Regions and AmSouth banks merge

Transcription

SpringHillian
The
Volume 85, Number 5
Mobile’s First Collegiate Newspaper
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006
Regi o n s a n d A m S o u t h banks merge
By Christopher Jernigan
Contributing Writer
On
May
25
2006,
AmSouth
Bancorporation and Regions Financial
announced that they have agreed to merge.
This merger was voted on and passed by the
entities’ shareholders on October 3 and is
likely to be completed by the end of this year.
The new company, once merged, will
retain the Regions name and become one of
the top 10 largest banks in the nation according
to AmSouth.com. The banks also boast that,
through the combined corporations, “superior
customer service [will be] provided through
expanded distribution networks and product
offerings” as well as a “strengthened presence
in its core markets.” The new company will
have close to $140 billion in assets, hold nearly
$100 billion in deposits, and run 2,000 branches
in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, Arkansas,
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, and Virginia.
According to a combined balance sheet
as of March 31, 2006, which is available
at AmSouth.com, the new company will
have loans outstanding at about $95
billion, 31 percent being consumer loans,
which means enhanced customer service
because of a broader customer range.
West of Spring Hill’s north gate on Old
Shell Road is an AmSouth branch and
directly across the street is a Regions branch.
When asked about which branches would
be closed after the merger, Rick Swagner
of AmSouth stated, “We have not made an
announcement about which branches will
be closed.” According to Swagner, it is
up to the Department of Justice to decide
which branches should be closed or sold.
A few Spring Hill students do not seem
to be threatened by the merger between these
two large banks. Junior Bernie Prat, who is Patrick Yursik / Photographer
a Regions customer, said, “I don’t know too
AmSouth bank is located directly across the street from a Regions bank on
see Merger page 3 Old Shell Road just outside of Spring Hill’s campus.
Off-campus culprits may
be responsible for recent
string of car break-ins
By Kerrie McNamara
News Editor
Patrick Yursik / Photographer
The stereo deck of Sean Driscoll’s car where his
radio was located before it was stolen.
In the past month, Spring Hill’s
campus has experienced some vandalism,
particularly to the vehicles. On September
10 it was reported at 3:26 p.m. that
obscenities were written on the side of
a vehicle with a black marker. Three
days later on Sept. 13, a visitor parked at
Portier Lane and when he returned to his
car at 3:15 p.m., he found that his vehicle
had been broken into with his phone
and wallet missing from the front seat.
On Sept. 25, the windshield of a vehicle
parked in the North Fairway parking lot
was damaged from the impact of a golf
ball. On Sept. 28, theft visited the campus
Strong quake
shakes Hawaii
- student says
family is OK
By Jolie Pollard
Editor in chief
one more time in the New Hall parking
lot. Returning to his vehicle at 10 a.m.,
a student discovered that his CD Player
and about $10 was missing from his car.
However, it didn’t end there. This
month, a few more incidents have been
reported. On October 6, a student returned
to her car at 8:30 p.m. in the O’Leary Hall
parking lot and discovered her radio/CD
player was missing. On Oct. 14, a faculty
member found two cars in the Toolen
Hall parking lot had obscenities written
on them with peanut butter. Later that
night at 10:20, four cars had been sprayed
with a fire extinguisher in the Viragh Hall
parking lot. The next day, at 9:05 a.m., a
The
state
of
Hawaii
experienced a real shock this
weekend. On Sunday around 7:07
a.m. (HST – Hawaii standard),
an earthquake estimated at a
magnitude of 6.7 shook residents in
the Hawaii region according to the
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Falling within the range of 6 – 6.9,
the earthquake has been classified
as a strong one – a magnitude
above 6.9 is classified as “major.”
According to a report released
Monday from the Disaster News
see Break-ins page 2
see Quake page 3
Sports
Life & Culture
News
Check out snapshots of
SHC athletes!
Find out about a painter who has worked at
Spring Hill for 40 years.
Read the details about
the changes to the gate
entrance policies.
u
PAGE 16
u
PAGE 6
u
PAGE 2
News
Wednesday, October 18, 2006 THE SPRINGHILLIAN
2
I n v e s t i g a t i o n l e d b y r e c e n t New policy changes gate hours
gate entrances: Now, all three gates will
Alicia Brauer
s h o o t i n g s r e v e a l s S H C ’ s By
open at approximately 5 a.m. and close
Staff Writer
at approximately 10:15 p.m. throughout
a seven-day week. These hours were
campus is fairly secure
As reported in early September in said to might change due to class
By Heather Bozant
Contributing Writer
With the recent school shootings that have
taken place in Colorado and Pennsylvania,
students may wonder just how safe the
campus is here at Spring Hill. Although
not an elementary school nor a high school
that were the targets of the recent tragedies,
college campuses like Spring Hill may be
no more resilient to acts of violence. But for
those concerned, they make take comfort in
knowing that Spring Hill has a 24/7-security
team as well as listed as the safest college
campus college in Alabama according to the
U.S. Office of Post Secondary Education.
On September 27, Duane Morrison
entered Platte Canyon High School in Bailey,
Colorado, where he sexually assaulted six
female students before killing 16-year-old
Emily Keyes and himself. Morrison released
four of the hostages before killing Keyes, who
he used as a human shield against the Special
Break-ins
from page 1
Public Safety Officer saw that the driver’s
side window had been broken out of a car
in the New Hall parking lot. Even though
nothing was missing from the car, the Mobile Police Department is investigating.
Car vandalisms and accidents aside, the
real concern is the recent car break-ins. James
Crosby, director of Public Safety, attributed
these break-ins to a system of cycles. He
said it is most likely a “geographic pattern”
and that Spring Hill won’t see “an extended
pattern.” “I believe it will be six months to
a year before they hit again,” Crosby said.
Apparently, there had also been unlawful break-in and entering occurrences in adjacent subdivisions to the school in September.
Crosby assures, “It is not only unique to us.”
Crosby gave some tips on how to prevent a break-in. “In the cases of the 13th
and the 28th, there were common denominators. They couldn’t remember if they locked
their doors, and they left items of value
visible. Always lock your doors,” Crosby
said. Also, according to the reports sent by
Crosby, with the case on Oct. 6, the student advised that she did not lock her car.
Also, he encourages everyone to install an alarm system in their vehicle. “They
should install it if they have the financial
opportunity. It would draw attention from
employees and students,” Crosby said.
What Crosby wanted to stress the
most to students is the importance of a
Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team that had
entered the classroom. Keyes was able to
text message a short message of, “I love u
guys,” to her family before she was killed.
On the morning of October 2, a similar
situation to the Colorado shooting took
place in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
32-year-old milkman, Charles Carl Roberts
IV entered a small Amish schoolhouse
where he ordered all adults and males to
leave the schoolhouse, leaving 10 girls in
the room. Police broke into the school
when shots were heard. Roberts killed
five girls before killing himself. According
to CNN.com, three girls are in critical
condition and two are in serious condition.
When asked how safe he thought the
campus was, Dean Joe Deighton said, “Since
I have been here since June, it has appeared to
be a very safe campus in a good neighborhood,
which certainly helps it to be so safe.” In
see Shootings page 4
community’s eyes and ears. “Look out for
each other. Call Public Safety and don’t
confront anybody. If anything happens,
keep observation from a distance and try
to get the tag number,” Crosby warned.
From this, according to Crosby, Fr.
Gregory Lucey, S.J., gave Public Safety permission to hire three students to work 15
hours a week each. “Fr. Lucey took it upon
himself to give us money for this.” The students will work with each other all the time
and look out for anything suspicious. “One
officer can’t be everywhere at one time,”
Crosby said. He also wants the workers
on campus to get involved. “Plant Operations and other groups are to concentrate on
not only their jobs, but the areas as well.”
Even though the break-ins were relatively close to each other in time, Crosby doesn’t
think they were related, especially since they
were in different areas on campus. “They
were just crimes of opportunity,” Crosby said.
Junior Sean Driscoll, whose name wasn’t
released by Public Safety but agreed to an interview with the SpringHillian, agrees with
Crosby. “It’s just one of those things,” he said.
Driscoll owns the car that was broken into on
the 28th. When asked if he would replace his
stereo he said, “It wasn’t anything special, but
it wasn’t cheap...it would be money I don’t
have.” As far as Public Safety’s role in his late
night car break-in, Driscoll said, “I have no
complaints...they’re doing their jobs. Personally, I think it was someone from off-campus.”
Driscoll said he learned his lesson. “I don’t
keep anything of value in there anymore.”
the SpringHillian, there had been an
increasing problem of traffic pile-ups at the
Old Shell gate entrance. The department
of Public Safety had attributed the main
cause of the issue as students not carrying
their identification cards with them when
checked at security. The director of Public
Safety along with the new dean, had been
working with the Student Government
Association in coming up with suggestions
to find a solution for the gate jam.
On Tuesday, October 3, Dean of
Students Joe Deighton proposed a new
policy that has made changes to the
opening and closing hours of the Dauphin
Street and two Old Shell gate entrances.
After the proposal was accepted by the
President’s cabinet, Deighton sent an email to all students, faculty, and other
staff members right before the fall break
detailing the new policy and procedures.
The policy outlines the following
changes in the open and closing of the
breaks, holidays, and special events.
Deighton also added that “efforts
are underway” to hire more staff, both
regular employees as well as students
to help assist with the new changes
especially on the weekends when students
and guests are required to show proof of
identification. Spring Hill students are
still required to show their SHC ID’s ,
and guests have to show their driver’s
license and be logged by public safety.
The new policy also notes that SHC
drivers will be held responsible for the
actions of all passengers in their car including
their guests. If a drivers are not registered at
Spring Hill, they will not be able to enter
the premises Sunday through Thursday
from midnight until 5 a.m. and Friday
and Saturday from 2 a.m. until 5 a.m. If a
student plans on having a visitor or guest
that person will need to have been approved
for a temporary pass which can be done
through the Residence Life Department.
3
News
The SpringHillian Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Psi Chi sponsors Love Your Body
By Sydney Fagan
Contributing Writer
Poor body image and selfesteem are common issues in the
United States. According to an
international study conducted in
2005 by the Dove Campaign for
Real Beauty, this is a problem
that exists throughout the world.
According to the survey,
67 percent of all women ages
15-64 withdrew from everyday
activities because they felt badly
about their looks. Two-thirds of
the women surveyed felt that their
culture’s definition of beauty is too
narrowly defined, while nine out
of 10 women wanted to change
some aspect of their appearance.
Body image issues have not
escaped Spring Hill as Betsy
Williams, manager of Health Care
Services, explains, “I know that
some students have had overweight
problems and problems with eating
disorders.” Williams blames the
media for the increase in poor selfesteem, “Don’t look to the media,
it’s unrealistic for the average
person.” She cites plastic surgery
and make-over shows as promoting
an unhealthy image for young
people. “That’s not a normal,
everyday look,” Williams said.
In response to this issue, Psi
Chi, the Psychology honors society,
has teamed up with the Wellness
Center to create Love Your Body
Week- a celebration of healthy
bodies. The celebration is an offshoot of Love Your Body Day
started by the National Organization
for Women (NOW) in 1998.
Psi Chi is sponsoring Love
Your Body Week on campus and
has made some modifications
to NOW’s original program by
extending the event and broadening
the focus to include men.
According to the Anorexia
Nervosa and Related Eating
Disorders, Inc. Web site 10 percent
of the eight million Americans with
eating disorders are men. “We’re
trying to include both men and
women,” says Associate Professor
of Psychology, Dr. Lisa Hager.
Some of the planned festivities
include a Turbo Kick class, which
took place yesterday. Today
students can write what they love
most about their bodies on a mural
outside the Lower Commons. Dr.
Hope Jackson will speak tomorrow
Merger
from page 1
much about [the merger].
I’m not worried.”
Two reasons why students should not be worried about the merger are guidelines set by the
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). In accordance with the Securities Act
of 1933 Rule 425, which requires the filing of certain
prospectuses and communications under Rule 135 in
connection with business combination transactions,
Regions Financial, according to SEC.gov, has filed
numerous Form 425s, along with other forms required
by the SEC, to ensure a legal and correct merger.
Regions must also meet or exceed requirements
set by the FDIC, including that the entity must be “adequately to well” capitalized, eight to 10 percent or
higher, respectively. If the entity were to reach a status
known as “undercapitalized,” the FDIC would issue a
warning to the member bank. If the situation worsens,
the FDIC can change management of the entity and
force the bank to take corrective action, according to
FDIC.gov. These guidelines ensure that the two banks
when merging and in general operation, remain a going concern; in other words, a functioning business.
While a few students are not too concerned,
some Spring Hill students have expressed confusion over the merger. “I’m worried about changes
involved when AmSouth becomes Regions,” said
senior Brad Hentschel, who banks with AmSouth.
When the two banks finally merge there will be “no
on body image and intuitive
eating. “We’re trying to target
fitness, body image, and healthy
eating habits,” explains Dr. Hager.
Williams advises students
not to look at the weight on the
scale, “The best thing to go by
is the Body Mass Index, it’s a
much better number than weight.”
“I’m excited because it’s an
interesting concept. It will be a
good opportunity to see other’s
perspectives on how each of us
view our bodies,” says freshman
Ryan Johnson.
Anna Maria
Capote, also a freshman, agrees,
“It’ll help build self-confidence.”
Students
interested
in
participating can look for fliers
posted on dorm and apartment
doors as well as around campus.
Anyone
interested
in
receiving more information on
maintaining a healthy body image
can check out http://loveyourbody.
nowfoundation.org
or
www.
dovecampaignforrealbeauty.com.
Support your
school, write for
the SpringHillian!
change” according to Sonya L. Smith of Regions’ media
relations. When asked about any new benefits offered
to students after the merger Smith stated that nothing
new would be available to students other than what is
already offered. Currently, both AmSouth and Regions
offer competitive interest rates on student loans and
credit cards, along with in depth information on what
consumers, especially students, should do and look for
when applying for credit and managing their money.
Another reason why AmSouth and Regions decided to merge is their “similar goals” and “increased
shareholder value,” according to the May 25, 2006
press release from Regions.com. Similarly, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Regions has
already seen a sharp increase in net income in the
third quarter prior to the merger. Regions has reported a $351.7 million net income, translating to a
$0.77 per share increase for shareholders. “I would
probably consider investing,” stated senior Ryan Willis, who banks with neither AmSouth or Regions,
when he learned of the bank’s pre-merger earnings.
The merger of these two banks is expected to
improve banking relations and ease. The chairman, president, and chief executive officer Jackson W. Moore was quoted in the Regions press release about the future of the company as saying, “I
am confident the new Regions will emerge as the
leading regional financial service provider, delivering superior shareholder returns on a consistent basis. We will take a deliberate, methodical approach
to integrating our companies, making certain that
customers continue to receive high quality service.”
Quake
from page 1
Network (DNN), there have been
no reports of fatalities, but there
were several reports of people suffering with lacerations and broken bones. Hawaii endured minor residential damages. Houses
have been noted to still be standing. Public buildings and roads
were also damaged with landslides covering some roadways.
DNN also said the worst of the
damage appeared to be in Hawaii County and Maui and in
the city and county of Honolulu.
An emergency response team
consisting of 75 personnel was sent
to Hawaii according to a press release from the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA). The
release states that FEMA’s focus
has been centered on “an assessment of power generation and distribution, portable water systems
(pump stations) and sewage treatment requirements on the western portion of the Hawaii County
(also known as the Big Island).”
Upon hearing news of the
earthquake on Sunday afternoon, recent transfer student from
Chaminade University of Honolulu, Amber Feliciano, said she
was surprised. “In Hawaii?!” Feliciano said this was her initial
reaction to the news. “I couldn’t
believe there was an earthquake.”
For Feliciano, it would be
a rare event, since the last strong
earthquake to hit the region was in
1983. Based on a USGS histori-
cal report, that earthquake caused
heavy property damage on the island
of Hawaii and injured six people.
However, according to a tectonic summary from the USGS,
earthquakes in the volcanic islands
of Hawaii are not rare, but they
are of smaller magnitude. Just last
year in July an earthquake with
a magnitude of 5.2 occurred in
the Hawaii region. The majority
of earthquakes are said to occur
as the result of the movement of
magma before or during a volcanic eruption. The summary stated
that this earthquake “resulted from
stresses that build in the Earth’s
crust as the volcano grows.”
After she was able to get
through, Felicano’s mother was
able to reach her using her cellular
phone on Sunday afternoon. “She
told me that all the power had gone
out,” recalled Feliciano. However
at 4 a.m. Monday morning, her
mother told her power was back
and only two percent of the island
was still experiencing outages.
Feliciano’s family resides in
O’ahu on the island of Honolulu.
Her mother told her that there
was no damage to their home
and that they only experienced
tremors which kept waking them
up in the middle of the night.
The junior history major said
that she felt a bit guilty at first for
not being at home when she first
heard the news, but when she realized that her family was OK, she
felt better. School reopened on
Monday in O’ahu, and Feliciano’s
younger brother is back in classes.
Men Needed For Psychology Study
You will be asked to complete two brief surveys regarding common experiences faced by adults. This will take about 10 minutes. You will receive
either a $5 BLOCKBUSTER GIFT CARD or EXTRA CREDIT in Your Psychology Class (if deemed appropriate by your professor).
Dr. Lisa Hager and Alexa Roberts are administering this survey. It will take
place on Sunday, October 22 at 7pm in QH 225.
You may sign up for the study by emailing your name and phone # to Dr.
Hager at [email protected] or by listing your name and phone # on the
Sign Up Sheet on Dr. Hager’s office door (QH313).
News
Wednesday, October 18, 2006 The SpringHillian
4
United Nations imposes sanctions on North Korea
By Eric Pierce
Contributing Writer
The United Nations Security
Council passed a unanimous
resolution on Saturday rebuking
the Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea (DPRK, North Korea)
for its first successful test of a
nuclear device. The resolution
also imposes a broad set of trade
restrictions on the government of
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il.
North Korea propelled eastern
Asia into crisis last Monday
when its state-run news agency
announced the country had
performed an underground nuclear
weapons test. The announcement
sparked an international furor
culminating in the passage of
Saturday’s resolution.
Under
the terms of the agreement, U.N.
member states are prohibited
from trading any materials or
weapons that could be used for
manufacturing nuclear devices.
The decision also curbs
North Korea’s ability to import
luxury goods, a move the U.S.
expects will adversely impact the
country’s governing elite. The
Shootings
from page 2
addition to appeasing the traffic pile-up, the recent gate policy was implemented to ensure
that no non-Spring Hill individual is on campus after hours.
Likewise, according to the
manuals of the SpringHillian ambassadors (campus student guides),
the residence halls are double-secured, meaning that all students
must have their ID or a key to get
into the building, as well as a key to
enter the individual’s dorm room.
Deighton stated, “We do
our best to keep areas (especially
the residence halls) secure at all
times and remind people about
the importance of not allowing
non-residents into the building.”
When asked how she felt
about the safety of the campus,
Freshman Elizabeth Farren said,
“I feel very safe on this campus
because I walk to different dorms
on campus really late at night, and
I take safety precautions, such as
wearing glasses at night in order
to see people and I wear my hair
down so that it’s harder to grab
U.S. also hopes to thwart the
North Korean government from
providing terrorists with materials
that could be used to develop
weapons of mass destruction.
The North Korean ambassador
to the United Nations, Pak Gil
Yon, lambasted the decision
shortly after its passage, insisting
his country “totally rejects
the
unjustifiable
resolution.”
After deeming it “gangsterlike for the U.N. to have adopted
a coercive resolution,” the
ambassador warned the delegates
that his nation would consider
further pressures upon North
Korea a “declaration of war.” He
then abruptly vacated the chamber.
The most contentious section
of the resolution allows U.N.
members to examine cargo vessels
going into and out of the country.
Despite voting for the resolution,
China has indicated it will be
unlikely to enforce the inspections
clause. South Korea has also said
it plans to carry on trade relations
with the North. Because they are
two of North Korea’s most valued
trading partners, the hesitancy
of China and South Korea to
commit to fully enforcing the
resolution has cast serious doubt
on the effectiveness of the decision.
When questioned about the
resolution on FOX News Sunday,
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice expressed her understanding
“that people are concerned about
how it might work so that it doesn’t
my hair in a pony tail, that way I
can’t be grabbed from behind.”
Another feature of security according to the manuals is their ability
to escort an individual from a location on campus to the residence hall.
Counselor Linda Olen
in
the Wellness Center, was asked
for the psychological reasons as to why people would
commit such heinous crimes.
The main reason stressed
was the feeling of being cornered and having no escape
from their situation. The person may feel hopeless or helpless because they feel as though
they have no choices or outlets.
Olen said, “People don’t communicate well enough…people
feel as though they are not heard
when talking about their emotions.” When this state of mind
occurs, a person either acts toward others or themselves—in
the case of the school shootings,
both Morrison and Roberts combined these ideas by acting upon
the children and themselves.
Some signs that the campus
community can look for in a person who may be likely to commit
an extreme act of violence would
be depression. A person may have
a negative outlook on the world,
always thinking, “poor me.” On
the other hand, a person may suddenly have impulsive or unpredictable behavior, where they may do
something out of the ordinary, “a
stretch to make themselves feel
good,” as Olen puts it. Another
aspect of the person could be
their quiet or reserved tendencies.
Those that act in this manner
begin strategically planning out
their crime in their head. In all cases, the signs depend on the type of
person—each person is different.
Freshman Carlene Bolton
was asked how she felt about the
school shootings and replied, “I
think it’s tragic that people would
commit such an awful crime by
killing schoolchildren. It’s really a shame that people can think
of doing these things and hopefully there will be something that
can be done to decrease these
types of things from happening.”
On October 10, President
Bush called for a summit to discuss
the issue of school violence and
the national measures that are being taken to ensure school safety.
Overall, school violence has
enhance tensions in the region.
And we’re perfectly willing to
have those conversations, but
China signed on to this resolution;
it voted for this resolution.”
In his weekly radio address,
President Bush warned North
Korea that the United States would
news.scotsman.com
A photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il standing with
soldiers in North Korea.
declined in recent years, but has
recently increased. According to
CNN.com, one of the main points
Bush urged was, “adults should intervene when they notice children
are in trouble.” Bush went on to
say, “Hopefully, out of these tragedies will come the sense of communal obligation all throughout
our country, for people to take an
extra effort to comfort the lonely.”
No new policies or new money
were announced at the summit; instead, Bush publicized certain Web
sites and had certain safety panels cite examples of safety that is
practiced in other local programs.
bolster the defenses of its allies in
the region. “In response to North
Korea’s provocation,” Mr. Bush
said, “we will seek to increase
our defense cooperation with our
allies, including cooperation on
ballistic missile defense to protect
against North Korean aggression,
and cooperation to prevent North
Korea from importing or exporting
nuclear or missile technologies.”
Yet
questions
remain
about the United States’ ability
to wield influence over the
North
Korean
government.
Nader Entessar, chair of the
University of South Alabama’s
political science department and
former full-time political science
and law professor at Spring Hill,
stressed that the U.S. “has minimal
leverage on North Korea.”
“The Chinese have more cards
to play here. Perhaps by giving
China some major incentives, the
U.S. can exert some influence,” he
said. But even China may not be
able to sway a determined North
Korea. “North Korea has decided
that having a nuclear deterrent
capability is more important to it than
whatever reaction the Chinese may
have to their nuclear detonation.”
Associated Press
Amish girls play near
Pennsylvanian town where
10 girls were shot.
Terrified
parent
holds
child
at the
scene of
the high
school
shooting
in
Colorado
Associated Press
News
representing
5
international students
Belize: On Oct. 16, Belize and
other nations voted on whether to
give Venezuela or Guatemala a
non-permanent seat on the U.N.
Security Council. For a country
to be claimed the winner they
must get 128 votes or two-thirds
of the U.N. vote. Ministry of
Foreign Affairs Chief Executive
Officer Amalia Mai expressed
her hopes for Venezuala to win.
(lovefm.com)
Croatia: Croatian Prime Minister
Ivo Sanader spoke with Condoleeza
Rice yesterday in Washington
about Croatia’s work toward EuroAtlantic integration. Rice was
reported as saying she supports
Croatia’s efforts to join the European
Union and NATO in the near future.
(unitedpressinternational.com)
Ecuador: Billionaire Alvaro
Noboa, according to the country’s
electoral tribunal, is in the lead for
the country’s presidency poll with
27 percent of the vote. So far he is
beating out Rafael Correa, an ally to
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
(theguardian.com)
El Salvador: It was reported on
Oct. 10 that an alert was declared in
San Salvador for a volcano activity.
The volcano was experiencing
small
tremors
for
days.
(HeraldTribune)
An anti-violence march took place
Oct. 15 in San Salvador to protest
organized crime in the country. El
Salvador is reported to be the most
violent country in Latin America.
(prensa latina news agency)
Malaysia: Fraser and Neave
Holdings Berhad said Monday
that it will take over Nestle SA’s
canned milk, chilled dairy and
juice business in Thailand in an
$84 million deal. This will help the
company double its annual turnover.
(HeraldTribune)
Nicaragua-Sandinista
leader
Daniel Ortega is making a third
run for the Nicaraguan presidency
he lost in 1990. He is supported
by Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez and his win could
result in the loss of millions
of dollars in aid from he U.S.
(HeraldTribune)
South Korea- Yesterday, South
Korea’s Ambassador to Australia
Cho Chang-Beom said he opposed
military action to resolve the
North Korea’s nuclear issue.
He stressed that the the U.N.
Security
Council
should
resolve the issue peacefully.
(chinaview.cn)
Honduras- Yesterday, Honduras
and El Salvador are fighting over
Conejo Island in the Pacific.
In 1992, the deal was resolved
that Honduras was given 311.6
square kilometers of the island
and 134.9 to El Salvador. An
appeal process is being set up
in the U.N. Security Council.
(prensa latina news agency)
New Zealand- Yesterday, a
5.8 earthquake hit the ocean
southwest of New Zealand.
In Dunedin, police reported
that there were no immediate
reports of injuries or damage.
The quake struck southwest of
Dunedin and the epicenter was
6.3 miles below the surface.
(washingtonpost.com)
News
LIFE&
6
CULTURE
Louis Maye: painter extraordinaire
By Rae McConville
Assistant editor
Most Spring Hill students don’t
know what 5 a.m. looks like, let alone
wake up and start their day then.
However Louis Maye, the school’s
resident painter extraordinaire, wakes
up at five and has done so all 40 years
while he has worked at the college. A
typical day with him begins early at
the Plant Operations building on the
south part of campus.
At 7 a.m., Maye walks through a
heavy steel door chipping with green
paint, on the left side of the building that reads “Employees Only.”
Shuffling through the break room,
he whispers “Good Mornings” with a
soft smile to his fellow workers, as he
walks to a green hanger in front of a
bulletin board and collects his work
orders for the day. Today’s orders:
7807, 7799 and 7702, mean painting
panels and air conditioning units in
the Administration and Communication Arts Buildings.
“ We’ll go check all these out before we paint,” Maye informs me as
we go through yet another door with a
small window high at the top, leading
us into a large warehouse. Chain link
fences line the left side of the walkway, each dividing the large room into
smaller sections for storage and organization of the equipment. We walk almost to the open doors at the far end of
the warehouse, when Maye stops and
turns to open the lock on his section.
Moving the chain door, we are suddenly in a cluttered workshop housing
cabinets with signs that warn “Danger
Chemicals” and dozens of paint cans.
What appears to be chaos is actually
a very organized mayhem. “All these
cans must be facing the same way,” he
mumbles, “It’s the law.” It’s unclear
whether federal, state or just his own.
Inside each cabinet is much like the
room outside that holds them, messy
with everything from paintbrushes to
signed baseballs, and an old Toyota
warranty booklet. Despite the muddle,
Maye knows where everything is.
We walk out of the fenced section and head left to the back corner
of the warehouse, arriving at his office. Inside resembles the cabinets in
his workshop, cluttered, but he finds
immediately what we have come to
collect, a previously published article
on him in the 1990 SHC President’s
Report. On the wall is an aerial shot
of Spring Hill campus, and a hand
Louis Maye works diligently on his
latest project.
crafted Golfer ’s placard, alerting all
who enter of Maye’s favorite hobby.
Maye frequents the Spring Hill Golf
Course at least once a week. I find
out quickly sports are a big part of
Maye’s life and have been since he
was a boy. He rummages through the
papers on a shelf under his desk, and
finds a printed list of baseball statistics on Hank Aaron. “I met Hank
Aaron, you know,” he softly beams.
“I used to play with Hank’s brother,”
he says as he looks down and nods his
head remembering his boyhood days
in Prichard, Alabama. “My friend was
all excited telling me that his brother
was coming home and for me to come
over and meet him. Hank was the nicest guy.”
Before we leave, he chooses a
cap to cover his salt and pepper scalp
and loops a worn leather belt through
the straps of his white painter pants.
“Someone had thrown this away. Can
you believe that? This is real leather,” his eyes widen as he runs his
hands over the brown chipping strap,
“I have had this for 17 years.” Not
one to waste anything, Maye makes
sure to use everything till it’s gone.
He points out an old ‘73 rusty truck
parked outside his workshop that his
brother donated to the school, as his
worn sneakers step over a lime green
leather couch, peeling from age.
We start to pack the golf cart, which
Mr. Maye uses to transport all his materials to his many projects around
campus. Moving to the back corner
of his section lined with ladders, he
chooses the six-foot for today’s work.
Not scared of height like his assistant,
he gives me some reassurance, “The
good Lord’s with us when we’re on
the ground, he’s with us when we’re
up there too.” Before we leave, we
make sure to talk football with a few
coworkers. An Auburn fan himself,
Maye discusses with a friend, an Alabama fan, cautiously about Alabama’s
loss to Florida the previous weekend.
As we pull out of the workshop he
leans in close and says, “One thing
about Alabama fans, they are right in
your face when they win, however if
they lose, they are the first to admit
it. They just say, “well we lost,” he
gently nods, “I respect that.”
A round 8:15, we head out to investigate today’s work. Mr. Maye waves
his large rough worker ’s hand to numerous people greeting each by name.
After 40 years it’s apparent he knows
almost everyone at Spring Hill. “You
work next to people for 40 years, you
know a lot about them, and you become close.” Cutting across the street
in front of Walsh Hall we head up to
the Communication Arts building for
our first job. The panels above the
building’s main entrance are painted
Egyptian Antique White, a color used
all over campus according to Maye,
however here they are chipping to reveal a dark green underneath. “We’ll
work here tomorrow” he says.
B eing close to Stewartfield, Mr.
Maye decides to review the work he
will be doing the following week on
the home’s ceilings. As we walk in,
his gray eyes shift upwards slowly
and very methodically across each
room’s top. He calculates the work
and time while telling stories of how
he helped work on the home’s many
restorations. He tells of past teachers
and priests he has met over the years,
recalling one priest in particular that
used to bring his daughter flowers. He
notices a great amount of mildew on
the ceilings and pocket doors of the
home, “The humidity here makes it
hard to get rid of this mildew. That
means I am always painting.” As class
pulls his assistant away for the time
being, Mr. Maye helps a visitor find
the Financial Aid office, driving her
there personally and then tends to the
air conditioning units in the Administrative Building.
D ark clouds threaten our painting
of the Communication Arts building’s
front door panels the next day. Lighting dances through the opaque sky,
putting us a bit behind schedule. Fi-
nally, the light storm passes and Mr.
Maye packs the rest of his materials
and ties the ladder to the back of the
cart with yellow string. At the building, he very methodically lays out a
cotton tarp speckled with all colors
on the ground in front of the doors,
surveys which panel to paint first, and
makes sure he won’t be in the way of
people exiting the door. “They always
come out right when you start,” he
chuckles as he positions the ladder just
right, under the left panel, “happens
every time.” He reaches in the back of
the cart and reveals a red plastic Folgers coffee can with its top cut off, full
of the Egyptian Antique White. While
cutting in the edges of the panel, Mr.
Maye explains the changes his job has
endured since he started. According to
Maye, for the last ten years the school
has employed large companies, like
Natural Resources, which the school
has employed for the last two years,
to be in charge of Operations. Every time a new company is hired, so
is a new manager. Also according to
Maye, each have doubted his painting
ability at first, he chuckles as he explains this, “I’ve always liked challenges. They say you can’t do it, and I
say, ‘Yes Sir, I can.’ I show them I can
do it like I tell you.”
For 40 years, Maye has been showing Spring Hill he can do the job and
has no plans to stop anytime soon. He
loves his job saying, “ I am satisfied
doing this, because I know I am satisfying others.” As long as he is doing
that he will continue to wake up at 5
a.m. and drive the 20 minutes from
his Maysville home. “I am good at
painting, and I love being here in this
community,” Maye says. With a job
he loves, and all the golf he wants to
play, the early start doesn’t seem like
a bad price to pay.
7
LIFE &
They burned a dog!
Gucci’s stor y of sur vival and triumph
CULTURE
Wa l k i n g w i t h a c a n e
By Alyson Gamble
Contributing writer
Chance, and trying to sell a house to a reluctant buyer, brought Dr.
Doug James, an adjunct Communication Arts professor at Spring Hill
College, to downtown Mobile one night in May of 1994. “A man called
me, he was interested in (the house)…but he said on the phone ‘I’m not…
I don’t really like that neighborhood.’” James explained. “I said, ‘The
neighborhood is fine.’” After an initial attempt at a meeting resulted in
the man not showing up, Dr. James was willing to try again. The second
attempt to sell the house saved a life.
“ I was waiting out on the street right about 9 o’clock p.m. when he
showed up just to see how safe the neighborhood was,” James said, “But
while I was standing out there waiting for him…I heard some people talking, male voices, and I heard a puppy yelping a few times. And I didn’t
know what to think of it.”
T he situation dramatically changed when, “all of a sudden, (the puppy) just burst into flames. And I went running down there, and I yelled,
and I yelled…‘You burned a dog!’ which was obvious,” explained Dr.
James, laughing softly at this particular reaction to the situation. “But
they took off running. It sounded like three or four people running in the
opposite direction.”
Dr. James went to get help, “banging on the houses” of the neighborhood. “I could see (the puppy) behind one of the houses…the latticework
down there. And so…one of the fellas who lived in that house jumped out
and grabbed a hose. I didn’t know how to get to the dog. He grabbed the
hose and just squirted it to put out the fire, and then by that time all the
neighbors had come out because I was making so much noise.”
O nce the owner of the puppy had retrieved it, Dr. James could see the
severity of the situation. “She had him in her arms, and he was just covered with soot of course…he had been…his entire body was on fire.”
S till, Dr. James thought, “I had done my thing,” and returned to the
house to meet with the potential buyer. “I told him what happened, that
somebody set fire to a dog, which didn’t help my claim that the neighborhood was safe, but that’s the first time anything ever happened.”
“ Anyway, while we were going to the house, the girl came up with the
dog…the neighbors knew me, knew that I liked animals…and she wanted
to know if I would take him to a vet.”
Dr. James didn’t know of an affordable veterinarian that was open at
night, but agreed to take the puppy to his vet the next morning. “I didn’t
Tap. Tap. Scrape, scrape, scrape. Scratch. Tap. Tap. The long black cane
traces the sidewalk as
senior Sara Peters walks in the moonlight. “I have a mental map of the land,”
she chuckles.
She “shorelines,” dragging the full edge of the cane along the ground, tracing the space where the grass and concrete meet, feeling her way along. “This
will be easy,” she says while crossing the path. Her companion, meanwhile,
trips in the dark.
Sara’s cane is only a couple of inches shorter than her. It is thin and wrapped
in black, just like its owner is with her slender frame in dark clothing. Since
Sara is not legally blind, the state does not allow her to carry a white cane.
“I can hear the differences and feel it between the grass and the sidewalk,
feel the drop in the sidewalk, a lot of different things.” She walks quickly,
swinging the cane in a body-wide arc about two steps ahead.
“I’ve gotten used to it.”
* * *
Sara has a condition called photophobia, a severe aversion to light that has
plagued her for her entire life. “I got my first pair of sunglasses in the fourth
grade,” she says early in the evening, sitting cross-legged on a striped rug in
her room.
The neatly kept dorm is washed in soft incandescent light pouring from a tall
silver floor lamp. The overhead florescent light, which hurts her eyes, is turned
off. Her cane leans against the door. A strand of plastic brown and orange
leaves is strung along the bed’s baseboard. History books and fantasy novels
line the shelves. Beside the Apple computer, with its monitor brightness turned
to the lowest possible level, sits two large black binders. These plastic binders
contain her novel.
Last year, as part of the National Novel Writing Month, or NaNo, Sara wrote 87,000 words in
20 days. The goal of the contest is to write 50,000
words in 30. A purple bar, appearing below the
user ’s name on the contest’s website, and a certificate of completion are the awards for completing the
challenge. Sara laughs. “A purple bar—that’s your
only reward.”
Sara speaks just as freely about her problems nanowrmo.org
with photophobia as her literary accomplishments.
In classrooms, she has a “slight problem with glare A badge of participation
and florescent lights,” so she wears a “simple, in National Novel Writing
cheap” plain black baseball cap. Her teachers have Month.
not scolded her for wearing it.
When outdoors, she wears sunglasses with the
cap and, for the last couple of weeks, has been using her new cane.
While walking with the cane, her most frequent question from passer-by is: “Are
you pretending to be blind?”
“No,” she replies. “Bright light hurts my eyes.”
Her eye doctor says that “some people are just more light sensitive.”
“I really don’t like that answer,” says Sara. She wants to tell her doctor,
“Hey, look, there is something wrong. My eyes should not be getting worse at
20, 21.”
She doesn’t think the degree of her condition is typical. To many people,
though, photophobia is “not that big of a problem.”
* * *
Photophobia is sometimes associated with another medical condition, such
as migraines, but for most people it is simply a heightened sensitivity to light.
Often, people suffering from photophobia seek the shelter of dark rooms. Others, like Sara, wear dark sunglasses and baseball caps when exposed to bright
lights. Most do not have to carry canes to get around, but some, such as Sara,
are so sensitive to the light that their alternative to suffering is to simply shut
their eyes when outdoors.
Hence the cane.
* * *
There is another, less sinister, reason for Sara’s cane. As a political science
see Gucci page 9
see Cane page 8
Dr. Doug James shows off his dog Gucci’s latest honor, an induction into
the Alabama Pet Hall of Fame.
By Sara Miller
Life and Culture Editor
LIFE &
CULTURE
Fa c u l t y a n d s t u d e n t s a r e
‘Facing
By Sara Miller
Life and Culture Editor
When Dr. Barbara Starr of the Fine
Arts department told me that she had a
bit of news information for me, I was
intrigued, but clueless as to the subject
of this tip. I’ve known her for four years
now as one of her work-study students,
and I knew that she considered the information important, given the grin she
was sporting and her request that I come
into her office immediately and learn
about this mysterious news item. I’m
never one to turn down a bit of information that could be of interest to my
fellow students, so I agreed to listen to
what she had to say.
I had no idea she was going to tell
me of the ambitious project called Facing Poverty.
A ccording to Facing Poverty’s mission statement, “It is the goal of this
project to raise awareness of the issues
and challenges facing those who live
in poverty in our area. It is our hope
that in doing so, we will help create a
climate for change.” A group of faculty
and interested students will be contributing to the final result of a Web site
Date
Cane
from page 7
Poverty’
that will show viewers information,
photographs, and quotes about the issue of poverty and the people who live
in such situations. Have you got an extra space in your schedule for an independent study class? You can get school
credit for helping to inform the public
about a serious social issue, and you
could potentially become famous on the
Internet for something more than your
mad World of Warcraft skills.
O n Wednesday the 18th at 7 p.m.
in the Gautrelet Room, Stephen Foster
Black, director of the new Initiative for
Ethics and Social Responsibility at the
University of Alabama, will be delivering a kick-off speech for the project. If
you’re reading this paper at 6:45 in the
caf and you aren’t planning anything
later, close it for the moment and go listen to the speech. By planning anything
later, I don’t mean planning to watch
“LOST.” You can tape that or watch it
online.
If you’re reading this paper after
Wednesday night, I’m sorry, but you
missed the speech. You haven’t missed
the opportunity to get involved, though.
Talk to Dr. Barbara Starr, or read one of
the signs on campus to find out which
professor is going to be specializing in
your interest area for the project. I’m
sure any one of them would be eager to
talk about the project in greater detail
than I could possibly do in this short
column.
C a l e n d a r
Details
major nearing the midpoint of her senior year, she plans to attend graduate school and study orientational mobility. In Sara’s words, she wants
“to teach blind people how to use to the cane.”
Orientational mobility instructors teach people to move around using
echo location. “Like dolphins,” explains Sara.
Her biggest problems when walking are people who do not move away
as she comes near them, “almost like they expect me to move for them.”
She laughs, imitating the imaginary passers-by. “‘She’s still swinging
this stick’.”
She worries people will steer her “where she does not want to go.”
“Most people assume [blind people] need a helper, but a lot of times
they don’t.”
She wants people who pass her to keep talking to their friends. “If
they stop talking it’s like, okay, where’d they move? If I can’t see them
and I can’t hear them I don’t know they’re there.”
On her first day with the cane, she accidentally tripped someone, but
the person “just walked away.”
Senior Brandon McLeod said, “After first seeing Sara with the cane,
I was a bit taken aback, knowing that she’s not blind. However, once she
told me that she’s learning how to use it so that she can teach how to use
it, I became slightly more inclined to admiration than disinclination.”
Sara says she went shopping with her mother over Fall Break. This
was the first time she used the cane around a family member.
She
thought her mom would try to dissuade the usage.
“‘Won’t people stare?’” She imagined her mother saying.
Sara was correct.
“She wasn’t quite happy that she let me use it,” said Sara afterward.
Her father “doesn’t like it at all,” according to Sara, but she continues
to use the cane. “It’s my life, it’s not like they can do anything to stop
me.”
* * *
On Monday, September 25, Sara submitted a letter to the editor of The
SpringHillian . She explained her condition and her reason for using the
cane. She apologized for tripping or inconveniencing anyone.
Then, with her typical sensitivity and practical style, she wrote: “All
I ask of you is that you please treat me with the same courtesy as you
would anyone else.”
After all, as a future orientational mobility instructor, it is something
Sara would do herself.
o f
Time
E v e n t s
Location
Wednesday, October 18
Stephen Foster Black
7 p.m.
Gautrelet Room
Thursday, October 19
Students for Life meeting
5:15 p.m.
President’s Room
Photographs by
Margarita Skiadas
“Terror, Torment and Tyranny:
Human Rights Today”
Opening Reception: 6 p.m.
Gallery Talk: 7 p.m.
Eichold Gallery
7 p.m.
Byrne Memorial Hall
Discussion Session on Body
Image and Intuitive Eating
7 p.m.
Lower Commons
Family Weekend
All weekend
Last day to withdraw with
non-penalty “W” grade
English Club interest meeting
Until the Registrar ’s Office closes
Wherever your parents want to spy
on your activities.
Registrar ’s Office
5 p.m.
QH301
Speaker to kick-off “Facing Poverty”
project
Speech by Dr. William F. Schulz
Dr. Hope Jackson
Friday, October 20 through
Sunday, October 22
8
11
A fresh perspective
Maybe it was the 30-degree cold temperatures that some warm-blooded southerners can’t
fathom, but something about my 41-hour trip
home this past weekend to Wisconsin was
significantly different than the last time I was
there. I spent the majority of my time
recertifying my Outdoor Emergency Care Technician training, but in the brief few hours I
spent among my friends, I certainly felt a little
out of place. The chill I felt in my body was
more than the brisk, dry air. More than likely
it came from knowing that even though I have
only lived at Spring Hill for a couple months
now, what used to make up “home” for me is
rapidly progressing away from what it was.
I would be willing to bet that most college
students feel some anxiety of the changes that
occur in our lives that are out of our control.
While this is a natural and inevitable element of
growing up, and in some cases, growing away,
I can’t help but worry that everyone and everything I loved and what made me who I was
months ago has been ripped out from underneath
me. I never had a problem in high school
accepting that change would occur in friendships and things that were important at the time.
I also understood, as I still do, that friends and
fascinations fade, allowing room for new.
Cool! Great!
I love new opportunities and meeting new
people, but when I go home to get squashed
between the impact of clique drama, my dog
dying, and a retail coffee building built in a
park I used to sit in and dream about the stars,
I want to high-tail it back to Alabama! That is
a disconcerting and mysterious feeling in and
of itself.
The concept of a home-away-from-home is
an accurate description of the world many of us
are in. As I sit here I wonder if things with my
(ex-)girlfriend will ever restore themselves. I
wonder if my business will continue to produce
the revenue it did when I was there constantly
promoting it. No matter what happens, I have
faith that the strength in personal relationships
and the historical aspects of importance in my
life find their proper place in my mind, allowing me to move forward knowing that I still
made a good choice to come to a school where
I can challenge myself and look out a different
window. I am thankful for that experience and
this community. However, that doesn’t change
the fact that I still tried to stuff my snow skis
and my Labrador in my backpack prior to my
departure.
CULTURE
SHC student contracts mystery ailment
By Jolie Pollard
Editor in chief
By Doug Bruce
Columnist
LIFE &
Four young men decided to climb Mount Brown,
a peak in the Canadian Rockies with an elevation of
9,157 feet. They began the hike at 5,000 feet. It was
a four mile hike, and they climbed 1,000 feet every
painstaking hour.
Normally hikers leave early in the morning to
hike Mount Brown, but these guys decided to take
on the challenge at 3 in the afternoon. They didn’t
see the nasty weather coming; after all, it was a
pleasant 80 degrees when they began their journey.
As a dark cloud came closer and closer and only
bloody remnants of attacked wild animals were visible amidst the mass of dull white, two of the hikers
decided to turn back.
But Donovan Mulvey and his friend Brad Babineaux wanted to explore farther. Donovan and Brad
knew their friends didn’t have bear spray to defend
themselves against the grizzlies. They just hoped
they would be OK.
At 8,560 feet, the two hikers became drenched
in an icy storm. It was a shivering 50 degrees. They
wore jeans, boots, and fleece sweaters with t-shirts
underneath – it was supposed to be a fairly sunny
hike. The temperature fell to 30 degrees. They had
to pull off the soaked sweaters. They were freezing,
and they didn’t have any food with them. Brad was
hungry.
The weather was taking a turn for the worst.
Brad saw Donovan ahead doing well. Eventually
they were crawling on all fours – wearing no snow
gloves while snow seeped into their boots. Their
hands were so numb they couldn’t feel their fingers.
Donovan cracked. He screamed, “There’s a blizzard
falling on us! We need to get out of here now!” They
began sliding down steep and narrow switchbacks –
cuts in the mountain where one misstep could mean
a snapped ankle. It took six hours to get down.
D onovan and Brad hugged each other when they
made it back to their starting point. They made it
alive.
* * *
Babineaux had recorded the terrifying ordeal in
his journal. “I was just pissed off at Mount Brown,”
he said. You could tell the adventurer was sincere,
yet you could tell it would not stop him from hiking
again.
This is what they love to do. The hike was just
one of several for Donovan Mulvey and his buddies
this past summer and the only scary one. He met
his two best friends, Brad Babineaux and Brant McCullough, at a camp in Dry Creek, La., in his young
teenage years – all three are Louisiana natives.
While in high school (they went to separate high
schools), they made a pact that they would travel at
least once together every year. This year they traveled to Glacier National Park in Montana. Instead
of working and saving for their trip as they always
do, they decided to work at their destination site at
a local lodge.
As he recalls the incident on Mount Brown, Mulvey says, “It was the first time I ever thought that
I was going to die – I just remember telling myself
‘My mom’s gonna be so sad.’ I remember just freaking out, like, ‘I’m gonna die because of this blizzard.’ It just got so cold. It was the worst feeling
I’ve ever felt.”
You’d think that a blizzard, a grizzly bear attack,
or running out of food would be the greatest dangers
up in the glaciers, but for Mulvey, a junior business
major at Spring Hill, it was that “ooh so fresh” spring
water from the mountains that we often see falsely
advertised in bottled water commercials. These past
couple months, something in that water took a toll on
the health of this jovially spirited 20-year-old.
* * *
I t’s August 31. Mulvey is sitting on a chair in his
room. He’s wearing a small pink t-shirt that says “I
love Phi Mu.” His girlfriend back in Louisiana is a
member of the sorority. Mulvey has made the best
out of his tiny Mobile Hall single.
It doesn’t take too long to figure out how much he
loves to travel. Above his head is a poster of a glacier.
He has a black and white poster of Ansel Adam’s historic photograph of the Grand Tetons taped beneath
his window. His backpack for school is army green
and sewn on to the front are two badges: one that
says “Canada” and one that says “Glacier National
Park” with a grizzly standing in the background of
the logo. But don’t get him wrong, Mulvey’s a well
rounded traveler. His destinations range from seeking solitude in the secluded mountains like Glacier
to clubbing and going to concerts in big downtown
cities like Chicago. It doesn’t take long to figure out
how much he loves classic rock either. A clean and
cared for acoustic guitar leans gently against the wall
and a standing keyboard just barely touches a Bruce
Lee banner hanging from the ceiling. He has posters
of Jimmy Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and the Doors – all
black and white – on all sides of the room. A song is
playing on his laptop from a classic rock band called
Ween. “They’re ridiculous,” says Mulvey.
H e’s thin, pale and sports a full head of black
hair that looks like a tamed version of Jim Morrison’s shaggy mane. When he talks, he has a cool way
of dragging his words, making him seem relaxed and
easy going, yet confident and frank. You can tell he’s
fatigued, looking at the dark shadowy circles under
his eyes. Mulvey has lost about 20 pounds since his
trip to Glacier.
H e has had about 10 appointments with doctors
in Lake Charles, La., his hometown and has already
given about 28 tubes of blood for testing. Doctors
think he might have a northern disease like Rocky
Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), an illness contracted from insect bites. The October issue of Backpacker magazine discusses RMSF in its special feature
called “A dozen ways to die” for backcountry hikers.
“Southern doctors aren’t used to it, so they don’t
know about it,” Mulvey says explaining the medical
professionals’ befuddlement at his illness. His immune system is down, and he’s been receiving booster shots that help ward off any illnesses that could
cause more damage to his health. The shots also treat
his fatigue.
D octors have speculated that Mulvey contracted
the virus from the water he drank while he was in
the woods at Glacier. “We purified the water when
we were in the woods with a purifier – but uggh…it
doesn’t purify viruses,” he says. “They thought an
animal was in the water with a virus, like a bear
[…].”
M ulvey is the only one of his group who got sick
see Mulvey page 12
9
LIFE &
CULTURE
An ‘arrae’ of style
By Rae McConville
Fashion columnist/Assistant editor
A lot of you have been asking me
lately, “What is the difference between
cheap jeans and so called ‘designer ’ or
‘premium’ jeans?” There are a lot of
reasons, but mainly just the price. Designer jeans with price tags well over
$100 and up to $3,000 have become a
status symbol just like their designer
handbags/clothing/shoes/sunglasses
counterparts. It’s all about the logo
gracing the rear of the wearer.
Jordache started the trend of status symbol jeans in the 1970s, and ever
since designers such as Rock and Republic, Seven for All Mankind, Paige
Premium, AG, and Citizens of Humanity have been banking on the backside
of all shapes and sizes of the fashion
minded.
D esigner jeans boast claims of
better construction, better fit, and the
finest denim; that all might be true.
However, most of the price difference
is based on the designer ’s name. The
more expensive the jean, the “cooler”
the wearer becomes. This is the same
idea that fuels all designer apparel
culture. If this all seems ridiculous to
spend so much, understand everyone
has their own passion, and your wallet
is probably heavier because this isn’t
yours. Unless your wallet is Gucci, of
course.
T he most important thing to consider when buying jeans, whether male
or female, designer or cheap, is fit. Before you hit the stores, do your homework and check out the website zafu.
com. The website compiles a list of
possible best-fit matches from literally hundreds of brands (both designer
and cheap), from a simple questionnaire. Whether the site gives you only
two matches or 75, it’s a great place to
start.
M ake sure you try the jeans on, (as
painful as it may be) before you buy
them. The matches the site gives you
could still not fit perfectly, and a test
run is always a good idea. Jeans with
a darker wash can be worn day and
night, they give the allusion of lengthened legs, and are a huge trend right
now. If you can’t decide whether a
pair of jeans look good on you or not,
the salespeople can help you determine which styles and cuts work best
for your body. Don’t be afraid to ask
for assistance. Pun intended.
Men and women’s designer jeans
can be found in Mobile at Parisian
and many local boutiques. Some great
places for mid-priced and cheap jeans
are Gap, American Eagle, and Abercrombie & Fitch. The Mossimo line
at Target has launched a premium line
with prices around $30.
Gucci
from page 7
think it was going to live, but that night on the way home, I stopped by a drugstore, and I got some of this spray that would kill the pain. The pharmacist
said, ‘Be sure you dab it on him. Don’t spray it; it’ll scare him.’” At this point,
he made motions with his hands, as if there were an invisible puppy in front of
him, to show the correct way to put the spray on. “I went by the Spring Hill
Fire Department to see if they had anything they could offer to me; they gave
me some four by fours,” James said, referring to a type of gauze pad.
A fter returning home and making the puppy comfortable by giving him a
bed that belonged to another dog Dr. James owned, there was nothing left to
do but wait until the morning. “He slept all night…he never complained, it was
amazing to me.”
T he puppy lived through the night, and the next morning Dr. James took
him to his vet. “She treated him for free, until his eyelids began to pull.”
C omplications from the burns resulted in the puppy’s eyelids pulling up. “He
couldn’t shut his eyes, so we had to take him to Auburn, and I called over there
and told them what had happened.”
T he puppy, Gucci, could have simply been an example of a severe burn,
forgotten quickly after he was treated. But after a phone call to a reporter at
the Mobile Register, his case became public.
“ (The story) ran the next day, which was Saturday…and there were so
many phone calls about Gucci that the Mobile Register wrote an article about
the phone calls, because people were just totally outraged,” James said. “So
the word got out through the publicity, and television stations, and magazines,
and radio...”
W hen a reporter met Gucci and Dr. James at Auburn and wrote a story
about his ordeal, Gucci’s fame grew. “It went across the world, all around the
world…and he received fan mail from Canada, every state in the union, Australia…people in Germany saw it, people in England saw it. So he was getting
all sorts of contributions, which was good, because we spent about $7000 on
the surgeries, and that was a discount. They used it for teaching.”
T he people responsible for the burning were eventually caught, and after
going to court multiple times, “the juveniles were given community service,
200 hours a piece, and the adult was sentenced to three months in jail, which
he didn’t serve.”
A t that time, Alabama did not have strict animal cruelty laws. It took four
years and a lobbyist to change that. Eventually, a law called the Pet Protection Act, better known as the Gucci Law, was passed, “which says cruelty to
household dogs and cats will be punished.”
G ucci still enjoys fame in the city of Mobile; when he turned ten years old,
the Mayor at the time, Mike Dow, proclaimed his birthday, March 15, Gucci
Day. On Wednesday, October 11, the Mobile Press-Register reported that Gucci had been “inducted into the Alabama Animal Hall of Fame.”
Dr. James, meanwhile, has written a book titled Gucci: A Puppy’s Tale
and Other Pet Stoies. Several copies of the book sit carefully on one of the
bookshelves that line one wall of his office. The office is a safe haven for all
creatures, including ants. “I had some ants in my desk, and I don’t kill them. I
just put them out the window. I just have…I really have respect for everything.
Trees, plants, animals, people…and I just wish people would regard living
things. Respect living things.”
W hen asked what one thing he wanted to share with the public, James said,
“An award that I received here.” He then walked over to one of the bookshelves and carefully pulled out a plaque and held it out.
T he plaque was dated April 28, 1999, and it read, “For Your Inspiration
And Dedication To The Communication Arts Department, Its Faculty and
Students.”
LIFE &
CULTURE
10
Too much information
By Matt Blythe
Columnist
There’s this idea floating
around that there are times when
it’s better to just not know certain things, which really bugs
me. I’m always very upset when
I ask someone a question and they
tell me “Dude, you don’t want to
know.” The reason I am upset is
because, well, I really do want to
know. If I didn’t want to know
I wouldn’t have asked them. In
asking someone a question, I am
entering a contract with them in
which I accept whatever consequences their answer might have
in exchange for them telling me
the truth. If they don’t want to tell
me that’s fine, but they shouldn’t
pretend like they’re doing me a favor by not saying anything.
I was thinking about this recently as I was examining this
big... well, I don’t even know
what it was—a pimple, maybe,
or perhaps an abscess—whatever,
it was located next to the bottom
half of my mouth on the left side.
It sprung up a few days ago, Saturday I guess, and had grown progressively larger since then. A little yellow dot of pus appeared in
the center of it and grew also, until the entire thing was that nasty
pus color. Then, it was filled with
blood instead.
I didn’t pick at it, because I
remember being told—by a person for whom I have a rather high
opinion, at that—that touching my
face to pick at this sort of thing
would give me scars, and who
needs those? Also, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t sort of
interested in how big and how
disgusting it would get if I didn’t
prematurely end its life. I think
that subliminally I was hoping
that it would eventually engulf my
entire face like some weird fungus
or something, but I can’t say for
sure.
Well, whatever this thing was,
it exploded as I was applying my
twice-daily regimen of searing
salicylic acid to my face. I didn’t
notice until I sat down in my apartment to listen to some music on
my computer rather than work on
school-type things. I reached up to
stroke my chin in that contemplative manner that I have, and discovered that where there had once
been a huge and unwieldy outcropping of swollen flesh, there
was now only a somewhat-tender
spot of skin next to my lower lip.
M y point in telling you about
this is that it’s statistically very
probable that, at some point during the last three paragraphs, you
thought to yourself, “Okay, that’s
just a little too much information.”
I won’t hold it against you, but I
would recommend that you cut that
out. This is especially unnerving
when I say something that really
shouldn’t be a big deal, tell someone I’m going to the bathroom to
excrete solid waste—as a courtesy
to them, like, so they have some
sort of idea how long they’re going to be waiting for me to get
out—I will say something like
this and then think, DAMMIT! ,
and then have a little countdown
in my head, 5...4...3...2...1... and
then someone will say it, “that’s
too much information,” or maybe
change things up a little and say
“please, not while I’m eating,” if
we are sitting at lunch or dinner.
On my more prophetic days I can
even tell who is going to say it by
examining the subtle changes in
their chi. A little part of yourself
dies every time you say stuff like
that.
I ’ve never been quite convinced that there really even is
such a thing as “too much information.” Perhaps it should be our
goal to seek out knowledge wherever it is and however unpleasant
it might be. Knowing is always
better than not knowing, even if
knowing hurts or is otherwise uncomfortable to hear.
I think that my goal in life is to
somehow express the above sentiment in a way that is widespread
enough to where people will start
saying “that’s too much information” ironically , like it was some
line from Monty Python and the
Holy Grail or something.
The editor of this section demands a
shrubbery for editing this column.
Gaston Arellano / Contributing Photographer
Chad Boykin and Jake Keane participate in Campus Programming Board’s Midnight
Madness on Friday, October 13.
‘ H o r r o r ’ s c o p e s
Aries (3/21-4/19)
Procrastination may be good for the
soul, but it won’t get you far in life if
you procrastinate forever. So don’t put
off for tomorrow what you can put off
until the middle of the night.
Taurus (4/20-5/20)
Door to door salespeople annoy you this
week, but you realize it could always
be worse. It could be raining, and they
could be trying to sell you some hokey
sci-fi story about an evil overlord
brainwashing souls and causing them to
jump on couches.
Gemini (5/21-6/21)
Confusion is highlighted this week as
you test your highlighter out on the
dictionary. The highlighter is working
perfectly, and will continue to do so as
long as you remember to put the cap
back on.
Cancer (6/22-7/22)
A day of doom approaches, a day you
have been dreading. But once you start
writing your big research paper, you’ll
find it less complicated than you originally suspected. Just be sure to make it
look like an act of pure brilliance.
Leo (7/23-8/22)
Life takes a turn for the depressing this
week, and you may feel that your life
is crashing all around you. But that’s
just the bits of your plane falling on the
beach; don’t worry about it. You’re
really in a tropical paradise for polar
bears.
Virgo (8/23-9/22)
A friend desires comfort this week,
comfort that only you can give him or
her. You know exactly what your friend
wants and needs right now, and you’re
eager to give. So stop hiding your stash
of chocolate, and get your mind out of
the gutter.
Libra (9/23-10/22)
You’ve missed something this week, but
you’re not sure what. Just make sure that
you haven’t missed hearing about a tornado that’s headed for your dorm. You
don’t have a house as tornado-resistant
as Dorothy’s house.
Scorpio (10/23-11/21)
When life hands you oranges, you can
make delicious orange juice, even if
you’re not in the state of Florida. But
when life hands you rotten apples, throw
them as far away from you as you
possibly can, or just run away.
Sagittarius (11/22-12/21)
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to stop the Storeazlovocians
from taking over the caf Figuring out
what they are and why you should care is
your job, secret agent person. This message will self-destruct when thrown in
the garbage.
Capricorn (12/22-1/19)
Life doesn’t seem to be going your way.
A parent disapproves of your journey,
the odds seem stacked against you, and
you don’t know if your decision was for
the best of all. Don’t worry, Faramir;
happiness will find you, and it will be
wearing white.
Aquarius (1/20-2/18)
You have the strong desire to try new
things that you have never experienced
before, and a close companion is willing
to share those things with you. So take
his or her offer of the candy you haven’t
tasted before, and get your mind out of
the gutter.
Pisces (2/19-3/20)
Sorting out the sharks that can mistake
you for a piece of meat from the good
fish in the sea can be hazardous, but the
payoff is great. In time you will
prosper.
LIFE &
CULTURE
Mulvey
cooked for him. “I just felt terrible for him. I mean
he looked like hell,” recalls his girlfriend. Mulvey looks surprised. “I’m sorry, but you did,” she
from the trip at Glacier. Babineaux and McCullough
tells him. “He was so sick and so weak; I mean, he
are fine. Babineaux is a bit baffled at the incident.
couldn’t leave the house for a week or so,” says
“We drank the same water,” he said while talking
Ropp.
on the phone from California where he’s working
Ropp, who has been accompanying Mulvey
at an engineering company. “We pumped it into our
to almost every single doctor ’s appointment, had
water bottles (from the purifier).” He theorized that
nursed her sick boyfriend after he came back from
Mulvey’s water bottle may have made contact with
Glacier. “I waited on him hand and foot,” she says.
some unpurified water, but still sounds as though
She tugs on Mulvey’s jeans as she says he has been
he thinks the incident is just too strange.
gaining some weight. “He’s still not back to where
I t wasn’t until the last week of his two month
he was before he left,” she says.
trip that Mulvey began feeling ill. The three friends
Ropp recalls going with Mulvey to get his bone
had already planned a hike in Canada and although
marrow biopsy. As she sat with his mom in the waithe was feeling sick, Mulvey said, “Screw it. I’m
ing room she said she could hear him screaming. “I
gonna do it.” He says he felt terrible but, “it was
thought he was just completely under […] that was
the best hiking up there – it was really cool.”
kind of nerve racking, but we went in there and he
W hile in Canada the three young men
was fine.”
went to a bar called Thirsty Beer Saloon.
The doctor had to stick a holMulvey was legal – you only have to be
low needle that Mulvey approxi18 to drink in Canada. He says he began
mated with his hands to be the
to feel really sick and he thought it was
size of a pen, into his bone about
the booze at first. Babineaux didn’t refour times before it gave way. He
alize how sick his buddy was. “We all
notes that he was given an anesthought he was bullshittin’,” he said. Afthetic so although still painful, it
ter thinking about it, he says he realized
could have been worse. Mulvey
that Mulvey would get sick occasionally
gets up and shows a photograph
when they were leaving hikes. “I thought
of the blood soaked bandage over
he had a little cold or something.”
the hole on his hip bone after the
B abineaux didn’t leave for Louisiana
surgery. It looks nasty.
with Mulvey and McCullough. “When he
For Mulvey, the entire ex(Mulvey) left, I was hoping Brant would
perience with the appointments
drive,” recalls Babineaux.
was rather frustrating. “I saw
M ulvey had driven his black Jeep
about one, two, three, four, five
Wrangler all the way up to Glacier from
different doctors […] they just
Lake Charles with no one ever sharing
kept sending me to specialist afthe wheel. McCullough said Mulvey
ter specialist,” he says.
was always a little particular with re But he does have good news
Courtesy of Donovan Mulvey
gards to anyone driving his Jeep. “We
today. He found out one week
Brad Babineaux and Donovan Mulvey pose on one of their hike at Glacier.
asked a few times (if we could drive),
ago that his WBC count was up
but he said ‘Don’t worry about it.’[…]
to 9,600 from a dangerous 2,300
We were fine with that.”
in the early part of his illness.
H owever, this time, Mulvey didn’t have a just in case it was. But Lyme disease was elimi- (The normal range is between 4,300 and 10,800.)
choice. After only driving for two hours, he pulled nated quickly. As the hospital was running different This was two weeks without any booster shots. “I
over and McCullough had to take the driver ’s seat. tests on him, doctors noticed his WBC count kept was really relieved,” says Mulvey sounding almost
He slept for hours at a time in the Jeep and drank dropping. “They thought it was Leukemia,” recalls exhausted as if though it’s been too much of a long
a lot of Gatorade – different flavors – to keep him- Mulvey. He then had to get a bone marrow biopsy. journey for him.
self hydrated. He had been keeping in touch with
His marrow, the tissue extracted from his bones,
* * *
his mom on his cell phone. She had managed to came out negative for the blood cell cancer. “That’s
Normally for fall break, Mulvey would have had
get a prescription through phone calls for him. when they said ‘It’s not a serious disease; it’s a some wild adventure laid out for himself, but docAfter picking up the medicine while on a stop in serious virus,’ and they started testing for (RMSF). tors advised him to take it easy. He spent the few
Wyoming, and taking his dose, McCullough said My tests came back borderline which means that days off with his family and went to what he said
Mulvey would start driving, then after four to five that could be it…” Mulvey is waiting for test re- was his last doctor ’s appointment. His WBC count
hours, he would start feeling bad again. “He called sults that were sent to California. He says he’s feel- was 6,800 – within the normal range.
his parents; he told his mom, ‘the medicine is not ing good so far.
Doctors still weren’t able to pinpoint exactworking, what am I supposed to do?’” After sleep* * *
ly what caused his suffering for the past couple
ing in a motel in Colorado, Mulvey’s mom got them
It’s Friday, September 15. Mulvey has good months, but believe it was something “along the
a hotel in Oklahoma.
news. He looks too happy; it could be because Meg lines” of RMSF. The odd part of this is that Mulvey
I n Texas, he began vomiting the beef jerky and is here.
never suffered any rashes or legions – dominant
Taco Bell food that he ate most of the time during
Meg Ropp is from Lake Charles too, but she’s symptoms of RMSF.
the trip. The two had pulled over at a gas station. going to school there at McNeese State University.
M ulvey’s mom has thrown out his purifier.
“I went to the bathroom, I heard someone in one of She is a pretty blonde - petite, slim and tanned. When asked if he’s scared of drinking fresh mounthe stalls bawling – it was the worst thing I’ve ever She’s wearing blue linen slacks and a yellow top tain water again, he says “I can’t help but feel a
heard,” said McCullough. “I waited by the truck that fits snuggly to her body. She’s wearing make- little paranoid about washing my hands or not drop– didn’t want anyone to know I knew him,” he jok- up, but just a little bit. They are both bare foot. ping my (water) bottle in the lake.” He has a new
ingly remembers speaking in his thick Louisiana Mulvey’s in a green t-shirt and rugged, worn jeans. purifier now; his mom bought it.
accent.
The couple looks comfortable together.
T he fact that he got sick still doesn’t take away
* * *
When Mulvey had arrived in Lake Charles from his fondness for the park in the northern RockI t’s September 4. Mulvey is sitting in the same and McCullough took his pickup truck home, the ies.
old Mobile Hall chair again. His laptop is in its usu- sick and fatigued traveler went directly to Ropp’s
H e says he would be back in Glacier right now
al radio mode, diffusing the sounds of harmonizing house. He threw up the Shrimp Louisianne that she if he could.
from page 11
electric guitar melodies around the room. So far
the theory is that he has RSMF; the doctors don’t
seem to be speculating anymore. He only knows
what the doctor tells him about the illness, and the
doctor has advised him not to do any research – it
might make him worry. “Hopefully, if they find out
it is (RMSF), they’ll be able to stop it,” he says.
The doctors aren’t giving him as many booster
shots now. His white blood cell (WBC) count has
begun to stabilize on its own. WBCs are important
for fighting infection in the body and protecting the
immune system. He doesn’t look as pale or as tired
as he did before, but he has a nervous tone in his
voice. You can tell he is a bit worried.
W hen Mulvey had arrived in Lake Charles after leaving Glacier, he immediately got tested for
Lyme disease along with any other kind of tick bite
illness. They gave him an antibiotic vaccination
12
13
Opinions&
Editorials
The
Note from the editor
Reader shares insight on Spring
Hillian
Life and Culture column
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Dear Editor:
A lot has changed in the
couple of decades since I was
a college student, and most of
it is for the better. Sure, “dollar
pitcher nights” may be gone for
good, but Saturday mornings
are probably a lot clearer now.
I also remember that there were
a few women on campus whom
we thought to be pursuing “MRS
Degrees;” that is, they appeared
to be more interested in getting
a “Mrs.” before their name than
they were a “BA” or “BS” after it.
Much of their energy was
focused on finding that perfect
lifemate, rather than what went on
in the classroom. For that matter,
they didn’t seem to partake in any
of the essential non-classroom
elements of college either, if
they didn’t involve spending
time with the love of their life.
Or finding the love of their life.
Thankfully, I don’t think that’s
so true anymore. Today’s college
women have more choices than
ever in what they study, what
careers they pursue, which sports
they play and which leadership
roles they want on campus.
I thought of all this as I read
Sara Miller’s column “They’re
engaged?
Seriously?”
(The
Springhillian, October 4). In it,
Sara thoughtfully and bravely
explores her feelings about
growing up and facing the
expectations of life after college.
She wondered aloud how other
people her age could be planning
the rest of their lives while she is
still thinking about next semester.
Full disclosure here: I’ve
known Sara literally every day
of her life. She’s my oldest niece
and I still remember the day when,
as a precocious two-year old, she
was entertaining the whole family
by spelling out words in letter
cards on the floor. I jokingly laid
out the letters P-O-R-S-C-H-E for
her to increase her vocabulary in
quintessential mid-80’s fashion, and
then returned the cards to the pile
for her to return to her little game.
A minute later, she pulled
out all of the same letters and
spelled the revered yuppie brand
as well as most 13-year old gear
heads (which isn’t to say 100%
perfectly, but hey, she was two).
Today she arranges letters
in an entirely more meaningful
way, and I still recognize
her latent genius at work.
One thing that seems to have
not changed one bit for today’s
college students is that nagging
feeling that everyone one has “it”
figured out (their major, their career,
their love life)—except them. I
felt the same way, but it wasn’t
true then and it isn’t true now.
I think I still hold the record
for most major changes in a two
year period (4), but everything
turned out better than I ever could
have “planned” it in college, and
I’m only working with a decent
fraction of Sara’s brain cells.
Question to college students
laboring over the same feelings
of confusion and inadequacy:
Where would you be today
if you were forced into a career
choice you locked in ten years ago?
Let’s just say we’d be experiencing
a critical oversupply of ballerinas,
princesses, firemen and astronauts
in the job market right now.
We all change and grow
and, thankfully, most of us
have the opportunity to make
new decisions when we do.
Many of those decisions
lie beyond a corner that we
can’t see around right now.
Some of today’s college
seniors will decide to go on
to graduate work in areas far
different than their undergraduate
study, and most will end up
working in different companies
or different fields entirely than
the ones in which they may soon
begin working. That is all normal
and good. Liberating, actually.
Our love lives usually work
out the same way. There are always
a few people who meet their
soulmates early on and live happily
ever after. Good for them. Many,
though, will experience the same
twists and turns in their love life
as they do in the rest of their life.
Most
of
the
selfproclaimed ballerinas of ten
years ago will be tomorrow’s
writers, doctors and engineers.
Mobile’s First
Collegiate Newspaper
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: (251) 380-3850
or 380-3840
FAX: (251) 460-2185
Editor in Chief
Jolie Pollard
jlpollard@ stumail.shc.edu
News Editor
Kerrie McNamara
[email protected]
Life & Culture Editor
Sara Miller
smmiller@ stumail.shc.edu
Sports Editor
Katelyn Olewinski
[email protected]
Photographer/Assistant Editor
Patrick Yursik
[email protected]
Assistant Editor/
Student Reaction Editor
Alicia Brauer
[email protected]
By Jolie Pollard
Editor in chief
Many people like the
idea of being independent.
Some world leaders like
Fidel Castro and Kim JongIl strive to feel that way.
My home country received
its independence from Britain in 1981. We’re so young
and our status as being an
independent country humors
me. We still depend heavily on the greater powers to
keep us surviving. I recall a
professor at home telling me
that some countries import
some of our goods as a favor more than anything else.
That’s why I can understand why some people admire countries that struggle
to make it on their own. Some
people hail Cuba for trying to
be the “third world” country
that refrains from depend-
ing on the greater powers.
North Korea prides itself in
its philosophy of self reliance from the Juche Idea.
However, we all know
that these regimes, despite
their idealistc philosophies,
have a lousy track record
of keeping a contented citizenry. Why else would so
many people want to leave ?
So how far should a country go? Is it worth it to strive
on total self reliance and
to have people suffer in the
claimed attempt to have them
not suffer ultimately and provide benefits for the masses? I
have mixed feelings about this.
From my observations, immigrants and refugees coming
from these dictator led countries tend to be hard workers while many of us who’ve
enjoyed the luxury of being
dependent on the wealthy
countries are a bunch of lazy
people who take so much for
granted. There is some good
that come out of such regimes.
I just wish there was a way
for such nations to produce
hard working citizens without having their people suffer from a lack of freedom.
Assistant Editor/
Fashion Columnist
Rae McConville
[email protected]
Student compares South to SHC
Advertising Manager/
Editor Emeritus
Lindsay Mott
[email protected]
At the University of South Alabama, our college life is
different. A LOT different. Some differences for the better,
and some for the worse, but let me highlight some of the
biggest differences of Spring Hill from my native institution:
1) At SHC, students have pre-paid personal 40GB M-drives on
which to store information. You can store personal files such as papers,
presentations, pictures, anything you can fit in 40GB, which is a lot by my
standards. At USA, you do not have that. Our student fees only pay for the
Student Center, building maintenance, transportation (we have a JagTran
that runs the length of the campus), library maintenance, and activity/
athletic facilities. VERY basic costs, and they are not expensive, but I doubt
it would cost much more to give students access to personal file storage.
2) Along with the M-drives, SHC’s student fees also pay for
approximately 500 pages of printable paper per account, with the option
to purchase more paper in case one should need to do so. This is for use
in the library or any other facility that has a computer lab. Once again we
do not have this luxury. USA’s students have no central computer lab.
Most of the natural sciences have their own, but only for use by students
of that department (I used to be a Mechanical Engineering major for my
Advisor
Stuart Babington
sbabington@ stumail.shc.edu
Publisher
Rankin Publishing
7401 Spencer Rd
Irvington, Al 36544
Sadly, some of today’s
self-proclaimed lifemates will
find their early declaration of
their love life just as fleeting.
J. P. Nicols
Dear Editor:
See South vs. SHC on page 14
Opinions&
R eaction
Editorials
Student
“What changes on campus do
you want to see this year?”
“More variety in the caf food.”
-Kate O’Connor ‘09
“Less speed bumps!”
-Richard Meisemann ‘09
“Longer caf hours.”
-Jessica Slater ‘08
“Public Safety...except for M.
Smith and Mr. McPherson’s
mode of transportation.”
-Roy Haas ‘07
“We need Public Safety to relax.”
-Natalia Rodriguez ‘08
Compiled by Alicia Brauer
South vs. SHC
from page 13
first semester freshman year, and
could use their lab--now that I’m a
Creative Writing major, I have none).
As well, our library does not
provide free printouts. We have to
pay 10 cents per page of printed
material, and the only place in
the library to print pages is from
a SINGLE printer on the bottom
floor, which students can only
access by using a TRACCard,
bought from the library staff for
$1 (which does NOT go on the
card balance). I have used this card
twice in my entire four years at
USA, because compared to student
paper accounts, it’s a rip-off.
3) I am currently writing this
letter from the Wilkins computer
lab in SHC’s library. From my
vantage point, there appears to be
about 48 computers in the room,
with more on the same floor in a
different classroom. There are
also computers scattered about the
library on seperate floors. At USA,
we certainly have a wonderful
library with helpful staff and
facilities (well, some). But our
library’s computer lab has no
more than 16 computers, with only
small handfuls of extra terminals
scattered through the other floors.
4) SHC’s computers come
equipped with programs like
the MS Office Suite, several
multimedia programs, and a
plethora of academic programs;
essentially anything a student
would need to research and write
a paper or presentation for class.
USA’s computers come equipped
with....Internet Explorer. That’s
right. ONE PROGRAM. And it’s
only for accessing the internet.
And if you click on the Start
button, you will find that, instead
of seeing a full cascading window
of programs available for you to
use, it will prompt you on shutting
the computer down. Nothing
else exists on the computer.
5) Speaking of nothing
existing, did you know that South
has completely outlawed the use of
the right mouse button? That’s right.
Everytime I try to right-click
anything, the computer refuses
to respond. I feel like I can
constantly hear President Gordon
Moulton’s voice in my ear, telling
me that clicking the right mouse
button is “dangerous thinking.”
6) Also on the topic of
computer labs, thanks to your
wonderful SGA, the Wilkins lab is
open 24/7. Anytime students need
to write or research anything, or
just check Facebook, they can walk
to the lab (assuming they even need
to). Our library, however, opens at
8am M-F (which is no help to me
if I have an 8am class) and closes
at 10 o’clock. The computer lab
always closes at 9:30, or at least
30 minutes prior to the closing of
the building. They’re open only for
limited hours on weekends, too.
7) At SHC, the Campus
Programming Board has sponsored
numerous activities on campus to
boost school spirit and pride in
the many organizations that hold
such events. I point mainly to the
Cowboy Mouth concert a couple
of weekends ago, as well as the
student-run activities--e.g. school
dances, mini-Mardi Gras parades,
concerts, comedians, etc. I know
this sounds cheesy, but the student
life of Spring Hill truly comes
alive through these activities.
Students at South generally take
interest in a lot of different campus
organizations as well, and we have
several small outlets for putting
together campus events such as
Jaguar Productions. However, our
main outlet for bringing in students
is the Mitchell Center where I
have worked since freshman year.
And through the Mitchell Center,
we organize concerts and shows
open to the general public. We
have had many great acts in the
past, including but not limited to
Better Than Ezra, Charlie Murphy,
WWE Wrestling matches, and
even a monumentous tennis match
between world champion tennis
players Andre Agassi and Andy
Roddick, which brought a soldout crowd--10,000 fans from all
over the world gathered for one
special moment. But the main
complaint here is that, though the
Mitchell Center does so well to
promote the campus, it generally
only brings in a crowd of no more
than 1,000. If, for some reason the
attendance numbers over 1,000, it
points to a very big, well-marketed
event like the Roddick-Agassi
match. And these activities rarely
happen more than once a semester.
Another difference one may
look is in campus security. Sure, we
all poke fun at them for being renta-cops or for doing a bogus job,
but they surely get their job done.
You never hear about students
being fatally injured or mugged
while strolling about the Viragh
commons, whereas on USA’s
campus, according to the Police
Blotter section of our newspaper,
it’s an infinitely more commonplace
occurrence. This tends to lead the
USA security, who are all statelicensed police officers, to enforce
curfews and restrictions upon the
14
residents in order to control their
actions. Looking at these many
differences in campus life, I
want you to see how Spring Hill,
with its more accommodating
style, generally has a positive
outlook for non-students. I would
strongly urge all of you students to
take advantage of the wonderful
opportunities your college has
to offer your undergraduate
experience. Oh, and thanks for the
free internet and MS Word access.
I’ve truly appreciated it.
Matt Flanagan
Senior English/Creative Writing
student
University of South Alabama
15 The SpringHillian
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Sports
UPCOMING GAMES Badgers fall at Montevallo
TEAM
DATE
OPPONENT
SITE
VB
Oct. 20
Lee University
Clinton, MS
WCC
Oct. 21
GCAC
Clinton, MS
Oct. 21
Belhaven College
SHC
Oct. 21
Belhaven College
MCC
Oct. 21
VB
WS
GCAC
Oct. 21
MS
MS
Belhaven College
Oct. 22
West Florida
SHC
SHC
SHC
SHC
KEY
MG - Men’s Golf
WG - Women’s Golf
MCC - Men’s Cross Counrty
WCC - Women’s Cross Country
VB - Volleyball
MS - Men’s Soccer
WS - Women’s Soccer
RECENT RESULTS
TEAM
WG
DATE
Oct. 17
OPPONENT
Not Mentioned
OUTCOME
Not Mentioned
MG
Oct. 17
Not Mentioned
Not Mentioned
WG
MG
MS
WS
MCC
Oct. 16
Oct. 16
Oct. 14
Oct. 14
Oct. 14
Not Mentioned
Not Mentioned
Univ. of Montvallo
LSU-Shreveport
Mississippi College
Not Mentioned
Not Mentioned
L: 0-3
L: 0-1
Not Mentioned
WCC
Oct. 14
Mississippi College
Not Mentioned
WS
MG
Oct. 09
Oct. 08
Mississippi College
GCAC
L: 1-4
P: 2/298-309=607
ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
Allison Mercurio
Volleyball
Courtesy of SHC Web site
Patrick Jenkins
Golf
Courtesy of SHC Web site
Courtesy of SHC
Athletic Website
“While the guys are disappointed
in this loss, we are looking to
come out strong as we return to
our home field.” The Badgers will
host the William Carey Crusaders
Spring Hill men’s soccer (37-1) fell to Montevallo Saturday
night, 3-0.While the match was
“While the guys are
very exciting and physical, the
Badgers allowed three goals in the
disappointed in this
second half for the Falcon victory. Jonathan Maloney posted two loss, we are looking to
goals for the Falcons, while James come out strong as we
Ward scored the thrid Montevallo
return to our home
goal. Badger goalkeeper Tyker
field.” - Coach Pearce
Milton posted 13 saves, while his
Falcon counterpart James Melford
Jr. recorded just four saves. “This
was a first class match,” said on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. on
Badger head coach Adam Pearce. The Lawn
Courtesy of SHC website
Tyler Milton is a sophomore from Covington,
LA and he is majoring in
marine biology
Want to see your face in the paper?
Send your sports pictures to the
Springhillian...we’ll make you famous!
16
Sports
Rugby team says, ‘Zulu Everybody!’
Dominick Navarra
Contributing Writer
On this past Saturday the
14th we were able to celebrate
an old SHC past time, rugby
games. SHC has a proud history of rugby and it’s nice to
see many new students interested in the game.
The turnout against the
University of West Florida
showed many new fans and
players alike. University of
West Florida overcame the
SHC squad with a final score
of 6 to 17.
The game was a scrimmage of sorts, as it will not
count for the competitive record for this season.
“It was a nice chance to
get our new players in the
game and see how they react in real game situations”,
says rugby club president Ben
Mackin.
Veteran players like Gabriel Capote and Kevin Phillips showed their experience
in the ruck, while new rugger
RJ Lugo successfully barged
through the West Floridia
squad for his first tri and consequently became a zulu warrior.
When one leaves the game
it’s hard not to feel a sense of
nostalgia that only a game of
rugby can inspire.
There’s a distinct sense of
brotherhood amongst rugby
players, after each game both
teams celebrate with each
other.
It’s a lovely experience to
sing Irish rugby songs at the
top of your lungs and have a
drink with the opposition.
Come out to the next game
and we’ll be sure to give you
a good old fashion rugby welcome!
Dominick Navarra / Contributing Photographer
(Above) Chad Cooley of the SHC rugby team breaks through the defense to advance the ball in the game against the University of West Florida on Saturday
afternoon
Snapshots of SHC Athletes - Look at them go!
(Above) Freshman Thaddeus Brija successfully breaks the line in the first
home match.
(Above Left) Sophomore Jeremy Lee goes for a
block in his intrumral game on Tuesday night.
(Above Right) Patrick Mika and Jeremy Lee later
go head to head over the net in the same game on
Tuesday night.
(Left) Showing a
fine display in
speed Kevin Brown
trudges through a
line of defense in
the game on Satur day afternoon.
(Above) RJ Lugo dodges through the
University of West Florida while scoring
SHC’s only tri for the game on Saturday.
(Above) Kristie Murphy and Laura Pawlik go head to head with William Carey
College.
(Above) Sarah Engels strives to make a
goal against William Carey College on
Tuesday night.

Regions and AmSouth banks merge

Transcription

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