inthisissue
MARRIED LIFE
ROAD BLOCK
FLYING HIGH
"Married in Spandex” makes its Florida debut at the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian film festival.
Some St.Pete drivers face car engine troubles due to recent flooding.
Over 100,000 people lined Tampa Bay to watch this year's Red Bull Flugtag.
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monday, oct. 10, 2011 www.crowsneststpete.com
thecrow’snest
Late-night room checks upset students in RHO By TAYLOR GAUDENS Life Editor
Residents of Residence Hall One are upset about the fire, health and safety inspections that occurred on Saturday, Oct. 1. A student assistant performed the room check with a resident assistant between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m., raising students’ concerns over the time the room inspections were performed. “There were no rules broken last week, in regard to the fire, health and safety inspections that happened. Staff are allowed to go into the rooms,” said Assistant Director of Residence Life and Housing Heather Kilsanin. She said that the resident assistants are asked not to go into the rooms by themselves, and a majority of them chose another resident assistant to accompany them during the inspections. “It is OK for the student assistants to be involved in that process as long as there is one RA,” Kilsanin said. “A staff member could include a student assistant. So I don’t believe there were any unauthorized people involved in the inspections.” Students are given 24-hour no-
tice prior to the inspections, Kilsanin said. Page 19 of the University Student Housing Guidebook states: “To ensure that the above guidelines are being followed, residents and University Housing staff will participate in fire, health, and safety inspections each semester with at least 24 hours notice to residents.” For this specific inspection, Kilsanin said students were given at least a 48-hour notice. “We’ve shared the dates [of the inspections] for the entire semester,” Kilsanin said. The middle-of-the-night room inspections disrupted some students’ sleep before the Susan G. Komen race at Vinoy Park at around 5 a.m. on Saturday, several students said. Jimmy Richards, a freshman finance major and RHO resident, believes communication about the room inspections could have been more efficient. Though signs were posted two days in advance, Richards did not know of the event. “Email would be better,” he said. “I would have rather been there, not that I was trying to hide anything,” Richards said, though he said he was not affected by the latesee INSPECTIONS, page 6
Construction eliminated disabled parking By AIMEE ALEXANDER Managing Editor
Photo illustration by Daniel Mutter | The Crow's Nest
Students at RHO are beginning to express concern with the current room check policies.
Construction on the new Multipurpose Student Center has brought about a tide of change to USF St. Petersburg. But for disabled persons seeking parking spots, there is a ripple effect. The parking lot with the closest proximity to campus—and the most available disabled parking spots—once occupied the area directly in front of the Nelson Poynter Memorial Library. “Prior to construction, Parking Lot 1 had 49 spots available,” said Bill Benjamin, manager of purchasing and parking services at USF St. Petersburg. “Six of those were disabled spots, two were designated 15-minute loading zones for library patrons returning books, and one spot was reserved for police.” The remaining 40 spots were for faculty and staff members. Now that construction is underway, those six disabled parking spots have been eliminated and students and visitors are being redirected to park elsewhere. “I wish they would have figured out a better way to have closer access to the library than what we have to go through see PARKING, page 3
SG website delayed after contract problems By TAYLOR GAUDENS Life Editor
Photo illustration by Daniel Mutter | The Crow's Nest
Several parts of the current SG website do not contain updated information about the organization.
The Student Government website is still incomplete eight weeks into the semester due to contract delays and unfinished projects. Caitlin Greene, SG director of marketing and communications, came into her position in June. During her first week, SG President Courtney Parrish told Greene the website redesign was one of her major projects, the other being SG advertising. With the redesign in mind, Greene contacted the design company, Trig Design, about the changes SG wanted to make. But
the North Carolina-based company, with an office in Tampa, was “not as supportive” as they said they could be, Greene said. “We were going to stick with Trig,” Greene said. She then tried to negotiate with the design company over a two-week period during the summer. “They kind of left us high and dry,” Greene said. With new SG administration in place, “the whole site needed to change,” Greene said. The vision for the new website is to increase communication between students and SG. “I want to make us as approachable as possible,” Greene said, “so
having a website makes it easier for students to contact us.” With the site’s revamp, Greene looked beyond Trig Designs. She met with Reuben Pressman, SG creative director, Parrish and SG VicePresident Mark Lombardi-Nelson to discuss the upcoming changes. Pressman said he would help work on the website for free, as long as he had time. But as the first day of the fall semester approached, there was no communication between the parties. “[SG] kind of got screwed over. And I told them when that was happening that I don’t have a lot of time, but if I do find time, I could see WEBSITE, page 3
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crowsneststpete.com | Oct. 10, 2011
thecrow’snest
News in brief
City increases cost of meter parking
editor-in-chief keeley sheehan managing editor aimee alexander creative director tara mccarty news editor arielle stevenson arts editor amanda pretulac life editor taylor gaudens photo editor daniel mutter editorial page editor ren laforme
Starting Oct. 1, hourly St. Petersburg parking meter prices increased to $1, up from 75 cents an hour. City parking crews have reprogrammed the meters already. According to the city council budget, the 25-cent increase is expected to bring in $313,000 for the current fiscal year. That money will go towards paying for the meter system and bringing in additional city revenue. All meters should be switched over to the new pricing system by Oct. 7.
advertising manager jessica kemper advertising representative colin o'hara distribution manager chris dorsey Deb Wolfe serves as the adviser for The Crow’s Nest. Contact her at dpwolfeusfsp@gmail.com. Volume 46, Issue 8 A student newspaper at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Mission Statement: The Crow’s Nest is committed to providing its readers with news relevant to the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and its surrounding community. The Crow’s Nest abides by the highest ethical standards and focuses on stories that help readers make informed decisions on current issues. We take seriously the public’s trust in our news reporting and strive to uphold the highest standards of reporting as defined by the Society of Professional Journalists. The views expressed—both written and graphic—in the opinion section of The Crow’s Nest do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board. Submit letters to the editor to crowsnesteditor@gmail.com. The Crow’s Nest reserves the right to edit these pieces for style and length. If a letter is not meant for publication, please mark it as such. All submissions must include the author’s name, daytime phone number, and email address. The Crow’s Nest is provided free by the Activities & Services Fee, and advertising. The Crow’s Nest neither endorses nor takes responsibility for any claims made by our advertisers. Limit five issues per student. For additional copies, contact the editor-in-chief. Press run: 1,000 The Crow’s Nest office is located at: Campus Activities Center, University of South Florida St. Petersburg 140 Seventh Ave. S., St. Petersburg, Fla. 33701 (727) 873-4113 Copyright 2011 St. Petersburg, FL. The Crow’s Nest is printed by: Newspaper Printing Co., 5210 South Lois Ave., Tampa, Fla. 33611
Christopher Guinn | The Crow's Nest
Sudden torrential rains during rush hour flood streets along First Avenue N in St. Petersburg on Sept. 26. When water gets sucked into an engine, it can cause hydrostatic lock, potentially destroying the internal components.
Dead in the water: how to kill your car USFSP grad programs hold open houses
By CHRISTOPHER GUINN Contributing Writer
Driving a car through water is always a risky maneuver, and it may destroy the engine. Hydrostatic lock, or hydrolock for short, occurs when a hydraulic cylinder attempts to compress a liquid. As every Chemistry I student knows, liquids are relatively incompressible—unstoppable force, meet immovable object. Instead of causing an existential paradox, however, the engine is much more likely to destroy itself, often violently. A car engine is designed to operate at several thousand RPM and withstand thousands of pounds of pressure at high heat, but in a single loud instant, the precisioncrafted components within the engine will twist or shatter when they try to compress even less than two ounces of water. This is most likely to happen when a car is driven through deep water. “You push that big [wave] of water and when it gets in the intake, it’s all over,” said Justin Sims, a mechanic at Ice Cold Air on Fourth Street N in St. Petersburg.
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In the shop was a bright red Pontiac Solstice, a little two-seater, ground-hugging roadster. To its side, the engine was attached to a stand and flipped upside-down. The mechanics removed the oil pan to show the twisted internal components. The first point of failure in this case was the connecting rod, the Ibeam that connects the crankshaft to the piston head. In other cases, hydrolock can crack the piston head, destroy the seals in the cylinder and even lodge metal shards into the engine block. It’s often cheaper to just replace the engine than to try to replace the broken parts, said shop owner Paul Smith. A used motor for the Solstice will cost the owner, or the insurance company, $2,200. It’s a lesson on “why not to drive your car through two feet of water,” said Jeremy “Doc J” Strait, another mechanic on duty. Some new cars pull air from below; depths as shallow as six inches can cause water to be sucked into the engine. Cars move forward because they create combustion by combining oxygen, fuel and heat. Air
Christopher Guinn | The Crow's Nest
is pulled into the engine through the intake on the front of the car. During the intake cycle of the engine, this air is pulled into the cylinder and mixed with fuel. This mixture is then compressed in the now-closed cylinder, thus increasing pressure and temperature, in accordance with the combined gas law. The spark plug ignites the mixture, causing combustion. The rapid expansion of gasses pushes the piston downward, causes the crankshaft to rotate and ideally, the car to move forward. If water gets into the air intake, however, the vacuum created during the intake cycle can pull that water into the cylinder, as if sucked through a straw. At that point, two ounces of water might as well be a slab of granite. Driving through water carries other risks, as well. When brakes get wet, they have a harder time stopping the car, interiors can be flooded, and the car’s electrical systems can short. Water can leak into the wheel bearings, transmission or differential; and water can be sucked into the exhaust pipe, stalling the engine. life@crowsneststpete.com
More than 600 people gathered at Lykes Gaslight Park on Thursday to continue showing solidarity Occupy Tampa. Check out our facebook for more photos from the protest.
By ARIELLE STEVENSON News Editor More and more students are continuing their education after earning a bachelor’s degree. If you don’t want to go too far, USFSP has two graduate program informational sessions. On Oct. 11, the Florida Studies program will offer an informational session on their graduate program. This degree examines Florida’s history, economy, culture and environmental landscape, and seeks to understand the state’s evolving identity with help from some key historians. History, anthropology, literature, government, environmental science and geology encompass this degree. Also on Oct. 12, the Liberal Studies graduate program will offer information for prospective students. The program seeks to meet individual needs. Option one gives students a narrow focus to earn a teaching certificate for community college, with the option to expand into doctoral study. Option two gives students the choice of myriad interdisciplinary studies for professional and academic endeavors. news@crowsneststpete.com
SESSION DETAILS Where: STG 109 When: 6 to 7 p.m. Contact: Eric Douthirt douthirt@usfsp.edu (727) 873-4567
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Website redesign will cost $2,000
WEBSITE, continued from front page help work with [Trig Design] or help redo the site, if I had time,” Pressman said. Pressman said if Greene provided him with designs for the website, he would do the coding for it. “Designs take a lot of time,” Pressman said. “The coding doesn’t take much time, so I told them I could spend time doing that if they could provide me with full designs.” When communication fell through, Greene started searching for another third party designer. She recommended Realizing Media because “they really know what they are doing,” and are local USFSP grads, which Greene says was “a big thing for me.” She trusts the company’s promises—“they’re going to be there, it’s in the contract.” Along with the redesign, the company will provide training video tutorials, as the property of SG, so “everything they need to know, they can,” Greene said. The redesign of the SG website will cost $2,000, adding to the cost of the last site, which was about $4,000. Pressman’s qualifications for redesigning the website made sense. He has been involved with SG and he’s been a professional freelance graphic designer for about five years. “I’ve been around for three years so the Student Government side of things, I have the history that I think their whole organization is lacking due to a loss of alumni in that organization right now,” Pressman said. “I pitched that I’d like to help, and they’ve been very happy to have me so far. I’m just doing as much as they want me to do, that I have time for.” Pressman referred to alumni as students who had been involved in SG for a while, something he said the organization currently lacks. “Keeping that transition of history is important in a big organization like that—in any organization, really,” he said. Greene contacted three companies to recreate the website after things with Pressman fell through. She is taking all necessary precautions in order to ensure the contract is correct and thorough and that the new designer will follow through, she said. “I wanted everyone to have their hands on it because of what happened last time,” Greene said. Greene confirmed the contract with Realizing Media is now being approved by administration. “It’s taking longer than I wanted to, but it’s worth it,” Greene said. news@crowsneststpete.com
Daniel Mutter | The Crow's Nest
Construction on the Multipurpose Student Center has eliminated six disabled parking spots on campus.
‘University should have made access road’ PARKING, continued from front page now,” said Robert Beasey. Beasey, who has cerebral palsy, uses an electric wheelchair to traverse campus. Enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Social Science program, the Palm Harbor resident attends classes several days a week and visits the Nelson Poynter Memorial Library at least twice a week. The 39-year-old gets a ride to
USFSP through Pinellas County’s PSTA D.A.R.T. Program because he is unable to ride the wheelchair accessible PSTA buses. “I’ve often wondered how the library feels about not having a parking lot and parking spaces for the disabled,” Beasey said. Before construction, Beasey said his service car was allowed to park in Parking Lot 1. “But once
they tore down the lot, all of the spaces were gone,” he said. He said his service car was then told to park at the Tavern parking (Lot 2) lot instead—about 600 feet from the library. Benjamin says Parking Lot 2 is the second closest to campus and students with a disabled placard can park in the four available spots. An alternative is located behind the USGS building at 600 Fourth St. S—Lot 15. Although two disabled spots are guaranteed in the lot, an accessible route to the library along Third Street S is not. For persons with mobility issues, the east side of the street poses a few challenges. A temporary chain-link fence obstructs a section of the sidewalk on the east side of Third Street S. Coupled with the absence of a sidewalk ramp, persons using wheelchairs have little choice but to take a longer route onto campus. This would entail parking in the closest available lot, Lot 15 behind the USGS building, crossing the street at the intersection of Third Street S and Sixth Avenue S, and heading east past the Multipurpose Student Center toward Harborwalk and onto campus. Once construction is completed in fall 2012, Benjamin said sidewalk access would resume.
“Students and visitors with a [visible state-issued] disabled placard are able to park on the street at any city parking meter for free,” Benjamin said. Benjamin says the Americans with Disabilities Act requires a certain percentage of disabled parking spots be allocated based on the total amount of parking spots. Out of 1,932 available spaces for students to park at the university, 46 are reserved for the disabled. However, it is unclear whether proximity also plays a role in federal compliance. Although Benjamin said he believes the Multipurpose Student Center will accommodate “one or two disabled parking spots,” the USFSP Facilities, Planning & Construction office could not confirm by press time whether additional disabled parking spots will be assigned to the student center. Architectural plans available on USFSP’s website did not indicate if disabled parking would be created. With questions still left unanswered, Beasey ponders a solution. “Perhaps the university should have made an access road for people who want to park closer to the library,” he said. news@crowsneststpete.com
Lecture series celebrates human genome By CHRISTOPHER GUINN Contributing Writer To recognize, celebrate and reflect on the 10th anniversary of the mapping of the human genome, USFSP is hosting a series of five lectures in the Nelson Poynter Library. The Festival of the Genome seeks to present a decade of genome research and its implications through discussion of science, ethics, theology and art. “As we reflect on what we know about the genetic material of all living things, what we see is much more similarity than difference,” said Norine Noonan, USFSP regional vice chancellor of Academic Affairs. “What does
it mean to be human … when we share 99.5 percent of [genetic] material with the great ape?” Two of the lectures will focus on art, including one titled “Sequentia,” which provides “an opportunity to bring art and science together,” Noonan said. Another lecture by a curator at the Dalí Museum will discuss how Dalí incorporated DNA into many of his works. “I hope that students take the opportunity to come if they want to learn more about the human genome, DNA, genetics, molecular biology and their place in the world,” Noonan said. The lectures begin Oct. 20 and will start with receptions at 6 p.m. news@crowsneststpete.com
LECTURE SCHEDULE Oct. 20 – “The Human Genome: 10 Years and 247 Days Later” Dr. Gary Litman, vice chairman of Pediatrics at USF Health, distinguished university professor Oct. 27 – “Dali and Science: A Paranoiac Universe” Peter Tush, curator of education, Dali Museum Nov. 3 – “SEQUENTIA (Art and Science Together)” Xavier Cortada, artist Dr. Kalai Mathee, founding chair and professor, department of molecular microbiology and infectious diseases, Florida International University Nov. 10 – “Finding the Human in the Genome” Rev. Ronald Cole-Turner, professor of theology and ethics, Pittsburg Theological Seminary Nov. 17 – “The Genome and the Internet: Growing Up Together” Robert Cook-Deegan; director of the Center for Genome Ethics, Policy and Law; Duke University
Students work to bring more bikes to campus By TAYLOR GAUDENS Life Editor More students at USFSP mean more cyclists on campus, and campus bike racks have become more crowded. As SG gears up to promote a bike program, Zachary Westmark, SG co-director of sustainability initiatives, held a focus group on Oct. 6 to hear students’ opinions. The first matter discussed was the current bike racks. Westmark said the racks could be “easily updated.” Brandy Murphy, a junior environmental science and policy major, thinks the locations of the
bike racks are just as important. She would like to see covered bike racks closer to the Campus Grind, the Tavern, Harbor Hall and the Multipurpose Student Center. “It is important to get in there earlier rather than later,” Murphy said. SG wants to implement a bike program, and is in the process of determining the best possible outcome for students. Murphy said is “bothered with the city because we’re an urban campus,” and she loves that aspect, but feels St. Petersburg isn’t bike-friendly. Marshall Eli, a senior English literature major, would like a bike pro-
gram through the school or the city. “I’d like to see one either way,” he said. He feels it might be more efficient to partner with the city. Westmark plans to have surveys to discover the attitude on biking. “It’s a good hobby to get into,” Murphy said. “I stay on the sidewalk, I’m not even sure if that’s legal.” Murphy is an Old Northeast resident. Westmark compared the bike use in European countries to St. Petersburg and said, “We just don’t have that type of history.” His focus is to provide more bike racks, educate students and
implement a program, either at USFSP or through the city. The Residence Hall One courtyard bike racks are nearly overcrowded and constantly exposed to the elements. Acknowledging it would be a “hefty investment” to purchase fully enclosed bike lockers for RHO residents, Westmark and Eli believe it’s a good idea. Eli described the fully enclosed bike lockers “like a little cave.” Considering the overcrowding along the Davis Hall railing at the end of Harborwalk, Eli thinks it’s so crowded because “it’s central see BIKES, page 6
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arts & life
crowsneststpete.com | Oct. 10, 2011
Film follows couple down the aisle in spandex By JANE MCINNIS Contributing Writer “Married in Spandex” is a documentary about a same-sex couple saying their I do’s clad in gold spandex and lame. The film follows Rachel Turanski and Amanda Kole from West Philadelphia to the cornfields of Ames, Iowa, to exchange vows. The ceremony was officiated by internet-celebrity and satirical rapper Leslie Hall. The film’s Florida debut will take place at The Tampa Theatre at 4 p.m. on Sat., Oct. 15. The wedding started out as a road trip for friends, but soon became a family gathering, said codirector Devin Gallagher. The film provides a new slant on same-sex marriage, he said. “The friends of Rachel and Amanda were against marriage in general,” he said, noting that these were friends of theirs who were gay. These issues made for an interesting case, he said. In the film’s preview, bride Rachel laughs into the camera after explaining the difficulty of asking friends or family to be a part of her and Amanda’s marriage “in gold spandex by our favorite musical performer in Iowa.” The couple chose Iowa because Leslie Hall, self-proclaimed “MidWest Diva,” and front woman of pop group “Leslie & The LY’s” offers to officiate same-sex weddings on her website. Also, same-
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Courtesy of "Married in Spandex"
Amanda Kole and Rachel Turanski stand with their favorite band and wedding hosts Leslie and the Lys.
sex marriage is legal in Iowa, unlike Pennsylvania. Gallagher said Hall, seen in the film preview gyrating in spandex and golden glitter tennis shoes, was the catalyst for the wedding theme. “She’s … a very flamboyant, very colorful performer,” Gallagher said, before acknowledging he was “unable to find the words” to describe Hall. On Hall’s website, she offers an array of optional wedding features, including an “illegal fireworks display,” “plants,” and a
“Dairy Queen cake.” One feature Rachel and Amanda opted for was a personalized love song. The Tampa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, which opened Oct. 6, will present the film. After the screening, a Q&A will follow with filmmakers Kole and Gallagher. Kole is no stranger to Florida, being a University of Florida alumna and previous resident for many years. “Married in Spandex” marks Kole’s first documentary. The film was voted audience favorite at its first premiere at
QFest in Philadelphia, and won the Jury award for best Iowa Film at Hardacre Film Festival. Moviegoers can see select movies at the Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa Theatre, and Muvico Baywalk in downtown St. Petersburg. A variety of film festival passes are available at www.tiglff.com. Single tickets can also be purchased for each film for $9.50. The 22nd Annual Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival runs until Oct. 16. arts@crowsneststpete.com
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Downtown park to feature movie nights in October By AMANDA PRETULAC Arts Editor Saint Petersburg Preservation presents October Music and Movies at Straub Park on Thursday nights throughout the month of October. The free event gives residents of the area a change of pace from their normal day-to-day activities with local music starting at 6 p.m. followed by a classic film under the stars. “Shane,” starring Alan Ladd and Jack Palance, is the essential American Western movie. It will be shown on Oct. 13 after Tampa Bay’s Hot Rod Hornets perform an energetic array of songs inspired by Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. Oct. 20 will feature the Clearwater Bluegrass Review followed by the classic film “Key Largo,” starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The plot deals with a man and a gangster challenging each other before a hurricane approaches. The last film on Oct. 27, “Beetlejuice” featuring Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, is the perfect choice to wrap up the series right before Halloween. Daniel O’Ryan will provide the entertainment before the show. It is recommended that you bring a chair with some blankets to stay cozy throughout the evening. Snacks such as kettle corn will be available at the event, but it couldn’t hurt to bring something from home. Other than that you’re all set to escape reality for a few hours by the water. arts@crowsneststpete.com
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Student shares struggles to inspire By KEELEY SHEEHAN Editor-in-Chief As people pass him on the sidewalk, James Scott, SG senator, nods and says a quick but clear hello. He asks how they are doing and tells them to have a good day. He’s a little more relaxed than he sometimes appears when he’s on campus, speaking at a General Assembly Senate meeting or leading the SG Judiciary & Ethics Committee. No longer content to hide the fact that he is gay—as he has been doing all his life—the environmental science & policy major decided it was time to be open about who he is. Oct. 11 is National Coming Out Day, founded in 1988 by psychologist Robert Eichberg and Jean O’Leary, an openly gay political leader. The Human Rights Campaign now leads the day of awareness, which aims to spread messages of equality. Scott was motivated to tell his story because he thinks it could serve as inspiration to other students in his shoes, to show that they are not alone. He aspires to a public life of politics, and thought that if he is going to be open about who he is, he should start now. Scott has been involved in campus leadership since 2008, serving in the SG senate, working as an RA, and participating in work-study. His story as a student leader has been about his failures as much as his successes—underage drinking cost him both his RA position and his first successful bid for SG president. But he learned
from those mistakes, kept his goals in focus, and was elected SG president again for the 2010-2011 academic year. He felt guilty, he said, for keeping mum about being gay while serving as president last year. He began by telling coworkers at his job at a Tampa Bay area restaurant, and then started telling some of his closer friends from school, but has not yet told his family. “If you’re a leader, you have a responsibility to set an example,” he said. He hopes his story strikes a chord with others in the same boat, and encourages them to stop feeling as though they need to hide. The laws in the U.S. are far from perfect, he said. “How happy, how free of a life I live is directly tied to laws governing marriage, adoption, parental rights, taxes,” Scott said. “I don’t want to be a crusader for gay rights, I want to be a crusader for all things justice related.” He wants to fight against a lot of things, he said—the death of the middle class, the exploitation of the poor. But he wonders how much other people who aren’t accepting, who aren’t tolerant, will allow him to be part of the debate. “Some people really believe there is something perverse or sinister about gay people,” he said, adding that in politics, all sides should be able to disagree while respecting each other. “How can you truly make peace with someone if they think your existence is an abomination?” Scott thinks he will be labeled as the “gay politician” and be pigeon-
holed into being an advocate for gay rights. He wants to fight the injustices that reduce the LGBT community to second tier status—rigid marriage laws, laws preventing gay couples from adopting children— but sees it as just one of the problems that need solving. “There are so many issues of justice in our time … There is a whole list of things that need to be fought for. This is only one of them,” he said. He doesn’t want society to put him in a neatly labeled box. “I just want to be me, to go out and fight for a lot of things, and stand up for a lot of things.” Scott says he has been inspired by some recent events—the end of the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” President Barack Obama’s refusal to continue to defend the anti same-sex marriage Defense of Marriage Act in court, The It Gets Better campaign’s fight against bullying. Over 130,000 gay and lesbian couples marked themselves as “married” on the latest U.S. Census. But while perhaps the nation is becoming more accepting of its gay citizens, and people’s differences in general, society still has a long way to go. The key is education, Scott said, to create a world in which children don’t feel bad about who they are. Scott knew he was different, as a boy growing up in a conservative town, going to a conservative church. He hoped he could be like everybody else, that maybe being gay was something he could grow out of. “It’s not OK that our kids grow up in a world where they have to
Keeley Sheehan | The Crow's Nest
SG Senator James Scott hopes his story will help others be more accepting of differences.
feel like there is something fundamentally wrong with them,” he said. “It makes kids feel like they’re not a part of the world they grow up in.” The world should be challenging, he said—it should make you work, and strive—but it should not be alienating. He’s felt lonely, and felt forced to hide and be in-
Freshman becomes business owner with new boutique
troverted—but also it’s also given him confidence. He will graduate in May, and of all he’s learned on campus, coming to terms with who he is has taught him to have faith in himself. “I can’t help what I come from. I can’t help who I am,” he said. “But I can control what I stand for.” life@crowsneststpete.com
ontheweb
By AMANDA STARLING Contributing Writer
Now online at www.crowsneststpete.com:
Tucked away from the bustle of Fourth Street traffic is Everything Under the Sun. Located inside the former Hotel Betty Ann, the retail shop has opened its doors for business. Eighteen-year-old Kyleigh Cobett was prepared to take on a dream that initially surprised her: owning a salon/boutique. “If someone had told me a year ago that I would be opening my own salon/boutique, I wouldn’t have believed them,” Cobett said. With savings from her paid internships, the USF St. Petersburg freshman business major used her work experience with Raymond James and Achieva Credit Union to pave the way to her dreams. By early July, she was ready to settle into her prime location. By mid-July, she was ordering shoes, accessories, dresses, shirts and bags to stock up her boutique. “I realized I wanted to start a business and this was where I wanted to be. It’s not too mainstream and it has the perfect feel of everything,” Cobett said. The hair salon Velvet currently occupies the space and is about to fulfill its lease. Cobett formed an
arts>>review Is “Moneyball” worth the price of a movie ticket? life>>opinion Learn how to make the most out of an epic win or humiliating loss, fantasy-football style.
MORE INFORMATION Daniel Mutter | The Crow's Nest
Student Kyleigh Cobett sits in the parlor of her new salon and boutique, Everything Under the Sun.
agreement to share the space with the salon. The two business owners settled which rooms to use and hope to benefit from the connection. An open floor plan with 1930’s style architecture allows for smaller salon rooms and space to display clothing. Cobett created her business this past summer with little hesitation. “If you have a mindset for it and you know where you need to be and
when you need to be there, anyone can establish it,” Cobett said. “If you don’t come at it with focus and determination, you just come at it with a ‘Hey, I’ll just try it’ attitude and you won’t amount to the same success as if you had really applied yourself.” In the future, Cobett would like to expand her store, and eventually occupy the entire building. She visualizes a larger area for the salon
and a wider inventory of clothing. Cobett wants to inspire her generation to reach its goals. She wants that goal to be broader than “I have to go to school for the rest of my life to be something,” she said. Everything Under the Sun is located at 406 11th Ave. N in St. Petersburg. life@crowsneststpete.com
Everything Under the Sun 406 11th Ave N Suite 5, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 Hours: Mon.–Sat.: noon to 6 p.m. Online: www.eutssalonboutique.com
or www.facebook.com/ EUTSSalonBoutique
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crowsneststpete.com | Oct. 10, 2011
November challenges writers with word count By SARAH LAFFIN Contributing Writer If you have a passion for writing, now is the time to prepare for National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is an annual challenge that lasts throughout the month of November. The goal is to complete a novel with a minimum of 50,000 words. To put it in perspective, participants have to write an average of over 1,500 words a day for a full 30 days. The challenge requires dedication, as well as a good amount of free time and perhaps some sleep deprivation. In 1999, 21 people participated during NaNoWriMo’s first year. As word got out, participation grew exponentially, and last year, over 200,000 wannabe novelists challenged themselves to write novels. Over 30,000 accomplished the goal word count by the deadline at 11:59 p.m. on the last day of November. Why torment yourself with
this excess of writing? Some find that if pressured, caffeinated, and sleep deprived enough, they can find a sort of creativity they’ve never seen before in themselves. Editing and wasting time does not belong here—this is the ultimate brain marathon. The challenge is all about the word count, the website says. “Because of the limited writing window, the only thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. This approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly,” according to the NaNoWriMo website. Once you sign up for an account on the website, you can find your region by clicking the “NaNo Near You” tab (there is a section for St. Petersburg, Fla.), and check out the forums to see where other nearby novelists will be meeting to hang out or write together. arts@crowsneststpete.com
No official policy on room check times INSPECTIONS, continued from front page night room checks. Travis Brewer, a freshman business major and RHO resident, was aware of the inspection date. “I knew they were coming, just not at 12:30 at night,” Brewer said. T.J. Ewin, Student Government attorney general, questions checking the rooms while residents are absent. “I think they should leave a note saying they were there,” he said. At USF Tampa, room inspections are performed once a semester and at the resident assistant’s discretion. The residents are given notification of a two-week window when inspections will occur, but “they don’t know when it will happen,” said Alex Belton of USF Tampa residence halls. RHO has fire, safety and health inspections about once per month, Kilsanin said. “As a resident, I am really upset, taken aback and offended. You expect you’ll be respected,” Ewin said. His room was checked when he was not there. He feels the resident assistants are “doing the checks to catch the residents doing [bad] things,” he said. Ewin believes the time of the room checks was “completely inappropriate.” As far as time of day inspection restrictions, Kilsanin said there is no specified time. “They can decide on a time together.
There is no set policy on that,” Kilsanin said. There is concern about whether the student assistant who performed the room inspection with the resident assistant was approved or not. Brewer and Ewin filed a verbal complaint with Ashley Glenke, the graduate assistant in residence life and housing, on Oct. 3. “All I know is that we talked to Ashley. She said she would relay it to Heather,” Brewer said. He said nothing resulted from approaching Glenke. Brewer was not aware of the procedure to file a formal complaint. As for the late-night room checks, “nothing unauthorized happened,” Kilsanin said. “There has been no official complaint made.” She did not learn of the verbal complaint until the morning of Oct. 6. “I could ask any resident how they would file an official complaint and they wouldn’t know,” Brewer said. Kilsanin said the student is notified of what to do once the complaint has been brought to their attention verbally. “They are told that when they come to us, the staff knows to let them know they need to send an email,” she said. “If I don’t have it in documentation, I don’t have it in writing, it’s hard for me to move forward with that.” news@crowsneststpete.com
Daniel Mutter | The Crow's Nest
Bikes cover the hand rails at Davis Hall as bike racks around campus continue to fill up.
Bike safety also part of the discussion BIKES, continued from page 2 and it’s covered,” he said. Westmark realizes the hesitations students might have when considering commuting via bike to school—getting hot and sweaty, trying to find roads with bike paths and the difficulty in hauling books around all day. Murphy rides her bike because “it cuts down on gas,” she said. “I enjoy being outdoors, it’s exercise. I don’t see it as an impossible way of [travel].” She deals with the discomfort of riding in the hot weather in the most effective way she can. She changes when she arrives at school, and brings her makeup bag. “I have to take a bird bath,” she said. Westmark is also inconvenienced by lugging around his books.
“If I have to run to Publix, I check out a study room in the library and leave my stuff here,” he said. Ideally, both would like to have lockers at the university. “I think a lot of it has to do with getting the word out and getting people jazzed about [riding bikes]. I don’t think people give it a second thought,” Murphy said. Westmark agrees and said that a lot of people aren’t aware of the ease of commuting via bike. Westmark and Eli would like to help people with their bikes. From choosing the correct bike for the right distances to helping with the maintenance, they are willing to do it all. Eli is currently working with the city to form a bike co-op at the St. Petersburg Shuffle Board
Courts on Friday nights. His goal is to help educate people to become better, safer cyclists. He would also like to offer a stand on campus with tools for bike maintenance, like USF Tampa. “It’d be a great resource for students,” Eli said. Westmark believes in advocating bike safety. “I think most college students aren’t thinking about safety, it’s more about the sweat and stuff,” Eli said. Westmark believes that sometimes riding a bike is about “putting yourself out there.”
life@crowsneststpete.com
Candidate for 2012 Republican Party nomination holds book signing at Tyrone Barnes & Noble By DAWN-MARIE PARKER Contributing Writer
Daniel Mutter | The Crow's Nest
Herman Cain signed over 250 copies of his book at a packed Barnes and Noble on Tyrone Blvd.
Cheers of “Herman! Herman! Herman!” and applause filled the air of the Tyrone Boulevard Barnes & Noble as Herman Cain, one of the candidates for the 2012 Republican nomination, entered the bookstore. Cain was in town on Oct. 5 to promote his book “This is Herman Cain: My Journey to the White House.” Armed with complete security detail and a confident smile, he waved to the boisterous crowd. Some people left the bookstore in frustration because he was only there to sign books. Others waited patiently to snap his picture and shake hands. Cain has a working class background. His father worked three
jobs and his mother was a domestic worker. Cain graduated from Morehouse College with a degree in mathematics in 1967. One of Cain’s main ideas is called the 999 plan. “We must get the government off our backs, out of our pockets and out of our way in order to return to prosperity,” he says on his campaign website. Cain’s 999 plan would involve the business flat tax, individual flat tax and national sales tax being 9 percent to help economic growth, according to his website. “I love his no-nonsense approach, and I hope that because of this we’ll get our jobs back,” said Erica Borgess, who attended the signing. “That’s what people go to college for.” arts@crowsneststpete.com
opinion | 7
Oct. 10, 2011 | crowsneststpete.com
editorial
Parking meters upped to a dollar an hour
Buying a parking pass is cheapest option for most students One quarter. Twenty-five cents. In 1806, hungry restaurant-goers could trade one for a full meal of meat and a pint of cold beer or cider. The same amount could buy a 12 oz box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes in 1966. As soon ago as the ’80s, children meekly handed 25 cents to cashiers to pay for Hershey Bars. What’s a quarter worth now? About 15 minutes on Central Avenue, it seems. As of Oct. 1, metered parking in the City of St. Petersburg costs $1 per hour, up from the previous rate of 75 cents. Officials expect the increase to net the city an additional $313,000 per year, to go toward downtown parking programs and garages. The money will also be used to balance the city’s general fund, which pays for services like police and firefighting. The increase is partially
due to Mayor Bill Foster and the St. Petersburg City Council’s decision to decrease property taxes for yet another year, according to The St. Petersburg Times. Downtown parking costs have doubled in just over a year. With a population of almost 245,000 people, St. Petersburg is the 76th largest city in the United States. Jersey City, N.J., the 75th largest city in the country, also boasts a downtown district with a prominent waterfront. Just last year, Jersey City also raised its metered parking rate, from 50 cents per hour to 75 cents per hour—the first rate hike in 20 years. Other cities of similar sizes: Chula Vista, Calif. (77th largest, 25 to 50 cents per hour), Greensboro, N.C. (69th largest, 50 cents per hour), and Wichita, Kan. (49th largest, 50 cents per hour). Large
cities such as New York and Los Angeles charge up to $3 per hour in certain areas. St. Petersburg city crews have been working since the beginning of the month to manually change all of the parking meters in the city, including the ones around campus. But what’s a measly quarter to a bunch of kids who already pay thousands of dollars for an education? Students who choose to use the meters instead of purchasing a pass to park in the garage might be paying more with the increase, depending on the amount of hours they spend on campus per semester. Students who take 15 credit hours per semester paid about $11.75 per week under the old rates, or about $176 per semester. Under the new rates, they would
pay $225. Using parking meters for 12 credit hours used to cost about $135—upped to $180 with the increase. However, many students who use parking meters go to school part time. One three-credit hour class would cost approximately $34 under old rates, two would cost $68, and three about $101. With the 25 cent increase, they will pay $45, $90 and $135, respectively. A parking pass is $80 per semester. Under the new rates, only students who take one three-credit hour class per semester will save money by using metered parking. For all other students, a university parking pass is the cheaper option. Of course, the fine for an expired meter—at $25—is a lot more than a quarter. editorials@crowsneststpete.com
editorial
A blast from the past
Facebook’s new Timeline feature raises privacy concerns Those semi-conspiratorial allcaps messages from mom sprawled all over your news feed might not be as crazy as they seem. Facebook is once again warring with its users over privacy issues—and this time it may actually have taken a step too close to Big Brother’s dominion. At the center of the issue is the new Facebook Timeline. It’s a “digital scrapbook” that puts most of the information a user has ever shared on Facebook in one place. All posts, dates, pictures, comments, videos, notes and anything else a user once decided to post appear on a timeline at the side of the user’s profile page. Clicking on a year and a month brings up all posts in that time frame. “Our job is to make this profile the best way to share everything you want and the best way to express who you are,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook’s annual developer conference in September. But Timeline might share some things you don’t want.
Many of Facebook’s users signed up in high school or at the beginning of college, back when being media-savvy meant knowing the difference between Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. The site was restricted at first to college students, and then high school students. Then 800 million people joined. Aunts, uncles, moms, dads— even grandmothers and grandfathers signed up for Facebook accounts. Employers began to check interviewees’ public profiles somewhere along the way, searching for a reason not to hire them. And suddenly it mattered what you said online. So people changed the way they used Facebook. They dropped the foul language and untagged inappropriate pictures. And the things from the past stayed in the past, only accessible to those who took the time to slowly click back through months and years of content to find the person you used to be. But Facebook Timeline brings those things back to within two
clicks. It’s rolling out to all users this week, whether they want it or not. And that’s not the only change to hit the ’book in the last month. The ticker, which everyone has by now, displays what friends are doing on Facebook in real time. Everyone has seen what it shows—so-and-so is now friends with you-know-who, John Smith changed his profile picture, etc. But few know that it also has the ability to spy on users. The Washington Post recently launched a news application on Facebook that allows users to read articles straight from their news feeds. Clicking through to a news provider’s website is a thing of the past—now you can learn about your Aunt Suzie’s new foot ailments and Barack Obama’s visit to the Middle East in the same place. But the new ticker tracks every article you read, and shares the headline with friends. Spotify, a popular new program for listening to music, does some-
thing similar. It lets users listen to almost any song ever released, on the stipulation they sign up with their Facebook account. The ability to hear everything from The Rolling Stones to LMFAO is great, as long as you’re OK with the fact that all of your Facebook friends know what you’re listening to in real time. Spotify shares this information with Facebook, which instantly publishes it on your profile. Several parties, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center, are investigating Facebook’s sharing policies, and one man is suing the social network over privacy issues. The best way to avoid these concerns is not to use Facebook, but that’s hardly an option. Instead, know what you’re sharing, refrain from posting anything potentially harmful, and maybe, just maybe, listen to your mother’s rant on privacy. She may just be right. editorials@crowsneststpete.com
quotesandnotes Quote of the week
"[Y]ou can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something— your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." – Steve Jobs, at a 2005 speech at Stanford University
Throwback
The dates of Oct. 5, 1582 through Oct. 14, 1582 never occured in Italy, Portugal, Poland and Spain due to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar. In the United Kingdom, “Winnie-the-Pooh” was first published 85 years ago this week. Tigger did not make his first appearance until the second book, “The House at Pooh Corner”, two years later.
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Email your submissions to editorials@crowsneststpete.com.
column
No, I don’t really want to buy your book By ARIELLE STEVENSON News Editor
I am tired of buying my professors’ books. The combination of oftenbad cover art and spending additional money on a professors' book against your own will is futile. I understand our school is a working university and professors are expected to publish. Sometimes it isn’t so bad and I really enjoy the book. But more often than not it’s like being asked if their dress makes them look fat. In my home office, there are two shelves of former professor’s books. Some are great. Others cost a ton, read as smoothly as a brick road and are worthless after the class is over. It’s awkward and it’s filling up my bookshelves. Inside the USFSP Campus Barnes & Noble is an entire shelf of books dedicated to published university professors. I genuinely think this is a cool thing. While many teachers profess so much knowledge about another writer’s text, our guys are slugging it out and doing it for themselves. Being that a liberal arts education should seek to teach critical thinking skills, making students buy your book can be a bad idea overall. We aren’t all total idiots and maybe your book doesn’t really jazz us up like you’d hoped it would. A word to the wise, don’t refer to your book in the third person. It doesn’t translate well and we aren’t that formal at USFSP. Being that I am on the eve of graduating (pending I don’t get in trouble for this column) I feel like I can finally say what so many whisper in hushed tones. I don’t really want to buy your book just because it is your book when I really don’t know you. Hell, I have to buy your books before we’ve even met. It’s kind of like meeting the parents on the first date—awkward and potentially costly. It’s such an obvious ego boost too; we are paying them to teach us and we have to buy their book. A double whammy for sure. And with everything from tuition, parking and fees going up, I’m too broke to buy all the books you didn’t sell. Now, if it is a good book, which I’ll admit is subjective, I want to buy it. I want to support you as an educator who writes good books I like. There are only a handful of books assigned by the authors that have really benefited my education as much it did their bank accounts. I’m all for buying books. But please professors, assign your written words as a last resort and give a good reason so it doesn’t sting so much as I sit in your class, listening to you quote yourself. arielle.stevenson@gmail.com
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crowsneststpete.com | Oct. 10, 2011
Clearing the air
Red Bull's Flugtag competition comes to Tampa By COLIN O'HARA Advertising Representative Orville and Wilbur Wright succeeded as the first humans in flight, on Dec. 17, 1903. The participants of Saturday’s Red Bull Flugtag competition in downtown Tampa apparently didn’t get that memo. The Flugtag took over the Tampa Convention Center on Tampa Bay and drew hundreds of spectators to the whimsical flight competition. Flugtag—German for “flight day” or “air show”—is an event where participants attempt to fly homemade, human-powered aircraft off of a pier into the water. The teams and flights are judged on the categories of creativity, showmanship and distance flown. The rules include restrictions that a flying machine cannot be more than 30 feet wide or over 450 pounds including the pilot. Nearly 40 teams spent up to five months completing their “aircraft” and prepping them for “flight.” The aircraft are launched off of a 30-foot tall runway that juts out into Seddon Channel next to the Tampa Convention Center. The four-hour long Red Bull commercial started at 12:30 p.m. with opening ceremonies. The national anthem was performed by Bradenton’s own rock band, We the Kings, and was followed by the Red Bull air force making an aerial entrance. The judges were announced and included local celebrities, former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Ryan Nece, the youngest LPGA winner, Lexi Thompson, 93.3 MJ Morning Show host MJ, former NFL cheerleader and Playboy Playmate Jaime Edmonson and X-games gold medalist in motocross, Tarah Gieger. High winds wreaked havoc on several flight teams as gusts reached over 30 mph. “The wind just tore up our wings,” said Publix’s Where Shopping is a Pleasure team member, J.R. Lorello. “The wings are made of a Mylar-type material and it’s ruined. We are just going to take the wings off and push the cart off the runway. It will fly just as well.” St. Petersburg’s own Stay Classy Tampa Bay team had their own con-
cerns about the wind. Their theme was based on the movie “Anchor Man.” The team dressed as news anchors and attempted to ride on a giant mustache that detaches from a replica of the lead character Ron Burgundy’s face. “Wind is going to be a big factor, but we are pushing off [the runway] balls to the walls,” said pilot Adam Hopkins. “We’re going to ride this thing farther than any mustache before. It will be the longest mustache ride ever.” “We can’t change anything,” teammate Kelly Weatherby said. “It’s all fiberglass and nothing can be changed.” The first flight took off at 1 p.m. Some crowd favorites included last year’s people’s choice award winners, Team Big Stuff. The team’s theme featured Marty McFly’s time traveling DeLorean, complete with working gull-wing doors and costumes. The team reenacted the scene where Marty is chased by angry Libyans in a blue Volkswagen bus. The team failed to get their flying machine up to 88 mph like in the movie, but their theatrics gained them a perfect score in the creativity and showmanship categories. Another crowd pleaser was another St. Petersburg team and reigning Flugtag Tampa Bay 2008 champions, Willy Wonka’s Amazing Flugtag Adventure, were the winners of Flugtag Tampa Bay 2011. They flew their flying machine 50 feet. The team bio claims that their flying machine is “93 percent perspiration, 6 percent imagination, 4 percent evaporation, and 2 percent butterscotch ripple.” The team members—Kevin Riley, Dave West and Christopher Elmore—flew their machine the farthest of the day, reached the 50-foot mark with ease. The entertainment continued with even more outrageous “flying” machines such as a giant pink bra, a stapler, a cell phone that sprouted wings when it was ready for take-off and a giant guitar. Winners of the event were awarded a meet and greet with Red Bull Air Race World Champion Kirby Chambliss at his Flying Crown Ranch in Arizona.
St. Petersburg team "Stay Classy Tampa Bay" launches Ron Burgundy (Gabe Windschaue) atop the "Mustache Glider".
Despite wing problems, Publix's team pushes forward with their giant shopping cart filled with inflatable produce.
life@crowsneststpete.com
DJ Lewis Alston of Atlanta radio station 99X show "World of Lewis" holds on for a nasty fall from the 30 foot Flug Tag deck.
Judges hold up scores based on team pre-launch performances and flight success.
Photos by Daniel Mutter | The Crow's Nest
Wellington, FL team "If Your Gonna Be Dumb You Gotta be Tough" recreate one of their favorite scenes from the movie "Dumb and Dumber".