IT’S GON’ RAIN! HI
74° |
LO
WEDNESDAY
61°
september 28, 2011
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
In agreement A common counselor and business manager welcome SU’s move from the Big East to ACC. Page 3
INSIDE OPINION
Beer-ly a problem The Daily Orange Editorial Board says banning beer in the Dome wouldn’t limit underage drinking. Page 5
INSIDE PULP
The suite life Off-campus housing options offer more — and lessthan typical SU dorms. Page 9
INSIDE SPORTS
Big decision The service academies are weighing all of their options before making the jump to the Big East. Page 16
universit y lectures
at l a n tic coa st conference
NPR journalist speaks about Latino rights
Athlete progress at SU on par with future members By Dara McBride EDITOR IN CHIEF
Academically, Syracuse University will transition from the Big East conference to the Atlantic Coast Conference smoothly, but likely not as a top academic athletic program. “Yes, Syracuse fits right into the ACC’s sweet spot academically,” Walter Harrison, chairman of the NCAA Committee on Academic Performance and also president of the University of Hartford, said in an email. In regards to academics, Harrison said he expects SU to fall somewhere in the middle in among ACC teams and “maybe a little closer to the top than the bottom.” “The ACC has a wide range of universities academically, ranging from two of the finest in the country — Duke and UNC — to others who are good but not on many people’s lists of truly outstanding American universities — Florida State and North Carolina State, as examples,” Harrison said. SU’s Academic Progress Rate for its two main sports, football and men’s basketball, are in the same range as schools in the ACC. APR is used to track academic performance of university athletic teams. A rate of 900 out of 1,000 is roughly equivalent to a 45 percent NCAA graduation success rate. But the NCAA is also in the process of strengthening APR guidelines. In August, university presidents and chancellors met in Indianapolis for a two-day discussion on academics, integrity and financial sustainability on Division-I athletics. SU Chancellor Nancy Cantor attended. The SU administration did not respond to requests for comment. The NCAA Division-I Board of Directors approved moving the APR cut score from 900 to 930 at its August meeting, Harrison said. In October, Harrison’s committee will discuss how to implement the changes, including the rule that teams scoring below an APR of 930 will be ineligible for the NCAA Tournament. SU men’s basketball has scored below a 930 for the past two years. In the 2008-09 academic year, the team earned an APR of 912— leaving the team with a penalty of two scholarship reductions. When asked whether working toward a higher APR for the men’s basketball team was a goal for SU, Pete Moore, spokesman for the team, said both he and head coach Jim Boeheim did not have official comments. Jake Crouthamel, athletic director at SU when APR was first introduced in the 2004-05 academic year, said because of SEE APR PAGE 7
By Andrew Feldman CONTRIBUTING WRITER
stacie fanelli | asst. photo editor
Repairing the system Ben Domingo hopes to improve student care as first director of Health Services in 2 years
B
By Liz Sawyer ASST. NEWS EDITOR
en Domingo is a man who vows to improve Health Services’ customer service, clinical care and community presence, as the program worked without a formal director for nearly two years. “We have to increase our reputation — or build it back — one patient at a time,” Domingo said. The search for a new director began in September 2009, when the former director took a job as the director of health services at Ohio State University. Domingo, a family nurse practitioner, said he applied for the job at Syracuse University in December 2010 and began working June 1. Domingo served as the director of Morrisville State College’s Health Cen-
ter for 10 years and has experience on multiple college campuses, including the University of Albany and Colgate University. After a decade at Morrisville, where he educated staff and students on health and wellness topics and expanded services, Domingo said SU was the logical next step in the college health provider profession. “I felt like I left [Morrisville] in a better place, and that’s what I hope to do at Syracuse,” he said. At Morrisville, Domingo said he spent the majority of his time doing clinical visits with students and much less time working on the administrative side of things. At SU, those roles have reversed, he said, and now only about 25 percent of his schedule is SEE DOMINGO PAGE 4
Renowned in the field of journalism for various projects involving female and Latino rights, NPR journalist Maria Hinojosa spoke Tuesday night on the lack of rights given to Latino immigrants. “How do you complain if — for all intents and purposes — you are invisible?” Hinojosa said. Hinojosa spoke on the discrimination and loss of rights experienced by the Latino community in the United States. She gave the fi rst of this year’s University Lectures in Hendricks Chapel. The lecture, “Making the Invisible Visible,” was presented in conjunction with the Wednesday opening of the La Casita Cultural Center, an art exhibition featuring the work of six Latin American artists. Hinojosa was the fi rst Latina journalist for NPR. She has also worked for CNN and as a senior correspondent for PBS. Much of her discussion was focused on her upcoming HBO documentary, “The Latino List,” which profi les various Latinos across the country and the effects they have had on their community. “For every three steps forward, we take two steps back,” Hinojosa said. Throughout her lecture, Hinojosa discussed the mistreatment Hispanic immigrants face across the United States; a mistreatment that often makes Latinos seem invisible. While this problem directly involves immigrants, Hinojosa discussed the need for every American to stand up for immigrant rights. “There are two sets of laws in our country, one that applies to you if you are a citizen, and one if you are an immigrant,” Hinojosa said. She told several anecdotes that epitomized her experience with the lack of rights given to Hispanic immigrants. Hinojosa introduced the lecture with the story of her mother having to argue with an airport immigration officer to bring a young Hinojosa into the country. Hinojosa also spoke of her visit to Arizona last year, soon after the state’s immigration laws were passed. She talked of the broad concern felt by many longtime Arizona residents, who could be asked to provide identification of their citizenship whenever they left their homes. Immigrants who cannot present valid paperwork are arrested and sent to detainment centers. Hinojosa described SEE HINOJOSA PAGE 7