Issue 36 by The Independent Collegian

Sports, B1

Arts & Life, B4

UT loses in ‘worst performance of the year’ to Akron, 59-41

UT student auditions for ‘American Idol’

Independent Collegian IC The

Monday, February 7, 2011

Serving the University of Toledo since 1919

www.IndependentCollegian.com 91st year Issue 36

Snowpocalypse hits Toledo By Vincent J. Curkov IC Staff Writer

Kevin Sohnly / IC

Toledo was under a Level 3 snow emergency from Tuesday night through Wednesday after the Midwest was hit with one of the worst snowstorms of the year. Above, residents behind engineering built an igloo when the storm hit again on Saturday.

One of the worst snowstorms of the year hit the Midwest, causing a Level 3 snow emergency Tuesday night through Wednesday. Just when students thought they were getting a break, the snow fired back up on Saturday. UT administrators conducted a conference call in order to decide whether or not to close UT and figure out a plan to clean and dig the campus out of the snow. The call included Chancellor and Executive Vice President of Biosciences Jeff Gold, Interim Main Campus Provost Bill McMillen, vice president for governmental relations and chief of staff in the office of the president, Vice President of Human Resources and Campus Safety Bill Logie, UTPD Chief of Police Jeff Newton and Head Groundskeeper Doug Collins. “You can’t really plan too far ahead,” McMillen said. “You kind of have to wait, wait, wait.” By the time the conference call began, Toledo was at a Level 3 snow emergency and as a result, classes were canceled until noon on Wednesday. In this level of severity all

road ways are closed to nonemergency personnel and anyone travelling may subject themselves to arrest or a fine. UT’s inclement weather policy does not require the university to close in a Level 2 emergency, McMillen said, but classes are typically cancled if the weather is expected to get worse. “If it isn’t a Level 3 it becomes complicated,” McMillen said. “It is more of a gray area.” The university communicated the cancellation to students, faculty and staff by e-mailing and texting a UT Alert to all UTAD accounts, posting it on the UT homepage, MyUT website, Facebook and Twitter. “In the 12 hours before [the storm] we had 1,200 people sign up for UT Alert,” said Jon Strunk, manager of media relations at UT. This brings the total subscribers to over 15,000, roughly half of the UT population. UT’s grounds crew worked through Tuesday into Wednesday night in an attempt to keep the campus free of snow. “Our first priority is to keep the roads open for emergency vehicles,” said — Snowpocalypse, Page A4

Wrap-up Toledo gets blankets for homeless By Jaimee Hilton IC Staff Writer

Piles of blankets covered the gym floor at UT’s Student Recreation Center as students awaited instructions for the day on Saturday. Wrap-Up Toledo took place Saturday with about 18 to 20 student organizations participating in a fort building contest to get blankets donated for the homeless. Organizations were grouped together to form about 10 different competing groups. “The whole idea of Wrap Up is that charity should be fun, so by creating this event we can,

you know, go back to when everyone built blanket forts in their basement,” said Ryan Clark, community visionary of the Toledo branch of Wrap-Up America. “We can take from those who have these blankets sitting around and have a fun event and most importantly distribute them back to the community.” The contest is set up so 10 forts would be built. The groups are combined and separated into designated areas where they construct their forts. Contestants are given an hour and a half to build and

judges have a half hour to pick the winner. Participants are given PVC pipe to construct the framework for their fort. Participants also have a chance to go to the “store,” where they use their blankets as money to purchase additional items to use in their fort building including lawn chairs and rope. . The participants seemed excited about Wrap Up’s first event at UT. “You’re building a fort, when is the last time you did that,” — Wrap-up, Page A4

Kevin Sohnly / IC

Year of the Rabbit The Chinese Student Union at the University of Toledo hosted a Chinese New Year Celebration in the Student Union Auditorium yesterday. The event included food, dancing, musical performances and martial arts demonstrations. Below, Momo Li sings Sha Po Lang (S.P.L.) to a crowd in the Student Union Auditorium.

Kevin Sohnly / IC

Wrap-Up Toledo was held on Saturday in the Student Recreation Center at UT. Student organizations entered a fort building contest in an effort to get blankets donated for the homeless.

Forum

Monday, February 7, 2011

Jason Mack Editor in Chief

Elizabeth Majoy Business Manager

Randiah Green Managing Editor

Ethan Keating Forum Editor

- in our opinion -

Not-so-clever drug dogs nore a person’s 4th Amendment rights. While some animals have powerful senses that can be used for our goals, we must always keep in mind that they are as easily influenced and unreliable as humans. Just as a child learns to treat those of other races differently by emulating the racist actions of a parent, so can a drug detection dog sense that its handler expects it to signal the presence of drugs. Thus, an officer’s intentional and unconscious reactions to a citizen’s skin color, clothing, vehicle, etc. can encourage the dog to signal regardless of the presence of illegal substances. It is worth noting that federal drug seizure law directs a share of the profits — yes, the police profit from evidence and funds they seize — back to the law enforcement agency that made the “bust.” Further, with the power of “civil forfeiture,” the government can confiscate a person’s vehicle, home, cash and bank accounts on only the suspicion or allegation of a drug crime. Basically, officers sometimes have a financial incentive to initiate a drug search when it is unwarranted or even outright illegal. The law treats drugsniffing dogs as infallible instruments of justice without prejudgment, failing to acknowledge that the officer can easily, even unintentionally encourage the dog to signal the presence of drugs or explosives that are not there. Are our Constitutional rights so fragile that the “testimony” of a minimally-intelligent, easily persuadable pet animal instantly cancels the protections those rights grant? Sadly, the fact that a full search and seizure can be justified because a dog barks — an animal that often barks because it is in their nature to do so — at a person or vehicle is just one among the numerous valid and cogent arguments to reform and/or repeal current drug laws.

The famed horse Clever Hans once astounded visitors from all across Germany with his “ability” to make arithmetic computations, keep track of the calendar and even understand written German. After observation and experimentation, it was shown that he was not supernaturally performing complex intellectual tasks, but simply responding to the postures and facial expressions of his owners and audience. Because Hans answered questions by tapping his hooves on the ground, those watching him tended to lean forward and clench their faces in expectation, releasing their tension and leaning back once the correct number of taps had been made. Without even realizing it, Hans’ owner and audience gave him cues to stop tapping, causing his incredible consistency in answering correctly. But what if there was more at stake than curiosity and amusement, such as people’s liberty and ability to pursue happiness? A study published in the January issue of the journal Animal Cognition concludes that the use of dogs to detect the scent of drugs and/or explosives may be as unreliable as the mathematical powers of the famed horse. With a carefully controlled experiment, it showed that not only are false alarms common — more than 200 occurred in this test alone, yet no drugs or explosives were present — but that they are much more likely when the law enforcement officer believes there are illegal substances present. At best, this shows that some detection teams occasionally and accidentally cause the wrongful search, seizure, arrest and prosecution of a citizen. At worst, it means that officers can deliberately influence their dogs to signal that a person or object possesses illegal substances and provide legal justification for a search, allowing them to ig-

Snowpocalypse strikes; icy fallout could have been handled better with early cancellation The university used the UT Alert system to request that students move their on-campus vehicles. For some, just trying to move out of an already snowed-in lot caused them to get stuck. For others, the lot they were told to move to was even more snowed in, trapping their vehicle in a different, farther lot. An early warning of class cancelation would have allowed many of these students to plan ahead and move their car before the snow fell. No one is asking the university to control or predict the weather, nor to keep the campus fully accessible at all moments of a heavy snowfall. Much is completely out of anyone’s direct influence. However, some things are within our control, such as how we respond to these natural inconveniences. With student safety, accessibility and comfort as priorities, UT leaders should have met earlier and realized that the conditions would not improve so they could have cancelled classes a full day in advance.

Last Tuesday’s snowstorm proved to be far more of an inconvenience to the campus community than it needed to. While the weather is difficult to expect, current patterns of response to intense weather have been in place for many years and should be handled much more smoothly. A number of other universities issued notice of their closing a full day or more in advance, a favor for which many UT students would have been very thankful. With a student body primarily made up of commuters, having early notice of school cancelation is essential. While the 4:30 a.m. text was early enough for afternoon students to change their plans, those with class at 8 or 9 a.m. had to go to bed not knowing whether or not they needed to wake up early. Any college student can explain that the difference between waking up around 6 a.m. and sleeping until nearly noon is incredibly significant.

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- in Your opinion Take a free HIV test today The University of Toledo is a diverse, multicultural campus brimming with programs that the majority of students don’t even know exist. The Ryan White Program is a perfect example of a highly respected (although in my opinion, under-appreciated) program available to all students. This program offers free HIV testing, literature and advice on safe-sex relations that most college students find too awkward to talk about. Students aren’t likely to get tested if they don’t even know that this free service is available on campusboth the main and medical campuses, at that. I personally am taking an initiative

to get fliers about it around campus and hope that The Independent Collegian is willing to help spread the word about this very important program as well. About 20% of the 1,100,000 people infected with HIV aren’t even aware that they have it. This troubles me. Getting tested is quick, and completely painless. A trained specialist swabs your gums, and within half an hour you get your result. Nobody will know that you got tested, and you get a paper with your result on it. Another important thing to mention is that this service is not just for the homosexual community. Nobody is immune to HIV, and anybody can become infected with it, regardless of sexual orientation. I feel

that if more people knew that the testing is free, discreet and painless, more people would get tested, and that 20% would significantly be reduced. Testing is available the third Monday of every month at the Student Health Center on main campus from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm, and the first Monday of the month from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the Ruppert Health Center on the Health Science Campus. I hope this letter reaches out to someone and motivates them to get tested. It is important that we try to live as healthy and proactive as we can, and this widely unnoticed program helps to achieve that. Chad Rankin

Jobs, khakis, chicks There is a great scene in one of my favorite movies — BASEketball — that goes a little something like this: the main characters are at a party trying to meet girls and after being let down once again, they decide the problem is their lack of jobs. “Dude, Anthony it’s jobs. Russo We gotta get the jobs, then we get the khakis, then we get the chicks.” So guess what we’re going to talk about this week. Khakis? No. Chicks? I wish. No, we will be talking about jobs. I’m not going to tell you my magic plan for creating jobs because there isn’t one, and even if there were, I wouldn’t be the one bestowed with that knowledge. Even the phrase “creating jobs” or “job creation” makes me want to “create” a job for an undertaker by bathing with a toaster. I was having a jovial chat with my roomie the other day. We were talking about things that bugged us - see last week’s column. We decided it was intolerably obnoxious when folks not trained in any sort of economics “know” what we need to do to “fix” the economy. Here is a typical conversation from a non-economist: “It’s jobs, man. We gotta just make some more jobs. If we can find some way to get jobs, then we can make stuff and get money to spend on other stuff. We need like a stimulus or something and make some more jobs.” Maybe that was a bit of a caricature, but it’s true in some respects. I’m not trying to insult the general public, because I don’t expect everyone to desire or have the ability to study macroeconomics. But let’s just look at the argument this way: say you’re an engineering student trying to design a rocket and you’re having trouble getting it to fly. I come up to you and say, “Dude, it’s all about flying. You just gotta get it up in the air and let it fly. Once you get the rockets to work, it’ll fly and everything will be great.” Well, of course flight is the ultimate goal for the rocket scientist, just like jobs are the ultimate goal for a politician — see every politician if you need proof. But for many economists, jobs aren’t the end-all be-all. They are merely one measure of how strong an economy is, along with GDP (Gross Domestic Product), unemployment and other

market indicators. If we can get chicks by getting khakis using the money from our jobs, then let’s make some more jobs! Well, it’s not that easy. In a simple sense, jobs can’t just magically be created. There has to be some demand for them. However, there is an exception to this. Think back to your Production Possibilities Frontier. The PPF is the combination of goods that an economy can make using all of its resources. Do an internet search to see what one looks like. Basically, if we’re using all of our resources efficiently, we’ll be on the edge of that frontier. It wouldn’t be possible to make any more stuff, things or “do-hickeys.” But if we’re not on that frontier, some resources might be utilized inefficiently, and it is possible that the government could enact some policies to get us back to the PPF. However, we need to be careful not to further waste our resources. The jobs “created” by legislation need

“

The point is that we could hire people to do all sorts of things to put money in their wallets, but we don’t because it’s incredibly wasteful.

”

to have some demand to back them. We can’t just hire people to dig holes and then fill them in. Allow me to recycle a story from blogger David Boaz who recycled it from Jerry Jordan: “I am reminded of a story that a businessman told me a few years ago. While touring China, he came upon a team of nearly 100 workers building an earthen dam with shovels. The businessman commented to a local official that, with an earthmoving machine, a single worker could create the dam in an afternoon. The official’s curious response was, ‘Yes, but think of all the unemployment that would create.’ ‘Oh,’ said the businessman, ‘I thought you were building a dam. If it’s jobs you want to create, then take away their shovels and give them spoons!’” The point is that we could hire people to do all sorts of things to put money in their wallets, but we don’t because it’s incredibly wasteful. That is because the money spent to “create” jobs doesn’t come out of thin air. It could come from the Treasury’s printing presses, creating inflation, but that’s another column. Instead, the money comes

Tell What Think Us You

from tax dollars from the private sector, with the idea being that government takes priority over the private spending that would create private sector jobs. Here we see the “broken window fallacy,” which is a response to the idea that a child breaking a window in a village helps the village by creating work for the glazier. “Your theory stops at what is seen. It does not take account of what is not seen.” If the shopkeeper has to buy a new window, then he can’t hire a delivery boy or buy a new suit. Money is shuffled around, but it isn’t created. And indeed, wealth has been destroyed. The village now has one less window than it did, and it must spend resources to get back to the position it was in before the window broke. As [French economist] Bastiat said, “Society loses the value of objects unnecessarily destroyed.” Anyhow, before we get too off topic, if you take away one thing from this column, it’s that no one can simply wave a magic wand and “create jobs.” There are tradeoffs with everything in life. I would hope that we could all admit that “creating jobs” shouldn’t be the number one task facing our politicians, but it is. Our economic downturn didn’t come from a failure of one specific sector, or as the result of one particular government policy. I think it has a lot to do with the risktaking culture that may have proliferated on Wall Street and the housing market, as well as some poor policymaking decisions at all levels of government — look at municipal bonds! For any government to try and “create jobs,” to throw them at the problem and hope they stick is a bunch of nonsense. If Mr. Streetcorner Economist had the answer to all our problems, he probably wouldn’t be a teacher or engineer or sandwich maker. But then again, what I study impacts people’s lives a lot more than how much what they study impacts mine. The national economy impacts all of us, and I don’t want to discourage anyone from taking an interest. That being said, read a bunch of papers, blogs, articles, etc. about jobs and how they impact the flow of resources in an economy. I’ll admit it’s not exactly my area of expertise, but hopefully this column got you thinking. In the meantime, if the government can’t give us jobs, they could at least give us some khakis. It’s better than wasting funds on an ethanol subsidy. —Anthony Russo is an IC columnist and a senior majoring in economics.

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Independent Collegian

Monday, February 7, 2011

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Independent Collegian

Monday, February 7, 2011

Snowpocalypse From Page A1

Campus Briefly

Matthew Hemming, a grounds keeper. “Our main goal is to get people to class, [but] it may not be pretty at first.” A second conference call was held at 9:30 a.m., when it was decided UT would be shut down for the rest of the day with the exception of the Health Science Campus. The wind was a major factor for this storm creating large snowdrifts. “Snow was a little uneven

WPI Brown Bag Seminar

There will be a WPI brown bag seminar tomorrow from noon to 1 p.m. at the Mulford Library Garden Café. Dean of Students Michele Martinez will be presenting on Latinos in higher education. For more information, contact Rebecca Diaz at 419-383-6133.

Office of Multicultural Student Services

between lots,” McMillen said. “Some lots were harder to plow than others.” One of the major concerns for UT is making sure students with mobility disabilities can get to class, said Director of the Office of Accessibility Angela Paprocki.. “While people may view [the snow] as an inconvenience it is a real issue for someone with a mobility issue,” Paprocki said. So far, one complaint was filed due to a disabled student being unable to get to classes, but according to

Paprocki classes are not the only thing that needs to be easily accessible to students with disabilities. “Really the whole campus needs to be accessible,” she said. UT reopened in time for morning classes on Thursday. If there is a place on-campus that is difficult for you to get to, chances are it is impossible for someone with a disability to get to, Paprocki said. -Vincent D. Scebbi contributed to this article.

The OMSS will host a “black housing fair” for Black History Month Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m. in the Student Union Building Room 2592. Everyone is welcome to this opportunity to find out about hosing options and get questions answered by the Office of Residence Life. For more information, contact James Jackson at 419-530-2261.

Black Student Union

BSU will host a discussion entitled “Black Politics 101,” which will talk about how blacks have made their way to politics and the contribution to today’s politics. For more information, contact Victoria Delly at Victoria.delly@rockets.utoledo.edu.

Catherine S. Eberly Center for Women

The ECW will host a brown bag seminar Thursday from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Libbey Hall. Edith Kippenhan, associate lecturer of chemistry, will discuss how the American Chemical Society helps women in science. For more information, contact Cheryl Skolmowski at 419-530-8570.

Nick Kneer / IC

Chanelle Williams, a junior majoring in respiratory care, helps remove snow from around a fellow student’s car in lot 27D east of The Crossings on Wednesday.

Nick Kneer / IC

On Wednesday, the University sent out a UT Alert message asking students to move their cars out of the residence hall lots and into lot 25, the Rocket Hall parking lot.

Wrap-up From Page A1

UT Sports Club

The UT Sports Club will host the 2011 Winter-Fest and the kick-off event is a snowman building contest Thursday from noon to 6 p.m. in the Flatlands. Friday’s event will be a sledding contest from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the hill by Parks Tower. The event will end Saturday for the UT Hockey Club’s game at Ottawa Park at 3 p.m. Following the game will be skating on the ice. The event is free to UT students with their Rocket Card.

UT Jazz Ensemble

UT Jazz will host its Valentine’s Day Dinner and Dance Saturday from 6 p.m. to midnight at Crystal’s Lounge at the Ramada Hotel and Conference. Tickets are $35 per couple and $80 including dinner. Overnight staying is available. For more information, contact Angela Riddel at 419-530-2452.

Kevin Sohnly / IC

Judge Becki Bair, Secretary of the Office of Student Involvement, comes out of the Sigma Phi Epsilon tent on Saturday at the Student Recreation Center.

said Kathryn Cantillas, a sophomore at UT and a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. According to Cantillas, with about 75 girls in their chapter it was not hard to get the blankets they needed. Cantillas said just before the event, one of the girls in her sorority had gone out and bought 11 more blankets. “You’re building a fort at a REC center at college and you’re doing it with your friends and volunteering and you give back,” said Kellie Masserant, another member of Tri Delta and a junior at UT. The benefits, according to Cantillas and Masserant, of the event are that it gets the group to talk to each other and interact with other student organizations on-campus. The students also agreed, the event is about getting the community and everyone involved to do something good as a group. “And the obvious benefit, which is helping people,” Masserant said.

The contest was judged by dignitaries from UT, Wrap Up National Board and the alumni of Mortar Board National Honor Society, who sponsored the event. Forts are judged based on creativity, spirit and number of blankets used. When asked how their group was planning on building their fort, Masserant responded with “We don’t want to give away our secrets.” After judging, a trophy is given to the overall winner and another trophy is given to the group with the most blankets. Phi Gamma Delta and Alpha Chi Omega were the winners, while Kappa Delta won the award for most number of blankets. After the event, the blankets are quickly distributed to local homeless shelters. “It’s the idea that if you give blankets at Toledo they should stay in Toledo,” Clark said. Over 800 blankets were collected at the event but blankets are still being donated and the final collected amount is expected to be around 1,000 according to Clark.

Photos by Kevin Sohnly / IC

Above, Judge Becki Bair, Secretary of the Office of Student Involvement, shakes hands with a student in the winning tent made by Alpha Chi Omega and Phi Gamma Delta on Saturday at the Student Recreation Center. Below, Trevor Joelson, President of Wrap-Up America, speaks to the large crowd while the judges decide the winner on Saturday at the Student Recreation Center.

Kevin Sohnly / IC

Chinese New Year Members of the Chinese Student Union serve Chinese-themed food to a crowd in the Student Union Auditorium on Sunday evening. The Chinese New Year celebration included egg rolls, fried dumplings, custard, peach buns, and a variety of desserts.

“

I think that tonight, without question, was our worst performance of the year. Tod Kowalczyk UT Men’s Basketball Coach

Section B

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www.IndependentCollegian.com

Sports Monday, February 7, 2011

Page

Zach Davis – Editor

UT loses in ‘worst performance of the year’ to Akron, 59-41 By Joe Mehling Assistant Sports Editor

The Rockets dropped their fifth straight game last night at Savage Arena falling to Akron, 59-41. Sophomore Malcolm Griffin was the lone Toledo player to score in double figures with 11 points. “I think that tonight, without question, was our worst performance of the year,” UT head coach Tod Kowalczyk said. “I take responsibilit. Obviously we weren’t ready to play. To be honest, I saw it at 2 p.m. in our pregame meal. For whatever reason, this team lacks a personality of toughness. It’s been diffi- Akron cult trying to get Toledo them to play with emotion and play with a chip on our shoulder.” Just six scholarship players were available for Saturday night’s game due to an unspecified injury to freshman point guard J.T. Thomas. The Rockets (4-19, 1-8 MidAmerican Conference) also had just one day to preapre for the Zips (13-10, 4-5 MAC) due to their game on Thursday in Buffalo. The game was originally scheduled for Wednesday but was postponed due to a winter storm that cancelled classes at both Buffalo and Toledo. “The fact that we played on Thursday was dead wrong to begin with, but that’s the cards you’re dealt with,” Kowalczyk said. “The weather here was 10 times worse than they had up there. It was foolish.” Toledo shot a dismal 15 of 47 from the floor (31.9 percent) including 3 of 13 from beyond the arc. The 41 points ties a season low for the Rockets. They matched that

total in a 42-point loss at Alabama on Jan 3. “This team lacks a lot of things, let’s be honest,” Kowalczyk said. “We lack confidence. Maybe I have been too hard on them or maybe I have been too easy on them. I don’t know.” “We haven’t given up yet,” Griffin said. “We have to keep playing as hard as we can. It’s not March yet. There are still a lot of games left in conference.” Redshirt-freshman Hayden Humes led the team with seven rebounds and added six points as freshman Delino Dear grabbed six 59 boards and tallied points. 41 seven The Zips, who knocked down 11 three-pointers against UT, were led by Brett McClanahan and Zeke Marshall with 10 and nine points, respectively. Akron forward Nikola Cvetinovic had a game-high nine rebounds with eight points and three assists. Toledo native and Akron point guard Darryl Roberts knocked down a three pointer to begin a 26-9 run to open the game. The Zips continued to dominate the first half and led 32-18 at the break. Akron scored 15 points off UT turnovers. The Rockets cut the lead to 12 points with Griffin 14:55 left to play following a Reese Holliday jump shot but that’s as close as they came for the rest of the contest. “I don’t know what the answer is,” Kowalczyk said. “We are going to search and find that answer, that’s for sure.” The Rockets search for answers continue as they take on league-foe Ohio (11-12, 4-5 MAC) in Athens on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Joseph Herr / IC

University of Toledo forward Reese Holliday attempts a lay-up over Akron forward Nikola Cvetinovic in a 59-41 loss Saturday night at Savage Arena. Toledo head coach Tod Kowalczyk called the loss “the worst performance of the year”.

Rockets improve to 9-1 in MAC with win over Miami

File photo by Jason Mack / IC

Junior guard Naama Shafir scored 19 points and dished out eight assists in the 76-65 victory. By Zach Davis Sports Editor

Toledo avoided a letdown against Miami (OH) on Saturday, staying atop the MidAmerican Conference with a 76-65 win over the RedHawks. With the victory the Rockets (17-6) are off to their best start in league play in school history, winning nine of their first 10 games. UT had an 8-1 record in MAC play in 2002-03

before they lost their 10th matchup to Bowling Green. “We are not going to relax until we get what we want or die trying,” UT head coach Tricia Cullop said. “I think it’s so important that we don’t look in the rear view mirror at what we have accomplished because it’s not over yet. We have a lot of games left to play.” Senior center Melissa Goodall led the Rockets with a

game-high 21 points with eight rebounds against Miami (1013, 2-8 MAC). Junior point guard Naama Shafir scored 19 with eight assists, while senior Jessica Williams had 10 points. The Rockets shot a seasonbest 48.2 percent (27 of 56) from the field as well as 42.1 percent (8 of 19) from threepoint range. — Improve, Page B2

David Eulitt/Kansas City Star/MCT

Packers win Super Bowl XLV The Green Packers defeated the Pittsburg Steelers 31-25 at Cowboys Stadium last night.

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Independent Collegian

Monday, February 7, 2011

File photo by Jason Mack / IC

Sophomore forward Yolanda Richardson returned to the court on Saturday after suffering a concussion against Kent State on Jan 29. Richardson scored five points and had three blocks.

Improve From Page B1 The Rockets had beaten MAC East co-leaders Bowling Green and Kent State in consecutive games before narrowly avoiding an upset by a 10-12 Akron squad last Wednesday. “We couldn’t have a lapse in focus because I thought Miami really came out ready to play,” Cullop said. “They did some nice things defensively. I thought we were passive with our passes. We didn’t face the traps as well as we have in some of our other games and

unfortunately we coughed up the ball a few more times than I would have liked. Once we settled down we saw what they were giving us and that was the wide open three-point shot.” The RedHawks jumped out to a 7-0 advantage as UT failed to score for the first four minutes of the contest. After Miami led 25-16 with nine minutes to play, the Rockets blew away MU with a 23-5 run to end the half with a 39-30 lead. Miami cut the deficit to 57-52 with nine minutes left, but the Rockets held the lead throughout taking a 76-65 victory.

Toledo has seven days between its next game as they take on Ohio (7-16, 3-7) on Saturday at Savage Arena at 4:30 p.m. The Rockets typically play on Wednesday and Saturday each week. “I think it’s important to have a little rest for your legs,” Cullop said. “It’s a long season and sometimes as fans and coaches we forget about the wear and tear on their bodies. That’s why it’s important that they take care of themselves.” Saturday’s game will be part of a double-header that will be followed up by UT’s men’s team against Miami.

Jason Mack/ IC

Free throws for Israel Coaches and players competed in a free-throw-a-thon to raise money for a trip to Israel yesterday at Savage Arena. Sophomore Anna Sonka led the team hitting 97 out of 100 free throws while UT head coach Tricia Cullop knocked down 62 from the chairty stripe.

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Monday, February 7, 2011

Music From Page B4 the actual song balance is different from the end product. The sound engineer must adjust the levels of each microphone to produce the best sound – whether it means reducing Megan Beckett’s microphone to account for her powerful voice or raising the volume on the guitar. Changing the balance between the guitar and two vocalists changed the overall sound of the song. After the sound engineer had found a good balance, she asked to do something slightly different with the next few takes to see if there was a change in quality: record the vocal tracks separately from the guitar tracks. The performance of both the guitar and vocals improved when recorded separately. The guitar portion was recorded after two takes. Recording the vocals in time with the guitar was another challenge. There were several vocal-only takes

because of all the issues associated with the vocal part of the track. For instance, the male vocal’s voice cracking tends to be something that should be edited out. Beyond issues in the actual singing, there were also issues with the female vocal track. As mentioned earlier, Megan Beckett’s microphone had to be volume-reduced. She also had to change her distance from the microphone so as not to overload it. Editing the tracks together was also an interesting problem. The vocal track was slightly behind the guitar track and had to be adjusted, which took several minutes. The entire recording session, which we estimated would take an hour and a half, took almost two hours instead between balancing, the multiple takes, reviewing the music and editing. This was all worthwhile, though: the cast has their first fully recorded song to show for their efforts.

Tragedy From Page B4 3. Bridgestone: Reply All – This ad played off the common fear of clicking reply all on an inappropriate e-mail. What ensues is the protagonist smashing and kicking countless numbers of laptops and smartphones to prevent anyone from reading the email. Bridgestone earns bonus points for their “Karma” commercial where a beaver and a driver save each other’s lives. 2. Volkswagen Passat: Young Vader – Who among us has not made a legitimate attempt at using the force at some point in our lives? The reaction of the little kid in the Darth Vader costume thinking he started the car is hilarious and adorable in a Pixar kind of way. 1. Careerbuilder.com: Chimps – The title of the commercial says it all. Chimps sell. Dressing the chimps up in business attire and giving them props such as a brief case and a purse is genius. Having a chimp driving and crashing a car is comedy gold.

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Carl North (2011)

“I believe in the institution of marriage, and I intend to keep trying till I get it right.” — Richard Pryor

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Arts and Life Monday, February 7, 2011

The music of ‘West Bancroft Side Story’ The trials and tribulations of taking it to the studio

By Feliza Casano

Copy Chief

When working on a musical, one of the most important aspects to take into consideration is the music, which has to be edited into the film carefully. When we first considered creating “West Bancroft Side Story” as a musical, there were several problems we

could foresee, the first of which was the sound recording. While it was easy for the broadcasting group to access cameras for filming, recording sound – specifically highquality vocals – was a different story. Sound recording is important because the microphones used for a video camera, while high in quality, are different from the types of microphones used to record music. To produce songs of the same quality used in shows like “Glee” or movies such as “Mamma Mia!” or “Hairspray,” the production team would need a way to record professional-level vocal music. That’s when producer

Feliza Casano / IC

Last Monday, Megan Beckett (left) and Nick Kneer (right) recorded the title song of “West Bancroft Side Story.”

Carina Cornieles approached the student radio station to engineer the music recording process. The production of this show has a two-part system: the project is filmed by UTTV while the music is recorded at WXUT’s station. It was not the first time that WBSS cast members walked into WXUT’s studio, but the recording of this track marked the first non-ensemble song the cast has recorded and the first completed project. Last Monday, the cast finished recording the title track, a song sung by leads Joey and Sonia – played by Nick Kneer and Megan Beckett – as they fall in love. Recording only vocals is very different from filming. They are also somewhat similar: both take a very long time just to record a few minutes’ worth of product. For example, most pop songs are between three and five minutes long. The song we worked on was just under four minutes long – but it took nearly two hours to record! The recording process started with sound checks. The sound engineer – one of the DJs at WXUT – used three microphones for this recording: one for each of the two vocalists and one for the guitar, which was played by Nick Kneer. Recording took several takes. In the first three takes, the sound engineer asked the vocalists to sing along with the guitar as she worked on balancing the three microphones. When a song is recorded, — Music, Page B3

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DC Guastella – Editor

UT student auditions for ‘American Idol’ By A. Sharp For The IC

UT sophomore communication major Joe Repka had a chance to show the world his talents on this year’s ‘American Idol’ in an episode that aired Jan. 26. Repka remembers the audition before the three judges as one his most nervous moments, but Ryan Seacrest and many of the millions of viewers would beg to differ. Seacrest called Repka “one of the most excited men to ever audition” on American Idol. Disguising his anxiety, Repka managed to show his enthusiasm before his audition by giving high-fives to all the others in hopes of becoming a contestant to become America’s next Idol winner. Repka’s story becomes more interesting: he started his audition by giving the judges a sample of his best radio voice and they all found it to be very amusing. The Swanson, Ohio native is interested in pursuing a career in broadcasting, planning to one day be a radio personality or disc jockey. When Repka finished singing his rendition of Billy Joel’s “For The Longest Time,” they all agreed that he should stick to his day job - all three judges returned with “No‘s.” Yet the judges seemed to be complimenting him on what a great radio voice he had in terms of denying his pass to Hollywood. Steven Tyler told Repka he

liked his radio voice better than his singing one. But Repka didn’t stop there. He decided that he couldn’t take no for an answer: he decided that he’d give it another shot, and sang another song. Unfortunately the judges didn’t approve of his rendition of Elvis Presely’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” either. Though Repka did not get accepted to go to Hollywood, he said, a lot of people think of him as a hero. “It’s incredible how being a loser on ‘Idol’ could turn you into a winner in so many peoples’ eyes,” Repka said. He finds it amazing that people on UT’s campus will approach him to ask for autographs and pictures; this experience alone could have sent the average Joe’s ego over the edge. But for Repka it seems to boost his confidence, which could result in his tenacity for a career in radio. He walked out of the audition with his head held high and assuring the world that he would try auditioning for American Idol again. Repka also believes that the criticism from the judges was useful to him and the least bit negative. Repka said his performance on Idol was not him singing at his best. “I believe it was fair at the time. I think I’m a decent singer, but that time in Milwaukee definitely wasn’t my best and my radio voice was definitely better,” Repka said. “I will pursue the communications

degree first then, sometime after college, pursue the singing dream.” ‘Idol’ was not Repka’s first brush with television. Last spring, he was a contestant on the UT-based reality show “The FRESHMAN 15” and currently plays an ensemble role in “West Bancroft Side Story.” The aspiring country radio personality continues to study communication here at UT and works to set up internships for Toledo radio stations.

Nick Kneer / IC

Joe Repka smiles for a photo after returning to UT after appearing on “American Idol” for his audition.

The real tragedy in Dallas Music and commercials disappoint at Super Bowl : Pittsburgh not only losers

By Jason Mack Editor in Chief

Ron T. Ennis/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT

The Black Eyed Peas fall from the sky during the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Super Bowl Sunday is the one day of the year when people clamor for commercials rather than complain about them. However, much like “Saturday Night Live,” the level of comedy has greatly decreased over the last 10 years. The Super Bowl commercial break is a time for exotic animals and violence, most notably monkeys and nut shots. The day a company creates a commercial with a monkey kicking someone in the nuts, their stock will shoot through the roof. There was a little of each this year, but these few commercials were the exception and not the rule. Most of the major companies, such as Budweiser and Doritos, were lazy and relied on updated versions of overplayed premises. Others such as GoDaddy.com and Skechers failed with the tradition of being vulgar for the sake of vulgarity. Luckily the Black Eyed Peas were around to bring the humor with their comically-bad performance, which looked more like “Tron: The Musical” than a halftime show. Auto-tune already ruins the integrity of albums and using it live brings about new levels of disappointment. Ruining their own music is one thing,

but did they have to enlist Slash’s help to desecrate the classic “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses? Usher could have lent some credibility to the performance, but he was too busy jumping around the stage like a cheerleader to actually sing anything. Christina Aguilera owes a nice thank-you card to the Black Eyed Peas for deflecting attention from her botched lyrics during the National Anthem. Lackluster halftime performances in recent years by older performers such as Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones and The Who led to a push for a more current act this year. If they wanted to attract the young crowd, they should have brought in a quality band like The Black Keys or Arcade Fire. Amidst the abundance of terrible music, movie previews and car ads, a select few commercials managed to generate some laughter. The following is a ranking of the top five Super Bowl commercials. 5. Audi A8: Prison Break – Their ad about escaping from old luxury made the smart decision to go over the top, featuring old people diving through windows and rappelling off the roof. It also featured Kenny G to stick with the night’s theme of bad music. 4. “House” – Hugh Laurie managed to land Fox a topfive ad with this parody of the classic Mean Joe Green commercial. Instead of giving a kid some priceless sports memorabilia, House tosses his cane at the boy’s face. — Tragedy, Page B3