arbiter 1-23-13
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The January 23rd 2013 issue of the student run newspaper, The ArbiterTRANSCRIPT
w w w . a r b i t e r o n l i n e . c o m
Issue no.38Volume 25
January 242013
Students react to the apocalypse. Or lack thereof.
Men’s basketball in MW is neck-deep in competition
Did the university make the right choice with its image?
page 4
page 6
page 5
The Arbiter arbiteronline.com
What’s Inside
Opinion page 5Sports page 6
News page 3News Briefs page 2
Partly Cloudy
Mostly Cloudy
Sunny
Today
Tomorrow
Saturday
33º
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42º
20%
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high
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chance of precipitation
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I n D e P e n D e n T S T u D e n T V O I C e O f B O I S e S T A T e S I n C e 1 9 3 3
B o i s e , I d a h o F i r s t i s s u e f r e e
Stayin’ alive
MW B-ball
Re-brand?
Top STorieS
WeaTher
Lauren HookerStaff Writer
“Tank tops, low-cut, STOP!” shouted Miranda Palacio, stamping her foot in rhythm to the lyrics. “In this joint!”
The room echoed as members of The Armada, a local Boise dance crew, counted steps, recited lyr-ics and directed movements as they practiced—for the umpteenth time—a portion of Nelly’s “Hot in Here.” This preparation was for their 13-minute-long set to open Tyga’s show on Friday,
Jan. 25, at the Revolution Concert House.
“Take it from the top,” shouted Palacio.
“Can we make it loud-er?” asked Alexandra McLaughlin.
Music poured from the speakers, reverberating through the floors and fill-ing the room.
Sneakers squeaked as the dancers rehearsed again and again.
The Armada was formed a short five months ago by director and choreographer Max Nguyen.
The seven members of the
group were chose by Nguy-en, who teaches workshops and classes, based on their personality and talent.
“We chose ‘The Armada’ because it seemed to fit,” said Nguyen, who has been dancing for the past five years. “You think of a fleet of battleships—it’s intimidat-ing. Strength in numbers.”
After posting a freestyle video to Tyga’s “Faded” on YouTube, Mikey Castro was approached by promoter for Tyga, and The Armada was eventually asked to perform an opening sequence.
Juggling a budding
dancing career while be-ing a full-time student takes hard work and time management.
“I make sure all of my classes are during the day, and all homework is over before practice,” said Cas-tro, who is a junior Mar-keting major at Boise State. Practices are held two to three times a week in the evenings, though the group has been smashing in seven practices a week to put the finishing touches on their set for the show.
“It’s a good thing school is just now starting,” Melissa
Grund, junior exercise sci-ence major said. “But we all understand we need to do this, so it’s not bad.”
Though the style of dance they move to is general hip-hop, the group tries to in-corporate more of a musical element to their sets.
“We try to embody more music driven versus just rap,” said McLaughlin, who has been dancing since she was 15. “We stick to move-ment rather than moving to rap.”
The 13-minute set will be a mash-up of a variety of dif-ferent rap songs.
Boise dance group to bring the heat to Tyga
Emily PehrsonStaff Writer
Boise State unveiled the new redefined “B” logo on Nov. 27 to replace the diamond logo which has represented the university since 2001.
However, as education costs continue to rise, ques-tions about the new logo come to light: How much is it costing to make the change over to this new logo and where is the money coming from?
Boise State is aiming to have everything fully transi-tioned to a new logo by Sept. 1 of this year, but Melinda Keckler, assistant director of marketing explains, at this point there is no committed funding source for swapping out significant pieces of ar-chitecture.
And although Nike de-signed the new logo at no additional cost to the uni-versity as part of the re-newal of its contract with the athletic department, some costs will show up in different ways.
A clear picture of exactly what the cost associated with the roll out of the new logo still remains murky. Howev-er, Boise State Public Radio reports in 2001 when Boise State switched over to the diamond logo it cost the uni-versity an estimated $25,000.
Before recently moving on to a new job position outside of the university, Frank Zang, former director of Commu-nication and Marketing said, “We are identifying some of the key elements that will need to be changed in the long run, whether it’s the signage on the Lincoln and Brady garages or the tile in the SUB. Then individual plans will be developed for those projects after they’ve been prioritized and ad-dressed,” Zang said. “We just haven’t gotten to that level of detail on those kinds of projects.”
Stacy Pearson, vice presi-dent of Financial Affairs, seconded this in an email. “We don’t know those costs yet, but once we have good estimates, we will determine the timing and various fund-ing sources for the changes,” Pearson said.
The old diamond logo must be changed over from several permanent positions across the university. Tile insets, paintings on walls, floor mats and more must be changed over as well. The plan for these seems less concrete.
This is cause for concern for some students.
“It kind of bothers me that they didn’t look at the cost be-fore they decided to change the logo,” said Dallas Pullen, junior applied mathematics
major. “It seems backwards.”Seth Townsend, a sopho-
more electrical engineering major agrees, “I don’t like it,” Townsend said. “How do you do something this big with no plan?”
Many departments on campus will have to make room in their budgets for the changes that need to be made. For example, once it is decided what changes need to be made to the Stu-dent Union, the changes will come out of the budget the school is given every year, Pearson explains.
However not every de-partment will have the necessary funds.
“Some of these projects will require central funding,” Pearson said. “But we don’t know yet how much that will be.”
With departments facing the possibility of funding some logo changes on their own, they will have to take a close look at their budget.
“It’s important for depart-ments to identify where they see significant costs being involved in replacing the logo and definitely docu-ment that and make a case for when the best time would be from a budgetary stand-point (to make the change),” Keckler said.
Some of the smaller chang-es can be made from the exist-ing marketing budget.
As Zang explains, allowing time for the transition from the old logo will cut down on the cost of switching over to the new logo. It allows depart-ments to use letterheads, busi-ness cards, stationary and other products they currently have and re-order when supplies are low, as they usually would.
“The goal is to have as little
waste as possible,” Zang said. “This should allow them to make changes during a regular budget year cycle.”
“Some of the initial ma-terials, such as the pin and a couple banners on cam-pus, have all been covered through existing funds. So there have really been no extra costs so far,” Zang said.
Lack of a clear plan for Boise State’s new logo worries students
Cost of Change
A large diamond logo is prominent in the SUB.CODY FINNEY/THE ARBITER
{STUDENT VOICES}
The Armada, a local Boise dance crew, practices a choreographed dance in preparation for Thursday’s Tyga performance.JAKE ESSMAN/THE ARBITER
2 arbiteronline.comJanuary 24, 2013 Page 2
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis
FOR RELEASE JANUARY 24, 2013
ACROSS1 Polynesian
tongue6 Early Democrat’s
foe10 Diary closer14 Pump name15 Premoistened
cloth16 Still-life subject17 Luminous
Spanish king?19 Practitioner of
meditation20 Lassie’s “In a
pig’s eye!”21 Monopolize22 Seed source of
omega-323 Back-of-the-book
items27 Bloodhound’s 48-
Across29 Chart containing
only threes?31 Salt’s “Halt!”35 Flat hat36 Like a comics
Pea?37 Close tightly, as
one’s hand38 Groggy response40 “Welcome to
Maui!”42 Seldom seen, to
Seneca43 Grinch portrayer45 Myrna’s “Thin
Man” role47 KoKo or Yum-
Yum, in LilianJackson Braunmysteries
48 Plus49 Turkish sty
leader?51 Bulldogs’ home53 Seven-time MLB
All-Star Soriano54 Fair57 Sighing sounds59 Consume60 Bee’s charge61 Rock in actress
Susan’s path,perhaps?
66 Hon67 Lang of Smallville68 “Monster” (2003)
co-star69 Like many LAX
flights70 First place?71 Trap
DOWN1 Large body of eau2 Dismiss3 Acne treatment
brand4 Longtime “60
Minutes” pundit5 Babies6 Teens conflict,
briefly7 Up in the air8 Droid alternative9 Day one,
informally10 Casual greeting
craze?11 One who might
get caught offbase
12 Company with ahedgehogmascot
13 __ fixe18 Took out in
handcuffs, say23 1971 prison riot
site24 Works on stage25 Expresses
doubts26 Biblical brother28 ESPN reporter
Paolantonio30 Sierra __32 Analgesic brand
33 Skinny types34 “Oh, really?”37 Itinerant Yuletide
singer39 How owls know
when mice arebluffing?
41 Georgetownplayer
44 LAX posting46 Business matters49 Execute, in old
France
50 Deep-dishcomfort food
52 Soup dispenser54 Author Picoult55 Supported by56 Bank deposit58 Last word on
New Year’s Eve?62 Brown in a bed63 Loan no.64 Old French coin65 Upholsterer’s
target
Wednesday’s Puzzle SolvedBy Michael Sharp 1/24/13
(c)2013 Tribune Media Services, Inc. 1/24/13
Distributed Mondays & Thursdays during the academic school year. The Arbiter is the official independent student newspaper of Boise State University and a designated public forum, where student editors make all content
decisions and bear responsibility for those decisions. The Arbiter’s budget consists of fees paid by the student body and advertising sales. The first copy is free. Additional copies can be purchased for $1 apiece at The Arbiter offices.
BANGforyourBUCK
Get lots of
BSU Sporting Arms ClubShoot pistols, shotguns, and rifles!
SOLUTION TO SATURDAY’S PUZZLE
Complete the gridso each row, column and 3-by-3 box(in bold borders)contains everydigit, 1 to 9. For strategies onhow to solveSudoku, visitwww.sudoku.org.uk
© 2010 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved.
11/29/10
Level: 1 2 3 4
BY LINDA C. BLACKTribune Media Services
Today’s Birthday (01/24/13) The first six months of 2013 are especially creative; set financial goals to take advantage. All this energy is attractive, too. Travel and explore. Work really begins to pay off. Build healthy practices to keep you thriving all year.
Aries (March 21-April 19) Keep your objective in mind and focus. Distractions could trigger an emotional breakdown. Coop-erate with one who has what you lack. You get a secret surprise.
Taurus (April 20-May 20) You’re extra brilliant for the next few days. Others may object to a plan, so devise a persuasive argu-ment and dress it glamorously. Get to work and leave celebra-tions for later.
Gemini (May 21-June 20) The next phase could be profit-able and perfect for traveling, more fun with a partner. Imagine a future goal realized. It’s a good time to win debates.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) You’re awesome and extremely creative, even under pressure. And you’re getting stronger. Look forward to two days in the spot-light. Dream a special dream.
Leo (July 23-Aug. 22) If you’re going to worry, do it ef-fectively and where you can make a difference. Some of your best work comes from confronting difficulties.
Tuesday’s Puzzle Solved
Sudoku
The Future
Crossword
The Funnies
Clubs & Orgs
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Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) You’re doing a great job with what you have; search for allies anyway. You don’t have to go at it alone. Imagine your space reorganized. Love your friends.
Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Practice obedience, and get stronger. Team projects go well. Accept spiritual encouragement, and open the door to a romantic adventure.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) Break out of your shell and shatter your next ceiling. Expansion can be sustainable if done with respect for the shared environment. Ex-plore the outdoors.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Now’s a good time to pay bills and complete past homework. In the face of controversy, consider an-other perspective. Use what you’ve learned to cut costs.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Update your skills and make inroads quietly. You don’t have to brag about your accomplish-ments. Just believe in yourself and continue pedaling forward. Keep the balance.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Somebody very interesting finds you fascinating; stay cool. Don’t go shopping for treats yet. Focus on making money for a few days instead. In the meantime, primp.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) By now you should have done the homework. If you haven’t, don’t put it off anymore. Move up the ladder with increased confidence. What kind of world do you want? Build bridges and alliances.
The Frank Church Institute at Boise State University will honor Vice President Joseph R. Biden and Boise Mayor David Bieter with the second annu-al Frank and Bethine Church Awards for Public Service.
The awards will be presented during a dinner and reception at the Stueckle Sky Center on Sunday, Feb. 17, that benefits the Frank and Bethine Church Chair of Public Affairs at Boise State.
Mayor Bieter will attend the dinner, and a representative will accept the award on behalf of Vice Presi-dent Biden. The event also will celebrate the 90 birthday of Bethine Church.
The Frank Church
Institute was estab-lished in 1982 as the Frank Church Chair of Public Affairs at Boise State, to honor the achievements and to carry forward the principles of one of Idaho’s most dis-tinguished native sons, Senator Frank Church.
The Institute’s en-dowment also has been used to fund the annual Frank Church Conference on Public Affairs and Frank Church schol-arships.
Last year’s Public Service Award hon-orees were Boise State President Bob Kustra and his wife, Kathy Kustra.
For information about the Feb. 17 dinner, contact Garry Wenske at 426-2941
Institute honors Mayor
Boise celebrates 150Boise is celebrat-
ing its 150 anniver-sary this year and Mayor Dave Bieter encourages Boisians to accept his chal-lenge of walking 150 miles during 2013 in celebration of the city’s sesquicenten-nial birthday.
The kick off for what has been dubbed “Walk 150”
will take place at Whitney Elemen-tary School, located at 1609 S. Owyhee. Bieter will get things started today, Janu-ary 24 at 11:30 a.m.
The ultimate goal is to encour-age people living in the Treasure Val-ley to maintain or improve individual health while walking
around the beautiful City of Trees.
Students living on and off campus can participate in “Walk 150” by clocking miles walked across the Boise State cam-pus and surrounding neighborhoods or by exploring the vari-ous neighborhoods throughout the valley.
Asia festBoise State stu-
dents and friends of China, Japan, Ne-pal, Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam present the first-ever Asia Fest: The Festival of Pan-Asia at 6 p.m. Sun-day, Feb. 3, in the Student Union Jor-dan Ballroom.
The event will highlight cultures, cuisine, traditions and unity across Asia, both tradition-al and modern. The evening includes an international din-ner (with vegetarian options), student
and guest perfor-mances and student - c l u b - s p o n s o r e d cultural explora-tion booths. There also is a chance to win unique souve-nirs from the silent auction.
Tickets are avail-able at the Student Union Info Desk for $6 for the gen-eral public, $4 for children 12 and under and free for students. Call 426-3652 to reserve a table. Free parking is available in the Lincoln Avenue Garage.
Tips for walking on iceIn cold tempera-
tures, assume that all wet, dark areas on pavements are slip-pery and icy and ap-proach with caution.
During bad weather, avoid boots or shoes with smooth soles and heels. Instead, wear shoes or boots that provide traction on snow and ice — boots made of non-slip rub-ber or neoprene with grooved soles are best.
Use special care when entering and ex-iting vehicles; use the
vehicle for support.Walk in designated
walkways as much as possible. Taking shortcuts over snow piles and other frozen areas can be hazard-ous. Look ahead when you walk; a snow- or ice-covered sidewalk or driveway, especially if on an incline, may require travel along its grassy edge for traction.
Point feet slightly out like a penguin. Spreading feet slightly outward while walking
on ice increases your center of gravity.
Bend slightly and walk flat-footed with the body’s center of gravity directly over the heels as much as possible.
Extend arms out to sides to maintain balance.
Keep hands out of pockets. Hands in pockets while walk-ing decreases center of gravity and balance. If hands are free, use them to help break the fall.
Groupon Pulls Gun Deals From Site
Groupon Pulls Gun Deals From Site
Why Coke Is Ditching The Polar Bears For Its Ad
Deep Space Industries to join the asteroid gold rush
3arbiteronline.com January 24, 2013
The Arbiter arbiteronline.com
News
Hemingway & Women circumstances of war
Mckenzie PerkinsStaff Writer
Late in June of last year the Supreme Court largely upheld President Barack Obama’s Patient Protection and Afford-able Care Act with the excep-tion of Medicaid expansion.
Instead, the Supreme Court made the expansion of Medicaid optional for each individual state.
During the State of the State Address on Monday, Jan. 7, Gov. C.L. “Butch” Ot-ter declared Idaho would not expand Medicaid for now, against the unanimous rec-ommendation from his 15 member Medicaid expansion working group.
“There’s a lot more work to do, and we face no imme-diate federal deadline,” Gov.
Otter said.However, the choice to ex-
pand Medicaid will largely rest with the legislature and while he did elect not to ex-pand Medicaid as of this time, Gov. Otter did acknowledge a flawed system and sug-gested Idaho would alter its current Medicaid system in the future.
“I hope to return in 2014 with specific proposals based on that work, and I encour-age all Idahoans to get in-volved with this process,” Gov. Otter said.
Medicaid, a health insur-ance program implemented in 1965, is the nation’s largest pro-vider of health insurance for eligible, low-income individu-als and families.
Children under age 19, par-ents or legal guardians of chil-
dren under age 19, pregnant women, women diagnosed with breast, cervical or pre-cancer, blind and disabled persons, and people over age 65 are eligible currently eligible for enrollment in the Medicaid program in Idaho.
Other criteria, including income, citizenship, and work status, are also determining factors. If a single family’s in-come is too high to be eligible for Medicaid, children may still be eligible for State Chil-dren’s Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP).
Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid would be ex-panded to cover individuals between ages 19 and 65 with no children, deductions from certain groups, and a simpli-fied expansion process; under the current system, individu-
als between 19 and 65 without children are not eligible for Medicaid. However, since Ida-ho isn’t expanding its Medicaid program at this time, none of these proposed changes will be implemented.
The federal government would allocate up to 90 per-cent of the funds necessary to expand Medicaid to each state. This would alleviate the financial burden for any state which completely complied with the Affordable Care Act’s proposed expansion plan. Ida-ho, being one of the ten states that did not participate in the expansion, will not receive fed-eral funding.
However, the question re-mains: where would the feder-al government get the funds to support Medicaid expansion across the country.
Understanding healthcare
President Kustra highlights growth, need for equitable funding Courtesy Campus Update
In his Jan. 21 presenta-tion to lawmakers on the Joint Finance and Ap-propriations Committee ( JFAC), Boise State Presi-dent Bob Kustra focused on how the university has ad-vanced over the past decade and what lies ahead for the state’s metropolitan uni-versity. He also highlighted Boise State’s expanding role in the region’s economic development and detailed his continued request for equity funding.
Since fiscal year 2002, Boise State has grown from 17,161 students to 22,678. The university is also a much more traditional cam-pus than in the past, with 66
percent of students coming right out of high school and 45 percent boasting a GPA of 3.5 or higher.
Kustra noted that Boise State is growing academi-cally as well. The number of doctoral programs of-fered has quadrupled from two to eight, the number of master’s degree programs has more than doubled from 35 to 78, and digital learning has expanded to encompass 13 fully online programs, with plans to add even more as resources al-low. Currently, Boise State awards 41 percent of all of the degrees granted annu-ally by Idaho public higher education institutions.
“With our exceptional faculty, staff and student body, and our location in the heart of a thriv-
ing metropolitan area, we take pride in serving as Boise’s university and we are poised to reach the next level of achievement,” Kustra said.
To achieve that next level, Boise State is continuing its emphasis on research fund-ing and support of students, community and faculty re-search innovations through industry and other partner-ships. The University’s goal is to move into the Carnegie Foundation classification of “Research University— High Research Activity” by 2014.
Thanks in part to funding from Gov. Otter’s IGEM initiative, Boise State is on track to double its gradu-ates in computer science, a field the Department of La-bor estimates has one of the
largest employment gaps in Idaho. The university is ex-panding and restructuring the Computer Science De-partment, hiring new fac-ulty to address course back-logs, creating an advisory board to integrate industry into the program and in-crease student interaction through team projects and proposals, and developing a tutoring center to enhance student success.
“With only one new faculty member and one new research assistant this year to date, we have already realized an addi-tional $1,286,000 in exter-nal funding,” Kustra said. “There is still much to do, but we are making progress and committed to continual improvement in this area.”
Finally, Kustra addressed
the Enrollment Workload Adjustment (EWA), which is intended to help pay for enrollment growth at the state’s four-year colleges and universities, while tak-ing into account the cost differences by program. While calculated each year, it has not been consis-tently funded. Unfunded EWA from 2008-present totals $10.3 million for Boise State.
Because Boise State’s enrollment has grown the fastest among Idaho’s pub-lic universities, it has suf-fered the most in the years the state did not fund the EWA. Kustra called for help in addressing how far behind Boise State is in funding the growing enrollments at the state’s largest public univer-sity when compared to the
other four-year institutions.Failure to remedy this
situation, Kustra said, means we are headed for a “perfect storm.” Without additional resources, Boise State would be forced to cap enroll-ments, continue to enroll at the current rate and risk not offering enough sections, or increase out-of-state enroll-ments and increase tuition and fees. None of these op-tions is best for our students, he said.
“The state’s appropriation should follow the student wherever they enroll in a public university in Idaho. Currently, that is not happen-ing and we must find a way to fix it and give Boise State students what students at our other universities enjoy in state financial support,” Kustra said.
Gov. C.L. Butch’ Otter Says ‘no’ to Medicaid expansion for now
Otter suggests revisiting healthcare system in 2014.MCT CaMpus
4 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT arbiteronline.comJanuary 24, 2013
The Arbiter arbiteronline.com
The undaunted undergrads Pre-post grad crisis
Nicole Reither is a senior grad-uating in May with a degree in Communication and a certificate in Public Relations. Like Tasha Adams, she is also terrified of graduating--missing out on free food at the BRC, student tickets to events and the luxury of the free gym. “The undaunted under-grads” is an account of working through last-semester fears and getting the most out of the college experience.
Remember freshman year? You were excited about the prospect of a new beginning, making new friends and start-ing something which could potentially change your life forever.
I will always remember my last semester of my freshman year. I had finally found my friend group, the freshman fif-teen was catching up to me and the dorm room was starting to lose its appeal. I remember calling home and complain-ing to my parents who lived all but 12 hours away about my English 102 professor and the amount of credits I was taking.
But what they told me was, “slow down, take it all in, the next four years of your life are going to go by way too fast.”
I know what you are think-ing; I’m preaching to the choir, right? Here I am about to start the last semester of my college career and I am freaking out to say the least. Fall semes-ter was extremely busy. So busy I almost forgot how to enjoy myself.
And isn’t that what college is about? Learning but enjoy-ing yourself at the same time. These are supposed to be the best four years of our lives. But now that I’m barreling toward spring semester I have realized how unprepared I am to leave behind this life. And like I said before; I am freaking out.
If you know me well, you know that I love to make lists. I even make lists to make lists and I make plans to make plans. So after May 18 I am not sure what kind of lists I will have or if my calendar is going to be full. Because at the moment it is looking completely empty.
After hours of contemplat-ing I have come up with a strat-egy. I will longer have this pre-post graduation stress control my life. Instead I am going to take what seems like to be the very opposite of senioritis and create a bucket list. Each week I am going to do something different around Boise State, something that every graduat-ing senior should partake in.
There has been so much to accomplish here in the past four years. At times it is over-whelming and can seem slight-ly impossible. So between pulling all-nighters at the library, falling asleep in your roommate’s bed instead of yours and accidentally having one too many drinks at Suds, it is sometimes hard to keep up with all the simple stuff that a college campus can offer.
Follow me along on my pre-post-grad crisis as I embark on a journey to accomplish things that I think every Boise State grad should do before they flip their tassel and walk across the stage.
AlxStickelAssistant Arts andEntertainment Editor
Alex Hatter, Boise State alumnus, waits on the blue-lit stage for the rock music to fade and then addresses the audience, “Poetry slams were invented in the 1980’s by a construction worker named Mark Smith.” The audience shouts “Who cares?!” Hatter laughs, con-tinues welcoming the group to Poetry Slam deLux then proceeds to serve as the “sacrificial poet” to kick off the poetry performances.
Critiqued on a scale of one to ten, seven com-
petitors evoked polarizing judges’ scores with poems concerning matters of the heart, Toys R Us, music in Hell and slices of life.
Scores decide whether performers have the op-portunity to attend the Na-tional Poetry Slam or move up to the Grand Slam event. Past and present Boise State students were in attendance, performed on stage or sat back with drink in hand.
“I come to get my fill of good performance art,”said Jessica McCafferty, public administration graduate student. “I feel like I’m in a good spot to hear local art-ists doing something they
love and it’s always differ-ent. There’s always some-thing funny and there’s al-ways something sad and it’s always good.”
McCafferty said she par-ticularly enjoys poets that take a mundane situation and turn it into a funny poem. Poetry Slam deLux is managed by Hatter and Lexy Leahy, who got in-volved after taking a poetry class with former professor Isaac Rambo.
After watching, compet-ing and getting to know people in the group, Leahy said she enjoys what these poets have to offer.
“I like when they go off
page and they get really into it,” Leahy said. “They’re re-ally emotional and I think that’s really cool to watch. For performing, it’s fun to push the limits and see what you can do.”
Initially just in it for the extra credit, Leahy said she was surprised at her de-sire to continue attending and participating in poetry slams, including performing a poem about her challenge with public speaking.
“When I first heard about it, it seemed intimidating and honestly I didn’t think I would like poetry slams but they’re very interest-ing, they’re fun,” Leahy said. “It’s not just people sitting around reading bor-ing poetry. People are up
onstage performing. It’s a good atmosphere. People are very accepting and I en-courage anyone who’s writ-ten anything at all to come perform.”
Leahy said despite the close-knit familiarity of most of the poets and listen-ers, new poets come in and are always welcome.
Leahy said she encour-ages anyone interested to attend Slam of Steel (for those under 21) and/or Po-etry Slam deLux (for those 21 and up).
“You won’t have a bad ex-perience,” Leahy said. “Any-one can fit in. You just get up there, do your best and whether you’re reading off page or you have it memo-rized, you’re good.”
Poetry slams in a niche
Alx StickelAssistant Arts and Entertainment Editor
Guilty pleasures is a weekly series chronicling common and some not-so-common guilty pleasures of Boise State students.
I am a recovering Face-book game addict. I used to
spend hours logged in play-ing Farmville. I hid the symp-toms, making sure to keep my wall clear of claimed prizes and growth updates. It was my guilty pleasure. I knew I wasn’t alone.
However, according to Boi-
se State students, I was wrong. Only one of the five students interviewed admitted to play-ing Facebook games.
Brady Mesenbrink, fresh-man computer science major, said he plays Ruzzle everyday with his friends on Facebook, but he is not an addict.
“I’m not big on Facebook,” Mesenbrink said. “I don’t even make posts on it. I just use it to look at friend’s stuff usually.”
While I am alone in my addiction, students said my choice of poison is nothing to be embarrassed about.
Of these students inter-viewed, all agreed there
is nothing to be ashamed or guilty of playing Facebook games.
Senami Hodonu, senior mechanical engineering major, said he has tried play-ing Facebook games, but no longer is a part of that community.
“I don’t think there’s any-thing wrong with it,” Hodonu said. “I just think I’ve never re-ally given it a chance.”
Hodonou did confide he had found himself to face-book, signing in without re-ally meaning to, but now that problem has passed.
My search for accompani-
ment in my prior Facebook game addiction yielded a wor-risome new addiction. Sawan Sulaiman, freshman entre-preneurial major, confided it wasn’t Facebook games she wasn’t addicted to, but Twitter.
“Facebook, I just log in, check whatever, then log out. That’s it,” Suliman said. “For me, I find that I’m more into Twitter.”
Is Twitter the new online drug of choice for college students? Or is it Pinter-ist? Instagram? Stick around for the next campus guilty pleasure spill.
Facebook games
I think it’s always fun when a lot of people get to-gether and make something so completely non-existent fearful.
Will BirdsallJunior International Business
I mean, Boise can’t really get any worse. So I say bring the heat, nature!
I’m going to be so upset if this happens again next year.
Dude… if the world end-ed, there’d be like… NO rea-son to live.
Back where I’m from [Ha-waii] we don’t really get too busy concerning ourselves with things like this. But it’s pretty scary to think about.
In case you hadn’t noticed, mankind survived its anticipated assassination attempt by nature on Dec. 21, 2012.
And though few ACTUALLY expected some-thing to happen on this now-famous day, many of your fellow Broncos had fun toying with the idea.
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Dondi IannucciFreshmanBusiness
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5arbiteronline.com January 24, 2013
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It’s sort of like August all over again, but without the soul-clenching fear and excitement that accompa-nies leaving for college for the first time, and a little more experience in being a student.
The main difference from August, however, is that rather than already being excited about leaving for a brand new school expe-rience, I need to sort of psych myself up to get back to work.
Everyone should have something that they can get excited about for when they return to class.
To do that, I’ve taken to focusing on what has become my beacon in university studies: lit-erature. It’s something to look forward to which I also enjoy.
I never realized how much I would miss literature until it wasn’t a part of my curric-ulum any longer, and once it was gone I felt a hole in my heart much like the one a person might feel when they’re away from their family.
So, rather than freaking out about school coming my way, I’ve chosen to fo-cus on how I’ll finally be reunited with my one true love in this world: analyti-cally reading literature.
This, I’ve been told is su-per weird, but given that I am completely baffled by people who actually enjoy spending time doing pages and pages of math, I think my love of literature is just fine.
In any case, the point re-mains that the only thing keeping me from pulling my hair out in chunks is the promise of getting back to class to start dissecting literature and examining it under an academic mi-croscope before placing it delicately next to my own bookshelf.
I assume most people have some sort of dear sub-ject in school they focus on, be it a certain class they’re especially excited about (like me), or seeing friends again, or even if it’s just not being around their parents, we all need a little some-thing to look forward to in order to get ready for the post-winter, end-of-hiber-nation semester.
Zoe Colburn is resident freshman and Arbiter opinion writer chronicling her experi-ences at a new university in a new part of the country
Fresh Perspectives: Learning to stay motivated
OnlineWhat is it that gets you moti-vated for school each semester? Tell us about what you’re pas-sionate about by sending a letter to [email protected]
Re-branding was the right decisionNew look more consistent with progress made by the universityZachary ChastaineOpinion Editor
Re-branding can give your organization a whole new look. The idea is simple; organizations such as com-panies and universities have a public face which people see and recognize, and when you re-brand that public face is changed or updated in some way.
There are a lot of reasons for an organization to re-brand, and in the case of Boise State our diamond logo—which has been in use since 2001—was per-haps not a great icon for the school if only because it doesn’t seem to relate to anything. The change was a good call.
While a really straightfor-ward letter logo such as our
new one is not particularly flashy or exciting, it is clean and easy to reproduce. Soon it will probably start show-ing up on sweaters and other Bronco swag at the book-store.
As the university grows it is important for our image to be easily recognizable and easy to spread. The diamond logo was just not easily rec-ognizable.
Boise State’s growth has been steady over the last few years and a cool develop-ments have come as a result of student work, such as work on ion thrusters by the College of Engineering.
There is no telling where university developments will eventually end up. With cool sci-fi stuff like Google-backed, Planetary Resources Inc. talking
about mining asteroids in the not-so-distant future, it’s not farfetched to think some of their space vehi-cles could one day be using components developed by Broncos.
The point is Boise State is making progress as a univer-sity and that is good news for everyone here. A more reputable school means a degree from Boise State will carry more weight, and a more respected degree is what students should be get-ting from their school.
Mikhiale Camacho, a sophomore studying ra-diology, shared some of her thoughts on the new look and if it was a match for what the university is offering.
“We were known as a com-muter college and now with something more fun and inviting, we have a new logo
to look forward to. I think it’s more appealing to
newer generations coming into
Boise State,” C a m a c h o
said
Boise State’s new look is similar to that of University of Oregon, which is both a respected academic insti-tution as well as a football school. Part of the new logo is that it will almost certainly appear on Bronco football
gear at some point.In regard to the compari-
son, Camacho said, “I do feel like we have really great programs here such as the radiology program and the nursing program, our busi-ness program is booming, we just got a brand new building. Of course people are going to come here be-cause they want to see BSU play, but I mean they didn’t do so hot this year so you can’t really say that ‘yes, we are just a football school,’ now I think that academics is starting to rise too.”
Ariel Strasser, an English and German double major,
said, “It keeps trying to move away from foot-ball, we get a lot of football everywhere, I go home to Illinois for summer and winter breaks, and someone sees my sweatshirt it’s ‘oh my gosh Boise State football.’ But it’s got its engineering program, it’s got its business, it’s got other things besides that.”
Another concern worth mentioning would be if the new identity for the univer-sity would make the
school appear to be more of a commercial institution where students go in, pay their money and get a de-gree with the receipt more like a fast food restaurant, but input from students familiar with the updated
look quickly quelled this concern.
“I don’t think a logo can do that, no. We were a B before the diamond that we had … It’s definitely more stylish than it was previous-ly. I did like the diamond, but it (the new logo) does have that diagonal line it looks like its moving for-ward. But other than that it is just a B. It doesn’t have 20,000 students for a logo,” Strasser said.
Camacho said, “I don’t be-lieve it cheapens the univer-sity in any way. I think it at-tracts more people to it; it’s not as dull as the other logo that we had. I think it’s more fun and inviting.”
Boise State will continue to grow and it will likely see many changes in years to come, but it is important that it adapts to new chang-es.
So, while there are many facets to a university’s public image and if it really has the credentials behind its look, one thing is certain, Boise State has come a long way over the years and its look should reflect this.
We’re a sharp, progressive campus, so it should repre-sent itself as one.
““—Mikhiale Camacho
We were known as a commuter col-lege and now with something more fun and inviting, we have a new logo to look forward to. I think it’s more appealing to newer gen-erations coming into Boise State.
6 Sports arbiteronline.comJanuary 24, 2013
The Arbiter arbiteronline.com
West Coast BiasThe growth of something special
Corey MorganStaff Writer
The people and support-ers of Boise State are go-ing insane. No, not because the Boise State football team just got one of their highest-rated recruits or be-cause the Boise State wres-tling team, a longtime pow-erhouse in the PAC-12, just won their first home duel of the year or because the new Dave & Busters just opened up, even though quite per-sonally I'm excited about it.
They are happy because of the Boise State basketball team. Plain and simple.
For those who are un-aware, Head Coach Leon Rice has assembled a young and impressive team that looks like a seasoned team competing with the big names in college basketball.
The team is currently 13-4 in a heavily, I mean heavily, competitive Moun-tain West Conference.
But wait, didn't they just lose to a 10-6 Air Force team in conference play ? Yes, but here's another interesting fact: Boise State also beat Wyoming and Creighton, who were ranked and un-defeated at the time. The Broncos handed not one team, but two teams their first losses of the season. Since then, both Wyoming and Creighton have only lost two other games, com-bining for a 32-4 record.
Boise is excited, people. A fact that people seem to forget, or maybe deny, is a majority of "fans" are only fans of winners. No one likes losers. Who’s go-ing to buy a ticket to go watch their team lose? Very, very few.
Boise State basketball is winning. Not just against the small, less-impressive teams; they are beating the ranked, tough or even un-defeated established bas-ketball programs.
Enter the fans on stage right. The attendance has skyrocketed from 3,061 in 2010-11 to 4,954 in the current 2011-12; which is the 7th largest increase in all of the NCAA, accord-ing to Joe Dorish from Ri-vals.com. That also doesn't count multiple close sell-outs for Taco Bell Arena, which holds 12,480 people.
Call it what you will, that's impressive. This may no longer just be a football town, or Blue Turf City to those outside state lines. The people of Boise are ready for a solid, consistent basketball team.
Michael SteenStaff Writer
Conference realignment has caused a lot of stress
and anxiety for Bronco fans over the past couple years. But as the dust settles, Boise State’s athletic future has a bit more clarity to it and the
future looks bright.The decision to stay in the
Mountain West Conference (MWC) may come as a shock to Bronco fans as the
Big East deal fell through, but it appears to be a wise choice for the school and its athletic programs. Foot-ball drives this school and has propelled it into the national spotlight over the past decade, but an upstart basketball program could put Boise State on the map
for good.Boise State men’s basket-
ball looks like the biggest winner following the deci-sion to stay in the MWC.
Third-year Head Coach Leon Rice knows what it takes to win as he comes from a Gonzaga program that has made the NCAA tournament the past thir-teen consecutive seasons. Rice has already established himself as a winner, taking the Broncos to just their fourth postseason tourna-ment in the last 17 years in his inaugural season at Boise State.
Now this young Bronco squad's 2012-2013 cam-paign got off to a 13-4 start that included two road wins over ranked opponents. Conference play however, brings a whole different animal for the Broncos as the MWC boasts some of the deepest and most well-coached teams in the nation.
Mountain West to split into two football divisionsJohn GarretsonSports Editor
It's been established that Boise State will head back to the Moun-tain West despite a brief agreement to move to the Big East starting this season, but now things become interesting for the west coast-based conference.
Tuesday afternoon, af-ter the winter meetings that took place in Den-ver, Colo., the league an-nounced football will be split into two divisions: the Mountain Division and the West Division.
For Boise State, it takes its talents to the Moun-tain Division, along with Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, Wyo-ming and Utah State.
The West Division will be comprised of San Di-ego State, Nevada, Fres-no State, Hawai'i, San Jose State and UNLV. These divisions are most closely related to respec-tive time zones.
Before Boise State fans begin to sigh over the division opponents, all schools will play each school in their divi-sion once and also have three inter-conference games which will rotate annually.
The rotation of the inter-conference games will be randomly selected by a computer.
Here's the more in-triguing part of the sepa-rate divisions: a Moun-tain West title game will be played between the division winners on Dec.
7, 2013 on the home turf of the school with the highest BCS ranking. Now there's an incentive if I've ever seen one.
Last season, Boise State took home the Mountain West title in a three way split with San Diego State and Fresno State.
However, the Bron-cos were the highest-ranked BCS team from the Mountain West at No.19. Make of it what you would like.
While football will have a change in landscape in the conference, the conference has said the men's basketball format it currently has will remain the same.
Teams will play 18 conference games, which include eight home-and-home games and a two- game rotation between the remaining opponents in the conference.
The conference voted in favor of this rather than expanded confer-ence games due to the fact that non-conference games tend to boost the conference's ratings per-centage index (RPI).
This addition of divi-sions gives the confer-ence more legitimacy in an effort to separate itself amongst the others in the Group of Five — Big East, Conference USA, Sun Belt and MAC—and follow suit with what the more notable confer-ences have been doing for years and can prove to be a workable outline for the conference in the foreseeable future.
A Mountain of quality West coast basketball
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