TECHNICIAN
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Raleigh, North Carolina
Street Festival planning heats up Hillsborough Street planners work to prepare for day-long street festival
HILLSBOROUGH STREET RENAISSANCE CHARITIES
Derek Medlin
Engineers Without Borders NCSU Chapter This charity partners students and professionals to benefit communities in need of clean water, renewable energy and basic education. The group also tutors and mentors local students in math and science.
Managing Editor
Organizers for the first annual Hillsborough Street Renaissance, a green arts and music festival designed to bring the community together, have started finalizing plans for the event. Will McGuire, a senior in aerospace engineering and one of the event organizers, said plans for the March 14 event have continued to grow and change during the last month or so. “Plans have been moving along,” he said. “We’re starting to finalize our plans for the festival. Right now we’re focusing on sponsorship.” The street festival, scheduled to begin at noon and last until 10 p.m., will kick off the construction scheduled to take place on Hillsborough Street and the surrounding area during the next two years. The festival, McGuire said, is designed to bring the community of students, residents and local professionals together. The event will also help three local charities—Engineers Without Borders, MorLove and Soles4Souls. Since the planning started in late 2008, McGuire said the event has done nothing but grow. “Initially, it was challenging because we had to meet with so many people and convince them the event was safe,” he said. “After that, more and more people started to get involved.” McGuire said planners are still
MorLove MorLove is a student run nonprofit that recycles textile material to make clothing items. These items include clothes, home goods and accessories. The group raises money to send to an orphanage in Uganda. TIM O’BRIEN/TECHNICIAN
Soles4Souls Soles4Souls is a group dedicated to impact people’s lives with the donation of shoes. Shoe companies, retailers and individuals can donate new and used footwear which will be distributed to areas of need. SOURCE: WWW.HSREN.ORG
expecting up to 20,000 people to attend the event. Attendees will have numerous attractions to choose from throughout the festival on March 14. McGuire said there will be a pig and pie contest, an alternative fuels vehicle showcase, a fashion show, an iron chef contest and more. The pig and pie cook off contest, sponsored by Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. There will also be bands on hand to play throughout the day. Joseph Heil, an event coorFESTIVAL continued page 3
Sydney Parker, a junior in textile engineering, talks with Tony Accettulio, a human resource manager for Altec Industries, at the Engineering Career Fair at the McKimmon Center Wednesday. The event featured about 260 companies from across the United States.
Career Fair draws crowd Biannual event features prospective employers looking for graduating students Sonya Deulina Correspondent
The College of Engineering held the first day of its biannual career fair Wednesday at the Jane S. McKimmon Center. The fair continues today from 9:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. Despite America’s current economic crisis, students packed the McKimmon center eager to get noticed by and impress top potential employers. However, Brian Koehler, director of the engineering career fair, said company registration for this year’s fair is down. “Over the two days we’ll have about
246 [companies] registered,” he said. “That is about 20 percent down from previous semesters.” Despite the slight decrease in numbers, Koehler said the 2009 fair has had one of the largest student turnouts in its history. “It still ranks as the third largest in N.C. State history,” he said. Companies were eager to seek out new employees, some were definitely impacted by the economic crises. Representatives from Duke Energy and Exxon-Mobil both said the economy has hurt their ability to offer graduating students jobs. Representatives from White Oak Technologies and IBM both refused to comment, citing directions from their corporate offices. Some companies, however, were not set back at all by the economy. Students flocked around the National Security Agency information table.
Basketball ticketing working well Students are pleased with the results of changes implemented in the fall Deputy News Editor
Saja Hindi Editor-in-Chief
LUIS ZAPATA/TECHNICIAN
John Krier, senior in electrical engineering, and Scott Hilgoe, senior in civil engineering, made beaker heads with four friends to wear to last Saturday’s basketball game against UNC-Chapel Hill. “It was John and I’s idea,” Hilgoe said.
stands,” Garcia said. “That was a big concern, providing the players with a home court advantage.” The only issues that have come from the new system is a few errors in the loyalty points scans. “There’s been some cases where students reported their tickets had been scanned and no points were added,” Garcia said. “But its just about notifying us at that point [and we get it fixed.]” Despite the drastic improvements, Garcia said more could
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still be done. “The target is perfection. We are almost there, but not quite,” he said. One thing Student Government explored was the idea of general admission, Garcia said. However, there was no way general admission seating could work in the RBC Center. “When you are in Reynolds that’s one thing, but the RBC is a different animal. At this point, it’s not possible,” Garcia said. Garcia even went as far to say
with the way the stands and aisles are set up, it would pose a safety hazard to have general admission. “It seemed like a good idea, but I think we can get the same benefits in other ways,” Garcia said. One of those ways is a timed-entry system. “[We’re] looking at a timedentry system,” Garcia said. “It gives all the benefits of genTICKET continued page 3
ENGINEER continued page 3
Pack-a-Thon preparation going into full swing Organizers open registration, gear up for new and improved marathon
Samuel T.O. Branch The men’s basketball ticketing process, which underwent significant changes last semester, is working well so far, according to Matt Garcia, chair of the Student Government Athletics Commission. Before this season, Student Government worked with the Athletics Department to change the ticketing system to a loyalty point system. “The main thing is that [the new system] rewards attendance rather than penalizes absences,” Garcia said. According to the Athletics Department ticket policy, each student started the beginning of this season with an amount of loyalty points that corresponded to their respective class. For every event they attended, a point was added, and for every event a student received a ticket but did not attend, a point will be deducted. All of the changes were based off of research conducted on other universities’ ticketing systems and interviews done with students, Garcia said. One of the primary goals—filling the stands every game—has been realized this season. “If you look at last year, I haven’t been to a game where there has been big gaps in the
Tonya Stankowitz, chief of the office of recruitment for the NSA, said the NSA is looking for skilled graduates. “We are looking for technical students,” she said. “We are primarily interested in electrical engineers, computer engineers, we are hiring some power engineers. We are the largest employer of mathematicians in the United States. We are lucky in that [the economy] isn’t limiting us, we are a federal government so it’s not a profit organization. The NSA is planning to hire 1,500 people this year with one third in the technical skill fields.” Student reactions to the fair were mixed. Daniel Piephoff, a junior in chemical engineering, said he was surprised some companies didn’t show up. “I was disappointed that Exxon-Mobil
This year’s Pack-a-Thon, formerly known as dance-a-thon, will take place March 21 but with some changes, including a shift of focus from dancing to making it more of a game night. The marathon will take place in Carmichael Complex from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The group had its first informational meeting Tuesday. Proceeds will go to fund the North Carolina Children’s Hospital like last year, but also to the newly-opened special clinic at Rex Hospital. The goal is to raise $35,000. And although the marathon only raised $7,000 last year, there is still some money left over that can be donated this year, according to corporate fundraiser Joseph Davis. Davis, a senior in business administration, said organizers talk to the hospital every year to see exactly where it needs the money most. The money goes into a fund called Dollars for a Difference. Pack-a-Thon organizers save money in the fund so they can donate it to the hospital’s general fund, the North Carolina Children’s Promise, when it is need-
ed. The fund now has $55,000. “This is such a great cause, just from visiting the hospital and seeing the families that came out for the concert, and the families that come every year for the marathon,” he said. The concert Davis was referring to was the Rock for Life benefit concert Pack-a-Thon organizers hosted in November 2008 at Stewart Theatre. Five bands played at the concert, and each band gave one dedication to a child at the hospital and told that child’s story. Jenna Tie, overall committee chair, said this was the first time the group had hosted such a large-scale fundraiser, but she said it was very successful. “Usually, in the past, we would do lots of small fundraisers in the fall and raise very little money for the effort we put in,” Tie, a senior in communication, said. This year’s marathon was cut to eight hours because Davis said it’s been hard for people to commit to such a long period of time, especially on a Saturday, and it would be impossible to hold it on a weekday. Tie agreed. “We want it to be a standing tradition, and we can’t get it to be a standing tradition if people don’t come consistently every year,” Tie said. But Davis said he’s excited DANCE continued page 3
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