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Eyes on Knoxville: There’s more than coffee percolating at the Golden Roast

UT’s Campus Disability Advocates organize preliminary info meeting

Miss the Grammys? Fear not, the Beacon has you covered with results and analysis

NEWS >>pg. 2

ARTS & CULTURE >>pg. 3

Lady Vols newcomer serves up success in debut tennis tourament

ARTS & CULTURE>>pg. 3

SPORTS >>pg. 6

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Issue 14, Volume 125

Financial app adds ease to living searches, payment issues Bradi Musil Staff Writer Friends and finance don’t always mix. Splitwise, a web tool that already helps maintain financial balance among friends and housemates, now allows users to find cost-efficient living spaces, too. Created in 2011 by co-founders Jonathan Bittner, Ryan Laughlin and Marshall Weir, Splitwise began as a mobile app to facilitate financial peace

between friends. Now an established company in Providence, R.I., Splitwise has expanded to include affordable apartment hunting. By plugging in your zip code, the Average Rent Calculator generates graphs detailing the average rent per bedroom, the average price per square foot and the number of apartments in the sample of that region; however, it does not include specific apartment listings. Zoe Chaves, marketing and business coordinator at Splitwise, explained that

this tool is targeted toward college students who need close-to-campus locations with a specific number of bedrooms. “We offer this tool to as many colleges as we can get in touch with,” Chaves said. “What I’m most excited for is to see how students are using the tool, and I welcome feedback from students. How did students use it, how is it useful, how is not useful?” Officially released on Oct. 31, 2013, the Average Rent Calculator tool already tracks more than 2 million apartment listings in the United States.

Splitwise is currently trying to develop specific landing periods on college campuses to discern the most popularly filled regions for students. Heather Norris, a senior in biology living in the Woodlands Apartments, said she would have appreciated such direction during her first few years at UT. “Especially as a freshman, it would have been nice to be able to see the most popular student living areas and prices,” Norris said. “I didn’t have an older sibling at UT or anywhere else so I basically had to figure all of that out

on my own.” Unlike the Splitwise app, which tracks checks and balances between friends, the Average Rent Calculator is only available on a computer. The two work in tandem to handle house payments. “We are just trying to reduce the amount of friction around friends with money and keep a running balance,” Chaves said. “We have all lived with our friends before and nobody wants to get in (a) stupid money fight.” See SPLITWISE on Page 2

‘RENT’ ALMOST DUE • Photo Courtesy of Sex Week UT

ORNL provides real-world experience through internships

Steven Cook

Kevin Ridder

Copy Editor

Copy Editor Not all skills can be learned in a classroom setting. This is the void UT’s nearly 14-year-long partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory seeks to fill for UT students and graduates. Since April of 2000, UT-Battelle LLC has managed the nation’s largest open-science laboratory. Today, the university’s partnership with ORNL includes approximately 60 joint faculty members and more than 100 students working at the lab, according to its website. The students working there aren’t your typical interns, either; they do much more than paperwork and coffee running. Doug Bouler, a junior in electrical engineering, interned at ORNL in the Measurement Science and Systems Engineering Division last summer. “There were several projects throughout the time I was there,” Bouler said. “For example, we were working on a probe that was going to be able to measure blood flow and oxygenation in your liver. I helped design an implantable case for that probe.” Bouler was invited back to intern this upcoming summer. “A lot of what I learned was the ability to work as a team,” Bouler said. “I understand the role of an electrical engineer in today’s society.” Engineering isn’t the only division at ORNL, though. Boasting a highly diverse lab, research in many different fields occurs simultaneously. Melanie Mayes, a joint faculty member with ORNL and the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at UT, works alongside several students at the lab. “I spend a lot of time intensively with students when they first arrive, teaching them how to do things,” Mayes said. “And then after I help things get started, I take a step back and let the student take on more of a leadership role with me acting more as an adviser to them if they need help.” See ORNL on Page 2

McRae hits gym to recoup after UF setback

show’s tickets harken to the enduring popularity of the rock musical, which originally hit OffBroadway in 1994. Despite the many 90s-specific references in the play, Free said he believes “RENT” is still loved today for its timeless encapsulation of youth. “It’s about all these young people coming together, fighting for a cause a lot of the time and dealing with things like AIDS and support group,” he said. “You have this beautiful character, Angel, who develops, and then you lose him in the process of the show, so I think the whole show is about love and loss and things we care about still today.” Albeit some 20 years later, “RENT” contains themes and ideas that are still fresh and relevant to the way sexuality is perceived modern day, Free said.

Many Tennessee basketball fans – and even players – opted to forget about the Vols’ ugly, 67-41 loss at Florida over the weekend as quickly as they could. Jordan McRae wasn’t in a forgetful mood. With a ghastly 1-of-15 shooting performance against the Gators still fresh in his mind, the Vols’ leading scorer headed straight to the gym Saturday evening after arriving back in Knoxville and brought some of his fellow Vols with him. “Jordan is Jordan; he worked several guys when we got back the night of the game,” UT head coach Cuonzo Martin said at Monday’s press conference. “He worked out yesterday. He worked out this morning. Jordan is going to be in the gym.” McRae’s biggest impact on Saturday’s game was on the boards as he finished with just five points but added seven rebounds – tied for a seasonhigh. But after a few days of breaking down game film, Martin is on the same page with McRae about his missed scoring chances versus the Gators that can be fixed before Wednesday’s home affair with Ole Miss. “He knows and understands in watching film what gaps he had an opportunity to score and just watching it,” Martin said, “attacking the rim and didn’t do it. “But I mean, Jordan spends time in the gym. It’s never an issue with him.” It might be an issue with other players, however. When asked about the struggles of Antonio Barton and Josh Richardson, Martin attributed “finding time and consistency in the gym” as the biggest key to their success – or lack thereof. Martin was later asked to elaborate on lack of consistency from Barton, a Memphis transfer who has struggled to fill the shoes of recently-transferred guard Trae Golden.

See RENT on Page 3

See BASKETBALL on Page 6

‘RENT,’ a play detailing the story of New York artists trying to survive poverty and a condemning epidemic, will premiere on Jan. 30 through Feb. 2 at the Lab Theatre in promotion of Sex Week.

Play cast preps for sexy, educational production ater event right before Sex Rader and her fellow Sex Week Week because we try to have coordinators decided to do a full our education available in lots of production of “RENT” this year It’s Sunday evening on different mediums since every- complete with all of the play’s Pedestrian Walkway and the one learns in a different way,” original musical numbers. The response was overnormal hubbub of activity has said Brianna Rader, senior in whelmingly positive, said Kolt College Scholars and co-founder settled into a tranquil lull as students, faculty and crazed preachers alike prepare at home for the week ahead. All is at peace – until one e’ve hit those issues straight on, and we haven’t passes The Lab Theatre, an offtried to skirt around anything that’s a touchy subject.” shoot venue of Clarence Brown Theatre. -Kolt Free A swarm of students carrying everything from furniture to costumes to cans of spray paint walk rapidly in and out of of Sex Week. “‘RENT’ is perfect Free, junior in college scholars the theater entrance. Inside, the because in it you have AIDS – and “RENT” production head. “We had 50 people or so muffled din of shouted direc- which relates to safe sex, issues audition, which is a pretty of love and relationships, and tives and laughter can be heard. big number for a cast of only It’s the week of UT’s student- issues of LGBTQ. “It’s a great show to combine 15,” Free said. “We were really run production of “RENT,” a promotion for Sex Week, and all the issues we will address in blown away, like there wasn’t cast and crew are working fran- Sex Week into one big perfor- anyone that we felt we couldn’t cast after their audition. It was tically to transform the Lab’s mance.” amazing.” After performing a stage stage into 90s-era New York These numbers combined City by opening night Thursday. reading of “Spring Awakening” with the sold-out status of the last year with great success, “We always try to do a the-

Liv McConnell

Copy Editor

“W

INSIDE THE DAILY BEACON

“No school, teacher or curriculum should define one’s achievement.” @utkDailyBeacon www.utdailybeacon.com

OPINIONS >>pg. 4

News Arts & Culture Opinions Sports

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