07 02 14

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Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Issue 05, Volume 126

• Photo Courtesy of UT Media Relations

utdailybeacon.com

ATennessee’s life of service favorite son passes More than 700 people gathered to pay their respects to Howard Henry Baker Jr. at the late senator’s namesake Center for Public Policy on Monday. The 88-year-old former house majority leader, UT alumnus and donor died in his hometown of Huntsville June 26. Baker was Tennessee’s first popularly elected Republican senator, serving in the Senate from 1967 to 1985 and well-known for serving as vice chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee that investigated President Nixon. Baker famously asked the question “What did the president know and when did he know it?”, during the hearings. The UT Law School alumnus and the school’s first recipient of an honorary doctorate is best known at his Alma mater for the creation of the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, which hosts lectures, classes, discussions and other events concerning public policy in 2002.

SEE INSIDE

Campus construction: We’re not done yet, but we’re getting there

NEWS >>pg. 2

No plans for the Fourth? Not anymore.

ARTS & CULTURE >>pg. 3

Onward and Upward: Two Vols were drafted to the NBA SPORTS >>pg. 6

@UTKDailyBeacon www.utdailybeacon.com

“The Baker Center stands as a living legacy to a member of the greatest generation,” Matt Murray, director of the Baker Center, said in a statement. “Senator Howard Baker will always represent what is good about those who serve our country unselfishly. We are honored to carry on his work to create a more civil engagement in our government.” Baker enjoyed seeing what students got out of programming at the center, Nissa Dahlin-Brown, assistant director of the Baker Center, said. “We could always come talk to him about planning for the semester coming up,” DahlinBrown said. “If we had something we wanted to focus on we could always call him and ask him for suggestions. He would reach out to the people he knew, and because he was so well-respected, people would come and talk.” Dahlin-Brown said Baker always examined both sides of an issue, exemplifying values the Baker Center aims to instill in students. “He was known for integrity,” she said.

After retiring from the Senate in 1985, Baker served as President Ronald Reagan’s chief of staff from 1987 to 1988 and practiced law before being appointed ambassador to Japan by George W. Bush in 2001. Baker was also a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980. Among those he knew, Baker is remembered with reverence. “Howard Baker was Tennessee’s favorite son, one of America’s finest leaders and for Honey and me an indispensable friend,” Sen. Lamar Alexander said in a statement. “He built our state’s two-party political system and inspired three generations to try to build a better state and country. It is difficult to express how much we honor his life and how much we will miss him.” In an email to the university June 26, Chancellor Jimmy Cheek said Baker was an alumnus and friend of UT who embodied the Volunteer spirit. “He will be greatly missed,” Cheek said.

A Berry family legacy Elliot and Eric Berry follow in brother Eric’s and father James’ footsteps Patrick MacCoon Sports Editor This fall Tennessee football fans will be able to see many legacy players take to the field for the first time. Two of the six legacy commitments from the class of 2014 are brothers Elliot and Evan Berry. The Berry family will now join the Colquitt’s and become the only family to have four members play football for the Volunteers, as their father (James) and brother (Eric) left a trail to follow in Knoxville. While the two brothers may never match the career numbers that Eric Berry set—14 career interceptions and a record 494 interception return yards—they still will bring a skill set to the field that should be beneficial to their new team. Elliot Berry will wear No. 41, the reversal of his older brother’s college number, and is listed as a defensive back on the roster. Evan Berry is also listed as a defensive back and will wear No. 29, which is the number Eric Berry wears for the Kansas City Chiefs. “They are both very good athletes and very gifted,” Eric Berry said. “Elliot is more on the IQ side of things. He knows so much about football it’s ridiculous. Evan is just

a freak of nature. He can jump crazy and runs super fast. They both bring different things to the table, but they are going to give Tennessee their 100 percent.” While Eric Berry is a three-time NFL Pro Bowler, he calls his younger brother Elliot “coach,” as the two often share their thoughts on the games in’s and out’s. “He has notebooks stacked up at home from when he was younger just drawing up defenses and offenses and different plays,” Eric Berry said. “He started that up in elementary school in about fourth or fifth grade. I talk to him about different things that we (the Chiefs) could be doing as a defense that could help us out. He’s a really good coach.” Not many players come in to a program and are popular right away, but due to their family’s history at Tennessee the two brothers will come in with lofty expectations and feel the love the second they step on the field. Depending on how they perform in fall camp, they could possibly see some playing time and even start for a defense that ranked 11th in the SEC last season. Tennessee head coach Butch Jones connects with former Vol Eric Berry, older brother to two members of UT’s 2014 signing See BERRY BROTHERS on Page 6 class, during the Orange and White game April 20.

Matthew DeMaria • The Daily Beacon

Liz Wood News Editor

Administration rolls out opt-in student fees McCord Pagan Copy Editor Mandatory student fees are a thing of the past, for now. The Board of Trustees approved a plan that would strip the responsibility for distributing student fees from students at the Knoxville campus at its annual meeting June 19. Students will now have the choice to opt-in the $20 fee. The student activity fee partially funds many student facilities, organizations and events each year, such as the new Student Health Center, TRECS and the Daily Beacon. The change exempts the Health Science Center and Martin campuses as no student fees there go toward student programming. For all other campuses, the new process for student fee allocation will consist of a board with only 40 percent student representation with the other 60 percent employees appointed by the Chancellor.

The Board also added a “sunlight” provision that will allow the new process to expire after four years so long as no other action is taken by the Board. The change was requested by UT System President Joe DiPietro after Senate Joint Resolution 626 ordered the university to change the fee allocation process and report back within a year. UT was threatened with reduced funding by the General Assembly after the second annual “Sex Week” – a yearly event organized to educate students on sexual health and empowerment on the Knoxville campus. State Sen. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, introduced two bills into the Assembly that would have severely limited how student activity fees at all post-secondary schools could be allocated, but withdrew the bills after UT administrators agreed to work with the legislators and revamp the process themselves. During the Finance and Administration Committee hearing

on the change June 18, Trustee Karl Schledwitz expressed his opposition to the new process, despite ultimately voting for the change himself. While Schledwitz said he disapproved of the process the Assembly took, he admitted the Board was left with few options when threatened with budget cuts by the state. While he said he was not concerned with issues of censorship, Schledwitz added that the new procedure is akin to “putting handcuffs on a process that didn’t need them.” “I just don’t like the notion of people controlling the purse strings,” he said, “(and) making attachments that border on controlling the freedoms that come with expressing opinions and bringing in diverse groups.” As a student majority on the board is now impossible, it is possible that certain programs may no longer be funded. Chattanooga SGA president Robert Fisher – the only student who provided feedback to the Board of Trustees – identified his three major concerns

“There are no easy solutions to the longstanding disagreements that still plague the Middle East, but I would prefer that we not sacrifice more lives trying to figure them out.” OPINIONS >>pg. 4

with the change: the opt-in measure itself, the lack of student representation in allocation of fees, and the now unclear amount of funding for student organizations. “The funding model now is a bit tenuous,” he said. “We don’t know exactly how much money we’re going to have to spend on student programs and that continues to be a challenge.” As for Sex Week in 2015, Nickie Hackenbrack, senior in biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, and organizer of Sex Week, said by email that her organization is still planning to apply for money, though they are also looking for outside funds. With less money to draw from, Hackenbrack said she is worried that even organizations with a “wide range of perspectives” may be hurt. “Our events facilitate discussion and make way for the diversity of viewpoints on this campus,” Hackenbrack said, “And we’ll have a difficult time creating quality programming or bringing in qualified outside speakers with a shortage of funding.”

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07 02 14 by UT Media Center - Issuu