mercer cluster, issue 11
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Mercer University's student-run newspaperTRANSCRIPT
Volume XCIV
The ClusterFebruary 23, 2012 Issue 11Mercer University
PAGE 14PAGE 14SPORTS HALL SPORTS HALL OF FAME OF FAME
STAYS PUTSTAYS PUTPAGE 10PAGE 10
CHIPPER JONES CHIPPER JONES SPEAKS AT FIRST SPEAKS AT FIRST
PITCH CLASSICPITCH CLASSIC
Fox News Contributor Juan Wil-liams was the guest speaker at this year’s Executive Forum, held Tues-day night in the President’s Dining Room. Williams has spanned the fi eld of
journalism, working as a columnist for The Washington Post, a senior national correspondent for National Public Radio and now a Fox News Contributor.President Bill Underwood said he
chose Williams as the speaker be-cause he is “one of the more thought-ful political commentators we see and hear from today.” “I think he is representative of the
best tradition of journalism, and that is that he really tries to be a thought-ful, independent commentator,” he said.Williams alternated between seri-
ous political discussion and personal anecdotes during his speech. He be-gan by giving his predictions for the upcoming elections.Republicans will take control of the
House and the Senate, Williams said, because it would be too diffi cult for the Democrats to regain control of the House, and the Republicans only need to pick up four seats to hold the majority in the Senate.“My prediction is that the Repub-
licans are going to have control of Capitol Hill after the 2012 midterm,” Williams said.
Williams also believes that Presi-dent Obama will be reelected, largely because of a tradition of presidents who won against opposition parties serving more than one term. It helps, Williams said, that Obama
has no challenge from his party for the nomination and, “he has the abil-ity to again and again point to the sins of the past for creating many of the diffi culties he’s faced during his fi rst term.”A divided government like this,
Williams believes, leads to likeli-hood of more political polarization and inaction that has been “demon-izing the American political process for the past few years.” Williams said if changes are made by both the
president and Congress, this can be avoided.Williams also spoke lengthily
about the evolving social structure of America. Women, he said, are becoming increasingly important in the political process and will in fact determine the outcome of the up-coming elections.He shared a story about a high school
he visited in Minneapolis where he asked to meet with the brightest stu-dents, the student leaders and student athletes who had potential to get ath-letic scholarships to colleges.
On Feb. 10 Mercer University an-nounced their partnership with The Medical Center and St. Francis Hos-pital in Columbus, Ga. to establish a Columbus campus for the School of Medicine. In an interview with Mer-cer Medical School Dean, Bill Bina, he said, “in July 2012, we’re going to have about 12 third-year students start their third year experience.” Those students will be full time and will be there to fi nish out the last two years of their education. “The whole [Columbus] population
is growing and what they felt they needed to distinguish their city in the future would be to have a medi-cal school,” says Dean Bina. “This was about 18 months ago when they came to ask President Underwood [if he would consider starting a clinical or medical school campus in Colum-bus]….So over the past 18 months, I and members of the team here at the Medical School have been working with St. Francis Hospital and The Medical Center with the purpose of starting the third and fourth year clini-cal rotations,” Bina added. In a recent interview, President Un-
derwood said, “We are pleased to
be taking the unique mission of our School of Medicine to Columbus and West Georgia. It will further enhance health care for the citizens of this re-gion and help prepare much-needed physicians for our state.”One of the motivating factors for
creating this partnership is an insur-ance of quality physicians being ex-posed to other areas of Georgia. “Be-cause the Mercer School of Medicine only accepts students who are Geor-gia residents, this campus expansion will expose a large number of future Georgia doctors to Columbus and the surrounding western region of Geor-gia, increasing the likelihood that many of them will practice in the area once they have completed their medi-cal education,” Bina said.
Mercer University School of Medicine is set to open a campus in Columbus, Ga. for students to fi nish
their fi nal two years of medical school.
weekendweekendweather
Low around 63Tonight
High around 63Friday
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High near 59Saturday
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High near 65Sunday
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Weather information provided by the National Weather Service
Photo courtesy of Mercer Marketing
Mercer President William Underwood speaks at a news conference announcing the expansion of the School of Medicine. After eighteen months of planning, the medical school will establish a Columbus campus in July.
By Cecilia VillagomezStaff Writer
see COLUMBUS, continued on page 10
Mercer opens doors in Columbus
Mercer students accepted to Clinton Global Initiative
Students Chelsea Flieger and Gar-ret McDowell were commended for their dedication to the LEAP com-munity service program by receiving their acceptance letters to Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU) on Feb. 9. CGIU is a national leader-ship conference that is hosted once a year. This year the conference will be held in Washington D.C. from March 30-April 1.There will be thousands of com-
munity-service driven students from across the nation attending the CGIU conference on March 30-April 1. Gar-ret and Chelsea agree that one of the largest benefi ts from this conference is that they will have the opportunity to meet so many people who have a great deal of experience in leadership and community service events. Garret said, “The best thing about this is that we are not the only people who have
ideas like LEAP. CGIU will allow us to see what other people’s ideas are and how we can then relate those ideas back to the Macon community in or-der to take LEAP to the next level.”Applying to CGIU is a very time
consuming process. Garret and Chel-sea chose to apply as a team; together, they spent hours perfecting their ap-plication. Numerous students from across the nation apply to CGIU every year and acceptance to the program is extremely competitive. Garret and Chelsea were a part of the fi rst batch of acceptance letters. In order to be considered for the pro-
gram, students must make a proposal for something that they plan to do in order to make the world a better place. Once students are accepted to the pro-gram, they are expected to fulfi ll these commitments. Garret and Chelsea’s commitment is a continuation of the LEAP service program; they are work-ing on expanding the program. Anoth-er goal of theirs is to target the causes of poverty rather than just the effects.
By Danielle D’AuriaContributing Writer
see CGIU, continued on page 4
Fox News contributor Juan Williams speaks at Executive Forum Dinner
By Liz BibbEditor-in-Chief
see WILLIAMS, continued on page 4
Sean Kennedy / Cluster Staff
Fox News Contributor Juan Williams spoke at the Executive Forum. Williams discussed the 2012 election and evolving voter demographics.
Photo courtesy of Garret McDowell
Photo courtesy of Chelsea Flieger
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**All story meetings are held at 10 a.m. in the Cluster offi ce on the third fl oor of Connell Student Center
clustereditors
Opinions Brittany Dant
FeaturesAlicia Landrum
EntertainmentEric Brown
LocalRebecca Payne
Marketing Coordinator Mary Cate
Prendergastadvertising@
mercercluster.com
NewsKatherine Manson
SportsSamir Moussawel
Photography Noah Maierphotography@
mercercluster.com
Copy EditorAshley Mann
Online EditorEmily Garrott
AdviserLee Greenway
Editor-in-ChiefLiz Bibb
Editorial opinions in this paper only refl ect the opinion of the writer, not the opinion of The Cluster or Mercer Uni-versity. Writers are encouraged to keep letters to the editor around 300 words.
The Cluster reserves the right to edit let-ters for length.
Questions regarding editorials or letters to the editor should be sent to:
editorialpolicy
OpinionsOpinions EditorBrittany Dant
storymeetingcalendar
The Cluster - Feb. 23 2012 - Page 2
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Have a voice!Looking for freelance
photographers and writers.Story meeting to be held Wednesday
Mar. 14 at 10 a.m. in the Cluster offi ce,
upstairs CSC. E-mail [email protected]
for additional information.
Brittany DantOpinions Editor
It was announced before Christmas last year that Mercer and local media were coming together to create a Center for Collaborative Journalism.As a follow up to that, the di-
rector for Mercer’s new Center for Collaborative Journalism was announced this week. Tim Reagan-Porter is the
President and CEO of Paste Magazine, formerly a print medium that was taken fully online in 2010.I do not care why Reagan-
Porter wanted this job, but I am so happy that he has taken it. This is a huge step for jour-nalism in Macon, one that was sorely needed.As one of Mercer’s Journalism
students who has been involved in the program for the last four years, I am extremely proud to welcome this new Center and Regan-Porter to Mercer.This Collaborative Center is
going to have a huge impact on the Journalism and the Media Studies program at Mercer, and while I wish I could have the opportunity to reap some of the benefi ts of the new program, I am so proud of Mercer for go-ing after the grant from John S. and James L. Knight Founda-tion that has allowed this pro-cess to begin.Coming into Mercer I knew I
wanted to major in Journalism, but at the same time I knew I needed a backup plan incase my dream of being a journalist failed.So many people have ex-
pressed concern for the journal-istic fi eld, “Newspapers are dy-ing.” “The world of journalism is converging more and more.” It is like a song stuck on repeat,
the fi eld of journalism is dying.But this new step for Mercer
is stating the opposite. I was
scared to put all of my eggs in the Journalism department at Mercer. Not because of bad teachers or a bad program, but because it seemed as though Mercer did not even believe in its own school of Journalism.The staff for both the Journal-
ism and Media Studies Depart-ment consists of three profes-sors. They are all great and I have learned so much from ev-ery one of those professors. But I could not help feeling uneasy about how little Mercer seemed to care about Journalism.If my undergraduate univer-
sity did not even seem to care enough about journalism to hire another professor, how would the rest of the country view a de-gree in journalism? The thought kept my stomach in knots.But now it seems as though
current students and prospective new students have less to fear.Hopefully, this grant and the
process of bringing together Mercer’s Journalism and Media Studies Department, the Macon Telegraph and Georgia Public Broadcasting to build a collab-orative center will allow new students passionate about jour-nalism to feel more comfortable putting their eggs in the journal-ism basket and it is about time.This Center will allow stu-
dents to interact with thriving media in Macon. The new labs will give them opportunities to work with mediums they would have never been able to work with in Mercer’s old Journalism school.Furthermore, Reagan-Porter’s
knowledge and expertise will hopefully give students the ex-tra look into the profession that they need to succeed.Mercer needed this boost to the
Journalism and Media Studies Departments. Not only will the Center attract prospective stu-dents interested in journalism, but it will be able to give them a leg up in the media world. I wish I could be around to see
the Center take shape and be a part of the piece of history that is being forged right now. But thank you Mercer for fi nally putting stock in journalism and media. We appreciate the vote of confi dence.
Comments and questions on this issue can be emailed to [email protected]
Center for Collaborative Journalism gives new hope to JMS students
SGA meetings on Mondays need to be better attended
Let’s be honest, 90 percent of campus has never been to an SGA meeting and sat in the gallery. I have not been there, and I
deeply regret that. For too long, Mercer students
simply sit by and let the Stu-dent Government Association do their own thing with little in the way of common student in-teraction beyond elections that happen a few times during the year. This is not what a representa-
tive body needs to be. Blame can defi nitely fall on both sides of the spectrum, as many can argue that SGA has not tried hard enough to increase the common Mercer student’s in-fl uence. However, more needs to be
made of it. Who is SGA to decide what is done with over $150,000 in funding? Well, we elect them, do we not? Therefore, should we not
have more of an infl uence in what they do? Can we blame SGA for not
reaching out? Maybe as seniors, we are as-
sumed to know how to get in touch with our representatives responsible for us. However, I do not feel that
this is an acceptable assump-tion. In the recent hub-bub sur-
rounding the recycling ex-pansion that was passed, all senators were pleaded to go ask what their constituents felt about the issue. Despite knowing all of the
senior senators, I do not re-member any of them asking myself or any senior I had asked. I feel like this is a horrible
dereliction of duty. I did see several senators ask-
ing about opinions from differ-ent classes. However, I feel that there is a
dangerous unbalance of power in SGA currently. There are individuals who
vote as blocks and pass on votes to see how others vote. While I have not been there
to witness, I have heard that some members of SGA are so passive, they will pass on an important vote just to see which way to vote from the individuals whom they fol-low.
We can chalk this up to people trying to push their platform though, which is perfectly legitimate since they ran for offi ce and won it based in popular vote, or we can chalk this up to an abuse of power. I do not want to make ac-
cusations, but rather I feel that the student body must hold their representatives ac-countable. SGA meetings on Monday must be better at-tended. This is a must for Mercer
in order to progress as a university. I really believe this. I am planning on attending
at least a few SGA sessions before I graduate, if only to be more knowledgeable of what’s going on behind closed doors. I hear that it is bitter and
full of vitriol, but many sen-ators feel that this would be calmer if normal people were there. In essence, I know I have
previously asked Mercerians to unite and come together via sporting events. However, it is much more ur-
gent that we take stock and get our own voices heard. The voting blocs in SGA
might cease to become so uniform, and students might actually get asked for their input. I think it is a great strategy. Go
ask who your senators are and expect some feedback about how SGA is doing from them. We cannot remain passive
and ignorant of the decisions made by those that we elect into power.
Comments, questions or con-cerns about this column can be sent to [email protected]
Garret McDowellColumnist
Brittany Dant / Cluster Staff
Mercer’s new Center for Collaborative Journalism shows faith in Mercer’s Journalism and Media Studies program.
“I think it is a great strategy. Go ask who your senators are and expect some feedback about how SGA is doing from them. We cannot remain passive and ignorant of the decisions made by those that we elect into power. ”
(br)iefobservationsWorld News
As if the nuclear struggle between the West and pret-ty much everyone else were not enough, Iran took it upon themselves to strike another blow to the battle. Iran stated Tuesday that the country would take pre-emptive action against perceived foes if it felt its na-tional interests were threatened, as they laid down new conditions for oil sales. This comes after talk of an oil embargo due to be set into action on July 1, 2012. Thus far Iran has cut off sales to Britain and France. They stated Monday this embargo could expand to
include other members of the European Union.
U.S. NewsMajor shortages of doxorubicin and methotrexate,
cancer medications, in the U.S. will be resolved soon according to the F.D.A. Shortages of the drugs are due to a temporary closure of Ben Venue Laborato-ries facility in Bedford, Ohio, because it could not guarantee product safety. The medications are set to be imported from abroad. However, doctors wonder whether this attempt will truly solve the problem faced by the cancer community.
OpinionsThe Cluster - Feb. 23, 2012- Page 3
Mercer, free gifts should not be incentives for school spirit
Over the past three years of my attendance at Mercer I have noticed a pretty consistent trend amongst the student body: Mer-cer students love free stuff. From what I observe, the most
popular and time honored tradi-tions at Mercer are the annual Christmas Tree Lighting and Founder’s Day. However, I fi nd it absolutely absurd how if you were to ask the average Mercer student why they go to these events they would automatical-ly say the promise of free stuff. The mug after the Christmas
Tree Lighting is a defi nite fa-vorite. And who among us doesn’t love receiving that long sleeve t-shirt after the Founder’s day speaker fi nishes talking? Don’t get me wrong, I love the free stuff just as much as the next student, but I think we shouldn’t have to use incen-tives to bring in a large crowd. The student body should want
to participate. Take the basket-ball games for example. Dur-ing an average men’s basket-ball game, the student section is never completely fi lled with Mercer students.
On the off chance that the student section is fi lled, most of the time they aren’t nearly as spirited as they should be. The largest crowd at basketball games is because of a promise of free pizza and possibly other free items, some of which in-clude the infamous Mercer shirt of various designs. As a junior, I have become
rather disappointed with the sense of school spirit around campus. I don’t fi nd myself overly spirited or fi lled with pride, but I do make it a point to get involved. I care about Mercer and I really do enjoy the traditions that make up my Mercer experience. I love Homecoming week, the
Christmas Tree Lighting and I especially love Founder’s day. I would go to these events even without the incentive of a free token to remember the event by. But the truth of the matter
is the majority of the student body would not come out to these events if it weren’t for those free objects. I believe that even homecoming has be-come a little more lackluster since my freshman year due to the fact that we have to pay for homecoming shirts. How ridiculous is that? Homecoming week isn’t sup-
posed to focus on alumni com-
ing back and visiting Mercer and reliving the “good ole’ days.” It’s about the current student body making memo-ries to last a lifetime. Yes, students come out to the
big homecoming game, but what about the other sports? Without the promise of priority tickets to Homecoming, there would be a dramatic decrease in fall sports attendance. Not to say that these sports
don’t draw a crowd on their own, but the crowd is always bigger when the game has been publicized as a priority game. Sure, we Mercer students pay
enough to get the education we receive and we feel as though we have a right to the free stuff. If anything, we feel as though
they owe it to us. However, I think there is defi nitely room for improvement when it comes to the amount of school spirit and pride that comes from the student body. If Mercer students have
enough pride for their school, the free stuff shouldn’t matter and attendance should be high at these events in spite of the materialistic incentives.
Comments and questions about this opinion can be sent to [email protected]
By Cecilia VillagomezStaff Writer
Looking back, I probably should not have... recorded that show
For those of you who con-stantly find yourself look-ing back on those dreadful mistakes you made on that night where your conscience was blurred and intentions were good, this is the time to man up to your blunder and face the eventual con-sequences. Have you ever found yourself
doing something unspeakable and stopping mid-task to realize that the red button of your record-ing device was not showing? Have you ever found your-
self irritated by the constant shameful glares and disgust-ed responses to your guilty pleasures of documenting these revolting scenes? Have you ever found yourself
frustrated by a series of long, continuous lines of unneces-sary questioning? I have. In most cases, I cannot control
my impulsive urge of adding another 30 minutes or an hour to my video collection each week. Most of the time, I enjoy
watching my footage again and again in my living room or even off the internet.I am unmistakably confess-
ing my addiction to the con-stant cycle of new primetime television sitcoms and dramas. What did you think I was talk-ing about?Even with my overfl owing
agenda of work, classes and social life, I cannot help but keep an eye out for any given impending series. Whether tacky, unoriginal or
just ridiculous, I cannot help but feel intrigued by returning celeb-rities and the hope of the next big hit. With the immediate success
of a show such as ABC’s Mod-ern Family, each upcoming pilot brings new-found opti-mism. In regards to the recent
30-minute comedies of 2 Broke Girls, the FRIENDS-like Happy Endings, Zooey Deschanel’s quirky New Girl, Tim Allen’s return to prime-time in Last Man Standing, the fatties of Mike & Molly or the living within you means story behind Raising Hope, I keep coming back due to the like-able characters and my need-to-know mind-set. On that same note, there has
been a recent fl urry of hour-long dramas such as Kiefer Sutherland’s return to FOX in Touch, Katherine McPhee’s acting debut in Smash, the ultimate payback in Revenge, the creative fairy tells of Once Upon A Time and the LOST-like surprises of Alcatraz. I am staying tuned to fi nd the
clichéd diamond in the rough. When one show collapses, I many times use that as an excuse to add another two or three. While it may feel like a sick-
ness, I fi nd myself spending little-to-no money visiting the movie theatre’s jacked-up pric-es and watch the majority of my television shows commer-cial free on DVR or online. Seeing that I found terrifi c
favorites through sitcoms such as Neil Patrick Harris’ ongo-ing “legendary” performances on How I Met You Mother and the loveable nerds of The Big Bang Theory, I cannot help to think that another great show is on the horizon. With up and down perfor-
mances of the drama-fi lled Glee and the disappointing fi nishes to shows such as LOST and 24, fans like me stay tuned because we know no matter how ridiculous or generic they may be, consis-tency is key.They always seem to pro-
duce a few chuckles or gasps as they give me a much needed break from homework. With the rise of the inter-
net, the continuous stream-ing of films and shows on the web, the inflation of ticket prices at the box office and the unwarranted amount of 3D films, the movie theatre experience isn’t quite what it used to be. It is more sensible to fi nd the
time to watch a quick 20 or 45 minute episode of a reliably de-cent TV program on my com-puter than pay an arm and a leg to fl ip a coin at the chances that Journey 2 or the 15th install-ment of Underworld will be anything close to bearable.Even though I continu-
ously tell myself “I probably shouldn’t have recorded that” with each passing Monday, I know my loyalties will remain whether the series lasts 10 epi-sodes or 10 years. Do not get me wrong, my love
for movies will always remain as the DVD rack in my room continues to fi ll.
With that said, I fi nd myself reaching time and time again for the fi rst two seasons of Modern Family than any of my movies.Keeping up with all of these
shows can be very time-con-suming and distracting, but I feel I can handle the juggle as long as I don’t go overboard and attempt to record every show on TV.
Comments, questions, or con-cerns about this opinion can be sent to [email protected]
Samir MoussawelSports Editor
I’ve been getting headaches recently, really, really bad head-aches. The best way I can de-scribe them is brain-pounding, lingering migraines. It’s been going on for over a week now.I thought it could be stress-
related, so I went online to fol-low up and get some insight about what might be causing it. I found reasonable sources telling me that the symptoms I’m experiencing could be an abnormal result of high blood pressure. I was skeptical, but wanted to pinpoint the cause so I could fi nd a cure, or at least a way to inhibit the headaches.Naturally, I want to fi nd out if
it was true and if there was any correlation between the blood pressure issue and my head-aches. So, I went to the student health center and scheduled an appointment. The secretary was polite and told me to come back the following day when the doctor could see me.After rescheduling a meeting
and pushing back a timeslot I had devoted to working on my independent study, I was able to make time to meet with the doctor. I showed up fi ve min-utes before my appointment, ready to fi nd out what was wrong with me. My appoint-ment time came and went. Ten minutes later, I started glancing at my phone. I had somewhere to be thirty minutes later.As I checked the clock for the
sixth or seventh time, the secre-tary came out of the offi ce and told me I could go in. She told me to sit on the padded coun-tertop-style examination table. She asked me what was wrong,
and I described, in as vivid de-
tail as possible, exactly what I had experienced. I told her about the tension in my neck and shoulders accompanied my severe head pain that lingered from 30 minutes to an hour. I also told her that I discovered
there may be a correlation be-tween the headaches and blood pressure, but that this was just an uninformed self-diagnosis.She was friendly. She asked
me if I did anything active. I told her that I’m a dancer, and that I dance and workout sever-al days per week. After check-ing my weight and pulse, she sent the assistant doctor in. He asked me to go through it all
again: “What’s wrong with you?” A bit annoyed, I complied and regurgitated all the information a second time. After this, he left the room and spoke to the primary doctor at Student Health. At this point, I had been sit-
ting in the room for about 40 minutes and I was getting pretty agitated. I was missing my next meeting of the day and taking the risk that my tardiness would refl ect poorly on my grade.
After what seemed like forev-er, the doctor fi nally came in. He asked me to give him my symptoms. I went through ev-erything a third time, ensuring to captivate his attention with graphic details as I had before. He left the room and I wait-
ed again. After 10 or 15 more minutes, he returned with the assistant doctor. He brought a document in that he had just printed and handed it to me. It was a case study about head-aches that had been led by re-searchers at a university.He gave me a brief synopsis
of what the article said, and at-tempted to generalize the infor-mation so it would seem perti-nent to me. After he gave his book-report style rundown of why headaches occur, he sug-
gested I take some Ibuprofen or other pain reliever to rem-edy it (excellent suggestion…why didn’t I think of that?).The doctor then switched
gears to the question I raised about blood pressure. He felt compelled to inform me that I had poor lifestyle choices; that I should elect to eat less canned meats and processed foods, get more exercise, and stop eat-ing so much (because there are cameras on campus…student health doctors know when you are sleeping, they know when you’re awake). He also gestured to a fold of
skin under my arm and told me that my weight was responsible for my blood pressure issues.While the assistant doctor
made me feel at ease with my condition, the primary doctor came across as passive (not wanting to help me at all), and condescending. Truth be told, I felt a little violated having shared my condition with him in the fi rst place.I don’t know which is worse:
the fact that the doctor is pro-viding diagnoses when he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about, or the fact that he passively insults pa-tients in an environment where they already feel vulnerable and overly self-conscious.I’ve heard some pretty scary
stories about Student Health, but I never believed they were true until this experience. I will not be returning to Student Health again. I am very capable of conducting a Google search on my own computer. If nothing else, one thing is
clear: if you have a problem, it’s best to get yourself examined by a doctor that takes you seriously.
Comments on this opinion can be sent to [email protected]
By Alex PrestonStaff Writer
Student Health: a disaster at Mercer
Noah Maier / Cluster Staff
While the free Founder’s Day tee shirt, free coffee mug and free pizza at Mercer events draw a crowd, these incentives should not be needed for Mercerians to support our school.
Ron Paul and his plan for America’s fi scal affairs
In the last issue of the Clus-ter, I bored the majority of this newspaper’s readers with a lengthy overview of Ron Paul’s monetary policies. I am pleased to announce that this fi nal article of the series will be less mundane when examining his plans for America’s fi scal affairs. When I speak of fi scal affairs,
I am referring to Paul’s defi cit reduction platform. I’m going to focus on entitlement reform because that is where the prob-lem lies. To start, I want to clear up
some common misconceptions about America’s defi cit. First, the defi cit is not an immediate problem. Defi cits only directly restrict an economy’s growth under two circumstances: when the “crowding-out effect” man-ifests and when investor fear drastically increases the size of the defi cit. Obviously, one may make a
separate argument that govern-ment spending is less effi cient than private sector spending, however that issue is not cata-strophically urgent. The “crowding-out effect”
occurs when oversized gov-ernment debt increases inter-est rates, therefore crowding out private-sector investment. There are two reasons why this effect has yet to occur in the United States. First, interest rates are currently at or below real zero due to expansionary monetary policy. Second, our defi cit isn’t a
high enough proportion of our GDP. The Economist, a con-servative British publication, estimates that the we have un-til around the end of the decade before we have to worry about the defi cit’s direct effects on private investment. The other reason why Amer-
ica’s defi cit is not a cata-strophically urgent issue is that investor fear will most likely not attack the United States in the short or medium-terms. Treasury bonds are perceived
to be the safest investments, and this status is unlikely to change in the short-term, most-ly due to the absence of any se-rious competitors. Look around—there aren’t
any other large economies with ample political and fi -nancial stability to take our place. A second common miscon-
ception regarding America’s defi cit is that discretionary spending, such as funding for infrastructure, is the main cul-prit. The numbers are clear: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security are the most prob-lematic liabilities because their expenses are projected to grow exponentially over the next 50 years. While defense spending is signifi cant, it is not growing and currently has no reason to grow at a rate similar to that of the entitlements. The good news is that we
can fi x this problem without hurting economic growth. In-creasing the eligibility ages of benefi ts eliminates much of the fi scal problem, while shift-ing the incentive structure of healthcare away from services and towards quality of care greatly reduces ineffi ciency.
So why haven’t we done any-thing? The answer is purely democratic—the current en-titlement system is supported by the vast majority of vot-ers. There isn’t enough politi-cal courage in Washington to make the tough choices. How-ever, Ron Paul seems genu-inely angry enough to shake up the system. In short, Paul’s policies would
gut the current entitlement sys-tem and privatize the majority of it. He would also greatly reduce discretionary spending and would close or defund var-ious federal agencies. I could write many thousands
of words on Paul’s specifi c en-titlement reforms, but I won’t for two reasons. First, I need to sleep. Second, I’d frequently make mistakes—I’m an under-graduate political science stu-dent untrained in public policy analysis. I don’t want to com-ment on subjects I don’t fully understand. Instead, I want to offer some
general advice based upon three considerations. First, as I pointed out, the defi cit is not an immediate problem. When it becomes a problem, the neg-ative effects will not instan-taneously tank the economy. They will gradually erode pri-vate sector growth. Second, one should note
that because Paul is a fringe politician, his policies are typically based upon ideo-logical rather than pragmatic rationales. As I demonstrated in my last article, he is often revises history to align with libertarianism. He also tends to ignore the
results of his actions as long as narrowly and arbitrarily-defi ned liberties are preserved. Ideological purism makes me
uncomfortable—not much good comes from those who base their entire decision-mak-ing framework on black-and-white terms. For example, in the case of
healthcare policy, he would not require immunizations, even though government immuni-zation programs have saved or improved many millions of lives since their implemen-tation. (Behavioral research demonstrates that people typi-cally refuse catastrophic insur-ance because human psycholo-gy makes the investment seem irrational when it is, in fact, a smart move.)Finally, one should remem-
ber that historically, economic institutions override political ones. In other words, when the time of crisis arrives, politi-cians typically enact any nec-essary fi scal reforms. With history as my guide, if bond yields begin shooting upwards, we will see some pretty quick reform from our government, barring further political polar-ization. Will this be a painless crisis?
No. But it’s better than need-lessly gutting discretionary spending. Let’s add these consider-
ations up. Is the support of an fringe candidate justifi ed by the current fi scal situation in America? While I wouldn’t mind solv-
ing fi scal dilemmas ahead of a crisis, I’m not sure such a benefi t would outweigh the deleterious effects of Paul’s foreign, monetary, and discre-tionary spending policies (or at least the ones Congress and the courts would allow). It’s hard to have patience
when every year the punditry proclaim imminent political and economic collapse. But I’ve got a feeling that
America can wait for a bet-ter solution to her problems. I know I’m sidestepping the question of his fi scal policy’s effi cacy, but I’m asserting that it doesn’t really matter in the light of his personal and po-litical fl aws. America seems to agree at the polls. I fully realize there is a chance
I am making a mistake by not endorsing the quick fi x. The future is uncertain. But I think I can reduce col-
lateral damage by waiting. That’s why these are the opin-ion pages, not the horoscopes, right?
Comments, questions, or re-buttals to this column can be sent to [email protected]
By Sean KennedyColumnist
NewsNews EditorKatherine Manson
The Cluster - Feb. 23, 2012 - Page 4
Women made up at least 50 percent of all of these groups, he said. Political ads are often target-
ed towards women, Williams pointed out. “[Politicians] want her to be convinced that the op-ponent is a bum and he or she is their savior,” he said. Williams opened the fl oor for
questions after his talk, and the audience turned the conversation back to the current political fi eld. One audience member asked
how we can overcome the in-tense divide that has been pres-ent lately in American politics. Williams called for politicians to overlook party lines and do what is best for the country. “It’s not just about Republican or Democrat…it really is about holding the center and deter-mining how we as Americans move down the road,” he said. Williams was also asked
about Media Matters’ views on Fox News, a subject with per-
sonal meaning to him since he stated that Media Matters “got him fi red” from National Pub-lic Radio after he made com-ments on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor that some viewers in-terpreted as discriminatory to-wards Muslims.NPR requested that Fox News
stop identifying himself as an NPR correspondent after the incident because he espoused different views on the different networks.Williams’ political ambigu-
ity was something that attracted Underwood to him, however. “He’s someone that people have a diffi cult time categorizing…is he liberal, is he conservative? You don’t really know,” he said.Williams said Tuesday that he
felt Media Matters was a leftist media outlet trying to punish people who are on the right. His comments were not meant to be discriminatory, he said, but he was attempting to have an honest conversation about a real attitude towards Muslims that is present in American so-ciety.
SGA passed legislation Mon-day night to increase the cam-paign time for presidential elections to three weeks and the voting period to one week. The amount presidential can-didates can spend on their campaigns was also raised to $750, and the amount senato-rial candidates can spend was raised to $500.The legislation, authored by
Senator Justin Robinson and co-sponsored by Parliamen-tarian Gene Mitchell, was originally brought before Sen-ate a week previously and was voted down due to concerns about the amount of money being raised and the constitu-tionality of the proposed cam-paign length.Concerns about money were
settled as Senator Bradshaw
moved to friendly amend the original limit of $1,000 to $750 and Senator Robinson friendly amended it after dis-cussion by Senator White and President Locke of their own campaign expenses. The question of constitution-
ality arose because of a pas-sage in Article 7, Title 1, Part 2 of the SGA Constitution that states: “The Senate shall hold its yearly general election with-in two weeks of spring break to elect senators and members of the executive branch who are subject to election.” Some senators interpreted
the language to mean that the election day for both senato-rial and presidential candi-dates must be held within two weeks of spring break, while others felt that the two week time period referred to the be-ginning of the campaign. Although the motion passed,
Senator Matt Hickman voted no because he was never con-vinced of its constitutionality.“I think it’s unconstitutional in
the way that I read the constitu-tion, however I can see how the language could be seen as con-stitutional. But given the gen-eral language in that one clause and in another clause later on, it makes it clear that the lan-guage includes the campaign as well, and the campaign will go beyond the intended two weeks that’s in our constitu-tion,” Hickman said. Mitchell, who stated that his
job as Parliamentarian is to inform the president on the accuracies on understanding of the constitution and its by-laws, believes a deep reading of the constitution was neces-sary in order for senators to pass the legislation.“The fi rst time Senator Hick-
man read this phrase, he under-stood general election to mean that the time frame for presi-dential and senatorial elec-tions could be staggered. The next week, he argued against the legislation because he un-derstood within two weeks to mean that the election day for
both has to be held within two weeks,” Mitchell said. “I would say that is a very shallow read-ing of the constitution.” He also pointed out that Hick-
man’s view was extreme, as most of Senate did not agree. Mitchell said he was com-
pelled to put his name on the legislation after a conversa-tion with Senator Robinson in which Robinson expressed a desire to make the election process more democratic, get more students out to vote and consequently help SGA be more visible to the student body. “I looked at his legislation
and found it to be not only constitutional but also very democratic,” Mitchell said. “Looking at what Senator Robinson wanted to do and what the legislation could do, I couldn’t help but put my name on it so he at least knew he had my support.” For more on this story, visit
www.mercercluster.com
On the Monday before Val-entine’s Day, QuadWorks or-ganized the annual Boo Bears event. This is a time designed to allow Mercer students to create a stuffed animal of their choice at no cost. A great part about planning
the Boo Bears on Feb. 13, is it gives students a chance to make something cute for the ones they love, especially if they haven’t had time to plan and prep for Valentine’s Day. Not to mention it is free. Megan Norkunas was excited
to make a bear and give it to her boyfriend. “I’m doing it because it’s free,” she said. Hannah Watson, one of the
co-coordinators of the event, said “This is tradition. Every year we do this and we were really excited about it. It’s a really fun event for the semes-
ter.” Watson also agreed that it
was one of her favorite events. It seemed to be a fairly simple process, Hannah said that as far as organization goes “We just get the company and chose the animals we think will be most popular.”
The event was a huge hit with the students present. The room was bustling with people and squeals of excitement as they found their choice animal. The space was set up so that stu-dents could proceed from the hallway into the room and pick up their choice animal, a soul (for their creature), a sound effect and a t-shirt that said, “Someone at Mercer loves me.” Then the students would con-
tinue on to one of the circles of chairs surrounding a box of fl uff to fi ll and create their animal. The options of animals
seemed endless. There were bears, a variety of dogs, el-ephants, tigers, cheetahs and even a fl uffy rhino. Beyond this there were two choices for sound effects: kissing noises or children’s laughter. From these options Tiet Ho-
ang decided to make a bright pink and white poodle, she said, “It was for a good friend.” Tiet also considered naming
it Pinky after its luscious coat. Most plan on either keeping their teddy or giving it away the next day to a loved one. Justin White decided to make
one for his girlfriend simply because “she likes stuffed ani-mals.” It is safe to say that if Boo
Bears event stuck around for years to come students would be thrilled.
For example, the team is planning many educational events such as tutoring at local schools and sponsoring a read-ing festival in order to encour-age reading and education to local students.LEAP community service
program began in the fall of 2010 and has progressively grown each semester. The LEAP team has set a goal
of logging 10,000 community service hours related to pov-erty alleviation. Currently, the team is half way to their goal and has logged about 5,000 community service hours. One of the team’s goals is to
transform the LEAP program
into a campus organization. Flieger and McDowell have
high expectations for the LEAP program and intend for the program to enrich the lives of Macon residents.
Flieger said, “The ultimate goal of LEAP is to eliminate poverty in Macon. I think that as long as we keep that in mind, that we’ll keep work-ing. But it’s not all about log-
ging 10,000 hours, or having ‘x number’ of volunteers, it’s about making a difference. These people are our neigh-bors. I think if you just make one persons life better, then it
makes a world of difference.” Flieger and McDowell have
formed many relationships with the Macon residents that they help and they are continu-ously look forward to helping
those in need. “I’ve made so many differ-
ent relationships with the peo-ple that we’re helping,” said Flieger. Through their extreme dedi-
cation to the LEAP commu-nity service program, Flieger and McDowell have been re-warded with the acceptance to CGIU. “In the end, it’s not about
numbers or statistics; it’s about people. We’ll make a dent the amount of poverty in Macon, which is all that matters,” said Flieger.Flieger and McDowell look
forward to the countless op-portunities that this confer-ence has in store for them and are anxious to apply what they learn to their efforts of poverty alleviation in Macon.
WILLIAMS,continued from page 1
“The ultimate goal of LEAP is to eliminate poverty in Macon. I think that as long as we keep that in mind, that we’ll keep working. But it’s not all about logging 10,000 hours, or having ‘x number’ of volunteers, it’s about making a difference. These people are our neighbors. I think if you just make one person’s life better, then it makes a world of difference.”
Chelsea Flieger
Patrick Hobbs/ Cluster Staff
Students with all interests attended the Career Fair to meet potential employers and share their resumes. Career Services hosts a career fair each semester open to all.
Students accepted to Clinton Global Initiative University
QuadWorks annual Boo Bears event a hit for Valentine’s Day
Spring Career Fair success
CGIU,continued from page 1
By Salim AliStaff Writer
By Olivia BrayanStaff Writer
Patrick Hobbs/ Cluster Staff
Boo Bears is an annual event for students to create their own stuffed animals. Many choose to give them as gifts.
Patrick Hobbs/ Cluster Staff
Students are able to choose from a variety of different ani-mals and accessories while creating. The event is free.
Career fair, sponsored by Mercer Career Services, was held on Feb. 15 in the Uni-versity Center. The fair was open to all students and of-fered a variety of job and in-ternship opportunities. At the fair there were over
40 potential employers that covered a wide range of ca-reer opportunities for all stu-dents, from business majors to history majors. Rooshi Patel, an Informa-
tion Science and Technol-ogy major, was hoping to put himself out there and meet potential employers before graduation.Patel said he was most in-
terested in, “[Employers] like the FBI, Gulfstream, Verizon, Spherion and CNN.”Patel suggested that students
who attend the fair come pre-pared. “[Students should wear]
business attire and keep their resume updated. The employ-ers may not remember your name but your resume should make a lasting impression. That’s probably the most im-portant thing,” he said. One booth at the fair was
the DEA, which is the federal
Drug Enforcement Agency. The DEA works with over 60 countries who themselves have their own versions of the DEA in the fi ght against illicit drugs. Other booths included Spherion, United States Air Force, Georgia Farm Bureau and CNN. Students interested in in-
ternational travel were able to meet and talk with DEA, Peace Corps, Air-force and the United States Army. However, most potential employers at the event were based out of Atlanta and mid-dle-Georgia. To get a sense of how the
career requirements were dif-ferent, the DEA agent said that they required a psycho-logical physical and drug evaluation in addition to a college degree which was limited to technical, account-ing, business and language degrees. Spherion, a private com-
pany, took experience along with a degree and the spokes-man for Spherion empha-sized expanded job respon-sibilities beyond what your major might entail while the DEA would train you in ev-erything you need to know to do the job.Although a student with any
major could fi nd opportuni-ties at the fair, those knowl-
edgeable in technology and engineering were in high de-mand. The most important quali-
ties the Air Force said they were looking for were high moral and ethical standards, as well as a well-rounded person.“Expect change and we will
take you out of your comfort zone on purpose. We do this because we bring out quali-ties in future Airmen that they never knew they had,” explained the represenative for the Air Force. Private industries like CNN
and Spherion emphasized fl exibility, experience and in-dependence. Independence and self-mo-
tivation seemed very impor-tant to CNN. Overall people from any
spectrum whether you are of high moral character or are self-motivated and indepen-dent can fi nd potential job opportunities. Career Services offers ca-
reer guidance, job search as-sistance and graduate school search assistance. For more information
visit their website at http://studentaffairs.mercer.edu/careerservices or set up an appointment by calling 478-301-2863.
SGA okays legislation to extend campaign time, spending limit on general elections
By Liz BibbEditor-in-Chief
Fox’s Juan Williams talks politics, American society
News The Cluster - Feb. 23, 2012 - Page 5
On Feb. 16, Mercer Univer-sity Theatre opened its play titled, The Colored Museum, by George C. Wolf in honor of Black History Month. The Colored Museum was
written in 1985 during the post-Vietnam War era. The be-ginning takes place on a slave ship which is traveling through time. The ship visits differ-ent museum exhibits, each of which displays African-Amer-ican culture and history from the time they were brought to America as slaves all the way through nearly-recent times. Each exhibit displays a differ-ent event or lifestyle in differ-ent parts of the country during different eras of the African-American experience.The Colored Museum ex-
amines the honor and desire of African-American people to escape centuries of suffer-ing that has been a continuous source of baggage.Mercer’s version of The Col-
ored Museum is directed by Sherri Gilbert-Wilson. Wilson is what Mercer considers a non-traditional student, be-cause she has already been to college before. Wilson is a retired paralegal,
who has always had a passion for theatre. She fi nally decided that after two children and a successful career, it was time to go back to school to pursue a degree in her passion, The-atre Arts. For Wilson’s senior project,
she decided to direct The Col-ored Museum because it was one of her favorite plays that highlighted the African-Amer-ican experience throughout history.“One of the reasons I love
The Colored Museum is be-cause George C. Wolfe calls on
us to acknowledge our history – whatever it may be, whoever we are,” said Wilson.“He urges us, through the play,
not to allow the past to hold us back, keep us down or dictate how we will live. We must res-olute enough to learn from our history, and then forge our own new paths toward a fulfi lling life. There are no apologies, no excuses. Wolfe exposes the truth for what it is, and then lets the audience decide what to do with it,” Wilson said.Wilson’s vision for the play
is what was able to help her turn it into a quality produc-tion. With the help of Zach Broome, who was responsible for scenic design, and Mercer junior Alex Preston, who was responsible for lighting design, the production was brought to life through stunning visuals and dramatic lighting to make The Colored Museum a truly
enjoyable experience.The cast features Mercer un-
dergrads, graduate students, medical school students as well as alumni. The cast members are: Omotola Ajibade, Briana Boatwright, Vanesha Brown, Thomaesa Brundage, Isaac Callahan, Katrina Croom, Er-nestine Dahn, Mike Dumas, Alaisha Key, Kevin Mobolade, Marcella Murray, Alyncia Rob-inson, Daniel Robinson, Ver-non Scott and even the director herself, Sherri Gilbert-Wilson, makes an appearance.The Colored Museum will be
playing at the Back Door The-atre Feb. 21-25 at 7 p.m. and Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. The show is rated M for Mature as there is strong language and sexual references. Tickets are $5. The box offi ce opens 30 minutes prior to curtain. For reserva-tions or more information call 478-301-2974.
On Feb. 10, the Mercer Uni-versity Student Government Association sponsored a series of charter buses for Mercer students to attend the Mer-cer vs. Kennesaw State men’s basketball game at Kennesaw State. They also purchased enough
tickets for over a hundred stu-dents to attend. The goal was to provide the men’s basketball team with great traveling sup-port, especially since this is the best Mercer team in nine years, as well as one of the handful of Mercer squads to win 20 games in a season. When watching the nation-
ally televised game available via ASun TV, CSS (Comcast Sports Southeast), and ESPN3, the Mercer fans were by far louder and more supportive of their team. Coach Sonny Smith, one of
the two announcers, said that the key to Mercer winning that game was to “take the crowd
out of the game.” Immediately following that
statement, the small contin-gent of Mercer fans were heard over their opponents chanting “Let’s go Mercer!”
Matt Stewart was another an-nouncer present, and he said that the Mercer and Kennesaw fans made it the best environ-ment for a men’s basketball game in the Atlantic Sun all
season. Nevertheless, this was not the fi rst time that Mercer has at-tempted to increase student at-tendance at basketball games. Earlier this season, Coach
Bob Hoffman sent out a cam-pus-wide email to alert the stu-dents of free food that would be available to them at the basketball game. The email in-creased the overall attendance at the East Tennessee State game, one that the Bears won 54-46 off a gutsy defensive performance. Traditionally, the men’s bas-
ketball games have far greater attendances than their female counterparts. However, despite a great start to the season, the Mercer Bears just could not consistently fi ll up their entire gym. Recently, it has changed,
and as each game grows more and more important, more and more students attend. Sophomore Jake Gollon, who
is averaging 10.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game, has been impressed. Gollon has loved the atten-
dance, which is much higher this season. “[The fans] have been great, but I’m never sat-isfi ed. We can always improve and get everyone on the same page,” Gollon said. At the upcoming game versus
Lipscomb that will take place
on Feb. 23, there have been an-nouncements of games, give-aways and a host of things to increase attendance. Dubbed a Greek night, all members of Greek Life here at Mercer have been encouraged to attend. The 20 wins for Mercer are
phenomenal, and that game is just another piece in the chase for an A-Sun title. Coach Hoffman was humble with his team.“The administration, the sup-
port staff and the whole uni-versity supporting us has led us to this point,” he said. The Kennesaw game feature
more than 400 students and alumni of Mercer that turned the road game into a home away from home, as the Bears have not lost against the Owls in four games at this point. Monty Brown wants that
to happen again soon. At the Lipscomb game, he wants the trend of loud and raucous Mer-cer fans to continue. “Let’s get everybody out to the game on Thursday,” he said. In essence, there is a feeling
that student involvement has not reached its pinnacle this season.
Student attendance increases at athletic events
Feb. 23: Sex RulesBear Rock Cafe @ 7 p.m.
Feb 25: Service SaturdayConnell Student Center @ 9
a.m.
Feb. 25: Saturday Jazz Clinic with Sammy K
Fickling Hall @ 7 p.m.
Feb. 29: University WorshipNewton Chapel @ 10 a.m.
Feb. 29-March 3: 2012 Atlantic Sun Conference Basketball
ChampionshipsUniversity Center Arena
March 4: Russan National Ballet’s “Romeo and Juliet”
The Grand Opera House @ 3 p.m.
March 6: “The Little Engine That Could”
The Grand Opera House @ 9:30 a.m.
UpcomingEvents
Mercer Theatre celebrates Black History
“We must resolute enough to learn from our history, and then forge our own new paths toward a fulfi lling life. There are no apologies, no excuses. ”
Sherri Gilbert-Wilson, Director of Mercer Theatre’s
“The Colored Museum”
QuadWorks and NPHC host Stompfest event
By Garret McDowellStaff Writer
Photo courtesy of Macie Franklin
The Student Government Association sponsored a number of charter buses for Mercer students to travel to the Mercer vs. Kennesaw State Men’s Basketball game Feb. 10.
The Colored Museum By Bryson Jones
Staff [email protected]
Recently becoming a new Mercer tradition, Stompfest has provided a stage for step teams to compete. Mercer held the competi-
tion, sponsored and hosted by Quadworks and the Na-tional Pan Hellenic Council (NPHC), on Feb. 11 at the Grand Opera House. Stompfest is a competi-
tion between step teams and Greek organizations across the state, as well as other on campus student organiza-tions. Mercer organizations col-
laborate during the intermis-sion segment of the competi-tion to hold bragging rights all year long. Meanwhile, outside Greek
organizations compete for a cash prize in both the men’s and women’s categories.Students and community
members attend the event to watch the talents of various step teams performed by a number of schools.Junior Breyana Davis,
a member of QuadWorks planned the competition, and sent out applications to state schools earlier in the year. “We sent out applications
to Greek organizations, non-Greek organizations…basi-cally anyone who has a step team. We followed up with teams in December and Janu-ary (to ensure that they were still competing),” said Davis. QuadWorks sent out ap-
plications to almost every school in Georgia, as well as others from South Carolina
and Florida.During the intermission
competition, several organi-zations partnered with one another in order to promote Greek unity. “Our intermission show is
designed to get the NPHC Greeks involved with the Pan-Hellenic and Interfra-ternity Council, to promote Greek unity. That is why there is always that big com-petition, because everyone is just trying to win and get bragging rights,” said Da-vis.This year was the fi rst to
garner a crowd fi lled with mostly non-Mercer students, and it was also the fi rst year to have all of the members of the Divine Nine Greek Organizations in attendance. This year, there were fi ve
teams who participated for the cash prize. Taking home the men’s award was Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. from Albany State Univer-sity and garnering the wom-en’s prize was Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. from Georgia Southern University.The winning teams were
awarded $1500.During the intermission
part of the show, the Pan-Hellenic Council and IFC usually join forces with one of the NPHC Greeks that they have worked with in the past. The winner for this year’s intermission show was Lamda Chi Alpha, Chi Omega and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.Junior Morgan Robinson
was excited for their third title in a row, and was ex-cited to partner with Lamda Chi Alpha and Chi Omega once again.
“They are just good compa-ny to have. It is really just to branch out beyond NPHC,” said Robinson.Although they did not win
the intermission segment of Stompfest, the partnership between Alpha Gamma Del-ta and Omega Psi Phi was a crowd pleaser. “Our particular show in-
corporated a lot of different people including Alphas, Kappas and Omegas. We had representation from each organization teach the ‘signature’ moves from the fraternities,” said senior and Alpha Gamma Delta mem-ber Kathleen Richardson. Many of the competing
organizations during the in-termission included the “sig-nature moves.”“Working with the Ques
was really amazing. They were so supportive of the ladies that participated and helped whenever they could,” said Richardson.
Davis hopes that eventu-ally, Mercer NPHC Greeks will be able to participate in the competition. “This year alone, we just
had issues trying to get teams,” said Davis. She also added that the Del-
tas and Ques were among the Greek organizations not rep-resented during this year’s competition. “Since NPHC is helping to
sponsor it, I feel like Mer-cer should be allowed to compete even if they have to partner up with another chapter,” added Davis.Mercer students, Quad-
works and NPHC hope to continue to plan and hope to make Stompfest a longstand-ing Mercer tradition.
By Ashley MannCopy Editor
FeaturesFeatures EditorAlicia Landrum
The Cluster - Feb. 23, 2012- Page 6
The fantasy of sandy beaches, a crisp cool ocean, the calming rhythmic lull of waves rush-ing in and out, and the sound of laughter and conversation all accumulating to create the mindless relaxation that is known as Spring Break. All of this is almost within reach. Of course the last thing on
anyone’s mind is the thought of homework and productivity. The mantra of the week, “I’ve still got a week, no worries--hakuna matata.” Timon and Pumba were really onto something with that
phrase, but of course, I digress. No one really wants to be
productive over Spring Break, but often that is when students have the most reason to be pro-ductive due to the overwhelm-ing load of homework that professors thrust upon their students. Spring Break is also a wonderful time to get caught up or ahead of the curve. After all, once Spring Break is over, it’s basically a sprint to the fi n-ish line. There are a few easy ways to stay productive over Spring Break, while still main-taining the obligatory carefree, fun-loving attitude.One of the best things you
could do for yourself and for your productivity level is to catch up on all that sleep you have missed out on since the
beginning of the semester. If you have a trip planned, catch-ing up on sleep might be a hard thing to do. The key is to create a schedule and to factor sleep time into the equation. This schedule doesn’t have to be all-encompassing or even fair-ly strict, but eliminating a few of the unpredictable variables of the week could allow you to catch those much needed Zs.Getting all that pesky home-
work stuff out of the way is im-portant, but not the only thing available for doing in order to have what is considered a pro-ductive Spring Break. Filling out FAFSA applications, signing up to take the GRE or choosing and fi lling out applications for graduate schools are all good ways to stay productive.
Once Spring Break is over, school work will pick up while the stress of summer quickly approaching will creep up on you, and not knowing what you are going to do over the summer will only add to that stress. Taking time to search for a job or possible intern-ships while you have free time would be benefi cial. Job appli-cations are easy to fi ll out, and creating connections for pos-sible internships is a great way to spend the week.Reading for fun and catching
up on TV shows are other ways to spend the week. Finding time to watch TV shows as they air is nearly impossible during the school year. Still, binge watch-ing TV shows can be rather re-warding and relaxing.
Pinterest is all the rage, espe-cially for the inner middle-aged woman inside of each and every one of us. If you aren’t familiar with Pinterest, it’s a social me-dia website that allows its users to create “boards” in which you “pin” things you like to look at, DIY projects you’re interested in doing, and recipes you are dying to try out but haven’t had the time. A productive way to spend your Spring Break would be to have a Pinterest party. Get a group of your friends together, pick a few recipes, a DIY proj-ect or two and get busy. You’ll have a blast and feel productive while doing it.Whatever it is you fi nd your-
self doing over Spring Break, make the most of it, be safe and have a fantastic time!
The Organization of Black Students (OBS) aims to unite not only students of African descent, but all students as a whole. As President, senior Jasmine
Fuller has been involved with OBS since her freshman year, and saw that there were some changes that she wanted to implement during her term. “Things that I saw from previ-ous years were the programs that were put on. I saw how some worked and some didn’t work as well. Changes that I want make is to have an in-crease in participation at those events and programs, and to let people know that we are not just here for black people. We are here for everybody,” ut-tered Fuller.In the past, OBS has hosted
events and even partnered with other student organiza-
tions such as the National Pan-Hellenic Council Greeks and Delta Sigma Pi. “We do events such as poetry
slams and paintballing,” said Co-Vice President Tia Jacobs. Jacobs also stated that these events promote unity and al-
low everyone to get together.“There is only so much that
we can do, so it helps to part-ner with organizations,” urged Jacobs.Last year, OBS partnered
with Campus Life to host the event “Our President is Black,
Now What?”This semester, OBS has had
four successful events alone, most of which were featured during the month of Febru-ary in honor of Black History Month.The event featured attending
church on Sunday, Black Histo-ry Month trivia on Monday and they wrapped up the week with a movie night featuring the fi lm Ghosts of Mississippi. OBS provided this event in order for students to become aware of non-mainstream historical African-American fi gures.
Although this organiza-tion hosts and promotes great events, they admit that their biggest problem is low stu-dent turnout. The group has nearly 50 members, but only 10 members who participate consistently.When asked how this week
fared in comparison with oth-ers, Fuller admits that it was better.“It was a little bit better than
others, sometimes we have zero people come. So, just having fi ve people was good,”
said Fuller.Jacobs also utters the same
sentiments. “I don’t know what it is about this year, but people are really staying in their rooms,” Jacobs said jok-ingly. The fi nal event that the group
will host this semester will be the talent showcase at the end of March. “Different groups perform and show of their tal-ent, whether it is singing, danc-ing, poetry or spoken word,” said Fuller.The winner of the talent
showcase will be chosen by the crowd, and given a prize.There is no fee to enter into
the competition, so all students are encouraged to sign up.The executive board and the
members of OBS want to fi nd something that is interesting to students in hopes of drawing a larger crowd. “We need ideas. We can’t think for the whole (student) body. We want your input, so tell us what would bring you out,” said Jacobs. OBS encourages all students
to come out and support their initiatives and events.
Last Wednesday, Francar’s Buffalo Wings in Mercer Vil-lage hosted a trivia night in honor of Black History Month. Carl Fambro, the owner of the restaurant, was approached by the Organization of Black Stu-dents about hosting the trivia night. Mr. Fambro seems to hold
great respect for Mercer’s groups, and has never hesi-tated to host fundraisers in the past, saying “We try to sup-port student organizations.” It is a win-win for the event or-ganizers and Fambro; the res-taurant receives business and the organizers have a place to host fundraisers or special oc-casions. Fambro even offered one-
time coupons for a meal as the fi rst place prize.The trivia night was a suc-
cess. Approximately 30 stu-dents were present and play-ing the Jeopardy-like game. Randyl Cochran, one of the organizers of the evening, said, “We had done something like this last year. We had a pretty
good turnout, but we needed to do it in a more central loca-tion.” She also said they were trying “to see if we could get more people to come out, try to get different groups on cam-pus, and give them something fun to do and at the same time something educational.” The evening began at 6 p.m.
as groups began to arrive and take their seats. The organizers of the event took the offi cial groups names and began the evening. The game was set up on a television in the corner and created to resemble Jeop-ardy. There were fi ve categories:
dates, quotes, location, inven-tions and music. Each category had fi ve choices for questions, with points ranging from 100 to 500. There were two rounds. The fi rst ran like a normal Jeopar-dy round, but the second was a sudden death round— the points doubled. The fi rst per-son to raise his or her hand got to answer the question, but the answer had to be in the form of a question. Otherwise their group would not receive the points. There was no penalty for wrong responses, in order to encourage people to go for it. However, if the question was not answered in 10 seconds,
the person lost their turn.A few of the questions were
common knowledge. For in-stance, in the music category one of the questions was: “This artist had an album titled ‘Thriller.’” Most participants knew the artist was Michael Jackson. There were also harder ques-
tions. For example, under in-ventions there was the ques-tion of which person created the traffi c light. Few knew that it was Garrett Morgan. “That Group” was the winner
of the event with 4,000 points. This cluster of excited students consisted of seven people. Angellica Howard, a fresh-
man business and biology major here at Mercer, said, “It felt really good [to win]. I’m proud of my team, we pulled it through, and it is all about team work.” Angellica also affi rmed that if there was an-other trivia night she would be there. The general popula-tion of students present really enjoyed the trivia. It wasn’t about winning, but rather dif-ferent people coming together and having a good time.To brush up on your black
history knowledge for the next trivia night, check out www.infoplease.com/black-history-month.
Q) I’m falling behind in my English Lit class, and found a number of sources online where I can buy term papers. Is it okay to do this to help me out in a bind?
A) I think you probably already know the answer to your question, and it is a defi nite NO. Not only could you get caught and face a failing grade, suspension, or even expulsion, but more im-portantly, you are not learn-ing anything. Honest behavior is not
what you do, it is who you are and part of your moral composition. It affects ev-ery aspect of your life and of those around you. Whether you live at home with your parents or are out on your own in the workforce, your ethical principles will have a profound effect everywhere you go. Let’s take it a step further
than your term paper. For example, you are living at home with your parents while attending college. They co-signed the loan for your new SUV. You are working part-time, but only earning enough to make your car payments with a little left over for spending money. Your friends have decided to spend Spring Break on a Ca-ribbean cruise. You can’t af-ford to go along without skip-ping a car payment, so you do just that and join them on the trip. Now, your parents are left with your car payment. Then, your father is suddenly laid off from work, and he cannot afford the mortgage and his own car payment, let alone yours. So, his credit rating takes a hit and your car payments fall behind, along with everything else, racking up late fees. Every decision you make
and action you take has con-sequences. Say you are now 20 years older, and have ris-en through the ranks to run a large computer software company as its CEO. Your new accounting software package is selling like hot cakes, and your company is climbing the Fortune 500 list. But, you get greedy and decide you want to live in a mansion and have your own private jet. To do this, you fi nd a way to defraud your company of large sums of money with illegal book-keeping practices. Fast for-ward a year or so, and the government fi nds out about it. You are not only facing jail time and the destruction of your own life and family, but you are putting hundreds of your employees out of a job and wiping out their re-tirement savings, not to men-tion destroying their lives and families. This may sound a little ex-
treme, but it has happened. It all boils down to a person’s ethics and integrity. Proper etiquette involves more than using the right fork. It en-compasses practicing gentil-ity, refi ned actions, respect, empathy and honesty, not unlike following the Golden Rule. So, before you take the easy way out, think about the consequences. I’m certain you will do the right thing.
Follow Carolyn Davenport at AGraciousYou.com
organizationspotlight: OBSBy Ashley Mann
Copy [email protected]
Completely, utterly, undeniably tell-tale signs you’re full of crap
As all college students are well aware, professors know when their students’ papers are full of crap. Try as they might, many students turn in assign-ments full of BS and then ex-pect their professor to believe they were genuinely trying to answer the question to the best of their ability. Dr. Bryan Williams of the Po-
litical Science department gave the best defi nition of bullshit in student assignments. “In gener-
al, lots of prepositional clauses and adjectives/adverbs mean they’re bullshitting. If they le-gitimately have something to say, they’ll say it without ca-veat or modifi cation,” he said. This is a great rule of thumb.
When pages and word counts are up for debate, students are easily tempted to include prep-ositional phrases galore.Dr. David A. Davis, English
and Southern Studies profes-sor, has seen that as well an overuse of other key terms. “I had a student at another uni-versity who fi lled his work with stock phrases such as ‘Due to the fact that,’ ‘As we all know,’ and ‘It is understood that.’ They made his work stul-
tifying, so I began to highlight them in brown and mark them ‘BS.’ His paper looked like a cow pasture,” he said. He was not the only one who
felt like this. Journalism pro-fessor Jay Black said, “When I get a paper that is just full of crap, I just draw some cartoon vomit on the page. If it is re-ally and truly horrible, then I draw a big, stinky cow patty. I haven’t had to do one this se-mester fortunately.” Black also has a series of
stamps to use on papers that just call students out. Howev-er, he did say that most profes-sors will not be likely to give out secrets or anything about how they know when a student
is just bullshitting. Black felt that there was a
balance that took into account the student’s overall participa-tion in the class, and how much they could get away with. This relates back to excuses and how much the student could pull off. Dr. Brian Rood said, “Years
ago, I had a student whose grandmother died at least three times in two semesters and had to miss exams because they had to be with family out of state. However, I would see the student out bouncing across campus that day or the follow-ing day. I never said anything about it, but hoped that they used the extra time to study for
the ‘make-up’ exam.” Rood was more astounded than any-thing, and this was the same way that Professor Black felt. In essence, most professors
know when someone is pulling their leg, but the trend is that if they are not lying about things, then why punish? Dr. Williams admitted that he almost gave credit to a student in a reading quiz who didn’t blatantly get the question wrong but simply wrote “I didn’t read.” Most of the class guessed and put in-correct, educated guesses, but it proved they did not do their work. Until students change the way they BS papers, pro-fessors are going to continue to know.
By Garret McDowellStaff Writer
Courtesy of Jasmine Fuller
Mercer’s Organization of Black Students hopes to unite all students, regardless of race. OBS even hosts poetry slams!
Lessons in Etiquette
with etiquette instructorCarolyn Davenport
What is ‘Black history trivia?’By Olivia Brayan
Staff Writerolivia.jasmine.brayan
@live.mercer.edu
Alicia Landrum / Cluster Staff
Francar’s Buffalo Wings hosted Black History Trivia. Above, Sharon Fambro hands out the restaurant’s delicious eats.
Alicia Landrum / Cluster Staff
From this angle you cannot see the 26 adverbs on Laura McKenzie’s screen.
Productive Spring Breaks? They do exist!By Cecilia Villagomez
Staff [email protected]
The Cluster - Feb. 23, 2012 - Page 7Features
I won’t lie – I was not eagerly anticipating a trip to San Anto-nio. My previous experiences in our nation’s 28th state haven’t been terribly positive: a frigid night in the Houston airport, a bad case of food poisoning in Dallas and a frightening run-in with some locals at a Ft. Worth restaurant. Needless to say, my thoughts upon boarding the plane this weekend were a constant refrain of “I wonder what’s going to happen this time.”Well, what happened was
something totally unexpected – I had a grand time. San An-tonio is a great town, with in-credibly friendly people – and as this correspondent grows ever older, fi nding people who’ll treat a meager tourist with a little respect and polite-ness becomes harder. Finding a place that’s seemingly popu-lated entirely with friendly people is like opening an oys-ter and fi nding a whole strand of pearls – a rare and unique treasure.Now, it wasn’t all wonder
and enjoyment. San Antonio’s weather would remind one of our own weather here in the midstate – capricious, to say the least. San Antonio’s also one of the largest (in terms of sheer landmass) cities in America, so getting around outside of the downtown areas is almost im-possible without a car.But why on Earth would one
want to leave downtown? In two days and one morning, I managed to eat two of the fi ve best meals I’ve ever had, learned a little Spanish, heard both the best mariachi band and the best three-piece jazz combo I’ve ever heard, and – to top the sundae with a big, historical cherry – was laid low with the sheer gravity of a visit to the Alamo. And all of that was within fi ve blocks of my hotel.My stated purpose for this trip
was to participate in a confer-ence of educators and students, discussing students’ transitions from their high-school days to the rigors of higher education. The conference was informa-tive and even fun, but the real experiences happened outside of the meeting rooms and ban-quet halls of the convention center – the real experiences happened out in the real world, with the people who make up
this surprisingly-large town with a surprisingly-small-town feel.The food in San Antonio is
amazing. I’m no restaurant critic, but I know what I like, and I like Mexican food – and I’ve never had it like this be-fore. Nearly everything in San Antonio has a distinct Mexican fl air – even the hotel sushi bar was serving “Chili con carne” rolls alongside the typical spicy tuna and avocado. (Note: Yes, the Chili con carne roll is de-licious). And if the people of San Antonio do Mexican fu-sion so well, imagine what they can do with straight-up, no-frills, Mexican food. One establishment, “Casa Rio,” is the oldest establishment on San Antonio’s Riverwalk, and has been serving customers since the 1940’s. It was there that I learned a little Spanish (we learned to sing “Happy Birthday” – not to a patron, but to one of the waitstaff, who’s been serving there since 1982), heard an incredible mariachi band blow the doors off the place with a mariachi cover of “All Along the Watchtower” and ate hands-down, the best Mexican food I’ve ever had in my life. The chili con car-ne was tender and just spicy enough to warrant another cold drink, the enchiladas were fresh and fl avorful, and the salsa? Well, let’s just say that I can’t buy the stuff in a jar any more – I’ve been spoiled.Food and music aside, how-
ever, the best part of the trip was my short but incredibly powerful visit to the Alamo. Even if you’re not a history buff, the Alamo is an amazing slice of American history.In 1836, Mexican forces un-
der the command of President General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna laid siege to the mission-turned-fortress, where less than 300 Texian troops held off their attackers for a full 13 days before the fortress fell. Only two of the Texian defenders escaped with their lives.Whether you are fascinated
by the story of the Alamo or repulsed by it, you can’t put aside the feeling – when you walk through the stout wooden doors – that this was an impor-tant event in the history of our nation. The fi rst thing that strikes
you about the Alamo, when you walk up to it, is its size. Not it’s massiveness – quite the opposite. Sitting on just a couple of city blocks, sur-rounded by modern high-rises and the marble edifi ces of San
Antonio’s federal buildings, the entirety of the present-day Alamo complex would easily fi t inside the University Center here on campus, and probably wouldn’t even encroach upon the basketball arena. (The site has decreased in size over the years, but even in 1836, the fort didn’t cover a huge amount of real estate.) It was in this tiny space that almost 300 men worked and fought and slept and ate while their invaders made camp just outside.You can still trace the outlines
of pock-marks on the stone walls of the mission church where musket balls ricocheted ineffec-tively back towards the attack-ers. In the courtyard behind, mounted cannon demonstrate the fi repower that was brought to bear against the Alamo: huge two, four and 10 pound guns that rained shell and shot on the defenders for the duration of the siege. The fact that the building stood up to the barrage speaks volumes as to its strength. The façade of the church seems to stare outwards with a defi ance more intense than even that of Texian commander William B. Travis: “I shall never surrender or retreat!”But it’s when you walk inside,
out of the Texas sun, and look around at the fl ags – dozens of them – representing the states and nations who sent men to the defense of the Alamo. At fi rst, it seems like a basic hall of fl ags – and then you notice the small red ribbons draped over each fl ag, each one im-printed with a single number: the number of that state or na-tion’s sons who died during those 13 days.Whether you’re a warrior or
a pacifi st, there’s something sacred about the site. When I considered those days, when I put myself in the place of the young men who had to know what was about to happen to them, that’s when it hit. The power, the sheer force of the 176 intervening years, was too much – I had to sit on a near-by bench and let a few tears come. In a world of increas-ing cynicism, when heroics are dismissed as self-aggrandize-ment, feeling such an emo-tional impact from a stack of stone blocks was not a wholly-unwelcome surprise.I suppose, then, that the pre-
ceding 1,100 words are but preface to this simple piece of advice: keep your mind and your eyes open. Whether it’s an emotional turning-point in your life or just a really good plate of tacos – there are still amazing things in this world.
Pisces (2/19 - 3/20)
Happy birthday, Pisces! As the weather warms, you might catch yourself begin-ning to have more energy. Your comrades might not be able to keep up with your eagerness, but that shouldn’t deter you from exhibiting it as often as possible. It might be time to purchase a mini-trampoline or pick up a few work-out tapes to help drain some of that excess energy from you. This should, how-ever, guarantee that you will be the star of whatever par-ties you attend this week.
Single? Meet people!Attached? Focus some of that
energy into your relationship.Lucky Days: Wednesdays.Unlucky Days: Thursdays.
Aries (3/21 - 4/19)
You’re so lonely, Aries. Even surrounded by a group of friends, you still feel alone. You long for a real, human connection, yet for some rea-son that seems unachievable. The problem is, you’re aiming too high! You’ve become so preoccupied with human con-nections that you’ve forgotten the most rewarding friend-ships: those with cats. Drop by the Macon Rescue Mission and pick up a furry friend (or 9) and a few kilos of kitty lit-ter, and you’ll be on your way to incomparable popularity!
Single? Inter-species love is still weird.Attached? Get your part-
ner a dozen lint brushes.Lucky Days: CATURDAY!Unlucky Days: Fridays.
Taurus (4/20 - 5/20)
Spiritually, you feel lost, Taurus. Whatever faith you have followed (including a lack thereof) is leaving you feeling somehow unfulfi lled. Don’t be afraid to look out-side of your personal pref-erence for guidance. Just because you are Jewish (or whatever) does not mean that you must be diametri-cally opposed to Sufi sm (or whatever). Spirituality is a personal journey.
Single? Don’t go to a house of worship on a fox hunt. Those motives belong in bars.Attached? Invite your
partner to join you on your religious meandering.Lucky Days: Wednesdays.Unlucky Days: Tuesdays.
Gemini (5/21 - 6/21)
You’re going to catch the fl u soon, Gemini. If you’ve already gotten a fl u shot, it doesn’t matter. You’ll just catch a scarier fl u than av-erage. You can try washing your hands with an obsessive frequency or wearing a medi-cal mask, but it’s already too late. You might as well drink out of water fountains and lick doorknobs to try and has-ten the process a bit. Go ahead and stock up on meds, OJ and Whoopie Goldberg fl icks.
Single? You are a veritable Petri dish of doom. (But the cashier at the pharmacy is pretty cute...)Attached? Your lover will
avoid you. Lucky Days: Fridays.Unlucky Days: Sundays.
Cancer (6/22 - 7/22)
You’re going to build up an entire pile of regrets over Spring Break, Cancer. The good news is that you won’t remember the vast majority of these actions. Unfortunately for you, people have cameras. While you are still conscious and thinking straight, go ahead and write up a few cards of apology. (Example: So sorry I barfed on your cat. Even more sorry for not realizing bleach was not the proper method of cleaning up.)
Single? Get that stranger’s name. Look on Facebook when you fi nd the ink-smeared napkin in your underpants.Attached? Not for long.Lucky Days: Mondays.Unlucky Days: Thursdays.
Leo (7/23 - 8/22)
Your computer is going to crash soon, Leo. Yes, this sucks. A lot. But it’s in your best interest to go ahead and backup all of your documents and photos, as well as anything else you’d like to keep. Start saving up and searching for good deals on technology, be-cause it’s unlikely that you’ll ever be able to revive your computer. Basically, you’ll be left with a fancy paperweight. Once it’s dead, feel free to make art out of it. A computer screen really would make an innovative canvas.
Single? Don’t yell at IT. One of them might be your future lover.Attached? Borrow your part-
ner’s laptop once yours croaks.Lucky Days: Wednesdays.Unlucky Days: Thursdays.
Virgo (8/23 - 9/22)
You are soon going to say some things that will piss off a lot of people, Virgo. Think be-fore you speak. If you still con-sider your ideas valid and feel as though they absolutely need to be spoken, say it. To hell with the opposition! That being said, do be aware of your own mo-tives. If you are only spouting these controversial concepts in order to stir up the emotions of others, you are impure and your point is muddled. And you’re an ass.
Single? Your radical state-ments might scare a suitor.Attached? If your partner-
thinks your scathing words are an exaggeration, listen.Lucky Days: Saturdays.Unlucky Days: Fridays.
Libra (9/23 - 10/23)
Wanderlust much, Libra? Trust me, no one’s blaming you. Try applying for some study abroad options for the upcom-ing summer. Or just save up enough for a plane ticket and a hostel-tour of, well, anywhere you want. If foreign countries pose too much of a challenge, utilize Spring Break and make an escape! Even a few nights camping at High Falls is better than feeling trapped. (Besides, I hear there are otters at High Falls. If you fi nd any, please take photos and send them to me.)
Single? Invite a small group of friends to travel with you.Attached? Your partner would
enjoy seeing Costa Rica, too.Lucky Days: Saturdays.Unlucky Days: Mondays.
Scorpio (10/24 - 11/21)
You will see an old acquain-tance in a public place soon, Scorpio. Whether or not the two of you speak to (or even acknowledge) one another is irrelevant, because the mere sight of this person will stir up emotions and memories that you didn’t even know you possessed. Later, try to fi gure out what made you feel this way. You’ll likely discover something new about yourself.
Single? Don’t be afraid to talk to strangers.Attached? You might not
want to immediately tell your partner about your blast from the past, and that’s okay.Lucky Days: Mondays.Unlucky Days: Fridays.
Sagittarius (11/22 - 12/21)
CALM THE HELL DOWN, SAGITTARIUS! Why are you panicking? This is only life, and by having a mental breakdown you are giving it the upper hand. You can’t allow that. Let your condi-tions know that YOU are the boss, and that you refuse to hyperventilate in the face of reality/ (a paper lunch sack) ever again. Take a personal day. Go to the park. Sit on a bench. Meditate. You are go-ing to be fi ne.
Single? Don’t become attracted to someone because you hope that he or she can save you.Attached? Your partner
should not be the main source of your stress.Lucky Days: Wednesdays.Unlucky Days: Sundays.
Capricorn (12/22 - 1/19)
Where you come from does not have to dictate what you become, Capricorn. Don’t feel ashamed of your past or embarrassed of your roots. All of your experiences have combined to create the person that you are today, and you choose where you will be to-morrow. Be thankful for your existence and be grateful for those who have enabled you to come this far.
Single? Before starting a relationship, make sure that you fi rst establish a founda-tion of truth.Attached? Share a child-
hood memory with your partner.Lucky Days: Sundays.Unlucky Days: Tuesdays.
Aquarius (1/20 - 2/18)
As Spring Break ap-proaches, your give-a-damn decreases, Aquarius. Un-fortunately for you, these pre-midterm weeks have time and again proved to be some of the toughest that a semester has to offer. Either start working on that in-surmountable collection of homework gathering dust on your desk... or give in. Drop trou, pour yourself a nice big bowl of Coco Pebbles, and sit down to a Jersey Shore marathon. Who cares?
Single? Don’t worry, poor hygiene is sexy.Attached? Don’t let your
partner’s habitual over-achieve-ment weigh down on you.Lucky Days: Thursdays.Unlucky Days: Saturdays.
Plan your life around Alicia’s unreliable ( )horoscopes
Well going forward in time is easy. You are currently going forward in time right now, al-though at a one-to-one ratio with everyone else. If you want to go forward faster, you’ve got a few options for how to do it. You can fl y very fast, as in near
the speed of light fast. This will slow down time for you accord-ing to special relativity. (Thanks Einstein!) So if you fl ew to Alpha Centauri and back at like 95% the speed of light and the trip took you about 1.9 years, when you return to Earth everyone else would be 8.3 years older. You just traveled forward in time by 6.4 years!You can get a really similar effect
by hanging out near large gravity wells like a black holes, but this is probably more dangerous because if you got too close to the black hole you would super-die and get spaghettified (the official science term for what happens if you get too close to a black hole). Going backwards in time is
far, far more diffi cult. In fact it is probably impossible. Think about it, if time travel existed then there would be loads of time travelers everywhere right now because they would have all of the rest of the universe in time worth of mad scientists, time vacation-ers and killer Aryan robots who would probably love to visit the prehistoric times we live in now when human civilization was just getting its start. Not to mention that traveling backwards in time breaks causality (the idea that there is a cause for every effect).Seeing back in time is easy.
Look at the stars one night. They are all at least 4.2 light years away from us right now. This means that whatever you see them doing (or with a big enough telescope, what is happening on their planets), actually happened years ago and the light is just now reaching us. So if all of the stars blew up right now, we wouldn’t even know for another 4.2 years for the closest ones and hundreds of years for the more distant ones we can see. Even our sun is 8 light-minutes away so all that beautiful warmth and light from the sun is actually 8 minutes old.Now that you have made it
back in time, here is some stuff to watch out for: TIME PARA-DOXES! What if you tried to kill your grandfather? The instant you kill him, you would never have been born and therefore could not have gone back in time to kill him. However, then you would not have killed him, so you have been born again! Which means you can kill him again! Which means you were not born again! So that is something you want to avoid because that makes no sense. That is an extreme exam-ple, but there are plenty of things you could do that could create time paradoxes if you aren’t care-ful. Even doing something really minor could have a “Butterfl y Effect” that could cause your parents to not meet, or you to not get your job at the time machine factory! It’s possible that causing one these paradoxes could cause the universe to explode or time to end or other terrible things.There are a couple of theories
about how the universe could handle these paradoxes, assum-ing it’s response is NOT to just blow up everything. One is the post-selected model of time, which says that the universe does not allow paradoxes to occur. In our example, your gun would jam or a bird would poop and you would slip or you would get hit by a car, whatever it would take to make sure that you do not kill your grandfather and thereby cause a paradox. Another option is that every time you go back in time and cause one like that, you simply split off a parallel di-mension in which he died, so in your “home” universe he would be fi ne and you could return like normal, but you would have just created a whole universe in which the only difference is that your grandfather died!Confused yet? Good, I hope this
taught you to never, ever, ever go back in time. It’s probably not possible, but even if it is don’t do it! If you want more proof that you will never get a time ma-chine in the universe, try making a promise to yourself that if you ever get a time machine you will come back and visit yourself at a specifi c time and place about fi ve minutes from now. Memo-rize this location, write down the time in every calendar and leave sticky notes all inside your fridge (you know you won’t fi nd those for a couple years). Probably nothing will happen and you will feel silly, and will have learned that time travel is impossible (or heavily regulated by the Time Police).
By Lee GreenwayCluster Advisor
Hi,engineers!
Not a“Lone-Star” state
I’ve been thinking a lot about myself 10 years ago, and the myself of 10 years in the future. I’d really like for all of us to have a happy rendezvous. So... Time travel?
Tim Samson Nathan Burnham Ben Haygood
Meet the engineering dream team:
Plenty of stars for the traveler in San Antonio
but award- winning
Email your conundrums to the engineering dream team at [email protected] with the subject “Hi, Engineers!”
EntertainmentEntertainment EditorEric Brown
The Cluster - Feb. 23, 2012 - Page 8
Like, whatever, man
For years, Macon’s artistic legacy has been its music. Otis Redding, The Allman Brothers Band, Little Richard and more all emerged onto the world stage from their hum-ble beginnings in Macon. For the past few years, however, a group of Macon artists have been giving Macon a name as a hub for independent fi lm, as well.The Macon Film Festival,
created in part by Mercer professor Craig Coleman, wrapped up its seventh year this weekend with screenings of 125 fi lms ranging from documentaries to animations to narrative shorts. MAGA, as the festival is known as, ran from February 16 to 19, played host to fi lmmakers from more than 15 coun-tries and averaged about 500 viewers per day. Ticket sales were up 30% from previous years, making this the Macon Film Festival’s most success-ful year.Offering screenings at three
downtown venues — The Cox Capital Theatre, the Douglas Theatre and the 567 Center for Renewal — MAGA saw a wide variety of fi lm genres being screened across the weekend, giving out awards and prize money to the best fi lms in each genre. Contestants entered their fi lms in the categories of ani-mation, experimental, student, documentary, narrative short and narrative feature. Addi-tionally, the festival gave out a “best in show” prize. This year’s winner was the narra-tive feature A Wake, directed by Penelope Buitenhuis.A Wake follows the reunion
of a formerly successful the-atre company at the wake of their murdered director. Reminiscent of other indie dramas such as The Royal
Tenenbaums, the Canadian drama unravels years of se-crets behind the band of thes-pians. In an interesting di-rectorial move, all the fi lm’s dialog was improvised rather than scripted.A Wake also recieved best in
show awards from the South-ern Appalachian International Film Festival and the Toronto Women’s Eye Film Festival, as well as a best screenplay
award from the Rhode Island Film Festival.Other standout fi lms at the
festival included the docu-mentary Grow!. Jointly di-rected by fi lmmakers Chris-tine Anthony and Owen Masterton, Grow! explores the rising sustainable farm-ing movement, fueled in large part by young, college-educated farmers that have left their cities in pursuit of
an agrarian dream. The docu-mentary was fi lmed in and around 12 Georgia farms.The student category saw
a wide range of talent and creativity on display, most notably in the category win-ner Missile Crisis. The short, directed by Jaye Davidson, follows a 13 year-old boy as he attempts to protect his lit-tle brother from the looming shadow of the Cuban Missile
Crisis, as well as problems within their own family.In addition to the screen-
ings, awards and after-parties, MAGA also hosted a wide variety of panels geared to-wards both aspiring fi lmmak-ers and fans. Special guest Joseph Uliano, himself a Dublin native, hosted a panel on his work in music videos. Currently based in Los An-geles, Uliano has produced
videos for The Foo Fighters, The Black Keys, Bruno Mars and more.Other featured fi lmmakers
included Macon native Car-rie Preston, whose debut fi lm That’s What She Said wasaccepted into the Sundance Film Festival this past Janu-ary. Her fi lm closed out the festival and included a spe-cial question and answer ses-sion via Skype.
A couple issues back, I talk-ed about Hüsker Dü’s 1986 album New Day Rising and, more importantly, its status as a landmark record that went on the infl uence alternative rock for years to come. And now I’d like to go on to ex-plain to both of my readers exactly what sort of infl uence SST records and their bands had on the decade to come.The early 1990s were a truly
unique and interesting time in popular music. After the re-lease of Nirvana’s Nevermind, major labels were scrambling to fi nd the “next big thing” in fl ash, and they began courting smaller, more abrasive and experimental bands that never would have been considered for radio play just a year be-fore.This had an unintended ef-
fect for the major labels. By catering so strongly to smaller bands and labels, it gave in-dependent music a stronger voice than it had ever seen before. Alternative culture had been thrust into the main-stream. All of a sudden, weird, trippy
records like Sonic Youth’s Ex-perimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star were on the Billboard charts beside pop acts like Boyz II Men. Bizarre songs like The Flaming Lips’ “She Don’t Use Jelly” were sud-dently considered hit singles in a way that never would have been commercial viable before Nirvana came along.
Not that every alt-rock band at the time was brilliant, but the beauty of the time was seeing underground rock move into a more prominent place in American culture. Which leads me to Pavement
and their phenomenal 1994 re-lease Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. The album wasn’t as commercially successful as other alt-rock records of the period (though it did reach the top 20 in the UK), but in my mind, it’s possibly the fi nest album of the 1990s. While Pavement’s fi rst full-
length Slanted and Enchant-ed was a very low-fi record, Crooked Rain was a diferent story. It adopted a slightly more polished sound, one that while not quite a fi t for main-stream radio, turned down the abrasively low quality produc-tion values and fuzzy guitars, replacing them with catchy melodies, reserved rhythms and lazily strummed chords that could come right out of a jam band. The whole album oozes slacker chic.Take the album’s fi rst single
“Cut Your Hair” for exam-ple: Beginning with Stephen Malkmus’s falsetto “ooh ooh oohs,” the song bleads into its loose, jam-inspired verse as Malkmus’s lyrics attack the image-conscious music industry. “You can keep your fancy record deals and styl-ists,” Malkmus seems to say, “We don’t care about any of that.”Even the song’s guitar solo
feels effortlessly perfect, as Scott Kannberg’s guitar shifts quickly around the same fi ve or six notes. It’s a perfectly
Generation X moment: bril-liant, simplistic and never too thought-out.The group’s next single,
“Gold Soundz” might be one of my favorite songs of all time. The whole song feels like the soundtrack to a per-fectly lazy summer day. Mal-kmus and Kannberg’s guitars intertwine seamlessly, noo-dling around in alternate tun-ings, creating the perfect mix of off-the-cuff originality and
planned genius.The rest of the record is full
of memorably off-kilter selec-tions, from the slow country rock of “Range Life” to the Dave Brubeck-inspired in-strumental “5-4=Unity.” It may not have been the
most popular album of the mid ‘90s, but it encapsulated the era better than any other managed to.Classic or catastrophe:
classic.
Macon film fest returns
FEBRUARY 21Band of Skulls — Sweet SourCheap Girls — Giant Orange
Cursive — I am GeminiDamien Jurado — Maraqopa
The Menzingers — On the Impossible Past
FEBRUARY 28Ava Luna — Ice Level
Dead Fingers — Dead FingersMousr on Mars — Parastrophics
Plants and Animals — The End of ThatWe Have Band — Ternion
MARCH 6Andrew Bird — Break It Yourself
Bruce Springsteen — Wrecking BallMagnetic Fields — Love at the Bottom...
Pond — Beard Wives DenimXiu Xiu — Always
MARCH 13Decemberists — We Raise Our Voices [Live]
Grinderman — Grinderman 2 RMXLucero — Women & Work
Meat Loaf — Hell in a HandbasketXerxes — Our Home is a Deathbed
MARCH 30Daniel Rossen — Silent Hour/Golden Mile
Lee Ranaldo — Between the Times & the TidesSharks — No Gods
Spiritualized — Sweet Heart Sweet LightThe Shins — Port of Morrow
By Eric BrownEntertainment Editor
In its seventh year, festival grows even larger
Image courtesy of Matador Records
Look at these guys. Generation X ennui has never been so dreamy. Oh, and also their records are good. There’s that, too.
Eric Brown / Cluster Staff
Farmers Chris and Jenny Jackson of Jenny-Jack Sun Farm pose in front of their fi elds. The couple is featured in Grow!, a documentary by Christine Anthony and Owen Masterson which explores the rising trend of young farmers raising sustainable crops in Georgia. Grow! was named best documentary at MAGA.
By Eric BrownEntertainment Editor
EntertainmentThe Cluster - Feb. 23, 2012 - Page 9
Greetings again dear read-er! Something has brought us together again, maybe fate? More likely one of the editors hand delivered this to you at Jittery Joe’s. Fate is more ro-mantic, so I’ll just run with it. Fate brought me yet again to the truly unique sound of Electro-Swing band Caravan Palace. I was going to write a stinging parody of the des-perately insuffi cient Republi-can fi eld, but they are doing well enough in that realm of their own. I fi rst heard Caravan Palace
four or fi ve years ago through the woefully unequipped laptop speakers of a French classmate who assured me they were incredible. They were. Because of national licens-
ing, the band’s music was not available in the United States. Most of their stuff is still hard to fi nd in stores, but their eponymous 2008 release is
now available on Spotify. Honestly, I fi nd their newer work superior overall, but the woeful infl uence of that over-grown experiment called dub-step affected their later sound. I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s just that fi nding an electronic album with real instrumenta-tion and no pesky “wub-wub” is a feat. If you are interested, their newer work is available on Youtube. I recommend the song “Clash”. That said, let’s look into Caravan Palace as a whole.This French group introduc-
es their fi rst track, “Dragons” with a sound that can be only described as 1940’s St. Louis Swing as seen through the lens of the Parisian techno scene. This is the same scene that brought powerhouses like Kavinsky and Daft Punk. This fi rst track starts off with coffee shop sounds and then rockets you to the moon. “Scar Scat” brings you to what I can only imagine is a “Big O” android singing scat over is well oiled back-ing band. The guitar styling’s of Arnaud Vial would make Phil Keaggy blush. Sonia Velasco and Camille
Chapelière bring forth a sound that is uniquely French through a regular slow waltz and occasional breakneck clarinet. Whenever we are all long
dead, our descendants will want to emulate this. I proud-ly stand by that as I do all my other unverifi able claims.
“Ended With the Night” is like strolling through an im-pressionist painting of the stars, with refl ections sim-mering on the Seine. The album really starts to im-press with “Jolie Coquine.” It unabashedly rips you out of your chair and onto what-ever danceable surface you can fi nd. It’s last’s century’s sound churned out with the urgency of the digital age. “Ooh” allows you to catch your breath, but then they come back hard with “Suzy”. I must say, “it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.” Play this at your next party and feel cool.The next track, “Je
m’amuse”, really starts to show how well this album is paced. I fall short of calling it musical genius, but I will ad-mit that is a challenge. This
song is more electronic than the previous tracks, but Cara-van Palace is able to integrate synthesizers in such a way
that it doesn’t seem over pro-duced. The rest of the album continues at the same pace, and I couldn’t spoil that for
you. Long story short, this French connection brings the old and the new together in a sharp, foot tapping, rush.
Hey, you got your electro in my ‘40s swing!
Image courtesy of Caravan Parade
Six piece French electro-swing act Caravan Parade runs through the streets of Paris. But from what are they running? The past? Their darkest regrets? Either way, they’re great for parties.
By Jonathan PophamSmells like clove cigarettes
Rumor Has It Someone Like You has been wondering who decided to Take It All at the Grammys. Not only did Brit-ish sensation Adele Set Fire to the stage with her fi rst perfor-mance since her recent vocal cord surgery singing “Rolling in the Deep,” but she was the One and Only person who took every award that they were nominated for.Adele absolutely dominated
the Grammys last week, de-servedly so. The pop singer from London racked up six awards in all, including Re-cord and Song of the Year. More controversially, Chris
Brown made a couple appear-ances in addition to winning R&B Album of the Year, a fact that angered many.But the jaw-dropping mo-
ment of the entire show came from up and coming Hip Hop star Nicki Minaj, who decided that a video skit coupled with an absolutely bizarre sacrile-gious stage show was a good move. It was not. Nicki Minaj sang her new
single from her forthcoming album Pink Friday: Roman Re-loaded. “Roman Holiday” took form of the movie The Excor-cist as Nicki Minaj portrayed herself as Roman, a human be-ing possessed by a demon. An exorcist came to relieve Minaj
of the demon in full Pope’s re-galia, but was unsuccessful as she levitated towards the ceil-ing.After seeing that, the Catholic
League issued a statement in-quiring as to whether Minaj is actually possessed.To the Catholic League’s
president, Bill Donohue, “per-haps the most vulgar part” of Minaj’s show was “the sexual statement that showed a scant-ily clad female dancer stretch-ing backwards while an altar boy knelt between her legs in prayer.”Donohue asserts in his state-
ment that “none of this was by accident, and all of it was approved by the Recording Academy, which puts on the Grammys. Whether Minaj is possessed is surely an open question, but what is not in doubt is the irresponsibility of the Recording Academy. Never would they allow an artist to insult Judaism or Is-lam.”With Whitney Houston pass-
ing just the day prior to the Grammys, many were won-dering how they would honor such a musical legend. Taste-fully, LL Cool J, the Grammys host, led what was seemingly the entire musical community in a prayer. Later in the show, former American Idol contes-tant and Oscar Winner Jenni-fer Hudson took to the stage in order to not try to imitate, but instead to honor Whitney Houston with a touching ren-dition of Whitney’s biggest hit, “I Will Always Love You.”
Other notable Grammy mo-ments were: a duet in honor of Etta James with Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt, the Foo Fighters winning fi ve Gram-mys putting them second only to Adele, Taylor Swift performing her hit “Mean” in
what seemed to look like a po-tato sack, and Lady Gaga not winning a single award.On the fan’s side of the
awards, indie act Bon Iver’s win for best new artist caused a ton of confusion for mu-sic listeners that don’t follow
Pitchfork Media. In the wake of their win, Twitter was fl ood-ed with comments along the lines of “Who the hell is Bon-ny Bear?” Maybe mainstream America just isn’t ready for Justin Vernon and his moun-tain-man beard yet.
Awards season continues this Sunday, as the focus shifts to movies when the Academy Awards take place. Tune in to the Academy Awards at 7 p.m. on ABC to see who takes home the most coveted prizes in fi lm making.
Grammy wrapup: Adele winsBy Bryson Jones
Awards Show [email protected]
Photo courtesy of the Grammys
Adele just can’t hold all these awards. The London singer won all six of the awards she was nominated for, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Other winners included Bon Iver for best new artist and the Foo Fighters with best rock album.
B+If you thought The Hunger
Games was a children’s book, you’re absolutely right. But if you found yourself
being a full-grown adult and still connecting with its in-tricate commentary on poli-tics, social media, and pop culture, you’re one of the millions of fans propelling the series towards its amaz-ing success and upcoming adaptation into a fi lm for all ages.Set in post-apocalyptic
America, Suzanne Collins creates a dystopian nation, Panem, divided into 12 spe-cialized districts and inti-mately controlled and sup-
pressed by its manipulative, strategically located govern-ment district, the Capitol. The back story tells us that an ear-lier uprising of the districts against the Capitol ended in the destruction of District 13 and resulted in the Capitol’s invention of the annual Hun-ger Games. The Games help the Capitol maintain control over Panem by requiring two tributes, chosen at random from among the children in each district. The tributes, which can
be as young as 12 or as old as 18, are thrown into an arena meticulously and ar-tistically designed by game makers, and forced to kill each other until only one tribute remains. Each dis-trict is forced to watch the Games as the whole thing is televised as if it is a glori-fi ed reality show. The win-ner of each Hunger Games goes home as a celebrity.
While this series joins the genre of dystopian literature along with Brave New World and 1984, Collins wittingly gives her world its own voice through the narration by Kat-niss Everdeen, who tells us the story in fi rst person. The cold, cunning, and
strong-willed 16-year-old from District 12 volunteers herself as a tribute to the Games when her younger sister, Primrose, is chosen in the drawing. Through Kat-niss’ eyes, we engage her desperation and determina-tion not only to survive the brutal Games and return to her family, but to endure and conquer the Capitol’s merci-less publicity and media at-tention that projects her and the other tributes as mock celebrities. But Katniss is not the only
character bringing us into this alternate new world. The rest of Collins’ charac-
ters draw in a broad audience with equal vigor. This, along with the underlying critique of popular media and televi-sion that we all recognize, is what makes Collins’ world so outreaching to all age groups. At times, the advanced read-
er is reminded of the book’s lower reading level whenev-er Collins slips into a loose, somewhat choppy style. Her lazy sentence composition and word choice escape the notice of young readers more readily than advanced read-ers, but this is how we re-member that it’s a children’s book after all. The message, the story, and the emotions contained and projected in the books connect with kids and adults alike. My 12 year-old sister highly
recommends it, and so do I. The Hunger Games is set to be released in its fi lm adapta-tion on March 23.
By Michelle MeredithLiterary critic
Brush up on the ‘Hunger Games’
LocalLocal EditorKaitlin Marrin
The Cluster - Feb. 23, 2012- Page 10
Sports Hall of Fame to stay in Macon
The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame will remain in Macon for at least the next three years.Ben Sapp, the managing di-
rector who has been the mu-seum’s temporary director for nearly two years, said Georgia Governor Nathan Deal has signed off on the agreement, which was received Feb. 6 by the Development Authority of Bibb County. In negotiations on Feb. 7,
Bibb County commissioners accepted what they seemingly thought to be the state of Geor-gia’s responsibility. They in-formally voted to put $125,000 into the sports hall this year alone. County commissioner Lonzy
Edwards made it known that he felt that the sports hall was the state’s responsibility, with local legislators more worried about keeping the local gov-ernment under control rather than fi nding money to pay for what they felt was the state’s responsibilities in Macon.“I’m going to vote for this.
Only reason I’m going to vote
for this is it’s in downtown Macon. Downtown Macon is in part of my district. ... We’re supposed to do what’s in the best interests of the total com-munity,” Edwards said.Commission Chairman Sam
Hart said the County Commis-sion had obligated itself in De-cember 2010 when it pledged to support the sports and music halls with $250,000 in the fi rst year, $150,000 in the second year and $100,000 the third year in order to make sure that they were up and running. The Music Hall of Fame later closed its doors, but the Sports Hall of Fame did not. Hart said at the moment that the Music Hall of Fame closed, the obli-gation was then cut in half be-cause the number of museums had been cut in half.If Macon and Bibb County fol-
low the ideas set forth, each will put $125,000 into the sports hall this year, $75,000 next year and $50,000 the year after that. The sports hall also receives about $120,000 in hotel-motel taxes channeled through Bibb County.The hall is to be managed by
NewTown Macon. Other fund-ing comes from the Peyton Anderson Foundation, which promised $750,000 over three years; the Community Founda-tion of Central Georgia, which pledged $15,000 and the Grif-fi th Family Foundation, which offered $200,000.Sapp said the sports hall ben-
efi ts from private fundraising
that will make the hall more self-suffi cient. The Georgia Sports Hall of
Fame Honors Court recently selected the newest inductees after intense deliberation. The
inductees are Jack Bauerle, Sally Smalley Bell, Bob Boyl-ston, Tracy Ham, Cliff Kimsey and John Smoltz. The ceremony will take place
on Saturday, February 25 at
the Macon City Auditorium.The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m.-5p.m. The museum is located at 301 Cherry Street.
By Bryson Jones Staff Writer
The “Macon Miracle,” a new 174 step plan proposed by school board superinten-dant, Romain Dallemand, will change the face of public schools in Bibb County. Dal-lemand introduced the plan to the community and boards members on Feb. 3 and has since grown into a highly de-bated issue amongst local resi-dents. A few steps in the Macon
Miracle include teaching Man-darin Chinese to all students K-12, instituting year-round school with longer school days and changing middle school to include fourth through seventh grades.This comes as an answer to
some staggering numbers in student performance. Accord-
ing to the Bibb County Board of Education’s website, during the 2010-2011 school year, ap-proximately 500 students were expelled, 703 dropped out of school and the ninth grade co-hort graduation rate was less than 50 percent.The Macon Miracle is sup-
posed to address these prob-lems. Many parents are concerned
about the plan, while others support it. Dr. Eric Spears, Di-rector of International Educa-tion at Mercer, who spoke with the Cluster as a concerned par-ent and Bibb County resident, said that the main issue in the beginning was communica-tion.“I think I need more informa-
tion as a parent. I need more clarity,” said Spears.One such communication
problem was the belief that teachers would be laid off. In a blog post, however, Bibb Coun-ty Superintendent Romain Dal-lemand said that layoffs were
not part of the Macon Miracle.“Because there are staffi ng
needs each year when schools are closed we would be able to adjust staffi ng levels through attrition – a gradual process made possible as staff retire or leave the District for one rea-son or another,” said the blog. This process of attrition will simply not fi ll vacant spots
teachers leave behind as they retire, or leave Bibb County Schools.“It’s a huge plan, and there are
parts of it that I think are good, and there are parts that I don’t know that I have a grounded opinion (on) yet,” said Spears, who has two elementary school children at the magnet school Al-exander II.
As a parent of a daughter in third grade, Spears said he can’t imagine her being ready to go into middle school next year. That part of the plan con-cerns him most.“I’ve learned this week that
Alex II as a school will not change,” said Spears, ex-plaining that more success-ful schools may not face the radical change awaiting other schools.“That having been said, I’m
still a Bibb County resident. I want to see the community rise together,” Spears said.Spears is also in favor of
the teaching of Mandarin in schools, so long as it is not at the expense of other important languages such as Spanish. He also approves of longer school days and a modifi ed calendar, but there is still a need for more information.“What’s happening now is
that communication is occur-ring,” said Spears, mentioning Dallemand’s blog and a meet-
ing the principal at Alexander II held for parents.An event on Friday, Feb. 10
at the Macon Coliseum was designed more as an inspira-tional speech, said Spears, who went to the event hoping to learn more information about the Macon Miracle.“I feel more informed than
when I fi rst read (about the Macon Miracle),” Spears said. The meeting with the principal of Alexander II, his own re-search and even the event on Feb. 10 combined to help him feel more informed.“There’s a social justice issue
here,” said Spears, “I want ev-ery kid to have a great educa-tion.”The numbers from the 2010-
2011 school year were disturb-ing to Spears, and reform is needed, he said. “We have so much potential here. I think collectively a plan will fall into place that works well.”
By Emily Farlow Staff Writer
School Board’s proposed ‘Miracle’ sparks debate
Patrick Hobbs / Cluster Staff
The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame is home to some of Georgia’s greatest sports memorabilia.
Patrick Hobbs / Cluster Staff
Visitors can get interactive and face off against NASCAR drivers.
MED SCHOOL,continued from page 1
In addition, he adds that “pressure and crowding of learners in the hospital settings these days is becoming prob-lematic, so the more diverse our clinical experiences are, the better the students have it because there are less people on the teams. They get more individual experience and practice.”To get this program devel-
oped and working, according to President Underwood, a team comprised of “The Medi-cal Center and St. Francis Hospital, Pete Robinson, State Representative Richard Smith, Mercer Medical School Dean Bill Bina, Mercer trustees Jim-my Elder and Tom Black, and a number of other local business and community leaders,” have developed and engaged the faculty and staff that are essen-tial for teaching these third and fourth year medical students. Dean Bina comments, “One of
the advantages we have is that we have a curriculum that we use for third and fourth years that can be transferred directly so they don’t have to start a new curriculum.”Lance Duke, FACHE, presi-
dent and CEO of The Medical Center, commented in a recent interview that, “The future benefi ts of this affi liation to our community and our region are without question. We know many of the students will grow to love this community as we do, and will choose to stay
here to practice medicine.”During his closing comments,
Dean Bina said, “This partner-ship broadens our clinical ba-sis so we have more hospitals, more clinics, more opportuni-ties. We have the potential to grow up to 40 students. Go-ing from 12 to 40 students is a big deal in this kind of thing. It won’t happen immediately, but what we need is to prove that our partnership works, and we have no indication that it won’t because everybody is enthusiastic about it.”
In November, Bibb County voted on a special purpose lo-cal option sales tax (SPLOST) which would contribute mon-ey towards improving many Macon departments. One of the more recent discussions of money distribution was centered on the local animal shelter. Three million dollars is ex-
pected to go toward the build-ing of a new animal shelter. The current shelter is located right next to the city dump. On Feb. 9 Macon City Hall
held a discussion session to al-low residents to present ideas on the spending for the shelter. Over the course of the meet-ing, 50 ideas were brought forward. The Telegraph’s reported on
the proposed suggestions which included rooftop solar panels, equipment for taking pictures and videos of abused animals for court cases, adequate plumb-ing, getting more volunteers in-volved, etc.Making the animal shelter a
no-kill shelter seemed to be a top priority along. Many add-ed that the shelter needed to be able to take in a high-volume of animals while minimizing
costs to spay or neuter ani-mals which can deter potential adopters due to added costs. Neither a timeline or loca-
tion for the new animal shelter was discussed, but in July, the city of Macon will hand over all duties and responsibility of the shelter to Bibb County. SPLOST money will also be
used for the Tubman African American Museum, the Ma-con Centreplex, public safety equipment, rebuilding Fort Hawkins and revitalizing Sec-ond Street, reported the Ma-con Telegraph.The radio system used by
Macon and Bibb County emergency workers will also be updated with the SPLOST money.Money will also be given to the
Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in an effort to keep it in Macon.The Parks and Recreation de-
partment has asked for money to go toward air conditioner repairs at several city facili-ties, according to the Macon Telegraph. The air conditioner units were damaged by copper thieves.The council approved spend-
ing $55,000 dollars in back pay to Public Works stated Director Richard Powell, who was fi red by the mayor and then reinstated. The Telegraph reported that the money is for the “nearly nine-month span he was off.”
“It’s a huge plan, and there are parts of it that i think are good and there are parts I don’t know that I have a ground-ed opinion (on) yet.”
Dr. Eric Spears, Director of International Education at Mercer
By Emily Farlow Staff Writer
Macon City Council Talks SPLOST funds
Photo courtesy of Mercer Marketing
President Underwood spoke at the press conference in Columbus expressing his enthusiasm for the new Medical school.
The Cluster - Feb. 23, 2012 - Page 11Local
On Feb. 13, Rock of Ages, a new musical set to the sounds of the hair bands of the 80’s
took to the stage at Macon’s Grand Opera House. Just about everyone has heard
or knows the words to “Don’t Stop Believing,” the hit song made famous by the 80’s rock band Journey. “Just a small town girl/Living in a lonely world/She took the midnight
train going anywhere/Just a city boy/Born and raised in South Detroit/He took the mid-night train going anywhere.” Rock of Ages is a rock/juke-
box musical, with a book by Chris D’Arienzo, built around classic rock hits from the 1980s, especially from the
famous glam metal bands of the decade. The musical fea-tures songs from Styx, Jour-ney, Bon Jovi, Pat Bena-tar, Twisted Sister, Steve Perry, Poison and Asia, among other well-known rock bands. It is directed by Kristin Hanggi and choreographed by
Kelly Devine with music su-pervision, arrangements, and orchestrations by Ethan Popp and David Gibbs.The creative team for Rock
of Ages took this song and cre-ated a compelling story line, making sure that each rock song used had a meaning and was appropriately placed. Some of the songs were taken in a direction that one would not think they would go.“Any Way You Want It,”
another hit made famous by Journey, took place in a strip club. Each stripper was giving a choreographed lap dance, and singing the words to the song. “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister was used during a protest scene, because the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, where most of the musical took place, was being threatened by land developers. The heart wrenching “I Want to Know What Love Is” by Foreigner took place in a bathroom stall during a one night stand. The show ends with “Don’t Stop Believing” summing up the fact that the whole storyline that the audience just watched was loosely based on the lyrics of the famous song. The cast and crew that they
brought to the Grand opera House was a group of seasoned professionals. Each cast mem-ber brought something differ-ent to the performance, and it
was interesting to see how the different blends of voices made an interesting sound when be-ing sung to an extremely spe-cifi c type of music. From soul singers, to hardcore rockers, all the way to voices with a pop quality were able to showcase their talent when asked to sing rock music.What was seemingly the most
powerful voice in the show was in one of the subordinate role. Justice Charlier, the owner of the strip club, where Sherrie, one of the shows central char-acters, was played by Amma Osei. Her voice was powerful like Aretha Franklin, but had tenderness to it like Mary J. Blige’s. The lead characters of Drew and Sherrie, played by Dominique Scott and Shannon Mullen, each brought a smooth tone to the role, and were not true rockers, but able to hold their own while singing the heavy metal tunes.Rock of Ages, has recently been
in the works for a feature fi lm starring Julianne Hough, Rus-sell Brand, Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Mary J. Blige, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones and many others. The fi lm is set to be released in June of 2012.The next show to hit the Grand
Opera House stage is the offi cial Blues Brother’s Review on Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m.. Tickets can be purchased at the Grand Opera House website or at Mercer Tick-
Recently, the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation en-dowed Mercer University with $2.5 million to create the new Eula Mae and John Baugh Center for Baptist Leadership. On February 8, President Wil-liam D. Underwood announced the appointment of Dr. Daniel Vestal to the position of di-rector and as a Distinguished University Professor. For the past 15 years, Dr. Ves-
tal has served as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Executive Coordinator. He had previ-ously announced that he was stepping down last year, effec-tive at the end of June 2012. Following that, Dr. Vestal will assume the position. Before becoming director
of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in 1996, Dr. Ves-tal was a pastor at Houston, Texas’ Tallowood Baptist Church, Atlanta’s Dunwoody Baptist Church, Midland,
Texas’ First Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas’ Southcliff Baptist Church, and Arlington, Texas’ Meadow Lane Baptist Church. Dr. Daniel Vestal has been
involved in the Baptist com-munity for more than four decades. He received both a Bachelor’s and Master’s de-gree from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He went on to receive a Master’s of Divin-ity and a Theological Doctor-ate from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Ves-tal also served as the found-ing member of the trustees of George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor Univer-sity, where he would receive the George W. Truett award for Distinguished Church Ser-vice. The Baptist Center will be a
major addition to the rapidly growing and expanding McA-fee School of Theology, which is based on the Atlanta campus of Mercer University. It will offer chances for learning and researching about Baptist mis-sions, history, ethics and theol-ogy.
Speaking about the nam-ing of the new Baugh Center, President Underwood said “John Baugh, for many de-cades provided courageous and principled leadership as a Baptist layperson.”When asked for what the
new center and its namesakes meant to him, Dr. Vestal said that “Eula Mae and John Baugh embodied integrity and Christian character. This Cen-ter will be a lasting legacy to their lives and will foster re-search, learning and commu-nity within the Baptist family. It will pursue excellence for both lay and clergy leaders by combining spiritual formation, academic study and caring collegiality.” Vestal will teach classes as well as run the Cen-ter’s extracurricular functions. Vestal has been published
several times, and he has pub-lished several essays online on CBF websites. He has been fea-tured in seven different books, and Vestal has published four books himself, with the most recent publication Being thePresence of Christ: A Vision for Transformation.
Opera House showcases memorable hit ‘Rock of Ages’
Macon begins initiative to keep the peace
Macon held an offi cial Peace Week from Feb. 6-12 as a way to help build a safer commu-nity. The group, known as the Peace Keepers came to Macon as a part of a goal to create co-hesiveness amongst the police and public. The Peace Keep-ers initiative began three years ago when founding member, Captain Dennis Muhammad noticed a steady rise in crime rates all across the nation. Peace Keepers is a national
organization with 15 cities par-ticipating in Peace Week. The main presentation the group puts on is heading into neigh-borhoods wearing brightly colored orange shirts with the words ‘Present Peace’ written on the front. “Any time you see 50 to 785
men and women in orange shirts...they can go into the worst corners and be standing for one hour. I don’t think no drug deal-er is going to sell no drugs that time. I don’t think there’s going to be no crime and violence,” Muhammad told reporters. Muhammad expanded on his
idea to start the program at a meeting in the Freedom Park building. He stressed that the Peace Keepers are not an orga-nization, but an initiative. Their mission is not to try to tell people what to do, but to help communi-
ties come together. Before meeting with the
Peace Keepers on Saturday, February 11, no one seemed to have a clear idea of who or what the Peace Keepers were. Were they just some crazy people in bright colored shirts standing in a circle in bad areas? Did they attempt to demand others to be better people? No! The Peace Keep-ers don’t attempt to tell oth-ers what to do. Instead, the members make a point to be friendly to everyone in the communities they visit. They converse with others in the neighborhoods by explaining who they are, and what they’re doing there. “Peace Keepers are not the
eyes and ears of the police, they are the eyes and ears of the community,” said Muhammad.
He wants to help bridge the gap between the police and the pub-lic. The police cannot deal with social issues in the community, but the Peace Keepers can. Muhammad is in the process of jumping from city to city, and introducing the Peace Keeper initiative. First, Muhammad meets with the city offi cials such as the mayor and police chief and gains their support. Then, Muhammad moves to introduce the Peace Keepers to the rest of the community. With each city the Peace Keepers go to, they declare an offi cial Peace Week to take place an-nually. Macon’s offi cial annual Peace Week will continue to be February 6 to the 12. The Peace Keepers also en-
courage people to pledge and become members of the Peace Keeper initiative. New mem-
Mercer receives endowement for Baptist Leadership Center
Patrick Hobbs / Cluster Staff
Captain Dennis Muhammad, founder of Peace Keepers talks about the initiative he began three years ago in an effort to minimize crime and increase community support.
“Peace Keepers are not the eyes and ears of the police they are the eyes and ears of the community.”
Captain Dennis Muhammad,
The Knight Foundation met Feb. 7 with more than 60 community leaders and stakeholders in an effort to enhance Macon’s technol-ogy infrastructure to make a bid for a Connect2Compete grant. The grant is part of a Federal Communications Commission initiative de-signed to make technology and Internet services more available to Americans. Con-nect to Compete is described as a private and nonprofi t sector partnership created to promote broadband adoption and improve outcomes in dis-advantaged communities. The company is associated
with Best Buy, Microsoft and Career Builder among other top tech businesses. Twenty to 30 cities will be
selected to earn the grant that will be announced in Septem-ber. Macon is under serious consideration, as the city pro-
cesses its existing resources, creating a proposal for the grant application.
Kelley Dunne, CEO of One Economy and one of the lead-ers of Connect2Compete ex-panded on the need for tele-communications. He told the audience that 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies have online-only job applications, while 50 percent of today’s jobs require some technologi-cal understanding and appli-cation. Mayor Robert Reichert was
enthused about the potential possibilities demonstrated at the conference. Reichert men-tioned that Bibb County’s low high school graduation rates may help the city receive the grant, because there is an ob-vious need. “This is a game-changer,”
Reichert said of the confer-ence according to Macon.com. “We’re taking one of our greatest weaknesses and are addressing it. It’s unparal-leled. We have the resources, the commitment and capabil-ity.”Connect2Compete is de-
scribed as an investment in the future of the country.
Macon hopes to ‘Compete’ for new technology grant
Bryson Jones / Cluster Staff
The Grand Opera House featered Rock of Ages on Feb. 13. The musical performs countless classic hits from Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twister Sister, Stever Perry, Poison and Asia among other well known rock bands.
By Erica O’NealStaff Writer
By Kaitlin MarrinLocal Editor
By Garret McDowellStaff Writer
By Bryson JonesStaff Writer
“This is a game-changer. We’re taking one of our greatest weaknesses and are addressing it. It’s unparalleled. We have the resources, the commitment and capability.”
Robert Reichert, Mayor of Macon
By Ericka O’Neal Features Editor
SportsSports EditorSamir Moussawel
The Cluster - Feb. 23, 2012 - Page 12
If the world is looking for a place where their children can look up to their role models and aspire to walk in the same shoes as their mentors, Major League Baseball is probably not the best place to do so right now. Right when fans buy a shirt
or jersey of the player they love due to their on and off the fi eld contributions to their community, the players turn around and slap them in the face metaphorically speaking. First, Manny was “being
Manny” when he got suspend-ed on two occasions for tak-ing steroids. He jumped from the beloved Red Sox to team after team as his production dwindled down. As allega-tions continued to rise, Manny retired from the game. Next, Ryan Braun gets hit
with the same 50-game sus-pension for failing a drug test. Coming off his miraculous MVP season that saw him hit .332, 33 homeruns and drive in 111 runs, Braun tested posi-tive for the use of “medica-tion” that gave him much higher levels of testosterone. The 28-year-old is appealing the suspension. Now, another former MVP
Josh Hamilton has relapsed on his drinking ways. This one really stings. Having been the face of baseball in recent years and the ideal “back-from-the-dead” story in the world of sports, Hamilton has disap-pointed sports viewers around the globe. The former Rays number one
overall draft pick missed the entire 2003, 2004 and 2005 seasons due to his addiction to drugs and alcohol. Since his return, he has become one of the best players in baseball on a team that has won the last two American League pen-nants. This includes his ALL MVP in 2010 and his record-setting performance in the 2008 Home Run Derby. This is Hamilton’s second
known alcohol-related relapse in three years. Both incidents
came during the offseason, and this one has put a hold on talks with the Rangers about a contract extension.In January 2009, the North
Carolina native drank heavily while in a bar in Tempe, Ariz. He would later apologize for the incident when several photos leaked to the public. According to Hamilton, he had been sober since October 2005.In the most recent occur-
rence, the slugger claims to have had three or four drinks with dinner and then contin-ued drinking later that night. After dinner, Hamilton con-tacted fellow teammate Ian Kinsler to come hang out with him. Kinsler joined him, but was apparently unaware that Hamilton had been drinking at all. The 30-year-old Hamilton
said his latest actions “hurt a lot of people very close to me.” He didn’t take questions on the matter. On Twitter, Hamilton’s wife, Katie, wrote: “Truly ap-preciate all the encouraging & supportive tweets we’ve been getting. God is Faithful and forgives- so thankful that you all are ... Showing us such love and encouragement dur-ing this time.”Hamilton claims he didn’t
even think of using drugs that night. He said he had been tested for drugs “twice since Monday” as part of his normal mandated routine. The routine in which the slugger refers to are the three mandatory drug tests he takes per week since being reinstated into the league. Normally, Hamilton has an
accountability partner to sup-port him when times get tough, but the position is now vacant due to the recent relocation of former assistant hitting coach Johnny Narron. Narron recently took a job with the Brewers in Milwaukee. The Rangers had announced
last month that Hamilton’s fa-ther-in-law had been hired as a staff special assistant to be the accountability partner, but Michael Dean Chadwick has
since decided against accept-ing the position due to “family considerations.”Hamilton and general man-
ager Jon Daniels said the out-fi elder will meet soon with Major League Baseball doc-tors and counselors in New York for an evaluation in his continued recovery.As far as the centerfi elder
and his family are concerned, this should be the last of these incidents. Hamilton has a wife and four daughters. His youngest daughter was born last summer. “For everybody who I have
hurt, for everybody – fans, kids, people who have addic-tions and look up to me – I apologize to you,” he said. “When you’re doing this, you don’t mean to hurt anybody. You only think you’re hurting yourself, but as I know, you’re hurting a lot of people.”I cannot take a break from
my recovery. My recovery is Christ. My recovery is an ev-eryday process. When I take that one day off, it leaves me open for a moment of weak-ness and it’s always been that way,” Hamilton added.My question is this: what
happens from here? As a base-ball fan, this breaks my heart. Hamilton has been the epito-me of strength and leadership in the game of baseball for a few seasons now. Who do we look up to now? More importantly, what are
going to be the consequences? I never want to see profession-al athletes being punished or suspended but this is a must-
act situation. This cannot go unnoticed. My fear is that this will be
swept under the rug and will later be followed by similar acts of misconduct by Ham-ilton or others alike. Fines and slaps on the wrist mean nothing to these professional athletes. For guys that are be-ing paid 10-plus million dol-lars per season, a $50,000 dollar fi ne is pocket change. He should be suspended. It will be bad for the game but good in the long run. What message would baseball send by not doing anything to the man? Take away some valu-able playing time in a season where he is looking to receive a contract extension and he will understand the severity of the matter.In my mind, the Texas orga-
nization needs to hire some-one as soon as possible to fi ll the void of “Accountability partner.” He should never be allowed to go to dinner un-supervised and have the abil-ity to order a drink. He is a grown man, but that choice was taken from him back in 2003 when he served his fi rst year of suspension. There is a reason he is drug tested three times a week. For a team that celebrates with Ginger Ale rather than champagne in the postseason, they better make sure there is a reason they are making such a dedicated sac-rifi ce. If Hamilton stays away from drugs and bars, he is the ideal role model for children and adult fans alike. Baseball needs to keep it that way.
Justin Evans is one of the more highly talked about ath-letes to have ever come to Mer-cer University. Wearing num-ber fi ve for the lacrosse team is a 5-foot-10 midfi elder that also does face offs, where he was listed as an All-American coming out of high school. Ev-ans was state runner-up twice as a starter for Harrison High School in Kennesaw, Ga. Justin is a biomedical engi-
neering major on the pre-med track. Someday, he wants to either become an orthopedic surgeon or a NCAA Division I face off coach. He is quite humble, speaking about his All-American status: “Becoming an All-American is more due to those around me, because I’ve always had great teammates and a great coaching staff.” This past week, the Mercer
Cluster spent a typical Wednes-day with Justin Evans.Wednesday:5:30 a.m. - Justin’s roommate
has an earlier practice than he, but he gets up early anyway to go watch fi lm and begin repeti-tion work to stay on top of his form. 7:00 a.m. - Justin hits the
weight room, where he can do 275 on the bench, a 405 squat and a 255 hang clean. 8:20 a.m. - He heads back for
a quick shower, using some Old Spice. 8:35 a.m. - Justin chows
down on a fast breakfast: either pancakes or French toast with chocolate milk.9:00 a.m. - He heads over to
Calculus II with Dr. Hartfi eld. 10:00 a.m. - At this point,
Justin has been up since before dawn, so he heads back to his room for a mid-morning nap. Some of us don’t wake up until after then. 11:00 a.m. - After his nap,
Justin heads to a Chemistry lecture with Dr. Moore. 12:00 p.m. - Justin heads to
the cafeteria for a lunch that is a robust double patty melt. If he is feeling healthy, he’ll go after a salad with lite Caesar. Blue Pow-erAde is his drink of choice. 1:00 p.m. - Dr. Moses has
Justin in his intro to engineer-ing design course. 2:00 p.m. - Justin heads over
to the locker room to begin prepping for practice. 2:30 p.m. – Face-offs with
Tyler Schott is what he does before offi cial practice. 3:00 p.m. - Justin preps with
the scout team, and he runs drills on offense and defense. He gets ready for the upcom-ing team. 5:00 p.m. - Back to the fi lm
room he goes, and Justin gets more preparation for his oppo-nents on Saturday. 5:45 p.m. - Instead of going
back to the car, Justin heads to the UC Food Court and picks up a Chick-Fil-A spicy chicken sandwich with some Chick-Fil-A sauce. Also, he does a half sweet tea/half lemonade mixture. 6:00 p.m. - Time to relax!
NBA 2K12’s Blacktop mode is what he and his teammates do. Justin picks a team of Kevin Durant, Ray Allen, Kevin Love, Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash. He claims to be “pretty good.”8:00 p.m. - He heads over to
study hall, where he will watch two more hours of fi lm and look at different things such as wing play, opponent tenden-cies, his own tendencies, fast breaks and how to change up his personal playing style to not be predictable. “It’s all a big chess game.” 10:00 p.m. - Finally, Justin
heads to bed, where he sleeps and does it all over again the next morning. It might seem like he does no homework whatsoever, but he said that homework does not happen on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Those days are more set aside for preparations for an upcoming game. It is just another Wednesday for Justin, and he just makes sure he does everything right so Mercer can win games.
After a 2011 campaign that saw the Bears fi nish 39-20 and lose a variety of stars from their starting nine, Head Coach Craig Gibson and the Bears look to an array of young talent to step for-ward in 2012. After the recent visit from
Atlanta Braves third base-man Chipper Jones and with a four-game set at home to start the season against Kentucky’s Morehead State University, the Bears hit the fi eld for the fi rst time this spring with a double-header at Claude Smith Field.
Morehead St. 6, Mercer 22In the fi rst game of the season,
Mercer showed off their new scoreboard and talented pool of offense in their 16-run blowout of Morehead State. The game started slow as it entered the bot-tom of the third inning tied 0-0. The Bears would break through fi rst as they scored two runs off of a Derrick Workman single and an Evan Boyd sac fl y in the bottom of the third. Mercer would lead the game
until the top of the fi fth when the Beakers put a fi ve spot in
the board and took a 6-3 lead. It would not last long as Craig Gibson’s team would respond with six in the bottom half of the inning and an astounding 11 runs in the sixth to put the game out of reach. The Bears homered three times in the sixth inning outburst. Two of the three came off the bat of sophomore Nick Backlund. In their fi rst game of the sea-
son, the Bears did everything from play an error-free game, hit a grand slam, surpass 20 hits and surpass 20 runs. Standout performers: N. Backlund (MU) 2-4, Grand
Slam, 6 RBIs, 3 R, BB… D. Brown (MU) 3.1 IP, 1 H, 0
RMorehead St. 9, Mercer 8In game two of the Friday dou-
bleheader, the score was tied en-tering the third once again before each team plated two runs. The game would remain a deadlock until the Bears were able to score a run in the bottom of the fi fth to make it a 3-2 Mercer lead. The early pitcher’s duel turned
into a hitter’s game as each team began to score runs on the oppo-sition’s bullpen. After a four-run sixth by the Bears, the Beakers of Morehead State followed with their own four in the top half of the seventh. Junior David Reid Foley would tie the game at 8-8 with an RBI single in the
bottom half of the seventh. Morehead State would eventu-
ally respond with the decisive run with a solo shot by Kellen Begeman on a 2-0 count in the top of the eighth. The Kentucky-homed team would seal the deal with Matt Duncan’s solid two innings of relief to close out the game. Duncan faced eight bat-ters and allowed just one hit in the fi nal two frames. Standout performers: B. Barker (MU) 4 IP, 6 H, 1
ER, 7 K… L. Bainer (MSU) 4-6, 2-run
HR, 2 RBIs, 2 RMorehead St. 1, Mercer 2In a pitcher’s duel that saw each
team tally just six hits and an er-ror a piece, the Bears squeezed out a one-run victory. After scor-ing a combined 45 runs in two games on opening day of play, the Bears and Beakers couldn’t muster a whole lot of offense as Morehead State’s Aaron Goe and Mercer’s Dimitri Kourtis pitched six innings and six and a third innings respectively. They each gave up just one earned run, walked two batters and faced 25 batters a piece. With the game tied 1-1 in the
bottom of the sixth, Mercer’s Austin Barrett scored the even-tual game-winner off of an error. After the run, the Mercer bullpen
would pitch two and two-thirds perfect innings to seal the win.
Standout performers: Aaron Goe (MSU) 6 IP, 4 H,
1 ER… Dimitri Kourtis (MU) 6.1 IP, 6
H, 1 ERMorehead St. 0, Mercer 10Entering their fi nal game of the
four-game series with Morehead State, the Bears were aiming at a 3-1 start to the season and a series win. They would do just that as pitcher David Randall and three Mercer relief pitchers would team up to throw a shutout in the 10-0 afternoon stomping. While the defense was taken
care of by senior pitcher David Randall, the offense came in the shape of Travis Benn and Chesny Young. Benn provided a three-run dinger in the fi rst while Young helped pile on the runs with his own two-run shot in the third. Standout performers: D. Randall (MU) 5.1 IP, 5 H, 0
R, 8 K… T. Benn (MU) 1-2, 3-run HR, 3
RBIs, 2 R, BBThe Bears are off to the start
they hoped for. With a few bright spots of pitching in games three and four of the series, the Mercer offense came to life with 42 runs in just four games. They sit at 3-1 and after facing Florida A&M on the road for a brief two-game set, the Bears return home for a three-game series with Presbyterian on Feb. 24.
A Day in the Life of:A Day in the Life of:
#5 Justin Evans#5 Justin Evans
Baseball off to quick start taking 3 of 4 from Morehead State
behindthe
jersey
Samir MoussawelSports Editor
MLB idols fade with Hamilton’s2nd relapse
Photo courtesy of bp.blogspot.com
With the most recent alcohol incident, Rangers outfi elder Josh Hamilton has relapsed twice in a span of three years. Prior to 2009, Hamilton had been sober since 2005.
“When you’re doing this, you don’t mean to hurt anybody. You only think you’re hurting yourself, but as I know, you’re hurting a lot of people.”
Josh Hamilton,Texas Rangers outfi elder
Noah Maier / Cluster Staff
Junior Logan Gaines completes his homerun trot as he hit one of four Mercer dingers in the 22-6 rout of Morehead State in the season opener. The Bears continued the trend with six homeruns and 42 runs in the four-game series.
By Samir Moussawel Sports Editor
By Garret McDowellStaff Writer
Garret McDowell / Cluster Staff
The Cluster - Feb. 23, 2012 - Page 13Sports
In 2009, the NCAA Division I Legislative Council added sand volleyball to the list of emerg-ing sports for women, clearing the way for schools to use the sport toward minimum spon-sorship requirements and mini-mum fi nancial aid awards.
“The opportunity to play sand volleyball in the spring will spur growth in the sport. I wish I had that opportunity when I was at Stanford,” said 2008 Olympic Beach Gold Medal-ist, Kerri Walsh. “Additional-ly, this development will give more women an opportunity for a professional volleyball career in the United States,” she added.In 2011, Mercer University,
under the leadership of the newly appointed Head Coach Damian Elder, will offi cially add sand volleyball as a sport, and many members of the in-door team will take to the beach for some heated competition.
Elder has a wide array of ex-perience in coaching on the sand. During his time at the University of South Carolina, the school fi elded its fi rst com-petitive sand volleyball team. Elder assumed responsibility of the sand program, institut-ing the fi rst sand training pro-gram and fi rst SEC sand camp before leading the team to the SEC Beach Championship title in 2009.Junior Jenn Katona couldn’t
withhold her excitement for sand volleyball. “I am excited to have the sand volleyball courts available to us. We are humbled with the opportunity to make history at Mercer. We haven’t been able to stay away from the sand since the courts opened.”Sand volleyball is not the only
addition to Mercer, as there has been addition to the coaching staff of the program as well. Elder made the fi rst step in putting his stamp on the pro-gram, announcing the hiring of Scott Schweihofer as an assis-tant coach. Schweihofer joins the Bears after most recently serving as assistant coach at
the College of Charleston with Elder.Schweihofer brings six years
of collegiate coaching experi-ence to the program after hold-ing various coaching positions at the College of Charleston, Limestone College, Presby-terian College and Michigan State.In his most recent position at
Charleston, Schweihofer coor-dinated opponent fi lm break-down, video editing, fi lm ex-change, practice planning and game day operations.“I am fortunate to have some-
one of Scott’s character will-ing to tackle this exciting chal-lenge with me,” Elder said.
“His willingness to work, learn and create have already helped push Mercer Volleyball to-wards a new frontier in just the two weeks we have been here. With Scott, Dan and our man-ager Jeffery, I’m positive I can design an engaging and posi-tive experience for the student-athletes at Mercer now and the student-athletes to come.”Elder, Schweihofer and the
Bears will begin its inaugural sand volleyball season on Mar. 21, hosting the University of Alabama-Birmingham at the new sand volleyball courts on the Macon campus. Match time is scheduled for 4 p.m.
After ending the 13-game los-ing streak, the Mercer Bears’ Women’s Basketball team looked to three games on the road that would either let them win their way back into postsea-son contention or fade back away into the cellar of the Atlantic Sun conference standings. Unfortu-nately, the Bears were unable to consistently score points when needed, dropping games against Kennesaw State and Jacksonville by single digits and a blowout loss to North Florida as well. The Mercer Bears are now 4-23 over-all, with a 2-14 record in confer-ence play, eliminating them from postseason contention. Mercer will fi nish up the 2011-2012 sea-son with a pair of home games against Lipscomb on Thursday, Feb. 23 and Belmont on Satur-day, Feb. 25.
KSU 70, Mercer 68Just one week after setting
the new single game record for points in a game by a Mercer Bears’ Women’s Basketball player, sophomore Briana Wil-liams dropped 39 points on the Kennesaw State Owls, but it would prove to be futile as the Bears were unable to convert a late shot into a victory. The Owls won due despite turning the ball over 10 more times than the
Bears. Sharmesia Smith scored 10 points in the fi rst half, and Alex Phillips added fi ve more. The Bears led by as many as fi ve in the second half, but a fu-rious rally evened it up with fi ve minutes left. The game was tied at 12 different points, and the teams exchanged the lead a remarkable 13 times. Kennesaw State domi-nated the paint, outscoring the Bears 38-16 down low.
UNF 66, Mercer 49The fi rst game of their fi nal
road trip of the season was not to be good for Mercer, as a poor performance down the
stretch saw a winnable game become a rout for the North Florida Ospreys. After being tied at 41, the
Bears went on a cold streak. Briana Williams shot just 10 percent from the fl oor, leaving the Bears needing other offen-sive weapons. Alicia Williams had 12 points to lead the team and Jasmine Blakemore added 10. North Florida’s Raneisha Lamar had a double-double to inspire the team on their home court. She scored 14 points and collected 13 rebounds. Just as in the Kennesaw game,
the Bears committed fewer turn-
overs than their opponents yet were unable to turn that advan-tage into more points. The 25-8 run to end the game will go down as a place where the Bears must focus on what went wrong.
Jacksonville 84, Mercer 78Once again, the Bears are un-
able to fi nish strong, being out-scored signifi cantly over the ending minutes of the game. Despite leading in the second half, the Bears dropped the ball. Briana Williams scored 31, her fourth time this season that she has eclipsed the 30-point mark. However, she turned the ball over fi ve times, which is the third time that has happened this season. Sharmesia Smith missed a double-double by a basket, fi nishing with eight points and 11 boards. Jacksonville did enjoy a bevy
of free throws, shooting 40 times from the stripe, com-pared to just 15 for Mercer. In terms of standing within the
Atlantic Sun, Briana Williams is just 12 points from 1,000 for her career, and she is just a sopho-more. She is currently seventh in the conference for total points in her career, but she is fi rst in points per game this season at 17.3. That also means she is tied for 48th in the nation in scoring. Ry’van Buchanan is scoring 9.5 points per game and Precious Bridges has 8.3, putting them at 22nd and 29th respectively. Next, the Bears play Lip-
scomb at home on Feb. 23.
First there was Tebow time. Now there’s Linsanity. In case you’ve been living un-der a sports rock for the last two weeks or so, Jeremy Lin, who plays for the New York Knicks, has taken over sports media. Jeremy Lin, an undrafted Harvard gradu-ate, spent most of the 2010-2011 season on the Golden State Warriors’ bench. He ac-counted for a mere 76 points throughout the entire season, adding 33 steals, 34 rebounds and 42 assists. The 2011-2012 season looked like it was heading in the same direction, though Lin had been traded to the Knicks. Hardly.On Feb. 4, the New Jersey
Nets entered Madison Square Garden to try and cause the
Knicks to go 0-for-3 on a back-to-back-to-back stretch versus the Bulls, Celtics and Nets respectively. By all ac-counts it should have been a Nets victory: superstars Car-melo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire would do little to help the Knicks, as Melo went 3-for-15 from the fi eld and Amare got in foul trouble. Coming off of the bench, Lin would play for 36 minutes, a minute longer than Anthony, 11 minutes longer than Stou-demire, while providing 25 points to help the Knicks win 99-92. Linsanity was now in motion, though no one knew it yet.Two days later, Jeremy Lin
was a starter against the Utah Jazz. Lin put up 28 points, eight assists, and two steals and rebounds each. The Knicks would win again, 99-88. Linsanity was starting to take shape, and the Knicks were now 2-0. Two more days of media hype and an away game later, Lin had his fi rst double-double (23 points, 10 assists), his fi rst NBA dunk and the Knicks showed that they could use this momen-tum on the road as well, de-feating John Wall and the Washington Wizards 107-93. However, the real test was
yet to come, as the Knicks were to host the perennial NBA juggernaut Los Angeles Lakers, featuring superstars Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Metta World Peace (the Artest formerly known as Ron), at home on Feb. 10. How would the new Knicks respond be-hind this sensation Lin and without their own mega-stars Stoudemire and Anthony? 38 points, seven assists and out playing fi ve-time NBA Kobe Bryant was the result. After beating the Minnesota
Timberwolves, the Knicks would head to Toronto, rid-ing Linsanity for fi ve-straight wins. So what hasn’t this come-out-of-nowhere phe-nom done yet? Oh that’s right, hit a game-winning shot. Lin would post another 27 points and 11 assists, but the game-winning three-point jumper with 0.5 seconds on the clock, over Jose Calderon, were the biggest.The Knicks would go on
to beat the Kings and extend their streak to seven games in a row behind this Lin-sation. However, the magic ended at the hands of the Chris Paul-less New Orleans Hornets, as Lin posted 26 points, but had nine turnovers. Was that seven-game stretch a fl uke, or is Linsanity here to stay? Ask the 2007-2008 Mercer men’s basketball team: Lin produced 23 points, nine assists and nine rebounds against them while playing at Harvard.
After an inaugural 1-12 sea-son for Mercer’s fi rst-ever Division I lacrosse program, Head Coach Jason Childs and the bears have gotten off to a tough 2012 campaign with three consecutive losses to be-gin the spring. Ohio State 15, Mercer 8The Mercer men’s Lacrosse
team opened up their season for the second straight year against the Buckeyes of Ohio State Uni-versity. Although the outcome of
both games was the same, with the Bears coming away without the victory, it is clear that the lacrosse team has improved by leaps and bounds in only its sec-ond year of existence. Whereas the orange and black were hand-edly beaten last year in enemy territory 20-2, this year would show just how far the program has come. If it weren’t for an unfortu-
nate second quarter, the Bears could have come away with the victory. As it was, howev-er, they still came roaring back in the second half. Down 12-3 with 5:18 left in
the third quarter, Mercer would go on a scoring frenzy, posting four unanswered goals. Brett
Eisenmann was in the thick of the fl urry of shots, contributing a goal himself and two assists in the four-goal run, bringing the score to 12-7. However, the Buckeyes experience proved invaluable, as the Buckeyes would go on to win 15-8, tak-ing almost twice as many shots as Mercer (48-27).#6. UNC 20, Mercer 7Played on neutral ground,
Mercer would again show signs that their program is on the rise, as the preseason num-ber six North Carolina Tarheels defeated Mercer 20-7 in Atlan-ta. Sophomore Zach Ward tied the game at 1-1 four minutes into the game. Unfortunately for Mercer Lacrosse, the rank-
ings exist for a reason and the Tarheels would respond with eight unanswered goals. Sophomore Cole Branch
would answer with two goals of his own, but the orange and black were not able to keep up with the constant attack that UNC was dishing out. Although Mercer goalies Dil-lion Volk and Justin Bateman would combine for 16 saves, the Tarheels still managed 56 shots. Branch would fi nish with two goals and two assists, while Ward added two goals and an assist for the Bears.Bellarmine 13, Mercer 5In their closest game this sea-
son, the Bears were unable to produce goals and fell to the
Knights of Bellarmine Uni-versity for the second straight year. Even in defeat however, the Bears are constantly show-ing improvement. Last year, the orange and
black travelled to Louisville, Ky., and were beaten 20-6 by the Knights. This year, howev-er, the Bears were a much more experienced team, as well as a team on a mission. Although Mercer and Bellarmine were near mirror images, with mi-nor differences in shots, saves, ground balls, and face-offs, the turnovers proved costly as the Bears committed 18 to the stingy Knights’ six. Mercer would jump out to an
early 1-0 lead before giving
up four unanswered goals to the Knights in the fi rst quarter. Bellarmine would have anoth-er 4-0 run in the fourth quarter to come away with the victory. Sophomore Eoin Collins fi n-ished with two goals and an assist, while Branch and Ward each added an additional goal and assist. The three losses bring the
lacrosse team’s record to 0-3 on the season. They next hit the fi eld on Saturday, Feb. 25 against the visiting Detroit Mercy. This ends the stretch of three home games in four matches as the Bears will hit the road for three straight and seven of nine away contests beginning March 4.
Alex Lockwood / Cluster StaffSenior midfi leder Olivia Tucker (right) has lead the Lady Bears offense as she has contributed fi ve goals and two game-winners in the early parts of an impressive 5-2 start.
“We are humbled with the opportunity to make history at Mercer. We haven’t been able to stay away from the sand since the courts opened.”
Jennifer Katona,junior volleyball player
Matt Williams Columnist
Knicks’ Linsanity highlights NBA’s midseason play
over Mind
Matters
By Bryson JonesStaff Writer
Gardner’s bunch competing until season’s endBy Garret McDowell
Staff Writergarret.tyler.mcdowell
@live.mercer.edu
Volleyball, new head coach Damian Elder prep for sand
By Matt WilliamsStaff Writer
Photo Courtesy of media.nj.comIn nine games as a starter this season, Jeremy Lin has scored more points than any other player in the NBA over that stretch.
Mercer Lacrosse continues to build, starts 2012 campaign 0-3
Photo Courtesy of Mercer AthleticsLosers of 17 of 18 and eliminated from the Atlantic Sun tournament, the Bears continue to fi ght every game.
SportsSports EditorSamir Moussawel
The Cluster - Feb. 23, 2012 - Page 14
Mercer Intramurals and QuadWorks are partnering up this year for basketball’s Championship Night on Mon-day, Feb. 27. The Intramural staff hopes it will be their larg-est turnout ever. “These are obviously the
best basketball teams in their respective divisions, so we’re looking forward to giving them a great atmosphere to play in,” said Assistant Director of In-tramurals Todd Thomas. QuadWorks will be providing
free pizza, donuts and prizes for participants and spectators alike. Infl atable games and raffl es will be held throughout the night as well. Many businesses from around
Macon have donated gift cards and other items to support the event. During the halftime of each game, these items will be given out to the winner of various contests. Gift cards include: Barnes and Noble, Margarita’s, Olive Garden, El Som, Moe’s, Walmart, Bass
Pro Shops, La Berry, Chick-fi l-A, Texas Roadhouse, Amstar Movie Theatre, Applebee’s, Locos and more.“It’s always been our pre-
miere night of the year, but this year with QuadWorks’ help it’s going to be bigger than it’s ever been,” added Thomas. Similar to the activities held
on Tournament Night for Dodgeball in the fall, the bas-ketball Championship Night is taking it a step further. Teams that make it to the fi nals of their respective leagues will have introduction videos with their names, pictures and per-sonalized music televised on a projected screen. Todd would go on to say that
this should be an exciting time for Mercer fans due to the A-Sun Tournament being held in the UC later on in the week. Come on out for some free
food, chances to win prizes and championship basketball in the University Center Intra-mural basketball courts. All of the courts will be in use. The festivities will start at 6 p.m. Games will be played every hour and fi fteen minutes.
INTRAMURALLEAGUES
-The men's baseball team scored 22 runs in their first game of the season. 17 of them came in just two innings of play.
They outscored Morehead State 42-16 in their 3-1 series win.
-Sophomore Nick Backlund hit two homeruns in the same inning for the Bears in their 22-6 rout of the Morehead State Beakers. His second at-bat of the 11-run sixth inning was a grand slam.
-With a nine-game winning streak and first-place slot in the Atlantic Sun, the men's basketball team lost to the Jacksonville Dolphins on the road. Entering the game, the Dolphins were 6-20 with the second-worst scoring offense in the A-sun while the Bears hold the best scoring defense in the conference.
-The Bears' defense had not allowed more than 66 points in the nine-game win streak. They gave up 81 points to Jacksonville on Jan. 18. Jacksonville averages only 63.9 points per game.
-Entering the final two games of the season, the Bears trail the Belmont Bruins by one game. They face the Bruins on Feb. 25 in the University Center to cap the regular season.
-The softball squad began the season 0-6. They were outscored 54-23 in that stretch. In their last three games, they have outscored opponents 25-9. They sit at 2-7.
The Mercer women’s golf team and Head Coach Gary Guyer recently pulled out a much-needed victory in the JU Classic hosted by Jacksonville University. On day one, Mercer sopho-
more Lacey Fears fi red a score of 71, one under par, to lead the entire tournament. Junior Aurelie Wiriath was tied for second after day one shooting an impressive 74. Sophomore Mary Alice Murphy was just one stroke behind Wiriath, shooting a 75. Junior Kaitlin Marrin fi nished with a score of 76, while freshman Sarah Lou-
ise Brown shot an 80. Mercer’s score of 296 was good for fi rst place on the day leading the host school by 10 strokes.“We played really well to-
day,” Mercer head coach Gary Guyer said. “We didn’t play great today, but we were con-sistent. I’m proud of everyone for staying inside themselves and playing the golf course.”On day two, sophomore Lacey
Fears led the team by fi ring a 73 in the Jacksonville University Classic and Mercer held its lead on the six-team fi eld. Weather was not kind to any team, as the course was made more diffi cult by bad conditions.Fears fi nished the day at the
top of the individual leader board for the second-straight day and started Tuesday’s fi nal round with a three-stroke ad-vantage over the next closest
player. Her 73 on Monday tied for the second-best individual round of the day.Mary Alice Murphy and Au-
relie Wiriath were tied for sixth place individually with 36-hole totals of 153. Murphy fi nished with a 78 on Tuesday, while Wiriath used 79 strokes on the day. Sarah Louise Brown re-quired 81 strokes while Kaitlin Marrin shot an 83. Marrin held sole possession of 15thplace, while Brown was a part of a fi ve-way tie for 19th.Mercer sophomore Lacey
Fears put the fi nishing touches on a beyond impressive three-day performance with a 76 in the fi nal round to capture the event’s individual champion-ship. As a team, the Bears shot 301 in the fi nal round at the Hidden Hills Country Club and fi nished the event 17 strokes
ahead of the next closest team.Mercer’s 56-hole total of 908
gave the team its second tour-nament title of the year after winning its own Eat a Peach Collegiate on Sep. 19.Coach Guyer was more than
happy with his squad. “We started out slow today but the girls fought back and fi nished strong,” Guyer said. “This team is good at closing the deal,” he added.Mercer’s team fi nish marked
the sixth time Guyer has led the Bears to a tournament title since taking control of the pro-gram in 2007.Mercer returns competitive
play on Feb. 26 at the Edwin Watts/Kiawah Island Classic. That event will be contested over three days at the Cougar Point Golf Club in Kiawah Is-land, S.C.
In an age where teams con-tinue to change conferences in order to bring the most money to their program with little re-gard to tradition or historical ri-valries/match-ups, Mercer Uni-versity might face the choice of whether to stay in the Atlantic Sun or not. The Atlantic Sun is a great conference, but as we have recently seen with Bel-mont trashing their big rivalry with Lipscomb in order to jump ship and head to the Ohio Val-ley Conference, there might be greener pastures ahead for the Mercer Bears. The A-Sun is by no means a
powerhouse in athletics. Yes, Mercer is not the dominant school in the conference, but honestly, neither is Belmont. The Bruins just had one amaz-ing year of Basketball and now everyone thinks that they are amazing. They did win a few conference titles in the past de-cade, but neither the men nor the women have won the all-sports trophies. Where does Mercer fall? They
easily have the best basketball facilities in the Atlantic Sun, which is why the conference extended the Macon arena’s tenure as home of the General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Con-ference Basketball Tournament through at least 2013. Volleyball championships
have also been hosted here in the past few years. The im-pending renovations of Claude Smith Field will also take the smaller baseball stadium to be the best of the A-Sun here as well. Also, Bear Field is a perfect locale for soccer, and until the Stadium is built, it will host lacrosse games. The Bears have played well here, and despite the small size, the Bears draw decent crowds.I think that Mercer should
consider expanding its foot-print. Football is about to be added, and the Pioneer League will expand the hori-zons of Mercer Athletics far beyond what anyone dreamed of. However, there are some things to consider. How will the rising transportation costs
affect conferences with a widespread distribution of members? The Atlantic Sun is not that large, but there might be better fi ts for the Bears.The Southern Conference, the
fourth oldest conference in the land, might be a better bet for Mercer. Yes, Mercer alone would turn the SoCon into a 13 team conference, probably necessitat-ing another team to come along with the Bears. Not only are the Bears going to fi nd themselves traveling less, they will have a higher level of competition to go up against. The Bears could face Davidson, Elon, Furman, Samford, and Wofford. These private universities are routinely competing with Mercer for high school seniors that are looking for prestigious private schools to attend after high school. Mercer could also begin a
better rivalry than the one with Kennesaw State: a rivalry with our neighbors in Statesboro, Georgia Southern. A rivalry with the Eagles could bode well, especially with the ad-dition of football for Mercer. Furthermore, when wrestling at Mercer becomes a sanctioned NCAA sport, the SoCon spon-sors wrestling and a conference champion for it as well. Mer-cer could also fi nd themselves drawn to it for football, simply due to its chance to be the one non-scholarship school in the SoCon (Davidson plays in the Pioneer League). As for transportation, Mercer
would be able to avoid travel-ing as far north as Northern Kentucky every year (once NKU joins the A-Sun in Sum-mer 2012) and as far south as Fort Myers, where Florida Gulf Coast is based. Instead, the Bears would only go as far north as Boone, N.C. for Appalachian State and as far south as States-boro for Georgia Southern. In addition, Mercer would fi nd themselves in competitive markets and in more press on national networks due to the na-ture and history of the SoCon. Appalachian State, Furman, and Georgia Southern are all known for their great play in football. Davidson is known for the phe-nomenal run to the Elite Eight in men’s basketball that they made recently. The Citadel has been much more than a simple mid-major in baseball, even making a trip to the College World Se-ries in the 1990s. In essence, Mercer could fi nd transport costs limited by changing conferences, and they could fi nd themselves fea-tured on bigger television mar-kets with a switch. This seems like a great fi t if Mercer ever considered switching over. Also, the Bears could even stay in the Pioneer League for football, playing Davidson as the two SoCon transplants.There is a likelihood that
Mercer could bring in great-er athletes and expand far beyond what they have as a founding member of the A-Sun. Personally, I love the Atlantic Sun, but Mercer deserves the best it can get, which might be the SoCon or another similar conference.
As part of the kickoff to the baseball team’s season, Mer-cer University was proud to welcome Atlanta Braves third baseman and future Hall of Famer Chipper Jones as this year’s First Pitch Classic speaker.Coming on to the Macon
campus for a short visit, Chip-per was glad to sign autographs for the line of adoring Middle Georgia fans before sitting down for a dinner with a UC Arena fi lled with Mercer spon-sors, fans and players alike. Following former Brave John
Smoltz from a year ago, Chip-per was invited to the podium to talk Atlanta Braves, life choices and Mercer Baseball. Chipper began by giving his
own personal life story of a kid who grew up in Florida and worked his way into the base-ball system as a youngster, high schooler and eventual fi rst-round MLB Draft pick. The 17-year veteran spoke of the diffi culties and obstacles that come along with pursuing such a career and the ups and downs, travelling with the team, win-ning and of course losing. He covered an array of topics
that stretch out from his idol
Mickey Mantle as a kid and his more recent admiration of the great Terry Pendleton. He hit a large number of sensitive top-ics such as his future with the team, his age and recent injuries that have affected his career. As far as his career is concerned, Chipper clearly stated that he wished to stay an Atlanta Brave for the remainder of his career. And when asked how long that “career” would last, Chipper gave the generic “As long as I am productive” answer to the crowd of attentive listeners. The 39-year-old compared his desire to stay with the Braves and be a productive part of the team to the legendary Cal Rip-ken, Jr. Ripken sacrifi ced his body and his career to make sure he stayed in an Oriole uni-form. Chipper wishes to do the same. “I want to be a contribu-tor to my team,” said Chipper. “I would never want to go over to the AL or to another team for that matter. I want my stats to be on one team for my entire career. I don’t want them split amongst four or fi ve different clubs,” he added. After giving a few more sto-
ries of pitchers he dislikes facing such as Kevin Brown, Kerry Wood, Mariano Rivera and Randy Johnson, Chipper spoke fondly of his inaugural 1995 season memories. He helped the Braves garner a World Series title in his fi rst
complete season in the big leagues. He claims it still re-mains the best moment of his career and hopes to one day sign off his MLB career in a similar fashion. “Wouldn’t that be something? I can fi nish my career the same way I began it – with a World Series Champi-onship,” said Chipper. When speaking of his own
personal goals as a player, Chipper highlighted the night with a memorable quote: “Guys who want to win do not have a personal goal mentality. If your team is good in the end and you helped them get there, your numbers will be there as well.” All-in-all, Chipper’s speech
was brief and echoed his love for the game and his hate for the city of New York. He re-peated his want to be a good example for young children and the importance of edu-cation and exercise. He also spoke of his two marriages and four young children.When Chipper was done with
what he had to say, he opened the fl oor to questions from those in attendance. Taking questions from mostly chil-dren, Chipper answered briefl y and to the point the questions of those who possibly look up to him most. The reoccur-ring theme seemed to be the potential end of Chipper’s ca-reer and the recent transition between managers Bobby Cox
and Fredi Gonzalez. Chipper made his point clear: “Fredi Gonzalez is not Bobby Cox. He will never be. He made our transition very easy though.”When the night was all said
and done, Chipper Jones didn’t speak much of the Mercer
Bears baseball team. He didn’t lie to the crowd and say he has followed closely over the years. He gave a simple speech and answered questions from those who paid to do so. Chip-per gave few words of wis-dom and gave everyone what
they really wanted to hear. He spoke of his experiences in the big leagues and no matter how you think of it that is pretty cool nonetheless. In his fi nal words at the po-
dium, Chipper casually signed off by stating: Go Braves!
Women’s golf wins 2nd tournament of year at JU Classic
Samir Moussawel / Cluster Staff
With Chipper Jones slated to be the guest speaker at the First Pitch Classic, fans from all over Georgia came fl ooding into the UC to get his autograph and listen to him speak.
Future Hall-of-Famer, Braves 3rd baseman Chipper Jones highlights ‘First Pitch’
Viva la
sport!
Garret McDowellColumnist
SoCon wouldhypothetically suit Mercer
Bear Facts
By Bryson JonesStaff Writer
By Samir Moussawel Sports Editor
Come out for sand volleeeeyyyyyybbbbbbbaaaaaaaall’s ribbon ccuttinngg/coookkoouuuuuuuuttttt!!Come out for sand volleeeeyyyyyyybbbbbbbaaaaaaaall’s ribboon cuttinngg/coookkoouuuuuuuuttttt!!
Location: sand volleyball ccccourtsLocation: sand volleyball cccccourts
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WWWhhhyyyy:: TTTThhheeerrreee wwww bbbbeee ffoooooodddd oooccccaaattteeedddd WWWWhhhhyyyy:::: TTTThhhheeeerrrreeee wwwwiiiillllllll bbbbeeee ffffoooooodddd llllooooccccaaaatttteeeedddd bbbbeehhhh nndddd ttthhhheee rrrr gggghhhttt fififi eee dddd ffffeeenncccceee oooonbbbbeeeehhhhiiiinnnndddd tttthhhheeee rrrriiiigggghhhhtttt fifififi eeellldddd ffffeeeennnncccceeee oooonnnn
Patrick Hobbs / Cluster Staff.
By Samir Moussawel Sports Editor
The Cluster - Feb. 23, 2012 - Page 15Sports
New head coach James DeFeo and the Bears softball team of-fi cially hit the diamond for their fi rst action of the 2012 season. Being tested on the road, the Mercer team visited KSU for the Kennesaw State Classic Tournament Tallahassee with the Florida State Tournament. Austin Peay 11, Mercer 9
As Head Coach James DeFeo and his Bears squad took the diamond for the fi rst time this season to start their strenuous stretch of road games, their opener against Austin Peay was a tough game to swallow. Leading by as many as seven,
the Bears surrendered six runs with two outs in the fi nal inning to give the Governors new life. The game would go into ex-tras as the Austin Peay offense would stay hot with four runs in the eighth. Standout performers: T. Phillips (MU) 4-8, Solo
HR, 2 RBIs… L. DeCastro (APSU) Grand
Slam, 4 RBIsMercer 1, Kennesaw St. 6The Bears offense was si-
lenced in game two by the dominating 10-strikeout per-formance by KSU’s Amanda Henderson. With Mercer up 1-0 against the host Owls, KSU used just six hits to plate home six runs in three innings to cap-ture the game. Standout performers: A. Henderson (KSU) 4.1 IP, 2
H, 10 K’s… J. Saunders (KSU) 1-1, 2-run
pinch-hit HRMercer 4, Miami (OH) 11Kicking off the game with
three runs in the fi rst, the Bears were nearly shut out of the re-mainder of the game with only one run in six innings. Down 4-2 in the fourth, the Red-Hawks plated nine runs in the fi nal three innings for the come-from-behind victory. Standout performers: T. Phillips (MU) 2-4, 3-run
HR, 3 RBIs… R. Edwards (MIA-OH) 2-3, 3
RBIs Mercer 4, Southern Ill. 10Once again, the Bears jumped
out to an early 2-0 lead before the Cougars answered with fi ve of their own. Mercer was able to knock out Southern Illinois pitcher Alyssa Wunderlich in
the fi rst without surrendering an out. However, the Cougar bull-pen would settle into a groove as DeFeo’s bunch was only able to garner one walk and two runs after the fi rst frame. Standout performers: H. Gor-
man (SIU) 4-4, 2 runs… M. Wilson (SIU) 2-2, 4 RBIs,
2 doublesMercer 3, Coastal Caro. 9Errors proved costly for the
Bears as pitcher Kassie Bai-ley allowed eight runs with only three of them earned. The Coastal Carolina squad plated fi ve runs in the second inning and never looked back. CCU centerfi elder Brooke
Donovan had a remarkable game going 3-for-3 with a grand slam, fi ve RBIs and three runs scored. Standout performers: B. Donovan (CCU) 3-3, Grand
Slam, 3B, 5 RBIs, 3 runs… T. Phillips (MU) 2-4, 2 RBIsMercer 2, NDSU 7 The Bears losing streak to
start the season reached six with a fi ve-run loss to North Dakota State. DeFeo’s squad could only muster two runs on two hits in the contest. NDSU freshman Krista Men-
ke threw a complete game al-lowing just the two runs. Standout performers: K. Menke (NDSU) 7 IP, 2 H,
2 R… B. Konz (NDSU), 1-3, 2B, 2
RBIsMercer 12, Western Caro. 4The Bears fi nally picked their fi rst win of the season in outstand-ing fashion. The Mercer bunch was off to another fast start with four runs in the fi rst inning. The Catamounts of Western Carolina would bring it within one with three runs of their own. Mercer wouldn’t allow the game to slip away. In fact, the Bears had their largest inning of the season in the sixth where they brought home seven runs. The win marks Head Coach
James DeFeo’s fi rst victory at Mercer. “For the fi rst time this year, we were able to put all three phases of our game to-gether: consistent hitting, pitch-ing, and defense,” said the fi rst hear head coach.Standout performers: S. Santana (MU) 2-3, 3-run
HR, 2B, BB, 4 RBIs… J. Holsinger (MU) 4 IP, 0 RMercer 13, Western Caro. 2The Bears would continue
their success against the Cata-mounts. The Bears jumped out
of the gates with three runs in the fi rst, fi ve in the second and four in the third.Senior pitcher Kassie Bailey
gave a solid effort as she went all fi ve innings of the shortened contest. Bailey performed well at the plate as well with two doubles and two RBIs to sup-port herself. Standout performers: S. Stukes (MU) 1-2, Solo HR,
2 RBIs, 3 R… K. Bailey (MU) 5 IP, 5 H, 1
ERMercer 0, Florida St. 3After back-to-back offensive
explosions, the Bears ran into the stifl ing pitching of the host Florida State Seminoles. Mercer freshman Jessica
Holsinger followed her brilliant relief appearance against the Catamounts with an impressive six-inning performance against the Noles. She kept the Bears in the game and the 9-0 Noles in the park. Unfortunately, the Bears offense could not piece together any runs as FSU’s Lac-ey Waldrop tossed a complete-game shutout in the pitcher’s duel. Standout performers: J. Hols-
inger (MU) 6 IP, 7 H, 2 ER… L. Waldrop (FSU) 7 IP, 5 H, 0 BB, 0 RAfter the fi rst two road tour-
naments of the season for the Bears softball squad, new head coach James DeFeo and his girls fi nd themselves 2-7 overall with both wins coming against Western Carolina. “During our fi rst weekend
out, there were many highs and lows in regards to our play. We scored fi rst in every game, hit the ball very well, and played good defense,” said fi rst year head coach James DeFeo. “On the pitching side of the ball, we struggled to hold the leads we gained every game,” he added.With a wide array of young
pitchers on the Bears staff, it is a matter of time that these girls settle into their roles and become accustomed to pitching at the collegiate level. As longs as runs are being plated, the pitching will improve and wins will come. “We still have a lot of work to
do, but as we boarded the bus on our way back to Macon, we knew as a team that we got bet-ter,” said DeFeo.With all nine games coming on
the road, the Bears better learn to like the trips as they still face 11 consecutive away matches leading into March.
Bob Hoffman and the Mercer Bears extended their Cinderella Story win streak to nine games with a win over the hometown KSU Owls before disappoint-ingly falling at the hands of Jacksonville on the road. With the A-Sun tournament in sight, the Bears must stay focused and hopeful in the games to come.
Mercer 61, KSU 57Surrounded by a crowd of
5,000 fans all wearing “BEAT MERCER” shirts to commem-orate their debut of their fi rst fi ght song, the Owls of Ken-nesaw State University only had one thing on their mind: to prevent Mercer from garner-ing its 20th win against them. Hoffman’s bunch looked like it was going to oblige during the middle of the second half, as Spencer Dixon would have a 17-point outburst in the sec-ond half for KSU, going 5-for-5 from long range and 6-of-8 from the fi eld. The Owls would have an 18-6
run midway through the sec-ond half to take the lead from Mercer 42-36. However, the Bears were out for blood and would claw back behind red-shirt-sophomore Jakob Gollon. Gollon would dazzle in the sec-ond half as well, going 1-for-1 from three-point range, 3-for-4 from the charity stripe, and 4-for-5 from the fi eld, totaling 12 second half points. Sopho-more Bud Thomas also added 10 points in the second half. Sophomore Langston Hall would contribute 11 points to the effort and Monty Brown added a spark off of the bench, contributing 12 points towards the Bears’ victory. “It was a very exciting atmo-
sphere,” said Thomas. “We had to overcome a lot of obstacles during the game. We handled adversity well and most impor-
tantly found a way to win our ninth straight game,” he added.
Mercer 75, Jacksonville 81The fi rst of a two-game busi-
ness trip to Florida didn’t go as planned for the orange and black of Mercer. Against a Jackson-ville team that was 6-20 before the game, the Bears outpaced the Dolphins in second-chance points, rebounds and points in the paint. Unfortunately for Mercer, however, Jacksonville shot 65 percent from the fi eld, 50 percent from long range and 68.2 percent from the foul line in the second half, while the boys from Macon only shot 40.5, 30.8 and 60 respectively. The Dolphins would be up
by as many as 18 with 7:35 left to play in regulation before Mercer mounted a 22-5 point comeback to pull within two points at 75-77. The foul, then free throw, game wouldn’t go Mercer’s way, and the Bears suffered their fi rst loss in over a month, 81-75. The game featured fi ve lead
changes in the fi rst half. “We still have a chance to win the conference, so this is disap-pointing, but the season isn’t over,” Head Coach Bob Hoff-man said to MercerBears.com. “We had an unbelievable run and tonight we didn’t get it done in a game we could have, but that’s what happens in this league,” he added. Hall would fi nish with 20
points, while Sophomore Dan-iel Coursey added 16 points and eight rebounds. Thomas and Gollon each contributed 10 points as well, with Bud coming one rebound short of a double-double.
Mercer has three regular sea-son games left, at North Flor-ida, and then at home versus the Lipscomb University Bison and the conference-leading Belmont University Bruins on Feb. 25. The Belmont game is the “Halloween in February” game, where the student sec-tion will be dressing up in cos-tumes to support the Bears and confuse the Bruins.
Recently, Claude Smith Field was updated with brick ter-races for seating and tailgat-ing out past the back fence. Now, the newest addition to this historic fi eld has been added: a new LED jumbo-tron that is the best in the en-tire Atlantic Sun conference. Coach Craig Gibson was very excited about the possibili-ties. “The addition of the LED board will be a valuable piece for the entire athletic depart-ment. We can utilize the LED board with various advertise-ments and promotions for dif-ferent events and sponsors,” Gibson said. He was very ex-cited about the ways that this can impact the athletics depart-ment as well. Many Mercerians might feel
that this is an unnecessary ad-dition to the already congested
layout of the school, and some might feel that this is just not needed. However, Coach Gib-son begs to differ. He is very excited for how the baseball additions will change things. Gibson remarked that this is
just a piece in a much larger puzzle of the Mercer Athlet-ics Department. New Athletic Director Jim Cole has kick started a whole trend of reno-vations and renewals for Mer-cer sports teams. Coach Gibson had noth-
ing but praise for him and his impact upon Mercer athlet-ics. “What the athletic depart-ment has accomplished under our new athletic director, Jim Cole, has been amazing. He has accomplished very much in a very short period of time. The future is both bright and exciting!” With all that’s planned for
football and baseball, let alone the recent additions of la-crosse, Gibson is right about the impact of Jim Cole. The improvements for Claude
Smith Field are the fi rst ones
since 2003, and this is part of the attempt to make all of Mer-cer’s facilities among the elite in the Atlantic Sun. Phase one of any renovations to Claude Smith Field will begin in the summer following the end of
the 2012 Mercer Baseball sea-son. It will be a multi-step pro-cess, and Gibson knows a few areas that he wants them to ad-dress. “I think we really need to address both the restrooms and the concession areas. Once
these areas are taken care of, I believe our attendance will in-crease,” Gibson said. Despite these problems, there
are several great draws to the fi eld already that will be the foundation of the new fi eld.
The LED board is light years ahead of anyone else in the At-lantic Sun. The playing surface is top-notch as well. “With the addition of the fan
friendly area in right fi eld, the batter’s eye in center fi eld, and the scoreboard, we feel as though [Claude Smith Field] is on the way to becoming one of the best in the southeast,” Gib-son said. The imminent addi-tion is the change from bleach-ers to seats with chair-backs, and this will be a better view-ing experience for people com-ing to see the Mercer Bears. However, a new fi eld is noth-
ing without the players to com-pete on it. With the addition of non-scholarship football, there will be an infl ux of dual-sport athletes on this campus. Gib-son has already taken this into account. “We have already re-cruited student-athletes with the possibility of playing foot-ball and baseball,” he said. There is a bright future ahead for the Mercer Bears baseball program.
Baseball adds LED scoreboard, looks to continue renovations
DeFeo, softball sit 2-7 in early spring
Noah Maier / Cluster StaffThe newly installed LED scoreboard is one of the many renovations Mercer Athletics hopes to make to Claude Smith Field. The screen stretches 14 feet wide and eight feet tall.
Bears’ streak ends at 9, sights set on Belmont
Alex Lockwood / Cluster StaffWith a shocking loss to the Dolphins, the Bears fall a game out of fi rst as the matchup with Belmont closes in.
Upcoming games (2/23-3/14):
Hawks search for direction, will to win
By Brad AlmandGuest Columnist
By Samir Moussawel Sports Editor
By Garret McDowellStaff Writer
By Matt WilliamsStaff Writer
The game between the Hawks and Lakers begins a fi ve-game road stretch (none of which are easy) for the At-lanta squad who have been slipping away from their ag-gressive style of play. This trend of roller coaster play from the Hawks is not some-thing new.The Hawks have historically
been a team that you can’t trust to win, or even lose for that matter. There are nights when the Hawks will show up and look like one of the best teams in the league, and on other nights they look like a mediocre high school squad. The excuse that I hear
most often is that this play is caused in part by the owner-ship and management, and while that may have a part in it, there seems to be more factors at play. I under-stand that poor ownership can be a tough thing to deal with, but these are profes-sional athletes who are being paid to put forth their best ef-forts. Effort is a concept that the Hawks have yet to under-stand, at least consistently. Part of the problem is that
there is a lack of intense fan and media scrutiny on this team, unlike the teams in Bos-ton, Los Angeles, New York, or even Chicago. When these teams do poorly there is a lot of pressure on them to get back on track and fi gure out a way to win. This doesn’t happen with the Hawks. Why? The city of Atlanta in general has had a historically terrible fan base. Last year, the Hawks ranked
22nd in attendance in the league. A team with a winning record and that has been to the playoffs for four-straight years and reached the second round three of those seasons, can’t even crack the top 15 in attendance. So, why put forth any effort
when you don’t have masses of angry sports writers and fans holding you account-able? This seems to have become the cornerstone of Hawks basketball, a great team without a heart.They have all the potential in
the world, but seem hesitant to use it. It’s like the smartest kids in school who never ap-ply themselves and don’t reach their full potential. They do fi ne in the easy courses (teams like Charlotte, Washington, Toronto, etc.), but when it comes to the hard science courses (Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles), they give up at the fi rst sign of diffi culty. This leaves us with a team
that could be so great, and yet instead chooses to be the most inconsistent team in basket-ball. The proof is in the num-bers. When you have a talent-ed team that is only reaching the second round of the play-offs each time, it shows that something is awry. The Hawks don’t need a su-
perstar player to carry them through the playoffs. They have a very solid team with many interchangeable parts. The only thing this team needs is to take a page out of Michael Jordan’s book and, “play every game like it’s your last.”
Men’s basketball Women’s basketball Softball vs. Lipscomb vs. Lipscomb @Samford (2) vs. Belmont vs. Belmont @Eastern Illinois (2) ***A-Sun (2/29-3/3) @Savannah St (2) Lacrosse @Minnesota Women’s Tennis vs. Detroit Mercy @Ohio vs. FAMU vs. Michigan @Rutgers vs. Fort Valley State vs. Holy Cross @Cleveland St. @Chattanooga @Jacksonville @Georgia @Georgia State vs. Manhattan vs. Presbyterian (2) @Georgia State (2) Men’s tennis Baseball vs. Georgia southern (2) vs. FAMU vs. Presbyterian (3) vs. Fort Valley State @Georgia Southern Women’s golf @Wake Forest @High Point (3) @Edwin Watts/Kiawah @Savannah State Island Classic Women’s cross country @Mississippi St. (3) @Spider Spring Break @Sav. St. Eye Opener vs. Georgia St. Invitational
Men’s golf @John Hayt Intercollegiate Bold games are HOME @Seminole Intercollegiate *** A-SUN Tournament hosted by Mercer
The End…The Cluster - Feb. 23, 2012 - Page 16
Photography EditorNoah Maier
whatyousay
“Tegan and Sara” - Kyle Shook, Senior
“Family Force Five”- Ryan O’Dell,
Junior
“FF iill FF FFi ””
“““““TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTeeeeeeeeeg--- KKSSSSSSSSSSSe
Who would you like to see at Bearstock?
Diffi culty: 35
favsoda?Ashley MannI don’t like soda
Eric BrownSioux City Berry Berry Soda
Samir MoussawelWild Cherry Pepsi
Kaleigh MansonI don’t drink soda
Liz BibbBaja Blast
“I would really like to see Drake.”-Edmond Cooper, Junior
Diffi culty: 79
yourphotohere
Today’s photo is submitted byKaleigh Manson
To submit your photo for consideration, email [email protected]