DAILY HELMSMAN Tuesday 4.29.14
The
Vol. 81 No. 108
Independent Student Newspaper of the University of Memphis
Gamblers push luck in lottery
Q & A with art student
6
Violent video games
9
Improvement a must 11 for Fuente
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Controversial app spawns slut shaming and hate speech
By Robbie Porter
news@dailyhelmsman.com Jeanie Mahannah’s luck couldn’t get much better after winning $200,000 on a scratch-off ticket— except for when she won $50,000 on the very next ticket she bought. That was four years ago, and now all that’s left of it is a meager account set up by her son that allows her to only draw a set amount each month. Mahannah didn’t have a lot of money before she won, but she was buying cigarettes and lottery tickets on a daily basis, praying to God that she would hit it big. “When I won the $200,000, I just had to buy one more, and lo and behold, I snagged another $50,000 just like that,” Mahannah said. Now that she had more money, she bought more scratch-off tickets hoping to hit it big again. Losing lottery tickets could be found spilling out of every crevice and compartment in her car and all throughout the new little home she purchased in Millington, Tenn. After a home makeover, an all-expenses-paid family vacation and a sea of scratch-offs were purchased, the money was soon gone, and she was back to square one. “God blessed me with money, and if he blesses me I’m gonna swim in those blessings,” Mahannah said. “If God wants me to have money again, he’ll give me money.” State lotteries bring in large sums of money for most states in the U. S. In 2008, the total sum of money brought in by all the states amounted to $77.3 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Many of these states use a portion of this money to create scholarships for students. Tennessee’s state lotteries bring in enough money to fund the HOPE State Lottery scholarship. This scholarship awards eligible students $2,000 a semester for those who scored at least a 21 on the ACT and have a weighted GPA of 3.0. Even though these lottery scholarships have done a lot for students,
see LOTTERY on page 7
By Joshua Cannon, Melissa Byrd and Jonah Jordan
news@dailyhelmsman.com Scrolling through his most recent timeline, 20-year-old public relations major Eric Bourgeois starts with a smile and then begins to shake his head as the smile fades.
“I thought we left bullying in high school,” he said, closing Yik Yak, the newest application to sweep the University of Memphis campus. Launched last December by recent college graduates Brooks Buffington and Tyler Droll, the app is a location-based anonymous virtual chat app where nearby users can connect through GPS tracking
on their smart phones. Like a pole on the corner of a street or a wall littered with flyers in a coffee shop, the app is intended to be a safe haven bulletin board where locals can connect and share content. However, on and near the U of M campus, the virtual posting board has morphed into a breed-
ing ground for hate speech and slut shaming among fraternity and sorority members. Similar to an episode of Gossip Girl, users fire off slandering shots of demeaning comments that can be immediately seen by other users. Yik Yak is similar to Twitter, but
see YIK YAK on page 3
University reacts to Rudd announcement By Mandy Hrach
news@dailyhelmsman.com While many people are praising the recommendation of David Rudd as the new president of the University of Memphis, at least one faculty member is distraught over the decision that he is resigning from his position on the faculty senate. “I am profoundly disappoint-
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ed that the search ended the way it did,” said Cedar Nordbye, who resigned from the senate Sunday night. “I no longer have faith in the governance of this University.” Nordbye said some faculty members feared the search was a sham and the search process was set up knowing all along that Rudd would get the job. He said that at the very least Rudd was
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able to put himself in the position as the only viable candidate. “I have been amazed at how Rudd has operated as if he were the president during the past nine months,” he said. “He has orchestrated drastic restructuring of the University that I found completely inappropriate to an interim leadership.” Rudd, 53, came to the U of M after serving as Dean of the
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College of Social and Behavior Sciences at the University of Utah. Before then, he served as chair of the psychology department at Texas Tech University. He started the position of University provost in March of 2013. Three months later, former president Shirley Raines announced her resignation. Brad Martin was then named inter-
see RUDD on page 4 10