GEORGIA REGENTS UNIVERSITY
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VOLUME 56, ISSUE 9
TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2014
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: REESE LIBRARY ARCHIVES, MEGAN STEWART I STAFF, ASHLEY TRAWICK | Staff
Signs arching over the campus’s entrance reflect the changing names of the institution during the past decades, from Augusta College to Augusta State University to Georgia Regents University.
New signs to include city’s name By Rebecca Perbetsky chief reporter A month after new signage was installed, Georgia Regents University is receiving yet another face-lift. David Brond, the senior vice president for the Office of Communications and Marketing, said there were ongoing conversations with President Ricardo Azziz, the university’s senior leadership and leaders in the community, about the already new Georgia Regents University signs becoming even newer signs. “We regularly have these conversations,” he said. “There (were) some concerns expressed, and we discussed them and we wanted to respond to these concerns.” The response to the concerns, Brond said, is the addition of Augusta to the signs all over campus.
“The response to these concerns was in keeping with our brand guidelines, which exist and they dictate the use of the logo for marketing and branding,” he said. “We were marketing and branding the university as Georgia Regents University Augusta.” The confusion, he said, came in because of the lack of substance the guidelines had about permanent signage. When everyone began to come together to discuss the new signs, Brond said some concepts were presented, all of which included Augusta, but when it came time to implement the concept, the decision was made to leave it out. “Part of the thought was the official name of the university should be on those things that are official, like documents, diplomas and transcripts, and permanent signage,” he said. “That is when there was conversa-
tion that permanent signage should probably have the word university and not the word Augusta. We then listened to the concerns of our community and the community leaders and determined that Augusta is appropriate for that signage.” Amy Perkins, a recent Georgia Regents graduate, said she feels like this is something that should have been taken care of in the first place. “It makes it seem like the school sort of went back on their word after the whole ‘Save the A’ thing,” she said. Augusta isn’t a stranger to the unofficial signage, though. Brond said Augusta has always been on the banners around campus. “It was just a question of permanent signage or of marketing and branding,” he said. Director of Media Relations Christen Carter said the addition of Augusta to the
signs should be extremely cost-efficient for the school. Along with the majority of the funds coming from the health system, Brond said there really is no significant increment in cost, as they will simply be adding seven letters to the already installed signage around Georgia Regents’ different campuses. President Azziz said the community is an important component in the university’s focus on student recruitment, progression and success, quality of patient and family-centered care, along with faculty and staff satisfaction and the economic impact on the community the university serves, according to a press release. Brond said the new signs will debut with the word Augusta around the end of February. rperbets@gru.edu
Fall semester Limited-term faculty to transform face position change humanities By Jordan Barry production assistant
The humanities section for all undergrads’ core requirements may be getting a makeover this fall. Cathy Tugmon, an associate professor of biological science and chairwoman of the University Senate Curriculum and Academic Policies Committee, said the proposal to reduce the course hours for Humanities 2001 and 2002 from four credit hours each to three credit hours each came before her committee Jan. 13. “We don’t vote it on whether we think it’s a good idea or a bad idea,” she said. “My committee’s job is to look at it and make sure it went through the right committees, the right departments, that the faculty, since the curriculum belongs to the faculty ... that the faculty had
their say, and that their voices were heard, and that the appropriate people made decisions that were needed to be made.” Tugmon said the decision was approved unanimously and sent to the vice president for academic and faculty affairs, Carol Rychly, who will pass it on to the Board of Regents for final approval. If the proposal is approved by the Board of Regents, Tugmon said it will be implemented in fall 2014. Though Georgia Regents University is still waiting on that result, Robert Bledsoe, the director of the humanities program and assistant chairman of the Department of English and Foreign Languages, said it is pretty much a done deal because the change will realign the core requirements with other colleges in the state. “I think it was driven pri-
see HOURS on PAGE 3
By Ashley Trawick news editor
Job security among lecturers and professors has been a big topic of discussion since the merger began. Many department chairs were replaced and several professors, regardless of faculty type, left Georgia Regents University because of different circumstances. Now after a year of being merged, jobs for limited-term positions have been brought into question. Two weeks ago, limitedterm instructors were told their positions would be eliminated. Limited-term positions are created or budgeted for some defined period of time, which is usually a year, but it’s not expected to continue indefinitely, according to the Human Resources website. Douglas Hall, a limitedterm professor for the Depart-
ment of English and Foreign Languages, said the information he received Jan. 17 was that all temporary full-time positions across the Summerville campus were cut. “I think that was the impression most people had,” he said. “I don’t know where the lack of communication came from, but the temporary fulltime position is supposed to be kind of an emergency position. Somebody has to take sabbatical (or) if a professor gets hurt or something. That’s what a fulltime temp position is supposed to be, but under ASU, the fulltime temp position was being misused.” Georgia Regents, Hall said, is trying to rectify the situation. The full-time temp positions are indeed going away, but the departments are going to run nationwide searches for either assistant professors or lecturers, so instead of having people in
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Sodexo expands dining services for students
full-time temp positions, there will now be possibly an equal amount of people in permanent positions. Hall said Wednesday morning various limited-term professors met with their department chairs and the deans of the different colleges in order to receive some clarification about what was happening. From Jan. 17 until Wednesday morning, he said quite a few people were under the impression that these selected professors would no longer be employed with Georgia Regents. More full-time positions will be brought to Georgia Regents and the limited-term professors will be able to apply and be considered for the positions. However, they will face slight competition from others who will apply for those same jobs. “There was kind of a blowsee LIMITED on PAGE 4
Women’s basketball reaches heart of its schedule
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NEWS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2014
Harrisburg gets organic Georgia Regents University EDITORIAL STAFF adviser MATTHEW BOSISIO mbosisio@gru.edu editor-in-chief LEIGH BEESON kbeeson1@gru.edu copy editor MINDY WADLEY mindyawadley@gmail.com news editor ASHLEY TRAWICK atrawick@gru.edu arts & life editor MEGAN STEWART mstewar7@gru.edu sports editor JORDAN WILLIAMS jwill143@gru.edu chief reporter REBECCA PERBETSKY rperbets@gru.edu production manager NIKKI SKINNER nskinner@gru.edu production assistant JORDAN BARRY jbarry3@gru.edu photographers NEIL DAVENPORT dportneil@comcast.net REBECCA SIMANSKI rebeccasimanski@gmail. com staff writers RICHARD ADAMS MEREDITH DAY ANTHONY GARCIA COLLETTE RICHARDS JESSICA SAGER AMY THORNE circulation manager RICHARD ADAMS radams99@gru.edu advertising manager RAVEN NORRIS rnorris2@gru.edu webmaster JAMIE LOWE jlowe12@gru.edu 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.asubellringer.com
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By Richard Adams staff writer Sandi Johnson has big plans for the little storefront at 1808 Broad St. in Augusta, Ga. The Kroc Center and Sibley Mill received a new neighborhood business into the Harrisburg community in January. Johnson, the owner of West End Market and Bakery, said she signed the lease Jan. 3, representing a three-year commitment to the area. “We want to be a part of the neighborhood,” Johnson said. “Even though technically I don’t live in the neighborhood, 90 percent of my life is going to be here at the store. I definitely want to get the support of the neighborhood and get the neighborhood in.” Johnson said her journey to proprietor of an organic produce market began several years ago when two events coincided: her family’s move to an old farmhouse in Waynesboro and the announcement by one of her sons that he wanted to become a vegetarian. This led to the family’s first garden. In 2012, Johnson said she discovered a very large patch of
RICHARD ADAMS I STAFF
The West End Market and Bakery brings organic produce to Harrisburg.
blackberry bushes on her property. So much was the excess, she began selling the berries through the nonprofit Augusta Locally Grown. She soon became one of the distribution managers for that group. “She and her boys have made tremendous efforts to connect, to show their support for other farmers, and to just be there, be present in the commu-
nity,” said Kim Hines, the director of Augusta Locally Grown. Johnson said her enthusiasm for farming and the lifestyle it represents developed quickly. She cited the therapeutic value of the labor involved and its rewards as a major part of her desire to spread the word about the importance of buying and producing local produce. Johnson said she hoped to use the store
not only as a marketplace but also as a classroom and teaching kitchen. Both Hines and Johnson said the reason this kind of market is so novel and necessary for the local farming community is because of the outstanding lack of a venue where those farmers can provide for their customers consistently and at the convenience of both. Johnson said they already plan to move the Augusta Locally Grown pick-up site from its present location at Tire City Potters to the West End Market in the hopes that both will benefit from the partnership with one another. Anne Murray, a community organizer and founder of Turn Back the Block, a nonprofit organization that focuses on revitalizing the Harrisburg area, said local businesses are essential to neighborhoods like Harrisburg in terms of revitalization. “People need to be able to return to the walkability they had once in that community,” Murray said. “If you have to drive to find food or groceries or gas or a drugstore, it makes it a less successful community.” radams99@gru.edu
Program helps students in need By Collette Richards staff writer The new GRU Cares program at Georgia Regents University provides a way for others to look out for students who might be in distress. The program has its mission statement in its name: campus awareness, response and evaluation of distressed students. The university program is offering a way for everyone to look out for one another, according to the GRU Cares program website. If a student or faculty or staff member notices a student not performing well or acting out of character or is generally concerned, the program aids as a mediator in order to reach out to a distressed or struggling student. Anyone can fill out a care report online and express concern for a student or report an observation in order to help the student receive the necessary help, according to the site. The associate vice president for Student Affairs, Kevin
Frazier, believes there is a community responsibility to provide a healthy environment for students. “For various reasons, (the care team) felt like we should have a network of support for the students,” Frazier said. The team meets every week and reviews reports and monitors the progress of students who are receiving help. The program works to help students in various aspects of student life from stress and time management to testing and disability services. “Life isn’t any less stressful in the general community or on campuses,” he said. “There is a lot going on and things are happening at a very fast pace.” The program is designed to raise awareness of students’ issues through online reports, helping prevent and manage those in distress or stressful situations. “This way we can follow up with the student and see how they’re doing and have a follow see CARES on PAGE 4
Happenings around campus When Tuesday All day Tuesday noon - 1 p.m. Tuesday noon - 1 p.m. Wednesday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Thursday 10 a.m. - noon
What Teal Tuesday win free JagCash with the CREW
JSAC Hardy Room
GRU’s Annual State of the Enterprise Address
Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre
Beat Aiken, Give Blood GRU Athletics Blood Drive Counseling Center Information Session Student Health Center Flu Shot Clinic
Friday All Day
TEDx Telfair Street Live Stream
Tuesday, Feb. 4 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Cervical Cancer & HPV Prevention Lunch & Learn
Thursday 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Friday & Saturday 8 a.m. & 7:30 p.m.
Where
Patti Pace Theatre and Performance Festival Student Health Center Flu Shot Clinic
JSAC Ballroom JSAC Breezeway
JSAC JSAC Ballroom Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre JSAC
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Campus goes Mediterranean
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RICHARD ADAMS I STAFF
The TEDx display sits in the window of the Augusta-Richmond Co. Library.
TEDx on Telfair builds excitement By Richard Adams staff writer The inaugural TEDx event will be held Friday at the Augusta-Richmond County Public Library downtown on Telfair Street, a new trend in Augusta, Ga., intellectual life local organizers hope will have a continuing influence on the community. TEDx is a public speaking program that has gained a large online viewing audience and its own YouTube channel due to its unique blend of speakers from the disparate worlds of celebrity, science, politics and commerce. The Augusta event will be only slightly different than a typical TED Talk conference, the organizers said. “I think that (the purpose of TED) was originally in the area of technology, education and design, but it has broadened its perspective over the last 20 years, said Perry Smith, who will speak on his involvement with the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation, which provides Medal of Honor recipients with speaking opportunities to share their stories at schools and other civic organizations. Basically, it’s open to anybody with some ideas that might be interesting to people and might improve their lives and make them better people,” This year’s TEDx will feature 16 speakers and performers Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with three breaks built into the schedule. Because the num-
ber of tickets was limited, the organizers said they coordinated four separate venues to stream the talks live. Georgia Regents University will host two of the live streams. On the Summerville campus, the stream will be shown in the Jaguar Student Activities Center Ballroom, and on the Health Sciences campus, it will play in the Health Sciences Building classroom EC 1222. “It’s free; there are hundreds of seats available, (so) I don’t imagine it will be sold out,” said leader organizer Grace Belangia, adding that registering online at the event site is preferred. “Students, faculty and staff should all know that they can go between classes if they’re free that day. They can come and go as they please.” One feature of the program encouraged by the TED organization is the inclusion of breaks between the talks so the speakers and audience can come together and discuss the topics in more depth and in person. Anyone attending the live streaming event at the public library on Telfair will be allowed to come downstairs and contribute to these discussions, Belangia said. This freedom of interaction is what speaker Luke Davis said he is most looking forward to. “Hearing everybody’s TED Talks is certainly going to be wonderful, but I’m really excited to the hundred or so people in the audience, everybody insee TED on PAGE 4
Dining choices to widen with food truck serving students and faculty By Anthony Garcia staff writer Laziza Mediterranean Grill, a restaurant in Evans, Ga., has officially started its food truck services to Georgia Regents University students and faculty this semester. Under a six-month contract with Sodexo, the food corporation behind the dining services for both the Summerville and Health Sciences campuses, the truck will make stops in front of the Summerville campus entrance every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Though the truck made its introduction just two weeks into the start of classes, business has already exploded. “I love their food,” said Whitney Evans, a sophomore premedical major. “If they made it available on campus more often, I would definitely choose it over anything else in the (Jaguar Student Activities Center).” The grill, which special-
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marily by a desire to have a core that worked more cleanly and worked better for transfer students,” he said. “There was always this issue of what would count in area B and what would count in area C.” However, Tugmon said the change will not affect the total number of credit hours required to graduate. The shorter humanities courses have freed up two credit hours in area B, but it is undecided how those will be used. As for the actual content of the courses, Bledsoe said it will be modified to fit the lower credit hours. “It, in many respects, will be a different course at least from the student experience of it,” he said. “Some students really saw the class as kind of three classes in one. I think that was wrong.” Bledsoe said he feels that perhaps the literature, art and music instructors were not successfully communicating what they wanted the courses to be about – the way the three main elements of creative expression worked together to create an understanding of a culture or religion. “We’re hoping that this change gives us a chance to rethink the way we’ve taught the class and the students have experienced the class,” he said. By switching from having three teachers to two, Bledsoe said he hopes the disconnect between the three disciplines will be remedied. He said the goal is to have both instructors in class at all times so they can work bet-
izes in Middle Eastern- and Mediterranean-style dishes, was established more than two years ago in Evans and is co-owned by Nader Khatib and Leigh Fletcher. They established the food truck in September of last year, around the same time the restaurant celebrated its twoyear anniversary. The duo said they had the idea of entering the food truck service business not long into doing business in their own restaurant. “We’ve been talking about doing something like this for a good year, year and a half,” Fletcher said. “We decided to do it, and when we decided on doing this, we originally had planned on events, and I actually ended up, by dumb luck, meeting up with the people for GRU. They set me up with Sodexo, and we spoke with them, and then we ended up with an actual contract to provide food, even down at the Student Center at 15th and Laney Walker (Bouter as a team. Bledsoe said classes will vary a bit depending on the team teaching because the plan is to have music and literature teams, art and literature teams, and music and art teams. “The idea is that every student should have kind of a common set of knowledge of the three disciplines across sections but that students will get more than that,” he said. “In some classes, they’ll get more of that in art and literature, and in some classes they’ll get more of that in music and art.” Wendy Turner, the interim chair of English and foreign languages, said once the change is implemented, there will be a transition period where some students’ core track sheets do not match up. “Say somebody finished one of their humanities this year, so it will be a four-unit class, and then they have to take the second part next year, and it’s the three-unit class,” she said. “Well, they might have to take a little makeup class to make up that one unit, and we do have those makeup classes. By the same token, they might let them make it up in a different way depending on what they do with those other two units.” However, Turner said she thinks the change is good. “Taking a humanities class leads to an understanding of peoples outside of our own culture, but even in a deeper understanding of the culture that we have right here in Augusta,(Ga.)” she said. “If you understand the value of people, you’re going to understand the value of humanities.” jbarry3@gru.ed
ANTHONY GARCIA | Staff
A few students wait for food from the Laziza Mediterranean Grill food truck on the Summerville campus Wednesday.
levard) since about September.” The truck, a hulking 30-foot red box delivery truck, provides students with only a sample of the exotic cuisines the restaurant offers, including gyro, shawarma, falafel and baklava, according to its website. Despite the cold weather, the food truck experienced lines of people during its three-hour visits over the last two weeks, from students and faculty alike. Rick Pukis, an associate
professor of communications, said he took time before his lecture to order from the truck. “It was my first time at the truck,” Pukis said. “I enjoyed the falafel sandwich, and I would go back again. I want to try the gyro sandwich.” Students at Georgia Regents can anticipate more appearances from the Laziza food truck arriving on their campus. Though Fletcher said he is very impressed with how business has
turned out for the truck around campus over the past months, what will ultimately decide whether students see more of the food truck depends on Laziza’s contract with Sodexo. “As far as I know, the semesters won’t dictate with us,” Fletcher said. “We have a contract with Sodexo, so as long as Sodexo holds the contract, I imagine we’ll just be here, permanently.” agarci11@gru.edu
Management series hosts guest professor By Jordan Barry production assistant A new speaker series that focuses exclusively on entrepreneurship added an innovator in medicine to its list of keynote speakers. Lars Mathiassen, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and a professor in the Department of Computer Information Systems at Georgia State University, has worked with the Medical College of Georgia since 2004, and he came to speak at the Innovations in Management Speaker series Jan. 22. Mathiassen said he recognized a serious problem in the
health care industry, and he decided to find a way to improve it. “Telemedicine can help provide health services toward an underserved area,” he said. “This is another very interesting and challenging problem in health service delivery, which is that doctors don’t want to live in the countryside or they don’t want to live in the middle of Africa.” His research led to the creation of a company called Reach that uses telemedicine, or online heath service, to provide better health care to rural communities. “We have another opportu-
JORDAN BARRY I STAFF
Bill Hamilton, the entrepreneur in residence for the Hull College of Business, introduces Lars Mathiassen at the Management Speaker Series.
nity, which is to use technology to connect the two,” Mathiassen said. “So like today we have online learning; we have online health service delivery. That’s telemedicine.” Bill Hamilton, the entrepreneur in residence in the Hull College of Business, heads up the series, and he said he invited Mathiassen to speak because he was familiar with his work and thought he had a lot to offer the students. He said they started the series in fall of 2013 as a way to expose students to real-life situations and provide inspiration for their future careers. “We expose students to entrepreneurial efforts in the community and the region, and what we’re trying to do is spur on innovative ideas and incorporate them into the curriculum and the research and teaching of the Hull College of Business,” he said. Jasmine Tate, a junior computer science major, attended Mathiassen’s speech and said it was engaging. Mathiassen said having a speaker series like this is important for the same reason that students study: to be useful when they get out of college. He said hearing from entrepreneurs could inspire them to do even more with their education. jbarry3@gru.edu
Tobacco cessation classes provide support
By Anthony Garcia staff writer
Students and faculty looking to quit the habit this semester have a free opportunity with the Georgia Regents University Tobacco Cessation program. Developed in part with making the Summerville campus tobacco-free, the cessation services are available for all students, faculty and staff, as well as medical associates and medical center employees. For a limited time, these services will be free for students and employees. “It’s not just smoking; it’s also quitting spit tobacco and electronic cigarettes that are included in that, too,” said Christine O’Meara, the director of Cancer In-
formation and Awareness at the Cancer Center. The cessation program involves two steps for those wanting to quit tobacco, she said. The first step is the initial visit and health assessment. “The student, or the smoker, would talk with the physician or nurse practitioner about their desire to quit smoking, and they would have a health assessment to just check on their general health,” O’Meara said. “This visit includes a health exam, a review of the patient’s prior history with tobacco and discuss past attempts to quit.” This leads to a quit plan for the patient, including student classes, which is the second step, O’Meara said. “After you have your first visit, you
would get enrolled in the class, and the class goes for one hour a week, for six weeks,” she said. “The class is taught by a trained cessation coach or counselor.” The program also provides students with access to the Georgia Regents Employee Pharmacy, a new service for the university community. While the pharmacy benefits students, an issue that would arise with the service is cost. Fortunately, the pharmacy discounts medications for students and faculty with insurance. One way the Cancer Center is reaching out with advertising is through students. Andrew Tarr, a senior communications and sociology major, produced a number of student videos to promote the campus as tobacco-free.
“I’ve got a lot of feedback as far as people seeing it,” Tarr said. “And that’s the first step in awareness – literally, just to make people aware that there’s a certain policy.” The cessation service will be free for students until June 30. Samantha Carr, a sophomore English major, completed the program after starting in November of last year and has been receiving follow-ups over the past few months. “If you want to quit, or you have that desire to do so, it’s a good program to get into,” Carr said. “We were able to come up with an eating plan and kept all the stress down off of me. It’s really good to have that kind of support.” agarci11@gru.edu
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2014
THE BELL RINGER
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opinion
Curation lab helps veterans By Amy Thorne staff writer Since 2009, the Veterans Curation Program in Augusta, Ga., has used archaeology as a way to help veterans build job skills. Mark Crawford, a senior double majoring in biology and finance at Georgia Regents University, helps as a lab assistant. He began working for the VCP three months ago and said he enjoys his work. “This brings us the skill set and helps us find (a) more permanent position until after we leave,” he said. Crawford said different aspects of his job include entering data, as well as working with and accessing documents and forensic photography. They use some of the same equipment forensic specialists use for crime scene investigations. Lab Manger Caroline Bradford said whether a veteran has a high school education or a Bachelor of Science, the program will teach them everything they need to know in the field and more. “(The program) teaches people about job skills, but it also teaches them how to help themselves,” she said. “You might not realize everything you’ve been able to do based on your military career, especially if they get a lot of (military occupation specialties) within their time period. It looks like they jumped around, if that’s all they talked about. If they talk about all of the trans-
AMY THORNE I STAFF
Ryan Brewer, a technician, sorts through documents at the Veterans Curation Program lab.
ferable skills they have, then employers will realize that our veterans are a valuable resource.” The employees get a hands-on experience with historical, pre-historical and recent historical artifacts, Crawford said. The program has brought in a flint mapper to show how American Indians made arrowheads and other hand tools. The Veterans’ Affairs Office at Georgia Regents introduced Crawford to VCP, while veterans like Marqueita Kitchen, a
VCP lab assistant, found out about the organization through the post-traumatic stress disorder program. “It’s been a really good outreach program (for) those getting back into society,” she said. “We get to do it with other veterans so it’s not too much of a shell shock.” When the Army starts a new project, it has to search burial grounds and conduct research before starting construction, Crawford said.
The group packages and processes anything it finds and sends it to the lab. Once the artifacts arrive at the VCP lab, the assistants separate them by classes such as arrowheads, bones, necklaces and other categories, Crawford said. They then use tools to carefully place those artifacts in bags and write information down. Whatever they find interesting, they tag and send to the photo lab for documentation. The work can be seen as exciting. However, the idea of working with archaeology can sometimes intimidate and turn off potential veterans, Bradford said. The VCP has had a range of people in various occupations from infantry mechanics to cooks, Lab Manager Patrick Rivera said. They also help people transfer into other veteran service organizations once they leave the VCP, he said. The program tries to not only usher veterans back into civilian work to but also help with rewriting their resumes, Rivera said. “You’d be amazed how many people come out of the military and they don’t have a workable civilian resume,” he said. “One of our metrics for success is (to) have people move out of this program and move into a civilian career.” The VCP, Rivera said, will hire new veterans in April to start a new term in May, and they encourage any eligible students from Georgia Regents to apply. athorne@gru.edu
Media campaign to promote university By Meredith Day staff writer Starting in February, Georgia Regents University will launch a media campaign with the Augusta, Ga., television stations WAGT and WJBF highlighting the benefits and strengths of the university. The campaign, titled “Discover What’s Next,” will feature television commercials from varying topics, online media coverage and special events, said Scot Seabolt, the general sales manager for WJBF and WAGT, two television stations housed under one roof collectively referred to as Television Park. “It is a nine-month campaign that leverages the six different assets of Television Park to help tell the story of GRU and all the positive benefits GRU has in the community,” Seabolt said. “(There will be) economic benefits, educational benefits (and) the ability to draw people from all over the world as students, professors and researchers to the Augusta
area, which can’t help but make our community a better place to live, work and play.” One of the main components of the campaign is commercials that will highlight different aspects of the university. Two commercials will feature the university’s president, Ricardo Azziz. In the commercials, Azziz will discuss the economic impact of the university on the community, the university and health system, and the satellite campuses, among other topics, Seabolt said. “Dr. Azziz will be being taped this week talking about the master facility planning process and what that means for the university,” said David Brond, the senior vice president for the Office of Communications and Marketing. The first commercial will be released in February and will feature Peter Buckley, the dean of the Medical College of Georgia on the Health Sciences campus. Buckley said he will be discussing the history of the college and the impact it has had on the community.
“What we’ve done is really try to emphasize what an incredible jewel the Medical College of Georgia is for the city of Augusta,” he said. Other topics will be announced and planned as the campaign continues throughout this next year. “The nice thing about the campaign is it runs for a period of time and we don’t have to dictate today what we’re going to run eight months from now,” Brond said. “We can continue to be using the production value of WJBF and WAGT to come onto our campus or meet with our representatives or community people who can carry our message and whatever the importance of the message is in the next month and the months after that.” Another part of the campaign will feature special events, which will be announced throughout the year to help promote the university. One event will be a televised broadcast of the GRU Augusta versus USC Aiken basketball game Feb. 26. “It will be a game which we hope
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up visit,” he said. “And help students figure out all of their issues, whether it be a mild learning disability, time management or stress management.” Stress prevention and overall wellness are aspects the program also promotes. The medical director of Student Health Services, Chad Asplund, is looking to create programs in order to develop the entire student that address the nine dimensions of wellness from physical to financial wellness. “We’re looking at a global wellness strategy for students – hopefully to prevent students from getting into distress in the first place,” Asplund said. Assistant Dean of Students Gina Thurman said she works personally with students to guide them in the right direction to receive the proper guidance or services. “I’m usually the first contact when someone fills out a care report,” Thurman said. “Most of the students have been very receptive to know that someone cared enough about what was going on with them and to take the time to fill out a report and share that they are concerned.” The program is able to connect students to the necessary resources in order to be successful and have a positive college experience. “I have referred a lot of students to counseling and student health,” she said. “Most of them knew they needed help but didn’t know how to take that first step.” cricha32@gru.edu
ASHLEY TRAWICK I STAFF
Robert Scott, limited-term professor, prepares Calculus homework.
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up; there was conversation,” Hall said. “So it sounds like it’s become more and more clear about what they’re trying to do.” Charles Clark, the dean of the Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, said nothing is really changing except the name of the positions. “When we started the consolidation, we had people who were working for us, and it was a different category than the Human Resources people had at Health
(Sciences),” Clark said. “We had people in classification called full-time temporary, or FTT. That’s not a category that the accounting system – the HR system recognizes. Those people were categorized as, unless their job description changed, limited-term faculty. Every person who is not tenured is on a yearby-year contract. Every contract says it might not be renewed. That’s just the way that it operates.” There was also talk about lecturers teaching five introductory-only classes in the fall but nothing is definite about that, Clark said. “They were brought in to teach four courses a
will be very well-attended and we anticipate because they’re two great teams,” Brond said. “It will be broadcasted live on one of the stations, and, more importantly, it will be rebroadcast on one of the dominant stations afterward.” Overall, the goal of this campaign is to help educate on the benefits the university brings to the Augusta community and to inform people of the several programs and facilities the university offers. “There will be things that people may have known a little bit about or heard something about, and now they’re going to be more aware of it, more acutely aware of it,” Brond said. “In 30 seconds, of course, you’re not going to get a full, deep understanding of everything, but you’re going to get a greater appreciation of what our mission and our vision is and then the importance of what we are as making an impact both economically, health-wise and education-wise to the CSRA.”
semester, and they’re paid a particular amount to do that,” he said. Clark said the full-time temporary category was going to be changed even before the merger. The merger only brought the situation to the surface. Robert Scott, a limitedterm professor of mathematics, said professors who were worried about their jobs at first should remain positive. “If you have been doing a good job in the eyes of both your students and your boss, then you have a leg up to applying when the position description changes,” he said. “The position description change is going to be good for the institution, and assuming that you’ve been doing a good job, it’s good for you also because it’ll open doors that have been closed to you before. From the university’s perspective, it will enable them each year to increase the quality of their workforce. It’ll open up those doors to enable you to progress in your profession of teaching that you couldn’t do under the rules when you were temporary or limited-term or whatever so go for it.” atrawick@gru.edu
mday4@gru.edu
Ted
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volved with this, because getting to interact with other people in the area who are interested in this sort of thing is really kind of enlivening,” Davis said. Davis, a computer programmer with a background in anthropology, prefers to call himself and those like him “technologists.” This, he said, entails not only building the technologies that will shape the future but thinking about them and their effects as well. “(It) speaks to something kind of important about humans, and that’s that we make things when we have to - necessity is the mother of invention, to use the old cliche,” he said. Belangia said the possibility of future TED events in Augusta will rely heavily upon the success of the Telfair Street event. “We’re hoping next year that we can sell more tickets,” Belangia said. “TED will probably let us know in the spring time. They want to see how a city embraces the brand, how the organizers work with their volunteers to make sure that the TEDx event in their particular city follows the guidelines that TED dictates.” radams99@gru.edu
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editorial
Here’s your sign, Augusta Ever since the official announcement of the pending merger between Georgia Health Sciences and Augusta State universities, all eyes and ears have focused on the new research university’s administration, eagerly awaiting for President Ricardo Azziz’s next in his series of slipups. Unfortunately, he’s given the already hostile community of Augusta, Ga., yet another stone to throw at our university of glass. Apparently, Azziz and his administration had promised the word “Augusta” would be on the main campus signs as a means of appeasing the Save the A crowd, who publicly denounced the Georgia Regents University moniker because of its lack of connection to the community. These individuals relented after being told Augusta would be tacked
onto the back of Georgia Regents for branding purposes. They said this was a sign of official compromise, that the administration was listening to the people – though we, for the most part, saw it as a haphazard public relations stunt meant to publicly save face. Considering this administration’s track record in terms of listening to the people, though, it didn’t really shock us when Augusta was noticeably absent from the newly revised entrance signs on the Summerville campus. The larger community, on the other hand, was again outraged that the administration believed it could pull yet another fast one on the city it seems incapable, or perhaps the better term is unwilling, to placate. The Augusta Chronicle even called for an end to the president’s involve-
ment with the university Jan. 18, saying, “Azziz has abused the position the people of Georgia trusted him with, and has squandered any credibility he has to lead this university.” This strong condemnation prompted an immediate apology and about-face by the university, with Senior Vice President for Communications and Marketing David Brond quickly announcing that Augusta will, in fact, be added to the signs. As beautiful a gesture as this may be, it’s really too little, too late for most of us living in the city Azziz deemed lacking in the “cool factor.” Granted, many of us at The Bell Ringer felt betrayed by the Save the A campaign’s acceptance of the Georgia Regents University Augusta compromise. And we’ve been vocal opponents of the name, and how the name was se-
lected, but the community was just beginning to let those bygones be bygones when the administration made the decision to tweak its signage, simultaneously rubbing salt into the old wound that was the merger-name-change controversy. Probably not the best decision for an already unpopular administration to make. But, to be honest, we’re kind of surprised the community is surprised by the administration’s decision to renege on its promises. Considering our president’s track record, this was a highly likely possibility. The administration didn’t listen when surveys voted University of Augusta as the top choice for the new institution’s name, so why would it listen when Augustans wanted their city’s name on campus signs? Should we really be that shocked?
Parking sucks Give Augusta credit
By Amy Thorne staff writer
The university’s everchanging parking situation has been giving me some serious whiplash lately. To clarify beforehand, the following tirade is in no way directed toward the fine people who keep Parking Services running. It is, however, directed toward every person responsible for making these new rules and fees regarding parking on campus. As of Jan. 22, I joined the elite group of students who have received parking tickets this semester. Normally, violations do not bother me because I know exactly what I did wrong. Unlike students who completely neglected to register and pay for their passes, I took the initiative to register on time and still got a ticket. I understand the school needs a system to regulate parking, but the system should at least be efficient. If parking services wants to issue citations, it should verify whether the vehicle is actually registered. The weekend before this semester began, I received an email saying I needed to have a parking permit by the week of Jan. 20 or I would receive a ticket. Most students do not check their emails on a daily, weekly or even semesterly basis, so how do you expect them to see that one small email that probably went to their junk mail? Tuesday afternoon, I marched myself all the way across campus into a building lacking any identification other than “Public Safety.” They told me they were out of the pink passes and issued me a green slip of paper to hang from my rear view mirror. This semester’s pink passes are made of slightly durable plastic, yet students pay the same price for a flimsy green slip of paper. Thinking the green passes served as a temporary fix until a new shipment of pink passes arrived, I placed the green pass in my wallet. I parked on the opposite side of campus, so rather than walk in the freezing wind, I decided to wait until I drove home that night to display it. After getting into my car Tuesday night, I opened my wallet and did not see the pass. Knowing I had not opened my
Amy Thorne
staff writer
wallet since I stored my pass, I frantically combed through my purse and book bag. After minutes of fruitless searching, I decided to look for it the following morning and drove off. When I went the Parking Services Office the following morning to get a replacement, one of the office assistants informed me those slips of paper now serve as students’ permanent passes. She then pointed to the phrase “TEMPORARY PERMANENT.” I fail to understand how the term permanent holds any truth when students have to renew their passes each semester. The principle of the entire situation frustrates me to no end. WHY WOULD SOMEONE CHARGE $100 FOR THAT REPLACEMENT PIECE OF PAPER? Surely, the paper passes cost less to manufacture than the exorbitant replacement fee charge. Perhaps the offices established the fee to prevent students from losing passes, but the only lesson they are teaching is how to counterfeit those slips of paper. With no time to rush home and look for my lost pass, I went to class and hoped no officer would spot my untagged vehicle. The pain of seeing a parking ticket under my wiper blade when I returned to my car did not hurt as badly as seeing the person in charge of citations issued the ticket only five minutes prior to me getting to my car. After taking a closer look at the ticket, I noticed the charge said “failure to register.” A small wave of optimism washed over me at the thought of contesting the ticket had been given on false charges. When I went home the same day, I found my pass in the front page of my Hispanic Linguistics textbook. Though I solved the case of the missing parking pass, I faced a much bigger problem, the school. I am tired of having to bend over backwards to follow the rules the school’s officials seem to arbitrarily impose on students and faculty. Lack of planning on their parts clearly does constitute an emergency on our parts. athorne@gru.edu
By Meredith Day staff writer Disgusta - the ugly name some locals have given our city to represent the complete lack of culture, entertainment and arts found in this hellhole. Except that’s completely wrong. For years, I’ve heard people complain about how boring life is in Augusta, Ga., and it’s getting old because there’s plenty to do here if you know where to go. For example… Have you ever had the urge to ram your car into those people who ride their bikes a little too far into Washington Road? Well, as annoying as they may be, there’s actually a pretty incredible bike community in Augusta. Unknown to many, we have several remarkable bike trails located throughout the CSRA. If biking’s not your thing, we also have the Lake Strom Thurmond, which is a great place to go out for some water skiing, kayaking or spending a weekend camping with friends. Basically, if you like the outdoors, Augusta is amazing. But maybe you prefer the indoors. Maybe you see the bright sun shining in through your window and shut the blinds to reduce the glare on your screen. Well never fear, because Augusta’s got something for you too! Not only do we have Level Up, a video game center that hosts tournaments and all-
Meredith Day staff writer
night gaming events, but there’s also The Book Exchange, where all the cool kids go to play Warhammer, Magic: The Gathering and maybe a little bit of D&D. Or maybe you’re the type of person who wants to experience some culture. You hold up your nose at Monet because you think it’s something old women purchase to match their furniture. Well, Augusta’s got something for even the snobbiest elitists. The Morris Art Museum exhibits art only made in the South and Broad Street’s Artist Row is home to many local art studios. You can also experience a play at Le Chat Noir, Augusta’s intimate theater, which puts on new shows year round. Does music speak to you? Is the magic in the music and the music’s in you? Well, that’s just great because Augusta’s home to several fantastic venues where you’ll almost always be able to catch a show that will interest you. The most popular venues are Sky City, The Bell Auditorium and The Country Club, which all hold shows frequently, but there’s also dozens of smaller venues around Augusta that host shows as well. Plus, go to almost any Mexican restaurant around town and
you’re likely to have found the home of a weekly karaoke venue. Know the lyrics to “Don’t Stop Believing”? Great! You’re basically a karaoke pro. Sports fans! Know what Augusta has? That’s right, sports! We’ve got baseball, golf and we even used to have a hockey team. Hmm… So maybe sports aren’t that exciting in Augusta, but we’ve got The Masters and that’s got to count for something. Plus, we have plenty of nonprofit teams in the area that play everything ranging from rugby to parkour. We even hosted a quidditch tournament last year. Who knew that was real?! So there you have it. Augusta has culture; Augusta has entertainment. But just in case I left off anything, here’s a list of everything else that’s awesome in the Augusta area: Painting at Artsy Me, skating at the Augusta Ice Sports Center, playing trivia at one of our bars, getting black out drunk at one of our bars, visiting our giant awesome libraries, seeing a movie in one of our several theaters, shopping at our mall, taking your dog to one of our dog parks or visiting one of our fantastic museums. Alright, have I convinced you that Augusta’s not the wasteland of a town you thought it was? If not, I’m sorry, but there is simply no curing your boredom. mday4@gru.edu
Letter from the SGA president “Communication is the real work of leaderAmanda ship.” – Nitin Nohria Bryant This is exactly why I try to reach out to stuSGA President dents in any way I can to make everyone aware sbryant9@gru.edu of what is going on. What I want you, the student body, to be aware of now, is election season. Applications for Undergraduate Student Government come to address them here. Just send an email to will be available Feb. 17. Please visit our website one of the executive officers, and we will get you for more information about that. We always need on the agenda for a meeting. We are here to serve leaders willing to work for the student body. you and that is how we can begin to accomplish We still have seats available for people in- goals for you. terested in serving this semester. Please visit our website to fill out an application. As always, our meetings are Letters to the editor must be accompanied by the author’s email address. All columns and on Fridays at 1:30 p.m. in the letters to the editor are the opinion of the author. The views expressed in the opinion section do Coffeehouse, which is located 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 on the second floor of the Jaguar Ringer staff gives all opinions a fair chance to be heard. All letters will be edited for grammar Student Activities Center. These and style. If you would like to contribute a column or a letter to the editor, send an email to: meetings are open to everyone, and we encourage you to come. If bellringerproduction@gmail.com you have concerns, you are wel-
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2014
THE BELL RINGER
ARTS & LIFE
Winning: Mom style There By Leigh Beeson editor-in-chief
I know many college-age women who say their mom is their best friend. For me, that wasn’t really the case growing up. My mom is the kind of parent who didn’t care if I liked her. She frequently, and rightly, told me I was being rude. And she took away privileges if I disobeyed her. Most children would say they’d rather have a friend than a parent. But I know for a fact that’s the wrong way to go about raising kids. My mom could be tough sometimes, but she was also the most loving, caring, incredible mother anyone could ask for. She held my hand when I needed it, and she told me she had faith in me to accomplish whatever I set my mind to. I wasn’t always the easiest kid to take care of. I had extreme anxiety for 20 years of my life, with the last year being the first that I didn’t experience a single panic attack. But she never told me to get over it or stop worrying about stupid things – something that, by the way, never works with people who have legitimate anxiety disorders. She just let me cry and listened to my semi-coherent ramblings until the sobbing subsided and I slowly emerged from my selfinduced anxious fit. She also gave me the most incredible gift I’ve ever been
CONTRIBUTED BY LEIGH BEESON
My parents and I visit with Charlie, a New Orleans mule, in October 2009.
Leigh Beeson editor-in-chief given in the form of my guinea pigs. Against my dad’s wishes, we went to the pet store one afternoon after I got out of middle school to pick out a pig. When I couldn’t decide between the beautiful Abyssinian and the cuddly orange American,
How to redecorate your backyard, the redneck way By Jordan Barry production assistant An above-ground pool is a great way to decrease the value of your property, set yourself up for a deluge when the thing finally gives way and redneck-ify your backyard. My stepmom loves ours, but after watching Dad struggle to clean the thing out after last spring, I suggested that perhaps he should cover it during the months that it wasn’t being used. Although this seems like a common-sense solution, apparently he had not thought of it. Dad likes to do things the hard way, but after much convincing, he finally covered the glorified bathtub with a giant tarp that strapped around the edges. From about November to the beginning of January, I passed the back window and tried to ignore the monstrosity, but then something strange happened. The polar vortex finally hit Augusta, Ga. One morning I awoke to find that the rain and leaves that had accumulated on top of the tarp were frozen solid. I knew then that the tarp was not going to be effective for long if the cold weather kept up. When the ice finally melted, the tarp gave way and all of the rainwater and leaves fell into the algae breeding ground that
Jordan Barry production assistant is our above-ground pool. The ice-cold, stagnant water is a dark, murky brown. Leaves and who knows what else coat the bottom and float around aimlessly. In short, it looks disgusting. I would rather swim in a Georgia red clay lake. At least God made that one. That’s my dad’s luck, I guess. He tried to prevent the problem, but he ended up having to deal with it anyway. Anything to appease the stepmom, I guess. Pools in general are a pain to keep up with. The money spent on maintenance can get outrageous, but it’s a necessary hassle if you intend to use them. However, above-ground pools are far worse because they are not even worth the money and time. They do not add any value to your property, and they are bound to wreak havoc on it when the walls finally give way and send a mini-tsunami into your yard. Granted, watching this disaster happen to someone else can be hilarious and entertaining, but would you want that in your own backyard? I don’t think so. jbarry3@gru.edu
HR/job opportunities availible! For more information visit TrinityofAugusta.com or call (706) 481-7454
she softly said, “Well, they do better in pairs…” Unbeknownst to us at the time, we had actually purchased three pigs for the price of two, as Georgia gave birth to a rambunctious boy a couple of months later. And my mom and dad were willing to pay to have the little guy neutered instead of forcing me to find another home for him elsewhere. She drove me to the emergency veterinarian’s office sev-
eral times during the eight years I had the pigs. I remember her telling me to calm down on one of those rides, that no guinea pig had ever died from a nicked nail, saying Bowie would be fine, we just had to staunch the cut. And when I had to say goodbye to them after eight long, wonderful years together, she and my dad held me on the couch while I cried, reminding me that my pigs had lived the lives of cavy royalty, they probably ate better treats than many humans, and the sadness I felt would eventually subside and I would instead remember the wonderful times we had together. I know some people assert that their parents are the best in the world. And while I know this is completely subjective, I can attest that these people are completely, 100 percent wrong. You can’t beat my parents. They were parents first when I was younger, which enabled them to be my closest friends later in life. They’re the only people who don’t judge me, the only people I know I can be completely honest with about how I’m feeling without fear of repercussions in some form or another and the only people I know will love me forever, no matter what, as I will love them. I’m grateful everyday that God blessed me with the family I was born into. One final thing, happy birthday Mom. I love you. kbeeson1@gru.edu
Growing up is very hard to do By Megan Stewart arts & life editor With each passing day, I come closer to graduation. The biggest thing I find myself contemplating is, “What have I actually learned throughout the years?” First of all, if you aren’t happy about something – you have to change it. Nobody will do it for you; nobody can do it for you. You’ve got to sit down and actually realize what needs to be altered and actually put forth effort. Hard work doesn’t always result in positive feedback. As annoying as that may be, sometimes you will bust your ass and get zero recognition – but that doesn’t mean you should give up or stop trying. It’s just a minor setback that we have to deal with from time to time. Sometimes you just have to say no without any explanation. You can’t sugar coat everything and if people can’t take no for an answer, you’re only going to waste your energy trying to please them. You’ll always continue to discover yourself. From one day to the next, you’re always changing, even if you don’t realize it. Just sit back and think about yourself 10 years ago. Think about your personality, the
Megan Stewart arts & life editor way you looked, the way you dressed, the friends you had – it’s different now. Be confident in your decisions. The more you trust yourself, the less you have to rely on the acceptance of another. If you stop yourself from doing something you want to do, just because a friend doesn’t agree – you’re never going to truly be happy. You don’t know everything, so don’t assume you do. While first impressions are said to be important on the impact you make, you can’t tell what hides beneath the veneer of others. Demeanor and appearance doesn’t always display pain and troubles, so don’t judge what you don’t know. And most importantly, friendships come and go. It’s OK, though. There will be the ones that are always there, the ones that go away and come back and then the ones that simply don’t last. They’re all a part of your ever-changing life, shaping who you are and who you’re going to be. mstewar7@gru.edu
is way more to sex
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Writers to get critiqued
Mindy Wadley
By Ashley Trawick news editor
copy editor By Mindy Wadley copy editor Although they are often used interchangeably, the terms “sex” and “gender” do not have synonymous meanings. The concept of sex is a biological characteristic. Despite most people’s impression that people’s genitals determine their sex, scientists have shown that is not quite true. Most people are born with clearly defined male or female sex organs, but many people are born without clearly defined sex organs. For these intersex individuals, there is a lot of stigma surrounding the pressure to choose to identify with one sex or another. The problem with this imposition of sex on an infant, who has no choice in the matter, aside from its inhumane mutilation of naturally occurring organs, is that the genitals are not the only contributing factor to one’s sex. Chromosomal composition is the determining factor to what sex organs form in a developing fetus. All eggs contribute an X chromosome to the fetus. If it receives a Y chromosome from the sperm, in most cases it should result in a baby boy. And if it receives an X chromosome, a baby girl should be the result. But, in abnormal instances, anomalies can occur during pregnancy, leading to the birth of an intersex baby. For example, a fetus with XX chromosomes exposed to excess testosterone before birth can result in a child with both ovaries and a penis. So what’s the bigger issue with deciding what a child’s gender should be, for him or her? To understand this, one must first understand that gender is a social construct. With all the variations on a typical male-female gender binary, as commonly accepted by society, that exist in nature, one can see that not every person will fit precisely into a predetermined notion of what is supposed to be accepted characteristics and behavior for someone who is either male or female. Even men who are biologically male may have feminine characteristics, and the same is true for women who are biologically female. When a baby is born presumably male or female, parents decorate a nursery, buy onesies and bibs in blue or pink and even buy toys that won’t be played with for months. Dolls and frills and lace and pink abound in a “girl’s” room, while blues, bold angular designs, cars, trucks and airplanes fill a “boy’s.” But despite our social understanding, the gender a person ultimately identifies with as an adult capable of making that decision is no one else’s to decide. Society is inundated with ongoing debates centered on the battle of the sexes. People should realize this battle does not come down to one side versus another. There is an entire spectrum of sex and gender, and the two don’t necessarily mutually exist. mindyawadley@gmail.com
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megan stewart | staff
The World Beer Festival in Columbia, S.C., offers more than 150 brews from around the world for guests to sample.
Festival gets tipsy By Megan Stewart arts & life editor
There is only one place you’ll find the men’s bathroom line dominating the women’s, and that is the World Beer Festival in Columbia, S.C. Regardless of if you’re a first-time attender or a frequent visitor to the annual event, you need to keep your map. Once you’ve tried a few beers, there’s no way to keep up with all the festival has to offer. With more than 150 beers to choose from, which ranged in brews from companies like SweetWater Brewing Company in Atlanta, to Czechvar from Czech Republic, the two stories of vendor booths weren’t the only thing this venue had to offer. There were classes like Beer 101, which taught the audience
the importance of tasting rather than guzzling, and books that taught members how to pair the beverage with foods to enhance the flavors. And who could forget the cornhole competitions and silent disco? What better way to spend your time drinking than to also add tossing bags of corn and dancing to music nobody else can hear? For this event you had some options, however; you could purchase $40 tickets to either attend the noon tasting, which lasted until 4 p.m. (which is what I did), or you could spend the same amount and visit from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. However, if you wanted to spend $80 – you could attend both! But let’s be honest, who wants to spend 8 hours standing up, drinking beer? Stick to the
contributed by melanie o’Meara
Thespians to acquire new skills By Haley Harris staff writer The Summerville Campus of Georgia Regents University will be hosting the Patti Pace Performance Festival for the first time Friday and Saturday at the Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre. The festival is a two-day conference that connects those who have an interest in theater and the communication arts, Melanie O’Meara, the festival organizer, said. People from all over the country, as well as students from local high schools, who share these same interests will be attending. Participants will be partaking in theater workshops together, as well as performing for an audience the second night of the festival. Students will participate in workshops where they learn from one another and scholars on new techniques for theater, according to the Georgia Regents event website. Each school will also perform a piece they have worked on prior to
cheaper tickets and spend your evening exploring the town. With a beer culture such as the one found in Columbia, I would have to say this location is a pretty smart choice. You can spend your time enjoying the 2 ounces offered for each beer available and then walk across the street to World of Beer if you need more one-on-one time with a particular kind. Although many assume visiting the beer festival is strictly to get wasted, they’re wrong. In a place like this, there’s a difference between enjoying the taste of some craft brews you’ve never had before and getting stumbling drunk. You have to pace yourself. Don’t be dumb and not snack on carbs either. The pretzel necklaces they sell there are more see BEER on PAGE 10
the festival. The students will then form groups and create new pieces on their own. These pieces will be performed on the second night of the festival. The Georgia Regents performers are Miranda Grim, a senior creative writing major, and Ethan Brown, a freshman anthropology and social work major. They said they share similar feelings of excitement and curiosity as the festival approaches, and they both look forward to making their school and theater department proud. “I want the school to be one of those places people think of to go see a show,” Brown said. “I want them to know that our show is good because we do have great talent.” Brown said he looks at the Patti Pace Festival as an opportunity to show people that the theater department is something worth being interested in. “That’s what I’m excited about,” he said. “Getting the high school students in here, reaching out to the community and showing them that our theater department is (awesome)!” The Patti Pace Festival will also be hosting two guest scholars, Jason del Gandio, from Temple University, and Gretchen Stein Rhodes, from Louisiana State University, for the participants to listen to and learn from. Grim said she looks forward to this collaboration of colleges and the possibility of learning from the scholars. She also said she wants to take as much from the two days of the festival as possible. She wants to make memories from the festival and make friends who have similar interests. “I am excited,” she said. “I’m looking forward to making more theater friends and learning more about the different kinds of theater that exist.” During the workshops, participants will also be able to explore different sites around the Augusta, Ga., community. Brown said the students would be taken see FESTIVAL on PAGE 10
Writers Weekend returns this year at Georgia Regents University with the sentiment of bigger is better. During the weekend of Feb. 6, participants will learn from award-winning authors who will discuss elements of the craft and share their original creative nonfiction, fiction, music and poetry, according to the Writers Weekend webpage on the Georgia Regents website. Creative writing faculty from the Department of English and Foreign Languages will give readings and lead special workshops for high school students. The series, started by literature professor Anna Harris, was originally a way for students in high school, those attending Georgia Regents and Augusta, Ga., community members to tap into their creative side and gain feedback on their work. This year, Harris said the series in comparison with last year has changed a lot. The guests are quite different, including a hip-hop producer and a 22-yearold Army brat. “We’re just trying to make it a bigger event and a more diverse event,” she said. “We still have the target audience of emerging writers as far as the people who we are bringing in and people that we want to attend. Last year, we had people who were exclusively creative writers and/or maybe they also taught, but this year, we worked really hard to put together a line-
up that the people had different interests.” Walter Evans, a professor of English, said he made suggestions last year on whom to invite and what students want. “I am in the background,” he said. “I make suggestions and help where I can. (Harris) thought we needed a more normal writer’s conference. She got some people in, and what makes it a writer’s conference really is they don’t just come and talk. They give a reading of their own work. They also give workshops (and) lectures where they talk about how to write, how to write poetry that rhymes or how to explore family history in your poetry.” Another aspect of the event many students look forward to is meeting with authors who are young and enthusiastic because they take the writer’s more seriously, Harris said. An assistant professor of literature, Cheryl Hopson, will provide some insight on writing and said if one were to think about a Writers Weekend, it’s almost like a retreat – a moment where one can stop and focus. “I’m doing a roundtable with another writer, and the two of us will field questions from students and talk about our process,” Hopson said. “(Harris) really wanted me to talk to them about how to fit in writing when you have so many other responsibilities. For me, it’s a balancing act between that creative voice and perspective and that critical, analytical self.” atrawick@gru.edu
meredith day | staff
Robbin Dunn, of Augusta, Ga., wins the kitchen sink award in the Chilly Chili Cook-off Saturday.
CSRA community gets chilly for chili By Meredith Day staff writer Those who were brave enough to endure the cold weather to attend the Chilly Chili Cook-off Saturday were not only treated to different varities of chili to keep them warm but also helped raise funds and spread awareness for those with physical disabilities. This was the third year for the cookoff, which is the main fundraiser for Champions Made from Adversity, a local nonprofit organization that provides sport and leisure activities for those with physical disabilities. “All the proceeds come to the Champions Made from Adversity, and it allows us to provide more sports programs, buy more equipment and allow more teams to go where they need to go,” Kelly Garcia, the officer manager, said. The competition consisted of several teams from the CSRA and prizes ranged from gift certificates, the opportunity to have next year’s event named after the winner’s business and trophies.
While participants all go in hoping to win prizes, for the most part, the competition is about fun, said Jeff Silver, a chairman of CMFA. “I think I took last place last year, so if I take second to last this year I’m doing better,” Silver said. Besides the chili cooked for guests., the event had a strong focus on sports and activities for people with physical disabilities. Two of the featured events were expositions put on by local wheelchair basketball and rugby teams. Other events at the cook-off included a free throw contest, an auction and a half-court shot from a wheelchair for a chance to win a 2014 Ford Fusion. While the team The Rolling Maddogs said this event is significant to them, they also won the most awards for their chili. “We participate every year because this is their main fundraiser and we couldn’t exist without them,” said Melanie Rahn, the coach for The Maddogs. mday4@gru.edu
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2014
ARTS & LIFE www.grubellringer.com
Student hosts first art show By Ashley Trawick news editor
ashley trawick | staff
April Henry, a junior communications major, hosts her first art show titled “The Cat’s Meow” Feb. 7 at the gallery Artist’s Local 1155, located on Broad Street in Augusta, Ga.
Augustans should prepare to scratch and claw their way into April Henry’s first art showcase Feb. 7 in downtown Augusta, Ga. The show’s concept is to show a lot of her experiences such as music, her obsession with mermaids and being involved in a sometimes-difficult, long-distance relationship. Henry said she wanted this show to fully focus on her life experiences and not the work others request of her, like dog paintings or celebrity portraits. “I really just wanted to do something for myself,” she said. “I enjoy doing (work for others), but I really just wanted to have an art show with art that I (personally) wanted to do.” Her show titled “The Cat’s Meow” will be hosted at the downtown gallery Artist’s Local 1155, located at 1155 Broad St. It was inspired by her experience with living with her sister and an abandoned cat she found. “She rescued this cat from the bushes, and it all started with that cat,” Henry said. “It was horrible (at first). Then I started to kind of like the cat. We’ve become these weird cat people.” Henry, who is also a junior communications major at Georgia Regents University, said she taught herself everything she knows, and she got her start painting for a coffee shop when it first opened. “They were selling a lot so I was like, ‘Oh wow, I can make some money doing
this,’” she said. “It really kind of became a thing where it got popular and people started asking for specific things, (so) I started doing commissioned artwork.” Peter Stitt, the owner of Artist’s Local 1155, said Henry connected with him about her work. “A lot of the art community is kind of fairly tight-knit around here,” he said. “You might not know people personally but you know their names. Word gets around.” He said though he hasn’t seen what work Henry is going to be displaying yet, he thinks it will do well, and he’s excited to see what she’s going to show. Henry was a former painting teacher at the art gallery Corks and Canvas in Augusta, and Tammy Jones, the owner, said she’ll be missed now that she left. “As a painter, she’s one of these people that you can give her anything and she’s able to paint it,” she said. “In the business that we do, of course, it’s not necessarily about creating a masterpiece; it’s more along the lines of teach this person how to duplicate this painting rather than teach this person the techniques around being an artist. She does that really well and she has a good handle on things that sell.” Jones said Henry was well liked because of her great personality and disposition. “She’s a great artist,” Jones said. “She has a lot of insight into what you want. She’s one of my favorites.” atrawick@gru.edu
Studio offers chance for improv By Amy Thorne staff writer
Local poets and artists alike have a spot to showcase their talent during M.A.D. Studios Open Mic Night every Thursday at 7 p.m. in Augusta, Ga. John “Stoney” Cannon, the co-owner of M.A.D. Studios, said he and the other owners wanted to open a venue that could host as many different arts as possible. M.A.D. Studios, which stands for music, art and design, is a recording studio and listening room that holds about 60 people, giving, as performers and audience members have said, an intimate feel. “We noticed that no one was doing any spoken word type of mics,” Cannon said. “(Open Mic Night Host Catherine Zickraf) changed up the format where every week we have a feature that’s booked
amy thorne | staff
Chris Elledge, of Augusta, Ga., reads an original poem written while listening to others perform.
from anywhere around the country.” Since it opened in November 2012, Cannon said Open Mic has closely followed its mission statement, which is “respect the artist and all arts for all people.” “It’s a cool vibe,” Cannon said. “I’d
say people from all walks of life all show their love and support each other.” He said even if the studio has an allnew crowd, people are welcomed when they walk through the door. Zickraf said the event has had people
come from as far as Detroit, Dallas and other parts of the country, and she first got involved with Open Mic Night because she wanted an opportunity to perform her own poetry. Though the shows have die-hard fans, Zickraf said almost half the people at each show are new. Her goal is to get people who come in with the mindset of just listening to want to share something by the end. Chris Elledge, of Augusta, was one of those who got inspired. He said he was nervous and felt the pressure of the audience watching him, which made him not want to make a mistake. “It’s a little intimidating, but at the same time when you start actually getting into it, you kind of lose yourself,” Elledge said. “It was the impulse really. Worst case scenario I get a boo; best case scenario it turns out to be what it was.” athorne@gru.edu
Artist paints the town By Jessica Sager staff writer
The community is helping a local artist expand his talent. Leonard “Porkchop” Zimmerman, who was born and raised in Augusta, Ga., said he enjoyed drawing as a child and attended Davidson Fine Arts High School. After high school, he went on to study at the Savannah College of Art and Design for four years, graduating in 1994. Zimmerman said he returned to his hometown of Augusta in 2007, shortly after the death of his partner in 2006. During that period, he said his art was therapeutic, and he was at a stage where he didn’t want to display his work to others. However, eventually his sister encouraged him to show his artwork. The nickname Porkchop
was one Zimmerman first painted under as an endearment his partner had given him, he said. Although he said he usually works with acrylic paint, he also uses spray paint, does collage photos and tries to do sketches daily. Lately, he has even been painting on wood. “I try to draw what I’m feeling,” Zimmerman said. “I’m trying to translate something – an abstract feeling – into something that makes sense.” Although Zimmerman said he started painting as a way to deal with his grief and some sadness can be seen, there is also happiness in his art. “In all my work I try to show the positive side of stuff,” he said. “I know that there’s a lot of crap in life, but I also know that there’s a lot of good in life.” Zimmerman said he started to create buttons and stickers with the word “smile” and a
smiling robot face on them in order to make people smile. With this idea, robots are also found to be a common theme in Zimmerman’s work, he said. “The reason I chose the robots is that I could use a robot to represent any age, any gender, any national origin,” he said. “A robot can be anybody.” A robot is one of the characters in “Playn’ with My Friends,” a mural Zimmerman recently completed for the Augusta Public Library, which was unveiled Jan. 17. “He painted it for us free of charge,” said Darlene Price, the director of the Augusta-Richmond County Public Library. “We purchased the paint, and that was it.” Syd Padgett, the owner of OddFellows Art Gallery, has displayed many of Zimmerman’s works in the gallery downtown
jessica sager | staff
Leonard Zimmerman shows his mural to the Augusta Public Library Jan. 17.
and said he enjoys the idea behind his theme. “I love it,” Padgett said. “The painting he did that kind of inspired him to do the design, we put it in the front window right before Christmas and it was sold within a day. It was just a robot reading to a teddy bear and that kind of became the genesis for what was at the library.” Zimmerman said he also painted one of the murals that decorate the Augusta Water
Works building. The mural features a bright yellow robot relaxing in a swimming pool, which may be a familiar sight to students who take the bus from the Summerville campus to University Village or Christenberry Fieldhouse. “The whole Augusta community really has been very, very good to me,” Zimmerman said. “Other local artists are all very encouraging.” jschucke@gru.edu
THE BELL RINGER
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2014
ARTS & LIFE www.grubellringer.com
“
It’s being persistent. You’re going to get more no’s than yes’s. If you never audition, what’s the worst that could happen?
”
-- Michael Fortino, a junior theater major
ashley trawick | staff
Michael Fortino (left) and Malcom Verbeck practice onstage for the play “Into the Woods.”
Local discovers passion onstage By Collette Richards staff writer Junior theater major Michael Fortino has a strong passion for acting and pursuing his dreams. Fortino has a lead role in the Georgia Regents University’s upcoming production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods,” directed by Patricia Myers, and recently has auditioned for the university’s production of “Tribes,” directed by the professor Douglas Joiner. Coming from a family of athletes, Fortino said he did not always know he wanted to pursue acting. He said he started off playing baseball and would dabble in theater some until he realized that was what he
wanted to do. He was first cast in the former Augusta State University play “Dr. Faustus” at the age of 9, Fortino said. Joiner directed the play and his role was to play young Dr. Faustus. Ten years later, Joiner cast Fortino in the university’s production of “Caesar,” where the then-19-year-old played multiple roles including the narrator, Lucius and several servants. Fortino is a hard worker who does not have a chip on his shoulder and is focused on improving, Joiner said; however, his vulnerability is one of his best qualities as an actor and he is able to engage the audience with it. “He’s still growing and his confidence gets stronger with each performance,” Joiner said. “I’ve seen him take on roles that were risky, and that
Festival CONTINUED from PAGE 7
downtown in their groups to discover the art that takes place in the surrounding area of Georgia Regents. The second night of the workshop will be open to the public to come and watch the performance pieces that the students created together, O’Meara said. Students from participating schools will come together and create a performance piece that includes ideas from all students. This will be a time for students to make connections and learn from the different styles and techniques. O’Meara said she shares a history with the Patti Pace Festival. Patti Pace was actually one of her undergraduate professors at Georgia Southern University, and the festival takes place in her honor, so when the festival was able to come to Georgia Regents, O’Meara said she was thrilled. “I’m wanting to get to know other schools and get people involved and talking,” she said. “I want the students to learn from doing this work by helping each other, and by going to different sites around the community.” hharris011@yahoo.com
megan stewart | staff
The World Beer Festival provides 2 ounce cups for guests to get filled at each booth.
Beer
CONTINUED from PAGE 7
than a cute snack idea; they are a way to maintain sobriety. With so many types of beer to choose from, it’s important to remember to drink water too. You don’t want to mix flavors. Who wants their Pilsner to taste like the stout they just consumed? Luckily, there are water jugs at the end of the booths to rinse your cup out with as well. Although the lines can get long,
is the only way for an actor to grow.” Myers said she has known Fortino for 11 years and is directing the “Into the Woods” production, which opens Feb. 7. Fortino will play the Wolf and Cinderella’s Prince. “It’s going great; I’m really excited,” Myers said. “We have a little bit of time left, but we’re going to put all of our energy into it.” One of the most challenging roles of his career, Fortino’s said, recently passed. He played Rosencrantz in Le Chat Noir’s production of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.” “It is the most dialogue I have ever had to memorize – about 87 pages,” Fortino said. Fortino has been involved with Le Chat Noir for about three years, he said, and played Marius in its production of “Les Miserables” this past September. “When I did ‘Les Mis’ at Le Chat, (it was) the biggest role I ever had,” he said. “I had practiced for over a year to get to Marius.” Fortino also said he has goals and dreams for himself as an actor. He recently auditioned for “Les Miserables” in Dallas by sending in a video and has auditioned in New York City too. “You’ve just got to go do it,” he said. “It’s being persistent. You’re going to get more no’s than yes’s. If you never audition, what’s the worst that could happen?” cricha32@gru.edu
you’ll find that they move pretty quickly. But with speed you will also find some volunteers that ruin your beer. Nobody wants to get a beer that’s 90 percent head. The food was high-priced too. Granted, anytime you attend an event in a convention center you’ll find spending $10 on snacks is the general price. Let’s just say, like all events of this nature – eat before you get there. The best part of the event, though, would have to be the members at the booths that explained some of the history behind the brews. This is what you can’t get from your waiter or waitress at a restaurant. This is what brewers take pride in. This is what makes each beer exceptionally different. The beer festival brings many opportunities to all who participate in it. For the home brewers, it gives insight on what they can do to improve, and for the occasional consumers, it expands their knowledge of the product and provides new tastes to enjoy. Returning to the festival is a definite, but preparation beforehand with food consumption and the choice of going to the later half are my takeaways. So to World Beer Festival 2015, I say let’s grab a glass.
Around Town
THE BELL RINGER
PAGE 11
comics Polar Vortex
Richard Adams staff writer
Finding beauty in harsh story I won’t call “12 Years a Slave” the best film of the year; this, I feel, is a purely subjective field. And it is a field that seems comprised of a multitude of criteria and considerations, which renders any potential film the title bestowed upon to be found lacking in one way or another. Rushing to conclusions based upon terms as arbitrary as these is ultimately a foolish errand, placing one opinion in conflict with another in endless argumentation without adequate justification. Instead, I will offer a more refined argument indicative of qualities of “12 Years a Slave”: I say it is the best example I have seen, this year, of what film is capable of doing. In the beginning, the technique of filmmaking was called after its aim: the capture and transformation of images into “moving” or “motion pictures.” And ever since their beginning, “moving pictures” have focused on the image of the human, whether in pictorial or photographic form. The human body in a state of motion, therefore, has been for the filmic lens both a fascination and a source of purpose. In this sense, the technology could be seen to have developed into a sort of mirror for humankind. The recognition of the human visage is of central importance to the medium of film and inextricably linked to its history and development. The subject of “12 Years a Slave,” important as it may be, is not basis enough upon which to claim its merits; Roger Ebert was fond of saying the value of a film resides not in what a film is about but how it is about it. It is not necessarily a moral claim the film asserts, but a claim that extends to encompass the whole field in which we consider morality as central. By studying with relentless focus and astonishing acumen a period in U.S. history in which humans were denied their own humanity, “12 Years a Slave” is able to examine what it means to be human: humanity as a whole, with each individual in recognition of the other. This goal is one achieved by the participation of all its authors: writers, directors, photographers, actors, musicians, seamstresses and carpenters. Their extraordinary efforts in making this film touches upon the true potential that film has in its combination of myriad talents from various disciplines. Here, they join together in a common song. In all aspects, in spite of the brutality captured, it is the most beautiful film of the year.
mstewar7@gru.edu
Across
Down
2. A severe snowstorm that goes on for a long 1. Treated, affected, or crusted over by time freezing; incapable of being changed, moved, or undone 3. A hooded fur pullover garment for arctic wear 2. A thin layer of ice on a paved road that is very difficult to see 4. The coldest state in the US 6. A persistent, large-scale cyclone located 5. A festive figure made of snow and near one or both of a planet’s geographical commonly decorated with carrots, coal, poles. scarves and top-hats. 7. Of or relating to the North Pole or the 9. A framed opening made in a chimney to region around it; very cold hold an open fire 8. A jacket that has a hood and that is long 10. Precipitation in the form of small white enough to cover your hips ice crystals formed directly from the water vapor of the air at a temperature of less than 9. The superficial or deep freezing of the 32°F tissues of some part of the body; the nose, ears, feet, toes, hands and fingers are usually 11. Cracked in or a sore roughening of the affected first. skin caused by exposure to wind or cold 14. A long flat-bottomed light sled made 12. Is the personification of frost, ice, snow, usually of thin boards curved up at one end sleet, and freezing cold weather, a variant of with usually low handrails at the sides Old Man Winter held responsible for frosty weather, for nipping the nose and toes in such 16. To repeatedly take air into your nose in weather, coloring the foliage in autumn, and short breaths that are loud enough to be heard leaving fernlike patterns on cold windows in because you are sick or have been crying winter. 13. A storm with northeast winds 15. The perceived decrease in air temperature felt by the body on exposed skin due to the flow of air. 16. A tool for digging, lifting, or moving snow 17. A brief and light snowfall
Good Luck! Answers Across: 2. Blizzard 3. Parka 4. Alaska 5. Snowman 9. Fireplace 10. Snow 11. Chapped 12. Jack Frost 13. Nor’easter 15. Windchill 16. Snow shovel 17. Flurry Down: 1. Frozen 2. Black ice 6. Polar Vortex 7. Arctic 8. Anorak 9. Frostbite 14. Toboggan 16. Sniffle
PAGE 10
radams99@gru.edu
Everyone’s going downtown By Jordan Barry production assistant Georgia Regents University kicked off the start of a new tradition comparable to First Friday. The event, called Go Downtown, was held Jan. 16, and it was the result of collaboration between the university and the Downtown Development Authority of Augusta, Ga. Director of Governmental Affairs Cedric Johnson said he hopes the event will encourage more faculty, staff and students to visit downtown Augusta. “We realized that a lot of our faculty, staff and students usually come to school or work and then they go back home,”
he said. “But there are a lot of wonderful things downtown that the GRU family can do and participate in.” From 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., participants were offered discounts at more than 50 different restaurants, bars, stores and even salons. The school shuttle ran between campus and the downtown area throughout the day to provide students with alternate forms of transportation. At 6 p.m. the local band People Who Must performed in the Augusta Common, and the event wrapped up with a fireworks display. Though not a lot of students were present for the band and fireworks, they took advantage of the food and beverage
discounts. Davis Stine, an employee at Nacho Mamas, said Go Downtown brought a lot of students to the restaurant. “It’s definitely bringing students downtown,” he said. “As far as business goes, they’ll either come here or they’ll come to the bars.” Stine said he hopes the event will continue because it is bringing a more desirable crowd to Nacho Mamas. “Any initiative to get people down here that isn’t alcohol-related, I approve of,” he said. Calvin Mack, a freshman political science major and a member of the Student Advisory Council, said he noticed a lot more students downtown as well.
Jordan Barry | staff
People Who Must plays for Go Downtown, an initiative between Downtown Development Authority and Georgia Regents University in Augusta, Ga.
He said he goes downtown often and has never seen so many people there on a Thursday. “One of our focusing goals would be to see if we can get it to continue,” Johnson said. “We are planning for the third
Thursday in February to do the same thing again. We probably won’t go to the extremes of the fireworks and the band, but then hopefully the merchants can see the impact, and maybe they will do it on a regular basis.” jbarry3@gru.edu
Stay Cozy Word Search BOOTS
HAT
MUFF
SCARF
CIDER
HOT COCOA
PEA COAT
SKI MASK
EARMUFFS
LONG JOHNS
SWEATER
GLOVES
MITTENS
POCKET WARMERS
WOOL
PAGE 12
TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2014
sports By Meredith Day staff writer Get ready for a different kind of sport. The sixth season for the Soul City Sirens roller derby team has officially begun. This year, the Sirens are focused on learning how to grow as a team, bringing in some new fans and winning games. They also expect this year to be a success because they now have experience playing on the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, the international governing body of women’s flat track roller derby. “Last year was our first season as a full WFTDA team, and we’re a full member of that association now,” said jammer and blocker Kristina “Pink Sox” Perez. “It was a learning experience last year. We started playing harder teams, and playing those teams we learned a lot on different strategies that we hope to implement this year.” The women also take pride in knowing how to take a person slamming into them at high speeds. “It’s rough, but that’s
By Haley Harris staff writer
sports editor
Top offense and defense collide for football supremacy By Jordan Williams sports editor MEREDITH DAY I STAFF
one of the things that most of us get out of it,” Williams said. “To be able to say that you play roller derby, you’re obviously a tough person, and it’s not for the weak, but there’s rules.” This year, the Sirens will only have one home game per quarter. Another reason for the team’s unusual schedule is to allow flexibility with
the players’ hectic schedules. “We played every two weeks last year, and that kind of just wore the team down,” Williams said. “All of us have other outside obligations, jobs, families.” Perez said, the Sirens are excited to host their first tournament with six teams playing in one day. “It will be a Division
Three Women’s Flat Track Derby Association tournament for six different teams that will be competing,” she said. The season opened Jan. 18, with the Sirens losing in the second half. The Sirens will play again March 29 against the Marietta Derby Demons. mday4@gru.edu
Jaguars clash with PBC rivals By Mindy Wadley copy editor The Lady Jaguars have a long road of fierce in-conference competition ahead of them this season. With a midseason over-
The sideline report Jordan Williams
The Soul City Sirens play the G Force in a losing effort Jan. 18 at the Columbia County exhibition center.
all record of 9-7, the GRU Augusta women’s basketball team currently leads the Eastern division of the Peach Belt Conference. The team’s conference record is 5-4, but head coach Nathan Teymer said the competition among the teams is intense.
CONTRIBUTED BY GRU AUGUSTA ATHLETICS
Freshman guard Marissa Mandeldove takes the ball coast to coast.
“I think it’s going to be a crazy year on the East side because there’s a lot of teams capable of winning games, and we just beat up on each other,” Teymer said. Consistency has been the team’s biggest problem this season, said Tavia Sykes, a freshman shooting guard. Sykes said the team needs to work on delivering a constant performance at all of its upcoming match ups. “We have a lot of big games coming up,” Sykes said. “Aiken, I know, is a good team … We just need to come out and be consistent and win all of them or at least as many as we can.” Getting to the leading spot in its division has challenged the team’s ability to execute on the road, with losses against Flagler (7-10, 5-5) and Georgia College (13-4, 6-4) flanking a win against North Georgia (14-3, 8-2) at home. “It’s almost like a roller coaster,” Teymer said. “With the Flagler game, we played OK, but then going down the stretch we lost the lead, and then we went to overtime and
lost that game. Against North Georgia, we bounced back and played really well offensively and defensively. And then against Georgia College, we just seem like we got beat by a team that we didn’t play as good of defense on them as I would have liked. ” Saturday, the Jags broke their away game losing streak, winning 63-40 against UNC Pembroke (6-12, 2-9). “Of course, wins are always a positive thing,” Sykes said. “But obviously the losses don’t help us positioningwise. So really going into these next games we need a win to keep our placing on top. ” One player Teymer said has stepped up her game is Kelsey Fynaardt, a junior forward post. Fynaardt has been a leading rebounder in several of the Jaguars’ recent games. “I go into each game thinking that with every rebound I get, it benefits us either offensively or defensively,” Fynaardt said. “So the more I get, the more I can benefit the rest of the team.” mindyawadley@gmail.com
5K offers exercise for people and pets
By Jessica Sager staff writer
On the morning of Jan. 25, both humans and canines ran for a good cause at the fourth annual Dog Gone Cold 5K Run/Walk. The event took place at the Julian Smith Barbeque Pit on Milledge Road. The human participants varied from small children to senior citizens. The dogs ranged from chihuahuas to German shepherds. And there was at least one cat who came out in support, participating in the 5K while perched on its owner’s shoulder. The event benefited The American Black and Tan Coonhound Rescue and Hopeful Hounds, Inc., as well as local rescues. Hopeful Hounds was founded by Kristi Hagood, who said she owns a blue tick coonhound named Molly, who
she fostered and ended up adopting. “My whole family runs,” Hagood said. “I’m also very active in dog rescue. Most 5Ks are done for fundraisers, and so I started thinking that could be a real good opportunity to do a fundraiser.” Hopeful Hounds helps both coonhounds and bloodhounds, she said, but helps all breeds by supporting local rescues, promoting good dog ownership and encouraging people to spay and neuter their pets. Coonhounds rescued by the organization may have ended up homeless because of accidental breeding. Coonhounds are also abandoned or taken to shelters because they are unwilling or too old to hunt, Hagood said. “A lot of the ones we get are abandoned hunting dogs,” Hagood said. “Someone just went and dumped it or they took it to a shelter because it
wouldn’t hunt or it just kind of got over its hunting age.” About 300 people registered for the 5K, and 251 finished. One participant in the 5K, Betsy Westover, is the owner of two Old English sheepdogs named Matilda and Farley. Westover said this is their third year running the 5K together. “The first year was the year that it rained, so we got soaking wet,” Westover said. “They got covered in the Augusta wonderful orange clay. They have a blast; they think it’s a party for them.” Goodie bags and information on canine health were handed out. There were also adoptable dogs for people to meet, including Wilson, a 4-year-old male coonhound. Hagood said she hopes to add a 10K in the future. jschucke@gru.edu
PAGE 13
Senior reflects on GRU career
www.grubellringer.com
Soul City gets rolling
THE BELL RINGER
The best the NFL has to offer will face off for the Lombardi trophy. In Super Bowl XLVIII, both No. 1 seeds, the Seattle Seahawks (13-3) and Denver Broncos (13-3), will represent the NFC and AFC. This clash-of-the-titans match up will prove which side of the ball is most effective, offense or defense. The Seahawks D is the No. 1 scoring defense in the league. The team gave up a stingy 14.4 points per game and is the only squad to allow less than 300 yards per game to opponents. Along with 28 interceptions, its defense also has 20 forced fumbles. The Seahawks are so stout that they could apply pressure on opposing quarterbacks with their front four alone. Leading the way on the defensive line is defensive end Michael Bennett, who has 8.5 sacks and 5 safeties in the season rushing from the blind side. And on the opposite side, the Seahawks have Cliff Averil with eight sacks and five forced fumbles. Then in the secondary, the Seahawks have the infamous legion of boom, consisting of Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas and Bryon Maxwell in base packages. Each coverage man except Thomas is above 6 feet tall. Cornerbacks Sherman and Maxwell are well known for roughing up wide receivers at the line of scrimmage, and both combined for 12 INTs. The Broncos are led by arguably one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game, and a plethora of weapons in his arsenal. In his second season with the Broncos, Peyton Manning reclaimed his single-season touchdown record and broke New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees’s single-season passing record. Manning surpassed both feats by recording 55 touchdowns and throwing for 5,477 yards. Having targets like Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker, Wes Welker and Julius Thomas can make these mind-boggling stats possible. Each of Manning’s top four targets has over 700 receiving yards and double-digit touchdowns. The Broncos passing game is also supported by a legit rushing attack with Knowshon Moreno as the head guy. Moreno rushed for 1,038 yards on 241 carries and 10 TDs. He also served as a double threat by catching 60 passes and gaining 548 yards through the air. If the old adage that defense wins championships is true, then the Seahawks have the clear advantage. The Broncos offense is highly dependent on tempo, and the Seahawks can disrupt that timing by jamming the Bronco receivers at the line with their physical corners. And the height of Sherman and Maxwell will make it hard for Manning’s biggest weapons, Decker and Thomas. Another element that could affect the outcome of the Super Bowl is the weather because of a 70 percent chance of precipitation. jwill143@gru.edu
The season is off to a good start for the women’s basketball team, and senior guard Brooke McCants is taking time to remember the memories she has made. McCants is a senior at GRU Augusta with a major in business marketing. She said she has been playing basketball as long as she can remember. “I played in high school, and I was on the varsity team since eighth grade,” she said. Glen McCants, Brooke McCants’s father, said he can remember when she first began playing at around 8 years old with the local recreational team. Her father said McCants has always been a laidback and collected person. Even when she’s on the court, she remains calm. McCants’s sister, Allison McCants, attested to her easygoing personality. “She’s the calmest person I know,” Allison McCants said. “When things get crazy or intense, she never stresses about it.” Brooke McCants said she maintains her calm attitude when it comes to school as well. She agrees that her freshman year was a little overwhelming, but after some time passed, she adjusted to the combination of schoolwork and the practice schedule. McCants is not from the Augusta, Ga., area, but she said she came to GRU with the encouragement of family and friends. She grew up in Columbia, S.C., with a younger sister, who is now 18, and
CONTRIBUTED BY GRU AUGUSTA ATHLETICS
Senior guard Brooke McCants experiences her first year in a major role with the GRU Jaguars.
a brother, who is 13. She came to GRU her freshman year because she said she wanted to play for Director of Athletics Clint Bryant.
This is McCants’s fourth and final year playing for the team, and she said she has made many great memories. One distinct memory McCants recalls is from
her freshman year. “I just remember going in, and I really don’t remember the details, but I had a good game,” she said. “Then after the game, (women’s head basketball coach) Teymer called me out and told me how good of a game I played. I definitely remember that.” McCants said the game of basketball has been a major part of her life since she was little and has always been a shared pastime for her family. Her father said even when McCants was small, she always had strong skills with the ball. Allison McCants added that for her sister, it’s not just about the game. “She loves being with her teammates,” McCants said. “She enjoys the bonding experience.” Though Brooke McCants has played for GRU her entire college career, she said she plans on spending more time concentrating on her major after graduation. “It’s been a good run, but I’m ready to do different things and really go into my field of marketing,” she said. “I’m thinking about getting my education degree also after my marketing degree.” McCants said she is awaiting graduation with a bittersweet feeling of turning a page and starting her career path of marketing. She said she is ready for the change but knows that basketball has always been with her and will remain with her. She has the support from her family who all agree that she loves the game. hharris011@yahoo.com
Cowboys continue lasting tradition By Amy Thorne staff writer
The annual bull riding and cutting competition returned to Augusta, Ga., for its 35th anniversary Jan. 19. Sherry Fulmer, the operations manager for the Futurity, said she has worked the event for the past 34 years. A major part of her job is helping the guests enjoy the city, Fulmer said, which entails everything from finding where guests can get a pedicure to who can fix their flat tire. Fulmer said the Futurity is the only event that has consistently returned to the James Brown Arena since it first opened. “The Civic Center was only four weeks old, and we came in here and put dirt in it,” she said. Fulmer said she thinks the Augusta Futurity is one of the city’s best-kept secrets. “We’d like to see (the people of Au-
gusta) get re-interested in it,” she said. “A lot of the young people, or some of the people who have just moved to Augusta, aren’t aware that we have such a specialized event right here.” Casey Moore, a rider and horse trainer, said he has been around events like the Futurity all of his life. Moore said he started coming to the Futurity in 1989. This marks his first year not riding in the competition, but he said he still enjoys coming and participating in the event. Moore said he mainly trains horses, but he also trains people at the same time. “If you don’t have one, you can’t have the other,” he said. “You may have your horse doing great, (but) if your rider is not doing great, it is not going to matter. The same way, if the rider’s doing great and the horse isn’t, it is not going to make any difference.” Bill Wilkins, a rider in the cutting tournament, has been competing for
NEIL DAVENPORT I photographer
Cowboys from all over the Southern region visit Augusta, Ga., for the 35th annual Futurity event.
more than 30 years, but 2014 marks his first year competing at a different level outside of the non-pro any age finals. The camaraderie, Wilkins said, keeps him and his wife, Tara, coming back. Tara Wilkins said she is friends with many of the riders and they give each other a hard
time about who will win. Both Sherry Fulmer and Tara Wilkins said, despite any setbacks, the Augusta Futurity will continue. “The best still come,” Wilkins said. “The best always hang in there.” athorne@gru.edu
GRU softball team prepares for first pitch By Jordan Williams sports editor The GRU Augusta softball team hopes the 2014 campaign will lead to an overall record that matches its level of talent. Last year nine fresh faces were ushered into the softball program, which consisted of eight freshmen and a junior transfer. The 2013 season ended with an overall record of 1832 and 7-15 in the Peach Belt Conference. However, despite finishing well below .500 the raw team gained invaluable experience facing tough PBC opponents, head coach Melissa Brocato said. “We were young,” she said. “I think that the experience that the freshmen gained last year has already made a difference in how they’re practicing this fall and this spring.” Inexperience can hurt a team because, at the collegiate level, the game is faster and hitters hit the ball harder, Brocato said. Coaches can warn players of what to expect, but it is difficult to adjust until one is in the action. The Jags felt comfortable playing at home last year, earning a record of 14-10 at Jaguar
Field but struggled significantly when forced to travel, with a 1-15 road record. “I think part of it has to do with the fact that a lot of those away games are tournament games,” Brocato said about the team’s road-trip blues. “You know, we go to three different tournaments this year, (and) the competition’s always good because we don’t try to make an easy schedule.” The Jags open the season at Wingate Sunday, and junior second base player Hannah Vaughn said the 2014 slate will provide plenty of obstacles. “I think we do a very good job at making a tough schedule so that we can challenge ourselves,” she said. The benefit of squaring off against quality nonconference opponents is that it helps the team prepare for strong conference foes deep into the schedule, Vaughn said. Vaughn, one of four upperclassmen on the team, said she has already taken on the responsibilities of a captain, and at this premature stage in the season she is mainly concerned with keeping everyone on the same page. “(I) just really communicate with the younger girls, like (tell-
jordan williams i staff
Freshman infielder Erin Rozier fields a ground ball in practice to prepare for the team’s first game Sunday Feb. 2.
ing them) my experiences and how to do things right and making sure we win the game,” she said. Brocato said so far she has been impressed by the 2014 freshmen and that they are team players. Among the newcomers, Brocato said catcher Mallory Ferguson and shortstop Brianna Dickens have exceled the most. “(Ferguson) and (Dickens) both have had really, really good fall practices, and so far have done well this spring in practice too,” she said. “They have
already displayed attributes of leadership and being impact players.” Ferguson, from Guyton, Ga., said GRU’s close proximity to home and her general interest in the university convinced her to sign with the Jags. The freshman catcher said she is beginning to feel comfortable competing at a higher level and is not nervous about her collegiate debut. “It’s probably the fastest pitching that I’ve seen in a while,” Ferguson said about the adjustments she is making.
“That’s the only thing, but other than that I feel like my skill level is up there with the rest of them.” However, the PBC coaches do not have much confidence in the young Jaguar team. The preseason softball poll has the Jags predicted to finish in the bottom tier of the conference at 10th place. The league coaches voted back-to-back PBC regular season champions, the Armstrong Atlantic State Pirates, as the team to beat. jwill143@gru.edu
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2014
sports www.grubellringer.com
Team survives road stretch By Jordan Williams sports editor The GRU Augusta men’s basketball team (15-3, 8-1) was dealt its first loss Jan. 20 after nearly two months of perfect play. In the span of a fortnight, the Jags have been able to score a season-high 97 total points, implement senior forward Harold Doby back into the rotation, snap an 11-game winning streak and receive national recognition. Following a 20-point road victory against the Armstrong Atlantic Pirates (6-12, 3-8) Jan. 11, the Jags traveled to St. Augustine, Fla., to face off against another conference foe, the Flagler Saints (8-9, 2-8) Jan. 15. The Jags handed the Saints a 78-68 defeat, registering their 10th straight triumph. Against the Saints, freshman guard Keshun Sherrill experienced the best offensive performance of his young Jaguar career, pacing the team with 20 points. “(Sherrill) played really well,” said head coach Dip Metress about his young player’s career-high outing. “He hit a couple of big shots to kind of open the lead up.” The Jags returned home Jan. 18 for a Freshman Frenzy White Out against the North Georgia Nighthawks (7-9, 4-6), which the Jaguars won outright 97-71.
The team scored its most points of the season versus the Nighthawks, extending the winning streak to 11 games, and activated Doby after sitting out nine games because of a left foot injury. Three different Jags finished in double figures; senior forward KJ Sherrill scored 15 points, junior forward Devon Wright-Nelson chipped in 12 and Devonte Thomas paced the team with a season-best 26 points. After taking care of business against the Nighthawks, the Jags traveled to Milledgeville, Ga., to duel with the Georgia College Bobcats (7-10, 3-7) Jan. 20. The Jags’ winning streak came to a dramatic close at the hands of the Bobcats with a buzzer beater. Less than a second remained and the Jags held a one-point lead when Bobcats guard Royal Thomas caught an inbound pass midair to sink a layup with 0.3 seconds left. The Bobcats’ quick layup sealed the victory, 56-55, and gave the Jags their first PBC loss of the season. The Jags climbed into the national ranks at the No. 25 spot Jan. 21, but some of the players said they were not aware of the achievement. The team bounced back from the upset loss Saturday with a road win 92-70 against UNC Pembroke (129, 3-8) and will play at home Thursday against Armstrong. jwill143@gru.edu
CONTRIBUTED BY GRU AUGUSTA ATHLETICS
Junior guard D’Angelo Boyce elevates for a jumper to help his team blow out the North Georgia Nighthawks, 97-71.
Diamond Jaguars anticipate fresh start By Rebecca Perbetsky chief reporter
The GRU Augusta Diamond Jags are looking to hit a new season out of the park. Jason Eller, the head coach of the GRU Augusta baseball team, said the coaching staff is trying to make sure the players are having fun while developing camaraderie. “We brought in some new players, and we’ve got some guys that have been in the program for a while,” he said. “We are trying to create a chemistry and a
brotherhood that we can trust each other when we go to war together. After last season, senior pitcher Kip Custer said he knows all about the hard knocks of the baseball world. “It wasn’t the best season, and it wasn’t what we thought it would turn out to be,” Custer said. “I felt like we had a pretty decent team. We just struggled at times.” At the beginning of last season, Custer said he started off really well at 5-0, but the 5-6 ending was not as good. This season, he said, he wants to contribute leadership skills to the team.
“I want to have a very good season on the mound as a starter, hopefully one of my best,” he said. “Last year I had a pretty good year, but this year I hope to be even better.” One player who is ready to bring the heat is true freshman pitcher Tristan Jones. Jones finished his last season 4-0 at Camden County High School in Kingsland, Ga. “I just think I consistently throw strikes, and I am going to be consistent,” Jones said. “I’m not going to go out there and be one or the other, bad or good. I think I’ll just stay in the middle.”
Overall, head coach Jason Eller said the goal is to get to the Peach Belt Conference tournament in Aiken, S.C., but getting to that point will take work and the elements of fun. “I think if they are enjoying playing the game of baseball and practicing every day and lifting weights at 6 a.m., and they are motivated to do that, then they play up to their potential,” Eller said. Opening day for the Diamond Jags is Saturday. They will host Carson-Newman at Lake Olmstead Stadium. The first pitch will be thrown at 1 p.m. rperbets@gru.edu
Guy assists punters Department of Music presents the GRU Opera Ensemble
Stephen Sondheim’s
Into the Woods Friday and Saturday, Feb. 7 and 8, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9, 3 p.m. Maxwell Theatre, Summerville Campus Admission is free for students with a valid GRU ID; GRU faculty and staff, $5; general public, $10; seniors, $7; high school and other college students, $5. Tickets are available online by visiting gru.edu/maxwelltheatre or by phone at 706-667-4100. Services are available for persons with disabilities who require special assistance. Contact the Director at 706-729-2310. Certain services may require advance notice of two weeks. Into The Woods Is presented through special arrangement with Music Theater International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. 421 W 54th St. New York, NY 10019 Phone: 212-541-4684 Fax: 212-397-4684 MTIShows.com
By Anthony Garcia staff writer Retired NFL punter Ray Guy made a visit to Westside High School Jan. 18 as part of his involvement with the punting and kicking clinic program. Sponsored by ProKicker. com, a number of high school students from across the CSRA attended the punting camp for the opportunity of being coached by experts including Guy himself and Memphis Tigers punter Tom Hornsey, among others. “We try to give these young student-athletes and high school (students) a little better idea on what they’re trying to do, as far as the kicking and punting is concerned,” Guy said. “We’ll take them and work with them and show them different phases of it, different ideas of what they can (do).” Throughout the afternoon, students practiced tossing, drop kicks and drops, before they were split into two groups and practiced punting. Guy said punting is a skill that requires practice. “I tell them upfront … that you’re not going to learn it in one day, and you’re not going to learn it in two days,” he said. “It’s going to take quite a while of actually going out and practicing each one of these different phases of
the procedure, but we show it to them and give them a bit more of an idea of what they need to do.” Micheal Almond, a junior kicker at Westminster Schools of Augusta, Ga., said it was a great experience learning from a true NFL legend. “I’ve grown up, you know, hearing his name,” Almond said. “He’s from Thomson, (Ga.) and all that, so he’s a local guy, and I never got to see him play because that wasn’t my time.” Almond said he especially enjoyed the interactivity between other fellow students from schools around the community. Douglas Walker, a junior punter from Washington-Wilkes Comprehensive High School, also said the camp was very helpful, and he said he learned a lot about the fundamentals of his position. “I learned a lot more than just punting the crap out of it,” he said. “It doesn’t take power; it just takes technique.” Guy said he encourages students to pursue their goals in the same manner they pursue football. “Don’t be afraid to try something different because we’re always learning,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how old you are, and how good you are, you’re always going to learn.” agarci11@gru.edu