Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Issue 49, Volume 125
Campaigners lobby for same-sex UT employee benefits Stauskas, Bradi Musil Staff Writer As Mississippi State University considers joining the wave of universities now offering domestic partnership benefits to employees, UT remains resistant. On Jan. 17, Ravi Perry, assistant professor of political science at MSU, sent a letter to the president of Faculty Senate, Gerald
Emison, requesting a correction in human relations policies which contradict the university’s nondiscrimination policy. In his letter, Perry stated that “although the Mississippi State University’s non-discrimination policy includes the protected class of sexual orientation, there is no access to healthcare benefits when persons identified under that protected class seek to
secure said benefits.” By accepting his position at MSU in 2012, Perry and his spouse lost the full benefits offered at his former university, which included health insurance. On March 14, U.S. District Court Judge Aleta Trauger ordered Tennessee state officials to recognize the marriages of three same-sex couples married out of state, including two lesbian professors in the UT Institute
of Agriculture’s College of Veterinary Medicine. The decision, however, affects only the three couples suing for recognition, not the state as a whole. The statewide interpretation of marriage will remain the same. Benefits denied to samesex couples include, but are not limited to, the ability to take a leave of absence in the wake of a partner’s illness or death, receive discounted
tuition for a partner’s enrollment at UT and place an employee’s partner on their health insurance plan covered by the university. Donna Braquet, director of the OUTreach: LGBT & Ally Resource Center and special assistant to the vice chancellor for Diversity, has been working to promote domestic partnership benefits at UT since her move to Knoxville in 2004.
Copy Editor
SEE A walk in the (skate)park
See SKATEBOARDING on Page 2
See BASKETBALL on Page 6
Melodi Erdogan • The Daily Beacon
of their loading dock or out of their parking lot or whatever and go someplace else,” Beauchene told the Knoxville News Sentinel in 2004. “Believe me, if we built a skatepark that was good, the kids would be there and not the Kroger parking lot or bothering somebody else.” The tragedy gave the idea of safe areas for skateboarders traction, and in 2005, Mayor Bill Haslam and Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale devoted taxpayer money to creating a skatepark in the Knoxville area. Soon after, a skatepark at the Cloud Park in Kingsport was developed, and in 2007, a skatepark opened in Concord Park near Farragut, as well as one in Fountain City.
The conference affiliations separating Michigan and Tennessee heading into their NCAA tournament Sweet 16 showdown in Indianapolis might be best set to flip-flop on Friday, at least for a game. The stocky Volunteers, led by former Purdue standout Cuonzo Martin, fit the mold of a tough-nosed Big Ten team with muscular bigs, a number of athletic defenders and a focus on defense first. Across the board, the second seed Wolverines’ stacked roster of lethal sharpshooters who can attack the rim off the dribble have taken the Big Ten by storm and allowed them to win the regular season title outright by three games. None of Michigan’s many elusive perimeter playmakers are more important than Nik Stauskas. The 6-foot-6 Michigan sophomore guard garnered Big Ten player of the year honors this season after averaging 17.4 points per game and 3.3 assists, both team-highs. Stauskas is coming into Friday on fire. He accounted for 48 percent of Michigan’s points — 17 points and eight assists — against 7-seed Texas in the Round of 32. “I think whenever he decides to leave, there’s no doubt in my mind he’ll play at the NBA level,” UT head coach Cuonzo Martin said Tuesday. “Watching him last year, he was more of a catchand-shoot. But now, he puts the ball on the floor to make plays. “I guess that’s why he’s Big Ten player of the year in a league that is so tough and so physical.” Stauskas rose to prominence during Michigan’s 2012-13 NCAA run with his long ball, but has refined his game this season and become more of an offensive leader with preseason All-American Mitch McGary having been ruled out since December.
INSIDE
Not laughing with us, but at us: “The Daily Show” satirizes Knoxville healthcare NEWS >>pg. 2
In the saga of Knoxville native Charles Albert Raybreeben, a frequent skater in the area, grinds atop a quarterpipe at the dystopian YA Knoxville Skatepark located at Tyson Park on March 11. movies, “Divergent” Knoxville skateboarders finds cuts, bruises, solace in Tyson Skate Park doesn’t measure “It’ll be snowing outside, ($100,000) and the Tony people who aren’t necessarily Melodi Erdogan and he’ll go skating,” Roberts Hawk Foundation ($25,000). fans of skateboarding but would Managing Editor up to predecessors said. “He just loves it so much.” Private donors also provided like to see the kids getting out ARTS & CULTURE >>pg. 5
With the Sweet 16 looming and fan support resurfacing, Martin says ‘nothing has changed’ with Vols’ approach
Most often frequenting Tyson Park, Raybreeben is one of many Knox County residents who take full advantage of the skatepark. Usually crowded with parents and kids of all ages, the skatepark is in the former Lady Vols softball field. Beyond the banks, ledges and stairs is a small set of bleachers where Roberts said parents sit and watch their kids, as well as a rotting scoreboard that hasn’t been used since the skatepark opened in 2008. The History Behind the Concrete Local media outlets covered the skatepark’s opening heavily in February of that year. The cost of the project was $537,000, with funding coming from the City of Knoxville and Knox County (each providing $200,000), Lamar Advertising
additional money. The skatepark, featuring 20,000 square feet of ledges, pools and curves skateboarders can skate on, was highly anticipated in Knox County. Before the Tyson Park Skatepark, skateboarders had no home in Knoxville. The closest skatepark locations were 90 minutes away in Sevierville, and skateboarders would constantly run into trouble if they skated in public areas. After a child was killed while riding a skateboard on a street in Fountain City, Brian Beauchene, owner of Pluto Sports, a store located off Cedar Bluff Road that specializes in skateboards, snowboards and discs, began a petition to create a local skatepark where kids could skate safely. “Some of the supporters are
Steven Cook
See BENEFITS on Page 3
PART 1 OF 2
Skate or die. This is the phrase tattooed on Charles Albert Raybreeben’s left wrist. He’s a 20-year-old Knoxville native who eats, breathes and sleeps skateboarding. “It’s pretty much what I do all day,” Raybreeben said with a chuckle before kicking off the ledge of a deep, empty pool at the Knoxville Skatepark in Tyson Park on March 11. Raybreeben is constantly on wheels no matter the time or place, says his girlfriend Nikki Roberts, who accompanies him on most of his skateboard excursions. On this day, Raybreeben skates through the Knoxville Skatepark with just a T-shirt and jeans on, despite the 30-degree weather.
Michigan’s athleticism bring polar opposite challenge to Vols
Jenna Butz Staff Writer
SPORTS >>pg. 6
“The cooks, the auto mechanics, and the drivers.” Next CBT production highlights the roles of women in the military in WWII ARTS & CULTURE >>pg. 5
Seldom is a writer’s first published work a novel, nor do they often win awards for works they have yet to publish. English professor Margaret Lazarus Dean, however, has done both. She published her first novel, “The Time It Takes to Fall,” in 2007, and her second book, “Leaving Orbit,” a nonfiction work due for release sometime next year, has already received the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. Dean tapped into her writing skills later than many of her colleagues. While most of her peers started in high school, she didn’t begin writing until her junior year at Wellesley College. “I was just afraid to try it for a long time for some reason,” Dean said. “I would never say, ‘I want to be a writer.’ That just seemed like — everyone says they want to be a writer, but so few
people actually achieve it. And I think it kept me from actually trying to pursue that longer than it should have.” Majoring in anthropology as an undergraduate, Dean took a few years after college working at coffee shops and bookstores to “figure some stuff out and pay off some loans.” “As I was doing that, I kept working on my stories,” Dean said. “And I think that’s how I started gathering the courage to start applying to graduate programs in creative writing and to admit to people, like my parents, that I wanted to be a writer — to not be afraid that people would laugh at me or try to talk me out of it.” It was then she decided to attend graduate school at the University of Michigan for creative writing. There, she discovered an enthusiasm for teaching and enjoyed meeting and interacting with students as a teaching assistant her first year. After having her own freshman composition class her second
year, Dean hoped to share a passion for writing with her students. “I just thought that was really cool that that could be someone’s job to just be interacting with students all day and helping people learn to care about reading and writing in a different way,” Dean said. “I was teaching freshman composition and a lot of people grumble about it like it’s the worst. I loved it. I love freshmen. They have this energy. Like, they’re afraid to write, and I’m like, ‘No, we’re going to write. I’m going to make you learn to like writing.’” Her second book, “Leaving Orbit,” chronicles 50 years of American spaceflight. After writing her first novel, she became engaged in the details of NASA, as the novel dealt with a preteen’s view of the Challenger explosion. Having met people at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, she felt like she “saw Margaret Lazarus Dean is an English the end coming sooner than a lot of professor at UT and the author of two other people.” award-winning books, “The Time It See DEAN on Page 5 Takes to Fall” and “Leaving Orbit.”
• Photo Courtesy of Margaret Lazarus Dean
Writer to present award-winning account of NASA experience
INSIDE THE DAILY BEACON
@DailyBeacon www.utdailybeacon.com
OPINIONS >>pg. 4
News Opinions Arts & Culture Sports
Page 2-3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6