DN TUESDAY, JAN. 8, 2013
GRADUATION: SENIORS APPROACH FINAL DAYS ON CAMPUS PG. 4
STILL DRINKING
THE DAILY NEWS
BSUDAILY.COM
Excise says it is too early to tell if program’s goal has been met
DN| BRIEF
ONLINE BANNER PROBLEMS CAUSED BY SERVER OVERLOAD
I |
CAITLIN VANOVERBERGHE AND KEVIN THURMAN news@bsudailynews.com
ndiana State Excise officers funded with a $125,000 federal grant have arrested hundreds of college-age drinkers in a crackdown on campuses across the state in 2012. Less certain is whether the campaign has achieved its goal – stemming the tide of underage drinking. In Muncie, 567 tickets have been issued since the Intensified College Enforcement grant began in February 2012. Yet Cpl. Travis Thickstun, the agency’s spokesman, said reducing underage drinking, not more arrests, was Excise’s goal when it applied for the money and deployed officers to universities across the state.
An error message greeted students attempting to view their class schedule or find a last minute course Monday morning. The university’s recently implemented banner system, which launched in Spring 2012, experienced a server overload on Monday, as students returned to campus and began utilizing the service again. Loren Malm, assistant vice president of information technology, said the problems were caused by the introduction of new infrastructure equipment that was put in place during Winter Break. “A problem with the new infrastructure was revealed [Monday] when load increased with students returning,” Malm said in an email. “When [the] problem was detected this morning, we assembled a team involving our own internal technical staff and external consultants.” Malm said the team decided the quickest way to resolve the problem would be to remove the new infrastructure and revert back to the original system. The change was completed by early afternoon, and the system still continued to have a few “lingering issues,” Malm said. As for the new system being put back into place, Malm said his team will continue to monitor the environment and will consider putting the system back in place after they have resolved the defect. Malm said he does not expect the server issues to continue this week.
“Our initial goal was to see how effective a very public campaign coupled with educational programs and increased enforcement would be at reducing underage drinking,” Thickstun said. “It will be some time yet before we can accurately gauge the program’s success, but it will not be measured by the numbers of tickets we issue.” The amount of people arrested does not express a large jump since the ICE program began. Between Aug. 1, 2011 and Dec. 31, 2011, 399 people were arrested by Excise officers in Muncie. Only 324 people were arrested between Aug. 1, 2012 and Dec. 1, 2012. Thickstun said in an interview on Dec. 13
the reason there have been less people arrested this year is because the semester wasn’t completely over yet. As a pilot program early in the year, Excise placed officers at three universities of varying size – Indiana University, Ball State and DePauw. Later they added Purdue, Indiana State and the University of Notre Dame. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report shows that drinking arrests had actually dropped at DePauw, Notre Dame and Indiana State between 2010 and 2011, before the ICE program came to their schools.
See EXCISE, page 4
– EVIE LICHTENWALTER
STUDENTS REACT ON TWITTER Kebbb @kelbsa
I’m sorry ball state but if you can’t get your server under control you clearly can’t handle 20,000 students #soannoyed #makeitwork 8:10 AM - 7 Jan. 13
Jennifer Diane @jenniferloveBSU
I wish ball state would get a server that could handle all 25,000 students because I have NO idea where my classes are tmrw morning.. 9:28 PM - 6 Jan. 13
Shelby Perry @ShelbyPerryMFer
BALL STATE HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SEE WHERE MY CLASSES ARE IF THE SERVER IS CONSTANTLY BUSY! 9:17 PM - 6 Jan. 13
DN FILE PHOTO COREY OHLENKAMP
Excise Officer Brandon Thomas, left, writes a ticket to a student for minor consumption during a routine patrol on Oct. 13, 2012. Excise officers arrested hundreds of college-age drinkers in a crackdown across the state.
Victims’ families in shooting hear police testimony Officer exposes emotion to begin hearing to determine if Holmes will go on trial | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CENTENNIAL, Colo. — The officers struggled to hold back the tears as they recalled the Colorado theater shooting: discovering a 6-year-old girl without a pulse, trying to keep a wounded man from jumping out of a moving police car to go back for his 7-yearold daughter, screaming at JAMES HOLMES a gunshot vic- Aurora movie tim not to die. theater gunman “After I saw what I saw in the theater — horrific — I didn’t want anyone else to die,” said Officer Justin Grizzle, who transported the wounded to the hospital. A bearded, disheveled James Holmes, the man accused of going on the deadly rampage, didn’t appear to show any emotion as Grizzle and the other officers testified Monday in a packed courtroom as survivors and families of those who died watched quietly. At one point, a woman buried her head in her
hands when an officer recalled finding the 6-year-old girl. “He’s heartless. He really is. He has no emotion. He has no feeling. I don’t know [how] anybody can live that way,” Sam Soudani said of the gunman afterward. His 23-year-old daughter survived after being hit by shrapnel from an explosive device at the theater. On the first day of a hearing that will determine whether there’s enough evidence to put Holmes on trial, the testimony brought back the raw emotions from the days following the July 20 attack at the suburban Denver movie theater that left 12 people dead and dozens wounded. The massacre thrust the problems of gun violence and mental illness into the forefront before they receded in the ensuing months. Now, just weeks after a shooting spree at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school left 20 children and six adults dead, prosecutors are laying out their case with the nation embroiled in a debate over gun violence and mental illness.
See TRIAL, page 3
Forwards will give team better depth after losing seven of last eight games MATT MCKINNEY ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR | @Matt_D_McKinney After a 0-4 Christmas break, Ball State women’s basketball head coach Brady Sallee’s team is at a crossroads heading into conference play. Although he’s not sure about calling it that. “If you want to call it ‘crossroads,‘ that’s fine. If you want to call it ‘opportunity,‘ that’s fine,” Sallee said. “It’s definitely time for us to make a move.” Ball State hasn’t won a game in over a month. Its last victory came on Dec. 6, in an overtime thriller against Detroit. On Nov. 23, Ball State was coming off a win against Bethune Cookman and had a record of 2-3, sitting at just one game under .500. Since then, it has lost seven of its last eight, and is now 3-10. “I think we’re in a position where we’re finally as healthy as we’re going to be all year,“ Sallee said. “We’re not playing half bad ... Maybe we’re in a position where the timing is right for us to make a move, if we’re going to be able to make one. Clearly the out-of-conference schedule didn’t go the way any of us wanted it to.” One positive Ball State has on its side is that it will have two new players available for action. Lyzz Smith, a forward from Mishawaka, Ind, transferred to Ball State last season. She has now completed her NCAA-mandated two semesters of sitting out and has joined the team. In fact, Smith played for Ball State on Dec. 29, in an away loss to Valparaiso. She
DN FILE PHOTO COREY OHLENKAMP
Women’s basketball head coach Brady Sallee talks to the team during a timeout in the game against Oakland City on Oct. 31, 2012. Ball State has lost seven of their last eight games, heading into MidAmerican Conference play.
recorded four points, one steal and one assist in 17 minutes of play. Before transferring to Ball State, Smith played for two years at Indiana Wesleyan University, just 36 miles north of Muncie. Smith is six feet tall and will play a wing position for Ball State, said Sallee. Katie Murphy leads the team in rebounds, bringing down an average of 6.7 per game. Another new face for Ball State is Alexandra Southworth.
Southworth is a freshman from Piketon, Ohio. She has been injured throughout the first half of the season, and also made her debut against Valparaiso. She played just eight minutes and recorded a steal. “Alex will play a little more in that forward spot at the four,“ Sallee said. “Maybe at times, give us a little bit of a look at the five, even though that’s not her natural position.”
See BASKETBALL, page 6
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