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WEDNESDAY
february 13, 2013
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t h e i n de pe n de n t s t u de n t n e w spa pe r of s y r acuse , n e w yor k
INSIDE NEWS
On the road to discovery
A four-part series exploring the role of spirituality PL CE in the lives of Syracuse University students forFAITH PART 1 OF 4
An SU professor looks at the links between Alzheimer’s and exercise. Page 3
By London Green CONTRIBUTING WRITER
INSIDE OPINION
Time to refocus Legislators should re-evaluate the mental illness compnonents of gun control laws. Page 5
INSIDE PULP
Coldhearted Fill your antiValentine’s Day with these activites. Page 13
INSIDE SPORTS
chase gaewski | photo editor Student members of SPIRAL display objects that are meaningful to them. Paganism is an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of different polytheistic faiths, many based in Western European cultures and traditions.
WIDENING THE CIRCLE Chaplain, organization dispel pagan stereotypes through awareness
End of the line With Syracuse moving to the ACC, its longtime rivalry with UConn is coming to an end. Take a look at some of the rivalry’s highlights. Page 20
DA I LY OR A NGE .COM
Otto’s couple Hear and see an engaged couple whose relationship ties directly to SU.
Obama speaks on economy in annual speech
I ONLINE
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For a slideshow of objects significant to pagan students at SU and a video about how to get involved in SPIRAL, see dailyorange.com
By Jessica Iannetta Asst. News Editor
t’s been several years since the group of about 25 people stood in a circle in Long Branch Park, heads bowed, holding hands as they performed a pagan ritual. That photo is still Mary Hudson’s computer background, even though the small number of Syracuse University students in the circle have all graduated and moved on to others things. Hudson is the pagan chaplain at SU’s Hendricks Chapel, and only the second college pagan chaplain in the nation. She has an office in Hendricks and sits on the Chaplains’ Council. Two people help her at Student Pagan Information Relations and Learning meetings on Monday nights, lightening her weekly load. The meetings attract as many as 35 students a week now, a huge increase from the three students who attended when she started the group. But three years after becoming pagan chaplain and 12 years after founding the pagan student group, also known as SPIRAL, Hudson said the biggest change in paganism at SU is the level of awareness, both on campus and in the larger community. “Everybody fears what they don’t know,” Hudson said. “A lot of what has happened over the last three years is education.” Part of that education is talking to people about who pagans are — and who they aren’t. Hudson can easily rattle off the stereotypes. “We’re evil. We’re Satan worshippers. We curse people, do black magic. That we try to manipulate. I mean, the list goes on,” she said.
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GROWING COMMUNITY
Interest in paganism at SU has steadily increased during the last 12 years. When SPIRAL was founded in 2001, only two students identified themselves as pagan. Last spring, 14 students identified as pagan. However, only about 50 percent of SU students responded to this question on MySlice, so these numbers may not be accurate.
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SEE ‘SPIRITUALITY’ Page 12
President Barack Obama called on the nation to help jumpstart the economy during his fifth State of the Union address Tuesday night. “It is our generation’s task, then, to reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth — a rising, thriving middle class,” he said. Obama delivered the address to the nation and Congress at 9 p.m. The State of the Union address is an annual speech in which the president reports proposals for the upcoming legislative year. The president covered many issues in his speech, including education, weapons of mass destruction, women’s and gay rights, health care, and gun violence. Two topics he especially highlighted were job creation and economic growth. Rather than make cuts to education and social security, the president proposed tax reforms that eliminate loopholes for the upper class and the “well-off.” Comprehensive, bipartisan tax reform is one that “encourages job creation and helps bring down the deficit,” he said. Next on the legislature’s docket for this year is creating new jobs, he said, emphasizing that companies need to bring jobs back into the United States. If the job market returns to the United States, the government will be able to lower taxes on small businesses, which, in turn, will help bring money back to America. Companies such as Apple, Ford, Caterpillar and Intel will bring jobs back to America, he said, which will lower the unemployment rate and boost economic growth. The president proposed no cuts to science, technology or innovation, saying these elements are pertinent to the growth of the economy. Obama also discussed the environment during his address, saying his goal for the future is to cut energy use in half in the next 20 years. This is a topic relevant to Syracuse University, said Alec Reimel, a freshman in the School of Information Studies. Riemel said he believes SU has taken steps to reduce waste and become ecofriendly, citing the reusable takeout containers in the dining hall and the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified buildings on campus as examples. This year, a new tool called Citizen Response was launched for the address. Citizen Response allows viewers to highlight a section in the official transcript, inform the president of how they connect
SEE SPEECH PAGE 9