04-13-15

The Oracle MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2015 I VOL. 52 NO. 109

Inside this Issue

Little ants,

USF’s own “Ant Whisperer” puts a lens to the inner workings of ant society.

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LI F E STYLE

Grand Theft Auto V’s ultimate edition proves PC is king.

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Montage

S PORTS Bulls fall short of sweep after Sunday shutout.

BACK

By Zach Leete S T A F F

W R I T E R

People often like to think that no other creature in the world, and possibly the universe, can compare to the complexities of human society in which we all participate and the rich inner lives that we all lead.

Perhaps in order to better see the big picture, it is best to use a microscope.

Deby Cassill — or the “Ant Whisperer,” as some of her students call her — studies the secret

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The Index

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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

big impact lives of ants.

The USF St. Petersburg professor recently presented at TEDxUSF where talked about her fascination with the tiny and deceptively advanced creatures.

“25 years ago … my big research question was focused on social organization,” Cassill said.

As a graduate student, Cassill observed the social organization of a species and collected quantitative data. Ants, as it turns out, were easier to observe than primates or other social vertebrates.

As she became more familiar with the pint-sized social beings on the other end of the microscope, Cassill said she became curious about certain aspects of ant life.

“I began to wonder about the inequality of the matriarch’s offspring,” Cassill said.

Cassill said most of the queen

ant’s daughters are small, sterile and short-lived ­­ — six to 12 months at the most. The other daughters are large, fertile and long-lived — six to 45 years depending on the ant species.

The sons, on the other hand, are also large and fertile. They are even more short-lived, often dead at three months.

“Once the fertile sons and daughters fly away from the matriarch’s home, they mate,” Cassill said. “The sons die within 24 hours after mating, as do most pregnant daughters.”

The proliferation and expansion of a colony rests on the shoulders of the pregnant daughters that find and excavate a suitable home. Once this is done, they can survive for years or even decades.

Cassill was intrigued by the

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Bullstock 2015

American Authors, along with Andy Grammer and Young the Giant, performed at Bullstock on Friday night.

ORACLE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU

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Accreditation team gives USF positive review

By Alex Rosenthal E D I T O R

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C H I E F

As USF Week came to a close and students prepared for Bullstock, professors and administrators on campus had cause of their own to celebrate outside the annual festivities.

On Thursday, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) concluded its on-site visit of USF and gave what Provost Ralph Wilcox called an exemplary review in its preliminary findings.

“The committee couldn’t have been more satisfied with the findings of their deep and broad-based assessment of our university,” Wilcox wrote in an email to university leaders Thursday. “They both noted how rare it is for an institution of USF’s size and complexity to advance through such an extensive reaffirmation process without any recommendations.”

While the university strives for many accolades and awards every year, the committee came to reevaluate USF for its accreditation.

For those who are unfamiliar with what accreditation is, Wilcox described it as a method for a university’s credentials to be evaluated. When a university loses accreditation, students would be ineligible to receive federal financial aid, face problems transferring to another university or applying to graduate school and research from the institution would lose credibility.

Essentially, losing accreditation could mean losing the value of the university’s degree.

“Frankly, nothing is more important than getting that national stamp of approval,” Wilcox said

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ANTS

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inequality of the matriarch’s offspring. She dedicated eight years of her research to developing a bio-economic model of inequality to help explain this phenomenon.

The model is currently under review with the journal “PLOS ONE.” “Another reason I study fire ants is that they are an invertebrate as well as a pest species,” Cassill said. “I can set up experiments in which the individuals live or die. That is absolutely not an option for vertebrate species.”

Being able to freely experiment on ants has afforded Cassill the unique opportunity to learn about collective action during a catastrophe such as a flood, drought, famine, invasion or earthquake.

One experiment, featured on a WUSF video, tests communication in times of crisis and involves assembling ants into a ball. The researcher then throws the ants into the air. Instead of scattering through the air, the ants cling and lock with one another.

Cassill found that every ant plays an important role in keeping the entire colony as scathefree as possible.

“Individually, the smaller ants do 10 times the work of the larger ants when it comes to hunting for food, fighting an invader or excavating a new home,” Cassill said. “The larger ants provide

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homeland security. Their job is to protect their matriarch. The smaller ants do all the other jobs needed to keep the mother and the young alive.”

The complex response system isn’t necessarily fair to each ant, but their roles are clearly defined and consistent throughout the colony.

According to a WUSF article, Cassill likened ant colonies to modern capitalist economies where resources are not evenly

The amount of work ants do plays into how much food and status they receive. The queen, of course, gets the most food and protection. The queen also sees that the ants that don’t pull their weight in the colony are executed.

Other than work ethic, Cassill finds that ants have personality traits that are different from one another, such as courage and fear. One of Cassill’s experiments involved dropping a ball into a

“Each individual counts. They might not survive equally, but they do survive longer within the family than if they were to go it alone as a solitary individuals.”

Deby Cassill USF professor and ant whisperer

distributed, and further asserted that equality between the queens and the workers would not equal prosperity.

“Each individual counts,” Cassill said. “They might not survive equally, but they do survive longer within the family than if they were to go it alone as a solitary individuals.”

Cassill said personality also affects the behavior of ants, perhaps reflecting human society — 10 percent of ants are “workaholics,” 10 percent are lazy and the other 80 percent are somewhere in between.

container of ants. Some ants fled from the ball, while others charged to attack.

The ants that attacked tended to be older, while the ants that fled were more middle-aged. The youngest ants sometimes played possum.

To this day, Cassill said she is still finding out new and interesting facts about the lives of ants.

A recent observation of a queen ant sleeping showed rapid antennal movement (RAM) that Cassill thought might indicate dreaming, just as rapid eye movement (REM) does for humans.

“Ants have opened so many research window and doors,” she said. “I’ll never be bored.”

Neither are her students, apparently. Cassill has an overall rating of 4.6/5.0 on ratemyprofessor.com. Almost all of her 63 student ratings give her top marks for being the “go-to” professor for getting involved in undergraduate research as well as being a remarkable lecturer.

“Like most people, my first ‘presentation,’ which was as a TA in front of undergraduate students, was terrifying,” Cassill said. “But my desire to tell a good story overcame my fear. I learned quickly to build humor and demonstrations into my lectures.”

Cassill said one of her favorite demos involved a representation of a jellyfish stinger using a condom, string and a sharp pencil.

Nobody slept in class during that lesson.

“If a lecture has an element of fun to it, I actually look forward to that lecture too,” she said. “So it’s a win-win.”

As for being the “go-to” professor for undergraduate research, Cassill said she helped designed a curriculum alongside RiedingerWhitmore to require research methods and science writing as two core biology courses.

“I’m lucky to have lots of research questions and a lab large enough to handle dozens of students each semester,” Cassill said. “My hope is to infect them with the joy of science.”

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REVIEW

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in an interview with The Oracle.

While the on-site committee met with over 200 students, staff, faculty and the Board of Trustees, an off-campus committee is also evaluating the university based on a 1,500 page document USF submitted outlining academic and strategic goals and functions.

Wilcox attributed much of the committee’s positive review to USF’s Quality Enhancement Plan, or the Global Citizens Project, which is designed to prepare students for a global society through increased study abroad opportunities and globalizing many degree programs and general education courses.

Now with the accreditation committee’s approval, Wilcox said the university will continue to rapidly implement the Global Citizens Project into more programs over the next few months.

“It’s the benchmark we’ve set for ourselves and I couldn’t be more delighted for our university,” he said.

The final decision for accreditation, as well as a full report on the SACSCOC evaluation, will come to a vote at a board meeting in December.

CLARIFICATIONS In Thursday’s issue of The Oracle, an article previewing Bullstock indicated that the performing bands — Andy Grammer, American Authors and Young the Giant ­— had requested beer and liquor in the riders of their contracts that the university approved. However, there is also a clause in the USF Standard Performance Agreement that states that the university may not purchase or provide alcoholic beverages for performers, nor may the performer sell or supply alcoholic beverages. Prior to Bullstock, the university amended the hospitality list to exclude the requested alcohol.

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By Wesley Higgins C O M M E N T A R Y

“Grand Theft Auto V” — the fastest selling entertainment product in history — has sold more than 50 million copies since its release on PS3 and Xbox 360 in September 2013, thanks in part to an updated re-release on next generation consoles, PS4 and Xbox One. This week, Rockstar Games will republish “Grand Theft Auto V.” Reviewers have already called the fifth edition the ultimate version of a game critics already hailed as a masterpiece.

Resolution is four times higher: every grain of sand is rendered on the desert floor.

Draw distance is increased: players can look from a mountaintop and see the city skyline from miles away. And the frame rate is doubled: the combustive expanse of every explosion can be seamlessly

Lifestyle UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

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Grand Theft Auto back by popular demand observed.

However this enhanced edition is not on a brand new console, it is on the world’s oldest mainstream gaming platform: the personal computer (PC).

The PC, of course, has evolved since text adventures where the only mechanics were typing commands, such as “shoot orc with arrow” or “open mailbox,” and the only graphics were the players’ imaginations.

Since the first consoles came out, they have always competed with or, as some would say, been a step behind the PC. This is because PC owners are able to unscrew the case and replace any component from the graphics card to the cooling fan in order to squeak out every bit of processing power.

Consoles, meanwhile, cannot be modified and are updated once a generation in the console cycle. The seventh generation consoles that released “Call of Duty 2” also fronted the release of “Call of

SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE

Duty Ghosts” — eight years and nine Call of Duties later.

There are reasons why the console cycle has become ever slower, even though technology is improving ever faster.

First, not everyone is willing or can afford to buy a new console every year a better processor comes out.

Secondly, manufacturers don’t make profit from console gaming for years after release.

Sony and Microsoft sell hardware at a loss. They make up for the lost billions many years later from the money developers pay for allowing their games to be compatible with the consoles. According to Forbes, the PS3 didn’t see a profit until 2010, four years after its release.

Though the PS4 and Xbox One were already outdated before they were announced, PC gamers pay a price to stay ahead of console gamers. In order to play the newest version of GTA V with all graphics on high, someone would need

to buy an expensive 4k monitor and a desktop that costs in the thousands, though building one’s own computer can save a little money.

A PS4 or Xbox One, on the other hand, cost a quarter of the price for a premium gaming rig. Consoles also require less computing know-how and friends can play in the same room without the wiring and heavy lifting required for a LAN party.

So who is winning the fight?

According to Forbes, the PC gaming market is twice the size of the console market, thanks in part to the enduring popularity of Massive Multiplayer Online games like “World of Warcraft.”

Steam, a digital game store that also allows friends to talk and recommend games, has become more popular and also gives a platform for discounted high-budget games, as well as hundreds of independent games released monthly.

The casual gamers who traditionally owned consoles are also ditching the joypad for the smartphone, as mobile gaming sales have increased significantly.

All in all, if someone wants the highest-quality gaming experience with the largest number of games to choose from, PC gaming is the way to go. Just be willing to invest more money into the experience and deal with hardware tinkering every once in a while.

On the other hand, if someone doesn’t want to endure the humility of finding out one’s computer can’t play the latest Far Cry on high settings or would rather relax on the couch, console gaming is the way to go. Just be willing to forego prettier lighting and shadows that swell and slip with the sun.

Or you could do what many video game forum commenters recommend: buy both.

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Colleges denying federal aid for religious freedom hurts students Wyoming Catholic is actually following in the footsteps of other colleges. Virginia’s Christendom College and Michigan’s Hillsdale College, have also declined funding to avoid federal intrusion on curriculum. A North Carolina Catholic school, Belmont Abbey College, even calculated the financial loss of cutting student aid to avoid offering benefits to spouses of samesex employees and having transgender restrooms.

Granted, schools do have the right to choose to be independent from receiving financial aid.

However, in addition to claiming a legal right to discriminate, another price of religious freedom is the risk of putting students into a financial bundle and possibly more years of student debt.

Wyoming College students have used private loans to pay for the $28,000 annual cost of tuition, according to the Times. The 80 percent of students who could have benefited from federal aid have to rely on private loans with higher rates.

Clearly, the religious mores of the school are more important to its leaders than the country’s student debt crisis. Funding education with private loans also imposes great risk on students.

For instance, according to the Institute for College Access and Success, private loans tend to be costlier than federal loans and

Isabelle Cavazos COLU M N I ST

Sometimes the price for uninhibited Catholic teaching is the loss of federal funding needed to afford it, as one college recently joined the list of schools to deny federal student aid for religious reasons.

As reported by the New York Times, Wyoming Catholic College rejected federal aid for its students in order to protect religious freedoms the college’s leaders believed were being threatened by the federal government. The logic is that by not accepting the student aid, the government cannot intervene in the college’s conservative ideas on birth control and same-sex marriage.

Though students and parents at the college were OK with losing the predicted $650,000 in loans and $250,000 in Pell grants annually, according to the Times, this isn’t an isolated issue that can be so easily dismissed.

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What you said In light of the popularity of live-streaming video social media apps such as Periscope and Meerkat, which have both raised concerns for their immediate posting, editors Isabelle Cavazos and Adam Mathieu asked students their thoughts on live-streaming social media.

“It’s good for the media, but if someone’s at a party doing something they shouldn’t, it could be bad for them.”

— Sarah Chesser, a freshman majoring in mass communications

“I think it could be dangerous in a culture where people are negligent on things they post. That stuff gets a lot of people in trouble.” ­— Taylor Burke, a junior majoring in civil engineering

“That’s just weird. I’m not a fan of having people know exactly what I’m doing when I’m doing it.”

Isabelle Cavazos is a junior majoring in English and Spanish.

— Cypress Krieger, a freshman majoring in criminology

the University of South Florida’s student newspaper since 1966

Editor in Chief: Alex Rosenthal .............................. oracleeditor@gmail.com Managing Editor: Grace Hoyte ......................... oraclemeditor@gmail.com

News Editor: Wesley Higgins .......................... oraclenewsteam@gmail.com Sports Editor: Vinnie Portell ........................ oraclesportseditor@gmail.com Lifestyle Editor: Ariana Matos .................. oraclelifestyleeditor@gmail.com Opinion Editor: Isabelle Cavazos ....................... oracleopinion@gmail.com Copy Editors: Safeena Kassoo, Caitlin Lochner Multimedia Editor: Adam Mathieu Assistant Editors: Sebastian Contento, Jacob Hoag,

do not offer as many consumer protections and repayment plans.

They also carry interest rates as high as 13 percent, much higher than those for federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans for undergraduates, which is 4.66 percent for those disbursed last July.

While the school is trying to strengthen its religious freedoms by avoiding issues such as premarital sex or gay rights, it is also limiting access to the school for potential students who need to rely on federal funding.

Despite being close to reaching accreditation last year, the college’s school board denied it to avoid federal loan funding that would have covered a fifth of the college’s overall budget, as reported in the Times. Also mentioned in the article, accepting the loan programs could have created more wiggle room for the school to improve faculty salaries or expand the campus.

It seems denying federal aid to maintain the integrity of a school’s religious teachings only hurts students by either barring access to that education or by sacrificing their financial stability in order to have it. What’s worse is that these sacrifices should never be intentional on the college’s part.

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“You could be able to live-stream a class, but you could also have negative effects from doing that.”

— Sara Schirmer, a freshman majoring in public health

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Call LaFleur’s: 813.264-5000.

LaFleur’s Gymnastics Coaching Positions Available Immediate openings for experienced, enthusiastic Girls Compulsory and XCEL coaches.

Contact Alecia at 813.264.5000 or optionalgirls@lafleurstampa.com.

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The Rundown 21-year-old golfer Jordan Spieth won The Masters on Sunday after shooting 18-under par for the tournament, four strokes better than second place.

Spieth led the tournament from start to finish and his final score tied the record for lowest score in Masters’ history, matching Tiger Woods’ 18-under in 1997.

Weekend scores Baseball

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Bulls’ offense stifled in series finale

By Vinnie Portell E D I T O R

The Bulls continued their dominance of the AAC this weekend as they defeated East Carolina in the first two games of the series, but were shutout 6-0 in the series finale Sunday at the USF Baseball Stadium.

Outside of senior shortstop Kyle Teaf, who went 3-for-5, USF (24-12-1, 7-2) was able to muster only two hits. The Bulls’ lackluster offense resulted in stranding 10 men on base.

Starter Joe Cavallaro (3-1) held the Pirates (21-15, 4-5) scoreless through four innings, but allowed three runs to score in the fifth and was subsequently pulled from the game. Michael Farley and Ryan Valdes relieved Cavallaro, allowing three runs over the final 4 1/3 innings.

Cavallaro was defeated by four Pirates pitchers who struck out

Men’s Tennis

Mid. Tennessee

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more batters (11) than hitters they allowed to reach base (10).

ECU pitcher Nick Durazo, who has a 0.39 ERA, struck out five of the 12 batters he faced and gave up only two hits in three innings.

The Bulls faced similar offensive issues in Game 1, as their only two runs came from a Luke Maglich homer that was launched over the right-field wall and bounced off the top of the batting cages.

Despite only scoring two runs, USF had the good fortune of having ace Jimmy Herget (6-1) on the mound. The Bulls’ No. 1 pitcher allowed one run on seven hits over eight innings and struck out nine.

USF found its offensive groove Saturday as it put 10 runs on the board in a shutout in Game 2.

Catcher Levi Borders led the way with six RBIs and another USF starter went eight innings deep as Casey Mulholland (4-4) held the Pirates to seven hits and struck out 10.

Kyle Teaf went 3-for-5 Sunday, but the rest of the Bulls were held scoreless by the Pirates. ORACLE PHOTO/STEPHEN SHULER After taking two of three from USF will host Stetson (19-18) on ECU, USF remains in first place in Tuesday night at 6:30 before travelthe AAC. The Bulls hold a 1.5 game ing to Memphis to play the Tigers, lead over the Huskies, from whom who currently sit in third in the they took two of three earlier this AAC, two games behind the Bulls. month.

Notebook

USF hires running backs coach

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By Vinnie Portell S P O R T S

Conference update Baseball UConn kept pace with USF this weekend, as it took two of three from UCF in Orlando. The Huskies sit in second in the AAC, 1.5 games behind the Bulls.

Softball UCF continued its reign over the AAC and swept Houston this weekend. The first-place Knights outscored the Cougars 23-2 over the three-game series.

BASEBALL

Stetson (19-18) at USF (24-12-1)

When: Tuesday, 6:30 p.m.

Where: USF Baseball Stadium TV/Radio: Bullscast/1010 AM

Donte Pimpleton became the third running backs coach since USF’s offseason began when his hiring was announced Saturday.

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E D I T O R

After losing two former running backs coaches to Oregon State and Notre Dame, USF announced Saturday the hiring of Donte Pimpleton to fill the vacant position.

Pimpleton is a former teammate of coach Willie Taggart and served as an offensive coach for three years during Taggart’s time as a coach at Western Kentucky.

He had been named the running backs and tight ends coach at Delaware State in February.

“I have had a great relationship with Donte since we were teammates at Western Kentucky,” Taggart said in a press release. “He is a competitive and hardworking individual and we have had a lot of success together. He will be terrific relating to our players on and off the field and we welcome him to the Bulls and the Bay.” Prior to coaching at Delaware State, Pimpleton worked as the

wide receivers coach at Kentucky Wesleyan College in 2013, before his promotion to offensive coordinator in 2014.

After winning only three games over the three seasons before Pimpleton was named offensive coordinator, including a winless 2013 campaign, Kentucky Wesleyan went 7-4 in 2014 and averaged 36.3 points per game.

The Panthers averaged only 16 points per game in 2013.

White picks Western Kentucky Following in the footsteps of coach Willie Taggart, former USF quarterback Mike White announced Saturday evening he will transfer to Western Kentucky.

White was granted his release from the school March 31, only three days after the spring game.

The rising junior threw for 1,639 yards with eight touchdowns and seven interceptions last season as the Bulls’ starter in 11 games.

He will be the fifth quarterback of the Hilltoppers, who are led by sixth-year quarterback Brandon

Doughty. The graduate student threw for 4,830 yards and 49 touchdowns with only 10 interceptions last season.

Bulls win Irish Creek Championship The USF men’s golf team ended its regular season on a strong note as it won its third championship of the season in the 15-team Irish Creek Championship in Kannapolis, North Carolina.

The Bulls inched out North Florida by a single stroke at the par-71 Irish Creek Golf Club after shooting eight strokes better than the Ospreys in the final round of play Sunday.

USF sophomore Rigel Fernandes tied for first place after shooting 5-under for the tournament.

Golfers Claudio Correa and Chase Koepka also finished in the top 10 and tied for ninth at even par.

USF will move on to postseason play as it readies for the AAC Championship, which begins April 26 in Lecanto, Florida.