your campus / your news

WHEEZYBABYThe Birdman Jr. releases his ninth studio album with Tha Carter IV, his first album following a year-long prison stint.

HOT AS HELLAn MSU staff member lends a helping hand at the annual bike race.READ pg. 6 READ pg. 7

wichitanWednesday

Fellow students, faculty, admin-istrators and even the mayor of Wichita Falls officially welcomed new students to MSU last Tuesday

at this year’s New Student Convo-cation ceremony in the Fain Fine Arts Theater.

Dr. Jesse Rogers, university pres-ident, reassured students that they were not there by chance. Accord-ing to Rogers, 3,800 new students applied to Midwestern for Fall

2011, but fewer than 2,500 were ac-cepted.

Tuesday’s convocation marked a rare appearance Glen Barham, may-or of Wichita Falls, was in

August 31, 2011 www.thewichitan.com

New housing project slated for 2014

MSU administrators will go be-fore the Board of Regents November to discuss building a new campus resi-dence hall.

Dr. Keith Lamb, associate vice pres-ident, and Michael Mills, director of housing, went before the Board in Au-gust to make the initial proposal. A rep-resentative of Brailsford and Dunlavey, a nationally recognized campus hous-ing authority, accompanied them.

They proposed a $15 million project that, if approved, would be completed by the Fall 2014 academic year.

They argued that demand for on-campus housing was exceeding supply.

In August, Lamb said, the occupancy rate was 103 percent. That means some potential students were turned away.

Brailsford and Dunlavey conducted a market analysis on housing with a few hundred MSU students last spring, asking how much they would pay for a certain type of room. The firm’s con-clusion: the university should build a residence hall that’s nicer than Pierce and Killingsworth, but less expensive than Sundance or Sunwatcher.

“We need to plan for our future,” said Dr. Jesse Rogers, university presi-dent. “Every time we’ve built a dorm, our enrollment has gone up.”

Since the building of Sunwatcher Village in 2003, administration has been playing catch-up, trying to meet student demand for housing. The de-

mand has grown every year, said Mills. He currently estimates housing demand at 350 beds.

“Your housing system has become a victim of its own success,” the Brails-ford and Dunlavey representative said during the meeting. “Demand in hous-ing has overcome supply.”

He said one trend at MSU is a grow-ing freshman class, which is having an unpredicted effect on housing – it’s pushing the older students out of dorms.

“The upper-class students are start-ing to move toward the off-campus apartments,” the representative said.

Given that the project is completed, Pierce and Killingsworth would be-come even more heavily occupied by freshmen.

“The upper-class students were tak-ing up more of the traditional-style beds,” the representative said. “An ini-tiative has been put in place that will reduce the number of beds that are be-ing taken away from freshmen. As a result of that, the freshmen constraints will be addressed.”

He also said to expect an increase in the number of junior and senior stu-dents who are looking for on-campus housing.

“This will be more expensive than Pierce or Killingsworth, but less expen-sive than the apartments on campus,” Mills said.

The rooms proposed to the Regents were semi-private, single- or double-occupancy quarters. Each room would have its own bathroom, but stovetops

and some other amenities would be shared with other occupants on the floor.

Room and board charges for the po-tential occupants of the residence hall would fund about $12 million of the project. MSU would need to come up with $3 million in funds to complete the building.

The prospective project also includes plans to move the housing administra-tion office into the new residence hall, freeing up space for classrooms.

“We need to use (the housing office) as academic space, and it would be more logical to have our office on the ground floor of the new residence hall,” Mills said.

BRITTNEY COTTINGHAMMANAGING EDITOR

DORM pg. 3

the

THINK FAST!

Students were pitted against one another in a dodgeball tournament last Wednesday in the Wellness Center.

Photos by Kassie BrutonIllustration by Chris Collins

English profs say no more D’s in classes

As part of a new policy adopted by MSU this semester, a ‘D’ will no longer be accepted as a passing grade for stu-dents who take freshman English.

The policy was approved last spring after the Academic Council voted unan-imously to hold students to a higher standard. As of Fall 2011, students must earn at least a ‘C’ in ENGL 1113 in or-der to move on to ENGL 1123. Students who take ENGL 1123 must earn a ‘C’ or better in order to be eligible for the Writing Proficiency Exam.

Dr. David Rankin, chair of the Eng-lish department, said the new policy will only affect freshmen and transfer students. Rankin, who proposed the change to the Academic Council, said the new policy is “a plan at Midwestern to prepare students to do more and bet-ter writing.”

“These courses help students to be competent writers,” Rankin said. “This policy raises the expectations for writ-ing ability.”

“If a student makes a ‘D’, that student would still receive

GPA credit,” Rankin said. “As far as moving on to the next level, the student would have to retake the class.”

Students who earned a ‘D’ in either of these courses, prior to this semester, will not be affected. Those grades will still be considered passing and will al-low those students move to the next level.

“But if someone made a ‘D’,” Rankin said, “my advice is you really should take that over.” Rankin said a lot of students who get ‘D’s do not pass the Writing Proficiency Exam and tend to avoid courses for which they have to write papers.

According to data collected by the Writing Proficiency Office, over the past 10 years, the average failure rate has been 26 percent. Of the 1,039 stu-dents who took the exam in the last aca-demic year, 337 failed, a rate of about 32 percent.

“A lot of those are transfer students who did not do their writing courses here,” Rankin said, “but our students should not be failing the writing profi-ciency.”

Rankin said the new policy will en-courage students to work harder.

“Academic Council would not have passed it if they didn’t think it was in the best interest of students doing well in school and the work place,” Rankin said.

ENGLISH pg. 3

DONACE WILKINSON FOR THE WICHITAN

Photo by Kassie Bruton

Nancy Hunter Denney motivates incoming students at the New Student Convocation Tuesday.

New Beginnings

CONVOCATION pg. 3

Speakers share words of wisdom with new students

CHRIS COLLINS EDITOR IN CHIEF

“lawl grl i luv da way u did ur hair! Luks so kewl!”

Give me a break! Is that even Eng-lish?!

Internet speak may look ridiculous, but it seems as though this is the direc-tion the English language is taking.

The more popular instant communi-cation gets, the more our language de-teriorates. Facebook, Google+, instant messaging and text messaging make it easy to get away with lazy grammar, spelling and punctuation.

People with college educations, mas-ter’s degrees and successful business people don’t even blink an eye most of the time while reading their friends’ status updates.

This Internet speak has become sec-ond nature for a large portion of soci-ety.

What many of these English lan-guage abusers don’t understand is that most of their shortcuts are barely short-cuts at all.

Slang like “ur” is barely less time con-suming than typing out “you’re.” The commonly used “wut” is one, yes, ONE, character shorter than the proper Eng-lish word “what.”

So what’s the point of using short-cut spellings when the real spelling is barely longer?

Internet speak is being accepted more readily as the days go by. Why can’t proper language be used instead of this new form of laziness?

It may be because today’s youth cares less and less about their grammar and spelling.

They pay less attention in school and more to what their friend just posted on Facebook. We are socially connected all the time.

A professor states a “no-cell phone policy” in their syllabus; you can bet at least one person is breaking that rule each class period.

This 24/7 connection is a distraction from learning.

In college, students should already know the difference between “you’re” and “your”; “their”, “they’re”, and “there”; and when to use “then” as op-posed to “than”.

This internet speak is making it ac-ceptable to use all the variations inter-changeably, despite the fact that the meanings are different.

Because of this widespread accep-tance, society is allowing itself to slip deeper and deeper into the hole of lazy language use.

What happened to the days of friends who edit other friends’ essays?

It probably does still happen, but because of this new widely accepted language, how can you trust that your friend (who just happened to post a Fa-cebook status even an English scholar wouldn’t be able to decipher) is going to make sure your essay is grammatical-ly sound and displaying proper punc-tuation?

I can’t trust someone to edit any of my schoolwork when I become infuri-ated every time I read one of his or her “wall” posts.

Recently, language on the Internet has deteriorated to comedic propor-tions.

Most days, I can’t help but laugh at the ridiculous statuses I read on Face-book.

The sheer laziness that people por-tray while typing simple words as-tounds me.

Is it seriously that difficult to use the built-in Facebook spell-check?

Because I’m blunt and easily irritated, I have corrected spelling and grammar errors on other people’s Facebook sta-tuses on more than one occasion. And, on more than one occasion people use the excuse “I was just typing fast”.

Well excuse me! I’m sorry I just rained on your speed-typing parade! Obviously fast-typing isn’t your forte!

But seriously, being concise about spelling, grammar and punctuation on the Internet can work wonders in your academic or professional life.

It’s hard to argue that the way you spell and write on your personal Face-book page won’t bleed into your profes-sional writing. And honestly, how can it not? Practicing bad habits makes those bad habits stick and makes them sec-ond nature.

Instead of using the skills that were taught in high school and college every chance possible, young adults are let-ting themselves slip away from healthy

literary habits. Of course, language is constantly

changing and evolving. Is today’s inter-net speak what you want people to find normal in twenty years?

I would rather the language not evolve into something so primitive and thoughtless.

With just a little bit of effort, our generation can form the future of the English language. Turning our backs on lazy Internet lingo can really make a difference.

Just ignoring common spelling and grammar is offensive. It is offensive to me and probably to the people who worked so hard to begin inventing the English language way back in the 7th century.

Please, MSU, start being concious of what you type. It could just affect the future of the English language in more ways than you know.

Be aware! Save future generations from an embarassing language!

Time for ChangeSchool has started once again, which

means another semester of classes, homework and occasional (or not so occasional) partying.

But most of all, it means another semester of The Wichitan. We at the student newspaper do have a warped set of priorities, after all.

If you’re reading this right now, chances are you have some interest in reading about campus news, or maybe you just saw the picture of Wayne on the front page. Either way, we’ve got your attention now. You’re caught!

And while your eyes are fixed on our stunning op-ed page, we want to point a few things out to you.

First, you may have noticed that the newspaper looks a little different than it did last semester. Like the body of changing young woman, The Wichitan has blossomed into something even more beautiful than it was before.

Let’s get one thing straight – we loved our newspaper last semes-

ter. But we’ve tweaked a few things, mainly because we really, really love you. We’ve created a new nameplate at the top of our front page and we’ve redone all the inside folios, page num-bers, cutlines and logos.

Chalk that up to mean that we spent way too much time over the summer messing around on our laptops.

Not like we really minded. It’s what we do!

Second, as the house advertisement (aka our shameless self-promotion) on page four indicates, we’re launching a brand new, honkin’ Website this week. We did this partly to join the 21st cen-tury and partly because we know that our generation has all but given up on reading print publications.

We’ve had an archived gallery of our completed issues on the univer-sity’s Website for years, but it just wasn’t cutting it.

So we’ve worked tirelessly to give you a Website for all your campus

news. We’re talking live updates here.

Photo galleries. Breaking news. The Internet.

After all, who’s more aware of the precarious state of print journalism than us? Well, all the unemployed writers, graphic designers and photog-raphers. That’s who.

And we don’t want to end up like them. So, as Darwin promised that we would, we’ve adapted to our changing environment. We’re changing the way we do things because we feel like we have to. We think you’ll really appre-ciate our hard work, at least until you see a super goofy photo of yourself uploaded on our new site - because we don’t have to get your permission to do that! Nah nah nah nah nah!

Long story short, we’re not just stagnating here. We’re doing things. Exciting things. Pay attention and go check us out!

www.thewichitan.com

nour view wichitan3410 Taft Blvd. Box 14 Wichita Falls, Texas 76308

News Desk: (940) 397-4704 Ads: (940) 397-4705Fax (940) 397-4025

E-mail wichitan@mwsu.edu

editorial boardEditor in ChiEf: Chris Collins

Managing Editor: Brittney Cottinghama&E Editor: anastasia reed

op-Ed Editor: Kaja Banas-SalsmanSportS Editor: damian atamenwan

WEB/ photo Editor: hannah hofmannadvErtiSing ManagEr: rachel Bingham

Copy Editor: Kristina davidsonadviSEr: randy pruitt

ContriButorS: orlando flores, Josh hayter, doance Wilkinson, paige Scherer

Staff photographEr: Kassie Bruton

Copyright © 2011. The Wichitan is a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association. The Wichitan reserves the right to edit any material submitted for publication. Opinions expressed in The Wichitan do not necessarily reflect those of the students, staff, faculty, administration or Board of Regents of Midwestern State University. The Wichitan welcomes let-ters of opinion from students, faculty and staff submitted by the Friday before intended publication. Letters should be brief (350 words or less) and without abusive language or personal attacks. Letters must be typed and signed by the writer and include a telephone number and address. The editor retains the right to edit letters.

Language fallsthrough the Net

the

campus voiceWednesday August 31, 2011 www.thewichitan.com

2 wichitanthe

KAJA BANAS-SALSMAN OP-ED EDITOR

Comic by Johnny Blevins

attendance, encouraging the class of 2015 to get involved in campus and community activi-ties.

“According to young people, there is nothing to do in Wichita Falls,” Barham said. “Well, I am here to tell you that is not true.”

But it was the high-energy and unique perceptive of key-note speaker Nancy Hunter Denney that got freshmen Cash Witt more focused for the new school year.

Witt is the first from his fam-ily to attend college and said he

was scared about leaving home for the first time.

“This week has been a whirl-wind of emotions that I can’t put into words,” Witt said. “But really listening to what Mrs. Denney had to say really hit home for me. I know that I will walk into class tomorrow more confident in my abilities than before.”

Denney, who has spoken to over 900 campuses across the nation, said she was really im-pressed about the MSU crowd.

“The last 20 years as a speak-er and interacting with students

keeps me in touch with that stu-dents are in touch with.” Den-ney said. “I am at my best when I am in a room of college stu-dents. I have a real passion for their capacity to work on them-selves, to want more, and to become better. Yet I don’t think half the people I speak to under-stand how great they are. So I really get a kick out of trying to build up students self esteem.”

Before becoming a profes-sional public speaker, Denney had acquired 12 years of higher education experience in student affairs including Greek life,

new student orientation and the assistant dean of students. She applies these elements to her speaking engagements.

“I think the way (my past work experience) helps me best on stage because I know what the people who brought me in want me to do because I under-stand the context of the presen-tation,” Denney said.

The Massachusetts mother of two college students shared the memories of taking her kids to college for the first time to add insight to the new students.

“I have learned from my kids that students learn at their own pace,” Denney said. “I think college students find what they are good at eventually.”

Denney gave the students tips on how to have a trouble-free transition from high school to college life.

With a refreshing scene of humor, the published author who has previously appeared with Dr. Phil and Suze Orman, found the perfect balance be-tween laughs and her overall message.

After receiving a standing ovation, New Student Convo-cation was followed by a Bloc Party where students continued to praise her lessons on life.

“When speakers come to campus it seems like they are preaching to you,” freshman Terran Morgan said. “She was far from that. As an audience member, it was obvious that she went out of her way to connect with us and I’d say she succeed-ed. After the Convocation, I feel warmly welcomed to MSU and excited for the next four years

CONVOCATION continued from page 1

Kat Corocoran and other MSU chearleaders teach new students a common chant used at every football game. Photo by Kassie Brunton

newsWednesday August 31, 2011 www.thewichitan.com

3

campus briefs WednesdayPart-Time Volunteer Job Fair Noon - 2 p.m. CSC Comanche Suites.Student Organization Fair Noon - 2 p.m. CSC Atrium.

ThursdayForeign Film Series: Last Orders 7 p.m. The Kemp Center for the Arts. Admission is free.

SaturdayMSU Day at Castway Cove10:30 a.m -7 p.m. Tickets at CSC Info Desk. Students - $5.00. Faculty, Staff and Guest - $10.00

MondayUniversity closed for Labor Day holiday.

wichitanthe

“Academic Council voted unanimously, which means ev-eryone thinks the new policy is worthwhile.”

Dr. Alisa White, university provost and head of the Aca-demic Council, said the idea is to show competency and that it is very difficult to show compe-tency with a grade lower than a ‘C’.

“Many universities don’t al-low a ‘D’ to be a pass so [this policy] is not unusual,” White said. “Anything below a ‘C’ is considered very unsatisfac-tory.”

Dr. Kristen Garrison, writing program administrator, said the

policy will hold students to high standards early on so that they can be successful after gradua-tion.

“If students don’t have the skills and we keep pushing them through, that’s a problem,” Gar-rison said. “If those weak styles of writing are in cover letters, our students won’t get jobs.”

Dr. Peter Fields, associate professor of English, said the new policy means students can expect freshman composition to be demanding.

“If they were assuming 1113 and 1123 to be the proverbial easy B, they are in for an awak-ening,” Fields said. “The aver-

age grade should be a ‘C’. ‘C’ says you made the bare mini-mum. Your grade should reflect the skills you acquired. The D-repeat means students will get the extra opportunity to acquire those skills.”

Dr. Greg Giddings, instruc-tor of English, said the “no ‘D’ policy” will ultimately benefit the students.

“It’s not a penalty—it’s an opportunity,” Giddings said. “Instead of being a person with marginal skills, it will give that student a chance to refresh those skills.”

Susan Button, instructor of English, said most students feel

uncomfortable writing at the collegiate level.

“A lot of students have good ideas,” Button said, “but there is a fear factor when asked to transfer those thoughts to paper. The second go around is help-ful.”

The new policy will assist students to be more effective communicators, she said.

“In the long term, it is going to be more beneficial,” she said, “not just in collegiate life, but in the work force.”

ENGLISH continued from page 1

“This is a win-win,” said Dr. Howard Farrell, vice president of university advancement and student affairs.

Another outcome of the pro-posed residence hall is earning MSU the designation as a ‘resi-dential’ institution, as opposed to a ‘commuter’ institution. This would give the university a boost in its efforts to recruit new students.

“We have more and more peo-ple moving here,” said Dr. Jesse Rogers, university president. “We are becoming a more resi-

dential campus.”Mills said he encouraged cur-

rent and prospective students to look into living on campus while attending MSU – it pro-motesmore student activity and involvement. It also helps begin-ning students “transition into the college experience.”

RAs and a 24/7 police force should also make students feel safer than they would living off-campus.

“We like to think we’re very safe,” he said.

DORM continued from page 1

New Student Convocation speaker Nancy Hunter Denney relates her own life as a mother of two college students to the Class of 2015. Photo by Kassie Brunton

Maverick hypes up the crowd at New Student Convocation. Photo by Kassie Brunton

Campus introduces bus serviceCity offers free transit to students, faculty and staff with Mustangs Route

Above: Sophomore Adrian Hurst boards the Mustang Shuttle after a day of classes. As a Caribbean student from Antigua, Hurst said without the Mustangs Route he would have to walk in the heat to and from classes. Right: A sign displaying MSU colors are now planted around Taft and Maplewood as loading and unloading points.

Photos by Hannah Hofmann

After seven years in development, a free bus service called the Mustangs Route is available to students and fac-ulty with a valid MSU ID Monday through Friday from 7:15 am to 9 p.m.

The route is replacing the MSU shut-tle system that the university ran them-selves.

MSU spent about $60,000 a year for a shuttle system. Now, this dedicated bus route will cost the university less than $34,000 a year.

“We’re saving a significant amount of money by doing the (Mustangs Route) service and it expands our service too because now student, faculty and staff

can access the whole public transit sys-tem for free with their MSU ID.” said Keith Lamb, associate vice president for student affairs.

Mustangs Route makes stops avail-able down Louis J. Rodriguez, Coman-che and on Taft in front of D.L Ligon Coliseum.

The route also stops at Colony Park Apartments, Heritage Church and La-Donna Place Apartments.

“Public transportation is a very big part of almost all larger colleges and uni-versities,” said Dennis Burket, Wichita Falls transit administrator. “Since Falls Ride has the expertise and equipment to move students to and from campus, it made sense to offer our services to Midwestern.”

There are two parts to this partner-

ship Midwestern has with the City of Wichita Falls.

Not only can students, staff and fac-ulty ride the Mustang Route for free but also all bus routes.

As the city’s public transporta-tion system, our job is to move people throughout the city safe and efficiently,” Burket said. “We can offer the students access to all areas of the city without the need for a personal vehicle.”

Administrators first introduced this idea to the city years ago but at that time couldn’t make it work. According to Lamb, this deal really came together over the spring.

While the shuttle system was in ac-tion, MSU took accurate count of how many people rode the shuttle that was presented to the City of Wichita Falls.

“We finally had the population that would allow appropriate reimbursement to the city through the Federal Transit Administration,” Lamb said.

According to Burket, the Wichita Falls transit average around 350,000 passenger trips per year, and hope to add another 200,000 trips with the ad-dition of the Mustangs Route.

Kennisha John, MSU employee, from Dominica, called the Mustangs Route a big improvement from the former shut-tle system.

John lives in Colony Park, which is one of the main spots on the new route.

“I think it’s important for interna-tional students to have transportation because most don’t have vehicles of their own and we need to get around if

we have internships to do or even go to the mall so it’s helpful,” John said.

On the first day of classes, Lamb took the 16-minute loop himself and even with the 9 am traffic, he described the experience as very urban, clean, com-fortable and cool.

“It is very, very important that as a public institution, we are partners in different levels with the city. We partici-pate in community service with the city and we are good neighbors. I think (the Mustangs Route) is a good and positive step in university and community rela-tions,” Lamb said.

The Mustangs Route’s first pick-up is at 7:15 a.m. at Colony Park Apartments and every 15 minutes, until 10 a.m. The schedule then shifts to every 20 minutes per round, until 9 p.m.

newsWednesday August 31, 2011 www.thewichitan.com

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BRITTNEY COTTINGHAMMANAGING EDITOR

This past Sunday, MTV rolled out the black carpet for the 28th annual Video Music Awards at the Nokia Theater in Los Ange-les.

As usual, the event brought out Hollywood’s hottest celebri-ties and their eye popping fash-ion.

Although MTV chose to opt out on a host this year, there were plenty of A-lister’s who kept the show upbeat and the “bleeper” bleeping.

The night began with a speech by Lady Gaga’s male alter ego, Jo Calderone.

Gaga, who stayed in her male alter ego all night, emerged on stage smoking and swearing be-fore she launched into her latest single “You and I.”

Her alter ego would later accept the Best Female Video award for “Born This Way” on Gaga’s behalf.

Gaga wasn’t the only celebrity to make a bold fashion statement.

Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry were some of the stars who decided differ-ent and creative was the way to go, while celebrities such as newlywed Kim Kar-dashian and soul singer Adele

chose a more classic look for the evening.

One superstar had the best ac-cessory of them all as well as the biggest surprise of the evening. Beyonce revealed to the world she was pregnant at the end of her on stage performance of “Love on Top.”

Proud papa Jay Z applauded and cheered his wife of three years as a roar of applause came from the audience. Along with his wife, Jay Z per-formed his new hit “Otis” with 2009 year’s VMA crasher Kanye West.

Ne-Yo and Pitbull performed their summer hit “Give Me Everything” and Adele gave a simple but impeccable voice performance of “Someone Like You” with a single spotlight and piano.

Chris Brown gave the high-est energy performance of the night.

The good boy gone bad performed a mixture of songs which included his hits “Yeah X3” and “Beautiful People” while flying high in the theater.

Bruno Mars took the stage to honor the late Amy Wine-house.

Before his performance, Rus-sell Brand spoke very highly of his friend and made sure her talent did not go unoticed.

Justin Bieber took home the award for Best Male Video but the females took the biggest awards of the night.

Britney Spears was awarded the Michael Jackson Video Van-guard Award (formally known as the Lifetime Achievement

Award) by Lady Gaga.

This prompted an awkward mo-ment between the two which almost ended in a repeat of the infamous Spears and

Madonna kiss until Spears pulled back.

Gaga took home an award of her own which was presented be-fore the show

began.

“Born This Way” won Gaga the award for Best Video With a Message.

Katy Perry took home the big-gest award of them all. Perry took home the m o o n -man for Video of the Year for her very popular song Firework.

The night ended with an odd performance of “How to Love” and “John” by Lil Wayne. His high energy performance left viewers wonder what the f*** he was saying, due to the majority of the song being bleeped out.

Overall, this years VMA’s was full of surprises, decent live performances, and was highly entertaining.

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There is a new hair trend that has women and men flocking to their local hair salons.

Feather hair extensions are the latest fad to conquer the hair fashion industry and the MSU campus.

So who brought this 70s trend back into the limelight? The 70s rocker and American Idol judge Steven Tyler.

Maurine Grant, the manager of local hair salon Tangles, said the hair trend exploded after Steven Tyler began wearing feathers in his hair during the last season of American Idol.

“This past March during American Idol is when we started hearing request for them,” Grant said.

Tangles applies these extensions for $30 for a bundle of three feathers. The application process for extensions is in-cluded in the price.

“We crochet a bead in a strand of hair

and clamp the feather in,” Grant said as a seven year old was getting feathers applied to her hair.

Grant believes this trend is so popu-lar with people of all ages because it allows people to be expressive in a dif-

ferent way. It also gives people the opportunity

to be unique she explained.

This very reason is what encouraged freshman Business Major Christine Schreiber to be the one of the first in her high school to get feathered hair exten-sions.

For $10, Schreiber received two feathers in her hair which were glued on by her hair dresser.

After a month, Schreiber removed her extensions before she made the move to MSU and has no plans of getting more.

“Everyone has them now and it’s not unique anymore,” Schreiber said.

The popularity of feather hair exten-sions is what motivated Kourtney Has-ley to get them.

This freshman English major has had her extensions for a couple of months and loves how easy they are to main-tain.

“The cool thing about feather hair ex-tensions is you can straighten, curl and wash them,” Hasley said as her red and brown feathers laid across her cheeks.

This seemingly harmless trend has caused controversy. PETA (People of the Ethical Treatment of Animals) re-leased an article on their website claim-

ing feather hair extensions are the rea-son many roosters lose their lives.

They claim roosters who make these extensions are bred and genetically al-tered to produce certain looks of feath-

ers before they are killed and de-feathered.

Regardless of these ac-cusations, hair feather ex-tensions are sweeping the nation and flying off the shelves.

Miley Cyrus, Ke$ha, and Kim Kar-dashian are some of celebrities who have spotted the latest hair accessory.

Only time will tell if this summer trend will continue into the fall season. For now, birds of feather are flocking together and everyone has jumped on the hair feather bandwagon.

New crazy hair craze: feather hair extensions

Justin Bieber wins Best Male Video at the 2011 VMA’s.

Photo Courtesy

2011 MTV’S VMA Awards highlights

Steven Tyler rocking feather hair extension at award show. Photo Courtesy

ANASTASIA REED A&E EDITOR

ANASTASIA REED A&E EDITOR

Selena Gomez. Photo Courtesy

a&eWednesday August 31, 2011 www.thewichitan.com

6wichitanthe

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Peace, Love & LipglossRepairing summer-damaged hair

After a summer full of sandy beaches, chlorine-filled pools and harmful sun rays, your en-tire body is tired - including your hair. Now that classes are back in session and summer is com-ing to a close (let’s hope so, anyway), your hair is probably in need of some major TLC. The first step to repairing your hair: chop it off! Get rid of those nasty split ends and let your hair breathe. This usually re-quires losing an inch or so, but ask your beautician what would be necessary to make your hair healthy again. Next, stock up on a few products for your new ‘do. You will need a re-constructing shampoo and conditioner to heal your strands. The less you wash your hair, the better. So if you can get away with washing it only every other day, go for it! Your natural oils will keep your locks nice and shiny, but conditioner will assist in the matter. Start out with lather-ing it all over your head, but as your hair begins to get back in shape, your ends are truly the only parts that need it.

SplurgePaul Mitchell Super Strong Daily Shampoo and Conditioner ($30 package at hair salons)

StealJohn Frieda Full Repair Full Body Shampoo and Conditioner ($4.97 each at Walmart) Keep that moisture going with a weekly hair mask. Instruc-tions will be on the back of the tub, but it usually requires leav-ing it on for roughly five minutes before fully rinsing it out.

SplurgeIt’s a 10 Miracle Hair Mask ($30 at Ulta)

StealNeutrogena Triple Moisture Hair Mask ($6.69 at Target) When styling your hair, always protect it before using heat. Blow dryers and straight-eners can take a big toll on your hair.

SplurgeCatwalk Sleek Mystique Haute Flat Iron Spray ($19.95 at Ulta)

StealBeyond the Zone Turn Up the Heat Protection Spray ($2.99 at Sally’s Beauty Supply) Finally, run a small amount of hair serum over your ends and flyaways to keep your strands shining!

SplurgeAveda Light Elements Smooth-ing Fluid ($24 at aveda.com)

Steal Organix Coconut Milk Anti-Breakage Serum ($5.94 at Walmart)

eeeWhat beauty tips would you like to hear about? E-mail ideas to wichitan@mwsu.edu

For those looking for Dwayne Cart-er’s newest effort, Tha Carter IV, to be the hip-hop superstar’s return to glory after a series of less than welcomed (and questionable) albums (ie. 2009’s Rebirth and 2010’s I Am Not a Human Being); I’m sorry to say it, but this is not the album you were looking for.

While Tha Carter IV isn’t a total dis-appointment, it is definitely not Wayne at his best. In 2008, Wayne was an un-stoppable force in the music world.

The release of that year’s Tha Carter III seemed more like a victory lap than the career-defining album that it was, due in part to Wayne’s incredible roll of mixtape releases (Dedication 2, Da Drought 3, and many others that seemed to come out every month).

Now fresh off a jail stint for gun pos-session, Lil Wayne finds himself hav-ing to do something he hasn’t had to do since the original Carter was released in 2004 - prove himself.

Wayne best sums up his efforts in the closing minute of an album bonus track, “I done did everything on my bucket list,” (“Up Up and Away”).

While most would take this as a boastful remark, this could actually be an admittance of Wayne’s (and C4’s) achilles heel. What else can Lil Wayne do or prove?

Where Tha Carter III saw Wayne relentlessly attack every beat (fast or slow) like he was rapping for his life,

Tha Carter IV has Wayne in an unusual calm and relaxed state.

There are no boasts of being the best rapper alive. No claims that he’s a mar-tian, or different from everyone. Rather than stand out from the competition, even those featured on his album, Wayne seems to blend in with the crowd.

He’s unceremoniously out-shined by Drake on his latest single “She Will.” In fact, it can be said that every featured artist outshines Wayne on their guest spots.

Cory Gunz makes an outstanding impression on his first official Young Money debut on “6 Foot 7 Foot” (he was previously left off the final version of C3’s standout “A Milli”), and Rick Ross continues to build his Maybach Music empire with his ferocious verse on “John.” In another shocker, Wayne doesn’t even appear on an entire track, “Interlude.”

Instead, he lets underground favorite Tech N9ne rattle off a fiery verse, and then Andre 3000 makes a surprise and uncredited guest appearance, which considering Dre’s absence from the hip-hop scene, can nearly be a show stealer.

Then, what could have been a perfect opportunity for Wayne to step in and bat clean-up is not seized. The track simply ends. The same scenario is repeated in the album’s “Outro”, where Bun B, Nas and Busta Rhymes deliver quick, but memorable verses over the same beat from “Interlude.”

The street single “It’s Good” finds Wayne channeling his former self, rap-ping his heart out, flipping line after line

into clever similes and metaphors and delivering subliminal bullets at Jay-Z (talking ‘bout Baby money? I’ve got your baby money. Kidnap yo b****, get that how much you love your lady money).

And while he is out-shined on singles “6 Foot 7 Foot” and “John”, these two tracks do show Wayne at his most in-spired on the album.

Most of John’s appeal is that it sounds like a C3 leftover with Wayne and Ross’ vicious verses and spaced out beat.

“Nightmares of the Bottom” and “President Carter” have Wayne show-ing a more personal side of himself, la-menting about the struggles he’s faced in life, including his feelings toward the gun possession charges. Tracks like “How to Love” and “So Special” are in-teresting turns for Wayne, rapping about the beauty and appreciation of women rather than degrading them to mere sex objects as he usually does. “How to Love” also serves an interesting song as it’s the first time Wayne’s sang on a song without using the infamous auto-tune effect, resulting in a surprisingly appealing pop-rap hybrid, yet not to the degree that “Lollipop” was.

Finally, bonus tracks like “I Like the View”, “Two Shots” and “Up Up and Away” are lazily tacked on at the end, a possible way of releasing unused tracks from one of Wayne’s many versions of his album before settling on the final product. Strangely enough, these tracks seem to find Wayne in more of his com-fort zone, leaving listeners to wonder why these were bonus tracks and not ac-tually on the album. “Two Shots” even

shows Wayne’s versatility in that it was produced by famed electronic musician Diplo rather than the usual team of Cool & Dre, Bangladesh or the other select few hip-hop producers Wayne works with.

In all, Tha Carter IV will be loved by Wayne’s adoring fans due to the fact that it’s new official music from the enigmatic emcee.

Whether some tracks get heads nod-ding or shaking in confusion, no one can deny that this will be one of the most talked about hip-hop albums of the year. While it doesn’t live up to Tha Carter 3’s gold standard, Lil Wayne can successfully add another sure hit to his discography.

The Verdict: 71%

Tha Carter IV falls short

the feedBlood Orange Coastal Grooves

Under a new moniker, Dev Hynes sings of the darker side of love and lust backed by a minimal-ist approach to production and song structure.

The Verdict:68%

ORLANDO FLORES FOR THE WICHITAN

ORLANDO FLORES FOR THE WICHITAN

Male Bonding Endless Now

These Brit punks clean up their sound immensely on their sophomore album, crafting more emo-tionally driven anthems with a slight pop edge.

The Verdict:78%

Red Hot Chili Peppers I’m With You

The Chili Peppers first album in three years finds the band able to still hit the same funky grooves despite John Frusciante’s departure.

The Verdict:75%

RACHEL BINGHAM AD MANAGER

Stoney LaRue Velvet

The red dirt legend takes a more folk approach to his latest effort, resulting in his most polished and accomplished work to date.

The Verdict: 82%

Wayne Rooney secured a hat-trick as Manchester United demolished Arsenal in a sensational game at Old Trafford.

Danny Welbeck put the red devils on the scoreboard with a chip from Anderson within 22 minutes of play. Robin van Persie had the op-portunity to level things few minutes after the opener but squandered a penalty kick.

Ashley Young doubled the lead and scored his first for United with a 25 yard stunner to the top shelf of the goal. Rooney’s addition came off a free-kick outside the box giving United a 3-0 advantage. His country man, Theo Walcott, slotted a close range goal to give the visitors hope right before the half-time whistle.

The second-half was as embarrassing to guests as the first; United had greater ball possession, ball movement and composure. The gunners’ sloppy performance resulted in a free kick, which Rooney converted, and two technical goals from Luis Nani and Ji Sung Park that increased the lead to 6-1.

Van Persie bagged a goal

in the 75th minute to make up for his wasted penalty kick but was asking for trouble as United struck back with two more. Rooney completed his hat-trick with a well taken penalty kick. Young followed suit with another curler shot that put the nail in the coffin.

Manchester United’s per-formance was top notch even with the absence of key play-ers like Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand and Paul Scholes. A team that can pull of such an outstanding result with alteration in the formation is the best in the world.

Arsenal on the other hand

played a pathetic game of soccer and the poor fans should have saved them-selves the humiliation of showing up to the game.

The gunners’ made poor decisions and errors that cost them the game and their dignity; they commit-ted a lot of fouls which re-sulted in three of Rooney’s goals. The red-card brought them a man down and the penalty kick would have leveled things and probably given Arsenal some mo-mentum.Rooney does deserve the

man of the match award after exemplifying the qualities of a good playmaker as well as scoring goals. Carl Jenkin-son, who was sent off in the 77th minute, was the flop of the match.

Overall, Arsenal’s game showed they lacked compo-sure and have a lot of work to do for the remainder of the season.

United has a perfect record so far, which is a good start to defend their title. This game will definitely go down in English premiership his-tory.

Man. Utd 8, Arsenal 2

DAMIAN ATAMENWAN

SPORTS EDITOR

sportsWednesday August 31, 2011 www.thewichitan.com

7wichitanthe

Hotter’n Hell Hundred races kicked off Friday with the crite-riums.

The MSU Cycling team races as the Hotter’n Hell Hundred/Midwestern team for non-col-legiate events like the Hotter’n Hell Hundred.

MSU had 5 strong females in the women’s category race that started at 5:30pm, perfect time to live up to the race’s name.

Jessica Prinner helped pick up the speed when she attacked off the front of the race.

Prinner was also able to col-lect a prime, which is a prize given periodical throughout the race to encourage riders to go hard and pick up speed.

Tiffany Stewart & Loren Eg-genschwiler finished the race in 9th & 10th.

The men’s pro 1/2 race be-gan shortly after the women finished. The men raced a 75

minute crit. After a long battle in the heat,

MSU’s Tony Baca was able to take 10th, with teammate Alexi Martinez close behind for 13th.

Saturday was the big road race. The Pro 1/2 men started the races for MSU.

Normally, this race is 100 miles, but due to the heat and an overlap on the course with rec-reational riders, a new 90 mile course was created for rider and racer safety.

Baca was the first MSU rider to cross the line in 36th place. In the category 3 men’s, who also raced 90 miles, MSU’s Sean Brown was able to take 2nd

place. The category 4 men’s also

did 90 miles, where Erick Goy-tia was able to take 5th. For the 4/5B race, Eduardo Juarez took 17th for MSU.

The women 1/2/3 had an ex-citing race and Prinner was able to get off the front to take 3rd. Teammates Tiffany Stewart, Lo-ren Eggenschwiler, Claire Rout-ledge and Ashley Weaver came in 13th, 15th, 17th, and 19th, re-spectively.

Hotter’n Hell Hundred may be known for it’s road race, but it continues through Sunday where another criterium is held by the MPEC.

MSU’s Erick Goytia went down in a crash, breaking his bike in the Men’s 4 race.

He was unable to finish his race but only suffered from sev-eral scraps and bruises.

The women raced together at 12:30 for a 35 minute crit. Prin-ner was able to get off the front with a few laps left and took 3rd place.

The men’s pro 1/2 raced 75 minutes starting at 1:30, but teammates were able to throw water in a splash zone to help keep them cool. Danny Robert-son was able to finish in 17th.

The last race of the weekend was the men’s 3 category, where Sean Brown was able to take 4th place in a group sprint.

MSU had a long and success-ful weekend at the Hotter’n Hell Hundred.

Team Arrow will continue to train as they prepare to Repre-sent MSU and the South Central Collegiate Cycling Conference at Collegiate Track Nations in mid-September held in India-napolis, Indiana.

LOREN EGGENSCHWILER

FOR THE WICHITAN

Team Arrow beats the heat in bike race

MSU cyclists round a corner near Hell’s Gate at the Hotter’n Hell Hundred on Saturday morning. Photo by Damian Atamenwan

Team Arrow rode alongside cyclists from around the world in the 30th annual Hotter’n Hell Hundred.Photo by Damian Atamenwan

Every year, thousands gather from all over the globe to partake in what is known as the largest century ride in the country.

This year was no different as 10,000 riders competed in the 30th annual Hotter N’ Hell Hun-dred on Saturday.

Dail Neely, dean of students, served as rest stop coordinator for the entire race.

Neely’s job was to assess all 19 rest stops and be in charge of close to 2,500 volunteers.

In those 19 rest stops, which stretched across both Wichita and Clay counties, 80,000 cups, 254 cases of bananas, 126 cases of oranges, 384 cases of Pow-erade, 2,000 food service gloves, 632 rolls of toilet paper, 70 cas-es of pickles, and 500 cases of pickle juice were included. Each

rest stop was also given $250 by the Hotter N’ Hell organization to go towards any other miscel-laneous supplies such as differ-ent types of fruit, meat products such as sausage, and even home-made cookies.

So that must amount for a pretty costly bill, right?

Neely went into detail on how most of the supplies were fund-ed.

“It’s funded by a combination of things,” Neely said. “Mostly through registrations by the ride itself, but there are also some things that are donated.”

The Powerade used to hydrate cyclists was donated by Coca-Cola, to give an example.

Although the rest stops didn’t only serve riders refreshments. Medical attention was on-site if needed.

“It’s pretty unique for bicycle rides,” Neely said. “Most bicycle rides have a medical coordinator

or director and they usually have a first response situation.”

HHH differs from other bicy-cle races because medical atten-tion is on standby at every rest stop along the way.

“We have physicians, nurses, PA’s, and nurse practitioners at every rest stop,” Neely said. “That is very unique.”

Dr. Keith Williamson, univer-sity physician, served as medical coordinator for HHH.

Being that HHH is known for its 100 mile course, other courses were available for riders who didn’t want to push to that extreme. Courses included: 10K, 25 mile, 50 mile, 100K courses.

In all those long courses, the city of Wichita Falls was not the only area covered. Small neigh-boring towns were also included in the race, such as Iowa Park, Electra, Punkin Center, Burk-burnett, Charlie, Thornberry, and Dean.

ANDRE GONZALEZ

FOR THE WICHITAN

Faculty aids in HHH

UFC 134 went down in the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro last weekend. The event com-prised of five fights that could be viewed on Facebook, followed by two fights that aired on Spike TV, and capped off with five fights that were pay-per-view.

A Brazilian fought in 11 out of 12 of the bouts, and a Brazilian won in 11 out of 12 bouts. It was a great night for fighting in one’s home country.

On the main card, on pay-per-view , Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira defeated Brendan “The Hybrid” Schaub by TKO at 3:09 of the 1st round. It was brutal. Nogueira caught Schaub with a left/right combo and as Schaub was trying to re-gain composure, Nogueira land-ed more punches ending with a devastating one to the chin. Schaub crumpled to the mat and

Nogueira swarmed him with a barrage of punches and hammer fists till the referee stopped the fight.

Schaub was dropped as if his chin all of a sudden was attracted to the ground by some magnetic force. The best description for me is the sudden drop you see when a building is demolished with explosives.

Another fight on the main card was Mauricio “Shogun” Rua de-feating Forrest Griffin by TKO at 1:53 of the 1st round. This avenged the victory Forrest had via rear-naked choke over him in UFC 76 back in 2007.

The main event was for the middleweight title, set to go five five-minute rounds. Anderson “The spider” Silva vs. Yushin “Thunder” Okami. This would be their second meeting. Okami won a bout over Silva in 2006 in Hawaii’s “Rumble on the Rock” promotion, years before Silva or Okami joined the UFC. Silva was disqualified for hurting Okami with an illegal up-kick that left

Okami unable to continue.Silva was victorious over

Okami in the rematch, dropping Okami with a blow to the chin, jumping on him and deliver-ing punch after punch until the referee intervened. Silva pulled off his usual antics, “feeling his opponent out” the first few min-utes of the fight, then confidently picking him apart. He delivered a painful head kick close to the end of the first round that had Okami in trouble. Saved by the bell. . .

The second round Silva most-ly fought with his hands at his sides, goading his opponent and knocking him down once before the final knock down. Silva re-mains the middleweight champi-on and the best pound for pound fighter in the world today.

Upcoming events are UFC Fight Night Live, Shields ver-sus Ellenberger, which will air on Spike TV September 17 and UFC 135, Jones versus Ram-page, which will be on pay-per-view Sept. 24.

TOLU AGUNBIADEFOR THE WICHITAN

Rio de Janeiro Vengeance: Anderson Silva landing a crisp punch on Yushim Okami at UFC 134. Photo courtesy

In the Cage

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