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Oregon State beats Oregon for second time in one week
TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013 • OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY CORVALLIS, OREGON 97331
DAILYBAROMETER.COM
VOLUME CXVI, NUMBER 65
From Arabia to America n
International student Mishal Algari smoothly transitioned to Corvallis life from Jubail By Ryan Dawes
The Daily Barometer
Since middle school, Oregon State University mechanical engineering sophomore Mishal Algari has wanted to leave his home in Saudi Arabia and study abroad in the United States. For the past year now, he has seen this hope fulfilled. Long before coming to America, Algari grew up in Jubail, a city with a population about the size of the Eugene-Springfield area, in the Eastern Provence of Saudi Arabia. “Jubail is different from other Saudi Arabian cities,” Algari said. “Different people from all over the world go there for work. Due to a variety of worldviews, it’s a fairly understanding and accepting place to be.” Growing up, Algari spent most of his free time hanging out on the beach, playing soccer with his friends and playing video games, all the while trying to keep cool during the heat of the summer months. Located on the coast of the Persian Gulf, Jubail can get incredibly hot and humid. “When I say [Jubail] is hot, it’s really hot,” Algari said. “From noon to 3, no labor is allowed in the city. My brother and I conducted an experiment one time just to see how hot it was. We cracked an egg on the sidewalk, and it literally cooked.” Other than dealing with the heat and having fun with his friends, family was also an important aspect of
Algari’s life. “When I was a kid, every weekend my family and I would go to my grandmother’s house to spend time with my mom’s side of the family,” Algari said. After Algari expressed interest in studying in America, the connections throughout his extended family helped pave his way to coming to Corvallis. Several of Algari’s relatives had studied in America, and Algari’s father, Adel, began contacting them to decide on a school. “My cousin had just graduated from a university in a small Oregon town called Corvallis,” Algari said. “He said the school was great and that the town was genuinely a good place to be. I did a little more research on it, and eventually the family agreed it would be the best place for Mishal to apply to.” Algari then began his college career here. While enjoying writing and reading, and considering being an English major, he settled instead on mechanical engineering. He worked hard and quickly made a group of friends here, and soon had settled down comfortably into Corvallis life. “What I love about [Corvallis] is how people can express what they like and want to do and still be accepted without becoming an outsider,” Algari said. “I also love the contrast between Corvallis and Jubail. I love the rain and all the green here.” Ali Al Nasser, also an international student from Saudi Arabia, also feels See ALGARI | page 2
photo illustration by julia green
| THE DAILY BAROMETER
Corinne Carver, Sophomore in pre-communication. Tonight’s Socratic Club debate will focus on the purpose of God in ethics.
Socratic Club hosts morality debate n
Two acclaimed academics argue for, against the need for God in ethics in a Socratic Club debate By Ryan Dawes
The Daily Barometer
Tonight at 7 in Milam Auditorium, the Socratic Club will once again host a debate on religion challenging both the academics debating, as well as the entire audience on the topic “Does Morality Require God?” Dr. Michael Gurney, a professor of philosophy and theology at Multnomah University, will debate Dr. Austin Dacey, a philosopher and the author of “The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life” and “The Future of Blasphemy: Speaking of the
Sacred in an Age of Human Rights.” The debate will tackle questions such as: “Who defines what is good and evil, right and wrong?” and “Can a satisfactory morality be constructed from a nontheist perspective?” and “Do we need God to direct our morality and understand how we ought to live?” and “Is it crucial, beneficial, misleading or even dangerous to attribute morality to God?” “There’s a lot of discussion on the basis of ethics today,” said Gary Ferngren, an Oregon State University history professor and adviser of the Socratic club at OSU. “Why people act the way they do and whether we depend on our own culture to tell us what ethical, our conscience, or our God are See DEBATE | page 2
Unearthing, recovering relics of North American history n
Loren Davis follows the findings in a test pit in Cooper’s Ferry, Idaho, connects with sites on the west coast By Hayden Wilcox special to the daily Barometer
courtesy of hayden wilcox
| CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Dr. Loren Davis, associate professor of anthropology at OSU, overlooks the Cooper’s Ferry excavation site in Idaho. Davis has led the expedition since 1997, when he dug a test pit and uncovered a weapons cache dating back over 13,000 years ago.
Meter by meter, centimeter by centimeter, Loren Davis is making history. History doesn’t care that it’s 103 degrees in the shade, but for Davis, an associate professor of anthropology at Oregon State University, it’s common practice. For more than a decade, Davis has been doing research in the lower Salmon River canyon studying evidence that could rewrite history books. Evidence from the Cooper’s Ferry site suggests humans walked on North American soil more than 1,000 years before previously speculated. For the past three years, Davis has directed the Cooper’s Ferry Archaeological Field School, a summer class that takes 20 university students from around the country and brings them together to learn about what archaeologists really do. Students who apply for the class come from all over the United States, from as far away as New York and Vermont. “The things we find here are going to transform the way we think about how people came to America,” said
Kendra Walters, a field student from the University of Oregon. The Cooper’s Ferry site is rich with prehistoric stone tools such asblades, hammerstones, bifaces and projectile points, which are unearthed on a nearly daily basis as students patiently excavate with steady hands and bated breath. But what makes the site particularly unusual and exciting is the type of artifacts that are found there. It began in 1997 when Davis dug a test pit at the Cooper’s Ferry site based on the geologic history of the area. Davis unearthed what appeared to be a purposely dug weapons cache that contained projectile points that, when tested, were proven to be 13,000 old, 1,000 years older than the oldest artifact ever found in North America. “This site is really on the cutting edge of the reassessment of how people came to North America in the first place,” said Ian Kretzler, a graduate student from Whitman College. Artifacts such as the ones found at Cooper’s Ferry are now being found at many other archaeological sites around the west coast and Pacific Northwest. Two years ago, Davis worked on another site in central Oregon with University of Oregon professor Dennis Jenkins. The site, known as Paisley Caves, turned out to contain more proSee DAVIS | page 2