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Knoxville native Hey OK Fantastic at Longbranch Saloon

Meet Athlete of the Week Jackie Areson

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

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E D I T O R I A L L Y

Issue 35

PUBLISHED SINCE 1906 http://utdailybeacon.com

Vol. 116

I N D E P E N D E N T

S T U D E N T

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Dancer’s moves give campus entertainment ‘Dancing Dude’ impresses students with unique style, intense passion for music Preston Peeden Staff Writer For Neil Cole, it all started with N*Sync on a warm, September day. While walking with a friend, Cole was listening to his iPod. When the beats of “Dirty Pop” hit his eardrums, his life changed. And with that change, the Dancing Dude at UT was born. “When the song came on, I just started dancing to it,” Cole said. “I stopped and looked over at my friend and asked if, you know, it was just terrible, and if I should never do that again. And he looked at me and said, ‘It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen.’ And with that I thought I could do this and kept dancing ever since.” Cole, a freshman from Nashville with dreams of being an architect, was not a dancer before this moment. In fact, despite a deep love of music stemming from his time in his high school’s band, Cole said that in high school he never danced. “I didn’t do this at all in high school,” he said. “When my friends saw the videos of me dancing on the Internet, they were all like, ‘This is not the same guy. He’s changed.’ And, honestly, I think I have.” In those high school days, Cole described himself as being slightly introverted and definitely not confident enough to do what he does today. “I used to be real closed off,” Cole said. “Then I get here and start dancing. I just don’t think about it. And people come over and say hey to me, and it’s really helped me open up.” While he has no set routine, Cole said that he likes to dance around two to three hours per day, depending on his mood. On bad days, of which he has only had two so far, Cole might not dance at all, while on the better days, his dancing can go as long as four hours, with no set location. “I like to dance the most when I’m eating,” Cole said. “People see me all the time in the cafeterias and the food courts. I used to dance to class, but I stopped because I’m not really a morning person.” It is at those lunchtime dances that Cole usually draws his largest audiences and admirers. “I see him dancing around Presidential

Court, and I got a lot of respect for him,” Denis Korobkov, an undecided freshman, said. “He doesn’t care what people think about him, he just does his thing. People will laugh or look and gawk, but he just dances and does what he wants to do. I wish I had moves like him.” While Cole’s initial popularity came through occasional sightings and by word-of-mouth, his celebrity status rose with the beginning of his Facebook fan page, which is titled “Dancing Dude at UTK.” Since its inception earlier this fall, his page has swollen to encompass more than 1,400 fans. Its contents include not only the occasional status update from Cole himself on his life, but also new videos and songs that he has been dancing to lately. Currently, his top-10 songs list is headed by “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love Again — Hyper Crush Remix.” Regardless of the number of fans he has, Cole does not dance for notoriety or notice. Instead, Cole dances for one simple reason: He loves it. “Dance is a passion of mine,” Cole said. “I love to do it, and when I hear something with a good beat I just can’t help dancing.” Cole’s deep-seated interest in dance has given him a unique approach to his moves. While some will boast of deep repertoires and complicated steps, Cole’s movements come from a “connect-the-dots”-like system in his head. “When I pick up the rhythm, the beat starts to move me,” Cole said. “I start moving, and I take these mental snapshots of where I want my body to look like at the end of each move. And then I kind of go through the photos and get to that pose. In the end, wherever my body goes is how I move.” Cole’s ultimate goal with dance is to get others to dance with him. While Cole can see why some might be too afraid to take the first step, that does not deter him from hoping they will follow his lead. “If everyone in one of my classes just got up and danced with me, well, that would just be amazing,” Cole said. While it might take awhile for the rest of campus to catch up with his goals, Cole will still keep dancing. And there’s a good chance one of the songs he’s dancing to is “Dirty Pop.”

Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon

Neil Cole, freshman undecided, dances in Pedestrian Courtyard on Tuesday, March 1. Neil, better know as the Dancing Dude at UT, has garnered plenty of attention thanks to his dancing during seemingly all activities, including meals at Presidential Court Cafeteria.

Student expands journalism options Kristian Smith Student Life Editor Kathryn Sullivan did not want to wait to get a jumpstart on her career. As a journalism major focusing on magazine journalism, Sullivan knew the job market would be tough. “I wanted an outlet to practice what I hope to do in the future,” she said. So this past December, Sullivan became president and editor of UT’s branch of Her Campus, a nationally recognized website for college women, or “collegiettes,” as Her Campus refers to them. “I had worked on TNJN, but I really wanted to focus on magazine writing, and there are not many ways to do that on UT’s campus,” she said. Started by three undergraduate Harvard students as an entry for a business plan competition, Her Campus now has branches at more than 120 schools, and writers for the website have gotten jobs and internships with top magazines and newspapers like Glamour, Teen Vogue, InStyle, Marie Claire, the Washington Post and Reader’s Digest. As president and editor of Her Campus UTK, Sullivan is responsible for creating weekly content for six different sections of the website: spotted around campus — a photo blog — Campus Cutie, Campus Celebrity — which highlights “people doing something cool or good for the campus” — news, events and a poll. Sullivan has also learned to work with social media; she manages her branch’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. “I didn’t even have a personal Twitter before I started working for Her Campus,” she said. The official launch of the UT branch was Feb. 15, and Sullivan said she is very excited for the site to grow. “Once people know what it is about, I hope they will be as excited as I am,” she said. Some students at UT seem to already like what they see on Her Campus. “I really like the main Her Campus website, and I’m excited that UT will now have its own branch,” Anabel Rodriguez, senior in psychology, said. Sullivan said she is looking for contributors for UT, and she said she would love to have more writers. “The more writers the better,” she said.

Writing for the site is open to any UT student, male or female, even if they have had no experience, Sullivan said “Everything is edited before it is published, and this is a great place to practice writing,” she said. Sullivan said she felt she has had a great opportunity to work with the site, and she wants to give anyone who is interested the opportunity to work with Her Campus as well. “This is a great resume builder,” she said. “And the best thing to do if you want to write is to write as often as you can.” Sullivan said that while she felt alone starting this website, she has had a lot of support from the Her Campus team. “There a lot of people to go to if you have an issue,” she said. “I have a mentor, there is a tech staff and I have also met with the three founders of the site.” This is not the first time Sullivan has had to learn something new for a job, though. She is also an intern for the Knoxville Ice Bears hockey team, even though she had no previous experience with sports writing. “The journalism department sent an e-mail that the Ice Bears were looking for video production students,” she said. “I had no experience with video or sports, but I sent them an e-mail letting them know I was a journalism student who was interested in writing for them. They replied offering me an internship writing game recaps.” Even though she had no previous experience with sports, Sullivan said she has learned a lot through the experience. “I get to experience how writing for a deadline really works,” she said. “I also get to sit with a writer from the News Sentinel, so I get to see how someone on the job now works.” Sullivan said writing has been a passion from a young age. “I liked to sing, dance and write, but I thought writing would get me a more stable job,” she said. Though Sullivan said she would ideally like to write political or business pieces for a women’s magazine in the future, Her Campus is a great starting point. “It gives me the chance to explore different types of articles,” she said. “And it still requires you to have new ideas every week.” As president and editor of UT’s Her Campus, an intern for the Knoxville Ice Bears and a full-time college student — and she also holds a part-time job — Sullivan is busy, but she said it’s worth the work. “The harder I work, the harder it will pay off,” she said. For more information about UT’s Her Campus branch or to write for Her Campus, go to www.hercampus.com/utk or email Sullivan at kathrynsullivan@hercampus.com.

UN suspends Libya membership Associated Press UNITED NATIONS — The full membership of the United Nations has suspended Libya from the U.N. Human Rights Council. The U.N. General Assembly voted by consensus Tuesday on the council’s recommendation to suspend Libya’s rights of council membership for committing “gross and systematic violations of human rights.” It is also expressing “deep concern” about the human rights situation in Libya. GENEVA— Top Russian diplomats ruled out the idea of creating a no-fly zone over Libya on Tuesday as embattled leader Moammar Gadhafi unleashed bombing raids, special forces and army troops in a desperate bid to stay in power. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described the idea of imposing limits on Libyan air space as “superfluous” and said world powers must instead focus on fully using the sanctions approved by the U.N. Security Council over the weekend. Leaders in the U.S., Europe and Australia have suggested the military tactic — used successfully in northern Iraq and Bosnia — to prevent Gadhafi from bombing his own people. But Russia’s consent is required as a veto-wielding member of the Security Council.

Russian NATO ambassador Dmitry Rogozin cautioned against moving militarily against Gadhafi without U.N. authorization. “If someone in Washington is seeking a blitzkrieg in Libya, it is a serious mistake because any use of military force outside the NATO responsibility zone will be considered a violation of international law,” Rogozin told Russia’s Interfax news agency in Brussels. “A ban on the national air force or civil aviation to fly over their own territory is still a serious interference into the domestic affairs of another country, and at any rate it requires a resolution of the U.N. Security Council,” Rogozin said Tuesday. U.N. council members have not considered imposing a nofly zone over Libya, and no U.N.-sanctioned military action was planned. NATO says any intervention in Libya would have to be U.N.-authorized. Still, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that even more action beyond U.N. sanctions might be needed, because in Libya “a regime that has lost legitimacy has declared war on its own people.” “It is up to us, the community of nations, to stand against this crime,” Ban said in New York. See LIBYA on Page 5


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