October 22nd, 2015
DROWNING IN CONTROVERSY
Staff Writer By now, everyone is well aware that Concord University shut down the campus pool until further notice on Sept. 29. While some students may be breathing a sigh of relief for no longer receiving emails about pool hours, many other students and community members have created somewhat of a movement to try and change the administration’s mind. What was thought to be a small mechanical error in the pool ended up turning into something that was supposedly going to take more money for repairs than the university had to spare. One out of two pumps in the pool had stopped working. While this had happened before, the university didn’t feel that they had the funds to keep repairing it in addition to the regular maintenance and fees it takes to keep it up and running. Vice President for Business and Finance sent an email to the faculty senate with a very brief overview of what it takes
Athens 7-Day Forecast Oct. 22-28
to keep the pool open every year. That email stated that the cost for labor for lifeguards was $27,105.04, cost for pool manager salary was $19,056, and chemicals were $1,172.97. While many groups have been going to the Board of Governors urging them to change their minds, the Board of Governors
News:
ing options to help balance the budget. While closing the pool temporarily was considered, the Board of Governors themselves never voted nor did they have any final say in the decision. According to Dr. Michelle Gompf, a member on the Board, “on Friday, October 2 the Board of Governors got the same an-
C-Lions, are a local swimming team who have been using Concord’s pool for well over 20 years. Their voices have been the loudest following the news about the pool closing. They created a Facebook page called “Save the C-Lions” mere days after they heard the news about the pool. In addition to their Facebook page, they had a silent protest at the Homecoming parade and have started a petition that has been circulating around campus and the surrounding community. The C-Lions have tried communicating with the administration and they’ve even expressed an interest in trying to help pay for repairs as well as to help cover the cost of the yearly expense it takes to keep the pool open. In an interview with the president of the C-Lions on Oct. 6, The C-Lions held a silent protest during the Homecoming he said “Pikeview High School Parade. offered to help purchase a new Photo Courtesy of the Save the C-Lions change.org page. pump. I offered to have my company [Lamb Machine Inc.] didn’t actually vote on the deci- nouncement email that faculty rebuild the pump for free.” sion to close the pool. In their did, sent at the same time.” last meeting they talked about A group that has been receivSEE POOL, P. 2 budgets cuts and were consider- ing a lot of attention lately, the This Week’s Local Forecast
Thursday
Friday
Precip Chance: 5%
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Mostly Sunny 69/50
This Edition
Sunny 68/46
Saturday
Mostly Sunny 66/50
Precip Chance: 5%
Sunday
Few Showers 62/47
Monday
Weather Trivia
Tuesday
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Mostly Cloudy Mostly Cloudy Partly Cloudy 57/45 53/41 58/42
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Which has higher wind speeds: An F5 Tornado or a Category 5 Hurricane?
?
Answer: An F5 Tornado, which has winds between 261-318 mph.
Briana Gunter
Volume LXXXV No. 8
www.WhatsOurWeather.com
• Drowning in Controversy • Liz Miele Revisits the Campus Beautiful
Opinion
• Going, Going, Gone Greek
Arts, Entertainment, & Community • Moe’s American Dream • Crafty Costumes
Millennial Beat Homecomiing 2015
Oct. 22nd 2015, Page 2 The Concordian
News POOL
FROM PAGE 1
While the C-Lions have made their voices heard, Dr. Boggess said the following in an interview with the Bluefield Daily Telegraph: “we’ve only had one student send us an email being concerned. I have received many emails from community members who are not part of Concord, but they’re not faculty members, they’re not staff members, or students who have sent us an email.” While the community members involved with the C-Lions do help pay for the pool, Dr. Boggess said it’s not fair to the students who pay to go here to have to pay for a facility they never use. While only one student has emailed Dr. Boggess’s office, there have been a lot of students affected by the closing of the pool. There have been classes in the past that have utilized the pool, including one this semester, athletes use it for conditioning, and other students use the pool for recreation and exercise. While the community
members and students have all been affected, this decision not only effected them, but the faculty of Concord University as well. In a Faculty Senate meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 13, faculty were able to express their concerns with the administration’s decision. Many faculty expressed that they were more upset about how the decision was made because they were not informed of the decision beforehand or even a part of the decision making process. During the meeting, Dr. Charles Brichford expressed that the faculty should have been consulted before the administration made their decision. The administration, however, didn’t feel like everyone should be involved in every decision the university makes. Dr. Brichford made a general remark in defense of an open budget process and not a specific criticism of the pool-closing decision: “decisions that are made with limited input tend to be
poor decisions. I think we can all agree that we would prefer to avoid poor decisions, even if it means listening to a number of people, even people who, at first glance, might not seem to have either a stake in or knowledge of that particular issue. It often turns out that they have both.” Many other faculty members felt the same way. Faculty also tried giving the administration advice on how to recover from all of the negative attention they were receiving. Some of the advice offered included sending out a simple message to the community saying that Concord University cared about the community and that they were willing to work with the community, especially the C-Lions, to come up with a solution. Other things included getting on the “Save the C-Lions” Facebook page and posting that they simply cared about how this decision affected them. Even if they weren’t open to keeping the pool open,
faculty said the administration needed to communicate directly with the community members, not just through interviews with news stations and newspapers. However, all of the advice was turned down because the administration felt as if they had already tried showing everyone that they cared, but felt like their words were being misinterpreted. During the Faculty Senate meeting on Oct. 13, Dr. Boggess mentioned that she had a scheduled meeting with Lamb, advisor of the C-Lions. That meeting was cancelled. On Oct. 14 around 4:00 PM the university sent out an e-mail saying the C-Lions and Concord University would only continue conversation through attorneys from this point forward. When asking Lamb about this decision to involve attorneys he said “The letter that was sent [about communicating through attorneys] was a very polite letter, asking that they
not dismantle or do anything to the pool until we had a chance to discuss funding sources and strategies for reopening the pool. It was not legally binding and only expressed concerns about the pool.” The C-Lions are not suing at this point in the process, even though there are attorneys involved. Students, faculty, and community members are still working to try and change the administration’s decision to close the pool. Faculty especially are trying to urge the administration to take a second look at the budget to come up with a better solution. More information on the budget decisions will be featured in next week’s follow up article. In the meantime, students interested in seeing the pool re-open can email Dr. Boggess at presidentboggess@concord.edu. Pick up the paper next week for an article on budgetary concerns.
LIZ MIELE REVISITS THE CAMPUS BEAUTIFUL Haley McCord
Staff Writer On Wednesday, October 7, comedian Liz Miele once again took the stage in the Jean and Jerry Beasley Student Center as part of the Homecoming 2015 festivities. Students gathered at Subway Sides to unwind and listen to a few jokes from her newest album entitled “Emotionally Exhausted.” According to LizMiele.com,
“Liz Miele started doing standup comedy at 16. At 18 she was profiled in the New Yorker. At 22 she appeared on Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham. Liz continues to perform stand-up comedy all over the country at clubs and colleges. She’s a comedy nerd, a cat enthusiast and has an unhealthy love for all things sweet. When she is not taking an obscene amount of pictures of her cats she is reading something disturbingly
sad or pretentiously upbeat and hopeful.” The show was scheduled to begin at 9:00 sharp, but the event began twenty minutes late. Initially, there were only four students in the audience, but more students began to take their seats as the evening progressed. Overall, the attendance topped out at around thirty students. Miele began telling jokes about West Virginia and the
lack of entertainment in the area. She exclaimed that, “The only thing you guys have in this state is cows!” During the beginning of the show, the audience seemed energetic and attentive, but Miele soon ran out of state jokes. As she began to address certain members of the audience in order to find new material and relate to the students, they became distant, uninterested and bored. The majority of the audience did
not want to speak to Miele and wished she would have told more jokes instead of trying to hold individual conversations. An anonymous individual said “She wasn’t bad, but she definitely could have been better. I think she came to Concord last year and nobody really came to the show, so I wonder why they brought her back.” Another student who wishes SEE AFT, P. 3
Oct. 22nd 2014, Page 3 The Concordian
Opinion
GOING, GOING, GONE GREEK Tyler Jackson
Staff Writer Homecoming has come and gone and, if you’re fortunate enough, so has midterm season. With all of that behind us, what now? What is there to do to occupy the rest of your semester outside of classroom curriculum? Andrew Sulgit does a great job providing some form of entertainment as often as possible, but what are you going to do whenever there isn’t anything to do? Many people look at Greek life as nothing more than hazing and paying for friends. That is simply not true, and as a Greek I can testify to all of the great things that come from being affiliated with an organization. As a general rule of Concord, Greek organizations are strictly forbidden from hazing. Many people are hesitant to join organizations because of the horror stories about students being hurt or humiliated by hazing, but Concord has a zero-tolerance hazing policy. Each organization has a new member or associate process.
The point of the new member or associate process is to make sure that the associate and the members of an organization have the chance to get to know each other to make sure this is what they really want, because once you are initiated later in your process, it is hard to leave an organization. From the moment a potential member signs their bid with a national fraternity or sorority they are bound to it for a year, and by that if they decide the organization they are going through their process with is not the one for them, they must wait a year before they can sign a bid with another national organization. Local organizations work differently, as they are unique to Concord and don’t have the same rules in place as nationals, but also limit networking opportunities. The national sororities that have chapters on campus are Alpha Sigma Tau, Delta Zeta, Sigma Sigma Sigma, and Alpha Sigma Alpha and there is one local sorority, the reborn Nu Zeta Chi’s who are back on campus after a two year absence.
Each sisterhood has unique traits to offer each person who is interested, but finding your home is important. If possible, attend at least one interest meeting hosted by each organization and learn what they are about, associate with members outside of recruitment events in an effort to get to know the people you could potentially call your sisters a little bit better. As there are sororities for females, there are also fraternities for males. The national fraternities on campus are Phi Sigma Phi, Tau Kappa Epsilon, and Sigma Tau Gamma. The local fraternities on campus are Chi Omega Psi and Phi Delta Pi. As with sororities, it is imperative to give each fraternity a chance, no matter whether or not they are national or local. National fraternities each offer networking and leadership conferences for members to attend, but national dues are much more expensive than local dues, often costing hundreds of dollars a semester. National organizations have the luxury of competing in national Greek Week in front of a larger audi-
ence, as opposed to local Greek Week where only two organizations compete and it is not as publicized. Despite the positives and negatives of each type, it’s imperative to give each fraternity your time. If you decide to join, these people will be your brothers and best friends, you will give your effort and time to these people and this organization, so choose wisely. Scaring people away from Greek Life is not the intent of this article by any means. If anything I believe everybody should be giving it an attempt of some sort, even if you just want their free food. Greek life is probably the number one way to get out and associate with your fellow students on campus and get to know people, so the next time you see a flyer advertising an interest meeting, attend the meeting and see what it’s about, as it may lead you to your home away from home.
MIELE
The Concordian Staff Brittany Strother Editor-in-Chief Sarah White Managing Editor Staff Writers: Briana Gunter James Hoyle Tyler Jackson Haley McCord Patrice Mitchell WebMaster Jonathan Collins Business Manager James Blankenship Mrs. Lindsey Akers Advisor
FROM PAGE 2
to remain anonymous said, “She was terrible! I can’t believe the school brought her back! She tries too hard.” Unfortunately, neither of these interviewed students loved the performance, but other interesting and highly rated performances can be found on YouTube. It’s possible that Miele just had an off night; she seems like an overall energetic and happy person that loves to travel and
share laughs with people from ing performances or any other all around the world. According information about Liz Miele, to LizMiele.com, “She [Miele] is visit Lizmiele.com. on a constant search to prove or disprove that she is losing her The Concordian has gone digital and mobile! mind… “ Find us on the Issuu app for iOS and Android. After the performance, Miele It’s free! encouraged students to buy Just download the app and search for tee-shirts, wrist bands and her “Concordian” newest album from a nearby Or, check us out online at concordianonline. table. Liz Miele’s newest album is available on iTunes and com Amazon. For a list of upcom-
Your Name Here Write for the Concordian!
Oct. 22nd 2015, Page 4 The Concordian
Homecoming
WANT MORE SHOTS OF THE HOMECOMING 2015 ACTION? CHECK US OUT ONLINE AT CONCORDIANONLINE.COM
Oct. 22nd 2014, Page 5 The Concordian
Homecoming
Festivities lit up the valley Thursday and Friday as the University celebrated Homecoming 2015. Photos By: James Hoyle, Haley McCord, and Brittany Strother
Oct. 22nd 2015, Page 6 The Concordian
Arts, Entertainment, & Community
CRAFTY COSTUMES Haley McCord
Staff Writer It’s that spooky time of year again, but for many students, the only thing scary about Halloween is how much it can cost. Many people, especially college students, do not have the cash to spend on an expensive costume set from Party City. Fortunately, there are a lot of ways one can dress up for the festivities and really get into the spooky spirit without scaring your wallet. According to PopSugar magazine, “If you’re an undergrad, you know how huge Halloween is every year. It’s never too early to start planning for those campus parties! We’ve come up with a range of awesome costumes that are perfect for any college student, and the best part is they’re all DIY. So in the spirit of Halloween, light your
pumpkin spice candle, turn on Hocus Pocus, and get crafting!” When it comes to DIY costumes, make-up is a great place to start. You don’t have to go all out with zombie makeup and prosthetics like on the movies. Instead, regular drugstore staples will do in a pinch. Use eyeliner to dress up like a classic cat and create a dramatic cateye, whiskers, and a black nose; complete this look with cat ears from CVS or Wal-Mart, or make them yourself out of felt and a headband. Another great idea using eyeliner could be a scarecrow; use black eyeliner to paint long, thick strokes downward from eyes. Create an elongated mouth, similar to the Joker, using eyeliner and add small lines downward throughout. An alternative to make-up is face paint. Face paint can be purchased from almost any de-
partment store around this time of year and has the potential to completely transform anyone into any creature imaginable. Use face paint to dress up like a zombie and wear an old, ripped t-shirt. Use dark eyeshadow to mimic dark circles around the eyes and bruising on other parts of the body like the neck, arms and hands. Make sure to complete the look with a messy hairstyle and be sure to perfect that limp! To find your perfect Halloween attire, search through clothing at secondhand or overstock stores rather than going to the mall; try shopping at a Goodwill or Gabriel Brothers. These locations have a lot of variety and the prices are relatively low compared to Party City and other seasonal Halloween shops. For those that aren’t so cre-
ative, there are resources to help you create the ideal costume on the cheap side of things. PopSugar magazine explains how to dress up as Rosie the Riveter: “Get a blue button-up shirt and roll the sleeves up to your elbow. Pin back your hair with a bandanna, and create a big 1950s pin curl in front. Complete your look with winged eyeliner and a red lip.” Another few interesting and original costume ideas proposed by PopSugar were an Instagram selfie: “Get a piece of cardboard, paint the top three inches blue, and write ‘Instagram’ in white. Add your handle, and cut a window, so you can pose for pictures with your friends. Include “likes” and funny comments. Don’t forget a hashtag” or a cup of Starbucks coffee: “Print out the Starbucks coffee logo, paste it onto flexible poster paper, and cross out
MOE’S AMERICAN DREAM James Hoyle
Staff Writer It’s no secret that Athens, WV, is lacking in culinary diversity. Gino’s has been the main staple of the town for years, and the Subway and Wingspan on campus add little to the mix. There were no other options for residents and students in the area to sit down and enjoy a meal. This has now all changed. Last week, Moe’s Restaurant and Café opened to the public. It is located by the Sonoco Station and next to the Trading Journal and Deli Mart at 5811 South State Street. For the residents of Athens and for the students of Concord University, it is a new place to eat and to socialize. For
the owner, however, it is the culmination of all of his hard work. The Concordian had a chance to talk to Mohammad Seif, known to the public as Moe, the week before his restaurant opened. “Moe’s is a dream come true,” Moe said, “It was my dream to start a restaurant, and I wanted to call it Moe’s, and that’s how the idea came to me.” According to him, the actual property itself was not difficult to acquire. Construction began within the building in July and was finished in early October. This was a period of roughly three months. “It was a lot of work,” he said. With the okay from both the health department and the Athens Fire Marshall, they were able to open for
business. Moe was adamant that he takes the health and safety of his customers very seriously. Moe was very excited to speak of what sort of food that his restaurant will serve. “We will be serving three meals a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and we have American, Greek, and Italian food. It’s gonna be pizzas, subs, burgers, paninis, reubens, kind of like a New York-style diner. Whatever you want to eat, you can come here and get it. You won’t get tired of our stuff.” Moe clarified that when he says three meals a day, he means three meals. Customers wishing to get breakfast for dinner are out of luck. Moe wishes to not have the flavors from breakfast
eggs mix with the flavors of steak and fish at lunch or dinner time. “We start lunch at 11:00 and end it a 3:00. From 3:00 to 10:00, that’s dinner time.” Moe wanted to stress that they will also be serving pizza large enough to serve eight people. “It’s 18 inches and nobody carries that size here,” he said, “We want to keep it at a low price. We want to feed the whole family.” In addition to all of the food the new eatery has to offer, Moe also said that he has a special discount for all students attending Concord University. “We’re giving a 10% discount to all Concord University students. We’re trying to help them out because we know that
your “name” on the other side. Wear anything comfortable and warm underneath!” While dressing up for exceptionally cheap is especially sweet, using the extra cash to make scary Halloween treats to share with friends during parties is even sweeter. According to a CookingPanda.com article entitled “Six Easy No Bake Do It Yourself Halloween Treats,” oreo spiders are fun and easy to make: “Start with a simple Oreo cookie and decorate with small round candies for eyes. Use licorice and frosting to attach legs to the body.” People have also created hotdog ‘fingers’ and entire zombie bodies made up of various foods for respective body parts. For more information about DIY costumes or Halloween treats, visit popular DIY websites like Pinterest.
most students don’t have that much money to spend, so we want to give them a break, and our menu prices are the best. So you’re gonna save money buying your breakfast or your lunch or your dinner, and you’re getting that 10% discount.” When asked if he had anything to say to his potential customers at Concord University, Moe said with a smile, “I will do my best to feed you and to make you feel good and to make you feel happy.” Moe’s Restaurant and Café is open Monday through Saturday from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM and on Sundays from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM Anyone with questions can call Moe at (304) 384-8247.
Oct. 22nd 2014, Page 7 The Concordian
millennial beat
THE THIRTY YEAR WAR: THE WAR ON DRUGS IN THE UNITED STATES
Patrice Mitchell
Staff Writer/Columnist
Patrice Mitchell is the columnist for the Millennial Beat. She is a senior Communications major with an emphasis in Broadcasting and a Journalism minor. After transferring from Marshall University, she has spent the past three years on the Concordian Newspaper staff and also as a WMLT Reporter staff. “I love writing and I’ve grown to have an appreciation for politics; which is why I choose to have a political style beat this semester. I choose this topic because I want to learn more about politics and also encourage my generation to do the same.”
One of the longest standing wars involving the United States continues today, and is happening inside of the US borders. This war claims thousands of lives every year, both in death and as prisoners. The government spends millions of dollars to house these prisoners and fight these battles. This war is the war on drugs. The number of Americans incarcerated for drug offenses today is larger than the entire prison and jail population was in 1980. From these statistics it would appear that the war on drugs has turned in to a war on the drug user, and the people. President Ronald Reagan declared America’s War on Drugs in the 1980’s. The Executive Order 12368 signed by President Reagan on June 24, 1982, allowed for the White House to have more control over the national anti-drug efforts. Reagan’s war on drugs included strong sentences for offenders, cutting addiction reform programs, no distinction between hard drugs like heroin and less dangerous marijuana, and aggressive, indiscriminate antidrug propaganda. In a nationally televised broadcast, President Reagan addressed the nation about the intentions of his war on drugs: “Drugs already reach deeply into our social structure, so we must mobilize all our forces to stop the flow of drugs into this country, to let kids know the
truth, to erase the false glamour that surrounds drugs, and to brand drugs such as marijuana exactly for what they are— dangerous, and particularly to school-age youth...We can put drug abuse on the run through stronger law enforcement…” First Lady Nancy Reagan spent much of the 1980’s touring schools and spreading the antidrug message to young kids all across the country. When she was asked by students what they should do if offered drugs she replied, “Just say no,” which became the slogan behind the war on drugs, specifically for the youth. Fast-forward 30 years later and the American prison system is flooding with overpopulation of inmates, the US government has spent millions of dollars battling foreign drug cartels, and spent nearly 1 trillion dollars in the war on drugs with little to no achievement to show for it. At the end of October, six thousand drug offenders will be released from federal prison to rejoin the civilian population in the United States. While this has caused controversy among political parties and the general public, the mass release is in effort to combat jail overcrowding and lower sentences for non-violent drug offenders. This is only the first release and the Department of Justice plans other types of reforms to combat unfair sentences and system overcrowding. “The Department of Justice strongly supports sentencing
reform for low-level, non-violent drug offenders,” said Deputy Attorney General, Sally Yates, in an official statement regarding the release. “The Sentencing Commission’s actions - which create modest reductions for drug offenders - is a step toward these necessary reforms.” The US Commission on Sentencing, a body within the judicial branch that sets federal sentencing policies, made a decision last year to reform sentence lengths for nonviolent drug offenders. According to Drugpolicy.org, America is home to 5 percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of its prisoners. In 2013, 1.5 million people were arrested on nonviolent drug charges, and nearly 700,000 of these arrest were for marijuana. The country’s mentality on drugs has changed overtime, and so has the course of action in dealing with the ongoing issues of addiction and crime. Drug addiction was classified as a brain disorder in 2011, which also gave way to more programs and treatment centers to combat addiction. Also, many states are recognizing the medical purposes for marijuana, as well as the few dangers involved with recreationally and responsibly using marijuana. Alaska, Oregon, Colorado, and Washington have all legalized marijuana for recreational use. Twenty other states have also decriminalized it for small quantity medical and personal use. Drugs are still a very real
problem in this country. Substances such as meth, heroin, cocaine, prescription drugs, and other controlled substances are devastating communities all over the country. Families are being torn apart by addiction, overdose, and incarceration causing perpetual generations of broken homes, violence, and poverty. We are creating career criminals by essentially giving people no other choice by leaving them with a drug incarceration record that may not reflect their character. There needs to be solutions to the problems of drugs in this country, as well as around the world. I don’t think it is necessary to have a war on them. There needs to be smart and effective legislation and effective consequences and policies. The aggressive wave of mass incarceration for drug offenders is gone. President Obama said, “For nonviolent drug crimes, we need to lower long mandatory minimum sentences -- or get rid of them entirely. Give judges some discretion around nonviolent crimes so that, potentially, we can steer a young person who has made a mistake in a better direction.” In the next president, we should look to elect someone who at least acknowledges the problems in the criminal justice system in many aspects including the war on drugs. It will be our taxes, laws, families, and futures to be affected by a war that has no winner.
Oct. 22nd 2015, Page 8 The Concordian
Homecoming
Congratulations to the 2015 Homecoming King and Queen
Mega Fofied Waddy & Juwan Waddy International Club & Phi Delta Pi
Chris Poore & Amanda Woods
Kat Baker & Noah Mitchem
Phi Sigma Phi & Sigma Sigma Sigma
Alpha Sigma Alpha & Chi Omega Psi
Jacob Meadows & Andrea Rollins Alpha Sigma Tau & Sigma Tau Gamma
Carli Brewer & Tyler Harris (not pictured) Delta Zeta & Tau Kappa Epsilon