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� ursday, February 3, 2011 www.theplainsman.com Vol. 117, Issue 17, 24 PagesA SPIRIT THAT IS NOT AFRAID

Jillian ClairNEWS EDITOR

Haitham Eletrabi stood in the rain on the Haley Cen-ter concourse for two hours Tuesday passing out � iers and holding a sign that said, “Mubarak, you are down, just leave.”

Eletrabi, a Ph.D. student in civil engineering from Cairo, said he is supportive of the protests in Egypt call-ing for the end of President

Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year re-gime.

“I am proud and happy and sad at the same time,” Eletrabi said. “I am proud because the people � nally moved, and they are tak-ing an action against the current regime, but I’m sad because of the people who died during this process, but I guess this is necessary. Af-ter 30 years of ruling, I don’t think there is a more peace-ful way of transition since (Mubarak) doesn’t want to give up.”

Approximately 30 others gathered with Eletrabi Tues-day at a rally they called the “Demonstration to Support the Egyptian People.”

� e multinational group stood on the concourse un-der umbrellas and a tent, holding handmade signs and striking up conversa-tions with students about

the con� ict in Egypt.� e group sought to raise

awareness and support for the people of Egypt.

“We’re trying to show people what’s going on,” said Amr Abdelrehiem,

� rst year pharmacy student from Alexandria, Egypt. “We’re trying to tell people how Mubarak is. We’re try-ing to support the Egyptian people—they’ve been awake for almost a week now, out

on the streets. � ey’re really tired, exhausted, but they don’t give up until Mubarak leaves.”

� e group claims that Mubarak is a dictator who has driven his people into poverty and rigged elections to remain in o£ ce.

“His party pretty much represents 90 percent of the whole senate,” Abdelrehiem said. “He’s not listening.”

Eletrabi and Abdelrehiem have family and friends in Egypt and have been able to contact them by phone de-spite the loss of Internet.

“� ey cannot Tweet or go to any news or organize any peaceful demonstration on the Facebook,” Eletrabi said.

Eletrabi said there are groups of Egyptians all over the world gathering to show their support for their peo-ple.

“I wish I was there, but I’m

still glad I’m here support-ing them in my own way,” Eletrabi said. “And there are lots of people coming to support us, and we are spreading the word—people not only from Egypt, but the majority of people actually around here today are not Egyptians.”

People from Arab coun-tries, Europe and the U.S. participated in the demon-stration.

Asmae Mesbahi, Ph.D. student in computer sci-ence from Casablanca, Mo-rocco, held a sign aimed at Mubarak that said, “Go out” in � ve di ̈erent languages.

“I am supporting what’s happening in Egypt,” Mes-bahi said. “I’m supporting Egyptian people. � ey have the right to live in democ-racy and freedom.”

Mesbahi said she hopes

LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL EGYPTIANSEGYPTIANSEGYPTIANS

JOINJOINJOINPROTESTSPROTESTSPROTESTS

» See EGYPT, A2

» See TACO BELL, A2

JILLIAN CLAIR / NEWS EDITOR

Sherif Hammad of Alexandria, Egypt and Modather Sediman of Sudan hold signs calling for President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation during the Demonstration to Support the Egyptian People Feb. 1. Mubarak became president in 1981. Protests began in Egypt Jan. 25, and the death toll has risen to more than 300.

Kelly NicastroWRITER

� ere’s beef between a Montgomery law � rm and Taco Bell—literally.

Montgomery law � rm Beasley, Allen, Crow, Meth-vin, Portis and Miles is su-ing Taco Bell for false ad-vertisement of its “seasoned ground beef.”

� e law � rm had the beef product tested and found the beef mixture doesn’t ex-actly measure up to the ad-vertisements that custom-ers are receiving.

“Taco Bell internally re-fers to its beef products as ‘taco meat � lling,’ but ad-vertises the same product as ‘seasoned ground beef,’ said Dee Miles, attorney and section head of consumer fraud at Beasley Allen.

According to the USDA, the di ̈erence between “taco meat � lling” and “sea-soned ground beef ” is that ground beef must be 70 per-cent beef and 30 percent fat, whereas taco meat � ll-ing must only be 40 percent

Where’s the beef ?


Asmae Mesbahi, a graduate student in computer science and native of Casablanca, Morocco, holds a sign that says, “Go out” in � ve di ̈erent languages.

Line-up announced for 2011 Hangout Festival

Staff Reports� e Hangout Music

Festival revealed an array of top musical artists that

will headline its second an-nual music festival in Gulf Shores.

Paul Simon, Foo Fighters, Widespread Panic and a va-riety of other musical artists will entertain festivalgoers Friday, May 20 through Sun-day, May 22.

Shaul Zislin, Hangout Music Festival co-founder, said he feels hosting the fes-

tival in Gulf Shores does more than just bring

recognition to the

beachy area.“It’s not just the recog-

nition, it’s the vibe,” Zislin said. “Existing fans of the area are being catered to in a new way, and droves of new fans are being in-troduced to this wonderful area.”

While the � rst festival gave him experience, Zis-lin said the anticipation of hosting a successful event is always present.

“� e jitters will always be there,” Zislin said. “� e team is constantly adjusting to new variables and seeks to improve the experience

for fans, bands, sta ̈ and owners.”

Zislin said he has high ex-pectations for this year and the future of the festival.

“From day one our mis-sion was to create a very speci� c type of event that puts Gulf Shores on the map,” Zislin said. “In � ve years I would like the Hang-out Festival to be known as the premiere music festival destination the same way Sundance is to Park City, Utah.”

For more information vis-it www.hangoutmusicfest.com.

HANGOUT FESTIVAL 2011

WHEN Friday May 20 – Sunday May 22

WHERE Gulf Shores

WHO Paul Simon, Foo Fighters, Widespread Panic, The Black Keys, My Morning Jacket, Flaming Lips, Cee Lo Green, Primus, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Pretty Lights, Bassnectar, Girl Talk, Ween

PRICES $159 three day pass

MARIA IAMPIETRO / ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR

Taco Bell’s beef chalupa is a popular item on the menu.

As violence in Egypt continues to escalade, locals aim to raise awareness

Taco Bell battles false advertisement lawsuit with ground beef quali� cations

News A2 The Auburn Plainsman � ursday, February 3, 2011

A SPIRIT THATIS NOT AFRAID

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PHONEEditor 334–844–9021Managing 334–844–9108News 334–844–9109General Manager 334–844–9101Office Manager 334–844–0112Advertising 334–844–4130Classifieds 334–844–7928

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Chayla Handley ASSOCIATE DESIGN EDITOR

[email protected] Northcutt GRAPHICS EDITOR

[email protected] Solomon ONLINE EDITOR

NEWS334–844–[email protected]

Jillian Clair NEWS EDITOR

Alison McFerrin ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

Jeremy Gerrard ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

[email protected]

Derek Lacey CAMPUS EDITOR

Liz Conn ASSOCIATE CAMPUS EDITOR

Chelsea Harvey ASSISTANT CAMPUS EDITOR

[email protected]

Miranda Dollarhide INTRIGUE EDITOR

Lindsay Rife ASSOCIATE INTRIGUE EDITOR

Kelly Tsaltas ASSISTANT INTRIGUE EDITOR

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Crystal Cole SPORTS EDITOR

Nick Van Der Linden ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR

Brian Woodham ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

OPINIONS

Eric Austin [email protected]

[email protected]

Emily Adams PHOTO EDITOR

Maria Iampietro ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR

Christen Harned ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

Rebekah Weaver ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

STAFF [email protected]

Annie FaulkElizabeth Fite

BUSINESS [email protected]

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CIRCULATION MANAGER

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DISTRIBUTION

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Kyle DuBose


ADVERTISING POLICYCampus Calendar is provided

by � e Auburn Plainsman to all University-chartered organiza-tions to announce activities.

Announcements must be submitted on forms available in the oº ce between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. no later than the Mon-day prior to publication. Submis-sions must be no more than 30 words and are edited to retain only pertinent information.

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Local advertising rate is $9 per column inch. National ad-vertising rate is $16 per column inch. Deadline for all advertising space reservation is Friday at 3 p.m.

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Jan. 28 — Seminole StreetBurglary of residence reported. Fire-proof lock box, costume jewelry, DVD player, birth certi� cate, vehicle title and prescription medication.

Jan. 28 — East Longleaf DriveBreaking and entering of a vehicle reported. One iPod, radar detector and parking pass.

Jan. 28 — East Glen AvenueTheft of property reported. One case of water.

Jan. 29 — Lem Morrison DriveTheft of property reported. Speakers, an amp and a set of cables.

Jan. 30 — U.S. Highway 29STheft of property reported. Two cell phones.

Jan. 30 — East University DriveTheft of property reported. One plasma TV.

Jan. 30 — South College StreetTheft of property reported. One six-pack of beer.

Jan. 31 — West Longleaf DriveTheft of property reported. One iPod touch and one iPod car connector.

CRIME REPORTS FOR JAN. 28 – FEB. 1, 2011DUI ARRESTS IN THECITY OF AUBURN

JAN. 28 – FEB. 1, 2011

■ Christopher P. Nola, 22, of AlabasterEast Glenn AvenueJan. 29, 2:14 a.m.

■ Thomas C. Baker, 18, of LaGrange, Ga.South College StreetJan. 29, 2:16 a.m.

beef. According to Beasley Allen, customers think that they are getting the 70/30 beef because of the “sea-soned ground beef ” label, but they are actually only getting 40 percent beef.

“� at is mislabeling and a misrepresentation and is unfair to consumers,” Miles said. “It also poses a health risk to diabetics and those with food allergies, like glu-ten intolerance.”

Taco Bell strongly de-fends their seasoned beef product and its advertise-ment.

Taco Bell spokesman Rob Poetsch refused comment and refered to an updated statement regarding the class action lawsuit by Greg Creed, Taco Bell president and Chief Concept oº cer.

In the statement, Creed insists that the lawsuit is “bogus” and ¼ lled with com-pletely inaccurate facts.

Taco Bell oº cials in-sure the beef is 100 percent USDA inspected and has the same quality as the type of beef sold at the grocery store or prepared in a con-sumer’s home.

According to Taco Bell oº cials, the seasoned beef includes 88 percent USDA inspected quality beef, 3–5 percent water for moisture, 3–5 percent spices (includ-ing salt, chili pepper, onion powder, tomato powder, garlic powder, sugar and a blend of Mexican spices and natural É avors) and 3–5 percent oats, starch, yeast and citric acid.

Creed compared Taco

Bell’s seasoned beef recipe with a meatball, meatloaf or chili recipe that many of its customers would make at home. He said that just as homemade meatballs re-quire their own recipe and seasonings to add É avor, Taco Bell’s seasoned beef contains a mixture of ingre-dients to add texture and taste to the product.

Taco Bell is taking the attack on the quality of its seasoned beef seriously and plans on taking legal action against the law ¼ rm for false statements about its prod-uct.

Taco Bell ensures that they do not use any type of “extenders” to add volume to its product and invites customers to visit their website to further under-stand the ingredients that go into the seasoned beef.

Beasley Allen wants Taco Bell to accurately advertise the contents of the product.

“We simply want Taco Bell to properly label their beef as ‘taco meat ¼ lling’ or increase their meat quality to satisfy the government’s 70/30 de¼ nition of beef,” Miles said. “If they do this, the case will be settled.”

� e Beasley and Allen law ¼ rm feels strongly about bringing the truth to cus-tomers and will continue to ¼ ght on their behalf, Miles said.

“Customers need to be able to make informed de-cisions, especially about the food we use to fuel our God-given bodies,” Miles said. “It is very misleading for Taco Bell to call their beef prod-ucts beef when it actually does not meet the de¼ ni-tion.”

TACO BELL» From A1

her participation in the demonstration will send a symbolic message of sup-port to Egyptians.

“I hope that ¼ nally the Egyptian people will be able to rule themselves by themselves and not by dic-tators,” Mesbahi said.

� e protests in Egypt be-gan Jan. 25, and according to � e Los Angeles Times, the death toll has since ris-en to more than 300.

Tuesday, Mubarak an-nounced he would not run

for re-election in Septem-ber.

Reuters reported Presi-dent Barack Obama spoke

with Mubarak after the an-nouncement and said an orderly transition of power must begin immediately, contrary to Mubarak’s plan to remain in oº ce for six more months.

Another demonstra-tion at Toomer’s Corner is planned for Feb. 5 from 2:30 p.m. to 5: 30 p.m.

� ere is a Facebook event for the demonstra-tion called “Auburn’s Stand in Solidarity.”

Marwa Farag, freshman in electrical engineering from El Mansoura, Egypt, said she anticipates Satur-day’s protest will be larger.

“I think we’re planning to have possibly more slogans going on, larger posters—we have more people that said they are attending, so we’re really expecting a lot of people,” Farag said.

Farag said she isn’t get-ting her hopes up about Mubarak’s promise to leave in September.

“Honestly, a lot of the Egyptian people, including myself—he’s promised us

too much already, he prom-ises and he never keeps his promise, he never ful¼ lls his promise—it’s been 30 years,” Farag said. “It’s got-ten to the point to where we just can’t trust him any-more, even if he really is go-ing to change. We’ve just been in an abusive relation-ship.”

Eletrabi said he is still optimistic about the future of Egypt.

“I think once the current regime leaves, we’re gonna have free elections,” Eletra-bi said. “� at’s the whole idea of democracy.”

EGYPT» From A1


Mohamed Eldessouki, Ph.D. student in polymer and ¼ ber engineering, plays with his children, Omar, 3, and Nada, 2, at the demonstration Feb. 1. Omar and Nada wave Egyptian É ags.

Elizabeth FiteSTAFF WRITER

� e four remaining can-didates for dean of the College of Architecture, Design and Construction underwent the ¼ nal phase of evaluation, campus in-terviews, Jan. 30 through Feb. 2.

� e candidates for dean are Craig Barton, Vini Nathan, Scott Poole and Christine � eodoropoulos.

“� eir main goal is to provide leadership to the college, the department chairs and program heads,” said Richard Brinker, dean emeritus of the school of forestry and wildlife sci-ences and chair of the search committee. “� ey’re also heavily involved with development work outside of the University to develop future funding for the col-lege.”

Brinker said the new dean should start June 2011.

� e search, which began early last June, is expected

to yield a decision by Feb. 11, said Rod Barnett, as-sociate professor of Land-scape Architecture and search committee mem-ber.

“� e short list of four candidates comprises two women and two men, and it comprises two minori-ties, so we are very pleased with our diversity,” Barnett said.

According to Barnett, by the end of fall semester the school had approximately 50 applicants. � e applica-tions were then narrowed down to 12 candidates who quali¼ ed for personal interviews in Atlanta.

“� e full rounded per-sonality and all their attri-butes don’t become appar-ent until you do meet them in person,” Barnett said. “� e CV is one thing, but the person is a completely diÎ erent thing often.”

� e new dean will re-place Dan Bennett, who left as a well-loved and re-spected dean, Brinker said.

“We’re excited about the group,” Barnett said. “We feel that they are all seri-ous contenders, and we’re looking forward to the new phase of leadership. � e College of Architecture, Design and Construction is an incredibly robust col-lege. � e new dean doesn’t have to make any new great changes, it’s a ques-tion of consolidating really what’s there and using it as a terri¼ c foundation for ex-ploring new possibilities.”

As the search for a new CADC dean comes to an end, the search for a new College of Sciences and Mathematics dean is just beginning.

� e new dean will fol-low Marie Wooten, the be-loved, former COSAM dean who died Nov. 5 after being struck by a vehicle while jogging.

Natasha Dunaway, grad-uate student in organic chemistry and the gradu-ate student representa-tive for the COSAM dean

search committee, said the committee is currently in the process of receiving ap-plications and forming the biggest pool of candidates possible.

“Dean Wooten’s vision for Auburn University was to get more people involved in sciences,” Dunaway said. “She had a huge program for women in sciences, and she also had a lot of out-reach to get younger gener-ations to be involved in sci-ence. It makes it even that much more critical to ¼ nd someone that can follow the same ideas and have the same heart for Auburn and for COSAM.”

Dunaway said she ex-pects the interview pro-cess to begin in the middle of February.

All candidates’ CVs, or curriculum vitae, a full re-sume, are available for re-view on the respective col-lege’s websites.

On-campus interviews of candidates are open to the public.

CADC dean search nearing end

— Reports provided by Auburn Department of Public Safety


YOUR SOURCE FOR CAMPUS NEWS EVERY THURSDAY

www.theplainsman.com

� ursday, February 3, 2011 www.theplainsman.com Page A3

ACommunity People of the Plains» PAGE A6

Dead birds» PAGE A4

Rachel HamptonWRITER

East Alabama Medical Center announced in Janu-ary it anticipates to achieve “meaningful use” through implementing electronic health records (EHRs).

“Meaningful use” is part of the criteria set forth by the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs which apply the use of tech-nology to improve the qual-ity of health care.

� e transfer to electronic records has already blos-somed into bene� ts for the regional hospital.

Physicians now have the capability to access patient records from anywhere in the hospital, their o� ces and even their homes. � is development allows doctors to react to patient needs quickly, even if the doctors are not directly available.

Patients can breathe eas-ier if they forget to mention something in their medical records, since their past ad-missions and history will be available before they are ad-mitted to the hospital.

Surgeries have already seen an increase in safety procedures, according to anesthesiologists, who are now able to readily access patient lab values and pa-tient history.

EAMC intends on regis-tering for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive

p r o g r a m s , p a r t of the Ameri-can Re-covery and Reinvest-ment Act.

EAMC be-gan the transi-tion to electron-ic records two years ago.

“We believed then that we needed an inte-grated electronic record in order to promote patient safety, improve e� ciency and keep up with the rap-idly changing technologi-cal world we live in,” said Sarah Gray, assistant vice president for information technology at EAMC, in a press release Jan. 13. “We are delighted that this early start put us into a position to reap the rewards of the stimulus incentives now available.”

EAMC is joining hos-pitals, like Montgomery’s Jackson Hospital, that have already made use of the electronic health records system.

“We began the process of implementing a compre-hensive EHR in 2005, recog-nizing the need to improve the coordination and safety of patient care,” said Don Henderson, Jackson Hospi-tal president and CEO, in a

press release Jan. 17. “� e coordination of a

patient’s health record is a major advance in the safe-ty and e� ciency of care.”

Doctors are now able to access patient records and radiographic images on per-sonal devices such as iPads or smart phones.

Both hospitals look for-ward to the development of additional advantages in the future.

“� e Jackson Clinic will be moving to a more up-dated facility,” said Rebecca Flatt, marketing specialist at Jackson Hospital. “� ere will be no paper at all what-soever.”

� e updated clinic will give patients a chance to be exposed to the new records, letting them check online or on their smart phones, Flatt said.

EAMC hopes that in the future, patients will eventu-ally be able to receive alerts and reminders about their health.

Alison McFerrinASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

Local law enforcement o� cers make monthly rounds to Opelika primary schools, but it’s not because of a surge in crime rates for 6- to 8-year-olds.

� e Adopt-A-Cop pro-gram through the Opelika Police Department match-es police o� cers with � rst and second grade classes throughout the city.

“We just try to build a re-lationship with the kids in the community and the po-lice department—tell them what we do, show them our police cars and show them our equipment,” said Sgt. Ben Bugg.

Bugg revamped the pro-gram during the fall of 2010.

Adopt-A-Cop had been an initiative of the Opelika Police Department since the early ‘90s, but had fallen o³ in recent years.

“� e past couple of years we had some changes in the department, and we didn’t do it,” Bugg said. “But this year I took it over, we

expanded to about 40 class-rooms—we do � rst and sec-ond grade.”

One of the o� cers in-volved is Mitchell Allen, who volunteered when the program started again.

“It helps the community and helps the kids learn to be friends with the police, and we try to lead them in the right direction,” Allen said.

O� cers are assigned to classrooms at one of the Opelika primary schools: Jeter, Southview or Carver.

� e o� cers visit about once a month to do di³ er-ent activities with the kids.

“I’m on the SWAT team, the Lee County SWAT team, and one thing that I have done was, we took our SWAT van out to them and let them get in there and mess around with some of the tools that we have,” Al-len said. “I think they really enjoyed it.”

Bugg said the program has helped to build relation-ships with the kids as well as the teachers.

“We have a lot of times where the teachers will say, ‘Look, I’ve had two kids I’ve caught stealing some candy. Will you please come over here and talk to them?’” Bugg said.

“We just want to start o³ with our young kids and teach them about our job and what we do so they’re not afraid of us.”

� at goal seems to have been achieved. Mary Clark, second grade teacher at Jeter Primary School, said she was excited when she heard the program was starting back up.

“� e kids look forward to him coming,” Clark said.

Allen is the adopted cop for Clark’s classroom.

“He’s a positive in· uence,”

Clark said. “Even my behav-ior students, they try to be-have when he’s here. � ey want to make a good im-pression on him.”

� e o� cers will take pen-cils and stickers to the kids, and Allen has even received gifts in return.

“� e little girls at 7 years old, they always have a crush on anyone new,” Allen

said. One girl in his class-room has the same last name. “She gives me pres-ents every time I come.”

With the program re-started under a new depart-ment, Allen said it will be permanent.

“We’re going to try to con-tinue it out, and just do it until there’s no more kids to talk to,” Allen said.

EMILY ADAMS / PHOTO EDITOR

O� cer Mitchell Allen gives Diamond Allen, 7, a pencil during his visit to Jeter Primary School Friday morning.

� ursday, February 3, 2011 www.theplainsman.com � ursday, February 3, 2011

ADOPT-A-COP

Blakeley SiskWRITER

Wayne Flynt, retired dis-tinguished history profes-sor at Auburn University, has held many titles—ac-tivist, scholar, public intel-lectual, author, minister, father and historian.

Flynt is a sixth genera-tion Alabamian who has spent his life devoted to the Baptist church and to Alabama history.

Flynt began his religious and cultural journey when he was a teenager.

“Every religious teenag-er is getting a signal from their faith and then other signals from culture,” Fly-nt said. “I jettisoned my culture and held on to my faith.”

As a history professor at Auburn and one of the cre-ators of the Encyclopedia of Alabama, Flynt has been active in shedding light on Alabama’s culture for more than 20 years.

“My calling both as a minister and as an aca-demic is to reach out be-yond the classroom, “ Flynt said.

While teaching in the history department, Flynt mentored his students. Af-ter his retirement, he con-tinued to work with stu-dents who were � nishing their doctorate degrees.

“He didn’t retire to stop working—far from it,” said Joseph Kicklighter, history professor.

Kicklighter worked in

the Auburn history depart-ment while Flynt was the head of the department.

“Between the Baptist church and Alabama, (Fly-nt) has a wide variety of interests, but all of them concern human beings and how we can make a better world,” Kicklighter said.

Because of his desire to teach the world about Ala-bama and its history, the Encyclopedia of Alabama became a major part of Flynt’s life.

Something had to be done about Alabama’s wretched image, Flynt said.

“� e story of the ency-clopedia is both a story

Retired professor values state’s past, present, future

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Wayne Flynt speaks at the public launch of the Encyclopedia of Alabama Sept. 2008.

» See FLYNT, A4

EAMC switches to electronic records

Opelika Police Department sends o� cers to � rst and

second grade classes

Community A4 The Auburn Plainsman � ursday, February 3, 2011

about all the mistakes, all the stupidities and all the heroism and the great things that have happened here,” Flynt said.

He said the encyclope-dia was meant to tell the honest stories of Alabama so people all around the world could read them.

� e Encyclopedia of Al-abama has been an enor-mously collaborative ef-fort, and associate history professor Je� Jakeman has worked closely with Flynt.

“Dr. Flynt has been a pivotal catalyst for the project—going out, speak-ing to people, opening doors because of his con-nections,” Jakeman said. “He is a very well respect-ed individual.”

Flynt said he has had tremendous support from Auburn faculty, newspa-pers and museums that have contributed parts of their archives for this project.

“It was the ultimate ex-ample of teamwork,” Flynt said.

Teamwork and collabo-ration have played major parts in Flynt’s life and ca-reer.

Kicklighter said Flynt was always supportive of the history professors who worked under him, and he was loved by all the

students with whom he worked.

Much of Flynt’s work has been rooted in his supportive nature.

He supported Alabama, his students, his col-leagues and his church, Auburn First Baptist Church.

“I love this state, and I love its people, and I love its ways, as � awed as they are,” Flynt said.

Since the encyclopedia’s website was launched, 70 percent of the tra� c has been from outside Ala-bama and 10 percent of that is from outside the U.S.

� e website teaches people about every aspect of Alabama, and Flynt said that is his true passion.

Flynt said he is devoted to the people of Alabama.

“My congregation is 4 million Alabamians,” Flynt said.

Colton CampbellWRITER

� e more than 300 birds found dead in north Ala-bama near Athens and Scottsboro in January were not ill or poisoned, but were most likely struck by vehi-cles as they were feeding on roadways.

� e birds were sent to the Alabama State Diagnos-tic Lab earlier this month, and Fred Hoerr, director of Auburn’s lab, said the © rst phase of their two-part in-vestigation is complete.

“We’ve concluded that the birds died from blunt force trauma,” Hoerr said. “Most of them were found on the side of the road, so we assume they were in-volved in collisions with the vehicles.”

Hoerr also said weather could have been a factor.

“� e birds do not repre-sent a public health threat,” Hoerr said.

� e birds were found dead soon after north Ala-bama received several inch-es of snow.

“With the winter weath-er we had right before, the birds were probably trying to feed on the roadway,”

Hoerr said.Approximately 50 birds

were found in the Scotts-boro neighborhood of Adair Moody, freshman in busi-ness.

Her family and neighbors weren’t shocked by the sight of dead birds in their yards and street, though.

“Since it had recently happened in Arkansas, they weren’t as shocked about it, although it was really odd,” Moody said. “We had just had freezing weather for a long period of time, and some of my neighbors thought hypothermia could have been the reason for the deaths.”

� e lab conducted tests called necropsies on the dead birds, during which the tissue of the birds is

screened for infectious dis-eases.

“I brought some samples and some birds back to the state lab, and we ran a host of diagnostic tests,” said Wes Gaston, a wildlife dis-ease biologist at the United States Department of Ag-riculture in Montgomery. “We tested for avian in� u-enza, poisons, just a pletho-ra of tests, and they all came back negative.”

Gaston said his o� ce was not surprised at the results.

“� ere was a blackbird roost near where the birds were found, and it was right next to the interstate,” Gas-ton said.

“� e ground was covered with snow at the time, so they tried to © nd food by go-ing to the interstate where

there was bare ground.”Cars driving on the inter-

state could have also made the birds disoriented and pushed them further into the freeways, Gaston said.

Hoerr said because his o� ce was not part of other states’ investigations into their bird deaths, he could not comment on whether the causes in other states were the same.

“Ours here is a part of Au-burn’s veterinary school, so we have a lot of resources on hand,” Hoerr said.

Moody said her neigh-bors called the Jackson County Emergency Man-agement Agency.

“� ey came shortly after and scoped the scene and collected the birds they needed for testing and dis-posed of the rest,” Moody said.

Jordan DaleWRITER

In 2010, the Scale Back Alabama campaign moti-vated 30,000 people to lose 146,451 pounds.

As four-member teams register for 2011, expecta-tions are high.

“Eat right; move more,” said Kathe Briggs, director of health promotion and disease management at the East Alabama Medical Center, about how Alabama should tackle its weight problems.

Briggs, a member of the task force that helped devel-op the Scale Back Alabama campaign, said she believes this simple order is a great start.

Scale Back Alabama is a 10-week contest designed to promote weight loss and exercise and create healthy lifestyle changes in Ala-bama.

� e program is enter-ing its © fth year, and Abby Dorminey, public relations specialist for the Alabama Hospital Association, said she expects similar results for 2011.

“It’s really rewarding to see how (participants) are improving their lives,” Dorminey said, “� ey’re setting goals and achieving them.”

According to Dorminey, 18,163 of the 30,000 partici-pants completed the pro-gram, meaning they lost 10 pounds in the allotted 10-week time line.

“Ten pounds in 10 weeks is very realistic,” Briggs said.

While 10 pounds may not seem like a lot of weight loss, any improvement is consid-ered a victory in the © ght against Alabama’s weight problems, Briggs said.

“Exercise is medicine, and it needs to be looked at that way,” Briggs said.

Not only does exercise translate into weight loss, but it has proven to create psychological bene© ts and reduce blood pressure as well.

� is, year Scale Back Ala-bama is o� ering greater in-centives for participants.

Teams in which all four participants lose at least 10 pounds are entered into a drawing with a chance to

win $4,000.Yuki Kariya, an intern at

HealthPlus Fitness Center in Opelika, was handling sign-ups for Scale Back Ala-bama last weekend.

“We had 20 or 25 teams sign up today and probably 80 or more this week,” Kari-ya said.

A $100 prize is awarded for the most creative team name.

“We had some really funny ones like Mission Slim Possible,” Kariya said. “Some others were Baby’s Got Back, � e Tootsie Rolls and Big Butt Busters.”

A team captain is cho-sen to help maintain a level of accountability among members, and a healthy sense of competition is pro-moted to encourage weight loss.

Members who do not lose 10 pounds, but participate in the © nal weigh-in are en-tered in a separate drawing for rewards.

“Any weight loss is still an achievement,” Dorminey said. “We would still like to know.”

Dorminey said the cam-paign goes “beyond the pounds” and aims to pro-mote changes in habits and lifestyle to maintain the weight loss.

According to follow-up polls, “Forty percent in-crease their daily water in-take, 80 percent increase their consumption of dairy and about 50 percent re-ported an increase in exer-cise,” Dorminey said.

Briggs said the campaign combats an entire culture’s poor health habits.

“It’s going to be hard— we’re attempting to make

culture changes and imbed health choices in everyday life,” she said.

� e Southeast is part of the “red states,” areas where there is a high level of obe-sity and health issues sur-rounding weight.

“Driving down the street, it’s much harder to © nd a

place you can make a good food choice rather than a bad one,” she said.

Planners of Scale Back Alabama expect at least as many participants as last year, meaning the number of Alabamians choosing to eat right and move more is 30,000 and growing.

Birds found dead, o� cials do not suspect ‘fowl’ play

FLYNT» From A3 “I love this state,

and I love its people, and I love its ways, as � awed as they are.”

—Wayne Flynt RETIRED DISTINGUISHED

HISTORY PROFESSOR

JORDAN DALE / PHOTO STAFF

Clinical intern Yuki Kariya demonstrates the weigh-in pro-cess at HealthPlus Fitness Center in Opelika.

Alabama campaign seeks to scale back obesity for � fth year

““It’s really rewarding to see how (participants) are improving their lives.They’re setting goals and achieving them.”

—Abby DormineyPUBLIC RELATIONS SPECIALIST,

ALABAMA HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION

A5� ursday, February 3, 2011 www.theplainsman.com Community

Commentary

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The Editorial Board

Rod GuajardoEDITOR

Eric Austin – chairMANAGING EDITOR

Jillian ClairNEWS EDITOR

Derek LaceyCAMPUS EDITOR

Miranda DollarhideINTRIGUE EDITOR

Crystal ColeSPORTS EDITOR

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Emily CleverCOPY EDITOR

Emily AdamsPHOTO EDITOR

Our View

Your View

Last week’s question:Is Auburn green enough? Yes

19%

No 48%

Why not purple? 33%

This week’s question: Did you � nd Kelly Tsaltas’ column o� ensive?

❍ Yes ❍ No ❍ Couldn’t care less

Vote atwww.theplainsman.comwww.theplainsman.comwww.theplainsman.com

We’re trying to support the Egyptian people —

they’ve been awake for almost a week now… They don’t give up until Mubarak leaves.”

—Amr Abdelrehiem“LOCAL EGYPTIANS JOIN PROTEST,” A1

“

For many students the madness that started yes-terday and will continue for the next week is an exciting time. SGA elections o� er an opportunity to meet student leaders and hear new ideas. For others, however, it’s a week to put on headphones and avoid the concourse like it’s the plague.

� ose students seem to have two questions. Does this really matter? And if it does really matter as much as “involved” people claim it does, then why does it seem to revolve around triv-ial freebies, costumes and dances between class?

I would like to address these questions. SGA does a� ect every student. Every student is a member of SGA and pays student fees. SGA then allocates this roughly 1.4 million dollars. � e peo-ple who make funding deci-sions for organizations such as UPC, Impact and BSU will be elected this week.

Are you a member of one of Auburn’s 329 campus or-ganizations? All of these re-ceive their charter through SGA, which ensures that or-ganizations do not discrimi-nate and maintain consis-tent standards. In turn SGA makes funds available to

these organizations every semester.

� ink campus dining is too expensive or the hours are too limited? SGA has spent a signi� cant portion of the last year working with the administration to en-sure that pricing and hours are consistent with the con-tract we are operating un-der.

Toomer’s Ten, academic honesty standards and the new Wellness & Sustainabil-ity Center are all projects the SGA has worked with the University on this year.

Why, then, does such an important process seem so

silly at times? � at criticism is fair and the process is one we are constantly trying to improve. In recent years candidates have begun to put less of an emphasis on gimmicks and handouts and more of an emphasis on articulating to students what they intend to accom-plish.

Every candidate has a platform found at auburn.edu/sga/elections. Virtually all candidates have a Face-book group where they can go into more detail on why they are the best candidate for you. Many will stop by a meeting you have this week

so they can speak to you in a more intimate setting.

What can you do to be a more informed voter? Read the platforms. Come to our debate this Monday at 7:00 p.m. in the Student Cen-ter Ballroom. When a can-didate o� ers you a cookie, take it, but ask why they are running. Every candidate would rather have a con-versation with you than just give you something.

Auburn University boasts one of the most vibrant elec-tion processes in the na-tion. Our voter turnout last year was 33 percent; the highest of any major public

university in the nation. (For comparison, Alabama’s was 29 percent, Florida State’s 12 percent.) Our electorate is diverse; the split is nearly even among the four classi-� cations. Women are slight-ly more likely to vote than men, and contrary to pop-ular belief in the last three elections the ratio of Greeks to independents is almost dead even.

We in SGA look forward to continuing to improve this great tradition and hope that you will take part.

—Scott Seitz, SGA assistant vice presi-dent for political a airs.

Reactions to Kelly Tsaltas’ column “Come on ladies (and gentlemen) we can do bet-ter,” have ranged from total outrage to complete praise. Regardless of the response, the entire situation has raised larger issues about the nature of free speech, the media and the culture of Auburn’s student body that cannot be ignored.

� e rights of free speech and free press are two of the most sacred rights Americans pos-sess. Tsaltas’ words were not an abuse of those rights.

However shocking and di-rectful those words may have been, they were an a� rmation of those rights.

Many complained about the decision by the editor to dis-able the ability to post com-ments about the article online.

� is decision was made not to sti� e free speech, but to protect the writer as several of the comments had become

threatening in nature. While select words in the

article may have been o� en-sive to some, many of the re-actions to the column crossed the line of o� ensiveness and were downright careless and disgusting.

No matter what an indi-vidual says about you, telling someone to “throw themselves o� Haley Center,” or posting their dorm and home address online as a threat should never be tolerated. Comments like these only serve to detract from the credibility of those who raise legitimate concerns. Many responses from mem-bers within and outside of the Greek community were noth-ing short of embarrassing to their respective camps.

Perhaps even more discour-aging than the ability for so many students to easily dis-regard Tsaltas’ First Amend-ment rights and criticize her

personally, many commented about how the column was an example of poor “journalism,” that the standards of “news” at � e Auburn Plainsman had hit a new low.

It is imperative to empha-size the column was published on the commentary page, and as the policy at the bottom of this page reads, the words on this page are solely those of the authors who write them.

� ey are not, and have never been, the opinion of � e Au-burn Plainsman or any portion of the student body; nor are they news stories.

� us, to attack the insti-tution of � e Plainsman is a gross misplacement of anger by those who chose to do so.

However, in the 24-hour media culture which so often blurs the line between what is fact and what is opinion, it is not a mystery as to where this misplaced anger originated.

Even so, it is no less discour-aging that thousands of Au-burn students could not dis-tinguish a news story from an opinion column.

� e theme of the week seemed to be the victory of hotheadedness over reason. At its core, the column criticized wardrobe choices. Much more polarizing words about politi-cal and social issues that actu-ally a� ect people’s lives have been written on this page and haven’t yielded even a fraction of the response that Tsaltas’ column did. What does it say about this University that criticizing someone’s politi-cal views or their religion does not stir passions of any sort? It took attacking leggings and frockets to heat up emotions. If there was any real tragedy in last week’s column, that was it.

So yes, ladies and gentle-men, we can do better.

Honestly, we all can.

Column controversy raises concerns

Exercise your student right by voting in SGA elections

To the Editor:I loved Kelly Tsaltas’ ar-

ticle last week! As a for-mer assistant intrigue edi-tor myself, I’m glad Kelly wrote such a funny column about the Greeks. Listen, when college is over and real life begins, the people described in Kelly’s arti-cle continue to have that same herd mentality. � ey will not ever be capable of thinking for themselves. Individuality is not a word

they easily understand, and they must be accepted by each other at all costs…so I assume Kelly will get a lot of hate mail. Stand strong and be brave, Kelly! Any time you try to criticize any part of the Greek system at Auburn University, they will always come together and attack by any means possi-ble. Just know that you have Alumni support!

—Jenny Blevins Scott, class of ‘99

Column rang true

To the Editor:� e Plainsman should be

ashamed of what it’s come to. � ere’s a de� nite line between writing with class, intelligence, and eloquence, and writing with ignorance and belittlement in mind. Kelly Tsaltas’ writing in “Come on ladies (and gen-tlemen), we can do better” not only disgraced the pa-per, but also the University. � ough many of her points were valid, the style and dic-tion she used to intention-ally disparage the Panhel-lenic community should not have been allowed to stain what might have been an enjoyable article. Had this been an article written by

a sorority girl intending to mock the non Panhellenic students’ clothing, it most certainly would not have been published. Her claim would have been more le-gitimate had she not cen-tered her derision solely on the sorority and fraternity members when these ap-parels are, in fact, worn by non Panhellenic students as well. Most importantly, the profanity she used didn’t add in any way to her argu-ment. Rather, it shows crass manners. � ere’s a di� er-ence in using freedom of speech for a speci� c point and using it simply to shock and be “novel.”

—Kathryn Beck, senior, ne arts

Misplaced speechTo the Editor:

Miss Tsaltas, I would like to express general outrage at your editorial concern-ing the dress of the Greek community. Obviously, I am in a fraternity. I have Greek relatives and friends. Yes, I wear “visors” and “croakies.”

My question for you is, when did looking good be-come a crime? I wear col-lared shirts and boat shoes to class because I don’t want to look like an un-clean slob in public. Dress-ing well and clean displays personal con� dence, but it also gauges how well I re-spect myself.

If one cannot treat them-selves well, how will they

treat others with whom they hold relationships?

Your description of “so-rority girls” was hilarious. Perhaps if you expand-ed your social circle you would see that we have some of the most beauti-ful girls in the entire SEC and probably in the coun-try. I could care less if they want to choose leggings and a big T-shirt to go to class because when they go out they look GOOD. I’d rather see girls in T-shirts and shorts in class, be-cause dolling themselves up would ultimately be a distraction.

Other than the ridicu-lously inept style of writ-ing you have, I cannot

understand the inherently jealous tone that riddles your article. Did you not get a bid? Sorry we’re not sorry.

I would be jealous too. Greeks hold 40 percent of the seats in Congress and a majority of seats as CEOs in Fortune 500 compa-nies. As a fraternity man, I am developing leadership skills, organization and social skills. Perhaps you need to spend less time ad-miring the Greek commu-nity’s dress and more time in the library because your History of Ancient Cultures degree isn’t going to earn itself.

In others words, keep your thoughts to yourself

or your blog, which I as-sume is � lled with preachy bullshit about the environ-ment and how much you hate the Republican Party.

I do not care that you think my visor is unattract-ive, and I’m sure you would be disgusted at how bad my Sperrys smell. I respect women, and I don’t care what they wear to class be-cause a beautiful woman is still beautiful no matter what she is wearing. Got a response? Get at me. I’m terri� ed. But I’m still go-ing to sleep well tonight in my Reagan-Bush ‘84 T-shirt with my sorostitute by my side.

—Jake Sciotto,freshman, pre-engineering

Tsaltas’ column deserves outrage

To the Editor:Last week, an article was printed

in � e Auburn Plainsman that was ex-plosively controversial.

Some were o� ended, while some whole-heartedly agreed. To me, it was the most disappointing thing to happen during my time at Auburn outside of this year’s basketball team.

First, I was disappointed that � e Plainsman printed the article. News-papers should not shy away from con-troversy. � ey should, however, shy away from glori� ed blog posts with

the vernacular of a frustrated eight grader. What happened to real jour-nalism? Commercialism, apparently.

Second, I was disappointed in the reaction to the article. All of the Greeks wearing exactly what Ms. Tsaltas had railed against in her piece was � ne. But the posting of her Face-book picture and calling her names was not. Everyone seemed to success-fully and collectively stoop to that which they abhorred.

� ird, I was disappointed that yet another wedge has been driven

between the Greeks and we indepen-dents. � ere’s really no point for it. � e Greek system is fun, and that’s cool. Being independent is � ne, too. Ms. Tsaltas is not, however, the voice of the independents, and unfortu-nately many took it that way. We all claim the Auburn way. I heard words like class, Southern charm, tradition, family…but saw no hint of it from this student body.

—Gri� n Gulledge, sophomore, philosophy

Piece was unnecessary, divisive

Want your voice to be heard?Send letters to [email protected]

Community A6 The Auburn Plainsman � ursday, February 3, 2011

Rachel HamptonWRITER

Fred Lord’s musical tal-ent has led him all over the world, but he chose to play music permanently in Loachapoka.

Lord, owner of Fred’s

Pickin’ Parlor and Fred’s Feed and Seed, has a pas-sion for bringing music to the community.

� e idea for the Pickin’ Parlor, where live music is played in the warehouse next to the feed and seed during the warmer months, had been on Lord’s mind for quite some time.

“I’ve toyed around with (the idea) for years,” Lord said. “We had pickin’s and stu� , and my friends said, ‘You know, we need to do this regular.’”

� e Tampa native has been playing music for 48 years—the result of growing up in a musical family.

“My momma and grand-mother played piano,” Lord said. “My momma played trumpet, and then I had an aunt who played the organ and piano in church. � en I

had an uncle who played the saxophone. So I didn’t really have much of a choice.”

It took Lord more than a couple seconds to count up the number of instruments that he can play before com-ing to a conclusion.

“Probably around 20,” Lord said, including, but not limited to, the ¦ ddle, viola, bagpipes, dobro, banjo, clar-inet, violin, mandolin and guitar.

“I’m still learning every day,” Lord said.

Lord’s talent led him to travel the world during tours with the United Ser-vice Organizations in the early 1970s.

� e musician and com-poser played in Saudi Arabia, Germany and Greece, even all the way to Greenland —just 60 miles south of the North Pole—where Lord

had an unfortunate incident with the 80 degree below zero weather: his brand new Ray-Ban sunglasses froze to his ears and nose.

Back home in Loachapo-ka, Lord passes on his gift by giving music lessons during the week to students rang-ing from 8 to 70 years old.

“(Music’s) one of life’s sim-pler pleasures,” Lord said. “It’s self-gratifying. If you ever get depressed—every-body has mood changes— all I gotta do is sit down and play or write something.”

It’s not uncommon for Lord to jump up on stage with his musical guests, playing anything from jazz to folk to Celtic-Irish.

“It’s worked out pretty good,” Lord said. “I’m real pleased. Plus, being out of the feed business, shoot, my back don’t hurt no more.”

Fred Lord’s Pickin’ Parlor brings live music, lessons to Loachapoka


Fred Lord, owner of Fred’s Feed and Seed, gives music les-sons at the Pickin’ Parlor in Loachapoka.

CALENDAR: THURSDAY, FEB. 3 – SATURDAY, FEB. 12

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

3

Men’s Bas-ketball vs. Tennessee■ Auburn Arena■ 8:00 p.m.

4

Drawing on Alabama Exhibition■ Biggin Hall■ 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

5

Auburn Men’s Ice Hockey Final Home Game (Senior Night)■ Columbus Civic Center■ TBA

6

Women’s Basketball vs. Miss State■ Auburn Arena■ 2:00 p.m.

7

Francine D’Amour Lecture in French■ 2223 Stu-dent Center■ 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

8

Career Expo: Engineering and Technical Majors■ Hotel at AU and Dixon CC■ 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

9

Panel Speak-ers from the National Center for the Study of Civil Rights■ 2222 Stu-dent Center■ 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

10

ISO Talent Show■ AUSC Ball-room■ 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

11

RBDpalooza, Auburn Stu-dent Game Night■ RBD Library Learning Commons■ 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

12

Storybook Farm Cowboy Roundup■ Storybook Farm■ 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

AUBURN GAS MONITORWEEK OF FEB. 3

Location Reg Mid Prem

Shell — Glenn and Gay 2.919 3.039 3.159

Circle K — Glenn and Gay 2.939 3.079 3.219

Shell — Wire 2.969 3.109 3.249

Walmart — South College 2.999 3.119 3.239

Exxon — Wire 3.099 3.199 3.299

Chevron — Wire 3.099 3.299 3.399

Chevron — South College 3.099 3.299 3.499

Chevron — University 3.159 3.259 3.359

BP — Samford and Gay 3.159 3.259 3.599

Chevron — Glenn 3.159 3.319 3.459

Average 3.060 3.198 3.348

$2.40

$2.65

$2.90

$3.15

$3.40

Dec. 2, 2010 Jan. 20, 2010 Jan.27, 2010 Feb. 3, 2010

Regular Mid Premium

Jeremy GerrardASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

� e number of dilapidat-ed buildings clinging to life around Auburn has raised concern for some citizens.

At the Feb. 1 meeting of the Auburn City Council, Councilwoman Sheila Eck-man directed the discus-sion into the issue after the council voted to demolish a structure on Railroad Av-enue earlier in the evening.

Eckman noted ten struc-tures were demolished in 2010 and asked City Man-ager Charles M. Duggan if this would be the same goal for 2011.

“Our goal is to remove all dilapidated structures from the city,” Duggan said. “We do make this a priority.”

Many of the buildings in question, however, may not fall into the category of di-lapidated, but are still an

eyesore to the community.“It has to be a danger

to someone entering the building,” Duggan said.

Also discussed was the topic of fences, speci¦ cally residential, which Eckman said needs to be dealt with if Auburn wants to continue to be a progressive city.

While Eckman said she has concerns regarding privacy and curb appeal of residential fences, safety is also an issue for children who may not understand the danger when coming into contact with electric fences—a problem in Eck-man’s ward.

“� ere is very little in our ordinances that say what kind of fence you can have,” Eckman said.

Other items on the agenda included the ap-pointment of three mem-bers to the board of zoning

adjustment, $260,594 to be allocated for a crosswalk and a safe route to school sidewalk to be constructed on South College Street.

� e council also recog-nized Duggan for 20 years of service to the community. Others recognized included Eric Moyers and Arndt Siep-mann, ¦ ve years; Kevin Kel-ly, 10 years; Steve Pugh, 25 years; and James Jennings, employee of the month.

Council targets rickety buildings

Opelika Council says no to storeAlison McFerrinASSOCIATE NEW EDITOR

� e Opelika City Council closed the door permanent-ly on a local grocery store at Tuesday’s meeting.

In a three to one vote, the City Council opted not to approve a zoning ordinance that would allow Joseph Kindred’s store to operate in a residential district.

“It is very clear that this particular place is spot zon-ing,” said Councilwoman Patricia Jones. “� ere is not anything in that area that is moving in a commercial ca-pacity.”

Joseph Kindred’s store has been closed since sum-mer 2009. Because it had been operating in a resi-dential area, once the store remained closed for seven months, it became illegal to re-open it.

Councilman Joey Motley said it met only two of the

¦ ve criteria used to deter-mine legality.

“It’s not in the best inter-est of Opelika for that store to be opened in a residential area,” Motley said. “Can you say there’s a need? I don’t know. I’m not quali¦ ed to say whether there is or there isn’t. I don’t see a need there.”

� e only member of the Council who voted in favor

of the store was David Can-on, who was also involved with the planning commis-sion on ¦ guring out a legal way to rezone the area.

Other items on the agen-da included the renewal of contracts with compa-nies that service the Ope-lika Sportsplex and Aquatic Center and the decision to move forward with the red light cameras initiative.

ALISON MCFERRIN / ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

� e Opelika City Council discusses the store re-opening.

“Our goal is to remove all dilapidated structures from the city.”

—Charlie Duggan CITY MANAGER

� ursday, February 3, 2011 www.theplainsman.com Page B1

BCampus Miss AU» PAGE B3

Langdon opens» PAGE B5

TREVOR RAMSEYB A L L O T P O S I T I O N # 2

Ramsey, senior in biomedical sciences, pre-med, has served as SGA director of spirit, SGA assistant director of city relations, social fraternity executive, COSAM peer instructor, and on the SGA health and wellness committee.

Game day■ Increase interaction between students and coach-ing sta� /athletes■ Better food options in the stadium■ Improve student ticket system and lobby for extra student section in the upper deck

Student experience■ Improve advising, tutoring and OIT services■ More options, services for international students■ Oversight of Health and Wellness Center■ Improve on-campus dining options

Student unity and awareness■ Increase interaction among student organizations■ Utilize Eagle Eye for monthly SGA reports■ Create a portion of SGA that will deal directly with student concerns

Freshman retention rates■ Lobby for more on-campus housing■ Create a freshman mentoring program■ Increase awareness of the city of Auburn

“You can talk to me, call me, text me, e-mail me. I’m going to answer my phone—I’ll be right there. If you have a question about something, we are going to do our best through SGA to take care of that.”

Tarpos, junior in English, has served in the SGA as a senator-at-large, student interests chair, on the student safety council, as the IMPACT project coordinator, assis-tant director of high school leadership conference and assistant director of fresh-man forum.

■ Post passed legislation on the SGA website, including the outcome of each vote■ Implement a “meet your senators” table ■ Begin a freshman represen-tation to the student senate■ Improve iTunesU so all ma-jors post content for students that miss class■ Continue to work on exist-ing initiatives, such as the Textbook Reserve program■ Senate to take an active role in improving the Tiger Transit system’s usage

KIRBY TURNAGEB A L L O T P O S I T I O N # 1

Turnage, senior in � nance, has served as assistant vice president of auxiliary services, on the Univer-sity dining satisfaction council and the University concessions board, as an SGA senator-at-large and director of the High School Leadership conference.

Dining options■ O� er more all-you-can-eat options■ Lower meal costs by holding Chartwell’s account-able to their contract with the University■ Work to provide breakfast at the Student Center Chick-� l-A

Student life■ Build a comprehensive online system, “HeAUrd � at!” for students to voice their concerns■ Develop a mobile app for smart phones to supply students with anything they could need to know■ Create an o£ cial online ticket exchange to elec-tronically transfer student tickets

Transportation■ Secure long-term, sustainable funding to allow the Toomer’s Ten to continue operations, and work to expand routes and improve pick up timing

Classes■ Work to ensure class availability doesn’t hin-der expected graduation dates and that students receive reliable information and availability from advisers“We can make students own this campus and shift some of that power back to them and give them a voice.”

KEL JACKSONB A L L O T P O S I T I O N # 3

Jackson, senior in mechanical engineering, is the founding president of the Harold A. Franklin Soci-ety, has served as professional committee chairman of the SAA board of directors, SGA assistant vice president of facilities, CEO/President of RCM RC Products LLC and chairman of the Jackson Real Estate Group.

Parking■ Add over 2,100 C-zone parking spaces

Dining■ Add dining venues to create 24-hour dining avail-ability■ Allow required Dining Dollars to be spent at ath-letic events■ Work for fair prices of food on campus

Academics■ Expand Textbook Reserve program■ Allow job interviews to be excused absences ■ O� er free Scantrons to students that need them

SGA■ Create press secretary position and publicity initiatives within SGA■ Hold SGA town hall meetings every semester■ Implement an open door policy for the SGA president

“I’m not running to be the boss, I’m running to have 25,000 bosses. My job is never done until the con-cerns of all these students are alleviated.”

Stevenson, junior in civil en-gineering, has served in the SGA as executive secretary, assistant director of volun-teers, assistant treasurer of the Panhellenic cabinet, so-cial sorority leadership chair-man, ODK honorary and SGA senate parliamentarian.

■ Ensure student fees are handled with honesty■ Closely monitor line-item budgets for SAP programs■ Maintain Auburn’s relation-ships with Verizon Wireless and Balfour ■ Educate the Senate on handling budget and � nance requests to ensure funds are spent appropriately■ Continue the e� ort to pub-lish the yearly budget online■ Encourage � nancial accountability and show discernment in decisions re-garding the treasurer position

PRESIDENT

VANESSA TARPOS CURRY STEVENSON“Ever since I stepped foot on this campus, I’ve been involved in student government.”

“� e most important thing I can do is be ac-countable and make sure that I’m holding every-one accountable for the money they’re spending.”

SGA ELECTIONS 2011SGA ELECTIONS 2011SGA ELECTIONS 2011SGA ELECTIONS 2011SGA ELECTIONS 2011SGA ELECTIONS 2011PRESIDENTPRESIDENT

VICE PRESIDENTVICE PRESIDENTVICE PRESIDENT TREASURERTREASURERTREASURER

Campus B2 The Auburn Plainsman � ursday, February 3, 2011

Major: communication disor-dersHometown: Abbeville

Why she decided to run:“I wanted to run for Miss Au-burn because it is such an op-portunity to represent the Uni-versity that I love. I’ve been given so much from Auburn. I wanted an opportunity to give back, and what better way to give back than Miss Auburn?”

Platform: “Our local busi-nesses in Auburn really pros-per during the fall—football season—but then in the spring and summer, they struggle a little bit. What I wanted to do is partner with the city of Au-burn. � ey have a program called “� ink Auburn First.” � ey want people to think Au-burn businesses before they go to larger conglomerate stores. I wanted to partner with them and potentially have an event downtown, like an open house with coupons and trunk shows, but basically just get the awareness out there that we need to shop local and sup-port our local businesses.”

MEGAN MURPHY

Major: communicationHometown: Florence

Why she decided to run:“I’ve always heard Miss Au-burn is a symbol of women’s leadership, and she’s the o� -cial hostess of Auburn Univer-sity, so it’s a humbling thing to be nominated for it.”

Platform: “My platform is that I’m working with Career Development Services to cre-ate a student Web program called ‘Peer Career Advisers,’ and I just think that Career Development Services is a wonderful, but often untapped resource on Auburn’s campus. � ey’ve just really given me a lot of guidance because I did not know what I wanted to do with my life my � rst two years at Auburn, and they just re-ally clari� ed everything for me. Sixty-three percent of Au-burn’s undergraduate students graduate within six years, and of that 63 percent, only half of them graduate within four years. Economically it’s not feasible for a lot of students to stay here that long.

MILLIE HARRISON

LINDSEY GILLEN

Major: psychology with minor in hunger studiesHometown: Guntersville

Why she decided to run:“While I’ve been at Auburn, I have been involved in a bunch of di£ erent roles where I’ve really gotten to be a student leader. I think Miss Auburn is the culmination of all those di£ erent roles. As a Camp War Eagle counselor, I was a host for students. As a senator, I’m a voice for students. As the director of Aubie, I communi-cate as an ambassador for Au-burn. Miss Auburn is all those roles coming together—you are a host, you are an ambas-sador, and you are a voice for students.”

Platform: “I’m hoping to raise awareness of the plight of fos-ter care in our area as well as raise money for the BigHouse foundation of Opelika. Basi-cally their mission is to con-nect the needs of foster chil-dren to the love and generosity of our community. � ey try to provide a normal experience for foster children.”

Major: international business and SpanishHometown: Exeter, N.H.

Why she decided to run:“I have served as a War Eagle Girl, and it really changed me as a person to be able to rep-resent this University. I real-ized I would be so honored to even run for this position and be able to share with people about where my heart is and why I would love to give back to Auburn University.”

Platform: “My platform is all about doing what’s in front of you to � ght the war on hun-ger, focusing on the things right here in Lee County we can make a di£ erence with, like volunteering at the Com-munity Market and the East Alabama Food Bank and help-ing out with Campus Kitchen projects and just everything that we can do right here. Anyone who buys a T-shirt to support me during campaign week, a dollar of those pro-ceeds will go to the Committee of 19 and the United Nations World Food Program.”

COURTNI WARD

Major: cell and molecular bi-ologyHometown: Jasper

Why she decided to run:“A lot of the things I’ve gotten to do at Auburn have been ori-ented toward serving Auburn. � e fact that the underlying theme was to give something back to Auburn is something that meant a lot to me. If I get selected at Miss Auburn, then I would have yet another op-portunity to serve the Univer-sity in a very public way.”

Platform: “It’s to promote and encourage participation in research activities on cam-pus, especially undergradu-ate research. My aim, if elect-ed as Miss Auburn, is just to promote those opportunities. My ultimate goal would be to help create an online data-base where it would be easier to look up those kinds of pro-grams. It’s a matter of promot-ing undergraduate research and making sure that students are aware that it’s out there, and the ways there are to get involved.”

WHITLEY KELLEY

Remembering the championship with styleAlexandria SmithWRITER

Action Sports Art, a com-pany commissioned by Au-burn University to create an artwork that re± ects the perfect football season, has a patented process to create unique artwork.

First, they take a photo and break down the image digitally. After the break-down, the next step is to re-build the image with a sev-en-step process.

� e piece, named “All In,” shows Wes Byrum kicking the winning � eld goal dur-ing the last second of the National Championship game. In the background is a compilation of di£ erent scenes from the game and the season.

Nick Fairley, Michael Dyer, Cameron Newton and Gene Chizik are the faces

featured in some of the background images. Artist Chad Martin incorporated these faces since they all held pivotal roles in achiev-ing an undefeated season.

� e 54 by 72 inch piece took Martin close to two weeks to complete.

“I chose this scene be-cause there was not one predominant player that stuck out in the champi-onship game,” Martin said. “� e kick was the moment Auburn fans knew that they had sealed the deal.”

Action Sports Art sent a photographer to Glendale, Ariz. who was able to cap-ture di£ erent elements of the game that would con-tribute to the piece.

Action Sports Art, locat-ed in Birmingham, is a new company started almost a year ago.

Unfortunately, working with the athletics depart-ment to feature student athletes is not as easy as just painting on a canvas. � ere are many issues with licensing that the people at Action Sports Art and Au-burn had to deal with.

� e University has to en-sure that the company they hire knows how to go about creating a piece while also going through the legalities to do everything correctly.

Susan Smith works for Auburn as director of Trademark Management and Licensing. Smith said her job was to � nd an artist, approve the product, and send the art to the Athletic Department to approve as well.

Jon Sirico, Auburn’s direc-tor of athletic marketing, was in charge of approving

the piece and ensuring that Auburn did not do anything to violate NCAA rules.

“We hired Action Sports Art because they have a

good idea of what looks good and what sells,” Sirico said. “Action Sports Art is o� cially licensed and has done this before and they

know the legalities.” � is company has de-

signed six previous works for Auburn, so they were an easy choice, Sirico said.

MISS AUBURN

REBEKAH WEAVER / ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

Cassie Lewis enjoys recent warm weather in her hammock at Town Creek Park.

AU View

Thursday, February 3, 2011 The Auburn Plainsman Campus B3

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Annie FaulkSTAFF WriTer

Through years of science classes, we learned mole-cules surround us and make up essentially everything we encounter.

David Lynn, professor of chemistry and biology at emory University and a Howard Hughes Medical institute professor, will give a lecture titled “intelligent Molecules and the emer-gence of Life.”

The lecture will be held at 4 p.m. Feb. 8 in the Science Center Auditorium.

“While science forces me to ask questions, the inter-face of the arts helps me un-derstand,” Lynn said.

The lecture is not simply science oriented—the hu-manities are represented as well.

Lynn said he hopes the attendees grasp an un-derstanding of how mol-ecules organize themselves into complex structures and how this organization

relates to the origins of life.Lynn and his research

colleagues at emory are exploring treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

The understanding of molecular organization is part of Lynn’s research and lecture.

He is studying how neu-rodegenerative cells orga-nize incorrectly and fail to function properly.

The David G. Lynn Group from emory University works to comprehend mo-lecular structures and how chemical information can be manipulated for new functions.

Lynn explains that through evolution, molecu-lar structures were tested and some structures “gave functions, while others did not.”

“These are complicated things that impact our life,” Lynn said.

However, the lecture will be accessible to people

without technical or scien-tific backgrounds.

“He explains things to the general public in an easy way,” said Gerard elfstrom, Mosey professor in philoso-phy. “He’s a down-to-earth guy, unassuming and hon-est.”

Lynn’s lecture is part of the Littleton-Franklin Lec-ture Series in the College of Liberal Arts, which pro-motes a relationship be-tween sciences and human-ities.

“Given the theme, he fit very well,” elfstrom said.

Lynn has collaborated with dance companies in Chicago, Seattle and Wash-ington, D.C., despite being a chemist.

in 1972 he was the ACC epee Champion in fencing.

“He’s an accomplished re-searcher, active in humani-ties as well,” elfstrom said.

Lynn has done interviews with CNN and NPr and lec-tured for the Atlanta Botan-ical Society.

Emory professor lectures on molecules, evolution

Bianca SewardWriTer

First time’s a charm.emilee Williams, junior in

civil engineering, had never competed in a pageant until Friday night.

At the end of the three-hour competition, Williams took home the crown.

“i tried to search within myself for who i truly was and the experiences that brought me to this point in my life,” Williams said.

Williams is from Athens, Ala., and said she plans to use her year as Miss Au-burn University to promote her platform, “Food for Thought: Domestic Hunger Awareness.”

“i am so passionate about my platform,” Williams said. “We have so much support in the Auburn community here. To me this platform holds so much promise.”

Williams said when she was in high school, she vol-unteered at a local food bank. While filing paper-work for people in need, she spotted names of two of her fellow classmates.

“i had no idea how prev-alent a problem domestic hunger was before then,” Williams said.

Williams said she wants to get those in need of assis-tance involved and aware of safety-net programs so they can fight domestic hunger.

Miss Auburn University makes about 100 appear-ances at community events during her yearlong term, said Michelle Murphy, pag-eant adviser.

“She promotes both her personal platform as well as Children’s Miracle Network, the national platform of the Miss America program,” Murphy said. “By serving others and bring aware-ness to important causes,

she can have a big impact on campus and in the com-munity.”

The Miss AU pageant serves as a preliminary round for the Miss Alabama pageant, currently sched-uled for the second week in June.

“i expect and hope to learn so much from this experience,” Williams said. “i know that with even my first appearance as Miss Au-burn University, anything i could have imagined will be shattered in comparison.”

The 23 pageant contes-tants faced four sections—the on-stage question, swimwear, talent and eve-ning wear.

On-stage questions cov-ered funding for education, health care and the influ-ence of the MTV program “Teen Mom.”

Talent was worth 35 per-cent of the overall score, and Haley Ates placed first with her vocal rendition of “i’m Not Afraid of Anything.”

Contestants also showed their talent by playing hand-bells and clogging.

“The best part of the Miss Auburn University pageant is the stress on a well-rounded winner,” said Kindall Tucker, sophomore in communication disor-ders. “i think even if you aren’t the type of person who would enter a pageant, you can still learn from the contestants.”

rebecca Hart, senior in communication disorders and 2010 Miss AU, was pres-ent to pass the crown to Williams.

“By letting my true self shine through and being genuine in all of my actions and words, i have achieved so much,” Williams said. “This is the example i hope to set for young women.”

Miss Auburn University crown passes at pageant

Emily AdAms / Photo Editor

emilee Williams is crowned 2011 Miss Auburn University at Friday night’s pageant at the Student Activities Center.

Emily AdAms / Photo Editor

emilee Williams reacts to being named the next Miss AU.Emily AdAms / Photo Editor

emilee Williams accepts the title of Miss Auburn University.

calendar: Thursday, Feb. 3 – saTurday, Feb. 12

sunday Monday TuesdayWednes-

dayThursday Friday saTurday

3

Men’s bas-ketball vs. Tennessee■ Auburn Arena■ 8 p.m.

4

Gymnas-tics vs. Kentucky■ Auburn Arena■ 7 p.m.

5

6

Women’s basketball vs. Missis-sippi state■ Auburn Arena■ 2 p.m.

7

lecture: Francine d’amour■ Student Center room 2223■ 3:30 p.m.

8

lecture: david lynn■ Sciences Center Au-ditorium■ 4 p.m.

9 10

Film: “The apostle”■ Jule Col-lins Smith Museum of Art■ 6 p.m.

11 12

Men’s bas-ketball vs. Mississippi state■ Auburn Arena■ 6 p.m.


Alexandria SmithWRITER

It can be hard to � nd a means of artistic expres-sion amidst the madness of homework and class. But once a semester the oppor-tunity arises.

� e Auburn Circle is a publication for the com-munity to show its diverse talents in areas like poetry, � ction and non� ction liter-ature, art and photography.

Robert Irwin, senior in English and editor-in-chief of the Auburn Circle, said one of his goals as editor this year is to inform the student body about the Circle.

“We are about express-ing a special literary and artistic interest that Au-burn students have,” Irwin said. “� e Circle is a medi-um to show o� talents and creativity that promote the spirit of the Auburn family.”

Any student, faculty

member or alumni can submit work to the Circle.

� is year, an Auburn alumnus from Maine con-tacted the publication to submit a piece, Irwin said.

Evan Dodd, sophomore sta� member for the po-etry section, said he helps choose what submissions will be in the � nal publica-tion.

In addition to being on sta� , Dodd also has four poetry submissions of his own in the fall edition.

As a mechanical engi-neering major, Dodd does not have much of an outlet

in his courses to use his tal-ent of writing poetry. He said � e Auburn Circle has provided him a place to get involved as well as an op-portunity to get published.

Mobile Interstate Pub-lishing Inc. publishes the Auburn Circle after it has been put together by the sta� . Usually 5000–6000 copies are produced.

“I was surprised to see so many abstract paintings in the fall edition,” said Claire Wood, sophomore in mo-lecular biology and art sta� member for the Circle. “We are used to seeing more re-alistic paintings, but I en-joyed the really colorful, interesting paintings this time.”

To get published in the Auburn Circle, students must submit their work to the Auburn Circle O¦ ce in the Student Center. Af-ter that, the sta� looks at them all and votes on what works should be included.

� e Auburn Circle pro-duces two issues a year, fall and spring. � e spring issue will be released in April.

Chelsea HarveyASSISTANT CAMPUS EDITOR

Higher education and a full-time job seem like mu-tually exclusive ideas.

Auburn’s distance learn-ing program solves this problem.

Electronically Deliv-ered Graduate Education (EDGE) is o� ered through the College of Engineering and the College of Business.

� e program provides a way for students to earn a master’s degree without coming to campus.

Although the program only o� ers degrees at the master’s level, students can also choose to take doctor-ate courses in order to fur-ther their advancement to-ward a Ph.D.

� e program does not o� er any courses at the undergraduate level, said Wanda Lambert, marketing director of engineering con-tinuing education and dis-tance graduate education.

“I think the University realized many, many years ago that the requirements at the graduate level are more individual than at the undergraduate level,” Lam-bert said. “So that’s the rea-son it makes it easier to do graduate level courses.”

� e program caters to full-time professionals who wish to obtain a degree without giving up their jobs.

“� e advantages of dis-tance is a professional can obtain the master’s level degree without leaving their job, without relocat-ing their family, and they can continue to work on pursuing their professional goals at the same time get-ting this master’s,” Lambert said.

Other participants in the distance learning program include international stu-dents and members of the military who move too fre-quently to attend on-cam-pus courses.

Although their degree is earned o� -campus, dis-tance students receive the same education as on-cam-pus students.

“People will ask me, ‘Wanda, is my diploma gon-na say distance education?’ � e answer’s no,” Lambert said.

Distance courses are pro-vided by � lming regular classes and streaming them online using a technology speci� cally developed for the purpose by Auburn’s distance learning program, said Greg Ru� , director of engineering outreach and continuing education.

“We developed it here be-cause everything we looked

at in other places didn’t measure up to the kinds of things that we needed,” Ru� said.

“One of the best things about it is that computer graphics that are stressed a lot because of engineer-ing look as good from our service as they would if you were sitting in the class-room.”

� e delivery system has been copyrighted and will be shared with the rest of Auburn free of charge.

However, there are plans to sell the system to other universities.

“We know that three oth-er universities are already interested. � ree big ones,”

Ru� said. � e only potential disad-

vantage to the program is the problem with commu-nication between profes-sors and students.

“� e o� -campus people don’t, even if they have a question, they don’t get the opportunity to interrupt and ask,” Hart� eld said. “And that can be a problem for the o� -campus student, regardless. � ey’ll have to call and ask me a question later.”

Hart� eld said students must also submit home-work and receive grades via e-mail.

However, he said the in-conveniences are worth it for students who would not otherwise be able to obtain a degree.

� e program is also ben-e� cial to the University as well as the students.

“It bene� ts our program because we are able to get some high quality students into our program that helps us to build our qual-ity on our program that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to get,” Hart� eld said.

In addition to gradu-ate courses, the distance

program also o� ers courses in continuing education, which is required for most professional engineers.

“� ere are requirements for continuing education in almost every state, and Auburn’s continuing educa-tion program is recognized in 41 states. We provide continuing education short courses for license renewals for engineers and land sur-veyors and now for archi-tects,” Ru� said.

“What normally happens is states, for instance like Alabama, will require pro-fessional engineers to have 15 clock hours of continu-ing education every year. And we provide 90 short courses right now, 90 short courses for them to pick from.”

Both the master’s pro-gram and the continuing education program are housed by Auburn, but the programs themselves are otherwise self-su¦ cient and receive no state funds.

“Everything that we get comes from the sale of courses for continuing education or under credit courses for tuition,” Ru� said.

Earning degrees from homeDistance learning program o� ers master’s degrees around the world

Publication showcases art, writing “The Circle is

a medium to show off talents and creativity that promote the spirit of the Auburn family.”

—Robert Irwin EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Self-expression comes full circle

Victoria RodgersWRITER

Feed the hungry. Serve the poor. It’s all too easy to become immune to the call for good deeds in a starving world.

But for 16 students cur-rently enrolled in the Hunger Studies Capstone course, they are living this reality one class at a time.

“When you think of hun-ger you always think of lit-tle starving kids in Africa, but through our class I’ve had the opportunity to vol-unteer in this community working with the hungry poor,” said Lindsey Gillen, junior in psychology. “I just decided it was much more my issue than I ever knew.”

� e course has two main components, an in-depth research project and con-tinuing the Campus Kitch-ens project, said Katie Brock, fourth-year Auburn professor and one of the course leaders.

“It’s not just me down-loading information on them,” Brock said. “It’s them actively pursuing the jour-ney we’re on together.”

� e Campus Kitchens project sends students to dining halls and lo-cal restaurants to recycle

untouched food that will be thrown out at the end of the day, converting these dona-tions into healthy and nour-ishing meals for the hungry.

Campus Kitchens is cur-rently located on 28 cam-puses across the nation.

Last year’s Hunger Stud-ies Capstone brought it to Auburn.

“� is class is going to try to put meat on the bones of the organization and really make it a sustainable pres-ence on our campus,” Brock said.

To further bring the proj-ect to life in Auburn, the class has split into groups such as business, public relations and distribution sites.

“Our biggest focus right now is to � nd more places, especially in better areas where more people can come,” said Tess Burford, ju-nior in rehabilitation servic-es and member of the distri-bution sites group.

� e group’s � rst main site is Auburn United Method-ist Church’s Food Pantry, where church volunteers serve meals every Friday.

“You are given so much responsibility and have the opportunity to learn by be-ing exposed to things by

developing your own opin-ions about them,” Gillen said.

Douglas Coutts, Auburn’s distinguished visiting pro-fessor, is credited with de-veloping the course. Coutts has more than 23 years ex-perience working with the United Nation’s World Food Programme.

“� e professors leave it open for you to form your own opinions and come up with your own experienc-es, but they have so much background knowledge that it is just a very educational and well-rounded experi-ence,” Gillen said.

� e Hunger Studies Cap-stone class is one of the re-quirements for the hunger studies minor.

“� e goal of hunger stud-ies here on this campus is to show students that what-ever their chosen � eld is, with the hunger minor they can impact change in the world,” Brock said.

Gillen and Burford both plan on completing the mi-nor.

Burford plans on taking her hunger background to foreign countries while also using her degree in reha-bilitation services to bring prostheses for amputees.

Hunger Studies Capstone prepares to save the world

� ursday, February 3, 2011 The Auburn Plainsman Campus B5

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Langdon Hall receives total makeoverVictoria RodgersWRITER

Langdon Hall has recent-ly come out of retirement to help accommodate this year’s large freshman class.

� e University had a de-mand for space and in-vested in the unoccupied 10,502-square-foot building.

Langdon is now remod-eled and started holding classes this spring in its new lecture hall.

Reconstruction on the building started summer 2010 and the © rst ª oor was completed this fall.

“� e building doesn’t look brand new, but it still looks like a modern day classroom,” said Courtney Henderson, senior in bio-medical sciences.

Remodeling the ground level from an auditorium with theatre seating to a large lecture-based class-room cost $300,000, accord-ing to Ron Booth from Au-burn’s facilities department.

“We knew eventually we needed to do something with it because it was un-derutilized space,” said Dan King, vice president of the Auburn facilities depart-ment.

� e University greatly needed space for its grow-ing population.

“With these bigger fresh-man classes, it’s going to put more pressure on existing big classrooms like Lowder,” King said. “So any place where we can create a big

lecture hall, we’re better o± .”Langdon was su± ering

from various mechanical problems from the venti-lating, heating and cooling systems and also needed a complete interior make-over.

“� ere was not much you could keep,” King said.

� e mechanical systems were replaced along with the seating, lighting, ceiling and wood ª ooring.

Pictures of the original building and other historic portraits hang inside of the remodeled building.

� e O³ ce of Information Technology installed up-to-date teaching technology and visual aids.

“It appears they just set up a projector screen,” Hen-derson said.

In months to come, a permanent brick handicap ramp will be built on the north side of the building, but for now a temporary ramp serves in its place.

Langdon Hall was origi-nally built for the Masonic Female Seminary in 1846 and was later moved to Au-burn’s campus in 1883.

� e auditorium was last fully remodeled in 1950, according to the Auburn University’s Library of Ar-chitecture, Design and Con-struction website.

Langdon Hall was named after Auburn trustee Charles Carter Langdon and is ª ush with Auburn history.

� e building held various political meetings in the University’s early years and also held temporary classes when Samford burned in 1887.

In 1892 Langdon‘s ground ª oor held engineer-ing departments, which were some of the © rst in the South.

Many departments have called Langdon home.

Wood-work, machines, home electronics, the YMCA, Auburn band, cam-pus photographers and the alumni association all have stories inside Langdon’s walls; keeping the building in use helps the University keep its history.

“At © rst, I couldn’t believe I had classes in Langdon be-cause it’s not in COSAM,” Henderson said. “It was just out of the way.”

Although restoring the building is in high demand, there are still no de© nite plans for remodeling the basement along with the rest.

“We’re not that far along in the decision process yet,” King said.

� e future for Langdon is unclear, but still bright.

� e building should re-main useful for years to come as the University con-tinues to grow.

“� ere’s always a huge de-mand for more space, so we won’t have any trouble © nd-ing someone who wants to go in there,” King said.

CHRISTEN HARNED / ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

� e inside of Langdon has been remodeled to serve as a lecture hall for various classes.

CHRISTEN HARNED / ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

Langdon is equipped with temporary handicap access until a permanent ramp is built.

Mackenzie CogleWRITER

Auburn alumni Todd Gil-bert and Scott Taylor have developed Auburn Pulse, an iPhone application that makes what’s happening on � e Loveliest Village of the Plains a lot easier to follow.

When Gilbert and Taylor were roaming the Plains as students in the mid ‘90s, owning a cell phone was a distant dream.

Released in the iPhone App Store at the end of Au-gust 2010, the Auburn Pulse app is free for the iPhone and provides constant live updates of the events and specials downtown.

� e Auburn Pulse app is updated weekly through a blog run by Gilbert and gives users a link to menu and drink specials o± ered

each week at di± erent res-taurants and bars.

“A lot of apps are run by big companies, but Todd (Gilbert) lives in Auburn and is tapped in to what’s going on,” Taylor said.

� e music schedule on the app gives a line-up of what bands are playing at the bars in Auburn every week, and each restaurant and bar featured on the app has its own page with the menu and hours of opera-tion listed.

� e Auburn Pulse app took Gilbert and Taylor about three weeks to de-velop. Taylor developed and wrote the program for the app while Gilbert designed the look and provides up-dates.

� e Auburn Pulse app fea-tures an academic calendar,

a link to � e Corner News and an “Out-and-About” ed-itorial. An interactive map of downtown with a GPS feature shows users their exact location in Auburn.

� e e-coupon link in-cludes electronic coupons that users can present at speci© c venues by showing the coupon on an iPhone screen.

Live “push” messages from Auburn Pulse send alerts to users with up-to-the-minute happenings and specials.

“If there is a change in the band scheduled for the night, or there is no cover charge at a bar for a lim-ited time, Auburn Pulse us-ers can be noti© ed,” Gilbert said.

� e Auburn Pulse app has more than 3,000 users for

the iPhone, and a version for Android devices will be available in March.

“I’ve had it for two months, and I really like it,” said Kaitlin Wiltse, junior in psychology. “It’s how I © nd out what’s going on down-town.”

Unlike many apps for the iPhone, Auburn Pulse doesn’t require a new ver-sion to be downloaded when content changes.

Gilbert and Taylor plan to add new features to Auburn Pulse as more people add the app. Gilbert plans to have a photographer work-ing at di± erent bars and events to take “Party Pics” for the app and website.

“We want people to real-ize it’s a tool for them and can enhance their social ex-perience,” Gilbert said.

App provides updates on community events

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Kappa Delta � ghts child abuse with Shamrock RunMiranda DollarhideINTRIGUE EDITOR

For Kappa Delta’s 18th annual Shamrock 5K run, they’re hoping to have the luck of the Irish.

As one of Kappa Delta’s biggest philanthropy events of the year, the sorority will host its 5K Feb. 26.

Eighty percent of pro-ceeds will go to Lee County Stop Child Abuse and Ne-glect Special Deliveries and 20 percent to Prevention of Child Abuse America.

Special Deliveries is a lo-cal charity that helps young, single mothers and helps prevent child abuse.

Ballard Lander, sopho-more in pre-pharmacy and director of the Shamrock Run, said as part of Special Deliveries, young mothers can take classes and go to counseling sessions where they can obtain “baby bucks” to buy diapers and basic necessities.

Some of their proceeds go to a store Special Deliveries stocks where these mothers can spend their baby bucks.

“We love Special Deliver-ies, which is here locally,” Lander said. “I think a lot of people want to come sup-port that because it is local.”

PCAA is the sorority’s na-tional philanthropic organi-zation.

Lander said she believes it is important to give back to the community.

“Our chapter believes we are all so blessed to have been raised in a loving fam-ily, and so many people don’t have that,” Lander said. “Every child deserves to be loved and shown with respect.”

Last year, KD raised more than $30,000 from runner participation and donations for these charities.

KD president Haley Bag-well said she hopes to im-prove from last year.

Traditionally, the 5K took place in March near St. Pat-rick’s Day.

“We hope because it is in February there is a bet-ter turnout,” Bagwell said. “� ere is not as much going on.”

KD has been planning for the 5K since last year’s end-ed.

Bagwell said they got to-gether and talked about what went well and on what they could improve.

Lander was chosen as the director of the 5K in Decem-ber and worked continuous-ly during Christmas Break to get everything together.

“Ballard worked long, hard hours,” Bagwell said.

� e race will begin at the KD chapter room in Willow Hall in the Village and will end in the RO parking lot on West � ach Avenue.

Ra ̈ e prizes will be pro-vided for contestants, in-cluding Nalgene water

bottles, co© ee mugs and gift certiª cates from communi-ty establishments.

Registration starts at 7

a.m., and the race begins at 8 a.m.

Pre-registration is $15 and can be ª lled out at

www.auburn.edu/kd. Regis-tration the day of the race is $17, and all participants re-ceive a T-shirt.

PLAINSMAN ARCHIVES

Runners gather outside the Kappa Delta chapter room before the 2010 5K Shamrock Run.

� ink you know an Auburn woman who has what it takes to be the Loveliest Lady on the Plains? Send submissions, with names and contact information, to

[email protected]

TAYLOR STARER, 19From sunny Orlando, Fla., this week’s loveliest is dancing

into our hearts and eyes. A sophomore in public relations, our loveliest always has a friendly smile ready to brighten days. Her real passion lies beyond the classroom, however.

Taylor is a member of UPC and the Alternative Spring Break program. She also gets down as a member of AU Rhythm. “I’m a free spirit,” she says. Absolutely, Taylor.

But don’t free us from your grip any time soon.

On the Concourse Question:

What do you think SGA does for you?

“I think they work to try to promote cam-pus interests and re-solve problems.”

—Meha Jha, sophomore, chemical engineering

“� ey work hard to make campus life better.”

—David Serra, sophomore, mechanical engineering

“I don’t really know.”

—Ansley Norman, sophomore, hotel and restaurant management

“I honestly don’t keep up with SGA, so I have no idea.”

—Houston Love, senior, pre-pharmacy

“I think they provide very good opportuni-ties to get involved and give back to Auburn and the community.”

—Kate Patrick, freshman, elementary education

“I’m not really sure. I think there should be more events showing what SGA is about.”

—Andrew Yawn, sophomore, journalism


YOUR SOURCE FOR CAMPUS NEWS EVERY THURSDAY

www.theplainsman.com

Thursday, February 3, 2011 www.theplainsman.com Page C1

CIntrigue Decorating TOMS» Page C6

Computer Gaming Club» Page C4

Miranda DollarhideIntrIgue eDItor

Braxton tanner sits alone at a small table in the gnu’s room wearing an Au-burn baseball cap and a green Hollister sweater. tanner looks like any college male, but he has a secret that most peo-ple couldn’t guess by looking at him.

He is a drag queen.“I love being able to look like a boy

and fool people into thinking I am a woman, and then in 10 minutes go back to being a boy,” said tanner, soph-omore in environmental design.

tanner said being a drag queen isn’t what most people think.

“A lot of people are confused and think that we as men would like to be women, but that is plainly not the case,” tanner said. “What drag is, is an art ex-pression. For a lot of us, it’s our theatre.”

He sums it up in one quote. “to steal a quote from the movie, ‘to

Wong Foo,’ ‘Drag is when a gay man has too much style sense for one gender,’” tanner said.

His start in drag began last August. “My first time out in drag was to a

birthday party,” tanner said. “Then I started going to clubs.”

one night at a club in Montgomery called 322, tanner was encouraged to start performing.

“They said, ‘You know what, you look fierce. You should come out for our am-ateur show,’” tanner said.

His first time wasn’t a success, but that didn’t stop him.

“I came back, and I started winning competitions,” tanner said. “Then they asked me to eventually perform on the main stage.”

The “main stage” is a cast of five drag queens who perform Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

The cast consists of tanner, who named his persona Joan oullet Wolfe, and four other drag queens named Thai, Chloe, Mindy and Felicia.

They perform almost every night there is a show and may be accompa-nied by a guest or the winner of an am-ateur show.

“If you win an amateur show, you are given one night to perform in one of the shows on the main stage,” tanner said.

tanner said his confidence grew on the main stage from winning numer-ous amateur nights.

He said the other cast members were surprised by how good he was.

“He performed, and everyone was like ‘Wow, who is this?’” said Chloe Vontrapp, a cast member at 322. “Peo-ple took notice.”

They were so impressed that they created a position especially for “Joan” on the main stage.

“She was young, fresh and exciting to watch,” Vontrapp said. “She has a lot of natural stage presence.”

tanner’s success in drag came from taking the time to build his persona.

emily adams / Photo editor

Braxton tanner, sophomore in environmental design, puts on make-up as he prepares to transform into alter ego Joan oullet Wolfe at Club 322 in Montgomery Saturday night.

Drag show helps student express inner woman

» See DraG, C2

emily adams / Photo editor

tanner performs as “Joan” to a rendition of the Britney Spears’ song “Womanizer.”emily adams / Photo editor

tanner adds padding to his shirt to give him a more shapely figure while performing.

DRAG “i like being able to look like a boy and fool people into thinking i am a woman, and then in 10 minutes go back to being a boy.”

—Braxton tanner, SoPHoMore, enVIronMentAl DeSIgn

FAR FRom A

Intrigue C2 The Auburn Plainsman � ursday, February 3, 2011

Chicken Milanese

Kerry’s recipe of the week

Ingredients:4 boneless, skinless chicken breastssalt and pepper, to taste1 egg½ cup milk2 cups seasoned Italian bread crumbs ¼ cup canola oil

Directions:Slice chicken breasts lengthwise, so each breast will become two. Season with salt and pepper. In a large bowl, beat the egg and milk together. In another large bowl, add the bread crumbs. Dredge the chicken breast in the egg and then coat with bread crumbs. Repeat for all chicken. Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil. When oil is hot, add the chicken. Do not overcrowd the pan. Cook for 4 minutes. Flip and cook for an additional 4 to 5 minutes. Drain on a paper towel. Serve hot.

Serves: 4

Contributed by Kerry Fannon

What are your hobbies?I like to run and hike, and I at-tend all Auburn athletic stuff.

What do you think is weird?The MTV show Skins, but I like weird things.

Any bad habits?I gossip. That’s bad, right?

What’s on your bucket list?I want to travel to Africa and help out.

Who is your celebrity crush?Rachel Bilson

Favorite place to eat on cam-pus?Southern Grill at Foy

What do you want people to remember you as?Fun? That’s so lame. But it’s true.

Coolest thing you’ve done this school year?My life is just cool.

Joe RandomJT Howard

Sophomore, Chemical Engineering──

“I prepared a lot for drag before I ever went out for the � rst time,” Tanner said, “which is di� erent from a lot of people.”

Once Tanner decided he really wanted to get into drag, he said he saved money and bought expen-sive make-up and clothes before his debut.

“I really had time to sit and think about what my look was going to look like,” Tanner said. “I was sitting there thinking about a name and so Joan Rivers—just her personal-ity and a little bit of that edge and that crass—was attractive to me. I just thought, ‘I have to incor-porate Joan.’”

His drag middle name, Oullet, and last name, Wolfe, were just as in-spired.

“Oullet is my drag fam-ily name,” Tanner said. “When I started I was ad-opted into a drag family and that was my drag fam-ily name.”

Tanner was brought into a “drag family” by fel-low cast member Mindy Michelle who is known as his drag mother.

Tanner said the part of Joan’s name that best rep-resents her personality is Wolfe.

“I come from a Latino background, so Shakira was another huge inspi-ration, and she has the album She-Wolf,” Tanner said. “So I took Wolf, and it also was this iconic sort of animal. It has this � erce and this edge to it. It’s very stoic.”

What Tanner most en-joys about being Joan is the illusion it creates.

“I am a fan of the ex-treme,” Tanner said. “It is like the most stark illusion that you can make to con-fuse someone into think-ing that I am not a man.”

Tanner has created such a good illusion that people actually do mistake him for a woman.

“I have people ask me all the time who know I am a drag queen,” Tanner said, “� ey say, ‘Please tell me you are a real woman.’”

People may be confused by Tanner’s gender be-cause of the dedication he puts into actually looking like a woman—not like a man trying to look like a woman.

“He looks very polished,”

VonTrapp said. “He wears good costumes, and his makeup is amazing, very well put together from head to toe.”

Tanner said he owes his femininity to the region.

“Queens in the South-east are known for real-ness, padding,” Tanner said. “We wear hip pads, butt pads. We duct tape our chests and stomach together. We like to liter-ally look like a woman.”

Even though Tanner � nds excitement in drag, many people he has en-countered don’t under-stand it.

“It’s either people don’t notice, they really like it or they really don’t like it,” Tanner said. “� ere is not really any indi� erence.”

Tanner even had an in-cident with harassment last year.

He said he � led a report with Auburn Public Safety, but nothing ever became of it.

“I don’t think it is as big a deal for drag kings,” Tan-ner said. “I think it’s a big deal for drag queens be-cause men have this icon-ic status, and when you demote yourself down to a woman, in certain people’s minds, it is this shameful sort of deal.”

Tanner receives support from friends and some of his family.

His parents don’t know, but his cousins keep up with his shows.

“I don’t think my par-ent’s read � e Plainsman, but if they do, it’s not the � rst bridge I’ve had to cross,” Tanner said.

Drag takes up a lot of Tanner’s time, but he doesn’t consider it all he is.

Tanner said he consid-ers drag just a weekend thing.

He spends the rest of his time running around cam-pus attending class, doing things for Spectrum, also known as Gay Straight Al-liance, working at the her-petology lab and playing with his pet lizard, Tiki.

He hopes to one day use his environmental design degree to design exhibits for gardens, museums and zoos.

“I like taking something, like a blank slate, and creating something com-pletely di� erent.” Tanner said.

“� at is what motivates me into doing things, whether it be my job or drag. It’s the way I live my life.”

DRAG» From C1

Emily CleverCOPY EDITOR

Up a staircase between Aubie and Eagle halls in the Village live Nick and Julia Wiard and their two daugh-ters, Hayden, 3, and Avery, 1.

While most college stu-dents would � nd this situ-ation unique, Nick said it’s not—many campuses have similar family housing op-tions. Auburn has three or four other live-in families, and it’s actually similar to a family living in a ́at in a large city.

� eir second daughter Avery was born at the East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika, and the dorm suite is the only living situation she has ever known.

Nick works as the area director for the Village and part of the Quad.

He said his job allows him to be available and on cam-pus full time in case of an emergency, which usually involves assisting in student

personal crises.“� e reason they put us in

is for a quick response,” Nick said. “If they need a profes-sional-level response right away—if an emergency hap-pens in a building—I can be over there in about three minutes, as opposed to 15 or 20 minutes for somebody o� campus.”

� e ́at is larger than the standard dorm room, com-plete with a full-sized kitch-en with oven and dishwash-er, tons of counter space, a stacking washer and dryer, a bedroom for the girls (large enough for two cribs), a master bedroom and bath-room, a guest bathroom and an o· ce.

“We joke about the fact that if we live in any longer, we’ll just move them down the hall, and they’ll start going to school here,” Nick said. “� e other thing that I thought about is a lot of schools have a freshman year live-on requirement, and so both of our girls al-ready ful� lled that in the � rst couple years of life.”

As with all housing situa-tions, there are some advan-tages and disadvantages.

One advantage is free rent, just like with student

resident assistants.“It is an incentive to keep

people in that would rather not,” Nick said. “In certain places in the country it’s so expensive to live that you have to provide for your folks because you wouldn’t be able to get them in on the salary they would like to pay most professionals at that level.”

Another is closeness to all the events on the University, like gymnastics meets and basketball games the Wi-ards only walk two minutes to attend.

“� ey get to go see Tiger Walk—some people drive three or four hours to get here to see them do that, and we walk out six min-utes,” Nick said.

But not having a carport or yard, the constant � re drills and worrying about the girls’ volume levels, es-pecially at night, can be a burden.

� e Wiards said they plan to move into a house by the time Hayden enters kinder-garten.

“� ey take care of us here,” Nick said about the washer and dryer the Uni-versity provided at Nick’s request.

Nick said moving out will be di· cult because of the advantages and cost ef-fectiveness the dorm room provides.

“Hayden’s just starting to be aware of the fact that she lives in Aubie Hall and will tell people that,” Julia said. “For the longest time she would say, ‘� at is my house,’ and I don’t know if she understood that there were 700 other people living here or not.”

Nick graduated from Cen-tral Arkansas, where he met Julia, and both worked at Western Kentucky Universi-ty before moving to Auburn.

Julia, a Selma native, works with the Student for Leadership and Ethics pro-gram in the Auburn Univer-sity Student Center, creating workshops and conferences aimed at building leader-ship throughout the year.

But regardless of whether they live on campus or make the tough � nancial transi-tion to a house, Julia said they’re in the Auburn area for good.

“It’s kind of been fate that he got a job here,” Julia said. “It’s closer to home. Auburn’s kind of where we wanted to be.”

A di� erent kind of family� e Wiard family calls the residence hall home


Nick and Julia Wiard spend quality time with their two daughters, Hayden, 3, and Avery, 1, in their dorm suite in Aubie Hall.

C3� ursday, February 3, 2011 www.theplainsman.com Intrigue

Arts Entertainment


Perpetual Groove brought their signature col-lege-age sound to Auburn � ursday night at the Sky-Bar Café.

� e band—comprised of Brock Butler, lead guitar and vocals; Adam Perry, bass; Albert Suttle, drums; and John Hruby, keyboard—formed in college at the Sa-vannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Ga., in 1997.

� e band is known for its jam-band-inspired sound with a wide range of musi-cal in� uences, including Paul Simon, My Morning Jacket and—while Butler was slightly embarrassed to admit it—Coldplay and Bon Jovi’s song “Always.”

“In its most general way I’d say that it’s good-times music,” he said. “A lot of the lyrics are about forgetting about your worries even if it’s only for a little bit”

Butler said he always en-joys playing in Auburn.

“Alabama in general has been really good to us,” But-ler said. “When we do fra-ternity parties I’d say proba-bly 80 to 90 percent of them are in Alabama. Always a good time.”

Caroline Hussey, junior in communication studies, and Mike Landers, senior in pre-law, were two Auburn students in attendance at the show.

� e couple met Feb. 9, 2010, when Perpetual Groove played in Auburn.

Landers said he has been obsessed with Perpetual Groove since 2008 when he heard them in Auburn for the ¦ rst time.

“We listen to P Groove when we shower, when we sleep, in the car; we never get tired of it,” Hussey said.

Since the band formed, they have appealed to col-lege crowds, but Butler said they are trying to cater to a wider audience.

“If we can have that kind of lasting appeal to some-body, that when people hear Perpetual Groove it’s not just, ‘Oh, that sure takes me back,’ but hopefully they’ll still be currently listening as well,” Butler said.

Hal BrokenClown from Augusta, Ga., was another fan in attendance.

BrokenClown spent a great deal of time and e© ort coming up with his out¦ t to display his devotion to the

band. BrokenClown’s ward-robe for the show consisted of a black hat with attached pink streamers, a tie-dye dress and two di© erent striped socks.

However, the most de-¦ ning elements of Broken-Clown’s attire were his over-sized, pink and green stu© ed ¦ sh, Humungus Amungus, and red and black stu© ed snake, Enormus Amungus.

“I just wear the out¦ t to be crazy and meet people,” BrokenClown said.

BrokenClown ¦ rst saw Perpetual Groove in De-cember 2001 in Atlanta at Jake’s Roadhouse.

Since, he has seen the

band more than 400 times, including traveling as far as Amsterdam to watch a show.

Butler said the band has been working to focus their music more and concen-trate on business, which he said often college students interested in pursuing mu-sic careers fail to consider.

“It can be quite taxing on your spirit,” Butler said. “It’s not always going to go the way you hope it will. Re-ally think it through. � ink about every decision you make very carefully.”

Butler said he knew early on that he wanted to pur-sue a career in music, and

although the structure of a typical 9-to-5 sounds ap-pealing at times, he is most comfortable with a musical instrument in his hands.

“� e actual act of playing music is always enjoyable to me,” he said.

� e fans are also a major motivation for Butler.

“Sometimes on days when I feel like I might have had it, I’ve gotten so tired or don’t feel like traveling, and then I get an e-mail or a Facebook message from someone who tells me how the music has literally changed their life,” Butler said.

� e band recently

relocated from Savannah to Athens, Ga., a city which he said oozes music and cre-ativity.

Butler said he estimates the band spends 120 to 140 days out of the year on the road, and although all of the members di© er in opinion, the band is lucky to get to do what they love and see the world.

“I think that makes us a good band because we’re all on opposite ends of the spectrum, but then we meet in the middle. Anybody can have a rough day on the job, but ultimately we all kind of prop each other up and keep everybody enjoying it.”


Perpetual Groove said fans are a huge motivation. � ey performed at SkyBar Café to a large crowd Jan. 27.

Internationally touring band grooves in Auburn

“Alabama in general has been really good to us. When we do fraternity parties I’d say probably 80 to 90 percent of them are in Alabama.”

—Brock ButlerLEAD GUITAR AND VOCALS


Lindsay RifeASSOCIATE INTRIGUE EDITOR

Waking up to be in a classroom at 8 a.m. may seem dreadful, but Karen Spencer wakes up signi� cantly earlier to clean that classroom.

Her job is not what one might describe as glorious, but Spencer has been at it happily for eight and a half years. She is a custo-dian at the Harrison School of Pharmacy and gets the majority of her work done be-fore most students are even awake.

“When they � rst put us on the � rst shift, it kind of stressed us out, trying to get stu¢ done before 7:30,” Spencer said.

But she said she is now accus-tomed to waking up early and gets her work done on time with no problem.

Since she’s constantly moving throughout the building all day, interaction with people is inevi-table. She said this is her favorite part about her job.

“(I like) the people, you know—talking with them, joking with them, laughing with them, and

sharing things with them,” Spen-cer said.

Spencer lives in Auburn with her two dogs, a shih tzu and a Yor-kie. She has three adult daugh-ters.

Her free time at home is spent either catching up on sleep, fur-thering her education or working on side projects.

“Well, I’m taking an online course, and then I’m a seamstress,

and then I’m trying to take back up knitting,” Spencer said, “I used to do it when I was re-ally small, and I’m try-ing to get back into it.”

She even plans to start a seamstress business, but it is still in the works.

She does, however, have a separate clean-ing business.

“Most of the time when I wake up ( from my afternoon nap), I’ll just run over there and do them,” Spencer said. “And that just de-pends on when I wake up, you know. Most of them close at 5, so anytime after 5.”

On the weekends she will sew or try to knit something. She said she is trying to

learn embroidery. She also spends time working

on her online course.“I’m just taking (the course) to

sharpen up my skills,” Spencer said.

While her sleep schedule may not be that of a typical adult in the workforce, Spencer and her labor cannot be overlooked in the pristine halls of the Harrison School of Pharmacy.

THE LIFE OFA DAY IN

KAREN SPENCER

LINDSAY RIFE / ASSOCIATE INTRIGUE EDITOR

On a typical work day, Karen Spencer keeps the halls of the pharmacy building clean by day and sews and spends time with her dogs by night.

Kala BoltonWRITER

Every Friday night about 20 students meet in Haley 3223/3233 to kick back, re-lax and play video games.

“People do give a lot of ́ack to these kinds of clubs

just because they feel like it’s not important or any-thing, but honestly this is one of the greatest ways to unwind,” said Stephen Du-frene, junior in actuarial sci-ence and president of the Computer Gaming Club.

Open to all, the club’s weekly meetings involve playing video games through the night with a short break around 9 p.m. reserved for announce-ments.

“It’s a place for people to come in and relax at the end of the week,” said Kathleen Smith, graduate student in technical and professional communications. “Noth-ing is a better catharsis than shooting people in the head.”

Members of the club meet at 7 p.m. each Friday, and many stay as late as 3 a.m.

“We actually have the room reserved all weekend,” Smith said. “� ere was one time where everybody went to get breakfast and came back to the room and con-tinued to play video games.”

Because meetings are lo-cated in a computer lab, members do not have to bring any equipment. A

portion of the club’s funds also goes towards buying games that can be accessed by each member.

“All of the computers are connected, and we have Steam accounts,” Smith said. “Steam is basically this program that lets you download copies of games. All the computers have this program on them, and the club has paid for all of the games we have available.”

Members of the group can play any game they want, either individually or with larger groups.

With a laid back, fun at-mosphere, there is no agen-da when the group meets. � ey just go with the ́ow.

“We play all night and all morning,” said Chris Erb, ju-nior in electrical engineer-ing. “Someone picks a game, and if there’s enough laugh-ter and excitement, then people just start gravitating toward that one.”

But the club’s focus is not restricted to computer games.

“Sometimes we have a person bring in a console and put it in the projector,” Erb said.

Members said they play anything from brand new Xbox games to old-school Nintendo 64.

“I think that’s one of our specialties,” Smith said. “We do a lot of classic games.”

� e club also sponsors a number of campus-wide

events throughout the year. � e largest, TigerLAN,

will be held in early April in the Student Center Ball-room.

“TigerLAN is our big LAN party we have every semes-ter,” Smith said. “People bring in their computers, and they have LAN where they all hook up together. We have a ton of consoles so we can have tournaments.”

Another tournament with a focus on � ghting games is in the works.

“� ere are a lot of people who play not necessarily computer games, but � ght-ing games on consoles,” said Luke Rester, fresh-man in math. “So I � gured it would be a good thing for the Computer Gaming Club to do a � ghting game

tournament to show that we do all kinds of things, not just PC games.”

Rester said the tourna-ment games include Super Street Fighter IV, Tekken 6, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

� e tournament will be held in early March.

“It’s a good way for people to start getting into � ghting games in general,” Rester said. “New � ghting games are coming out this year. � at way people can jump into them and be able to get good at them without being totally outclassed because people have been playing them for 10 years.”

Besides the passion they have for gaming, the social aspects of the club are what many members said drew them in.

“It’s a social activ-ity,” Rester said. “� at’s the thing—you’re pretty much coming here to hang out with people.”

As the public relations chair, Smith said she wants to promote a more positive image of the club.

“With the advent of the Internet, gaming has be-come so socialized, but there’s still that stigma of people playing in their basements sitting alone or that stigma of if you play a violent video game, you’re

going to be a violent per-son,” Smith said. “I want to bring people in and let them see how great this program really is.”

By promoting a more pos-itive image of the group, Du-frene said he hopes others will set aside the negative stereotypes many people may have of “gamers” and be encouraged to come see what the club is really like.

“We’re all a very close-knit group, and we all know each other very well,” Du-frene said. “We all share a common interest, and this is a great place to enjoy it. � is is one of the most so-cial clubs you’re going to � nd.”


For the � rst time since 2005, Auburn’s website has gotten a makeover.

Most of the navigational structure for the website is the same, but the most no-ticeable changes are the vi-sual aspects of the site.

“We felt that people were comfortable with the way things were placed before,” said Mike Clardy, director of communications. “� ey knew where things were, and they were used to things being in a certain place.”

� e major change is the presentation of the website,

including the two top sec-tions: the featured story sec-tion and the “Take 5” sec-tion.

“We’ll take a story and take it from just a plain, ́at news release and try to

bring some life to it,” Clardy said. “We try to add some video, interviews and lots of photographs. It’s more of a multimedia experience than just a news release. In this day and age you’ve got to do more for a reader than just give them a written sto-ry.”

� e featured stories, or news feed section, rotates through the articles on its

own and will change every week.

� e “Take 5” section is a completely new aspect of the website and is meant to give website users a be-hind-the-scenes look into the people of Auburn Uni-versity.

“We kept hearing from people that, ‘I love to read news about the University, but tell me more about the people behind these sto-ries,’” Clardy said.

Clardy said parents and prospective students were particularly interested in this aspect of the website, and the section is meant to

be a fun and simple read. � e “Take 5” section will

also be updated weekly and consists of � ve questions that feature a di¢ erent per-son every week.

“It’s going to be a wide va-riety of people—people you have heard of and people you haven’t heard of,” Clardy said.

Seth Humphrey, the web-master and designer of the website, said websites should evolve with both the audience and the technol-ogy.

“One of the reasons I wanted to redo it was the technical aspects behind

the scenes,” Humphrey said. “I wanted to get the code up to date with the latest and greatest.”

One advantage of the new coding is the website is now more accessible for mobile devices.

Clardy said the major fo-cus of the change was to give Auburn a better op-portunity to tell the stories it wants to tell by bringing them to life visually.

An additional motiva-tion for the website change was to create a site that was more accessible for people who are hearing and visu-ally impaired.

Also, the new website fea-tures a footer that is cus-tomizable by each depart-ment.

Megan Lacy, freshman in animal science, said she is still in the process of getting used to the new website.

“Honestly, I prefer the old website to this one,” Lacy said. “It’s a lot harder for me to locate the links that I need to access for my class-es.”

Lacy said she has noticed some issues with broken links or sections of the web-site being inaccessible be-cause of the maintenance associated with the update.

New University website was a year in the making

TIM SIMPSON / PHOTO STAFF

Brett Bayley enjoys a victory in TF2 at the Computer Gaming Club meeting Friday night. He and his peers have a passion for socializing over video games.

Computer gamers play into wee hours of the morning

“It’s a place for people to come in and relax at the end of the week. Nothing is a better catharsis than shooting people in the head.”

—Kathleen SmithGRADUATE STUDENT IN TECHNICAL

AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATIONS

� ursday, February 3, 2011 www.theplainsman.com Intrigue

C5Wasting TimeWasting TimeWasting TimeWasting TimeCROSSWORD PUZZLE

OCTO

CRYPTO

SUDOKU

ACROSS 1. Worker’s incentive 6. Gush forth 11. Noisy bird 14. Coliseum 15. Rich cake 16. Juice-based drink 17. Tylenol rival 18. Moore or Ebert 19. Web su� x 20. Far East nannies 22. Sports page datum 24. Jam-packed 28. Corned beef on rye 29. Hold 30. Beatle drummer 32. Walkman’s successor 33. Not with-it 35. Baldwin of � lms 39. Canasta play 40. Friction easer 41. Chaucer o� ering 42. “Vogue” rival 43. Ship of 1492 45. Footnote abbr. 46. Approaches 48. Give, as time 50. Groupie welcome 53. Did the walls 54. Parka features 55. Cruise port 57. 4-wheel drive feature 58. Small combos 60. Filled with cargo 65. Part of TGIF 66. Deserves 67. “Phantom of the __”

68. Beige 69. Ms. Witherspoon 70. Super-duper

DOWN 1. Ewe’s plaint 2. Law (abbr.) 3. Comstock Lode st. 4. Pre� x for form 5. Deli staple 6. Fine violin 7. Piglet’s friend 8. Assns. 9. Navaho foe 10. Less long-winded 11. John __ Astor 12. Light incense to 13. Gulf nation 21. PC list 23. Remedial 24. Legal o� ense 25. Drive back 26. Ring-shaped reef 27. Infuriated

28. Hit sharply 30. Climbs a rope 31. Arcade foul 34. Pinot __ (red wine) 36. Repair-bill item 37. High society 38. Yielded territory 43. Ms. Shriver of tennis 44. Arkin or Bede 47. Kind of lily 49. Novel closer 50. Elevator opening 51. Mongoose prey 52. Gymnast’s stickum 53. No longer trendy 55. Swampy ground 56. Atom fragments 59. Funny Charlotte __ 61. IRS month 62. Actress __ Wallace-

Stone 63. Distinct period 64. __ King Cole

Instructions

1. Place the numbers 1 to 8 in each of the octagons such

that the numbers are not repeated in any row, column or diagonal.

2. � e numbers along the edges, top and bottom are

the sums for the numbers in the diagonal that begins or ends at that number.

3. � e number in each diamond is the sum of the

numbers of each of the four faces that border that diamond. � e numbers that border the dia-monds do not have to be unique.

4. 54 numbers are provided in this Octo

© 2009, Doug GardnerPatent Pending

HOROSCOPES Written byLindsay Rife and Kelly Tsaltas / Intrigue

Leo: You may feel a rain drop on your arm today. But it’s sunny. Looks like you were mistaken.

Pisces: Stumbleupon.com will provide you with a new hobby. So click away!

Scorpio: Your friends may party today and not invite you. Crash it.

Taurus: Check your back for your backpack. You probably need that for class.

Aquarius: If you live in the Village, don’t drink milk after dark. It will bring you bad luck.

Cancer: Don’t forget —tomorrow is Fried Chicken Friday!!!

Libra: Textbooks make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside today. Or maybe it’s that hot chocolate you just drank.

Capricorn: Start a sing-along in the middle of the concourse. Whether people join or not, keep on singin’!

Aries: � e middle of your English lecture is a great time for a game of Duck Duck Goose. Your professor won’t mind.

Sagittarius: If you trip, just start running. After you get back up.

Gemini: Stay up all night just to see if you can.

Virgo: Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart, the more you eat, the more you....will need a bottle of Tums.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH SCRAMBLERClue 1: T O Y C B T O Clue 4: V E Y R S A L

Clue 2: C A P A N Clue 5: T O H U S

Clue 3: I G R H T S Bonus: Use circles to solve

Answers tolast issue’scrossword

Check www.theplainsman.com for the answers. For more OCTOs, go to home.comcast.net~douglasdgardner/site

3 6 4 9 2

6

1 3 4

6 7 3

8 6 4 1

9 7 4

4 9 8

2

5 4 8 7 9

Answers tolast issue’s

puzzle

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

2 12 8 11 16

At the top there is a KEY that lists all the letters from A thru Z with a box below. Each of the letters has a corresponding number. � e bottom part contains a secret phrase. Each of the blanks has a number underneath it. Fill in the letters that correspond to the numbers below the blanks to solve the phrase.

…

15 11 26 23 25 12 5 5 5 4 2 17 17 19 2 14 12 26 11 17 2 20 2 3 25 8 1 23 8 26 23

, …

13 4 12 24 25 12 12 1 11 19 11 24 5 21 12 12 15 4 11 25 11 24 13 4 12 21 25 12 5 5

1 7 3 8 6 2 9 4 5

8 5 4 1 3 9 2 7 6

6 9 2 4 7 5 3 1 8

2 1 7 6 8 3 5 9 4

3 8 6 5 9 4 1 2 7

5 4 9 2 1 7 6 8 3

9 3 8 7 5 1 4 6 2

4 6 5 9 2 8 7 3 1

7 2 1 3 4 6 8 5 9

—U.S. Constitution


Kelly TsaltasASSISTANT INTRIGUE EDITOR

Popular entertainment in America consists of movies with warm, fuzzy endings, country and rap music and singers that make billboard.com’s Hot 100 list.

Other countries have di� erent standards for what is popular in music and movies.

Lourdes Batanzos, pro-fessor of Spanish and Latin American theatre, said about Spanish mov-ies, “Drama is particularly popular, especially relating to social issues and politi-cal issues.”

With the Oscars coming up soon, Batanzos men-tioned Spain has a similar awards show known as Premios Goya.

� e Goya award is “the equivalent of an Oscar in Spain,” Batanzos said.

Germany also has an Oscar-esque Ceremony called Berlinale, an Inter-national Film Festival that takes place in Berlin every year.

“� e bear is the icon of Berlin, so the trophies are

a golden bear or a silver bear,” said Traci O’Brien, German professor.

“Das Leben der An-deren,” or “� e Lives of Others,” is a German ¤ lm that crossed into American culture when it received the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2007.

China’s ¤ lms, on the oth-er hand, have typically not been recognized in Ameri-ca.

Qing Wang, a GTA from Shandong Province in China, said the main dif-ference between Ameri-can and Chinese movies is that, “in China, we don’t spend so much money to create a movie.”

� e most famous movie in China this year, Wang said, was “Rang Zidan Fei,” or “Let the Bullets Fly,” which made 9 million U.S. dollars in the Chinese box oª ce.

“� e most famous mov-ies this year are all action movies,” Wang said.

Some of the most well-known Chinese celebri-ties are singers as well as actors, Wang said. Zhou Jie Lun, who played Seth

Rogan’s sidekick in the re-cent American ¤ lm “Green Hornet,” is a famous ac-tor, singer and musician in China.

Many German bands are popular in America, such as pop rock band To-kio Hotel and rock band Rammstein.

“Everybody knows Ram-mstein,” O’Brien said. “� ey just had a concert in Madison Square Garden in New York in December, and it was sold out.”

Spain and Latin America both have musical genres that aren’t hugely popu-lar in America. Salsa and reggeaton, for instance, are both native to Latin Amer-ica.

“Reggeaton is a mix of hip hop and reggae and Latin music,” Batanzos said.

Batanzos said rap is also popular in Latin America and Spain, although it is more mainstream.

With the success of those few foreign enter-tainers, European and Asian entertainment is al-ready becoming popular in America.

Students create TOMS artKelly TsaltasASSISTANT INTRIGUE EDITOR

TOMS are undoubted-ly one of the most trendy shoes of the past couple of years.

Jamie Rice, sophomore in economics, took her TOMS to a whole new lev-el. She decorated her ivory TOMS with Sharpies.

“I was bored,” Rice said, “and when I get bored I draw on things.”

Song quotes cover the canvas, with lines like, “And my head told my heart, ‘Let love go’,” from the Mum-ford & Sons song “Winter Winds.” Jason Mraz’s “De-tails in the Fabric” and In-grid Michaelson’s “Keep Breathing” also have a spot on her shoes.

Rice added designs around the lyrics.

“Flowers and swirly lines are my specialty,” she said. “I’m not really an artist. I can just doodle.”

Amanda Claire Rives, junior in graphic design, added designs to her TOMS because she didn’t like their dull appearance.

“When TOMS ¤ rst came out, I kind of thought they were unattractive and looked like hospital shoes,” Rives said.

Similar to Rice, Rives’ ar-tistic instinct soon kicked in.

“� e fact that they were like a blank canvas was re-ally intriguing to me.”

As opposed to Sharpies, Rives prefers Prismacolor markers and acrylic paint. Acrylic paint stays on bet-ter, Rives said. Prismacolor Markers and Sharpies will bleed if the ink gets wet, though.

Rice’s TOMS are blurry because she walked in the rain.

“I was walking to class, and I forgot that Sharpie blurs,” she said.

Besides her TOMS, Rice doodles on almost any-thing.

“Usually just pieces of paper, but then I throw them away,” Rice said.

Rives has decorated TOMS for four of her friends and is currently waiting to do another pair.

“I really enjoy doing it,” Rives said. “I did butter-² ies, and I did ² owers on one, and another one that

I did was really random. It had stu� from words to stars to ² owers and mush-rooms—all sorts of stu� .”

When she designs for other people, Rives makes sure what she puts on their TOMS re² ect their person-ality.

Rives said she would like to combine her graphic de-sign major with her love for drawing.

“I’ve looked into the TOMS internships,” she said. “� ey have a lot of re-ally good internships, espe-cially in graphic design.”

Rives said she would also like to participate in bringing art more into so-ciety.

“I love the fact that art can be worn and can be used in such an everyday atmosphere,” Rives said, “it doesn’t have to be just on a wall.”

KELLY TSALTAS / ASSISTANT INTRIGUE EDITOR

Amanda Claire Rives’ decorates TOMS with multicolored butter² ies using Prismacolor markers.

Europe, Asia reel in Americans with entertainment culture

Molly MontgomeryWRITER

Summer vacation plans for one group of Auburn students include Milan, Florence and Venice, Italy.

� e Auburn Music De-partment will be taking a group of singers on a per-forming tour in Italy this summer.

Varna International, a music tour company, invit-ed William Powell, director of choral activities at Au-burn University, to recruit a choir for a 12-day tour of Italy.

“� ey invited me to con-duct Verdi’s ‘Requiem,”’ Powell said. “� at’s a great honor as a conductor to be invited to do that.”

Powell said the choir will be performing a piece ti-tled “Requiem Mass” by Gi-useppe Verdi.

“� e ‘Requiem Mass’ is a large, multimovement work, and it is considered to be one of the greatest requi-ems and greatest works to be written and performed,” Powell said.

Another part of Powell’s responsibility was to or-ganize rehearsals for the group.

Powell said students in the music department were

invited to go on the trip through an open applica-tion process, and there will be both choir and orchestra members going to Italy.

“Every Tuesday and � ursday we practice Ver-di’s ‘Requiem,’” said Caro-lann Johnson, sophomore in Spanish who sings in the chamber choir. “We’re giv-ing a performance of it here in Auburn so that we can be ready to perform it in Italy.”

Powell said singers from various choirs are going to Italy from Auburn’s Music Department, not just one choir.

“All of the choirs will be represented,” Powell said. “It’s a combination of stu-dents from each of our sev-en choirs.”

Powell said students go-ing on the trip will be pay-ing their own way, and some students are participating in fundraisers.

“We just got done with our hot chocolate sale,” said Rachel Niedzwiecki, junior in music education. “It went pretty well.”

Niedzwiecki and Johnson are the fundraising coordi-nators for the choral group.

Niedzwiecki also said there will be more fundrais-ing activities throughout

the semester.“Our next big thing is

going to be singing grams which will be for Valentine’s Day,” Johnson said. “Some-body can give us the number of someone they want us to sing to, and we’ll leave them a voice mail of a cheesy Val-entine’s love song.”

Johnson said all the pro-ceeds from the fundrais-ing will go toward lowering costs for students in the group.

“It’s just a fun, creative way to get some cash for It-aly,” Johnson said.

Powell said the group will visit ¤ ve cities in Italy, per-forming at venues in each.

� e group will also have time to do some sightseeing in each of the cities.

“We will be there from June 28 through July 10,” Powell said.

For most of the choir stu-dents, a trip to Italy is a once in a lifetime experience.

“I’ve never been out of the country,” Niedwiecki said. “So I’m really looking for-ward to exploring Italy.”

Johnson said the musical history is intriguing to her.

“I’m really excited to see an Italian opera in an au-thentic Italian opera house,” Johnson said.

Choir says, ‘Ciao!’ to ItalyKELLY TSALTAS / ASSISTANT INTRIGUE EDITOR

William Powell conducts Verdi’s “Requiem” during a rehearsal with the AU choirs.

� ursday, February 3, 2011 www.theplainsman.com Page D1

DSports

Brian WoodhamASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

A more than yearlong en-deavor ended Wednesday, National Signing Day, as the � nishing touches were put on coach Gene Chizik’s third highly-ranked recruit-ing class.

“� e bottom line is is you always look for what your needs are,” Chizik said. “We’re just looking for the right � t; we’re looking for the right guy. We’re just looking for the right � t for Auburn.”

Chizik said he felt the 2011 recruiting class successfully addressed

Auburn’s positions of need, focusing on the o� ensive and defensive lines, the defensive secondary and quarterback.

Chizik said this class is another brick in the foun-dation of what he wants to build and is moving Auburn football in the right direc-tion.

Signing day had its share of drama as four prospects decided on which school they would attend.

� e biggest and most dramatic surprise was the announcement by rivals.com � ve-star o� ensive tackle Cyrus Kouandjio’s

announcement that he would sign with Auburn in-stead of the Crimson Tide, the school that Kouandjio’s brother, Arie, attends.

� e Tigers are still wait-ing to receive Kouandjio’s binding letter of intent. As such, Chizik declined to discuss his status.

Auburn also landed the commitments of rivals.com four-star o� ensive linemen Christian Westerman, Greg Robinson and Reese Dis-mukes, who is already en-rolled in classes at Auburn.

Chizik said the ability of o� ensive line recruits to play early was a major fac-tor in deciding who to re-cruit.

Four-star cornerback Jonathan Rose and three-star o� ensive lineman � omas O’Reilly join Dis-mukes as early enrollees.

� e Tigers also picked up a big commitment from ri-vals.com four-star defensive

tackle Gabe Wright, who made his announcement live on ESPN by putting on an Auburn hat custom-ized with the phrase, “Nick Who?” a reference to NFL-bound defensive tackle Nick Fairley.

Chizik said he thinks that Wright is a player who can come in and contribute im-mediately.

“We feel like we built a great relationship with him,” Chizik said. “I feel like in his heart of hearts he was Auburn through and through.”

Auburn also secured

Equestrian preview» PAGE D3

Basketball preview» PAGE D4

National Signing Day 2011National Signing Day 2011National Signing Day 2011National Signing Day 2011National Signing Day 2011National Signing Day 2011

Chizik talks new recruits, optimism for next season

AUBURN’S RECRUITS

Recruits in Review

TODD VAN EMST / AUBURN MEDIA RELATIONS

Auburn coach Gene Chizik talks to Kiehl Frazier after Frazier sent in his letter of intent to play football at Auburn.

Chizik chats with signees


Head coach Gene Chizik stands next to the BCS Champion-ship trophy as he discusses signing day commitments.

» See PRESSER, D2

POSITION: OL

HOMETOWN: Hyattsville, Md.

PREVIOUS SCHOOL:

Dematha Catholic

HEIGHT: 6’7”

WEIGHT: 295 lbs

POSITION: ATH

HOMETOWN: Matthews, S.C.

PREVIOUS SCHOOL:

Butler

HEIGHT: 6’2”

WEIGHT: 215 lbs

POSITION: DT

HOMETOWN: Columbus, Ga.

PREVIOUS SCHOOL:

Carver

HEIGHT: 6’4”

WEIGHT: 310 lbs

CYRUS KOUANDJIOFROM TIDESPORTS.COM

KRIS FROSTFROM AUBURNSPORTS.COM

GABE WRIGHTFROM BLEACHERREOPRT.COM

POSITION: OL

HOMETOWN: Chandler, Ariz.

PREVIOUS SCHOOL:

Hamilton

HEIGHT: 6’5”

WEIGHT: 285 lbs

POSITION: QB

HOMETOWN: Springdale, Ark.

PREVIOUS SCHOOL:

Shiloh Christian

HEIGHT: 6’3”

WEIGHT: 210 lbs

POSITION: OL

HOMETOWN: Thibodaux, La.

PREVIOUS SCHOOL:

Thibodaux

HEIGHT: 6’5”

WEIGHT: 305 lbs

CHRISTIAN WESTERMANFROM BLEACHERREPORT.COM

KIEHL FRAZIERFROM SCOUT.COM

GREGORY ROBINSONFROM AUBURNSPORTS.COM

POSITION: C

HOMETOWN: Spanish Fort

PREVIOUS SCHOOL:

Spanish Fort

HEIGHT: 6’3”

WEIGHT: 290 lbs

POSITION: S

HOMETOWN: Valley

PREVIOUS SCHOOL:

Valley

HEIGHT: 6’2”

WEIGHT: 190 lbs

POSITION: RB

HOMETOWN: Lake Worth, Fla.

PREVIOUS SCHOOL:

Park Vista

HEIGHT: 5’10”

WEIGHT: 190 lbs

REESE DISMUKESFROM AL.COM

ERIQUE FLORENCEFROM AUBURNSPORTS.COM

TRE MASONFROM AUBURNSPORTS.COM

Sports D2 The Auburn Plainsman � ursday, February 3, 2011

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Destiny BrownWRITER

� e Circuit with a Twist class at the Student Activity Center includes an hour of intense cardio and weight exercises.

Stations are numbered with orange laminated signs and set up around room 207A of the Student Act.

“� is is my second time attending this class,” said Laura Maples, an Auburn graduate student with a ma-jor in library media. “My fa-vorite thing about the class is its variety. You’re always switching between cardio and weights so it doesn’t get boring.”

Maples has attended many classes o¡ ered at the Student Act, such as kickboxing and Zumba. However, she said Circuit with a Twist is the most

challenging class she’s par-ticipated in.

“You get a total body workout with Circuit with a Twist,” said Ragen Heart, ju-nior in exercise science and personal trainer at the Stu-dent Activity Center. “Cir-cuit with a Twist is more exciting because it includes dancing as part of the car-dio. I think that’s one thing the students really like about it.”

� e circuit class is al-ready a huge hit on campus.

� e class usually only al-lows 20 people; however, the class was forced to ex-pand by a few people be-cause of the multitude of students who wanted to at-tend.

“I’ve had to turn people away because the class was too full,” said Melissa Link, trainer for the � ursday night class.

Link has been teach-ing exercise classes for two years and recently began leading Circuit with a Twist for the Student Act.

“� e class is most crowd-ed on Monday and Tuesday nights because everyone who attends feels like they need to burn o¡ what they gained from the weekend,” Link said.

� e class participates in one and half minutes of fun dancing to warm up. � e warm-up dance incor-porates fast side-stepping, shoulder rolls and a series of lunges.

Next comes the hour of intense cardio and weight training.

Only ̈ve minutes into the class and the partici-pants are out of breath, yet they push themselves hard-er on the Power Towers and lift that extra 10 pounds of

weights to meet their goals for the class.

Brightly colored exer-cise balls, weights that vary from ̈ve to 20 pounds and machines that are dedicat-ed to improve muscle mass are all a part of Circuit with a Twist.

Class adds twist to working out

Jenna MoranASSOCIATE COPY EDITOR

� e NCAA is issuing a new standard for college baseball bats this season. � e new “Ball-Bat Coeª -cient of Restitution” (BB-COR) standard became ef-fective Jan. 1.

According to the NCAA website, the new BBCOR formula provides a better measure of a bat’s perfor-mance.

� e goal is for nonwood bats that meet this new standard to perform more similarly to wood bats in-stead of aluminum bats.

� e new standard was is-sued to regulate the ball’s speed after contacting the bat, which will reduce the number of injuries caused to pitchers.

Auburn head coach John Pawlowski said the team received the new bats in the fall in preparation for the season.

“� ere’s de ̈nitely a dif-ference,” Pawlowski said. “� e ball doesn’t come o¡ the bat as fast.”

Pawlowski said the new bats will allow pitchers more time to react to the ball.

Georgia Tech assistant coach Rick Rembielak worked with the sporting equipment manufactur-ing company Easton for 11 years.

“� e NCAA had told us, ‘Whatever you want, you can manufacture,’” Rem-bielak said. “So we real-ized we can make a di¡ er-ent kind of bat to improve safety.”

Rembielak said he be-lieves the emphasis is now going to be put on defense to win games since the number of both home runs and runs will decrease with the new bats.

“You’re not going to have

those 15–13 games as of-ten,” Rembielak said.

� e average number of runs scored per game have increased slightly through recent years; there was an average of 6.57 runs per game in 2008, 6.88 in 2009 and 6.98 in 2010.

� e NCAA rules commit-tee believes this increase in o¡ ensive performance is the result of the kinds of bats that have been used in past years, according to the NCAA website.

Pawlowski said his play-ers enjoyed using last year’s bats since the ball came o¡ the bat much easier.

“But (the new bat) is what we have to use, so we have to be prepared,” Paw-lowski said. “O¡ ense for all of college baseball will not be where it was at last season. It’s an adjustment period, so it’s going to take a little while, but we’ve al-ready started to make ad-justments.”

� e NCAA has declared they will incorporate a logo to be placed on every ap-proved bat design so um-pires can easily identify them.

Many college base-ball coaches have argued against the new bat stan-dards.

“� e argument that was going on was that college baseball has increased its attendance year by year be-cause the fans want to see runs; they want to see the action,” Rembielak said. “TV sponsorships have been increasing because people want to see action and not a 1–0 game.

“And many coaches are saying, ‘Well, why ̈x some-thing that isn’t broken?’ � ey don’t think there is a major injury factor.”

But Rembielak is con ̈-dent the switch in bat stan-dards will not disrupt the game.

“College baseball is al-ways going to be college baseball,” Rembielak said. “� ere will still be enough action for the fans.”

Pawlowski said he agrees the switch will do little to disturb the game.

“It’ll be interesting to see the true e¡ ect that the bats will have on the game this season,” Pawlowski said.


Circuit with a Twist instructor Ahaja Scott leads the group in cardio-dance exercises in between each station.

“My favorite thing about the class is its variety. You’re always switching between cardio and weights so it doesn’t get boring.”

—Laura Maples,GRADUATE STUDENT, LIBRARY MEDIA

New baseball bats add weight, deduct o ense

It has been said recruiting is the lifeblood of every program, and the same holds true for Auburn.

� e stakes don’t get much higher, as tal-ent translates to wins, which translates to big bucks. (Auburn will likely reap upwards of $100 million from its national champi-onship season.)

Even while the Tigers were busy prepar-ing for their showdown against Oregon in the BCS National Championship game, the coaches couldn’t rest on the recruiting front.

While in Glendale, coach Gene Chizik made a trip to Chandler, Ariz., for an in-home visit with four-star o¡ ensive lineman Christian Westerman, attempting to sway the long-time Texas Longhorn commit-ment to Auburn.

It worked, as Westerman switched, join-ing the Tigers’ 2011 recruiting class.

Such is the hectic, 365-day-a-year face of college football recruiting.

It’s also a yearlong obsession for fans, as thousands shell out money to premium sites, such rivals.com or scout.com, so they can follow every twist and turn in an 18-year old’s recruitment.

Some even go so far as to follow recruits on Facebook or Twitter, reposting to their message board of choice every morsel that might hint at the prospects’ intentions.

� e whole process culminates on na-tional signing day, when highly-prized, blue-chip prospects announce for which college they will spend the next three or four years playing.

Sunday marked the last day that coaches

could contact prospects, with the NCAA mandated no-contact period beginning Monday at midnight.

Since then, many recruitniks have jumped like ½ eas onto the mane of every passing rumor.

One recruitnik who goes by the handle AUVTM and attended the signing day par-ty at Zazu for rivals.com’s message board community, the Bunker, expressed how big recruiting has become for football fanatics.

“I don’t take Christmas o¡ , I don’t take New Year’s, but I take national signing day.”

Graham Hage, owner of Zazu, said he foresees the national signing day party be-coming an annual event.

“I think it will only get bigger and better next year,” Hage said. “Mark your calen-dars.”

� e enormity of the day was never more apparent than when the top-ranked o¡ en-sive tackle in the nation, ̈ve-star Cyrus Kouandjio spurned Alabama by announc-ing his commitment to archrival Auburn.

At Zazu, recruitniks jumped in the air, shouted “BOOM!” and gave each other high ̈ves after Kouandjio’s announcement.

However, the excitement was short-lived and the high ̈ves turned into hand wring-ing as the news came out that Kouandjio had not faxed in his letter of intent and was wavering on his public commitment to Au-burn.

What is often lost on many recruitniks is that the prospects are only high school-ers who haven’t even attended their senior proms yet.

� ese kids are often under tremendous pressure from parents, guardians, commu-nities and football fanatics to choose a cer-tain school.

� ere is no place of refuge. For a high school senior just choosing a college to attend, the stakes and the consequences couldn’t get much higher.

Brian [email protected]

Brian [email protected]

Signing day’s high stakes

PRESSER» From D1

the commitment of rivals.com four-star safety Er-ique Florence, who chose Auburn over o¡ ers from Southern California and Alabama.

Chizik said he thinks Florence brings great speed to Auburn’s secondary and will do well there.

� e Tigers signed Ar-kansas native and rivals.com four-star Kiehl Frazier

to ̈ ll the need at quarter-back.

Frazier played high school football at Shiloh Christian, where he ran o¡ ensive coordinator Gus Malzahn’s o¡ ense.

Frazier’s experience in Malzahn’s system make him a candidate to contrib-ute early for the Tigers.

Chizik said Frazier has been one of the biggest re-cruiters for Auburn this year.

“He’s one of the heart and souls of this class,”

Chizik said.� e Tigers also secured

the commitment of versa-tile athlete Kris Frost, who has the ability to play both the wide receiver and line-backer positions.

Frost announced his intentions to sign with Auburn at the U.S. Army All-American game in Jan-uary, but there were doubts whether the Tigers would accept his commitment.

“We just had to make sure we were all on the same page,” Chizik said.

� ursday, February 3, 2011 The Auburn Plainsman Sports D3

OFFICIAL CHAMPIONSHIP

GEAR

Jade CurridWRITER

After defeating UT-Mar-tin in the opening meet of the spring season, the No. 2 Auburn equestrian team is preparing to ride in a crucial away meet against Georgia.

� e Tigers’ match against their No. 1 rival determines team ranking and which teams will compete in the SEC Championship.

Coach Greg Williams said winning on the road is par-ticularly hard, and since the Bulldogs have one of the best equestrian programs, his team will have its work cut out for them.

Williams said intensity is

a key component of prepa-ration for the match against Georgia.

“Our girls probably look forward to this meet more than the others,” Williams said. “We will have to take a victory from UGA at their place because they sure won’t just give us one.”

Williams said his team is looking for a win with solid rides in Hunt seat and West-ern.

� e Tigers knocked Geor-gia out of the saddle with a 13–6 win at the Auburn Horse Unit in the fall.

� e Tigers are hoping to claim their £ rst win on Georgia territory at the

upcoming meet.“It will be a tough one for

us, but we will bring our ‘A’ game and will be ready for anything,” said Stephanie Rucci, a freshman who com-petes in Western reining.

Rucci earned MVP at the meet against UT-Martin and said the team morale helped them win reining that day.

Bailey Dymond, senior who competes in Western horsemanship, said the team is riding tough horses, incorporating conditioning and strengthening practices and reviewing videos, score cards and judges’ comments in preparation for the meet.

Dymond said the team is always working to ride bet-ter and smarter.

“We go in with a plan for which horse we draw,” Dy-mond said. “We see if we can get that much more out of the horse than the last rider.”

Dymond said it helps the team is familiar with Geor-gia’s horses and riders.

“We’re coming stronger this year,” Dymond said. “If they want a good meet, they’ll have to bring it.”

Anna Schierholz, senior who competes in Hunt seat equitation over fences, said the team needs must be as mentally prepared as

possible to secure a win.Schierholz said she and

her teammates will ride hard and participate in workouts that test their mental and physical limits during the next few weeks.

“� e workouts make us mentally tough,” Schierholz said.

Schierholz said the team will be prepared to beat the Bulldogs if they continue to compete with the inten-sity they had in the previous meets.

“Tennesse-Martin was a tough win for us, and showed how much we rely on one another,” Schierholz said. “If we go into the next

meet with the same mental-ity, we’ll be prepared to beat them.”

Schierholz said during her time at Auburn, the team has won the National Hunt Seat Championships and the SEC Champion-ships, and she would like a victory at Georgia to be add-ed to the list.

She said a win on the Bulldog’s territory would be an accomplishment she and her fellow senior teammates would always remember.

Auburn’s equestrian team saddles up for a showdown with the Georgia Bulldogs Feb. 12 in Bishop, Ga., at 1 p.m.

Auburn returns home to meet WildcatsREBEKAH WEAVER / ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

Auburn gymnast Leah Vining catches the bar during her routine. She received a career-high score of 9.825 for the event. Auburn currently has a 1–2 record in SEC meets.

Christina SanteeWRITER

� e Auburn gymnastics team is prepared to com-pete against the Kentucky Wildcats at the Auburn Are-na Friday at 7 p.m.

� e meet will feature the theme “All Auburn, All Or-ange” for the duration of the evening, where all attendees are encouraged to wear or-ange.

Auburn faculty and sta± members, as well as el-ementary school students who possess a voucher, will receive free admission with a valid ID.

� e Auburn Tigers en-ter Friday’s meet with one

victory and three losses for the beginning of the season.

“I think it will be real-ly good,” said sophomore Petrina Yokay of her team’s upcoming event.

� e gymnasts hope this competition will be the one to get them back on an ideal performance routine.

“Kentucky is an SEC team, which means it will be a high-energy meet,” Yo-kay said. “We keep progress-ing, so I think with the home crowd we’ll do really well.”

Currently, Auburn is rep-resented in the Women’s Gymnastics National Top-25 Rankings for individual performances.

Kylie Shields ranks sixth in the nation with a 9.850 for balance beam, and Ra-chel Inniss ranks 13th with a 9.838 for the same cat-egory as well as 16th with a 9.856 for ³ oor.

Kentucky (2–3, 0–3 SEC) also holds two positions in the ³ oor category—Andrea Mitchell with an average of 9.844 at No. 22 and Jasmine Minion with an average of 9.844 at No. 23.

Whitney Rose secures a position in the vault catego-ry at No. 13 with an average of 9.869.

Auburn holds the No. 22 position for the total season team average rankings with

a score of 194.419. Kentucky is not repre-

sented on the list. However, based on the av-

erages for uneven bars, Ken-tucky ranks one position ahead of Auburn (48.706) at No. 21 with a mean of 48.731.

� e Wildcats also hold the No. 5 position for ³ oor, with a team average of 48.963.

Auburn is not ranked for ³ oor, but does hold the No. 6 position for balance beam, with a team average of 48.825.

Kentucky has also con-tended with both Arkansas and Georgia this season,

teams to which Auburn lost. Against Georgia, Auburn

su± ered a loss, with a £ nal score of 194.975 compared to Kentucky’s loss, with 195.000.

Against Arkansas, Ken-tucky lost with a score of 193.525, a 1.625-point di± er-ence compared to Auburn’s losing total of 195.150.

� ough many of the girls on the team are new this year, coach Je± Graba said he is certain they have the determination and capabil-ity to ful£ ll the Tiger’s hopes of a successful season.

“I think it’s a consistency issue, but we’ll get it £ g-ured out,” Graba said. “Right

now, since we have another (meet) at home, and we’re not on the road, the nice thing is we get to mimic our last performance and focus on tweaking it.”

Although Auburn gym-nastics su± ered another loss last week to Arkansas, the team hopes to improve on their routines.

“I build o± of each meet,” said sophomore Toi Garcia.

Friday, Auburn will be facing a team similar to its own, so the event will sure-ly be a stressful one for the girls.

“I just try and have fun and stay calm,” Garcia said. “� at’s really all it takes.”

Tigers face the Bulldogs in crucial SEC equestrian meet


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Crystal ColeSPORTS EDITOR

After cementing its � rst SEC win on the road at South Carolina Saturday, the men’s basketball team hopes to continue its suc-cess at home against Ten-nessee � ursday.

� e Volunteers (14–7, 4–2 SEC) are also coming o� an SEC road win, beating Ole Miss 74–58 in Oxford.

Tennessee has won four of its last � ve games and is shooting 43.8 percent from the � eld.

Auburn head coach Tony Barbee said the win Satur-day was a con� dence boost for his team.

“� e one thing we’ve done as a sta� is to stay positive because the players will feed o� of you,” Barbee said. “It’s great to get the win so they understand I’m not just making them work

and driving them without a reward at the end.”

Two Auburn players, sophomore center Rob Chubb and sophomore guard Josh Wallace, had career-highs against the Gamecocks, scoring 18 and 17 points, respectively.

After several lead chang-es in the game, the Tigers went ahead for good with about seven minutes left in the � rst half.

“Defensively, it was a key holding a really good of-fensive team to 34 percent,” Barbee said. “I am proud of the kids. It is a tough place to play against a very good team.”

Tennessee currently leads the series 69–37, but the Tigers have a 26–20 game advantage at home, winning nine of the last 11 games played in Auburn.

Auburn won the last

meeting between the two teams, coming out on top 78–77 on a Korvotney Bar-ber layup with four seconds remaining.

� e Vols had three play-ers in double-digit scoring against Ole Miss: senior center Brian Williams, ju-nior guard Scotty Hopson and junior guard Cameron Tatum.

� e game will be nation-ally televised on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. in the Auburn Arena.

� e BCS National Cham-pionship trophy will be present and fans will have an opportunity to pose with the trophy for a picture by a professional photographer.

� e � rst 1,000 fans in the door will receive a Tony Barbee bobblehead doll.

� ursday’s game will be the 2,300th game in Au-burn’s 105-year history. � e record is 1226–1072–1.

Track and � eld coach on the runEllen WeathersWRITER

Assistant track and � eld coach Scott Richardson, who has been competing in track and � eld since he was 10, said he believes his ca-reer at Auburn has been 30 years in the making.

Richardson coached for seven years at Army and for two weeks at Indiana University before answer-ing a call from Auburn head coach Ralph Spry in 2005.

“I thought he was call-ing to congratulate me, but he told me he had a job for me,” Richardson said.

Richardson initially turned down Spry’s o� er, but said it only took one visit to Auburn before he changed his mind.

“Auburn has a great his-tory of success in track and � eld,” Richardson said, “and I’ve seen that since Coach Spry has been here.

“It’s been one of the dom-inant four or � ve teams in the country.”

Since coming to Auburn, Richardson has coached four NCAA All-Americans, four USATF Junior Cham-pions and led four athletes to SEC titles, including high jumper Maya Pressley.

Pressley, sophomore in communication, was Au-burn’s � rst woman to win an SEC championship as a freshman.

She said she attributes part of her success to Rich-ardson’s down-to-earth coaching style.

“He’s very easy to talk to,” Pressley said. “If he sees you’re wanting to be suc-cessful, he’s right there by

your side.”Richardson said there

is no “typical” day when working with young people, but that is what makes it fun.

“I enjoy working with young people and young kids,” Richardson said. “You try to be there for them when they’re down and for their triumphs when they’re winning.”

Richardson said recruit-ing is another important part of the job.

“� ey (recruits) come from all across the globe,” Richardson said. “I think that’s one of the things that makes this program really special: the way our kids can unite from wher-ever they come from for the good of the team.”

Like many on the track and � eld team, Richardson is also far from home.

He grew up in Indiana, and Pressley, a Florida na-tive, said there are still some habits of the North that Richardson can’t leave behind.

“If I think it’s a nice day,” Pressley said, “he’ll wear three shirts, two jackets, gloves, a skull cap, and we’ll be like ‘Coach, why you got so many clothes on?’

“Me and my teammates,

before he comes down the stairs to practice, we’ll bet on how many clothes he’ll have on.”

Richardson said he cred-its coaches Spry and Jerry Clayton with allowing him the opportunity to come to Auburn.

� ese days, Richard-son runs more around the house than the track.

He and his wife, Carmen, once a track and � eld star herself, welcomed their � rst child, Olivia, in 2008.

Although his work week often begins with 6:30 a.m. training and ends with weekend-long competi-tions, Richardson said his main focus is still at home.

“It’s a lot of fun; it’s time away from family, but you learn that balance,” Rich-ardson said.

Tigers try to build on win TRACY GLANTZ / THE STATE / MCT

Guard Tony Neysmith shoots for two in Auburn’s 79-64 win over South Carolina Saturday.

RICHARDSON

10 LAPS WITH SCOTT

“They (recruits) come from all across the globe. I think that’s one of the things that makes this program really special: the way our kids can unite from wherever they come from for the good of the team.”

—Scott Richardson ASSISTANT COACH

� ursday, February 3, 2011 The Auburn Plainsman Sports D5

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Senior pitcher Lauren Schmalz hurls the ball during Auburn’s 8–5 win over Jacksonville.

Harrison NicholsWRITER

In her � rst season on the Plains in 2010, Shenqiua Ferguson made quite an impact.

At the 2010 SEC Out-door Track and Field Championship, Ferguson took � rst place in both the women’s 100- and 200-me-ter and helped the 4x100-meter relay team place � rst as well.

� is dominating perfor-mance helped Ferguson win 2010 SEC Female Run-ner of the Year, becoming the third Auburn woman to do so after Juliet Camp-bell (1993) and Kerron Stewart (2006, 2007). Still, the award came as quite a surprise for Ferguson.

“It was shocking be-cause I didn’t expect to re-ceive such a great award,” Ferguson said. “It’s really humbling to know that from all the many people they could have chosen from, they chose me.”

Originally from Nassau, the capital city of the Ba-hamas, Ferguson didn’t start running track until she was in high school.

“At � rst I didn’t take it very seriously, but as I started to compete against other kids in the Bahamas, my coach and I noticed

that I had a great ability to run track,” Ferguson said. “Probably in grade 10 is when I started to take it seriously.”

Ferguson planned to run for Auburn coming out of high school, but � rst spent two years at Southwest Mississippi Community College in Summit, Miss.

Her successes in Missis-sippi were a prelude to her time at Auburn.

While at SMCC, Fergu-son won the 100- and 200- meter at the 2009 NJCAA Outdoor Championships and was a 10-time All-American.

Even after two years at Southwest Mississippi Community College, Fer-guson still wanted to run track at Auburn.

“After two years at ju-nior college, I came back on a visit to Auburn, and I still felt like they had the college team that I wanted to be on,” Ferguson said.

“� ey had the family that I knew and wanted to be a part of, and that stuck with me the two years I was at junior college.”

Auburn women’s sprint-ers coach, Henry Rolle, attributes Ferguson’s suc-cess to several factors.

“She is very, very com-petitive and she has ex-perience on many levels, from World Champion-ships, the Olympics, NCAA Championships, SEC Championships,” Rolle said. “Her competitive-ness, experience and disci-pline are why she is so suc-cessful on the track.”

Ferguson’s goals for this season are much the same as in years past.

In addition to winning at the SEC and NCAA Cham-pionships, Ferguson also said she wants to do well in the World Champion-ships coming up in August in Daegu, South Korea.

But Ferguson’s long term goals are a little loftier.

“� is is my senior year, so I am trying to see if I could get a contract with Nike to run profession-ally,” Ferguson said. “I’ll still stay in Auburn and train with coach Rolle and hopefully reach my No. 1 goal of being an Olympi-an.”

Ferguson outruns competition

FERGUSON

Nick Van Der LindenASSOCIATE SPORTS WRITER

After earning its seventh trip to the NCAA Tourna-ment and � nishing the 2010 season with a 31–26 overall record, the Auburn softball team is ready to start play and improve on last year.

“� ere are a lot of upper-classmen coming back, so we have progressed really rapidly because everyone is in the ́ow and knows what to expect,” said head coach Tina Deese. “Prac-tices have been good and enjoyable because they have been bringing a lot of attention to the � eld.”

� e Tigers return seven starters and three pitchers, including senior in� elder Kyndall White.

� e Pinson native is one of four seniors on Auburn’s roster and earned Second Team All-SEC honors after hitting .356 with 14 home runs in her junior year.

White enters her senior season in Auburn’s career top 10 in slugging percent-age (seventh), triples (tied for ninth) and home runs (seventh).

Joining White as a returning starter is

sophomore in� elder Kelsey Cartwright.

Cartwright started ev-ery game while hitting .276 with three home runs, eight doubles and 17 RBI.

“Cartwright has leader-ship capabilities,” Deese said. “We have expected her to be that leader, and I think she is following very well in Kyndall’s footsteps. I also think one key factor for all of us is Jenee Loree. She has really stepped up, and I’ve really been pleased with what she is bringing to the � eld.”

Junior pitcher Loree enters the 2011 season ranked 10th in Auburn history in wins (16), tied for eighth in saves (three), seventh in strikeouts (235) and � fth in strikes per seven innings pitched (six point � ve).

Loree posted a 4–5 re-cord with a 2.22 earned run average (ERA) in 79.0 in-nings and � nished eighth in the Southeastern Con-ference in ERA and 19th in opponents batting average (.251).

Auburn has another key returning starter in junior in� elder Lauren Guzman.

Guzman currently owns

the longest streak of con-secutive starts at 116 games.

“Everyone seems really focused,” Guzman said. “At � rst I thought it was be-cause we just started, but it seems to be getting bet-ter and better. Our mental game is more there this year.”

Auburn is predicted to � nish third in the SEC West and sixth overall in the conference by coaches af-ter � nishing 11–17 in con-ference play last year.

“I think what we want to do more than anything is get to a regional, win the regional and get to the su-per regional for the � rst time,” Deese said. “I think that is a good goal for us to set right now. Of course we have Oklahoma City in our sights, but we are going to take it game-by-game. We want to win all our non-conference games and � n-ish well in the conference and see what we do at the NCAA Regional.”

Auburn opens the 2011 season at the All-Alabama Classic Tournament as they face Alabama State Feb. 12–13 at 11 a.m. in Birmingham.

Auburn ready to start season

2011 Home softball schedule [*denotes conference game]

Date Opponent Time

02/17 vs. McNeese State 5:00 p.m.

02/18 vs. Southern Miss 12:30 p.m.

vs. Campbell 3:00 p.m.

02/19 vs. Western Illinois 12:30 p.m.

02/20 vs. Western Carolina. 2:00 p.m.

02/23 vs. Georgia State 5:00 p.m.

02/25 vs. Georgia Southern 12:30 p.m.

vs. Belmont 3:00 p.m.

02/26 vs. Marshall 12:30 p.m.

02/27 vs. Middle Tennessee State 2:00 p.m.

03/08 vs. Connecticut 2:00 p.m.

vs. Florida State 5:00 p.m.

03/09 vs. Penn State 4:00 p.m.

03/18 vs. South Carolina * 6:00 p.m.



03/25 vs. Ole Miss * 6:00 p.m.

03/26 vs. Ole Miss * 1:00 p.m.

03/27 vs. Ole Miss * 1:00 p.m.

04/06 vs. Mercer 5:00 p.m.

vs. Mercer 7:00 p.m.

04/15 vs. Florida * 6:00 p.m.

04/16 vs. Florida * 1:00 p.m.

04/17 vs. Florida * 1:00 p.m.

04/20 vs. LSU * 4:00 p.m.

vs. LSU * 6:30 p.m.

04/23 vs. Mississippi Valley State 12:00 p.m.

vs. Mississippi Valley State 2:00 p.m.

04/29 vs. Georgia * 6:00 p.m.

04/30 vs. Georgia * 1:00 p.m.

05/01 vs. Georgia * 1:00 p.m.

ATHLETE QUICK HITS


Erik YaborWRITER

� e Auburn women’s basketball team (13–8, 6–2 SEC) will face one of its toughest challenges of the season Feb. 3 when they play against the Kentucky Wildcats (17–4, 6–2 SEC) in Lexington, Ky.

While the Tigers have won nine of their last 11 games, the Wildcats have been playing some of their best basketball all season and have won six straight, including wins over the Florida Gators and Van-derbilt Commodores.

� e Wildcats also easily handled the South Caro-lina Gamecocks who gave the Tigers trouble Sun-day, although the Auburn women ended with a 54–47 victory.

� e game will be pivotal in SEC play. Both the Tigers and the Wildcats are two-and-a-half games behind the conference leaders, Tennessee’s Lady Vols.

� e victor will hold sole possession of third place behind the Lady Vols and the Georgia Bulldogs.

“Kentucky is a really tough, physical team,” said sophomore Morgan Toles, fourth on the team in scor-ing with 190 points and team leader in assists with 115 on the season.

� e pressure of play-ing Kentucky in their own house only adds to the dif-© culty.

“� ey have great fan support,” said head coach Nell Fortner.

� e Wildcats have done well defending their home

turf, going 10–1 at home so far this season. Despite the huge home advantage, the Tigers have not played poorly on the road and are 4–2 in their six away games this season.

On paper, the Tigers are outmatched on both of-fense and defense.

� e Tigers are averaging 64.9 points each game, but that might not be enough to top the Wildcats, who are averaging 74.8 points each game.

Alley Smalley, the Ti-gers’ leading scorer, man-ages 11.8 points per game while Blanche Alverson, the team’s second leading scorer, averages 11.5 points per game.

� e game will take place in Rupp arena and tip-o® will be at 6 p.m.

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Pet enthusiasts stop to look at one of the pet adoption stands in front of the Auburn Arena.

Kate JonesWRITER

Coach Nell Fortner and the women’s basketball team partnered with the Lee County Humane Soci-ety, Dogpatch Ranch and Friends of Fido for Adpot-a-Pet Awareness Day be-fore Sunday’s matchup against South Carolina.

Fortner said the issue of homeless pets is close to the whole sta® ’s heart.

“We all have dogs,” Fort-ner said. “We’ve all been animal lovers for a long, long time. It’s something that I did in the WNBA when I coached with the Indiana Fever.

“I started it there with the Humane Society in In-dianapolis, and I am just glad to be able to do it here in Auburn.”

Representatives from each organization provid-ed information about pet adoption, raising aware-ness about the importance of spaying and neutering pets.

Stacey Dickson, repre-senting the no-kill cen-ter Dogpatch Ranch, said

their haven handles res-cue, adoption and spaying and neutering.

“Animals are allowed to come to our facility and either live out their natu-ral lives, or if they are not able to be adopted because of aggressions or other is-sues, we work with them on their issues, and we will just keep them with us,” Dickson said. “So we have dogs that are residents that are never going to leave us, and then we have those we adopt out.”

Based in Salem, the ranch also provides a ser-vice to elderly citizens in the area whose only com-panion is their pet.

“We adopt elderly citi-zens that we take dog food to, spay and neuter their animals and pay for their vet care so they are able to maintain their little fam-ily,” Dickson said.

Spaying and neutering animals is the perfect so-lution to animal control, Dickson said.

“Plain and simple: as many animals as we can get spayed and neutered

the better,” Dickson said.Chastyne Klingensmith,

Miss East Alabama Teen and recently-named am-bassador to Dogpatch Ranch, was also at the are-na Sunday, collecting do-nations, talking about the animals and distributing information packets about the Ranch.

Klingensmith said in all there are 8–10 million dogs put in shelters and kennels and 5–8 million are eutha-nized in kill shelters.

� e Dogpatch Ranch ranch is currently holding 40 animals and relies on donations, solicitation to pet companies and spon-sors to keep the ranch open to animals.

� e most important thing Dickson said the community could do is to have the spirit of donation.

“Just always know that whatever you have is something that we can use,” Dickson said.

Dickson added that plas-tic grocery bags, old towels and sheets and laundry de-tergent are just some of the supplies needed.

Local pet organizations gather at Auburn Arena

Tigers prep for Kentucky

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