the herald for feb. 7
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The Herald for Feb. 7TRANSCRIPT
Last December, three Arkan-sas State University faculty members, John Pratte, Andy Sustich and Gina Hogue,
were promoted into top administrative positions, in the hopes of steering the institution further along its path of be-coming a more research-intensive uni-versity. After settling into their new positions for a little over a month, these faculty reflected on their reactions to the promotions, as well as what their future plans are.
Pratte, who replaces former Dean Andy Novobilski in the college of Sci-ences and Mathematics, said his years of experience led him to the promotion.
“I was made interim dean last March, so a lot of those duties, I’ve been doing for nine to 10 months now, and even before that I was the associate dean No-
vobilski, was really good about allowing me to take on some of those duties that the dean needs to do,” Pratte said. “So in a way, I’ve been dean in training for at least the last two and a half to three years.”
Through Pratte’s several promotions in administration, from coordinator for science-education to chair of chemistry and physics, he has been preparing for the deans position.
“If you look at that progression up the ranks, it’s given me a good background into sort of all areas that the dean has to deal with,” Pratte said. “I had to interact with the K through 12 system, I’ve had to interact with colleagues across gen ed; I’ve had to interact with faculty in a department and as associate dean my duties were overseeing all the research ventures, as well as the local communi-ty.”
Pratte explained that as the dean, he’ll
be looking to create more research op-portunities for students.
“We really feel that for students in our field, it’s imperative that we give them research opportunities that can help them in their future careers,” Pratte said. “Whether they go on to graduate school or medical school, or industry; this gives them a leg up.”
Pratte said this plan will help stu-dents. “This is our push and you’re going to see that from us forever,” Pratte said. “With the direction that education is going, you’ve got to be giving students these kinds of opportunities.”
Pratte noted that another of his addi-tional priorities as dean will be assisting with the establishment of a new ASU campus in Querétaro, Mexico, as faculty and students will have a new ability to study abroad.
“If you look at the type of programs the government wants us to bring over
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Volume 92, Issue 30
Signing DayASU signed several recruits on Wednes-day on National Signing Day.Sports 5
Thursday, February 7, 2013
This week in history:In 1986, The Herald featured a story about the new popularity of VHS tapes and VCR recorders, which became an overnight sensation in Jonesboro, caus-ing over two dozen movie rental stores to be built in Jonesboro.
“ “Honesty should not be a switch that can merely be turned on or off.
Days left until
Valentine’s Day
7Opinion|2
QuotableWhat’s InsideOpinion.........................2#Life...............................3
Sports............................ 5News..............................4, 6
Caitlin LaFarlette | Photo EditorJonathan Williams, a freshman communications disorder major of Camden, speaks Tuesday afternoon about why he would like to join SGA.
NATIONAL, 6
CASEY RINALDISTAFF WRITER
ASU has become a national leader in dis-tance learning, climbing its way up the US News and World Report ranking for 2013 Best Online Education Programs. The mag-azine ranked ASU in two main categories of the publication’s Best Online Education Pro-grams: No. 11 for graduate business programs and No. 20 for graduate education programs.
“These are the best online master’s in busi-ness degree programs, based on factors such as level of accreditation, reputation for excel-lence among peer institutions, and academic
and career support services offered to stu-dents,” US News reported.
For two years running, ASU has been se-lected as an elite institution of higher educa-tion in the southern region by US News. In one of the most important subcategories eval-uated by US News, Faculty Credentials and Training, the online business program ranked No. 1 nationally, “beating out highly respect-ed schools like Penn State for instance,” ac-cording to William Roe, associate dean of the College of Business and director of graduate business programs at ASU.
US News began their online MBA ranking
process by sending statistical questionnaires to 959 regionally accredited institutions that granted a master’s degree in business, includ-ing public, private, and for-profit institutions. After repeated attempts to collect this data, 213 institutions said they would be offering online master’s degree business programs in accordance with accepted distance learning practices and procedures. Once the data had been collected and analyzed, ASU, ranking No. 11 overall, was among the best the nation has to offer.
“We allow only our full-time PhD faculty to teach in the online MBA, whereas some
other online programs may go outside and hire temporary or adjunct faculty and they also may hire faculty who are not, under our accrediting body, considered academically qualified,” Roe said. “We also put our faculty through 32 hours of training with the Interac-tive Teaching and Technology Center here on our campus.”
The instructors receive the initial training as well as continued support from the center making them not only PhD level professors, but also highly effective with regard to online methods of instruction.
Distance education programs, as defined
ASU leaps onto national stage
Three named to key positionsJohn Pratte Gina Hogue Andy Sustich
SGA proposes new road names
Hunter Petrus, SGA pres-ident, presented a resolution to the SGA senate to request for administration to name the area that houses the rug-by pitch, intramural fields and track and field complex.
The resolution hopes to name the area “The Red Wolves Sports Park,” and to name the street that leads to the area “Red Wolf Trail.”
“Say someone gets hurt there and someone calls 911, there is not a street that they can identify with,” Petrus said. “It’s for emergency purposes.”
Senator Peters pointed out
that students should be the ones to decide the names. “I think you need to get the students primary ownership to it, like a contest for the name,” Peters said. “I think it would be a great advertising and marketing opportunity for SGA.”
LaTasha Moore thinks that students wouldn’t be ea-ger about naming the street. “I don’t think it would bring as much excitement to the student body, the naming of a road,” Moore said. “I would say do it as is.”
“None of the other names had ‘Red Wolves’,” Petrus said. “We needed to have some-
TANYA GIRALDONEWS EDITOR
THREE, 6 SGA, 6
Bennigan’s Opening
Caitlin LaFarlette | Photo EditorMayor Harold Perrin cuts the ribbon at Bennigan’s grand opening ceremony Wednesday afternoon.
Fat Tuesday back at ASU
ASU will have the chance to celebrate Fat Tuesday again this year with the annu-al Mardi Gras sponsored by the Student Activities Board on Tuesday in the third floor of the Student Union.
SAB Events Director, Ali-cia Rose, planned an evening filled with entertainment and fun. There will be a variety of casino games, tarot card readings, and photo booths.
In addition, the ASU Jazz Band will be playing through-out the night to help create the Mardi Gras atmosphere.
At 7 p.m. in Centennial Hall A, hypnotist Brian Im-bus will perform.
“I am most excited about our hypnotist Brian Imbus,” Rose said. “He has amazing reviews and I anticipate him being very interactive with the audience.”
Prizes to be given out this year include t-shirts and yard
LYNDSEY PATTERSONSTAFF WRITER
KEN CHITWOODSTAFF WRITER
Jonesboro has another name in many students’ mind, Jones-boring.
There aren’t many activ-ities outside in Jonesboro outside of school.
The shopping experi-ence is limited and the local restaurants aren’t very excit-ing or entertaining.
For the most part the nightlife around Jonesboro consists of sleeping due to the lack of a viable party scene.
Many students do not recognize that volunteering can be an exciting aspect for discovery in this small, pretty and peaceful city.
Volunteering is one of the best ways to help a commu-nity’s development.
Volunteering is also an easy way to connect with other students outside of classes.
Students have a chance to make new friends, talk and chat with people, and to re-lax after tons of homework.
On top of these great opportunities international students who volunteer have many unique benefits.
Volunteering can help them to learn about America and gives them a chance to compare American culture
with their own. They have a chance to communicate with domestic students and better understand some American behaviors.
ESL (English as a Sec-ond Language) students can quickly improve their English in a short time.
With all of these benefits why don’t we see more stu-dents volunteering?
Different cultures are the biggest barrier for interna-tional students to involve in the community.
International students are worried that since they do not understand all of the norms in America that they may act inappropriately.
Some are also shy because they’re not fluent enough in English to communicate clearly.
On top of these detrac-
tors, many international students do not know how to get involved.
I came to study at ASU from Vietnam in June of 2011. At the beginning, I worried about communicat-ing with Americans because of the culture barriers.
I was very shy in the first semester, since I was not confident in my English.
I wanted to join in activ-ities to make my college life better and more interesting, but I did not know how.
After reading the Daily Digest email I found some helpful information about volunteering.
I contacted Jodie Cherry, the supervisor of Volunteer ASU, whenever she had vol-unteering activities.
After volunteering I be-came so much more confi-
dent in myself as an interna-tional student.
I had a chance to learn more about American cul-ture and made new friends while just being myself.
This newfound confidence allowed me to work as one of the student engagement chairs of Volunteer ASU.
Now I try to encourage more students by going to ESL classes and introducing Volunteer ASU to them.
I know the benefits that volunteering can bring to students, especially interna-tional students.
Volunteer ASU has sev-eral upcoming activities for both domestic and interna-tional students.
We had a Volunteer Fair on February 6 but you can still volunteer if you missed it.
We would love to see you at the Polar Bear Plunge on February 22, and Relay for Life event on March 8.
Let’s change Jones-boring to Jones-beau-tiful, and enjoy the benefits of volunteering.
Rosey Nguyen is sophomore accounting major of Vietnam.
The attack in Benghazi marked the low point in Hillary Clinton’s term as Secretary of State.
On Feb. 1, senator John Kerry succeeded her in the diplomatic position.
Even though the Benghazi incident happened months ago and a new Secretary of State has filled Clinton’s roll, many individuals are not done scrutinizing the trage-dy that left four American’s dead.
The major concern over Benghazi rests in the belief that Clinton and her admin-istration purposefully de-ceived the American public about the attack.
This isn’t the first time a Clinton has been accused of deception. As exciting as Bill Clinton’s Lewinsky scandal was, it did not have the side affects politically as the scan-dal that took place twenty years prior.
In 1972, the Watergate scandal motivated President Richard Nixon to resign. Although Nixon had handily won the previous election, a plan was devised to spy on the Democratic National Committee.
After the operatives were caught, Nixon lied about his involvement, fired staff, and eventually resignation.
It wasn’t the information
that Nixon was seeking that had people fired up, but the deceitful cover that pressed him to resign.
If only Nixon had reme-died the situation by being honest about his involve-ment, the incident could have been astronomically different.
Fast forward 40 years to America’s handling of the Benghazi consulate attack where there is a similar situa-tion.
Just like Watergate, Benghazi could have had a different outcome.
Regardless of the desire to forgo, or place blame on Secretary of State Clinton for ignoring the 3 requests for more protection; Clin-ton cannot deny that these requests were overlooked.
This may be why the administration had a smoke and mirrors explanation for the attack.
Just as Nixon had done, the current administration offered a scapegoat. Instead of five White House “plumb-ers,” Clinton’s team pinned the blame on a riot over a YouTube video that depicted Mohamed.
The evidence surrounding the Watergate eventually lead reporters to believe Nixon was directly involved. The evidence surrounding Benghazi lead officials to be certain that this was not a spontaneous attack.
After the scandal, Nix-on kept hushed over the issue and lied to the press. After the attack Susan Rice, Ambassador to the United Nations lied to the press and everyone around her kept hushed.
During Clinton’s Senate address over Benghazi, Clin-ton read from a statement, “As I have said many times, I take responsibility, and
nobody is more committed to getting this right.”
Even though she has tak-en responsibility she still was not interested in answering the question about deceiving the public. When asked she said, “What difference, at this point, does it make?”
In that place of power and trust, being honest makes all the difference. Honesty should not be a switch that can merely be turned on or off.
John McCain, past presi-dential hopeful and Arizona Senator echoes this senti-ment, “the American people deserve to know answers, and they certainly don’t deserve false answers.”
After leaving office on Fri-day Clinton told AP, “There are some people in politics and in the press who can’t be confused by the facts. They just will not live in an evidence-based world. And that’s regrettable.”
As bitter as her statement sounds, at least she will not be remembered for saying, “I’m not a crook.”
It will be interesting to see how Benghazi will continue to follow her as she decides to run for president in 2016.
Micah Christensen is a Com-munication Studies major of Cheyenne, Wyo.
THURSDAY, FEB. 7, 2013 PAGE 2ASUHERALD.COM
Submission GuidelinesStory ideas or news tips may be emailed to [email protected] or [email protected]. The Herald welcomes comments, criticisms or ideas that its reader-ship may have. We encourage you to send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]
THE
LINDSEY BLAKELY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
TANYA GIRALDO, NEWS EDITOR
Micah Christensen, OPINION EDITOR
CAITLIN LAFARLETTE, PHOTO EDITOR
CALEB HENNINGTON, LIFESTYLE EDITOR
CARA PRICHARD, SPORTS EDITOR
RACHEL CARNER, ONLINE EDITOR
JANA WATERS, AD MANAGER
BONNIE THRASHER, ADVISER
Editorial PolicyOpinions expressed in personal columns are those of the writ-ers and may not reflect the opin-ions of the staff as a whole. “Our View” represents the opinions of the editorial staff and is written by members of the editorial board. Columns, letters to the editor, cartoons and other content on the opinion page are the views of the author. Content does not neces-sarily represent the opinion of The Herald.
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Our View Clinton can’t avoid Benghazi questionsIntroducing a new taste for JonesboroNew restaurants are due to open in the Jonesboro area, which
has many students drooling. Besides sating appetites, the genesis of new companies in this community offers a chance for new jobs and is a promising sign for future growth.
On Feb. 4, a news release from Haag-Brown announced a Buf-falo Wild Wings is on its way to Jonesboro.
The new Jonesboro BWW will be built on a large lot off of Sta-dium Drive. According to the Haag Brown Commercial Co-own-er and Principal Joshua Brown, it will look similar to the free-standing store projects in Conway, Fort Smith and Little Rock.
This is not the only freestanding store project underway in Jonesboro.
A short jaunt down Stadium Drive reveals the skeleton of a new Starbucks building project. While Jonesboro already has a few Starbucks locations, this new building is sure to be a coffee lovers paradise.
A new taste bud sensation is not the only thing these new restaurants will be brining to town. There is also potential for local job creation, as new employees will need to be hired. As college students there is always a demand for viable part time job opportunities.
Both additions to the strip are also exciting because it marks Jonesboro in gaining national recognition as a viable market. Making our city more contemporary will continue to encourage its growth. As a University, this can be great news for recruiting new Red Wolves.
It is no surprise that universities that have thriving towns sur-rounding them have steadily high enrollment.
The University of Minnesota is in the middle of the ever-grow-ing Twin Cities; the University of Colorado in Boulder is sur-rounded by easy access to mountain adventures; the University of California in Berkeley has a thriving Bay culture, and the Univer-sity of Wisconsin in Madison is sandwiched between lakes.
Hopefully as Jonesboro continues to modernize its markets the city will be more conducive for students to find an exciting college home.
Although an expanding job market and more contemporary towns are seen as advantages, new businesses are not just wings and coffee. Every time a new business springs up in an area there is potential that another could disappear.
Just look to the once full, then deserted and now demolished mall off of Caraway. This mall became old news when the new mall was built and new stores were brought into town.
These restaurants are no different. Due to the competitive na-ture of our capitalist economy restaurants can spring up and close with the change of the seasons.
Our advice is to take advantage of the new job opportunities and bask in the fact that Jonesboro might slowly be coming out of the dull age. Don’t forget that your dollars keep certain businesses afloat and a lack of business of sinks others.
With this in mind, as new chains continue to enhance our horizon, try new things but continue to support the old. As the saying goes, “Eat new places, but attend the old, one is silver and the other will be bathed in buffalo sauce.”
“Our View” is written by the editorial staff. The opinions are not necessarily reflective
of the student body, faculty or administration of Arkansas State University.
International students benefit from volunteering experiences
“Let’s change
Jones-boring to
Jones-beautiful,
and enjoy the
benefits of vol-
unteering.”
-Rosey Nguyen
“Honesty should not be a switch that can merely be turned on or off.”-Micah Christensen
Hear anything interesting on campus? Visit
us on Twitter @OverheardAtASU
and let us know what YOU overhear.
A popular pop-punk band from the 2000s has recently decided to make a return to the music industry after being out of the spotlight for more than five years.
Fall Out Boy announced via their Twitter and Facebook accounts early Monday morn-ing they would be making a comeback to the music industry with the release of a new sin-gle, a brand new album and a brand new tour across America to support the album.
The Wilmette, Ill. four-piece released a
new music video to go along with their new single, “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up),” which features an appearance by Grammy nominated rap artist 2 Chainz.
Although rumors of the bands reunion have been announced via the Internet sporad-ically since August of 2012, the band fervently denied any possibility of the band ever getting back together until they announced the news on Feb. 4 of this year.
The new album, which will be titled “Save Rock and Roll” is slated to release on May 6,
and the Save Rock and Roll Tour to support the new album will go from May 14 to June 30.
The tour will cover most of the United States, from the East Coast to the West Coast, and also two dates in the U.K. in August. Tick-ets for the early dates have already sold out, but tickets for the two closest dates to Jones-boro, St. Louis on June 28 and Nashville on June 30, can be purchased starting Feb. 8 on-line at falloutboyrock.com.
Pre-order packages for the new album can also be purchased on the band’s website and
include four different package options. The packages options include a physical
copy of the new album, a vinyl version of the album, a black and white poster of the band, new T-shirt, hoodie and snapback hat de-signs, and for the diehard FOB fan a package that includes everything in the other packag-es plus an exclusive custom jacket limited to 2,000 people.
“My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)” is currently available for purchase on iTunes for $1.29.
Who said zombies can’t have feelings? Well, according to the Jonathon Levine directed film, “Warm Bodies,” they can. I must admit, I thought the movie was going to be a dead drag, but a zombie trying to flirt with the flesh while fighting off man-eaters and skeletons turned out to be an interesting combination.
It’s not often that you can find a movie with four elements of genre: comedy, romance, horror, and action. It also helps to have great actors like Nicholas Hoult (R), who is the lead zombie and Teresa Palmer (Julie), R’s crush and daughter of Gen. Grigio, played by John Malkovich.
Zombies are supposed to be heartless, dead creatures, right?
They kind of are.R and his friend M, acted by Rob Corddry, occasionally
communicate with stares and grunts while the other dead bodies walk around. But what’s even better is the ability of a zombie to go against the norm and learn to feel and remem-ber again.
R found love at first sight in Julie, which did involve de-vouring a human’s brain, introducing himself charmingly with a mouth full of blood, and not to mention, saving her from a bunch of hungry zombies and “bonies”.
What really makes the movie is the smooth transition of the four elements and how it’s played out. R and Julie go through an “us against the world” type of mission in order to reignite the human race. There are constant contradic-tions of whether to stay in the “zombie world,” and have Julie starve and possibly get eaten, or go toward the humans and risk R getting shot in the head.
Despite the misty circumstances, R spends his time trying to woo Julie, hoping that she will love him back. The dark romance actually becomes the key to finding the solution of saving the world.
Through love, R becomes capable of feeling and thinking like a human can, which causes him to transition from an ugly zombie to a handsome boy.
Along the way they face different situations, from having a Romeo and Juliet moment to forming a zombie and human army to fight against the “bonies.”
R even risks his own life numerous times for Julie. As far as for the “bonies,” they have no chance what so ever to be saved, so the only choice is to kill them before they attack everyone else. The epic and beautiful battle unifies zombies and humans to end the zombie apocalypse and reform moth-er Earth.
I rate this film a B. The fighting could have been better, but the message was certainly clear. It mirrors the problems of what goes on today with war, hatred, etc. If humans can join forces with zombies and both species learn from one an-other, why can’t the universe?
Sounds complicated but there’s just one cure: love for your fellow man. In this case, a zombie’s love for a girl be-came much bigger than a spark of interest; it became the power to change the world.
Rottentomatoes.com gave “Warm Bodies” a score of 78 percent and IMDB rates the movie a 7.4 out of 10.
Movie critic Roger Ebert said “Warm Bodies” is “terrif-ic entertainment” and “A lot of zombie movies have heart, but usually the heart ends up on someone’s plate. Cheers to ‘Warm Bodies’ for taking us in a different direction for a change.”
THURSDAY, FEB. 7, 2013 PAGE 3ASUHERALD.COM
ADEEJA ANDERSONSTAFF WRITER
CALEB HENNINGTON#LIFE EDITOR
Insatiable App-etiteThe top apps for technology hungry students
Necrophilia: it’s what the kids are doing
The Boys are back in town
Finish - $0.99Apple app store
Complete your to-do lists more efficiently. Users can add deadlines or due-dates into their Finish cal-endar and can organize them into ‘short-term,’ ‘mid-term’ or ‘long-term’ categories. The app lists your most important tasks first and then clears them off the list when you’ve com-pleted the task.
Glassdoor - FreeGoogle PlayApple app store.
Looking into a new job? With Glassdoor, you can access company reviews and salary reports from different com-panies. Employees list pros and cons about the company and the overall working atmo-sphere.
Poshmark - FreeApple app store
You can upload your closet to this app and sell your clothes to others. Browse your favorite stylist’s or any-one’s closet and score fashion you love for discounted prices. Meet up with other fashion lovers and styl-ists during ‘Posh parties’, which take place in real time.
Retailmenot- FreeGoogle PlayApple app store
This app provides users with coupons from their fa-vorite stores. The ‘drag-and-drop’ feature allows for a sim-pler way to save when doing online shopping.
Temple Run 2 - FreeGoogle PlayApple app store
Now equipped with one big mon-key instead of three monkeys chasing you, Temple Run is back with a new trail and new obstacles. Each char-acter that is unlocked has a special power. There are more powerups and achievements in this version of Tem-ple Run.
Wanelo - FreeGoogle PlayApple app store
This app is a combination of Pinterest and Etsy. Wanelo provides users the options to ‘save’ or ‘buy’ items on their boards. Users can search for items and can sometimes find unbeatable prices on products.
Information compiled by Michaela Kaberline
THURSDAY, FEB. 7, 2013ASUHERALD.COM PAGE 4
Miss ASU scheduled for FridayThe Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity is sponsoring the Miss Ar-
kansas State University Scholarship Pageant 2013 which will be held Friday at 7:00 p.m. in Riceland Hall of the Fowler Center. It is the only Greek college organization in the state of Arkansas to host a preliminary Pageant to the Miss Arkan-
sas Pageant. The winners of the Miss ASU competition will be awarded approximately $6,000 in ASU scholarships, accord-ing to the press release. Zach Morrison, Pi Kappa Alpha pres-ident and executive director of the Miss ASU Pageant said 10 intelligent, ambitious and talented young women of ASU will
compete for the title and crown of Miss Arkansas State Uni-versity. The contestants will compete in artistic expression, lifestyle and fitness in swimsuit, and presence and poise in evening gown. Each contestant will also discuss their chosen platform, according to the press release.
Taylor KeownFreshman, JacksonvilleSponsored by: Sigma Pi fra-ternityPlatform: BullyingTalent: Dance
Kaylee LapiroFreshman, JonesboroSponsored by: Sigma Chi fraternityPlatform: Children’s Miracle NetworkTalent: Ballet
Megan WagnerJunior, Sikeston, Mo.Sponsored by: Alpha Omi-cron Pi sororityPlatform: Alcoholism Aware-nessTalent: Jazz Dance
Sarah HamiltonJunior, ParagouldSponsored by: Alpha Gam-ma Delta sororityPlatform: The Importance of Supporting the ArtsTalent: Singing
Sarah LoftinSophomore, ParagouldSponsored by: Zeta Tau Al-pha sororityPlatform: Thyroid Cancer AwarenessTalent: Singing
Alyssa Goodin Senior, WynneSponsored by: Alpha Gamma Rho fraternityPlatform: The Power of One-Vol-unteerismTalent: Musical piece on Marim-ba
Elli FowlerSophomore, WynneSponsored by: Delta Zeta sororityPlatform:Alzheimer’s Aware-nessTalent: Singing
Jill LigonJunior, Poplar GroveSponsored by: Chi Omega sororityPlatform: ADHD Does Not Define MeTalent: Singing
Molly JonesFreshman, El DoradoSponsored by:Chi Omega sororityPlatform: Finding Ability in DisabilityTalent: Clogging
Jordon FonvilleSophomore, ConwaySponsored by: Alpha Tau Omega Platform: Bullying: It’s Real. It’s Dangerous. It’s Unacceptable.Talent: Lyrical Dance
A month and a half after taking over the Arkansas State football program as the 29th head coach in its history, Bryan Harsin started his tenure in Jonesboro Wednesday by signing 20 players to help continue the school’s championship ways.
ASU put an emphasis on the defensive side of the ball, signing 12 defensive players compared to eight on offense, with the most players, five, coming from Alabama, while four athletes from Arkansas signed National Letters of Intent to become Red Wolves.
While Alabama recruits barely out numbered those from the Natural State, Harsin said Arkansas based athletes are a priority for the Sun Belt program.
“We’re really proud of the four we signed from Arkansas. Obviously that’s an area for us, as we start tomorrow, that we will emphasize and be involved in from day one,” Harsin said. “We want to take care of our back yard. That’s the most important thing to us.”
The four players from Arkansas included Garrett Kaufman, a 6-foot-1-inch, 225-pound linebacker of Bentonville; Mark Johnson, a 6-foot-1-inch, 190-pound linebacker of Prescott; Brandon Cox, a 5-foot-8-inch, 165-pound wide receiver of Conway and Jerry Moorehead, a 6-foot-4-inch, 210-pound tight end of Camden.
It was defensive coordinator and Arkansas native John Thompson’s recruiting efforts that helped sign Kaufman from Bentonville.
“ASU was the place for me based on Coach Thompson and his character and community support,” Kaufman said.
The Bentonville native will be able to participate in ASU’s spring practice.
Kaufman was named the 7A’s defensive player of the year after recording 127 tackles last season.
Harsin and his staff crossed the country, visiting California, Kentucky, Texas, Tennessee and others, so many the former Texas and Boise State coach lost count.
“I was in a lot of places, for
a short of time. Fly in; fly out. Get in cars and drive,” Harsin said. “The nice thing, being a head coach, you’ve got you’re assistant coaches. They’re waiting for you, you get in and they take you right where you need to go.”
Quarterback signee Cameron Birse, a 6-foot-2-inch, 215-pound athlete of Danville, Calif., had two last minute offers from PAC-12 schools, including Arizona State, but Harsin said Birse is “a man of his word.”
As a senior at San Ramon
Valley High School, Birse threw for 3,007 yards and averaged 250.5 yards per game and was named an All-East Bay selection.
Harsin said his relationship with current Boise State quarterback Joe Southwick, who also graduated from San Roman, was influential in the successful signing of Birse.
Birse joins sophomore Fredi Knighten and red-shirt senior Phillip Butterfield on the roster.
ASU’s newest quarterbacks coach, Bush
Hamdan, a former Boise State quarterback under Harsin, praised the throwing ability of the California native.
“He’s an elite level thrower,” Hamdan said. “From his standpoint, there are some things athletically he’ll have to develop and have to work on. Anytime you get a guy who has the ability to throw like that, a guy who is into football and a leader, I was really excited to get him.”
The Red Wolves coaching staff was especially proud of the signing of Willie Fletcher, a cornerback from Carson, Calif., who will also be present at spring practice.
Thompson boasted about the signees height and ability to get up and down the field.
“Having Willie here already is a really a good deal,” Thompson said. “Willy’s got the ability to bend, and he can even play safety, but we have him at cornerback.”
Unlike last year, ASU didn’t undertake a massive in-state recruiting effort like Gus Malzahn’s “A-State Ambush.”
On last year’s signing day, ASU put together its best recruiting class ever, signing six 3-star athletes according
to Scout, for a 76th best overall ranking in the NCAA and the Sun Belt’s best class.
This year’s class however sees ASU with two 3-star recruits according to Scout and just one awarded from Rivals.
With that, ASU is ranked 121st and 107th respectively, though Harsin said he doesn’t give rankings much attention.
“I’m not against it. I know why it’s done,” Harsin said. “The one thing in recruiting for me, I’ve never worried about the ones I don’t get; I always worry about the ones I get.”
Wednesday might have been the marquee day for the submission of Letters of Intent, but the first year coach knows more commitments could trickle in the following days, especially with five scholarships still available to give out.
“You can drive yourself crazy in recruiting (with) who you didn’t get. If you do that too much, then you forget about the ones you got and there’s a reason that they’re here,” Harsin said. “They want to be here and you wanted them here and that’s a special thing.”
The Alabama Crimson Tide has won three national championships in the past four years. Over that time, head coach Nick Saban led his squad to two SEC championships and a 49-5 overall record, including zero losses to non-conference opponents. The Crimson Tide have re-established their reputation as the jewel of the Southeasten Conference, the toughest conference in the country.
The reason is very simple, yet some college football fans deny its importance. The past five seasons saw Alabama land in the top five of national recruiting rankings, including four first-place finishes – a simply stunning mark.
To quote new Arkansas State head coach Bryan Harsin, recruiting is “the lifeblood of any program.” Saban and his staff are obvious-ly very talented coaches, but the best crafts-men need the best materials. You cannot sculpt and mold a few dozen young men into a dominant, national championship-caliber football team if they do not first possess supe-rior athletic ability.
Excellent coaching can mask athletic defi-ciencies, imparting to players good technique enabling them to play beyond their natural physical ability, but teams with good coach-ing and mediocre talent will still falter against teams that have both.
Vanderbilt is a prime example. Outside of Alabama, the Commodores are probably the SEC’s best-coached team, yet they are always one of the weakest teams in the conference because of academic standards that make re-cruiting difficult. However, their recruiting has picked up the past few seasons, and the result is a team that is improving each year.
Conversely, Ron Zook was a dynamite re-cruiter at Florida, but as a coach he failed to capitalize on the talent he reeled in. It wasn’t until Urban Meyer went to Gainesville that the Gators reemerged as a national power.
Recruiting isn’t only about physical prow-ess, however, as a lazy soul in a hulking body is worthless.
Florida State traditionally recruits as well
as most anyone in the nation, and yet a string of blue-chip athletes lacking discipline took its toll on the Seminoles last decade.
Teams must not only recruit the best tal-ent – they must either find talent with a solid work ethic or otherwise find talent that will submit to the ruthless will of disciplinarians like Saban.
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard, but the combination of the two produces elite athletes.
Thus it is no coincidence that Arkansas State has risen rapidly in the Sun Belt as re-cruiting has improved.
Hugh Freeze and Gus Malzahn are both terrific coaches, but it helped that they had some of the conference’s best players to work with. Harsin must continue to reel in the best players available if ASU is to maintain its place at the top of the conference.
Sun Belt schools most always compete for the scraps left behind by major programs, but consistently out-recruiting and defeating our conference foes will result in more national prominence and the ability to recruit better athletes.
Recruiting is imperative to the future of the program. Don’t let anyone tell you other-wise.
ZACH LOTTSTAFF WRITER
What the Howl?
The Arkansas State wom-en’s basketball team suffered a 93-49 loss against Middle Tennessee in a Sun Belt Con-ference matchup at the Mur-phy Center last night.
ASU fell to 12-11 overall on the year and 9-5 in the Sun Belt Conference, while Middle Tennessee improved to 18-5 on the year and 13-1 in the SBC.
“Middle Tennessee scored on seven straight possessions to start the game and we just couldn’t stop them tonight,” ASU head coach Brian Boyer said.
“We got behind early and just could not find a way to get something going on of-fensively on a consistent ba-sis.”
Arkansas State trailed 41-19 at the half after shooting just 36.8 percent in the open-ing 20 minutes.
The Lady Red Wolves re-mained behind 14-8 with 15:10 left in the half, but the Jaguars closed out the half by outscoring ASU 32-13 over the final 15 minutes to build a 22-point cushion into the locker room at the break.
A-State committed 24 turnovers on the night and the Blue Raiders made ASU pay by converting the turn-overs into 31 points.
Middle Tennessee also held an edge in points in the paint but outscoring the Red Wolves 42-24.
The Blue Raiders built their lead to 33 with less than
12 minutes to go in the sec-ond half and the Red Wolves were unable to recover.
ASU will return to action Saturday for a conference road game against Western Kentucky.
Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. and the game will be shown on ESPN3.com
THURSDAY, FEB. 7, 2013 PAGE 5
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ASUHERALD.COM
DANIEL MCFADINSTAFF WRITER
Head football coach Bryan Harsin answers questions during the interview portion of Na-tional Signing Day. Harsin and his staff recruited 20 players to help continue the team’s success.
Caitlin LaFarlette| Photo Editor
Xinzhong Zhao| Staff PhotographerSenior guard Quinishia McDowell brings the ball down the court during the women’s game against South Alabama Jan. 30.
Women’s basketball falls to Middle Tennessee
Recruiting is imperative
Caitlin LaFarlette| Photo Editor Football players sit at a table preparing to sign autographs for fans at National Signing Day.
National Signing Day: It’s a special thing for Harsin and the Red Wolves
THURSDAY, FEB. 7, 2013 PAGE 6ASUHERALD.COM
SGA, Continued
by US News and the US Department of Education, are virtually the same: An educational process that is character-ized by the separation, in time or place, between instructor and student. Distance learning will have students who are separated from the instructor and support regular and substantive in-teraction between the students and the instructor synchronously or asynchro-nously. It is noted that students may have to be physically present for one-time orienta-tions, exams or occasions of that nature.
Distance learning, or online pro-grams, are evolving at such an alarming rate; it is hard to locate current statistics showing this growth. During the school year ending in 2008, 4.3 million under-graduate students, or about 20 percent of all undergraduates, took at least one
online class. During that same peri-od, approximately 800,000 students, or about 4 percent of all undergrad-uates took their entire program through distance education, accord-ing to the National Center for Edu-cational Statistics.
The online programs at ASU are certainly growing, according to Roe, “As soon as these rankings were pub-lished, we were immediately inun-dated with phone calls and emails.”
“Our online graduate numbers continue to grow as our students are provided with opportunities to pre-pare for employment and challenges they will face in this globally compet-itive marketplace,” said Tim Hudson, chancellor at ASU, in a press release last month.
and stem disciplines, like biology and chemistry. So, our college is going to be a major presence in that devel-opment, and a lot of faculty are looking at this from the standpoint of ‘here are re-search opportunities for our students here at ASU Jones-boro, down there.”
Thankfully our school will be working as a unit to achieve these goals. “Our faculty will be working in collaboration to help each other, and I expect a healthy exchange between the two campuses, especially with the curriculum being the same
and all of the instruction be-ing in English,” Pratte said. “It’s going to be seamless for our students to be able to go down there and study in ways they can’t down here.”
Pratte also mentioned fu-ture plans to also create a Bachelor’s degree for Envi-ronmental Science (EVS).
“Our Beebe campus came to us and asked us to create a Bachelor’s program, since we already have a master’s degree, so that students can get the first part of the degree over there, and then finish it up over here, because they have some expertise that we don’t have, and we have some expertise that they don’t have,” Pratte said. “It’s going to be the first system-wide degree between the differ-ent locations, with some coursework possibly offered through distance learning, that’s one thing we’ll be de-veloping over the next two years.”
Andy Sustich, who has been promoted to vice pro-vost for research and gradu-ate students, said ASU plans to restructure the graduate school in order to further increase research opportuni-ties.
While graduate schools usually follow two models one that separates graduate school and the research de-partment and the other that combines the two. At ASU, the latter option was used, until 2004 when a decision was made to separate and create a new research office separate from the graduate
school as we were transi-tioning to become a more research-intensive university.
“After about eight years of having those two offices separate, we’ve decided at this time to put them back together. Research and grad-uate education go hand-in-hand, and the ability to sup-port graduate education gets difficult when they’re sepa-rated.”
Before his new job title, Sustich fulfilled three posi-tions overseeing Arkansas Biosciences Institute (ABI), Research and Technology Transfer, now combined into one.
“I believe part of the deci-sion was so that our adminis-trative costs could be reduced by only having one position rather than three positions,” Sustich said. “The duties have encompassed all three jobs, which is more than one per-son can do.”
Erik Gilbert was promoted as the new associate dean for the graduate school and Mal-athi Srivatasn was named as the new assistant director of ABI.
“My job is more the over-all vision and guidance for all three units, and they’re able to assist me with more day-to-day operations,” Sustich said.
He then spoke of his vi-sions for the graduate school and research, and where he’d like to see ASU headed.
The university’s mission is teach, research and service, which Sustich said he uses as a means to generate creative
activity and new ideas.“Our goal in the office is
to help them obtain the fund-ing, externally, that might be necessary, to build the infra-structure to make sure we’re generating new knowledge and also involving our stu-dents,” he said. “Going be-yond what you learn in the classroom really brings your education home and leaves you more well-rounded then just straight classroom work,” he said.
The Office of Research and Technology Transfer (OORTT) and Sponsored Program Accounting (SPA) will be moving out of the ABI building, due to the arrival of the recently completed busi-ness and technology incuba-tor, which will be used to help fund startup companies, but will also contain office space that is currently occupied.
The tentative plan is for the departments to move into the new floor over spring break, during which the incu-bator should come online as well
“There was a need for OORTT and SPA to move out of the ABI building so that space could be fully available, so the decision was made to move them to the sixth floor of the library, which had nev-er been finished off,” Sustich said. “When we decided to merge the graduate school with research, we decided we would move them upstairs instead of the library acqui-sitions.”
thing that identified with our brand.”
The resolution passed with the majority voting for the names staying as written in the resolution.
Petrus stressed that there was a reason for the decision to be made at the meeting instead of holding it off for a student-naming contest. “The reason that we are going about it in a hasty manner is because this needs to be done really quickly in order to de-velop those maps for emer-gencies,” Petrus said.
Another resolution was presented regarding chang-ing the name of Banks Street to Honors Avenue.
The naming is meant to make it easier to identify with the school for those who are unfamiliar with ASU campus, according to the resolution.
The resolution passed unanimously.
Three students were ad-mitted into the senate at the meeting.
Jared Barks, a junior bi-ology major of Manilla, was sworn in as representative for the graduate seat. “I want to get more involved on campus,” Barks said. “I don’t know a lot of you because I’m a biology major and I prob-ably spend too much time studying. I’d like to get to know you.”
Jonathan Williams, a freshman communication disorders major of Camden,
received the sophomore seat and Megan Wright, a fresh-man business marketing ma-jor of Blue Springs, Mo.
“I’ve been in leadership for quite a while,” Wright said. “I think this is a good way to get involved. I think I’ll be good for this position.”
Stevie Overby, public re-lations director announced that there would be a Rugby Day in March that will consist of many events. On March 7 there will be an informational session in which rugby will be explained to those who have questions about the sport.
“It will be in the Spring River Room from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.,” Overby said. “It’s open to the public and anyone that wants to come is invited to that.”
On March 8 in the Student Union from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. there will be flyers about the Saturday game and rugby t-shirts will be handed out.
The game will be held March 9 at 1 p.m. “Everyone is invited to come out and tailgate and hang out, watch the game,” Overby said. “Free t-shirts will be given out to students (and) a couple of booths will be set up.”
Applications for SGA senators, vice president and president will be available Monday, Matha Spack said.
SGA will meet at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 19 on the eighth floor of the library.
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