DUKES WIN DOGFIGHT Late field goal gives JMU 31-28 victory Saturday at Albany and the team’s first CAA win of the season SPORTS | PAGE 11
Serving James Madison University Since 1922 BreezeJMU.org
Vol. 93, No. 12
INSIDE TODAY Fresh face Two new organizations take the place of the Student Duke Club sports | 11
Cash rules everything The U.S. should follow in Europe’s footsteps and make college tuition affordable opinion | 6
Nature’s Powerhouse
breezejmu.org
Monday, October 6, 2014
Faculty sees raises despite state cuts Senate discusses how administration will allocate 2 percent wage increases
By william mason The Breeze
Money was on the minds of faculty members present at the Faculty Senate meeting as they discussed how to disburse the 2 percent raise approved by the administration and a possible tuition reduction for the dependents of faculty members. The body weighed up two possible options for the raise, which will take effect in November: either an across-the-board increase or a merit-based increase. Faculty compensation has been a hot topic dominating Faculty Senate meetings in the past, as faculty members had a 5.5 percent raise during the 2013-14 academic year, the first in five years. While Faculty Senate speaker and integrated science and technology professor David McGraw said President Jon Alger was doing the most he could to guarantee another raise, the senate wasn’t expecting to see one following a state budget shortfall. However, during Thursday’s meeting it was
announced that the administration managed to budget a 2 percent raise for faculty members, which McGraw said was unusual for an economically difficult year. “In carrying a conversation with some faculty members who have been here a lot longer than me, they’ve indicated that basically in a year in which the state has done a reversion — in other words taken money back — there has never been a salary increase,” McGraw said. maggie graff / the breeze The announcement was previFaculty Senate speaker and integrated science and technology ously relayed to faculty via email last Wednesday. At the meeting many professor David McGraw addresses the faculty during Thursday’s faculty members expressed their meeting. appreciation of the measure taken by grateful for that,” Alex Leidholdt, a professor of media the administration. arts and design and Faculty Senate member, said. “It’s very impressive the administration managed to accomplish this, I think the faculty are very see senate, page 5
Blinded by the light JMU student creates product to protect eyesight while driving
Local organization rallies interest for solar energy
ROTC members are held to higher standard, program has strict punishments
Life | 9
stars and black holes Public space talk explores colliding galaxies and their characteristics
By Kelsey Beckett The Breeze
news | 3
photo illustration by james chung
Junior interdisciplinary liberal studies major Sam Hogan has a patent pending for his invention, Sight Shield, a translucent film designed to protect drivers’ eyes from harmful LED headlights.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
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As any leader can tell you, favoritism only leads to divergence. Divergence can lead to rebellion, and from there we have a “Hunger Games” inspired coup d’etat in our midst.
OPINION | 7
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INSTAGRAM OF THE DAY
photo by laura quintero
By Danielle Ruble contributing writer
Sam Hogan had no idea he was starting his life as an entrepreneur when he was sitting in his entrepreneur class at Northern Virginia Community College back in 2010. The goal of the class was to find a problem and then create a solution. Hogan thought about his biggest pet peeve — headlight glare. He started to develop Sight Shield, a two-ply film that goes on a car’s side-view mirrors. The film is designed to protect the eyes from the damaging effects of newer, brighter LED headlights. Hogan, now a junior interdisciplinary
liberal studies major at JMU, researched optometry to learn about headlight glare affects the eyes. Through his research, he learned that the glare is a major contributor to age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness worldwide. To his surprise, there are currently no government regulations for LED headlights. Sight Shield is a combination of yellow translucent and charcoal film that, when laminated together, transforms harmful blueand-white LED light into yellow light, which is safer for the eyes. Hogan originally planned to put the film on the windshield, but then learned that
it was illegal. “I was driving home on 81, going back to school, and my dad told me to slow down. I was going 65 in a 70. Everyone was passing me on my left and I was getting so annoyed. And then it hit me. Duh, move [the film] to my mirrors,” Hogan said. Hogan realized that if he put the film on the car’s side-view mirrors instead of the windshield, it could still protect the driver’s eyes from the headlight glare of cars passing on the right. Aaron Humphreys, a senior exercise science major, has one of the first prototypes of Sight Shield on his black Volkswagen Jetta. see shield, page 10
Pedestrian causes accident Individual charged with public intoxication after being hit
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TODAY WILL BE Partly cloudy
72° / 51° chance of rain: 20%
Drinking can carry hefty penalties
A car accident involving an intoxicated individual led the Harrisonburg Police Department to the intersection of South Main Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way late Thursday night. A pedestrian was crossing MLK Way when he was hit by a car that was turning on to South Main Street. The individual was
then charged with public intoxication, according to Sgt. Ron Howard of the Harrisonburg Police Department. It has not yet been confirmed that the pedestrian was a JMU student and additional details about the incident weren’t immediately available. The driver that hit the pedestrian wasn’t charged with
anything, according to Howard, and the intoxicated individual was taken to Sentara RMH Medical Center, where he was treated for some minor injuries. Howard said that he believes the individual was later brought to the Rockingham-Harrisonburg Regional Jail. -staff report
When caught drinking underage, most JMU students receive strikes or citations as warnings — but there are some who experience more serious consequences. Two weekends ago, two Reserve Officer Training Corps. (ROTC) students received drunk in public citations from the Harrisonburg Police Department. As a result, they received a counseling review from their superiors, wrote a paper about what happened and what they learned from it and had to work through an online simulation model related to drinking, according to Maj. Col. Showalter, department head of military science. Showalter said that when ROTC students make the decision to drink, it’s bigger than just a bad choice. “It’s one of those things that you want to have as an officer - a security clearance - and your judgment when you handle that material is expected to be high,” Showalter said. “And when you can’t handle alcohol, something you have available to you at any time, that puts a strike on your judgment.” He also shared that drinking too much goes against the Army’s values. “The thing is, we’re trying to take a citizen — a young person at that — and trying to transform their beliefs, bring them in line with what the Army values are [and] be a leader of character,” Showalter said. He said that this is an important aspect for the cadets’ futures. “We are trying to bend them, mold them, shape them to be a leader in the Army,” Showalter said. Part of the consequences that these students faced for drinking and receiving drunk in public citations was an online simulation, a common punishment for students who are caught drinking. During the online simulation, JMU students go through hypothetical scenarios which have certain results depending on the choices they click on throughout the simulation. “The video goes on to show you later on that what you decided today may see rotc, page 3