Nomadic Massive roams into UT
Made in America, sold in the VolShop >> pg. 2
Lady Vol freshmen dig into new roles >> pg. 5
>> pg. 8
Friday, September 6, 2013
Issue 12, Volume 124
Baker Center marks a decade
Philosopher questions definition of good art Kendall Thompson Contributor
Thomas Carpenter • The Daily Beacon
The Howard H. Baker Jr. Center, located on the corner of Cumberland Ave. and 17th Street, celebrated its 10th anniversary on Sept. 4, 2013.
Staff Reports After 10 years on campus, the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy had cause to celebrate, even if its namesake could not attend the party. Wednesday, a collection of students and faculty held a 10th anniversary celebration of the Baker Center, a building which serves as both a testament to one of UT’s most distinguished alumni and a think tank for its current students. Former Sen. Baker could not be in attendance, instead sending Fred Marcum, his assistant, to make an appearance. Marcum also snagged some chocolate cake – Baker’s favorite dessert – for the Senator.
Despite Baker’s absence, Baker Center Director Matt Murray said the Center embodies the former senator’s innate sense of honor in politics. “Sen. Baker is known as the ‘Great Conciliator’ who was very much a gentleman in all his dealings,” Murray said. “He was able to work with Democrats in a constructive way to help solve the nation’s problems. “Today, if you look at Washington, if you look at Congress ... you find all the wrong language and tone in political discourse.” Looking around the Baker Center, memorabilia and relics from Baker’s 49 years in public office demand attention. Hannah Bailey, a senior in political science and one of UT’s Baker Scholars, said that this legacy continues to influence the
building’s agenda. “The programming that goes on in this Center is almost always focused on civility and bipartisanship,” she said, “and if you look back at Baker’s times, you see that’s really what his trademark was.” She emphasized the Baker Center’s untapped potential, which can only be nurtured by more student involvement. Bill Park, the director of undergraduate programs at the Baker Center, echoed Bailey’s sentiment. “Our objective with the undergraduate programs,” Park said, “is to provide an intellectually challenging and rich experience for students who are interested in public policy as a part of their academic program here at UT.” Those students are encouraged to con-
Job fair disappoints Liz Wood Contributor Especially for students, finding a job in Knoxville can be an intensified treasure hunt. With a freshman class of more than 4,300 students, getting hired is proving more difficult than ever. In an effort to make employment resources more accessible, Career Services hosted a Part-Time Job Fair on Wednesday from 2-5 p.m. Fortyseven employers, ranging from Goodwill to Walmart to Volunteer Dining, assembled in the University Center Ballroom. Organizations such as Peace Corps, Boys and Girls Club and Salvation Army were also in attendance to speak to students about volunteering as well as employment. UT students of all levels attended the event, receiving tags listing their names and
majors before setting off across a sea of booths. Despite initial excitement, some attendees left discouraged. “We are international students and it was mostly off-campus jobs,” said Xiaolin Chen, a sophomore accounting major. “As an international student, I don’t do work off campus. For the UC job, there’s only one position available, so you see, what can you do? It’d be nice if we could find on-campus jobs, small and realistic and to know whether we can get it or not.” Many of the companies attending the job fair referred students to online applications with few representatives present to interact. “Most of it can be applied for online,” said Jack Francis, sophomore studying music. Other students wished that the event was more major-specific. “I was mainly looking for something with nutrition and fitness,”
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Who is Grant Davis? Samantha Smoak Online Editor
Liz Wood • The Daily Beacon
Yigin Chen and Yusheng Mri, both communication and information students, investigate a booth at the PartTime Job Fair on Sept. 4. Richard Shillinglaw, senior in political science, said. “Kroger and Wendy’s weren’t really what I was looking for.” William Nunn, a junior in journalism and electronic media, showed interest in employment as a result of the job fair. “I got to talk to a few people already,” Nunn said. “I’ve already applied for a few places, some of which I’m a little iffy about, but some
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tribute to the Baker Center’s unique mission of political integrity; photographs of Baker and former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton decorate the walls. As the Baker Center’s director, Murray said that its purpose is continually evolving, enveloping student engagement as well as archival research. “I think [the Baker Center] will grow slowly, and incrementally, and my dream would be that in 10 more years, we are a nationally recognized center for public policy,” Murray said as the celebration drew to a close. “When there are issues related to global nuclear security, related to energy policy, environmental policy ... when you turn on the national news, I would like to see a representative of the Baker Center testifying before Congress.”
I’m really interested in checking out. “I’d definitely come back if they had more companies showing up,” Nunn continued. “You’ve got a few fast food places; you’ve got other restaurant companies. I was thinking a little bit more like you would have some people from downtown, like some of those companies, maybe some more restaurants or theaters.”
Grant Davis once worshipped Peyton Manning. So much, in fact, that he wanted to be him. Settling instead for studying biosystems engineering, the senior from Shelbyville, Tenn., now holds the position of student services director. Davis agreed to an email interview with The Daily Beacon to discuss his plans for SGA and give us insight into his personal life. The Daily Beacon: Why did you run for office? Grant Davis: I decided to throw my hat into the ring for student services director because I knew that I had the most experience for the job and I love participating in Student Services. Student Services has been a major part of my involvement since freshman year, and I served as the assistant student services director last year. As the assistant student services director, I had a whole year to observe Student Services and develop necessary changes to the branch. I knew that if I could be successful as the assistant director, I would be success-
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ful as the director. DB: What was it like to lead the campaign? What was difficult or rewarding about it? GD: Leading a SGA campaign is unlike any other experience at UT. Life as a candidate involves little sleep, meeting countless students and being at the center of the campus rumor mill. Campaigning is extremely stressful, and I spent many long nights working with the stellar Engage managers. Campaigning developed my professional and business skills, because I was helping manage 100 volunteers and a fairly tight budget. The skills that I learned on the campaign trail have already benefited me as the student services director because I can more effectively communicate with the administration and with organizational presidents. The friendships that I made while campaigning was the most rewarding part of the experience. Certain events in people’s lives bring them together, and operating a six-month campaign for SGA is one of them. See GRANT DAVIS on Page 2
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The Mona Lisa is located in the Louvre Museum, which holds more than 14,000 works of art, 215 of which are paintings. According to the “Mere Exposure Effect,” the popularity of such paintings could be simply due to quantity of views over each piece’s overarching quality. Margaret Moore, Ph.D, a lecturer in the department of philosophy, investigated this effect in a follow-up to an experiment by James Cutting when she was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Leeds. “The Mere Exposure Effect is a well-known effect in psychology,” Moore said. “It has been studied over many decades and shown to work for many different sorts of topics. It basically says that the more you’re exposed to something, the more you become to be favorable towards that thing.” According to Moore, James Cutting thought that the Mere Exposure Effect applied to art, and what the audience perceives to be the “best” art is really just pieces of art that have been widely circulated. In his experiment, he exposed his undergraduate students to impressionist paintings that were not well known, such as certain pieces from Monet. At the end of the semester, he asked those polled to rate the art. The art that students had been exposed to was rated higher than the art they had not been exposed to, suggesting that the preference of art could be manipulated by exposure. “The question is how far does this go?” Moore asked. “The paintings he used, all of them, were good artworks. If we were exposed to ‘bad’ artworks, would we come to like those more as well?” While this experiment may seem to suggest that there is no real quality in art, Moore rejects that notion. She approached the experiment with the idea that the students liked the works more at the end of the semester because they were good, and as time went on they noticed more of the good aspects of the art. Therefore, if the students were exposed to bad art, they slowly begin to like them less. With this in mind, James Cutting’s experiment was reproduced using bad art. Specifically, the works of Thomas Kinkade. “People might question, how do we know this is bad art? Isn’t that what’s an issue? These are different paintings, and the response to them is different,” Moore said. “It doesn’t produce the increase in liking, like the Monets did, but a decrease. One reason for this is quality.” See BAD ART on Page 5