved with SAAM since it started. “I think that it helps to educate the community and the campus,” she said. “I think it’s important that these events are held on campus because of the fact that the highest rate of victims are college-age. It’s usually see SAAM on PAGE 3
Student center offers more dining options By Haley Harris news editor
brought back Chick-fil-a and we’re doing food trucks outside.” Students decided the choices of restaurants, Evans said. “Basically what we (did) is distribute a survey, a quality of life survey, about a year ago and chose different concepts that they wanted,” Evans said. Hannah Ryan, a freshman nursing major at Georgia Regents, is excited about the additions. “I eat the sandwiches on the Summerville campus all the time, and since I take classes here it’s definitely convenient to
The Heatlh Sciences campus of Georgia Regents University reopened its new student center April 17. The new center now offers Chick-fil-a, Mein Bowl, Starbucks, Simply To Go and AFC Sushi, said Earl Evans, the senior area general manager of Sodexo. “We have new concepts first of all,” Evans said. “Like with Starbucks, that’s new. We have Mein Bowl and AFC Sushi, that’s a national brand. We
have those awesome sandwiches in the cafe,” Ryan said. Evans said that he expects difficulty in drawing in students. “I think it’ll be just as popular (as Summerville campus’ s student center),” Evans said. “The difference here, though, is that this campus here is a whole lot different than the other campus. When you go to class here, you kind of stay in one building. You don’t move around. So what we have to do is figure out how to get people to come into the building.” Students were welcome to visit the center Thursday and
HALEY HARRIS | STAFF
Students gather in the re-opened student center on the downtown campus.
take samples, according to a flyer emailed to Georgia Regents students. Lana Hanker, a senior nursing major who came to visit the center between classes, said the food was great.
“The sushi is actually really good,” Hanker said. “I’ll probably eat here more often because I’m a big sushi fan and, of course, I’ll hit up Starbucks daily.” hharris011@yahoo.com
SGA proposes outdoor lights for campus By Ashley Trawick and Rebecca Perbetsky news editor, production assistant
Let there be light. The Student Government Association conducted a flag poll Tuesday on the Summerville campus. The issue that was brought to SGA’s attention was the installation of lights where the old warehouses are on the back of the Summerville campus located by Allgood Hall. This area is where art students conduct their work after campus hours, the senators said. The survey was conducted to ask students if they think the problem should be solved. Daniel Porter, a senior history major
and a senator for the Katherine Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities and Social Science, got involved with SGA and did some research and found out why there are no lights in that area. “There was an agreement made between the university and (the Summerville Neighborhood Association) because the backyards of the houses over there have no fences,” Porter said. “The lights back there would be shining into the backyards and the windows so the university had them removed, but since we think this is a public safety issue we want lights back there.” Porter said he also talked to the staff at Facilities Operations about current
light fixtures located throughout campus. “They were telling me about the light pole(s) in the parking lot that have blinders on one side of the pole that prevent the light from shining into the Summerville area,” he said. “So if we could also put blinders on the lights to where the lights aren’t shining into the backyards but shining down on the ground.” Amanda Bryant, the outgoing president of SGA, said ideas for campus issues come directly from students. “If we hear a student saying something or not, then we can kind of gauge that as an idea and kind of talk to students,” Bryant said. “And then if we see that (and think), ‘Yeah, it is a good idea,’
then we will bring it out to the poll.” Lindsey Tampling, a senior art major and another senator for the Pamplin College, became involved with the flag poll idea while working late at night in the Ceramics lab. “Last semester, I had to use the warehouses and was there after midnight the majority of nights and just walking to my car in the pitch black, and I couldn’t see,” Tampling said. “It is not safe at all, so I am personally connected to this issue and want lights back there but it’s just like it is just a safety issue and it needs to happen.” atrawick@gru.edu rperbets@gru.edu
Condom Use Page 7 Find out how safe students are during sex
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Five candidates compete in the 2014 mayoral election Page 3
Page 11 Flatline wrestlers throw down after March of Champions
PAGE 2
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014
NEWS www.grubellringer.com
City sweeps the streets By Richard Adams editor-in-chief
The voice of
Georgia Regents University EDITORIAL STAFF adviser MATTHEW BOSISIO mbosisio@gru.edu editor-in-chief LEIGH BEESON RICHARD ADAMS copy editor MINDY WADLEY JESSICA SAGER news editor ASHLEY TRAWICK HALEY HARRIS arts & life editor MEGAN STEWART AMY THORNE sports editor JORDAN WILLIAMS ANTHONY GARCIA chief reporter REBECCA PERBETSKY ASHLEY TRAWICK production manager NIKKI SKINNER JORDAN BARRY production assistant JORDAN BARRY REBECCA PERBETSKY staff writer MEREDITH DAY photographers REBECCA SIMANSKI cartoonist MARK JOHNSON DAQUAN MIDDLETON contributors STEPHEN HALL RYAN MCLAY CALEB JOINER circulation manager RICHARD ADAMS advertising manager RAVEN NORRIS webmaster JAMIE LOWE Direct advertising inquiries to: Marie Pierce, National Sales Manager Media Mate mpierce@mymediamate.com Address all correspondence to: The Bell Ringer 2500 Walton Way Augusta, Ga 30904 706-737-1600 www.grubellringer.com
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Clean and Green Day puts feet to Harrisburg’s pavement and hands to the lingering problem of litter. Volunteer crews will meet at Martha Lester School on Broad Street, Saturday at 8:30 a.m. From there they will walk the streets and tackle trash problems as they see them, said Phillip Williams, the president of the West End-Harrisburg Neighborhood Association. “We’re cleaning up the Harrisburg community,” said Anne Murray, the president of nonprofit Turn Back the Block. “There will be teams with different routes and team leaders. We walk up and down the streets, and we clean up trash and bulk debris.” Williams said he has already drawn up between 25 and 30 separate possible routes. “Depending on the number of people we get, we’re going to put a team on as many routes as we can,” he said. “When they identify tires and, I guess, washing machines and who knows what out there, they’re going to
RICHARD ADAMS | STAFF
Trash litters the streets of Harrisburg, instigating a neighborhood cleanup.
let us know and we’ve got several folks who are going to have pickup truck teams to go around and try and pick up that stuff.” Many of Harrisburg’s problems stem from the fact that close to 14 percent of its houses are abandoned or vacant, Williams said. Some of these untended lots on public property
Grads ready for goodbye
By Jessica Sager copy editor
Graduation this year at Georgia Regents University will include a commencement speaker, social media, the James Brown Arena and regalia. The commencement speaker this year will be author Liz Murray, said Jennifer Scott, the senior media relations coordinator with the office of communications and marketing. Caleb Rule, the social media coordinator, said social media is being used differently by Georgia Regents this year. Family and friends will be able to express how proud they are of their graduate. “Before the ceremony starts, when parents and all the family members and friends are going to be filing into the arena, on the screen there’s going to be some live updates,” he said. “And so what people can do is they can send us their Instagram photos and their Facebook posts and their tweets, and they can
send them to Georgia Regents’s account and we will put them up on the screen.” Dale Hartenburg, the director of Student Services, said the graduation ceremony will be May 9 at 2 p.m. at the James Brown Arena. The doors will open at 12:30 p.m. Hartenburg said that 1,000 students have ordered regalia. There are 6, 500 seats in the arena, and the Bell will be available, if needed, for overflow. “We’re not doing tickets this year,” Hartenburg said. “However, we are, you know, asking or just reminding students that with 1,000 students and 6,500 seats the guest limit is about six people per person.” More than 1,000 students are eligible to graduate, Hartenburg said. But students must have regalia to participate in the commencement, Scott said. Hartenburg said graduation is one of the fun parts of his job, because he gets to see “kind of that final phase of a student’s college experience.” jshucke@gru.edu
Happenings around campus When Tuesday 2:30 p.m. Wednesday 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Thursday 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. Friday - Sunday All day
What Study Abroad: A Sweet Send-Off Zine Workshop The 18th Annual Take Back the Night Rally Alumni Weekend
Where JSAC Ballroom JSAC Breezeway Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre Multiple locations
Friday 8 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Look Up at Night, Augusta (LUNA)
Science Hall W1002
Saturday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Earth Day 2014
Phinizy Swamp Nature Park
Students Caught in the Act
Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre
Last Day of Classes
Both campuses
Final Exams
Both campuses
Saturday & Sunday 7:30 p.m. & 3 p.m. Tuesday, April 28 Tuesday, April 30 May 6
will be areas of target. Murray said Broadway Tackle, a local business in Harrisburg along the canal, will be providing prizes for participants to reward them for their work and build excitement. Interest has continued to grow in the annual event, Murray said. Building from the mo-
mentum of enjoyment experienced during Clean and Green events in the past, Williams said participation this year will most likely reach an all-time high. “I think a lot of that has just come to us,” Murray said. “Different church groups have just enjoyed working with us and, specifically, we’ve gotten real strong support from (First Presbyterian and Tabernacle Baptist).” Local law enforcement, Murray said, also finds a way to help. “We always have big participation with the Sherriff’s Department,” Murray said. “They plan to send a team out again this year.” Sgt. Harold Hitchcock with the Sherriff’s Department’s Crime Suppression Team said last year there were officers from the sheriff’s office who also went out on foot. “We are asking people to sign up this year,” Murray said. “In the past we’ve been a little just ‘Let us know if you can come!’ But this year we’re trying to provide food for all of our volunteers.” radams99@gru.edu
CONTRIBUTED BY AUXILIARY SERVICES
The new student card contains three types of technology to aid the campus.
One tri-card set to rule them all By Richard Adams editor-in-chief With the help of a new JagCard design and a new technology called the tri-card, the staff of Auxiliary Services are trying to tackle the overwhelming logistics of the merger. Campus card coordinator Pam Lightsey said the biggest immediate change is the expansion of the JagCard service to both campuses. It is the discovery of the tri-card technology that excites Director of Auxiliary Services Karl Munschy the most, he said. He said the card helps overcome the multiple hurdles the department faces in the wake of the merger. “With the campus card program, now with our consolidation and including the health system and the hospitals, there are three different systems that those cards need to access,” Munschy said. “So that’s why quite often when you’re down on the Health Sciences campus you’ll see people with two or three or four cards hanging around their neck.” With the exponential increase of individuals, the JagCard system will now service close to 20,000 patrons, Munschy said. Munschy said the tri-card will eventually be what replaces the current JagCards and make campus life easier for the student body. Laurie Gregg, the newly appointed manager of campus
card and auxiliary services, said the number of students currently with the new card is limited to cards printed at the Health Sciences campus. “Everyone will have a tri-card eventually after the rebadging effort,” Gregg said. “It is a little bit easier, for unification sake.” Lightsey said the initial mindset since the merger began has always been to issue the same kind of card to all students. “We need to be done with rebadging,” Munschy said. “My goal would be, certainly with all of campus, faculty, staff and students, by fall of 2014. We may be continuing on with (the health system) after that, but I really want to make sure all the campus people have a new card in their hand by next fall semester.” Gregg said the Summerville campus JagCard office does not yet have the printer necessary to create the new identity cards, but both offices are capable of printing the new JagCard design. “(I would like to) focus on the fact that even though we have all these challenges behind the scenes, it will be streamlined for (students, faculty and staff),” Gregg said. “That will be our ultimate goal, to make it as easy as possible, to make it actually a pleasant experience to come to the JagCard office.” New and incoming students and new hires are the only individuals yet who have the new technology, Gregg said. radams99@gru.edu
THE BELL RINGER
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HISTORIC MAYORAL RACE
5
20.
ANTHONY GARCIA | STAFF
All five of the mayoral candidates speak at the Turpin Hill Forum at the Carrie J. Mays Community Center April 14.
LORI MYLES A. MASON
ALVIN MASON By Anthony Garcia sports editor It’s all part of the plan for Commissioner Alvin Mason as he campaigns for mayor of Augusta. The selling point for his campaign is his “10-Point Advocacy Plan,” ten goals which Mason said he is working toward in developing and strengthening Augusta. Mason said this includes eliminating the current lack of government transparency, overseeing an overhaul of the local transit system and spurring a major redevelopment downtown. Joseph Moment, an Augusta native, attended a forum at Beulah Grove Baptist Church March 27. Though he is an undecided voter, Moment is leaning more towards Mason because of his leadership capabilities. “He looks like he has leadership abilities to solve problems quickly,” Moment said. “I’m most familiar with his baseline right now of all the candidates.” Heather Menard is a campaigner for Mason. At a forum held in CJ Mays Community Center April 14, Menard said that Mason appealed to her because of his dedication to Augusta, especially the people.
By Mindy Wadley copy editor Augusta can’t wait. That was the sentiment echoed repeatedly by Lori Myles, an educator at T.W. Josey High School, as she campaigned to be Augusta’s next mayor. “What I started seeing through the elected officials is a constant, a consistent failure to the people, whether it was based on race, whether it was based on output, whether it was based on privatization or whether or not it was based on the past,” Myles said. “We keep seeing the city of Augusta short cut.” Myles’s campaign manager, Kelora Cofer, said Myles’s drive to support Augusta comes from her love of community advocacy. “She’s always been there to help those (who) were less fortunate, and those who maybe weren’t able to provide for themselves in ways that others of us may be able to,” Cofer said. “So that’s one thing that she’ll bring to the city.” A former student of Myles’s, Michael Banks, is currently enrolled as a junior applied information systems and technology major at Georgia Regents University. Banks said Myles had a big influence on him as a leader. mindyawadley@gmail.com
agarci11@gru.edu
candidates vie for city’s top position
History will be made May
Next month will mark the beginning of a new era with a new mayor and also mark the special occasion of Augusta celebrating its first African-American mayor and possibly its first female mayor. The candidates include two females, Lori Myles and Helen Blocker-Adams, and three males, Charles Cummings, Sen. Hardie Davis and Alvin Mason. A schoolteacher, a small business owner, a restau-
HARDIE DAVIS C. CUMMINGS
CHARLES CUMMINGS By Haley Harris news editor Charles Cummings, resident of Augusta for 24 years, is running for mayor of Augusta and is pushing for better transportation for Augustans. Cummings said if elected, he will take the transportation system and bus systems that already exist in Augusta and improve upon them. Bianca Laney, a recent graduate of Butler High School, plans to vote in the upcoming election and agrees with Cummings on his trasportation ideas. “I do think we need better bus systems that run for later times,” Laney said. “I’m sure some of the bus drivers wouldn’t mind making extra money, and I for one would use the bus past 8 (p.m.).” This is a good idea and people need to listen, Laney said. Cummings said he plans to use transportation as his No. 1 platform. “(Transportaion) doesn’t run on any holidays, and it shuts down about 8 p.m. – and it should run till about 12,” Cummings said. “I’m in touch with the students, in touch with the teachers, in touch with the parents, in touch with the problem,” Cummings said. “And I have a solution. I just need to be in a place to implement my plan.”
By Richard Adams editor-in-chief The question people most often pose to Hardie Davis about his recent retirement from the Georgia State Senate and his current bid for mayor of the city of Augusta is “Why?” Davis said his answer is simple: “The reality of it is my heart is here in Augusta, my family is here, all the things that are truly important to us. I’ve got an opportunity to come back to this city and make significant impact, because all politics are local.” George Sneed said his sense of Davis’s character comes from his personal knowledge of the candidate as a longtime friend and peer. They became friends while students at Georgia Tech together. “Hardie is one of the most intelligent men I know,” Sneed said. “If I thought about the future of Augusta and the growth and the increase of the tax base, I think Hardy is the best candidate to help make that happen.” Sneed said two factors set Davis apart from all the other qualified individuals running: the quality of his vision for Augusta and the political acumen he has accumulated while in state office. radams99@gru.edu
hharris011@yahoo.com
L. MYLES
Sheriff
CONTINUED from PAGE 1
but they can act in emergency situations,” Roundtree said. “They are going to go through the same training that officers go through. The only difference is that they aren’t state-certified.” The unveiling of this new program, he said, was timed to coincide with a crucial stage in the preparation of these officers. “Right now, (in their current phase of training) they’ve already been through three or four weeks of law training, government law, rules and regulations,” said Roundtree concerning the four current community safety officers. The proposal has already been tested in one iteration that was proven successful, said Margaret Woodard, the execu-
H. DAVIS
tive director of the Downtown Development Authority and a nine year resident of downtown Augusta. “I’ve seen this in operation at First Friday,” Woodard said. “They’re walking the streets, they’re chatting with people. There’s a big difference between having someone on a bike and on a foot patrol versus in a car.” Woodard said that Roundtree previously tried out a continuous car patrol of the area financed by property-owner taxes, but it only resulted in roughly 19 percent of the needed funds. “Citizens were not involved as much as they are now,” Mason said. “I think what that does when you involve citizens is it gives a more trusting feel.” Mason said this is just the beginning for the Augusta-Richmond County area. radams99@gru.edu
rant owner, a pastor and a retired army sergeant are all coming together and asking for Augusta’s support for the chance to make a huge difference. The citizens of Augusta are putting a lot of trust into a person to run the city, so it’s a crucial election, said Gwendolyn Freeman, the former chairwoman of the Columbia County Democratic Party. At the same time, she said, citizens need to know who they’re voting for.
H. BLOCKER-ADAMS
HELEN BLOCKERADAMS By Ashley Trawick news editor “Everything I’ve always done, it’s always been to impact people.” Helen Blocker-Adams has big plans she wants accomplished for Augusta. Her campaign primarily focuses on revitalization of certain areas in Augusta, education, poverty and health issues. With her campaign manager and longtime friend Pam Wilkins at her side, Blocker-Adams said she believes if she’s elected mayor, a number of plans can be moved forward. This is also a familiar territory for her because she previously ran for mayor in 2005. “I’m a lot more seasoned now,” Blocker-Adams said. “I know thousands of more people, people know me. I never stopped working after 2005 when I didn’t get enough votes. … After the race, I regrouped and did a lot of things in the private sector that I was doing prior too. So I see me running because there is a need for a person in that office at this particular time that can bridge the gap between (various groups of people). (I want to) bring different groups of people together, engage them in what needs to be done to help Augusta become the best that it can be and I have the ability to do that.” atrawick@gru.edu
SAAM
CONTINUED from PAGE 1
something that happens, you know, between early 20s and early 30s.” Johnston said she doesn’t think people know how high the rate of sexual assaults is or exactly what consent means. “Sometimes men, you know, might not think what they’re doing is rape and even in like marriages, if your wife says no and you still have sex with her, that’s technically rape,” said Scott Petrill, a Georgia Regents student who has an internship at Rape Crisis and Sexual Assault Services at University Hospital. “So, I mean those are some of the things people don’t really think about.” Petrill said that the rapist is often someone the victim
JESSICA SAGER | STAFF
Students decorate shirts with markers for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
knows. “Well, you know, people hear about rape, but you don’t really see how much it happens and the kind of people it happens to,” Petrill said. “It also happens to men, and some men don’t want to say that it happened to them because of pride or stuff like that.” Nix said she also tries to educate others on the topic. This will be the 18th year SAAM has been recognized on
campus, Nix said. SAAM has expanded over time to include more events. It now includes Paine College and East Georgia College. Events have included a screening of the film “It Was Rape,” which was followed by a panel discussion April 17. April 19, students gathered at University Village to make T-shirts for the Clothesline Project. jschucke@gru.edu
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014
PAGE 4
opinion www.grubellringer.com
editorial
GRU is looking out for you (for once) Change comes with consequences, a fact Georgia Regents University students continue to learn. The latest repercussion of the creation of our new research institution is significantly increased tuition rates, levied by the University System of Georgia at the Board of Regents’ meeting April 15. In the wake of this announcement, we are left with little solace apart from the comparatively higher rates of other state research institutions. How sadly true that we have to look to the misery of others for comfort. If we are to be expected to pay an extra 4 percent, does it assuage the wound to know University of Georgia students will be charged 7 percent above what they currently pay? And Georgia Institute
of Technology students sit at the furthest end of the scale with a 9 percent hike in fees, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Now incoming freshmen at Georgia Regents are projected to have to pay 13 percent more than their peers who were enrolled at the beginning of the merger. Several media outlets have run stories reporting the increase. A few publications, like the online Augusta CEO, have gone as far as to try to explain this exorbitance and posit it in a positive light, saying “higher tuition at the research universities … help support the retention of nationally recognized faculty, keep classes small and maintain quality programming.” In this manner, the raise in tuition could be a matter The Bell Ringer could
be approaching with a new sense of foreboding. But we aren’t because a miraculous thing happened between the meeting of the Board of Regents and the publication of this paper. Our school took a stand, and its representatives did so in a very public way. Instead of justifying the actions of the Board of Regents or quickly aligning with its chosen rhetoric, Provost Gretchen Caughman spoke on behalf of the administration this week and made a stand against the impending economic blow. “Our intent is to keep each entering cohort relatively held harmless with respect to these incremental increases,” Caughman said. In doing so, the university has clearly sided with the students on an issue of great importance. In dedicating ourselves to our educa-
tions, it is our simple request to the university that when the fight gets tough the administration can be trusted to have our backs. In this case, it seems apparent that Georgia Regents has stepped in between the students and the Board of Regents and assumed a protective role only it could fulfill. What stands out about this action is its conspicuous consideration of current students. If the bottom line and the prestige of heightened tuition were the only thing that mattered, the concerns of current students would not have elicited such a forceful and firm response on the part of the school. Instead, the administration acted to protect the interests of its student body. And this is exactly as a respected university should operate.
Summer brings opportunities By Stephen Hall contributor My application for the first and only internship I applied for, an internship working for Congressman John Barrow, listed my GPA at 3.01. Honestly, the idea of applying for an internship, let alone being accepted for one, seemed questionable at best. I don’t think I necessarily lacked confidence, but I personally considered myself to be a realist. When it comes to my grades in college, I’ll tell you in a heartbeat that I consider myself to be slightly above average. Of course I’ve strived to be better than average, and I still do. But that was my personal opinion of myself at the time. In fact, I thought for certain that every other applicant applying for this kind of position would have a better list of accomplishments than me. This kind of thinking unfortunately followed me into Congressman Barrow’s office the morning of my interview. The anxiety I felt was immense to say the least. But here I was waiting for an interview that could very seriously impact my career after graduation in ways that I still have yet to imagine. How exactly I got to this position, that story was simple. The chair of the political science department, Sudha Ratan, suggested we all look towards internships before graduation at the end of one of her lectures. The suggestion really stood out to me that day because we had just finished discussing the increasing amount of jobs being outsourced, or off-shored, overseas in India. World Politics was the course I had with Ratan and globalization was the topic, but the fact that I would need to look for employment soon was materializing right in front of me. Between a competitive job market right here in the states, an economic recession that we still aren’t quite out of and major national publications routinely asking if college was worth your
time and money, the light switch flipped on so to speak. I needed to stand out not just from my fellow up-and-coming classmates graduating at the end of the next year with me but with students and professionals from all over. An internship in college shows employers way more than just your research papers or final grades. It puts on display you as a person. I’m being allowed the opportunity to show my dedication, my aptitude for overcoming obstacles and my ability to multitask and problem solve. This chance cannot go wasted. My mind was made up that very moment. I was going to finally take the initiative on something for once. I can’t claim to have done it all on my own. I was lucky enough to have Kathleen Searles as my adviser; she heads the internships for the Political Science Department. I learned of the John Barrow program through her, and she was crucial in helping me to get the necessary paper work completed and submitted. I wrote my first professional cover letter and resume with help from the career center, also contributing to my success. Essentially, I learned how to apply for a real job in the real world, and those skills are some of the most valuable you can receive before graduation. I can only hope that other departments around campus have done as well of a job at getting students interested in internships like the political science department. I’ve asked around and I personally don’t know too many students applying for internships, and that is a shame. The impression I get from the few recent college graduates who I’ve known over the last few years who have lived in Augusta searching for work is that even the entry level positions require experience. You probably just glanced over without processing just how profound that sentence was so I’ll make bold the most important message. shall8@gru.edu
editorial policy Letters to the editor must be accompanied by the author’s email address. All columns and letters to the editor are the opinion of the author. The views expressed in the opinion section do not necessarily express those of The Bell Ringer, a designated public forum. Anything submitted to The Bell Ringer is open to be edited or rejected. However, The Bell Ringer staff gives all opinions a fair chance to be heard. All letters will be edited for grammar and style. If you would like to contribute a column or a letter to the editor, send an email to: bellringerproduction@gmail.com
CONTRIBUTED BY RYAN MCLAY
Seaman Ryan McLay cleans the barracks during her time at a training facility, which had a profound impact on her.
Veteran remembers time spent with soldiers, sailors By Ryan McLay contributor As graduation approaches and my time as a student at Georgia Regents University wanes to an end, I have been reflecting upon what it means to be a student veteran. Three years ago, when conducting research on students’ access to Veterans Administration health care for a women’s studies course I felt a need for a space on campus to accommodate the unique identities of student veterans. We come from all backgrounds: liberal, conservative, Libertarian, Mormon, atheist, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, transgender, gay, bi, straight, married, single with children, single with no children – you name it. Even more, we come from all recent eras: Vietnam, Korea, the first Iraq war, the “War on Terror,” Afghanistan. Yet, we all have one thing in common: e signed a contract to serve our country. As such, we come from a shared experience, a rite of passage, from being in some of the country’s biggest military institutions, which brings us together as a community. My story, like so many others who served, is very common. I joined the U.S. Navy in the fall of 1999 to leave the cold winters
of Central Wisconsin and to earn education benefits. At the time, I had few opinions on patriotism, guns, nationhood or politics. All I really knew was that I wanted a college education that my family could not afford. Then 9/11 happened. I witnessed the country polarize around patriotic and political agendas as I’d never seen in my 21 years. The following spring, in March 2003, I was on my first deployment to the Persian Gulf and the ship I was stationed on had sent the first missiles to Iraq. I was gaining a sense of self and a sense of patriotism, though I was not supportive of my nation’s actions. But, to me, being a service member means doing the job you are assigned to do, no matter how mundane, hazardous or ridiculous the job was. It did not matter if you supported your commander in chief or not. You still did your job. I separated honorably in 2006, and 15 years after signing up for the military I am finally achieving my goal of earning my degree. It has been paid in full by my veteran’s education benefits. Though I had never been a model sailor or really ever identified with the military, I had served with integrity and honor until I could move on as a civilian to pursue other avenues.
Surprisingly enough, the semester after I’d finished my research on students’ access to VA health benefits, a fellow student had chartered the Student Veterans Association. Even more surprising to me was that I experienced a sense of belonging there that I had never been able to achieve in either the military or in the classroom. As a nontraditional student a decade older than many of my classmates, I’d come to realize that all those unique experiences I had in the military, good or bad, set my scope of experience far apart from many civilians. As a graduating senior, this “hippie liberal” served as an officer in the SVA for two years and seen how it has grown and become a true presence on campus. Even better, we have seen the campus respond to the student veteran population by providing spaces and jobs with the Office of Military and Veterans Services and the veterans lounge in Washington Hall. Even the Augusta Warrior Project has a presence on campus and is helping veterans in need. This month, SVA will pass the torch on to other officers with just as much passion for service as we had, all with unique stories of their own. As for me, my service continues. rmclay@gru.edu
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Long-distance hiking soothes By Caleb Joiner contributor
I’ve walked more than 2,000 miles. Hiking the Appalachian Trail and various other trails it adds up to about 2,300 miles. I’ve always really liked being outside, but several years ago a friend and I went on a random weekend hiking trip (we had to borrow a tent to do it) in Clayton County in North Georgia. I thought that was the most awesome time I’d ever had. I’d heard about the AT before, having worked with a guy who’d done it. I was fascinated by the idea of it. I started taking my weekends and going up to the mountains and exploring different random trails, taking different paths through the woods. Ever since I started doing it, I just found myself going further and further each new time. After doing several hikes on the lower portion of the AT, I thought to myself, “I’m going to do this whole thing one day.” In the beginning of 2012, a friend and I did the first 30 miles on the AT. We saw a guy coming down the trail toward us, and he was very haggard-looking. After talking with him, we came to find out that he was a south-bounder and he was about to finish, having come all the way from Maine. Meeting him on the trail put a whole different spin on it. It let me know that I could do this going south-bound. I could walk home. I started on July 5, 2012, and finished on Dec. 12, 2012. I thought I wasn’t going to
CONTRIBUTED BY TIM DONLAN
The view from Blood Mountain, the highest point on the Appalachian Trail in Georgia, inspired Caleb Joiner’s walks.
meet that many people, but I met a ton of really cool people. And I also met some people I didn’t really care to meet again. But out there I learned the value of friendship. At some parts of the trail you are hiking by yourself all day long, and then you catch up to some person who is going the same way as you are or either they catch up to you at a shelter. You haven’t known that the whole time this guy or girl has been five or 10 miles behind you at certain points. People would walk up into the shelter, and you’d meet them for the first time in your life.
Next thing you know, you’d be with them or around them for the next couple of months until they got to a state where they had a friend. That friend would come and pick them up, and they’d spend a few days off-trail. So you would lose people along the way, and they would end up a few days behind you. But you would keep up with them through Facebook or the phone. Having new people to talk to from different places and backgrounds really enriched the experience of being on the trail for so long. There were nurses, students,
even a woodworker from Ireland. It was a cross-cut of human society, and they were all out there because they liked being outside and walking long distances. In the case of the Irish woodworker, Smiley, he came over to the United States for an internship building furniture. He had six months left over, and the guy he was interning for said, “I know a cool way you can see a good section of the United States.” And that’s how Smiley got started. On the trail you go through some really small towns that are off the beaten path. Some towns
you walk right through an Ivy League school. Dartmouth even has a lab set up for through-hikers where you can rest and use computers. People are very welcoming. They might leave supplies at designated locations along the trail, or they might let you stay in their house. I had to wait on a pair of shoes in Pennsylvania one time and a kid talked his mom into letting three of us sleep in their basement for a night because the shoes would be at the post office the next day. I’d only met the kid two hours before. People understand what you are doing. They inherently know that you’re a throughhiker. (Also, the odor really lets people know.) But people are willing to help. They may not fully understand what you’re doing, but they know if you need water and will leave it by the side of the road to be picked up later. The trail has its own community all around it. It is very open and embracing of hikers, be it weekend warriors or people going really long distances. Walking through the backwoods of 14 states, there’s a lot that you pass and a lot that you go through. You see a lot. You might be in a town the day it has a parade celebrating Logging Day, a day when seaplanes fly overhead. There’s a lot out there to be experienced. I’ve realized that right now is right now – and it is now that I am able in my work and in my fitness level to do these things. It’s an aspect of my life that I thoroughly enjoy. cable2281@gmail.com
Vacations give a break from reality
By Mindy Wadley copy editor
When I was little, summer was by far my favorite season of the year. School was out, and I got to run around in my bathing suit all day every day (or so it seemed). My family and I would go to the lake, take trips to Six Flags and just enjoy soaking up the sun with no responsibilities tying us down. In the past few years, though, summer has lost its magical quality which made me cherish it all through childhood. Many reasons contribute to this change in my perception of the seasons. The first is the intense heat endured by us who live in the South. For the past three years, I have had
the misfortune of driving a car without air conditioning. I have looked into getting it repaired a couple of times, but whenever I think I might finally have the money to fix it something else comes up that my funds go to instead. I think when I was younger, the heat wasn’t such a burden for me. As I said before, it seemed like I spent all my time in my bathing suit in those days, whether at the local swimming pool, the lake or just running around in the front yard taking turns aiming the water hose at each other with my sister. Now, having to spend time outside on a hot summer day is a major buzzkill. Another contributing factor to my disdain for the summer
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is my preferences as a sports fan. When I was younger, going to Braves games during the summertime was a family tradition year after year. As I’ve gotten older, however, more fast-paced, high-scoring sports have taken over baseball’s place as one of my favorite sporting events. Now it’s safe to say that football season is my favorite time of the year. The third reason for summer’s fall from the top of my list is attributed to the inevitable phenomenon of becoming an adult and, therefore, taking on responsibility. Back in my younger years, even during high school, summer meant zero responsibilities. No school meant my time was truly my own. That dearth of responsibility during the summer months went out the window when I graduated high school and moved out on my own, choosing to support myself at the age of 17. Since then, I have had to work during the summers in order to keep the bills paid. Alas, I cannot fast-forward through the summer months to arrive at my new favorite season: autumn. With its crisp tem-
CONTRIBUTED BY MINDY WADLEY
During summer, my daughter and I like to take breaks from the sun together.
peratures, the picturesque colors emerging in both nature and fashion, the excitement of football season beginning and the sensation that the holidays are right around the corner, autumn definitely ranks as my preferred time of year. But for now I will have to
make the most of the summer months and try and ensure that my daughter gets to experience that magical feeling that goes along with hot days by the pool, family vacations and the feeling of freedom during summer break. mindyawadley@gmail.com
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014
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ARTS & LIFE www.grubellringer.com
Hackathon helps NASA By Jordan Barry production manager
AMY THORNE | STAFF
Darius Rucker performs at the 10th annual Drive For Show, Rock Fore! Dough concert during Masters week April 8.
Rucker rocks out By Haley Harris news editor
The annual Drive for Show, Rock Fore! Dough kicked off the spring break week with enjoyable music, gorgeous weather and cowboy boots. Rock Fore! Dough celebrated its 10th concert Tuesday, April 8. All proceeds from the concert went towards The First Tee of Augusta, a nonprofit network dedicated toward providing young people of all ethnic and economic backgrounds an opportunity to develop through golf and character education, according to the Rock Fore! Dough website. The event took place at the Lady Antebellum Pavilion at Evans Towne Center Park and everyone who attended was provided close parking with either a fee or for free, according to the website. The event was open to the public with a $25 fee in advance and $35 at the gate, according to
flyers advertising the event. VIP tickets were also available for $125 and VIP tables were available for rent for $1,000. Admission allowed guests access to vendors providing hospitality such as dinner from venders like Chick-fil-a, beer and wine provided by Budweiser and Yuengling, children’s entertainment and the most popular attraction, a free country concert from four artists. “The event is always one that brings in a crowd,” said Jill Brown from First Tee of Augusta. “Having such big celebrities such as Darius Rucker and Randy Houser is a huge benefit.” Darius Rucker headlined this year’s concert, making it his 10th appearance at the Rock Fore! Dough benefit, according to the press release. According to a biography on his personal website, Rucker was born in Charleston, S.C., and started his music career with a band called Hootie and the Blowfish that he founded in
the 1980s at the University of South Carolina. From there, he slowly converted to the country style of music and has since released four albums and been inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. Guests were allowed to stand close to the stage as performances took place in order to get the full experience with the singers, said Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver. “It was so personal and up close,” Melanie Middleton, of Augusta, Ga., said. “I love Darius Rucker and I’ve never been to one of his concerts so this was awesome. I was right up at the front screaming like a little girl with my daughters. We were all loving the concert.” Middleton was with her daughters, Ashley, 13, and Alice, 17. She said they were overwhelmed by the performances. “I didn’t know some of the songs, like the Hootie and the Blowfish stuff he sang, but see ROCK on PAGE 7
A local hackerspace participated in NASA’s third annual Hackathon. The Clubhou.se, located in downtown Augusta, took on the International Space Apps Challenge from April 12 to April 13. Vinnie Ingallinera, a keyholding member of the Clubhou. se, said the group was focusing on NASA’s data collection project. “We decided to take on a project here that focused on identification and location of CubeSat satellites in orbit that have been launched by various organizations around the world,” he said. The project, Community Open-Source Ground Station, provided an opportunity for different members to collaborate. “I picked up the project yesterday and then kind of threw out the Bat Signal to figure out who can do what on this project,” Ingallinera said. “We didn’t have
any solidified plans as to what project we were going to work on, and this one came along. It just looked like we had all the right members of the Clubhou. se with all the right individual skill sets in order to pull it off.” Chris Williamson, a founding member of the Clubhou.se who also worked on COGS, said the project would help NASA track CubeSat satellites. “NASA needs a way to almost monitor these satellites 24/7,” he said. “So, by more space stations that are cheaply made, like how we’re working on that, we’re able to give them that data.” COGS could help NASA to track and collect data from satellites using inexpensive materials to make an antenna, Williamson said. He also said once the project was submitted to NASA’s website it would become opensource, which is something The Clubhou.se likes. Anyone will see HACK on PAGE 8
JORDAN BARRY | STAFF
Chloe Parker designs a card game to help raise awareness about asteroids.
Where are Georgia Regents University students eating?
Alex Brassell, a senior administrative info tech systems major
Joshua Rhodes, a senior English major
Amanda Arvidson, a freshman biology major
Grayson LaHatte, a sophomore political science major
Show is catching students in the act By Ashley Trawick news editor
When it comes to being talented, a lot of people are unaware of their own peers having gifts they don’t expose to the world. For theater students at Georgia Regents University, these gifts are shown in a variety of ways such as writing plays, acting in them, directing scenes or running the set as a stage manager. The theater students will again show their talents with their upcoming show “Students Caught in the Act,” which will debut during the weekend of April 26. Carolyn Cope, an associate professor of communications, said the show was originally a part of the playwriting and directing showcase that presented the playwrights’ work by having the student directors cast the shows and display oneact plays, but this year they’ve changed the way they handle the show. “The theater faculty, we would kind of open it up,” she said. “Instead of just having the one-acts that we would actually have, maybe, some scenes that
ASHLEY TRAWICK | STAFF
Sarah Alderson and Brandon Fields rehearse their scene for the Students Caught in the Act show Thursday in the Drama Center classroom in Washington Hall on the Summerville campus.
came out of the acting classes or that (we would) have maybe some monologues. Melanie (O’Meara) has been doing some performance studies assignments, and we had the Patti Pace festival here (this) semester. Some of our students were very involved with that … We thought she could showcase some of that.” Ashley Rivera, a senior communications major, has been in charge of holding auditions for students over the past couple of weeks. She’s been publicizing
the auditions by social media outlets, but she said it has been a little rocky trying to get students involved with the show. “We haven’t gotten the crowd that we would like who would’ve come out,” Rivera said. “We would hope that we would get more students because they’re smaller shows and they are smaller things to work on so they don’t have to commit, for example, a whole 30 months for it, we’re excited about getting the plays casted.”
Cope said most of the plays are written by students in Professor Rick Davis’s “Writing for the Theater” course, which is held in the fall. Jennifer Morey, a senior theater major, is directing one scene in the show for a directing class. a play called “Proof.” “I wanted to stick with directing (instead of acting) this year,” she said. “I did like acting in ‘Students Caught in the Act’ last year, but I would like to have a little time on the other side to not worry about lines and worry about the composition and things on stage and things like that.” Morey said she thinks other students, both communications and non-communications majors, should support the show and would enjoy it because the show is more broad this year. “It will be a wide, wide range,” she said. “You get to see kind of a compareand-contrast between the student-written plays and the famous kind of plays … I like supporting everyone.” atrawick@gru.edu
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THE BELL RINGER
Is safe sex on the decline for students? By Mindy Wadley copy editor
AMY THORNE | STAFF
Nino Ortiz Tora participates in International TableTop Game Day, April 5, held at 2nd & Charles.
SCORE:
Gamers play for global game day
By Meredith Day staff writer
attend. Paul Rogers, employee at The Book Exchange, said they host board game nights weekly at the store so this event wasn’t much different from their usual schedule but they did receive a support kit to give to participants on the day of the event. “We ordered in a support kit that comes with a lot of promos and freebies from different publishers so we’ll have that stuff to give out,” Rogers said. “It’s not meant to be anything over-the-top. It’s still a casual event.” While tabletop games may have been seen as part of nerd culture in the past, participant Monte Holt said, during the last couple of years tabletop games have become increasingly popular. “A lot of people are starting to steer that way and I think a lot of it is because of the influence from some of the nerdier culture, like ‘Big Bang Theory’ and ‘Eureka’, and people are seeing that being a nerd is actually cool,” said Holt, giving his insight on why he thought such events had become increasingly popular. The organizers for International TableTop Day said they are already looking forward to planning next year’s event. There are also plenty of opportunities to get into tabletop games year-round, such as game nights held every Monday at The Book Exchange, located at 1650 Gordon Highway. “We hope to build on International TableTop Day year-on-year and have as many players, publishers and countries joining in,” Bryant said. “We’re excited to hear from everyone who participated this year and learn how to make it a better event next year as well.”
For thousands of people across the world, International TableTop Day, April 5, was a day to break out their twentysided dice and gather around the table to enjoy fun with friends. The event started in 2013 when Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day, who run the web show “TableTop,” decided to create an event which celebrates tabletop culture, said Sheri Bryant, co-founder of Geek & Sundry and executive producer for the “TableTop” series. “It was very much Wil and Felicia’s idea,” Bryant said. “As the co-creators of the ‘TableTop’ show, they both had so much fun making the series and received such (an) overwhelming response from the fans that they thought, ‘Why not celebrate it on an international scale and bring friends, family and other tabletop (gaming) fans together today through gaming?’ It’s very much a way for us to promote games as a platform to talk and laugh and play together as a community.” While only in its second year, International TableTop Day has already become a huge event for gamers across the world. In its first year, 3,123 events registered worldwide and this year the number of hosted events was expected to be even bigger, Bryant said. “This included seven continents, 64 countries and every state and province in North America participating,” Bryant said. “We even had the good folks on the U.S. Antarctic Program in the South Pole playing Carcassonne on the day.” While the day is largely targeted at those already involved in the tabletop culture, Bryant said everyone with an interest in tabletop gaming was encouraged to
ROCK
CONTINUED from PAGE 6
I have heard them on the radio, so either way that was still cool,” said Ashley Middleton. “I sang when he sang ‘Southern State of Mind.’ That’s my favorite.” Randy Houser was another big name to perform Tuesday night. He has scored multiple No. 1 hits on the radio over the past couple of years, according to the event’s press release. “I honestly didn’t know who Randy Houser was when I first seen his name,” Jamie Woodstall said before the concert. “His name didn’t sound familiar so I had to Google him and then I realized I know pretty much all of his songs, so I’m ex-
No glove, no love? Not so much these days. While condoms are one of the simplest, most affordable ways to protect against unwanted pregnancy and STDs, the majority of Americans aren’t using them. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 68.3 percent of sexually active men reported never using condoms from 2006 to 2010, while 71.6 percent of sexually active women reported never using them. In an effort to support the sexual health of students, the Student Health Clinic at Georgia Regents University offers free condoms at the clinic as well as special events it hosts around campus, said Leslie Wilcher, the outreach coordinator for Student Health Services. “We do offer free condoms in our waiting room during all of our operation hours,” Wilcher said. “You don’t have to have an appointment. You can just come on in and get some. It’s very discreet. We also offer STD panel tests so that if you do feel like you’ve had some kind of contact that you want to get checked out, you can come in and get an STD test. That is at a charge for the labs, but no charge for the actual seeing the doctor.” While the majority of sexually active Americans aren’t using condoms, students at Georgia Regents have a higher rate of use. According to a survey conducted by The Bell Ringer, 26.25 percent of sexually active students always use condoms and 42.5 percent sometimes use condoms; however, 31.25 percent of sexually active students still never use them. “I would say that they have stigma attached to having condoms, especially for a woman,” Wilcher said. “For you to carry around a condom sometimes has a negative connotation that you are
looking for that kind of behavior. Also, it’s just irresponsibility as well. … They might have it in their nightstand, but maybe they don’t have it when they need it and that kind of thing. We do try to educate them on the necessity for safe sex, but it just hasn’t 100 percent sunk in yet. (There are still) a lot of really responsible students out there using the condoms, because we do give out a good many of them.” Dylan Smith, a senior television and cinema major, said he always uses condoms. He also said using a condom every time is a big priority for him. “Sex for pleasure isn’t a bad thing in my eyes at all,” Smith said. “And just like with anything else, like if you were to go skydiving or anything that involves a present danger, it requires some responsibility and safety. I think that condoms are a simple and proactive way for men to be responsible and safe while having sex, which they have every right to do.” Smith said he thinks it is important to use a condom even for couples in monogamous relationships when the female partner is on birth control. “I would feel lazy and inconsiderate if they went out of their way and paid for birth control, which is much more expensive, just so I can enjoy myself,” he said. “So it’s a matter of mutualism. That and I like to take every precaution possible. I know there’s birth controls that make it so that there’s a 99 percent chance you won’t get pregnant. I still like to take the extra precaution because ... obtaining and using condoms is a really simple process, so there’s really no excuse for me not to do it.” Wilcher said the importance of practicing safe sex to prevent unwanted pregnancies and STDs outweighed any other potential inconveniences. “It is definitely less embarrassing to broach the subject of using a condom than to have to come and be checked for STDs or get an STD,” she said. mindyawadley@gmail.com
Condom Usage Statistics at GRU
mday4@gru.edu
cited to hear him live.” Woodstall enjoyed the concert with her husband Tristan Woodstall and afterwards complimented all the performances. “The entire concert was so great,” Jamie Woodstall said. “We both had such a great time listening to the music and relaxing. This week is a vacation for both of us and attending this is always a must.” Woodstall and her husband were both excited for Ruckers’ performance. “Darius, of course, was my favorite because I can sing along to all of his songs, but Randy Houser did awesome, too,” Tristan Woodstall said. “I didn’t know he had so many hits. Country music is my thing, though.”
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Garden City gets jazzy
Never use Always use 26% 31%
Sometimes use 43%
GRAPHIC BY REBECCA PERBETSKY
Data provided by CDC website and a survey conducted by The Bell Ringer.
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Foreign Concept: Jazz Initiative gives Augusta a taste of the season during the Spring Fever Jazz Series at Pendleton King Park March 14.
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Morris displays fine art By Collette Richards contributor Art is everywhere: on the street, in the home and virtually every place imaginable. Southern art, as it pertains to the Morris Museum of Art, includes artists who either lived or studied in the South or produced works relating to Southern culture and history. The museum owns works dating back to the late 18th century to the present day, according to its website. Director Kevin Grogan is in charge of selecting works from the permanent collection to be displayed in the galleries. He said he focuses on works of art that not only portray Southern themes but also tell a story of the time. “The museum is the only museum whose mission-driven purpose transcends the local community,” Grogan said. “We serve the local community.” The Morris Museum is a nonprofit educational institution that opened its doors September 1992. The museum houses more than 5,000 pieces of Southern art in its permanent collection and frequently features Southern artists inside of its vast galleries, he said. Nicole McLeod, the director of marketing and public relations, said she reaches out to the public about the museum’s numerous events. “The museum’s mission is to expand and educate the region and beyond about the culture of the South in every form,” McLeod said. The museum is the first to be dedicated to the art and artists of the American South, she said. It has several events on a weekly basis that are directed toward interesting a widespread demographic. Todd Beasley, the creative director, designs everything from the calendars and newsletters to the website for the museum. “As far as presenting the information in an aesthetic way, the art speaks for itself,” Beasley said. “When I designed the website, most of the color on the website is all art, otherwise it is fairly subdued.”
cricha32@gru.edu
Symons shares his own story
CONTRIBUTED BY KEL SYMONS
Hack
CONTINUED from PAGE 6
be able to view the project and pick up where they left off. “We’re a big part of the open-sources scene,” Williamson said. “We love collaborating with other places, especially with somebody like NASA. I’ve got a huge affiliation with NASA with my robotics. I developed some robotic equipment with NASA. So, anything that we can get involved in to help in, that’s
AMY THORNE | STAFF
The Sacred Heart Cultural Center features architecture that is unique for the CSRA, providing a venue for various events within the community.
Augusta shows its heart By Amy Thorne arts & life editor
For more than 100 years, Sacred Heart has given the Augusta community a piece of history, fine art and architecture. Sandra Fenstermacher, Sacred Heart’s executive director, said the design and architecture of the building is something the community will not see in other Southern buildings. The building offers 16 different designs of brickwork and 95 stained glass windows, architectural features Fenstermacher said are very rare in Southern buildings. She said one couple that traveled all over the world said it rivaled anything they’d seen in Europe. Ongoing efforts to preserve the building have included reapplying plaster to the ceilings, painting and a 3-year By Jessica Sager copy editor Kel Symons, a comic book author and movie writer, came to Georgia Regents University April 14 to give a talk and do a book signing. “It was very nice,” said Regynal McKie, a Georgia Regents alumn who was at the event. “I am a comic book artist and I do a little bit of writing, so I came here to kind of get the other side of it from the writing part of how you take the script and, you know, condense it into comic book form. So, that was very informative.” Symons said he is currently doing research for a live-action remake of Disney’s “Aladdin.” Assistant Professor Matthew Buzzell said Symons is also one of the writers on the “Game of Thrones” video game. He is the author of two comic books published by Image Comics, “I Love Trouble” and, most recently, “The Mercenary Sea.” Symons said another comic, “Reyn,” will be released toward the end of the year. Symons started his career in development and worked on the production end,
something we love to do.” Eric Parker, a managing partner and a founding member of the Clubhou.se, said after 48 hours of working on the project they would submit it to NASA’s website for the possibility to make it to the global judging process. He said the Clubhou.se made it to global judging last year for their deployable greenhouse project. “They had to go through the process of how would you deploy a greenhouse to go on the planet Mars?” Parker said. “So, that involved every-
process of carving out and replacing the mortar of the building’s bricks. “Once we get a new roof on the building, most of the major architectural features that have to be restored will be restored by then,” Fenstermacher said. The building closed in 1971 and was supposed to be torn down when Pete Knox intervened and saved the building, his wife Pamela Knox-Hudson said. After staying vacant for 15 years, Sacred Heart reopened as a cultural center in 1987. The center has hosted garden clubs, speakers, weddings, proms and meetings. All the diverse activity is welcoming to the community, Fenstermacher said. Sacred Heart also hosts the Greater Augusta Arts and various local chorales. She also said the interior needs little decorating for events such as weddings. “You can go in the morning and get one feel, and go late in the afternoon and get another feel depending on how the sun is coming through the stained glass window,” she said. Even those passing by the exterior who have never been inside can still appreciate Sacred Heart’s beauty, Fenster-
“
What I’m hoping students will take away from it will be an insight into the realities of being a writer in the entertainment industry.
”
--Matthew Buzzell, an assistant professor of communications Buzzell said. Symons helped to develop “Clear and Present Danger” and the remake of “The Omen.” His script “If They Move Kill ‘Em”, Buzzell said, opened a lot of doors for Symons. Symons said he started writing short stories as a child. Seeing Michael Crichton’s “Andromeda Strain” on television changed how he looked at science-fiction. His dad also showed him movies on the VCR, Symons said. “When VHS came out, and you were able to watch a movie over and over and over again, I would,” he said. “I was seeing how a scene evolved. I was seeing how characters interact with each other, how dialogue worked or didn’t work and it, you know, it is a school of sorts, to
thing from being able to compartmentalize something so that you could fit it in a rocket and then be able to expand it back out.” Parker said NASA offers prizes for the winners like a trip to the Kennedy Space Center. However, he said, the prizes aren’t important. “I think the real prize is the possibility that something you’re using might actually be used by NASA’s Open Innovation program and then be a real physical contribution to the space program,” he said. jbarry3@gru.edu
macher said. She also said many people hold fond memories with Sacred Heart. One Northern couple even came back to Augusta for their 50th wedding anniversary just to see the church where they wed. Another couple, Fenstermacher said, who went to prom at Sacred Heart later got married in the same building. Mary Lou Garren, who gives history tours for the Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau, also has memories with Sacred Heart. She said she was part of the first graduating class from Aquinas High School when it held its graduation in Sacred Heart in 1958. “It was beautiful,” she said. “The church was absolutely stunning and it was always just sort of awe-inspiring.” The building offers 16 different designs of brickwork and 95 stained glass windows, architectural features Fenstermacher said are very rare in Southern churches. She said one couple said it rivaled anything they’d seen in Europe. “It offers a little something for everyone,” Garren said. “It’s a very special place and well worth keeping.” athorne@gru.edu
watch all that sort of play out.” Symons’s love of TV and movies came before his love of writing, he said. He also encouraged aspiring writers to read a lot in order to learn their craft. “The key is perseverance,” he said, “You have to be able to stomach (rejection) and get through it and not have it devastate you to the point that you just don’t want to do it anymore. I can promise you that every writer, probably every artist of every stripe, has had that same level of desperation and depression. (You) have to be able to work through that and say, ‘All right, I’m going to keep trying.’” Not everyone succeeds in the area they want to, Symons said, but sometimes they can find another career in their industry that will work. “What I’m hoping students will take away from it will be an insight into the realities of being a writer in the entertainment industry,” Buzzell said. “It’s not just being a creative mind, but it’s also being a dedicated writer and someone who has some hustle and savvy to succeed because it’s also a business.” jschucke@gru.edu
JORDAN BARRY | STAFF
Mike McDargh works on a project during the Hackathon at the Clubhou.se.
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THE BELL RINGER
comics
Spring has Sprung
Across 2. Households spend $131 on ______ each year. 7. The earliest known use of the term spring-________ was in 1857. 9. _______ is Latin for "equal night." 10. The Slatina spring in Slovenia is alleged to have been discovered by the mythological horse _______. 11. Before we called it spring, the season was known as ____. 12. Benjamin ________ first proposed Daylight Savings Time in 1784.
Down 1. The first day of spring is called the ______ equinox. 3. 90 million chocolate _______are produced each year. 4. Americans consume more than 16 million __________ on Easter. 5. The first spring flowers are typically ________, dandelions, lilies, tulips, iris and lilacs. 6. Christians consider Easter ____ to symbolize joy and celebration. 8. $14.7 _______ is spent in total during Easter. 9. 76 percent of people eat the ____ on the chocolate bunnies first. 10. 700 million _____ are produced each year in the U.S.
Good Luck!
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sports
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014
www.grubellringer.com
Jags bring it home Men’s baseball team aims to compete in conference tourney By Rebecca Perbetsky production assistant As the 2014 season comes to an end, the GRU Augusta Diamond Jaguars (17-28, 9-17 PBC) are hoping to keep the dream alive. “It has been a bit of a rollercoaster,” said Jason Eller, head coach of the GRUAugusta baseball team. “We have played some good baseball at times, and we have kind of got in our own way a few times. And when we don’t beat ourselves, we are pretty competitive with anybody in the conference and in the country.” At the start of the season, the Diamond Jaguars were the underdog, Eller said. Despite being the underdog and playing teams that didn’t necessarily see them coming, the Jaguars still managed to stay in the running for tournament play and won more games than in the previous season, he said. “Flagler was one of them, and Georgia College probably didn’t see us coming very much,” Eller said. “We didn’t play real well against Columbus, but it’s always nice to be an underdog. It’s just how it is in the game of life, and a lot of people use that to their advantage. We have sometimes, and we will probably be an underdog again this weekend against Francis Marion. Hopefully we will go out there and compete and find a way to win the series.” Although the team has been viewed by the competition as the underdog, Frank Warren, a left-handed pitcher
for the GRU Augusta Diamond Jaguars, said the team has also improved over the course of the season. “We have really been working hard to stay in the games and put up a strong fight,” Warren said. “We have come up short a few times, but we are making a lot of improvements and we are still staying in the fight for a conference tournament spot, so we are making improvements every day.” While the team has made improvements during the season, Clint Echols, a righthanded pitcher for GRUAugusta, said they still have a long way to go. “We made an improvement from last year as far as being a better baseball team and winning more games, but we still have only won 16 games,” Echols said. “Our ultimate goal at the beginning of the year was to make it to the conference tournament, and it is going to boil down to this weekend. If we play good against Francis Marion, we have a good shot to go in there, but ultimately we only won 16 games, and that is not very acceptable.” The team is doing a lot better than at the start of the season, Echols said. “We are coached well, there (are) just some things we could do better defensively and offensively,” Echols said. “There have been some guys who got hurt and we have had to have some guys step up and the guys that have gone down were some major attributes to the team, but we still have managed
Anthony Garcia sports editor
A call for more auto culture
REBECCA SIMANSKI | STAFF
Zach Murray, the third baseman, warms up to play Erksine April 9.
really been working hard “toWestayhavein the games and put up a strong fight. ” -- Frank Warren, a left-handed pitcher for the Jaguars
to be right here and be very close to getting into the conference tournament and I feel like we have a shot. We just have to play hard, and offense has to step up.” In the midst of preparing for a possible trip to the conference tournament, injuries have taken a toll on the players, Eller said. “We have been dealing with some injuries that have been in key positions that every team deals with,” Eller said. “Guys have stepped up, and we still need some more guys to step up here down the stretch but it’s been a
challenge. But I think we are respected in the league.” With key players getting injured and other players stepping up on the field, at the end of the day the team is competitive, Eller said. “I have tried to stress that this is our last home series and it is senior weekend and it is about these seven guys that we are running out there to get honored for what they have done for GRU and Augusta State,” Eller said. “We have to get locked in for those seniors and give those seniors our best effort, mentally and physically.” rperbets@gru.edu
Team falls in PBC tourney By Jordan Williams sports editor
It was focusing on the little things that helped the GRUAugusta softball team squeak (22-34, 9-13 PBC) into the Peach Belt Conference tournament as the final seed at No. 8. Coming into the month of April, the Jaguars were 3-7 in conference play and positioned at the bottom tier of the league standings. However, there was still a month of softball left to be played and the team remained focused on climbing up the conference ladder, said senior second base player Hannah Vaughn. “We knew we had to fight,” Vaughn said. “We had to win some games, and I think we really locked down and did what we needed to do.” The turning point in the season was when the Diamond Jaguars swept Georgia Southwestern in a doubleheader on senior day April 6. In game one, the Jaguars won in a defensive struggle 3-1, but they turned around and blanked the Hurricanes 6-0 in game two. Senior left-handed pitch-
JORDAN WILLIAMS | STAFF
Freshman shortstop Brianna Dickens practices for the PBC tourney.
er Haley Birkle (9-17) was the starter for game one, and had four strikeouts, eight hits and one error. In game two, sophomore All-Conference-pitcher Paige Deschaine (12-16) got the nod and recorded a career-high 16 strikeouts. “That was really big,” Deschaine said about sweeping the Hurricanes. “It was really nice to get that (win) under our belt.” Taking the twin bill against the Hurricanes bumped up the Jaguars’ conference record to 6-10, and opened up a path to the conference tournament with a few more wins and some losses from teams in the middle pack of the standings. Following the double-
The Rookie Report
header with the Hurricanes, the Jaguars had to finish out the regular season on a sixgame road stretch, a doubleheader against conference foes USC Aiken, Young Harris and Lander. “We’ve been focusing on the process and buying in to what the coaches are telling us,” Deschaine said about how the team got through the final six games away from Jaguar Field. Head softball coach Melissa Brocato said she preached to her team on the brink of having a disappointing season to work together and concentrate on the fundamentals of the game. “I think we lost maybe 14 or 15 games by one run, and so there’s a lot of could’ve,
should’ve, would’ve when you look back on all those games,” she said. “It just took us a while to get started (and) it took us a little bit of time to buy in.” With an emphasis on the small details of the Jaguars’ game the team was able to split against USC Aiken, Young Harris and Lander. After taking the final game in the Lander doubleheader to end the season, the Jaguars were in a three-way tie with the Hurricanes and the Francis Marion Patriots, all of which had a 9-13 PBC record. Using the PBC threeway tiebreak rule, a miniconference was created with head-to-head results. The Patriots went 3-1 against the Jaguars and Hurricanes, taking the No. 7 seed. Then the Jaguars swept against the Hurricanes April 6, elevating them to the No. 8 seed. The Jags fell 4-0 in the PBC tourney quarterfinals to the North Georgia Night Hawks Friday. Deschaine started the game and finished the afternoon with three hits allowed, seven strickeouts and four errors. jwill143@gru.edu
It’s not the car. It’s how you use it. I’m one of those weird car enthusiasts who thinks there’s a connection between the driver and the car. For some, it’s merely a tool to get from point A to B. For others like me, however, it’s an escape. When I have a bad day, am stressed out or just jacked up, I take to the highway, blazing at more than 90 mph. I’m blasting my “racing music,” overtaking cars in front of me and screaming at the top of my lungs. I didn’t grow up going to racing events, watching automotive television or looking at cars at car shows around town. In fact, I didn’t really care much about cars until my second year of high school - that is, until that day with the go-karts at Adventure Crossing. Very rarely in life do we experience moments that define who we are and what we want to do with ourselves. Sure, going 30 mph on almost half a mile of track is nothing, but man, you don’t forget your first time, and I certainly won’t forget this one. Again, I’m one of those weird car freaks, and I was hooked afterwards. I bought all the Grand Turismo games for my Playstation 2 and Playstation 3 game consoles, looked up car culture television shows like “Top Gear UK” and attended car shows around Augusta more fiercely than ever. Even now, I still think if I could make a career out of racing cars in America, I’d drop journalism and go straight to the tracks. The problem is, where are the tracks? When it comes to automotive racing, all I see is NASCAR and ridiculous street laws. When you look at racing culture in Europe, North America is at the bottom. Races in Europe include Formula’s One, Two and Three, the Grand Prix, European Touring, Goodwood Festival of Speed and Nürburgring. This isn’t including the plethora of car manufacturers in Europe either or such driving regulations as the famous Autobahn in Germany. America is very tame with its view of cars. Sure, the big three (GM, Chrysler, Ford) make elegant sports cars of which we can be prideful. But what’s the point of having the ability to reach 60 mph in three to four seconds if your room to roam is condensed by traffic laws? Where’s the challenge of cornering, straightaways, overtaking and drifting against uniquely-built cars with unique aerodynamics and weight distribution if all we do is drive the same bulky cars around an oval in Daytona? We’re missing a gold mine in American sports with the lack of a major auto racing culture. Manufacturers like Tesla are moving American automobiles forward with electric tech but at the expense of a high purchasing cost. There’s a certain materialistic attitude to American products, from smartphones and clothing to big money and luxury cars. This can bring up a certain unwillingness or motivation for change to something like competitive auto racing. If we don’t see the money or appeal, it’s as if nobody here will care about racing cars. But as I said, it’s not the car. It’s how you use it. agarci11@gru.edu
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THE BELL RINGER
RICHARD ADAMS | STAFF
Local youth player Jalen Gillian (in foregound) receives a lesson in the fundamentals of golf at the driving range of Jones Creek Golf Course from Paine College head golf coach Herman Belton.
Camp mixes history with golf By Richard Adams editor-in-chief
Paine College head golf coach Herman Belton has taught the Lucy Craft Laney Museum’s golf camp since it began four years ago, because he still remembers what it was like to pick a golf club up for the first time. For Belton, it wasn’t until he was much older that he began to play golf, he said, having been a dedicated basketball player while in school. But after being introduced to the game of golf as an adult, it quickly became his most passionate sporting endeavor. He has coached golf for 15 years now, and after only a few years on staff at
Paine College was able in 2012 to help bring them to a SIAC championship. Belton described Augusta as “a golf-hungry environment.” When given the chance to be a part of the golf camp the museum holds two days each year during Masters Week, he said it was a simple matter of memory that drove him to teach the camp’s beginner-level golfers. “Once I was them,” Belton said. “I’m a firm believer that you can’t be what you don’t see. And if somebody didn’t spend time with me, where would I be? It’s your way of giving back and participating.” Corey Rogers, besides being the historian at the museum and leader of the camp activi-
ties, is also from a family of sportsmen and avid golfers. During the week of golf camp, he said, he sets aside one day for golf lessons and the other for a historic tour of Augusta where students can get in touch with history. “I just thought it would be a neat idea to instruct students in the area of golf, since it was the Masters and golf is sort of the focus of the week,” Rogers said. “(My hope was) to infuse culture and golf all in the same thing. I think sometimes we try to make things mutually exclusive; so sports has its place and culture and arts has its place, and we as society don’t see how they can mesh.” All of the camp’s organizers
said making learning fun was a key goal in the week’s activities. “It’s a joy,” said Belton, pointing out a particular student he’d worked with during the day. “He feels good, you know. He came out earlier and couldn’t hit a golf ball; and now, for him to hit a golf ball, he says he wants to do it more often.” Christine Miller-Betts, executive director of the museum, said she believes it is essential to provide young people with an environment capable of fostering new educational opporutnities. “I think it is our responsibility as museum people who work with our children,” Miller-Betts said. “We try to expose them to art, history and preservation.
Now I’m not a sports person, I just want to make sure the kids get what they want. Some people are not sports-oriented and so they don’t care to do that – but give them the opportunity.” She said that this philosophy of introducing students to potential tools and experiences that might one day shape their lives extends directly into the impetus for the golf camp. “I think the golf camp is very important, because very few of our students get the opportunity to play golf,” MillerBetts said. “If you notice, children as they grow up, if they have a propensity for sports and they decide what it is they want to do, they can do it.” radams99@gru.edu
Local wrestlers entertain fans By Anthony Garcia sports editor
ASHLEY TRAWICK | STAFF
Diane Waller, a cancer survivor, greets children at the refreshment table at the Relay for Life birthday party April 17.
Charity to get locals running
By Meredith Day staff writer
Relay for Life will come to Augusta May 2 in order to raise cancer awareness while also raising funds for the American Cancer Society. Relay for Life began in 1985 after one man decided to try something different to raise money for cancer research, said Marah Johnson, Relay for Life specialist. “It was one man, Gordy Klatt, who started it,” she said. “It started off as a 24-hour event and he raised money for relay and after that point it just developed into a whole different story where he decided to do teams and get the whole community involved because it was a fight he wanted to win.” Today, Relay for Life has
become an internationally recognized event that raises millions of dollars for cancer research every year, said Holly Smith, the event chair. “The Augusta relay, over the past couple years, has raised over $200,000,” Smith said. “That said, there are hundreds of relays that happen every spring and around the world.” While raising funds and awareness is the focus of this event, it’s also about having fun. Food, raffles and music are all just a part of the fun-filled night, Smith said. “It’s more of like a carnival atmosphere,” she said. “Every team and different group has fun events the night of, so there’s food for sale, games, bounce houses, a DJ. So there’s all kinds of things for families or individuals to do.”
There are also themed laps held throughout the night, such as the caregiver lap and survivor lap, which allow participants to see the people they’re helping firsthand. “You really just have to be there to feel it and take it all in,” Johnson said. “It’s really inspiring because the most powerful thing to me is the survivor lap. You see the passion in the survivors and their emotions as they’re taking this lap because they know that they fought and they won and they’re able to be there to do that survivor walk.” As for raising funds, teams are only limited by their imagination. Organizers said having bake sales, selling T-shirts and hosting softball tournaments are just some of the creative ways teams raise money. mday4@gru.edu
In spite of Wrestlemania XXX, local independent wrestling organization Flatline continued its monthly show April 5, following up to its March of Champions show last month. Flatline kept details under wraps about who’d be matched against who in this month’s show. Organizer James Kitchens said that after its big showing in March, following up to it comes down to the element of surprise. “I think with March of Champions, it was a season finale,” Kitchens said. “This is the new season.” This new season included appearances from past wrestlers, opening first with Pulse Championship winner Ken Lee and Flatline Championship winner Da Fireman. The main event of the show was Jacoby Boykins, who interrupted their speeches by challenging Fireman for his championship belt that same evening. “I like you both, personally and professionally, but the problem is both of you have championships and I don’t,” Boykins said. “It’s about that time that that Flatline Heavyweight Championship becomes mine.” In the final match, Boykins managed to overpower Fireman, but both were interrupted by three masked characters. However, a follow-up will be held in the next show on May 3rd. Less than 120 people were
in attendance. Nothing was held back for this show, and Kitchens said the show must go on despite the small number in attendance. “Coming off of 410 (people) last month, obviously we’d like to see 200 more people show up here tonight, but you’ve got spring break, people on vacation, people out of town and any of the really rabid wrestling fans in Augusta out for Wrestlemania, watching live on the WWE network,” Kitchens said. Jeff “the Reff” Lane was the referee for most of the evening’s matches and said the smaller audience allows him to give special attention to the devoted fans for the evening. “I’m not going to lie: I like the energy of the big crowd,” Lane said. “At least all the real fans are here. When it’s a smaller crowd, I try to give them more attention. It doesn’t overwhelm me, and I can focus more on the individuals instead of a big mob.” Kitchens equally devotes his work towards the fans, and considering Wrestlemania taking place on the same weekend, he said Flatline is devoted to giving its audience as great a show as any. “We try to put on the best quality product that we can, even if we know it’s going to be a little bit smaller than average,” Kitchens said. “These are the regulars, these are guys who wait all month trying to see Flatline.” agarci11@gru.edu
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014
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sports www.grubellringer.com
Mastering golf history By Jessica Sager copy editor Gil Capps, author of “The Magnificent Masters: Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, Tom Weiskopf, and the 1975 Cliffhanger at Augusta,” gave a talk and book signing the evening of Tuesday, April 8, at Barnes and Noble in the Augusta Mall. “What makes (the 1975) Masters so special and different is the fact that the three guys who are the storylines going into the week were still the storyline at the very end, which doesn’t happen at all in sports very much and it’s so rare in golf,” Capps said. “In fact, this is really the only time that that’s happened in (a) major championship, championship golf.” Capps said Nicklaus, Miller and Weiskopf were three “titans” of golf at the time. “(Nicklaus) was already considered the best player in the game, but he hadn’t won a major the previous year, and his place was under threat by none other than these two big rivals who were just as talented and capable physically as Nicklaus was to win the Masters,” Capps said. “And that’s Johnny Miller (and Weiskopf).” Capps said the 16th hole made for a really hard putt, but Nicklaus was able to do it in front of a national television audience.
The U.S. Open is considered the most important tournament to win by many golf players, he said. However, he said he believes 1975 changed how “the regular Joe sitting at home” viewed the Masters. “(The U.S. Open is) on a tough golf course, guys are making bogies and not looking like they’re playing their best (and) the guy nobody’s ever heard of wins it,” Capps said. “(Contrast that to) the Masters, and the guy everybody knows wins it. I think this was the event that really pushed the Masters to be, once and for all, considered by the majority of people the greatest golf tournament in the world.” Joey Warren, who was at the signing, said the 1975 Masters tends to get forgotten now. “In the history of the Masters, there’s been so many great finishes,” Warren said. “1975 was almost 40 years ago, and it’s crazy to think it’s been that many years ago, but it gets forgotten in the list of the greatest Masters finishes.” Lowell Barnhart, who was also at the signing, said he was at the 1975 Masters himself. “I enjoyed (the book) very much,” Barnhart said. “I picked up and bought the book early last week and had read it and enjoyed it very much. That Sunday afternoon was very special to me.” jschucke@gru.edu
JESSICA SAGER | STAFF
Gil Capps speaks at a book signing for his reflections of the 1975 Masters.
RICHARD ADAMS | STAFF
Austin Hendricks, a sophomore thrower, swings the hammer at practice for the Peach Belt Championship Saturday.
Teams take on PBC By Anthony Garcia sports editor
The GRU Augusta men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams travelled to the Peach Belt Conference Championships in Rome, Ga. The championship, held on April 17 through 19, was hosted by Shorter University for a second year. This is the first year the track and field teams will be receiving scholarships. Head coach Adam Ward said that although the scholarship money isn’t as large as other programs from GRU Augusta Athletics, they’re able to work with what they have. “We got to do with what we got to work with,” Ward said. “We got limits, but those are things you have to overcome.” The men’s team consists of 28 athletes, a huge leap compared to last year when there was only a scattering of walkons and athletes recruited from other sports. When it comes to learning where the team fits, Ward said it can be a challenge for some players new to college track and field. “A lot of them have been picking up well,” he said. “It’s tough to learn something brand
new, and then try to expect to be really good at it, especially when you’ve got some folks that’ve been doing it for a long time. I like our progress. I like what we’re doing.” Assistant coach Olimpia Nowak said that while track is traditionally an individual sport, conferences are all about the team. “Before, you’d get your own separate points and lane, and you’d run,” Nowak said. “As far as conferences, you compete as a team. As for individual people, I think Christian Collier is the one who definitely has the chance to win long jump, for sure. He has the chance to still qualify for nationals, so that’s our goal after conference.” Collier, a junior kinesiology major, won first place at the Peach Belt Conference last year for long jump and said he felt confident he could perform better than his competition. “I saw the marks before going into conference, and I knew I could jump further than all those guys,” Collier said. “I haven’t been jumping well up until conference, so it was like breaking the rust off.” At PBC, Collier set a school record with a 7.09-meter jump. Looking back at his perfor-
mance this season, Collier said he feels much improved from last year. “I love this season so far,” he said. “I feel like I’m in greater shape than last year. I’m already jumping further than when I started. I’m running decent, but not as well as last year. I know I can break it out and do it.” Working with a larger team than last season proved beneficial for Collier, who said it was good to be part of such a large and growing program. “I love it,” said Collier. “It’s more competition, instead of a small group last year. You can get someone to motivate you, or you can motivate them to push you even harder.” At PBC, GRU Augusta placed sixth in the men’s team rankings with 55 points. Junior Dustin Roth came in first in the men’s 1500-meter run, while Collier came in sixth in the 100-meter dash in the final session. “Overall, I was just super pumped,” Ward said. “Everybody just gave everything they had.” In the 400-meter dash, Aaliyah Pettway, Ashley Love and Adanna Thompson were neck and neck at 59 seconds. agarci11@gru.edu
Gustafson set to retire after 23 years By Haley Harris news editor
Known for his hard-working teaching methods and passionate badminton skills, Robert Gustafson, an associate professor of health and kinesiology, is saying goodbye to Georgia Regents University after 23 years. Gustafson was born and raised in Austin, Texas, where he earned several degrees. “I earned my bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from the University of Texas,” Gustafson said. “I was born in Austin. For my doctorate I went to a place called Texas Women’s University. Most people are surprised to hear that a man goes to a women’s university, but I tell them the line cuts both ways.” After working in Texas, Gustafson said, he was offered a job in Georgia. “I came here when it was Augusta College in September of 1991,” he said. “So yeah, I’ve been here for a while.” Gustafson said he has been working at Georgia Regents for 23 years and has remained in the same field the entire time. “Overall, I teach exercise science,” Gustafson said. “There are different sub-disciplines or
Fun facts about Dr. G • Favorite movie: Patton (1970) • Favorite subject: history • If you could vacation anywhere: Alaska • Favorite book: The Bible • Favorite animal: cats because they value independence different courses in exercise science that one can teach. Over the 23 years that I’ve been here I have taught exercise physiology, structured kinesiology, principles of exercise therapy, fitness assessment and exercise prescription, but most recently I’ve been focusing on weight training and badminton.” Donald Watson, a junior majoring in English, took a badminton class from Gustafson and said the class was unique because of Gustafson and probably would have been a different experience otherwise. “He’s hard on his students, but that’s only because he wants
HALEY HARRIS | STAFF
Robert Gustafson shows Sheena Tolbert a badminton lesson during class.
them to learn something,” Watson said. “I would describe him as motivated.” Gustafson said he particularly enjoys teaching rare sports. “Of the activity classes, I’m more fired up about weight training and badminton,” Gustafson said. “I like badminton just because in the United States it’s not a very well known sport. Most people see badminton as something that you play in the backyard with a hotdog in one hand and a racket in the other and it’s not that at all. I like introducing people to sports that just don’t have much popularity in the United States.”
Apart from badminton, Gustafson believes weight training is an imperative part of life even outside of the classroom. “Then with weight training, strength from your muscular strength is a very important component of fitness,” Gustafson said. “In fact there is a minimal level of strength that you have to have before you can carry out the events of aerobic fitness. If you’re not strong enough, you’re not going to able to improve.” Sheena Tolbert, a junior education major, said she had not taken a class with Gustafson in some time but remembered her
experience in the class with him. “He’s passionate about teaching and wants kids to learn,” Tolbert said. “If I could describe him in one word I would say adamant.” Gustafson said he has enjoyed his time at the school, made good memories and is proud of many students. “I had one student who graduated from our program that went on to develop an adaptive aquatics program at the Family Y, and another student went to Atlanta for an internship at a clinic that she now owns,” he said. Gustafson said he has no intention of being bored. His plans involve helping others, teaching and improving lives. “I retire in May,” Gustafson said. “Right after retirement I’m going to Indianapolis to take some training in using non-contact boxing to help Parkinson’s diseased patients. They found that forced volunteer exercise is very helpful in helping them handle the symptoms of their condition. So I’m going to get trained and then come back and set up a little training facility at my house and try to recruit some clients.” hharris011@yahoo.com