INSIDELOOK
The independent student newspaper at The Florida State University™. Established 1915.
MONDAY MARCH 21-23, 2011
AN EVENING WITH WATERS Renowned filmmaker John Waters comes to perform one-man show at FSU ARTS & LIFE | 5
W W W. F S U N E W S . C O M
FSU 71, ND 57
FSU student How ‘sweet’ it is recalls tragedy in Japan In-depth look at a survivor’s experience in earthquake
BAROQUE COMES TO BROGAN
ANA REBECCA RODRIGUEZ Assistant News Editor
Rare exhibit from the Pinacoteca di Brera currently on display ARTS & LIFE | 5
fsunews.com web poll results Previous question: How do you feel about your March Madness Bracket this year?
22% 6% 6% 67%
Intelligent choices Cinderellas all the way Drew names out of a hat Whatever. Go FSU!
VOLUME XX ISSUE XXI
Jim Prisching/AP
Florida State guard Michael Snaer drives against Notre Dame guard Scott Martin in the first half of a third-round NCAA Southwest Regional tournament college basketball game in Chicago on Sunday. For more on the Seminoles’ 71-57 victory, see Sports, page 10.
Students promote autism awareness
This issue’s question:
How do you feel about U.S. involvement in Libya?
As news broke Saturday that engineers are moving closer to maintaining the safety of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, four Florida State University students who were just recently amidst the chaos are now re-adjusting to life back in the United States. Mallory Taylor, Margarita Colon, Simon Garcia and Ricardo Garcia were all participating in an exchange program with the Miyagi University of Education in Sendai, Japan when the earthquake hit. “I was in my dorm room in Sanjo, Sendai, when I felt the ground shaking,” said Taylor, a Japanese language and culture major. “There had been a few smaller earthquakes just days before, so I wasn’t very concerned. Suddenly, the shaking changed direction; the lights went out and my things started falling over.” Taylor said that she had not realized the severity of the quake until Simon
Sunny
50º-84º Tuesday Sunny
52º-86º
Photos by Joseph La Belle/FSView
Students volunteer at FSU Autism Project’s Spring Day Festival on March 19 at Railroad Square Art Park.
Local artists and musicians fundraise for FSU’s Autism Project KARLANNA LEWIS Staff Writer
Wednesday Partly Cloudy
57º-83º Thursday T-Storms
51º-82º INDEX ARTS & LIFE SPORTS VIEWS
5 10 13
CLASSIFIEDS 14 ON THE GO 7 STUDY BREAK 15
This past Saturday, March 19, Florida State University’s Students Promoting Autism Awareness (SPAA) group hosted their first “Spring Day Festival” at Railroad Square, raising money for FSU’s Autism Project. Founded in 2008 by Amanda Santos, the organization has since grown and currently has 25 members. Current President Nisha Pradeep first became involved with SPAA over a year ago. “I found it to be an or-
ganization with so much potential,” Pradeep said. “It had students who were really dedicated to trying to work with others and educate our community. I found it to be really great to see students so passionate about a cause.” For SPAA members, the cause is what it is all about. According to the SPAA website, “the purpose of this organization is to promote Autism Awareness on campus as well as the community of Tal- Brain Parsons, a young boy with autism, plays lahassee.” with some of the Play-Doh SEE AUTISM 2 during the event.
FLAVORED
CRUST IT'S WHAT’S ON THE OUTSIDE THAT COUNTS
5 $ 10
$ 75
Carry-out
SEE JAPAN 4
Barron, Board of Trustees discuss cuts
WEATHER Monday
Garcia, a computer science major at FSU, appeared at her door. Since Garcia had once lived in Chile, a country familiar with earthquakes, Taylor said she knew something was wrong. “We braced ourselves against my door frame as he prevented me from falling over and I watched all of my belongings topple over in one giant mess on the floor,” Taylor said. “It’s hard to imagine the world shaking until you’ve experienced it. It was so violent it made me feel sick, but luckily I kept everything down long enough for the earthquake to end and walk outside, where other international students from our dorm were gathering.” According to Taylor, as students continued to gather outside, aftershocks continued to shake the city. “Our phones weren’t working and we had no Internet or TV, so nobody knew the extent of the damage or how serious it
EMILY OSTERMEYER Contributing Writer The Florida State University Board of Trustees meeting held on March 4 addressed several pressing concerns FSU is facing, including a declining number of assistant professors and a need for more competitive faculty salaries, and proposed legislative changes to compensation packages for FSU faculty. At the meeting, President Barron said two significant threats facing FSU are the number of assistant professors and the university being able to offer competitive salaries to FSU’s professors. Currently, FSU has 32 percent fewer assistant professors than 2007,
ONE LARGE CHEESE OR PEPPERONI PIZZA 3 or more and we’ll deliver!
ONE LARGE SPECIALTY PIZZA WITH CHOICE OF VEGGIE, HOWIE MAUI, MEAT EATERS OR THE WORKS
Budget concerns affect FSU faculty, students something that Barron sees as a significant risk to FSU’s future. “We’re noticing that a lot of other universities are heavily recruiting our more productive faculty and they’re able to pay them much more than we are,” Barron said. Additionally, university faculty salaries are currently 17 precent below FSU’s Carnegie classificaSEE BUDGET 2