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Sheen goes to court #winning

Harris, Pancratz, complete new Vols staff

Friday, June 17, 2011

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Issue 5

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Vol. 117

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New policy to limit dropped classes to four Limit to help steer students toward career-focused schedules, timely graduations Robby O’Daniel News and Student Life Editor Beginning this fall, students can still drop classes after the end of the 10-day, no-penalty period, but they can only do it four times over the course of their undergraduate career.

The old policy dictated that students could drop a class with just a “W,” or withdrawal, until the 84th day of the semester.

Now, after students drop four classes in their undergraduate career, all after the first 10 days of classes, they will receive a grade for all classes they attempt.

Drops made prior to Fall 2011 will not count toward the four-class limit.

The University of Tennessee announced the new four-class drop limit Thursday morning.

Altering the policy was an idea from the Academic Efficiency and Effectiveness Task Force.

Dixie Thompson, a task force member and a professor in kinesiology, recreation and sports studies, called the drop limit a key move in the university’s attempts to increase graduation rates.

“It will certainly be an important step in the right direction because students will have an added incentive to remain in classes,” Thompson said.

In addition, because students cannot sign up for classes after 10 days of classes, whenever a student drops a class after that time, the seat goes unfilled.

For this reason, Drew Webb, another member of the task force and the student engagement coordinator in the Office of the Provost, is enthusiastic about the new limit.

“As a former UT student, I always struggled to get into the classes I wanted to take and think this will help a lot with that,” Webb said. “Also, nothing was more frus-

trating to me than seeing a class half-empty at the end of the semester because so many people dropped it, especially when 10 people showed up trying to add the class on the first day. We need to do a better job of getting students into the classes that they need when they need them, and this is a step in the right direction.”

“

I think it’s going to force students to be more

strategic with their planning and not just sign up for a class and take it and realize they

don’t need it. It might save people money too.

– Ethan Frazier, senior in communications, on the new policy for dropping classes

”

While Thompson is also in favor of the new limitation, she is glad the university is maintaining the 10-day window of no penalties for students to drop.

“We need that window when students can have, without limitation, some change to their schedule,” Thompson said. “Because, people, they get in classes that

they don’t really understand the expectations of it and then they get there, and they see it’s not a good fit for their career path and their curriculum.”

She also stressed that, in matters of emergencies, such as an illness or family situation, students can still withdraw from the university without a penalty like this held against them.

“I think there’s some safeguards for students, but I do think that the policy will hold students more accountable to making good choices and playing a more active role in choosing classes that fit their curriculum and move them more toward graduation,” she said.

Colin Campbell, who will graduate at the end of the summer with a history degree, is glad his undergraduate years did not have the limit. He says it would have hurt him because he dropped more than four classes in his academic career.

“I would say I’ve dropped about one a semester,” Campbell said. “I see the dropping as a way of getting a feel for a class. It takes a little more than 10 days sometimes to really know if you’re prepared for a class, if it’s something you’re interested in and mainly, if it’s something feasible for you with your schedule.”

Ethan Frazier, senior in communications, is the exact opposite. He does not drop classes.

“I take what I want,” Frazier said. “I take what I need. I make sure I meet with my adviser, so I don’t mess up.”

He sees the new limit as having positives for students.

“I think it’s going to force students to be more strategic with their planning and not just sign up for a class and take it and realize they don’t need it,” he said. “It might save people money too.”

Serrano named Diamond Vols coach Serrano is aware of how great the competition is in the SEC, but his craving for winning just may be greater, saying he wanted to start winning “yesterday.”

“It’s baseball time in Tennessee!”

The former UT assistant coach may have Those were the dynamic words that UT’s newly hired baseball coach Dave Serrano returned to Rocky Top, but Serrano believed delivered at his press conference in Lindsey he’d been at Rocky Top for the last 16 years.

“I never left his place,” the new coach Nelson Stadium. added.

“I left physically, but I never left Serrano is the 24th head coach in Diamond Vols history, but the second since emotionally.”

One fan who’s already expressing her Rod Delmonico’s 18-year coaching run with excitement in the new hire is recently UT ended in 2006.

It’s not the first time UT has had the for- appointed interim Athletic Director Joan mer Cal State Fullerton coach on its coach- Cronan.

“It is an exciting day for Tennessee baseing staff. His first coaching job was a twoyear stint under Delmonico as the Diamond ball,” Cronan said. “It gives me goosebumps; last week we were talking about me Vols’ assistant coach from 1995-96. being the UT cruised to a interim and 97-36 record in this week that two-year we’re talking span, including a about some54-win season in thing really 1995. exciting and Serrano that’s bringing returned to his in somebody home state of that can make California to a difference in coach at Cerritos our baseball Community program.”

College where the Serrano former UT assislooks to turn tant coached for UT’s Lindsey eight seasons and N e l s o n helped the Falcons Stadium into a to a 39-5 record “ home-field and a state chamadvantage”, as pionship. it was during The Torrance, his first Calif., native was tenure, with quick to address the help of Vol that watching the fans and stuNCAA postseason dents. is a new experiGeorge Richardson • The Daily Beacon “When you ence for him, even support us, Dave Serrano shares a laugh with the audience after this past seaof his introductory press conference in Lindsey it’ll help us, son.

“I’m not accus- Nelson Stadium on Thursday, June 16. Serrano (and) you’ll be tomed to watching returns as head coach to the site of his first part of our the Super Division I job, where he served as an assistant s u c c e s s , ” Serrano said.

Regional,” Serrano coach during the 1995-96 seasons.

“I hope we can said.

Despite the new feeling, though, the attract students because of the kind of style then-CS Fullerton coach noticed the compe- we play, the exciting brand of baseball, how we play and the winning style. When I was tition in his future conference.

“Three of the eight teams — Vanderbilt, here in 95-96, I know the students made it Florida and South Carolina — weren’t just pretty hostile for some of the opposing in the conference, but our own division,” teams coming in and I hope we get that type of support as we continue to build this Serrano said.

The Diamond Vols coach will be looking thing.”

With memories of his first tenure still to help the Orange and White compete in the SEC East division; in the last nine years, fresh in his mind, the new UT coach wasn’t Taylor Gautier • The Daily Beacon UT has only finished in the top two in the afraid to display his excitement about his Taylor McElheney, senior in finance, climbs as Joe Yantis, junior in biosystems engi- division once, in 2005, while failing to reach return.

“This is a great day in my career. Go neering, belays at the climbing wall on Tuesday, June 14. The climbing wall is open a conference record above .500 eight times Vols!”

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 4-8 p.m. for the remainder of the summer. in that span.

Anthony Elias

Staff Writer

2 • The Daily Beacon

InSHORT

Friday, June 17, 2011

Taylor Gautier • The Daily Beacon

Walker Deakins, senior in chemistry, replenishes a bottle of chemicals in a lab as part of his job as a stockroom assistant in the chemistry department in Buehler Hall on Tuesday, June 14. well-defended position on top of the hill. The British would never make the same mistake again.

1775 - Battle of Bunker Hill begins British General William Howe lands his troops on the Charlestown Peninsula overlooking Boston, Massachusetts, and leads them against Breed's Hill, a fortified American position just below Bunker Hill, on this day in 1775.

As the British advanced in columns against the Americans, American General William Prescott reportedly told his men, "Don't one of you fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" When the Redcoats were within 40 yards, the Americans let loose with a lethal barrage of musket fire, throwing the British into retreat. After reforming his lines, Howe attacked again, with much the same result. Prescott's men were now low on ammunition, though, and when Howe led his men up the hill for a third time, they reached the redoubts and engaged the Americans in hand-to-hand combat. The outnumbered Americans were forced to retreat. However, by the end of the engagement, the Patriots' gunfire had cut down nearly 1,000 enemy troops, including 92 officers. Of the 370 Patriots who fell, most were struck while in retreat.

The British had won the so-called Battle of Bunker Hill, and Breed's Hill and the Charlestown Peninsula fell firmly under British control. Despite losing their strategic positions, the battle was a morale-builder for the Americans, convincing them that patriotic dedication could overcome superior British military might.

The British entered the Battle of Bunker Hill overconfident. Had they merely guarded Charlestown Neck, they could have isolated the Patriots with little loss of life. Instead, Howe had chosen to try to wipe out the Yankees by marching 2,400 men into a frontal assault on the Patriots'

1958 - Bridge collapses, killing workers On this day in 1958, a bridge being built to connect eastern and northern Vancouver in western Canada collapses, killing 59 workers. The bridge, known as the Second Narrows Bridge, was finally completed in 1960 and, in 1996, it was renamed Ironworkers Memorial Bridge to commemorate the people who lost their lives during its construction. The disaster was the worst involving a bridge in Canada's history.

The bridge was being assembled by Dominion Bridge Company over the Burrard Inlet and was 175 feet above the water at its highest point. At 3:40 p.m., one of the structure's steel spans buckled suddenly, causing the entire structure to collapse. There were 79 workers, almost a third of them painters, on the bridge at the time. Most were earning $3.85 an hour, about $25 in today's money.

Twenty people survived the long fall, with fishermen pulling them from the water. Colin Glendinning, a worker who survived the collapse, recalled the fall, You know what I was thinking?

'Oh God, I wish I had a parachute' -- I really did. The fall tore off Glendinning's ear, broke his leg, and permanently damaged his lungs. He later returned to work on the bridge, only to break his other leg a year later.

A subsequent inquiry blamed the tragedy on a calculating error by one of the engineers who lost their lives in the collapse. However, some survivors believed that sub-standard construction materials were to blame.

A vigil honoring the victims is still held at the bridge every June 17. —This Day in History courtesy of History.com

Friday, June 17, 2011

The Daily Beacon • 3

NEWS

Students prosper with housing site Movers and Changers competition in December.

For the Movers and Changers competition, Glover said the two had seven practices before the competition, two in front of faculThe idea for Howstheliving.com, a website that co-founder ty, three in front of students and two in front of faculty and stuKaliv Parker calls “like ratemyprofessor except for housing,” dents.

“The practice is more important,” he said. began when co-founder Aeron Glover went to northern Spain on As far as the actual presentation, Glover said it was hard to put study abroad to take two Spanish courses.

Glover, now a rising senior in industrial engineering, was liv- into words how he prepared.

“You have to put yourself in the zone where you either get it, ing with a host family in Spain in summer 2009, and he wanted or you don’t get it,” Glover said. “You either win, or you lose. You to find out more about them.

“I didn’t know much about them before I got there and really either make it happen, or you don’t make it happen. There’s no incouldn’t find out more about them, the people who lived with between.”

The website was originally going to be about host families for them previously,” Glover said.

U.S. students studying in other countries, but it became about onParker, a rising senior in finance, said the two saw the need. campus housing for “There needed to U.S. students studybe a platform for stuing in the U.S. dents to discuss their This sort of shift in housing,” Parker said. focus is nothing new Glover said he and for the business, Parker started work Glover said. on the website in “In fact, I wrote December 2009, and some things down it has been a balancyesterday, and they ing act, being an don’t exist anymore,” undergraduate stuhe said. “We changed dent and the coit completely today. founders of a busiThat’s how it works.” ness.

So while the idea “I try to take care of for the site came from classes first and get Glover’s study abroad that out of the way,” experience, the site in Glover said. “... its current form is Schedule classes early helpful for upcoming in the day, (and) rest UT freshmen wonderof the day is braining about how the storming, meetings.”

Apartment Residence He said the two Hall is. It has a 2.6 ratmet in their office on ing out of five stars campus every other currently. day from 9 p.m. to 1 “You can’t fall in a.m. in the Spring • Photo courtesy of Chris Blanz love with an idea Semester, no less than Aeron Glover, senior in engineering, and Kaliv Paker, senior in business, because your heart 20 hours a week. are presented a check from TTDC representatives after their compa- will be broken,” he “It’s definitely more ny, How’s the Living, Inc., was announced as the winner of the compe- said. “You got to frowns than smiles,” tition. believe in it, but he said. “But, in the understand that odds end, it comes down to, if you’re passionate about your company, no matter what else are, it’s going to change.”

Glover, who is in San Francisco, Calif., meeting with potential you’re doing, you’ll have a continued sense of optimism about it.”

The two undergraduates are now looking to raise funds for the investors, said he and Parker look for the site to have better interbusiness through different business competitions, and they have activity, better search flow and a larger database in the future.

In addition, the site will widen the focus to include off-campus been very successful with that so far.

The two have won three competitions in the last seven months. housing.

Glover lives by the quote, “Be comfortable with being uncomTennessee Technology Development Corporation granted a fortable.” He thinks of it in his approaches to business, and it calls $10,000 business development grant to How’s the Living.

How’s the Living won the fall Vol Court Competition, which to mind that nervous feeling two undergraduate students could gave How’s the Living $1,000, with additional services valued at get when pitching a business they have worked hard on.

“You should be motivated by being uncomfortable,” he said. $22,000.

And How’s the Living took home the $25,000 first prize at the “Use it as fuel.”

Robby O’Daniel

News and Student Life Editor

Local businesses succeed in competition Rob Davis Staff Writer Two companies related to the University of Tennessee won first and second place in the 2011 Startup Business Plan Competition, sponsored by the Fairview Technology Center, last week.

490 Biotech, a life science company headed by university researchers, won first place, and MyUdaily, headed by Karl Hughes, senior in mechanical engineering, took second place.

“The Fairview competition was originally open to a whole bunch of groups,” Dan Close, 490 Biotech chief scientific officer, said. “Anyone could write in with their proposed business plan and what they wanted to do.”

After the application deadline on April 14, 10 candidates were chosen to compete.

Eventually five groups were chosen to pitch their ideas to a group of investors, who ranked the groups based on pitch, as well as business plan and idea.

490 Biotech’s idea consisted of a product that is a collection of light-emitting human cell lines genetically programmed to “report” on biological events or interactions that affect their metabolic status.

In other words, they are cells that produce light to measure the growth of specific types of cells.

“490 Biotech is founded around a technology that allows for continuous unstimulated light production from living human and animal cells,” Close said. “So basically, we have genetically engineered a way to encourage these cells to produce light, like a little, tiny, cellular light bulb.”

The cells produce light at a given rate. Depending on how much light is produced, researchers can determine how many cells are present.

For example, the growth of a tumor can be monitored, without surgical interference, simply by measuring the light that is produced. “(The light) is not something you can see with the

naked eye, at least not yet,” Close said.

The prizes for first place included $10,000 to help move the technology toward market, time with legal and marketing teams and office space.

Other members of 490 Biotech include Gary Sayler, founder and CEO, Steve Ripp, chief operating officer, and Stacey Patterson, chief technology officer.

Hughes started MyUdaily, which won second place in the competition.

“Some friends and I started Volblogs six months ago,” Hughes said. “That’s where the idea came from. What MyUdaily is, is an expansion of (Volblogs) but at other schools.”

Hughes started web programming as a hobby in eighth grade and eventually decided to make a blog for fun.

“We started Volblogs as a casual, fun thing with a few of my friends,” Hughes said.

The idea of MyUdaily is to establish school blogs at other colleges and universities.

“We realized that if students on our campus wanted this, students on other campuses would want this as well,” Hughes said. “As we looked around, we realized there weren’t many solutions to this where it was a group blog/news blog.”

Prizes for second place included office space and a $2,500 grant.

“It’s funny because we were sixth out of the five they were going to take,” Hughes said.

“Then one team had to drop out, so they called us. It was pretty exciting, and the fact that we got second was great.”

Currently MyUdaily only consists of the Volblogs at UT, but Hughes hopes to expand to 10 campuses by the end of the summer.

“We want to stress that we aren’t here to take over for the school newspaper,” Hughes said. “It’s a very different kind of journalism. What we focus on is what we think is popular to students. A lot of college students want to have a pretty professional blog, and we think we can provide that.”

4 • The Daily Beacon

Friday, June 17, 2011

OPINIONS

The

Hermit Speaketh

Wasted summer could be worse Jake Lane Managing Editor I started this summer with a list of objectives and general goals to improve myself. A fairly typical practice, though one I don’t usually partake in because I feel like if you have to make yourself do something, it probably isn’t worth doing.

Sure enough, as May gave way to June and we now wane toward July, I’m taking a hard look at that list and wondering just how much of it I can get done in the month and a half I have left before the big pre-Fall crunch. Here are just a few of these objectives.

Complete all four “Elder Scrolls” games Surely I am not the only one salivating over the November 11 release of “Skyrim.” Not only is the game one of the most beautiful I have seen, a fitting successor to “Oblivion,” which held that title five years ago. No, appearance, as some gamers have said, is just window dressing. Fueled by Bethesda’s new Creation engine, “Skyrim” looks to be one of the most intricately responsive games ever built.

I confess now that I have logged about two hours of game time in the entire “Elder Scrolls” series. While I like some fantasy titles, I prefer a good Western or post-apocalyptic story any day. Beginning with the DOS-based “Arena” from 1994, I intended to spend countless hours this summer traversing Tamriel. I say countless because like many immersive RPGs, the later titles can eat up hundreds of hours for one play through.

So far I have bought “Oblivion” and downloaded “Arena” and “Daggerfall,” the latter two of which were made freeware by Bethesda in 2009. Play time: zilch.

I have, however, managed to play through “Fallout: New Vegas” for a third time and complete the latest “Assassin’s Creed” installment, so my Xbox has not been too lonely. Soon, though, I must do battle with gods and dragons and the like.

Read the collected works of Cormac McCarthy One of Knoxville’s favorite sons (sorta), McCarthy’s prose has been lauded as magnificent and masterful, if sometimes quite dense in the traverse. I registered for a special topics course in the fall which will cover

the majority of McCarthy’s output, of which I have only previously read “Blood Meridian.”

I purchased all of the books required for the class and have stared at them on my bedside table for a month. Since then I have read “Starship Troopers,” “The Dispossessed” and began reading “Dune.” Scifi escapism has put a spell on me in this last summer before the inevitable hurtle into the real world that is graduation. Not to say that I don’t look forward to crawling through McCarthy’s gothic, grotesque America — I relish the thought. But like any good work of art, that which you have to scrutinize in the academic mode loses its luster pretty fast.

Plant a garden That’s right, dig in and make something grow. I’ve always wanted to plant my own herbs, peppers and just about anything else you can eat that doesn’t take acres to grow. I actually started this one in earnest, seeding basil, rosemary, lavender, peppers and thyme.

Then I spent a week in Indiana while my dad recovered from some surgery, and came back to fried seedlings thanks to the heat snap of mid-May. This all came in the wake of planting a few saplings that I received after my girlfriend joined the Arbor Day Foundation. Hey, trees bring up real estate value and they’re pretty to look at most of the time. Somehow, my poor blind dog, despite all of jury-rigged detriments, managed to pull up the two white dogwoods I put down, and my Hawthorn was broken in half by the crazy weather in May. It managed to sprout some leaves, but the irony is not lost on me.

Most of this idealistic “back-to-earth” sentiment was of a dual purpose. I wanted to spend a great portion of my day outside in the sun, soaking up Vitamin and UV radiation. Then the thermometer hit 90 degrees and stayed there, and I gave the sun a metaphorical finger.

As someone close to me likes to say, “alas and a lack,” my summer is half over and I’ve done little in the way of accomplishment. I have lost weight, stress and a few hundred bucks instead and when you get down to it, that might just be better. We Americans are an ambitious bunch, or have been at times, and that has its place — winter. For now, tempt skin cancer and bask in Tennessee’s fickle forecast — hot, dry, soggy, muddy, wonderful.

— Jake Lane is a senior in creative writing. He can be reached at jlane23@utk.edu.

SCRAMBLED EGGS • Alex Cline

THE GREAT MASH-UP • Liz Newnam

Columns of The Daily Beacon are reflections of the individual columnist, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Beacon or its editorial staff.

Self-expression vital despite ennui Ac orns and Other Seeds by

Anna-Lise Burnette While working on this week’s column, I created three different computer files, every one with a unique title, separate theme and varying word count. They each have their merits, I suppose, but none of them seemed quite right; I decided to scrap all of them. Because I feel that in order to keep on plowing ahead I need to confront an issue that surely plagues other writers, academic and otherwise, I ask that you grant me the indulgence of yet another 700 words or so.

And there it is. “The indulgence,” as a moniker, nearly completely sums up how I feel about the exercise of writing for a public audience. It is a feeling that nags at me every week as I sit tappity-tapping on my keyboard with the goal of creating something that is a) publishable and b) interesting (“well-written,” you will note, did not make that list). I am having what you might call an editorial columnist’s existential dilemma.

It didn’t really bother me at first. A few semesters ago I was full of confidence, eager to please a few thousand people I will never meet.

I wrote about whatever I wanted with the tenacity and blindness of a spoiled child, certain that words would pour out of me like a delicately brewed tea. Rare was the moment that my morale faltered.

But this year I had the awful experience of being asked why I (or any other student) chose to write for the Beacon. And since then I have been haunted by the answer that I hope I made clear but I fear that I didn’t: All of us feel that we have something important to say.

Perhaps it seems a little late in the game to be working through feelings of inadequacy or pride, but it’s a problem that — I assume — doesn’t just apply to myself. That writers assume their words

are relevant and meaningful — or otherwise force themselves into the kind of cynicism that makes for strained conversation — points to a form of ego veneration that is ugly to see reflected. I know that I am hardly remarkable, and yet…

It makes one wonder whether it is enough to be human, to be exceptional only as compared to all other living creatures. Because when compared to other members of our species, nearly every man and woman falls solidly into normal, and with a thunk, no less. Why then should we value one person’s thoughts over another?

There are at least a few arguments to be made here, but in this particular case it may be a bit of a stretch to make some sort of moral case for why you should listen to me and not the idiot down the hall. Short of that, what seems most appropriate is my return to the blind faith that has allowed me to churn out short explanations of various topics for so long. The same blind faith that lets me finish this sentence.

The onus is, somewhat unfortunately, always on the writer to make his or her writing interesting to everyone else. Even more unfortunate is that often it doesn’t work out. Try as I might there’s no guarantee that any of my musings will have a lasting impact on anyone but myself, and even that’s a shaky notion. The casual dropping of names to seem socially and culturally savvy only gets you so far, but without the occasional reality TV reference how can one hope to ever pull at the heartstrings of this generation?

Still, there’s clearly hope. Otherwise there would be no room for opinion columns or poetry or literature to ever deviate from the all-toocurrent and instantaneous. It is because sentences with semi-colons still exist that I feel at least some small part of what I choose to share publicly will resonate with someone, somewhere.

And just in case I am totally off base, that’s O.K.; it’s summer, and no one reads then anyway.

— Anna-Lise Burnette is a senior in global and Asian studies. She can be reached at kburnet7@utk.edu.

Crime shows assume moral authority F r ac tur ed Co n sc i o u s n e s s by

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This week, I was flipping through my old copies of “Rolling Stone,” and my eye caught an article that once intrigued me enough to write a rant on MySpace about it. In the article, the writer pointed out that shows like “To Catch A Predator” are becoming a new American witch hunt. The show obviously dates the article to about three years ago, when Chris Hansen was spending his nights catching online predators.

As I read the article this past week, the writer makes a good case. Now you may be thinking, “Has Brittany lost her mind? Does she really think that online predators are innocent?” Give me a minute though to explain the reasoning.

The article begins by analyzing the brains of the show, the computer geniuses who find the men online. When interviewed, many of the brainiacs admit that they just participate in the show for some money and because it is a thrill. They explain that the program is like a real life online game. They argue that they are just practicing their constitutional rights by talking “dirty” to these men.

Unlike many people would like to argue, most of the computer aides are not working because they are on a crusade to show adults the horrors of the internet and dangers of child predators, but are there for the fun and thrills.

The writer then tells a story of a college boy who shows up to the “undercover” house. When he gets to the house he meets the young girl, who in reality is a college girl. A bit of small talk ensues.

Throughout the small talk, the college boy keeps asking the young lady about her age and about the cops. She comforts him with stupidity. Within a few minutes, the cops are there to arrest him.

The guy hasn’t even touched the girl, who really isn’t even a minor. Yes, he goes there with the intention that she is a minor and that they will have sex, but the kid is 19 years old. He could spend

up to 10 years in prison, and he is now on the list of sex offenders for the rest of his life. The whole ordeal could potentially end the rest of his professional career, prevent him from living where he wants, or he could have to be tracked by GPS for the rest of his life. Laws are being passed that can incriminate men before they even meet an “underage” girl. That’s almost skirting around the way that the justice system is suppose to operate.

“To Catch a Predator” lists many random stats that have no basis. Example: 50,000 predators are online at any moment. In reality, only 2,900 arrests were made last year on the basis of online sexual offenses and only 1,151 involved offenses made against minors. The numbers aren’t even comparable. An even more disturbing statistic: According to the Bureau of Justice, 93 percent of perpetrators of child sexual abuse are known to the child. Family members have a higher rate of sexually offending a child than a stranger. Shows like these allow for actual child predators to “fly below the radar.”

“To Catch a Predator” is, at this point, outdated, but its implications and ramifications can still be felt. I still have friends who love Chris Hansen and all his shows. I still have friends who think that there are predators all over the internet looking to find their little brother or sister. Many of the men who were caught on the show are still suffering from the punishment of the law.

In the end, the show changed the idea of “innocent until proven guilty.” All of the men who walked into the house did not have sex with the “minor.” At most, the men brought alcohol to a “minor,” but some of the girls were even of age to drink the alcohol. The show falsified information to incriminate “predators.” In court, it should be noted that the girls were of age and that sex did not occur, but rarely was it noted.

The show made the men guilty in the eyes of not only America, but juries and the law. It took advantage of media to provoke parents into thinking that all strangers online were out to get their babies.

It played up the importance of prior incrimination, not the actual facts of the case. In the end, I am happy its run has ended. I am sure, though, that actual child predators probably couldn’t care less.

— Brittany Vasquez is a senior in anthropology.

She can be reached at basque1@utk.edu.

Friday, June 17, 2011

The Daily Beacon • 5

ENTERTAINMENT

Sweat lodge death trial winds down Sheen firing suit goes to arbitration The Associated Press CAMP VERDE, Ariz. — A self-help author killed three people by ratcheting up the heat in an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony and ignoring pleas to help those who were passed out on the dirt floor, vomiting or having trouble breathing, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday as she urged them to convict James Arthur Ray of manslaughter.

Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk pointed to Ray and played recordings of his words as she outlined her case.

Ray recklessly caused the deaths of Liz Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minn., James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee, and Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., in October 2009, she said, discounting the defense claim that unknown toxins factored into the deaths.

“Three families have lost loved ones who should not be gone,” Polk said, raising her voice in the crowded courtroom. “Three people are dead because of the conduct and the actions of this man, James Ray. They are dead because he intentionally used heat to create an altered state and he was criminally reckless about the consequences.”

The closing arguments began after attorneys spent hours debating jury instructions then formally rested their cases. Polk goes back before the jury Thursday before the defense begins its closing arguments and the case is handed over to the jury.

Jurors have heard months of testimony in the case that could send Ray to prison for more than 37 years if he is convicted. The jury must find that Ray was aware of and consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death to convict him of three counts of manslaughter. They can also consider a lesser charge of negligent homicide. Both crimes are probation-eligible.

Ray’s attorneys contend the heat had nothing to do with the deaths. They called two witnesses during the trial to support the argument that toxins or poisons contributed to the deaths and that investigators ignored that possibility.

They contend Ray would have stopped the ceremony had he known that people were on the verge of death.

Polk said the defense contention that unknown toxins played a role in the deaths or that there was a superseding cause “reads like a take-out menu from an expensive diner, and it’s all baloney.”

On the list of defense possibilities were rat poisoning, tainted water, flies crawling on fruit, soil with pesticides and treated wood, she said.

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“It’s ridiculous,” she said. “The defendant wants you to ignore what was right in front of your eyes.”

The crucial piece of evidence, she said, is the defendant’s own words recorded during the ceremony and other events in which he describes a “hellacious” hot sweat lodge and profound mental states, and instructs participants to ignore their bodies’ signs of distress.

And she said, “like a child caught with his hands in a cookie jar” Ray immediately minimized what he had done when the two-hour ceremony ended and chaos unfolded, telling authorities that someone else was running the sweat lodge and fewer people were inside.

“That statement shows consciousness of guilt,” Polk said.

During a break in Polk’s arguments, defense attorney Luis Li quickly objected to some of Polk’s statements regarding the prosecution’s burden of proof and an audio clip she played of Brown that Li said were grounds for a mistrial.

Judge Warren Darrow denied an oral motion for a mistrial — at least the sixth the defense has made — but let the jury know that it could consider the audio clip only in a limited fashion.

Many of the more than 50 people who attended Ray’s weeklong “Spiritual Warrior” seminar had never been in a sweat lodge before.

Each signed a waiver acknowledging the ceremony would include tight, enclosed spaces and intense temperatures, and that serious injury and death were among the risks.

The waivers came up often during the trial, as Ray’s attorneys made the case that participants had free will, and that he did not physically keep them from leaving the sweat lodge or require that they participate at all.

At least one person sat out the sweat lodge event and told investigators it did not appear safe. Others stayed for the entire eight rounds that lasted 10 to 15 minutes each and had no major problems, while some left and returned as they pleased.

Eighteen people were hospitalized with illnesses ranging from heat exhaustion to kidney failure. Shore and Brown died that day, and Neuman was in a coma for more than a week before she died. Medical examiners who performed the autopsies attributed the deaths to heat stroke and organ failure but testified during trial that they could not rule out chemicals typically found in pesticides.

Ray encouraged participants to stay inside the sweat lodge as a way to break though whatever was holding them back in life.

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had valid claims in his lawsuit and the studio was holding back at least $10 million in royalties on reruns and sales of the show.

LOS ANGELES — Charlie Sheen may Warner Bros. and Lorre’s attorney welnot get quite the audience he wanted for his comed the ruling Wednesday and said it $100 million lawsuit over his firing from was the correct one given Sheen’s contract.

"Two and a Half Men" — a judge on “This matter will now proceed in an Wednesday ruled that an arbitrator should orderly fashion as the parties agreed to,” determine whether the case is handled pri- Lorre’s attorney Howard Weitzman wrote vately or in a public courtroom. in an e-mail.

Sheen’s contract with Warner Bros.

“We’re very gratified by the court’s rulTelevision has a valid clause requiring the ing enforcing the parties’ arbitration agreeprivate arbitrator to decide how the case ment,” Warner Bros. said in a statement. proceeds, Los Sheen sued in Angeles Superior March, claiming they breached his Court Judge Allan contract and halted Goodman wrote in a work on “Two and a 21-page ruling. The Half Men” to pundecision will likely ish Sheen for a pair dampen publicity of hospitalizations about the case in the and comments in short-term, although which he attacked Sheen’s attorney said Lorre personally in he will still argue the a series of highlycase should be heard publicized interpublicly. views. He also Sheen sued claimed the studio Warner Bros. and was trying to cut “Men” executive prohim out of royalties ducer Chuck Lorre he is owed for the on March 10, days broadcast of reruns after Sheen was fired and DVD sales. from his starring role “Two and a Half on television’s topMen,” which rated comedy.

• Photo courtesy of Frederick M. Brown debuted in 2003, Goodman ruled that Lorre also has a Charlie Sheen attends the Seventh starred Sheen as valid clause in his Annual Crysalis Butterfly Ball in womanizing bachecontract with Warner Brentwood, Calif. on May 31, 2008. lor Charlie Harper, Bros. to have dis- Sheen’s lawsuit against Warner Bros. who creates an ad putes handled and the executive producer of “Two and hoc family with his Half Men” for his firing from the show is neurotic brother, through arbitration.

Warner Bros. and currently in limbo as to whether it will be the divorced Alan (Jon Cryer) and Lorre both want the handled in private or public court.

Alan’s son, Jake case handled privately. Sheen opposed those efforts in court fil- (Angus T. Jones).

It has been television’s top-rated comedy ings and an all-day hearing on the issue in and reruns frequently air, although the April.

Attorney Marty Singer, who is represent- long-term prospects of the show are ing Sheen, said the ruling does not decide unclear.

Goodman has asked the parties to whether the case will be heard privately and he will argue that it should be handled update him on the status of arbitration by in the public court system. He said Sheen Nov. 30.

The Associated Press

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40 End of many a fuel source name

1

41 Compose 42 Mortar carrier

16

16 Betty Crocker or Hungry Jack product

43 Poker

18

18 Mechanically

47 Island whose name means, literally, “main land”

20 Cancel 23 Bean, for one 24 Ruhr rodent 27 Like Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 28 Day associated with an unlucky number: Abbr.

29 Certain ring-bearer: Abbr.

51 Overtones 55 Reading devices

26

8

9

22

10

11

12

23

27

29

44

DOWN

28

30

31

36

32

33

34

53

54

S T E P P S P Y E C H E O V S I L A D B O R E A R

45

40

42

46

43

47

48

50

55

51 56

52

57

58 59

4 Related on the mother’s side

A P S I D A R A Y O O C K N O A S E T Y T E S A R R E D C H N A L O N N T

37 39

49

5 Backing out of 6 Boomer that retired in the early ’00s?

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

S A L T I

25

41

59 Wasn’t quite as great as before

3 Climbers’ gear

A K I N T O

24

21

38

37 Germany vis-à-vis France, e.g.

A C T O U T

7

19 20

58 Bridge workers, perhaps

2 BOAC destination, in song

S I T I N S

6

17

35

35 Takes the bite out of?

Y R E A A L F H E F G L T E E S N T I D U P B O A N D R E P E A V L E

5

49 Flatten

30 Hard to nail down

S A T B A N D R C A S U C T P K E V A U L S P R E I D E

4

15

44 “Are you calling me ___?”

1 Sch. syst. with a campus in Buffalo

38 Open formally

3

14

14 Deal-making occasion, maybe

19 “Impossible”

2

H E R O I N

I R I S E S

P A N E L

F I N E

T E T E W N O

39 A fraternity chapter

25 Staging ___

44 Base letters

26 Defunct sports org. with the Denver Gold and Chicago “What on earth have Blitz ___?”

28 Apparently One of the Jacksons stationary light sources, to Trapped astronomers Mike Myers or Dan 30 Plays with others, Aykroyd, once for instance Bygone Dodges 31 Had for a meal Lobster catcher?

32 Certain Wall Street Mulligan, say type Prince, e.g.

33 Alphabet run

7 It’s more than a pinch: Abbr.

8 9 10 11 12 14 15 17

X E S F R Y L E S

24 End of the 26th century

21 “Hence …”

34 Saw

22 Basketball timeout sign

36 “Author! Author!” star, 1982

43 Made Berne burn?

45 Grp. in “Die Hard” 46 Pentium source 47 “What do we have here?!”

48 Connector with a pivotal role 50 Pitcher Jim who was a 16-time Gold Glove winner 52 Popular Sporcle subj.

53 Sea cliff dweller 54 Draft org.

56 Passport application datum: Abbr.

57 Pool need

6 • The Daily Beacon

THESPORTSPAGE

Friday, June 17, 2011

Harris, Pancratz round out Martin’s staff Staff Reports

Schools from 2000-05. He also has held various teaching positions with the Tulsa and St. Louis public schools systems. From 1995-96, Harris worked with St. Louis Arc, helping mentally disabled young men and women develop work and life skills.

Harris received an associate’s degree in Business management from Southwestern Illinois College in 1992 before going on to earn his bachelor’s degree in Business management at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in 1994.

Harris is married to the former Ramona Knight, of Frogville, Okla.

Tennessee basketball coach Cuonzo Martin completed his full-time staff Tuesday, announcing that he has hired Marco Harris and Mark Pancratz in support staff roles.

Harris will serve as the program’s student-athlete welfare coordinator. Pancratz, who has been with the program in various capacities since the 2006-07 season, holds the title of coordinator of video scouting.

Harris’ relationship with Martin dates back more than 30 years, as both hail from East St. Louis, Ill. Harris began his college career as a baseball player at Southern Illinois University but transferred to Southwestern Oklahoma State to play basketball after one season on the diamond in Carbondale. He developed into the starting point guard at SWOSU from 1992-94 and also served as a team captain.

Harris will work with Tennessee’s basketball studentathletes to ensure that they perform at the highest level on the court, in the classroom and as members of the community. He will function as the program’s liaison to the Thornton Athletics Student Life Center as well as the housing, admissions and financial aid offices.

“Marco and I grew up together, and he’s like a brother to me,” Martin said. “He’s got a genuine passion for developing young men and making sure they reach their full potential on and off the court. His years of experience working in public school systems demonstrate that he’s drawn to helping young people meet life’s challenges and overcome adversity.”

Over the past decade, Harris has enjoyed success both as a private business owner and as a high school and AAU basketball coach. He has owned and operated a Subway Restaurant in Sand Springs, Okla., since 1999. He also has held various teaching, coaching and athletic administration positions during that time.

His most recent coaching position was at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa. As the assistant boys’ varsity coach in 2010, Harris helped guide the Joy Hill • The Daily Beacon Hornets to the Oklahoma Class 5A state championship. Cuonzo Martin speaks with media during a press conferHarris took over as interim varsity head coach from ence on Monday, March 28. Martin finalized his staff for January to March of 2011 and led the program to a sec- the upcoming season with the hiring of Marco Harris and ond consecutive OSSAA state title. The Hornets fin- Mark Pancratz. ished the 2011 season with a perfect 21-0 record-despite not playing a single game in its home gym due to Pancratz, 28, already boasts 18 games of NCAA construction — and a 25-game win streak dating to the Tournament experience as a player and/or administrative 2010 campaign. staff member.

In 2005, Harris was an assistant boys' basketball coach After spending his first two seasons on Rocky Top as a at Nathan Hale Magnet High School in Tulsa. As a head coach on the summer circuit, Harris led the Tulsa Titans graduate assistant, Pancratz held the title of video coordifrom 2004-06 as well as the “Playing with a Purpose” pro- nator during the 2008-09 season before assuming an gram from 2006-09. His 2008 “Playing with a Purpose” administrative assistant role in the summer of 2009. For squad captured the Mid America Youth Basketball the past two years, Pancratz also has served as the program’s liaison to UT’s athletic marketing and development (MAYB) National Championship.

At the administrative level, Harris held the title of ath- offices.

As coordinator of video scouting, Pancratz’s responsiletic director at Tulsa’s Monroe and Gilcrease Middle

UT, Serrano “perfect” for success Matt Dixon Sports Editor It was the “perfect fit” for Tennessee, according to interim Athletic Director Joan Cronan.

In baseball terms, it was a home run hire.

UT lured Dave Serrano away from Cal State Fullerton — a perennial national title contender — to rebuild the Vols baseball program.

Serrano previously sat in the UT dugout as an assistant coach from 1995-96, his first Division I coaching job.

“I never left this place,” he said during his introductory press conference Thursday afternoon.

After a 15-year journey, which included the past seven years as the head coach at UCIrvine, then Cal State Fullerton, 46-year-old Serrano has rounded third base and walked into home.

“I’ve come full circle, and I plan on this being my last job,” he said.

UT needed someone who would not just turn the program around, but one who would lead the Vols back to being an elite program.

Who better than someone who was a part of the most successful season in school history?

In Serrano’s first season in Knoxville, the 1995 Diamond Vols won a school-record 54 games and made it to the College World Series for the first time ever.

Serrano has gone back to Omaha as well — twice as a head coach, with UC-Irvine in 2007 and with Cal State Fullerton in 2009.

Looking ahead, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if Serrano leads the Vols to college baseball’s holy ground.

In fact, it would be surprising if he doesn’t at some point.

Still, the rebuilding job must first take place. UT would have to make the SEC Tournament and play in an NCAA Regional in order to reach the College World Series, something that hasn’t happened in five seasons.

Winning an opening press conference doesn’t guarantee future success — though

bilities include oversight of all the staff’s video editing needs and assisting with on-campus recruiting. He also is the men’s basketball camp director and will continue to serve as the program’s liaison to various branches of the campus and athletic department.

“Mark’s been a mainstay in this program for the past five years,” Martin said. “He’s done a great job building relationships, assuming administrative roles and helping assistant coaches with video preparation. He brings a contagious energy, enthusiasm and work ethic to our office every day. I know he’ll be very successful.”

In 2001, Pancratz led Schaumburg High School to one of the biggest upsets in Illinois high school basketball history with a 20-point, 10-assist effort in beating a Thornwoord team that featured future NBA Draft pick Eddy Curry in the Class AA championship game.

Pancratz was inducted into the Illinois High School Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and was voted as one of the 100 Legends of Illinois High School Basketball.

He graduated from UW-Milwaukee in 2006 with a degree in Marketing and finance before receiving his master’s in Sports management from Tennessee in 2008.

Pancratz is married to the former Brooke Waddell, of Greeneville, Tenn., and the couple welcomed a daughter, Charli, in October 2010.

Harris and Pancratz round out Martin’s full-time basketball staff, which also includes assistant coaches Tracy Webster, Jon Harris (no relation to Marco) and Kent Williams and director of basketball operations Houston Fancher.