Volume 55, Issue 14

GEORGIA REGENTS UNIVERSITY

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VOLUME 55, ISSUE 14

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NEWS | PAGE 2

GRU participates in Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Visa may not be acceptable tuition tender next semester

SPECIAL | PAGE 5

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013

Uncover the culinary side of the city in the What’s Eating Augusta? section.

SPORTS | PAGE 12

Men’s golf team hopes strong showing at home event will carry it to postseason.

Campuswide tobacco ban

By RON HICKERSON chief reporter Starting this fall, payments with Visa may not be an acceptable option for students to pay for their tuition and fees.

The issue of whether Visa credit and debit cards will be acceptable lies in Visa’s rules for charging convenience fees, said Beth Welsh, a bursar for the Georgia Regents University Business Office.

She said this issue is nothing new as Visa’s rules and regulations prevented Georgia Health Sciences University students from using Visa cards to pay for tuition and fees since 2006. But because the decision mainly rests on what Visa will decide, Welsh said the Business Office cannot make an announcement yet as to whether Visa will be accepted.

“We’re not sure yet if Visa’s going to be offered because Visa has been in the throes of making decisions about bringing back their availability for convenience fee types of models,” she said. “We will be finding that out hopefully soon. I hope that Visa will be an option, though.”

The main issue arises in Visa’s regulations of convenience fees charged

by TouchNet, the third-party credit card processing company Georgia Regents uses, she said.

According to TouchNet’s description of its services, these convenience fees are used to offset the costs of processing credit card transactions, which can become expensive for colleges and universities in the United States. But TouchNet’s convenience fees have combated with Visa’s regulations for convenience fees.

According to Visa’s International Operating Regulations, a convenience fee charged by a merchant must ensure that the fee is charged for real convenience in the form of alternative payment methods, such as paying online or over the phone with a credit card, it must be disclosed to the cardholder paying the fee and it must be added only to non-face-to-face transactions. Also, the fee has a fixed rate, not dependent on the amount of tuition.

In the presence of a third-party merchant, Visa’s regulation states that a convenience fee must be a clear, separate cost in order to alert the cardholder of where the money is going.

“Basically what Visa says is that, if you charge a convenience fee for a Visa credit card, then you have to charge a convenience fee for cash and checks and money orders and all the other types of credit cards as well,” Welsh said.

TouchNet has, in the past, charged a percentage-based convenience fee that is based on the amount of tuition and fees a person is paying. This was a bone of contention between Visa and TouchNet before Visa changed its rules this past fall, accepting a percentage-based fee rather than a fixed fee, according to a report made

by TouchNet. But Welsh said Visa is still in the process of these changes.

“Obviously, a lot of colleges have adopted the convenience fee model because of the cost of processing credit cards for those high-dollar tuition and fee transactions and so they are looking at that,” Welsh said. “There may be a chance that Visa is back in the picture.”

But she said the university won’t know Visa’s decision until the summer, which will let the university know for sure whether Visa will be offered as a payment option for the fall semester.

“It’s just not something we can just say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ just because Visa hasn’t made their final decision yet,” she said.

rhickers@gru.edu

JILLIAN HOBDAY I STAFF

In August, the Summerville campus at Georgia Regents University will officially be a tobacco-free campus. The policy not only includes cigarettes, but e-cigarettes and snuff.

Georgia Regents to snuff out smoking on campus

By RYAN MCLAY staff writer The university’s plan to ban smoking on campus ignited during a forum Wednesday night.

Samir Khleif, the director of the Georgia Regents University’s Cancer Center, unveiled the university’s implementation plan to prohibit smoking on all campus property, including both the Health Sciences and Summerville grounds.

The policy will go into full effect

Thursday, Aug. 1.

The forum was part of Georgia Regents’ Kick Butt campaign, which embraces activism as a means of encouraging people to quit tobacco.

“Smoking actually kills,” he said. “If we eliminate smoking, we can save lives by premature death in 30 percent of people that die. That’s major. We’re talking about lung cancer and eight other cancers that are caused by smoking.”

In his presentation, Khleif explained the reasons to ban smoking from Georgia Regents, noting that 30

percent of all deaths are from cancer, a fifth of them directly linked to tobacco use. Also, he said a person exposed to secondhand smoke can have a four to six times greater chance of being diagnosed with cancer.

He also said that of the more than 7,000 chemicals in tobacco products, 70 are carcinogenic.

Respiratory therapy students Musi Nde and Antuan Harris also presented during the forum. They demonstrated the effect of smoking on the lungs. They used pig lungs to show the diminished lung capacity

in someone that smokes. The nonsmoker’s lung was healthy and pink.

The smoker’s lung was smokedamaged and a dark ash color.

“Even if it doesn’t kill you, you live on but you suffer,” Nde said.

“Everyone wants to say they know someone who has lived a long life while smoking, but how many can say they lived a full life? And so, that’s also why it’s a good thing that we are going to a smoke-free campus.” see SMOKING on PAGE 2

Out with the old, in with the same old Elroy and Pulse combine to form new banner system for both campuses

By MINDY WADLEY staff writer

MEGAN STEWART I STAFF

The Miller Theater in Augusta, Ga., which is expected to re-open in 2014-2015, has been taken over by the Symphony Orchestra Augusta after being closed for more than 20 years.

The Miller

Revitalization of historic theater intends to bring life downtown

By MEGAN STEWART staff writer

New businesses are giving new life to some of the rundown buildings that are in the heart of downtown Augusta, Ga. The downtown area has not always been what it is today. This is evident when looking at older buildings that lie vacant. However, businessmen like Sean Wight, the owner of both Frog Hollow and Farmhaus Burger, are looking to change this. Wight said he strongly believes in renovating older buildings instead of building new ones.

“I mean (sometimes) you can’t

tear down an old building,” Wight said. “So you have to use them.”

Wight is not the only person in the community who believes renovated old buildings are the hidden gem of the downtown area.

Erick Montgomery, the executive director of Historic Augusta Inc., said he would love to see an old building being used if it is possible.

“People make decisions on their projects based on their program needs for the building and renovations,” Montgomery said. “It is nice if you can make renovations work and I guess in some cases you can.” see MILLER on PAGE 2

When Elroy, the former Augusta State University’s current student information banner system, returns to functionality after its nine-day hiatus Sunday it will be one step closer to becoming Pounce, the new information system for both campuses of Georgia Regents University.

During the downtime of both Elroy and Pulse, the Health Sciences banner system, representatives from a variety of campus departments worked to ensure that the new Pounce system will emerge with minimal difficulties.

“It’s the same system, so we expect them to function very much the same,” said Heather Metress, the registrar for Georgia Regents. “We will be using Pulse and Elroy for the summer time, and students will begin to use Pounce for anything they do for fall. So registration for fall will take place in Pounce, but every-

thing they do for spring and summer will take place in Pulse and Elroy, and then we’ll phase those out.”

Katherine Sweeney, the director of admissions for Georgia Regents, said the name for the new system was inspired by the Georgia Regents mascot.

“The committee that worked on it was trying to come up with things that were related to Jaguars,” Sweeney said. “They came up with ‘Pounce,’ like a Jaguar pounces.”

Morgan Whaley, the manager of data warehousing and business intelligence, said the downtime is necessary due to the vast amount of data that has to be transitioned from both banner systems and converted into the new one.

“The reason we have to take the database down is because if any additional changes were being made to the current production system, and something went wrong with the conversion, then we would have to

Test your random TV knowledge on our

SPECIAL EDITION TV TRIVIA CROSSWORD on page 10

see POUNCE on PAGE 2

PAGE 2

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013

NEWS www.asubellringer.com

Sexual Assault Awareness Month

GRU recognizes rape awareness, advocates survivors

By ASHLEY TRAWICK staff writer

The voice of

Georgia Regents University EDITORIAL STAFF adviser MATTHEW BOSISIO mbosisio@gru.edu editor-in-chief TRAVIS HIGHFIELD thighfie@gru.edu copy editor LEIGH BEESON kbeeson1@gru.edu news editor JILLIAN HOBDAY jhobday2@gmail.com arts & life editor KRISTIN HAWKINS khutchi2@gru.edu sports editor JOHN-MICHAEL GARNER jgarner6@gru.edu chief reporter RON HICKERSON rhickers@gru.edu production manager KELSEY DONNELLY kelseydonne@gmail.com production assistant JACQUELYN PABON jpabon@gru.edu

According to the Rape, Assault and Incest National Network, one out of every six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. Approximately 3 percent of American men - or one in 33 - have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. Fifteen percent of sexual assault and rape victims are under age 12.

These statistics are only hints of what attendees will learn during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

The month of April recognizes rape awareness to educate and advocate for survivors of sexual violence, said Shannon Nix, a counselor and the interpersonal violence outreach coordinator for the Counseling Center.

The Counseling Center will host many events during SAAM, the major ones being Take Back the Day 5K Walk and Take Back the Night Rally.

This year will be the fourth annual Take Back the Day 5K. Nix said the event is a positive way to educate the community about a sensitive and negative topic.

“It pulls everyone together,” she said. “It’s not quite as solemn and somber. It’s more uplifting and empowering. It should be fun. It’s a fundraiser, (and) all the money raised is for rape crisis.”

The rally, in its 17th year, was originally started as a student art project. Over the years, the event has grown larger with more participation from students and community members, Nix said.

During the two-hour event visitors can listen to rape victims and rape crisis advocates share their stories and experiences.

“In the past, we’ve had judges, attorneys, district attorney and faculty speak,” she said.

“During the last 30 minutes, survivors of sexual assault and abuse speak.”

Marie Drews, the director of the women’s studies department and an assistant professor of English, said one of the most meaningful events for students is Take Back the Night because of its personal environment.

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Attendees at Take Back the Night can read T-shirts decorated by rape survivors and awareness advocates.

“The process of hearing survivors’ stories, I think, is a really important part of raising awareness,” Drews said. “It is helping people to understand that sexual violence isn’t something that’s an abstract thing. It’s a part of the realistic experiences of survivors. Each of the events are really special.”

Anne Ealick-Henry, the director of Rape Crisis and Sexual Assault Services at University Hospital, said SAAM is important because sexual assault and violence are widespread, not just affecting women and children. Assaults also create major health problems for individuals who have experienced it. She stressed that community involvement is significant when facing these problems.

“At the rape crisis center, we certainly are motivated not only to provide appropriate services but to also raise awareness in the community,” Ealick-Henry said. “Sexual violence often starts at an early age. I think that if we educate the community about the prevalence and the consequences of sexual violence, then we can change things or reduce the occurrence of that.”

She said sexual violence is not a simple thing but rather complex. Although there is no

Smoking CONTINUED from PAGE 1

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specific way to solve the problem, educating at an individual level and changing policies and laws are part of the remedy.

Sexual assault is a universal crime and the events during SAAM represent that, Nix said. Men and women can both be sexual assault victims at any age and the attitudes from society toward the crime needs to change, she said. And these events can help jumpstart that change.

“We need to place blame where blame is due, and that’s on the rapist,” she said. “What we want is a culture change. Everyone is potentially a victim. We’ve got to change the way we look at gender and the attitudes that we have when we have towards victims. Victim-blaming is a defense mechanism. Let’s talk in a different way. Let’s look at what we can do to support people.”

Georgia Regents University will host events throughout the month of April including film discussions and lectures. The bulk of the events will take place during the week of April 22, including the Clothesline Project and Walk a Mile in Her Shoes race.

CONTRIBUTED BY CAROLANN UTLEY

A cash register inside the Miller Theater has sat unused for more than 20 years.

Miller CONTINUED from PAGE 1

Montgomery said he is not completely opposed to building new buildings either.

“If you get away from Broad Street there are a lot of vacant lots where buildings used to be that need to be filled in,” he said.

The goal should be to rehab the rundown buildings and then construct new buildings in the vacant lots in a way that is compatible with the historic feel of the downtown area, he said.

Mayor Deke Copenhaver agreed with the idea of renovation.

“When I look at downtown Augusta, there is so much available space that you can repurpose and reinvigorate and I would always prefer to if we can,” Copenhaver said. “Everyone talks about building new buildings, but I would love to see us rehabilitate the space that we already have.”

Montgomery and Copenhaver also see eye-to-eye when it comes balancing the amount of new buildings and rehabbed buildings.

“In certain circumstances you can do both,” Copenhaver said. “(For) the new Convention Center, obviously we incorporated a historic cotton warehouse into it. So I like seeing that type of project as well.”

The community’s perception of downtown crime, Montgomery said, is due to media hype. And this hype has a negative effect on those who may want to build or renovate downtown. However, he said downtown is the safest part of

town, according to statistics from the former sheriff of Richmond County.

Even Mayor Copenhaver said the “crime-infested” downtown area is an urban legend at this point.

With the crime rate down, many businesses are rehabbing older buildings to start fresh, but Montgomery and Copenhaver said downtown student housing for Georgia Regents University is also being considered.

If this consideration is looked at further, Copenhaver said the result will be a balance between new and old buildings being used for the student housing.

“We are looking at some of both,” Mayor Copenhaver said. “The consolidation of the two universities is going to be huge for the city in going forward and to have a major university here in Augusta is going to be great and I believe the expansion should be in the urban core.”

Currently the downtown area is seeing a revival through the old buildings that are being rehabbed and the balance that is being brought in through those rehabbed buildings and the new buildings being built.

mstewar7@gru.edu

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In addition to smoking, Georgia Regents will not allow tobacco of any variety to be used on campus. This would include chewing tobacco and electronic cigarettes.

Though the Health Sciences campus has been tobacco-free since November 2007, this will be the first policy to ban smoking on the Summerville campus. However, this is not the first tobacco restriction in the school’s history.

Marc Miller, the dean of the Hull College of Business and a previous student of the university, shared his college experience with the audience.

“I started smoking when I was about 18 years old because I could,” he said. “I could smoke wherever I wanted to on this campus. We could smoke in the library; we could smoke in the student center; we could actually smoke right outside our class. Outside of every class we had an ashtray.”

After 30 years of cigarette puffing, Miller decided to quit.

“Smoking stinks,” Miller said.

“It makes you smell bad, and it was killing me.”

The new plan will apply to all Georgia Regents’ staff, faculty and students. Also, any vendors or visitors would fall under the policy.

Kleif also addressed the possibility of failure with this plan.

“Policies like this don’t function because I say so or the dean says so

Pounce CONTINUED from PAGE 1

totally start back over from scratch,” Whaley said. “So us having the systems kind of frozen in time means that if something goes wrong, we don’t have to totally start over, we can just back up a little bit to continue with the conversion.”

The department representatives working on the new system included Cynthia Parks, the director of student financial aid at Georgia Regents.

Parks said the financial aid tab will see some changes for all existing students when processing their financial aid.

“The only difference for financial aid for just the processing end of it is that all students will have to accept their loans in banner,” Parks said. “That’s something that’s new for the Health Sciences campus. So they will have to be prepared to accept loans in the new banner system.”

Students at both Health Sciences and Summerville campuses will also have to take an extra step towards accessing their financial aid.

“Everybody will be asked to do a new promissory note and entrance counseling for loans, if you choose

atrawick@gru.edu

or the president says so,” he said.

“It’s because all of us want it to work and all of us want a campus free of tobacco, to be able to lead a healthy student life and make sure that our friends and colleagues are pressured enough to feel maybe it’s a good option for them to stop smoking and lead a healthier life.”

As part of the comprehensive plan, Khleif said the administration would disseminate literature on smoking cessation, offer one-onone group counseling and provide medications effective in aiding smoking cessation. Those students who could not afford medication may be eligible for assistance through the university.

Any person using tobacco on campus grounds will be politely asked to leave. However, Khleif did not specify who would be doing the asking. Instead, he suggested that the policy alone would go a long way in keeping people from lighting up between classes.

“People respect regulations and respect laws and respect the interest of others,” he said. “So I don’t assume (violations) are going to be an issue.

But if people find it I think we can be polite enough to just ask people not to smoke.”

In Georgia, 21 out of 131 colleges are currently tobacco-free, affecting over 127,000 students, Khleif said.

rmclay@gru.edu

to have a loan,” Parks said. “So that will be different for everybody. But other than that, everything will be processed as normal.”

Metress said they are working hard to ensure that the new system transition will be a seamless process.

“We’ll send out notifications to students, and we’ll let them know the phone numbers to the help desk, when the system comes back available,” Metress said. “We’ll send out information to say, these are the numbers for the help desk, these are the numbers to the related offices that have worked on banner, so that people will have that right at hand and you can call us.”

The consolidation of the two banner systems is a necessary step included in the process of merging the two universities, Whaley said.

“There’s a lot going on over all of the consolidation, and we’re just having to take it piece by piece,” she said.

“And so this initial effort is mainly for the banner system consolidation, and then other things will change along the way as well.”

mindyawadley@gmail.com

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editorial How democratic is the Undergraduate SGA?

We’ve argued all year that the student voice matters. Now, it matters more than ever.

Allow us to explain by addressing the upcoming Undergraduate Student Government Association election.

Every year it seems like the students of this university go through the motions of an election process, but ultimately we take a hit when it comes to voter turnout.

This process should mean more now than it ever has before. It’s clear with the removal of Ethan Holliman as president of SGA and the resignation of Richard Ledbetter as a member that we lost some of the more vocal members the association has seen this year. If you can accept what they say as the truth of what goes on behind the doors of the SGA meetings, then we should be worried we don’t have more students of their caliber representing us.

Consider this: The Undergraduate SGA president, according to a document emailed to students Monday, March 18,

WHAT DO YOU THINK

According the same March 18 email, campaigning has been scheduled to run from Wednesday, March 20, to Friday, March 29, with the results announced at the March 29 Undergraduate SGA meeting. about the SGA election process?

It is a shame that Student Activities thinks the undergraduate Do you think the senators really student body can make an informed

represent the student body? decision in a week’s time, especially when it appears that none of the candidates have made any attempt email The Bell Ringer at to start the campaign process. bellringerproduction@gmail.com Seriously, as of Sunday, there are no posters hung anywhere in the “shall represent the GRU the findings of whatever meetings Jaguar Student Activities Center. No undergraduate student body in the SGA president represents us in candidate has taken to social media, all student government affairs rarely ever finds its way back to the at least to our knowledge, and no and in student relations with the greater student body. candidates have thought to reach GRU administration.” That’s a big This campus lacks in out to the university’s only public responsibility, especially when you communication between the forum, The Bell Ringer, to state consider how diverse a campus of Undergraduate SGA and the their case. this size is. undergraduate student body, but the You can blame it on lazy students.

We need to make sure the next problem extends beyond reporting You can blame it on spring break SGA president has the best interests back to the students it represents. being just around the corner. But of the undergraduate students in One big problem is the student body we, the undergraduate student body, mind. So far, we don’t feel like we never is given enough time to decide don’t deserve to be represented by a are being well represented in merger- who would best represent the views select few who don’t reach out to us. related discussions. More than that, of all students.

We expect better.

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Anything submitted to The Bell Ringer is open to be edited or rejected. However, The Bell Ringer staff gives all opinions a fair chance to be heard. All letters will be edited for grammar and style.

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Skateboarding is not a crime My generation lacks respect and good judgement JACQUELYN PABON production assistant jpabon@gru.edu

It seems to me that Public Safety needs a lesson in courtesy.

While attending a photography class exercise behind Washington Hall, my professor attempted to give the students the experience of capturing a photograph using a skill called panning.

Because walking is not a fluid motion, we could not practice panning. A student in our class attempted to run, but it was difficult to capture. So instead, my professor decided to use his skateboard to slowly roll across the parking lot while the class of 16 quickly snapped photos.

After only four trial runs of this new skill, our class lesson was put to an end because a campus officer with a severe case of unwarranted self-importance took it upon himself to not ask but tell my professor that skateboarding is not allowed on campus and he must stop. After my professor explained the purpose of the exercise, the officer remained persistent.

As for my professor, he stopped willingly, and I believe he was unfazed, but I was furious.

This institution was not created for the faculty, staff, administrators or Public Safety. It was created to allow for students to learn and gain experiences through the lessons learned from our mentors. For something or someone to stand in the way of the process that we put so much time and effort into, I say this is unacceptable.

And even if he was a student skateboarding, I ask how is that an obstruction to the learning process of students

on campus?

I understand that performing tricks with a skateboard can be damaging to campus property, but as a form of transportation it should be fair game. If prestigious universities around the country like the University of New Mexico can allow for students to quickly skate across campus, we should allow it as well.

As a mode of transportation, it does not affect the student’s safety.

To me, it seems that this is just another instance where Public Safety is overstepping its boundaries to control students due to personal biases.

If the argument is that skateboarding is damaging to the campus, then what about every other destructive action, like biking, walking dogs and planting chewed gum on sidewalks and desks? I don’t see the point.

I feel it is just a stereotype against skateboarders, the kind we see at places like Philadelphia’s iconic Love Park.

One of the nation’s most historic skating hotspots, Love Park banned skateboarding in 2002, prompting a four-wheeled protest from actor Kevin Bacon’s 92-year-old father.

The fact is that skateboarders are using their mode of transportation for the exact same purpose as those who tool around campus on bicycles. As long as skaters are simply using their boards to quickly traverse the campus, then what is the harm?

I feel as if this is negatively impacting the students by unnecessarily removing this mode of transportation. Really, what’s the point? It just seems to me that Public Safety is unconcerned with the students’ interest in this case.

Stop trying to act like big government when your sole purpose is to aid the campus’ students.

you

do have an opinion on things at GRU? if so, email us at bellringerproduction@gmail.com

“Does it ever occur to people that all men and women don’t act alike? I don’t think it’s cool to put all women or men in one box.”

ASHLEY TRAWICK staff writer atrawick@gru.edu

I’m not sure where our generation went wrong.

Young men and women have lost their respect for one another. There’s no clear reason how or why.

I’ve heard several times over the years from girls that they don’t like other girls because of one incident they had with a former friend or they don’t want a relationship because of the last guy they had one with. Guys would say they don’t like other guys because they are too personable with girls or they fell out with another guy over a misunderstanding.

Being an only child and growing up in the ’90s, I was raised by my mother to not judge people or to not like someone because they said or did things differently than I did.

In current times, things are much different because young people who are around my age don’t give a crap about how they treat people and the way things are said. People don’t think about what they say before they say it and that plays a large part in how friendships and relationships are built.

I think it all starts with caring. A lot of people in my generation say they don’t care when they know they’re lying. You care how people view you whether you know it or not. I do too to a certain extent.

It saddens me when I think about friendships that will never develop because of attitudes like that but then again, I’m never surprised when a friendship or relationship ends over something foolish.

When we become complete “adults,”

I’m unsure of how some of my peers will succeed in the “real” world. With the way things are going now, they’ll be lucky to be employed. The nonsense that comes out of certain peoples’ mouths is just too much to handle sometimes.

Employers are going to look at you like you’re crazy with the way you speak, dress and act. Some things are never appropriate to mention in the workplace, especially religion or politics. I’ve written previously about social media and that ties into that as well especially in the workplace.

Does it ever occur to people that all men and women don’t act alike? I don’t think it’s cool to put all women or men in one box. I know some really nice girls and sweet guys out there. They don’t talk about people negatively or treat people with contempt. It’s not in their character.

They treat others with respect when it’s deserved, and when they are were wrong, they apologize and move on.

Relationships aren’t the same either.

The way guys act now toward girls is almost barbarian. I also dislike the way girls treat a good guy. I’m not sure when the art of being a lady or a gentleman was lost. It’s not deserved especially when previously, they had a significant other who treated them like garbage. It’s so unfortunate especially for women, like me, who want to get married and start a family.

My hope for the future is that kids, including my own, grow to develop good friendships with wonderful people. I want young people in my generation will realize how ill-mannered they are and change their behavior. It’s quite childish and ignorant to assume that all human beings act the same.

Everything you say or do can come back to haunt you in ways you wouldn’t imagine. Take note of your conduct now and improve.

PAGE 4

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013

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Veara to release album this summer JACQUELYN PABON | STAFF

By MINDY WADLEY staff writer

L

ocal pop-punk band Veara kicked off an East Coast tour Sunday, March 17, stopping to play a hometown show in Augusta, Ga., Friday.

The Pardon My Angst Tour runs through Saturday, March 30, and includes bands Hand Guns, State Champs and City Lights. The drummer for Veara, Brittany Harrell, said this will be the band’s first tour since taking some time off in order to write its new album over the summer.

The album, “Growing Up is Killing Me,” which will be the band’s second release from Epitaph Records, has an undisclosed release date, but the band is eager for fans to hear its new music. Patrick Bambrick, the lead guitarist and backup vocalist for Veara, said the band mates recorded the album over the summer of 2012 under the production of Dan Korneff, who has worked with bands such as Paramore, Breaking Benjamin and Pierce the Veil.

“There’s definitely kind of a concept to it,” Bambrick said. “The songs make sense together, but it’s not like watching a movie where there’s a beginning and an end. It has somewhat of a theme.”

Inspiration for the theme of the new album was drawn from members experiences back at home after spending so much time on the road touring after the release of their last album, “What We Left Behind,” in May 2010, said Bradley Wyrosdick, the band’s lead singer.

“When we were doing all that touring, we spent a lot of time away from home,” Wyrosdick said. “And when you’re at home, you realize that when you were gone you weren’t part of the chaos. But when you’re home, you see it happening, and you see the chaos of everything.”

Wyrosdick said the band spent a good portion of 2009 through 2011 touring, including a U.S. tour open-

JACQUELYN PABON | STAFF

Veara, a popular hometown band to Augusta, sends the crowd at Sector 7G in to a frenzy as it performs music Friday night.

ing for A Day To Remember, multiple European tours, an Australian music festival and half of the Vans Warped Tour in 2011.

Wyrosdick said Warped Tour included some of the best shows the band has ever played.

“Warped Tour was pretty insane because it’s really nonstop,” Wyrosdick said. “You’re busy all day. Loadin is at 8 in the morning and you don’t even find out what time you play until like 9:30. It’s really crazy. And we did the whole Warped Tour in a van, the part of the tour we played. There were six of us in a 12-passenger van.”

The constant touring and lessthan-glamorous conditions of traveling have been well worth it for the band, even if the crowd isn’t familiar with its music, Bambrick said.

“Whatever you get, you’re really proud of it because you feel like you’ve earned it,” he said. “There’s so much work that goes on behind the

scenes, and a lot of people don’t understand how much work it is to be in a band. It really is a lot of dirty work.”

For Bambrick, much of that work comes when it’s time to write new music, which he said the band does as collaboration. He said he and Wyrosdick generally write the lyrics and guitar lines while Harrell and Bryan Kerr, who play bass, tend to write their own parts.

“Everything we put together is always an organic kind of thing,” Bambrick said. “If something feels forced, we normally just drop it.”

Since the band has been playing music together for 10 years, it has been able to fully develop its songwriting process, Harrell said.

“We formed in high school,” she said. “It was between me and our bass player. We met (Bambrick) through a friend, and he started jamming with us. And that’s how our band got our first start. And we started playing

shows, like friends’ birthday parties and stuff like that, and we started playing some shows downtown.”

The band’s local success led it to playing regional and self-booking tours, but the band saw some of its members go their separate ways.

Harrell said that is what led to Wyrosdick joining the band in 2008, which was shortly before it was signed to Epitaph in 2010.

While Veara’s inclusion of a female drummer sets it apart from many other rock groups, Harrell said she enjoys feeling like one of the guys when the band is on tour.

“Sometimes you do see some people who you don’t know yet, they’ll treat me a little differently at first,” Harrell said. “But then once they get to know me, it just turns into a bunch of just friends hanging out.”

Another unique aspect of Veara’s composition is the relationship between Harrell and Bambrick, as the

two of them have been dating for nine years while making music together.

“We really try to keep the band and our relationship completely separate, so if anything ever comes up where we don’t agree on a song or we don’t agree on something creatively, we don’t let it affect our relationship together,” Bambrick said. “It’s really cool that I get to see the world with my girlfriend and my two best friends.”

The strength of the band’s songwriting skills is what has propelled it to such a level of success, said Nick Mitcham, a junior marketing major at Georgia Regents University and the owner of Jams Booking.

“They all have different favorite bands and different genres that they focus on, in their downtime, what they listen to,” Mitcham said. “And I think that’s important because it just shows their creativity. Different ones like different things obviously, but then they can come together and make a song and it sounds awesome.

The influences you listen to are going to be what transcend what you write about. So for them all to listen to different things and give different things a chance, it’s pretty cool that they can construct that kind of music.”

The band’s music skills will be put to the test when its new album is released later this summer. Mitcham said he got a chance to listen to the album, which he said includes some surprise guest vocalists from other bands.

Bambrick said he is very excited for fans to be able to hear the new music, which he said has a very relatable overall theme.

“The new album has a lot more to do with what other people deal with during life that they can relate to,” Bambrick said. “It’s like, if you’ve ever felt a certain way and you weren’t sure if anybody else has felt that way before, we’re going to let you know that we’ve felt that way before, and it’s OK.”

mindyawadley@gmail.com

Theater showcases Steinbeck’s classic novel

By KEREYIA BUTLER staff writer

I

t was an old 1930’s classic brought back to life.

The Georgia Regents University theatre showcased John Steinbeck’s short novel turned play “Of Mice and Men” for the first time with very talented actors and actresses portraying many of the timeless parts.

Carolyn Cope, the director of the play and associate professor of communications, said she chose Steinbeck’s play because she felt as if the timing was appropriate to display a piece that seemed to correlate with much of what’s going on in today’s society.

“I was just excited at the prospect of bringing, again, a play that was written in the ’30s as a reflection of what was going on in the country at the time, the Depression and the Dust Bowl

and how people were displaced from their homes and having to make a living any way they could and yet at the same time trying to hold on to that dream of having a place of their own, something that belonged to them,” Cope said. “Once again, to me, it just seemed so relevant to what’s go-

“

they would ever be homeless are now finding themselves in that situation.”

The play took to the use of lighting and a few stage props to suggest many of the scenes from the play, Cope said, because there was no attempt to put everything on the stage.

I think that this is a piece of American history that will probably never go out of style.

--Carolyn Cope, the director of ‘Of Mice and Men’

ing on today with all of the economic upheaval that we’ve been going through since 2008, the collapse of the economy, people being thrown out of their homes, all of our homes being forced into foreclosure and people that never in the world dreamed that

”

“I wanted to go back to, again, a more traditional format, but at the same time the design style that we’re using for this show is not kitchensink drama, is not naturalism or even realism per se,” Cope said. “It’s really a much more suggested realism.”

Bobby Jones played the character of George and David Teague played Lennie. These two characters conveyed the play’s theme of friendship and loneliness from an old piece of American literature, Cope said.

“I think that this is a piece of American history that will probably never go out of style,” Cope said. “I hope that productions like this will keep Steinbeck in the consciousness of our students and our consciousness as a nation. So often, we are always looking for the next new thing, the next new playwright, the next new thing. We don’t realize that so many things go in cycles. This is the one that just kind of spoke to me…. It’s important to take a look back sometimes.”

Jessica Hanson, the costume designer, stylist and makeupartist for the play, has been designing costumes off and on for two-and-a-half years and said she took on the job because Steinbeck’s work is “wonderful” and because she was a graduate

of Augusta State University’s final class.

Hanson also said she got her inspiration for designing the costumes by watching various film adaptations of the play and by watching movies from the 1930s, which helped her to make sure every costume had a vintage feel by working closely with Cope to form the vision that they both wanted for the story.

Brandon Fields, an attendee at opening night, said although the beginning took off a little slow, he enjoyed the play.

“This was the first time I’ve ever seen it,” Field said. “So I didn’t know what to expect coming into this and by the end of the play I was sure that Curly was going to shoot the poor guy, and it turns out to be his friend and that’s just a moment right there. I can’t describe it feeling wise, but it’s right in the heart.”

kbutler7@gru.edu

THE BELL RINGER

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What’s Eating Augusta?

F

ood is more than just sustenance. It nourishes our souls along with our bodies. It gives us the energy to go about our days and accomplish the tasks set before us.

Above all, food is meant to

be an experience. But we often forget this aspect, the importance of truly savoring the food we eat and the enjoyment of knowing the details of its journey onto our plates.

We’re exploring all the Augusta, Ga., area has to offer with

All things tasty and obscure

regard to food. From farmer’s markets to the city’s celebrity chefs and gourmet food specialists to a college that is educating the next generation of groundbreaking restaurateurs, innovative local foodies are fully devoted to bringing the tastiest and

VeryVera

very much Augusta

By JACOB SCHARFF advanced reporting Let’s face it, Augusta, Ga., isn’t known for much except the Masters Golf Tournament. However, one local chef is making her mark the best way she knows how: by making delicious food and sending it everywhere.

Vera Stewart, the owner of VeryVera on Washington Road, has been baking since she was a young girl. Today all that baking has led to her own store, TV show and appearances on Food Network and in InStyle magazine.

“As a young girl, I didn’t spend a lot of time playing dolls,” Stewart said.

“If I wasn’t outside, I really was always interested in what was going on in the kitchen. The smells and making things from scratch and seeing the seasons come in where things were in season, that just interested me, and I loved to watch. Being the middle of five children, every meal was a celebration because you had to make so much.”

Stewart’s love of cooking carried on throughout her life as she got a home economics degree from the University of Georgia and proceeded to open her own store in 1984 in Augusta. The store has always been on Washington Road but has moved twice in its lifetime.

Along with her fantastic cakes and even t-shirts, everything in her store looks to expand the VeryVera brand, and a big part of that brand is actually the city itself.

“You can see the logo has Augusta, Ga., as part of the logo,” Stewart said. “I’m very proud to recognize our community as part of my national brand recognition because I feel the community has supported me along the way.”

Another big part of Stewart’s store is

JACQUELYN PABON | ADVANCED REPORTING

On the set of her show, chef and business owner Vera Stewart measures out ingredients for a Reuben sandwich for St. Patrick’s Day.

the mail-order service managed by Nicholas Thompson. The service usually receives 50 to 60 orders per week, but on holidays that number can reach 1,000. Thompson said he has seen many things go through the service.

“The most ordered thing is a layer cake, and I’d probably have to say (it’s) a tie between strawberry and carrot,” Thompson said.

Thompson said the store saw a slight boost in carrot cake orders recently after a certain program aired in Virginia. That program was “Throwdown! with Bobby Flay.”

Stewart competed on the show in 2010 and pitted her traditional Southern carrot cake against Flay’s modern marshmallow take on the same cake. When it was over, Stewart walked away victorious, and in her store she has a framed poster for the show and the see VERA on PAGE 8

most decadent foods to not just area restaurants but also the homes of average Augustans.

So consider this a reminder to stop and experience food.

Find out where it’s grown and who grows it. Discover new restaurants and food stores to

explore. Envelop yourself in its taste – the sweetness of a perfectly ripe tomato, the fruitiness and crisp overtones of a freshly pressed olive, the tender crunch of newly harvested lettuce.

Find out what’s eating Augusta.

- LB

Diverse cuisine from all around the globe makes its way to local stomachs

By KARL FRAZIER advanced reporting

International cuisine is expanding in the Augusta, Ga., area and has left its mark on the community’s Southern orientation, and three local restaurants are bringing new flavors to the area.

Laziza Mediterranean Grill, located in the Publix shopping center on Washington Road in Evans, Ga., opened in September 2011. Owner Nader Khatib said he decided to open his restaurant to fill what he considered a void in the community.

A native of metro Detroit, Khatib said Mediterranean and other international food is a common thing visitors see in big cities.

Khatib said many of the soldiers in Fort Gordon, Ga., were formerly stationed overseas, where they developed a taste for Mediterranean food, food that was hard for them to find when they returned to Augusta. He said the food attracts another group as well.

“The Mediterranean diet is kind of a fad right now,” Khatib said. “It appeals to the healthier people in the area and people looking for healthy food.”

Laziza offers dishes such as the gyro, which consists of thin slices of seasoned beef and lamb, romaine lettuce and tomatoes, onion and tzatziki sauce, wrapped in warm and toasted pita bread. Another

popular dish is the chicken shawarma.

With public demand rising, Khatib said he plans to open a food truck eventually and to open up a second location in the future.

Mediterranean is not the only international option in Augusta.

Villa Europa, located on Deans Bridge Road, has been around for more than three decades.

Owner Patricia Schaffer said the restaurant was originally owned

by Fred Ozane. Schaffer’s family moved from Germany to Augusta in 1972, and in 1974, Ozane hired Schaffer’s mother as the manager of the restaurant. She said Ozane ultimately sold the restaurant to the Schaffers because he knew he would be leaving it in good hands.

“The owner knew selling it to us was almost like selling it to himself,” Schaffer said. “He knew we were running the business for him anyway and all of the recipes came from us.”

When Villa Europa first opened, Schaffer said the restaurant served only pizza and Italian food. However, Schaffer said her mother began to change what was served, adding family recipes to the menu that included German and French cuisine.

Some of the favorite German dishes are schnitzel, which is selected lean pork, lightly breaded and fried to a golden brown, and the Cordon Bleu, which is lean pork, stuffed with a layer of ham and cheese.

The international flavor can also be tasted across the river.

Café Rio Blanco, located in Aik-

en, S.C., was started after owners Debbie and Orlando Piñero fell in love with the city of Aiken.

Piñero said he moved to Aiken for its climate, small-town atmosphere and vibrancy of its downtown.

Originally from Cuba, Piñero wanted to give the community a taste of his culture.

Café Rio Blanco serves rice and beans, chicken fricasé, Cuban-style roast pork and more.

Piñero said the restaurant has been very popular with the community, although the financial aspect has been a challenge.

Laziza Mediterranean Grill, Villa Europa and Café Rio Blanco are all dedicated to representing their respective cultures and are determined to spread their international cuisine across the CSRA one customer at a time.

kfrazie9@gru.edu

TASTE TEST: Discover several facts you might not know about chocolate.

PAGE 7

PAGE 6

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 www.asubellringer.com

What’s Eating Augusta?

Olive oil: ‘It’s a slippery business’ LEIGH BEESON | ADVANCED REPORTING

By LEIGH BEESON advanced reporting

Extra virgin olive oil has taken the mainstream cooking world by storm, with specialty stores popping up in big cities and small towns alike with the mission of educating the public on all the benefits of the glorified fruit juice.

But it turns out big-name oil extractors aren’t in agreement as to what qualifies extra virgin oil. Or, rather, they know what constitutes pure extra virgin olive oil but some choose to mislabel their products in an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of uninformed consumers, said Curtis Cord, the executive editor and publisher of the Olive Oil Times, a premier source of information on all news related to the olive oil industry. To protect themselves from unknowingly purchasing a low-grade oil at a high-grade price, it is imperative that consumers know how to determine if an extra virgin olive oil is rightly labeled.

“It’s important to know what good olive oil should taste like,” Cord explained. “You can buy a bottle that says extra virgin, but you won’t really know until you taste it... It should have a

fruitiness, and it should smell like olives and it should taste fresh. If you sense any unpleasant aromas or if it tastes bold or stale, then it’s not extra virgin after all.”

Further, they should understand the current U.S. grading system, as outlined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, although critics question how effective those standards are at protecting consumers from oil fraud. Essentially, Cord said, extra virgin olive oil is, by definition, fruit juice that is made without any refining process and that contains no defects.

Local olive grower and oil producer Jason Shaw said he is focused on bringing olive oil production back to the East Coast, a region not known for olive oil despite evidence of preCivil War olive orchards. A partner of Georgia Olive Farms, a co-op that farms and produces extra virgin olive oil in Lakeland, Ga., and runs an olive tree nursery, he said his farms follow common industry practices and guidelines that ensure the quality of their oils.

“A common problem in Europe with the big, huge commercial mills (is overheating) because the more you heat the (olive) paste, the more you’re going to get out of it…,” Shaw said. “(A centrifuge) actually spins (our) oil out of the paste through a decanter after the olives are crushed by hammer mill into the paste and then mixed.”

Part of the reason the olive oil industry is rife with fraud is the USDA’s weak grading standards, said Bob Thrift, a co-owner of the High Country Olive Oil stores in Aiken, S.C., and Augusta, Ga. The European industry standards are stricter on what can be labeled extra virgin, so European olive oil producers create two different products: one that is truly extra virgin and

can pass the harsh European grading standards and one that is mixed with lower grade oils and passed off as extra virgin olive oil in the more loosely regulated U.S. market.

Approximately 70 percent of imported oil that is labeled extra virgin is defective, Shaw said, which means some American consumers are paying extra money for oils that aren’t as pure or healthy as they think.

“In order to build a good, long-term-viable market, we’re very interested in trying to make sure that we have some better grading standards

Because the American olive oil industry is underregulated, not all oil labeled extra virgin is the Real McCoy. here in the U.S. because it seems that we have a lack of that,” he said. “Therefore, that’s the reason why we’re getting a lot of that defective oil sent from overseas – because they’re able to get away with it here... So we have joined forces with the California domestic producers and Texas producers and formed the American Olive Oil Producers Association.”

In December, the group testified for the U.S. International Trade Commission on the growing discrepancy between foreign and domestic extra virgin olive oil standards and practices. Shaw said he hopes this ongoing investigation will result in a reformation of the American olive oil industry.

More than Chex Mix and Beer Nuts

Bars step up their grub

By JACQUELYN PABON advanced reporting Fine dining bar food is a lot more likely than you’d think.

Chicken wings, burgers and fries are not the only options for bar food in Augusta, Ga. To differentiate themselves from other bars in the area, the Whiskey Bar (Kitchen) and the Crum’s on Central food truck are offering night owls a more upscale late-night dining experience.

They have taken to preparing the artistry of fine dining mixed with a tavern atmosphere.

Whiskey and white rice The Whiskey Bar (Kitchen), a local hotspot for late-night eats, has opened its doors to serve higherend and Japanese-infused bar food paired with a variety of whiskeys.

Bobby Morrison, a co-owner of the Whiskey Bar (Kitchen), said he and his brother decided to open the establishment because of their background in the bar industry.

“Initially, it was supposed to be more of a bar than kitchen,” Morrison said. “My brother and I also own the Metro (Coffeehouse) next door so we know the bar business.

We were ready to do our next venture, but we couldn’t just open up another bar; there are so many bars all over the place. So we decided to do something with a kitchen to kind of boost alcohol sales. From the day we opened, the kitchen just took off.

To be honest, it’s probably more Whiskey Kitchen bar right now.”

To Morrison, the kitchen has brought in more customers, but Morrison said in order to steer away from solely the restaurant portion of the business, they designed the bar

JACQUELYN PABON | ADVANCED REPORTING

One of Whiskey Bar(Kitchen)’s customer favorites is the Far East Chicken Bowl.

to give off a certain vibe.

“The later it gets, it makes that transition from restaurant to bar,” Morrison said. “We did some subtle things to the place, like all of our seats are bar height. We don’t have any low tables to give it more of a bar feel. And when we designed the menu, it was kind of to accentuate, not to say bar food, but a menu that could pair really well with a high-end whiskey menu.”

The menu is bursting with options: from a Cali burger, topped with fresh jalapeños, avocado, tomato and cheese, to a Far East Chicken Bowl, with steamed white rice covered with teriyaki chicken, drizzled with sauce and garnished with pickled ginger.

Morrison said the unique Japanese twist on their bar food comes from two places -- his own Japanese and Irish heritage and the bar’s executive chef, Techan Inaba, the former owner of Wicked Wasabi.

Not just anyone can work in the Whiskey Bar’s kitchen. Morrison said several of the kitchen staff members are accredited by the Culinary Institute of America, and he and his partner don’t always hire

walk-in applications.

“It’s more of a networking kind of deal,” Morrison said. “Everybody we have in there knows somebody, who knows somebody, who knows somebody here. That way we know the people that we are bringing in.”

To Morrison, the establishment is set out above the rest because of its lengthy list of alcoholic beverages including their Old Fashioned.

“The whiskey for one, that’s my passion,” Morrison said. “I’ve loved whiskey from way back and I am still learning a lot about it. I think if we are not already the widest variety of whiskeys in Augusta, within a few months we will be.”

And the whiskey list will continue to grow as well as the kitchen’s offerings. Within the next few months, he said he hopes to have the longest whiskey list in the area and make several changes to the menu including lighter dishes for the springtime.

Likewise, Thrift said the supplier of his oils and balsamic vinegars, Veronica Foods Company, is lobbying the U.S. government to tighten its regulation standards because the company’s owners think they are losing customers to the larger European corporations that sell impure oils marketed as extra virgin at lower prices.

As a result, the customers think they are getting all the health benefits of extra virgin oil’s polyphenols, antioxidants and monounsaturated fats when in actuality they aren’t.

Today more people are searching out specialty stores, like Thrift’s and Shaw’s, to meet their olive oil needs. These specialty stores frequently allow customers to sample the oils before making a purchase, something that Cord said is integral to finding the perfect extra virgin olive oil.

These stores also serve an educational role, for example, explaining to customers that the time of the year largely determines where a given olive oil is sourced from, Thrift said.

For many producers and sellers, Shaw said, the reason they are so invested in reforming America’s questionable olive oil industry and providing high-quality products boils down to one thing: honesty.

“We’re not looking for any kind of special treatment as far as tariffs or anything like that, certainly not any subsidies, but we are competing against European producers who are subsidized by their government and pay very little in tariffs and send a lot of product here that’s not even olive oil,” Shaw said. “There’s a lot of adulteration, and it’s a slippery business... We want to make sure American consumers are getting what they’re paying for.”

kbeeson1@gru.edu

Small dive restaurants bring substantial flavor

By KEYERIA BUTLER advanced reporting Shishkebab, Jackie M’s and Son Café, Rae’s Coastal Café and Plate-oPasta are not your regular restaurants.

Instead, the small, intimate size of the restaurants coupled with their homemade quality and taste all serve up dishes worthy of eating.

The No. 1 goal of Shishkebab, a fairly new restaurant with more than two and a half years under its belt, is to bring authentic Turkish food to the Augusta, Ga., area exactly like it’s done in Turkey, said Atanur Caliskan, a co-owner of the restaurant.

“Every ethnic restaurant in town, they modify their food with American food,” Caliskan said. “Our goal (is to make Turkish food) exactly like it’s (done) in Turkey.”

When Shishkebab first opened its doors May 17, 2010, its owners’ primary focus was attracting diverse customers.

Everything in their establishment remains authentic old-Turkish style, the owners said, from the food served to the tablecloths and even the Turkish

trinkets that are placed all over the old Huddle House building the restaurant occupies.

On the other side of town, Jackie McCalla, a part-owner of Jackie M’s and Son Café, a small business that started out selling hoagies and then transitioned to cheesesteaks, said sacrifice and making everything from scratch is what keeps her restaurant of 12 years alive.

“Our thing is that we did everything from scratch,” McCalla said.

“We do everything hands-on. We’ve expanded our menu. We don’t buy bread. We make it, and all of our dressings we make.”

Jackie M’s and Son Café sits on Milledgeville Road and the location has helped with the success of the business, she said.

“I wanted to be in a neighborhood where it was needed,” McCalla said.

“I like being in this neighborhood because people don’t have choices, especially if they don’t have transportation. That was one reason why I stuck it out and stayed here, even though I

see OFFBEAT on PAGE 8

Meals on wheels Andrew Crumrine and Brett

see BAR on PAGE 8

KEREYIA BUTLER | ADVANCED REPORTING

Shishkebab offers a variety of kebabs, one of which is the Kuzu kebab, or a lamb kebab.

THE BELL RINGER

PAGE 7 www.asubellringer.com

All things tasty and obscure

Harvesting the Garden City

By RASHAD O’CONNER advanced reporting

Chick-fil-A has been a prominent and controversial name in the press for months, but few would imagine that the fast food chain procures its goods from places as local and homey as farmer’s markets.

Cathy Enroughty, the market manager of the Augusta, Ga., state farmer’s market, said the local produce venue – located on Fifth Street in downtown Augusta – caters to a variety of popular restaurants in the area, offering a wide array of fruits and vegetables. Pete’s Produce, which supplies a number of Chick-fil-A restaurants throughout the CSRA, is just one of many wholesalers that utilizes the plentiful space found at the market.

“We’ve collaborated with several wholesale houses over the years,” Enroughty said.

“We have American Latin Produce and Brothers, which caters more to the Hispanic community and provides produce for a lot of your local Mexican restaurants such as Poblano’s, Teresa’s and Mi Rancho. We also provide space here for FPL Food, formerly known as Shapiro’s. They process cattle here, cut loins into steaks, that sort of thing.”

Although FPL Food outsources much of its beef from across the country, Enroughty said most of the venue’s marketers stay local, harvesting their own crops by hand for public consumption. Since acquiring the title of market manager, Enroughty said she has been “amazed” by the spike in number of those interested in locally grown produce.

“I never really gave any thought toward the impact local farmers have on the community before coming to this position,” Enroughty said.

“It wasn’t until I spent some time with various farmers and market employees – meeting them, getting to know them, helping them network – that I came to realize how valuable they were to the area. Such a small amount of the vegetables sold here are sprayed down with pesticides or go through genetic modification like most of your standard imported crops, which is definitely a plus.”

Agriculture and Natural Resources coordinator Sid Mullis, who deals with everything

RASHAD O’CONNER | ADVANCED REPORTING

The farmer’s market, located on Fifth Street in downtown Augusta, provides vegetable containers to the public to grow crops such as peppers, tomatoes and beans.

from pest control to traditional farming, said he has found that most commercial crops shipped in from widespread distributers are grown for looks as opposed to taste, which is why the agriculture expert prefers local produce.

“Take store-bought tomatoes for instance,” Mullis said. “They don’t taste like our homegrown tomatoes. They taste like cardboard.

They’re not of the same variety you’d grow yourself. Local farmers are cultivating produce that tastes better because their produce isn’t being shipped in from God knows where.”

Mullis added that commercial vegetables such as tomatoes are usually picked unripe and then gassed with chemicals before being processed and shipped out to grocery stores.

While Mullis said he believes the jury is still out on whether homegrown crops are healthier than those consumers would find at popular grocery chains such as Publix and Kroger’s, he said the likelihood of contracting bacterial diseases from locally grown produce is low due to proper handling and fertilization.

Appropriate health licenses are also considered a valued asset to many farmers in the community.

Rodney Whittle, the overseer of Whittle’s Farm in Springfield, S.C., is the proud owner of a Department of Health Environmental Control’s regulated farm; only twelve farms in the state can lay claim to this license. Grounded in the farming profession since the late ’80s, Whittle sees customers frequent his farm daily, some traveling miles out of their way and arriving at his fields before dawn.

In addition to handpicking vegetables from acres of farmland, patrons also have the option of browsing Whittle’s roadside stand located near the farm’s entrance, where they can select from a variety of legume crops that Whittle gathers by machine, in addition to vegetables such as okra, squash, corn and cucumbers.

Enroughty said she regards the local farming scene as being not only beneficial to healthoriented consumers like Whittle’s but also to the economy.

“I think there’s an overall larger benefit behind supporting local farmers because doing so helps bring in revenue to the city,” Enroughty said. “It also keeps our farmers in business, which is vital in this economy.”

Enroughty said she is confident in her market’s rich institution of providing only the best retail and wholesale produce grown in Georgia.

“There are a few here that aren’t technically ‘organically certified,’” Enroughty said.

“But a lot of their produce is genuinely organic and much of it doesn’t go through the same harmful channels that most large, out-of-state farms go through when exporting their goods.”

Beyond nourishing Augusta with fresh produce seven days a week, the Farmer’s Market is also active in facilitating local youth organization groups as well as providing services, including educational tours, for local elementary schools, Enroughty said. The market also offers a community garden and greenhouse where visitors can grow their own gardens.

hoconner@gru.edu

The chocolatier’s journey: One bean at a time

By NIKKI SKINNER advanced reporting Once a cocoa bean has been harvested, it begins its sojourn to sweet transformation.

There are many different jobs to be done when creating chocolate, from harvesting the beans to making the chocolate. According to The Fine Chocolate Industry Association, a chocolate maker is a person who purchases cocoa beans and grinds them into chocolate. A chocolatier is someone who makes, dips and fills chocolates with different flavors.

Once the beans are harvested and dried, they are shipped to factories all over the world. After they arrive at a factory, the beans are roasted and ground down into nibs, the building blocks of chocolate. The nibs are then sent through a milling process, which can take up to 12 hours to complete, according to the Theo Chocolate and

NIKKI SKINNER | ADVANCED REPORTING

Hélène VandenBrugge-Smith pipes out chocolate on parchment paper.

TFCIA websites.

After the chocolate is made, it is sent to the chocolatiers, said Marie-Hélène VandenBrugge-Smith, the owner of La Bonbonniére, a fine chocolate shop located in Augusta, Ga. There it is melted and molded into fine chocolates.

Chocolate production begins with a process called tempering, which is the melting of the chocolate. It is then cooled so it will form beta crystals, VandenBruddeSmith said. The melters work the chocolate at specific temperatures that vary depending on the specific

kind of chocolate being made.

“The process of making chocolates can be a little complicated,” she said. “There are many different elements that factor into this process, for example, the temperature in the room and the melters as well as the humidity. I never cut the heat on no matter what time of year it is. Working with chocolate is not an exact science. It is about trial and error.”

Chef Norman Love, the owner of Norman Love Confections, began working with chocolate in his career as a pastry chef. Working with chocolate is a tedious and time-consuming process, he said. Chocolates are put together backwards, he said, meaning they are built from the outside inward.

The outer shell is created in the mold first, then it is placed in a temperature-controlled area. Once it sets, the filling is inserted before the bottom is covered with the last layer of chocolate.

“There is a difference between

the processed chocolate you buy in the store and fine chocolate,” Love said. “To me, fine chocolates are handmade chocolates – made with no preservatives and meant to be consumed in a short amount of time to ensure all of their richness.”

Handmade chocolates are very visual, Love said, as there is a strong belief that many Americans eat with their eyes. This is why fine chocolates are so decorative.

VandenBrugge-Smith said she opened La Bonbonniére with the intent of bringing something different to Augusta.

“I saw a need for a chocolatier here,” she said. “The only chocolates you could buy here (were) prepackaged processed chocolates. You didn’t have a choice as to what you got. Now you can fill the box yourself with the chocolates you know you will like.”

nskinner@gru.edu

Reasons you should eat dessert first

Because it tastes great, because there are many options and ... just because you can

The Boll Weevil Cafe and Sweetery Red Velvet Cake slice $6.99, whole cake $52

Neapolitan Cupcake & Gift Shoppe Salty Caramel Cupcake cupcake $3.75, dozen $30

Crum’s on Central Chocolate caramel tart $6

Giuseppe’s Pizza & Italian Specialties Cannoli $3

Villa Europa Prince Regents Torte $4.75

PAGE 8

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 www.asubellringer.com

What’s Eating Augusta?

All things tasty and obscure

Edgar’s Grille brings food with ‘Southern’ flair

By FARRELL BROWN advanced reporting Augusta’s newest hotspot, Edgar’s Grille, opened its doors for business in February. It shares a building with Helms College.

On Tuesday, Feb. 12, Goodwill Industries opened the doors of Edgar’s Grille, Augusta’s only culinary arts school.

Advertised as a “tapas bar and New American restaurant,” Edgar’s Grille’s menu features tapas, or Spanish appetizers; brick-oven pizzas; soups and salads; appetizers; entrees and desserts. Edgar’s Grille can seat up to 160 patrons.

The restaurant has been completely booked every night since it opened, said Director of Communications Susan Everitt.

“The restaurant is an upscale, very sleek, very sharp, modern restaurant,” said David Ross, the department chair for the Culinary Arts Program at Helms College.

“It’s Mediterranean-style food with a little bit of Spanish, Italian, French, North African (flavors added in). It seats about 80. It has a very nice open tapas bar and liquor bar.”

Spokespeople for Edgar’s Grille describe the restaurant’s food as “New American cuisine with a Southern flair.” New American is a term meaning that it’s a part of American culture that

What’s eating Augusta?

All things tasty and obscure A production of Advanced Reporting Reporters: Leigh Beeson Farrell Brown Keyeria Butler Karl Frazier Rashad O’Conner Jacquelyn Pabon Jacob Scharff Nikki Skinner Designer: Jacquelyn Pabon Blog Master: Rashad O’Conner Editor: Leigh Beeson Executive Editor: Matthew Bosisio Introduction Photo Brick (From Upper Left) Rashad O’Conner Nikki Skinner Rashad O’Conner Jacquelyn Pabon Nikki Skinner Karl Frazier

Bar

NIKKI SKINNER | ADVANCED REPORTING

An instructor gives a student one-on-one help in class at Helms College, an Augusta school that includes a culinary program.

comes from somewhere else in the world, Everitt said, who attributes the “Southern flair” to the way the dishes are prepared.

Edgar’s Grille relies on organically grown produce from Nature Crisp Farms; fresh pork, beef, and poultry from Keegan Fillion Farms; and fresh dairy from Hickory Hill Farms.

“We have Master Chef Marcel Biró who is running all of our

food businesses, our restaurant and our conference center menus,” said Amy Breitmann, the recruitment and admissions manager of the Augusta, Ga., Helms College campus.

Biró and Chef Ian McDonald head the Edgar’s Grille staff, Breitmann said. The staff also has hired five experienced students as chefs who are currently enrolled in Helms College. The rest of the

Vera

CONTINUED from PAGE 5 judges’ comment cards.

After the episode originally aired, the store saw a massive influx of carrot cake orders. During the episode, one of the judges was Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver, a last minute replacement when a judge from Atlanta got held up.

Copenhaver said he was a little concerned that picking the wrong cake could cost him his bid at reelection, as he was in the middle of campaigning at the time of the show. Although Copenhaver said it was close, in the end he chose Vera’s cake in the blind taste test.

“It was just more of what I was used to,” Copenhaver said. “Bobby’s was a little bit different than what I was used to, so I just went with the homegrown cake.”

Stewart’s latest accomplishment, however, may be her biggest: her own TV show. When the show began, Stewart said she had to buy all of the groceries to use on the show and had to design the set herself. Now, with the show in its third season, Stewart’s groceries are paid for and the technologically advanced set is in someone else’s hands.

For a brief promo and a 30-minute program, the amount of taping needed is about four hours, Stewart said. Stewart tapes the promo and then the show in segments, sometimes needing multiple

staff consists of professional chefs and waiters.

The restaurant serves as a place for students to learn more about the curriculum covered in classes in a hands-on manner. As Helms College students get further in their education, they will be able to do internships at Edgar’s Grille, among other places. As interns, they will supplement the staff already in place, Everitt said.

Biró has written two cookbooks and is the producer and host of an Emmy Award-winning PBS TV show called “The Kitchens of Biró.” McDonald has served in restaurants in Aiken, S.C.; Cambridge, Mass.; and New York City, Everitt said.

The campus has multimedia classrooms, a computer lab, career services and a fully equipped kitchen that meets all federal, state and local codes. The Culinary Arts program for the campus is headed

by Ross, who is also the owner of 5 O’clock Bistro. Ross, who spent 10 years teaching at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts for both the Boston and Atlanta locations, was one of the first instructors to be hired by both locations when they first opened.

“The goal is to teach folks skills in order to go back out into the workforce,” said Kenda Rindt, the administrative coordinator at the college.

Helms College is a product of the CSRA and Macon County Goodwill and is the only Goodwill college to be accredited, Breitmann said. The school also teaches business management skills to its culinary students so that they can also know how to manage their restaurants.

fbrown19@gru.edu

Offbeat

CONTINUED from PAGE 6

wasn’t making enough money.”

The customers at this oldhome-turned-restaurant are the No. 1 focus, and making them the main priority never fails to help the business succeed.

While McCalla doesn’t give out her recipes to the public, she said “pouring love” on the food and shying away from non-name-brand food is what makes her restaurant’s food so good, while passion and dedication are the forces that keep her restaurant going.

Tucked away in a residential neighborhood in Augusta, Rae’s Coastal Café, a “well-hidden gem” that specializes in Caribbean and Jamaican cuisine, pulls dishes and recipes from all of the coastal areas of the Southeast, General Manager Brian Redd said.

JACOB SCHARFF | ADVANCED REPORTING “Our owner actually was vacationing in Jamaica and ... the idea for reshoots to get everything right. a lot of our dishes comes from that Stewart said she also recently got vacation” Redd said. two new sponsors for her show, Fresh The one-on-one time that the Market and 3 Monkeys Fine Gifts, a staff has with all the customers and boutique located in Aiken, S.C. the friendliness of the servers who “I feel like Augusta has supported have a passion for people and the me in watching the business grow,” food they serve adds to the success Stewart said. “Being able to say, ‘I’m of the 21-year-old business, he said. really proud of what you’ve done,’ “Here at the restaurant we do and they say that almost as the parent focus on creating an experience, to my business, and so I’m very proud whereas some of the bigger restauof the fact that I did create it.” rants are more about turning the table and making the money,” Redd said.

Back across town, near Fort jscharff@gru.edu

Gordon, Ga., is a small business named Plate-O-Pasta that prepares Italian food the way Mama did.

Open for seven years, William Fowler said he chose Italian food because it was his niche.

“It was something that I’ve always liked,” Fowler said.

“I felt it was a niche that I could fill and I could fill well, and I was told one time that if you start a business then find a niche and do the best you can. You don’t have to be the best at everything, but make sure you do the best that you can do.”

Plate-o-Pasta first got its start in Augusta, but then its owner made the quick decision to move because the business wasn’t thriving like he wanted it to. But when Fowler moved the business, he said the profit doubled, calling the decision a “no brainer.”

Italian home cooking is what this restaurant is all about and some of the dishes are dishes most people ate as children but Fowler’s delivery service makes his restaurant stand out from the rest.

Fowler said being a restaurateur requires a lot of dedication but is worth the effort, a sentiment all of the restaurants’ owners agreed with.

“Giving up is not an option,” Fowler said. “You have to give everything you have to it.”

kbutler7@gru.edu

CONTINUED from PAGE 6

Prichard, of Crum’s on Central and coowners of the Crum’s food truck, said the opportunity for a food truck came to them when a friend had a catering business but had to make the move to Atlanta. Instead of abandoning the kitchen on wheels, Crumrine and Prichard said they decided to take the truck off his hands.

Prichard said the next task they had to overcome was the location. On a Sunday afternoon, Prichard said the owners of the Indian Queen, a local bar, came into Crum’s on Central to eat brunch. While eating, the owners of the Indian Queen offered Crum’s on Central an opportunity the owners said

they could not turn down.

“The folks at the Indian Queen wanted to have some kind of food component,” Crumrine said. “And it was, you know, a perfect fit. They were looking for food, and we were looking for someplace to be stationary where we could build our book of business.

So we could be mutually beneficial and capitalize on each other.”

Since then, Prichard and Crumrine said they have been happy with the success of their cuisine on wheels.

But Crumrine said transferring their locally known sit-down lunch and dinner dishes to fast food was a task of “deconstruction and reconstruction.”

“If we want to take a Philly cheesesteak and elevate it to something different, then we take a part of a Philly cheesesteak and go, ‘OK, what goes with shaved ribeye?” Crumrine explained. “Well, an Argentinean sauce called a Shim Sharee goes really well with shaved ribeye. It’s a very herbaceous sauce, and we put it on the Philly cheesesteak, and then you can say there is cheese whizz on a classic Philly cheesesteak, so what would make that a little bit different? Well, we are in the south, so pimiento cheese might make that thing really zing. So then, all of a sudden you’ve got a pretty unique sandwich.”

To Crumrine, the food reflects the two different identities between the food truck and the restaurant. To prevent customers from sticking to only one location, Crumrine said the restaurant will continue to offer tapas-style bar menu items, but the food truck will offer more sandwiches and on-the-go cuisine.

“You want them to say, ‘Oh, well I want the Jiffy Pig,’ which is a sandwich we do on the food truck, and it’s pulled pork, peanut butter, cilantro, onions and a sweet chili sauce,” Crumrine said. “It is something completely different, but they aren’t going to drive down here (Crum’s on Central) and

get that sandwich.”

Crumrine said they will continue to come up with unique meals for the late-night food truck situated outside of the Indian Queen.

“We are always evolving on that food truck,” Crumrine said. “Every time we go out and we eat something, we are tearing it apart in our minds and going, ‘OK, this would be fun to do’ and putting it out. Just like here, we are doing the same thing constantly trying to change our menu and keep up-todate to keep interest.”

jpabon@gru.edu

THE BELL RINGER

5

By ASHLEY TRAWICK staff writer

M

ajor news sites, blogs, newspapers and countless others are utilizing social networking to reach more people.

While sites like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr dominate social media, there are others that are being overlooked that students could use, such as The Matboard, Wanelo, Tout, Fiverr and Path.

For those who are creative and artistic, feel free to join The Matboard. It allows users to explore, share and inspire others with their work. With only three employees, the site launched Tuesday, Feb. 19, and its membership is steadily growing. One of those three employees and one of the co-founders, Austin Phillips, said it’s specifically designed for the creative world.

“It’s kind of an endless flow of usersubmitted and curated bookmarked creative work,” Phillips

ARTS & LIFE www.asubellringer.com

New social media sites Around making an instant impact Town said. “It’s organized into 30 different collections. It’s fully socially integrated. There (are) portfolio boards, which are dedicated for users to be able to promote and share their own work.”

Anyone interested in visual arts, including art and communications majors, would benefit the most from it because the amount of creativity hosted is overflowing and they can learn a lot, he said. It can also lead to collaborative projects, freelance work and even future employment.

“The Matboard is very targeted content towards a very specific industry and group of people,” he said. “There’s been a lot of time working with images and working with visual media and that’s what they’re looking for. They don’t want to have to sift through large amounts of content that they’re not interested in at all.”

Wanelo, which is short for Want, Need, Love, is a catalog of products organized by people. It helps people with small businesses get their products sold. While it’s not a social media site particularly, college students on budgets may use Wanelo to buy cheaper apparel, accessories and shoes.

Tout is a real-time information

network that lets users update their profiles with videos about news, politics, entertainment and more.

Featured channels on its homepage include BBC, Entertainment Tonight, Wall Street Journal, USA and ESPN. Become a “Touter” and stay up-to-date with the latest news and sports news before logging in to Twitter and Facebook.

Being a college student while unemployed can be difficult, especially when there are bills piling up. That just comes with adulthood, but with Fiverr, a student can make a lot of money by doing the smallest things. It’s a service that allows clients to charge $5 for different “gigs” like making videos about a certain product or teaching a guitar lesson.

Besides Facebook, Skype, Oovoo and others, there are other sites that can be used to keep in touch with family and friends.

A mobileonly personal network, Path, allows people to connect with their family and friends through video messages and photos. Nell Frabotta, the social media manager for Path, said students would enjoy it because it’s a great way to keep in touch with people and there’s a limit as to how many friends a user can have.

“It’s supposed to be used for real intimate, personal social networking with your friends and family,” Frabotta said. “It’s kind of a virtual journal. We keep it to 150 friends; we have a friend limit, which basically, it’s there to kind of encourage staying personal with close people in your life.”

She added that she wished Path was around when she was in college because she and her friends are all spread out but Path is how they keep in touch.

Melissa Hudson Hall, the assistant director of the Career Center, said while different social media sites can be fun, students should be careful about how they share information.

“I think these are wonderful ways to document life,” Hall said.

“It’s a great way to build a portfolio or to build a log of your activities. I think you need to manage it really well, and you cannot rely, in my experience, on just the privacy features that are in place to do that. You want to manage your professional profile. How you appear to other people or potential recruiters or potential graduate admissions committee members is very important. ”

atrawick@gru.edu

Social media jobs balance fun and hard work

By MINDY WADLEY staff writer

A

lthough it may sound easy to get paid to use Facebook and Twitter all day, the career of a social media professional isn’t all fun and games.

In the growing industry of social media, it is a vital tool for businesses to reach their target audiences, but many small business owners don’t have the time to properly utilize these sites, said Melissa Best, the Internet marketing director at Mass Media Marketing in Augusta, Ga. “They want to do it and they realize they need to do it, but they have zero time to do it,” Best said.

“So that’s why they come to us. I constantly have my Facebook page up, constantly watching it to see what’s going on with my clients. So it’s very easy for me, if I know of something that’s going on with that store, I’ll post it for them.”

In addition to Facebook, companies such as M3 assist small businesses with marketing across a variety of social media platforms.

“If we run a campaign, we’ll run it with Twitter too,” Best said.

“But most people seem to be using Facebook, at least for contests and

PAGE 9

submitting photos.”

Although Best said her job only consists of about 10 percent of her being devoting to social media for her clients, other businesses may choose to hire an employee solely dedicated to managing their social media.

Tara Caballero, the social me-

“

“If you post on any of our pages, I will be sure to reply within 24 hours,” she said. “Whether it’s good or bad, I always thank them for at least taking the time to let us know.

And if it is bad, I don’t try to resolve the problem, but I do lead them to the person that could resolve the problem if they’d like to take it up

”

Sometimes you have to be silly, so you kind of have to be witty at the job as well.

-- Tara Caballero Social Media Manager

dia manager for Red McCombs Toyota in San Antonio, said she likes to reach out to the business’ clients on a daily basis.

“I actually go to every single, individual page,” Caballero said.

“So I start off with Facebook, see any comments we have there and reply back.”

Red McCombs Toyota maintains a variety of social media pages, including Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, FourSquare and Instagram. Caballero said her daily routine also continues with keeping a close eye on the various reputation sites for the dealership, such as Yelp! and Yellow Pages.

further.”

The role of a social media professional requires a person to do a lot of critical thinking to determine the appropriate way to approach each specific audience, Caballero said.

“You have to learn how to be creative and have skills to have engagement,” she said. “Sometimes you have to be silly, so you kind of have to be witty at the job as well.”

Writing skills, a keen sense of business and creativity are the top three skills that are necessary to succeed as a social media professional, Best said.

“It’s good that you can write,

but you also need to be able to analyze stats and stuff that they give you,” she said. “Facebook will give you stats about people that liked you, what actions they took, how your post did, the virality of it and that kind of thing … It’s about being able to show the owner of a company that this is driving traffic to your site. And the more traffic, the more sales, the more leads and that kind of thing.”

Prospective employees in the social media field may also need to harness their creativity when it comes time to finding a career, Caballero said.

“It’s kind of hard,” she said. “I actually had to just sit down with the (general manager) at the time and be creative and think of this position. Nobody, right now, is really aware of a position like this.

So if you want something (in) this kind of career, you have to sit down and just kind of talk your way to it and just see what your future boss thinks of it.”

Caballero said her long-term goal is to take on the role of social media manager for all of the Red McComb’s seven dealerships in her area.

Social app swagger

By MEGAN STEWART staff writer

S

ocial media would cease to be so prevalent in my life without the apps on my mobile device.

When it comes to getting an upgrade to my phone plan, I won’t even consider the idea of purchasing one that lacks an app market including the sites that I frequently use like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

With the availability of an app, I am only seconds away from clicking the screen and being able to view the information displayed by those I am a friend with or following.

However, to me, where print has more work in making sure they get information that is interesting enough for someone to pay for; participating in digital journalism is difficult as well.

On a site like Twitter, you have a space that can only be filled with 140 characters and no pictures to catch your readers’ eyes to stop them from just scrolling right past to the next tweet. The biggest attraction that people using Twitter have is the hashtag because with this they can at least group it into topics that someone can directly go to if they’re interested in that topic.

Another object that hurts publishing things digitally would be the failure of one’s mobile web.

If I am looking to check something out online that, maybe, a friend of mine suggested – if I go to that app or website and it fails to load or takes too long to load, I will just close out of it and look to do something else on my phone.

Social media also tends to cause people to either lose their intelligence or really bring their ignorance out.

I don’t know how important it is for me to see something, even on Facebook, spelled correctly. If you can’t use periods, commas or other grammar, then I start to get extremely annoyed with what I am reading.

Other than the issue of autocorrect completely changing your words, there is really no excuse to just dumping words onto an outlet for everyone to see.

However, if someone properly creates a post that cannot only catch my eye but also be entertaining, it will definitely cause me to click on it and continue to read the rest of the information.

With Instagram, the situation is a little different because the words tend to follow and your eyes go directly to the image. If I am scrolling through my phone and see the same name posting things that are inappropriate or constantly lacking any composition, I will just un-follow them, friend or not.

Overall, social media both causes issues and advantages with it being so readily available, but you still cannot just post anything and expect people to have interest in it.

mstewar7@gru.edu

mindyawadley@gmail.com

The darkside: Psychological and professional pitfalls of social media

By JACOB SCHARFF staff writer

N

ot only has the Internet made sharing and communicating the things that many find entertaining easy, but it has also caused a new form of bullying.

The dark side of social media includes cyberbullying, which is the deliberate posting of hateful messages; flame wars, which showcase real-world issues being discussed over message boards or emails by people sending profanities to each other; trolling, an act that consist of people deliberately antagonizing others on various issues; hacking, where someone gets into your personal account without your knowledge; sexting and more.

These things, though, are not the only detrimental parts of social media. In today’s world, employers also look at social media when they are looking to hire people, said Melissa Hudson Hall, the assistant director of Georgia Regents University Career Services.

“You want to avoid the pitfall of having questionable images,” Hall said. “That can really cause someone to question your integrity or ability and your ability to present yourself well and professionally. The other pitfall you want to

GRAPHIC BY JACOB SCHARFF

avoid is getting too personal on your status updates, whether it’s on Facebook or LinkedIn.” Consistent and professional content is ideal for profile and status updates as it gets across a professional message better and lackluster status updates or unprofessional content could send across either the wrong message or no message at all, Hall said.

According to Dale Peeples, an assistant professor at Georgia Regents in the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior, social media’s psychological effects can also affect a person long-term and in a very serious way.

Peeples said he believes that cyberbullying has not replaced traditional bullying but has simply piled on and made things worse for those kids who are targeted by bullying, which is 50 percent of all kids, according to the official website of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

“There have been some studies looking at the variety of bullying that people experience,” Peeples said. “The most common form would be just exclusion and being ignored, not getting physically assaulted, but occasional verbal jabs and taunts. They found that when bullying does

cross the line and it starts becoming physical, oftentimes the kids who are targeted for physical bullying experience cyberbullying too.”

While he couldn’t discuss specifics, Peeples also said there have been sexting issues and issues involving gamers being too attached to the social world of their games, both of which have their own psychological issues stemming from them.

Nicole Baker, a special education teacher, knows full well how social media can have very positive effects, along with some very negative effects on psychology.

“We get a lot of children up here who complain or say that they are being bullied through social media through Facebook, Tumblr or even Instagram,” she said. “There’s all these different sites…and it affects them negatively to the point of depression or suicidal thoughts because of it.”

As social media becomes an even larger presence, it’s important to remember that while posting or saying almost anything that crosses one’s mind, there is someone, a potential employer perhaps, who could be looking on the other side.

jscharff@gru.edu

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013

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COMICS: ENTERTAIN YOURSELF www.asubellringer.com

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DOWN 1. The internationally known actor who got his big break playing Dr. Doug Ross on ER. 3. Fictional town in Indiana where Leslie Knopes works 6. An adorable alternative to the Super Bowl that airs at the same time on Animal Planet 9. Successful reality TV show on MTV that followed the Singer of Black Sabbath and his family 12. Sitcom in the 1990’s that debuted Leonardo Dicaprio 13. Butthead’s best friend 17. The genius from Boy Meets World who stated “Lose one friend, lose all friends, lose yourself” 20. Documentary/Reality TV show that debuted in 1989 starring real cops and their arrestees 22. Sitcom in the 1990’s that jumpstarted Claire Dane’s career 24. Website that provides most of the content for Tosh.O 26. Actor who plays Tracy Jordan on 30

Rock 27. Show that aired on FX about two plastic surgeons 29. Creator of Family Guy 31. Famous judge who settles small claims disputes on daytime television 33. App to watch HBO shows 34. The nickname of Meredith Grey’s husband 35. Joss Whedon’s unappreciated space western-themed TV show.

38. The city where the Hollywood sign is located 41. The longest-running animated series 43. Ricky Ricardo loves ____ 44. New show on NBC that rips off of Silence of the Lambs 46. The state where Sex in the City is based 48. Character played by Julia LouisDreyfus on Seinfeld

In the last issue...

ACROSS 1. Wraith 7. convocation 10. Hall 12. bezoar 13. insperity 15. Roast on the River

3. conclave 4. TSA 5. Walking Dead 6. Bitcoin 8. Veara 9. Tomb Raider 11. Parker 14. HIV

DOWN 2. Rodman

Draw comics in your free time?

T

he Servy Massey Fertility Institute was founded to provide effective, affordable and compassionate fertility treatment and care.

The institute is looking for young women willing to donate eggs. All ethnicities are welcome and donorship is anonymous.

Compensation is available for those who qualify.

For more information or to become a donor, visit

ACROSS 2. Actor who plays Dwight Schrute 4. The love of Corey Matthew’s life 5. Actor who played Spock on the original Star Trek 7. Captain Hammer’s girlfriend and Dr. Horrible’s love 8. Animated TV series that aired from 2002-2003 on MTV about a high school that Abe Lincoln, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, JFK, and Ghandi attended.

10. The first mean judge on American Idol 11. Home to the characters from The O.C. 14. Netflix original show starring Kevin Spacey 15. Show on FX about Russian spies living in America during the Cold War 16. 1990’s TV show that gave Jennifer Love Hewitt her breakout role 18. Troy Barnes and Abed Nadir’s favorite show 19. Singer who broke out with “Let’s Go to the Mall... Today” 21. Member of the Belcher family who

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Be a part of

Y O U R n e w s p a p e r and send us your drawings

always wears bunny ears 23. The actor who voices both Bob and Archer 25. Animated TV show on Nickelodeon that premiered in 1998 and follows a dual-species hybrid 28. Dothraki title for the wife of the Khal 30. New show on A&E that rips off Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho 32. The vampire slayer 36. Fake political news/talk show host on Comedy Central 37. Fictional small town in VA that is home to Elena, Stefan, Damon, etc.

39. Archer’s codename 40. Parish in LA that is home to Sookie, Bill, Eric, Tara, etc.

42. “What’s up, doc?” is his catchphrase 45. Actor who holds the record for hosting SNL the most times 47. Creator of The Newsroom on HBO 49. Breakout star from the 1987 TV show 21 Jump Street 50. Website that legally airs TV shows for free

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THE BELL RINGER

PAGE 11

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Jags fifth at Forest Hills

Wall leads Jags’ staff

JAMIE LOWE | STAFF RYAN MCLAY | STAFF

Purdue wins team championship at intercollegiate event

By RYAN MCLAY staff writer Purdue took home the team title after the sixth-annual Insperity Lady Jaguar Intercollegiate tournament, leaving Augusta State in fifth.

The 54-hole eventbegan Wednesday, March 14, as teams from 18 schools across the country trickled into Augusta, Ga. The three-day tournament teed off at 9 a.m. Friday at Forest Hills Golf Club and finished late Sunday afternoon of St. Patrick’s Day. The final scores came in, showing that Purdue scored 876, moving one shot ahead of Vanderbilt on day three of the tournament.

Augusta State came in fifth, a consistent performance after placing fourth and eighth in its last two tournaments, respectively.

“Last year we got second, so it flipped a little bit,” said Lady Jaguars head coach Kory Thompson. “But there was also a little more competition this year, so I think we had a good tournament.”

Notre Dame’s Ashley Arm-

strong was the leading individual out of 95 players in this year’s Insperity. She shot a 1-under 215, moving to first place after finishing the first day of the tournament at 21st.

Coming in second was Purdue’s Paula Reto with a 1-over 217. Reto took first place in last year’s Insperity. Over the three days of the tournament, she shot 76, 69 and 70.

The Lady Jags’ Natalie Wille, a senior, placed highest on the team, coming in third with a 2-over 218.

She was in the lead all day with Vanderbilt’s Jenny Hahn trailing behind. Wille fell behind on her 17th hole, when she made the first of two double-bogeys to end her round.

Though she started Sunday morning strong in first place, Wille admitted that she had experienced trouble focusing at the end of the day.

“Overall, it was a good tournament,” Wille said. “It’s the best home tournament so far for me, and I’m just about to finish.”

This was Wille’s fourth topfive finish of the 2013 spring golf

INSPERITY RESULTS 1. Purdue: 295, 291, 290. +12 2. Vanderbilt: 290, 293, 294. +13.

3. Notre Dame: 303, 290, 295. +24 4. Texas: 299, 310, 290. +35 5. AUGUSTA STATE: 305, 294, 307. +42 6. East Carolina: 310, 294, 303. +43

season. She took the first place title in February’s Central District Invitational in Parrish, Fla. “She had a great tournament,” Thompson said. “I hate for her the way it ended, but she finished third. You can’t be upset with that against this caliber of players. I’m proud of her, and I hope she’s proud of herself too.”

Junior Casey Kennedy was the next to place for the Lady Jags, coming in at 25th, falling from 18th at the beginning of the day and finishing with a total score of 227. She said that she was not happy with her performance over the weekend, as she is accustomed to top-10 finishes.

Kennedy took the first place title at the team’s last tournament, the Purdue Mount Village Invitational. She tied for 10th at Central District Invitational in February.

“Going into this one they both played really well,” Julia Stalbro, a senior on the team, said of Wille and Kennedy. “It was just a little unfortunate on the last holes.”

Wille, who is majoring in marketing, added that this year has been the best of all four of her

7. Coastal Carolina: 304, 300, 306. +46 8. East Tennessee State: 304, 305, 311. +56 9. UT San Antonio: 314, 309, 298. +57 10. Kentucky: 306, 316, 299. +57 11. Lamar: 323, 306, 297. +62 12. Georgia State: 320, 314, 313. +83

years playing college golf.

Thompson said the tournament provided some positive momentum for the team, which will be retooling next season.

“It’s going to be a whole new team next year,” Thompson said.

“We’re losing three girls and getting four in, so it’s going to be a different dynamic. We just got to keep building on that.”

Thompson, who has been coaching the Lady Jags for two years, said that she wants to make Insperity the country’s best intercollegiate golf tournament.

This year, Augusta State hosted 17 other schools, up from 14 in 2012, including Charleston Southern, Coastal Carolina, East Carolina, East Tennessee State, Georgia State, Illinois, Kennesaw State, Kentucky, Lamar, Maryland, Memphis, Notre Dame, Purdue, Southern Mississippi, Texas, UT San Antonio and Vanderbilt.

The Jags will be wrapping up their latest tournament Tuesday at the Briar’s Creek Invitational, hosted by the College of Charleston.

JAGS’ SPORTS SCHEDULE BASEBALL March 27 vs. USC Aiken (Lake Olmstead Stadium) March 29-30 at Young Harris April 5-6 at USC Aiken April 9 vs. Erskine April 19-20 at Francis Marion

rmclay@gru.edu

13. Maryland: 317, 315, 317. +85 14. Southern Mississippi: 318, 320, 312. +86 15. Illinois: 319, 322, 311. +88 16. Kennesaw State: 325, 326, 308. +95 17. Charleston Southern: 323, 320, 326. +105 18. Memphis: 335, 324, 319. +114

Netters peaking as season draws to a close

By ASHLEY TRAWICK staff writer With only three games remaining in the season, the men and women’s tennis teams are closing their respective seasons on a roll.

Michael McGrath, the head coach of the women and men’s tennis teams, said both teams have rounded into form after slow starts.

“I purposely made an ambitious schedule to start the season,” McGrath said. “We played five of the top ten teams in the country in less than a week’s time. We played two Division-I schools, UNC Asheville and Gardner-Webb, and although we didn’t get a win out of any of those, we played real well. I think just playing well just helps us get on a roll here with the men in the last couple of weeks.”

For the men’s team, February started rough, but as the season has continued the team has been getting better, said Victor Guimaraes, a Brazilian native and junior finance major.

“When February first started, we were ranked No. 9 in the nation,” Guimaraes said. “The official rankings didn’t come out yet, but we’ll probably be in the top 12 or 13 because we lost to two teams that were below us. Things are looking good for the conference tournament in April.”

The men’s team started 3-7 but rebounded to win five straight contests before an 8-1

Senior right-handed pitcher Dylan Wall ranks second on the Augusta State roster with a 2.43 ERA in eight appearances between the starting rotation and the bullpen during the 2013 season.

MEN’S GOLF April 6-7 Insperity Augusta State Invitational (Forest Hills Golf Club, Augusta, Ga.)

WOMEN’S GOLF April 20-21 at Lady Buckeye Spring Invitational (University Club – Scarlet Course, Columbus, Ohio)

SOFTBALL March 27 vs. West Georgia March 29 at Columbus State March 30 at Georgia Southwestern April 3 vs. Newberry April 5 vs. USC Aiken April 6 vs. Lander April 9 at Flagler April 12 at Georgia College & State LEIGH BEESON | STAFF

April 14 at Armstrong Atlantic State

Victor Cabellos, a junior on the Augusta State men’s tennis team, practices at the Newman Tennis Center during the 2012-13 season, as the Jaguars are looking to build on last year’s historic run to the Final Four in Louisville, Ky.

home loss to Columbus State Thursday, dropping the team back to .500 overall and in Peach Belt Conference play.

The men’s tennis team has only one home match left in the season, and Guimaraes said it’s going to be a huge game. He added the support from the fans and students would be very helpful. “(It’s) going to be against Francis Marion,” he said. “It would be good to see people here.

We’re going to need the crowd to help us to support us and to make

the other team nervous.”

For the women’s team, McGrath said they’ve also been hot of late, having won 10 of its last 11 matches. Swedish natives Victoria Lindqvist, a senior public relations major, and Liv Pettersson, a senior marketing major, said everyone on the team is playing well.

Lindqvist added that the success of the doubles team is why everyone has been performing at a high level.

“I think doubles is the key to

why everyone is doing well right now,” Lindqvist said. “Everyone has been really pumped up after doubles and has brought it into singles which has made it a lot easier as a team.”

The three games that wrap up the season are Tuesday in Aiken, S.C., against USC Aiken; Friday against Francis Marion at the Newman Tennis Center; and Tuesday, April 2, in Milledgeville, Ga., against Georgia College & State University.

atrawick@gru.edu

MEN AND WOMEN’S TENNIS March 29 vs. Francis Marion April 2 at Georgia College & State April 4 at Young Harris

PAGE 12

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013

SPORTS www.asubellringer.com

Jags primed for home event Golf team seeking strong finish to season

NFL could find itself in jeopardy

By MEGAN STEWART staff writer The Augusta State men’s golf team intends to kick off Masters week with a bang during its home event.

The Insperity Augusta State Invitational is an intercollegiate golf tournament that began 35 years ago.

The event is hosted during the two days leading into the start of the Masters Tournament, April 6-7.

Forest Hills Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., has been home to the tournament for 32 of those years. During the tournament, the teams compete in a 54-hole stroke play with 36 holes played on Saturday and the following 18 on Sunday.

With Forest Hills being home to the Jaguars, players such as Cody Shafer, a sophomore majoring in business management, said they think they can use their course knowledge as an advantage when playing on the greens.

“It takes you a while to get used to them and figure them out,” he said.

“So, I mean, it’s always an advantage since we play there a lot.”

Last year, the team tied for first place with eventual national champion Texas through 54 holes and then lost to the Longhorns during the playoffs.

While some Jags have experience playing the Insperity, the team still has a few for whom this will be their first time. However, if the same five players who normally play for tournaments are chosen, then there should be no issue with them shooting low scores, said Robin Petersson, a sophomore on the golf team.

“Maverick (Antcliff) has played very well this year, and if he just keeps practicing and doing the things that he does, then I’m sure he’ll shoot a low number,” he said. “I know

JORDAN WILLIAMS staff writer

MEGAN STEWART | STAFF

Augusta State golfer Cody Shafer spends some time working on his putting game with assistance from fellow sophomore Robin Petersson, as the two players prepare for the Jaguars’ home tournament at Forest Hills Golf Club the first week of April.

(with) Alex (Wennstam), 90 percent of the time he plays Forest Hills, he shoots under par. And I mean, I don’t really go low that much, but I never really go high either, so I’m just going to shoot a couple under each round and just help the team as much I can. Cody, I want to say, if he can just improve some of the things, I’m sure he will shoot a couple under too. And then our fifth guy, Derek (Chang), I’m sure he will shoot a low number as well.”

The final decision of which players will be chosen to play generally relies on how well they are playing the closer the event comes, said Kevin McPherson, the head golf

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coach.

Overall, the team hopes to place high and gain entry into the NCAA postseason, McPherson said.

“It’s a big win based on just college rankings,” he said. “There are really no other incentives for it. If they end up winning individually here, it obviously boosts their confidence and shows that they can play against some of the best teams and the best players in the country.”

Although winning is always the goal, some members of the team said they feel that being relaxed is the main key to achieving that, Petersson said.

“I just hope everyone plays their best that week,” he said. “If we do that, I know that we’re going to come out on top because we are that good; we just haven’t prove(n) it yet.

I mean, if we just play our game out there, it shouldn’t be a problem. We should finish on top at that tournament.”

Another aspect to the tournament besides winning, Petersson said, is that the team can look forward to spring break coming afterward.

“We know that when we go into the tournament, it’s our last tournament of the year, so we’re going to give 100 percent,” he said. “We (also) know that the week after is spring break and Masters week, so it’s a good week to look forward to.”

Alongside teams being able to advance rankings, another perk for participating is that each team will receive tickets for the Monday practice round at the Masters as a gift, Petersson said.

With Masters week following and general wide support for local golf, McPherson said he expects to have a good crowd for the event.

“We have a good fan support for golf in Augusta, and the weather is usually fairly good for our event,” McPherson said. “We typically have one of the bigger fan supports of college tournaments that we play in just because we’re playing right here in our backyard rather than hosting a tournament that’s 30 or 40 miles away from campus.”

Practice rounds for the invitational will be held Friday, April 5.

mstewar7@gru.edu

Men’s golf team looking ahead to Masters

By RON HICKERSON chief reporter As spring approaches, the Augusta State men’s golf team is gearing up for the biggest golf tournament in the world.

With Masters week just around the corner, the men’s golf team is getting ready for its annual Insperity Augusta State Invitational, said Kevin McPherson, the head coach of the men’s golf team.

He said the tournament is always synonymous with the Masters Tournament, being held the weekend before the Masters. The tournament begins that Friday with a practice round. Thirty-six holes are played on Saturday and 18 holes on Sunday.

After the tournament, all the teams invited are given Monday practice round tickets as a gift.

“We’ve been fortunate enough from the members of the (Augusta) National to receive Monday practice round tickets to the Masters for probably 20 years or so,” McPherson said.

“Obviously, it brings an elite field of other universities throughout the country to play in our event, and not just because of the Masters but the atmosphere of being in Augusta (Ga.) during the same week that Masters goes on – the greatest tournament in the world.”

Each year, 60 to 70 teams try to get into the tournament, he said. Of those, 14 teams are selected to compete, creating a total of 15 teams with Augusta State.

“It’s an elite field, and we pick and choose which ones we look to host in the event,” McPherson said.

Along with the tournament, the popularity and prestige of the Masters has largely impacted both the

RON HICKERSON | STAFF

Freshman Meechai Padung tracks an iron shot while practicing at the Augusta State golf complex in advance of next week’s Insperity Augusta State Invitational.

golf team’s recruitment and its overall drive, he said.

“A lot of the past champions of our event are now aspiring PGA Tour players.” McPherson said. “I would say there are probably 50-plus players that have played in our college event over the years that have been successful in the PGA Tour. It’s kind of the ‘who’s who’ of the guys that play through college golf that you end up seeing on TV that are probably playing in the Masters.”

He said these golfers who once played in the college tournament and are playing in the Masters will often show up to cheer on their schools’ teams.

“A lot of times you’ll run into a few players that are playing the

Masters that are out here hanging out during our college event,” he said.

“It makes it a kind of a neat environment.”

McPherson said members on the golf team are obviously excited about the opportunity to go to the Augusta National Golf Club, where they even play once a year, to be able to watch the greatest golfers at the practice rounds.

“I’m really excited,” said Swedish freshman Viktor Edin, who will be going to see the Masters in person for the first time. “There are not really many people who get to see it live from the tournament. It’s going to be a great experience.”

Swedish sophomore Robin Petersson agreed.

“You’re like a kid in a candy shop if you’re a golfer,” he said of being at the tournament.

Last year was his first year going to the tournament and seeing the course for himself, saying the experience was so much richer than just watching it on television.

“It’s something that never gets old,” he said. “You always look forward to it.”

Growing up in the Augusta area, sophomore Cody Shafer said the number of times he’s been to the Masters reaches into double digits. But being able to go as a golfer makes everything different.

“It means more,” he said. “You can relate with what’s going on.”

The Masters’ international recognition has greatly influenced the team’s recruitment, McPherson said.

Because of Augusta being an internationally known city for its housing of the Masters, the team is able to recruit members from all over the world as members now hail from the United States, Australia, Sweden and England.

“Wherever I can find the best players, it doesn’t matter whether they’re from South Carolina or South America; we get the best talent,” McPherson said. “We try to recruit players from all over the world.”

The prestige of being able to go to the Masters and also play at the Augusta National is something McPherson said he hopes will continue to encourage the players to get better.

“It gives them a little more of that extra drive that they’re looking for – that motivation to hopefully one day be one of those aspiring tour pros that makes it back to Augusta to play in the Masters,” he said.

rhickers@gru.edu

The NFL offseason is officially here, and a Super Bowl champ has been crowned.

The fans have enjoyed another exciting season and like other football junkies, I am indulging in the drama of free agency, looking forward to seeing future stars get drafted and, eventually, opening kickoff.

However, as time moves forward, the topic of player safety in the NFL is becoming a serious issue, so much so that sports analysts think it will jeopardize the game in the distant future.

It is possible that the league may be in trouble of losing its dominance over TV ratings and position as the primary source for sports entertainment, which is all due to the discussion of NFL player safety becoming a trending topic in the sports world.

Each day parents learn more about the negative side effects of playing football, and lawsuits against the NFL are piling up as retired players struggle with lifelong defects obtained through playing a violent game.

It is claimed that there are thousands of ex-players involved in lawsuits that attack the NFL for concealing information about how football-related concussions could lead to brain illnesses.

The term constantly reappearing in this issue is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. CTE is a neurological disease that leads to depression, anger, memory loss and maybe the downfall of the most dominant sport in our country.

The high rate of former players who are diagnosed with CTE has opened a lot of eyes and revealed the darker side of life as a professional football player, especially with the most recent incident involving former player Junior Seau, who shot himself in the chest only two years after retiring.

The NFL’s unbelievable TV ratings and the millions of diehard followers make it seem impossible for this empire to ever fall, but anything is possible. Once upon a time boxing was a popular sport revered by many, but now you see a primetime fight only happen every blue moon. Even baseball was once considered America’s favorite pastime; however, we all know who that title belongs to now.

Therefore, it’s silly to think the NFL will never lose its popularity, and our commander-in-chief did not help matters with his recent comments on the subject. President Barack Obama only heightened the sense of paranoia by saying that although he is a huge fan of football, he would think twice about letting his kid play if he had a son.

The president’s opinion shows that even fathers who grew up loving the game are now skeptical, and he gives no reassurance to frightened mothers who don’t want their children seriously hurt.

If it isn’t the parents’ fear of the safety of their children that ruins the future of the NFL, then it will be the rule changes that try to make the sport more civilized.

America loves violence and wants to see blood, but some of the rule changes by Roger Goodell are hurting the league and taking away its violent nature.

The commissioner is walking a very thin line with the entire league in his hands, and it may not happen tomorrow, but 25 years down the road the NFL may not still have the same influence or even look like the same sport it is today.

However, there is still enough time to adjust and make changes that would satisfy bloodthirsty fans and worried parents, but it will not be easy to manage. If the great empire of Rome can crumple so can the NFL.

jwill143@gru.edu