09 03 13

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Y-12 historian Ray Smith visits the Baker Center >>See >> See page 2

The Band Perry performs at Smokies Stadium >>See >> See page 3

Staff grades Vols’ preformance against Govs >>See >> See page 6

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Issue 09, Volume 124

UT butchers Austin Peay Troy Provost-Heron

RecSports unveils ‘worldclass’ facilities

Assistant Sports Editor

Emilee Lamb Assistant News Editor

Since his hiring in December, Butch Jones has given Volunteer fans every reason to be enamored with their new head football coach. Whether it be the recruitment of highly-touted high school players or screaming into a microphone as the Vols practiced in front of droves of fans, Jones has given UT reason for optimism. With the anticipation of the 2013 UT season at it’s climax, the Butch Jones era officially began on Saturday as the Vols defeated the Austin Peay Governors 45-0. Even though Saturday resulted in Jones’ first victory as UT’s head coach, he placed the milestone of the program reaching its 800th win over his own. Elevating tradition over every other aspect is nothing new for Jones. “I don’t think we should ever undervalue that,” Jones said in regards to the milestone victory. “That is something that is very, very special in the world of college football, it’s part of our tradition and there are only eight total teams in all of college football that can speak in those terms relative to winning 800plus games now in their program. “I want to thank all the former players, the coaches and everyone that has really laid the foundation and the hard work for this football program.” With all the excitement around the program and pressure on Jones, Austin Peay may not have been the biggest test on paper, but it was still his only chance to make a good first impression on the Volunteer faithful. Regardless, as game day dawned on Neyland Stadium, he said he was not nervous. See FOOTBALL SIDEBAR on Page 5

ing for it, but it is entirely optional.” Poorly-conducted evaluations by supervisors are frequent occurrences, Smyser said, adding that the assessments are “pretty much a joke.” “Someone I know had a supervisor write on their evaluation that they were not a ‘team player’ and so they were marked poorly on that section,” he said. “It made no sense because that man works by himself in a building. Now he won’t be able to get a raise.”

At UT, sports are a religion, and games a kind of ritual. For devoted spectators and players alike, this way of life extends beyond Neyland Stadium, as the crowd proved at Friday’s opening of the new RecSports fields on Sutherland Avenue. The cutting of the ribbon at the 38-acre sporting complex marked the beginning of what many consider a new era of intramural and club sports. “Tonight is about two groups of people,” said Will Carver, a UT alumnus and former student body president. “It’s about people 15 years ago who had a vision… it took a second group of people with some motivation to get us here.” Many distinguished guests and donors appeared for the opening, in addition to former SGA student body presidents, including the 2012-2013 president Adam Roddy. Attendees were served a complimentary dinner after the formal ribbon-cutting ceremony. Several club teams came to christen the untouched fields. The new facilities, which were solely funded by student activities fees, include eight rectangular playing fields, split evenly between astro-turf and natural grass landscaping, two softball fields and three state-of-the-art sand volleyball courts. “We looked at some of the best sand volleyball facilities,” said Rex Pringle, director of RecSports. “We hope we’ve got something even better than that.” The courts near the TRECS, though convenient, have a history of injury, making the safety features of the new sand volleyball courts invaluable. “We have lights, better sand, not as many injuries,” said Leah Bednarczyk, a senior studying speech pathology. “I think they’re really nice. They have the rubber so it’s not as compacted, no skinned knees.” Reflecting major reform in administrative spending, the complex represents the university’s renewed commitment to fund projects students really want. “What’s most important is just the field availability,” said Olivia Cantrell, senior in plant sciences and member of the women’s rugby club team. “More often than not, for rugby anyway, I can say that we’ve had a problem trying to secure good fields for our competition play.

See CUSTODIANS on Page 2

See RECSPORTS on Page 2

Matthew DeMaria • The Daily Beacon

Junior running back Marlin Lane shakes off Austin Peay defenders as he trots for a touchdown in the first quarter during UT’s season-opening 45-0 win over the Governors on Saturday.

Custodial issues not easily swept under rug Hayley Brundige Staff Writer They clean our bathrooms, pick up our trash and maintain the appearance of the campus. They are the UT facilities workers. Facility services is a broad department that includes building, landscape and lock and key services on a campus with more than 260 buildings, 556 acres and 33 miles of sidewalks and plazas. Josh Smyser is a facility services worker who cleans the Stokely Management Center.

Smyser has been employed by the university for a little over a year. “It’s a decent job,” Smyser said, “but it could be better.” According to Smyser, there are three major issues with the job; the wages, the employee evaluation system and the mistreatment of workers by supervisors. Based on a UT Faculty Senate study conducted for the 2010-11 academic year, a “living wage” is around $9 an hour, or $25,000 per year. The study defined a living wage as one that is “sufficient to pay for the basic bare-bones needs

of a family living in today’s America without having to resort to public benefits, crime or private charity.” The present base pay for UT facilities workers is $8.50 an hour. “I’m single, so it’s a little easier for me to live on that salary,” Smyser said. “But I know people who have families to support and they really struggle.” In order for facility workers to receive more than the base pay, they must score well on evaluations conducted by their supervisor. “The current push is to

make all pay raises performance-based rather than across the board increases,” said Janet Miles, vice president of the United Campus Workers Knoxville chapter. “This means that a poor performance evaluation has a direct negative effect on an employee.” The reasoning behind this type of system seems sound, Miles said, but there are issues with the way employees are assessed that make evaluations arbitrary and inaccurate. “There is no consistent system-wide process for writing performance evaluations,” Miles said. “There is train-

Film to address sociological stigmas Gabrielle O’Neal Staff Writer UT’s sociology department is using film to open dialogue on today’s sociological issues in a series called “A Sociologist at the Movies.” The first film, “The Trial,” will be shown Sept. 3 at 7:30 p.m. in Hodges Library auditorium. Joel Crombez, the film series coordinator, said he hopes the series will provide a forum to discuss sociology in a modern and culturally-based context. “Our goal with the film series is to open up a wider conversation with the UT community on sociological topics and contemporary concerns,” said Crombez, who also doubles as a graduate teaching associate in the sociology department. “While traditionally the series has focused on spe-

cific social issues through the viewing documentary films, this semester, we are looking at some of the larger issues relating to life in modern society as reflected in many fiction-based movies.” Although these movies are “fiction-based,” Anitra Selmon, senior in sociology, said they can provide an interesting perspective on sociology and the way people interact with one another. “I think you can see sociological concepts in everything, even movies,” Selmon said. “Examples of that include social class, social institutions, social norms, and the values we place on things.” Selmon said she never really noticed those things until she became a sociology major. “If we see a movie where there’s a low class worker wanting to move up in the company, and his boss is a prominent business man, we

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usually don’t analyze it conscientiously,” Selmon explained. “But if we do, you can see that there is a class struggle. They have two different statuses and therefore two different roles in society. This is part of our social system.” “The Trial,” the first film in the series, was originally written as a novel by Franz Kafka circa 1914 and was later adapted to the screen by acclaimed “Citizen Kane” director Orson Welles in 1962. “While the film did not have the same commercial success as Welles’ other masterpieces, he stated publicly that he viewed this as his best film,” Crombez said. “It features the protagonist Josef K. who awakes one morning and is arrested; his entire life is changed by this single event, although he is never told what his crime is.”

• Photo Courtesy of Mubi

See SOCIOLOGY FILM on Page 3

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09 03 13 by UT Media Center - Issuu