The Collegian – January 29, 2016

Collegian

The Page 5 Friday, January 29, 2016

The Grove City College Student Newspaper

Ready for the worst

Vol. 102, No. 11

Grove City first responders train for active shooter scenario

Rio Arias Staff Writer

Our country prides itself on being both safe and free at the same time, and while guns are a very important part of American culture, there is a certain degree of risk associated with their use.

When taken to the extreme, events like the Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook shoot-

ings can cause mass panic and call for safer measures.

While some have attempted to address the issue through legislation, countless places of work, school and public use have invested in preparing themselves for “active shooters” or armed gunman willing to fire at anyone they see at a given place. Teaming up with the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well the

state police, many local areas have reached out to their communities in an effort to train civilians as well as law enforcement to deal with the issue.

The officials responsible for bringing these people together have gone about it in a number of ways, such as the Western Massachusetts Homeland Security Council hosting a seminar for first

responders, wanting to make sure that everyone would know how to react if a threatening situation occurs. Other areas like Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia have sent out an informative video created by the Homeland Security of the Capital Region that demonstrates how to escape such an event at the workplace. Grove City College has also gotten in-

Campus Safety and Grove City Police officers sweep a classroom in Rockwell Hall while participating in an active shooter drill.

Quite a treat

Two students compete in popular baking show Caleb Harshberger Life Editor Two Grove City College seniors, Emily Bartlow and Tristan Slater, will appear on an episode of Food Network’s “Cake Wars” airing February 1st.

The show, which is in its third season, features some of the best cake makers and decorators across the coun-

try competing for the grand prize: $10,000 and having their creation featured at an extravagant event.

“The competition was one of the most challenging, stressful, exhilarating, surreal, lightning-fast and unforgettable experiences of my life!” Bartlow gushed. “All of the competitors we were competing against have their own businesses and are in-

credibly experienced. It was an honor to have competed alongside them. Several of the competitors had competed on shows akin to this one, including ‘The Next Great Baker,’ ‘Cupcake Wars,’ and ‘Sugar Dome.’”

“I felt like David with a spatula for a slingshot against three Goliaths,” Bartlow said.

CAKE WARS 3

CAKE WARS

Emily Bartlow and Tristan Slater are to appear in an episode of Food Network’s popular show, “Cake Wars” at 9 p.m. Monday.

volved in the movement to bring awareness to the very real threat that active shooters present.

While students were away on Christmas break, the school hosted a two-day Incident Management and Active Shooter training seminar for College administrators, Campus Safety, area police, SHOOTER 2

GROVE CITY COLLEGE

2015 graduates get jobs

Molly Wicker News Editor

Grove City College’s class of 2015 graduates are off to a promising start. The College’s Career Services Office announced recently that after only six months postgraduation, 97 percent of the class of 2015 is employed or in a graduate or professional school. Eighty percent of graduates are working and 17 are seeking advanced degrees or further training, according to the CSO’s survey, which has a 95 percent response rate.

“Our graduates are highly employable,” Dr. Jim Thrasher ’80 said. “The great education they receive at Grove City College equips them to thrive in the working world and academia. It’s not just information and skills that students acquire here, but a sense of purpose that

informs their lives and careers.”

The statistic is just one of many that have recently been bestowed upon the College. PayScale.com, an online source for career data, reports the average starting salary for Grove City College graduates at $48,100 and average midcareer earnings of $84,700. Over the course of 20 years, PayScale sets the return on investment in a Grove City College education at $379,400.

Not only are these numbers a reflection of the value of a Grove City College education, they are also a testament to the College’s nationally-ranked Career Services Office, which helps relate the transferable skills students acquire at the College to the employer’s expectations and needs.

“That ‘fit’ provides wonGRADUATES 2

Life

The Lens

E!

Perspectives

Sports

Take a look at the adventures abroad from last semester in France.

Page 3

Blast back in time to the Dance of the Century & check out these costumes!

Pages 5-6

Star Wars, Star Wars & more Star Wars! If you haven’t seen it, you should.

Page 5

Is Trump killing traditional conservatism and abusing religiosity?

Page 10

Welcome our new Athletics director as he steps into new shoes.

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The Collegian

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Jan. 29, 2016

What’s a born-again voter to do?

Choices and challenges facing evangelicals in the 2016 election

Joshua Delk Staff Writer Atop the Republican polls in the presidential race are four established candidates, each of whom present themselves as born-again evangelical Christians. In order to capture the Republican nomination in November, they must also capture the support and votes of the millions of American evangelicals that comprise a key demographic in an increasingly fractured conservative electorate.

Many evangelical millennials, whose generation is considerably less conservative than their parents’ generation, will be voting in the upcoming election. This group faces a more difficult political landscape than their parents did during the Reagan era.

The political influence of the religious right has continued to decrease.

At its height in the 1980’s, evangelicals banded together and rallied behind the pioneers and prominent leaders of the movement, with the hope of their combined political influence bringing about legislation in support of their religious values.

Since then, the church in America has been in decline. Confirmed by an abundance of statistics, the facts are clear: people are leaving the church.

The 21st century has seen the rapid secularization of the nation and the political left, now sharing little common ground with the religious right.

Despite its decline, candidates such as Donald Trump have recognized the importance of appealing to evangelical voters in their campaigns, and

SHOOTER fire, ambulance, hospital and county emergency management personnel.

Head of campus security Seth VanTil also spoke on the issue, saying that “It is universally acknowledged that [campus shootings] can happen anywhere,” and he believes that “we have an obligation to train on responding to active killer and many other emergency situations.”

The school also provides information online via the Campus Safety webpage that allows both faculty and students to prepare for how to respond to a shooter indoors, such as a classroom or office setting.

While Grove City Col-

GRADUATES derful opportunities for our graduates to find satisfaction and purpose in their work, to bring value to their employers and to excel in a competitive marketplace. Our Career Services team helps students meet their goals and network with hundreds of employers and alumni who hire our graduates,” Thrasher said.

Grove City College’s Career Services Office works in a number of ways to help students succeed in their postgraduation goals. The CSO invites employers to recruit students for on-campus interviews, job and internship postings, and, in the fall, one of the largest Career Fairs.

Additionally, the CSO works closely with the College’s strong alumni network to help students meet their career aspirations and connect them with graduates who are working in fields of interest. Throughout their four years here, students are guided by the Career Services Office through a process that encourages self-assessment, career exploration and strategic job searches.

“My conversations with the CSO not only helped me

Trump continues to lead the Republican polls. Trump also remains a top choice among evangelicals, and he knows it.

“Why do they love me?” said Trump when discussing this trend, “you’ll have to ask them, but they do.

They do love me.”

Writing for the Center of Vision and Values, Grove City College professor of History Gary S. Smith published an article last week entitled “Trump and Evangelicals: Strange Bedfellows.” Smith looks in to the inexplicable support Trump has had in this race from Bible-believing Christians.

Quoting Jonathan Merritt’s article in “The Atlantic,” Smith posits that “Trump is arrogant, foul-mouthed, money-obsessed, thrice-married, and until recently, pro-choice. By conventional standards, evangelical Christians should despise him.”

In addition to his lifestyle and business schemes, Trump’s sparse church involvement and refusal to discuss his religious convictions have called his personal faith into question, which have been inexplicably met with support of many white evangelicals.

Smith suggests that the large number of white evangelicals who support Trump look to him as a strong leader who will come to the defense of Christianity in the political sphere, where they have been largely excluded. Trump has largely been described as an anti-establishment candidate, whom Christians hope will defend their traditional values and restore their political influence.

lege is recognized as a very safe area, and therefore the chance of any random act of aggression is quite low, VanTil stresses that is important to continue training for the chance of violence “because the severity of impact is great, we need to prepare for an active killer as we would any other serious emergency situation: tornado, fire, etc.”

No measure of safety can be disregarded in light of uncertainty, and the school has taken the issue very seriously through Campus Safety.

While we can hope that this training will never have to be executed, there is peace in awareness about the issue, and action to promote safety in our own community. to navigate potential careers, but also helped me to consider the overarching values and ideas which are important to me, which I’ve learned through both my classes and extracurricular activities. As a senior, being able to see my interests both inside and outside of class as a coherent whole has been very helpful to me as I prepare for the future,” says Anna Scofield ’16, a communications studies major.

The staff at the CSO uphold an open door that is welcoming of first-semester freshman and second-semester seniors alike. Students are encouraged to attend one of the many events that are sponsored the CSO each semester, tailored to suit the varying interests and aspirations of the campus community.

Ultimately, staff and students alike credit the success of the CSO to the work ethic and dedication of the students themselves. Grove City College graduates are dedicated to their field and pursuing their professional lives in a way that honors not only the College, but also the Lord.

Following Trump’s sizeable lead in the national polls is Sen. Ted Cruz.

According to the latest RealClear Politics poll, Cruz trails Trump by only five points going into the Iowa Caucus on Feb. 1. After announcing his candidacy at Liberty University, the country’s largest Christian university, Cruz made a bold appeal to evangelical voters at the very start of his campaign.

Cruz has consistently endorsed a united conservative movement and the unified partisan action of the religious right. His efforts were met with support last month, when a coalition of 50 prominent conservative leaders under the leadership of the Family Research Council President Tony Perkins voted to endorse the Cruz campaign for the 2016 election. The Texas senator has been criticized, however, that his efforts to sway the religious right to his side have been shortsighted. Critics point out that Christians do not wield the influence they once did in politics, and will not be able to win him the race singlehandedly.

Catholic Florida Sen. Marco Rubio currently holds third place in the national polls behind his rival Cruz.

Some have criticized his seemingly last-minute attempts to appeal to evangelical circles, citing this as the cause of his third-place position.

Cruz, they claim, has sought evangelical support from the start, and is more vocal in public in regards to his personal faith. Rubio’s approach to this campaign has not disregarded evangelical voters, but his relatively moderate conservatism and long-

term strategy has aimed at all segments of the Republican voters. His campaign holds that their success will not entirely depend on the complete endorsement of evangelical voters, even if Cruz’s dominance of this segment continues.

In a recent downslope, retired neuro-surgeon Ben Carson occupies fourth place in the polls, fluctuating between six and eight percent popularity. The overwhelming support of evangelicals that Carson enjoyed in November of last year has largely faded after repeated attempts of the media to discredit certain aspects of his life story, and called into question his knowledge of foreign policy strategy in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks. Carson’s Christian faith has been at the forefront of his campaign from the start, and emphasizes the importance of faith and religious freedom in American society. The upcoming months will determine if Carson will be able to recapture the support of evangelicals with which he began his campaign.

Born-again believers have several viable choices of candidates to vote for in the upcoming primaries. An already fractured voter base is divided over the four major candidates and eight others. This field will need to narrow in order for Republican voters to consolidate their voting power.

The future Republican Party nominee will need to unite conservative influence, and especially the evangelical voters which will undoubtedly play a significant role come November.

Beck, Barton backers bash ‘bastards’ in book battle Grayson Quay Managing Editor

Two Grove City College professors discredited conservative evangelical amateur historian David Barton’s revisionist book on Jefferson, but like the Hydra, it is rearing its head again in the form of a second edition.

Barton’s book, pulled from print in 2012 after being voted the “Least Credible History Book in Print,” claims to correct misconceptions about Thomas Jefferson, painting him as a devout Christian with progressive views on race. The Huffington Post sarcastically called him “the man who is rescuing history from those scary actual historians,” which, though sarcastic, seems fair in light of Barton’s claim that “academic elitists have … tried to make themselves the sole caretakers of historical knowledge.”

Professor of Psychology Dr. Warren Throckmorton first brought Barton’s claims to the attention of Professor of Political Science Dr. Michael Coulter in 2012, and the two began writing short critiques on Throckmorton’s blog, which went on to form the basis of their book “Getting Jefferson Right.”

In an interview with The Collegian, Coulter described the process of writing the book as “very collaborative,” explaining that the book was initially published through Amazon as an e-book and

later became available in print. He admits that it was “kind of a different model of publishing,” but said it fit well with their goal of writing a quick and direct response to combat Barton’s fallacious claims.

The second edition of “The Jefferson Lies” contains a section responding to the book’s critics, including Coulter and Throckmorton, but Coulter pointed out that most of Barton’s rebuttals have already been published in a blog post on his website, WallBuilders.com.

Barton accused them of focusing on “meaningless trivia and minutia,” citing Jesus’ example of a man who finds a speck in his brother’s eye but misses the plank in his own.

“There’s not much new in the second edition … WND Books probably thought they could make some money,” Coulter said. WND Books, the publisher of the second edition, claims on to specialize in “edgy, controversial current events titles.”

Barton is close friends with conservative firebrand Glenn Beck, heads a Ted Cruz-supporting Super PAC and enjoys strong support among certain evangelical conservatives, many of whom attacked Coulter and Throckmorton.

In one particularly memorable exchange, noted political opinion maker “ProteinBar” commented on one of Throckmorton’s blog posts, saying “The professors at

Grove city college [sic] have no credibility. Their attacks are fallacious and dishonest.

A lot of people claim to be conservative who have a variety of agendas, so the word has almost no meaning anymore.”

“Commenters named ProteinBar have no credibility,” Throckmorton replied.

Beck himself claimed that the book was pulled from publication after criticism by “liberal bastards.” When asked about Beck’s comment, Coulter laughed. “I can confidently say it’s the first time that’s ever happened,” he said, adding that Barton and Beck were “imagining some kind of boogeyman” and that almost all the criticism of Barton’s scholarship he knew of came from the right.

Throckmorton, Coulter said, has already replied to most of Barton’s rebuttals in blog posts, although, he added, there were very few specific rebuttals to which to reply, as most of his objections to “Getting Jefferson Right” are broad and somewhat vague.

Coulter said that Barton is “not a careful scholar” and reiterated that, to quote the introduction to “Getting Jefferson Right,” “a right consideration of the data flows from a Christian commitment to getting the facts and knowing the truth,” not from retroactively aligning historical figures with our own beliefs.

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Life

Jan. 29, 2016

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Get into the Greek Joshua Fried Staff Writer

Study Abroad: Nantes

CAMERON HOLLOWAY

Inside look at the overseas semester

Caleb Harshberger Life Editor

Last semester, through the Office of International Studies, a group of students went to Nantes, France for a semester abroad.

For six months the students took a full course load, learned a new language and travelled throughout the continent.

“We went to Paris for five days, we went to Normandy, St. Michel, Angers, Clisson,” said Grove City Senior Cameron Holloway. “And that was all in six weeks.”

The costs for those trips were included in the total costs of the semester abroad.

“It only cost $300 more than a regular semester but I could do way more,” Holloway said.

In addition to schoolsponsored trips, the students could spend their free time travelling to different cities and exploring countries they have never visited.

“We had a lot of chances to take trips self-financed,” Holloway said. “I went to London for a weekend. We took a bus on a ferry.”

They belonged to many different departments, from communication studies to engineering, all headed to Grove City College’s satellite campus in Nantes. Students stay in the International Study Center, which acts as an extension campus.

“I was one of the only communications majors among a bunch of mechanical and electrical engineers, as well as a business major and a math major,” said Grove City junior Courtney Justice. “I took three classes and did an independent study to evalu-

CAKE WARS The intensity of the competition was heightened by celebrity chefs and immaculate arena conditions.

“It was so incredibly cold in the arena it was hard not to shiver while standing in front of the judges, especially with all of those nerves.

The floors were incredibly slick. Tris and I both felt like our station was on a Slip’N Slide,” Bartlow said.

And in case anyone doubts how genuine these shows really are, Bartlow has no trouble attesting for the reality of the competition.

“Rest assured – the clock is real and the cake is real.

It was truly terrifying. Many hours were spent watching

ate intercultural relationships between the French and American students and how we can improve communication with people from different cultures.”

The trip gave students opportunities and experiences that they otherwise would not have any access to had they stayed in Grove City.

“Everything was crazy or interesting in some way! Too many stories to tell, I’d need like an entire section,” said Justice.

In addition to normal major-related courses, and to aid in interacting with the people of France, students took a course in French.

Holloway mentioned that it was a little different as there was much more incentive to learn.

“Be willing to try French and be willing to fail at it,” Holloway said. “Because they will respect you for trying.

They probably won’t talk to you if you go up to them and speak English but they really appreciate that you give the effort.”

Holloway said to expect that they know that you do not speak French all that well and that they will generally have no problem helping you with translation.

On Nov. 13, Paris experienced the deadliest attack in France since World War II. Three suicide bombers self-detonated, followed by bombs and shootings in cafes, restaurants and other public places. One hundred and eighty people were killed with another 368 people were injured.

“It seemed unreal at first to think that something awful was happening and we were actually in the country

within a four-hour distance away from where it was going down,” Justice said.

Holloway was actually in a hotel in Paris that night with a group of students and a professor.

“We were actually in Paris that night. Our professor came over and me and all the electrical engineers took a trip to Paris that week,” Holloway said. “You’re like refreshing the page and you’re seeing the things people are reporting. We were already pretty far away and it was very low key so we were lucky.”

Other than the attack, the trip went very smoothly.

Students were also able to experience the difference between our culture and that of the French.

“In some ways French culture seems more healthy.

They are less concerned with work and much more focused on leisure,” Hollo-

way said. “When you meet someone, for us it’s: what’s your name and occupation?

But for them it’s more about what was your last vacation spot? What was your last skiing spot?”

Both Holloway and Justice highly recommend the trip to anyone.

“Definitely do it, but understand that you really will have to be responsible for yourself (cleaning, cooking, etc.) and if you can’t handle that then I really would say this is a great challenge and chance to get a feel for the ‘real world’ after college,” Justice said. “I definitely feel more ready to move on with my life than I did before this.”

Students interested in the program can visit the Office of International Education on the third floor of the Hall of Arts and Letters.

last season to figure out what the best strategy would be to accomplish everything,” she said. “I may or may not have spent more hours watching ‘Cake Wars’ than focusing on studies before the competition.”

Bartlow has been making cakes and honing her craft since junior high school.

“I have been cake decorating since I was in eighth grade and have built up my repertoire, from wedding cakes to display cakes for Project Eve, and decided to apply for the show on Aug. 10,” Bartlow said. “I heard back from the casting network within a few days and was in contact with them until early September when I heard I had been selected to compete! I was allowed to bring one assistant

and so I chose my roommate, Tristan, as my very capable helper.’

“Cake Wars” has been running for three years, featuring master pastry chefs and judges Waylynn Lucas and Ron Ben-Israel, who evaluate the participants’ creations. It is hosted by Aaron Samuels of “Mean Girls” and “Law and Order: SVU.” Each episode incorporates themes like “Kung Fu Panda,” “Sound of Music” and more.

The episode Bartlow and Slater will be competing in is themed after the video game “Minecraft.”

After such an incredible achievement, Bartlow had some words of advice from Scripture for people pursuing their passions.

“Trust in the Lord with all

your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will keep your paths straight,” she said citing the Psalmist.

“You don’t need to be featured on a show, be paid the highest salary, have the nicest car or own the largest house on the block to be a ‘success,’” she added. “Pursuing your passion, working diligently with integrity, and honoring the Lord are keys to not only a fulfilling life, but one of true success.”

If you are interested in seeing how they did, the episode will be aired this Monday at 9 p.m.

LEAH WILSON

With one week finished of sorority pledge and fraternity pledge about to begin, many people may wonder what rules and restrictions exist in the pledge process.

According to the College administration, hazing is one thing that should not be present within the pledging process of Grove City College’s sororities and fraternities.

Hazing is not only frowned upon in Pennsylvania, but it is against the law. Though many fraternities and sororities argue that it is a rite of passage or that it allows for new pledges to bond through suffering, it is still illegal.

Oxford’s English dictionary defines hazing as “the imposition of strenuous, often humiliating, tasks as part of a program of rigorous physical training and initiation.”

On Grove City College’s campus, every pledge master/mistress must present everything that may be questionable to be approved by Assistant Dean of Students John Coyne.

According to Adelphikos fraternity pledge master Nate Pittman, John Coyne is both the judge of and advisor to Greek Life. While Coyne tries to do what is good for Greek Life, ultimately his decisions must be based on what is best for Grove City College.

In 1974, four pledges of the Adelphikos fraternity were killed when a car hit them as they were walking back to campus during a pledge event where a driver fell asleep at the wheel. Those who died were Thomas Morgan Elliott, John Curtin, Rudolph Mion and Gary Gilliland, all of whom were 18.

Coyne gave another example of a fraternity who made their pledges army crawl through a field after it rained, when one of the pledges was electrocuted and died due to a damaged cable.

Grove City College is firm in their conviction to keep their Greek Life safe and positive for everyone involved. If a Greek group goes against any of the school’s policies, then the school will be swift to impose fines or possibly even revoke the group’s charter.

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Life

Jan. 29, 2016

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GCC dumps Pepsi for Coke

Rio Arias Staff Writer

Coming back from winter break always leaves room for adjustment – going to class, getting used to cafeteria food, seeing friends again – but one of the most publicized adjustments was the College’s decision to switch from Pepsi to Coca-Cola products.

As soon as it was announced last semester that we would be welcomed back from Christmas break by Coke and Sprite instead of Pepsi alternatives, the campus was buzzing with excitement.

There were all kinds of theories as to what lead to this switch, whether it was from the student survey about possible improvements to cafeteria food, or if College President Paul J. McNulty ‘80 said the word and it was done. It was a trending topic on Yik Yak, in classrooms and between faculty members.

However, the reason for the switch is a lot simpler than trying to feel out public support for soda brands. In the early 1990’s, schools began selling “pouring rights,” or the right for a beverage company to monopolize all soft drink sales at their school.

This led to a huge win-

STUART BOWMAN

Coolers in the Student Union are well-stocked with Coke products after the College switched soda vendors.

dow of profit to the companies, since they were the sole drink provider of vending machines, dining halls, snack bars and sports events.

Schools have made a lot of money off of this as well, sometimes being paid as much as four million dollars upfront to allow a company like the Coca-Cola Co. to be the only provider among their district or campus.

Selling pouring rights takes place all over the country, at public school districts as well as college campuses.

Before President McNulty took office at Grove City College, the College was not earning anything for having Pepsi as their only provider.

McNulty realized that the College could be earning a decent amount of money by offering the right to have a soda company monopolize sales at Grove City College.

Pepsi bid low for that right, and Coca-Cola was offering a much higher bid, leading to the switch we have today.

But these rights go beyond having Sprite or Sierra Mist.

Our juices switched to Minute Maid, we now have Powerade and the most shocking thing of all: the refrigerated Starbucks drinks are gone.

These were under Pepsi’s license and therefore removed.

Grove City College students will now have to wait in line at the GeDunk to get their Starbucks coffee.

The notion of offering a school as a place for companies to “bid for rights” has presented a number of issues ever since its instigation. While it can fund trips,

sports teams and subsidize prices that would otherwise be forced onto students and their families, others have tied the sudden increase in the presence of soda to a rise in weight gain.

While it seems like a simple change, there is always a little more to the story than there appears. And keep an eye out for College-funded events – one of them could have come from a soda in your hand!

No hoverboards for you

Elizabeth Borcherding Contributing Writer

Science fiction fans and tech geeks alike celebrated as the newest fad, the hover board, made its first appearance in China in 2014, and the U.S. in 2015. Contrary to its name, however, the hover board does not hover – it rolls.

The debate is ongoing as to how this “dicycle” got its name.

Regardless of whether or not this expensive piece of disappointing machinery actually hovers, one fact stands clear: the hover board is not safe yet. According to Wired.com, the lithium-ion batteries used to power some of these hover boards are made with poor-quality metals. When the hover board’s battery is not aligned

properly, the machine short circuits.

Unsurprisingly, these short circuits have been causing everything from small explosions to serious fires in recent weeks. This product is especially prone to short circuits when it is jostled around and used at an excessive speed and then smashed into things.

With over two dozen reports of this product exploding or catching fire, it is no surprise that the decision-makers of Grove City College have determined that these rolling machines are not permitted on campus under any circumstances.

Before you get too upset, though, let it be known that roughly 30 college campuses across the nation have banned hover boards. If that is not alarming enough, so have all United

States airlines and all of New York City. Amazon.com has even stopped shipping them due to their potential for causing fires.

If you are caught with one on campus, there will be consequences for potentially endangering other students, so be wary. Vice President for Student Life and Learning and Dean of Students Larry E. Hardesty sent out an email in late December to warn students not only of the dangers of hover boards, but to respectfully ask students to refrain from bringing them on campus, even if they were itching to ride their cool Christmas gifts around.

When asked about the timing of this email, Hardesty replied, “Understanding the potential dangers associated with hover boards and know-

ing they could no longer be shipped home, we determined the best way to respect and care for our students was to communicate the policy well in advance of their return.”

The number of students with ruffled feathers over the hover board decision is surprisingly low, but any concerns that have been withheld can be addressed to the Office of Student Life and Learning. Hover boards are the hot new item (no pun intended) on the market for good reason, but they will not have any place on the Grove City College campus at this time. But take heart! As soon as hover boards are proven to be safe, they will be allowed back on campus.

Until then, you can still use your Heelies and in-lined skates to roll around campus.

Entertainment

Jan. 29, 2016

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SLASHFILM.COM

The Force has awakened Star Wars Episode VII brings back the magic

Kyle Martin

Contributing Writer Since 1977, “Star Wars” has captured the imaginations of adults and kids alike. The concept of good versus evil has been used an innumerable amount of times in movies, but George Lucas managed to utilize this simple concept and develop it into a huge universe revolving around the force that is evidenced through six original movies, books, comics and even video games.

Resurrecting the series, new director J.J. Abrams manages to recapture the imaginative feel that defined the original “Star Wars” episodes in the newest film entitled “Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens.” The newest film takes place after episode six, where Darth Vader and Darth Sidious are dead, the Empire is in shambles and peace has been mostly returned to the galaxy thanks to Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo.

Taking place 30 years after the events of episode six, “The Force Awakens” shows the galaxy back in peril as The First Order has begun to take over the galaxy. The First Order is led by a man named Kylo Ren

who seems to replace Darth Vader in many ways. He wields a red lightsaber and wears a mask much like Darth Vader did in episodes four through six. Although possibly not as daunting of a villain as Darth Vader, Kylo Ren provides a much needed look into the dark side of the force.

He constantly shows his inner turmoil through lashing out at those around him, displaying his emotions quite frequently.

Han Solo, Chewbacca and Princess Leia Organa are all featured in this episode. Han is still the brash, reckless smuggler that first looks out for himself but still has a good heart.

Chewbacca is still the walking carpet that that tends to whine and has a temper, but he is purely devoted to Han and will do anything to protect him. Princess Leia Organa has donned a new title as General Organa. She is now much more calculated in her decisions and plays more of a mentoring role in this film.

J.J. Abrams did a great job in integrating the new cast in with many of the cast members from the original trilogy, enhancing the “Star Wars” feel even further. Abrams also attempted to get away from a reliance of CGI effects that plagued episodes

one through three by using plenty of real sets and realistic puppets like the original trilogy was famous for. Even though CGI was integrated into the new film, the use of real sets greatly added to the movie’s quality.

Overall, the movie was fun and did not disappoint. Those who are “Star Wars” fans will be excited to see new

characters and planets in a familiar “Star Wars” universe. Casual moviegoers can expect to see a fast-paced movie filled with thrilling moments of lightsaber battles and dogfights as well as touching moments. It is exciting to see this famous movie franchise revitalized as the force is alive and well once again.

GIZMODO.CO.UK

Oscars so white?

Minorities ignored during nominations Grayson Quay Managing Editor While some wishful thinkers believe the battle against racism was won with the signing of the Civil Rights Act, recent years have shown us that the war continues to rage in every corner of our culture, including, it seems, the Academy Awards.

After the Academy announced that it had nominated 20 white actors and

actresses in the four acting categories, several prominent black actors and directors, including Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee, are boycotting the ceremony.

Criticizing the Academy for its lack of diversity is nothing new. In 2012, Cracked. com included “An Academy Award” in its listicle of “5 Epic Achievements That Aren’t as Impressive as You Think,” pointing out that the

Academy’s voting membership was 94 percent white.

In 1990, the Best Picture Oscar went to “Driving Miss Daisy,” seen as a quaint Uncle Tom of a movie, while Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” a much edgier examination of racial issues, was not even nominated.

The Academy, responding to intense criticism, has sworn to rewrite its voting rules and bring in more minority members, but Hol-

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lywood is divided on the issue. Best Actress nominee Charlotte Rampling recently made the news for claiming that rules forcing the nomination of minorities could be considered racist against whites. “Perhaps the black actors did not deserve to make the final list,” she said.

I agree that structural inequality exists in the current makeup of the voting membership of the Academy, which should be more reflective of the industry and the country as a whole. The new rules attempt to break up the “old white boys club” by stripping members who have not worked in 30 years of their voting rights.

While I agree that this is a step in the right direction, I am also inclined to partially agree with Rampling. Any changes that would force or pressure voters to nominate minority actors and directors would only cheapen the achievements that have been made in the past. Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar for “Gone with the Wind” in 1940 when segregation was still the law of the land.

Denzel Washington won two Oscars and has been nominated for four more. Samuel

L. Jackson spent years as the box-office king of Hollywood, with a higher-grossing filmography than any other actor. And all of this occurred without any kind of handicap or leg up.

I do believe Hollywood has a diversity problem, but it is not up to the Academy Awards to solve it. None of the nominees is undeserving of his nomination, and only two minority performances received serious awards buzz – Will Smith in “Concussion” and Idris Elba in “Beasts of No Nation,” although Michael B. Jordan in “Creed” could be added to the list.

The problem is not that none of them were nominated, it is that those were the only options. The problem is that Hollywood is in a vicious cycle of white people making films about white people.

America is now 37 percent minorities, a figure that should be reflected in our films, but the solution is not to reward undeserving films.

It is to encourage films by and about minorities and then reward them for their successes, regardless of what color the actors on the screen are.

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Through the Lens

Jan. 29, 2016

Jan. 29, 2016

Through the Lens

Page 7

Dance of the Century

PHOTOS BY: ANSON HADLEY & PATTY FOLKERTS

After returning from winter break, students got the chance to dance through the ages at the Dance of the Century, cohosted by the Possums & Zenoids. The tunes ranged from Katy Perry to the Monkees, featuring favorites from all decades. During the dance, Possum members Justin Pennypacker and Colin Hooper performed some well-known tunes live which left students cheering for an encore.

Jan. 29, 2016

The Collegian

Page 8

‘Over the Garden Wall’ Dancing through A microcosm of human life

Casey Latario

Jake Sziraky

Contributing Writer This past summer I found myself in the dreaded position of not having a show to binge watch. I had just finished up a few series that were on my list, all of which were rather dark and heavy watching (“True Detective” and “Better Call Saul”) and wanted something that would not leave me contemplating subjects best left for Humanities 302. A friend from home suggested “Over the Garden Wall,” and from the first episode I was in love.

“Over the Garden Wall” is a 10-part Emmy awardwinning miniseries from the mind of Patrick McHale, which aired on Cartoon Network in November of 2014. McHale is known for his work on the animated shows “The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack” and “Adventure Time.” Where both of those series display uniquely creative characters and zany universes, “Over the Garden Wall” succeeds where they fail by grounding its plot in the relationships of its protagonists.

The miniseries follows the journey of two brothers, Wirt (Elijah Wood) and Greg (Collin Dean) who inexplicably find themselves lost in a wood filled ghosts, gentlemen frogs, pumpkin men, an old-timey schoolhouse for animals, a forlorn woodsman (Christopher Lloyd), a lonely but extremely wealthy

the decades

Entertainment Editor

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tea salesman (John Cleese) and a dark beast (Samuel Ramey) who stalks them through the Unknown. Along the way, they become friends with a bluebird named Beatrice (Melanie Lynskey), who promises to help bring them home.

Though it may seem that the show has its hands full juggling all of the creative directions it follows, the beautiful artwork and charming voice acting has no difficulties uniting the creativity with realistic execution. All the while, Greg and Wirt are accompanied by a fantastic early 1900s-style soundtrack and several catchy songs that will be stuck in your head days after watching.

In the end, what really

makes “Over the Garden Wall” deserving of its Emmy and Reuben awards is how it goes beyond an imaginative plot and beautiful artwork to describe a microcosm of human life. Wirt and Greg’s journey captures the simple wonder of childhood adventures in the woods with your brother. The possibilities of imagination and excitement of discovery, the interplay between siblings and new friendships and the growth of maturity into young adults are all themes that are explored. “Over the Garden Wall” has shown “that life really is as sweet as potatoes and molasses.”

In one way or another we are always looking back to yesteryear, whether it be looking for the perfect retro top to wear or indulging our increasingly nostalgic tastes in movies and television.

How else do you explain the success of such franchises such as “Downton Abbey” and “Back to the Future”? This is not a new phenomenon; people have been nostalgic for the past for as long as there has been a past.

There is something about the human race that simply longs for the past. That is why the Dance of the Century continues to be such a huge success.

For those of you who were unable to attend last week’s festivities in Old MAP, the Dance of the Century is basically an entire evening dedicated to days gone by. For those of you who had an 80s theme f0r your sweet 16, it is something like that, only add in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 90s and early 2000s as well. However, it was not a chronological countdown.

The night did not start with Elvis Presley and crescendo with Bowling for Soup. They played a good mix of time periods throughout the evening. It is as if they took the “Best of …” for every decade, threw it in a blender and played what came out. It was a celebration of our entire musical past from the last

There is something about the human race that simply longs for the past.

60 years. And just to keep it truly funky fresh, a live band performed several numbers and succeeded in rocking the house.

The music and dancing were certainly a high point of the evening, and without a doubt the reason most people attended the event in the first place. However, the details of any event will be what ultimately makes or breaks it.

The traditional photo booth outside the dance hall certainly kept up its history of funny poses, outrageous faces and downright silliness.

The free drinks and fruit provided were much appreciated to cool the avid partygoers and the costumes that most of the dancers wore gave the night a flair of whimsy and fun.

Unfortunately, we are not Marty McFly or Doctor Who. We cannot go back in time to truly experience things how they really were. But with events like the Dance of the Century we can certainly recapture the fun of the past without unpleasantries like segregation and the Vietnam War.

‘Bob’s Burgers’: a much-needed break from Seth MacFarlane

Grant Wishard Staff Writer

“Bob’s Burgers” opened for business in early 2011, and has become TV’s oddest success story.

The unlikely show, created by Loren Bouchard, who wrote and produced “Dr. Kratz,” and Jim Dauterive, who wrote and produced “King of the Hill,” has endeared itself to audiences, and is now in its sixth season.

The cartoon sitcom is centered on the misfit Belcher family and their hilariously desperate efforts to keep their boardwalk burger restaurant in business. The burgers are good; fry cook Bob has a talent which easily beats the fine-dining competition. He is backed by his enthusiastic and long-suffering wife Linda (voiced by John Roberts).

It is everything and everyone else that threatens to sink the family’s small-business.

The health department, town council, food critics and the yacht club make life difficult. Landlord Fischoeder’s many demands, Jimmy Pesto’s rival Italian restaurant and crazy Aunt Gale’s disturbing artwork all help drive away the customers. The kids, Tina, Gene and Louise, are hardly helpful. Whatever the problem, the struggle for daily survival is hilarious.

The viewership of “Bob’s Burgers” has swelled past its cult following to millions of viewers each week. The critics, especially the top eche-

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lon, are undecided. The New York Times called the show a “good-news, bad-news proposition” but praised it for not being “another grating half-hour from the mind of Seth MacFarlane,” who monopolizes adult animation television with “Family Guy,” “American Dad” and “The Cleveland Show.”

“Bob’s Burgers” is hilarious because of its characters.

Bob, Linda and the three kids are each fully drawn so as to be distinct from each other, and, ironically, three-dimensional. Each character is both realistic and absurd. Linda is optimistic, loud, supportive and fiercely protective. She is always becoming absorbed in a new, ridiculous obsession and never loses faith in her “Bobby,” even as a lover, though Bob could not be less romantic. Linda is prone to bursting into song, and is often suckered into completing school projects for the kids.

Though she loves her family and their restaurant, she cannot help but wish for the finer things.

The rest of the Belcher family is just as vivid and equally fun. Louise, the youngest child, voiced by Kristen Schaal, always wears her pink rabbit ears and is the evil genius anti-hero of the family, showing herself to be diabolical, intelligent and sarcastic. The show only becomes more entertaining as you come to understand these characters. They never break character for the sake of a joke, and are comical simply by being themselves.

The humor of “Bob’s Burgers” is found in the personality and everyday development of this dysfunctional family.

Admittedly, “Bob’s” is a weird show. Everything, from the anti-jokes and deadpan humor to how the characters are animated, described by one critic as “sen-

tient carrots,” is offbeat. But it is also endearing for one reason: the Belchers love each other. Sure, put them all in one place, like around the dinner table or in a food truck, and chaos breaks out, but as in most families, this does not get in the way of their loyalty to one another.

The third season episode, “Mother Daughter Laser Razor,” is perhaps the best example of the family’s love for one another. As usual, Linda and Louise are not on the best of terms. Linda is worried that they do not have the best relationship since they do not do makeup, hair and shopping together like girlfriends should. She tries every sucker solution suggested by the mommy blog “Phenomemom” (Bob: “hmm that’s fun to say”), and even drags Louise to a laughable “mother-daughter healing seminar.” Ultimately though, Linda and Louise

learn to understand and love each other for who they are.

They stop spatting, and literally fight back-to-back to defend each other in a laser tag showdown. This episode, like most episodes of “Bob’s,” ends with forgiveness and reconciliation.

Getting to know the characters of the Belcher clan is highly entertaining. Watching Bob, Linda, Tina, Gene and Louise, learn to love each other more makes the experience enjoyable. Yes, there is often yelling and chaos. Yes, the humor can be edgy like any modern comedy. Yes, there are angsty moments, like when you decide you are Dina now instead of Tina. And of course, there are weird characters and odd smells. In other words, the Belchers are a real family; perhaps, a lot like your own family. I am certain Linda would be great friends with my mother, and Gene often reminds me of my brother.

Most viewers may not take to the show immediately, so at least two 20 minute episodes are recommended. If you are already a fan, you have likely found that your friends only indulge you for the chance to prove you wrong.

But stay where you are, do not budge, forgive your unappreciative friends and make room for them on the couch. “Bob’s Burgers” is too much fun to pass up.

Jan. 29, 2016

Perspectives

Page 9

True conservatism lost?

Jon Nelson

Contributing Writer

Trump

Charlatan or clown?

Ryan Brown

Contributing Writer Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump has said many blatantly false things.

‘Politifact.com’ actually rates 60 percent of all Donald Trump’s statements as either false or “pants on fire” false.

There is certainly no shortage of examples either. For example, he talks about how we should be afraid of the Syrian refugees because they are “mostly strong, powerful, men,” when women and children actually make up 77.3 percent of Syrian refugees. The Trans-Pacific Partnership supposedly “was designed for China to come in, as they always do, through the back door and totally take advantage of everyone.” when China is not even a party to the agreement And Who could forget “I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering [as the World Trade Center collapsed].” how about when Trump said the Obama administration “wants to take in 250,000 [people] from Syria.” when they are actually trying to take in only 10,000. Nor when he claimed that the federal government was purposefully sending the refugees to Republican states rather than Democratic States. He once even ran a commercial with footage of immigrants swarming across the border, which turned out to be footage from Morocco, not the U.S.-Mexican border However, these false claims should not be attributed to malice on Trump’s part. He is (probably) not actually lying, but is just so used to being around people who are yes-men that he has no filter. In his mind, what he says must be right because no one has ever pointed out to him when he has been wrong.

Keep in mind, this is the same man who refers to sec-

ond Corinthians as “Two Corinthians, This is the man who said that maybe Obama does have an American birth certificate “but there’s something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim.”

Trump is not a liar; he is a buffoon.

Some may feel that this might actually work out in Trump’s favor. Sure, he is not the brightest crayon in the box, but at least he is honestly speaking his mind.

Any effective criticism of Trump then should not be focused on him as a liar, but as him being ‘honestly’ a terrible human being. Trump is legitimately bigoted. He is a corrupt businessman who has made his fortune grow through political manipulation instead of contributing something meaningful to the world. His policy suggestions range from so grossly incompetent as to be ruinous to being actually evil.

In his personal life Donald Trump is etextremely misogynistic. He acts as though he sees women as inferior to him and existing primarily for his pleasure, although, he arguably sees men this way too. He has been divorced twice, cheated on his wife and has had at least one running affair while married. He has said things like “All of the women on ‘The Apprentice’ flirted with me – consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected.”

He went afterlprofessional reporter Megan Kelly on the grounds that she was a woman, calling her a “bimbo.” and blaming her tough treatment of him in an early presidential debate as being a result of her period, saying “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”

He is also a racist. A large part of his campaign is built around fear-mongering about Mexican, Chinese and Middle-Eastern peoples,

with slightly less fear mongering aboute African-Americans thrown in. There is the infamous statistic he tweeted claiming that 81 percent of white homicide victims were killed by blacks (it is actually 15 percent), then there is the reported “laziness is a trait in blacks” quot) and his former role in the birther movement.

He has talked about how the mexicans are sending us rapists and killers multiple times, he tweeted that Jeb Bush’s weaker stance on immigration must be because of his Mexican wife and when told that two men beat a Latino man in his name, he commended his supporters for their ‘passion’.

Trump once kicked the highly noted Latino reporter (Jorge Ramo) out of a press conference for “rudeness” after the reporter asked a question on immigration. When it comes to Asians, we can point to his racist caricature of an Asian accent that he did on the campaign trail, and him constantly pointing to China as the bane of America’s existence. He has called for a database of Muslims, and wants to send the Syrian refugees in America back where they came from, Let us not forget his now famous “you’re right to be mad.” statement to his booing supporters as a peaceful Muslim woman was escorted out of a Trump rally. This is all just the tip of the iceberg as well.

These are not yet another “gaffe” on his part, but a consistent and habitual vice on his part . These negative personal traits matter not onlt because they will directly affect his policies and appointment decisions as president, but also because they speak to his personal character.

Regardless of who wins the Republican nomination for president, smallgovernment conservatism will lose.

Case in point: Donald Trump. Trump has been the GOP frontrunner since July, which has surprised both experts and the public alike.

Many Republicans like Trump because is not a politician and “tells it like it is,” but ultimately he does not reflect the conservative values that the GOP has historically stood for.

But now conservatives – real conservatives – are fighting back. Writers for and affiliates with The National Review Online have published an attack against Trump.

Contributors to the article include conservative radio host Glenn Beck, Cato Institute President David Boaz and economist Thomas Sowell.

The GOP frontrunner, they say, is not a conservative and thus should not be the frontrunner for the supposedly conservative American political party.

They are right. Donald Trump is not a conservative, he is an authoritarian.

Trump does not care about the values that conservatives have historically supported, and in many cases, stands directly opposed to them.

First of all, Trump is not a fiscal conservative. None of his statements or policy positions (if they exist) suggest that he will reign in expansive government spending.

His infamous wall-onthe-border would cost billions of dollars. One would have to be crazy to say a fiscal conservative would suggest a plan like this.

He also stands against religious freedom, especially when it comes to the rights of Muslim-Americans.

Trump has even suggested banning Muslims from the country, grossly violating our sacred first amendment rights.

Sadly, many so-called “evangelical conservatives” take his side. To them, religious freedom is important when Christians are free, but not so much for anyone else.

When it comes to Christianity itself, Trump is dangerous. As made clear by his recent speech at Liberty University, he is not a devout Christian in any sense of the word. His disingenuous “I love the Bible.

You can’t beat the Bible,” nonsense is especially disconcerting. He seems to be using religion to convince evangelical Republicans to support him.

Certainly, there must be a special place in hell for people who use religion for political gain (Dante would call it Circle Eight, Bolgia 5).

Trump is anti-conservative on property rights as well. Not only does he reject property rights, he has actively fought against them in the form of emi-

nent domain.

This makes sense, since he has personally and financially benefitted from eminent domain.

Furthermore, Trump lacks an understanding of the benefits of free trade.

He uses nativism, a particularly dangerous form of nationalism, to claim that both immigrants and foreign businesses are bad for America.

He suggests tariffs and immigration restrictions to “protect American jobs.”

This is an extremely antiquated policy position, debunked by economist Adam Smith way back in 1776.

Unfortunately for the GOP, Trump is not the only danger to the party. Anyone who critically watched the most recent FOX Business Republican debate realized that there was little ideological diversity on the stage.

None of the six candidates on the stage represented true conservative values.

This was most clear in the discussion concerning foreign policy. Historically, conservatives like Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan held a view of constraint.

The military should only be used when American national security is truly in danger. Even then, we must be cautious.

Reckless foreign policy is bad for America both fiscally and politically. Billions and billions of dollars are wasted on so-called “defense” spending, which takes the form of new planes, tanks, and bombs to destroy more things and kill more people.

Politically, reckless military action leads to blowback against us as other nations resent the American government and its military.

The constraint view has been nearly completely abandoned by the 2016 GOP candidates.

In the recent debate, Jeb Bush suggested that we should not hold back spending billions of dollars on new military technology, essentially holding to the belief that defense spending should not be subject to budget constraints.

Ted Cruz has said he wants to bomb ISIS until “the sand glows in the dark.”

Marco Rubio and other candidates have said similar things.

Only one candidate has suggested a rational foreign policy, akin to that of Goldwater and other conservatives – Rand Paul.

Paul was excluded from the most recent debate because polls by FOX and other sources suggest he is not in the top six of candidates.

His presence was sorely missed.

Despite what polls may say, Paul’s policy positions resonate with young people more than those of any other candidate. Excluding him from the conversation only shows the sad and anti-conservative party the GOP has become.

Perspectives

Jan. 29, 2016

Page 10

Unnecessarily antagonistic No simple solutions in combating terrorism

Aimee Lynch

Contributing Writer As we enter the year of 2016, people are keenly aware of the threat that terrorism poses to the security of the world.

Within this international context, Mr. Joshua Sikora’s December article entitled: “Terrorism thriving thanks to US actions” is decidedly unhelpful.

While Sikora raises some interesting points for consideration, his flippant use of language is concerning.

His classification of U.S. actions as “terrorism” and his oversimplification of difficult government decisions detracts from productive discussion.

One of the initial problems with Sikora’s article is the conspicuous absence of definitions. An abundance of problems arise when “terrorism” is left undefined.

Here, terrorism will be strictly defined as a hatred which is ideologically motivated and expresses itself through militant acts. Terrorism is different from other types of criminal violence in its goal: to cruelly punish and inspire fear in entire societies which do not share the perpetrator’s values.

With this definition in mind, consider Sikora’s argument that the U.S. should be described as a terrorist organization because some of its international actions have provided favorable conditions for the development of terrorist groups.

Sikora cites actions in Iraq, Libya and Syria to support his point. However, his discussion of these examples omits critical information and denies the nuance of the issue.

In Iraq, the U.S. – along with many other supporting countries – overthrew Saddam Hussein because of strong evidence that the leader possessed weapons of mass destruction.

The invasion was believed to be the last recourse in preventing a worldwide disaster, and this conclusion was generally supported by several UN members and the American public at the time.

Hussein, an ardent admirer of Adolf Hitler, had demonstrated his willingness to use these weapons by unleashing chemical weapons on his own peo-

ple, including the Kurds in northern Iraq.

Had the U.S. not conducted a campaign against one of the most despicable men of this era, Hussein would likely have committed additional grievous acts with his power.

The problem with U.S. actions in this situation was not the war itself – quelling a worldwide threat while defending human rights – but of a poorly executed Iraqi reconstruction after the Second Gulf War. This failure was an enormous blunder, but can hardly be called an act of terrorism by the U.S. government. This is a confusion of terms.

Another oversimplified conclusion in Sikora’s article is that in order to truly combat terrorism, the U.S. should disassociate from any government that has terrorist connections.

This sounds like a noble idea, but is in reality an impossible solution. Most world leaders have indirect ties with terrorism in some way, and in a globalized world, the U.S. cannot isolate itself from the international forum.

An unfortunate truth about world politics is that a country’s diplomatic decisions must often be a choice between the lesser of two evils. True neutrality is rarely an option.

When the U.S. first began supporting Syrian rebels against President Bashar al-Assad, this was because Assad, like Hussein, was known to have stockpiles of chemical weapons. There is now strong evidence that he has used these weapons against his people.

The U.S. supported the rebels over Assad in the belief that this was the best way to protect human rights and to prevent the possibility of a world calamity.

Unfortunately, decision-makers underestimated the threat that these rebels would pose to world security.

This choice is easy to criticize in hindsight, but is much more nuanced when viewed in the light of historical context.

Though the history of U.S. government contains many instances of poor decision-making, the main difference between these actions and true terrorism is the end goal of each.

As stated before, terrorism is motivated by hatred and by a desire to punish and inspire fear in a group of people for political or religious ends, but the motivation behind U.S. actions is quite different.

Although tainted by human error, the ultimate goal of a legitimate government such as that of the U.S. is to protect its people. The drone strikes in the Middle East were not conducted out of a mission of cruelty, but in an effort to protect the American public from an enemy that hides behind the innocent.

Policy makers are in uncharted waters as they decide how to combat hitand-run terrorists who refuse to engage in a fair fight. Lapses in judgment result in tragic consequences, such as civilian casualties, but it is an irresponsible stretch to lump these missteps into the category of terrorism, which should be reserved for actions motivated by cruelty.

Rather than expending valuable time in decrying the U.S. as a terrorist organization, the American people must focus on generating new ways to address terrorism.

One of Sikora’s last statements is particularly disturbing: “If the United States government truly wishes to combat terrorism, it should commit drone strikes against its own institutions.”

This type of inflammatory hyperbole is injurious to productive conversation. The current state of world affairs should prod Christians to participate in responsible examination of the issues at hand in order to contribute solutions; it is only detrimental to blur definitions with exaggerated statements like this one.

We must acknowledge the complexity of issues like the fight against terrorism and we must rebuke simple solutions.

We must be steadfast in our desire to truly consider the facts and to use language appropriately in discussing current affairs.

May the students of Grove City College thrive in virtue, equipped to bring justice and mercy into all areas, including the policy decisions of the United States government.

Job destruction programs Promises are not what they seem

Colin Combs Contributing Writer It has been famously said that the art of economic science can be reduced to a single lesson: looking not merely at the immediate “seen” effects of a policy on one group, but looking at the over-arching effects that touch everyone.

If you want to know whether a policy is really good or bad, you have to consider the direct intention of the bill, but also its unforeseen consequences With this in mind, let us consider that most beloved political promise: creating jobs. We all want to see our nation thrive in this current presidential election. As in all elections, it seems that with every new reform proposed by politicians, they always tack on the additional benefit of it being a “job creation program”.

A textbook example of this from the current election – but far from the only example – would be Sen. Bernie Sanders’ promotion of his “Rebuild America Act”, which would spend $1 trillion on U.S. infrastructure.

Sen. Sanders claims that it “would not just rebuild our country, but create and

maintain 13 million goodpaying jobs that our economy desperately needs.”

Public works have always been pointed to as a way to get people employed again and produce visible results.

A politician promises to fight unemployment, and they make this public works programs that employs people. We have the seen, but what of the unseen?

From where does this $1 trillion come from? As with all government programs, it can only be funded by three things: taxation, debt and inflation, all of which will hurt the economy.

Taxes take money away from those who have produced it, debt leeches away savings from private profitable enterprises and inflation does both of these things while also distorting price signals across the entire economy.

No matter what method is taken, the result is the same: resources lost.

All of this means that money and resources are going where the government directs them, rather than where people actually want them: places that would have had these jobs that the government is so desperate to create.

The government is not cre-

ating jobs at all. It is merely shifting them from parts of the economy where they are demanded to places they are not.

They are damaging the economy so that we can pay to rebuild it. It is the same rationale of a man who praises breaking windows because it creates jobs for glaziers.

A standard counterargument to this position is the Keynesian Multiplier. The idea is that government spending will have a domino effect across the economy, with increased spending in one sector increasing spending in all parts of the economy.

If the government spends $1 million on one part of the economy, the people who receive that money will spend some of it somewhere else, then those people will spend that somewhere else, and so on. This makes a $1 million spent on the economy by the government cause much more than $1 million to be spent in total.

In fact, this is precisely the argument that Sen. Sanders makes in defense of his “Rebuild America Act”, saying that “each project would require equipment, supplies and services, and the hardearned salaries from the jobs created would be spent in

countless restaurants, shops and other local businesses.

And, all of this economic activity would generate new tax revenues to pay for the services that the American people expect and deserve.”

This argument makes the same fundamental mistake as before, however, which is looking only at what is “seen.”

What if we apply the same kind of reasoning to the taxes collected? Does that not have a similar chain reaction, with the government taking money from one area of the economy causing less spending there, which decreases spending somewhere else, and so on?

Jobs are first and foremost a means to an end, not an end in themselves. Spending is a consequence of jobs producing things that people want.

Politicians have turned this on its head, though, trying to increase spending so that people will start producing.

It is the products that ultimately matter, and whether or not a public work is good should be determined solely on the merits of the project itself, not on the obvious fact that someone is going to be paid to do it.

100 Campus Drive Grove City, Pa. 16127 collegian@gcc.edu gcc.collegian@gmail.com

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Section Editors News Molly Wicker Life Caleb Harshberger Entertainment Jacob Sziráky Perspectives Colin Combs Sports Joe Setyon Photography Julia Williams

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Copy Editors Erin Pechacek Angell Fonner Becky Tzouanakis

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Photographers Andrew Irving Rebekah Wheat Cameron Holloway Kirsten Malenke Ryan Braumann

Advertising/Business Manager Reagan Georges

Staff Adviser Nick Hildebrand The Collegian is the student newspaper of Grove City College, located in Grove City, Pa. Opinions appearing on these pages, unless expressly stated otherwise, represent the views of individual writers. They are not the collective views of The Collegian, its staff or Grove City College.

GREEN EYESHADE AWARD

This week’s award goes to new Life Editor Caleb Harshberger for his dedication and hard work on the Collegian. The Collegian Green Eyeshade Award honors student contributors who have demonstrated consistency and excellence in their work.

Sports

Jan. 29, 2016

Page 11

Looking ahead to next year Steelers season ends in AFC Divisional Round

Michael Cole Staff Writer

The stage was set. It was possibly the last go-round for future Hall of Fame quarter back Peyton Manning, who had the opportunity to make it to the AFC championship game one more time.

However, in order to further stake his claim to greatness, he would have to go through Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers, who had just come off of a huge lastminute win against the Cincinnati Bengals in the first round of the playoffs.

The Broncos took control of the game early with two field goals coming from kicker Brandon McManus, putting them ahead by six points.

The Broncos remained ahead until Ben Roethlisberger led the team on an 80-yard scoring drive that resulted in a one-yard touchdown run from Fitzgerald Toussaint. This gave the Steelers the lead going into

the second quarter.

The black and gold struck first in the second quarter, with Roethlisberger leading the team 60 yards down the field and ending the drive in a field goal from Chris Boswell to put the Steelers up 10-6.

Although the Steelers had control of the game at this time, they struggled to complete passes. Receivers constantly dropped Roethlisberger’s passes, and the same was true for Peyton Manning who struggled to hit Broncos receivers throughout the course of the first half.

The Broncos responded with a field goal of their own at the very end of second quarter, sending the Steelers to the locker room up 10-9.

The Steelers once again struck first in the third quarter opening up with a 28yard field goal five and a half minutes into the second half.

The Broncos answered with a field goal of their own, and although they were able to take this lead, the Steelers

The future is now Men’s basketball looks to continue winning

Joe Setyon Sports Editor

Thanks to an improved group as a whole, the Grove City College men’s basketball team has leapt out to a 12-5 start to the year, including seven victories in 10 games within the Presidents’ Athletic Conference. After not recording a winning season since 2009-10, the Wolverines are well on their way to accomplishing this feat.

Moreover, they have a realistic shot at winning the PAC crown, something that has not been done since 2010 either.

Last year’s campaign, in which the team finished with a 4-12 record, may have been disappointing, but it was also encouraging in that many underclassmen gained the experience that they would need to be competitive this year. This can be seen in the recent performances of many players, especially in two recent games, one against Bethany College and one against Washington & Jefferson College.

First, Grove City visited Bethany on Jan. 20, winning 76-70. Neither team could get very much of an edge until late in the contest.

With the score tied at 59, the Wolverines went on a 7-0 run and took a lead that they would not give up. In the game, sophomore Cory Huff was extremely impressive, scoring 18 points on eight of 11 shooting. Meanwhile, senior Joe Vermilya scored 18, while Stephen Tam and Tyler McGrath each poured in 10.

Overall, it was a great shooting day for the Wolverines as they converted 52 percent (27 of 52) of their field goals.

Shooting, however, was not the only thing Grove City did well. Andrew Beckman collected seven rebounds and five assists. Caleb Knudsen racked up seven boards as well, while Cory Huff led his team with two blocks.

Next, the Wolverines returned home on Jan. 23 to take on Washington & Jefferson. The result was Grove City’s biggest margin of victory of the entire season, 24 points, as the team triumphed 85-61. Grove City

PITTSBURGH STEELERS

Despite playing a close game and letting up very little on defense, the Steelers stumbled in the final minutes and fell to the Broncos in their AFC Divisional Matchup. still struggled to complete passes throughout the second half.

While it looked as if the Steelers had control of the game, one play changed everything when Roethlisberger handed the ball off to Toussaint, who fumbled it at the 30-yard line. Manning then lead his team down the

field, got them to the oneyard line and then gave the ball to C.J. Anderson for the touchdown to put the Broncos up 20-13.

The Steelers had one more chance to try to tie the game on fourth and five with under two minutes left to play.

Unfortunately, Roethlisberger was sacked, putting the

Coach Gibson named athletic director

Joe Setyon Sports Editor

GROVE CITY COLLEGE

Senior Joe Vermilya scored 20 points in Grove City’s recent win over Washington & Jefferson College, including, six outrageous three-pointers.

went up 15-4 early in this one, thanks to a pair of threes from Vermilya. The Wolverines went into halftime up by a comfortable margin of 17 points, a lead they would not relinquish as they cruised to a relatively easy victory.

Joe Vermilya led the way against Washington & Jefferson. He was nearly automatic from behind the arc, hitting six of his nine attempts, and scoring 20 points. Three other Wolverines also scored 10 points or more, including Cory Huff (10), Caleb Knudsen (11) and Brandon Grider (11). Meanwhile Andrew Beckman led the team in rebounds, with eight, and he also racked up four blocks.

Stephen Tam only scored three points, instead focusing his energy on passing (seven assists) and defense (four blocks). Moreover, Grove City as a whole shot at a 48 percent rate from the floor.

After Saturday’s win, the team’s third in a row, Grove City returns to action against Thomas More College, then travels to Waynesburg University on Saturday afternoon. The team will hope to keep up their winning ways as they strive to keep on getting better. Vermilya, Knudsen, Tam, Huff and Beckman, among others, are all performing at the level they are capable of. The future is now for the Wolverines.

game away for the Broncos and sending them to the AFC championship game.

It was a hard-fought game for the Steelers, who were able to turn around what originally looked like a very inconsistent season. The black and gold have very high hopes and very big expectations for the 2016 season.

After the retirement of Dr. Don Lyle at the end of 20142015 school year, Grove City College was left with big shoes to fill in the athletic department. Lyle was the athletic director and had been with the school for 43 years total, so the administration was left with the task of finding someone to head up the department. While they looked for someone to replace Lyle, Coaches Todd Gibson and Michael Dreves filled in, making sure that things still got done, even in the absence of a full-time athletic director.

Now Coach Gibson has been named as the full-time athletic director, a position where he already has some experience. Over the last semester he and Coach Dreves worked together, with Gibson running the athletic side of things while Dreves was in charge of academic-related matters. Moreover, prior to Lyle’s retirement, Gibson worked as the assistant athletic director during the 2014-2015 school year. In that role he gained valuable administrative experience, working with the athletics budget, game management and transportation scheduling.

Coach Gibson may just be starting his new job on a permanent basis, but it is undeniable that he has the

GROVE CITY COLLEGE

After a semester-long search, Grove City finally found a new Athletic Director: Todd Gibson ’02. necessary experience to lead the department. He attended Grove City from 1998 until 2002, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He also was a star on the football team, leading the squad in receiving during his senior year. With his help, the Wolverines won a conference title in 1998 and were runner ups in 1999 and 2000.

Two years after graduating, Gibson joined the faculty of his alma mater. In the years since he has served as an assistant professor of exercise science, assistant football coach and is perhaps best known as the head coach of both the men’s and women’s track and field teams.

Coach Gibson’s qualifications do not end there. He also has earned a degree in

Support Your Wolverines!

integrated social studies/ secondary education from Youngstown State University and has his master’s degree in exercise science from California University of Pennsylvania. Additionally, he has been certified as a specialist in both strength and conditioning and in performance enhancement.

As he begins his duties as athletic director, Coach Gibson enjoys the support of College President Paul J. McNulty ’80. Last semester, when the search was still ongoing for Lyle’s replacement, Gibson emphasized how much he appreciated the president’s support. Recently President McNulty reaffirmed his support, saying that “Todd Gibson has done a tremendous job as interim athletic director and his record of success as our track and field coach over the last five years affirms a strong commitment to athletic excellence. Most importantly, he is committed to building a varsity athletics program that is known nationally for being a culture of character, sportsmanship, and studentathletic achievement.”

With its new leadership, Grove City College’s athletic department is now ready to move into what can only be described as a very bright future. If one thing is for sure, it is that Coach Todd Gibson is definitely up to the task.

Men’s Swimming and Diving Saturday, 1 p.m., at Bethany College

Women’s Swimming and Diving Saturday, 1 p.m., at Bethany College

Jan. 29-Feb. 4

Men’s Basketball Saturday, 3 p.m., at Waynesburg University Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., vs. Waynesburg University

Women’s Basketball Saturday, 5:30 p.m., at Waynesburg University Wednesday, 1 p.m., vs. Waynesburg University

Sports

Jan. 29, 2016

Player Spotlight:

Erbelding joins 1000 point club

Page 12

Searching for consistency

Wolverines look to get back in the win column

Bradley Warmhold

Joe Setyon

Staff Writer

Sports Editor

In a career filled with AllPresidents’ Athletic Conference honors and broken records, the Grove City College women’s basketball team’s senior forward has added another prestigious honor to her already impressive career. During an away contest at PAC rival Bethany College last week, Kathryn Erbelding netted 25 points, more than enough to push her career point total past the 1,000 point mark. Erbelding now sits among only 12 women in the history of the Grove City College women’s basketball program to have scored over 1,000 points, and the first since Leah Gibson ʼ13 to reach this milestone.

“I knew I was three points away, but when it happened I was very into the game and just got back on defense,” Erbelding said when asked about the moment she made her 1,000th point.

“It was exciting, but I tried not to think about it too much because I didn’t want it to get to my head and in the way of playing.” Erbelding’s in-game focus allowed her to finish the game with 25 points and a game high of 11 rebounds. The Wolverines led 33-18 at halftime, but the Bison outscored the Wolverines 46-22 over the final two quarters, resulting in a 64-55 defeat.

The women’s basketball team, as of Jan. 25, 2016, sits in the middle of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference with a 5-5 league record and an overall record of 7-10. Comprised largely of freshman and only two senior players, the Wolverines have looked to Erbelding as a leader both on and off the court. “We lost three seniors last year but gained eight freshmen, so we have a very young team, but I was never worried. I knew we had a lot of young players that needed to grow during this season and that we wouldn’t be tight-knit all at once, but getting to know them has been a

It has been somewhat of a rollercoaster ride for the Grove City College women’s basketball team so far in the 2015-16 season.

At 7-10, and 5-5 within the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, the Wolverines have a solid record and are in the thick of the hunt for a PAC title.

Grove City started off well, winning two of their first three contests. Then, they entered a slump, losing seven consecutive games.

After that, they got red hot, rattling off an impressive five-game winning streak.

Recently, however, they have started to falter again, losing two consecutive games, first to Bethany College, and then to Washington & Jefferson College.

On Jan. 20 the Wolverines travelled to Bethany College.

They got off to a fantastic start and were leading by 15 points (33-18) by halftime.

However, in the third and fourth quarters, Bethany scored a combined 46 points while yielding only 22, leading to a final score of 64-55.

Despite the loss, the Wolverines definitely did a lot of things right. On defense, they only allowed Bethany to shoot at a 35 percent rate from the floor, while they converted on 43 percent of their field goals.

Senior forward Kathryn Erbelding was on fire for the entire game, as she scored 25 points on 10 of 15 shooting, while also collecting 11 rebounds for the double-double and four blocks.

Junior Jackie Stewart also played well, scoring 10 points on five of 10 shooting to go along with her four rebounds. In the end, however, Grove City was simply outplayed by Bethany, especially in terms of rebounding, where they were at a 42-34 disadvantage.

The Wolverines attempted to get back on track against Washington & Jefferson on Jan. 23. Grove City started

GROVE CITY COLLEGE

Senior Kathryn Erbelding is having another great season for the Wolverines, as she is averaging 15.6 ppg and 8.9 rpg so far in the campaign. fantastic experience. All their ing (7.7), and assists (2.3), roles, whether in game or received first-team All-PAC not, matter and add a dimen- honors, and the PAC’s Defension to the team.” sive Player of the Year award.

An established forward, Despite all of the accumulatthree-year letter winner and ing accolades that surround defensive stalwart, Erbelding her only mid-way through has done more than just sink her final season, Erbelding a plethora of baskets over continues to stay focused on her past four years at Grove getting the Wolverines as far City College. The senior has as they can into post-season led the team in steals every play and enjoying everything year of her career, including that Grove City College has a junior season where she offered her as a basketball swiped 95 steals, decimating the old single-season record player. “[Being on the team] deof 72 steals held by Karin velops you more than just a Hendrickson ’99. With 243 player, we do a lot of comcareer steals, she also has a chance to surpass Hendrick- munity service, mental trainson as the all-time steals ing, leadership training, and leader with only five more spiritual growth. It has dewell-timed swipes. During veloped me more fully as a her junior season, Erbeld- person because it has chaling also led the Wolverines lenged me to become more in scoring (15.3), rebound- Christ-like in all situations.”

Score Check

go-ahead three-pointer in the last minute, and fell to the PAC rival.

Corey Huff had 19 points in the loss, while Caleb Knudsen had 12 points, six boards and six assists.

Meanwhile, Andrew Beckman collected eight boards in the defeat.

Jan. 13

Jan. 16

Women’s Basketball:

Men’s Swimming and Diving:

Grove City College 69, Chatham University 56

Grove City College 157,State University of New York at Fredonia 140

The Wolverines won their fourth consecutive game, beating a Presidents’ Athletic Conference opponent at home. Sophomore Lexie Arkwright had a career performance, shooting nine of 12 for 27 points. Kathryn Erbelding had 10 points and 13 boards, while freshman Laura Buchanan had eight blocks and 14 rebounds. Grove City College led by three at the half, then broke things open later in the game.

Men’s Basketball:

Chatham University 69, Grove City College 66 Grove City College played magnificently for most of the game, but let Chatham University score a

Women’s Swimming and Diving:

Grove City College 144, State University of New York at Fredonia 124 On senior day, both teams came away victorious. For the men, Rhys Dickhudt and Dane Hoselton helped their team to three victories each. Meanwhile, on the women’s side, Megan Bilko had four wins, while four other Wolverines also had multiple wins in the meet.

Women’s Basketball:

Grove City College 67, Thiel College 45 Grove City College won its fifth straight relatively easily, defeat-

ing Thiel College by more than 20 points. Kathryn Erbelding almost had a triple double, collecting 20 points, 13 boards and nine steals.

Meanwhile, Lexie Arkwright had 14 points and five steals.

Men’s Basketball:

Grove City College 68, Thiel College 59 Andrew Beckman and Caleb Knudsen both posted double-double performances in a win against Thiel College. A large reason Grove City College was able to win was the fact that they outrebounded their opponents 51-34.

Jan. 20 Men’s Basketball:

Grove City College 76, Bethany College 70 Grove City College had four players who scored double-digit points in this win. Corey Huff led the way with 18, while Andrew Beckman and Caleb Knudsen each collected seven rebounds.

Women’s Basketball:

Bethany College 64, Grove City College 55

out well, but was outscored 21-9 in the second quarter, as they trailed 32-28 at the halftime break. The Presidents increased their lead and had a 10-point advantage with just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter. Grove City came roaring back, but was unable to complete the comeback as the Wolverines fell 59-55.

In the game, three Wolverines finished with doubledigit scoring performances.

Kathryn Erbelding scored 12, while Lexie Arkwright and Laura Buchanan each added 11. Teresa Dallatore only scored two points, but she did lead the team with five assists. Meanwhile, Erbelding collected nine boards, while Arkwright had seven.

Despite the loss, Grove City’s season has been full of positives. Jackie Stewart, Teresa Dallatore and Lexie Arkwright have continued to improve since they became regular starters on the team.

Stewart is averaging 7.2 ppg and has accumulated 30 assists. Dallatore is only scoring 2.8 ppg, but she leads the team by a wide margin in assists, with 48.

Moreover, Arkwright is the second leading scorer on the squad, as she has averaged 13.8 ppg, while also racking up almost six boards per contest.

Of course, the obvious leader on the Wolverines is Kathryn Erbelding. The senior is scoring over 15 ppg, while also grabbing nearly nine boards in each game.

During the game against Bethany, she scored her 1,000th career point, only the 12th player in school history to do so.

With a great core group of players to build upon, the Wolverines are in good shape going forward. They just need to find consistency.

Grove City College carried a 15-point lead into halftime, but Bethany College rallied to end the Wolverines’ five-game winning streak. Kathryn Erbelding scored 25 points and pulled down 11 rebounds, while Jackie Stewart had 10 points.

Jan. 23 Men’s Basketball:

Grove City College 85, Washington & Jefferson College 61 Grove City College won in a blowout last Saturday. Four players finished with double-digit scoring outputs, including Joe Vermilya, Caleb Knudsen, Corey Huff and Brandon Grider. Meanwhile, Stephen Tam dished out seven assists.

Women’s Basketball:

Washington & Jefferson College 59, Grove City College 55 Grove City lost in a closely contested match Saturday. Despite the defeat, Kathryn Erbelding, Lexie Arkwright and Laura Buchanan all scored in the double digits, while Erbelding also had nine boards.