JUNE 10, 2014
SPORTS
THENORTHERNLIGHT.ORG
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE
FEATURES
PAGE 7
Alaska Aces sign UAA goaltender
PAGE 2
Taco pizza: A delicious mix of cuisines
Yellowcard Q&A with violinist Sean Mackin By Kelly Ireland
arts@thenorthernlight.org Yellowcard a pop punk/alternative band that’s been around for 17 years and is coming to Alaska for the Road to Vans Warped Tour. The band originally began in part for the opportunity to play the Vans Warped Tour. They will be continuing onto the Vans Warped Tour this summer in the tours 20th year. Yellowcard violinist Sean Mackin spoke to TNL about life on the road, the opportunities the band has had because of the tour, the fans and their new album to be released later this year.
TNL: Why did Yellowcard have a hiatus a couple years back? Mackin: “Oh, you’re just getting right to it, huh? It gets really hard. It’s almost like a marathon and you gruel it. It’s grueling and you can’t get out. I think for us we had been touring as Yellowcard for eight years solid. Our singer, he had blew his voice out twice because of how rigorous our touring schedule was. Yellowcard has always been a band that always tried to work harder than everybody else. In 2004, we were on tour 320 days out of the year. In 2008 the economy kind of
SEE YELLOWCARD
PAGE 4
photo courtesy of rey roldan
Yellowcard is comprised of members Sean Mackin, Ryan Key, Ryan Mendez and Josh Portman.
Girls Rock Camp Alaska Regents convene in Anchorage On the second day of the Regents’ meeting, challenges stereotypes By Evan Erickson USUAA President Stacey Lucason came to testify eerickson@thenorthernlight.org
photos by monica lettner
Girls Rock Camp Alaska participants played a final concert last Saturday at Taproot.
By Jacob Holley-Kline arts2@thenorthernlight.org
When popular music focuses on women, they’re often stereotyped or dominated in some way by a man, according to B. Lee Cooper, professor of history and American culture at Reinhardt College. In response to this, Monica Lettner decided to start a summer music camp that focuses on girls called Girls Rock Camp Alaska. The camp is modeled after similar programs put on by the Girls Rock Camp Alliance around the country. “Even today sexism is still around,” said Jessica Newbill, a volunteer at Girls Rock Camp Alaska. “It is so hard to find a band with a girl as the lead where she isn’t just treated as the token girl.” Newbill was inspired to volunteer after taking a UAA women’s studies class with Lettner. Lettner attended similar camps in Seattle for two summers before starting one in Alaska. “I didn’t think I would be starting and running a brandnew nonprofit summer camp in two years,” Lettner said. The camp had 20 registered participants. The participants are assigned instruments and get together to compose songs. These songs were performed in an end-of-camp showcase on June 7 at Taproot. “You will see pride and accomplishment on the faces of 20 awesome young women,” Lettner said. “There may be a few out of tune notes ... but you will see them move past it with grace and ease.”
On a given day, camp participants meet in the morning, practice their respective instruments, and attend workshops and seminars on everything from songwriting to sex ed and women’s issues. Then they practice with their bands for an hour and have a meeting at the end of the day. During lunch, local musicians such as Emma Hill and the Tanana Rafters play for the students. “It teaches you about women’s issues and it’s just really fun,” said camper Hadley Earl, age nine. Hadley plays the piano and the violin. She attended the camp with her sister, Ava Earl, age 11. Ava sings and plays the piano, ukulele, guitar and harmonica. “Everything is very fun and you get to meet new people,” Ava said, “and sometimes even old friends.” Their mother, Shannon Earl, signed them up. “Their eyes have been opened in a really positive way,” Shannon Earl said. “They’re exploring their hearts and souls through music. ... It’s pretty impressive.” Lettner gets to see the girls’ journeys first-hand. “These campers are really good at ... expressing their opinions,” Lettner said. “(They go from) nervous on Monday, to a little stressed on Wednesday, to proud on Friday, and to powerful on Saturday.”
For more information visit http://www. girlsrockcampalaska.org.
facebook.com/northernlightuaa
After a slow start Thursday morning in UAA’s Gorsuch Commons, the 11-member University of Alaska Board of Regents opened the floor to public testimony. The vice president of the UAA Political Science Association, Ceezar Martinson, stepped up to urge the board to reconsider its policy on concealed handguns. “It is our belief that the current policy, as it has been laid out, is illegal according to Alaska’s constitution,” Martinson said. Regent Kirk Wickersham responded, saying UA General Counsel Michael Hostina had provided a legal analysis for the policy, referring to a 13-page report sent by the University of Alaska to Senate Bill 176 sponsor Sen. John Coghill in March. SB 176, which aims to permit concealed carry on all University of Alaska campuses, was originally proposed by Coghill’s intern, Hans Rodvik, a UAA political science student. The testimony that followed Martinson’s asked for greater restrictions in Regents’ policy. UAA Smoke-Free Task Force member Yesenia Camarena presented feedback her group has received in support of a smoking ban, as well as the results of an opinion poll in UAA’s spring general elections in which 53 percent of students supported a smoke-free UAA and 47 percent did not. “We hope that the Board of Regents will support us in our efforts, as well as the efforts of the other UA campuses to go smoke- and tobaccofree,” Camarena said. UA President Pat Gamble said that although an institution-wide smoking ban would be very complex, he believes overall productivity would go up in the absence of smoking. UAA Chancellor Tom Case said the Anchorage campus will be going smoke-free “sooner rather than later,” but no definite timeline has been set.
about one of the two controversial motions passed by the board in April’s Kodiak meeting. Lucason has concerns that the motion requiring common general education requirements and outcomes across the three Alaska universities could restrict how they tweak courses based on schools’ individual needs. USUAA Senator Parker Dahl addressed another motion calling for common course schedules. He said holding regular Friday courses, as UAF does, could be detrimental — citing his own success with three-day weekends allowing him to train to attend out-of-state debate competitions. Student Jonathan Taylor brought up another section of the same motion, calling for common academic calendars. Taylor proposed 13-week semesters with a shorter winter and summer semester. This type of schedule received the most votes in an email poll sent to students by Faculty Senate in April. While most of the motions passed in last week’s meeting were housekeeping items — like approving project change requests that allow $45.6 million to be spent on UAA’s new engineering building — some of the motions were significant. Prince William Sound Community College will be dropping “community” from its name, becoming a community campus of UAA, much like Mat-Su College or Kenai Peninsula College. Gamble stated the reasoning has to do with burdensome accreditation for the college. Also, Gamble’s contract has officially been extended through May 2016, with an annual salary of $320,000, the same figure he has earned since 2011.
The UA Board of Regents meets next on Sept. 18-19 in Juneau.
Free food sweeps campus
Students attend a campus barbecue hosted by Student Activities.
By George Hyde
gchyde@thenorthernlight.org It’s the summer, and while many students are taking classes, more are taking leaves of absence. Adding to this, several campus businesses are closed, making the campus feel barren at times. Student Activities comes to the rescue every summer, supplying hungry campus dwellers with food in the form of muffins, ice cream, hamburgers and more.
twitter.com/tnl_updates
PHOTO BY GEORGE HYDE
The events started out of a desire to serve those whose on-campus options were limited. “We noticed that a lot of things shut down during the summer, like the Commons and the Subway and everything like that,” said Sarah Haley, a coordinator and volunteer at free food events. “We felt bad that students were stuck on campus without food.” Long lines permeate the free food setups, often
thenorthernlight.org
SEE FREE
PAGE 2
youtube.com/tnlnews