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February 6, 2017 Vol. 54 No. 36

As campus-carry debate reopens, USF professor pushes for more research Page 3

Gasparilla International Food Fest Page 4

Paid maternity leave an asset for Tampa Page 6

Ice Bulls get new home Page 8

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the Oracle the University of South Florida’s student newspaper since 1966

Editor in Chief Jacob Hoag oracleeditor@gmail.com Managing Editor Miki Shine oraclemeditor@gmail.com Assistant News Editor Chelsea Grosbeck Sports Editor Vinnie Portell oraclesportseditor@gmail.com

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The Oracle is published Monday and Thursday during the fall and spring semesters, and once weekly, Wednesday, during the summer.

The Oracle allocates one free issue to each student. Additional copies are $.50 each and available at the Oracle office (SVC 0002).

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News Briefs Trump coming to MacDill for briefing

NEWS

President Donald Trump’s executive order that banned all immigrants coming from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen resulted in countrywide protests and multiple court challenges.

However, the White House said Sunday it expects the courts to reaffirm and reinstate the ban on refugees and travelers, according to the Associated Press.

The State Department announced last week that as many as 60,000 foreigners had their visas canceled due to the ban. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) predicts the appeals courts will not have the last word on the issue, and that it’ll end up in the Supreme Court.

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after EPA freeze

President Donald Trump is coming to Tampa today for the first time since being elected. He will be visiting MacDill Air Force Base, according to the Tampa Bay Times, to receive a briefing from leaders at the U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command. Afterward, he’ll be having lunch with service members and deliver remarks. He’ll be joined

by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford and national security advisor Michael Flynn.

White House expects courts to reinstate travel ban

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Sustainable Public health researchers call for gun reuse project safety research amid campus-carry debate continues

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

By Chelsea Grosbeck A S S T .

By Abby Rinaldi S T A F F

W R I T E R

With the new legislative session of the Florida Senate comes another debate over campus-carry.

A hotly contested issue, Senate Bill 622, Sen. Greg Steube’s brainchild concerning concealed weapons and firearms, was again introduced to the Senate on Wednesday after failing to be made into law last session.

At the same time, an article titled “Academic Public Health and the Firearm Crisis: An Agenda for Action,” co-authored by Karen Liller, a professor at USF’s College of Public Health, was published in the American Journal of Public Health. The article calls for increased collaboration and networking among public health researchers and professionals to figure out what to do about the issue of gun safety.

Liller came to co-author this article through a conference held late last year in Boston. The conference, called “Public Health and the Firearm Epidemic: A National Consultation,” was

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SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE

We don’t know what something like (this) will do or what it won’t do for a campus. We just don’t know at this point, and I think to allow students or faculty or whomever is allowed to carry a weapon on campus before we understand this is very premature.

Karen Liller, professor at USF’s College of Public Health

a meeting of more than 40 institutions across the country to discuss how to research gun safety.

Liller said she couldn’t remember the last time a meeting this large and diverse came to talk about the issue of gun safety.

She was chosen to attend the conference by the Dean of the College of Public Health, Donna Petersen.

While there, Sandro Galea, dean of the Boston University College of Public Health, asked attendees for assistance in writing an article about the agenda the collective members came up with.

”

Liller volunteered.

Liller herself is not a supporter of campus-carry. She said this is because there is little research about gun safety, and therefore the results of such legislation are hard to predict.

“We don’t know what something like (this) will do or what it won’t do for a campus,” she said. “We just don’t know at this point, and I think to allow students or faculty or whomever is allowed to carry a weapon on campus before we understand this is very premature.”

n See CAMPUS on PAGE 7

N E W S

E D I T O R

Battered with trash and debris, vacant lots line the streets behind the University Plaza. These uninhabited areas once served the purpose of industrialization.

Now, the community’s health is susceptible to hazardous waste.

USF is one of 19 universities — the only recipient in Florida — to receive a $200,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the redevelopment of these brownfield sites for the sustainable reuse of polluted and contaminated land to be safely repurposed for community use in the area surrounding campus.

The two-year development project will build a sevenacre park with a fish pond, walking trail, teaching unit and classroom, organic garden and include outdoor fitness equipment, according to Sarah Combs, executive director and CEO of University Area Community Development Corporation (UACDC).

In 2009, then-President Barack Obama approved the Economic Recovery Initiative, which included a Brownfields Area-Wide Planning grant to be distributed across the country to revitalize communities and foster economic growth, according to EPA.gov.

Complications occurred with administrative transition when the Donald Trump Administration issued a freeze on all grants awarded by the

n See EPA on PAGE 7

LIFESTYLE

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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

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Gasparilla International Food Festival explores global tastes

By Nicole Cate L I F E S T Y L E

E D I T O R

While the official Gasparilla Parade has come and gone, make no mistake, the season is far from over. To quote a recently overheard Tampa resident, “Gasparilla lasts about four months.” And he’s right.

After the parade, other events under the Gasparilla umbrella include the Gasparilla Distance Classic later this month, the music festival in March and, now, the food festival.

The inaugural Gasparilla International Food Festival will be held March 26 at Ybor City Centennial Park. It’s being put on by City Festivals, a group of organizers who put together local

events in Orlando, St. Petersburg and Tampa.

Tashima Johnson, a co-organizer at City Festivals, described the organization’s goals as wanting to give people the opportunity to explore and learn more about their local communities.

“This event being in Tampa, we wanted to embrace the culture of Tampa Bay, the international cultures that have emerged and developed here to create what is now a unique melting pot in our city,” Johnson said. “The purpose of the food festival is to facilitate the opportunity for persons to be able to enjoy and explore and experience what makes Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay.”

While the food festival isn’t related to the Gasparilla theme directly by way of pirates, its commonality is more about what the buccaneers signify.

Johnson explained that bringing food and vendors from different cultural backgrounds is similar to the invasion idea that Gasparilla boasts. They wanted to celebrate the numerous cultures that made Tampa their home and, by extension, allowed the surrounding community to experience their cuisine.

“The focus is more on travel.

It’s an exploration,” Johnson said.

“We want people to see it as a discovery, like Gasparilla.”

Even the location it’s being held at holds some significance

to the event. While one of the reasons to hold the festival in Ybor was because the organizers at City Festival wanted to support the community, their main reason had more to do with its background.

“Ybor itself is a very historic city, and it’s one that has embraced culture perhaps more than any other city in the local Bay area,” Johnson said. “We thought it would have been symbolic, especially for it being the first Gasparilla International Food Festival that we’re having.

“It’s also one of only two national historic landmark districts in Florida, so we thought that was very important, and it definitely serves a great purpose

in preserving international culture.”

Apart from having foods from American, Caribbean, Hispanic, Mediterranean, French, Italian, African, and Asian cultures, the event will also provide a variety of live entertainment, including a top chef competition, an art showcase and surprise gate prizes.

Admission is free, but if people register online beforehand, they get entered into a competition to win a free meal from one of the food vendors at the festival.

There will also be live music and a dance floor, so Johnson has one final tip to attendees.

“We’re encouraging everyone to come out with their dancing shoes,” she said.

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OPINION

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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

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Paid maternity leave an asset for Tampa

By Breanne Williams C O L U M N I S T

Tampa’s City Hall has made a firm stance in support of the families that call the Bay home. Starting Sunday, full-time employees who have worked for the city for a year will be eligible for paid parental leave.

The city used to follow federal Family and Medical Leave Act guidelines, which would essentially offer up to 12 weeks unpaid, but job protected, leave with health insurance for certain employees.

The switch to paid leave is a necessary step for the city. Mayor Bob Buckhorn explained how the cost of the paid leave will end up benefiting the city as a whole.

“Families should never be faced with a choice of whether to take those critical first weeks home with their child or put food on the table,” Buckhorn said.

“Parental leave, child care and the like are not women’s issues. They’re economic issues, and the progress that we make on this front will directly impact our competitiveness on the global stage.”

Buckhorn echoed sentiments voiced by former President Barack Obama in his 2015 State of the Union Address where he said paid maternity leave would increase the percentage of women in the workforce and aid middle class families.

There are advantages to offering a benefit that for some reason is still considered to be a luxury rather than a necessary requirement for full-time jobs.

A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found women who took maternity leave ended up working 15-20 percent more hours during the second year of the child’s life than those who did not take leave.

Tampa’s City Hall is not the first local government to offer paid maternity leave. St. Petersburg announced it would offer the benefit for up to six weeks paid leave back in 2014.

Though not first in the race, Tampa is definitely leaps and bounds ahead of many other businesses, a fact Buckhorn highlighted in a video posted to his Facebook page where he encouraged other companies to follow his lead.

Unfortunately, the U.S. is the only industrialized nation not to mandate paid leave for mothers.

In fact, a large portion of the world has paid maternity policies. Lesotho, Swaziland and Papua New Guinea are the only other countries that do not, according to the Huffington Post.

Access to paid leave has been proven to offer benefits for both the parent and the child, and Tampa officials hope the move will aid in recruiting and keep employees and boost productivity, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

“Tampa is competing with cities around the world,” Buckhorn said Tampa is now offering paid maternity leave to full-time employees. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE in a video posted on his Facebook.

“Attracting and retaining the most talented requires providing a 21st century workplace for our families.”

Primary caregivers will receive eight weeks of paid leave after the arrival of a child. Spouses or partners of a primary caregiver who are also cityemployed will be eligible for two weeks of paid leave.

It’s estimated the new policy will cost Tampa up to $290,000 a year, which will allow the 4,400 eligible workers to not have to choose between a paycheck or time with the newest addition to their family.

Critics may fear the cost is not worth the gain.

However, thousands of workers will now be hesitant to leave for opportunities elsewhere because they know the city puts its employees first.

Without a large turnaround, Tampa can focus on increasing productivity.

The policy is worth the cost.

Breanne Williams is a senior majoring in mass communications.

M O N DAY, F E B R U A RY 6 , 2 0 1 7

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CAMPUS

Continued from PAGE 3

The current roadblocks for gun safety research are the result of federal legislation, Liller said.

“Congress said that (the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)) could no longer provide funding for anything that was used to advocate or promote gun control, and that then got construed to be funding for firearms, which meant that nearly all of the funding then from the CDC for that issues sort of dried up, and it also followed suit in the National Institutes of Health,” she said.

“There is some money in the National Institute of Justice, as I understand, but basically we lost a great deal when that happened, because without the funding, you can’t study the issue, and without studying the issue, you can’t develop research-based interventions. So, it’s sort of a domino effect.”

EPA

Continued from PAGE 3

EPA. “We were a little nervous…” said E. Christian Wells, professor of anthropology and director of USF Center of Brownfields Research. “With no communication from the EPA, we just found out the restriction would be lifted and luckily the project will now continue.”

With restricted communication, regional officials at state and local agencies received no prior warning or follow-up notice from the EPA about the freeze, according to PBS. The temporary suspension threatened all divisions such as new business activities at all department levels, including issuing task orders or work assignments to EPA contractors.

Being the first major grant the USF Center of Brownfields Research has received, those involved questioned if the project would be jeopardized or completely forfeited, though the temporary freeze did not cause any delays and the project is still scheduled to begin in March.

The purpose of revitalizing the site is to rehabilitate the economically and environmentally at-risk area to

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T H E O R AC L E

The agenda presented in the article is designed to help researchers in public health research gun safety despite these barriers.

Liller said the main strategies the article focused on were how to build and strengthen research and scholarship in the area of gun safety, meeting with other funders as a group instead of as individual researchers, and building networks and collaborations not just with those along their same vein, but also gun owners and manufacturers.

“We absolutely need funding … and we need to form greater partnerships,” she said. “… We need to come together to come to solutions.”

One thing Liller said she finds to be important as efforts for gun safety research going forward is involvement and the gathering of misguided opinion. One misconception, she said, is that the goal is to take everyone’s guns away.

“Basically we just want to know when things happen not lawfully and people do get hurt and people do get killed, why,” she said. “Tell me about the gun. Tell me about who owned the gun. How many hands did that gun go through before it was used as a weapon in that way? What can we do to make the gun safer?”

The CDC reported 33,390 firearm deaths in the U.S. in 2014, with 2,408 in the state of Florida alone. Liller said the gun issue is a safety issue above all else.

Especially concerning campuscarry, the student voice needs to be heard, Liller said.

“I would just hope that they would join, if they’re invited to join efforts in this regard, whatever side they are on or whatever position they take because again, we need to learn,” she said. “Basically, we need to know more. We need to talk more. You need to be part of our efforts … Be there with us because you’re a very important constituent in all of this.”

inspire the public’s involvement in their community.

“We will conduct a comprehensive area-wide plan to identify the resources the community needs to clean up the environmental contamination and pollution,” Wells said.

“This will allow us to figure out what businesses and parks and recreation residents want. With a strong redevelopment plan, we can pursue other grants for activation.”

Twelve other community stakeholders, including the Florida Brownfields Association and Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County, will join with two divisions at USF — the School of Architecture and Community Design as well as the School of Public Affairs for planning.

Referred to as the “town and gown divide,” it is the separation of students, faculty and staff of their surrounding communities, according to Wells. To overcome hurdles in implementation, Wells believes in student outreach.

“To succeed we need students to get involved,” Wells said. “It’s a great learning opportunity for USF students through service learning and community engagement.”

In the upcoming weeks, coordination with volunteer programs on campus will extend involvement of the

project.

Most of the funding will hire residents in the area to assist in community planning efforts. The UACDC will employ and involve Tampa residents in resource programs for all ages in assistance education to avoid displacement of longterm residents.

“Despite the growing university, since the 1960’s this is a neighborhood plagued with high crime rates, high poverty rates, a lot of blight and environmental contamination,” Wells said.

C o m p l e m e n ta r y fo r community development, residents will collaborate with stakeholders to create a plan of action and voice implemental changes in their community.

In public community meetings, these sessions will address solutions to local adversities such as, limitations to fresh foods, outdoor recreation and community centers.

In a Resident Engagement survey UACDC administered, the results concluded what residents want most from their community: a place to go with their families to enjoy nature and unite with their families.

“There are no safe parks for children to play,” Combs said. “This project will be the catalyst for the revitalization of the community to start sprouting seeds of change.”

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Sports

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

The Rundown Outside USF

Fans storm court, cost team upset win St. Bonaventure guard Matt Mobley made what appeared to be a game-winning 3-point shot as time was expiring against VCU on Saturday.

The student section stormed the court to celebrate the basket and what seemed to be a one-point victory over the conference-leading Rams.

However, there was still roughly a half second left on the clock and VCU was awarded a technical free throw due to the disruption of the game. The Rams made the free throw and eventually won in overtime, 83-77, giving fans around the country a lesson in patience.

USF weekend scoreboard Men’s Basketball

USF Temple

74 83

Men’s Tennis

USF Ohio State

1 6

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USF assistant leaves for Florida

T H E O R AC L E

Ice Bulls begin new chapter at Florida Hospital Center Ice Club Sports

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By Vinnie Portell S P O R T S

The USF Ice Hockey team opened its new home with an 8-2 win over Florida on Friday night. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE/STEVEN MUNCIE

By Josh Fiallo C O R R E S P O N D E N T

It’s often said that home is where the heart is. For USF hockey, that has been the Ellenton Ice and Sports Complex for the past three seasons, until now.

With the opening of Florida Hospital Center Ice in Wesley Chapel, USF hockey has a new home and a convenient 15-minute drive from campus — as opposed to a 45-minute haul to Ellenton.

The Bulls broke in their new ice Friday night against the University of Florida. There wasn’t an empty seat in the building, as the crowd was loud and rowdy throughout; an experience USF players haven’t been used to at a home game.

USF went on to notch an 8-2 victory, the teams’ largest win of the season. Senior Huw Baveystock said the fans played a key factor to the Bulls success Friday night.

“It meant even more to see so many people come out and support, because we’re making a push for regionals,” Baveystock

said. “We really needed that win yesterday and the crowd certainly helped in showing their support.”

Baveystock doesn’t believe Friday night’s crowd was a onetime fluke, either. He predicted that while playing at their new rink, the Bulls can expect the same amount of support, and success for years to come.

“I’m really excited for the future of the hockey program here,” Baveystock said. “I’m excited for the young guys who will get to have the experience of playing in front of that crowd, in that arena, for the next three years.”

One of those young guys is freshman Wes Moon. Playing in his first season with the Ice Bulls, Moon said that one of the main reasons he decided to join the team this year was because of the teams’ move to Florida Hospital Center Ice. “I live like 10 minutes away from the new arena,” Moon said.

“That was one of the reasons I joined this semester, is because of the new rink opening. The drive to Ellenton was a hike and a half.”

Moon isn’t the only player who sees the new rinks’ close proximity to campus as a positive. Before the move, team captain Danny Hoeflich used to have an issue with getting his players to practice consistently.

“It was a pain,” Hoeflich said.

“We had some guys not able to make it practice some days because of the long drive, and it got pretty annoying.”

Now that all practices are held a short drive away from campus, it’s been easier on the players, and their busy schedules, balancing school and hockey. Hoeflich said the convenience of the shorter drive has already had a positive effect on players’ participation.

“I think people are more than happy now to come out to practice.

We’ve timed it out, and now we get over an hour and a half of the night back,” Hoeflich said.

Looking to build on the success of their first game at their new home, the Bulls will be back in action at Florida Hospital Center Ice on Friday for the SCHC tournament. Admission is free.

E D I T O R

Mere days after completing his first recruiting class as a USF assistant, former Bulls secondary coach Corey Bell is leaving the school for a position at Florida.

Bell, who coached at two Miami high schools and FAU, helped USF reel in a trio of three-star players from state champion Carol City on National Signing Day. With the departure of Bell, Strong will have three coaches left to hire.

Spring practices begin March 6.

Men’s Basketball losing skid hits 11 Despite the return of leading scorer Geno Thorpe, USF’s losing streak continued on Sunday in Philadelphia, as the Bulls fell to Temple, 83-74.

Led by guard Daniel Dingle, who scored 22 points including a career-high six 3-pointers, the Owls jumped out to a 46-23 halftime lead.

The Bulls will look to avoid losing their 12th straight game when they travel to play at UConn on Wednesday.

Track and field has 10 top three finishes USF track and field had 10 athletes finish in the top three in their respective competitions at the Villanova Invitational over the weekend.

Seniors Michael Babinec and Bernicia Holifield not only won their events, but approached school records while doing so.

Babinec’s 8:25.89 finish in the 3000m was good for the second fastest in USF history while Holifield won the weight throw with a personal record of 61-feet 3-inches, good for third-best in school history.

The Bulls will compete at the Hoosier Hills in Bloomington, Indiana, from March 17-18.