Women’s soccer wins at home
4see WOMEN pg. 6
Winthrop University
September 4, 2014
Campus Police release 2012 crime statistics By Frances Parrish parrishf@mytjnow.com Do not walk alone, especially at night. Change passwords to any of your accounts frequently. Lock cars and residence hall rooms when left unattended. Winthrop has released its latest crime statistics for campus and offcampus locations such as Winthrop Coliseum, Winthrop Lake and fraternity/sorority houses. Winthrop University is an open campus; therefore, anyone can walk on campus. Winthrop Police Chief Frank Zebedis stresses the importance of campus safety, especially in light of the recent outbreaks of violence on college campuses. “Parents are worried,” he said. The Winthrop Police Department is a fully functioning police department that patrols off-campus as well as on campus. “My philosophy is, if we can stop the problem before it gets on campus, it makes our campus environment safer,” Zebedis said. Winthrop police implement multiple programs to help avert crime on campus, such as the alcohol awareness program, escort services at night and call boxes. Property Safety While residence halls are secured with key card access, people still sneak in through tailgating, a term Zebedis explained as sliding through the door behind someone without swiping their student ID. Zebedis explained that tailgating people could put the residence hall at risk for crime. According to Winthrop’s crime statistics from 2012, eight burglaries and 38 cases of larceny
occurred on campus and off-campus. Winthrop has no reported hate crimes for 2012. The 2013 statistics will be released in October 2014. In comparison to other 4-year public universities with residence hall facilities in South Carolina registered with the Department of Education, Winthrop ranks No.7 out of 13 for the highest amount of burglaries. Four universities reported no burglaries, including four of the campus locations for Clemson University. “Theft is the biggest problem we encounter on college campuses, and it’s the biggest problem we have here at Winthrop,” Zebedis said. To help recover stolen property, Zebedis encourages students to download Operation CLAW, a free software download for up to two devices. If the device is stolen, police can activate the GPS coordinator in the device to recover the stolen device. According to Zebedis, the bait bike is a successful program, and over the last four years, only six bikes have been stolen. Personal Safety Winthrop Police offer escorts to students walking through campus late at night if they feel unsafe. Scattered through campus are more than 70 emergency call boxes. But sex offenses do occur on campus; five occurred in 2012. Campus police teach a class for females to learn how to defend themselves. Rape, Aggression and Defense (RAD) accepts 30 students twice a semester. The course lasts for three days. Zebedis said that he has nine RAD instructors. “What we are teaching you is that you can defend yourself,” Zebedis said.
4see SAFETY pg. 3
There are over 70 emergency call boxes on the Winthrop campus. Photo by Adarrell Gadsden
Rock Hill, South Carolina
Winthrop Skydiving Club sends students free falling
Skydiving Club Vice President Savannah Moritzky plummets through the air on a recent skydiving excursion. Photo Courtesy of Savannah Moritzky By Daniel James jamesd@mytjnow.com
Wind in your face. A rush of adrenaline. Falling to earth from 14,000 feet. Are you looking for excitement, a rush of energy and indescribable scenery to make college life less monotonous? The Winthrop University Skydiving Club is for daredevils just like you! Skydiving Club President Dakoda Mullinax founded the club last year. According to Mullinax, he had been interested in skydiving for a while; however, adjunct sociology professor John Solomon, an avid skydiver, increased his interest. Mullinax founded the Skydiving Club later with Solomon as club sponsor. “My first time flying in a plane was the first time I jumped out of one, which inspired the slogan printed on our club shirts ‘Been in a plane, never landed in one,’” Mullinax said. The Skydiving Club works in conjunction with a company in Chester, South Carolina, called Skydive Carolina. Because the club works through them, all equipment (jumpsuit, goggles, helmet and parachute) is
provided by Skydive Carolina. Many students have financial concerns when it comes to joining a new club. While the Skydiving Club does have club dues of $20, which includes the price of a T-Shirt, that is not the only charge associated with this activity. According to Mullinax, club dues do not pay for the jump. The cost of the jumps are paid directly to Skydive Carolina, but Winthrop’s Skydiving Club gets a discounted price, making the price of the jump $169, compared to the usual $219 charged by Skydive Carolina. In addition to the discount, the Skydiving Club also hosts fundraising events throughout the year to help cover the costs of the members’ jumps. Another common concern regarding skydiving, as well as other club sports, is that of safety. Mullinax responded to this question that skydiving is safer than driving, a statement which studies back up. According to the United States Parachute Association (USPA), there were about 3.2 million parachute jumps in 2013, but only an estimated eight fatalities. To put this in perspective, there were 30, 800 fatal motor crashes in the year 2012 alone, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
4see SKYDIVE pg. 7
Students’ guide to the stock market Students should not be reluctant to dive head-first into Wall Street By Rob Vereen Special to The Johnsonian The stock market is one of the greatest inventions known to man — that is, if you understand it. The first thing that comes to mind when you hear someone say stocks is money. Terms such as booms and busts, bulls and bears, IPOs and earnings per share are all associated with the stock market. If you’ve ever watched CNBC’s “Closing Bell” or the Fox Business Channel, then you are probably familiar with many of these terms. However, the stock market is much more than just terms. It is power and understanding, and that power can lead to a world of opportunities. So what exactly is the stock market? There are several markets where stocks are traded, the most prominent being the New York Stock Exchange. Companies that trade
in these markets go by ticker symbols. For example, Facebook uses the ticker symbol FB and Twitter goes by TWTR. In order to trade on the stock market, you have to go public. Once you go public, your company is assessed, and you are given an Initial Public Offering (IPO). In other words, your first price per share of stock. You may have heard about the Dow Jones and the S&P 500. These are iconic financial market indicators that create a picture of how the economy is doing as a whole. Composed of several major companies, these indicators provide feedback to investors. If these, and others like them, aren’t doing well then it’s safe to say many companies themselves aren’t doing well. There is so much information about the stock market that it takes weeks to master it. However, at its basic level, the stock market is easy to understand.
4see STOCK pg. 10