THE STUDENT VOICE OF FLORIDA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL UNIVERSITY
“The Number 1 HBCU Newspaper” According to the Black College Communication Association
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www.TheFamuanOnline.com
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
VOL. 112 ISSUE 29
Robbers run rampant KINDALL JOHNSON STAFF WRITER
A Florida A&M freshman was almost robbed on his way to All Saints Café Monday night. The young man, who chose to remain anonymous, was on his way to study and practice on
Coalition journeys to Washington KINDALL JOHNSON STAFF WRITER More than 40 Florida A&M students will represent the university at the Energy Action Coalition’s Power Shift Conference in the nation’s capital this weekend. According to the Power Shift website, the coalition convened the first national youth climate summit at Power Shift 2007. More than 6,000 young people from all 50 states gathered at the University of Maryland on the outskirts of D.C. for a weekend of training, action and inspiration. With more than 10,000 participants from colleges and universities like Middlebury, Carnegie-Mellon, Clark Atlanta, Howard, Fordham and others, Power Shift is the largest gathering of young adults addressing the climate crisis in the United States. The FAMU Green Coalition, under the leadership of Larae Donnellan, public relations sequence coordinator in the School of Journalism and Graphic Communications, is providing the cost for transportation, lodging and registration for the participants. In exchange, the students will be expected to earn 20 points
POWER SHIFT
his guitar, when a hooded man who stuck a gun to the left side of his torso frightened him. The victim fell backwards on the slippery ground, fracturing the neck of his guitar before he got up and ran for his life. “I was surprised he didn’t chase or shoot after me,” the young man said.
He ran to the nearby café where he reported the incident to the police, and decided to never walk alone at night again. The incident follows a string of robberies that happened in the areas surrounding FAMU’s campus. From Friday night to Monday morning, students have
NEWS BRIEFS LOCAL
received 11 E-2 Campus alerts via text messages from the FAMU Police Department. Monday night, there were also two armed robberies in Florida State’s Alumni Village. The notification of the robbery was sent out through FSU’s alert system. The suspects were ROBBERY 4
Students voice anger
Town hall meeting attracts dozens
TALLAHASSEE- Gov. Rick Scott has not wasted time in claiming to have prevented a shut down of the federal government last week. He credits his refusal to accept $1.5 billion tax dollars for high speed rail construction in Florida, as lawmakers scraped up billions to prevent the shutdown. “I am proud to have brought this waste to the attention of those in Washington,” said Scott. SOURCE: GOVERNOR’S OFFICE
TODAY’S ONLINE CONTENT: “Brain Bowl team wins $50,000” by Famuan staff D. A. Robin The Famuan State representative Dwight Bullard spoke at a student body town hall meeting about the accepted restructuring plans.
CLARECE POLKE LIFESTYLES EDITOR
What began as a half empty room of swivel chairs and scattered conversations became a heated debate between students Monday night at the Town Hall Meeting in B.L. Perry Rm. 100. Steven Pargett, a fourth-year public relations student and organizer of the event, said the purpose of the meeting was to build a long-lasting community among FAMU students. “When we have problems or issues that come up like the restructuring that passed last 4 week, there’s a lot of confusion
in the student body and nothing gets done because people have no one to talk to about it,” Pargett said. The loosely moderated open discussion began with a question and answer session with student body president-elect Breyon Love to help remove any confusion about the new changes implemented in the curriculum. “Schools all over the country are restructuring. I personally believe this is something that should have been done three years ago,” Love told students Monday. Dissent about the restructuring changes grew as students
threw statistics back and forth, debating which programs should have been spared and what could have been done better to prevent such drastic changes in FAMU’s infrastructure. Questions ranged from the productivity of online distance learning for non-traditional students to exactly how many professors and positions were being cut. One recurring theme of the night was accountability. While many students said they were confused about the restructuring process and that it wasn’t tailored for student input, TOWN HALL 4
“University Town Hall photo gallery” by D.A. Robin
WEATHER Today
83 52 Thursday
84 56 Friday
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Music stores survive wave of technology LATOYA CHAMBLISS STAFF WRITER Rows of CDs fill store inventory racks, the bright colors and loud speakers are supposed to attract patrons, but many music stores are dead silent in 2011. Experts have predicted that the age of iTunes and other digital music portals will usher in the demise of the audio CD as the only way to listen to music. Technological advancements have led local music stores like Vinyl Fever and CD Warehouse Clarece Polke The Famuan to close, leaving limited options Music stores stay relevant in an age of downloading. for purchasing tangible copies of
artists’ music. Sam Goody in the Tallahassee Mall, is one store that still manages to keep its doors open according to its manager Jamie Burgess. The national chain specializing in music, DVD and video game sales, categorizes itself as an outlet, offering discounted prices to customers. Burgess said despite other avenues for purchasing music, the store is still making a good profit. “In order to keep our customers coming back we offer advertising and promotion,” Jamie Burgess said. “Every three weeks we have
Opinions
Lifestyles
Deputy opinions editor Aaron Johnson gives his take on the campus town hall meeting.
FAMU’s Office of Black Diasporan Culture has organized an African-Caribbean concert for Thursday night.
Opinions|5
Lifestyles | 6
a sale and we advertise through our Facebook page. For our customers, we offer used sales and customers can sell back their used CDs and in return we will sell them for a cheaper price.” Best Buy also offers sales to customers. Each Tuesday an artist’s album debuts, the store offers the CD at the discounted price of $9.99 to $11.99. It also offers pre-order sales for customers. “I go and buy my favorite artist albums at Best Buy,” said CD 3