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Matt Dixon sits down with former Pearl assistants

Friday, July 1, 2011

PAGE 6 T H E

Issue 9

E D I T O R I A L L Y

Vol. 117

I N D E P E N D E N T

S T U D E N T

“L.A. Noire” continues Rockstar’s dynasty of dysfunctional heroes PUBLISHED SINCE 1906 http://utdailybeacon.com N E W S P A P E R

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Board to issue blanket faculty, staff pay raise Increase implemented to attract competitive faculty, keep existing members, Trustees say Robby O’Daniel News and Student Life Editor The UT Board of Trustees passed last week a longawaited 2-percent, across-the-board raise to all eligible employees.

A 3-percent pool will raise compensation for well-performing employees and address equity.

In addition, Chancellor Jimmy Cheek will earn a $27,600 raise, going from a $345,000 annual salary to $372,600.

The across-the-board employee salary increase marks the first increase since July 1, 2007, said UT Treasurer, Chief Investment Officer and interim Chief Financial Officer Charles Peccolo at the Board of Trustees meeting June 23.

“Salary is a major determining factor in who you hire and who you keep,” Cheek said at the board meeting.

He presented a chart of the average assistant professor salary, comparing UT to top-25 schools and three additional schools.

With its $67,000 average, UT ranked second-to-last among these peer institutions, only beating out the University of Auburn in average assistant professor com-

pensation.

The University of California at Berkeley topped the list with an average between $85,000 and $90,000. Other SEC schools, the University of Georgia (almost $75,000 average) and the University of Florida (nearly $70,000 average) ranked above UT, as well.

“When we compete for faculty, we have to be able to compete at the market,” Cheek said. “And when we go after an assistant professor and somebody else like Georgia’s going after that same person — or Rutgers or Illinois or Ohio State — we have got to compete against that.”

While there is a great quality of life in Knoxville, Cheek said, as well as cost of living benefits, he asserted that it was not enough to make up for salary disparities.

“So one of the challenges for the provost and the deans is to make certain we’re hiring the right people and that we also have the resources to hire those people at the salary they need to attract,” Cheek said.

Board of Trustees Vice Chair Jim Murphy agreed with Cheek on the need to stay competitive, faculty salarywise.

“What makes the good institution a top-25 institution is the caliber of faculty,” Murphy said. “And you will not keep that caliber of faculty by paying them significantly

less than the market. We have been less than the market with our salary as long as I’ve been on the board.”

The state funded a 1.6-percent salary increase, and funds from UT are bringing the increase up to 2 percent, plus the additional merit and equity pay.

The $37.7 million salary plan is funded through $14.6 million of fees and tuition, $7.6 million of state appropriations, $6.2 million of grants, contracts, gifts and endowments, $3.9 million of auxilliary revenues and $5.4 million of other cost reductions/revenue enhancements.

The across-the-board increase starts July 1 for all staff and faculty with 12-month appointments and those who are on payroll June 30.

Regular employees who earn less than $8.50 per hour before July 1 will automatically go up to $8.50 per hour.

Eligible employees of that group will earn a 2-percent increase or $500, whichever is greater.

Employees paid $8.50 or more per hour will get the 2percent increase or $1,000, whichever is greater.

Graduate students will earn whichever is greater: a 3.5-percent increase or $600.

Equity issues regard situations in which multiple employees in one department have similar ranks in job title, education, experience and performance, yet have a significant salary difference.

Recent storm causes record outages Jamie Cunningham Staff Writer The storm may have passed more than a week ago, but parts of Knoxville and East Tennessee are still feeling the effects of last week’s powerful storm that caused widespread power outages, property damage and logistical headaches.

Residents in East Tennessee weathered through thunderstorms, rain and severe wind last Tuesday when a severe storm system roared through Tennessee and large portions of the Southeast.

Derek Eisentrout, a representative from the National Weather Service in Morristown, Tenn., estimates that over 30 counties in Tennessee were affected.

“Well over 100 warnings happened in our service area, which consists of Chattanooga, Knoxville, Tri-Cities and parts of Southwest Virginia,” he said.

Though the storm Tuesday night had severe thunderstorms and heavy rain, Eisentrout notes that the main threat from Tuesday night storms was the wind.

“We had straight-line winds and wind gusts in excess of 60 miles per hour,” he said.

According to the National Weather Service, straight-line

winds are winds that move debris in the direction of the wind, as opposed to tornado winds, which scatter debris in various directions.

These powerful winds resulted in fallen tree limbs and debris, which, in turn, caused some road closures around Knoxville and UT. Sections of Estabrook Road and Tee Martin Drive near Neyland Stadium were temporarily closed because the wind knocked loose a section of metal paneling on the stadium’s east skyboxes.

Though the storm system was very powerful, it wasn’t the worst storm that East Tennessee has experienced. According to the National Weather Service, the storm on April 27, 2011, was a much larger system.

“We issued a number of thunderstorm warnings last Tuesday, whereas the severe weather warnings given on April 27th consisted of multiple tornado warnings,” Eisentrout said.

While Tuesday’s storm might not be one for the record books at the National Weather Service, it did cause a historic number of power outages for the Knoxville Utilities Board.

See STORMS on Page 3

George Richardson • The Daily Beacon

Crews work to repair damage to power lines in the Fort from storms on Tuesday, April 26. Similar storms over the past week left thousands without power, many of whom are still feeling its effects.

Admissions to entail more math, science New requirements to prepare freshmen, ensure early success

Robby O’Daniel News and Student Life Editor Freshmen better versed in math and science will begin entering UT in Fall 2013.

The UT Board of Trustees passed June 23 new admission requirements for all UT campuses, which will require more math and science.

In particular, high school students must complete four years of high school math, where previously three years sufficed.

Instead of requiring “two years of algebra,” UT will require specifically Algebra I and Algebra II. Plus students must complete one class of geometry or higher and one additional math class.

And where the old requirement was two units of natural science, UT admission now mandates three courses of natural science.

“In 2007, we looked again at what was going on in the high schools in Tennessee, and the Board of Education determined that high school graduates needed more preparation,” said Katie High, interim vice president for academic affairs and student success, at the Academic Affairs and Student Success Committee meeting on June 23.

High described it as a two-year process to revamp what was taught in high school math.

“Students had on their transcript Algebra I and Algebra II, but they weren’t at the level of Algebra II in proficiency,” High said.

She described the new fourth year of math as possibly a new level or a refresher on Algebra II. The science requirements are a bit looser for high school students.

“You have to take biology, chemistry and something else, and we hope it’s physics,” she said.

High said the ACT organization predicts new guidelines like these will aid students when they get to college.

“The ACT organization has determined that if students know Algebra I and Algebra II, if they really have that under their belt when they graduate high school, then they have a 75-percent chance of being successful in their first math class,” she said. “So we’re really pushing the content of Algebra I and Algebra II.” As part of its top-25 pursuit, High said UT will have a holistic review of admissions.

Though the university is not requiring it, what she said UT is looking for are students who have taken Algebra I, Algebra II, geometry and a class like statistics or trigonometry.

For out-of-state student applicants, High said that, if they come from a high school that does not have these courses, then the campuses determine how to make the class up.

She recalled when the Board of Trustees first approved high school required courses for admission in 1985.

“The high schools were afraid we wouldn’t have enough teachers to offer geometry to the students, foreign language, history,” she said. “There was a great Huon cry.”

But as a result, in 1989, all freshmen coming to the UT campuses had to take those courses, she said.

UT President Joe DiPietro recalled his academic past when describing how these new guidelines will help students.

“If you have a weak point because of not having a textbook or perhaps not having the best teacher in physics like I have, then you have trouble when you first get to university, tackling that course, as other students are better prepared,” he said.

2 • The Daily Beacon

InSHORT

Friday, July 1, 2011

George Richardson• The Daily Beacon

Jordan McRae shoots over an Indianapolis defender during a preseason game on Monday, Nov. 8, 2010. McRae played in the local Rocky Top League, breaking the season scoring average record with 46 points per game.

At the close of the War for Independence, the Patriots’ few Indian allies received worse treatment at the hands of their supposed allies than natives who had sided with Britain. Having promised Continental soldiers land in return 1775 - Congress resolves to forge Indian alliances for their service, Congress seized land from its Indian allies On this day in 1775, the Continental Congress resolves to in order to cede it to officers on the verge of mutiny in 1783. recruit Indian nations to the American side in their dispute with the British, should the British take native allies of their 1984 - PG-13 rating debuts own. The motion read: “That in case any Agent of the minOn this day in 1984, the Motion Picture Association of istry, shall induce the Indian tribes, or any of them to com- America (MPAA), which oversees the voluntary rating sysmit actual hostilities against these colonies, or to enter into tem for movies, introduces a new rating, PG-13. an offensive Alliance with the British troops, thereupon the The MPAA, which was founded in 1922 as a trade group colonies ought to avail themselves of an Alliance with such representing the American film industry, announced its first Indian Nations as will enter into the same, to oppose such rating system on November 1, 1968, in response to groups British troops and their Indian Allies.” seeking better guidelines to help parents determine whether Few “such Indians Nations” saw any advantage to joining or not a movie was child-appropriate. Jack Valenti, a former the Patriot cause. Rather, they saw Great Britain as their last assistant to President Lyndon Johnson and the president of defense against the encroaching land-hungry European set- the MPAA from 1966 to 2004, was instrumental in developtlers into their ancestral territory. Racist settlers managed to ing the new rating system in conjunction with the National undermine any residual trust remaining in the Native Association of Theatre Owners and the International Film American population during the revolution by committing Importers & Distributors of America. atrocities such as the massacre of neutral, Christian Indian The initial rating categories were G (appropriate for all women and children at prayer in Gnaddenhutten, ages), M (for mature audiences, but all ages admitted), R Pennsylvania, in 1778. In another example, a Continental (persons under 16 not admitted without an accompanying officer undermined his own cause with the murder of adult) and X (no one under 17 admitted). The M category Cornplanter, a Shawnee leader and Patriot ally, in 1777. was eventually changed to PG (parental guidance suggest-

ed), the R age limit was raised to 17 and on July 1, 1984, the PG-13 category was added to indicate film content with a “higher level of intensity.” According to the MPAA, the content of a PG-13 film “may be inappropriate for a children under 13 years old” and “may contain very strong language, nudity (non-explicit), strong, mildly bloody violence or mild drug content.” On August 10, 1983, the action film Red Dawn, starring Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen, became the first-ever PG-13 movie to be released in theaters.

Starting in 1990, every film given an R rating also received a short explanation as to whether it contained violence, drug use, nudity or hard language. This policy was later expanded to PG and PG-13 movies. Additionally, the X rating was changed to NC-17 (anyone 17 and under not admitted) because it was believed that “X” had come to connote pornography. Henry & June, which opened in U.S. theaters in October 1990, was the first film to be rated NC-17.

According to the MPAA, the NC-17 rating “does not mean ‘obscene’ or ‘pornographic’ in the common or legal meaning of those words, and should not be construed as a negative judgment in any sense. The rating simply signals that the content is appropriate only for an adult audience.” All MPAA movie ratings are voted on by a Los Angeles-based ratings board whose members are all parents, from diverse backgrounds.

Friday, July 1, 2011

STORMS continued from Page 1 Jason Meredith, a media analyst at KUB, declared Tuesday’s power outage the largest in KUB’s history.

“One hundred and twenty-seven thousand customers lost their power on Tuesday,” he said. “At its peak, KUB had about 95 crews that consisted of both KUB employees and contractors.”

To put it in context, during East Tennessee’s worst storm, from April 25 through April 27, 2011, there were only a combined 75,000 power outages.

“We had the two largest power outages in KUB’s history occur in the last two months,” Meredith said.

UT had its fair share of power outages because of Tuesday’s severe storm as well.

The UT Office of Information Technology reported network problems throughout several buildings due to power outages.

Some of the buildings that lost power after the storm included Forestry, Claxton and Morgan Halls. UT’s e-mail client was unavailable to users for a few hours on Tuesday night.

Power has steadily returned to customers since KUB brought in crews from Chattanooga, Murfreesboro and parts of Kentucky and Indiana to help restore it.

The Daily Beacon • 3

NEWS Meredith estimated that approximately 2,000 customers were still without power on Monday.

By 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, KUB released a final storm update on their website declaring their power restoration efforts complete.

“Now that the power is back on, KUB will be transitioning into routine operations over the next few days,” the press release said.

This storm is not like the storms typically seen in the month of June; however, Eisentrout argues that Tuesday’s storm had all the ingredients for a severe storm.

“June 21 was particularly ripe for a severe thunderstorm because there was a system moving in with cool, dry air from the northwest mixing with warm, moist air coming from the Gulf,” he said. “This causes instability in the atmosphere which results in powerful thunderstorms.”

When asked about whether Knoxville should brace itself for more severe thunderstorms this summer, Eisentrout said it is possible.

“We look out for it every day,” he said.

“They tend to be most prevalent in what we call the severe weather season, which typically occurs in April and May. … However, severe storms can happen any time, so we should always be prepared.”

George Richardson • The Daily Beacon

Laura Whitehead, graduate student in English education, takes a break in the shade under Andy Holt Tower on Thursday, June 30.

Construction to close, restrict roads Associated Press KNOXVILLE — Utility work on the University of Tennessee’s Natalie L. Haslam Music Center will result in road closures, traffic lane reductions and detours during the first two weeks of July.

Starting on Independence Day, July 4, westbound traffic on Volunteer Boulevard in front of the music center construction site will be reduced to one lane. A section of Pat Head Summitt Street will be closed from the intersection at Volunteer Boulevard north to the entrance to the S23 staff parking lot.

Motorists will be able to access the S23 lot, located between the Clarence Brown Theatre,

the Art and Architecture Building and the Student Health Clinic, only from the Andy Holt Avenue entrance. Handicapped motorists still will have access to the handicapped parking spaces on Pat Head Summitt Street in front of the Health, Physical Education and Re c re at i o n ( H P E R ) Building.

The “T” east-west campus shuttle bus route will be detoured from Pat H e a d Summitt Street to UT Drive for the duration of the road closure.

All closed roads and traffic lanes are scheduled to reopen by Monday, July 18.

For more information, contact the Parking and Transit Services office at 974-6031 or http://web.utk.edu/~pso/.

4 • The Daily Beacon

Friday, July 1, 2011

OPINIONS

Editor’s Note Faculty pay raised too little, too soon Blair Kuykendall Editor-In-Chief Last week UT students faced the news of a tuition increase that will push in-state fees above the $8,000 mark for the first time in UT’s history.

The increases stem from a $138 million cut in state higher education funding. Increased revenue from tuition is already slated for use in new construction undertakings and reaching the goals of the top-25 initiative. The main selling point of the tuition hike, however, centers on a movement to increase faculty salaries.

Relatively speaking, faculty pay increases are only a small piece of the 2012 budget that motivated the Board of Trustees to implement the increase.

However, since these increases were submitted as one of the main university aims, the pay increases should be evaluated on their appropriateness and timing.

Higher education employees, as vital to our nation’s future, are undoubtedly underpaid relative to some professionals. No one would dispute this fact. However, at first glance the salary of a state university system employee can be statistically misleading.

Faculty members at UT have access to a wealth of benefits not limited to their salaries. Benefits range from medical care for employees and their families to retirement and educational support.

While pensions are becoming increasingly uncommon in the private sector, the university makes payments on behalf of each employee into the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System, which will provide them a pension after they retire.

The university also offers 401(k) matching and basic term life insurance up to $50,000. Flexible benefits allow university employees to reduce the amount of income taxes they pay each year. Employee dependents are also offered assistance in paying tuition.

All in all, benefits account for around a quarter of employee compensation not included in their salaries. While the private sector offers varying

benefit packages, the benefits received by educational professionals are quite competitive. Add the possibility of tenure, and the condition of faculty compensation is not as dire as it may seem at first blush.

While ideally faculty salary would be significantly increased, it is debatable as to the appropriateness of such an increase in this economic climate, when their previous compensation was far from miserly.

The greatest issue with employee salary increases is indeed their timeliness. It is unfortunate that salaries have not been increased over the last four years, but the nation is still attempting to return from its flirtation with complete economic collapse. No one has remained insulated.

With the cessation of stimulus funding, the legislature’s rationale behind a universal salary increase this year is puzzling.

Essentially, student fees have been raised to offset the revenue lost after a decrease in state appropriations for education. While state appropriation of educational spending has declined, this year the legislature designated the funding necessary for a 1.6-percent increase in faculty salary.

At UT, student fee increases will bridge the gap to a 2-percent increase.

Fees paid by students will ultimately tally $53 million over last year. Meanwhile, $37.7 million of the state budget will be designated to raise university employee salaries, and $14 million of this funding will be pulled directly from the tuition increases.

Dwindling state funding of higher education has been largely pegged on increases necessary to fund state health care commitments. While this certainly presents issues, the legislature should have been able to find ways to cut spending while protecting higher education.

Along with exceedingly poor timing, the fact that salary increases are only partially funded by the legislature is equally disconcerting. An actual pay increase of 1.6 percent is enormously costly from a budgetary perspective, but rather small on the individual level. If our goal is to be more competitive with faculty compensation, even the university’s 2percent allocation makes little impact.

A 12-percent increase in tuition, though, can seem daunting to those who are currently unemployed.

— Blair Kuykendall, sophomore in the College Scholars Program, can be reached at bkuykend@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.

Individual ideas fuel collective future Ac orns and Other Seeds by

Anna-Lise Burnette A couple days ago I told an old friend that, in light of experiences I’ve had while in college, I wish I could tell my high school self — and even my middle and elementary school selves — a lot of really helpful things about my future.

I can feel the weight of any number of books and movies and famous quips bearing down on me, and so I have to say that it may not be the most original wish ever, but still. It feels nice to say it.

I imagine that years from now, at various intervals, I will be feeling the very same way.

It is my hope, though, that at some point it will be with a little less regret and, perhaps, slightly more compassion. When you realize that in some respects you’ve been too worried and in others too carefree, which is a light way of saying “careless,” it is hard to be confident in your own decision-making skills; and if you can’t be recklessly confident in your youth, well, like the sudden blossoming of immense wisdom, I assume for brooding types this bravado is ushered in with middle age.

But at this point, three paragraphs in, I should probably introduce the point of all this pointing at nothing: Here we are, at such a tender age, and we write and speak and feel as if we actually have something meaningful to contribute. Isn’t that the dilemma that every generation faces?

If it isn’t radical hemlines or obnoxious music, it has to be the mewling and totally nonsensical idea that we’ve got something they never had.

But haven’t we? If Apple products are the revolutionary mark of continued human evolution, then surely we can assume that our children and grandchildren will have nothing to fear. With my flying fingers and the wonder of many invisible ones and zeroes I can send to

you a tiny thought-capsule like this one from across miles and miles of un-traversable terrain.

Terrain, in fact, that doesn’t even exist.

Even impossible journeys cannot stop me.

As a generation, there are no barriers in our way.

Except — that most inconvenient of all hindrances, the internal wall that gets thrown up when it comes time to do some real, hard thinking. The human cranium is too opaque, too solid and simply too misshapen to let us do much transcending. Living on half a timeline is a problem we humans will be coping with until the end of our days, and it is precisely that limitation that makes my face scrunch up into wincing when I remember pieces of the past.

Because it is, like it or not, a collective history that we conjure up. Our future will be collective, too, which is terrible news for Type-A personalities and anyone who values the sanctity of silence, but should be wonderfully exciting for history majors. Let me clarify: History does not, as they say, repeat itself. Instead, it is the human race that is incredibly good at repeating what we might fairly call a source code with subtle variations.

Which means that for all my Silversteinian woulda-coulda-shouldas, my solutions are probably as unique as my longings. Still, it’s comforting, I think, to find that all my insights and clever phrasings are echoes of minds that came before. There’s a sort of subtle vindication when you find your own loosely held ideas strung together eloquently by someone older, usually and ideally dead. It gives consciousness the gravity that it so often has stripped away from it, allowing for a greater uplift of the spirit than we could hope to give to ourselves. It also keeps us grounded, and grateful.

Maybe a few decades from now, when I’m feeling especially preachy, I’ll be reminded of the nights I spent wondering how I ever got to be so much like everyone that ever had to grow old.

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

Small victories make day success F r ac tur ed Co n sc i o u s n e s s by

Brittany Vasquez

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The Daily Beacon is published by students at The University of Tennessee Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and Tuesday and Friday during the summer semester. The offices are located at 1340 Circle Park Drive, 5 Communications Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-0314. The newspaper is free on campus and is available via mail subscription for $200/year, $100/semester or $70/summer only. It is also available online at: www.utdailybeacon.com.

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Last Friday, I experienced a true first in my life. I had just finished giving my usual 1 p.m. campus tour, and it was about 3:10. I had not eaten anything all day, and I knew that I would be spending the next hour at the Body Farm.

Rushing to fill out my paperwork, I grabbed a pack of Starbursts from my boss’s desk.

When I refer to the pack of Starbursts, I am not referring to the huge packs that one can buy at a convenience store, I am talking about the packs that contain only two Starbursts per pack.

As I picked up the pack, I can remember thinking to myself, “I hope I get good flavors.

This burst of sugar is going to have to last me for the next hour until I can get real food.” As I slowly peeled away the wrapper that concealed my flavor fate, I saw the hint of a pink wrapper.

Initially, I was excited because at least I would be able to eat one of the Starbursts that fate had given me. Within the next couple of seconds, I opened the whole packet.

Now the idea of getting the best pack of Starbursts of my entire 20 years of life hadn’t even occurred to me. I mean, when I saw the pink wrapper of the first square candy, I didn’t think that another of my favorite flavors could possibly be the second square candy. Oh, how fate would make me his fool! To my absolute delight, another pink Starburst fell onto the desk. I had been dealt two pink Starbursts. Life could not be more lucky, loving and special during this one moment.

Now I understand that for this particular instance, reader, you would have to also appreciate the pink-flavored candy. Perhaps your favorite is red or yellow or (God forbid) orange, and then this particular instance would not be anything special to you. To me, though, it meant the entire world.

The day had started out normal and boring

— the two candies changed everything, and that’s the best part. The smallest, most insignificant moments in life can make all the difference. A simple hello, thank you or please can bring a smile to a face. Small surprises can be the best way to turn a bad day into a good day (or vice versa). Chance going your way in the simplest way can be a breath of fresh air in a stale day.

Think about the last time an effortless event or occurrence went the best way possible.

Yesterday, my friend showed me a picture on his phone of his luck. It was the longest curly fry I had ever seen. He went on to boast about how fantastic life was in that moment because he had received the king of all curly fries.

It is funny to think of all the ways in which small moments make the biggest differences or maybe not the biggest differences, but bring a smile to a face. Winning the food lottery (as I am going to coin events where unexpected, great events occur with food), receiving a small gift or being recognized for an action can be where happiness starts and then spreads.

That may be one of the keys to life. Big moments can define an entire lifetime, but so can small ones. Small events can be where the fondest memories begin or where your mind made sure to make a note of how luck went your way on a particular day. Small events have the possibility of coalescing into big events and being just as important as the days that other’s may define your life by.

As I sat there, pondering how life had been so kind to me in this particular moment, I had a realization. Those specific 10 seconds changed everything about that day. I immediately called my boyfriend to inform him of my luck and then I boastfully deemed Friday a complete success.

Who cares if I had two long tours that ran backto-back, or that I had embarrassed myself in front of complete strangers, or that I had studying for the MCAT? I had done the impossible. I had opened up a pack of Starbursts that yielded two pink-flavored candies, and that made all the difference.

— Brittany Vasquez is a senior in anthropology. She can be reached at bvasque1@utk.edu.

Friday, July 1, 2011

The Daily Beacon • 5

ENTERTAINMENT

‘Noire’ delivers intuitive gameplay

‘Weed Eater’ inventor dies at 85 The Associated Press

by evidence can be controlled by the player, the game’s default trajectory for Phelps is that of a master detective coming into his own, traversing the burgeoning metropolis in Truman-era Los Angeles. Here I started out wanting to write a video game review today of freeways are a distant dream, marijuana is a menace though morRockstar’s most recent title, “L.A. Noire,” which I just picked up the phine and heroin are valuable medical tools, and neither blacks nor other day and which has been out a little more than a month. But women have seen their time of uprising and equality.

Where Bellic and Marston had criminal and damnable pasts which owing to the fact that I am only a third of the way through the main they attempted to rectify through deeds, Phelps’ biggest obstacle storyline, I can’t give a complete rating to the game, so I’ll just go on thus far seems to be not only the gradually more depraved criminal with what is working thus far. Some mild spoilers to follow.

Not unlike many PC mystery games from the mid-to-late such as element in the City of Angels, but the bigotry of his time. Portrayed “11th Hour” and “Myst,” where players must handle clues and search by “Mad Men” alum Aaron Staton, Phelps would not be out of place for details to move them along, “L.A. Noire” acts as a detective sim- on that show some 20 years in the future. The game’s portrayal of ulator that not only forces players to scour scenes for evidence, but immediate post-war America tackles issues much in the same way as also to make decisions during interrogation as to how that evidence “Mad Men” — eschewing any contemporary apologetics or anachronistic ideology for as much period accuracy as possible. can help their case.

Thus far there has been the Let’s take an example: A car choice to stereotype a black man full of blood, a lead pipe covas a thief or to level with him and ered in gore nearby and the dispel that allegation. Also I have wallet of the car’s owner would seen a Jewish man smite an antiseem like a cut-and-dry homiSemite. Men run away from cide. On further inspection, their wives, incite insurance however, a subtle clue found fraud right out of “Double squirreled away in the car Indemnity” and rig false suicides turns the focus from homicide for Phelps to debunk. These to fraud. issues all smack of a simpler Rockstar’s track record for time, when organizations such as protagonists in recent years the ACLU, GLAAD or the has been stellar. Niko Bellic, NAACP had little to no sway in the sneering anti-hero of protecting those outside the “Grand Theft Auto IV” com“moral majority” as dictated by bined the American Dream white America. Herein lies much with the harsh realism of an ex• image courtesy of rockstargames.com of the game’s appeal — an Balkan mercenary who killed immersive experience which families and fueled ethnic slavery into a unique character the player either wantonly idolizes or can lends appreciation for the relative advances American society has at least find a sort of sympathy for as the Liberty City crime world made in integration and established gender and racial equality, underpinned by the sobering reality that the savage mentality descends on him.

John Marston of “Red Dead Redemption” likewise brought forth towards minorities and women at that time still lurks today.

My experience so far with “L.A. Noire” is exemplary of the future a penitent outlaw looking to make amends, dropping the Rockstar trademark of exploitative comedy for an all-together more visceral I hope the video game community will embrace. Using intuitive reaexperience in which life and death come with baggage far surpassing soning and subtle choices, the player can manipulate the story into a a wanted level star. As the game builds to its epic, “High Plains generic “Dragnet” episode or something more in the court of James Drifter”-style finale, a full account of the man and his deeds comes Ellroy, unraveling webs of corruption and slicing through conspirainto view, revealing an articulation of the human psyche unparalleled cies in the nick of time. Not only is the rich story presented in a nonlinear manner, but the player must work for the next piece of the puzin game history.

Cole Phelps, then, has two tough acts to follow. A white collar kid- zle and embody Phelps in a manner deeper than even most RPGs. Until I crack the last case my verdict will be out, but with the cum-World War II officer, the player takes control of Phelps as a beat cop in 1947, still haunted by the his time in the service as told glimpse I have now, I can’t help but wait in bated anticipation for through parallel narration. Though the depth of guilt as established what clues are around the next corner.

Jake Lane

Entertainment Editor

--

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HOUSTON — George C. Ballas Sr., a Houston entrepreneur best known for inventing the Weed Eater, has died. He was 85.

Ballas’ son, Corky Ballas, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his father died of natural causes on Saturday.

“He changed the way we cut grass,” Corky Ballas said.

Ballas got the idea for the Weed Eater, a device also commonly known as a weed whacker, while sitting in a car wash. He wondered whether the idea of spinning bristles, like the ones cleaning his car, could be applied to trimming grass and weeds in areas a lawnmower couldn’t reach.

He experimented with fishing wire that poked through holes in a tin can attached to the rotary of a lawn edger, and found that the spinning wires easily sliced through grass, The Houston Chronicle reported.

Ballas founded his Weed Eater company in Houston in 1971 and sales flourished during the subsequent decade.

He later sold his invention to Emerson Electric.

As part of his agreement with Emerson, Ballas was not allowed to disclose how much he was paid, even to his family.

“A Weed Eater,” Ballas told the Chronicle in 1993, “comes along once in a life-

time.”

Corky Ballas said his father for years was known as the “Weed King.”

But George Ballas, who was born in Ruston, La., was also a dance studio owner and dance was an important part of his family’s life.

After his military service, Ballas worked for both the Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire dance studio franchises. He was a dance instructor, but also traveled to various cities, troubleshooting to make the outlets profitable.

After moving to Houston in the late 1950s, he built and operated the Dance City USA Studio.

With 120 instructors and 43,000 square feet of space, it was heralded as the largest dance studio in the world. He sold it in 1964.

Ballas’ wife, Maria Louisa Ballas, was a noted flamenco dancer who studied with famed Spanish dancer Carmen Amaya and appeared in several films.

Corky Ballas became a champion ballroom dancer, and his son, Mark Ballas, is a professional dancer. Both of them have appeared on “Dancing With the Stars.”

George Ballas also helped develop a Houston hotel and worked as an adjunct professor at Rice University, teaching entrepreneurship.

He is survived by his wife, three daughters, two sons and seven grandchildren.

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NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD • Will Shortz ACROSS 1 Seething 6 The Panthers of the N.C.A.A.

34 Meiji prime minister

1

35 “Impossible”

14

40 Looks like it does

17

10 Decision-prompting request 44 Name on some underwear 14 “Doctor Zhivago” producer 45 Peak 15 Drama halls 16 Electric weapon 17 Glance 19 Charity allotment

23 Still contending 24 “My treat” 25 Fundamentalist group 28 “With Reagan” writer 29 Fail

25

48 Explanatory words

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49 Good enough

33

5

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57 Fizz ingredient

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44 46

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55 Scorned kid brother, maybe

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48 50

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58 Naturalist’s subj.

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59 Player of a stoic crew member

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62 Heard trial evidence

11 Trump the jack, e.g.

37 Opposite of spring, tidewise

12 Soft palate

38 Like some pupils

60 Gods swear by it

30 Pierced

4

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46 It exceeds the sum of its parts

54 Currency dropped during the French Revolution

21 Remove forcefully

3

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50 Bar fixture

20 Never wrapping up

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33 Where you may be 61 Inits. on some underwear on a French map

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE P O K E I M P S T U F T S

A X I S C O R A O L L I E

W A T Y I D E A S S A N D P A D D R Y A A M E R A N H E J U D I Y O T O R T H O U C H A N N A E U R I S T M O U S O N R

O L S O N E C O D E E R E

U R S G A E H O W N D M I A I N R R E A N S E R S T O T A A N D N E D X

H A T C H E T J O B

O P A R T

P O B O Y

R O D E

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DOWN 1 Religious recession?

2 Bygone European capital 3 Linear 4 Like “Cinema Paradiso”

13 Most successful U.S. black golfer before Woods 18 Obiter dictum 22 Play ___ (do some tennis)

39 Following the schedule 40 With style 41 One may hold a drawing 42 Pressing

25 Hostile to, in the hills

43 Triviality

6 Prince, e.g.

26 Gonzo

7 Periodic table suffix

27 Fast learner

47 Future World setting

31 Senate censure

51 Lighting director?

8 When a foursome starts

32 Make a goner

52 Natural soother

36 Instrument for Cannonball Adderley

56 Large load

5 Analogized

9 Rest 10 Wooer’s surprise

46 “___ again!”

53 Curious George’s creators

THESPORTSPAGE

6 • The Daily Beacon

Fancher, Pancratz focused on future Matt Dixon Sports Editor As Houston Fancher watched youngsters take part in day one of a Tennessee men’s basketball summer camp, it took him back to his own childhood when he was in their shoes.

“I think it’s a really neat experience,” Fancher said. “I can remember growing up having an opportunity to come to camp and be involved in things at UT as a young boy. I can remember the memories — recall the memories — of the times spent here and it’s stuff that’s indelible. You never forget this stuff.”

But as unforgettable as attending a UT camp can be, last year’s men’s basketball season was just as unforgettable, for the wrong reasons.

Fancher, who is in his third season with UT, was named interim head coach after Bruce Pearl and his assistant coaches were let go on March 21. Fancher was retained by new coach Cuonzo Martin and given the role of director of basketball operations.

Fancher, along with Mark Pancratz, who was hired by Martin in mid-June as the director of video scouting, are the two hold-overs from last year’s coaching staff.

“I’m thankful that Coach Martin saw fit to keep me and Mark around,” Fancher said. “We’re both still thankful to be involved with the University of Tennessee, and still grateful to be here. There’s no other way to put it, but at the same time, we feel obligated to come out here and do our job on a daily basis.

“Now that he has chosen to keep us, the past is always the past, and it will remain the past, so we’re more interested in the present and future so we’re moving forward, doing the things he’s asked us to do and try to build a program in the direction he wants it to go.”

For Pancratz, the opportunity to stay with the Vols was a “huge blessing.”

“It meant the world to me,” he said. “I’ve been here five years, and Knoxville is where I call home right now. My wife’s from here, I had my first daughter here, I got my master’s (degree) here, so it’s become a huge part of my life. The Vol nation and the Knoxville community is just a great place to be, and I’m so thankful to continue to be here.”

During the nearly three months of not knowing where he was going to continue his coaching career, Pancratz and his family were prepared to leave Knoxville.

“When we got let go here, I didn’t know what I was going to do,” he said. “My family got packed up, ready to go, just ’cause in coaching, when you take a job — as soon as you take it — you’re all into it. Whether it was here or somewhere else, my family was packed up and ready to go just to see wherever that opportunity was going to be.”

But he credits one person in particular as the reason he’s still at UT. “I really don’t think I’d be here without Coach Fancher,” Pancratz said. “He’s been a huge mentor towards me. He’s one of the best people I’ve ever known. The relationship with the players, our relationship with them is important. Mine and Coach Fancher’s biggest jobs is to handle a lot of the administrative stuff so that the coaching staff can hit the road recruiting right away and bring them up to speed on current SEC opponents, our current roster, things like that.

I think it was important, but I think it’s also Coach (Martin) kept us both because of what we stand for.”

While the two will work in more of a behind-the-scenes

role going forward, their ability to help bridge the gap between the players on the team and the new coaches on the staff has been crucial.

“Yeah, we’re doing that,” Fancher said. “They (new coaches) are getting that now. Having been here for a while, getting to develop their own image of the players, if you will, and they make their own evaluations. But initially, they all asked, ‘How is Renaldo (Woolridge)? How is Cam (Tatum)?

Tell me about “Jordy” (Jordan McRae).’”

Fancher said during the week he was the interim coach, his focus was solely on the players to make sure they didn’t feel any of the burden.

“I didn’t do a whole lot,” he said. “I just did sort of … I met the kids’ needs, and I think that was the most important thing, that we made sure they weren’t sacrificed during the transition. That they weren’t forgotten about in that period until we got a new coach because, obviously, insecurity sets in when you lose a coach and you don’t know who your next coach is going to be, and they need somebody to turn to, somebody to talk to, and they came to me, they came to my house. We sat and talked and made sure everything was going to be O.K., Tennessee basketball’s going to be fine.

“That was the biggest part, I felt like: the transition from the old coach to the new coach, just making sure the players weren’t sacrificed or that they got all their needs met. To me that was the most important thing I was going to have to do: that we took care of the players.”

With more than two decades in coaching, including 12 years as a head coach, most recently at Appalachian State, Fancher understands coaching changes happen often, especially in college basketball. That experience has made getting acclimated to Martin and his staff an easier transition.

“I’ve been doing this a long time. This will be my 25th year in the business, and the thing I’ve enjoyed about this new staff is they’re young, they’re energetic and they’re hardworking. You build relationships with people you work with on a daily basis, obviously, and to lose some guys off the last staff and have new guys coming in, it just seems to be part of our business, part of our profession.”

Pancratz, on the other head, doesn’t have years of coaching experience like Fancher, but related Martin in a different way.

“We’ve been working closely together,” he said. “We have some similarities in both being Illinois guys and just the kind of things he looks for and stands for, I look for and stand for.

Just the way he goes about doing things I really like. I think he’s a great coach. He’s been there, done that, whether it was playing in the NBA, he won at the highest level in the Big Ten (at Purdue as a player and assistant coach), won when he was at Missouri State, and that’s not going to change when he gets here.”

But what has changed for Pancratz is the absence of Pearl, under whom he played for four years at WisconsinMilwaukee, and later followed to Knoxville to begin his coaching career as a graduate assistant.

“It was tough,” Pancratz said. “Coach Pearl, he gave me this opportunity and I’m forever appreciative of that. Those other guys, Coach (Jason) Shay I’ve known for nine years, so it was hard. But now, it’s an experience you learn from and definitely one that I’ve put behind me, but also refer to as a learning experience.”

— Matt Dixon is a senior in journalism and electronic media. He can be reached at mdixon3@utk.edu and followed on Twitter at @MattDixon3.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Vol named SEC Male Athlete of the Year Staff Reports John-Patrick Smith stamped a final exclamation point on his historic tennis career Tuesday when became the fourth Vol ever to be named the Roy F. Kramer SEC Male Athlete of the Year.

Smith, Tennessee’s first four-time tennis All-American, earned the annual honor by a vote of conference athletic directors. Kayla Hoffman of the Alabama gymnastics squad won the women’s award.

“The SEC is very proud to honor John-Patrick and Kayla, as they are outstanding examples of what a student-athlete can accomplish, both on and off the field of competition,” SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said. “Their hard work and dedication to excellence have made them fine representatives of their universities and this conference. We congratulate them and wish them the best in their future endeavors.”

The list of previous winners of the SEC Athlete of the Year is practically a who’s who of professional sports across the board, and Smith joined a very select group of Tennessee student-athletes to earn one of the conference’s highest honors.

The last Vol to be named male athlete of the year was quarterback Peyton Manning in 1998. Baseball star and quarterback Todd Helton won the award in 1995, and Larry Seivers was honored for his performance at wide receiver in 1977.

Six Lady Vols have been named SEC Female Athlete of the Year, most recently including basketball star Candace Parker in 2008 and softball pitching legend Monica Abbott in 2007.

“When you look at the list of people who’ve won this award in the past, they’re all phenomenal athletes who’ve been really good about giving back to the community as well,” said Smith, who is playing in a USTA Futures professional tournament this week in Florida. “Down the road, hopefully I can have some of the success they’ve had professionally. Right now I’m working hard and training to improve my game.”

Few tennis players have come close to approaching the career milestones that Smith reached in his final season at Tennessee. Smith finished not only as the Vols’ first four-time ITA All-American, but he also became just the second player in college tennis history to earn All-America status in both singles and doubles every year of his career, joining just Rick Leach of Southern California (1984-87).

Smith, a native of Townsville, Australia, held the national No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles in addition to being named SEC Player of the Year as a junior and senior while competing at the top of the lineup. He reached the No. 1 end-season doubles ranking with two teammates: Boris Conkic in 2011 and Davey Sandgren in 2009.

Smith led the Vols to the program’s first back-to-back SEC regular-season titles the last two years and ended his career as Tennessee’s all-time combined singles and doubles victories leader with 298 (152 singles and 146 doubles wins). He was also an NCAA singles finalist in 2008 and an NCAA doubles finalist with Sandgren in 2009 and 2010.

In addition to his on-court performances, Smith also led the Vols in grade point average nearly every semester and earned his degree in economics in May. Last week, he became a recipient of the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.

“It’s obviously a great honor to win this award,” Smith said. “I’m really proud of what I was able to accomplish in my four years at Tennessee, but I had a whole lot of people who helped me the whole way. I had a lot of support from teammates, coaches, staff and fans here.”

Each SEC program nominated a student-athlete for the SEC Athlete of the Year, and other male nominees included: Kirani James, Alabama (track & field); D.J. Williams, Arkansas (football); Cam Newton, Auburn (football); Will Claye, Florida (track & field); Mark Dylla, Georgia (swimming); Randall Cobb, Kentucky (football); Patrick Peterson, LSU (football); Barnabas Kirui, Ole Miss (cross country); Derek Sherrod, Mississippi State (football); Michael Roth, South Carolina (baseball) and Grayson Garvin, Vanderbilt (baseball).

The SEC Athletes of the Year Awards were first presented in 1976 for men and 1984 for women. The award was renamed the Roy F. Kramer Athletes of the Year in 2004 to honor the former commissioner who served the conference from 1990-2002.