Your guide to Thanksgiving if you’re stuck in town this break NEWS >>pg. 2
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Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Lady Vols pull off instate rout SPORTS>> pg.3
Issue 68, Volume 127
Redefining right Last fall meeting discusses UT’s sexual assault response, culture ing students and staff, to revise the university’s sexual assault and misconduct policies. The task force has scheduled several Bradi Musil Assistant News Editor (@bradi4) meetings this semester to discuss key issues and ultimately create a more comprehensive and responChancellor Jimmy Cheek sive policy. enlisted a group of more than 20 Week six: The culture of UT community members, includ- sexual assault
Hayley Brundige
News Editor (@hayleybrundige)
This week was scheduled to mark the final meeting of UT’s Sexual Assault and Misconduct Task Force. However, Title IX Coordinator Jenny Richter said the conversation isn’t over yet and a final draft of the new policy will not be completed by the original December deadline. The task force will likely reconvene in January, Richter said, to finalize the policy by the February UT Board of Trustees meeting. In Monday’s meeting, the
group began by viewing a news report of the recently uncovered gang rape allegations at the University of Virginia. In the Rolling Stone article “A Rape on Campus,” released Nov. 19, a third-year UVA student describes her experience at a party in graphic detail. According to her account, an upperclassman invited her to a party at the the Phi Kappa Psi house in fall 2012 and seven men raped her over a three-hour period in a bedroom.
She did not press charges and said she felt discouraged from following through with disciplinary action by university officials. While this account highlights the prevalence of sexual assault issues nationally, the UT community is reacting to the recent allegations of a sexual assault on campus. Two Tennessee football players, senior A.J. Johnson and sophomore Michael Williams, are currently under investigation for the alleged forcible rape of one
Staff writer
What would you say if a professor offered you the ability to take any courses you want, regardless of the limitations of traditional majors and degrees? For 30 current UT students, and about 700 students since the 1970s, this seemingly unlikely fantasy is a reality known as College Scholars. An interdisciplinary honor society and major in the College of Arts and Sciences, the program allows qualified students to create their own individualized interdisciplinary major. “Every College Scholars program is unique,” Jeffrey Kovac, chemistry professor and director of College Scholars, said. “Every student takes responsibility for his or her own education and does exactly what he or she wants to do.” A few examples of diverse past and present College Scholars programs include Literary Journalism, The Prevention and Treatment of Cancer as Affected by Nutrition, Gender Inequality with a Focus in Eastern Europe and Latin America
and Comparative Literature, Language and Translation with a Focus in German and Russian. The program, explained Kovac, allows students with a 3.25 GPA or higher and a specific academic goal that cannot be met through a traditional major to design their own major. Classes are chosen with the help of a faculty mentor, and a corresponding senior project reflecting expertise in one’s chosen major must be completed. “They have essentially complete freedom, within the context of working with their mentor and having a well-defined educational goal,” he said. In order to have access to this level of academic independence, each interested student must design his or her major and curriculum. Once Kovac approves their program, they must then defend their program in front of five current College Scholars students. “We look for passion, we look for clarity, we look for specificity,” Kelsey Ray, senior in College Scholars majoring in comparative literature, language and translation, said. “Do they know what classes they want to take and how many hours they want to take?” Clint Elmore, a College Scholars alumnus and current
“
Y our first goal is making sure that
the student isn’t setting themselves up to fail. You want to make sure that the person has the greatest chance to succeed as the can have.
Robert Parker Jenkins Contributor
“
Hannah Marley
-Clint Elmore graduate student in the College of Communication and Information, also served on the panel during his time in the program. The panel’s job, he said, is to gauge how passionate, prepared, and serious the potential applicant is before approving them. “Your first goal is making sure that the student isn’t setting themselves up to fail,” Elmore said. “You want to make sure that the person has the greatest chance to succeed as they can have.” For those who succeed and gain approval, College Scholars is a unique opportunity to pursue multiple interests that might not be represented at the university, or might require too much time and money to pursue through more conventional methods. Ray believes pursuing her varied interests in German, Russian, literature and linguistics would have been impossible without
College Scholars. “I wanted to take so many different things from so many different departments, and I soon realized that I would be in college for 10 years before I finished everything that I wanted to do,” she said. For Elmore, College Scholars allowed him to pull courses from various disciplines to create a major that, at the time, simply did not exist at UT. “I decided that I wanted to study film, but UT didn’t even have a cinematography program like they have now,” Elmore said. “I thought I would have to triple major with two minors, and (my advisor) was like, ‘Actually, I think I know the right program for you.’”
See SCHOLARS on Page 2
Vols’ line of scrimmage struggles ‘a combination of everyone’ Troy Provost-Heron Sports Editor (@TPro_UTDB)
Six sacks. 12 tackles for loss. Both numbers were more than the totals the Tennessee offensive line had allowed in the Volunteers’ past two games combined. On paper, Saturday’s contest Missouri was the offensive line’s worst outing since they gave up the same number of sacks and tackles for loss against Ole Miss on Oct. 18. But head coach Butch Jones, however, isn’t necessarily buying what that paper is selling. “All eyes point to the offensive line,” said Jones during his weekly Monday press luncheon. “You look at a stat sheet and say you gave up this many sacks, but sometimes as a byproduct of our receivers not getting open, it was a byproduct of Josh (Dobbs) sometimes leaving the pocket too soon. “It wasn’t just the offensive line. It was a combination of everyone.
That’s what we talk about, playing team football and consistency.” The poor numbers could also be attributed to the numerous injuries the Vols have faced up front this season. UT started their eighth different offensive lineman against the Tigers, as sophomore Dylan Wiesman filled in for redshirt junior Mack Crowder, who suffered a highankle sprain versus Kentucky, at center. “(Dylan had his) first real true game repetitions at center, where it really mattered,” Jones said. “I thought he did a good job with our line calls. I thought his snap accuracy was good all night against a very disruptive defensive front.” As for Crowder, Jones stated that his status for Saturday’s matchup against the Vanderbilt Commodores would be determined later in the week, and that he would attempt to practice on Monday. See VOLS on Page 5
Local shops can help you find the perfect gift ARTS & CULTURE >>pg. 6
Junior Marcus Jackson on field during the 50-16 victory game against Kentucky on Nov. 15. Esther Choo • The Daily Beacon
“Pitbull rescuers, drug addicts, regular ole people -- they all tauhgt me something.” VIEWPOINTS >>pg. 4
See SEXAUL ASSAULT on Page 2
‘A Christmas Carol’ returns to Clarence Brown Theatre
Students push traditional boundaries College Scholars program provides opportunity to create unique degrees
19-year-old woman, an attack that lasted 45 minutes. Williams is also under investigation for the sexual assault of another 19-yearold female the same night. Although the task force did not explicitly discuss these allegations, the conversation Monday revolved around the university’s response and rape culture.
“A Christmas Carol,” the perennial holiday production at the Clarence Brown Theatre, opens this Friday to the multitude of patrons who, with their families in tow, flock to partake in the telling of Charles Dickens’ classic tale. As well as being a seasonally top grossing production for the theatre, the play exists as a family tradition for many members of the Knoxville community – a celebration of the season and the spirit of giving that accompanies the upcoming holidays and winter chill. Micah-Shane Brewer, a recent MFA graduate of UT’s acting program and now the director of this year’s production, assured that, beyond being a show that simply sells tickets, it is one of the most beloved stories in American history. “It is a reminder that we have the power to change our lives at any point -- that it’s not too late,” Brewer confided within the dark upper seats of the theatre, perched above to watch the final lighting adjustments being made to his production. The story, as so many are already familiar with, follows the trials of Ebenezer Scrooge as the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future take him on a time transcending journey in the hopes of reforming his avaricious ways before the breaking of Christmas morning. “Ebenezer finds out that he can change and that he has a responsibility to other people,” Brewer ascertained. “We have an obligation to help those who are less fortunate than we are, to be kind and loving and caring and giving.” Brewer took over a production directed by many before him, many attempting to reinvent the timeless classic. He stresses, though, that viewers should not compare this year’s “A Christmas Carol” to any past production. “I’m very cautious (because) I don’t want to compare it to the last year’s,” Brewer said. “It’s a totally different script. It’s a new show.” See CAROL on Page 6
Former Tennessee standout likely has lymphoma SPORTS
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