TechniqueThe South’s Liveliest College Newspaper

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Friday, February 12, 2010 • Volume 95, Issue 23 • nique.net Research in Action

Auxiliary Services, Wale House break groundBy Vivian Fan

News Editor

Photo by Jarrett Skov/ Student Publications

Auxiliary Service and Wale House representatives broke ground

in the future location of the restaurant in Tech Square on Feb. 6.

Electric outages hit

campus

Oicials release sword attack details

By Emily ChambersEditor in Chief

he victim of the aggravated assault incident that occurred on campus hursday, Feb. 5 is recuperating from his wounds at Grady Memorial Hospital. Kshitij Shrotri, a recent Tech graduate, allegedly attacked Samer Tawik, a post-doctoral fellow at the Weber SST build-ing with a katana sword. Tawik sufered lacerations to both his hands and wrists and a wound to the left side of his torso. Fol-lowing a long procedure in the operating room that lasted late into hursday night, Tawik’s condition is currently stable, but he has yet to be released, as of Wednesday Feb. 10

On the day of the incident, Professor Marilyn Smith called GTPD to report the assault, af-

ter hearing commotion in the hall and seeing the attack. She and Dr. Oliver Bauchau cleared the halls of students and faculty.

“I ran outside and waved my hands to ensure that they stopped at the correct end of the building. It was not a random lag down of the GT police—they arrived with lights and si-rens as appropriate to the call. he GT police arrived very rap-idly after I made my call,” Smith said.

According to police reports, when oicers confronted Shro-tri in Tawik’s cubicle and de-manded he drop his weapon he said, “You will have to kill me.” He added, “He ruined my life.” Tawik lay on the ground be-hind his desk when oicers ar-rived. After multiple warnings, oicers sprayed Shrotri with pepper spray and Oicer Robert

J. Turner pinned him against a bookshelf, wrapping his arms around him. Shrotri did not let go of the sword and as a result, Turner received a cut on his left hand. he cut required 13 stitches, but Turner returned to service the next day. Oicers tended to Tawik’s wounds un-til Grady EMS arrived on the scene.

Friends and students were shocked at the attack on such a well-liked and respected mem-ber of the Tech community.

“I had a hard time believing it. He is, without a doubt, the most kind-hearted professor I’ve had here at Tech. I just couldn’t imagine someone being so mad at him, especially enough to ra-tionalize attacking him,” said Alex Cooper, a second year BME.

A motive for the attack is yet

to be determined, but GTPD is continuing an ongoing investi-gation of the incident. his in-vestigation may include a police report iled regarding a prior incident at the Ferst Center on Sept. 4, 2009 that involved both men. According to the report, Shrotri interrupted a dance per-formed by the Turkish Student Organization, in which Tawik and another woman were par-ticipating. Shrotri yelled at the woman for dancing near Taw-ik, before pushing Tawik and walking away.

he woman stated that Shro-tri had been sending her emails, but she did not know him on a personal level. She considered iling a protective order against Shrotri, but decided not to as to avoid provoking him. Tawik

Photo by Eric Mansield/ Student Publications

After taking him into custody, a GTPD oicer pours water over the alleged sword attacker Thursday, Feb. 5. Oicers pepper

sprayed the suspect in trying to subdue him inside the Weber SST building, after he had attacked a post-doctoral fellow inside.

By Vijai NarayananAssistant News Editor

See Wale, page 4

See Blackout, page 3

Multiple buildings across cam-pus experienced power outages on Tuesday, Feb. 9. While it is not currently known how many build-ings were efected by the outage, various administrative buildings, East Campus classroom facili-ties and West Campus dorms lost power.

he outage happened at 9:42 a.m. when a current limiter con-trol malfunctioned.

Tech routes 20 kilovolts of the total electricity used on campus by directing the voltage through eight diferent lines, or feeders. he feeders are run through-out campus so that no one area is de-pendent on one feeder and so that the voltage is balanced among the eight lines. Some of the buildings on campus are hooked up directly to Georgia Power lines.

he current limiter controls are placed on sets or individual feeders in order to prevent over-current from coming onto the power lines. During the outage one of the current limiting sys-tems malfunctioned and two of the eight feeder lines most likely went down, as one current limiter often handles the voltage for two feeders.

While many of the academic and administrative buildings only sufered power outages lasting a few seconds, some of the West Campus dorms, such as the Un-dergraduate Living Center, lost power for over an hour.

“We have what we call a double ended switch gear, so many of the buildings shouldn’t have seen it [the power outage]. What happens is... a piece of equipment in many buildings that switches the build-ing to another feeder, and some buildings don’t have it [the double

Representatives from Auxiliary Services and Wale House held a small ground-breaking ceremony at Tech Square last Friday, Feb. 5. he ceremony will start of a 60-90 day construction period lead-ing up to the grand opening of the restaurant, tentatively planned to be some time in late spring.

“his is not typical construc-tion for Wale House. hey’re used to purchasing a piece of land, building their prototype on that property and having a good understanding of how long it takes to do that. In this case they are renovating an existing space, which is not their typical method of building a Wale House,” said

Rich Steele, director of the Stu-dent Center.

he ground-breaking ceremo-ny was a small event that occurred early Friday morning with ap-proximately 6 people present. Of those in attendance were Steele, retail manager Lara Sexton, Georgia Tech Foundation chief inancial oicer Mark Long and a number of operating managers from Wale House.

he event included a ceremo-nial irst hit with a sledge hammer to mark the beginning of con-struction. While the time frame for the construction is set, there still is no deinite grand opening date for the restaurant.

“It’s still up in the air. hey’ll need a few weeks to get into their renovation to make sure they un-

derstand anything that might hinder their schedule. As they’re just getting started, it’s diicult to estimate an opening date at this point,” Steele said.

“here is no group that has been more motivated to complete a restaurant build-out than Wale House has been. hey’re very ex-cited to be on the Georgia Tech campus. here’s a huge percentage of people that work in their corpo-rate oice who are Georgia Tech alums,” Steele said.

Designers plan on giving this new Wale House a lair with color and desing unique to Tech.

“[Wale House] number[s] ev-ery store and they even chose 1885 as the number of the store because

Attacker revealed to be former Tech student, history of conlict

See Attacker, page 4

2 • February 12, 2010 • Technique NEWS

POLL OF THE WEEKHow do you feel about Feb. 14?

33.9%Single awareness day! Whoo!

23.9% I’m crawling into a dark corner crying and coming out the 15th.

23.1%It’s a corporate holiday.

19.2%The time for romance.

Next issue’s question:

Tell us at

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How far would

you walk for a

Wale House?

Based on 130 responses

Founded in 1911, the Technique is the student newspaper of the Georgia Institute of Technology, and is an oicial publication of the Georgia Tech Board of Student Publications. he Technique publishes on Fridays weekly during the fall and spring and biweekly during the summer.

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Copyright © 2009, Emily Chambers, Editor-in-Chief, and by the Georgia Tech Board of Student Publications. No part of this paper may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the Editor-in-Chief or from the Board of Student Publications. he ideas expressed herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Board of Student Publications, the students, staf, or faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology or the University System of Georgia.

First copy free—for additional copies call (404) 894-2830

NEWS EDITOR: Vivian Fan / news@nique.netOPINIONS EDITOR: Matt Hofman / opinions@nique.netFOCUS EDITOR: Kate Comstock / focus@nique.netENTERTAINMENT EDITOR: Jennifer Aldoretta / entertainment@nique.netSPORTS EDITOR: Nishant Prasadh / sports@nique.net

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By Vivian FanNews Editor

From the iles of the GTPD...

Campus Crime

Hit and Run?

GTPD responded to a com-plainant who stated that she was in an accident while driving a club car golf cart through the al-ley behind the Weber Building. A white colored van had backed into the golf cart. No one was injured; however, the complainant did not get any information about the driver. he golf cart was damaged and had a crack in the windshield and a rip in the canvas top.

Rash T-hefts

An increase in stolen T’s has

been reported over the last week with two incidences occurring be-tween Feb. 1 and Feb 3.

he Bill Moore Tennis Center’s exterior sign has been temporarily T-less, after employees reported the T’s to be missing. he Ts were taken from a sign that held the words “Tennis” and “Center.” he employee at the scene stated that the Ts must have been stolen from Feb. 1 at 7:45 a.m. to Feb. 3 at 7:45 a.m., but no cameras could show who stole the letters. he let-ters together cost approximately $600.

In addition to the missing T’s there, another case of a stolen T

has emerged at the Klaus Build-ing, after the T in “School of Computer Science” was stolen. hat T costed $20 to replace.

Trouble Sleeping

GTPD was called to the Family Apartments after receiving com-plaints about repeated problems between two rooms. he com-plainant stated that one of the res-idents of another apartment had given him problems concerning loud noises several times. When the complainant approached the resident about such issues, the resident did not do anything. he complainant found his car’s wind-shield smashed, and suspects that the resident committed the crime. However, there is no proof this is true. he complainant did state that the noises were occurring ev-ery other night and was disturb-ing his son at night.

Technique • February 12, 2010 • 3 NEWS

A lot of things went on outside the bubble of Tech

in the past week. Here are a few important events taking place throughout the nation and the world.

Breaking theubble

Major snow storms hit the Northeast

As of Wednesday, two large snowstorms have hit the north-east in less than a week caus-ing numerous school and light cancellations and other issues across the region. Nearly 2 feet of snow fell during the irst storm which occurred on Sat-urday, Feb. 6. he storm caused the mayor of Washington D.C. and governors of Maryland and Virginia to declare states of emergency. he storm caused numerous power lines to go down and car accidents from Virginia to Pennsylvania. As of Wednesday, the second storm, which hit Tuesday, is forecasted by the U.S. National Weather Service to drop up to 14 inches of snow and cause more cancel-lations for the rest of the week.

Honda recalls vehicles due to airbag problems

In addition to the Toyota car recalls, another Japanese auto-maker has announced recalls as well. As of Wednesday, Honda has added 437,000 cars to their global air bag recall. Honda rep-resentatives state that the faulty air bag could deploy with two most pressure, causing the inla-tor to burst and could potentially injure or kill the driver. his is the latest installment of their re-call due to this issue, which has been occurring since Nov. 2008. Nearly 1 million cars have been recalled thus far.

U. S . t r a d e d e f i c i t increases by 10 percent

According to oicials from the U.S. Commerce Depart-ment, the trade deicit rose to its highest level in a year in Dec. 2009. he department’s report showed that the U.S. interna-tional gap in goods and services trade increased to a seasonally adjusted $40.2 billion. his is the biggest deicit since Dec. 2008. his efect could be due to a mixed impact of the bettering global economy on the US.

BCouncil ClippingsThis week in Student Government

Each Tuesday, elected members of the two houses of the Student Government Association, the Undergraduate House of Representatives (UHR) and the Graduate Student Senate (GSS), convene to consider allocation bills and discuss issues facing campus. Here is a summary of those two meetings.

By Vijai Narayanan, Assistant News Editor

his edition of Council Clip-pings covers the UHR and GSS meetings from Feb. 9, 2010.

Volleyballhe volleyball club requested

funding from SGA to renovate the volleyball courts on top of the Curran Parking Deck in West Campus. More speciically, the organization requested funds for new net systems, sand, gravel and concrete. he bill totaled $19,375.20 before being amended down to $15,610.71 in order to conform to JFC policy. he bill passed UHR 43-1-1. GSS struck funding for the net systems and passed the bill 20-3-2. he bill will go to a conference committee.

GTFCAhe Chinese Friendship As-

sociation (GTCFA) submitted a bill to UHR requesting funding for a series of events to celebrate the Chinese New Year. he events included a Chinese New Year party and a food night at Brit-tain Rec. he bill request funds from the Undergraduate Legisla-tive Reserve (ULR), which is usu-ally reserved for special legislative projects put on by UHR. Because this was a ULR request, the bill was not subject to review by JFC or GSS. A long discussion ensued over whether or not to fund this bill, especially since items request-ed on the bill would not normally be funded under a joint bill, ac-

cording to the JFC chair. he bill failed UHR 5-31-9.

JFC PolicyA bill was put forth in UHR

to amend the Joint Finance Com-mittee Policy to relect changes in travel funding and formalize JFC procedures related to attendance of organizational representatives and pay rates for certain posi-tions. According to the bill, the vice president of Finance may postpone a bill for another week or recommend zero funding for a bill if no organization representa-tive is able to attend the scheduled JFC meeting. Also, the maximum funding and per mile rates for travel had been updated. he bill passed UHR unanimously.

Photo by Tim Nowack/Student Publications

SGA representatives review and listen to discussions concerning a bill during this week’s UHR.

Blackout from page 1

ended switch gear]”, said Mike Leasure, manager of utilities and energy for Tech.

Not all buildings on campus have the double-ended switch gears, as the equipment and the necessary dual-feeder hook-up

can be costly. It is likely that the housing buildings afected by the outage did not have the equip-ment, which would explain why it took much longer for those build-ings to regain power. “In order to put a load back on a line you have to take all the power of a line and

then bring it [the power] back up for each building individually, which can take time. If the build-ings weren’t on two lines, it could mean some time without power,” Leasure said.

here has not been a similar large-scale outage at Tech in re-

cent history, and there have been no recorded cases of faulty cur-rent limiter control equipment in the past.

“We have very reliable power here at Tech, more so than even some of the buildings set on Geor-gia Power directly. Where the

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power goes through our system its been reliable since we do have double-ended feeders and can switch the feeds”, Leasure said.

he faulty current limiter con-trol equipment were scheduled to be examined and tested by their manufacturer G&W Electric.

4 • February 12, 2010 • Technique NEWS

stated that he did not want to ile charges, but wanted the incident noted. Oicers told Shrotri not to contact the woman again. Shrotri had moved out of the state to work for the University of Delaware, and was not ailiated with Tech at the time of the irst incident.

“I had Mr. Shrotri in my ro-torcraft design classes, and he was a hard worker and was a member and co-leader of several student design competitions which won national awards, including AHS and NASA, as well as best post-er at the Georgia Tech Research and Innovation Symposium. He worked very hard for me and did a good job on his PhD thesis which involved developing an innovative composite landing gear design,” said Dr. Daniel Schrage, Shrotri’s PhD adviser.

Tech oicials were generally pleased with the immediate re-sponse to the incident. “It’s impor-

tant to acknowledge what went right during an event like this. We will conduct a debrief the events and evaluate the response,” said Institute President G.P. “Bud” Peterson. Peterson praised the ac-tions of the campus community in responding to the incident.

“he swift and rational re-sponse of students in the vicin-ity prevented the escalation of the situation… [and] the bravery, presence of mind, and show of restraint by Oicer Turner led to the control of the situation,” Pe-terson said.

Questions were raised follow-ing the incident regarding Tech’s decision not to use emergency the Georgia Tech Emergency Notii-cation Systems (GTENS) to alert campus of the events. here was a test of the GTENS alert system the morning of the incident.

“GTENS will be used when the campus community needs to take immediate action, and because there was an immediate

arrest there was no real threat or danger to campus… the police de-partment made the decision not to send a GTENS alert,” said Jim Fe-tig, the associate vice-president of Communications and Marketing.

“he police had him [the sus-pect] subdued within minutes. GTENS is for a situation when there is a need to communicate with campus during an emergen-cy and people have to take action to avoid a real threat,” Peterson said.

Fetig noted that there will be a review of the use of GTENS un-der similar situations. He also not-ed that the Institute used social networking websites like Face-book and Twitter to get word out of the incident. Communications and Marketing updated its Face-book and Twitter accounts within eight minutes of the incident and placed a statement on the main Tech website within 20 minutes. A statement was sent across cam-pus via email around 5:30 p.m.

Attacker from page 1 Wale from page 1

Photo Courtesy of Auxiliary Services

A representative present at the ground-breaking ceremony lays

the irst sledgehammer hit into a wall of the future Wale House.

that is the founding year for Geor-gia Tech. So I think folks will ind that this is going to be a very, very unique Wale House that has an uncanny connection to Georgia

tech. To our history, to some tra-ditions , to some of the icons and symbols of Georgia Tech. And it takes a very unique look and feel and it takes a little longer to create that uniqueness in terms of design and planning,” Steele said.

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With the increase in newer stu-dent housing, Burge Apartments have had little use over the last few years. As a result, Tech has decided to schedule the building for demotion.

Demolition on the complex will begin on Feb. 17 and is cur-rently scheduled to last until Mar. 22. Facilities provided notice in June 2008, and held an open fo-rum made available a month after to let people voice their concerns. Authorization from the gover-nor formally arrived on Oct. 30, 2008.

“I think the process began in Nov. 2006, Tech had just com-pleted the apartments on Tenth and Home and so the inventory they had for housing—the Burge —became surplus for a variety of reasons. One is security. I read some police reports and there were some problems. hey had ledges where people could stand up on and break in and hold up peo-ple,” said David Bowman, project manager of the Burge demolition.

Bids from independent con-tractors were accepted on Nov. 12 with New York company Empire Dismantlement winning out with the lowest bid. hey mobilized at the site on Jan. 25 and are cur-rently removing all the asbestos present.

Initially, facilities and housing considered other alternative uses for the apartment complex. How-ever due to the current structural problems of the apartments, all alternatives were deemed unfea-sible.

“here were environmental studies, structural reports and other stuf done to see what we could use the building for other than housing, and see how much it would cost to renovate it, but

the building itself was problem-atic to renovate. he loor height was such (8 [ft] by 8 [ft]) that by the time you put in all the modern systems, you would have a six foot ceiling and you can’t do that by code because the structure was so small so the only other option we had was to [demolish] the build-ing,” Bowman said.

In addition, the building is divided into two separate halves, with no entry point between the two. One half had only one viable exit, which in conjunction with a lack of sprinklers system made it a ire hazard.

“Burge didn’t meet ire code regulation and it was pretty unsafe all around,” Bowman remarked.

Short term plans are to replant the area with grass but long term planning is still under way by Capital Management and Space Planning, with a new parking lot being a possibility.

he demolition itself will not occur in one instance. Instead, the month long process will in-volve Burge being stripped down brick by brick. hose bricks will be recycled into a current estimate of four pallets, and be used in new construction projects.

By Zimu YangStaf Writer

Burge Apartments to be demolished

Photo by Virginia Lin/ Student Publications

Bulldozers line up outside in preparation for the impending

demolition of the Burge Apartments located along North Avenue.

Republican governor candidate visits campus

he Georgia Tech College Republicans (GTCR) hosted Secretary of State Karen Handel on campus last Tuesday. Handel came as part of her campaign to gain support for herself as the next governor of Ga. She is run-ning against six other Republican candidates. Handel opened her speech with her vision for Ga., establishing a focus on prioritiza-tion of the state budget, the job market and education in both the K-12 and university systems.

“Georgia needs a next-gener-ation leader... with real tenacious leadership skills. I have the direct front line economic experience that other candidates don’t have,” Handel said.

Handel commended Tech and other Ga. universities for their top research programs. When Han-del opened the loor for questions from students in attendance, she mentioned a need to transform the state budget, listing Indiana’s $1 billion reserves as a example for what Georgia’s inances could be like.

“We’ve let ourselves get caught in crisis management,” Handel said.

Handel believes the state bud-get should be prioritized as op-posed to the current method of giving every state governmental institution equal reductions. If elected, Handel plans for com-prehensive tax reform partnership with local governments, reducing income taxes and increasing sales taxes in Ga. Handel noted a need “to get back to ‘ixed-for-four’ tuition” policy for the university system.

“University fees are hard to

manage when students don’t know how much the costs will be from year to year,” Handel said.

Handel also mentioned the need to ix state education on the K-12 level in terms of both costs and test scores.

“We’ve doubled the per-per-son spending, but SAT scores haven’t doubled and the dropout rate hasn’t halved,” Handel said, noting that she wanted more ac-countability for teachers and inte-gration of technology.

“I don’t think vouchers are the magic bullet. If we don’t ix K-12, we’ll see a deterioration of the uni-versity system,” Handel said.

In addition to addressing school reform, Handel discussed a need for state-wide transportation system and not wanting Atlanta to be the hole in a rail transit system.

“We need road and rail for people and product.... hink about our state 30 years from now if we don’t embrace transit,” Han-del said.

While education and transpor-tation made up a majority of the discussion, students did bring up other timely issues such as gun control.

“Recently, the gun rights is-sue has become a hot topic again, launching the college campus back into the old debate of whether or not to allow concealed carry on campus. Last night, I asked Karen what she thought about the bill, and she said she’s cautious about it and it needs to be thoroughly examined. She did not support it, nor did she condemn it,” said Kristen Greig, second-year ENVE major and GTCR Chairwoman.

Handel is the second Repub-lican candidate to visit campus. If elected, she would be the irst female governor of Ga.

By Kamna BohraContributing Writer

OpinionsTechnique

6Friday,

February 12, 2010

A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. —Benjamin Franklin

Opinions Editor: Matt Hofman

“”

OUR VIEWS CONSENSUS OPINION

Coping conditionMental health issues should be taken more seriously

he attack last week was tragic, underscoring safety issues on campus. It was reassuring to hear that the oicer is already back on duty and hopefully the post doctoral fellow will also soon return to his position on campus.

he incident highlights the importance of spotting and understanding mental health issues on campus before they turn into more serious problems, as the attacker had known personal issues and had displayed potentially inappropriate emotional responses in the past. While the victims in this case did appropriately report the previous incident to the police, it is too-common an occurrence on this campus that cases of borderline stalking, aggression or mental health issues go unreported.

Since many students might feel uncomfortable reporting strange behavior to police, thinking it unjustiied to get authorizes involved for what may seem to be a minor problem, the Institute must

establish and make well known proper avenues for students to take to get a fellow student help before the problem require law enforcement.

Areas of campus like the Dean’s Oice or the Women’s Resource Center should work to provide counseling services, not just to students in crisis, but to students who might not feel comfortable speaking with the police.

Tech must also train faculty, staf and students on the warning signs of stress and conlict so that such behavior will not go unnoticed. More education about mental health issues should foster a community that better understands the students in need and is also willing to do what is necessary to help people struggling with personal issues. College can be a time of heighten stress; people who need to be helped and those close to them should not feel secluded and should feel comfortable seeking aid when needed to cope with the situations facing them.

EDITORIAL CARTOON BY MAGGIE SMITH

I am a proud senior at Tech and looking forward to graduat-ing with my ME degree at the end of this summer. I planned to grad-uate in May, but the last year my life has been turned upside down by a violent and senseless act.

I am the Tech student who was assaulted, robbed at gunpoint and shot in the chest last May near campus. As I was left for dead on the loor of that parking garage, I relied on my physical condition-ing and enduring faith to remain calm as I focused on the critical task at hand…saving my own life.

I love this campus and my shooting was not campus related. I was assaulted of campus by Midtown thugs. Instead of giving up, I am more determined than ever to do my very best in my life to make a positive diference any way I can. I feel safe on campus, and I moved back into the apart-ment where my life nearly ended because I refuse to relinquish my life’s decisions to angry coercion. My life is not a compromise; it is an explicit journey that only I am entitled to delineate. I will perse-vere according to my own beliefs, dedication and tenacity. I thought I was invincible, but I was wrong. No one is invincible. Be aware of your surroundings and trust your gut, always!

Crime happens, but I refuse to surrender to intimidation or violence. I will vehemently defend my rights and celebrate my free-doms. I will continue to speak out against oppression and strongly in favor of justice for all. Crime is in-evitable, but as a victim, I refuse to let anger win.

My message today is one of hope, fortitude and peace. As an active bodybuilder, I was in ex-cellent physical condition when I got shot. As a muscular 6’4”, 210-pound athlete, I felt I was utterly indestructible. As an Ea-gle Scout, I had learned survival techniques that I never thought I would need for myself. I am al-ways prepared to ofer assistance to others, but never believed I would be caught in dire circum-stances of this magnitude or sever-ity. I was wrong.

My motto is to be safe, be prepared and be aware of your surroundings, always. Life is a journey, not a destination, so stay strong, be smart and enjoy every day to the max!

Patrick WhaleyFifth-year ME

Arguments against guns illogical

he recent consensus opinion by the Technique editorial board [“Guns not welcome,” printed on Feb. 5] starts of with a non sequi-tur and goes downhill from there. If anything, the recent on-campus sword attack shows yet again that those intent on causing harm do not pay attention to laws. Under the same code section that bans

possession of irearms on cam-pus by most individuals (OCGA 16-11-127.1), the swordsman was prohibited from possessing the sword where he did. He was not concerned with laws against aggravated assault, and he was not concerned with laws against weapons possession.

he board seems to think an “arms race” will ensue if holders of a Georgia irearms license (GFL) are legally allowed to carry weap-ons on campus and within the perversely-named 1000 ft. “safety zone”. I doubt any of the victims (many of them students) of armed robberies and assaults around campus consider this area to be anything close to a safety zone. he imaginary line did not stop their attackers. Apparently the board would rather the criminals continue to be able to ind easy prey at will than adults have the means to defend themselves like the vast majority of other places in the state.

hough a signiicant portion of the student population would be unable to carry weapons due to being under 21, upperclassmen, graduate students, faculty, staf, and many campus visitors are of age to have a GFL. If these people are capable of keeping themselves from shooting people while be-ing stressed, etc. while of cam-pus (which they apparently are, as we would certainly hear about it otherwise), there is no reason to think they would do so while on campus.

he opinion argues that no one would be able to stop an attack were they to be carrying weapons. his argument is false on its face, as thousands upon thousands of people defend themselves every year with irearms, almost exclu-sively without even iring a shot—this all without the hallowed “law enforcement training” the board thinks is necessary for a person to efectively defend himself.

he bottom line is that laws only afect the law-abiding. Our current law keeps people from being able to defend themselves based on an imaginary “safety zone” that has been proven time and time again to provide no

YOUR VIEWS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Let crime be a concern, not dictator

Write to us: letters@nique.net

We welcome your letters in response to Technique content as well as topics relevant to campus. We will print letters on a timely and space-available basis.

Letters should not exceed 400 words and should be submitted by Tuesday at 7 p.m. in order to be printed in the following Friday’s issue. Include your full name, year (1st, 2nd, etc.) and major. We re-serve the right to edit for style and length. Only one submission per person will be printed per term.

he Consensus Opinion relects the majority opinion of the Editorial Board of the Technique, but not necessarily the opinions of individual editors.

Technique Editorial BoardEmily Chambers, Editor-in-Chief

Jonathan Saethang, Managing Editor Hahnming Lee, Business Manager

Jennifer Aldoretta, Entertainment EditorVivian Fan, News EditorNishant Prasadh, Sports EditorKate Comstock, Focus EditorMatt Hofman, Opinions Editor

Steven Cappetta, Advertising ManagerKelvin Kuo, Photography EditorReem Mansoura, Development EditorChris Russell, Online Editor

See Letters, page 8

Technique • February 12, 2010 • 7 OPINIONS

he boulder-sized wheels of the charter bus slow to a halt. Jittery with excitement, I twist the dial on my headset receiver and the low buzz of radio static hits my ear. I strain high on my toes before leaving the bus, trying to peer over the fence to get a glimpse of the famous monument that stands as the centerpiece for this attrac-tion. We follow signs to Main Street, U.S.A. and inally, as I turn the corner, Cinderella’s Castle bursts into view.

I went to Walt Disney World as part of a leader-ship training conference for a job I had last summer. Our guide, Dave, was one of the Park Operations Managers for the Magic Kingdom. As we walked through the park, he explained several of the incred-ible things Disney has done to create the remarkable parks that attract an average of 30 million guests a year.

As Dave described to us some of the leadership tech-niques Disney used to train up-coming leaders, I couldn’t stop noticing a peculiar thing he kept doing. As we were walk-ing through the park, Dave would consistently stop to pick up trash of the ground, speak to the individual janitors by name and would even speak in Spanish to the custodians who didn’t speak English. Dave is one of the top managers in the Magic Kingdom Park, so why would he pick up trash when

surrounded by workers who pick up trash for their job, or take time to get to know cus-todians by name?

Tech isn’t only successful in creating great engineers, physi-cists, architects, managers and computer scientists; it also holds pride in building and de-veloping leaders. Students rec-ognize this feature and rush to ile applications for high-level leadership roles in their frater-nity or sorority, part time job, campus organization, SGA or any other group with a lead-ership position to ill. While this desire to lead is admirable, there are major problems with this approach to leadership.

First, leadership is often confused with authority. A leadership position grants authority, not the traits of a good leader. An organization’s president has the authority to make many decisions afecting the entire group. he president casts the vision for the pro-posed change, brings people on board in the planning pro-cess, and sells the idea to show their members that it is the

best available decision. If the president fails to do this, they will not be leading the people, but dragging them.

Most importantly, it is easy to step into a leadership role with an egotistical attitude: I’m in charge now, so I’m go-ing to run things the way I like, and get what I want. his pulls you down an even steeper trail to the situation I mentioned before: forcing peo-ple with authority rather than leading them with your inlu-ence and respect.

As Dave continued to step down from his role I started to connect the dots. Leader-ship is not based on positions or authority, it’s based on in-luence. Dave knew he could force the employees to do their job because he controlled their paycheck. But how much bet-ter would his employees work and clean the park if it was something they desired to do? When they see Dave cast of his symbols of authority, pick-ing up trash, it shows he cares about what they do. hat small act of service highlights a huge

character trait of humility. When he got to know

them on a irst name basis, it spoke volumes about how he cared for them individually. Imagine working a front line job where your supervisor’s manager’s boss knew you, cared about what you did and believed you were important to the organization? hat is a job worth working harder for. Follow this great leader, oth-ers start forming into a lead-ers as well. Leadership isn’t throwing the weight of your title around. Leadership is serving those who follow you.

his means that when people get to that position of leadership in their job, Greek association or other organi-zation, it is not just time for them to have things their way. It is time to igure out what they can do to serve others. Learning how to show con-cern for others and how to step out of a place of authority to prove it, could mean pick-ing up trash, helping with a report, or simply forming a relationship with someone. Anyone can overpower with their title, but it takes more character to lead.

It takes lots of time, efort and patience to serve people on the lower rungs of a orga-nization. However, if leaders can remain diligent in ser-vice, they will see results that sail far beyond what author-ity can force.

Actions, not authority, drive leadership“Leadership isn’t throwing the

weight of your title around.

Leadership is serving those

who follow you. ”

Jarrett SkovAssistant Photo Editor

Sarah RiegerFifth-year AE

“Yes... Generally people go-ing crazy with weapons do

not have permits.”

Susie LeeSecond-year BIO

“Yes, for the most part I think Tech students know

what they can do and should with weapons.”

Andrew MusserFourth-year ME

“We don’t need to make each person ‘the Law’, but trust the

law installed above us.”

James HillFourth-year ME

“Not students, maybe staf and faculty.”

Should people who are properly licensed be able to carry weapons on campus?

BUZZAround Campus

Before I was legally able to vote, I took an interest in U.S. politics and the campaigns of presidential candidates. I was always a irm believer that ev-ery vote mattered and encour-aged everyone around me who was over the legal age to vote. I paid close attention to the promises made by presidential candidates and the plans they had for the American people. I was quite optimistic and tried to put my faith in the presiden-tial candidates’ plans for the future. he only real criticism I ever received for my opti-mism was from my sister who always told me that the elec-tions belonged in the hands of those who endorsed presiden-tial elections.

“he companies and busi-nesses who contribute to these campaigns will be the only ones who will matter once either of these candidates is sworn into oice,” she would always say. I never believed her, but the recent Supreme Court ruling of Citizens Unit-ed v. Federal Election Commis-sion may just change my mind.

Before the ruling, for-proit and non-for-proit corpora-tions were prohibited from air-ing “broadcasting communi-cations” within 30 days before a presidential primary and 60 days before a general election. Furthermore, corporations and unions were prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to make and run their own campaigns.

he ive-to-four ruling by the Supreme Court struck down these provisions.

he decision by the Su-preme Court justiies what my sister had always told me. Allowing corporations to spend political advertising campaigns without limit gives more power to those with the most money and weakens the inluence of the smaller contri-butions made by ordinary U.S. citizens. While the previous statement seems completely obvious, many may not imme-diately realize the serious efect this decision will have on our political system.

he representatives and presidents we vote for are put into oice to represent us. We choose the candidates who promise to represent our val-ues and beliefs. Candidates listen to what we have to say because we are the ones who elect them. When Ameri-can citizens disapprove of the way Congress and the White House represents them, they command change and elect representatives who will repre-

sent them the right way. Now that the Supreme Court has al-lowed corporations to spend in unlimited amounts; the power of electing these oicials has shifted from the hands of in-dividual U.S. citizens to the hands of businesses.

Presidential and Congres-sional candidates campaign to communicate their beliefs, val-ues and goals to the American people. In order to win, can-didates want to reach as many people as possible through their campaigns in order to convince them that they are the right candidate.

Running an efective cam-paign requires advertising, speeches and tours (whether across the country or across a state). Campaigns, in short, require an enormous amount of money. Money that corpo-rations are now able to sup-ply indirectly to candidates in unlimited amounts in smear campaigns against opponents.

his Supreme Court ruling places politicians right in the pockets of the lobbyists and businesses that are inancing

their campaigns. A candidate running for oice will almost always accept any kind of i-nancial contribution they can get, even indirectly. hese con-tributions fuel their campaign and their chances of winning the election.

Imagine a company endors-ing a candidate who ends up being elected into oice. his newly elected oicial repre-sents his constituents well and is up for re-election. However, during his term, this oicial votes for a piece of legislation that was not in the best inter-est of the company who en-dorsed him.

While not all businesses are evil, they do want to look out for their own interests. And even thought this oicial may have been the best candidate for his position, the company who endorsed him will be sure spend an unlimited amount of money campaigning against his reelection. Can you blame them? As a result, the candi-date who best represents the interests of a majority may be forced to represent the inter-ests of those with the money.

his decision will open the doors to corruption and brib-ery. In addition, this ruling will severely afect the political parties that do not accept cor-porate contributions, such as the Green Party. he decision made by the Supreme Court is disappointing and will drive the electoral process right into the path of corruption.

Court’s decision rings in era of corruption“This Supreme Court ruling

places politicians right in the

pockets of the lobbyists and

businesses.”

Reem MansouraDevelopment Editor

Photos by Eric Mansield

8 • February 12, 2010 • Technique OPINIONS

OUR VIEWS HOT OR NOT

House huntingGround (or a wall) was

broken to mark the oicial beginning of construction of the new Wale House at Tech Square. While it was the hope that it would have already been open, better late than never. he only question left is will a place that serves breakfast food 24/7 for a very afordable price, that drunk people gravi-tate to in droves be viable on a college campus.

HOT– or –NOT

Forced power savingshe failure of the cur-

rent limiting system turned the lights out across campus Tuesday morning. Academic and administrative buildings were able to switch to the back up systems, crushing hopes that professors would cancel class. And some West Campus dorms remained in the dark for over an hour, hindering what little enjoyment that can be found on a Tuesday morn-ing.

Gubernatorial gab Karen Handle’s visit to

campus marks the second can-didate running in this year’s Gubernatorial race. Such speakers give students a chance to engage in the political dis-course that centers around them. It would be appreciated to also have members of the Democratic Party come talk to campus to ensure that both sides of issues in our state are presented..

Sinking basketshe recent unraveling of

the men’s basketball comes as a blow during a season which has such high hopes and ex-pectations. he loss at Duke was understandable, but the near calamity at AMC against N.C. State, followed by the poor showing at Miami on Wednesday night, have left Tech fans reeling, wondering when the seeming free fall will inally reach bottom.

safety at all. he police are not responsible for your individual safety and are not capable of pro-viding it.

Matt Moseley2004 ECE

Peterson’s position responsible, sensible

Kudos to President Peterson for his prudent and commonsense opposition to weapons on cam-pus. I hope he and the Regents can stand up to our ‘leaders’ in the Georgia legislature.

In a civil community weapons have no place; they invite tragedy. he inconvenience of the Marks-manship Club notwithstanding, I have a right to live and work in an environment where the threat of death is not on daily display.

Tech has a well-trained, profes-sional security department that operates by the authority of and is accountable to the school and local government. hey provide a safe campus.

Shoot on the range. Hunt, like I do, where you obtain permis-sion. Don’t prove your manhood by strapping a Glock to your hip in a public space.

Michael ReynoldsGT Staf

Consensus opinion derides campus

he consensus opinion on guns [“Guns not welcome,” printed on Feb. 5] contained some disturb-ing arguments and implications which I would like to address.

he irst argument alleged that allowing guns onto the campus would increase the severity and frequency of attacks, referring to the recent sword attack as proof. What it failed to acknowledge is that carrying swords on campus, in addition to guns and attempted

Letters from page 6

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murder, is still a felony. What this instance highlights is the point that concealed-carry supporters have been stating all along: leg-islation only disarms those who follow it; anyone who intends to harm another will not be hindered by a law attempting to regulate how they mug, steal, or kill.

he second argument states that crimes will have a higher level of severity when the victim has a gun. While I agree that when someone asks for your wallet it’s better to surrender it, a crime cannot be alleviated by surrender-ing when the assailant intends to harm, rape, or kill the victim.

he third argument claims that students in college are so irresponsible and volatile, that they cannot be trusted to prop-erly defend their lives. he argu-ment continues, reasoning that a comparable percentage of student carriers compared to the rest of the U.S. will cause a catastrophic amount of crime. It then inalizes its assault, by suggesting that the faculty members are just as in-competent in regards to safety as the drunken, stressed students.

I request that the Technique editors refrain from harassing the members of the campus and that they stop making baseless emo-tional arguments on important issues.

John Bartzhird-year CS

Safety requires contributions from all

Safety is a top priority at Tech, and addressing it is an issue that must be embraced by the entire campus community. We need to be aware that our open campus is in an urban environment that poses some unique challenges that we all must acknowledge.

he Georgia Tech Police De-partment is here to protect campus and help educate the community

on how to best protect themselves. An excellent opportunity to do this is Campus Safety Day, which was held on Feb. 11. I hope you were able to devote some time on Campus Safety Day to educat-ing yourself on crime prevention measures. By educating yourself, you can play an important role in keeping the community safe.

Although our primary focus is keeping our campus secure, we are paying diligent attention to crimes occurring in adjacent ar-eas. We are partnering with the Atlanta Police Department (APD) —which holds primary responsi-bility for our surrounding neigh-borhoods—as well as the Georgia State Patrol and Midtown Blue to improve security of campus.

It is imperative that those of you who live of campus and outside of our jurisdiction under-stand the nature of the living envi-ronment. his includes becoming familiar with neighborhood crime patterns, as well as taking the necessary safety precautions af-ter dark and knowing emergency contact numbers.

Our crime prevention unit and APD would be more than happy to work with those of you who live of campus and have safety concerns. We’ve been able to meet with some of you already and make presentations to you and your neighbors.

he Georgia Tech Police De-partment is here to provide a safe and secure learning environment for you on the Tech campus. I assure you that we are commit-ted to preventing, deterring and eliminating criminal activity on the Tech campus, and we appreci-ate your partnership in helping us accomplish this goal.

Please feel free to contact my oice if you have any suggestions or concerns, and thank you for participating in Campus Safety Day.

Teresa CrockerGeorgia Tech Police Chief

Focusfocus@nique.net

Focus Editor:Kate Comstock

Organization Spotlight: Origami Club

The purpose of this club is to share the joy of

folding the traditional art of origami/increase

awareness of the art.

Contact: cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/origamiclub

Technique

9Friday,

February 12, 2010

By Julia TurnerContributing Writer

On Feb. 4, many students, at least those who gave Tech their mobile numbers, prob-ably rolled their eyes at 11:03 a.m. when they received a text message and voice message from the Emergency Notii-cation System (GTENS). he message read, “Attention, this is a test of the Georgia Tech Emergency Notiication Sys-tem. his is only a test.”

A mere two hours later, a former student assaulted a Tech post-doctoral fellow with a katana sword.

According to the Emer-gency Action Plan, which any student can access at www.gatech.edu/emergency/, this assault might have fallen un-der the “active shooter” pro-tocol, where “the term ‘active shooter’ will also include any-one who uses any other deadly weapon to systematically or randomly inlict death or seri-ous bodily injury on the others over a continuous or extended period of time.”

However, as many students have pointed out, no one re-ceived another text message that day informing them of the situation. What happened to the emergency response sys-tem?

he answer is simple: noth-ing happened to it. In fact, the system worked perfectly in the face of this unexpected crisis. Within three minutes of the attack, two or three police oicers were not just “on the

Social media keeps campus alert

GTRIC showcases student research

scene” but actually with the suspect and victim. Several more arrived minutes later, and they were able to rapidly apprehend the suspect.

“GTENS is designed as an action-oriented emergency alert system. When we send a message out, it’s because we want people to act,” said Andrew Altizer, Director of Emergency Preparedness.

Unlike an instance of an unlocated shooter on campus

or a tornado warning, in this case the need for campus-wide action was unnecessary be-cause the situation was under control so quickly.

Just because GTENS was not used does not mean that campus was not notiied shortly after the incident. he Communications and Market-ing oice was key in getting information out.

“his was the irst time we used so many types of social

media,” said Lisa Ray Groven-stein, Director of Public Re-lations. Not only did they update posts to their website, but they also posted on the in-stitute’s Twitter and Facebook pages.

“We have to balance be-tween getting messages out quickly and getting out mes-sages that are accurate,” Grovenstein said.

School of Arch. builds sustainable

healthcare

See GTENS, page 11

By Matt Schrichte & Nancy Thanki

Staf Writer/Contributing writer

he 2010 Georgia Tech Re-search and Innovation Confer-ence (gtRIC), formerly known as the Graduate Symposium, took place this past Tuesday, Feb. 8 at the Georgia Tech Hotel. he event allowed the 349 graduate student partici-pants to present their research to their peers and advisors in a competition for roughly $70,000 in total prizes.

Every college, graduate de-partment and major was repre-sented. Graduate students are the primary authors, although teams regularly consist of both graduate and undergraduate student.

“gtRIC seeks to be one of the preeminent university sponsored research conven-tions at any university in the world,” said to Barauch Fei-genbaum, a grad student in City and Regional Planning, and the chair for this year’s event as the Graduate Vice President of Academic Afairs.

According to www.sga.gatech.edu/graduate/gtric/ the goals of the conference

include “To showcase the rich-ness of the research conducted by graduate students at Geor-gia Tech across all disciplines and topics in the form of poster presentations.” and “To stimu-late innovation at the graduate student level...”.

he $15,000 Edison Prize, the largest prize of the night, was awarded to Fengtao Wang, a PhD candidate study-ing electrical engineering. His submission presented a break-through in the ield of multi-spectral imagery.

His discovery could allow for the creation of an aford-able and portable multispec-tral imager, whose primary focus would be to help health care professionals prevent pres-sure ulcers for the elderly and people with restricted mobil-ity.

“People are inding major, unlimited applications for this topic,” Wang said.

According to Wang and his abstract, the imager’s com-mercial implications extend far beyond clinical screening for bedsores. Other applications could include “produce and ag-ricultural products inspection, military target search, skin

diseases and cancers detection, produce sorting, on site qual-ity control in semiconductor, pharmacy industries, etc.”

he $15,000 Edison Prize is awarded to the researcher who developed the project with the “most startup potential.”

“his is an innovation award,” said Dr. Raymond

Vito, Vice Provost for Gradu-ate and Undergraduate Stud-ies and the faculty advisor for gtRIC.

he Edison prize money will eventually be invested in a startup company based on Wang’s multispectral imagery

By Athrisa Divya VarahabhatlaContributing Writer

In the past decade, conservation has be-come a major source of concern when fac-ing the already complex problems posed by healthcare and human development initia-tives.

Too often the eforts made to ix one prob-lem, such as rainforest destruction, can have unintended consequences on issues like pub-lic health. In order to deal comprehensively with sustainable solutions to development is-sues Tech departments have partnered with not-for-proit organizations to provide tech-nical knowledge to a good cause.

A couple years ago, Tech’s School of Ar-chitecture became ailiated with a not-for-proit organization called Health in Har-mony (HIH) which supports the Alam Sehat Lestari Project (ASRI) in the village of Su-kadana which is located in West Kalminan-tan, Indonesia to build a healthcare facility.

HIH is a health and eco-conservation program focusing on afordable healthcare and environmental conservation strategies in West Kalimantan. HIH was founded by Dr.Kinari Webb, MD, who recognized the need for afordable healthcare facilities in the Sukadana area while visiting the nearby Gu-nung Palung National Park.

An interdisciplinary team of students and professors was established to create a hospital with HIH for the people of Sukadana. he unique aspect of the entire project is that students are working with an actual client, designing a building that will actually be constructed. he team had to overcome ob-stacles such as the diference in cultures and inding alternatives to traditional building materials. All materials and labor will come from West Kalminantan to involve the com-munity and educate and provide economic support.

Webb irst created this project while working with orangutans in Gunung Palung and recognized the community’s dire need for healthcare. While working in the park, she made several discoveries about the health of the people in Sukadana and the natural environment in which they were living.

“here were no health services available to the people, and malaria and tuberculosis were prevalent; the rain forest was being de-stroyed by illegal logging; and animal health was sufering also,” Webb said.

See HIH, page 12

Photo courtesy of Al Pierce

In Sukadana, in West Kalimantan, 25

percent of children die before age ive.

Photo by Basheer Tome/ Student Publications

Graduate students competed for $70,000 worth of research

awards at Monday’s gtRIC(sic) at the Georgia Tech Hotel.

Incident has occurred in Weber SST Building. Injuries reported. Arrest has been made. No immediate threat to campus. Updates www.gatech.edu.Feb 4th from web

Georgia Tech incident update posted at www.gatech.edu.Feb 4th from web

Ga. Tech incident update #2. www.gatech.edu.Feb 4th from web

See GTRIC, page 11

Photo by Eric Mansield/ Student Publications

Students wait outside the Weber SST building after half of the building was evacuated due

to the attack on Feb. 4. GTENS was never activated to notify students about the attack.

10 • February 12, 2010 • Technique FOCUS

Trailblazers helps students give back, get dirtyBy Andrew Nelson

Staf Writer

Each spring break since 2007, several dozen of Tech’s Trailblaz-ers—including undergraduates, graduates and post-doctorates —combine outdoors exploration with environmental improvement via trips to national parks and lo-cal service projects.

he Trailblazers club ofers their alternative spring break trips, local environmental service projects and convenient services for the “outdoorsy” student.

heir Alternative Spring Break (ASB) program is also ofered by many similar organizations as an environmental service project and learning experience ofers trips to national parks and trails through-out the country.

“hey’re generally split half and half between outdoor activi-ties and trail work—maintenance, invasive vegetation removal, in-stalling check dams and water bars for erosion control,” Jason Murray, Trailblazers alternative breaks vice president, said, “hen we try to use whatever we’ve done as the service portion for outdoor activities. If we worked on a hik-ing trail we go backpacking, or if we work on a river or stream sys-tem we go canoeing or kayaking.”

his ASB will be a choice of two locations: the Smoky Moun-tains and the Paciic Crest Trail. he trip to Smoky Mountain Na-tional Park in Gatlinburg, Ten-nessee will focus on improving general erosion control and trail repair and then backpacking for several days.

he Paciic Crest Trail—near the San Diego portion of the Mexico-to-Canada mountain range—trip will include installing check dams and water bars and then backpacking for three days.

“he third [ASB trip] to the

Mississippi Delta is still in the works, but we would work on pad-dling trails and do a two-day ca-noe trip,” Murray said, “he other two are open for signups online and are almost full, and Trailblaz-ers members have priority regis-tration for trips.”

he previous ASB trips have been to destinations like Shenan-doah National Park, St. Marks Wildlife Refuge and Tucson Na-tional Park. Lodging is usually provided during the service half by the sponsoring organization or park association, but during the backpacking or canoe trips, they will pitch tents or sleep under the stars.

“[Trailblazers] tries to give people an idea of what goes into maintaining the outdoor facili-ties and how to have fun on it. So you’re going to see both sides of it,” Murray said.

Trips are often carpooled if within driving distance and cost from $125-$200. Some trips like to the Paciic Crest Trail may cost more to accommodate for a plane trip—usually $300-$600; how-ever, this can be discounted if a member can ind better transpor-tation and can rendezvous with the rest of the group. Costs are re-duced by SGA subsidies and spon-sor packages, like lodging or food.

he club covers all necessary gear, food (catered to any dietary request), transportation and a t-shirt in the trip cost, but personal gear like backpacks, sleeping gear, and clothes are the individual’s re-sponsibility. Pocket knives are also allowed and recommended.

Many more items are available for rent at the Outdoor Recreation at Georgia Tech’s (ORGT) Wil-derness Outpost counter at the rear of the CRC.

“Trailblazers can rent anything from the Wilderness Outpost that they need for their travel,” Leigh

Jackson-Megennis, assistant di-rector of outdoor recreation, said, “We have historically given a dis-count rate to the Trailblazers if they were renting for the Spring Break trip.”

To check the list of gear and prices, see ORGT’s Wilderness Outpost website at www.crc.gat-ech.edu/orgt/wop.php. A week-end’s worth of basic gear costs about $25.

Toiling and hiking through the woods is not their only goal, however. Weekends are for local metro Atlanta environmental ser-vice projects, and they are open to all students and faculty willing to contribute their time—tools and work loves are provided.

One recent project was on Tech’s campus, working on ero-sion issues with paths students have created just by frequent use, called “social trails.”

Two more local projects are currently planned: a Boat Rock cleanup on March 6 and a second Tech social trail day on March 13. Previous projects have taken place at Autry Mill Nature Preserve, Sweetwater Creek and Allatoona Lake.

hough trips and local service projects do not require member-ship, the $25 annual dues cover some unique services an outdoor oriented student may appreci-ate. All of the Trailblazers’ gear —including stoves, irst aid kits, cooking sets, water puriiers, stuf sacks, tents, lanterns, matches and ire starters—is available for free checkout to members for the weekend or entire week.

Murray suggests the Appala-chian trail, Silver Comet (moun-tain biking), and Cloudman Can-yon as spots within an hour or two from campus to visit.

Trailblazers is also considering an online map service for mem-bers to print free topographic

maps.Trail work and outdoor activi-

ties do require some skill to learn, but all necessary know-how, like how to light a stove, prepare a backpack, basic gear training and how to use and clean a water il-ter are taught days in advance of a trip.

Members are not expected to know anything before training and trips, though there are several former scouts with the club.

“People bike on the Appala-chian Trail all the time, but to actually work on them, you get a

much better idea of what it takes to actually maintain those facili-ties that so many people enjoy,” Murray said, “People think a trail just forms because people walk on it and wear away whatever is growing there. To some extent that’s true, but once that happens you get a lot of erosion in that area, it needs to be taken care of.”

Trips and service projects are also coordinated Tech service or-ganizations—Omega Phi Alpha fraternity and Team Buzz, most recently—and with other univer-sities like UGA and GSU.

The Trailblazers sponsor alternative spring break trips and local environmental service work for civic-minded nature-enthusiasts.

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Photo courtesy of Jason Murray

Photo courtesy of Jason Murray Photo by Adebola Adedire/ Student Publications

Technique • February 12, 2010 • 11 FOCUS

Tech Public Relations are re-sponsible for updating students as well as the outside media who are gathering information about inci-dents on campus.

“We were ready, we had to be, in case the situation changed, to send a message out to students,” said Altizers.

he quick response times were no fortunate accident, but rather the result of many practice and training drills formulated to ac-commodate as much of the unex-pected as can be expected.

“Every situation is diferent,” said Altizer, which is why after every practice or drill, the Tech police gather to talk about what went well, what didn’t, and how the next time could be better.”

hese talks include what ex-actly to send out in those GTENS messages.

“We can only use 128 char-acters in the message,” Altizer said, and that includes spaces and punctuated. Also, because the message is digitally transcribed into the voice message, they can’t use acronyms either—the com-puter would just try to sound them out.

To igure out what works best, Altizer and his colleagues practice diferent scenarios and discuss whether the text message really got the point across.

While they seem minor to students, those text messages go through major consideration be-fore they are sent out.

he test that went out that day served its purpose, too, though in the aftermath of the day’s events, its results might be overlooked. It had a 97.1% success rate with the numbers available.

Most of the failed messages were due to incorrect numbers or old cell phone numbers. To up-date your GTENS number, go to http://passport.gatech.edu to al-ter or add a number.

innovation. he night’s other awards in-

cluded 20 travel grants valued up to $2,000 for travel related to their presentations, two $5,000-per-year fellowships for up to two years, and two one-year $5,000 fellowships. Unlike the travel grants and Edison Prize, which was open to Masters students as well as PhD candidates, only PhD students were eligible for the one or two-year fellowships.

he organizers of this year’s gtRIC touted this year’s confer-ence as its sixth annual install-ment. However, they, as well as some of the repeating partici-pants, recognized that this year’s gtRIC was vastly diferent from Tech’s Graduate Symposiums of the past ive years.

In the past, the conference was held in the Student Center Ball-room and was an all-day event. his year the event was only for a couple of hours. It generally had about 100 participants.

In contrast, this year’s confer-ence lasted from just 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., ofered more prizes than for-merly, and hosted more than 300 participants.

his improved, enormous and all-encompassing event was the brainchild of Linda Harley, a grad student in Applied Physiology and the Graduate Student Body Presi-dent. Faculty sponsor Vito provid-ed funding and faculty judging.

“In the previous years [gtRIC] was more of a training exercise to actually go to other conferences,” said Feigenbaum, “We thought, we’re missing an opportunity here. We have all of this great re-search at Georgia Tech. We could have a formal event.”

However, the conference’s ex-panded size lead to some logistical problems.

“We wanted to have three peo-ple judging every poster. And for the most part, we did. We had a

few judges that didn’t come and so we might have had a couple with two. We actually had four for some. he idea was that it takes three to get a balanced perspec-tive,” Feigenbaum said.

he pool of judges mostly consisted of a wide array of Tech professors. he rest were local entrepreneurs and other research-ers from Tech. Judges were given score sheets to grade the content of the participants’ posters, how the posters were laid out, how the contestants presented their information and the substantives of their research and/or entrepre-neurial ideas. hey were free to review any project they liked, re-gardless of subject, as long as they weren’t a contestant’s main advi-sor.

“I tried to pick things I knew something about and things I was interested in based on the descrip-tion,” said Matt Sanders, a re-search scientist for OIT.

Although there were judges representing every college at Tech, some of the participants were irked by the lack of judges in their speciic disciplines.

“here were not enough pro-fessors in my ield so I got judged by professors in psychology and structural engineering. hey don’t quite get quite what I’m doing and they couldn’t give me good feed-back, which is what I was look-ing for,” said Alex Abdelnour, CE grad student. Abdelnour is study-ing the efects of clear cutting on water quantity and water quality from a biochemistry point of view.

Nevertheless, oicial judges weren’t the only people reviewing the participants’ presentations. Presenters were also able to inter-act with the industry professionals in attendance.

“he good thing is that I was able to connect with some people in the professional industry that were interested in my modeling and they gave me their card and I got a job ofer,” Abdelnour said.

President G.P. “Bud” Peterson said of the evening’s events.,“Most of us here at Georgia Tech think we have a pretty good understand-ing of the breadth of research that takes place here. But seeing these 250+ posters really highlights the tremendous array of ideas, topics, and innovative and creative ideas being explored.”

GTENS from page 9 GTRIC from page 9

Graduate students explain their research at the Georgia Tech Research and Innovation Conference;

over 300 graduate students were in attendence as competitors, and every college was represented.

www.nique.netsliver

i think i may be socially inept... pretty faces please talk to meHe stole my tractor, but at least he didn’t get my snowman!Bandwagon fans are the bane of my existence.Why do guys keep complaining? If you want a valentine, go get one!i want my free pants from the super bowl add!!!!pants on the ground pants on the ground lookin like a fool wit yo pants on the groundHamburgers and hot dogs too, I want to have a barbecuewhy saints why??I turn every page of the ‘nique wishing for just one more section of sliverScratch that; screw hooking up with an ex, steal a girl from UGA instead!Feb 14 = S.A.D. (Single Awareness Day)...rip wingnutsI LOVE Valentine’s Day and I’m single. Suck it, complainers.poor coltsygirl in klaus computer lab on saturday mornings is cutelaptops+power cords+laundry room=annoying. Don’t do itIn the MRDC on Superbowl sunday but managed to inish my work before kickof. Epic achievement unlocked.He’s got a big egoMad Dog can back it upi can make ur bedrockPeyton Manning chokedI feel hungry at 2 a.m.!!FC Date Auction!! Feb 25. Lay of the ginger comments. I know who you are, you creeper.katana sword >> FABMario Party 8!...love urban dictionary right nowGetting Plastered Feb. 14. Who’s with me!? what are those orange glasses everywhere?I wish you would come back. I’m going crazy here by myselfugh! my teacher gave me homework! what an idiot!

Photo by Yong Hwee Ng/ Student Publications

Photo by Basheer Tome/Student Publications Photo by Basheer Tome/Student Publications

Photo by Yong Hwee Ng /Student Publications

12 • February 12, 2010 • Technique FOCUS

HIH partners with local com-munities to ensure quality health-care while keeping it afordable. his helps HIH achieve three main objectives: provide superior health support to the community, provide incentives for the locals to increase conservation practices that limit illegal logging and de-forestation that is crippling Gu-nung Palung National Park and provide work opportunities to patients so that they may pay for their health services.

According to the HIH web-site, www.healthinharmony.org, “25% of children die before age 5, mothers often die in child-birth, and even ‘simple’ injuries like a cut on the hand can lead to death.”

Another problem speciic to the organization was lack of space to run necessary medical op-erations. In 2007, Dr. Webb was running ASRI out of a small two-room clinic treating a mass num-ber of people.

For all she was doing, the two-room clinic quickly turned into inadequate space.

“[Dr. Webb has] seen 15,000 patients, gave sight to 78 blind people through cataract surger-ies, has provided mobile services via an ambulance she was able to purchase through a fund raising efort, delivered 4,000 mosquito nets, and they have now planted ten acres of tree seedlings to re-plenish the rain forest, taught organic farming to the people, and have provided community outreach and training on medi-

cal services,” said Almont Pierce, ARCH ’58 and ‘59.

Two years ago, while in Wash-ington D.C., Webb met with Pierce to ask for advice on how to expand the clinic into a hospital. Pierce came to Tech to pitch the idea to Dean homas Galloway at the COA, and it was approved a short time later. In the spring of 2009, a course was opened to al-low undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Archi-tecture to design the hospital.

Much of the designs combine elements of local Indonesian cul-ture with eco-friendly alternatives. For example, instead of AC units, a ventilation system called “pas-sive cooling” which only utilizes windows and fans will be used.

Sarah Hilton, M.S. Health Systems ‘09, a member of the team, said that one of the main challenges of the project was actu-ally understanding and incorpo-rating the needs and cultural re-quirements of West Kalminantan. One speciic thing that she noted was that the team needed to be sure to design the hospital rooms to include room for family visitors to sleep with the patients.

he courses implemented to design the hospital lasted three semesters. Tech faculty members David Cowan, Craig Zimring, Tim Harrison, Franca Trubiano and Russell Gentry are leading the students with design elements and logistics.

he team is also made up of students of engineering and from Health Systems Institute. Fund-ing and help is provided from companies and grants and dona-

tions. Architecture irms Stanley, Beamen and Sears and the Puetro Nuevo foundation provide pro-bono support with materials and

HIH from page 9

expertise. While the course will end at the end of this semester, the hospital is meant to be a model for other possible hospitals.

Photo courtesy of Sarah Hill

Photo courtesy of Al Pierce

Photo courtesy of Al Pierce

A collaborative team of students and professors worked to create

a sustainable and afordable hospital for the people of Sukadana.

Entertainmententertainment@nique.net

Entertainment Editor:Jennifer Aldoretta

Assistant Entertainment Editor:Zheng Zheng

Technique

13Friday,

February 12, 2010

Umphrey’s McGee brings color to

Tabernacle

CONCERT

Umphrey’s McGee

VENUE: The Tabernacle

DATE: Feb. 6, 2010

GENRE: Progressive Rock

OUR TAKE: ««««

By Kelvin KuoPhotography Editor

Umphrey’s McGee, a pro-gressive jam-band based out of Chicago, performed at the Tabernacle on Feb. 6. he ven-ue seemed to be lacking in at-tendance at irst while opening act Dubconcious was perform-ing. Slowly, the Tabernacle was becoming a sardine can of a venue as Umphrey’s McGee was inching to performance. he crowd would burst into screams when slight move-ments on stage were seen, and Umphrey’s McGee did not tease for a long time.

he show created musical euphoria for all in attendance, with rock, reggae, metal, funk, soul, hardcore and classic rock sounds incorporated through-

out the show. With all these genres meshed together, they were able to create a unique sound that not many jam-bands are able to produce. With all the musical inlu-ences, they were more apt to jam than sing, although lyrics still accompany most of their songs.

he members are the epito-me of musicians because they never have the same exact show twice. With their origi-nality, there’s no need to worry about pirated music or show taping. Umphrey’s McGee continuously publishes music on their podcast to encour-age and promote their tour. he show was nothing short of their promotion, as a fresh and unique sound.

he band formed back at the University of Notre Dame in 1997 with guitarist and vo-calist Brendan Bayliss, bassist Ryan Stasik and keyboardist Joel Cummins, who still re-main with added drums, per-cussion and guitar. he band was the result of the combina-tion of two bands: Tashi Sta-

tion and Stomper Bob which played both original and cover songs of artists including Guns N’ Roses, Vince Guaraldi (Peanuts theme) and others.

Current guitarist Jake Cinninger was added to the band in Sept. 2000. He, with a harder rock background, added a new dimension to Umphrey’s McGee sound. he following year, the band began to create more unique sounds as they coalesced into an im-provisational band.

In July 2004, after percus-sionist Andy Farag and drum-mer Kris Myers were added to the roster, the band released their irst national EP, Anchor Drops. It was recognized by Rolling Stone Magazine to “have become odds-on favor-ites in the next-Phish sweep-stakes.”

Overall, the concert was very successful, even for the popular Umphrey’s. his is a highly recommended band for anyone interested in discov-ering base-centerd jam-band music or an appreciation to-wards what real musicians are.

Photo by Kelvin Kuo/Student Publications

Umphrey’s bassist Ryan Stasik jams at The Tabernacle on Saturday, Feb. 6. The band’s

eclectic sound of rock, funk, metal and reggae attracted enough people to pack the venue.

Travolta’s acting career pained by Paris

By Robert SolomonContributing Writer

Before starting this review, I tried to remember John Travolta movies I had seen in the past ten years that weren’t completely pointless or terrible. his was diicult. A quick glance at the web found only one movie Travolta has done in this time that wasn’t awful: A Love Song for Bobby Long. Starting with Battleield Earth and ending with From Paris With Love, Travolta has a decade of roles he might regret playing.

his is probably an unfair com-parison, considering that this is a “Luc Besson Euro-Trash Action Movie” through and through. You know the type, even if you don’t know the name. Perhaps you have seen one of the Trans-porter movies or Taken, which was also directed by the mind behind From

Paris With Love. Luc Besson wrote all of these.

Before Besson started writing formu-laic action movies, he was a renowned director, most famously known for directing Leon: he Professional. hat movie is the reason why you have heard of Natalie Portman. It is good movie, with dramatic portions that serve the action by giving the audience a reason to care about what is going on in the plot. It also has a terriic villain (which From Paris With Love sorely lacks).

he reader of this review might think “Why does this matter?” Surely a great action movie can solely skirt by on the strange charisma of the lead actor. his is how Schwarzenegger and Stal-lone made their careers, by being com-pellingly strange men. One believes that Travolta fancies himself a strange man too. It is the only way one could explain Travolta’s portrayal of govern-ment operative Charlie Wax.

Has anyone seen Pulp Fiction? Re-member how Travolta looked in that movie with long hair and a black suit, looking both ridiculous and cool all at the same time? Well, Charlie Wax is the opposite of this: long black leather jacket, shaved head and rounded goa-tee. Wax spews profanity and refers to his gun his wife. Wax’s methods are unorthodox, but really he is just a good

FILM

From Paris With Love

GENRE: Action, Thriller

STARRING: John Travolta

DIRECTOR: Pierre Morel

RATING: R

RELEASE DATE: Feb. 5, 2010

OUR TAKE: «««««

Sparks fails to ignite ireworks with John

See Paris, page 15

By Patricia UcedaContributing Writer

Dear John, the latest Nicholas Sparks book to be cast into a movie, stars Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum as the two star-crossed lovers.

FILM

Dear John

GENRE: Romance, Drama

STARRING: Amanda Seyfried, Channing Tatum

DIRECTOR: Lasse Hallström

RATING: PG-13

RELEASE DATE: Feb. 5, 2010

OUR TAKE: «««««

Unfortunately, it falls short of its more successful predecessors due to its pre-dictability and lack of real chemistry.

Tatum plays John, a tough brooding military guy on leave from the Middle East in the spring before the Sept. 11 attack. Seyfried plays Savannah, a rich preppy girl with a heart of gold vaca-tioning on the Carolina coast. hey meet unexpectedly when John saves her purse from a watery grave and the two swiftly immerse in a two-week whirl-wind romance.

John’s stoic and socially inept na-ture is mostly attributed to growing up with an emotionally challenged father, played wonderfully by Richard Jen-kins. When John was younger he didn’t notice his father’s problem and used to enjoy collecting coins with him. Even-

See John, page 14

««

Image courtesy of Screen Gems

14 • February 12, 2010 • Technique ENTERTAINMENT

www.nique.netsliver

typing “georgia tech” in google and the irst auto-suggestion was “georgia tech sword”NOTE TO OIT: make Prism accessible everywhere. thx :pShameful... you know better than to leave a derivative out in the coldBritish Swagga = Prof. SmithVoltaire was a genius: “No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking” (Note to self: start CS homework EARLIER in the week)just lost the 9 key plate on my keyboardI collect typewritersif you stroke spiders, they go baldTo the nique staf: bringing the sword story to print for the next day was really cool. Chapeau!cannibals like to show pornos to male prey before consumption, just so there’s more meati think i love you, so what am i so afraid of?February 14th is Chinese New Year!!!!!!!!!To the girl who keeps looking up my information online... CREEPER!Grad school decisions are killing me...So who else is going to Muse this month? Wait, someone brought crablegs to class? hat’s both annoying and classy at the same time. Am I seriously the only Tech student who knows anything about grammar? No, I do not want a Fanta. hanks for the ofer though. Seriously, am I the only one who thinks the blonde in Folk 118 is super sexy?!?!?2 anti-concealed cary articles int he paper and multiple facebook statuses, when did tech become so paciist?to the person slivering third eye blind songs last week: you’re awe-some.So when is the orange bowl???to my roommate, other people can hear you singing I Gotta Feel-ing in the shower at 4:30 in the morning

tually he outgrew that, unlike his father, instead of becoming ob-sessed with it.

Now that John is older he rarely talks to his father, believing they no longer have anything in common. he father and son re-lationship is one of the few good aspects of this movie, as it is both interesting to watch and moving to see how it develops as the story unfolds.

John and Savannah are the typical example of a couple where “opposites attract.” While she is building a house for Habitat for Humanity, he is getting into ist ights with boys on the beach. Despite their diferences, they fall deeply in love and profess their undying love for each other after just two weeks together.

Unfortunately, because this is based on a Sparks book, it’s easy to igure out that something bad is going to happen to rip these two lovers apart.

he rip comes in the form of the war. John has a year-long tour of duty and Savannah promises to wait for him. While he is away, they write a continuous stream of letters to each other, promising to

tell each other everything. As a re-sult, much of this movie is spent with endless montages of the war and reading letters.

Director Lasse Hallström is almost trying to prove their love, which was lackluster to begin with, with this never-ending dis-play of devotion.

Not suprisingly, everything changes when after Sept. 11. John is suddenly forced to choose be-tween love and duty when the time for re-enlistment rolls around. He chooses duty along with every other man in his squadron. his time the distance proves to be too much for Savannah and she ends their relationship.

his movie contains all the in-gredients of a Sparks’ ilm. Substi-tute in the war with disapproving parents and you practically have he Notebook. he staple rainy ro-mantic scenes are there, but minus any tear-jerker moments. Instead of crying, the viewer will feel frustrated at the main character’s erratic decisions. he soundtrack was also misleading, with the beautiful song “Set the Fire to the hird Bar” playing nonstop in the previews but not once during the actual movie.

Tatum and Seyfried both do a

commendable job, although Ta-tum is deinitely more eye candy than a good actor. Seyfried, from ilms as Mean Girls and Mamma Mia!, does not develop her acting skills any further in this movie, instead spending most of her time moping around for John. hey have a strong physical attraction toward each other, but emotional-ly it falls lat, especially since they have such a short time together.

he war scenes are poorly pro-duced and not very realistic at all. here is one scene where John gets randomly shot, especially since there are people yelling at him not to enter a building (and he does anyway). he audience is made to think he is dead but then we see him lying in a hospital bed in the next scene. he whole scene is over-dramatized and highly un-necessary.

Overall, this movie is a decent romantic drama with a few good moments that get muddled down in depressing montages. heir love may not be that believable, but Hallström never stops trying to make it work.

It deinitely falls short of early Sparks movie adaptations such as A Walk to Remember or he Note-book.

John from page 13

SUDOKUPUZZLES

Fill in the grid so that every row, column and 3 by 3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

1 4 2 5

3 7 1 4 8 6

9 3 2

9 5 7

8 3 1

6 4 7 2 9 5

3 6 2 1

2 8 5

1 3 5

9 3

2 7 3

4 8

8 5 9

2 4

7 9 1

1 2 8

Image courtesy of Screen Gems

Technique • February 12, 2010 • 15 ENTERTAINMENT

CLASSIFIEDSplace your

techniquewith the

classiieds.nique.net

guy trying to teach the new guy the ropes.

Now, a sane reviewer would give this movie an extra star, ad-mitting that it was passably made and a decent diversion if one does not expect much. However, this is precisely the problem! At some point, the artistry of action mov-ies got lost in a lurry of CGI and editing.

he Schwarzenegger classic Commando feels like Italian Neo-Realism compared to movies like From Paris With Love. At least Commando had real explosions, cheesy one-liners and a star that actually seemed like he was capa-ble of performing his heroic acts within an alternate universe that we are more than happy to reside in.

But no! here is not one mo-ment where Wax dives and slides and we believe it. Travolta is 56 years old, but this is not the issue. If we wanted to believe Travolta, then we would, but we don’t be-cause Travolta has never been good in a conventional action movie, ever. It takes a movie of unusual character, usually with a dose of song or dance, to bring out the best of his talents.

Travolta needs to disco dance, metaphorically speaking, not shoot a gun.

hen again, if you can’t make a movie entertaining while having one of the main characters run-ning around Paris with a two-foot blue vase full of cocaine for an half the running time, then per-haps there are much bigger prob-lems here. I cannot recommend this movie less.

Paris from page 13

CITY SCENE

Jazz savvy Techies should know it is once again time for Emory University’s Jazz Festival. he weekend is packed with demonstrations and two public concerts. A free to attend big band performance on Saturday, Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. may be the inale, but the true treat of the festival would be Friday’s concert. Beginning at 8 p.m., Friday’s concert will be hosting Grammy awarded bassist John Clayton in a jazz trio with percussionist Herlin Riley and Emory’s own Gary Motley. Friday’s concert is only $15 and all other events are free.

By Kenny PhillipsSenior Staf Writer

Emory’s Jazz Festival hosts Grammy-winning musicians

Photo by Chris Gooley/ Student Publications

Is your lover bored by store bought lowers? Treat him or her to an evening of splendor at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Cakes, cocktails and atmosphere are all available at the Val-entines in the Garden event. Attendees will be gifted with one glass of pink champagne, and a cash bar holds the provision of alcohol for the rest of the evening. At only $30 per person, the beauty and the availability of cheesecake, cotton candy and champagne this enchanted evening is surely still favorably compared to those hackneyed roses. If you want more infor-mation on how to make Feb. 13 memorable this year, visit www.atlantabotanicalgarden.org/site/involvement/valentines.

Botanical Gardens pollinates Valentine’s Day

Flogging Molly takes Tabernacle by stormhe sounds of traditional Celtic songs mixed with punk rock music will lock with the

loating hearts on Valentine’s Day weekend. Saturday, Feb. 13, he Tabernacle hosts Flog-ging Molly. It has almost been two years since the release of Float, but under the evidence of their live recording from he Greek heater, the band is going strong. Flogging Molly will be performing the Celtic/punk fusion that has given them so much recognition, and with tickets running from $28 now to $30 that night it is almost too easy to attend. For lovers looking for something interesting to do this weekend, he Tabernacle is looking pretty hot. For more information, visit www.tabernacleatl.com.

ASO’s Abbado conducts two classical performances Roberto Abbado has been a worldwide conductor for many years and now leads the At-

lanta Symphony Orchestra. During two performances, hursday and Saturday (Feb. 11 and 13) at 8 p.m., Abbado will lend his talents to conduct the ASO and singers of the Atlanta Symphony Chorus. he program lows from Church Sonatas by Mozart to the grand inish —Beethoven’s 1st Symphony. he tickets vary in price from $20 - $75 and may be purchased at www.atlantasymphony.org.

Image courtesy of Lionsgate

16 • February 12, 2010 • Technique ENTERTAINMENT

Tech, SCAD host engaging Art History of Games By Robert Solomon

Contributing Writer

On Feb. 4 to 6, a symposium gathered at the Rich Auditorium at the High Museum of Art to talk about games, mostly digital in nature.

he event was co-hosted by Tech and the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). he purpose of this conference was to investigate games as an art form, featuring members in the ields of game studies, art history, and other related areas of cultural studies as well as practicing game developers.

Until now, the vast majority of symposiums about video games have been convened from the commercial side of the equation, most notably the Game Devel-opers Conference. However, the question surrounding games like Braid at this particular sympo-sium was not about sales igures. It was instead about the artistic merits of the games.

After opening remarks, the opening address was given by John Romero, the co-founder of id Software and co-designer of groundbreaking FPS shoot-ers such as Doom and Quake. Romero’s focus primarily lay in the groundbreaking technical ef-forts by early programmers in the games industry, inding new ways to not only optimize their code, but establish new gameplay con-ventions, many of which are still

found today. On Friday, the shift focused to

the more academic side of games. John Sharp, professor at SCAD, delivered remarks reminding the audience of how gaming has been interwoven into the development of culture for many centuries.

he next two speakers, Jasper Juul and Frank Lantz, both trav-eled from NYU for the confer-ence. Juul highlighted the war-ring factions over the aesthetics of “pure” gaming, citing how process intensive games that gen-erated their content dynamically are often at odds with the drive to

make games more narrative and cinematic.

Lantz delivered an inspiring talk about the passions of three diferent artists that seem on the surface to be completely unre-lated to artistic expression. For instance, Nabokov, the author of Lolita, was an avid butterly col-lector. Lantz found little difer-ence between Nabokov’s butterly collecting and the ability of Poké-mon fans to remember minute de-tails about their preferred game.

On Saturday, the talks turned to developers who had worked on the games commissioned for the

festival. he highlights of this day came from the duo known as Tale of Tales and long-time game de-veloper Brenda Braithwaite.

Tale of Tales noted that their game Vanitas was in fact not a game at all, instead being an in-teraction meant to provoke deeper meaning. In conjunction with this game, Tale of Tales delivered a talk that was more political the-atre than lecture, arguing that games were not art at all.

At the end, they declared they were starting a new movement, to be entitled “Notgames.” While the talk was likely meant as a call-

to-arms, the tone sounded less like philosophy and more Internet trolling.

In contrast, Braithwaite spoke directly to the artistic process sur-rounding her game One Falls for Each of Us, a board game based on the forced relocation of the Cher-okee during the Trail of Tears. A tragic event may seem a strange inspiration for a board game, but Braithwaite argued convincingly that tragedy was as valid for gam-ing as it was for other forms.

After a lively panel featuring these game creators, the inal talk was given by Christiane Paul, who spoke on curation of New Media works in established spaces. he inal panel with her and several renowned game designers also featured some of the most pointed comments of the symposium. A dry afair, this was not.

In her conclusion, Tech’s Ja-net Murray spoke directly to the artistic conlict grappled by the festival, noting that she herself was optimistic for the future. his sentiment was echoed throughout the symposium.

For a more real-time look at the reactions of participants at the symposium, search what Ian Bo-gost referred to as the Twitter back channel by searching for posts with hashtag “#AHoG”. he sym-posium-commissioned games, Sixteen Tons, Vanitas and Sleep is Death, will remain on exhibit at the Kai Lin gallery in Midtown until March.

Image courtesy of id Software

Image courtesy of Game Freak

Image courtesy of Number NoneImage courtesy of Nintendo EAD

Technique • February 12, 2010 • 17 ENTERTAINMENT

THEME CROSSWORD: FLORAL ARRANGEMENTBy Robert ZimmermanUnited Features Syndicate

ACROSS1. Ten-speed5. Fable in London11. To’s partner14. Takes a chance19. “To a Skylark” et al.20. Western capital21. Hawaiian volcano Mauna -22. Reading matter Web23. Her address in the 1990s was “Melrose Place”26. Deck of cards27. Was a candidate28. - mater29. Belief30. East, West and Gulf31. Not easy to grasp33. Snowstorm aftermath36. Fix dinner37. Woodwind instrument38. Nonsense!40. Gunowner’s org.43. Bird sanctuary46. Oil-ield silhouettes

47. Gotcha!48. Pond surface, perhaps49. Big books50. Decompose51. Genetic marker52. Fastener53. Carmen’s aunt54. Six women, so-called in 1989 ilm title60. Make unhappy64. “here you are!”65. Rouge or blanc66. Shoe feature67. Actress Hasso68. Guard71. - Moines72. Misrepresent73. Kind of missile75. She was married in Dog-patch in 195279. Classical lead-in80. Numismatist’s pride81. Beseech82. Sister83. Geometry subject85. Signal with the eye

DOWN1. 1975 Nobel physicist2. Inventor’s need3. Actor Reeves4. Superlative conclusion5. “To a Skylark” poet6. Designated, as with a word7. Jar8. - Speedwagon9. Letter abbr.10. Asian ox11. Heavyset12. Wander13. Scull propeller14. Captured again15. Fisherman Walton16. Knights

17. Sheepshank, e.g.18. Movie backdrops24. hose with intense dislikes25. Speech defect30. Chanel of fashion32. Aberdeen hillside33. Maliciousness34. Sawmill arrival35. Preceding downs, some-times36. George M.39. Dance with a kick40. College-sports org.41. Sen. Feingold42. Sound booster43. “- boy!”

44. 1978 Best Actor45. Mature insect46. By memory48. Asian religion50. Host’s request51. Valley55. Sins56. Reasonable judgment57. UMW member58. Once - lightly59. Cotton iber61. Bad sign in business62. Cools down63. No problem67. Hunt for68. Pisces, for one

69. Marksman’s calculation70. Traic sign72. GI’s irst training73. Fever74. European deer75. “- What Comes Natur’lly” (Irving Berlin)76. “- Misbehavin’”77. Wed78. Nervous80. Hundred lbs.83. Space program, 1961 to

197584. Dickens heroine86. Cabbie’s request87. Common ID88. Summer mo.89. Eddied91. To be speciic ...92. Crocuses93. Mail enclosure: inits.94. Geronimo, for one95. Spoken98. Sleep phenomenon

86. Sat. preceder87. Fill to the max89. Ignores the limit90. Supply for a blast91. Keep him away from re-lecting pools!94. Missing at roll call95. Make diverse96. Tall and slim97. Column100. Black-ink item103. Family member104. English title105. Prof.’s degree107. Sorceress in the “Odys-sey”108. She invited everyone to her house113. Tatum, for one114. Needs paying115. Cough drop116. Henri’s head117. Very recently118. AARP mbrs.119. Smooched120. Makes lace

99. Scarlett’s Butler100. Church painting101. Muses or Mets102. Hands103. Whiskey -104. Flemish painter Jan van -106. Indigo and henna, e.g.108. Rtes.109. Peak: abbr.110. 100 square meters111. Big bird of fable112. Mel of the Giants

18 • February 12, 2010 • Technique COMICS

NON SEQUITUR BY WILEYPILED HIGHER & DEEPER BY JORGE CHAM

CROSSWORD SOLUTION FROM PAGE 17

Technique • February 12, 2010 • 19 COMICS

DILBERT ® BY SCOTT ADAMSNON SEQUITUR BY WILEY

20 • February 12, 2010 • Technique SPORTS

Men’s from page 24

Events for junior and mas-ters clubs occupied the morning events, but afternoon events fo-cused on college teams. he col-legiate competition began with novice rowers from each school.

“Every year we have a new nov-ice class,” Oren said. “It’s mostly irst-years, [but] sometimes we get people who have done other sports and are ready for something new, who are sophomores or juniors.”

Tech’s novice classes had a strong showing in the 2,000-me-ter event. On the men’s side, fresh-man Seth Parker set a record for the novice event with a time of

6:22.0. Tech senior Chris Depweg came in second, and freshman Ben Craig gave the Jackets a third rower in the top ive for the event. he women’s team had two top-ive inishers and ive in the top ten; sophomore Betsy McLaugh-lin led the Jackets, inishing sec-ond with a time of 7:46.2.

he women led the way in the lightweight division, with eight rowers in the top ten. Senior Amie Martell edged the second-place rower by half a second as she in-ished in 7:50.0. Sophomore Sean Gibel won the lightweight men’s event in a time of 6:29.9 and was one of ive Jackets in the top 10.

Juniors Samantha Smelley and

Meg Schroeder inished in the top ive of the open women’s event. On the men’s side of the event, three Jackets placed in the top 10, led by David Judah in fourth place.

In the coxswain events, sophomore Sa-vannah Cookson was one of three Jackets in the top six on the wom-en’s side, and freshman Matthew Giannelli took irst in the men’s event as four Jackets were in the top ive.

Tech took the team points title in a strong showing as the team transitions from the endurance-based fall season to the strength-based spring season.

While Georgia and Emory appear on the

spring schedule, Tech’s goal re-mains the same as ever: to reach and perform well at the Dad Vail Regatta, the early May intercolle-giate competition in Philadelphia and the championship event for the Jackets.

“If you win at Dad Vails you’ve made it. We pretty much train all season for that,” Oren said.

he team lives by the motto established by Head Coach Rob Canavan: “Plan to Win, Prepare to Win, Expect to Win.”

“hat’s his motto for pretty much everything in life,” Oren said. “But that’s what we do; if we plan and we prepare, then we ex-pect [to win].”

Crew from page 24

in the last 10 seconds. Maryland’s Anjale Barrett

drove hard towards the basket. She tried for a lay-up with one second on the clock, but she was fouled on her way to the hoop.

With virtually no time left on the clock, Barrett went to the free throw line with a chance to tie the game. Her irst attempt went in, but her second attempt did not and Tech held on to win.

Montgomery inished the game with a team-high 20 points.

Tech used the momentum from their irst ACC road win to propel them to a second road vic-tory at Clemson, 68-53.

Ardossi led the team with 17 points. She also recorded her ifth double-double of the season with 13 rebounds. Sophomore center Sasha Goodlett scored 14 points, junior guard Deja Foster had 16 points, and Montgomery added 10. Metra Walthour also had sev-en steals of of the bench to help the Jackets win their sixth ACC game of the season.

Tech started the game of strong with a 20 to 8 scoring run. Ardossi was a big factor in the run, scoring eight of the 20 points.

Clemson (11-14, 2-7 ACC) made a number of mistakes to aid the Jackets, with 25 turnovers and a 31.7 percent ield goal rate.

Meanwhile, the Jackets (20-5, 6-3 ACC) shot 51 percent from the ield and controlled the paint. 40 of Tech’s 63 points came in the paint, and the Jackets only al-lowed Clemson to score 26 points down low.

Photo by Keun Hwa Yoo/ Student Publications

Rowers compete in a junior event at the Atlanta Erg Sprints. The Saturday

event at the CRC featured rowers of various age and experience levels.

Women’s from page 24

26 points in the same period, put-ting the halftime score at 41-27 in favor of the Hurricanes.

he Jackets rallied in the sec-ond half, cutting Miami’s lead down to two with just over nine minutes remaining. Oliver led the way for Tech, notching eight points during the rally and inish-ing the game with a team-high 19 points. Junior forward Gani Law-al played well too, getting eight of his own to open the second stanza and inishing with 17 points and 18 rebounds.

With nine minutes left in the game, Tech was down 52-50 and looking to continue its comeback. he Hurricanes forged ahead with an 8-2 run, but Oliver and Lawal combined for six points to bring the Jackets back in range, cutting Miami’s advantage to 60-58 with two minutes remaining.

he Hurricanes hit a layup to go up by four, but two free throws and a layup by Shumpert tied the score at 62 with only nine sec-onds remaining. Miami emerged from a timeout and got the ball to James Dews, who hit the game-winning jumper as time expired to close out the Hurricanes’ tight victory.

Tech continued to shoot poorly from the foul line, only hitting 8 of their 16 opportunities on the night. Lawal, who has struggled from the stripe as of late, shot just 3-for-8 from the line.

he Jackets will stay on the road for their next game, which comes against Wake Forest on Saturday, Feb. 13.

Technique • February 12, 2010 • 21 SPORTS

No. 10 Duke wins home rematch vs. No. 21 Jackets, 86-67

Photo by Kelvin Kuo/ Student Publications

Gani Lawal battles two Duke defenders in last Thursday’s game

at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Lawal had six rebounds in the loss.

By Nishant PrasadhSports Editor

Tech’s basketball team was victimized by early foul trouble, and No. 10 Duke took advantage as the No. 21 Jackets dropped hursday’s contest against the Blue Devils 86-67 at Durham, N.C. he loss was Tech’s second against a ranked opponent this year; the Jackets are now 3-2 against ranked teams.

It was the second meeting of the season between the teams. Tech upset then-No. 5 Duke 71-67 at Alexander Memorial Colise-um on Jan. 9, but the Jackets were unable to secure what would have been their second victory at Cam-eron Indoor Stadium since 1996.

“I was sure we were ready. We spent more time preparing for them than we did for anybody this year, [but] obviously it didn’t do any good,” Head Coach Paul Hewitt said.

Forward Kyle Singler led the way for the Blue Devils. Singler scored 30 points and shot 8-for-10 from three-point range after hit-ting just two of 13 attempts from beyond the arc in Atlanta.

Singler’s success was partly due to a new motion ofense that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski in-stalled prior to the game.

“here is no play...it is not pre-dictable movement,” Krzyzewski said. “[Singler] inally had a great night shooting...and I think that motion [ofense] gets him a lot more open shots.”

Duke guards Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith added 21 and 14 points, respectively. Singler, Scheyer and Smith each spent 37 or more minutes on the court.

Senior forward Zachery Pea-cock was the leading scorer for the Jackets; his 11 points were also the irst 11 points of the game for Tech. Freshman guard Glen Rice Jr. added 10 points and four re-bounds as the Jackets’ bench play-ers scored 39 points, compared to 13 for Duke’s reserves.

he Jackets were forced to tap into their bench early and often, as both starting forwards—junior Gani Lawal and freshman Der-rick Favors—got into foul trouble quickly.

Lawal picked up his second foul just 33 seconds into the game, and Favors received his third foul with 13:04 left in the irst half.

Tech led 17-14 at that point, but a 9-2 Duke run put the Blue Devils ahead 23-19. With Lawal and Favors sitting frequently and Peacock and redshirt senior cen-ter Brad Sheehan seeing most of the frontcourt minutes for Tech, Duke out-rebounded the Jackets 27-15 in the opening half.

“[Duke] got 12 ofensive re-bounds in the irst half. If those other two guys [Lawal and Favors] are in there, I don’t think they get that many,” Hewitt said.

Duke gradually expanded its lead on the strength of free throws and three-pointers.

A trey by Singler as time ex-pired gave Duke a 45-33 lead go-

ing into halftime; it was the irst double-digit lead of the game.

he game remained roughly even as the second half began, but a 10-2 Duke run gave the Blue Devils a 20-point lead at 63-43 with 11:30 to go. he Jackets nev-er threatened the rest of the way as Duke rolled to the victory.

he Jackets had a better ield goal percentage, hitting 49 per-cent from the ield, but struggled from the free throw line. Tech’s 57.1 percent success rate from the line prevented them from taking advantage of a day when the Blue Devils shot 66.7 percent on free throws, well below their season average of 75.7 percent.

“he lady from ESPN asked me before the game, `How will you know if you’re in the game or in trouble?’ And I said, `Look at our free throw shooting.’ In the games that we’ve won or lost, there’s a big diference [in free throw percentages],” Hewitt said.

Just as big of a story, though, was the three-point shooting for each team. Duke hit 66.7 percent from beyond the arc while Tech shot just 25 percent on threes.

It was a disappointing loss for the Jackets, who kept the game close early but could not hang on.

“We felt like if we could have had it to single digits going into halftime, we thought our pres-sure was wearing them down, that we’d have a chance. But we didn’t do what we had to do...I’m very disappointed in our efort,” Hewitt said.

22 • February 12, 2010 • Technique SPORTS

Men’s Tennis falls at UGA, women sweep UK

McCollum to join coaching staf

Andy McCollum, a native of Marietta, Ga. and the lineback-ers coach at North Carolina State from 2007-09, will replace the departed Gif Smith as Tech foot-ball’s new defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator.

McCollum was the head coach at Middle Tennessee State from 1999-2005 and has served as an assistant coach in various capaci-ties at MTSU, UTEP, and Baylor.

Jordan named ACC Performer

of the WeekSenior Alphonso Jordan earned

the ACC’s Performer of the Week award after a strong showing at the Virginia Tech Elite Invitation-al in Blacksburg, Va. Jordan had the best long jump at the event at 24 feet, 11.25 inches, and he in-ished second in the triple jump.

Jordan was the second straight Jacket to win the award, following junior Antonio McKay Jr.

Signees earn All-American honors

Two signees of the Tech wom-en’s basketball team were named Women’s Basketball Coaches’ As-sociation All-Americans.

Point guard Dawnn Maye, the top-ranked player in Fla., and shooting guard Tyaunna Marshall of Upper Marlboro, Md. became just the fourth and ifth Tech commits ever to be named All-Americans.

shorts

Photo by Basheer Tome / Student Publications

Guillermo Gomez makes a return at UGA’s Lindsey Hopkins Indoor

Facility. Gomez won in singles and doubles play versus No. 7 UGA.

By Nishant PrasadhSports Editor

Singles victories by junior Guillermo Gomez and freshman Magin Ortiga were not enough to overcome a top-10 opponent, as the Tech men’s tennis team fell 5-2 at No. 7 Georgia on Feb. 7 while the women’s tennis team cruised to a 7-0 home win over Kentucky on Feb. 6.

he men’s team was looking to avenge last season’s 7-0 loss to the then-No. 2 Bulldogs at the Bill Moore Tennis center as they traveled to the Lindsey Hopkins Indoor Facility for a Sunday after-noon matchup.

he Jackets, though, were un-able to break their losing streak in the rivalry, as UGA handed the relatively young Tech squad its second straight loss and its 24th loss in a row to the Bulldogs.

With Gomez sitting out of doubles play, juniors Ryan Smith and Miguel Muguruza played in the top light in doubles play for Tech but fell against UGA’s Nate Schnugg and Jamie Hunt 8-2.

he Jackets put up a ight in the other two doubles matches but were unable to secure a vic-tory in either one. In the third light, freshmen Juan Spir and Magin Ortiga went down against UGA’s Christian Vitulli and Bo Seal 8-5, and juniors Eliot Potvin and Dean O’Brien played a close match but lost against the tandem of Drake Bernstein and Javier Garrapiz, 8-6.

As a result, UGA took the doubles point, and the irst three singles matches ended in their fa-vor, quickly clinching the match for the host Bulldogs.

On court two, Spir played a close match early on against the more experienced Schnugg but fell in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. O’Brien had little luck in his third-light

match against Hunt and lost 6-2, 6-3.

he match on court four saw Potvin take Bernstein, the No. 60 singles player in the nation, to a irst-set tiebreaker. Bernstein swept the tiebreaker, though, and took the second set to defeat Pot-vin 7-6 (7-0), 6-2 and clinch the match for UGA.

Even with the result set, Tech rebounded to win two of the inal three matches. Court one featured a battle between ranked oppo-nents in No. 3 Gomez and No. 45 Garrapiz, and Gomez faced a stif

challenge but earned a straight-set victory, 6-4, 7-6 (7-1).

On court ive, freshmen Or-tiga and Seal traded the irst two sets and headed to a superset tie-breaker, which Ortiga won to take the match 6-2, 3-6, 10-8. Vitulli edged sophomore Dusan Miljevic on court six to round out the match.

he women’s team, mean-while, took on No. 31 Kentucky for the second time in eight days after defeating the Wildcats 4-2 as part of ITA Kick-Of Weekend. he No. 9 Jackets were sharp in

the second meeting, cruising to a 7-0 sweep.

he doubles point did not come easily, though. Senior Amanda McDowell and sophomore Hill-ary Davis rolled to an 8-1 victory in the third light of doubles play, but the other two matches were considerably closer.

Sophomore Irina Falconi and junior Sasha Krupina, Tech’s top doubles tandem, faced a stif chal-lenge from Wildcats Caroline Lilley and Minnette Pienaar but were able to hold out for a 9-7 vic-tory. Sophomore Lynn Blau and freshman Elizabeth Kilborn also faced a challenge, but they de-feated UK’s Megan Broderick and Christine Johnson 8-6.

With the doubles point in hand, the Jackets proceeded to dispatch the Wildcats in singles play, winning all six matches in straight sets.

Falconi, the No. 1 player in the nation, did not lose a game as she defeated Lilley 6-0, 6-0 on court one. Kilborn trumped Elle Cold-iron by the same score on court ive.

Blau and Davis had little trou-ble in their matches. Blau, playing the fourth light against Pienaar, rolled to a 6-0, 6-1 win and Da-vis took down UK’s Nicole Scates 6-1, 6-1.

Krupina, ranked No. 66, de-feated Broderick 6-2, 6-3 while McDowell faced a challenge from Johnston but held on for a 7-5 win.

he UK rematch was Tech’s last before the ITA Indoor Na-tional Championships begin on Friday, Feb. 12. he Jackets are one of six ACC teams in the 16-team bracket and will open play against No. 3 California.

he men’s team, meanwhile, returns to action on Feb. 17 against Auburn before opening the ACC schedule against Florida State on Feb. 21.

www.nique.netsliver

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Technique • February 12, 2010 • 23 SPORTS

By Alex MitchellAssistant Sports Editor

Last year, the Tech softball team had its most successful season ever, winning the ACC Championship and hosting a NCAA Super Regional. he Jack-ets inished the season with a 46-15 overall record and a 17-3 record in ACC play.

Coming into this season, the Jackets are ranked No. 13 in the USA Today Poll, their highest pre-season ranking ever. hey are also picked to repeat as ACC champions accord- ing to a poll of the league’s coaches.

If the Jackets are going to reach their potential this season and move past the NCAA Super Regionals, they will have to rely on their middle inield to lead the way. Tech returns a pair of stars from last year’s team in senior second base-man Jen Yee and sophomore short-stop Kelsi Wese-

man.

Both players are among the 50 players selected by the Amateur Softball Association of America to USA Softball’s Player of the Year “Watch List.” Weseman is one of only six sophomores on the list.

Last season Yee led the team with a .415 average and 16 home runs, and she had 41 walks against just 11 strikeouts. Weseman was not far behind with a .406 average and nine homers. It is not uncom-mon to have a high hit total from a team’s middle inielders, but the large amount of run production is rare from those positions. Yee and Weseman drove in 91 runs in only 331 at-bats combined last season.

“Our ofense is the best it has ever been in my four years…we’re

going to hit the ball pret-ty hard. I wou ldn’t be sur-

prised if we lead the nation in home runs this

year”, said Yee.As far as the rest of the in-

ield goes, irst baseman Whitney Haller was a major producer last

year, hitting 12 home runs and driving in 55 runs. hird baseman Tifany John-

son was also productive last year, posting 11

home runs and 47 RBI while also

pitching for the Jackets. Both

of those p l a y e r s were se-

niors last season. Haller has since graduated and Johnson is now a student assistant coach. he Jack-ets will have to ind a way to re-place their production.

At irst base, the Jackets do not seem to have a clear front-runner to earn the starting job. Tech only has three irst basemen listed on the roster in junior Kristine Priebe and freshmen Rachel Glazebrook and Caitlin Jordan. Priebe is a transfer from the University of Florida, where she made 16 starts in two seasons.

Tech has options at third base. Junior Kristen Adkins saw some time at that position last season, but Adkins is also Tech’s top returning pitcher. Sophomore Danielle Dike will most likely see time there this season after spend-ing most of her freshman season pinch-hitting.

Last season, Tech’s outield struggled to hit for a high average. his season the Jackets will have to replace departed center ielder Blair Shimandle, who started 61 games last season and had 23 sto-len bases. Tech should cope well, though, as a bevy of young out-ielders return.

Junior Amelia Beach and se-nior Kelly Eppinger will compete for a starting outielder job, but junior Christy Jones returns to patrol one corner outield spot af-ter starting 61 games last season, mostly in left ield. Jones posted a .322 average and stole 22 bases in 2009.

Sophomore Kate Kuzma also returns after getting 99 at-bats as a freshman last season. Kuzma only hit .212 but she did have 16 runs batted in and should improve with one season under her belt.

In the circle, Tech loses their No. two starting pitcher in John-son, who will be sorely missed this season after going 14-3 last season while posting a 1.92 ERA.

Adkins returns and will take over the top spot in the rotation. T h e junior went 24-7 last s e a - son while eating u p 182.1 innings. S h e also led the t e a m with a 1.69 e a r n e d run aver-age.

Sophomore Jes-sica Coan will most likely be Tech’s number two starter this season after going 8-5 with 102 strikeouts last season.

Junior Emily Schreck from Allen, Texas will most likely be Tech’s third starting pitcher. Schreck missed 2009 after having arm surgery but pitched 12 games as a freshman in 2008, posting a 4.88 ERA that year.

Whoever is in the circle for Tech this season, they will have junior Jessica Weaver catching from behind home plate. Weaver started 48 games last year. Junior Caroline Hilton will relieve Weav-er when her knees need a day of.

“[Weaver] brings experience [to this team]. She knows our pitchers

2010 WOMEN’S SOfTBALL pREvIEW

well….[She brings] team leader-ship…if something is going on in practice, she steps up and gets things going the right direction,” said Head Coach Sharon Perkins.

Expectations are high this sea-son for Tech, as the defending ACC champion is predicted to repeat in 2010.

“Someone’s has to have a target [on them]...You still go out and you compete. Sometimes it’s eas-ier to be the underdog so you don’t have the target on you and you go out a n d do your

t h i n g ” , said Per-kins.

T h e s e a s o n ’ s irst pitch

is Friday, Feb. 12 when Tech travels to Clea r wa-

ter, Fla. to take p a r t in the

U S F -D e M a r i n i

Tournament. Tech opens with Long Is-land on Friday,

then take on the No. 3 Univer s it y of Florida

later that day.

Photo by Jarrett Skov/ Student Publications

Photo by Michael Schnieder/ Stu

den

t P

ub

licatio

ns

46-15Tech’s overall record for the 2009 season

Jackets look to ‘09 as stepping stone toward greater heights

17-3Tech’s record in 2009 against ACC teams

14 NCAA Tournament seed for Tech last year

132010 NFCA preseason ranking for Tech

Sportssports@nique.netSports Editor:Nishant Prasadh

Assistant Sports Editor:Alex Mitchell

Winding up

Tech softball looks to build on the most successful season in team history

as the 2010 season begins423

Technique

24Friday,

February 12, 2010

Tech tops N.C. State, falls at Miami W-Basketball wins two road ACC battles

GT Crew hosts Atlanta Erg Sprints to open spring seasonBy Nishant Prasadh

Sports Editor

Tech’s crew team served as the host for the Atlanta Erg Sprints on Saturday, Feb. 6. he day-long competition has become a promi-nent event for GT Crew, serving as the kick-of of the spring season for Tech’s largest sporting club. his year the Jackets started of

By Alex MitchellAssistant Sports Editor

It was close, but the Tech women’s basketball team inally got their irst ACC road win. he Jack-ets had lost their irst three ACC road games by an average of 13 points, but Tech won their game at Maryland (16-7, 3-5 ACC) on Friday Feb. 5 by a single point, 61-60.

he Jackets had a big lead going into half time at 37-25. Senior forward Brigette Ardossi had ten irst half points for the Jackets, and she played a huge part in the Jackets’ control of the low post. Tech scored 18 points in the paint compared to Maryland’s eight.

Ardossi inished the game with 15 points and six rebounds.

In the second half, Maryland outscored the Jackets in the paint 18-8 and had 14 second-chance points. Maryland used their strong inside game to mount a comeback and pulled ahead 55-54 with 4:50 left in the game.

With the game tied at 59, junior guard Alex Montgomery shot a three-pointer with only seven seconds left on the clock. Her shot was of, but she was able to draw a foul to go to the line for three free throw attempts. Montgomery missed her irst free throw, but she hit the last two to give the Jack-ets the lead, 61-59.

Tech had a two-point advantage, but the Ter-rapins had a chance to win, or at least tie the game

the spring on a high note as they took irst place in team points.

he annual competition at the CRC features current rowers from Tech and other Southeastern col-leges along with junior teams and GT Crew alumni, who have a large presence at the event.

Rather than taking place on a lake, the Erg Sprints have rowers compete using ergometers (ergs),

machines designed to simulate rowing. he majority of the events focus on the 2,000-meter races that comprise the majority of the collegiate spring season, with the exception of 500-meter sprints and 1,000-meter coxswain races.

“It’s...what you see in the Olympics, when you go all out for 2,000 meters,” said junior Maya Oren, the team president. “[he

fall] is more of an endurance sea-son for us. We do a 5,000-meter race called a head race...Boats go of with 15 seconds between them, and at the end you see who won. You don’t really know [who’s win-ning] while you’re racing.”

he Erg Sprints ofer a unique challenge in that each rower is on his or her own, notable in a sport that relies greatly on teamwork.

Few events during competition season involve individual rowers.

he Erg Sprints, though, put individuals in the spotlight, and Tech’s rowers on both the men’s and women’s sides had a strong showing at the event against row-ers from schools such as Georgia, Auburn and Emory.

See Women’s, page 20

Photo by Kelvin Kuo / Student Publications

Gani Lawal goes up for a layup over N.C. State defenders in the Feb. 6 game.

Lawal posted 11 rebounds against the Wolfpack and 18 in the loss at Miami.

Photo by Virginia Lin / Student Publications

Deja Foster dribbles up the court. Foster had

16 points against Clemson as Tech won 68-53.

By Kyle ConarroStaf Writer

After a tough loss on the road against Duke, the No. 19 Jackets headed back home on Saturday, Feb. 6 to face North Carolina State. Despite blowing a dou-ble-digit lead late in the second half, Tech held on to win the contest 73-71. he Jackets followed up, though, by dropping a road battle at Miami 64-62.

he Jackets now stand 17-7 overall and an even 5-5 in ACC play.

he irst half started slowly for both teams. After eight minutes of play, the score was just 6-4 in Tech’s favor. he Jackets picked it up, though, going on an 11-3 run over the next four minutes to put them up 17-7. Senior forward Zachery Peacock led the charge, ac-counting for seven of Tech’s 11 in this stretch. Peacock inished the game with a team-high 22 points.

Over the next ive minutes, N.C. State battled back to tie the score at 27. A minute later, guard Scott Wood hit his fourth three-pointer of the period to give the Wolfpack a 30-27 lead. Peacock countered with a three, but a jumper by N.C. State junior forward Tracy Smith put them back in front 32-30 headed into the break.

he Jackets opened the second half with a 15-4 run to give them a nine-point advantage. hey held the lead for the majority of the half, building up a 68-52 edge with just ive minutes left to play.

N.C. State responded to the 16-point deicit by implementing a full-court press around the four minute mark. he press worked well for the Wolfpack, as they caused seven turnovers in just three and a half minutes and fought back to within one.

“We didn’t execute the press of-fense,” Tech head coach Paul Hewitt said after the game. “We panicked, just panicked.”

With the score at 70-69, N.C. State’s Wood missed a three for the lead, and a steal by senior forward D’Andre Bell gave Tech possession with 1:34 remain-ing. A foul by Smith put Bell at the line for two, but he failed to convert, giv-ing the Wolfpack the ball with another chance to go ahead.

Sophomore guard Iman Shumpert was able to disrupt N.C. State’s posses-sion, and another Smith foul put Pea-cock at the stripe for two foul shots. He hit them both, putting the Jackets up three with 1:04 left in the game.

he Wolfpack missed another three-pointer, this time of the hands of guard Javier Gonzalez, and freshman forward Derrick Favors grabbed the rebound and drew the foul. He hit his second free throw to put Tech up 73-69 with 35 seconds remaining. Favors, who in-ished the game with 16 points and 8 rebounds, garnered ACC Rookie of the Week honors for his performance.

On the ensuing possession, Smith missed a shot, but freshman forward Glen Rice, Jr. fouled in the scramble for the rebound, allowing N.C. State forward Dennis Horner to hit two foul shots to cut Tech’s lead to two. A Tech turnover gave the ball back to the Wolfpack with 15 seconds left, but they missed two jumpers as time expired, giving the Jackets the narrow victory.

Tech’s free throw shooting woes con-tinued on Saturday, as they went 15-29 from the line on the day. Of the seven players to get to the line, just two shot better than 50 percent. When asked about his team’s free throw numbers, Hewitt focused on the late meltdown.

“It’s OK, that’s going to happen,” Hewitt said. “We had a 16-point lead. We’re supposed to inish the game out.”

hree days after skimming past N.C. State at home, the Jackets took the court in Miami to face the Hurricanes. Like the Wolfpack, Miami was near the bot-

tom of the ACC headed into Wednes-day night’s match-up, coming in at 2-7 in conference play. Unfortunately for Tech, the Hurricanes were on the win-ning end of this tight game, coming away with a 64-62 victory to put the Jackets back at .500 in the ACC.

Despite jumping out to an early lead, Tech was unable to restrain the ight-ing Hurricanes, and after nine minutes of play Miami stole the edge. A three-pointer by freshman guard Brian Oli-ver put the Jackets up 11-3 at the 14:20 mark, but just three minutes later the Hurricanes had battled back to take the lead, pulling ahead 15-13 behind a three from Adrian homas. homas, who in-ished with 12 points, shot 4-for-7 from beyond the arc on the night.

After homas’ lead-changing three, Tech was only able to score 14 more points all half. Miami, however, added

See Men’s, page 20

See Crew, page 20