Technician
tuesday march
30 2010
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
WolfWheels rolls forward Bike-rental program launched Monday in Brickyard with ribbon-cutting ceremony and bike ride Nicolette Filson Correspondent
Wolf Wheels, N.C. State’s first bike-rental program, was inaugurated on the Brickyard Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at noon, followed by a bike ride to Centennial Campus and back. WolfWheel bikes and helmets were offered to students who participated. WolfWheels provides NCSU students, faculty, and staff with an alternative mode of transportation and in doing so offers a progressive solution to decreasing the University’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Natasha Herting, a graduate in industrial and systems engineering, played a key role in the program’s conception. She served as the Sustainability Commission of Student Government Chair and participated in the 2008 NCSU inaugural GHG inventory which calculated the percentage of GHG emissions by the University. The investigation found transportation was the third largest source of GHG emissions, contributing 11.8 percent of emissions. Herting said upon this realization, the Sustainability Commission of
Student Government began efforts to reduce the number and conceived the idea of the WolfWheels program. David Dean, Sustainability Outreach Coordinator, said NCSU is ranked fourth in the Southeast for “cool” schools by the Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine, a designation for greenest schools in North Carolina and surrounding states. The magazine conducted research and interviews to evaluate colleges’ and universities’ application of efficient energy use in the southeast and spotlighted and schools not just teaching about “going green” but actually doing it. “The upcoming induction of WolfWheels to NCSU’s campus was a major reason why we were ranked so high,” Dean said. “We beat out UNC-Chapel Hill, who was ranked fifth, because we are implementing a program that offers sustainable alternative transportation.” NCSU has been making efforts to become an environmentally conscious campus. The inaugural GHG inventory in 2008 was a huge step for the University and the WolfWheels is the result of action taken due to that outcome. Chancellor Oblinger, upon acceptance of his position, signed a commitment to lower GHG emissions at NCSU, and many students think this program is a significant move in fulfilling that promise. Mike Thompson, a senior in parks,
recreation and tourism management, owns a bike but lives too far away to commute to school on it. “WolfWheels is a great opportunity for students,” Thompson said. “With the campus expanding, this is an economic means of getting to class.” WolfWheels rents out bikes, helmets, locks and front and rear lights through Outdoor Adventures rental counter located on the first floor of the Carmichael Recreation Center. Outdoor Adventures will also provide maintenance clinics and workshops for renters. Students, faculty and staff can register for the program in person up to two weeks in advance. Spring 2010 rental hours are Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and this summer from noon to 5:00 p.m. In efforts to become a more health-conscious and sustainable campus, Wolf Wheels has been sponsored by many departments and organizations on campus including Campus Enterprises, Campus Recreation, Carmichael Complex Facilities & Operations, the Department of Transportation, the N.C. State University Cycling Club, the Sustainability Commission of Student Government, the University Sustainability Office and the Office of Energy Management.
candy campaign
Tim O’Brien/Technician
Matt Gromlich, senior in plant biology, talks with Alexa Sawyer, sophomore and Campus Recreation employee, at the WolfWheels launch ceremony on the Brickyard Monday March 29, 2010. Sawyer works at the Outdoor Recreation desk which will distribute the bikes. “The lock, lights, and helmet make them a great deal for students,” Sawyer said.
Graduate’s colored strings aid learning guitar Graduate student designs revolutionary product to help anyone learn guitar, bass Margaux Novak Staff Writer
kali rogers/Technician
Taylor Hiott, a sophomore in political science, hands cotton candy to students as part of the Matt Woodward’s Student Body President campaign Monday on the Brickyard.
UGSA chooses new executives University Graduate Student Association elected officials share plans for coming year Rachel Port Staff Writer
The University Graduate Student Association elected its executive officers for the Monday evening, with one nominee for each office. Ali Kefeli, re-elected UGSA president, said the GSA representatives of each department nominate graduate students for each executive officer position. “The nominations are open to everybody, but we prefer to have people who have been with UGSA before serve in these positions,” he said. “That’s why we didn’t advertise it to the whole graduate student body.” According to Kefeli, for the five years he was involved in UGSA there was always only one nominee per position. Alex Hummel, elected vice president internal, said graduate students aren’t as likely to take volunteer positions as other people might be. “Graduate students tend to have a million things on their plate at a time, so taking on additional responsibilities tends to add more stress to their lives that they maybe cannot mentally handle,” he said.
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The UGSA vice president internal is a position analogous to the Student Government Senate president, he or she organizes the standing committees, maintains organizational order and makes sure paperwork is filled. “I want to organize better rules of order for our chamber. If there are no rules of order, things can turn into a shouting match,” Hummel said. “But if the rules are too legalistic, people tend to get confused and shy,” Hummel said. Hakan Karagul was elected vice president external, which is responsible for finding graduate students to attend standing committee meetings. Karagul said the standing committee seats were not all filled this year and he hopes to get all those positions filled next year. “It’s important to find graduate students to fill seats,” Karagul said. “It’s the connection point for the graduate students to the rest of the University.” Karagul said the UGSA executive board is working to make UGSA a member organization of the National Association for Graduate and Professional Students to discuss national issues facing graduate students and the solutions attempted by other school. NCSU’s 7,000 graduate students automatically become a part of UGSA when they enroll at the University and are charged a fee of about $14 per year,
according to Kefeli. The UGSA’s budget is sustained by these fees and its projected budget for the next year is $81,055. Zack Kenz, elected UGSA treasurer, said he is looking forward to serving the graduate students. “It’s important that money is being spent on things that will benefit the students,” Kenz said. According to Kenz, the UGSA treasurer doesn’t have as much power to abuse as another organizational treasurer might because a lot of items in the budget approved by the UGSA council are fixed and the same from year to year. “Our costs are fairly predictable, which will make tracking reasonable,” he said. The UGSA plans to finance travel and thesis grants, TA Awards, social events, the annual Graduate Research Symposium and to allocate money to each GSA department in an appropriations process called “chapter rebates.” Kefeli said his goals for next year as president include increasing the involvement of the UGSA in graduate student careers in the University as a whole. “I want every graduate student to have had some sort of exposure to something that we do for them,” Kefeli said.
In the past 10 months Italo Leiva, junior in psychology, developed a new idea for a product and company, P-Synth Natural Talent Strings Inc., to ease the process of learning an instrument. Leiva has since bought the patent and established a manufacturer in China. The idea for the project developed last summer while Leiva began learning the guitar while he was recovering from an illness. Frustrated with learning difficult chords, he color-coded the strings to help with the process and to develop a visual understanding of stringed instruments. When Leiva explained the idea to Gene Reinert, teacher at Guru Guitar, Reinert said, “Son, I think you just made yourself a millionaire.” Leiva pitched the idea to Ahmed Abdul-Ghani, his friend and now vice president of the company, and Abdul-Ghiani said it sounded like a good idea. “When I first heard his [Leiva’s] idea I thought it sounded great,” AbdulGhani said. “Everybody has their ideas when it comes to business, but anytime you are dealing with a patent there is room for success. I believed in it and the more and more he talked about it the more I felt comfortable investing with him.” The two pooled their life savings to hire a lawyer to begin the patent process but found out in Feb. the idea had already been patented a year before. “My heart broke right then,” Leiva
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said. “We had just sent all of our money because we believed in this idea and we hit a wall.” Leiva attempted to find the owner of the original patent, Rodney Shelton, who lived in Nashville, TN. “We talked everyday for three weeks [on the phone],” Leiva said. “I just knew we had to work something out.” After discussing the situation, Shelton agreed to hand over the rights to the patent under two stipulations: the colors corresponding to the notes would not be changed and the focus of the product be centered around building a foundation with which anyone can learn to play guitar or base. Leiva said he was very fortunate for the success he experienced “You never know. I never thought this would happen; I never planned on it. All I can tell you is that I am blessed,” he said. Leiva’s current business plan involves eventually producing colored guitar and bass strings for players followed by instruction books to aid in learning guitar and bass. He said he hopes to expand the business to one day produce colored teaching strings for all stringed instruments. Leiva said the company’s mission was promoting the learning of stringed instruments through visuals and the books will be typical learning manuals brought to life with color. “Everything we do is very visual and this is what will speed up the learning process,” he said. “We want to revolutionize music by starting with unlikely musicians and proving that anyone can learn to play.” P-Synth Natural Talent Strings Inc., which will soon be renamed Leiva’s Strings, are slated for release in stores in late April.
Freshman finding early success
See page 8.
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