CARMELIZED CRUST DELIGHT
Vol. # 98, Issue #7 | October 22, 2012
Arts & Life, page 22
Athletic director’s contract renewed By MIKE CHAMERNIK Contributing Writer
DePaul Athletic Director Jean Lenti Ponsetto’s contract will be renewed through 2017, according to a source. The official announcement will be made at Tuesday’s tip-off luncheon. Ponsetto has been the athletic director since July 2002. Ponsetto is a member of the DePaul Athletic Hall of Fame and has been a fixture in the Blue Demon athletic community since she attended the school in the mid-1970s, where she played tennis, volleyball, softball and basketball. The results of Ponsetto’s tenure as athletic director have been mixed at best. Under her watch, Cacciatore Softball Stadium was built in 2010, and renovations
PHOTO COURTESY OF DEPAUL ATHLETICS
DePaul’s Athletic Director, Jean Lenti Ponsettlo’s contract with the university was renewed through 2017.
have taken place at Wish Field and Cherry Family Indoor Track at the Ray Meyer Center. Ponsetto was instrumental in DePaul joining the Big East conference in 2005, and she has put emphasis on success in the classroom. During Ponsetto’s time, 450 student-athletes have been named conference Academic Honor Rolls, and in 2010, DePaul athletes have posted their highest combined GPA (3.353) in school history. Yet, the men’s basketball program – DePaul’s calling card – has languished over the past decade. Though DePaul made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2004, the school has not made the year-end tournament since then (DePaul did make the 2007 NIT). The Blue Demons have gone a disappointing 47-109 since the beginning of the 2007-08 season, and have yet to rebound under third-
year coach Oliver Purnell, whom Ponsetto signed to a seven-year, $15 million deal in 2010. Under Purnell, DePaul has only received one commitment to an ESPN top100 recruit, class of 2013’s Billy Garrett, Jr., and recently missed out on top Chicago prep star Jabari Parker. Ponsetto signed a previous five-year deal in 2007. She was praised by DePaul President Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, C.M. for her dedication to DePaul athletics – “Her top priority was to seek the longest contract DePaul offers,” Fr. Holtschneider said to the DePaul website in 2007. “That speaks volumes about her commitment to the institution, and I’m pleased to say we are equally committed to her.” Ponsetto and Holtschneider were unavailable for comment.
iDePaul app launches to mixed reviews By SUMMER CONCEPCION & SHAWN TUTTLE Copy Editors
EMPLOY ME, MAYBE?
On-campus vs. off-campus jobs FOCUS, page 16
The De Paulia
Arts & Life, page 18
MAX KL EINER |
CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
DePaul officially released the iDePaul application for iOS, Android and Blackberry phones Tuesday. The app was developed by DubLabs, Inc., a company that works with over 600 schools to develop and distribute schoolspecific apps that allow students to check campus maps, access important numbers, view event schedules and perform other functions that college students may use on a regular basis. Bob McCormick, vice president for Information Services, said that the nowreleased application may change based on feedback from its users. “We’re tracking the downloads so we can respond to feedback,” said McCormick. “We will be acting on the feedback people leave and working with our vendor to make adjustments.” He added that they have already received feedback on the app and currently have a four star rating on iTunes with more than 20 reviews. “We’ve been getting feedback from Facebook, Twitter, the iTunes application store, and we’re pleasantly surprised by how it’s been received,” said McCormick. Phil De Guzman, a 2008 alum tweeted Thursday, “Just DL’d the new DePaul app. Pretty cool.” Some students believe that the app may be useful to certain groups of students, but not necessarily the student body as a whole.
“Few of the features are something I would need to access often enough on-the-go that would justify me downloading a native app,” said Mehdi Bichri, sophomore business major. “That being said, I think that it might be useful for newer students or people with limited computer access, but I don’t fall into either of those categories.” iDePaul allows students to view several parts of D2L for their classes such as class announcements and assignments,
but it is missing functionality for grades and content. “I wish teachers actually added assignments onto D2L or it had grades, but (the app) was actually working,” said Kelsey Schroeder, sophomore public relations major. There was concern that the app would not work on iPhone 5 phones. “We just independently verified that the iDePaul app does work on the iPhone 5 – it is not optimized for that platform,
but it does work well,” said McCormick. He added that if students are having problems with the app, they can contact him and he will look into the issue. While this app may be useful to some students, it is not for everyone. “I read the description and played around with it on my roommate’s phone and decided that it was useless to me,” said Bichri.