picket: 2-17-10

BY Rachel eddY doRminY [email protected]

The president of the Associa-tion of American Colleges & Uni-versities (AAC&U) spoke with Shepherd University’s taskforce for curricular reform about a lib-eral education preparing students for today’s global economy.

Dr. Carol Schneider is attempt-ing to build an economic case for a liberal education through the Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative. “We must persuade the country that a liberal education is the most pow-erful education that a student can have for today’s economy,” she said. While looking for resources and partners for LEAP, Schneider found that employers were most helpful. “We are absolutely per-suaded that if we can’t make the threshold case that the kind of learning you are working through general studies, through your LEAP commitments, is good for the economy, then nobody will hear us on anything else,” said Schneider.

The AAC&U administered a survey, “Raising the Bar,” in 2009 with employers to find out what is being asked of today’s employees. According to the results, 88 per-cent of employers agreed that in order to succeed as an employee, potential employees would need higher levels of learning and knowledge today than they did in the past. Employees are expected to have a broad set of skills and the capability to be cross function-al with other departments. In ad-dition, every year, more than one-third of the entire U.S. labor force changes jobs, so graduates could potentially have more than 14 dif-ferent employers by the time they are 38, according to the survey.

“Employers are looking for us to show that we are adapting our programs to deal with the realities of this vital, dynamic, much more complex, much more demanding, much more global economy,” she said. Music professor, Dr. Scott Beard wants to see continued communication with students and faculty about the difference between “courses and pieces of information versus outcomes and skills . . . because higher educa-tion has shifted.”

Department chairs voiced their concern about students los-ing skills between the cracks of flexibility in the new general studies curriculum that Shep-herd is considering. Schneider said departments need to create a crosswalk with the goals of the discipline and the broader goals of the LEAP initiative. There needs to be a “department’s interest in what general studies is doing, as opposed to seeing general studies and its reform as something that is separate from and potentially dangerous to the invested inter-

BY Julianna [email protected]

Shepherd University’s new Wellness Center sparked some attention a few weeks ago when hazmat teams and fire trucks sprang into action, scouring the parking lot with lights due to a chlorine leak. The leak, which could have been potentially dangerous, caused students, staff, and gym members to evacuate the building. But all the attention was precaution-ary, according to aquatics direc-tor Darren Diamond.

Senior student Jessie Gregory, a lifeguard at the pool, was at the scene. “We’ve been told it was a pipe leak that was spewing liquid chlorine. . . But we didn’t expect multiple fire trucks to show up. That’s all we’ve really been told,” Greg-ory said. Since the chlorine was liquid and not powder, the chlorine was potentially more hazardous, which is why Dia-mond said a Hazmat team was needed.

It was important that the leak be dealt with immediately, as well as, with precaution. Chlorine is a chemical that can

burn the skin, and if it is in liq-uid form, the fumes can harm the inside of the body. Moni-tored portions of chlorine are used to kill waterborne bacteria in swimming pools. It is even used in drinking water in small doses to kill germs. While chlo-rine has prevented outbreaks of diseases, it can create epi-demics, according to Dr. N.W. Walker, author of “What Water Can Do to Your Health.”

“Chlorine is the greatest crippler and killer of the mod-ern times,” he said. He believes the many present epidemics such as heart trouble, cancer, and senility began when soci-ety began chlorinating the wa-ter in 1904.

The danger of drinking wa-ter with too much chlorine is obviously greater than that of swimming in it, but neverthe-less it is important for students and gym goers to stay clear of liquid chlorine. High levels of chlorine or any chemical are potentially harmful, so Shep-herd University handled the situation as best they could to protect everyone.

BY Rachel eddY [email protected]

The new Shepherd Uni-versity Swim Club competed at their first meet on Jan. 29th at Penn State. Nine of the 17 members competed in the invi-tational swim meet sponsored by the American Swimming Association University League (ASAUL). The meet consisted of six schools and 152 swim-mers. According to the team captain Nick Mummet, the team performed well. “Everyone im-proved their time and strokes,” he said.

The Shepherd University Swim Club was voted in by the Student Government Asso-ciation as a recognized campus organization on Jan. 26. Their mission is to provide the student body with the opportunity to pro-mote and compete in the sport of competitive swimming.

Mummet, co-founder of the club, has desired to see some-thing involving swimming at Shepherd since he came to the campus. “There was an inter-est check on the application for Shepherd when I originally filled out the application, but [when I

got here] there was nothing,” said Mummet. He has been com-petitively swimming since he was a freshman in high school.

But not every member must have a history in competitive swimming, or even swimming in general for that matter. There are two Red Cross certified swim instructors in the club, Mummet and the co-captain for the women’s portion of the club, Alex Kirk. Most people “have down the basic ability of swim-ming – they just need a little bit of stroke mechanics, and we pro-vide that for them,” said Mum-met.

Co-captain of the male por-tion of the club, Scott Thompson, was not originally interested in being a competitive swimmer. While training for a triathlon, Thompson injured his knee. “I started doing pool workouts and never quit,” he said. Now Thompson testifies to loving sport.

The team’s dedication to-wards to the sport draws them together everyday for prac-tices. Eventually, Mummet and Thompson would like to see a

BY Rachel eddY doRminY [email protected]

Staff and students joined forces to survive and recover from the blizzard that raked Shepherd University, drown-ing the campus in over 30 inches of snow throughout the week.

Facilities worked around

the clock to plow and remove snow from parking lots and roadways on campus. Some students incurred damages to their cars due to the tow-ering amount of snow. On Sunday, nursing senior Mindy Alisea, found that the back windshield of her Honda Ac-cord had cracked under the weight of the snow. While

trying to clear the top of the car, the windshield collapsed in. The replacement for the damage was over $300. “We definitely hit way past the too much snow mark,” she said. Resident of Martin Hall, Hans Mertens, originally from Ver-mont, said he felt right at home in the extreme weather conditions.

Dan Yanna, director of Fa-cilities Management, said their department was prepared for the amount of snow. “We pro-actively watch the weather, so usually we have an idea on what is coming 48 hours in ad-vance,” said Yanna. Facilities had a stock pile of salt ready

113th Year No. 18 WEDNESDAY, FEbruArY 17, 2010 First Issue Free

Inside This Week

Art & Style

CommentAry

Paul Pfau profilePaul gives exclusive and preview into next performance at the Meck on Feb. 19th at 9pm. See page 7.

the war on toyotaToyota faces many recalls on different models, find out what & why. See page 11.

Shepherd survives snow conditions30 inches of snow covers campus, see the aftermath on pages 4-5.

rams battle to hold top spotLady Rams lead in WVIAC but still continue to fight for top spot at home. See page 6.

thiS Week’S feAtureS

SPortS

inDeX weekly briefs 2 News 3 feature 4 sports 6 art&style 7 CommeNtary 10

CAMPUS COVERED IN SNOW CAUSES CLOSINGS

See LIBERAL Page 3

DISCRIMINATION DISCUSSED PG. 8 PIECES OF PAST PG. 7 BASKETBALL COACH PROMOTED PG. 6

See TEAM Page 2

See SNOW Page 4

See POOL Page 2

Shepherd survives snow conditions Aftermath of parking lots on campus that were coverd in over a foot and a half of snow. Photo by Justin Hawkins.

Swim team takes strokes to become established

Wellness Center’s new pool springs a leak

Employers seek graduates with liberal education

2 The Shepherd Picket Wednesday, February 17, 2010

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Melanie Ford, Shepherd Univer-sity’s interim head women’s basket-ball coach, has been named to the top coaching spot. “Coach Ford exhibits the right balance of leadership skills and coaching ability, making our deci-sion to promote her to the head coach slot an easy one,” said Dr. Richard Helldobler, vice president for aca-demic affairs. “Her student-centered approach and emphasis on academics and community service for her players have demonstrated that she is the right person to lead our women’s basketball team.” Ford was named interim head coach in July 2009 after the resignation of coach Jodie Runner. In 2008 Ford was elevated to associate head coach. Ford has led the Rams to an 11-7 overall re-cord with a 10-4 conference mark this season. Shepherd, currently ranked third in the WVIAC, has knocked off a pair of first place teams this year. Dur-ing Ford’s tenure as Shepherd’s top assistant coach, the Rams recorded a 116-88 overall mark -- highlighted by a record-setting 24-7 record in 2007-08. That season the Rams captured the WVIAC title and advanced to the NCAA II Sweet 16 in the program’s first-ever postseason appearance. The Rams posted five winning seasons during that seven year period and also had five

seasons with 15 wins or more. Ford has coached a trio of first team All-WVIAC selections in Cassie Murray, Laura Harkins, and Katie Warehime. Harkins and Warehime also garnered NCAA II East Regional All-Tournament honors in 2008.

National Eating Disorder Aware-ness Day is Wednesday, Feb. 24th. In the United States, as many as 10 mil-lion females and 1 million males are fighting a life and death battle with an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia. Millions more are struggling with binge eating disorder. Because of the secretiveness and shame associ-ated with eating disorders, many cases are probably not reported. In addition, many individuals struggle with body dissatisfaction and subclinical disor-dered eating attitudes and behaviors. For example, it has been shown that 80% of American women are dissatis-fied with their appearance. Shepherd’s Health Services will be providing an information table in the Ram’s Den from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on Wednesday. Screenings are also available through the Health Center or online at Coun-seling Services’ Website.

The first day of the Winter Games didn’t turn out as everyone hoped, or as anyone planned. A wicked crash claimed a life before competition could even be-gin. Hundreds of protesters forced a de-tour in the torch relay. And the moment Canada spent seven years building to-ward - the lighting of the Olympic caul-dron - was tarnished by a technical glitch. With hours to go before the opening cer-emony, a luger from the nation of Georgia was killed after he lost control of his sled on the infamously fast track at Whistler and crashed into a steel pole. Olympic officials decided late Friday night against any major changes in the track or any de-lays in competition. They said they would raise the wall where the slider flew off the track and make an unspecified “change in the ice profile” - but only as a preventa-tive measure “to avoid that such an ex-tremely exceptional accident could occur again.” The death of Nodar Kumaritash-vili hung over the usually festive first day of the games. Inside BC Place Stadium, the ceremony was punctuated by somber pauses, sorrowful speeches and flags low-ered to half-staff. The 21-year-old slider’s grief-stricken teammates marched with black armbands and scarves. Then, at the climax of the three-hour show, with four torch-bearing Canadian sports heroes in the spotlight, a technical error ruined the symmetry. One of four pillars designed to

rise from the stadium floor and form the Olympic cauldron malfunctioned, leaving speedskater Catriona LeMay Doan un-able to join in the lighting.

The Obama administration’s planned loan guarantee to build the first nuclear power plant in the United States in al-most three decades is part of a broad shift in energy strategy to lessen dependence on foreign oil and reduce the use of other fossil fuels blamed for global warming. President Barack Obama called for “a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants” in his Jan. 27 State of the Union speech and followed that by pro-posing to triple loan guarantees for new nuclear plants. He wants to use nuclear power and other alternative sources of energy in his effort to shift energy poli-cy. Critics call the guarantees a form of subsidy and say taxpayers will assume a huge risk, given the industry’s record of cost overruns and loan defaults. Even with next week’s announcement, actual construction of the first reactor is still years away. The Southern Co. has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a construction and operating license for the plant, one of 13 such applications the agency is considering. NRC spokes-man Eliott Brenner said the earliest any of those could be approved would be late 2011 or early 2012.

NEWSNational Briefs Local Briefs

Peace Corps on campus

Find out how you can gain personal and professional experience as

a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Volunteers work in over 70 countries in health, business, education,

agriculture and environment projects.

They also learn a new language, develop career and leadership skills and contribute to socities in need.

Wednesday, March 3

Information TableCareer Fair

Ram’s Den of Student Cemter11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Information SessionRumsey Room in Ram’s Den

6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Peace Corps.

Life is calling.How far will you go?

800.424.8580peacecorps.gov

Melanie Ford, Shepherd University’s interim head women’s basketball coach. Photo coutesy of Shepherdrams.com.

Nodar Kumaritashvili crashes as the Winter Games at this years Olympic tournament. Photo coutesy of Getty images.

National Collegiate Athletic As-sociation (NCAA) swimming team created. “We hope that the club and the team fall right in to-gether. It’s really hard to see a team get started if there is not an interest,” said Mummet. How-ever, once the team is created, Mummet hopes that the club will remain. A NCAA team can only compete against other schools within their division, so Shepherd would only be able to compete in division two meets. Currently as a club, they can compete against any school. “It opens up our com-

petitive options a lot more,” said Mummet.

Mummet had tried form-ing a club last year with one of his fraternity brothers but was unsuccessful with rounding up enough members to meet the SGA requirement of 15. When Thompson came to Mummet last semester, they both joined forces with a new vigor to see the club become official. They spread the word by mouth and contacted friends. I knew a lot of “people I had swam with or against [in high school] that came to [Shepherd],”

Mummet said.Now with two advisors, Dar-

ren Diamond and Keith Worrell, and seventeen members they are growing club. “The transition period from this [club] to NCAA will be a lot more easier,” said Thompson.

Currently, there are no dues. Members must only pay for their own equipment and entry fees into swim meets, which gener-ally cost around $2, according to Mummert. For more informa-tion, please contact Mummert at [email protected].

Team From Page 1 Pool From Page 1

Since the event, the Well-ness Center staff has been manually putting chlorine into the pool. Chemical leaks can be hazardous, but the University took all the proper procedures to ensure that no one was harmed in the incident and that no harm could come to gym-goers in the future, according to Diamond. Student Bailey Michael, also a lifeguard at the gym, said that the leak happened, but no one was informed about the details

surrounding the event. Since the building is less

than a year old, the pipe leak was an unexpected problem for the center. Occurring around 6 p.m., the leak happened just be-fore the Wellness Center staff’s in-service lifeguard training. “We all came for the meeting and were confused as to why there were so many fire trucks,” said Gregory. “Needless to say, the meeting was cancelled.”

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 The Shepherd Picket 3

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NEWS

BY elizaBeth FRiant [email protected]

On Feb. 3, the president of the Association of American Col-leges & Universities (AAC&U) drew the attention of faculty, staff and students to discuss curricu-lum changes at Shepherd Uni-versity. In the Ora Byrd Audito-rium, Dr. Carol Geary Schneider explained the benefits of a broad range of subjects provided in a general studies curriculum and taught in a 21st century liberal arts education style.

As the president of a national association who evaluates the quality of liberal arts undergradu-ates, Schneider believes a liberal education “emphasizes broad knowledge of the wider world as well as in-depth achievement in a specific field of interest.” With Shepherd’s recent inauguration into COPLAC, an invitation for Schneider to discuss the impor-tance and process of curricular reform seemed like the next step. “This is the way we are al-ready going. What we are think-ing about now is how to organize it for the future,” said President Suzanne Shipley. The AAC&U currently oversees more than 1,150 institutional member’s public withstanding and advanc-ing development in providing an education suited for the current times.

Founder of The Liberal Edu-cation and America’s Promise

(LEAP) initiative, Schneider is seeking to change people’s per-spectives of the learning process, so that a liberal education is now the preferred form of education. The ten year initiative is spring-ing campuses into action so that students and the public are aware of what is important in an a col-lege education, said Shipley.

With committees such as the General Studies Committee and the Academic Reform Commit-tee, Shepherd University offi-cials are currently listening and evaluating how best to proceed in the revamping of the university’s curriculum so that it may better serve the students. Whereas the current curriculum was suited for a 20th century style of learn-ing, it is now a new century with new demands, and the Univer-sity needs to adapt its design to include a wider span of subjects for each student to learn. Along with this wider breadth of gener-alized education, there will be a rise in specialization. Disciplines will still be a major focus of col-legiate education. The broad range of subjects can even help with the individual study of a stu-dent’s choice. “We are not mov-ing away from the quest for truth to the search for collaborative experiential learning, but rather that our notion of what it means to understand something well enough to make use of it,” said Schneider. “

A liberal education can pro-

vide students with a “sense of social responsibility” that will “empower themselves to deal with complexity, diversity, and change,” as well as develop “strong intellectual and practical skills that span all major fields of study” while demonstrating “an ability to apply knowledge and skills in real-world settings,” ac-cording to Schneider. Instead of memorizing and regurgitating information, she believes that it is important for students to learn skills and understand their sig-nificance and how they relate to the world around them.

Currently, Shepherd Univer-sity requires each new student to take a First-Year Seminar class. This high-impact seminar will help welcome and orientate new students. It provides students with college skills needed for the new environment, such as prac-tice in critical inquiry, frequent writing, information literacy, and practical competencies. Within the seminar, small portions of the class are grouped and joined with a faculty or staff member, so students are able to ask any questions they may have regard-ing scholarship of research.

Schneider said it is impor-tant for students to recognize the value of the education they receive in the college environ-ment. However, students typi-cally do not have a major input on the framework of the educational process as a whole. Schneider

believes it to be important that students recognize what is going on in the compositions of their educations. She said, “What we are trying to do is to educate stu-dents who can engage in princi-

ples and their significance while also being alert to and willing to learn from others about the com-plexity of any issue that we really care about.”

BY Julianna [email protected]

The Shepherdstown Film Society kicks off their Spring 2010 season sponsoring films centered on the theme of the mind and memories. The so-ciety hosted a reception at the Shepherdstown Men’s Club on Jan. 29, providing drinks and healthy snack for the group of movie lovers. The film society continues into their third season of part-nering with Shepherd Univer-sity’s Scarborough Library. By financially partnering with the library, the film society is able to provide movies at no cost to the campus and Shep-herdstown community.

Following the reception, “Memento”, a movie directed by Christopher Nolan, was shown at the library. This movie is just one of five films that will be shown by the so-ciety during the season. The film was selected because it dealt with the mind and how people are affected by mem-ory loss.

In the fall, when the film society met to discuss the movies they would show in the spring, “Memento” was one that everyone agreed on. Using this as their example, they decided to build the spring 2010’s theme around the mind and memories. They also wanted to collaborate with Shepherd University to help air films that would co-incide with Shepherd events. On Feb.12, “Daughters of the Dust,” directed by Julie Dash, will be shown in the Scarbor-ough Library in conjunction with the Black History Month Program and co-sponsored by the Multicultural Student Af-fairs Office. The film is set in 1902 on St. Helena Island in South Carolina and follows the lives of three genera-tions of Gullah women. Un-affected from the changes of the post-Civil War South, the film focuses on the African folk-ways of the three women and the culture found in their story telling, food, language, and community.

Then on Feb. 26th, “The Garden” directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy will air in conjunction with the Com-mon Reading Program. The film centers on the 14-acre neighborhood garden located in South Central Los Angeles that provides wholesome food for the community.

Lex Miller, one of the vol-unteers for the film society,

said that they like to select movies that not only help educate at the University, but also choose films that bring in culture from outside the Shepherd community. The fourth film in the spring se-ries, “Abre los Ojos” directed by Alejandro Amenabar, is a Spanish film that intertwines with the mind theme but also brings in aspects from a dif-ferent culture.

The Shepherdstown Film Society is a group of individu-als and organizations that wish to bring more quality films to Shepherdstown. The group came together in fall of 2004 when the Opera House decid-ed to stop showing films. “It ended up great. We came to-gether thinking there would be no movies, and now in-stead of no movies, there are more than there ever was,” said Lisa Welch, one of the volunteers who coordinated the reception for the film so-ciety. The Opera House con-tinues to show films, but the Film Society also continues screening their own films as well. At the end of each film there is an open forum for discussion about the value and importance that corre-spond with each film.

This year’s fall season marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the Shep-herdstown train station, so the film society’s theme for fall will be films surrounding trains. The reception, which is typically held at the Men’s Club, will be held at the train station instead. Dr. Rachel Ritterbusch, an assistant pro-fessor at Shepherd, is also a member of the Film Society who hopes for more student involvement. According to Welsh, Ritterbusch is going to teach a film class for inter-ested students in the spring of 2011.

Any students who are in-terested in suggesting films or volunteering their time to the Film Society can visit their website at www.shep-herdstownfi lmsociety.org. They may also contact Lisa Welch at (304)-876-1837 or Mina Goodrich at (304)-876-2159. The movie schedule for the rest of the spring semes-ter is as follows: February 12 “Daughters of the Dust,” February 26 “The Garden”, March 12 “Abre los Ojos”, and April 30 “Regarding Henry”.

ACC&U President advocates for a liberal education

Library and film society launches their spring season BY amY StandiFeR

[email protected]

Bruce Jacobs, author of “Race Manners for the 21st Century”, spoke at Shepherd University on Feb. 3rd about racial discrimination still lin-gering in today’s society. Ac-cording to Jacobs, the most venomous, evil word in the English language is the N-word, a derogatory term re-ferring to African Americans.

“One word that carries the fear, rage and heartbreak of families torn from families, one word not only drenched, but drowned in the blood, the gore, the untold suffering of a people denied opportunity and used as human chattel. One word that bears the weight of injustice felt even today,” he said.

As a multicultural event, multicultural director Christa-na Johnson said the lecture was needed and well received especially with the recent controversy surrounding Shepherd University’s musi-cal production, “Big River: The Adventures of Huckle-berry Finn,” which was sup-pose to open Feb. 4th but was rescheduled due to the weather. In the original script, the N-word was used. After much debate, university offi-cials decided to omit the word from the production.

Jacobs said that people do not understand the ramifica-tions of the hateful words they use. Discriminating words have centuries of his-tory behind them and carry the weight of that history. In

today’s society, many indi-viduals disregard the history certain words carry and their backgrounds. “If there was no difference between how I’m treated when I walk into a department store and when a similarly dressed white man walks into the store, the N-word would mean nothing,” he said. “That fact that racism is still real invests that word with power.”

Jacobs discussed how Af-rican’s were brought over on the slave ships to the United States during the slave trade. They were sold like cattle and forced to serve what people then believed to be the supe-rior race – Caucasian white. Over time, African Americans could not get a job that they desired. Their ethnicity was being held back by society and social norms.

According to Jacobs, most individuals feel the need to discriminate against others in order to make themselves feel more important. Label-ing others and putting them in categories has become the way of today’s society; one of judgment and hate.

Racism is defined as the idea that one race is supe-rior over another human race. Prejudice is defined as a predetermined unfavor-able opinion towards a group of people. Throughout the millennia, these terms have followed society throughout history. Mistakes of the past continue to be repeated. “So-ciety is loaded with centuries of blood, gore, and injustice,” said Jacobs.

Hate crimes still exist in

today’s brutal society, accord-ing to Jacobs. Not just for Af-rican Americans, but for other minorities as well. Even with society being more open-minded than in the past, there is still social segregation. It’s not as prevalent in this soci-ety, but people are still out-casted for the way they look. Any social group is subjected to the harshness of cruelty.

Along with racism, Jacobs lectured on sexism, civility, and religious discrimination at the campus. He discussed the role of religion in discrimina-tion. So often, Jacobs said that religion is used as an excuse for an individual’s discrimi-nating actions. For example, individuals have often attrib-uted their harmful treatment towards others as obedience to God. According to Jacobs, words derive power from the institutions of society, and therefore, institutions can continue division between the oppressed and the privileged.

Jacobs said that there are many factors as to why indi-viduals have a difficult time breaking free of the social stigmas that envelope in so-ciety. These factors include history, politics, religion, and the media. A group of people often have trouble breaking free of the bonds that tie them to their history – they keep dragging history along in our wake of the present, he said.

Jacobs encouraged the au-dience to make a stand against anything derogatory of other individuals. He said, “Our job is to reclaim human nature.”

Author discuss racial discrimination in America

ests of the disciplines in the departments,” she said.

In the survey, employers want to see engaging prac-tices for students, such as per-forming research, completing internships, and completing significant projects in accor-dance to their major. “We have to show employers that this is what [Shepherd] is already do-ing,” Schneider said.

Dr. Kevin Williams, chair of the communications depart-ment, wants to work with stu-dents to develop their reasons for being interested in the general studies program and “move away from a ‘I want to get this out of the way’ kind of a program.”

One of Schneider’s ma-jor concerns is that there is a separation between gen-eral studies curriculum and

the student’s choice of major curriculum. With curricular reform, Schneider believes there needs to be a connection between the two curriculums and essential skills learned in the general studies cur-riculum that are desirable for students.

Schneider came armed with the evidence that 78 percent of college institu-tions in the country have “in-tended outcomes” that mirror LEAP’s outcomes, yet only five percent of the institu-tions are prepared to claim that their students understand the outcomes. “Which raises the question on whether this exercise is just an exercise or whether we are going to go about it in a way that helps students take ownership of it as a campus for their own

work,” she said. Six years ago, Schneider

visited a private liberal arts college who reviewed their general studies, revised their curriculum, and set a cast of intended outcomes to be more “intentional, integrated, and effective.” The college decided to question graduating seniors in five years to see if they felt they achieved the intended outcomes through the cur-ricular reform. “There wasn’t a single student who even knew they had an intended outcome,” she said. Schneider encouraged the departments take ownership for instilling in their students a vocabulary that has expectations, because “students should be better able to describe what it is they are taking away from their education.”

Liberal From Page 1

Dr. Carol Geary Schneider. Photo courtesy of Shepherd.edu.


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FEATURE

for use, as well as, equip-ment for removing snow. Ad-justing their staff according-ly to the weather conditions, Shepherd hired Callas Con-tractors to provide assistant and larger snow plows. Yanna does not expect there to be any problems with parking when classes resume. While hidden parking spots in town will not be available, H-Lot is ready to provide enough parking capacity for the commuter student body, he said. In order to be cost ef-fective, the majority of snow was plowed into ditches and islands. However, for park-ing lots that did not have any available space, specifi-cally A and B Lots, the snow was removed by trucks. “We are trying to open up and maintain full parking capac-ity wherever we can,” said Yanna. In order to speed up the snow removal, facilities ask that students move their cars into clear spots as soon

as possible. Students have been working together to dig out their cars from several feet of snow. “We have been shoveling snow all week,” said Alisea.

Student Government Association Vice Presi-dent Daniel Bascom said that while the time off from classes was nice, many of the residents were experiencing “cabin fever and are happy that the snow has passed.” Resident Assistants report-ed that resident’s behavior definitely reflected restless-ness, for there were a high amount of write-ups in some of the resident hall build-ings. Many students went home for the weekend after the snow was mostly cleared from the roads on Friday.

Many students are not looking forward to the make-up work that awaits them when classes resume. Alisea had an online class on last Friday, but she still has clini-

cal, tests and homework to make-up. While the students welcomed the break, many were confided to their resi-dential halls. “I wish there wasn’t all the snow, and we could have actually done something. . . instead of hav-ing nowhere to go,” said Ali-sea.

While trapped roughly from Friday, Feb. 5th to Thursday, Feb. 11th, stu-dents spent the majority of their time sledding, watching the T.V., playing music, cook-ing and eating. In order to deal with cabin fever, a group of residents got together in Maple apartments had a beach themed dinner com-plete with popcorn shrimp, Hawaiian bread, pineapple skewers and umbrellas in the drinks. After dinner, four of the female residents, Jess Johnson, Carrie Wil-liams, Kelsey Knight, and Kari Statler continued their beach trend by sledding in

their bikini beach attire. De-spite the first initial contact with the snow, Knight said the experience was worth it. “It’s something we can cross off our bucket list of things we want to do.”

Freshman Pre-Law ma-jor, Elizabeth Greer, lives in Gardiner Hall on east cam-pus, but in order to survive the blizzard, she stayed with a friend in the apartments on west campus. Feeling that winter break was too short, Greer said she was more than ex cited for the week off. “This week was the much needed additional fourth week that I feel was slighted from [students].”

The dining hall was open during brunch for the week, and many residents stocked up on supplies from Food Lion or Sheetz. Resident assistants hosted programs providing free food in resi-dent halls, such as Boteler Hall in West Woods. Due

Photo by Justin Hawkins.



From Page 1

Snow


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FEATURE

to the snow, many of the din-ing hall employees were un-able to get transportation to the campus. Some dining hall employees stayed the week in Birch and Maple apart-ments at the request of the University so they would be able to fulfill their work shifts regardless of the weather conditions. Resident assis-tants Chelsea Tipton, Daniel Bascom, Bassell Franks, Rus-sell Baron, and several others volunteered to work in the dining hall to compensate for the staff being shorthanded. Hall directors Mike Rokicki and Jonathan Calabretta along with Vice President of Stu-dent Affairs Sharon Kipetz gave their time as well.

Since custodian employ-ees were unable to report to campus, the residential halls went without custodial ser-vices for the weekend. Donna Shipley, manager of Custodial Services, and her two children Courtney, age 13, and Hunter, age 7, rendered emergency

cleaning, trash removal, and stocking of toiletries in the residential halls on Monday. They were joined by Vickie Holder, supervisor of Campus Services, and David Orsini, lead worker of Campus Ser-vice, later on in the week.

Students were also pro-active in removing snow, ac-cording to WVNS broadcast-ing. Director of Student Com-munity Services and Service Learning, Holly Frye, gath-ered students together to help shovel out fire hydrants in Shepherdstown, as well as, relocate the Red Cross emer-gency shelter for Jefferson County from the high school to Covenant Church.

Shepherd officials want to thank the following indi-viduals who have been work-ing relentlessly at removing and controlling snow. From the Grounds Staff; Christie Harshman, Scott Shade, Eric Roper , Matt Ware, Tonya Recanelli, John Goff , David Giffin , Lay Hour, Erin Rho-

des, Neil Oliver and Justin Nehls. From the Trades Staff; Jim King, Fred Hammer, Phil Larrick, Chris Cyhanick, Al-

len Rhodes , Bryan Mehalko , Rob Swartz, Mark Holben, Brad Ring, Dave Grove, and Dan Yanna .

While facilities continues to remove snow, Yanna said, “It will be weeks before the snow is completely gone.”





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SPORTS

BY Ben [email protected]

The Women’s basketball team has rebounded with two wins after losing their top spot in the WVIAC conference.

The Rams’ came up with two victories at home after a long road trip dropped them out of first place.

The Rams first win came against the Fairmont Falcons, who had taken the conferenc-es top spot after Shepherd’s losing streak.

The Rams fought off a quick start and a strong fin-ish by the Falcons to pick up a win and home with a 74-68 win.

The Falcons had jumped out to a 19-8 lead before the Rams reeled in Fairmont, closing the gap to 25-20.

The Falcons had shot well early in the game, but their shooting percentage dropped to 35.7 percent from the field as the game continued.

The Rams were able to extend their lead to as many as 14 points with plays like freshman guard Alex Tamez’s steal off of an in-bound pass, which led to a lay-up by sophomore Melissa Furr. The Rams were able to keep a comfortable lead despite hav-ing to face several short scor-ing runs by the Falcons.

The Rams fought off a full-court press by the Fal-cons before Hewett slid past a Fairmont defender on her way to a layup with 23 seconds remaining to give Shepherd some much needed breathing room late in the game.

Katie Biggs’ two free throws inside of 10 sec-onds put the finishing touches on the Rams’ win. Wilmer led the Rams with 20 points, while Hewett and Car-rie Saunders both put up 12. Tamez led the team with four assists while coming off the bench.

“When you come off the road like we did and have a home game against the No. 1 team, you might be a little too excited. We called a timeout, and I just told them to get back in a defensive mode,” Shepherd coach Melanie Ford said. “You have to close out on the shooters and force them to drive so you can play team defense.”

The Rams had a bit easier time against the Bluefield Lady Blues, who had only five players in uniform after academic ineligibilities and injuries had shortened their roster.

The Rams were able to pick up their 11th win on the season despite their troubled shooting. The Rams shot only 35.3 per-

cent in the first half, while the Lady Blues, who have just one win this season, made 50 percent.

The Lady Blues were down to four players in the second half for several minutes while Pawlowski was being exam-ined by trainers. Her return with just over 13 minutes re-maining had Bluefield back up to full strength, though Paw-lowski was limited in mobility after the injury.

Consequently, Shepherd maintained the lead it built in the first half.

The Rams were paced by sophomore guard Melissa Furr’s 14 points, along with sophomore guard Katie Biggs’ 13 points.

“We worked as a whole to just work on the little things and closing out, just finding ways to connect both offen-sively and defensively,” Shep-herd coach Melanie Ford said.

Though the Rams shot poorly, 36.9 percent on the game, they were able to shoot almost twice as many shots because of the 24 turnovers they forced.

The Rams are 11-7, 10-4 WVIAC, with a heavy part of their schedule left on the road, but the Rams’ teamwork and play will determine how well their season ends


In what may have been a for-gone conclusion, Coach Melanie Ford was finally given the head coaching position of the women’s basketball team.

No longer an interim coach, Ford will now be able to build on the success she has had as an as-sistant and as the interim coach this year.

“I’m just exciting to be able to work with the team and have the success while we fight to get better.” said Ford.

Ford has led the Rams to a 12-8 overall record with an 11-5 conference mark this season. Shepherd was leading the WVI-AC conference going into last Saturday’s game, and they have been near the top all year.

Ford was named interim head coach in July 2009 after the res-ignation of Coach Jodie Runner.

Before this year, she served as the associate head coach and was part of Shepherd’s best women’s basketball teams.

As an assistant coach, she helped Shepherd record a 116-88 overall mark, along with a WVI-AC title and a run into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA II tournament.

Ford was a part of the coach-ing staff that helped Shepherd

produce three All-WVIAC selec-tions: Cassie Murray, Laura Har-kins, and Katie Warehime.

Harkins and Warehime also garnered NCAA II East Regional All-Tournament honors in 2008.

Ford came to Shepherd from Wheeling Jesuit, where she served as a graduate assistant while completing her master’s degree in business administra-tion.

As a player, Ford was a four-year letter winner at the Univer-sity of Charleston from 1996 to 2000. She also set several scor-ing records at UC.

Ford served as team captain as a senior, while also helping lead the Golden Eagles to the WVIAC Tournament Champion-ship in 1999.

Ford has also been praised for her approach to dealing with student athletes. “Coach Ford exhibits the right balance of lead-ership skills and coaching ability, making our decision to promote her to the head coach slot an easy one,” said Dr. Richard Helldobler, vice president for academic af-fairs. “Her student-centered ap-proach and emphasis on academ-ics and community service for her players have demonstrated that she is the right person to lead our women’s basketball team.”


The Shepherd Rams were in the same position two weeks ago, leading the WVI-AC while trying to hold the top spot at home.

The West Liberty Lady Toppers’ speed and athleti-cism proved difficult for the Rams to handle, as Shepherd couldn’t keep up with West Liberty, losing 96-72.

The loss was the Rams’ first since coach Melanie Ford lost the tag “interim” when Shepherd University officially hired her as the head coach of the Rams’ women’s basketball team.

“We just didn’t have the hunger in the first half, we were playing like a team with something to lose instead of playing to earn it,” said Ford,

“You can’t sit back and let it come to you.”

The Rams sluggish start to the first half proved to be the key to the game. Af-ter the first 10 minutes, the game reached equilibrium, but the slow start doomed the Rams.

The Lady Toppers put to-gether several long scoring runs to give themselves a lead of as much as 21 point at the end of the first half, tak-ing a 52-31 lead heading into intermission.

Junior forward Laura Malernee shot at will from beyond the arc for the Lady Toppers, scoring 12 points off of four three-point shots in the first half.

In the second half, the Rams were preventing the long scoring run for West Liberty while also keeping the perimeter shooting under

control, but several mistakes kept the Rams from victory.

The Rams came out with a quick start, cutting the lead to 12, but they were never able to cut any further to the Lady Toppers lead.

Senior center Camille Wilmer led the Rams with 23 points, while freshman guard Alex Tamez had 12.

Wilmer played with a sprained hand, which was taped up for the game. Though she led the Rams in scoring, she said everything hurt, whether it was passing, catching, or shooting.

Junior guard Tori Hansen led the Lady Toppers with 24, and freshman guard Jenni Robbins was second with 18.

The loss was Ford’s first since losing the “interim” tag on her title, but Ford isn’t go-ing to sweat one loss.

“I’m just exciting to be able to work with the team and have the success while

we fight to get better.” said Ford.

Rams battle to hold top spotWest Liberty14-7 (10-6) Lady Toppers96

Shepherd 12-8 (11-5) Rams72

Melanie Ford, head coach, standing concerned as Ram’s head into the second half. Photo courtesy of Shepherdrams.com.

Women’s basketball wrap-up


After the Men’s basketball team started the season slowly, many were questioning the tal-ent of the players and coach.

Those people may have a different opinion now, as the Rams have won four of their last five games, with their one loss coming in overtime.

When a team plays with a 15 point lead as if they were down by as many, it is easy to see how the team has started to turn around their season.

“You have to commend the kids,” said Coach Justin Namo-lik. “We’ve had a lot of tough losses this year, but they’ve been fighting all year.”

The Rams latest wins have come at home, playing with intensity and keeping their op-ponents behind them instead of trying to play catch up.

In their 90-76 win over Fairmont, Shepherd was led in scoring by senior guard Tyrone Roach with 24 points. Fresh-man forward Chad Moore added 23 points. Moore also led the Rams in rebounding, finishing with his ninth double-double.

The Rams played well throughout the game, and Shepherd was able to take a 52-31 lead into the intermission, a luxury the Ram’s have rarely enjoyed this year.

“We probably played our best game defensively,” Moore said. “We let a couple games get away this year by letting teams come back, but tonight we weren’t looking at the scoreboard while we we’re out on the floor.”

The team had struggled early on in the season, often letting one scorer dominate the game against them, but the

trend had changed of late, with players like senior guard Der-ek Gallagher stepping up and stopping players from scoring streaks.

“I just leave it all on the floor every night,” Gallagher said.

In their latest game, Blue-field’s Rico Thompson had 18 points in the first half, but when Namolik asked his players who would step up and slow him down, Gallagher answered the call, limiting Rico to only seven points.

“At halftime, I asked the players who was going to step up, who was going to make

sure one player didn’t beat us from the other team,” Namolik said, “ Gallagher said he would make sure Thompson didn’t beat us.”

Play like Gallagher, along with performances’ like Moore’s, who 15 points and 11 rebounds gave him his 10th double-double on the year.

The Rams may have had a slow start, but after winning four of their last five, the Shep-herd Men are 6-13, 7-8 WVIAC, with a complete change in play as the season goes on.

Men’s basketball wrap-up

Ford promotion to head coach


Page_____ C M Y K 7 Page_____ C M Y K 7 Page_____ C M Y K 7

ARTS&STYLE

BY KaitlYn BaiRd [email protected]

It’s been a little over a month since the magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti, mak-ing headlines and calling the world’s attention to the small island country. Although the nation still has its strongest crusaders, former president Bill Clinton and musician/na-tive son Wyclef Jean among them, the fervor to aid Haiti has died-down somewhat. Af-ter the benefit concert, the countless news stories, and the touching tribute to the lives lost at the Grammy’s, it is easy to let the issue fall to the

wayside and move on to other news. However, there is still so much to be done, things we can still accomplish for the na-tion in need.

The worst may be over, but the pain of rebuilding requires more help than may be antici-pated. Due to Haiti’s already poor health conditions, experts are worried that the aftershock of the devastation could lead to higher rates of mental ill-ness. According to Dr. Sandro Galea, commenting on the situ-ation to CNN, right now, about a month after the accident, is when conditions such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder re-ally start to develop. The first few days and weeks, people are

concerned with basic survival; now is the time that PTSD, de-pression, and acute stress be-gin to plague people. Accord-ing to Dr. Galea, the extent to which the situation is bettered for these victims ultimately can affect their wellbeing not only physically, but also mentally. To support Haiti’s rebuilding is to ensure the nation will not fall into still darker days.

It doesn’t take much to help Haiti. Already, retailers and non-profit groups have been collecting donations to deliver to the country. The important thing is to keep it up; donate to the American Red Cross or The Salvation Army. Unfortu-nately, anyone making a dona-

tion has to be careful and verify where their money is going; con artists thrive on situations like this. To find any other rep-utable foundations, check with a reliable news source. You can also contribute on campus; the Office of Student Commu-nity Services & Service Learn-ing is collecting donations to be sent to the Hospital Albert Schweitzer, a hospital north of Port-au-Prince. The number for the office is (304)876-5420.

It seems that America is at its best when called upon to help a neighbor. In a recent New York Times report, it was estimated that Americans have already contributed somewhere in the neighborhood of $560

million to Haitian relief efforts. Perhaps in a time of economic decline it seems like money that should be spent at home, where we already have poor, starving and homeless individ-uals. One cannot argue that aid is unneeded for the home front, too. However, to live in one of the world’s poorest countries and then suddenly be struck further behind, now with death knocking harder on the door, is not a situation that can be pushed aside. Haiti requires immediate aid, and not for the length of a fad. The Haitians need to be set up right again before the rest of the world can walk away.

BY aaRon [email protected]

Seeing him sitting in his chair, sipping coffee with his short spiked hair, and sporting a tall demeanor and glasses, you wouldn’t really think that Paul Pfau is an avid blues player…but you couldn’t be more wrong.

Paul Pfau is really just your regular Shepherd student. He lives in a small apartment on German St. and is a senior economics major at Shepherd getting ready to graduate.

However, he has a passion for the blues.

“It’s just an overwhelming feeling you get when you play the blues” says Pfau “There is so much room to express yourself.”

Paul started playing guitar when he was 14. His father had some friends from Mas-sachusetts who played guitar, and they inspired Paul to pick up his mom’s acoustic Cam-elot and begin playing

“I think the guitar was big-ger then I was…I was kind of small back then.” Says Pfau

Paul was in a metal band singing and songwriting but slowly got tired of doing that particular genre, and the band eventually broke up.

About two years ago, at the age of 19, Paul started to

really get into the blues style of music.

“It was about two years ago, I got stuck with my song-writing because I didn’t know scales,” says Pfau. “I then got into the blues. I would play with other people and learn things from them, but mostly I’m self-taught. I would lis-ten to blues songs and try to play them by ear. Sometimes I would practice in my room for six to eight hours a day be-cause it was so much fun.”

Paul may play the blues but he is a different kind of blues player. He likes to add funk and others styles so people can groove to it and enjoy it. “I just don’t want something boring. I want to change it up, and what I love the most about the blues is the freedom to do that,” says Pfau

For two years now, Paul has been jamming in his apart-ment and around the area with his band the Smoothcat Bur-glars. He makes his living by playing about four shows a week all while taking classes at Shepherd. “After I graduate I plan to go down to Nashville and play guitar. I went down there and it was amazing.”

Paul’s dream is to do what Blues legends like BB King do, playing on a stage with tons of people watching and inspire them like the blues legends inspired him. Almost

all of Shepherdstown knows Paul loves to play blues; most times, you can here him jam-ming in his apartment.

There is no doubt that Paul has talent. With his fingers lovingly playing his American Vintage Fender and produc-ing the sounds that make you want to groove and cry all at the same time, Paul is through and through a blues player.

There is something about the blues that, for decades, people have loved. No mat-ter what kind of progression or mix of the blues you do, it’s still the blues, and there is something in everyone’s soul that vibes with it. For Paul, he plays it for the people listen-ing; they feel it and there is just something about it. The Blues has been around for more then 60 years, and it never changes. It just keeps reinventing itself for a new generation, but all the ingredi-ents are there and people still love it…Paul Pfau is madly in love with it, and he shares his love of the blues with other people. It’s a style that never goes out.

http://www.myspace.com/paulpfaumusic

If you are interested in seeing Paul live, Paul and the Smoothcat Burgalers will be playing a show at the Meck on Feb 19th at 9pm.

BY heidi White [email protected]

German Street is nothing remarkable, and chances are you see it every day. The un-even brick sidewalks are seen as nothing more than an an-noyance to late students who stumble upon them. The small cafés and shops have been tra-versed so much you could prob-ably wander sightless safely. Like many historical towns, Shepherdstown is overlooked by the college population. The history of the oldest town in West Virginia is rarely sought after knowledge following a day of required learning. But it was these small towns that created the foundation of this country.

Shepherdstown was origi-nally a 1734 land grant to Thomas Shepherd of 222 acres. Fifty of these acres became Shepherdstown, then called Mecklenburg, and was changed to Shepherd’s Town in 1798. Post Civil War, the name was shortened to Shepherdstown and has been that ever since. Shepherdstown has roots in the Revolutionary War, where Cap-tain Hugh Stephenson estab-lished his infantry and began the “Beeline March to Cambridge” covering over 600 miles in 24 days. There are 38 Revolution-ary War Veterans buried in or around Shepherdstown.

During the Civil War, Shep-herdstown was a hot bed of ac-tivity. It was set between Harp-er’s Ferry, where the outbreak of the Civil War occurred, and Antietam, the bloodiest day of the war. Antietam caused such a stir that between 5,000 and 8,000 wounded or dying sol-diers were brought into Shep-herdstown. Every home, shop, building, alley, and lawn was nothing more than a makeshift hospital.

Aside from involvement in wars, Shepherdstown is rich

in natural resources. The clay soil is ideal for brick making, and by the late 1790s, there were a handful of commercial brickyards. The soil was ad-ditionally used for roofing, as wooden shingles posed a large fire hazard. The steamboat was first demonstrated by James Rumsey at the end of Princess Street in the Potomac, and to-day, a monument stands for his transportation changing inven-tion. Shepherdstown continued to flourish as a mecca of artistry and, eventually, of education.

In 1872, the Town Hall build-ing was reinvented as a place of higher learning and Shepherd College was born. The oldest free schools in the state are in Shepherdstown. One of these schools remains on the corner of Princess and New Street. John James Abert was born in Shepherdstown in 1788 and went on to found the National Institute of Science.

Shepherdstown has contin-ued to be relevant through the modernization of the country. In 2000, Shepherdstown host-ed the Peace Talks between Israel and Syria. The univer-sity population has continued to grow and Shepherd College became Shepherd University in 2004. Shepherd University is also the only institution in West Virginia to be a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges.

Regardless of the progress of the town, an aura of his-tory still remains. Many of the building facades on German Street are original. During the years in which old structures were torn down and replaced with parking lots, Shepherd-stown has remained remark-ably similar in its existence. A town with such rich heritage should be appreciated and even celebrated. There is much to be learned outside the classroom, and it’s only a short walk away.

Helping Haiti: Why It Is Still Critical to Lend a Hand

Pfau: student, and musician

Pieces of the Past: A series of glimpses into the oldest town in West Virginia

German Street, Shepherdstown WV. Photo by Justin Hawkins.

Paul Pfau jamming in his apartment. Photo by Justin Hawkins.


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ARTS&STYLE

BY amY [email protected]

According to Bruce Jacobs, the most venomous, evil word in the English language is the “n” word, when referring to Af-rican Americans. Bruce Jacobs, author of “Race Manners” vis-ited Shepherd University on February 3, 2010 to discuss racial discrimination in today’s society. This was a multicul-tural affairs sponsored event.

Racism is defined as the idea that one race is superior over any other human race. Prejudice is defined as a pre-determined unfavorable opin-ion towards a group of people. These terms have followed society throughout history. Mistakes of the past keep being repeated.

Bruce Jacobs began his talk with an insight to his family history. He also discussed how Africans were brought over on slave ships to the U.S. during the slave trade. They were sold like cattle, forced to serve what people then believed to be the superior race—whites. After emancipation, blacks still could not get a job that they desired. Their ethnicity was still being held back by society and social norms. “Society is loaded with centuries of blood, gore, and in-justice,” says Jacobs.

Hate crimes still exist in today’s brutal society, not just for African Americans, but for other minorities as well. Even with our society being more open-minded than in the past, there is still social segregation. It’s not as prevalent in this soci-ety, but people are still treated like outcasts for the way they look.

Jacobs says that people do not understand the ramifica-tions of the hateful words they use. These words have cen-turies of history behind them

and carry the weight of that history. Many people disregard the history these words carry and their backgrounds. Most people feel the need to discrim-inate against others in order to make themselves feel more important. Labeling others and putting them in categories has become the way of our society: one of judgment and hate.

Another topic Jacobs dis-cussed was that of religion. Religion often became an ex-cuse for discrimination. People would say that God wanted them to treat people a cer-tain way. The question that comes to my mind is how can these people call themselves Christians? Of course, not all Christians are like that, and it’s not just Christians persecuting others. But the question re-mains: how can a people follow-ing a God who tells us to love all be so hateful? It’s in human nature for us to pick on others, but that is still no excuse for treating others like dirt. Peo-ple label others and place them in categories based on what they look like and where they come from.

Jacobs says that there are many factors as to why we have a hard time breaking free of the social stigmas that envelope our society. These factors in-clude history, politics, religion, and the media. We as a people have trouble breaking free of the bonds that tie us to his-tory. We keep dragging history along in our wake to the pres-ent. Why is it so hard to let go and just enjoy the company of anyone regardless of what they look like and where they come from?

Jacobs said it best, “Our job is to reclaim human nature.” Whether or not we can actually change our futures to be dif-ferent from our past is another question.

BY JeFF [email protected]

Everyone has a secret vice. Some listen to Miley Cirus in the bathroom, others pig out in the middle of the night. Even more play World of Warcraft.

Videogames in general have always been a means of escape. With the new Call of Duty and Left 4 Dead, more and more gamers have given up countless hours to fighting Russians or surviving the zombie horde. But the stigma that lies with games like World of Warcraft (WoW) has been around since the pen and paper version of WoW in Dungeons and Dragons.

In fact, most players that choose the game are closet players, never openly admitting to playing WoW too often. It’s the tie in with Dungeons and Dragons that makes the inter-net RPG phenomenon turn avid players into closet players.

That doesn’t mean, how-ever, that WoW players don’t mind playing in the open. In fact, if you look around the 24 hour room, a small group may be playing quietly in the corner. And when it comes down to it, while both games seem similar on the surface, there’s a good reason WoW is one of the fast-est growing video games in the world right now.

This fame came with a bit of infamy as well. WoW’s best-known effect on people was the death of a South Korean man who played the game 72 hours straight, dying midgame. This is the perfect example of a WoW addict, a person who lives and breathes only for the game. You see them stereotyped every-where, including TV shows like South Park that helped popular-ize the WoW addict stereotype: a young, overweight guy, in his basement, doing nothing but

playing WoW.What’s surprising to note,

however, is how many different types of people play the game, the dedication of the players, the reason they play, and tons of other information, all of which has been gathered through something called the Daedalus project: a project dedicated to gathering facts and informa-tion on, as well as profiling, all massive multiplayer online role playing players and their games. It’s the census bureau of the role-playing community.

Here are a few fun facts:50% of MMORPG (the type of game that WoW falls under), players work full time25% of MMORPG players are teenagers, ranging from 18-2536% of them are married22% of them have children67% of players play with friends or family

While the diversity of play-ers shows a great appeal of the game, it still doesn’t reduce the dangers of psychological addiction. WoW provides a fan-tasy world where people can immerse themselves and recre-ate they’re persona. You can be tougher, nicer, angrier, or more competitive, all safely behind an avatar. It’s this ability that causes an addiction. People get consumed with their alter-ava-tar ego. Real life friends get re-placed by WoW friends; real life responsibilities get replaced by WoW responsibilities.

The positives are there too. Playing WoW with friends, fam-ily, and significant others helps strengthen communication in relationships. WoW fosters a team mentality, and it teaches people how to perform differ-ent roles in a group. Perhaps the greatest thing about the game is it’s addictive property: the abil-ity to recreate your persona.

Whose Truth is it Anyway?Author Bruce Jacobs comes to

Shepherd to discuss racial discrimination in America.

WoW Addiction

Bruce Jacobs dissuced racial discrimination with insight into his family history on February 3rd at Shepherd University. Photo by Amy Standifer.

World of Warcraft. Photo courtesy of www.thirdwayblog.com.

BY aaRon [email protected]

IpadA giaant Ipod Touch? May-

be, but needless to say, you will probably want one in a few months. Apple reinvent-ed MP3 players with the Ipod and did it again for phones with the Iphone. Now they have taken it to the next level with a touch screen computer. Only time will tell if the Ipad is cosmic waste of money or really worth the 500 plus dol-lars you would shell out to get the newest apple invention, but the hype has been non-stop on almost all tech-gadget websites, making the Ipad the next messiah of technology.

SnowWhat about global warm-

ing? The recent storms that have been hitting our region are a giant reminder that the blizzard of ’94 can’t contend with the snowpocalypse of 2010. At the time of the writ-

ing of this weekly fresh, the snow has peaked at a little over a foot and a half, and it doesn’t seem to be anywhere near stopping. With any luck, March will bring back that warm weather we’ve all been waiting for.

UFCYou have probably been

living in a hole in Alaska for the last couple years or so to not hear about the UFC. Ev-ery man in America is talking about their favorite fighters and how much they love and hate them. Called “the fastest growing sport in America” the UFC is gaining speed as time goes on, along with oth-er MMA fighting leagues like Strikeforce. A mix between boxing, wrestling, formal fighting, and martial arts, UFC is basically a freestyle brawl in an octagon cage. This sport does not have the looks of dis-appearing any time soon.

Award ShowsWith the Grammy’s, Gold-

en Globes, and the Oscars, you start to see magazines filled with what star is wearing what or what celebrity should get said award. It seems that people like watching and reading about “awards sea-son.” In fact, almost all major TV networks have some sort of TV award ceremony com-ing up before the start of the summer season.

Hatit Relief EffortsWhether you are texting to

give 10 dollars to Red Cross, buying a t-shirt to support an organization, or even going to Haiti to help aid relief efforts, it seems that people have unit-ed in trying to do some good for the people of Haiti. While criticism has been heavy be-cause of the lack of attention Haiti had got until now, the ef-fort of the American populace to help those in need in that country stands testament to the generosity of the common American.

Weekly Fresh

A foot and a half “snowpocalypse”. Photo by Hans Mertens


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ARTS&STYLE

BY JeFF JaRinaj [email protected]

In the 1990’s, I didn’t really need internet. I was watching cartoons, playing Super Nintendo and my brick sized Gameboy, and watching VHS’s.

Nowadays, I do almost the same thing, with a twist. I watch TV shows on the internet. I play internet games. I have an iPod that I download games onto from the internet.

But not this semester.This semester IT has saw fit to

make it so personal wireless routers are blocked, or at least severely im-paired, in the apartments of Birch and Maple.

Unofficially, I was told that it was because of how students installed their personal routers, something about broadcasting IP addresses. Per-sonally, why did they fix something that didn’t need fixing?

I’ve been using wireless because the Ethernet port on my laptop is broken. In order to have internet at all, I had to have wireless, and to fix my Ethernet port, I’d need to fix the connection by replacing my mother-board, which is a chunk of change I can’t afford. All of the fixes that had been suggested to me circled around purchasing something to get my Eth-ernet port working again.

I have to pay extra for my internet, if I want internet.

My problem with IT and the state of our campus internet stemmed from when I lost that 24 hour access to the web. I remember being annoyed that

the internet would be slow once and a while, but looking back on it, why isn’t our internet relatively fast or re-liable? Some people have a decently fast connection, but the people a room or so over load pages at a crawl.

Maybe it’s the amount of people on the network, but that excuse has been repeated far too much to make it legitimate. Why can’t I have my own personal router in my room, with my own personal risk? Why hasn’t our entire campus been provided wireless yet? Cost effectiveness? If I remem-ber right, we’re saving up for beau-tification projects. Why not dip into those funds?

Unrealistic, I know.But I get this weird feeling that

whoever is in charge of the network-ing and internet spends his/her time on xanga and checking Howard Dean’s live journal. That person’s just not quite caught up on the times.

Wireless internet, or at the very least a reliable internet, is fundamen-tal to our lifestyle. The work at the Picket requires internet, my classes require me to get on sakai, and I have to check my e-mail for assignments and readings in my English classes. A demand for internet couldn’t be too far from our right to our internet.

Realistically, I understand that these changes are hard, and cost money, but sitting around and waiting for change doesn’t seem right. So IT, or whoever messes with our internet, please improve our internet. Please. Before I have to resort to sending mail through the postal service.

BY GeoRGe WeaKleYg [email protected]

In today’s society, we have become dependant on the in-ternet for just about every-thing. Whether it is checking the weather, doing research for a term paper, or just checking Facebook. So what would hap-pen if, for some reason, we all woke up to a world with no in-ternet?

This event actually hap-pened at the university of Ex-eter, but with an added twist. A virus had been uploaded to the campus network that attacked computers that attempted a software update on Windows Vista. This is the equivalent of a Shepherd student download-ing a computer crippling virus by doing a school mandated up-

date for Vista. The name of the virus has

not been disclosed as of yet, but it seems to have never been witnessed before. “This is a completely new virus and we are the only organization in the world to experience it. None of the mainstream virus software suppliers have seen this virus, and as such, there is no fix,” a leaked internal e-mail from the IT department read.

Apparently, this malware has only been detected on com-puters running Windows Vista, and the specialized staff plans to check all such systems. This would suggest that the “virus” can spread from one computer to another, which would techni-cally make it a computer worm. To prevent the virus from spreading beyond the campus, the school has quarantined the

virus by cutting off the internet to most students.

Students may wonder how they could avoid such an epi-demic. Common tips to avoid downloading a virus include watching the .exe files you download. Viruses tend to hide inside .exe files that masquer-ade as something good for your computer. A general way to see if what you’re downloading is safe is to simply run a search for it on Google. Viruses such as these also like to hide inside of .mp3 files and torrents, so be sure to know that what you’re downloading is legitimate and safe.

Another tip: if you are run-ning Windows, set up your Windows Update to automati-cally download patches and upgrades. This will allow your computer to automatically

download any updates to both the operating system (I.E Win-dows) and Internet Explorer. These updates fix security holes in both pieces of soft-ware. Also, always be sure you use a software firewall! Even if you have a hardware firewall, always use a software firewall (ex. Norton, Macafee, there are also free ones: ZoneLabs and ZoneAlarm).

Quite possibly the best tip there is for avoiding viruses is to stay away from file-sharing sites. Sites that distribute ille-gal versions of software (some-times referred to as cracks), music, or “free movies” are known to be riddled with virus-es and trojans. This includes torrents or other forms of P2P sharing sites such as Limewire. Staying away from these sites is in your computer’s health’s

best interest, as well as a good way to avoid being sued for copyright violation.

Now, these tips are general and will not prevent you from contracting something like the Exeter virus, but they still are the best defense. Most impor-tantly, be sure that your college IT department is up to date on everything! Remember that they are there to help, so be sure to use the skills they have. Also keep in mind that most Apple software doesn’t have much problem with viruses. Although some viruses are im-possible to avoid, if we remain smart about what we do on our computer, we can avoid what happened to Exeter.

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Where’s my internet?

Computer virus cripples campus Internet At the University of Exeter a virus crippled those

who used Vista and the Internet.


Page_____ C M Y K 10

COMMENTARY

Sexploits:An enlightened response to, “That’s what she said.”

BY KaitlYn [email protected]

Nothing sours a new romance faster than the leftovers of an old one. In the best of relationships, they can pop up unexpectedly; they hang around in old clothes, mix CDs, and sometimes even habits. Even though you knew them best, the residual signs of an ex seem to always appear first to your new sig-nificant other, like a taunting poltergeist. Whether your sweetheart can deal with the memory is sometimes an issue, and in some cases, it’s not just a memory, but the real deal. It’s uncomfortable, but done in good will. It happens all the time: people try to remain friends with their ex’s. The old expression “two is a company, three is a crowd” comes to mind.

After the first real romance, there comes the unknown, indescribable pain of a break-up. Everyone deals with it differently, but usually not all that well. Some people write the other person off, some people seek revenge for the pain, and some brave souls try to keep up civil relations. “Let’s still be friends,” is heard the world over in break-ups, but with some rare exceptions, I don’t know that it ever really works.

It is a nice idea, and it’s one that I think everyone should try for after a re-lationship ends in an adult manner. Is-sues emerge due to the fact that even though a relationship may end abruptly, it doesn’t mean that feelings do. Here comes the gray area: with a new rapport come new boundaries, but these bound-aries often get lazily followed. I’m talk-ing drunk-texting, inviting your ex to your birthday party, keeping in contact with their mother. Yes, you and Mrs. So-and-So were very close, but she’s never going to be your mother-in-law, now is she?

After my first real break-up, I spent a lot of time still talking to Mrs. So-and-So and even sharing a locker with my ex. I didn’t see a need in cutting ties; we were “still friends.” He, however, be-gan flirting with other girls and stopped returning my phone calls. Then, I didn’t feel so friendly anymore.

After my first real break-up, I should

have walked away. When there’s a dra-matic change in anyone’s life, it is im-portant to get perspective, and I’m here to tell you that there is no perspective to be had from sharing a locker with your ex. From my experience, and hearing about other people’s experiences, the common agreement is that it’s impos-sible to move on when you’re standing still. Things have changed; it’s impos-sible to “still” be anything — reassess.

Let’s look at a relationship in num-bers. You dated for 8 months. Take the time you dated in months, convert it to weeks, and keep your distance for that long. Eight weeks later, the world will be an entirely different place, and maybe it will be possible to conceive of a friend-ship with someone who was never just a friend before.

Yet, following all those personal hur-dles, there is still the matter of the car-rying around baggage, extra weight that doesn’t need to be carried on to new re-lationships. Even if there is reasonable distance from the ex (re: not locker- or roommates), chances are they’re still in your lexicon. “So-and-so used to make this awesome salsa.” Some people can take hearing about, or seeing their significant other’s ex, but some people can’t. While a friendship may have been a promise you made to that old flame a long time ago, get some more perspec-tive. Things have changed, and you two probably made a lot of promises long ago that are null and void now. It might be that friendship has an expiration date, too. I’ve heard friends say that they shouldn’t have to choose between being friends with their ex and pleasing their new love. No, in a perfect world, they shouldn’t; however, in the real world of jealousies and insecurity, people who want to move on with their lives give new relationships precedent over old ones.

Sometimes, even when you’ve moved on, life gives you a reason to pick up the pace. Sometimes you have to let things go to the wayside to get to some place better. A friendship with an ex is a nice idea, but in the end, they’ve been out of your life for a reason, right? Don’t let the past take up too much space in your present.

BY JeB inGej [email protected]

George Washington hated the pos-sibility of political parties springing up in early America. His reasoning? They would lead to bickering and a quagmire of political gridlock. George Washington would hate 2010.

Sorry baseball, but bickering is the new American pastime. The World Se-ries of bickering is played out to great fanfare on Capitol Hill every day the leg-islature is in session.

I’ve tried my best to not disclose my own “political stance” because in the era of the partisan battlefield, you’re la-bel defines you. Take the article found in The Picket entitled “Why I’m A Conser-vative.” Reading that article, I became enraged at the bastardization of a label I held dear for many years. Is that author a true representative of the conserva-tive mantle? Is that the textbook defi-

nition of “conservatism” or is it merely the continued misrepresentation of a label now wrongly associated with the Republican Party? I found the evidence pointing overwhelmingly for the latter.

In today’s political arena Republican means conservative, and conservative means fascist. Democrat means liberal, and liberal means communist. Even the small parties get the treatment. Liber-tarians are reclusive nut jobs and Moun-tain party constituents are tree-hugging hippies.

But few liberals strive to be called communists. Few conservatives want to be identified with an ideology propa-gated by Benito Mussolini. Despite that, we continue to brand our political en-emies with ruthless monikers.

When you meet someone new and you start the interrogation process, its only a matter of time before you start the “political views” discussion. What is your stance on abortion, the death penalty, health care etc. And by the third answer, you have already lumped them into a label. When you see someone driving their car and it’s filled with ei-ther a thousand bumper stickers, or has a lifted diesel truck, you assume they either voted for Obama, or wish they could vote for Glenn Beck.

I learned how to drive in my father’s truck. My last car had such an absurd

number of bumper stickers; it was a mobile name badge. But if you thought I was a liberal just by the number of the stickers on my car, you would have been wrong, or at least not completely right. Of course there was the huge ACLU sticker on one side. But what about the one with the Barry Goldwater quote on the other side? Try to put those two bumper stickers in a clear-cut label. Even the Springsteen and Smiths stick-ers were diametrically opposite, despite being on the same piece of Swedish steel. It was the ying/yang Volvo.

When I registered as an independent I did it because I understood that my political views are so varied, that to re-duce them to the words “democrat” or “republican” would force me to give up some to keep the others and by doing so, degrade whatever remained.

I have strong stances on every single hot button political issue. Some of them are would make me a “conservative” and some make me a “liberal.” They are diverse enough so that if the presi-dents of these political clubs knew I held them, none would allow me in their or-ganization (not that I’m begging for ad-mittance.)

Here’s the way I look at it. I have my own dedicated beliefs, and so do you. You grew up one way, and I grew up another. Who am I to tell you what you can and

cant believe? Sure, we all have to abide by the rules (don’t rape and pillage your neighboring village, no wide ranging pyramid schemes), but when it comes down to ideology, I’m not going to beg you to believe the same things I do, be-cause I’m not you. I don’t always know your life story and why you believe it, so I’ll leave you be. Just have the respect to leave me be as well.

The most important thing is to always take pride in your political beliefs. Just because they don’t add up with the party on your voter ID card doesn’t mean you need to change them accordingly. Like-wise, just because your parents believed one way doesn’t mean you have to con-form and adopt their views as your own. Don’t let the vocal mouthpieces of the world dictate your values. Don’t let the Chris Matthews’ and the Glenn Becks of the world influence which lever you pull in the voting booth.

Go out and learn about the issues. Do the research for yourself. Formulate your own ideas on topics and don’t let the views for one dictate the views for the rest. We live in a world where issues develop as fast as the tweets are typed. Social issues are only as important as the people they affect. When you take your stand on an issue, don’t let it be de-cided by someone else. Be independent and have a view of your own.

Why I’m an Independent, and you should be tooIf you care about your political views, dont degrade them with labels

BY SaRah [email protected]

On the door, before you ever walk into the world of Dr. Tom Patterson, you will see a sign that reads, “Please note! Prior to entering this office please choose from the following options. 1) I want my view of the world to be affirmed and justified. OR 2) I am willing to discuss and learn new ideas. Thank you.” This sign is characteristic of the nature of the sly and bearded Dr. Patterson, former surfer and overall mischief maker. Having had him in class, I can attest to not only his love of pushing the envelope but also his very genuine, soft heart. He is a good profes-sor and a valiant person because of his willingness to question the world and his choice to continue learning with the curi-osity of a child. It is his personal thirst for knowledge that sparks his prodding for students to do the same—learn through

questioning, dig deeper past the superfi-cialities of life, and live with open eyes.

“Education is not memorizing. My hardest job is to get people to question what they think they already know,” said Patterson. Numerous past people and sit-uations contributed to Patterson’s views on education and his stance on the joy of questioning, but a few high school teach-ers truly guided Patterson, often blindly, into the direction he walks today.

According to Patterson, his ninth grade social studies teacher, Mr. Krep-coe, was evil—primarily because he didn’t care. He was only there for the paycheck, so he spent his class periods having fun doing whatever he wanted, lecturing philosophically, and angering a few students who were tired of his name dropping and babbling. To combat their teacher’s nonsense, Tom Patterson and his friends began going to the library, picking out the books from which Mr. Krepcoe quoted, and read to get even. A few times, they caught him in his own rhetorical circles. For a C student who had never really read before, Tom said he wore those wins like a badge of honor. As Patterson put it, “That little bastard got me to read.”

Another educator whose assignment had a profound impact on Dr. Patterson was his eleventh grade English teach-er—a woman who knew that none of her students were reading and decided to get

even. She devised an assignment in which each person had to think of any topic—as outlandish as desired—for a research pa-per, a paper in which the students had to make up every single reference. No real books could be used. An ornery man even in his youth, Tom submitted “The Effects of the Digestive Juices of the Venus Fly Trap” as his topic, which was placed in a hat along with those of his classmates. Each student picked a topic, and Patter-son received one that was wilder than his own—“The Annual Report of the Red-Tipped Hoe Handle Consortium of the Ukrainian Peninsula from the 1800s” (or something to that effect). Easily cranking out a 25 page paper, Dr. Patterson had a ball. Never again did that teacher ask that class to turn in anything creative. They had scared her.

Although not in a formal educational setting, there was another person who inadvertently dared Dr. Patterson to be-come who he is today. From 1967 to 1971, Dr. Patterson was in the Navy, stationed close to Vietnam in the Asian South Pa-cific. His boss at the time taught him the importance of an education because, as Patterson quips, “His IQ was only exceeded by his shoe size.” The Navy showed Patterson firsthand that often the people in power are morons, and he began to value knowing and questioning in an effort to protest accepted stupidity.

Even with sitting in a college class,

though, Patterson asserts that he can’t give his students the truth; he can only give them the tools to find it. As the so-ciology professor puts it, “A good teacher can’t go into a class wanting to be liked or wanting to please.” In some cases, students have never been challenged be-fore, and they will never start question-ing the world around them until someone tells them something other than what they want to hear. In Patterson’s classes, he states he’ll either “make you laugh or piss you off. Both of them make you think and stir the juices.”

Although students may not always be initially receptive to Dr. Patterson’s occasionally unconventional teaching methods, they should also know that un-derneath that untamed teacher is a man with a heart that swells with empathy. He beams proudly when he talks about his two sons, and he chuckles when he men-tions his presidential dogs named after the Roosevelts. When he talks to his wife or even of her, there is a certain softness in his voice that exposes how much he cares for her. A man of many stories and a willing storyteller, he feels blessed in his life and privileged to be pacing his class-rooms, prodding his students with jabs of queries. As Patterson emphasizes, “If you come out of a class questioning, you have learned,” and in his classrooms, I believe this is always the case.

Everyone Has a Story: Dr. Tom Patterson

BY chelSea [email protected]

Sometimes I feel as if my future is

going to crack, but not just my future, but the future of everyone around me. Things have changed, and I did not re-ally realize the changes until now. I sup-pose I was that college student caught up in exams and papers, someone who was on board but looking backwards instead of seeing that the tunnel ahead was on fire.

I can admit that a part of me is ter-rified. While five years ago you could mostly get a degree in anything, now, depending on your major of choice, there could easily be a troubled grin greeting you upon graduation day.

Being an English major makes me subject to scrutiny because I have noth-ing with which to defend myself. I am shooting with a gun loaded solely with ability, with no accreditation to teach or to nurse. When someone asks me what my major is, I reply, “English.” Then they ask, “Oh are you going to be a teacher?” I say, “No, I want to be a writ-er.” Deep inside, I smile because I’ve de-cided to go with what my soul tells me to do, but sometimes the face of the person staring back at me screams, “yeah, good luck with that.”

But why? Why can’t anyone be what they really want to be anymore? Is it be-cause most people, scared to take that leap of faith, hide behind logical think-ing? Perhaps, but I’m sure there are those select few who regret not letting go and pushing to get what they de-serve. Maybe the biggest reason is not that people are scared but that life hap-pens to everyone. Life happens. Wow, imagine that.

My father, for example, worked for five years welding in a manufacturing company, and he hated everyday of it. “I spent most of my minutes telling my-self that I was going to get my education and get out of here,” he once told me.

So he went to college, and BOOM, the catalog of choices hit him without any regard for reality. His dream was to be a game warden, and for a semester, he was happy. More than happy, I would say. Then I came along, joining my mother and brother in our money hungry family. He took one look at the yearly salary of a park ranger and switched to business management, no questions asked. Now he works as a quality control manager, and he only sees wild game during his paid vacations to Tennessee.

At the end of our discussion my father quoted from a song by Bruce Spring-steen titled “The River.” “Now I just act like I don’t remember and Mary acts like she don’t care.”

The point is that there are no breaks. The choices are simple. One, take a look at your past work and consider it noth-ing to where it should be, because when you are in that room with fifteen other applicants it’s your ability and dedication over theirs. You will not get chosen with the bare essentials, not anymore. This isn’t 1990 - it’s time to realize that. Or there is the second option, make a choice that satisfies your needs and those you must provide for and learn to live with what you can’t change. You will still be required to work just as hard as the per-son going after their dreams, but the dif-ference is the cushion of necessity.

Which person will life make you be? I believe that if there is something you desire, no one call tell you that you don’t deserve it. Despite the fact that the job to applicant ratio is greatly uneven, I trust that there is a tunnel out there without flames. The conversation with my father made me stop for a second and reconsider my decision to be a writer, but ultimately, I didn’t click on the RAIL icon to change my dreams. I am lucky because I know I have the drive to do what it takes. Are you that fortunate as well?

Is a dream a lie if it doesn’t come true, or is it something worse?



BY edWaRd [email protected]

A phenomenon under much scrutiny and debate, with fran-tic efforts on creating a resolve, “Global Warming” is a catch phrase heard around the world. Everyday, we hear, read, and see more and more “Green” alternatives. Are we choking mother earth with our car-cinogenic emissions? I can’t substantiate or deny this, but what I do know is that we live in an age of comfort and waste, and something needs to change

based on those principles alone.

When you look at your feet, do you think of your carbon footprint? Would it better re-mind you to turn off the lights if you had to pay a tax based on your energy usage? Well, this scenario being discussed be-hind the curtains as you read this article.

Cap and trade or carbon taxation; these are the options being presented and consid-ered as the next step in low-ering our pollution rates. This topic invokes great debate on a

global level. People argue about letting the market dictate the monetary value of something that has no value (CO2) or al-lowing the government to place a value on said product (or by-product) and tax the producers of Green House Gasses (GHG) until they reduce their carbon emissions.

Basically, the scenario of cap and trade is that if a hypo-thetical company emits GHG, say 200 tons a year, the gov-ernment will cap this company based on a national pollution reduction goal. Now the com-

pany that dispensed 200 tons is only allowed to emit 150 tons. At this point, the company has two choices: they either reduce their emissions by 50 tons or they buy 50 tons worth of car-bon credits at a price dictated by a carbon trading market, like a stock or bond exchange. The prices of the carbon cred-its are dictated by the scarcity of the stocks. To understand the process of issuing these stocks and bonds, you will have to research the Kyoto Protocol, the mechanism for deciding the cap of carbon emissions within trading markets of participating countries. As of now, the Unit-ed States is the only Annex 1 country not participating.

Cap and trade has already been adopted in the E.U., and it is even traded in the Chicago Energy Exchange. It is cur-rently a $72 million industry and has steadily reduced carbon emission in Europe since its adoption in 2005. The market started up under-priced, but it has been working toward its equilibrium, says Francis Bei-necke, president of the Natu-ral Resource Defense Council. She believes the idea of a tax is a mistake because “it frames the debate in fiscal policy terms,” causing one to wonder what should be done with the revenue and how high the tax should be. Since our economy depends on the success of fiscal policy, this seems like a weak argument.

To tax or not to tax car-bon emission is the question we look to Obama to answer. Considering his State of the Union Address and the recent NAT GAS Act, I can’t tell how he feels about the issue. If we adopt tax-based legislation to reduce the emissions of GHGs, then we will see lots of rev-enue, it will cover the entire economy, and it will centralize emission reduction responsibil-ities to the government, which, in my opinion, provides no real guarantee of reducing GHGs.

Shepherd Ogden, a local author specializing in horticul-

ture, states, “Trying to explain this topic in an article is like trying to compress an audio file.” It’s complicated, but not for Ogden. Having worked for a carbon-offsetting company whose main function was to create more oxygen by refor-esting the Pico Bonito Forest in Honduras, he has a unique perspective relevant when considering and settling on an opinion.

Mr. Ogden is a nationally known horticultural author, having written books on the NY Times bestseller list about or-ganic farming. He is the propa-gator of the Princess Street ur-ban garden in Shepherdstown, and he is currently writing a book about carbon offsetting and payment for ecosystem services.

Mr. Ogden was nice enough to sit down and share with me his experience while working for the company Earth Car-bon Offsetters, whose mission statement revolved around creating support to reforest de-pressed woodlands as a carbon credit alternative. The compa-ny had the idea that they could get legislation passed that would supplement the refores-tation of, for example, an acre of wood for a ton of CO2. This idea created jobs and seemed like a real “green” approach to dispensing the liability broadly and creatively.

Ogden believes in letting the market decide the price through the principles of cap and trade by “monetizing things that are not captured within classical economics,” and he argues that, “because they are not [currently acting on this plan,] they are abused”. I be-lieve in the conspiracy theory and worry that the interme-diates (the stock traders and firms) will gain most of the rev-enue. With a plan for taxation, however, we can immediately create revenue, which can be focused on fixing the real prob-lem, as well as researching and developing alternate energies.

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Picket Editorial: When your town is Planet Hoth

Jefferson County’s response to Snowmageddon was laughable at best

It’s reasonable to assume that the Washign-ton Metro area hasnt seen snow storms as bad as those hitting during the last two weeks in recent memory. Each time more snow fell, it became alarmingly evident that the local gov-ernments had no idea how to deal with it.

When three feet fell in December, it clogged the roads with snow banks and black ice. Five days afterward, Shepherd Grade road was still a quagmire; a gauntlet of ice and despair. That storm, now infantismal by comparison, was a forecast of how it would be when the biblical snow of last week hit the panhandle.

Residents and commuters awoke Saturday to a landscape covered in snow three feet deep. It was more like the ice world of Hoth in “The Empire Strikes Back” than our home. Only we didnt have tauntauns to ride around and bur-row into. We had roads that were so terrible for so long, there was nothing to do but hole up and hope there were enough groceries in the house.

The roads in and around Shepherdstown went unplowed for days. In many places, two feet of snow was simply compacted into a layer of ice, rendering vehicles obsolete. Days went by with no attention being paid to the ever worsening roads.

There are eight taxpayer owned snow plows for use across Jefferson County. That does not include private contractors who can also plow roads. It was quicikly apparent that road salt supplies are alarmingly low as no salt was put down in many areas before the storm hit. What is to account for the error?

If a snow storm drops two feet of snow overnight, wouldnt you have the plows run-

ning the roads constantly? Shepherd Grade wasnt plowed to safe conditions until a week after the storm first hit. Instead of plows mov-ing constantly, it seemed more like shooting from the hip.

Shepherd University on the other hand, did a commendable job clearing school roads across campus. Aside from cars completely submerged, roads were clear, and free of ice. But even Shepherd succumed to the beast and closed for a week, a school record for sure.

Hopefully, this storm provided county offi-cials with the experience necessary to prevent another quagmire.

When it comes to local politics, people care about a few poignant issues. We hope the trash gets picked up as promised, that our local tax dollars are spent responsibly and that our roads are kept in good working order. Last week, the county failed to keep our roads useable. The snow stopped falling, and everything else seemed to stop with it. We must learn to bet-ter adapt to harsh weather conditions. It keeps us safe, and on track in our day to day lives. Otherwise, there’s nothing else to do but wait for the Empire to invade and take over. We cer-tainly wouldn’t be able to get out of town.

Corrections:The Picket ran an incorrect picture of Doro-

thy Davis in our January 27th issue. Also, in our February 3rd article “Student learns about third world countries firsthand”, it was mistak-enly claimed that Earth has nine continents. In fact, there are only seven. We appologize for the photographic error and the lack of knowl-edge of basic geography.

BY david [email protected]

As the Toyota accelerator glitch was just surfacing, I told my room-mate to invest in Ford. This might seem a bit crazy, especially in the midst of a recession when Ameri-cans are more worried about jobs than purchasing cars, but now it appears that my advice might have been valid.

In the last week, millions of Toyotas have been recalled. Sales and production of popular models like the Camry and Corolla have been put on hold. To make matters even worse, Toyota’s Prius mod-els are also being recalled due to a separate concern dealing with their brakes. In the wake of this perfect storm hitting Toyota, their shares have plunged, and sales forecasts are expected to be in double digits this month.

The second this major recall started surfacing, politicians and the media jumped on this story. Transportation Secretary LeHood told a committee that Toyota driv-ers should “stop driving” and claimed that Toyota officials were “a little safety deaf.” Then, the media went searching for a story that would strike fear into any American driving a Toyota. They eventually found the story, involv-ing an accident in San Diego Cali-fornia on August 28, 2009.

The official report from the U.S. Department of Transporta-tion Highway Traffic Safety Ad-ministration claims that the official cause of the crash was excessive

speed. Later in the report, under other significant factors, the re-port claims that an unsuccessful attempt to release the pedal may have been caused by an unsecured floor mat or the wrong floor-mat being utilized in the vehicle.

Toyota reacted haphazardly to all this news. At first, Toyota seemed to be in denial, but finally, they concluded that there was something wrong. They have started shipping a small steel part to dealers that, they claim, will stop the friction causing the prob-lem once it is inserted into the ac-celerator mechanism. This delayed reaction by Toyota has allowed GM and Ford to start offering $1000 bo-nuses to customers trading in their Toyotas, hopefully with the result of earning some of the market share they lost to Toyota.

This news has hit me hard, es-pecially because I was born into a Toyota family. My first car ride was in my mom’s Toyota Camry Wag-on. Then, when I turned 16, I got my dad’s old Lexus, and I currently drive a Toyota Camry. Despite this recall, I still believe that Toyota is the most reliable car in the world. It greatly upset me that, when General Motors was being bailed out, Toyota held back from directly criticizing them, but General Mo-tors is now offering bonuses to make up for its lost market share. But I now realize that all this evil of exploiting one’s loss is the basis of capitalism. And who said capital-ists had to play nice?

The war on Toyota

Cap and trade or is a tax the way?

BY GeoRGe WeaKleYg [email protected]

Oh Gitmo, what are we go-ing to do with you? It seems like everyone is out to get you these days. President Obama has made it clear that he wants Gitmo, more commonly known as Guantanamo Bay, closed sometime before the end of his presidency. He had originally stated that he wanted the de-tention facility closed by Janu-ary 2010, but as everyone can see, that did not happen.

Way back during the Span-ish-American war, a naval base was established to help rout the Spanish enemy. After the war, America forced Cuba to lease the area under the terms that

a naval base would be estab-lished at Guantanamo Bay, and according to the treaty, the U.S. would be able “…to do any and all things necessary to fit the premises for use as coaling or naval stations only, and for no other purpose.” In other words, the U.S. could only use the base to fuel their ships.

This is where we run into some of the problems that Git-mo faces today. Currently, the naval base contains a detention center that houses terrorists that America classifies as “en-emy combatants.” Remember that the treaty America signed to lease the land from Cuba said that America could only use the base to refuel ships. How could imprisoned terrorists help fuel

ships? Clearly, America is in violation of the treaty which leased the base to it.

But that’s not the only com-plaint against Gitmo. Those who are detained in the prison are tortured and treated be-neath Geneva Convention standards. These standards ap-ply to the entire world, taking no exceptions. The terrorists were waterboarded in order to be forced to reveal information. Waterboarding is a technique that simulates drowning and can cause lung damage and brain damage. The detention center is so rough on the prisoners that they often commit suicide. Remember that the criminals that are held in Guantanamo Bay are not your average ev-

eryday criminal. They are the worst of the worst, and they are still being treated so badly that they want to kill themselves. The question you have to ask yourself is, “do these terrorists deserve the rights which they are being denied?”

I can’t tell you what the right answer is, and I can‘t claim that there even is an answer. But whenever someone commits a crime in America, we still give them all the rights they de-serve and do not torture them. Are we selfish enough to claim that just because someone is an American they deserve more than a citizen from another country?

All arguments aside, the fact remains that something

needs to be done with Guan-tanamo Bay. We cannot just ignore the terms on the lease of the land, and we cannot ig-nore the inhumanities that are occurring there. Once again, I can’t claim that what I believe is right, but I think we can all agree that something needs to be done. To just keep ignoring each other would be ignorant for both sides. As Americans, we cannot let this issue contin-ue to make us look like a coun-try that just does whatever it likes regardless of the laws of humanity. We need to quit the pointless arguing, come togeth-er, and reach a settlement for once, and then perhaps we can actually get something done in this country.

What to do with Guantanamo Bay?

Combatting recalls, they now face war in America



COMMENTARY

picket: 2-17-10

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