Dec. 5, 2012

the butler

Sports: Get a preview for tonight’s men’s basketball home game against IUPUI. Page 5

VOL. 127 ISSUE 13 ESTABLISHED 1886 INDIANAPOLIS

COLLEGIAN

A&E: Interim professor to leave a lasting impression.

Page 8

BUTLER UNIVERSITY | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012 | WWW.THEBUTLERCOLLEGIAN.COM

ARAMARK

FACULTY SENATE

Legal counsel adds to costs President Danko looks to cut unnecessary expenses by adding legal counsel to permanent staff JEFF STANICH JSTANICH@BUTLER.EDU ASST. NEWS EDITOR President Jim Danko expressed a need for legal counsel at Butler University at the Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday.

The president said in the past six years the university has spent about $2.5 million on legal

Employees hope to unionize

fees for various reasons.

His presentation showed that from June 2008 to June 2012, the spending increased by 28 percent.

In the next two years, the numbers showed an 83-percent increase from around $680,000 to an estimated $1.2 million.

Danko said he wanted to hear feedback from faculty even though the senate is not needed to make this decision.

“I really do believe at this point that there is an advantage going in this direction,” Danko said.

“The cost savings will offset a good portion, if not all the extra expense, by having our own

legal counsel.”

Danko said he will also begin meeting with the Board of Trustees for additional reaction.

Other items of agenda were a report from the Student Affairs and Enrollment on alcohol abuse and crime and reports on the core curriculum, University Curriculum Committee and the Retirement Phase Committee.

Margaret Brabant, chair of faculty senate, gave a report on senate-level chair meetings from October.

This is the last faculty senate meeting for the first semester. Senate meetings will resume in January.

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

TOWRAD THE CAMEL

Group targets BU students for information

Butler University’s Aramark employees look to improve work situation

JILL MCCARTER

JMCCARTE@BUTLER.EDU EDITOR IN CHIEF

COLIN LIKAS CLIKAS@BUTLER.EDU MANAGING EDITOR

Aramark employees continue to spread awareness of work-related concerns.

On Nov. 14, a small rally took place at Butler University’s Star Fountain.

Its purpose: to give Butler students and faculty the opportunity to show support for the school’s Aramark workers.

The display made many around the Butler community aware of the workers’ attempt to unionize.

While Aramark has not yet recognized this union, the push toward improved compensation and work environment is underway for Butler’s Aramark workers.

“We’re trying to fight, not just for us but for our other co-workers,” Aramark employee Rebecca Bradley said. “I want the best for them.”

Bradley is a 27-year veteran of Aramark and currently serves as a grill cook in Atherton Union.

She and Tanya Gray, a 22-year Aramark employee who works in the Residential College cafeteria, were part of an organizing committee that began discussing the possibility of unionization nearly a year ago.

The committee of 15 Butler Aramark employees began talking to Unite Here, a group that represents American and Canadian workers who attempt to unionize.

“It was a few of us, but it didn’t take long to get (more people),” Bradley said.

This negotiating eventually led to a petition, which was signed by approximately 90 percent of Butler’s Aramark workers, said Stuart Mora, a Unite Here representative.

Workers were requesting a cardcheck neutrality agreement through the petition.

With the neutrality agreement, workers are not asking for union recognition at Butler but a fair process where they will be able to organize themselves and negotiate a contract with Aramark.

According to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation’s website, a neutrality agreement is “a contract between a union and an employer under which the employer agrees to support a union’s attempt to organize its workforce.”

With a card-check clause in place, see aramark page 4

Opinion: Collegian affirms core values following recent blog post.

Page 10

Photo by Kevin Vogel

The sophomore class officers sponsored an event that brought camels to campus Monday. The camel phenomenon originated from a typo on BUPD’s DawgAlert account during a campus lockdown. The typo led to many jokes in the Twittersphere and the creation of a Butler Camel Twitter account, which has more than 1,100 followers.

Student blog post causes controversy COLIN LIKAS CLIKAS@BUTLER.EDU MANAGING EDITOR

A Butler Collegian staff member wrote an opinion column that was posted Nov. 27 on The College Fix, a news and commentary website run by the Student Free Press Association, unaffiliated with the Collegian or the university.

In the piece, the student explains his reasoning for dropping one of Butler’s political science classes.

The class syllabus asks its students to use “inclusive language,” a concept that Butler University President Jim Danko said in a campuswide email that the university supports.

The syllabus asks students to “do your best to write and speak in a way that does not assume Americanness, maleness, whiteness, heterosexuality, middleclass status, etc., to be the norm.”

The piece went viral and was picked up by national conservative talk-show commentators. It stirred up a variety of emotions and opinions from various sources, including their audiences.

“Some responses we have received from individuals not associated with Butler University

INSIDE Editor in Chief Jill McCarter explains how the controversy provided valuable lessons in The Collegian newsroom. | page 10 Community members react to the post | page 11 Read Jim Danko’s full email to the Butler community. | page 11

who read the article online have targeted various individuals at Butler in ways that have involved personal (verbal) attacks and hateful language,” Danko wrote in the email.

On campus, the controversy revolved around whether the reporter identified the publication for which he was writing.

Other controversy revolved around a possible misinterpretation of the syllabus’s wording.

In the email, Danko reaffirmed the university’s support of “professors’ desires to promote inclusive and positive classrooms” while also supporting “our students’ rights to express concerns about their educational experiences at Butler.”

SPORTS 5 | ARTS, ETC. 8 | OPINION 10 | BLUE II & BLUE III 12

A lobbying group has been targeting Butler University’s College of Education students to obtain the syllabi of courses.

The National Council on Teacher Quality has been reaching out to students in the college to offer them money in exchange for syllabi or other course information.

In some cases, representatives from the organization have shown up on campus and posed as students who missed class when the syllabus was first passed out, COE Dean Ena Shelley said.

“I’m very concerned that our students will feel victimized,” Shelley said. “No one should have to worry about being targeted on their own campus.”

The organization’s website states that the group “advocates for reforms in a broad range of teacher policies at the federal, state and local levels in order to increase the number of effective teachers.”

Shelley said the group’s view of reform does not align with the college’s mission and values and said the group’s reporting is misleading.

“They have a tendency to tell people things that serve the organization rather than the teachers or students,” Shelley said.

Last year, Shelley penned a letter as the president-elect of the Indiana Association of Colleges for Teacher Education advising that universities and colleges not participate in the organization’s project.

The lobbying group has been under fire for not being transparent with its criteria.

Its findings are often used with the US News and World Report to grade and rank education programs at colleges and universities around the country.

Shelley said this is not the first time that she has warned students about the group, and she doesn’t expect it to be the last.

She said she hopes to educate students so the university’s reputation and students’ safety are priorities.

Shelley said one student has come forward to explain that information was given to the group.

As of now, the college passed along the message to prevent any further misinformation.

IF YOU’VE BEEN TARGETED Contact College of Education Dean Ena Shelley to find out what you can do. She can be emailed at eshelley@butler.edu.

PAGE 2 | THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

Howell to take head HR position ALLISON HALL AAHALL1@BUTLER.EDU STAFF REPORTER

Photo courtesy of Devin Goodnight

Drink Detective, the product a Real Business Experience group chose to market, tests for more than 60 different drugs.

RBE group promotes date rape drug tester BETH WERGE BWERGE@BUTLER.EDU STAFF REPORTER

In 2010, four sexual assaults were reported to Butler University Police Department.

A student group from the Real Business Experience branch of the College of Business formed a project to help prevent some of the assaults.

Junior Devin Goodnight and sophomore Brock Brothers used Drink Detective, a ShotSpot product, to test for more than 60 different drugs in beverages as part of the project this semester.

“If I was just a little bit in doubt of what was in my drink, I would have Drink Detective on me,” Brothers said. “I hate to compare it–but it’s like a condom. It’d be good to have on you just so you know you’re going to be safe.”

In terms of alcohol consumption, Sarah Barnes Diaz, health education and outreach programs coordinator, said she suggests if a student is going to drink anything, the student makes sure he or she sees the drink being opened or poured and keeps an eye on it.

“I want to be very clear, though, about the fact that alcohol is actually the greatest contributor to an increased risk for sexual assault,” Diaz said, adding that most sexual assault cases the university sees are alcohol-related.

Goodnight said he is impressed with Butler, the prevention strategies offered on campus and everything else the university has done for students.

“It’s obvious the university recognizes this as a problem on campus,” he said. “We were really trying to get Red Cup Culture on board with us because they could distribute a large amount to students.”

Despite Goodnight’s efforts, the university turned down initiatives to market the product on Butler’s campus.

The decision to not market Drink Detective resulted in

numerous posts on social media sites, most of which questioned the university’s efforts to prevent sexual assault.

“It was never a concern about talking about rape on campus,” Diaz said. “That was part of what was concerning to me about some of the posts on Facebook—comments about how Red Cup Culture and Butler weren’t supportive of rape-prevention practices. We want to make sure it’s known that that is absolutely not the case.”

In an October email sent to Brothers, Irene Stevens, dean of student life, wrote publicity intended to promote Drink Detective didn’t meet campus guidelines. She cited multiple reasons, including the lack of support from local victim advocacy organization Center of Hope and local forensic toxicology labs.

“What we want students to do is start paying attention to who’s mixing your drink, not putting it down anywhere, not giving anyone the opportunity to try and drug you,” Stevens said. “Do we want to put all of our eggs in the basket of a test that may or may not be accurate? No. We don’t think that’s a good skill for students to learn. We all need to learn the skills of being responsible for ourselves and each other and making adult choices.”

Stevens said the university worries the product will be seen as a safety tool to be depended upon and not as an extra precaution.

“It really could give you a false sense of security,” Diaz said.

She said the concerns were not attempts to avoid talking about rape on campus or act like it doesn’t happen.

“To promote this during Red Cup Culture doesn’t really make sense,” Diaz said.

“There is no sales pitch in that program other than staying safe on campus.”

Vice President of Student Affairs Levester Johnson

said the biggest concern on college campuses is alcohol consumption in general.

“Abuse, overuse—it’s those types of behaviors that lead to other things,” Johnson said. “Poor decision-making, going too far as it relates to sexual interaction—the reason continues to be alcohol.”

Johnson said Butler has multiple outreach programs intended to educate students on a variety of topics, including sexual assault and alcoholism.

“It’s important for people to know that we are supportive of the great ideas and initiatives that students come up with on a daily basis, but that doesn’t mean we’re always going to agree,” Johnson said, adding that Butler partners with students on a multitude of projects.

“Our approach to addressing sexual assault, alcohol abuse and issues of that sort is multipronged,” he said. “You’ve got to address it from not just one avenue and one direction but multiple directions.”

“Therefore, the education that’s taking place through PAWS and GEAR and so forth are paramount and extremely important.”

As for their business project, Goodnight, Brothers and their partners are now running the business on Facebook instead of trying to promote it through the school.

Goodnight said the idea was attractive to them because it’s attacking social issues and not just selling a product.

Diaz said sexual assault prevention does not solely lie with the potential victim.

“We all play a role in preventing sexual assault,” Diaz said. “There are things that we can do in our day-today life–not just Thursday, Friday, Saturday night at a party or at the bar–to change the course of conversations, to change perceptions, to address myths that exist about what is okay and what’s not okay.

There’s something we can all do to prevent sexual assault.”

Core requirement suspended for current upperclassmen JEFF STANICH

JSTANICH@BUTLER.EDU ASST. NEWS EDITOR

The Faculty Senate approved the suspension of the Speaking Across the Curriculum requirement for all upperclassmen.

The senate met last Tuesday, and voted to suspend the courses after nearly an hour of discussion.

Diane Timmerman, theatre professor, said the workload professors must take on to teach this course is too much.

“Some of my colleagues have had a difficult time squeezing in the amount of time that has been designated for Speaking Across the Curriculum,”

Timmerman said.

The vote passed with the necessary majority, a count of 24 in favor, eight opposed and two abstaining.

Vivian Deno, assistant history professor, said the timing of the vote was what made her decide against the motion to suspend.

“I think we need to hear more discussion on the issue,” Deno said. “I support the spirit of the vote, but the timeliness will make me vote against the motion.”

Any students who started their studies in the fall of 2012 will still have to take a course to meet this requirement.

Chris Bungard, assistant classical studies professor,

said he wants the senate to recognize a decision needs to be made regarding the course and current first-year students.

“This vote is leaving the course as a requirement for freshman,” Bungard said. “We need to make sure first-year students can reasonably fulfill this course by the time they are juniors and seniors.”

Other agenda items during the meeting included the new executive director, the proposed parking garage and a retirement phase committee.

Most topics, aside from Speaking Across the Curriculum, were tabled for more discussion at the next meeting.

After beating out more than 100 applicants, La Veda Howell was appointed as the new executive director of human resources and will begin work at Butler University, Dec. 17.

Howell was one of three finalists.

“La Veda just displayed some wonderful leadership characteristics,” said Bill O’Donnell, College of Business graduate program director.

O’Donnell said Howell is perfectly capable of standing up to educate, explain and help people understand why human resources makes certain decisions.

“I think after a short period of time, very few people on this campus will have any doubts as to what HR can do for them as far as a resource,” HOWELL: Hopes to create new opportunities and O ’ D o n n e l l said. build relationships.

Howell’s duties will include managing compliance and government work, compensation and benefits, and helping the vice presidents and deans hire the faculty.

Bruce Arick, vice president of finance and administration, said he saw strength in Howell’s interactive skills.

“Human resources is one of those areas where you need to be able to interact with folks,” Arick said. “Not just lead, but interact.”

Howell spent 12 years in the private sector, working for Brightpoint Inc. in

Butler’s mission, their vision and their values line up with mine, and you can’t say that for every institution.

LA VEDA HOWELL HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR many different director positions. She also worked for a year and a half at Ivy Tech as executive director of human resources.

Arick said he hopes Howell can bring her for-profit background and experience at Ivy Tech to Butler’s human resources.

Howell said she is most excited about finding ways to create new opportunities.

Howell also said she’s focused on acting as chief diversity officer in her new role.

“That diversity would be that area I am most excited to come to Butler and be a part of because my background is heavily entrenched in that area of diversity,” Howell said.

Howell chose Butler because of the university’s values.

“I choose Butler from the perspective of looking at what Butler stands for,” Howell said. “Their mission, their vision and their values line up with mine, and you can’t say that for every institution.”

Howell said she already has goals planned for when she arrives.

She said she hopes to build relationships and to incorporate the strategic vision in the human resources department.

India Garden Best Indian Cuisine Open in Broad Ripple for more than 20 years!

Seventeen - Time Best of Indy Winner!

2012 A-List Award Winner for Best Indian Restaurant!

For more information or to view our menu visit: www.indiagardenindy.com

Located in Broad Ripple Just Minutes From Campus 830 Broad Ripple Ave. & 207 N. Delaware St. All Butler Students & Faculty Receive $1 Off Buffet With ID

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN | PAGE 3

SGA gifts its favorites

Students use online dating service MARAIS JACON-DUFFY

MJAONDU@BUTLER.EDU STAFF REPORTER

TARA MCELMURRY TMCELMUR@BUTLER.EDU NEWS EDITOR

Posters advertising for Datemyschool.com have been popping up in academic buildings, Starbucks and even online sites like Pandora.

Datemyschool.com is a free dating website for college students and alumni, and Butler University students are giving it a try.

The site advertises safety, security and convenience for students interested in online dating.

The site’s public relations manager, Melanie Wallner, said the site’s popularity spread from the East Coast to the Midwest recently.

There over 150,000 Datemyschool.com users across the nation.

While there are fewer than 100 Butler students on the site, schools like Indiana University and Ball State University have reached more than 500 users, Wallner said.

“We just launched a whole new platform,” Wallner said. “We redid the design, made it safer to use, and we’re on a huge hiring spree for more representatives.”

Datemyschool.com student representatives work off commission doing public relations work and hosting and promoting events.

PuLSE office Director Caroline Huck-Watson said she was unsure where the posters came from and who distributed them. The site’s advertisements did not receive PuLSE approval prior to their placement and were taken down on campus.

The site was founded two years ago by two college students, Jean Meyer and Balazs Alexa.

They found difficulty meeting new people outside their area of study and traditional dating was not always efficient for busy college students.

“The guys wanted to create a private, efficient and safe site for college students,” Wallner said.

People who sign up for a Datemyschool.com account must first be verified through their school email and enrollment status. Profiles can be blocked for certain people based on location, school, department and age.

Users and profiles are never released to search engines, so profiles can only be seen by other users.

“You won’t have to worry about your mom or an employer googling you and your dating profile comes up,” Wallner said. “That’s just not cool.”

Freshman Zach Gay said in his time as a Datemyschool.com user he has never felt his safety was threatened.

“It seems to be pretty secure,” Gay said.

Gay said his initial interest in the site originated from an advertisement he saw for a job.

Photo courtesy of Datemyschool.com

“To get the job you had to create an account,” Gay said. “But it turned out to be a job based on commission.”

A study by The Pew Internet & American Life Project indicated that one in 10 Internet users have tried online dating sites.

The site allows people to explicitly state whether they’re interested in long or short term dating, friendship, fun or networking.

The site also has a questions section, where users can compare their answers with those of other users that fit their criteria.

Junior Katie Keirn said she would consider online dating if her life situation were different.

“If I didn’t have a boyfriend, and I moved to a new city, I would consider online dating,” Keirn said.

Sophomore Molly Swigart said she wouldn’t consider online dating as an alternative to traditional dating.

“I think a relationship is something I want to kind of stumble into, not go out looking for it,” Swigart said. “I wouldn’t want to put all the time and effort into meeting someone online.”

Wallner said the site’s success along the East Coast has resulted in serious relationships and many “success stories.”

“Some of the stories I hear are so romantic,” Wallner said. “A lot of them have plans of marriage.

At some East Coast schools, like Columbia University and New York University, more than half of the dates on campus were due in part to Datemyschool.com.”

A couple from Columbia was recently featured on CNN.com. The two met on Datemyschool.com as graduate students and were married 10 days and two dates after meeting on the site.

“I think Datemyschool.com is more beneficial for students than other dating sites,” Wallner said.

“On other sites you won’t feel safe or confident that you’re actually talking to who you think you’re talking to. But students can definitely trust Datemyschool.com. We’re always manually monitoring the site. We’re always trying to become safer and more efficient for users.”

Butler University’s Student Government Association channeled Oprah Winfrey with its annual “favorite things” giveaway.

Today’s SGA meeting will feature giveaways from different executive members, just like last week’s meeting.

SGA President Mike Keller said he and his colleagues were not exactly sure when the holiday gifting began but said it’s been going on for at least five or six years.

Keller said this end-of-theyear tradition is an opportunity to reward the SGA representatives who have been at the meetings each week throughout the semester.

Each officer, except the parliamentarian, is allotted a section of the budget that he or she can use for programming.

Scott Nemeth, vice president of administration, said funding for gifts essentially ends up being what is left over at the end of the semester.

“When you’re a member of SGA, we have appreciation dinners and give you a polo shirt to show that you’re a member,” Nemeth said.

“But with assembly members, they don’t really get any recognition for going to meetings every week.”

“The favorite things are a way to give back to assembly.”

It is up to each officer to decide how much of the budget to use, but Nemeth said it is normally around $100.

The officers use the money to buy gifts that represent their personality. They then give the gifts away.

This year, giveaways include touch-screen gloves, items from the bookstore, Starbucks gift cards and the big prize—from Derek Friederich, vice president of finance—a Keurig.

Nemeth gave out three-month subscriptions to Netflix. He said he

figured students could use a break while studying for finals.

“Netflix definitely shows my personality because I love movies, and I love the show “Madmen,” so I use Netflix a lot,” Nemeth said.

SGA assembly is always serious, Nemeth said. The giveaway meeting is a way for members to get to know the officers.

“It is nice because it gives assembly a chance to see the board’s personal side,” he said. “It’s a way to take a break from all the business and have a little fun. It comes at the right time with finals coming up.”

Senior James Pascascio won a scarf from the bookstore last Wednesday. He said he is not a member of assembly but was filling in for the representative of the men’s basketball club.

“It’s pretty cool, the one meeting I happen to go to, I win a prize,” Pascascio said.

Despite being excited about his new winter wear, Pascascio said his thoughts about the giveaways are not completely positive.

“I think it’s more mixed emotions,” Pascasio said. “It’s mixed because they’re using student money to buy gifts for the members. If I’m a student who’s paying my dues, and I catch wind of this, and I’m not benefitting from it, I’m going to start asking questions. ‘How come I didn’t get a prize? How can I be a part of that?’”

Keller said any who attend the assembly meeting the day they give away gifts are eligible to have a chance to receive one.

The last SGA assembly of the semester will bring more gifts.

Keller said Stevan Tomich, vice president of programming, and Marielle Slagel, vice president of operations, combined their gift budgets for a big gift, which they did not have time to prepare before last week’s meeting.

Keller said he did not want to give away any details about what Tomich and Slagel have in store.

PAGE 4 | THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

Finals bring stress, HRC suggests relief KELLY ROSTIN

KROSTIN@BUTLER.EDU STAFF REPORTER

Photo by Melissa Iannuzzi

With the Fresh Fit programs, freshman students got points for going to events at the HRC along with other events around campus.

Freshman fitness program concludes MELISSA IANUZZI

MIANNUZZ@BUTLER.EDU STAFF REPORTER

The end of this semester will mark the end of the first freshman fitness program at Butler University.

Fresh Fit was designed to motivate students to use the wellness resources available to them by offering points and prizes for attending fitnessrelated events.

Beth Lohman, assistant recreation director at the Health and Recreation Complex, said she saw other schools offer incentive programs to first-year students.

A majority of the programs were based on weight loss at a recent conference.

Unlike the other programs, Lohman said she wanted Fresh Fit to focus on wellness.

“It’s all about mental, physical and social health,” said Hannah Stiller, a fitness assistant at the HRC, “not to stay away from the Freshman 15, but to orient students with campus.”

One of the biggest challenges in coordinating Fresh Fit was spreading the word to students, Stiller said. Still, 365 freshmen registered for the program.

Students received points for not only going to HRC activities but also for going to other wellness programs around campus. Students kept track of their points on cards, which program directors, personal trainers or fitness instructors would check off.

“Everyone wanted to help,” Lohman said. “That was the cool part.”

Over time though, not everyone who registered stayed

active.

“The program was a lot bigger at the beginning,” said freshman Annie LeClere, a group fitness instructor.

Still, a couple of people come up to her at the end of her classes to have their cards signed off.

“People had a hard time finding new cards,” LeClere said.

One of the main issues with Fresh Fit this year was keeping track of points manually using cards.

Stiller had to log the points freshmen turned in by hand. She hopes, in the future, the points will be connected to students’ IDs. That way, when students scan into an event, they will automatically receive the appropriate points.

“Anytime you launch a program, there will be things that come up unexpectedly,” Lohman said.

Next year, Lohman said she hopes Fresh Fit will find a way to award people who exercise outside the HRC as well. Stiller, LeClere and Lohman all consider Fresh Fit a great program and believe it has benefitted a number of people.

“We want to dispel the stereotype of the freshman who isn’t active,” Stiller said.

At the end of the program, students will be asked to fill out a survey about their experiences, which Lohman, Stiller and the other coordinators plan to use in order to make the program stronger next year.

In 2013, Fresh Fit will still be a focus of the HRC’s programming, Stiller said. This year, she said, staff introduced a lot of new programming, so next year will be more about strengthening what they have.

Addressing dietary restrictions MAGGIE MONSON

MMONSON@BUTLER.EDU STAFF WRITER

Aramark hosted a focus group for students with dietary restrictions in Atherton Union last week to address the challenges these students face when eating in campus dining halls.

The goals of the 12-person group were to spread the word about accommodations that exist in the dining halls and to learn about specific problems students have when trying to follow a specialized diet.

The group focused mainly on students who are vegetarian or vegan, but the solutions the group discussed can also benefit students with allergies or intolerances to specific food items, such as gluten or dairy.

Freshman Kate Webb has been a vegetarian for nine years and is the head of special dietary needs for Dawgs for a Cause.

This group focuses on increasing communication between the students and Aramark.

“After talking about problems, we focused on giving possible

solutions,” Webb said. “The key to making the food accessible for everyone is more customized bars like the salad bar. Students can make their food more to order, which is how you can accommodate all the students without blowing the budget.”

Michelle Bryant-Jones, dining service director, said a change that is already being implemented is labeling foods that are dairy-free, glutenfree, vegetarian or vegan. This way, students with allergies or intolerances can know exactly what they are eating.

Another change coming after break will be having the Mongolian grill open for light lunch instead of the grill area, Jones said.

“This will assure that we are offering a quality healthy meal throughout the day,” BryantJones said in an email.

The group is planning a follow-up meeting in February to discuss how the changes are helping. Students will be able to voice further concerns if necessary.

Stress—the word is frequently used this time of year. But there’s more to it than its existence between now and break.

Stress can have a major impact on the body and mind, according to health experts at the Health and Recreation Complex.

Mindy Wallpe, HRC staff psychologist, said stress-management techniques are key to a student’s well-being.

“When students are stressed, it can affect all areas of their life,” Wallpe said. “They might see some academic challenges in terms of having difficulty concentrating or being motivated.”

In order to help with this stress, Peers Advocating Wellness for Students is putting on its annual Stress Less Week, which offers various activities for students to decompress the week before finals.

Sarah Barnes Diaz, health education and outreach programs coordinator, said PAWS has planned a variety of events.

“The purpose of Stress Less Week is to provide students with a chance to try out some different stress management techniques that other folks have found helpful in managing their stress,” Diaz said.

Students who experience stress may not feel like themselves, have trouble with time management or even have less patience for personal relationships, Wallpe said.

“The immediate effects of stress could include not performing as well as you would like or not getting things done in a timely manner,” Wallpe said.

“You’re not able to enjoy any fun things that way.”

Not only can stress have effects on the student’s psychological well-being, but stress can also harm students’ physical well-being.

“When stress is good, that’s to save your life,” Maria Fletcher, HRC physician, said. “When you don’t have a chance to recover, that’s when it’s not so good. It’s detrimental if you don’t have recovery from the stress and it’s on a constant basis.”

Fletcher said our bodies’ response to stress is often described as a fight-or-flight response.

She compared the response to a primal situation in which someone is being chased by a bear.

When one is experiencing stress, heart rate and blood pressure will increase, the mouth will become dry, hearing will improve and eyes will widen in order to see better.

This increase in blood flow goes to one’s muscles and gives off a “ready to fight” feeling.

“Those are all life-protecting mechanisms that are very natural for the body to do,” Fletcher said.

However, other physical responses are harder on the body, Fletcher said.

For example, when one is under stress, the brain might send a message to prepare the body for tough times ahead.

As a primitive response, the body will then hold on to fat and store it for later, Fletcher said.

“Your body won’t metabolize fat as fast,” Fletcher said. “This is why people who have chronic stress experience problems losing weight.”

Fletcher also said chronic stress could worsen body responses for those with other medical issues such as asthma or diabetes.

ARAMARK: WORKERS AIM FOR CHANGE FROM PAGE ONE

an employer agrees to automatically recognize a union if a specific number of union authorization cards are collected from employees. These cards take the place of a secret ballot election for union approval.

The petition was presented to Aramark management on Nov. 13.

Bradley and Gray both said they were nervous prior to workers making it publicly known that they were attempting to unionize because they had heard stories of workers being fired from other companies in such situations.

However, they said they were both willing to take the risk.

“It’s truly time for a change,” Gray said. “You’re not getting any younger.”

One of the tilting points for Aramark workers was Indiana’s decision to discontinue providing unemployment benefits to those who are deemed “seasonal workers.”

Aramark workers did not receive unemployment benefits this summer. Workers also temporarily lost their insurance benefits while students were away from campus between May and August.

Gray said she typically pays $83 every two weeks for her medical insurance thanks to Aramark’s provided insurance. However, she received a letter at the end of the last school year saying she would

This, Fletcher said, leads to a higher inflammatory process, increased cholesterol and plaque in the body, which contribute to strokes and heart attacks later in life.

Those effects can be avoided.

Both Wallpe and Fletcher said organizing, planning and scheduling are important for success during finals week.

They also said any type of meditation or breathing exercise is helpful.

“Take each day as it comes and have a plan,” Wallpe said.

Fletcher and Wallpe also said taking breaks and finding outlets are important in order to give your brain a break.

They advised finding things you like to do, such as visiting friends, watching television or simply taking a walk.

Fletcher said physical activity is great for stress release.

When working out, all the extra blood flow goes to the brain, which makes it more alert.

Because of this, Fletcher said reviewing material is a great activity to do while you’re working out instead of just watching television or listening to music.

As for the amount of sleep one should get during finals, Fletcher said all-nighters are not very beneficial.

“When you study and don’t sleep, your body doesn’t have a chance to form the association fibers in your brain,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher said if an all-nighter is inevitable, do it in two- or three-hour shifts.

She said sleeping for at least two hours will help the brain retain information better than it would after a 20-minute nap.

Both Fletcher and Wallpe said stress is unavoidable in life, so learning good coping mechanisms that work is important.

“Your life is going to be full of stress; that’s just the way life is, and it’s the nature of the beast,” Fletcher said. “Be prepared for it.”

Wallpe echoed Fletcher’s statement.

“I think you learn a lot about yourself and how you cope with things,” Wallpe said.

If a student needs help coping with stress, support is out there.

“We’re happy to support students who are struggling with stress, anxiety and other things like that,” Wallpe said. “Come over to the counseling center at the HRC, and we’ll get you in.”

Diaz said all of the HRC departments send out wellness messages through the HRC Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The HRC also has several Pinterest boards with wellness topics that students can follow.

If students need more guidance with planning, studying or test-taking skills, the Learning Resource Center offers guidance and workshops to help students stay on track.

No matter the problem, Fletcher told students not to be down on themselves during finals.

“There’s a very good reason why you’re at Butler,” Fletcher said. “It’s because Butler feels that you can do it. You cannot get that out of your mind during finals. You have promise, and that’s why you’re here.”

need to pay almost $400 per month to keep her medical insurance.

“What I thought was, ‘I don’t have a job, I don’t have any income, so how am I supposed to pay 400-something dollars a month to keep my insurance?’”

Gray said. “For me, healthcare was more important to me than just about anything.”

Workers are also looking for appropriate pay for the work they do each day.

Despite working with Aramark for nearly three decades, Bradley said she makes less than $13 per hour. Gray said she makes less than $12 per hour.

Bradley said some newly-hired workers are often making close to the same amount.

After doing some research, Bradley and Gray discovered that Aramark does not provide any funding to match the money employees put into their 401k.

“I just feel they could offer us a little bit more than what they’re doing,” Gray said.

Workers have also stated a feeling of disrespect from management as one of their concerns.

Bradley struggles to earn 40 hours of work per week despite her tenure. Her shifts are often filled with nighttime hours and always include at least one day per weekend.

She said the environment for workers had not been conducive to productivity prior to the petition’s release.

“If your shirt tail is out, you’re going home,” Bradley said. “If you come in with white socks or colored socks and they see, you’re

going home.”

Since the petition’s release, Bradley said managers have been “trying to kill us with kindness.”

Gray said getting Butler’s Aramark workers to come together was not difficult because “everybody has some type of issue.”

Junior Darrel McClarin has worked at Atherton’s Campus Club for two years. He said he decided to become involved in the attempt to unionize when he saw his co-workers involved.

A student-organized event in support of the workers will take place tomorrow from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Efroymson Diversity Center.

“Ultimately, I started thinking about my fellow workers and people who I think deserve better rights and better pay,” McClarin said. “I didn’t join this for me.”

Butler students and faculty have continued to support workers’ efforts past the rally at Star Fountain.

“I love (the support),” Bradley said. “It makes me feel good that the students are standing there with us.”

Mora said Aramark has been responsible and respectful to the workers’ attempts, although no legitimate discussions between the parties have taken place.

Bradley and Gray said they want to “make it clear that we do love our jobs,” but they are willing to fight for as long as it takes to improve their situation.

“We started it,” Gray said. ”There’s no use in turning back now. We’ve got to finish the fight.”

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

SPORTS

PAGE 5

Butler’s first full-time SID still leads program MATT RHINESMITH MRHINESM@BUTLER.EDU ASST. MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Jim McGrath wanted to be a pharmacist.

Butler University’s sports information director of 31 years never intended to become involved in the sports information field.

A 1971 graduate of Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., McGrath considered attending the University of WisconsinMadison, among others, to study pharmacy.

“When I got to Augustana, I found out they didn’t have a pharmacy school,” McGrath said. “To get into a pharmacy school, the stuff that I was taking at Augustana was not going to help me.

“So I said, ‘OK, we’ve got to do an aboutface, change where we’re going.’”

McGrath decided to move in the direction of a law career. His interest in political science and history prompted him to sculpt his time at Augustana with law school in mind.

It was not until his later years as an undergraduate that his first opportunity in sports information presented itself.

“I was looking for a job at the school, and I noticed they had an opening for a student sports information director,” McGrath said.

“I had no idea what that was, but the word ‘sports’ intrigued me.”

Even during his two years in the position, McGrath still anticipated attending law school. It was not until just after his graduation that Augustana’s athletic director approached him with an offer to be the

MCGRATH: Sports Information Director for Butler athletics. school’s first full-time SID. “I took the job thinking, ‘I could still go on to law school a year or two down the road if I don’t like this,’” McGrath said. “That was 41 years ago, so law school is still on the back burner.”

McGrath spent his first 10 years in the profession at Augustana. While there, he served as the host SID for five NCAA Division III national basketball championships and acted as the director of communications for the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin for five years.

“It turned out to be just a blessing,” McGrath said. “I’ve loved every minute of the job. I could’ve seen myself staying at Augustana forever, but there was a

desire to move on and get into a Division I atmosphere.”

After he made the decision to look elsewhere, McGrath wrote to 50 NCAA Division I schools. Among the schools McGrath sent letters to were UCLA, Pepperdine, Florida State and Arizona.

He also included many schools in the Midwest. Butler was among them.

“I really didn’t know a whole lot about Butler at the time,” he said.

Of the 50 schools he contacted, 48 responded to McGrath’s letter. All 48 thanked him for his time but expressed no interest in bringing him aboard. He never heard from the other two universities.

“I thought, ‘Well, it was worth the exercise, and I’ll consider other options,’” he said.

About two weeks later, McGrath received a phone call from former Butler athletic director and football coach Bill Sylvester.

Sylvester asked McGrath to become the school’s first full time SID in 1981.

“When I first got to Butler, I thought this would be a good place to springboard my career in Division I,” he said. “I thought I could see myself working here three to five years, then maybe moving on to the Big 10.”

Five years into his career at Butler, McGrath got a call from a friend living in Chicago. There was an opening in the Chicago White Sox public relations department, and McGrath’s friend encouraged him to take a look at it.

McGrath and his wife, Judy, are both Chicago natives.

“I’m a lifelong Chicago White Sox fan,” McGrath said. “I went home that night and asked my wife what she thought about going back to Chicago.”

She did not have the reaction McGrath anticipated.

“My wife said she really liked it here,” he said. “And I said, ‘You’re right, I like it here too.’”

McGrath never applied for the position and has never pursued any other job than the one with the White Sox, a testament to his love for Butler athletics.

“I’ve been a Butler person through and through since then,” he said. “As she’s been throughout our marriage, my wife was right.”

Under McGrath’s watchful eyes, the Butler athletics department has grown to heights never before anticipated.

The greatest amount of growth has come in the last five years, during which the men’s basketball team has experienced success.

“He’s responsible for covering everything that we do, and he’s seen a lot of growth,” Athletic Director Barry Collier said. “Jim knows Butler and knows his role better than just about anybody. He provides leadership.”

During McGrath’s time at Butler, he has served as the host SID for four NCAA Division I men’s basketball Final Fours and one women’s Final Four.

Butler has also hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA Division I men’s see mcgrath page 7

Classic set for state rivalries

MEN’S BASKETBALL

BETH WERGE BWERGE@BUTLER.EDU STAFF REPORTER

Photo by Heather Iwinski

Senior guard Rotnei Clarke, left, grabs one of his three rebounds against Ball State while his teammates look on during last Saturday’s win at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Bulldogs to take on crosstown foe AUSTIN MONTEITH AMONTEIT@BUTLER.EDU ASST. SPORTS EDITOR Butler will face crosstown foe Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis tonight at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.

The Jaguars (3-6) finished seventh in the Summit League last season, going 14-18 overall and 7-11 in conference play.

Former Purdue guard John Hart is spending his senior year at IUPUI, where he is averaging 16.6 points a game.

IUPUI Senior guard Ja’Rob McCallum is a transfer from Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is the nephew of Detroit coach Ray McCallum.

Tonight’s game will be the fourth meeting between the two Indianapolis schools. The teams last met in the 19992000 season, when the Bulldogs won 70-59 at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Butler is coming off a 67-53 win over Ball State last Saturday The Bulldogs (5-2) found their shooting touch early in the game, hitting 7 or 8 shots from the field to take a 15-7 lead in the opening minutes.

However, Butler struggled the rest of the half with the Cardinals (2-4), owning an edge in the first half with 50 percent. Butler shot 37.1 percent.

Ball State tied the game at 33 when junior forward Majok Majok hit a jumper as time expired in the first half.

The Cardinals took a 36-33 lead early in the second half, their first lead of the game.

But Butler was able to stifle Ball State’s offense for the remainder of the game, forcing 19 turnovers, 12 of which came in the second half.

The Bulldogs went on a 26-7 run in the first 14 minutes of the second half. Ball State was held to two field goals during the stretch.

“I thought we did a good job being active with our hands in the second half and loose balls we came up with,” Butler coach Brad Stevens said. “In the first half, we didn’t.”

The Bulldogs scored 27 points off turnovers. The team only committed five turnovers in the game.

Butler’s defense also made 10 steals, with sophomore guard Alex Barlow and sophomore forward Roosevelt Jones leading with three each.

TONIGHT’S GAME: Butler vs. IUPUI Tipoff set for 7 p.m. at Hinkle Fieldhouse

“He changed the game,” Stevens said of Barlow. “That’s the guy that changed the game. There is no other story, in my opinion.”

Barlow played a season-high 19 minutes, playing all but two minutes of the second half.

“I was feeling good out there,” Barlow said. “I had a lot of energy. I felt like I was moving my feet well. And I had great help.”

Senior guard Rotnei Clarke was battling a cold but still managed to lead Butler with 15 points. Clarke shot 5 for 18 from the field, going 3 for 12 from beyond the 3-point line.

“I thought he got better as the game went on defensively, that’s usually the good sign of a well-conditioned person,” Stevens said.

Junior forward Khyle Marshall led the Bulldogs with six rebounds while scoring 10 points. Senior center Andrew Smith added 12 points and five rebounds in the victory.

In 10 days, the men’s basketball team will return to Bankers Life Fieldhouse for the second time since a heartbreaking national runner-up finish in 2010.

But when the Bulldogs head back Dec. 15, they won’t face the Associated Press’ thirdranked team, like Duke was that year.

This time, they’ll face No. 1 Indiana University.

“We’re really excited to get to play them,” junior forward Khyle Marshall said. “We want them to win until the Classic so we can be their first loss.

“But we haven’t really talked about IU yet.

We’re still taking it all one game at a time.”

The two squads will be facing off next week in the first game of the second annual Close the Gap Crossroads Classic. Notre Dame and Purdue will play in the later game.

Hoosiers players are equally excited about facing the Bulldogs, especially at Bankers Life.

“It’s such good experience to play at different venues,” said Raphael Smith, a junior guard for the Hoosiers. “We had a lot of people who made it to Brooklyn (for the Progressive Legends Classic), so I imagine a lot (of fans) will make it to Indianapolis.”

Darnell Archey, a former Butler player and the school’s current cordinator of basketball operations, said Indiana’s No. 1 ranking—as well as the addition of Notre Dame in both the AP and USA Today Coaches’ Top 25 polls — brings even more excitement to the event. “(Having) the four best programs in Indiana all playing at one venue in one day is just huge,” he said. “Growing up in Indiana playing ball, it’s special that these teams get together and play.

“Playing Purdue last year with a tip-in in the final seconds was very emotional and very exciting. I’m sure we’ll see black and gold cheering against IU this year.”

But the event is not just about quality basketball and intriguing matchups. The Classic has a much deeper meaning.

The event’s website says the Classic is meant to raise awareness for heart disease and get people involved in working to prevent it.

“We want our fans to live long, healthy lives and enjoy as many college basketball games as they can,” said Morgan Burke, Purdue’s athletic director. “By partnering with Close the Gap, we can show we care about our fans beyond the basketball court by educating them about heart disease and how to prevent and treat the number one killer of Americans.” see classic page 7

PAGE 6 | THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

SWIMMING

Butler places sixth at IUPUI meet

MARISSA JOHNSON MKJOHNSO@BUTLER.EDU SPORTS EDITOR

The Butler women’s swim team finished 2012 by swimming recordbreaking times at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis House of Champions meet last weekend.

The team finished sixth overall in the three-day event, and six Bulldogs swam their way into the Butler record book with top 10 alltime marks.

Freshman Elizabeth Miller posted the second-best time in Butler history with her 11th-place

finish in the 1650-yard freestyle competition with a time of 18:19.9.

Butler had four swimmers place in the top 10 of different races during the event.

Freshman Amanda Wagner placed seventh in the 100 breaststroke, and sophomore Megan Boebinger, junior Lauren Lambrecht and senior Kaitie Ring finished eighth in their respective events.

Butler will not swim again until Jan. 19, when the team will travel to Springfield, Ohio, for a dual meet with Centre College and Wittenburg University.

A Butler swimmer takes a breath during Saturday’s IUPUI House of Champions meet at the IUPUI Natatorium.

Photo by Jaclyn McConnell

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Bulldogs face Falcons SPORTS EDITOR

Photo by Jaclyn McConnell

Freshman guard Lexus Murry, right, defends sophomore guard Taylor Schippers in a recent practice at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

The Butler women’s basketball team is looking to continue its winning ways as it travels to Bowling Green today.

The Falcons (4-3) are coming into the contest off a 71-49 win against Colorado State last Saturday.

Bowling Green is historically one of the top midmajor women’s basketball programs in the country.

Under former coach Curt Miller, the team won 74 percent of its games between 2001 and 2012.

The Bulldogs (3-4) and Falcons have split the alltime series, with each team winning three games. The series dates back to 1998 when the two teams split a pair of meetings. Butler coach Beth Couture is 1-2 in her career against the Falcons.

Last year, Bowling Green earned a 71-61 victory over the Bulldogs.

Butler is coming into today’s game off a 6559 victory over Eastern Michigan (1-5) at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Nov. 28.

Junior Daress McClung scored a game-high 18 points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds to help Butler win. She also added four blocks.

Sophomore Taylor Schippers chipped in with 15 points, six rebounds and six assists for the Bulldogs.

Both McClung and Schippers are transfers playing their first seasons in Bulldog uniforms. The two have led the team in scoring in all seven games this season.

Schippers scored 10 of her points in the second half and, along with sophomore Hannah Douglas, helped hold the lead for Butler down the stretch.

The Bulldogs finished the game on a 15-9 run, including five clutch free throws from Schippers and Douglas in the waning minutes of the game to close the door.

EASTERN MICHIGAN AT BUTLER, NOV. 28 TEAM E. Michigan Butler

1st 27 30

2nd 32 35

Final 59 65

The legal age for alcohol use in Indiana is 21-years-old. Consuming too much alcohol can put you and your friends in danger. The Collegian encourages you to drink responsibly.

MARISSA JOHNSON MKJOHNSO@BUTLER.EDU

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN | PAGE 7

MEN’S BASKETBALL ALUMNI

Former Butler All-American takes new role KYLE BEERY KBEERY@BUTLER.EDU

STAFF REPORTER

Photo by Kyle Beery

Ronald Nored, former Butler men’s basketball player, is the head coach for boys’ basketball at Brownsburg High School.

While some players take a step up to the NBA after their college days, former Butler men’s basketball player Ronald Nored always had a different vision for his future in basketball.

Nored was hired last spring as the head coach of the Brownsburg High School boy’s basketball team.

Nored’s new Bulldogs started their season last month, and held a 1-2 record.

Gordon Hayward Sr., father of former Butler standout Gordon Hayward Jr., is an assistant under Nored and said the team has looked good in its first three games.

The Bulldogs faced Fishers High School on Friday night, falling 60-53.

Hayward Sr. said Nored has brought the same selfless offense and toughnosed defense mentality from his Butler days to his team in Brownsburg.

“The group of kids that we have in there makes it a lot more fun,” Nored said. “We have a good staff and a good, energetic group of guys.”

Greg Hill, Brownsburg’s athletic director, said most of Brownsburg knew about Nored because they followed their own Gordon Hayward Jr. at Butler,

specifically during the two Final Four runs.

“The Butler Way, which we hear a lot, is certainly applicable at the high school level,” Hill said.

Hill thought Nored was the perfect fit.

“That’s how a kid from Alabama ends up in Brownsburg, Indiana,” Hill said.

Hayward Sr. said he feels the kids look up to Nored because he played at the college level.

Nored is also the freshman academic coach at Brownsburg. He helps students who are struggling and meets with their parents.

“There hasn’t been a day of work where I said, ‘I’m not excited to go,’” Nored said.

Nored said his players have been responding well to him as a coach.

“There are just some habits we have to break,” Nored said.

Nored said one important thing he thinks about is, “Who are you when everything is hard?”

Nored said he really enjoys the high school level, but he’s in the process of taking it one year at a time.

Hayward, however, thinks Nored could be at Brownsburg for a long time.

“There is always the possibility of the opportunity to leave,” Hill said.

Classes add pressure for athletes PETER BROWN PBROWN1@BUTLER.EDU STAFF REPORTER

With the semester coming to a close and final exams right around the corner, Butler’s winter athletic teams are just reaching the peak of their seasons.

Many Butler student-athletes have the difficult task of studying for their exams as well as attending their practices and preparing for contests.

The women’s basketball team plays at home against Indiana University on Dec. 9, the day before finals begin. The team then plays at Northern Kentucky on Dec. 16, the day after finals end.

Sophomore women’s basketball player Haley Howard, a marketing and strategic communications major, said with two games so close to finals, separating your mind from athletics is important.

“When you’re studying, all you can think about is school, (and) when you’re playing, all you can think about is the game,” Howard said. “(You’ve) got to take small steps at a time and look at what is happening at that moment and not what all there is left to do, or it would definitely overwhelm you.”

Junior women’s basketball player Mandy McDivitt, a physical and health education major, said despite the busy schedule, the team will prepare for the games the same as usual. McDivitt said there are a few changes in how

Photo by Heather Iwinski

Freshman football player Ryan Oliver, like every athlete at Butler, is required to attend weekly study tables. much the team practices during finals week though.

“Usually, our coach schedules practice around finals, and we will practice at different times,” McDivitt said. “They also usually aren’t super long.”

“We have Monday and Tuesday off, but that is it,” Howard said.

“No changes in duration of practice or difficulty.”

Per NCAA rules, athletic teams are required to give one day off per week.

The men’s basketball team also has two games that straddle finals week. The team plays at Northwestern on Dec. 8. The

CLASSIC: MORE THAN JUST BASKETBALL FROM PAGE FIVE

According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease is the most common killer of American women, African Americans and Latinos, contributing to more deaths in America than any other disease.

Close the Gap is a national initiative created

by Boston Scientific—a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices —that attempts to identify and help at-risk patients and increase awareness of cardiovascular disease risk factors through various outreach events each year.

At last year’s Classic, teams wore lapels on their uniforms to represent awareness of cardiovascular disease.

“As a former player and a fan of college basketball, it’s a really special event for a oneday deal,” Archey said. “This year, it’s going to mean even more because college basketball

Bulldogs then play No. 1 Indiana University in the Crossroads Classic on Dec. 15, the last day of final exams.

Sophomore Alex Barlow, a finance major, said preparing for the Indiana game will be tough.

“We had the same thing last year against Purdue,” Barlow said.

“It’s different. It’s something you got to adjust to, but it’s something every college team has to adjust to, so it’s not just us.”

Barlow said the team practices less as the week goes on, and the practices will be individual with the players’ specific coach rather than as a team.

lost one of its great coaches (last) Saturday.”

Archey was referring to Rick Majerus, who led Utah to the NCAA national title game in 1998. Majerus was taken off life support last Saturday after succumbing to a heart condition. He was 64.

“All of us are at risk for heart disease, which is important (to know) because it is the leading cause of death,” said Karen Halsey, a representative for Close the Gap. “The big takeaway message is, know your risk factors, talk to your doctor and take charge of your heart health.”

In addition to the basketball games and promotions, local cardiologists and other professionals will be in attendance at Bankers Life to answer questions.

The event’s message applies even more to Hoosiers, who are above the national average for two high-risk factors related to cardiovascular disease.

Specifically, 21 percent of Hoosiers smoke, and 66 percent are overweight. The national averages are 17 percent and 64 percent, respectively.

Halsey said information and contests at the event will teach people about heart disease.

“If you have to miss part of a practice due to a final, it’s not the end of the world,” Barlow said.

“But (coaches) really want us to focus on our finals and finish up the semester well.”

Sonya Hopkins, coordinator for academic support, helps studentathletes with tutoring, counseling, time management skills, study skills and study habits. Hopkins also helps communicate with professors when athletes have to miss an exam for a game or meet.

“It all can become overwhelming if you’re not careful with regards to how you manage yourself,” Hopkins said.

“A lot of my time is spent with regards to the time-management facet of their lives.”

“I just think time management (is the hardest part),” Barlow said. “You have a lot of free time because you don’t have classes, but then, it’s like balancing what to do with the free time and study.”

Hopkins said a required workshop is held in the fall for all incoming athletes. One of the programs in the workshop addresses stress management.

Hopkins said all freshman athletes are also required to attend study tables for a minimum of six hours per week.

Despite the busy schedule, McDivitt and Howard do not think they will make any changes to how they will prepare for final exams and upcoming games.

Barlow, however, said he hopes to change when he starts to study.

“I’ll try to start studying little by little rather than trying to study a lot one or two days before,” Barlow said. “I just feel like it’s easier, helps me retain the information, and it will be easier to manage my time by studying a little bit for each subject here and there.”

Even the backside of each game roster will have information on it.

“There are risk factors you can’t control,” Halsey said, “but there are also risk factors you can control. We want to make people cognizant of those risk factors.”

In May, all four schools committed to participating in the event through 2014.

At that time, Butler Athletic Director Barry Collier said the school is proud to be part of such a unique event.

Purdue’s, Indiana’s and Notre Dame’s athletic directors all said they’re excited to head back to Indianapolis for this season’s event.

“Indianapolis and Bankers Life Fieldhouse proved to be ideal hosts, and we are fortunate to be able to partner with them again,” said Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame’s athletic director. “College fans were treated to a great day of basketball last year, and I am thrilled all four schools have agreed to extend the contract for two more years.”

Butler will face Indiana at 2 p.m. Purdue and Notre Dame will take the court following the conclusion of that game.

“But Ron said he would like to be, and wouldn’t be surprised if he was still here 20 years from now.”

Collegian file photo

Ronald Nored played for four years at Butler.

MCGRATH: HALL OF FAME DIRECTOR FROM PAGE FIVE

basketball tournament nine times.

Since Butler hosted these games, McGrath was responsible for behindthe-scenes operations during each event.

McGrath also was recently inducted into the Butler sports Hall of Fame.

Many of Butler’s coaches have expressed appreciation for all that McGrath does.

“In the 12 years that I’ve been here, Jim’s been that one steady figure,” volleyball coach Sharon Clark said.

“He’s so knowledgeable. He’s seen so much of the evolution of where the athletic department is now.”

Football coach Jeff Voris has worked with McGrath during the entirety of his Butler career and says he would not have it any other way.

“He is class, professionalism, everything rolled into one,” Voris said. “There’s not a job that we request that he doesn’t complete with enthusiasm, and he’s provided everything we’ve needed.”

One of the things Butler coaches like best about McGrath is his ability to stay involved in virtually every program while giving each one so much attention.

“He cares as much about our program as he does about the rest of the programs,” Voris said. “He’s hands-on with every program. He truly is Butler athletics.”

While so much of his time has been spent on advancing the Augustana and Butler athletics departments, McGrath has also found ways to get his name known on an international level.

During his 41-year career, he has served in press operations for United States amateur national championships in boxing, swimming and track and field.

He also held a press officer position at the 1986 Olympic Festival and at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. At those games, McGrath sent a young and tattooless Mike Tyson to fetch him popcorn at a boxing event. The now infamous boxer was a team alternate at the Los Angeles games.

McGrath also worked for the 1987 Pan American Games when Indianapolis hosted them.

McGrath and his wife have three sons—Chad, Scott and Christopher.

While McGrath has said nothing of retiring, he will eventually leave a void not easily replaced, Voris said.

“He doesn’t have an offseason,” he said. “The pride he puts into Butler and our programs, I can’t say enough about him.”

By his own admission, McGrath doesn’t have any favorite moments or athletes, just years of good memories and positive experiences.

“My favorite moments,” he said, “pretty much always come back to the athletes.”

ARTS, ETC.

PAGE 8

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

No one wants to dissapoint

Vasanth Santosham...

Photo illustration by Taylor Meador

He’s a professional.

Photos by Jaclyn McConnell

Vasanth Santosham leads students in an excercise during an Acting I class.

Vasanth Santosham works with freshman Abigail Gilster during an Acing I class.

It shows in his determined stride, in the piercing intelligence of his eyes, even in his uniform-like wardrobe—a black sweater, gray Levi 514s and brown boots.

This master actor is focused on the pursuit of excellence in his craft and is determined to pass his drive on to a new generation of students at Butler University.

He hasn’t had much time to do so—he’s only an interim professor, teaching while associate theatre professor Elaina Artemiev is on sabbatical.

Therefore, his acting classes are intense, and he forces his students to take the craft seriously.

For Vasanth Santosham, acting is life, and he knows if his students are to succeed as professional actors they must dive headlong into each experience without knowing what comes next.

The secret to Santosham’s success is based on that ideal: An actor can’t plan for what’s next.

Santosham didn’t plan to become an actor, though it seems he was fated to the profession.

On a car trip when he was eight years old, Santosham told his mother he was going to be an actor. His mother smiled and told him that he’d have to stop being so shy first.

That was the end of the conversation, and Santosham didn’t think about acting again for at least another decade.

While studying for a pre-med degree at Wayne State University in Michigan, Santosham took an acting class.

“Just because I was interested,” he said, shrugging.

An instructor took note of the young man’s talent and told him he should try to become a professional actor.

Taking the professor’s advice, Santosham graduated from Wayne State with a degree in theater and enrolled in a one-month study program at the Moscow Art Theatre School in Russia.

Santosham wound up spending four years at the school, where he studied under some of Russia’s greatest actors.

“It’s very intensive, conservatory-style training,” he said. “It was six days a week—three hours of acting training in the morning and the afternoon with voice, dance, speech, movement, fencing, European theater history and Russian theater history.”

Santosham graduated from this intensive training program with a master’s degree in theater.

One of the master actors Santosham studied with at the school was Artemiev. Santosham leapt at the

chance to teach in her place this semester.

“In the tradition that I come from in Russia, teaching is a natural step in the progression of a professional actor,” he said. “It’s a responsibility to come back to schools and teach, and it’s an honor.”

Santosham is teaching at Butler because he is an established professional actor, and that’s the way he believes it should be.

“If you’ve had success in acting, from doing it the way you’ve been trained and a way you enjoy, you want to share that with other people,” he said.

Santosham has been an actor both on stage and on screen. He hopes that 2013 will bring the theatrical release of a special film he recently shot in India called “Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain.”

Santosham enjoys teaching and believes students benefit from his perspectives on modern acting.

“If you’re going to be a teacher, you have to be an artist first, you have to be someone who’s working, who’s doing it and who can give a perspective on what’s happening right now,” he said He feels that American actors often resort to teaching if they’ve been unsuccessful as actors.

“That’s something I want to destroy, that I think has to be totally taken out of the system.”

Santosham’s students at Butler University believe in his abilities as an instructor and are open to learning his philosophies on theater and acting.

“I love him,” said Jake Swain. “I think he cares about what he does, and he gives good advice, and he might be harsh sometimes, but it’s because he knows that we have potential, and he wants us to realize that potential in ourselves.”

Santosham will return to Moscow in January to participate in a statewide celebration of the 150th anniversary of acting theorist Constantin Stanislavski’s birth. He and Matthew Raines will be starring in a two-man play there this spring.

After the celebration, Santosham plans to join a show touring Romania. When it’s through, he’ll head back to his home in Los Angeles and continue to explore new opportunities.

“The life of an actor usually works in cycles of three to four months,” he said. “You get something, you’re totally involved with it for four months, and by the time it’s finished, something else comes up.”

An actor must live as Santosham lives, without always knowing what comes next.

—Ephraim Rudolph, Contributing writer

Nutcracker tradition continues at Butler MALLORY DUNCAN MSDUNCAN@BUTLER.EDU STAFF REPORTER

Tradition can shape a person’s life from a very young age. Likewise, Butler University’s “The Nutcracker” has shaped the Indianapolis community for 37 years.

The ballet has been passed down from generation to generation. Parents who came to see Butler’s production as children are now bringing their kids.

Larry Attaway, chair of the dance department, said a key reason for this is that the production is easily understood, allowing audiences of all ages to be drawn to it “It speaks to everybody, and it doesn’t have any barriers in that sense,” Attaway said. “The Nutcracker is a true holiday tradition for the Indianapolis community. It signals the opening to holiday time.”

The Nutcracker is based on the story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” by E.T.A Hoffman. It was turned into a ballet in 1892 with music by Pytor Ilych Tchaikovsky.

“At its premiere, it wasn’t very successful,” said Stephan Laurent-Faesi, professor of dance. “It was too different from the tragic stories, and there was no love story.”

The Nutcracker was not seen again until much later in the 20th century, when it was produced in America and achieved soaring popularity.

“Now there can’t be a Christmas without Nutcracker,” Laurent-Faesi said.

Butler’s version of the ballet involves the school’s entire dance department, including the 110 dance majors involved in this semester’s Butler Ballet, the Butler Symphony Orchestra, 30 children in the Indianapolis Children’s Choir and 33 children dancing in the production.

Sarah Grace Mariani, a freshman at Florida State University, was involved with Butler’s “The Nutcracker” for seven years.

“I kept coming back (to The Nutcracker) because it’s what I did at Christmas,” Mariani said. “It was a part of my childhood. It’s what I did, what I loved doing.”

During her time with the production, Mariani played a tiny mouse, a baby angel, a Mother Ginger child, a party girl and Clara’s best friend.

“I don’t think I realized how much of an amazing opportunity it was to work with professors at a university,” she said. “It was so cool to be around the amazingly gifted dancers. I learned so much.”

Butler’s “The Nutcracker” is different from many others because the production is kept traditional in style.

However, each year different professors choreograph different sections of the ballet,

allowing the production to be unique unto itself from year to year.

“The production is pretty faithful to the original story,” Laurent-Faesi said, “although I decided to make Fritz a mischievous character. I have boys. I know what they’re capable of.”

Attaway said he encourages dancers to make their performances feel new before each show because each audience is seeing it for the first time.

Attaway said he hopes for audience members to feel differently at the end of the performance from when they walked in, a tradition of The Nutcracker.

“I want them to become a kid again—to dream and know it’s still okay to dream,” Attaway said. “And whether dreams come true or not, in those two hours, they do. It’s okay to dream. It doesn’t matter how old you are.”

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN | PAGE 9

BUTLER COMMUNITY

PAWS provides end-of-semester stress relief GERRALD VAZQUEZ GVAZQUEZ@BUTLER.EDU STAFF REPORTER

Stress—the bane of college students— is often seen in its most destructive state during finals week.

With the pressure caused by rigorous projects and hours of endless studying, most students will accept any opportunity to take a break to maintain sanity.

Fortunately for Butler students, this week is host to a myriad of events targeted to help students deal with and reduce stress, promoting healthy life practices both during and outside of finals week.

Sarah Barnes Diaz, health education and outreach programs coordinator, described Stress Less Week as “a week-long series of events and messaging for students at Butler to promote healthy stressmanagement techniques and to encourage students to find some stress-management practices that work for them.”

Stress Less Week kicked off Monday with a Brain Food Breakfast coordinated by Peers Advocating Wellness for Students.

During the event, PAWS members distributed healthy

snacks to students in Jordan Hall in the morning as they passed by.

On Tuesday, students had the opportunity to receive massages, drink tea and participate in aromatherapy while Wednesday yields opportunities for students to attend stress- management workshops, view student art at the Reilly Room’s Art Now Exhibit and play inner tube water polo at the Health and Recreation Complex.

Events hosted throughout Stress Less Week are tailored to appeal to a variety of student interests and schedules. The ultimate goal is helping students understand how they can deal with stress, especially during finals week.

“I think students are at a greater risk for experiencing the effects of stress,” Diaz said. “Not only are they thinking about some of the pressures that can come along with the holidays, they’re also trying to wrap up their semester with lots of final projects, papers, finals and pressure to do well academically so that they can continue to be successful.”

Though studying and other work will take up the majority of students’ time, attending a few of these small events can prove

helpful.

“I think it’s a huge benefit because students become so focused on studying, and to study for 24 hours that entire week is obviously unhealthy,” freshman Katelyn Sussli said. “For them to be able to go out, take a little break and just hang out with friends for about an hour or so is really helpful.”

Increased stress levels for students are not exclusive to finals week, though. Many students said having similar events throughout each semester could help promote stress management appropriately.

“Usually, when you’re in school, there’s something looming above your head throughout the next couple of weeks,” freshman Matt Michel said. “It can make it tougher to enjoy your day, so having stress-alleviating events more often would make it a better experience.”

Many of the activities offered during Stress Less Week are available to students at their leisure.

Ultimately, it is up to students to make healthy choices and manage their stress appropriately.

“All of the events offered are things that students can find or do

Photo by Gerrald Vazquez

Students grab a quick study snack from a Brain Food Breakfast organized by PAWS. on campus anytime,” Diaz said.

“We shove this calendar of events together the week before finals because it is a high-stress time.

“But there’s always dogs available on campus, and there’s always an opportunity to take a yoga class, get a massage at the HRC or any of these other things.”

With events like Doodle at Dinner and Flick n’ Float Friday Movie closing out the week, students still have time to enjoy themselves and reduce stress before the push toward finals.

Ideally, students will be able to take what they have learned about stress to manage it efficiently both in and after college, Diaz said.

“It’s really important to find and take opportunities to do things that recharge and rejuvenate you, especially during these high-stress times,” Diaz said. “Taking a break and doing something that brings you joy or gives you some peace is not at all a sign of weakness. It actually will help you be stronger and do better academically and in life as well.”

Hidden Study Spots

ATHERTON UNION THIRD FLOOR STUDY LOUNGE Perfect for group meetings and projects, the study lounge is another one of Butler’s best kept secrets.

ATHERTON UNION 002 MAIL CENTER (NEXT TO THE DIVERSITY CENTER) Few students study in the Atherton mail center, equipped with comfortable chairs and a whiteboard.

ATHERTON UNION TOWER CONFERENCE ROOM Hunker down in the secluded tower conference room for uninterrupted studying during finals week.

JORDAN HALL (ROOM 343) This study cove is seldom full, offering students an escape from wandering the halls of Jordan to find an empty classroom.

Art Now features student work MARIA LEICHTY MLEICHTY@BUTLER.EDU STAFF REPORTER

Every semester, the Art Now show transforms the Reilly Room into an art exhibit with aisles of drawings, collages, paintings, photography, sculptures, interactive pieces and other works of art.

It is that time of the semester.

The art will be available for viewing today, starting at 9 a.m. and ending at 5 p.m.

Art + design majors and minors have worked on their pieces throughout the semester.

Each major fills an entire poster board with his or her art work, and minors fill about half of a board. These boards are then presented to the community through Art Now. Senior Carly Sobolewski created a piece of interactive artwork that will be on display.

“It is an ode to the 90s, since I am a true 90s kid and I was born in the 1990,” she said.

“It has to do with a 90s toy, and I think it is

a good topic of conversation. People like to talk about what they used to play with.”

Sobolewski has been an art minor since her freshman year and said she tried to take an art class each semester. She just recently switched to an art + design major, and this semester she is in two classes that contribute to Art Now, drawing and graphic design.

She said she and her classmates work on plenty of pieces each week, but they collaborate with their professor to pick which ones to show.

“I am proud of certain pieces and not as proud of other pieces,” she said.

Sophomore Taylor Sitorius just started in the art + design program.

She said she is trying to show her best work because it is her first time showing her work publicly.

“I want to put my best foot forward for the people in the community to see,” Sitorius said.

She added that there are 10 new freshmen in the art program, and they are all excited

to show their work for the first time.

Sobolewski said all of the freshmen are “crazy talented”.

“We are hoping it will be the best exhibit yet since we have so many new majors,” she said.

Students in the perspective in the creative arts classes also show their work.

Assistant art professor Steve Nyktas said on the art program’s blog that for many students in the class this was their first time making art.

The PCA students show their favorite piece they have made so far in the course.

Nyktas said his class just finished a cardboard sculpture project.

“The challenge I presented to them was to make a sculpture out of cardboard that responded to the theme of ‘scale,’” Nyktas said in the blog.

Art Now will present the students’ answers to Nyktas’s challenge, as well as a variety of works from other classes and students in the art + design program.

Online: “Lincoln” is historical, captivating Rarely is a historical drama equally educational and captivating. Steven Spielberg’s latest production, “Lincoln,” is an exception.

“Lincoln” is successful in shedding light onto the old game of politics in a refreshing tone. Political discourse appears entertaining instead of dry and dull.

The film is not a biographical scope of Lincoln’s entire life as one might expect, but centers instead on the trials he faced while pushing for the passage of the 13th Amendment to outlaw slavery.

Spielberg’s new film will likely go down as one of his greatest historical productions, right next to films such as “Schindler’s List” (1993) and “Saving Private Ryan” (1998).

Visit www.thebutlercollegian.com to read staff reporter Ryan Hallquist’s full review of the film.

PAGE 10 the butler

COLLEGIAN The Butler watchdog and voice for BU students

4600 Sunset Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46208 Office Information: Fairbanks Room 210 News Line: (317) 940-8813 Advertising Line: (317) 940-9358 collegian@butler.edu Adviser Line: (317) 940-9772

FALL 2012 EDITORIAL STAFF

Jill McCarter

Editor in Chief

Colin Likas

Managing Editor

Tara McElmurry News Editor

Ryan Lovelace

Asst. News Editor

Jeff Stanich

Asst. News Editor

OPINION

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

FROM THE EDITOR

LESSONS LEARNED IN CONTROVERSY Response to the College Fix article provides opportunity to learn, grow The Butler Collegian deeply regrets a blog post written by one of our staff members and the anguish it has caused members of the Butler University community.

The Collegian strives to hold itself to the highest journalistic standards to act as a professional newsroom.

We feel the weight of that responsibility now more than ever.

In the days following the blog’s publication, we have learned that words can hurt. Words can be misinterpreted and, thus, we recommit ourselves to being as accurate, honest and fair as possible in our writing.

We have learned that staff members always represent The

JILL McCARTER

Collegian, no matter the assignment, publication or setting. We must always identify ourselves, the story we’re working on and the publication that we are writing for because, as student journalists and interns, we often write for other outlets.

We have learned the minute an article or opinion piece is published, it is out of our hands. Consequently, we are reminded that we must produce our work with the greatest care and according to the highest standards we have been taught.

And we’ve learned that because we can’t control who reads our work or how people react to it, we need to take the utmost care before it is published.

We are here to learn.

We are students from all walks of life. We are journalism majors as well as students who have never taken a journalism course. We are students who are about to graduate and students who are in their first semester at Butler.

The Collegian provides us an onthe-job opportunity to practice what we are taught in the classroom on the job.

We are taught news values— impact, timeliness, trends and human interest—in order to determine what subjects are worthy of news coverage.

As student journalists, we are taught to do research about the organizations and people we cover,

as well as issues of concern.

We are taught to seek appropriate sources to interview to gain multiple perspectives on those issues.

We are taught to let those sources know what news outlet we are representing and what subject we are covering in our article.

We are taught to report accurately.

We are taught to write as clearly and concisely as possible.

We are taught to conduct ourselves in an honest and professional manner.

We take these responsibilities and lessons seriously.

We regret when we do not meet the standard practices of our profession.

The Collegian staff will use this experience to reinforce these values and standards.

Contact editor in chief Jill McCarter at jmccarte@butler.edu.

Reid Bruner

Opinion Editor

Students should study abroad

Donald Perin

Asst. Opinion Editor

Kevin Vogel

Arts, Etc. Editor

Sarvary Koller

Asst. Arts, Etc. Editor

Butler offers many study abroad opportunities that could benefit students

Marissa Johnson Sports Editor

Austin Monteith

Asst. Sports Editor

Mary Allgier

Multimedia Editor

Matt Rhinesmith

DONALD PERIN

Asst. Multimedia Editor

Rafael Porto

Photography Editor

Heather Iwinski

Asst. Photography Editor

Lauren Stark

protect themselves.

The university should do everything in its power to make that happen when the action does not endanger other students.

Butler officials bring up an important point—Drink Detective, and any product like it, cannot fix drugging problems or promise safety.

At the core, though, safety should not be left to the student either way.

The university’s focus should be all for making it incredibly difficult to behave in ways that harm other students.

Making a drug-testing product like this available on campus does not endanger students or create a culture of fear.

It also does not absolve any officials of their responsibility to keep students safe.

If more knowledge about the prevalence of drugging drinks makes people nervous, perhaps this campus needs to be more aware.

Either way, students have a right to know what is going on around campus when it impacts their safety.

And they have a right to know what they’re sipping.

Studying abroad can be a great opportunity for Butler students. I highly suggest that every student try to take a semester to study in a foreign country.

There are countless positive academic, cultural and personal advantages to studying abroad.

Academically, students can immerse themselves in a foreign language. Students studying abroad have the opportunity to study at universities that offer programs Butler might not, said Sarah Robinson, study abroad adviser.

Robinson also said an experience abroad can be a great way to boost a résumé.

“That kind of experience shows employers and graduate schools that you can step outside of your comfort zone and do something that not many people can do,” Robinson said.

Culturally, Butler students studying in foreign lands will experience ways of life far different from what they have in the Butler Bubble.

Senior Kevin Wolf said he met a new type of people while spending a semester in France.

“You’ll be forced to interact with other people and learn from them,” Wolf said. “You’ll learn and grow as a person.”

Learning and growing as a person is perhaps the most important thing a student can take out of a study abroad experience.

“College is a time in students’ lives where they’re trying to figure out where they’re going with their lives and what they’re interested in and what their passions are,” Robinson said. “Sometimes I think studying abroad helps students figure that out.

Going and seeing how other people live, it helps them learn things about themselves.”

So Butler students, make use of study abroad opportunities and learn something about yourselves and about the world outside the United States.

Contact columnist Jeremy Algate at jalgate@butler.edu.

Contact asst. opinion editor Donald Perin at dperin@butler.edu.

Copy Chief

Taylor Meador Design Editor

Photo by Hali Bickford

Ali Hendricks

Advertising Manager Adviser: Loni McKown

The Butler Collegian is published weekly on Wednesdays with a controlled circulation of 2,600. The Collegian office is located in the Fairbanks Center in room 210.

The Collegian is printed at The Greenfield Reporter in Greenfield, Ind. The Collegian maintains a subscription to MCT Services Campus wire service.

The Collegian editorial staff determines the editorial policies; the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of The Collegian or Butler University, but of the writers clearly labeled.

As outlined in The Collegian’s staff manual, the student staff of The Collegian shall be allowed the widest degree of latitude for the free discussion and will determine the content and format of their publication without censorship or advance approval. A copy of these policies is on file in The Collegian office.

The Collegian accepts advertising from a variety of campus organizations and local businesses and agencies. All advertising decisions are based on the discretion of the ad manager and editor in chief. For a copy of The Collegian advertising rates, publication schedule and policies, please call 317-940-9358 or send an e-mail to the advertising staff at advertising@butler.edu.

For subscriptions to The Collegian, please send a check to the main address above.

Subscriptions are $45 per academic year.

Corrections Policy

The Collegian staff makes an effort to be as accurate as possible. Corrections may be submitted to The Collegian and will be printed at the next publication date.

Letters to the Editor Policy

The Collegian accepts letters to the editor no later than noon on the Sunday before publication.

Letters to the editor must be emailed to collegian@butler.edu and contain a phone number at which you can be reached. Letters can also be mailed to The Collegian office.

The Collegian reserves the right to edit letters for spelling, style, clarity and length. Letters must be kept to a length of 450 words. Contact The Collegian for questions. Exceptions to these policies may be made at the editorial board’s discretion.

Don’t block sale of drug-testing product The administration will not promote Drink Detective because it cannot assure safety A Butler University student attempted to bring a drugtesting product to the university this semester.

University officials told the student they would not promote the sale of the product Drink Detective on campus.

This action on the part of the administration seems to stand in direct contradiction to its stated goal of ensuring student safety.

Students can use Drink Detective to find out if anything has been added to the drink in a simple test.

This includes dangerous drugs.

Various officials assosciated with the university have spoken out about the product.

They bring up valuable points — The product is not comprehensive and does not completely guarantee safety.

In other words, the product does not promise “all-clear” reactions.

At the same time, it seems better than nothing.

Drink Detective does not create dangerous drugs or physically harm someone.

JEREMY ALGATE

Any argument against it seems to ignore the existing problem of people drugging others through beverages.

It is very important to remember that even if this product were allowed on campus, no one is responsible for being drugged.

However, if some individuals choose to use the product, there seems to be no reason to stop them.

Having Drink Detective available on campus should not be seen any differently than offering self-defense classes or promoting educational programs about safe drinking.

None of these programs actually address the cause of predatory behavior.

The ideal solution to any attempted drugging is to force the perpetrators to stop their behavior.

However, some individuals may wish to take action to

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN | PAGE 11

Butler better without Dominick the Donkey Campus is not missing much with the end of the “Dominick” song This semester has not been the same without Tau Kappa Epsilon, but the absence of the song “Dominick the Donkey” is for the better.

I am a big supporter of school traditions and events, but this is one holiday ritual that I am not sad to see go.

Students hearing the Christmas rendition for the first time would think it sounded like any other cheery holiday song.

New students would be led to believe TKE played a variety of Christmas songs throughout the entire season.

But by noon on any day, they would realize the same tune had been blaring from TKE’s speakers all day long.

As night falls and the hum of the song continues, people would realize the next three weeks would be filled with donkey noises.

RHYAN HENSON

The constant droning of the same tune makes the day go on longer and longer and does not always put people in a bright, cheery holiday mood.

The pressure of finals week is enough to make some people pull out their hair, especially when forced to hear the same song over and over again while working.

For those who lived around TKE, there was no escaping the song.

Residents of Ross, Residential College and nearby Greek houses could hear the tune creeping through their windows.

“Dominick The Donkey” would drown out the music in my headphones when I walked around on campus.

Other on-campus organizations and groups have attempted to keep the tradition alive by playing “Dominick the Donkey” during this holiday season.

But some school officials have stopped some organizations from playing it.

Although I am glad the song isn’t playing as much as it otherwise would be, other student groups should be allowed to play the song if they feel compelled.

“I heard DG playing it on Friday, and it put some pep in my step, but it would be annoying if I had to live across the street from TKE and have to hear it every day,” junior Nigel Spears said.

Another fraternity or campus organization should start a different holiday tradition that is not forced upon a large percentage of the student body.

This way, Butler students can get in the holiday spirit without bothering their peers.

Contact columnist Rhyan Henson at rhenson@butler.edu.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Glad my student isn’t going to Butler Patricia Boman wrote the following in an email to President Danko in response to the College Fix article.

Butler University was initially on my daughter’s college list: However, we decided against it for various reasons.

All students should be open to new perspectives—but why are students in this course required to be someone they are not?

This teaching approach is discriminatory and disrespectful—as well as ineffectual, since it is highly challenging for students to write in a voice that is the antithesis of who they are.

According to The Butler University Student Handbook’s Equal Opportunity Statement: “Butler University is committed to the principle of equal opportunity.

It does not knowingly discriminate against any

applicant, student or employee on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, color, age, religion or nationality/ethnicity.”

How can the professor’s teaching approach be considered appropriate in the view of Butler University’s own Equal Opportunity Statement from the Student Handbook?

Clearly, students in this course are being offended and feel discriminated against on the basis of their sex, race and background.

That should not be tolerated, and yet Dean Howard’s statements indicate that Butler University supports this discrimination.

Discrimination of any type is simply wrong.

As an institution of higher education based on equal opportunity, Butler University should not only address the inherent discrimination of this course but also review whether this instructional approach is

even competent with regard to appropriate learning objectives and outcomes.

All perspectives certainly can and should be considered in an open learning environment without having to discriminate against particular students, inferring there is something innately unjust about who they are.

As a former college professor, I found I always learned a tremendous amount from my students, who were of different ages, sex and ethnicities.

I always wanted them to be exactly who they were—and because of this, I found the learning environment was much richer as a result.

By the way—my daughter is Asian. She would have been an amazing addition to Butler University.

Patricia Boman St. Louis, Mo.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

‘College Fix’ article disappointing My former adviser at Butler sent me an opinion piece by Ryan Lovelace in The College Fix in which he expresses some troubling opinions on the nature of Butler’s liberal arts curriculum and the liberal arts in general.

As a former photography editor of The Collegian, my first reaction was disappointment that a journalist from this publication would express such stubborn and defeatist perspectives.

Upon further consideration I have come to the conclusion that I should be unsurprised by such a commentary, but nevertheless that I should attempt to counter Lovelace’s unfortunate opinion.

I am unsurprised for two reasons.

The first is that an embodied and well-instructed liberal arts education should be, by definition, challenging.

History and politics are inherently uncomfortable things.

We see humanity’s worst potential as well as the pinnacles that we could never live up to.

But they also require an inclusive perspective, a threatening concept which requires thinking beyond ourselves.

Much like Lewis Carroll’s Alice, liberal artists learn, act and communicate with an unpredictable and fluid world.

Unfortunately, Lovelace—having been asked to “Eat me—” has shrunk and is floundering in a sea of his own tears.

This is unsurprising because, as much as many may think that the liberal arts are blow-off disciplines full of easily dismissible post-modern hokum, they are actually complex venues of knowledge-making and un-making which are not for those who would have the white rabbit handed to them for a price.

I am unsurprised by Lovelace’s mention of Butler’s pricey tuition.

Teacher’s strikes, discussions of student debt and a terrible job market increasingly put talk of money and education in the same sentence.

University students are right to be frustrated at the price of college education.

However, this frustration has resulted in the mistaken idea that an education should somehow pay off.

That is, that college should train us for careers and salaries.

The liberal arts seem to confound this at every turn, instead affording us vague skills like critical thought, expression and multi vocality.

However, Jay Howard points out that the value of an education should instead be measured in its productiveness.

And productiveness is, perhaps, best measured in conflict and change.

I would point out that it is precisely

this discomfort and conflict that has so upset Lovelace.

The real danger in Lovelace’s commentary is that he has neglected to think beyond his own egoistic bubble.

In publicly deciding to drop a class because he was afraid of how it would make him think, his words have been taken up by racist and misogynist commentators on the Internet.

I do not hold Mr. Lovelace responsible for anonymous comments on the internet.

I only suggest that an inclusive perspective might, without devaluing its own point, retreat from establishing polarized boundaries of black and white, homo and heterosexual.

Instead, Lovelace has put up impenetrable walls of impossible inclusivity, effectively silencing conversation.

I now teach in an alternative high school serving primarily white, highincome students.

I work with students one-on-one teaching history, English, civics and writing.

My greatest challenge is to address occasional racist, uninformed, indoctrinated or aped prejudices of students.

Without suggesting the students should think as I do (which Lovelace should appreciate) and thereby shutting down participation, I must communicate with my students, to focus on the subject matter and to open up new and safe avenues of thought.

To do this I must be patient, thoughtful and inclusive.

It is precisely the liberal arts education which Lovelace has proudly discarded that allows me to listen, reflect and connect with my students without threat.

More than correcting their opinions or expressing mine, inclusiveness allows me to use these moments to contribute to quality education for students who have found failure or boredom in classrooms.

Thinking and writing in a way which prioritizes experiences of others is critical to achieving a productive classroom.

What Lovelace has overlooked are the important tools his education might be giving him to make a difference in a contrary world.

I am thankful to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler for offering me development and tools for making a difference in my own students’ education.

I should like Lovelace to reconsider his decisions and challenge himself in order to achieve the same as a journalist.

Jon Irons Class of 2009 alumnus

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

A message to Butler from President Danko about inclusivity University President Jim Danko wrote the following message to the entire campus Dec. 1.

Dear Butler University Students, Faculty and Staff: According to our Statement of Guiding Principles, at Butler University we work toward respect and dignity for all individuals in our community and aim to promote an open and tolerant environment for voicing opinions.

As such, we honor our professors’ desires to promote inclusive and positive classrooms.

We also honor our students’

rights to express concerns about their educational experiences at Butler.

This past week, we were challenged to live up to these ideals after the publication of an article on the website The College Fix, in which one of our students described concerns about a professor’s preference for inclusive language within the course.

While I respect the student’s right to take issue with the use of inclusive language within the course, we should recognize that inclusive language is encouraged

and supported at Butler University, at many other institutions of higher education and in many disciplines.

Inclusive dialogue helps prepare our students to interact with others professionally and fairly in an increasingly diverse America.

And importantly, it creates a respectful environment for all people.

As many students, faculty and staff have engaged in discussions about the article in the past week, I am proud of the fact that in keeping with our guiding principles, many of our community members have

remembered that there are always at least two sides to every story.

Unfortunately, some responses we have received from individuals not associated with Butler University who read the article online have targeted various individuals at Butler in ways that have involved personal verbal attacks and hateful language.

We have taken care to ensure the safety and well-being of those on our campus who have been the recipients of these responses.

I know that several groups on campus are planning events that

PawPrints What helps you get through finals?

BY HEATHER IWINSKI

“I relieve stress by doing activities during study breaks.”

Arnetta Shade Sophomore Education

“Laughing at my silly roommate.”

Derrick Rogan Freshman Criminology & sociology

“Sleeping, Children’s Benadryl and cake pops is a good formula for success.”

Harriet Steinke Freshman Composition

will allow further discussion of the article and responses to it, and I encourage you to attend such events if you are interested.

As this issue is further debated on our campus, I strongly encourage each of you to remember the humanity and feelings of those with whom you disagree.

Furthermore, I know I can expect the highest level of civility and respect from each of us in accordance with our university’s values.

James Danko President

Angry we missed the scoop? Have an opinion of your own?

Send letters to the editor to collegian@butler.edu.

We’d love to print your rants and raves.

Keep it classy and see page 10 for guidelines.

working like a dawg Photos by Jaclyn McConnell

A day in the life of the Butler mascot is a busy one.

Filled with chew toys, affection and a few naps, Blue II and Blue III spend their days with owner Michael Kaltenmark, director of web marketing communications. Whether they’re found in the basement of Jordan Hall, the Blue II vehicle or at home with Kaltenmark’s wife and son, the dogs have been

raised in a luxurious environment.

Blue II, the more seasoned of the pair, leads by example around the office and at basketball games to prepare Blue III for the big leap to mascot-in-chief. Meanwhile, Blue III enjoys the attention every puppy excitedly receives.

-Taylor Meador