‘TO INFINITY AND BEYOND’ Aug. 12, 2015 Issue 1
Buzz Aldrin to teach at Florida Tech Rebekah Duntz Editor-in-Chief Alex Coultrup Managing Editor Florida Tech students in the Physics and Space Sciences Department may soon see a famous new face at the front of their classrooms.
Photo property of NASA.gov
Welcome incoming Class of 2015! See calendar inside.
OPINIONS
2 - August 12, 2015
the Florida tech crimson
The power of community: why joining a campus club is definitely for you Alex Coultrup Managing Editor Joining a campus club at Florida Tech was one of the best decisions I made in college. My second week here, I dubiously attended my first meeting at the Crimson, not sure what I’d find. Within the semester, I was covering breaking news and helping make key decisions about the paper. Together, the Crimson staff and I have shared countless hours travelling, laughing, brainstorming and just enjoying the college experience. Because I decided to timidly walk into a room full of strangers that day, I’ve been able to pursue my passion with people who share it. A campus club revolutionized my college experience. Here are my top five reasons you should consider joining one, too! I can imagine what my college memories would be like without the people I met by getting involved on campus, but it’s not nearly as great as real life. College is a time to find people you’re interested in doing life with, people who you can be friends with even outside of official club functions. Finding the community of people you truly click with and trust can be the key to balancing the horrors of academic life with a healthy social scene. Getting the most out of your Florida Tech experience is definitely for you. Joining a campus club is definitely for you. v
Adviser Ted Petersen tpetesen@fit.edu
Editor-in-Chief Rebekah Duntz rduntz2012@my.fit.edu
Managing Editor Alex Coultrup acoultrup2014@my.fit.edu
Social Media Coordinator Ashley Montion amontion2012@my.fit.edu
Sci/Tech Editor Ebube Ubochi eubochi2012@my.fit.edu
Sports Editor Andrew Shipotofsky ashipotofsky2011@my.fit.edu
Staff: Christopher Pangalos Fumiko Shinkawa Lindsay Isaac
For media kit, email: crimson@fit.edu
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Meeting People Clubs are great for meeting people! Chances are, the people in your club will share your interests, which is great for expanding your circle of long-term friends beyond just classmates and students in your orientation group.
Expanding your horizons With a NUMBER campus clubs available at Florida Tech, why not join one focused on a topic you’re interested in knowing more about, but haven’t been involved with before? Stepping outside your comfort zone may just get you in touch with a passion you didn’t even know you had!
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Growing leadership and/ or teamwork skills Being part of a club means you’ll get to interact with people you might not always see eye-to-eye with, especially if you serve a leadership position such as president or treasurer. Learning to function peacefully alongside them while working toward a common goal is a skill you’ll be glad to have learned in college, not later on the job.
Learning
Whatever kind of club you choose to join, you’re certain to be exposed to new ideas, thanks to the people around you. Every club has a faculty adviser and is typically someone who instructs in a field related to the club’s focus. Plus, the upperclassmen already in your club make great resources for advice, been-there-done-that-wrong lessons, and maybe even textbooks.
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Doing stuff together All official campus clubs receive funding from the Student Activities Funding Committee, or SAFC for short. These funds go toward hosting events relevant to your club’s interests. Plus, the more things you do, the more valuable resume material you have!
opinions
3 -august 12, 2015
CAPS PSA Group Therapy Programs Debra Sloane Staff Psychologist
W
hat is group counseling?
Group counseling is a type of support service in which a small number of people come together under the guidance of a professionally trained therapist to help themselves and one another. In group, not only do students receive tremendous understanding, support and encouragement from group therapists but also from peers facing similar issues. Students can also gain different perspectives, ideas, information and viewpoints on the issues and concerns they are struggling to deal with. Some of the groups offered have a specific topic or theme with an information/support focus. Other groups, such as the Relationship Support Group, are a more traditional “therapy” experience providing a powerful vehicle for growth and change regarding interpersonal relationships. All of the groups are intended to help students who would like to gain support, increase selfawareness, and learn new ways to cope with personal or interpersonal challenges. All of the group sessions are free and available to registered students of Florida Tech. Do I choose group or individual counseling? For many students, attending group counseling can be more effective and help produce more rapid changes compared to individual counseling. Having the chance to work through problems with professionally trained thera-
pists and the learning opportunities gained from peers who share similar concerns are what make groups special. Group counseling has been shown to be an effective, and sometimes a preferred, treatment option for many issues students are facing. How do I sign up for group counseling? For most groups, if you are interested, just come to the location specified for the group(s) of your choice on the day and time indicated. Groups may get filled, so if you want to reserve your spot in group, call CAPS 321674-8050 or email caps@fit.edu. Please note: for the Relationship Support Group, please contact CAPS to schedule a 30-minute group screening prior to attending the group. Unlike the other more educational and support groups, this group is a therapy group and the screening is held to make sure your concerns are best suited for participation in the group. Is group counseling confidential? Group therapists will keep information shared in group counseling confidential, and students who participate in group counseling have agreed to maintain confidentiality. Group members will be asked to sign a confidentiality statement before they are able to participate in group. This means it is agreed that the privacy of all group members and the information shared will be respected, and no such information will be shared with someone who is not in the group. In other words, “what is said in group, stays in the group!” What groups are offered for the Fall 2015 semester? v
The Florida tech crimson
5 best places to study on campus Ashley Montion Social Media Coordinator Welcome to college. The first few weeks may be filled with those awkward events your RA’s put together, College Nights at Old School Pizza and signing into random events for University Experience credit. Next thing you know, you wake up and it’s midterm week. You uncrumple that syllabus at the bottom of your backpack and decide it’s time to grind with a study strategy, only to hear your roommate’s loud friends from your neighbor hall yelling throughout your dorm room once again. Frustrated, you scramble to the library. Not only are all the tables on every floor are taken, but the WiFi is going in and out. Whether you’ve got no place to go or you want to cram for that 8 a.m. exam in a new location — we’ve got some tips for some of the best places to study on campus.
1. Olin Engineering — 2nd Floor
2. Evans Hall
The study room has computers installed with all the programs you can think of, well-working printers, and a minimal number of people.
The various multipurpose rooms are quiet and work great for practicing presentations and study groups. Not only does Evans have a computer lab, but there are ping pong tables and other games you can play when you need a 10-minute study break.
3. Panthereum Outdoor Amphitheater
Located next to the Denius Student Center, this recent addition to Florida Tech has an open lawn, wide seating and it’s a peaceful place to get some studying done — that is, when there isn’t a performance.
4. Harris B Lounge Make friends with an upperclassman, because this spot requires access to Harris Village. The room is large, quiet, serves great to do homework and has a vending machine just down the hall. Study breaks are inevitable here, with access to ping pong tables, T.V.s and a basketball court just outside.
5. Botanical Gardens With benches and tables all throughout the garden, you can get some work in while surrounded by 15 acres of tropical trees. And don’t forget to stop by to see the turtles in the pond.
HAndy Information:
Always have an umbrella handy.
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CAMPUS LIFE
4 -August 12, 2015
Story from page 1
Photo courtesy of BuzzAldrin.com Press Kit
The Florida tech crimson
In an interview on Aug. 6 with Florida Today’s Matt Reed, President Anthony J. Catanese said astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Ph.D. will become a professor of space science at Florida Tech. “We’ll also be establishing the Buzz Aldrin Institute,” Catanese said in the video interview with Reed for “the Matt Reed Show” on WEFS-TV. Many Florida Tech students and alumni shared the article and their commentary on social media. Recent aerospace engineering graduate Aishwarya Subramanian shared a link to the article, adding “I want to go back,” with the hashtag #ToInfinityAndBeyond. Buzzfeed retweeted the link to Florida Today’s story, helping the news spread. The story has since been also covered by the Orlando Sentinel and other sources. Florida Tech’s history began with the space industry when it was founded in 1958, and Catanese said in his interview that the goal is to continue its connection with the space program, “this time getting younger people interested in going to Mars.” Aldrin is also a supporter of exploration and civilization on Mars, frequently advocating Occupy Mars in interviews and on social media, like with his “Making a Home on the Red Planet” with National Geographic. Catanese and FIT administration have not provided further details about The Buzz Aldrin Institute; however, in an interview on Aug. 6, Catanese said Florida Tech was interested in deepening its space sciences program and getting more involved with Mars exploration and research. Aldrin was a Lunar pilot on the Apollo 11 mission in July 20, 1969, and the second person in history to walk on the moon. Agreements are currently being finalized and there are no details as to when Aldrin will start teaching at Florida Tech. v
International Dining Series honors cultures Rebekah Duntz Editor-in-chief Dining Services has planned out another International Dining Series for the Florida Tech community, and this time, there are some surprises in store for us at Panther Dining Hall. Tom Stewart, director of Dining Services, said the International Dining Series brought its challenges last year, but that it was great entertainment for students, faculty, and the outside community. The first international dinner will be in September, which will coincide with the Middle Eastern holiday Eid-al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, an Islamic festival to show respect for Ibrahim. October will celebrate Africa. November will celebrate India’s New Year, and it will also celebrate its independence from Britain. January is still being decided with International Student Services. February will celebrate China,
slightly after Chinese New Year. And finally March will celebrate Caribbean and Latin America. These groups were chosen based on the popularity from last year and community outreach. Head Chef Jon Skoviera said the challenge is finding out how to take authentic foreign recipes and blow them up to huge proportions. Taking a family-size recipe and playing with it to try to make it for 1,000 people is difficult, especially when it’s foreign and you have to keep its authenticity. “I think it’s best to get the student groups involved from last year,” Skoviera said. He’ll be holding tastings closer to the dinner dates to make sure the food tastes like home, just as he did last year. “Some things are really nice for the house but they don’t work for 1,500 people,” Skoviera said. “I want it to be as authentic as possible.” The International Dining Series drew in extra traffic during dinner hours last year, and an additional 300 people a night from the community, not counting students, according to Stewart. v
six celebrations set for another year at Panther Dining Hall
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6 -August 12, 2015
campus life
The Florida tech crimson
Dining Services releases “My Nutrition Calculator” Rebekah Duntz Editor-in-chief If you eat on campus and are looking for a tool to help visualize your nutritional intake every day, you’re in luck. Dining Services just announced that it’s implementing a new online tool called “My Nutrition Calculator,” which is still in the early stages of its life and should be finished within the next year or so. This calculator allows anyone to look up their meal, side, drink or dessert and calculate its nutritional value from any of the on-site locations at Florida Tech, which include The Sub Cafe, The Rathskeller, Panther Dining Hall, Crane Creek Pizza and Black Kat Kafe. Tom Stewart, director of Dining Services, said it’s a new tool that’s there for people that want to use utilize it. “It’ll help the people who are interested,” Stewart said. “The information will be there finally, and we’re pretty happy about that.” Stewart said that after everything within the system is finalized and the Nutrition Calculator is up and running in the next year, they’ll output the data into a phone app. The tool is already live and can be found at fit.mynutritioncalculator.net. or by going to Food Services homepage and clicking on “My Nutrition Calculator” on the left navigation panel. In other health-conscious areas at PDH, Chef Jon Skoviera also features a different vegan dish for lunch and dinner every day of the week for four weeks to be more inclusive of different diets. v
web address
For example, A buffalo chicken wrap at Panther Dining Hall is 560 calories.
7 -August 12, 2015
SCI/TECH
The Florida tech crimson
smarter with smartphones: Apps to ease school living
Ebube Ubochi Sci/Tech Editor “You can never be too prepared.” Most people go through life hearing these words until they lose their meaning, only to arrive at college and realize that they could not be more true. With the impending pressure, expectations and excitement of Fall 2015 looming over us all, here’s an orderless list of smartphone apps that will help with all those school-related new beginnings and transitions.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.org
Canvas By far the most “Florida Tech friendly” app on this list, Canvas is the one-stop shop for keeping up with all of one’s registered classes. It enables users to submit assignments, access relevant material prepared by professors, check grades, participate in discussions and contact professors. It even allows users to color-code their courses and comes with push notifications and a built-in to-do list. Replacing ANGEL as Florida Tech’s official learning management system since Fall 2014, Canvas has truly made it easier to stay on top of things via its wellequipped web interface. Its official mobile application made for Android and iOS is a great way to maintain access to the website’s handy service on the go.
Wolfram Alpha More than just a pretty calculator, this computational knowledge engine is capable of currency conversions, solving elaborate physics and mathematics equations and even looking up gasoline prices. Available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and even Kindle Fire, this paid app can go a long way in simplifying a wide range of tasks. At $2.99, it might be well worth grabbing alongside morning coffee on the first day of classes.
Pocket A classic edition of “Read It Later” apps, Pocket allows users to do just that. With a few swipes and taps, any web page can be tucked away in a sortable list to read later. It has proven very useful for scheduling timely review of topics that can help with studying or simply doing homework. This works for tweets, videos and much more. Once downloaded, users can access these links in viewing modes optimized for them, as well as save them for offline viewing. Another nifty trick: Pocket is available for Mac and PC as well, and lists and folders within the service can be synced between all the owner’s devices.
Dropbox For many, it is difficult to remember a world without the joys of cloud computing, and apps like Dropbox make this even more apparent. Arguably the most popular cloud service alongside the likes of iCloud and Google Drive, this app makes accessing files of all types across all of one’s devices a seamless experience. Simply download the app from the Play Store, App Store or Windows Store and watch your files appear on all your devices. Perfect for organizing schoolwork, it comes with 2GB of space along with monthly plans for acquiring more, as well as various ways to get additional space for free.
Spotify A staple in modern music management, this streaming service is sure to meet the musical needs of anyone with near constant access to wi-fi or a data plan. With over 30 million songs in its library, users are given uninhibited access to music by a multitude of artists from a wide array of genres. Spotify’s staff and algorithms also compile curated playlists for a variety of everyday situations. It’s available for free in Apple’s App Store, Google Play and the Windows store and is usable to its full potential when paired with Spotify’s $9.99/month subscription. This app can be the difference between dragging oneself around campus, and walking around uplifted and confident, motivated by music that matters.
Google Drive Think of a Dropbox that seamlessly integrated with your Google account and provided you with its own hand-crafted familiar file types and editors, that were also compatible with files created with Microsoft Office. That’s what Google Drive is. Another word for this is “beautiful.” It’s also free. The app’s best and most unique feature is perhaps its ability to facilitate real-time collaboration on a document between large groups of individuals — many people editing the same document at the same time.
Google Keep Simply put, Keep is one of the best note-taking apps on mobile. Available as a mobile and online application only for Android, this app enables users to create color-coded notes, lists and reminders, all of which are synced to the paired Google account; Florida Tech email works well with this. Users can also add images to their notes and tag them with as many labels as they please. Although available offline as a mobile app to only Android users, patrons of other platforms can also access the service at keep.google.com.
Quizlet This iOS and Android app stands out from many of the other entries on this list for the simple reason that it brings back the age old utility of flashcards. Quizlet enables users to create flashcards as they see fit, and even lets them search for stacks made by other students in a variety of types and contexts. Employing this little helper could very well mean permanently saying goodbye to scribbling on tiny sheets of paper the night before a test, and saying hello to flashcards that will last as long as the internet does.
Sunrise Calendar At first glance, it is easy to see this program as yet another Google Calendar compatible app, but upon closer inspection it’s clear that it amounts to much more than that. Available for free on Android, iOS, Mac and PC, Sunrise Calendar has an effective agenda view below its traditional month view and swiping left reveals the app’s clutter-free week view. The app has online weather information as well as support for several third party accounts, calendars and event managers including Google, iCloud, and more. Sunrise also has built-in calendars for download, including ones optimized for various religions and sports. There are even calendars optimized for operation based on week numbers, moon phases and the stock exchange.
Aftership Available for free on both the iOS and Android platforms, this handy app makes tracking packages as painless as possible. Aftership lets users limitlessly track packages delivered by up to 200 couriers for free. Unlike other apps that offer similar services, the user interface is completely free of ads. The app can detect the identity of couriers automatically and even comes with a barcode scanner. With its aptly timed notifications, this app can simplify managing textbook acquisitions like a boss.
SPORTS the Florida tech crimson
August 12, 2015
Fall 2015 Football Preview
Photo courtesy of homecoming.fit.edu 2014
Panthers to play three ESPN3 games this season, including homecoming Andrew Shipotofsky Sports Editor It’s Saturday night, the fans are cheering, the Pep Band is beating their drums, and the Panthers are sprinting onto the turf. Can you picture yourself there? Well, Florida Tech football season is right on our doorsteps. In three short weeks, the Panthers will take the field for the first time in newly renamed Florida Tech Panther Stadium. In its second year, the program exceeded many people’s expectations. Not only was the team above .500, but they beat
#12 Tarleton State in Cowboys Stadium as else as blowing out Division 1 opponent Stetson and losing to Division 1 opponent Bethune-Cookman in the final minutes of the game. The success the team saw led to home game attendance among the tops in the league. “We have a great crowd and support system here. Brevard County has been great. I would love it to be tradition for every student here to come together and tailgate, have some fun and then go over to our 7 p.m. starts,” Head Football Coach Steve Englehart said. During the season, tailgating will start at three hours before kickoff on campus. Tailgaters will be
permitted to have alcohol and grill on designated areas on campus. The highlight of the tailgating scene is the Panther Prowl, which occurs at every home game two hours and 45 minutes before kickoff, from the SUB to the VTC. For the 2015 season, the team will play all home games at 7 p.m., besides the one exception being the homecoming game on Nov. 7. “With a 7 p.m. start now, hopefully more students will want to come out because they can do what they want and hang out during the day, and then come to the game at seven,” Englehart said. This season, the team will also have three games on ESPN3,
including the homecoming game in November. The other two are against top conference-ranked opponents, North Alabama and Delta State. “Those are really big games,” Coach Englehart said of the ESPN3 games. “We’re talking about three of the top teams in the conference from last year.” While many freshmen and new students come from the United States, many students don’t know a lot about football. The team will host Football 101 again this year to teach foreign students the game and allow them to meet the players. Coach Englehart believes that knowing the players is half the battle.
“Having a connection with the players is what makes students want to come out and support them because they know them as a person,” Englehart said. “We’ve got to get them there because I believe the environment will get [students] hooked.” With the start of the semester around the corner, Coach Englehart gave this advice to students: “Get involved! You can’t spend your entire time studying and going to class. That’s a big part of college, but get involved in other things and enjoy the college experience."v