October 21, 2014

The University of Maryland’s Independent Student Newspaper

T U E S DAY, O C T O B E R 2 1 , 2 01 4

Three charged after McDonald’s fight Clarence Kirksey-Walcott, 22, charged with assault for security guard attack

conduct. Officials also arrested Kirksey-Walcott and charged him with second-degree assault.

According to the department’s preliminary investigation, a security

By Jeremy Snow tion early Sunday morning at the @JeremyM_Snow McDonald’s on Route 1 that led to a guard asked the three men, who were Senior staff writer security guard accidentally shoot- also with a woman, to leave the resing a woman, according to officials. taurant for being disruptive, Prince Police charged Clarence Kirksey- George’s County Police spokeswomPrince George’s County Police Walcott, 22, Thair Walker, 21, and an Nicole Hubbard said. When they charged three men yesterday with disorderly conduct for the alterca- Dion Conley, 22, with disorderly refused to leave, Kirksey-Walcott

and the security guard began to fight.

During the fight, Hubbard said the security guard used pepper spray and then fired his duty weapon, accidentally striking the accompanying woman in the wrist.

An ambulance transported her See shooting, Page 3

south campus commons is a popular housing choice for juniors and seniors. file photo/the diamondback

Housing priority for freshmen shifts up

By Morgan Eichensehr @MEichensehr Staff writer

“Microaggressions are everyday, commonplace comments, slights, invalidating remarks that can marginalize people. They aren’t big,” ShorterGooden said. “They’re not overwhelming, but the cumulative effect can lead students to feel

Steven Sexton said he felt like an outsider his first semester on campus.

As a student in Freshman Connection, he did not get accepted into on-campus housing, so he commuted from his home in Crofton because offcampus housing was too expensive.

“The commute wasn’t that bad, but I kind of hated it,” the sophomore anthropology major said. “It’s just a lot harder to find things to do and reasons to stay on-campus. If I didn’t have anything planned to do after class I would just go home, so I found myself going home a lot and it made it harder to make new friends.”

Sexton is not the only student who disliked the off-campus experience.

Recent data showed that students at this university benefit from oncampus housing during their first two years as students.

The study, conducted by The Department of Resident Life Director of Research and Assessment Joann Prosser and officials in the Office of Institutional Research, Planning, and

See rise above, Page 3

See housing, Page 2

Students share their #itooAMmaryland experiences, which was part of the Rise Above Racism event held at the Colony Ballroom in Stamp Student Union yesterday.

tom hausman/the diamondback

social awareness rising Univ students aim to spread microagression awareness with anti-isms event

By Sarah Dean @sarahdeanjourn Staff writer “You’re really pretty for a dark-skinned girl.”

This is an example of a racial microaggres-

sion, and it’s one of several this university’s chief diversity officer, Kumea Shorter-Gooden, gave at a round table discussion on the issue in Stamp Student Union’s Colony Ballroom last night. She said these statements of subtle racism can have much a much more negative impact than their name would suggest.

Student team innovates education for the blind

Promotion, raise framework put in place for non-tenured USM policy allows all faculty to advance

By Katishi Maake @TheHavocRat Staff writer

Honors Gemstone students adapt tablets for disability use

By Joe Zimmermann @JoeMacZim Staff writer Andrea Bajcsy experienced life without eyesight — but not for long.

In fact, she lost her eyesight at the start of class and regained it by the time class finished as part of an experiment to work toward making technology to help the blind.

Bajcsy, now a junior computer science major, experimented with this during a design course two years ago, putting on a blindfold while another student led her around the campus.

“I was the blind person, and I was traumatized,” Bajcsy said. “My buddy took me to the computer lab in

junior Matt Jennings touches a Microsoft Surface tablet equipped with Haptic screen technology that creates a textured surface, allowing blind students to learn on digital devices. tom hausman/the diamondback the business building and she said, ‘Use the computer now,’ and I realized there’s no way for me to use this computer — I don’t even know where to start.”

After this, Bajcsy began to think about how she could get through college, especially her STEM classes, without her eyesight.

This is all part of the Gemstone honors program, in which students

ISSUE NO. 29 , OUR 105 TH YEAR OF PUBLICATION DBKNEWS.COM

Submit tips, comments and inquiries to the news desk at NEWSUMDBK@GMAIL.COM

@thedbk

TheDiamondback

Scan the QR Code to download our mobile app

work on longterm projects for their four-year college careers. Bajcsy’s team proposed using technology to help blind students learn about concepts often taught visually, which soon became the basis for Team Haptic, a Gemstone team planning to use touch-screen tablets to teach math to blind students.

SPORTS

D-LINE STARS AGAINST IOWA The Terps defensive line picked up its performance to help the team top the Hawkeyes, 38-31, on Saturday P. 8

See haptic, Page 2

Colleen Worthington has been working at this university for more than 24 years. It wasn’t until this year, however, that she received her first promotion.

“No matter how much better I got or more I contributed, it was the same title from 1990 until last [semester],” Worthington said.

Worthington’s problem represents a gap in University System of Maryland policy that made it difficult for faculty off the tenure track to move up the promotional ladder — policy that is now being scrutinized. On Oct. 7, system Chancellor Brit Kirwan approved the non-tenure-track faculty framework that will reorganize and create promotional titles for these employees.

Worth i ng ton works i n the

hearing and speech sciences department, which began awarding new titles to faculty members this year.

“This was a process that is going to allow not just me but all of the other people in my department, in my college and across campus who fit into this particular set of titles an opportunity to be recognized for the work that they do and the contributions that they make,” she said.

The framework will be implemented with collaboration among several offices and departments across the campus.

Associate Provost of Faculty Affairs Juan Uriagereka said his office is responsible for overseeing how the titles are applied and providing general principles that can guide the process.

“There are some basic principles of how a job should be described and what should be the promotion ladder,” Uriagereka said. “We need to be fair to everyone no matter what the status of their job is.”

Mark Arnold, director of faculty See TENURE, Page 3

OPINION

REILLY: What being Catholic really means Don’t make general assumptions about religions P. 4 DIVERSIONS

I AM JACK’S 15TH BIRTHDAY Reflecting on Fight Club almost 20 years after its release P. 6

2

THE DIAMONDBACK | news | tuesDAY, October 21, 2014

haPtic

perception of texture,” said Mat Jennings, a junior computer engineering major and a member of Team Haptic.

Right now, the team has demos of how the technology works. But they soon want to adapt it so tex ture ca n exist over shapes and graphs and students can feel them, Bajcsy said.

For e x a mple, Jen n i n g s said, if the team wanted to draw an exponential graph, they could apply a Haptic effect to the graph pixels and students could then scan it with their hands.

Te a m H apt ic memb ers are in their third year of the Gemstone program and recently began a Launch UMD kickstarter campaign to raise money for another Surface tablet and more software to be able to test the experiment, said Amelia Bateman, a junior Haptics member and math and computer science major.

The team has overwhelming support, she said, but the team’s 14 members were not drawn to the project purely for cool technology.

“ I t’s a l s o t h e h e l p i n g people,” Bateman said. “It’s just a fact of research that a lot of the time, if you’re doing research, you’re just doing the grunt work in the background, and someone later down the road will put it into something cool for society.”

Team Haptic also plans to try to teach math to a group of 8- to 10-year-old blind students with the Haptic technology, while another group uses traditional methods.

Marcio Oliveira, a kinesiology professor and the project’s faculty adviser, said he thinks the students learning from Haptic technology will be able to learn the material better than those without it.

“Because of the technology that we have and the mobility … learning is going to be very personalized,” said Oliveira, also the public health school’s educational innovation and technology assistant dean.

“So the technology is secondary in the learning process, but it enables you to learn.”

Carolyn Fink, a professor in the cou nseling, higher

education and special education department, said the visually impaired are an underserved group and technology could make a huge difference for them.

“The great step forward

that smaller electronics have had is to be able to allow the students to be in the general education environment but still get helped,” Fink said. “If a visually impaired student can have a small device that

g ives t hem access to t he general ed curriculum, then that’s huge for them to be a part of the larger school environment.”

to be a junior or a senior it seems to matter less.”

Grandner said researchers From PAGE 1 found that students are 22 percent more likely to gradA ssessment, encou ra ged uate if they live on-campus Resident Life to change the during their first two years. housing selection to provide Additionally, a market survey on-campus housing for all distributed by Resident Life fresh men a nd sophomore fou nd that more tha n 90 students starting in fall 2015. percent of the 3,000 student Remaining students will respondents said it was imlikely be put into a lottery portant to house students t o c o m p e t e fo r l e f t o v e r during their freshman year.

Sexton moved into Ellicott rooms, said Deb Grandner, Department of Resident Life during the second semester of h is fresh ma n yea r a nd director.

“The first two years are said, “It was awesome.”

“Second semester I felt really important transition period,” Grandner said. “Our like I was part of the comhousing makes the most dif- munity,” Sexton said. “As ference for students in their a freshman and as a sophofirst two years. Once you get more, that is when you meet

your friends and where you belong i n Ma ryla nd, so [living on campus] makes it easier for kids to find their little group earlier.”

Residence Hall Association President Sree Sinha s a i d t h at p rov i d i n g t h i s opportunity for all freshmen and sophomores will help t hem bu i ld con nections within the university community.

“The shift on this has everything to do with ensuring that students who come to Maryland have a solid basis through their education and c o m m u n it i e s w h e n t h e y first arrive,” said Sinha,a sen ior psycholog y major.

“O f cou rse, t he pr i m a r y purpose to attend university

is for education, but beyond that, living on-campus helps us connect with our campus and one another.”

However, cha ng i ng the priority system would make it more difficult for junior or sen ior students to l ive in a dorm if they prefer oncampus housing.

I n spr i n g 201 4, 1,653 ju n iors a nd sen iors were hou sed i n dor m s, a nd i n spring 2013, 1,554 juniors and sen iors were housed.

Both totals represent about 18 percent of the total population of students in oncampus housing, said Scott Young, Resident Life assistant director. Yet 75 percent of students that live on the campus as freshmen end up

fi nd i ng housi ng i n South Campus Commons or Courtyards or off-campus housing by their junior year, Young said.

“It has been great to house juniors and seniors here for many years, but now with the decision to house Freshmen Connection and firstyear transfer students, we w ill basically not enough have enough housing for our juniors and seniors,” Grandner said.

R ising juniors will still have first priority for South Campus Commons and Cou r t ya rd s apa r t ments, which house nearly 3,000 students combined, Young said.

A notice was sent to stu-

dents in June outlining the i n it i a l pl a n to m a ke t h i s adjust ment, a nd a not her notice will be circulated this morning to make sure that juniors and seniors are aware of the changes being made and have the chance to ask questions. “ We a r e v e r y e x c i t e d about moving forward with ou r O n-Ca mpu s Student Housi ng Strateg ic Pla n,” Young said. “We believe it will be a positive transform at ion for ou r h a l l s a nd create some exciting new spaces as well, which helps establish the firm foundation our students need in their first two years.”

From PAGE 1 They used a rejiggered Microsoft Surface tablet they outfitted with a capacitive layer, or feel-screen, by Tangible Haptics, an independent company they have a partnership with, in the hope of using the Haptic technology to help blind students by allowing them to feel textured shapes and graphs.

Giving a tablet’s flat surface a textured feeling is no easy task, but it can be accomplished with Haptic technology — the same kind that makes controllers vibrate or become touch screen-ready.

It reads the pressure from a finger, sends out a voltage signal and makes it feel as thoug h one is touch i ng a rough, grainy surface.

“By applying these voltage sig n a ls to t he capacit ive layer, it creates micro-contortions that when you move your finger, it creates these bumps and it creates this

housing

tangible haptics, an independent company that has partnered with a team in this university’s Gemstone program, uses the same technology to simulate a texturized surface as used to make controllers vibrate or allow for touch-screen technology. tom hausman/the diamondback

smartphone friendly ;-)

dbknews.com

jzimmermanndbk@gmail.com

meichensehrdbk@gmail.com

Tuesday, October 21, 2014 | NEWS | The Diamondback

3

T he cos t of cl e a n In 2001, a tornado ravaged Campus Creek.

Officials are still working to secure the funds to restore it.

Paint branch creek (above) and Campus Creek suffered damage from a tornado more than a decade ago, but this university can’t use grant money to repair damage until it hires a contractor costing upward of $500,000.

Marissa Horn @MarissaL_Horn Staff writer After a tornado destroyed much of Campus Creek in 2001, officials said restoring the area has been a top priority for the university. But 13 years later, the project remains incomplete due to financial issues.

A lthoug h a proposed $1.5 million grant to restore Campus Creek was approved this summer, university Facilities Management officials cannot use the money until an external contractor is hired to survey the creek.

The contractor, who will visit the creek and create a blueprint design for the restoration efforts, will cost nearly $500,000, said Ori Gutin, di-

rise above From PAGE 1 like ‘This isn’t my place; I don’t really belong here.’”

Some 200 students, faculty and staff attended the discussion, which kicked off the Office of Diversity & Inclusion’s second annual “Rise Above Isms” week. The focus fell on one of the many ‘isms’ the week will address: racism.

Guests sat at tables of 10 to engage in small group discussions, each facilitated by someone from the diversity and inclusion office or one of the other offices that cosponsor the week, such as the LGBT Equity Center and the Nyumburu Cultural Center.

Attendees filled out worksheets about microaggressions they’d experienced, how they felt about those experiences and how they responded. Students then shared their experiences and brainstormed ways to respond, both individually and collectively.

Fresh ma n a rch itectu re major Allexxus Farley-Thomas

tenure From PAGE 1 initiatives, said the University Senate will have to create a broad set of campuswide baseline for promotion and evaluation standards. However, individual departments will have to come up with their own sets of criteria regarding what level of expertise or experience qualifies non-tenure-track faculty for certain titles in their

stephanie natoli/the diamondback

rector of the Student Government Association’s sustainability committee.

The grant, which became available for use on July 1, must be used by June 30, 2015, or the state Department of Natural Resources will withdraw it, said Stephen Reid, an environmental planner for the university.

Although the DNR identified restoring the creek as a high priority, “We just haven’t been able to secure the funding yet,” Reid said. Several colleges within the university, along with many campus groups, such as the university golf course, have verbally committed to pledging about half of the funds needed.

Facilities Management has been able to obtain a verbal

commitment from the DNR that will extend the grant’s availability past this fiscal year so more money can be raised, but the commitment has not finalized, Reid said.

But beyond just the funding issue, Facilities Management has encountered obstacles in obtaining the right permits for construction along the creek.

“The campus put that area into a conservation easement for the right reasons,” said Allen Davis, an environmental engineering professor. “But it prevents you from doing any type of construction along the creek, and we have to do this construction to save it.”

With the grant money, Reid hopes to provide stormwater management for the creek, stabilize the creek’s banks,

improve the ecological habitat surrounding the creek and reduce the amount of erosion.

“As development has increased around the university and watershed, the stream quality has drastically decreased, and that’s a direct correlation,” Reid said. “If the creek deg rades much more, water lines and sewer lines that go under the stream could be exposed and subject to failure.”

The creek flows from the National Archives buildings, through two ponds on this university’s golf course, down the north end of campus into the Paint Branch Creek. After it flows into Paint Branch Creek, it becomes a part of a larger tributary, and those waters drain into the Chesapeake Bay.

Paint Branch Creek, which runs along Route 1 and into the campus, has been the main restoration site for water management since 2012. Since that time, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has worked with the university to restore the aquatic habitat and poor water quality so that the stream could better sustain fish and other aquatic life.

T he wa l l s of t he Pa i nt B ra n c h C re e k w e re a l s o strengthened, but the project will not be completed until 2015 when trees and shrubs are added as natural barriers on the edges, according to this university’s sustainability website.

Although the funds have yet to be raised for the external contractor to restore Campus

Creek, Reid said he has already developed long-term goals for the creek’s restoration process.

Until then, he hopes the c a mp u s com mu n it y w i l l reduce trash from nearby tailgating lots and increase student volunteering to clean the creek.

Gutin also hopes to involve the entire SGA through a proposed resolution at the Nov. 5 meeting. The resolution could include a donation from the SGA’s reserves, Gutin said.

“The most rewarding projects are in the middle of a community,” Reid said. “It’s only after you do restoration and you make it more beautiful that you realize how degraded these waterways are.”

said that in her middle school, which was predominantly black, her peers always told her that she spoke as though she were white.

“I felt sort of like less of a black person,” she said. “It’s sort of ignorance because it leads to that idea that black people may not have that education.”

Chris Lane, a senior marketing and theatre major, made up an acronym about how past microaggressions have made him feel. The acronym is PAUSE, which stands for pain, anger, understanding, sorrow and emptiness.

“Moving forward, I’ll be more aware of when I feel those different things, and then I’ll be more equipped to actually speak up and say something,” he said.

Guests also participated in a large group activity facilitated by doctoral candidate Domonic Rollins, who works in the diversity and inclusion office.

Rollins read statements and attendees moved to a corner of the room based on how much they agreed to the statements.

Choices ra nged from strongly disagree to strongly agree. There was no neutral option.

Responses varied. When Rol l i ns’ statement was “Anyone can be racist,” students could be seen in all four corners of the room, although most strongly agreed.

When hearing the statement that their “peers have an understanding of diversity issues on our campus,” almost all students disagreed or strongly disagreed. Only one student strongly agreed.

“That was eye-opening. If you think about how the group responded to those questions, it helps to justify why we’re here today,” Grace Benigno said of the large group activity. Benigno, the coordinator of student services for the Incentive Awards Program, coplanned this event with Tony Randall, program coordinator for the Student Success Project, which aims to increase retention and graduation rates for black students.

T h rou g hout t he n ig ht, students used the hashtag #ITooAmMaryland to tweet

and Instagram their pictures and thoughts from the event.

“I wanted [the students] to know that the campus community or at least people in the campus community care about and know about their experiences,” she said.

Because racial microaggressions seem small, ShorterGooden said many victims have a harder time speaking up in response.

Prior to the discussion, senior microbiology major Tochi Ukwu was one of them.

“From this dialogue, I have gotten that it’s OK to speak up and it’s OK to share my feelings if I’m hurt by something that someone says,” she said.

Randall, who said the closing remarks, added that he hopes that all attendees had a similar experience.

“Today marks a new beginning at the University of Maryland for each of you. You now know that there’s a community that cares,” he said.

“Our hope is that you take this energy and use it to change those around you.”

shooting

respective departments.

Uriagereka said he expects the implementation to be completed in about two years, though he said his office would be willing to promote certain faculty members who are especially deserving during the process on an ad hoc basis.

“After a couple of years, I wouldn’t want anybody to come in with stories [like Worthington’s],” he said. “If you bring me a person that is deserving … I would [promote him or her] immediately. We

can do it; the title exists.”

Non-tenure-track faculty members greatly outnumber the number of tenure-track faculty at this university, which is why Worthington said this issue affects students and the quality of education they receive.

“If you give [non-tenuretrack faculty] some consistent titles that clarify what they do for a living, give them a promotion ladder so they can be recognized for the work that what they do, then you tend to

that Kirksey-Walcott should be left alone, she said. Meanwhile, two of Kirksey-Walcott’s friends stood behind him in support.

For five to 10 minutes, Ellsworth said the man screamed at the guard while he asked him to calm down and leave the restaurant. Kirksey-Walcott then began to spit and throw punches at the guard, she said, and the guard used pepper spray to try to apprehend him.

Ellsworth was close enough to the incident that she and her roommate felt the cloud of the gas sting their eyes and skin. As Ellsworth ran to the bathroom to try to flush her eyes and stop the burning, she heard a gunshot. In a panic, she ran out of the restaurant.

W h i l e l o o k i n g fo r h e r room m ate outside, she found the woman “screaming and bleeding,” lying on her right side in the front of the McDonald’s.

“I knelt down to her and I said, ‘OK, we’re just going to breathe, you’re going to be OK,’” Ellsworth said, while her roommate applied pressure to the wound. “She kept asking, ‘Why me? I didn’t do anything; I just want to sleep.’”

After the police came to the McDonald’s and an ambulance took away the woman, Ellsworth said she immediately flushed her eyes.

The security guard stayed at the McDonald’s after the incident. Ellsworth said he poked his head out the door to ask how the victim was.

“He was very concerned about how she was,” she said.

“You could tell he was kind of freaking out.”

sdeandbk@gmail.com

get better work,” she said.

Uriagereka and Worthington both said this resolution is not meant to be divisive; it’s meant to make the campus more cohesive and productive by treating everyone fairly.

“It provides a structural mechanism for everybody to work together in a consistent, comprehensive way that we’ve not had before,” Worthington said. “It’s been a long time coming.” kmaakedbk@gmail.com

From PAGE 1 to a hospital, where she remains in good condition, Hubbard said.

P ol i c e d i d n o t k n o w if the men are affiliated with the university, but none of the three are listed in the student directory.

No other details involving the fight or the security guard are known by police, Hubbard said.

McDonald’s management declined several requests for comment.

In a video obtained by The Diamondback of the fight preceding the gunfire, Kirksey-Walcott is seen first attacking the guard with repeated blows and, at one point, bringing the guard to the ground. The security g uard then hit Kirksey-Walcott back with a police baton.

Junior Gabrielle Ellsworth, who was in the McDonald’s during the shooting, said she was four or five feet away from the fight.

She described the restaurant as “chaotic” that night.

As people began to crowd the counter, the officer blew a whistle to try to control the crowd. Ellsworth said she then heard the security guard and Kirksey-Walcott get into a argument.

“The guy and the security guard were literally nose to nose, forehead to forehead in each other’s face, yelling back and forth,” Ellsworth, a psychology major, said.

T he wom a n who wa s shot by the security guard was also behind KirkseyWalcott, telling the guard

mhorndbk@gmail.com

jsnowdbk@gmail.com

4

THE DIAMONDBACK | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2014

OPINION

EDITORIAL BOARD

Laura Blasey Editor in Chief

MATT SCHNABEL Managing Editor

CAROLINE CARLSON Opinion Editor

An elementary partnership

M

Opinion Editor

CONTACT US 3150 South Campus Dining Hall | College Park, MD 20742 | opinionumdbk@gmail.com PHONE (301) 314-8200

STAFF EDITORIAL

any of us might have had that one special, talented teacher from elementary school who we’ll always remember — even throughout our high school and college years. Though elementary school seems like ages ago, it’s likely the type and quality of education we received there has heavily impacted our ability to obtain success in the higher education arena.

This university boasts academic rankings we should be proud of: It sits 20th among public universities in the 2015 U.S. News & World Report college rankings and 43rd overall in the 2014 Academic Ranking of World Universities.

For the city of College Park and Prince George’s County, the story isn’t quite the same. In 2012, only 50.4 percent of eighth-graders in this county are proficient in math, while the state average stands at 69.3 percent. In reading, 69.6 percent of eighth-graders in the county are proficient, while about 80.8 percent across the state are.

One strategy that seems to help areas lagging in academics are partnerships and contracts with local universities.

This university is currently affiliated with an elementary school and pre-K program — the College Park Academy and the Center for Young Children — and it’s bringing a university-ingrained culture to most academic levels outside

Follow @theDBK on Twitter!

MAGGIE CASSIDY

of the university.

The City Council unanimously voted to send a letter to state Sen. Jim Rosapepe (D-Prince George’s), College Park City-University Partnership chairman, to launch a new callaborative elementary school program between the City of College Park and this university.

OUR VIEW

A university-city academic partnership will strengthen the community and improve the reputation of the university.

Aiming to provide a diverse, experiential education for elementary schoolers, the program will follow the similar successful educational models used by the College Park Academy and the Center for Young Children.

With council members seeking to have the program started by next fall, this editorial board believes it couldn’t have come at a better time. A partnership between elementary schools and this university would successfully impact our community in two major ways: improving the educational reputation of students in this county and affirming how much this university values the importance of elementary education.

While we’re not the only university starting a university-elementary school relationship (Williams College, the University of Central Florida and the University of Chicago, among many others, have also participated in similar programs), it’s definitely a needed step forward in helping the College Park community become a stable support system for public schools throughout the city.

According to a 2008 article by the American School Counselor Association, school-family-community partnerships shouldn’t be undervalued, as they are “conducive for building strengths-enhancing environments... those that promote protective factors, developmental assets, resources and supports that students need to succeed.”

The partnership boosts what this university strives to be: an educational institution that doesn’t just explicitly focus on college-aged students but aims to provide academic support for those who wish to go to college in the future — even if they are toddlers today.

At a time when more people are realizing that students learn better in applied, creative ways we urge Rosapepe to move forward with this proposal — this university and a large part of its community is relying on it.

EDITORIAL CARTOON

When ‘Catholic’ became a slur SAMANTHA REILLY

with the denomination have decided what being a Catholic means. I hate to pull the “walk a mile in the other person’s shoes” card, but it seems as though this is the most opportune time to use it.

I don’t have a religion-induced allergy to homosexuality, transgender individuals or anything that challenges the bounds of the average medieval comfort zone simply because of my religion. That’s not what being Catholic means. It does mean acceptance of the people surrounding you and a certain degree of humanity with everything you choose to say or do. Yet those aspects are considered and regarded with the same respect given to the cracks in the sidewalk: overlooked and unappreciated.

A lot has happened in the time that Pope Francis has held his title. We’re moving forward in making known our views on modern-day issues and slipping out of the antagonistic mold that has been so carefully crafted for us. He’s telling the world that we’re not simply mass-produced clones of our religious ancestors.

The world is changing, and we’re taking hold and running with it. For some people, that’s hard to see. They don’t understand that it is difficult for our religious authorities to stray from the letter of the law, but they are, however slowly. Instead, people see it as them simply not wanting to.

So the overwhelming amount of people who pin assumptions on Catholics should brace themselves, because I believe this to be the first in a series of plot twists that will make them forget everything they thought they knew about our religion.

A certain tune of hope played throughout the stream of notifications I received about Pope Francis’s recent commentary on homosexuality and its shaky (at best) relationship with the Catholic Church.

Hope, first because the Church shed itself of at least one layer of sheer disapproval, and second because now everyone associated with Catholicism is no longer bound to the presumptions of his or her religion.

Catholicism has been long associated with strict rules, outdated traditions and an artificially cultivated nun-with-a-ruler image.

I’ve been told that I don’t accept people of the LGBT community, that I don’t have any fun and that I believe in a strict list of predetermined ideas and nothing more — all because I’m Catholic.

I’ve been told this is wrong or ridiculous, and I’m struggling to understand when exactly “Catholic” became a slur.

I find it hard to believe that the people who have approached me in this way would do the same to a population of more than 1.2 billion people. They might not realize it, but that is precisely what they are doing. Pulling assumptions from this religious label is akin to approaching nearly 25 percent of the U.S. and generalizing what they all must believe, in exactly the same interpretation, down to the letter.

Somehow, society has managed to juxtapose Catholics and the LGBT community in the way one Samantha Reilly is a freshman pits the white checkers against the journalism major. She can be reached black. People who don’t identify at sreillydbk@gmail.com.

MORE ONLINE

BEAUTY AS A SEXIST CONCEPT: Guest column addresses how women are valued more for their apprearances than their intellect, and their supposed fragility only makes them seem helpless in social settings. Read the content at dbknews.com/opinion.

Putting an end to friend zones MAX AN JAMES SANTOS/the diamondback

GUEST COLUMN

Don’t define feminism for me

L

et me start out by saying that I am tired of people who have never tried to learn anything about feminism defining my movement for me. In Gonzalo Molinolo’s column, he took the dictionary definition of feminism, quoted by Emma Watson in her now-famous speech, and proceeded to say that’s not what feminism is. I disagree with him, and let me explain why.

The dictionary definition is not allencompassing of our movement. A lot of people question why it’s called feminism if we care about men as well.

It’s called feminism because it seeks to end the stigma of femininity, something that can help men, yes, but something that will help women a lot more, and there’s nothing wrong with that. There has never been anything wrong with a movement focused on helping a specific group of oppressed people.

You don’t see people appealing to racists by telling them what ending racism can do for white people, and you don’t appeal to homophobic individuals by telling them what equality can do for straight people. It’s the same for feminism, which Molinolo needs to understand. I believe that everyone will be more at peace when all oppression ends, but it’s not the duty of oppressed people to point that out.

Feminism is a movement of continuous self-evaluation and perspective taking in order to understand oppression and privilege. It takes practice. Sexism is intertwined with racism, ableism, homophobia and transphobia, and it

can take years to understand those relationships. Becoming a feminist is like volunteering to fix a hole in a wall, but upon inspecting the wall, you find that it’s much more damaged on the inside, so you have to repair the entire thing.

It’s more work than you signed up for, but it needs to be done. The worst part?

The homeowners refuse to believe their wall is rotting from the inside out. You’re trying to fix a problem that is invisible to many people, all with a lack of support.

Let me get one thing straight: Men suffer from the patriarchy too, and it’s a feminist issue. Although patriarchy also helps keep men in power, the stigmatization of femininity backfires against them in many instances, especially for people such as gay men and transgender men (whom I don’t often see “mens rights activists” trying to help). Molinolo noted that men can be financially devastated by child support, that they can be victims of domestic violence and that they are still expected to be breadwinners in an “egalitarian” society.

Although I do question Molinolo thinking our society is in any way truly egalitarian, these issues can all be attributed to the stigmatization of femininity. I’d like to focus on one of the raised issues for this column, and that is the issue of men being victims of domestic violence and sexual violence. Men are victims, and it is entirely too difficult for many men to get help. Feminist theory would argue that this is because sexual violence is typically seen as a women’s issue, a feminine experience, and that

men are supposed to be strong. A man being the victim of violence breaks all the norms that are expected in society.

Molinolo implies he cares about men, so why did he use three lines to highlight men’s issues and the rest of the article to complain about feminism? Why is he advocating the abolishment of rape shield laws, which would force male and female victims alike to recount their sexual history as if it had anything to do with a crime committed against them.

All too often, men who choose to hate us without talking to us and learning about our movement use the real suffering of men in order to silence us. It’s insulting to me, it’s insulting to feminism, and above all, it’s insulting to male victims of violence.

Male victims of violence deserve to be heard, and when their issues are being spoken about, they deserve to have their own platform. “Men’s rights activists” don’t get to trivialize men’s issues for the sole excuse to complain about feminism. That’s some real man-hating.

Use real activism to stop the stigmatization of femininity and feminine experiences. When the direct effects of the patriarchy cease to exist, the backfiring consequences that men feel will disappear as well.

Jillian Santos is a senior criminology and criminal justice and psychology major and president of UMD Feminists. She can be reached at jsantos5@terpmail.umd.edu.

sometimes with added and subtracted elements. For one, the friendship you have can sometimes become unstable, in that it’s a lot harder to justify constant conversation. The “friend zone” element may lead to more strained and awkward relationship but it is the context of the friend zone in society that is truly problematic.

While the “friend zone” is a concept that should theoretically be gender neutral, the idea altogether is rather sexist. It essentially promotes a sort of male-dominated culture by which male privileges can undermine women’s in relationships.

The idea of a friend zone weakens women’s rights to say no, as in this case, denying a man and setting him up in the “friend zone” is inaccurately portrayed as a terribly harsh thing to do. The creation of a friend zone further encourages the idea that sticking it out as a male friend eventually will get one closer to the girl, who in turn might say yes later on. This deception and scheming to get the girl to say yes essentially decreases the value of a woman’s right to denial, by which some men just fail to realize that no still means no.

Altogether, while the term “friend zone” is liberally used (I’m guilty too), I believe it is time to terminate the notion of friend zones. The phrase promotes the idea of male entitlement and essentially disregards women’s right to refusal.

And besides, if you’re personally not capable of accepting situations for what they are and can’t cherish a platonic friendship for what it is, perhaps that is the real issue that needs addressing. If Liz Lemon and Jack Donaghy could maintain a healthy friendship for seven seasons of 30 Rock, who’s to say we can’t?

As a major Harry Potter fan, I recently came upon an interview Daniel Radcliffe had with BuzzFeed in which he talked about the friend zone and its implications for men and women in today’s society. In the interview, he addressed the idea of friend zones, and he mentioned how “the idea of a friend zone is just men going, ‘This woman won’t have sex with me.’”

And as I read and thought more about his comments, I came to my own realization about how dangerous our societal portrayal of friend zoning has become.

Don’t get me wrong, if there’s one thing I have had my fair share of in terms of life experiences, it is most certainly the “friend zone.” But that does not mean that I agree with its interpretation nowadays.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, the friend zone refers to a state in which the person you like doesn’t really like you enough to go out with you, and so the both of you instead transition into a friendship or don’t escalate your existing relationship. Generally speaking, this “friend zoning” of sorts entails a relationship mismatch, in which one person wants more romantic involvement from the other person, who is less interested romantically.

As a guy who has reached that unreciprocated love point many times in his life (I basically own a couple acres of that real estate), I know how painful and awkward a situation like that might be, and I have found happiness with what I have. As a friend, you maintain Max An is a sophomore physiology and some of the benefits of your prior neurobiology major. He can be reached relationship with the person, except at maxandbk@gmail.com.

POLICY: Signed letters, columns and cartoons represent the opinions of the authors. The staff editorial represents the opinion of The Diamondback’s editorial board and is the responsibility of the editor in chief.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2014 | The Diamondback

5

FEATURES CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Dueler’s pride 5 911 responder 8 “Oops!” (hyph.)

12 Camel’s pit stop 14 Not pro 15 Burger mate 16 Plain-living sect 17 Tarzan’s transport 18 Cougar’s pad 19 Sent elsewhere 21 More than fast 23 Gold Medal org.

24 Mountain overlooking Troy 25 Da or ja 26 Perceived 30 Impostor 32 Smart -33 Upbraids (2 wds.)

36 Columbus’ home 37 La Scala city 38 Far from colorful 40 Tire pump, e.g.

42 Gossipmonger 43 UPS competitor 44 Fragrant fir 45 Crunch targets 48 Auction signal 49 Muscle for push-ups 50 Bruce Wayne 52 Nurtured 57 Jai -58 Cubbyhole

60 61 62 63 64 65 66

Gridiron deal Thumb through Confederate Wiser London park Catch a glimpse of Opry’s st.

33 Gave as an example 34 Coffee brewers 35 “Toodle-oo!” (hyph.)

37 Grotto regulars

39 Thud 41 Horne of “Stormy Weather” 42 Racing vessels 44 Casino action 45 Make blush

46 47 49 51 52 53

Obstinate Sober-minded Snail-paced Play charades Double agent Q.E.D. part

54 Go postal 55 TV genie portrayer 56 Laura of “Jurassic Park” 59 Pamplona yell

DOWN 1 Birds do it 2 Tagged along 3 “Get real!”

(2 wds.)

4 Swell, as a river 5 Oklahoma town 6 Geog. feature 7 Secures firmly (2 wds.)

8 NCAA Bruins 9 Grizzled 10 Dark complexion 11 Rabbit’s cousins 13 Chilling cry 14 With, to monsieur 20 Fishing gear 22 Neutral colors 24 “-- -- America Singing” 26 -- Paulo, Brazil 27 Pre-college 28 No, on the Rhine 29 Pooh-pooh 30 Fragrant perennial 31 Sing falsetto

© 2014 UNITED FEATURES SYNDICATE

PREVIOUS DAY’S PUZZLE SOLVED:

TODAY’S CROSSWORD SPONSORED BY:

Apartment Locator Pages THE DIAMONDBACK October 30, 2014

B

HOROSCOPE | STELLA WILDER

orn today, you often define yourself according to the way others see you, and your self-worth is very much wrapped up in their opinions of you. You understand and appreciate that this can be a rather unsteady, even dangerous way to live, but what choice do you have?

You are made the way you are made, and the stars have decreed that you will care deeply about what others think of you. So instead of trying to be something that you are not, you must spend much of your life learning to navigate the uneven, treacherous ground upon which you conduct your affairs, both private and public. You are not the kind to shrug things off with ease.

You can be an intensely private individual, yet you require the contact of others to give your life meaning. This is a paradox that you will be trying to figure out through much of your life; it’s not an easy puzzle to solve, but solving it is an essential endeavor for you.

Also born on this date are: Kim Kardashian, television personality; Carrie Fisher, actress; Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister; Judy Sheindlin, judge and television personality; Dizzy Gillespie, musician; Alfred Nobel, inventor; Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet.

To see what is in store for you tomorrow, find your birthday and read the corresponding paragraph. Let your birthday star be your daily guide.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) -- When you get your work done, you’re going to want to treat yourself to something special. The choices are quite intriguing.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) -Environmental influences may be pushing you in a certain direction at this time. Take care that you’re not giving up what you most value.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) -- Be sure to pass messages along in a timely manner -- and be sure, too, that the wording you use accurately conveys the proper tone!

CANCER (June 21-July 22) -- You and a friend can put your heads together and come up with a plan that has others excited about what lies ahead.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) -- Take care that you don’t get so caught up in another’s process that you forget to do for yourself the things you most need.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) -- You may need more rest at this time than you are used to giving yourself. The demands being made of you may be quite unusual.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22 LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) -- You may get a sneak peak at something someone else is working on. Is what you see any reason for concern? That’s not likely.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) -- A promise is made that changes everything, but you may not be able to believe, with your whole heart, what is offered.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) -- Any errors you make today are sure to be unintentional.

You are acting in good faith, and you want the best for everyone involved.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -- What happens in and around the home will be more important -- and more urgent -- than anything that happens at the workplace.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) -- You have an ace in the hole, but you won’t know if it’s a card you can play until those around you lay down their bets.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) -You may be remembering a good time you had with a friend who is currently on the outs for reasons you cannot really understand.

COPYRIGHT 2014 UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.

TODAY’S HOROSCOPE SPONSORED BY:

like us on facebook

RICHIE BATES INSOMNIAC

COLLEGE INTUITION

ALEX CHIANG

SU | DO | KU

SENIORS! SENIOR PICTURES

© Puzzles by Pappocom

Fill in the grid so that every row, column, and 3x3 grid contains the digits 1 through 9.

PREVIOUS DAY’S PUZZLE SOLVED:

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY:

MEDIUM

TODAY’S SUDOKU PUZZLE SPONSORED BY:

follow the Diamondback on twitter

FOR THE 2015

@thedbk

TERRAPIN YEARBOOK HAVE BEEN

EXTENDED! WHERE:

3101 South Campus Dining Hall (Terrapin Yearbook Office)

WHEN:

11am-7pm, Mon. Oct. 20 through Fri., Oct. 24

APPOINTMENTS:

Call 1-800-687-9327 8:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. or online at ouryear.com (school code 87101)

2013 YEARBOOK 2015TERRAPIN TERRAPIN YEARBOOK

BRANCHING OUT

OFF CAMPUS HOUSING GUIDE

Available at The Diamondback 3136 South Campus Dining Hall

DR. STUART D. SCHATZ 301-277-6100

MY CELL PHONE REPAIRS

We Specialize in All Repairs 7401 Baltimore Ave. College Park, MD 20740

10-8 Mon.-Fri. • 11-7 Sat. • 12-5 Sun.

301-985-5111

10 OFF

$

with coupon

6

THE DIAMONDBACK | TueSDAY, octoBER 21, 2014

DIVERSIONS

HAPPY TUMBLRWEEN! Staff writer Zoë DiGiorgio explores how social media sites can get students in the holiday spirit. Visit dbknews.com for her story and more.

ON THE SITE

LASTING IMPACT | FIGHT CLUB

Let’s Talk about Fight Club Reflecting on director David Fincher’s scathing takedown of American masculinity and consumerism on the film’s 15th anniversary

FINCH Five

By Warren Zhang @auberginecow Senior staff writer Forgive me, for I am about to break the first rule of Fight Club.

David Fincher’s pitch-black comedy turned 15 last week, but sometimes it feels like no time has passed at all.

In many ways, Fight Club has proven to be an oddly prescient work. The film predated 9/11, the war on terror and everything that has followed, but it remains one of the most insightful movies about terrorism. The film’s uproarious and deeply disturbing first half captures the allure of a destructive, nihilistic worldview with an alarming amount of success.

Fight Club’s characters and their perpetual feeling of male disenfranchisement have manifested through the years as everything from terrorists to anonymous hackers. Tyler Durden’s hypermasculinity and swagger could be felt in the antics of the infamous LulzSec and, more recently, in the back half of GamerGate.

Project Mayhem, in particular, feels like a direct predecessor of Internet trolling. But instead of hosing strangers, egging cars or picking real fights, people now snipe anonymously on various forums

A quick, objective rundown of David Fincher’s best

5. Panic Room

4. Se7en FIGHT CLUB turned 15 this month. Though it was released in 1999, the “pitch-black” film, which starred Brad Pitt (center) and was adapted from a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, presciently represents present-day issues, including the ongoing GamerGate, Warren Zhang writes. photo courtesy of nofilmschool.com and nether regions of the Internet.

GamerGate and its disastrously misogynistic and homophobic third act could have easily been orchestrated

by Durden and his merry band of Space Monkeys.

Perhaps because we continue to live in turbulent times, filled with social upheaval, economic uncertainty and a general feeling of spiritual decay, Fight Club still resonates.

Maybe we are a little less materialistic than Edward Norton’s character, or maybe we’re even more so, just in different ways.

Not everything in Fight Club has weathered the years perfectly. The movie is a distinctly analog creation birthed to an increasingly digital world.

Not even Chuck Palahniuk or Fincher could have predicted how radically the Internet, social media and the smartphone would change the world.

Were Norton’s character in the real world today, he’d probably lurk the dark corners of Reddit rather than haunting support groups. Project Mayhem would probably launch denial-of-service attacks rather than blowing up buildings. As for

soap, well, liposuction feels like a distinctly 1999 punchline.

These, however, are the superficial details of Fight Club. Even if you change or shuffle them around, you’d still retain the black, diseased yet beating heart of the film.

Fight Club was never a great piece of art, nor did it aspire to be. Instead, Fight Club was and still is a fractured and distorted mirror of ourselves, of the world as it existed in 1999 and as it does now.

3. Fight Club

2. Zodiac

1. The Social Network

wzhangdbk@gmail.com

photos in sidebar courtesy of (top to bottom) totalfilm.com, nicholasheller.wordpress.com, x-tremeradio.ro, welovemoviesmorethanyou.com, cinematicparadox.com

CLASSIFIED RATES 35¢ per word ALL CAPITAL LETTERS Bold Letters

$3.50 minimum 35¢ extra per word 70¢ extra per word

CLASSIFIED DISPLAY ADS • Larger type • Sold in 1” increments • One column wide • $33.00/column inch • Run online at no additional cost OFFICE HOURS 10AM – 4PM Monday – Friday • 3136 South Campus Dining Hall DEADLINES The deadline for ads is 2PM • 2 business days in advance of publication SPECIAL Run the same ad 4 consecutive days and get the 5th day FREE!

TO PLACE AN AD: PHONE 301-314-8000 EMAIL ADVERTISING@DBK.UMD.EDU FAX 301-314-8358

EMPLOYMENT

EMPLOYMENT

EMPLOYMENT

Now Hiring

Part time, $12.50-$17.50/hr. + commissions, 3:30-7:30PM Mon.-Fri., 9:00-1:00 Sat. Setting up appointments for free inspection for insurance related claims.

Make up to $800/week. Call for interview.

Ask for Sam. 1-800-465-5805. Resumes: rbj@cirestorations.com.

Clerk needed part time in Lanham. 10 minutes from campus. 301-538-5911.

THE DIAMONDBACK

Print & Online Representatives

Work on campus! Part time, with flexible hours. No experience necessary & training provided.

NEED MONEY FOR RENT? Find a job in The Diamondback Classifieds!

v m A

& Classified Display online at no additional charge. ¿ AdsONLINEwill runAll Classified

ALL ADS MUST BE PREPAID

SERVICES DISSERTATION EDITING — Theses, term papers. Style manual experts.

301-474-6000. www.CompuMediaUSA.com/academic

Information Session: Friday, Oct. 24, 2:30pm

Or Apply Today for Spring 2015! advertising@dbk.umd.edu Sophomores encouraged to apply.

PRE-VET STUDENT WANTED

A

Position available as Vet Tech with dogs, cats, and exotics. Experience preferred. Flexible hours. Will teach practical and hands-on skills. Referral for vet school will be provided as needed. 100% of past techs who applied to vet school have been accepted. Please contact via email: bestfriendsvh@yahoo.com.

M

The Diamondback, the University of Maryland’s daily student newspaper, has a full-time opening for the position of Advertising Manager.

The Diamondback publishes daily, dail Monday-Thursday, during the school year and every Thursday during the summer months. Our daily circulation is 9,000. In addition, we have a robust website that can be found at www.dbknews.com.

dbknews.com

THE DIAMONDBACK

smartphone friendly ;-)

Responsibilities include the training and motivation of a 15-person student sales staff. The ideal candidate is someone who has college media advertising experience at the professional level and is looking to move up or has college media experience and is currently in commercial advertising sales or management. However, an EXCEPTIONAL recent graduate with college media sales and/or management experience will be considered.

We offer an excellent base salary, commissions from a few select, elite clients and generous bonuses based on performance. In addition, our benefits include company-paid health insurance and a retirement plan that equals 15% of your annual compensation.

If you are interested, please send resume with salary history.

Email:

mfribush@mmi.umd.edu

Mail:

Maryland Media, Inc. P.O. Box U College Park, MD 20740

tuesday, october 21, 2014 | sports | THE DIAMONDBACK

murray From PAGE 8 She’s still working on that.

She’s still working on a lot of things.

“She’s a work in progress,” Aird said. “And I think she’s on chapter two or three of a really good book.” *** Murray had just finished a performance for the National Cathedral School’s hip-hop dance team and was walking off stage of the Trapier Theater in Washington when her friend Izzi Eberstadt pulled her to the side.

“You have to try volleyball,” she said. Murray just laughed.

“You’re kidding. I’m very unathletic,” Murray replied.

“I could never do that.”

But Eberstadt, then a senior outside hitter and second-year captain of the school’s volleyball team, insisted that the freshman give it a try. After all, she was built for it. She was so tall with such long, spindly limbs.

And Eberstadt admired the way she jumped around on stage during the performance. Typically the physical moves were reserved for the male dancers, but Murray could get up.

After that, every recital or time they passed each other in the hallway came with the routine: “So you’re trying out for volleyball?” Eberstadt even had a mutual friend continue harassing Murray about it over the summer.

Eventually, Murray conceded. As a sophomore the next year, she showed up to offseason exercises before her school’s volleyball tryouts.

“Preseason we had special coaches come in that weren’t going to be our actual coaches,” Murray said. “One of them was Kristen Dozier who’s a huge name in the volleyball world.”

Dozier, an Ohio State alumna, played professionally overseas and for the U.S. national team.

7

One day after practice, she spoke with Murray privately.

“I know you’re not going to believe me,” Dozier told her. “You’re not that good, but you will be good if you just stick with it.”

Murray was skeptical, but she had a promise to keep.

“I went to and made it through tryouts and I’m like, ‘OK; so I’ve never played before, I’m definitely going to be on JV,’” Murray said. “They put me on varsity.” *** Ballet was never her future, and Murray knew it. Ever since she was 2 years old and her mother put her in that ballet class, it was never more than just an extracurricular activity.

It was a way to put “a cute little girl in a tutu,” Murray said.

“There was just nothing I could find that I liked that much better,” Murray said. “I needed to do an activity. At first, I didn’t really like it and I just stuck with it long enough that I grew to like it and then I grew to love it.”

Murray did like the way dancing made her feel, though.

On the floor, she could block it all out. School, relationships — anything. She even met her best friends through ballet.

But it was obvious this wasn’t her future.

She was too tall. When she danced, she was all limbs.

Plus, the Eagles volleyball team was vying for her attention, and her commitment to dance was slipping.

“I was in love with ballet, but then I started playing volleyball,” Murray said. “I was skipping ballet class to go play volleyball.”

One year Murray tried to balance both. She would finish practice at the Warner Theatre in downtown Washington for the Washington School of Ballet’s annual Nutcracker and then hastily collect her things to make it to club practice at Woodrow Wilson High School.

middle blocker hailey murray started playing volleyball her sophomore year of high school and decided to quit ballet after 14 years of commitment. rebecca rainey/the diamondback

“I WAS IN LOVE WITH BALLET, BUT THEN I STARTED PLAYING VOLLEYBALL.” HAILEY MURRAY

Terrapins volleyball middle blocker It didn’t work.

It was time for her to move on from ballet, and her instructors understood.

“It was very clear I was not going to be a professional dancer,” Murray said. “I had other aspirations.” *** Her job was simple: Jump up and down.

T h e tea m d i d n ’t n e e d Murray to hit — just to block the ball. At the beginning of the National Cathedral School’s season in Murray’s first year with the team, she struggled to make an impact.

But by the end, Murray was a force at the net, using her raw athleticism to block shots.

She even established her own experimental form of offense.

“I can’t really call it hitting,” Murray said. “But I was, like, slapping balls over the net.”

Over the course of the season she became a contributor, and coaches began asking her to play for more competitive travel teams.

She auditioned for three low-level regional club teams.

She made all three.

The travel coach for Metro American Volleyball Club, Sam Danai, saw her play and wanted her on his squad.

Danai mentioned it might help her with her college prospects, but Murray didn’t understand. She wasn’t a top 150 recruit and never thought about playing in college.

“What on earth does club volleyball have to do with anything for college?” Murray said.

“The athletic recruiting thing kind of flew over my head.”

She joined the team but again struggled.

Still the scholarship offers began rolling in.

“The first tournament we went to,” Murray said, “the coach from Syracuse saw me in warmups and was like, ‘I want that girl.’”

Two weeks later she had an offer from the Orange. The coaches knew she wasn’t polished, but with her ability to jump and reach above 10 feet in the air, she could be dominant.

But Murray had her eyes on College Park. A close friend attended this university and relayed to Murray all the things she loved about it.

So Murray reached out to then-Terps coach Tim Horsmon to consider her for his team.

Horsmon watched her in tournament play and was impressed enough to invite her to campus. After two visits, Murray got an offer to join the team and committed in May 2011.

But then Horsmon resigned two years later.

“I was kind of bent out of shape for a little while,” Murray said. “I no longer had an agreement anyway, I was coming on as a walk-on, I didn’t sign anything. So I was like, OK, let’s put myself back out there. The next thing you know, my name is out on the market for a week and I have like 20 more offers.”

This time around, she thought, maybe the Terps weren’t what she wanted.

Maybe she should seriously consider the other available offers. But on Jan. 29, the Terps announced they had hired Penn State assistant Steve Aird as their new head coach.

“I had been watching Penn State volleyball for the past three years, so I had seen him in action on the bench,” Murray said.“And I had always noticed that coach [Russ] Rose stayed seated during the matches and it was Steve walking back and forth up the sidelines. I was like, ‘That bald guy, he’s pretty cool.’” *** When Murray joined the Terps this summer, her play was sporadic at best. She looked at her more experienced and accomplished teammates and felt she’d never get off the bench during the season.

But by the second week, Murray began to put all the direction she had received from coaches together. She started emphatically killing balls in fiveon-five drills and libero Dani Bozzini would often find herself

on the wrong side of them.

“I was like, ‘Dang, this girl is going to be good,’” Bozzini said.

In many ways, Murray is an embodiment of the team.

The coaching staff is in its first year with the program; the Terps are 0-8 in conference play during their first Big Ten season and have lost 11 straight matches. Plenty is still new to both the players and coaches as the team remains far from a finished product.

But Murray insists the team is moving in the right direction.

“I hate when people say we’re struggling,” Murray said.

“We get stronger every week.”

Murray attributes much of her early success in volleyball back to her ballet days. Her flexibility has kept her healthy during a season in which the Terps have been marred by injuries. Her footwork, body control and balance are all strong points of her game.

She also believes the amount of focus required to improve as a ballerina has molded her work ethic. And most importantly, it has made her receptive to coaching.

“I take everything Steve says to heart and I really think about it,” Murray said.

Aird hopes that attitude will help Murray become one of the conference’s finest players. And if the Terps plan on becoming relevant in their new conference, a lot hinges on Murray one day doing the same.

“She’s going to be an AllAmerican,” Aird said. “She’s a really good athlete and a really good kid and the ceiling for her is dependent on how hard she wants to work.”

Bozzini agrees. And though earning All-American status might be an overwhelming goal for a freshman, Murray knows better than anyone that where she begins is hardly ever where she will end up.

“Oh, I’m going to do it,” Murray said. “I’m going to do it.” jmwalkerdbk@gmail.com

FIELD HOCKEY

Defense tightens in victory Terps shut out Rutgers, allow Knights to take five shots

By Ryan Baillargeon @RyanBaillargeon Staff writer

Nose guard Darius Kilgo pulls down Iowa quarterback Jake Rudock on Saturday during the Terps’ victory. alexander jonesi/the diamondback

line From PAGE 8 “It was a great opportunity for us,” said defensive tackle Darius Kilgo, who sacked Rudock once for 12 yards and recovered a fumble. “We had a great week of preparation, just being physical in practice, just making plays, not allowing the scout team to run on us. And I think that carried over on the field.”

The Terps totaled four sacks in the contest, three from defensive linemen, which contributed to the 37 yards of combined losses coach Randy Edsall’s defense compiled against the Iowa run game.

Monroe’s presence was instrumental in the stout defensive play. On back-to-back plays late in the first quarter from his spot along the right side of the line of scrimmage, the 5-foot-11, 275-pound defensive end tackled running back Jonathan Parker for a 5-yard loss on first down before sacking Rudock on the ensuing snap to spearhead a crucial stop with the Terps trailing by a touchdown. “[It was] 11 men flying to the ball,” said outside linebacker Yannick Ngakoue, who had a sack and a forced fumble in the

win. “Everybody doing their proper assignments, everybody executing to get things done.”

The Terps’ efficiency against the run showed up in the box score in ways other than tackles and sacks.

Rudock slung 56 passes in the contest, which marked the most attempts by an Iowa quarterback since 1999, coach Kirk Ferentz’s first year at the helm of the program, when Scott Mullen threw 60 times against Indiana. “[We] forced them to have to throw the ball,” Edsall said. “Rushing the passer is technique, and that’s effort.

Andre has played real well all year, and Darius Kilgo is really starting to be a force out there.”

Kilgo said the Terps’ ability to stop Iowa runners on first down was vital to their improved play Saturday. The Hawkeyes broke two firstdown rushing plays for 13 and 14 yards, but on the 12 other first-down runs, the Terps defense limited its opponents to just 2.58 yards per carry.

“We always preach ‘We win on first down.’ If we win on first down, we’ll get a team like that off schedule,” Kilgo said Saturday. “That played a big role in today’s game, just being able to get a team like that off

schedule, not allowing them to have good field position.”

Amid the blowout loss to Ohio State and yearlong struggles against the run — the unit surrendered 370 yards on the ground in a Sept.

20 win at Syracuse — the effectiveness of the Terps defensive line was called into question. At points early in the television broadcast on Saturday, ESPN’s announcers referred to group as “undersized” and discussed whether the Terps’ defensive linemen would be able to overcome their distinct physical disadvantage.

Those differences in stature might matter in the spring when NFL teams make selections in the draft, but Kilgo said questions about the defensive line’s ability to compete with the bigger bodies of the Big Ten had been answered as the final seconds ticked off the clock at Byrd.

“That was just something on our mind. The D-line, we took it personal,” Kilgo said.

“Knowing that we [were] going to play a good offensive line, we just wanted to come out and show that we’re capable of playing with them.” dpopperdbk@gmail.com

Brooke Cabrera dove to her right midway through the first half of Sunday’s win over Rutgers to insure a deflected shot didn’t find the back of the cage. The Terrapins field hockey goalkeeper never made contact with the ball, though, as it rolled wide of the goal.

Eleven minutes later, Cabrera dropped to the ground again.

And like before, she didn’t need to make a save. Midfielder Maxine Fluharty came flying off the endline on a penalty corner to block the Scarlet Knights’ shot 15 yards before it reached Cabrera.

The two instances marked the only occasions Rutgers threatened to score, and the Terps defense locked down all game to hold the Scarlet Knights to five shots en route to a 4-0 win.

“Our backfield was stellar in terms of their tackles, their intercepting,” coach Missy Meharg said. “Just couldn’t be more pleased.”

The Terps defense gives up 1.13 goals per game, the eighthbest mark in the country and best in the Big Ten. E n te r i n g t h e m a tc h u p w i t h R u tge rs, t h e Te r ps were coming off back-toback blowout wins in which they had allowed just one total goal. Still, the Terps had relied more on Cabrera in both matchups.

Against Princeton, the Terps surrendered 13 shots and a goal. And despite earning a shutout against Penn, the Terps allowed 10 shots, including seven penalty corners.

Sunday, however, Cabrera needed to make just two saves.

defender sarah sprink sprints toward the ball in the Terps’ 4-0 victory over Rutgers on Sunday, which marked the team’s sixth shutout of the season. rebecca rainey/the diamondback “We are all getting comfortable with each other,” defender Sarah Sprink said. “We are finding a way to not let shots on goal.”

The Terps backline pairs veterans with experienced players.

Sprink, a junior, joins redshirt junior Kasey Tapman and senior Steffi Schneid as a leader on defense. But they have been forced to adapt this season as freshman Carrie Hanks and sophomore Rachel Frusher, who didn’t play in a game last season, entered the fold.

Sprink, who patrols the middle of the field and is the last line of defense before Cabrera, is the focal point on the stout unit.

“We have been able to build the people around her,” Fluharty said. “Especially with the new combination this year, we have a lot different backfield than in the past and so her confidence is at a peak.”

Whenever Rutgers seemed poised to lead an offensive break, Sprink was there to prevent the Scarlet Knights from threatening deep in the Terps’ end.

“We have a great support

team around her, so she is able to make those fantastic plays and use her skills to her advantage,” Fluharty said. “That has been really helpful.”

In Sunday’s match, the Terps excelled in thwarting Rutgers whenever they tried to penetrate the 16-yard circle, the area within which teams can score.

Sprink said a big component of the Terps’ success in creating that wall has been the growing communication among the players who hadn’t played together before.

Rutgers struggled all afternoon to find holes in the Terps defense. And in the first half especially, the Terps made Cabrera’s job in net easy. As a result, the backline earned its sixth shutout of the season and continued its growth with the Big Ten tournament less than three weeks away.

“It’s just showing that going toward the end of the season and towards postseason that we are getting more and more comfortable and we know each other better,” Sprink said. rbaillargeondbk@gmail.com

TWEET OF THE DAY Zach Morris @ZMorris37 Terrapins baseball left-hander

“I take a lot of naps.. I mean a lot”

SPORTS

ALEX ANTHONY SPARKS WOMEN’S SOCCER

Finally healthy, the Terps freshman forward scored in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Illinois at Ludwig Field. For more, visit dbknews.com.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2014

PAGE 8

FOOTBALL

VOLLEYBALL

Trading her tutu for a Terps jersey Former ballerina Murray turns heads in freshman season

By Jacob Walker @JacobW_DBK Staff writer

Defensive end andre monroe hits Iowa quarterback Jake Rudock as he releases a pass during the Terps’ 38-31 victory. alexander jonesi/the diamondback

back in line

Terps lightly regarded defensive front earns praise after 38-31 victory over Iowa

By Daniel Popper @danielrpopper Senior staff writer One look at the NFL draft profiles of Terrapins football defensive end Andre Monroe and Iowa left tackle Brandon Scherff, and the disparity in perceived talent becomes apparent.

Scherff is the No. 2 rated prospect at his position for the class of 2015, according to nfldraftscout.com, and is widely heralded as a first-round talent. Monroe, meanwhile, is ranked No. 70 of 198 defensive ends and isn’t expected to hear his name called in May. But when the two players met on the field Saturday at Byrd Stadium, all numbers, rankings, conceptions and projections proved meaningless.

Standing 6 inches shorter than Scherff and weighing nearly 50 pounds lighter, Monroe dominated his counterpart for 60 minutes. The senior defensive stalwart finished with half a sack and one tackle for a loss, but he also keyed a number of plays for fellow linemen and outside linebackers with his relentless pressure.

Monroe’s performance was part of the resurgence from a Terps defensive line that was manhandled during a 52-24 loss two weeks ago at the hands of Ohio State, which compiled 269 rushing yards in the lopsided affair, and has struggled against rushing attacks all season.

In Sunday’s 38-31 victory, though, the Terps held the Hawkeyes below their season average in rushing yards while disrupting quarterback Jacob Rudock regularly.

See line, Page 7

Terrapins volleyball coach Steve Aird knows he’s putting Hailey Murray in an unfair spot. Most top programs would never start a middle blocker as inexperienced as Murray.

Aird didn’t have much choice, though.

“It’s not like we had a veteran team full of All-Americans where it was like ‘Hey, you can come in and learn,’” Aird said.

But something, and he isn’t sure what, told the first-year coach that Murray was ready for it.

After spending more than a decade as a ballerina and starting to play volleyball as a high school sophomore, Murray is making her mark. Entering tonight’s match against Rutgers, the freshman is leading the Terps with about a block per set, and because she is newer to the game, Aird sees untapped potential.

A practice at Xfinity Center last week hinted at how good Murray can be while shedding light on how far she has to go.

Murray stood centered at the net that runs along the half-court line, with her arms in front of her face in anticipation of her opponents’ next shot during a five-on-five drill.

Assistant Kristin Kenney, standing diagonally behind Murray, lofted a serve to the other side of the net.

Murray’s opponents controlled the serve, passed the ball and floated a set for an imposing male player — Aird

Middle blocker hailey murray leads the Terps with close to one block per set. rebecca rainey/the diamondback

borrows from the men’s club team to compete against his players in practice — who rose to attack.

Murray shifted over from her position in the middle of the net to meet him. She jumped, and threw up her arms and the ball glanced off her fingers.

One of her teammates saved the ball from hitting the floor and passed it to setter Carlotta Oggioni, who in turn left it suspended in the air for Murray to strike moments after her deflection. Murray jumped again and hit the ball straight into the outstretched arms of the defender instead of firing it into an open space as she wanted.

See murray, Page 7