BETTER THAN THE U-PASS?
DOG DAYS ARE OVER
Innovative GPS-based transport service generates much fanfare, protests, News, page 3
Benefits of adopting a furry friend, Focus, pages 14-15
Volume #98 | Issue #15 | February 17, 2014 | DePauliaonline.com
The time for change is now
By David Webber Sports Editor
Enough is enough. This is agonizing. This is comical. This is embarrassing. Rip it up, tear it down, and start over from the beginning. There’s no other way. Clevela nd Melv i n’s mysterious and untimely departure from DePaul University is the last straw in a long list of mistakes concerning the athletic department’s handling of Blue Demon basketball. Calling back to the halcyon days of Ray Meyer and Mark Aguirre can no longer shield the current regime from criticism; in the category of “what have you done for me lately,” DePaul basketball fails in every measure imaginable. It starts at the top, unfortunately, with Athletic Director Jean Lenti-Ponsetto. For all of her outstanding accomplishments not only as an athlete at DePaul but as a leader in men’s and women’s sports, Ponsetto will forever be defined by her inarguable failure to lead Blue Demon basketball back to relevancy.
By the numbers She arrived July 1, 2002 to head a program that was no longer dominant but certainly not a doormat. Head coach Dave Leitao was busy shoring up a team that had been reduced to shambles at the inconsistent hands of coaches Joey Meyer and Pat Kennedy. Leitao, who was hired by Ponsetto’s predecessor Bill Bradshaw, compiled a 58-34 record in three seasons and led
File Photo | the depaulia
Since coming to DePaul in 2010, head basketball coach Oliver Purnell has a 8-59 record in the Big East.
Commentary DePaul to two NIT trips and the school’s second appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 1992. He left after finishing 20-11 in 2005 to take a higher-paying gig at the University of Virginia. It was Ponsetto’s time to shine. It was time for her first hire, her first chance to directly influence the future of DePaul basketball. And at first, it seemed to work. Ponsetto tabbed former Richmond head coach Jerry Wainwright to lead the Blue Demons. Around this time, the athletic department made a decision that drastically changed the face of DePaul sports. Ponsetto, in one of her finest moves as athletic
FILE PHOTO | the DEPAULIA
Jean Lenti-Ponsetto has been athletic director since 2002. director, successfully shifted DePaul from the unheralded Conference USA to the biggest moneymaker in college basketball: the Big East. An NIT appearance in 2007 signaled that perhaps Blue Demon basketball
was on the fast track to relevancy. It wasn’t. After posting 32 wins in his first two years, Wainwright struggled to just 27 wins until January of 2010, when he was fired following a 67-50 home loss to No. 13 Georgetown. From 2008 to the firing, DePaul went a staggering 0-20 in conference play. Ponsetto’s first experiment had failed miserably. Enter Oliver Purnell. The respected coach had won everywhere he had coached and was coming off of a supremely successful 138-90 stint with Clemson. It seemed like a slamdunk hire, at the very steep price of about $15 million. The rest is history. Purnell has “led” DePaul to a mark of 40-75, including a spectacularly
horrid 8-59 in conference play. Purnell’s signature win is a double-overtime victory over unranked Butler Jan. 9 of this year. The Bulldogs were already 0-3 in the conference and not considered a threat. It was a game that no one would consider important. In fact, the Associated Press’ recap of the game still references DePaul as the “Blue Devils” three times, signifying the insignificance of the “signature” win. Wainwright and Purnell are Ponsetto’s only two hires for the men’s team. Wainwright went 58-80 before getting fired, giving coaches under Ponsetto a total record of 99-170 (including 15 losses in 16 games under interim coach Tracy Webster in 2010) which is good for a .368 winning percentage. The conference record is even more miserable: a combined 29-123, which comes out to a measly .191 winning percentage. As they say, the numbers never lie.
Judging Jean Straying from the stats, it is obvious that Ponsetto is qualified for her job. Those who say otherwise on the message boards and radio shows are entitled to their opinions but foolish nonetheless. She has done wonders for women’s college athletics and has overseen superb play from several of DePaul’s sports, most notably the women’s basketball team and the softball team.
See CHANGE, page 27
Preparing for ‘the sound you hope you never hear’ By Tom Fowkes Contributing Writer
Taylor Sebastian, a 19-year-old student at the Palm Bay Campus of Eastern Florida State College, was walking to class on the afternoon of Jan. 30 when she heard a fracas followed by a sound that she at first assumed was a “firecracker,” according to USA Today. Moments later, Sebastian also heard what the ominous subject line of an email from DePaul Public Safety issued the day before, “The Sound You Hope You Will Never Hear.” “Gun, gun, he’s got a gun!” After a spate of shootings on college campuses late last month that included this incident, DePaul Public Safety was compelled to refer faculty, staff and students to safety materials that have been developed to “provide training on how to
remain safe in the event of acts of violence on campus.” “With the recent shootings…we thought it was a good time to remind everybody,” Public Safety Director Bob Wachowski said. “People really need to prepare and say, ‘hey, this could happen here.’” The Targeted Violence Guidelines include instructions on navigating and even de-escalating potentially dangerous situations. Both the document and Wachowski advocate awareness and vigilance. “You have to have a plan,” he said. “Nobody, including the police or Public Safety, can walk you through everything.” In addition to the guidelines, Public Safety also shared a safety video entitled: “Shots Fired On Campus,” which was
See SHOOTINGS, page 4
JOHN TERHUNE | the ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kevin Luse of Purdue University Fire Department collects police tape as the Electrical Engineering building is opened Jan. 22 on the campus of Purdue University. The building had been closed since engineering student Andrew Boldt was shot and killed.