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DAILY HELMSMAN

The Tigers lost to Oklahoma State by 21 points. To read full coverage of the game, see Thursday’s issue.

The

Wednesday 11.20.13

Independent Student Newspaper of the University of Memphis

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Vol. 81 No. 049

Punk rock saved their lives How seven Memphians survived a deadly twister

By Joshua Cannon

news@dailyhelmsman.com It was mid-afternoon in Peoria, Ill., when our four-door white GMC Suburban and the trailer carrying all of our music equipment was lifted off of the ground and sucked into the middle of a unexpected and devastating twister that swept across the area, leaving six dead and neighborhoods in ruins on Sunday.

Just moment’s before, it had been an ordinary day on the road for our band. We played a show the previous night in a local resident’s basement. The next morning, we woke up on a stranger’s floor — a common consequence of touring. We rarely know where we are going to sleep at night. For a punk rock band, touring is much like any other form of traveling — but with many additional surprises, although I’m not sure there is any way we could have been prepared for Sunday morning’s storm.

After we drove onto the interstate, the storm’s presence was nearly instantaneous. The rain shot down like machine gun bullets from the sky. Branches broke from trees and flew with hummingbird precision as if they were being guided in a straight line through the air.

“Guys, I think we’re about to be in the middle of a tornado,” Calvin Lauber, guitarist, singer and our driver, turned to us and calmly

By Margot Pera

news@dailyhelmsman.com

Cash said that the heat is being restored in Wilder Tower before Patterson Hall, because construction has already been completed on the portion of the new line leading into Wilder, but the section from Wilder to Patterson is a bit more complicated.

“By installing an isolation valve in the new line between Wilder and Patterson, the contractor will be able to switch Wilder over to

For the first time in 22 years, the University of Memphis will not support a tuition increase for the upcoming academic year.

On average, tuition at the University has increased 7.3 percent over the past 10 years.

The University sent out an email notifying students, faculty and staff about its plans to hold tuition flat for the 2014-2015 school year.

“Ideally, flattening tuition lessens the financial burden on students and ensures higher education will continue,” Provost M. David Rudd said. “A commitment to holding the rate flat is a recognition on our part of the increased financial pressures students face.”

Rudd also added that administrators are studying the financial impact of eliminating out-of-state tuition.

“We are not cutting any programs at the University, we are just trying to be more efficient and effective in what we do,” Rudd said. “We are making some administrative reductions which we will be talking about more in the coming weeks.”

Ricky Kirby, president of the Student Government Association, attributes the steady increase of tuition to the lack of state funding.

“It is sort of a double-edged sword,” Kirby said. “Our state funding goes down because our retention rate decreases, but our retention rate decreases because our tuition increases.”

Out-of-state full-time undergraduate students currently pay $11,507 per semester, while in-state students pay $4,151, according to the email sent out by the University.

The U of M may receive a short burst of revenue from the increase, but in terms of a long-term surge, the increasing rate was doing more harm than good, Kirby said.

According to the U of M’s Office of Institutional Research, overall enrollment decreased by 712 students in 2013, with 21,354 students enrolled in the 2012 spring semester to 20,642 in the

see HeaT on page 4

see TUiTiOn on page 3

photo By NathaNael packard | staff

Band member, calvin Lauber, uses the wrecked Suburban to push the trailer out of the middle of the highway after a devastating tornado on Sunday. said as the wind pushed like a tidal wave against the car.

Before we could process what was happening, the autumn leaves grew into a chaotic collage of color.

The colossal tornado grabbed our car and trailer before throwing us into the air with featherless effort.

“The wind and debris blocked any view of the road I had,” Lauber,

a freshman graphic design major at the University of Memphis, said.

“I realized we were in danger right before I lost control. My only

see TWiSTeR on page 3

Patterson Hall left in the cold until Friday

By Austin Reynolds

news@dailyhelmsman.com The University of Memphis cut off the heat to two buildings on campus on Tuesday.

The office of Dean Hansen, vice president of the Physical Plant, sent an email to the University of Memphis Community on Tuesday announcing that Wilder Tower and Patterson Hall were without heat.

Tuition rate to hold flat for first time in decades

The email stated that the heat was cut off “due to an unforeseen rupture in the steam line.” A contractor was scheduled to repair Wilder Tower’s heat on Tuesday, but Patterson Hall’s heat will be out until at least Friday.

The rupture was not caused by construction around campus, but it did bring the issue to light, according to facilities projects manager Pam Cash.

“The rupture was not directly related to the construction proj-

The Daily Helmsman is a “designated public forum.” Students have authority to make all content decisions without censorship or advance approval. The Daily Helmsman is pleased to make a maximum of 10 copies of each issue available to a reader for free.

Additional copies are $1. Partial printing and distribution costs are provided by an allocation from the Student Activity Fee.

ect currently in progress but was discovered in the excavation process for the project,” Cash said.

“As the steam line was uncovered, two leaks in one pipe were discovered.”

One leak was about two feet deep under a sidewalk, and the other was about eight feet deep.

Cash said they don’t know how long the leaks have been there.

Prior to the leaks being discovered, the steam line was in the process of being replaced.

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index

Sports

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2 • Wednesday, November 20, 2013

The

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D AILY

H ELMSMAN Volume 81 Number 49

Editor-in-Chief Lisa elaine Babb Managing Editor L. Taylor Smith Design Editors Faith Roane Hannah Verret Sports Editor Meagan nichols General Manager candy Justice

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Contact Information news@dailyhelmsman.com Advertising: (901) 6 78-2191 Newsroom: (901) 678-2193 The University of Memphis The Daily Helmsman 113 Meeman Journalism Building Memphis, TN 38152

Solutions on page 4 caffey said he will use his gift card to buy his mom a christmas present.

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DOMINO’S PIZZA Across 1 Dinner for Mister Ed 5 On-the-job extras 10 Cave feedback 14 Snow remover 15 Ice show site 16 D’back or Met 17 “East of Eden” director Kazan 18 Popular half of a 45, usually 19 Time division on a map 20 Five-time Super Bowl winners 23 Do a librarian’s chore 24 Last Greek letter 27 Pipeline product 28 “It’s all about the beer” Dutch brewer 31 Tweezer targets 34 Club for the supersmart 35 Soccer goal 36 Weight training units 37 “Miracle on 34th Street” store 38 Stand up 39 Make the most of 40 Obama daughter whose Secret Service code name is “Rosebud” 41 Parcels (out) 42 Big name in sneakers 44 Droop in the middle 45 Ford flop 46 Insurance filings 50 Standard flown in Ho Chi Minh City 55 Thug’s knife 57 Snow-block home 58 Prefix with cast 59 Not contaminated 60 34-Across member 61 Soprano’s solo 62 Shoe inserts 63 Road curves 64 Headliner, or symbol associated with 20-, 28-, 37-, 42- and 50-Across Down 1 Opinion pieces 2 God of Islam 3 Fabric often decorated with pastoral scenes 4 Gulps down

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5 Whole bunch 6 Guitarist Clapton 7 Start all over 8 Felt in one’s bones 9 Swedish automaker 10 Digestive protein 11 Tight, as families 12 Lady lobster 13 Find at the mine 21 “We Try Harder” car rental chain 22 Chaplin granddaughter named for her grandmother 25 V-formation birds 26 Gets in the poker game 28 Anne of “Donnie Brasco” 29 One-named “Orinoco Flow” singer 30 Mag. edition 31 Groundbreaking comic Lenny

32 Put down new grass sections 33 Starts to shoot 34 The “m” in E = mc2 37 Make a dent in, say 38 Rowing races 40 Actress Ward 41 Gander or gobbler 43 Soft-pile fabric 44 Offshoots 47 Like neon and xenon 48 Obama daughter whose Secret Service code name is “Radiance” 49 Mascara mishap 51 The Bee Gees’ “Gee” 52 Beast of fables 53 Spanish dessert 54 Partner of null 55 Coppertone letters 56 Shade of color

S u d o k u Complete the grid so that each row, column and 3-by3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9.

The University of Memphis

Wednesday, November 20, 2013 • 3

Tuition Page 1

2013 spring semester.

Rudd cited a 34 percent increase in tuition over the last five years and enrollment decrease over the last two years.

“When I talk to students about declining enrollment, they cite financial challenges as one of the biggest factors,” Rudd said.

Kirby said students lack money to pay for school when they have to make ends meet to eat and get around.

“With our economy being in such a dire state, most people are on tight budget, if you are paying more than you have for groceries and gas, it is hard to have extra money for school,” Kirby said.

Kirby cited exit surveys completed by students who dropped out due to inability to finance their education.

“The U of M has a high adult student population with kids and full-time jobs and many of them are not eligible for financial aid,” he said. “It is even difficult for a traditional student to qualify.”

In some cases, Kirby said students are told by their banks or the government that they are a getting a set amount of money from year to year. If the tuition rate increases each year, their financial aid still remains the same. Often, students are not notified of the tuition increase until around 2 months before the fall semester, making it difficult to

come up with the deficit.

Kirby and the SGA is proposing a tuition cap program for the 2014-2015 year where students would pay the same amount of money during their entire tenure at the University. Fluctuation would be permitted for first-year students but remain at a steady dollar amount for the next five years.

“Research has shown it is hard for Memphis students to graduate in a fouryear period, so we are proposing a fiveyear program,” he said.

The administration had been exploring a tuition contract similar to the SGA’s proposal, according to Rudd.

There are many factors that affect the retention rate for the University, including a student’s personal life conflicts, miscommunications with advisors and a lack of extra-curricular activity involvements. Kirby said when students do not get involved in extra-curricular activities, even in just as basic as using the student recreation center or tutoring services, they are less likely to stay enrolled, because they have no attachment to the campus.

“It is the responsibility of the students to communicate with their advisor and inform them of personal conflicts,” Kirby said. “If I work a thirty-hour week, it would probably be a bad idea for me to take a twenty-hour course load.”

photo By Nathanael Packard | staff

The tornado flipped and ripped open the top of the trailer causing some of the gear to fall out onto the highway. Sam Leathers, drummer, asseses the damage done to the trailer and equipment.

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Twister Page 1

thought was to try and maintain the direction of the car in any way possible. I wasn’t scared at the moment because I was determined on keeping my friends alive.”

Our car spun three times while in the air — a 1080-degree twist that lasted no more than 10 seconds but felt like 10 minutes. From the third row, my perspective was much different from Lauber’s.

Considering my powerless position as a passenger, keeping my friends alive didn’t cross my mind as I tussled with the idea that we were all going to die. Accepting death is an experience that before Sunday morning, I never had the opportunity entertain.

Kevin Gibson, another member of our band, cradled his arms around me.

“I love you. This is it. I’m not going to let you go,” he said staring me in the eyes.

In that moment, the glass from the windows imploded onto us from every direction, and the debris from the funnel flew into our car as we shook back and forth.

We buried our heads into the leather seats, as there was now nothing separating us from what was outside — the white winds of the twister, whistling like a freight train.

Shards of glass struck Gibson in the forehead. Weston Hall, a friend of the band who was selling our merchandise on this tour, was sliced in the ear. Barrett Kutas, bassist, was in the front seat when the window imploded against his neck. Sam Leathers, drummer,

temporarily lost his glasses as he was directly hit in the face by the debris. Nate Packard, a staff photographer at The Daily Helmsman who was traveling with us to photograph the tour, was thrown into the back of the vehicle while he was reaching for his camera gear.

“I sat in the front and accepted that I was going to die with six of my best friends,” Kutas said. “I thought I was going to die.”

Just as the Suburban was on the verge of flipping, our trailer rolled over and slammed onto the ground, pulling us from the twister and back onto the interstate, facing oncoming traffic.

The tornado had passed. There was silence — the kind of quiet that you never hear on the interstate. We raised our heads from the seats, maneuvering through the broken glass that was crinkling against us and covering every inch of the car.

“Are we all okay,” Leathers asked, afraid of the answer.

We all had a moment where we looked at each other and realized that even though Packard was thrown into the back, he still had his camera. I could see Kutas’ chest moving in and out with every breath as he became more aware that we were all still together. We wrapped our arms around each other and didn’t let go. We just kept squeezing in disbelief that we had just been inside of a funnel cloud and lived to tell the story.

“I felt like it was a scene from a disaster movie,” Packard said. “I couldn’t believe that we were all alive and uninjured. There is no

reason that any of us should have survived that.”

There isn’t an explanation for it — at least, that is what the police officer told us when he arrived at the scene. If it were not for the 2,000 pounds of gear tethering us to Earth, we would have been dead. If it were not for that trailer, the tornado would have taken more than the six lives that were tragically cut short.

In retrospect, we were such a small part of such large devastation. Houses were leveled to the ground. Cars were strewn across streets and yards. Telephone poles fell like dominos, cutting power throughout the area. We were just passing through an area that is now undergoing a rebuilding process with no estimated completion date. We were fortunate to have houses and families to come home to after all of this — and not everyone could say that.

Somehow, our car managed to drive. Our trailer was totaled and towed to a lot. The police officer guided us up the exit ramp of the interstate to Harvest Bible Chapel, where we met Matt and Kelsie Zarko, two members of the church who had just left service.

“We were in service when the power went out,” Kelsie said. “It sounded like a train that was going to come straight through the church. We just all started praying. It was crazy and all happened so fast. There was a point where I had to give it to God and act out my faith.”

The couple took us into their

see accident on page 4

4 • Wednesday, November 20, 2013

www.dailyhelmsman.com

Sports

Women’s basketball overcomes sluggish start

By Austin Reynolds

sports@dailyhelmsman.com With the two teams combining for 56 turnovers and 52 fouls, the Monday night game between Jackson State University and the University of Memphis women’s basketball team was not pretty.

“Well, honestly I thought it was a little painful at times,” Memphis head coach Melissa McFerrin said.

Regardless, Memphis was still able to pull out a 77-64 victory against the winless Jackson State Tigers in the Elma Roane Fieldhouse to improve their record to 3-1 on the young season.

However, McFerrin is not completely pleased with the team’s performance.

“No disrespect to Jackson State whatsoever, but we have to set our standards higher as to how we play the game,” she said.

Including the loss to Memphis, Jackson State has been outscored

by a total of 100 points in their four games this season — all losses.

For much of the first half, the Tigers of Jackson State were in control of the game. Memphis tried to hold onto the basketball against Jackson State’s full court pressure but repeatedly turned the ball over resulting in easy transition baskets for their opposition.

Memphis struggled to contain them in the half court as well, and as a result, Jackson State shot a blistering 54 percent from the field in the opening half of play.

“Through four games I see that we have a team that needs to continue to get a lot better defensively,” McFerrin said.

“We’ve made a commitment to spending more time in practice on our defensive concepts and our defensive stance and on our rebounding, but I don’t think we’ve seen it translate yet into something that our team really, really takes pride in doing.”

Memphis made defensive adjustments at the half, as Jackson State shot only 32 percent from the field after the break, resulting in the Memphis lead inflating to as many as 17 points.

Apart from the 27 turnovers, one of the more troubling aspects for Memphis offensively was the free throw shooting. Memphis attempted 37 foul shots over the course of the game and made 17.

“Man, our free throws were not OK,” sophomore guard Ariel Hearn said. “I don’t think we were just focused. Fatigue kinda got in our heads, and we let it get to us on our free throws.”

Hearn finished with a polarizing stat line that included impressive numbers of 26 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, three steals and 11-17 shooting from the floor — but the sophomore also turned the ball over a team-high seven times and shot 2-8 from the charity stripe.

Memphis received a nice boost

Accident

Heat

Page 3

home. The church paid for our dinner. They used their cars to help us move our music equipment from our totaled trailer to their garage.

“The community in Peoria was unbelievable to us,” Leathers said. “They took us in without question and helped us with whatever we needed for as long as it took. They never thought twice and never wanted anything in return.”

Mysteriously, all of our gear still worked. The guitars were still in tune and in their cases.

The amps had barely moved from their original position, despite the trailer rolling. Even if they had been completely useless, it didn’t matter — we were fortunate enough to be able to say that we walked away from the inside of a tornado. We still had each other.

Our families drove eight

hours from Memphis and picked us up. We moved the suburban onto a trailer large enough to haul a vehicle across the country and turned the dismantled vehicle into a trailer of sorts, giving our equipment a place to trek back home.

While we were physically unscathed, mentally picking up the pieces may be the most disorienting part on the aftermath.

The cliché “someone’s life flashing before his or her eyes,” is more than just an old saying to someone who lived through it.

A near death experience rattled me. Food tasted better. The first meal I had after the accident was barbecue, and while it wasn’t from my home city, it was the best meal I’d ever eaten.

I hugged my mother and father longer than I ever have, realizing that I was moments away from never being able to tell

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off the bench with sophomore forward Courtney Powell scoring seven points and hauling in nine rebounds in her 15 minutes of playing time.

“The one thing we can always count on is that (Powell) plays really hard and she always, always, always goes to the glass,” McFerrin said.

Late in the second half there was a scary moment for the Tigers, when promising freshman point guard Breigha Wilder-C o chran appeared to injure her leg when she hit the hardwood for a loose ball. “ The y’ve evaluated (WilderCochran) this even i n g , ” McFerrin said. “They’re going to evalu-

Page 1

them how thankful I am to have them as parents.

“I feel like I’m already a different person but I don’t know what kind of person I am,” Kutas said. “It’s almost like normal life feels out of place. I’m going back to work and the real world as a different person.”

Whether it was higher powers at work or mere coincidence, we, like many others in the community, made it out of the storm. Sometimes not knowing how something happened is easier than having an answer.

Lauber, as well as the rest of the band, is thankful that we even have a story to share.

“I believe all of this happened for some reason,” he said.

“I’m not sure how to process it yet, but I do feel inspired to be alive.”

ate her again in the morning.

We won’t know anything until tomorrow.”

Wilder-Cochran finished the game with five points, seven assists and three steals.

Memphis returns to the court Friday night, when they travel for an away game against ArkansasLittle Rock. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.

Solutions

the new steam line, thereby restoring heat to Wilder,” Cash said. “The isolation valve, which prevents steam from flowing from Wilder to Patterson, allows the contractor to safely finish construction of the new steam line to Patterson while Wilder remains in service. There is approximately 40 feet of new pipe that must be installed and tested before steam can be restored to Patterson.”

Cash said that the contractor worked a 12-hour shift to ensure that the heat to Wilder would be restored Tuesday.

Sophomore English major Haley Hanners has a class in Patterson every day, including one that lasts three hours. She said she isn’t sure how the lack of heat in the building will have an effect on her until she goes to her classes and finds out.

Temperatures through Friday are expected to be in the 60s.

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