Adjunct professor uses graphic design to engineer digital textiles, page 2 Letter to the Editor: Alleva should handle rowdy gameday crowds, page 5 lsunow.com/daily
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016
thedailyreveille
@lsureveille
Volume 121 · No. 13
thedailyreveille HEALTH
CRUDE OIL PRICE PER BARREL
PETROLEUM ENGINEERING ENROLLMENT
Jan 2008- $104.20
Spring 2008- 205
Jan 2009- $46.75
Spring 2009- 244
Jan 2010- $85.42
Spring 2010- 322
Jan 2011- $96.04
Spring 2011- 351
Jan 2012- $104.81
Spring 2012- 444
Jan 2013- $100.58
Spring 2013- 593
Jan 2014- $98.62
Spring 2014- 699
Jan 2015- $48.36
Spring 2015- 854
Jan 2016- $32.36
Spring 2016- 925*
Proposal to ban smoking gains traction BY SARAH GAMARD @SarahGamard
SAM KARLIN / The Daily Reveille Petroleum engineering instructor Frederick Thurber teaches his intro-level class Jan. 25.
*estimate from dept. of petroleum engineering, does not include freshmen
macrotrends.net
Office of Budget and Planning
RISKY BUSINESS Oil market brings uncertainty to student job prospects BY SAM KARLIN @SamKarlin_TDR
Read a petroleum engineering major’s opinion on pg.5
As most students poured into the parking lots to leave campus on a gray, tepid Monday afternoon, about 30 of them stuck around to file into a Tureaud Hall second floor classroom, awaiting the beginning of a lecture on the basics of petroleum engineering. The class’ instructor, Frederick Thurber, teaches the introlevel course and recruits for the department. But his responsibilities, he said, are not just to teach his class the rudimentary science of petroleum engineering, but to help his students decide if the oil industry, with all its instability, is
their “cup of tea.” “If you want something really stable, go become a high school teacher,” he said. “That’s very stable.” The petroleum engineering department is a unique one, Thurber said, as few universities have one, and those that do are mostly in oil-producing states. As the price of oil has plummeted to around $30 per barrel, contributing to the state budget deficit that legislators could mitigate with millions in cuts to higher education funding, the job prospects for students
studying petroleum engineering are in doubt. “This is a real downturn. This is the worst we’ve seen since 1986,” he said. “And not as many [students] will get jobs in the petroleum field.” There is a strong correlation, Thurber added, between the price of oil and the job prospects for his students. In 2008, when shale production began to boom, jobs were plentiful and oil prices were still high, he said. Students flocked to
see OIL, page 7
Finance sophomore Aiden Harris worked at Mike’s in Tigerland for nine months as a bouncer, barback and bartender. Part of his incentive to quit the job, he said, was its environment. There was too much smoke in the bar. “You could taste it on your tongue,” Harris said. The smell would stick to his clothes and body, and it was difficult to wash off. He said F&M’s Patio Bar in New Orleans became a more pleasant place to frequent since the city’s smoking ban. Harris considers himself a healthy person, but when he is around cigarettes for too long, he gets “stuffy.” During his employment at Mike’s in Tigerland, he was asthmatic. After he quit, he said his symptoms went away. Smoke-Free East Baton Rouge, a campaign group, announced efforts in late January to ban smoking in bars and gaming facilities like casinos. This law would extend the current smoking ban in restaurants and mirror the existing ban in New Orleans bars and casinos.
see SMOKING, page 2
STUDENT LIFE
Senior to appear on ‘Jeopardy! College Championship’ BY CAITIE BURKES AND KACI CAZENAVE @caitie1221, @kacicaz During dead week last semester, Kevin Brown hit the books, memorizing all the U.S. presidents, state capitals and world capitals — but not in preparation for finals. Instead, the environmental engineering senior brushed up on trivia for “Jeopardy! College Championship,” on which he will represent the University during the Feb. 2 airing. Brown competed against 14 other students representing schools like Northwestern University, Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley.
After taking an online test to apply for the Alex Trebek-hosted game show, he said he attended a casting call in downtown New Orleans. Brown said he found out he earned a contestant spot on the Monday of dead week in December. “Every time I get to tell someone about it, it’s like getting that call all over again,” he said. Brown said he regularly tuned into “Jeopardy!” throughout his adolescence, and the tradition carried over to college. From Evangeline Hall, he would watch the show while on the clock as a residential assistant. Fellow RA and information technology junior Kaileigh
Thompson said she thinks it is interesting “Jeopardy!” caters to a collegiate demographic. “I know [the show’s] been around for a long time, so I think it’s really cool that we have someone to represent us and someone to represent LSU,” Thompson said. Brown said his “Jeopardy!” trip was a “real Hollywood experience.” He said all the contestants flew out to Los Angeles last Sunday, where they were free to roam the city until Tuesday when filming began. After filming 10 episodes in 48 hours, Brown said it was the
see JEOPARDY, page 7
photo courtesy of JEOPARDY PRODUCTIONS INC.
Environmental engineering senior Kevin Brown will appear on the Feb. 2 episode of “Jeopardy! College Championship,” hosted Alex Trebek.