102009

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FRUITLESS EFFORT

ROLLS ROYCE

Terp defense gave solid performance in Virginia loss

Royce da 5’9” delivers pure hip-hop on new CD

SPORTS | PAGE 8

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

DIVERSIONS | PAGE 6

THE DIAMONDBACK THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER

Our 100TH Year, No. 36

Task force picks Shootings’ lasting impact unclear 24 courses to Investigations continue, but debut as part of police say protocol was followed CORE overhaul BY KARA ESTELLE Staff writer

First set of “I”-series courses covers wide variety of topics BY DERBY COX Senior staff writer

Students interested in learning about social networking, the stock market or the threat of asteroid impacts will be able to starting in the spring thanks to 24 new general education courses that were unveiled to the university yesterday. The General Education Task Force, charged with overhauling the CORE system, selected the courses from more than 50 submitted earlier this month to pilot the “I” series of courses, which will form the centerpiece of a new general education curriculum that will take effect next year. The “I”-series courses — so called because they are intended to emphasize issues, imagination, intellect, investigation, inspiration and implementation — are designed to focus on “big” questions rather than the introductory material traditionally found in CORE courses. “I think this university has the IRA BERLIN opportunity to differentiate itself TASK FORCE CHAIRMAN from the rest of the world,” Provost Nariman Farvardin said to faculty during a short gathering to introduce the courses yesterday. The new “I”-series courses span topics ranging from Shakespeare to the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem to homophobia. Instructors of the courses will challenge students to think, task force members said, rather than memorize material. In one course, students will examine how people share information. In another, they will investigate the physical activity of Baltimore residents. “If you can’t get excited about courses like this, I don’t know what you can get excited about,” task

After a violent weekend of police shootings in College Park, police continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the two incidents that left two wounded and one dead. In a county where many residents consider officers to be too trigger-happy, Prince George's County Police officials insisted everything went by the book in two city shootings this weekend, emphasizing that the county has seen a decrease in officerinvolved shootings in recent years. So far this year, there have been 11 incidents where an officer fired a weapon, said Maj. Andrew Ellis, a spokesman for county police. Three of the 11 shots resulted in

fatalities, five resulted in injuries and three were non-contact shootings where the officer missed. By this time last year, there had been 17 police shootings, resulting in seven fatalities, three injuries and seven non-contact incidents, Ellis said. “Even though we’ve had this recent spate of police shootings in three days, we’re down from where we were this time last year,” Ellis said, adding it is “very rare” for three shootings involving police officers to happen in one weekend. As is standard procedure, all of the officers involved in the weekend’s events are under investigation, though Ellis said the county police department has no reason to

see INVESTIGATION, page 3

MATTHEW CREGER/THE DIAMONDBACK

Police had blocked off the scene after Sunday’s shooting outside the 7-Eleven on Route 1.

Students, businesses unfazed despite bloody weekend BY NICK RHODES Staff writer

see CORE, page 3

It’s business as usual in College Park. On Friday afternoon, students fretted when word of a shooting downtown ricocheted around the campus, and the rumor mill was fed by word-of-mouth with few details coming from officials. But four days and an additional officer-involved shooting later, students and business owners have seemingly put the two public, dramatic and bloody incidents behind them. Customers ambled in and out of the 7-Eleven on Route 1 with little pause yesterday, grabbing their morning paper and coffee. They didn’t seem to notice the large bloodstain in the parking lot. Less than 24 hours before, the convenience store was a death scene after a man charged at police officers with a knife. Six officers opened fire, killing the man. Stores and restaurants in the College Park

Concerns about student renters dominate forums City council candidates hear residents’ complaints

MATTHEW CREGER/THE DIAMONDBACK

Police cruisers parked at the scene of Friday’s shooting. MATTHEW CREGER/THE DIAMONDBACK

see REACTION, page 3

BY BRADY HOLT Senior staff writer

The abundance of student rental homes in College Park dominated the discussion at recent forums for City Council candidates in Districts 2 and 4 as attendees bemoaned the transformation of their neighborhoods. As residents complained about late-night parties and overcrowded, poorly maintained properties at Thursday’s District 2 forum in Berwyn and a District 4 forum Sunday in College Park Woods, candidates pledged more student outreach and stricter noise code enforcement. But many candidates insisted problematic landlords are more of a worr y than individual student renters, making it the city’s responsibility to minimize the desirability of renting out homes in College Park. “We don’t want to drive all the students out of the neighborhoods, but we do want to change the market to not make it so financially lucrative to have a rental property,” unopposed mayoral candidate Andy Fellows said at the Berwyn forum. “It’s going to destroy single-family home ownership.” District 2 incumbent Jack Perry, who has lived in College Park for four decades and served on the council for two, said he expected to put up with some noise and partying in his neighborhood on football game days as the penalty for living in a college town

see FORUMS, page 3 TOMORROW’S WEATHER:

Tiny burgers bedeviled by sliding sales Dining Services chef aims to spice up sliders with creative toppings BY AMY HEMMATI Staff writer

Students stand in line at the gourmet burger bar in The Diner. CHARLIE DEBOYACE/FOR THE DIAMONDBACK

Sunny/60s

INDEX

NEWS . . . . . . . . . .2 OPINION . . . . . . . .4

At the same time the movie Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle became a cult classic, the tiny burgers that fueled the title characters’ munchie madness blasted onto the culinary scene. But Harold and Kumar’s burger fixation has apparently not caught on at The Diner, which only sells about six to seven slider trio meals a day, compared to the 600 to 700 burgers ordered on a typical weekday. “During March Madness last year, we just couldn’t serve the sliders fast enough,” Senior Executive Chef John FEATURES . . . . . .5 CLASSIFIED . . . . .6

DIVERSIONS . . . . .6 SPORTS . . . . . . . . .8

Gray said. “So when we put them on the gourmet burger menu, we thought they would be a huge hit — it turned out the opposite happened.” The gourmet burgers and sliders joined the diner menu at the beginning of the semester when they took over the Global Gourmet section. Now, Gray is working to develop three to four different types of sliders to go on the menu for the spring semester. “A main reason that the sliders aren’t selling may be that they don’t have toppings,” Gray said. “So we’re going to

see SLIDERS, page 2 www.diamondbackonline.com


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102009 by The Diamondback - Issuu