OPINION: America’s celebration of autumn differs from other countries, p. 8
FOOTBALL: Sophomore linebacker overcomes injuries to start season, p. 5
Reveille The Daily
BLACK HAWKS AND
www.lsureveille.com
Wednesday, October 9, 2013 • Volume 118, Issue 32
Ballgowns Contributing Writer
Miss National Sweetheart Wendy Martin, a human resources and education freshman from Alaska, feels as comfortable in combat boots as she does in a ball gown. Martin, who now attends the University and is part of LSU’s ROTC program, first decided to compete in pageants as a 14-yearold. Although her family did not support her decision initially, Martin said she set out to prove it wasn’t just a beauty competition. “At first, I gave my sister a hard time because the only pageantry I had really ever witnessed when she first started was the stuff you see on TV, like ‘Toddlers and Tiaras,’” her sister Megan Martin said. Despite her family’s skepticism, Wendy Martin persevered for two
Two men acquitted in murder trial Graduate students shot to death in 2007
Student pageant queen dreams of flying helicopters STORY DEANNA NARVESON
CRIME
Gordon Brillon
PHOTOS CHARLES CHAMPAGNE
Staff Writer
Staff Photographer
Two men accused of the 2007 murder of two University graduate students were acquitted late Monday, though one will remain in jail. Casey Jermaine Gathers and Michael Jermaine Lewis, both of Baton Rouge, were found not guilty for the shooting deaths of Kiran Kumar Allam, 33, and Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma, 31, in Allam’s on-campus apartment in December 2007. Komma and Allam were international doctorate students from the same region of India. Gathers will be released, having been imprisoned since his indictment in 2011. Lewis will remain in jail for the duration of
years before winning a crown. “My first pageant was a local pageant for the Bear Paw Festival, and I won the community service award scholarship,” Wendy Martin said. “Every pageant that I did just left me thirsty for more; I wanted to be on that stage and be the winner.” But Wendy Martin’s father still wanted her to be involved in ROTC. She said she grew up in Eagle River, Alaska, where “everybody is very pro-Second Amendment, and there are actually more caribou than people.” “My dad told me that if I went to ROTC camp, I could get a new pageant gown,” Wendy Martin said. “So I went to camp and I hated it, but BALLGOWNS, see page 11
CHARLES CHAMPAGNE / The Daily Reveille
Human resource and education freshman Wendy Martin currently holds the title for Miss National Sweetheart 2014, and is also a cadet in the ROTC at LSU.
MURDER TRIAL, see page 4
CAREER SERVICES
Center receives $100k donation Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez Staff Writer
The LSU Olinde Career Center received a $100,000 donation, the University announced Tuesday in a news release. BASF Corporation, a chemical company, made the donation as part of a partnership with the University and the College of Engineering. The donation, which was provided through the LSU Foundation, will help construction for the new center that will combine Career Services’ two facilities into one in the Student Union. The center began construction in May 2012 and is scheduled to open in April 2014. Kenissa McKay, communication manager for LSU Career
Services, said the donation will allow students to take advantage of the center’s resources under one roof. Career Services’ two separate facilities are currently located in the basement of Coates Hall and on the first floor of Patrick F. Taylor Hall. BASF is currently partnered with Career Services by offering internships, attending the career fair, awarding students with $25,000 in annual scholarships and sponsoring a Professor of Excellence award each semester. Although the company operates in Zachary and Vidalia, the location of its largest site in Geismar allows its economic effect to be felt in the greater Baton Rouge area, according to a news release. Kurt Keppler, vice chancellor
for Student Life and Enrollment, stated in a news release the new center will prepare students for careers after graduation. “A facility like the Olinde Career Center is essential to a university and its student body, both for helping prepare students for the job market and for creating opportunities for employers to see what LSU has to offer,” Keppler said in the release. McKay said donations are essential to the center’s construction and operation. “[Donors] make happen what we want to do every day for our students,” McKay said. courtesy of LSU UNIVERSITY RELATIONS
Contact Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez at fsuarez@lsureveille.com
BASF Corporation made a $100,000 donation through the LSU Foundation to the University’s Olinde Career Center to help construction for the center’s new facility.