Issue 48, Volume 121
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Students anticipate new intramural fields David Cobb Assistant News Editor For Samuel Scott, a tri-sport intramural athelete, softball opening day at the new “RecSports Fields at Sutherland” should be a special one. If the projected completion date of the complex that features two full softball fields is met, for the first time in his college career, Scott, a junior in journalism and electronic media, will play on a field dedicated to the sport at which he is best. That’s what Carrie Trexler, Director of Sports Clubs and Marketing Director, is shooting for. “It’s hard to tell because with construction, things get pushed back and delayed sometimes, but right now the projected completion date is in early February,” Trexler said. “We should, if everything goes as scheduled, start programming out there in the spring — that’s the hope.” The new complex will feature three sand volleyball courts and eight multi-purpose fields. Four of them will be grass; four will be artificial turf. All eight will be large enough for regulation soccer matches. But it’s the two softball fields that interests Scott, a right-handed pitcher, the most. Under the current system, there are often two softball games being played on the multi-purpose intramural fields simultaneously. “That’s the main thing that I’m excited about,” Scott said. “That there’s an actual field,
because it’s kind of annoying when you’re playing softball and there’s like a 500 foot wall for left field and a 200 foot wall for right field. It’s nice to have an actual softball facility that makes sense and (to) actually know where the bases are. I’m not afraid that an outfielder from another game is going to collide with an outfielder from our game, our center fielder doesn’t have to go dashing into the other games’ outfield whenever somebody crushes one. “So I definitely think having an actual softball field will be a benefit.” Scott has played football, basketball and softball since his freshman year, saying that his experiences in intramurals afforded him an opportunity to meet and get to know people as a freshman. “I am best at none of them,” Scott said. “But I am least worst ... at softball — I’m a pitcher so I actually contribute something to the team. But football and basketball, I just kind of stand there and fill a roster spot sometimes. But I really enjoy playing. “The softball fields that are going to be at the complex are natural grass, they’re not artificial turf,” Trexler said. We’ll have two dedicated softball fields with dirt infields, warning tracks and all that jazz. So it’ll be pretty nice because when you play softball here on turf, the ball bounces a lot differently when it hits the ground, there’s not really a fence. There is a fence out here — but it’s not like a traditional softball field with foul poles, actual baselines, raised bases — so it’ll be nice having all that, and a backstop.” Another aspect that will be improved for
• Photo courtesy of UTK
Scott and the student body is the ability for more teams to register to play at more convenient times. This year flag football games were scheduled for as late as 10 p.m., often starting later due to scheduling that was tightly compacted to accommodate a large number of teams. “The neat thing is we’re going to be able to
Author speaks on healthcare
Professor discusses disasters Justin Joo Staff Writer
Samantha Smoak Staff Writer Healthcare is a hot topic in this year’s presidential election, although many student voters may be confused on how it will affect them. Tonight, students will have a chance to learn more about the subject from Dr. Theda Skocpol, a distinguished professor and author from Harvard University. Dr. Skocpol was chosen to speak because she is a leading social scientist and theorist of advanced modern democracies. Sylvia D. Turner, the assistant director of the Chancellor’s Honors and Haslam Scholars programs, hopes that students will take several things away from the lecture, including becoming informed on the Affordable Healthcare Act, also known as Obamacare. “I would like for students to have a better understanding of The Affordable Healthcare for America Act,” she said. “This piece of legislation ... continues to be a lightning rod for politicians and pundits.” Turner hopes that the lecture will clear up any confusion about what Obamacare actually means to Americans. “There is a lot of misinformation out there about what the law covers. Hopefully, students will learn — in a less politically charged environment — what the law entails,” Turner continued. Nate Crilly, sophomore in food science and technology, feels that students should take every opportunity to learn about healthcare because students are either directly or indirectly impacted by healthcare legislation and reform. “They may become sick, even in the prime of life, and have to navigate the tangle of insurance and regulations,” he said. “Their older relatives (especially parents) may become chronically ill, necessitating involvement (of the student) with healthcare.”
• Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart
Michael Miceli, sophomore in linguistics, agrees with Turner and Crilly. “I think it is very important for students to be knowledgeable of what is going on in their government, especially ... when it comes to where their tax dollars are going,” he said.
When massive natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy strike, one may wonder how to prepare for the destruction and what could have been done differently. Cornell University professor Dr. Thomas O’Rourke will be discussing those exact issues in his lecture, “The New Normal for Natural Disasters,” which will take place at 3:40 p.m. today in the Science and Engineering Research Facility (SERF) Room 307. It is free and open to all students, staff and faculty. O’Rourke will present research that he has conducted on natural disasters and the infrastructure used to protect people from the destruction. More importantly, though, O’Rourke will discuss how the methods those structures are normally analyzed by need to be changed in order to be better prepared in the future. “The new normal is that there is infrastructure that is too big to fail,” O’Rourke said. “And therefore, relying on the kind of methods for evaluating risks and perhaps conventional probability assessments is no longer adequate.” He added, “We need to rethink how we assess risk and we need to define what’s too big to fail and take steps to assure that it does not fail.” The inspiration for his lecture occurred in 2005 when he was selected by the army to work with the team that researched what caused the failure of the hurricane protection system in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
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O’Rourke and his colleagues also looked into how to repair the system and what to look for to prepare better for future natural disasters. During that four-year assignment, O’Rourke realized that the methods those types of protective infrastructures are evaluated by needed to be evaluated themselves. O’Rourke then began to develop his lecture on why and how this “new normal” needed to be reassessed. Another portion of O’Rourke’s lecture is how to go about a new reassessment strategy. He will address the problems that come with cost and how best to select which infrastructures to fix. “That’s somewhat tricky because we can’t afford to fix everything,” O’Rourke said, “So one has to be selective, and someone has to select and develop the methodology that is affordable.” The lecture is the 2012 Distinguished Lecture of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and is being hosted by UT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Dr. James Mason, assistant professor in the CEE Department, was the one who suggested inviting O’Rourke to UT. Having worked with O’Rourke in the past, Mason knew that O’Rourke would be perfect for coming to UT and addressing issues with natural disasters. “There is a great need to bring an understanding of (the) hazards of natural disasters to this area,” Mason said. “And Professor O’Rourke is one of the experts in the world... The scale of projects that he works on and that his students work on are large regional problems.”
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run so many more games at a time than we can right now with just two at a time on the current fields,” Trexler said. UT’s club sports teams will also benefit from the addition of the fields. Trexler said it will be a “night and day” difference for teams often forced to seek field time at local schools and parks.
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