TECHNICIAN
friday november
5
2010
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Centennial campus assists with marathons Two running events are taking place on Centennial Campus this weekend. Elise Heglar Staff Writer
white people,’ it would be just as bad. And the use of the N-word makes it even more offensive to anyone who calls themselves African American and knows the history behind it.” Instead of freedom of expression, Copeland said these types of comments and images should be classified as hate crimes. “I mean, it is about freedom of expression, but there need to be parameters. I thought we had already established what hate crimes are,” said Copeland. “There needs to be a definite line between free expression and hate crimes. Right now, these lines are getting blurred.” While the University general statute covering hate crimes states they are “crimes related to repeated harassment, violence, physical harm to persons or property, or direct or indirect threats of physical harm to persons or property, motivated by race, religion, ethnicity, or gender,” Manasa Chitluri, a sophomore in psychology, said she believes the images are threatening African American students.
Centennial Campus is going to be extremely crowded this weekend as it is the starting point for two marathons and a half marathon. The Free to Breathe 5k walk/ run is taking place this Saturday and the City of Oaks marathon and half marathon will be taking place on Sunday. “Centennial Campus is an attractive place for events and we want to help with that as best we can,” Christine Klein, public communication specialist for transportation, said. The Free to Breathe 5k walk/run is being held in order to help raise awareness and research funding for lung cancer. Similar events are being held later this year in Greensboro and Boone. The official walk begins at 9 a.m. on Centennial Campus, but events related to the walk begin at 7:30 a.m. “[Organizers] are anticipating a pretty big turnout for this event,” Klein said. Registration for this event ended on Wednesday. There are about 2,000 expected participants. Survivors of lung cancer who wanted to participate in the walk were granted free registration. A free breakfast is also being held before the walk for survivors and their families. “When we host events on Centennial Campus, it’s because the University strives to be a good
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LUIS ZAPATA/TECHNICIAN
Wednesday night, a group of protesters gathered in the Free Expression Tunnel to paint the tunnel black as well as paint slogans such as “Laundry is the only thing that should be seperated by color.” The group was protesting a racial slur that was painted in the tunnel Sunday night.
Students: Tunnel should stay open Students and campus officials react to protest against offensive images and comments in the free expression tunnel Brooke Wallig Staff Writer
“Laundry is the only thing that should be separated by color.” This phrase, painted in red, stood out on the blackened walls of the Free Expression Tunnel Thursday morning as students blocked the entrance to the tunnel to protest the presence of racially offensive images in the tunnel. This protest came after the latest in a string of distasteful images and comments, specifically a sexually explicit image of an African American man labeled as President Obama. Racial slurs covered part of the image. This is not the first of such images. In 2008, another offensive picture of President Obama was painted in the tunnel, and there have been multitudes of comments offending many different minority communities. The Free Expression Tunnel is intended to be a public forum for stu-
dents to share information and ex- it handicap accessible. While it was press themselves and this protest has a nuisance to find alternative routes garnered attention from students, fac- to take, I didn’t feel like N.C. State ulty and the surrounding community. students were struggling to express Tracey Ray, director of multicultural themselves through spray paint,” said student affairs, said the protestors felt Ray. “Some people think this tunnel they needed to do something to actu- is necessary, others see it as a tunnel of oppression. We want to foster ally gain enough attention. “From my discussion with these and nurture innovative thought and students, they felt like they needed growth at N.C. State, but we also want to foster personal to do something and professional that would get growth. I’m not the University’s sure the free exat tent ion a nd pression tunnel increase the redoes that.” sponse f rom Brittany CopeN.C. State,” said Tracey Ray, director of multicultural land, a junior in Ray. “Many of student affairs psychology and these students Africana studies, were st udent s here during the 2008 incident, and said she believes the tunnel is an imthere are many who don’t feel they portant part of the campus, but some have had closure. There are definitely people are taking the right to express themselves too far. unresolved feelings there.” “I understand this is a Free ExpresRay said she is unsure of the actual benefit the tunnel gives to the uni- sion Tunnel, but you have to be soversity, and the presence of racially cially cognizant of the different races, charged messages on its walls lessens religions, and sexual orientations of students on campus,” said Copeland. its value even more. “A few years ago, the tunnel had to “I mean, if someone were to have be closed for several months to make written ‘God hates the Jews’ or ‘I hate
“There are definitely unresolved feelings there.”
Undergraduate on-campus transfers to College of Management
An attempt to make the distribution of state-based financial aid easier to implement and understand may cost N.C. State millions in financial aid money.
The College of Management is considering lowering the GPA requirement. Nithya Kote Staff Writer Sometime in the future, the GPA requirement for the college of management might be lowered. Many undergraduate students aspire to transfer into the College of Management from other majors.As a result, there is hight demand. But the limited resources like the number of classrooms, faculty, administrative staff in the COM restrict the intake into the college. Erin Dixon, the director of admissions in the COM said the intake depends on the enrollement goal set and the resources available. “The College of Management has a enrollement goal of how many students it can admit. This goal is set by the University in consultation with the College of Management,” Dixon said. “This depends on the resources present like the number of classrooms, the faculty, and computer support. Due to limited resources, though there is high demand , there is less intake.” Dixon said, the major chunk of the undergraduate students who get in are the freshmen. “The majority of the students who get into the College of Management are the freshmen, followed by students transferring from both on-campus and off-campus,” Dixon said. Shannon Davis, the associate dean
University could lose millions in financial aid
Brooke Wallig Staff Writer
KENT MAHONEY/TECHNICIAN
William Wilson, a sophomore in criminology, listens to Bonnie Yarboro, assistant director of admissions for COM, speak at the college of management undergraduate on-campus transfer session on Tuesday.
for undergraduate programs, said the GPA is set depending on the competition. ”Depending on the number of applications received during the past years’, the GPA the students need to have to get into the college of management is set. Students with a GPA of 3.0 or higher are competitive for admission,” Davis said. BonnieYarboro, assistant director of admissions, said they consider students with GPA below 3.0. “We consider students who have GPA of 2.75 to 3.0 as exceptions pro-
vided they have improved over a course of time. We also see if they have done well the mangement courses. As a result, if a student does not do well in one semester, that does not mean he does not have a chance to transfer-in, if he does well in the consequent semesters,”Yarboro said. Morgan Ross, a sophomore in engineering, said that she wanted to transfer-in into the college of management.
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The University could face a multimillion dollar loss if a General Assembly committee finalizes its plans to change how need-based financial aid is allotted to UNC public universities. According to Julie Rice Mallette, associate vice provost and director of the office of scholarships and financial aid, the UNC Need Based Grant committee was asked in 2009 to evaluate the current financial aid distribution system and to look for an appropriate alternative. “First and foremost, the current formula for the UNC Need-Based Grant is not based on a federal definition of need,” said Mallette. “It has its own very convoluted and unpredictable formula that has been tweaked by the
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State Education Assistance Authority over the last decade. This new proposal will result in a much simpler and predictable award to students that can be modeled more accurately than the current program.” Mallette said the current method of distribution provides more funds to middle and upper income families as well as larger universities like N.C. State. “The existing allocation formula for the UNC Need-Based Grant program disproportionately favors middle and upper-middle income students and also favors higher cost institutions,” said Mallette. “When this work group was created in 1999, the intent was to give these funds to lower and middle income students.” The new proposed system, according to Mallette, would not take into consideration the cost of tuition and attendance for a university, but would instead focus on the available contribution of students’ families. “The new formula as proposed will be based largely on the federal defini
AID continued page 5
Season-ending stretch begins in ‘Death Valley’ See page 8.
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