The October 4, 2011 issue of the Niner TImes

PAGE 1

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

ZOMBIES WILL TAKEOVER CAMPUS

p. 12

NINERTIMES Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Published twice weekly and online at www.nineronline.com

A product of Student Niner Media • The University of North Carolina at Charlotte • Partially funded by Student Fees • Breaking News? Email us at editor@nineronline.com or call 704.687.7148

New on NinerOnline.com: Read the latest student blogs including Niner History Nuggets and Naughty Niners.

New sorority recruits on campus Lauren Dunn LDUNN8@UNCC.EDU

A new sorority on campus, Kappa Delta (KD), began recruitment on campus Monday, Sept. 26, 2011, and will continue until Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011.

During their recruitment period two chapter development consultants, Lindsey Houchin and Samantha Navarra, will hold several different events for ladies of all years who are interested in joining the sorority to attend.

With only a few events under their belt, excitement is already abounding from UNC Charlotte ladies.

“I knew from the moment I attended my SOAR session in the summer that I would want to be a part of Kappa Delta,” said UNC Charlotte student Liz Herrman. “Their values and the way they present themselves is amazing, they are so confident. The Kappa Delta ladies also want to spread confidence, which is something that I personally think is great.”

SORORITY p.5

SOAR counselor registration begins

Members of the Latin American Student Organization at an event during last year’s Hispanic Heritage Month. Photo courtesy of LASO

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month Ashley Dorrell ADORRELL1@UNCC.EDU

Molly Mulhern MMULHER1@UNCC.EDU

For students interested in working as Student Orientation and Registration (SOAR) counselors this summer, the SOAR orientation program for freshmen will be hosting a recruitment meeting Wednesday, Oct. 5. 2011, at 5:30 p.m. in the University Cone Center room 113.

SOAR begins recruitment now because counselors are required to take a course in the spring semester.

“This course helps the team to get to know each other and bond, as well as learn about the background and history of the school,” said former SOAR counselor, Matthew Amabile. “This is like your crash course on everything to do with the school.”

During training the SOAR counselors go through many different types of activities to prepare themselves for the coming summer.

“In training, we would practice talking, introductions and just working with people,” said former SOAR counselor, Jenny Jones. “It was a perfect leadership position, and I was able to work on my people skills with the program.”

After learning all of the techniques that are used during orientations the counselors in training go through the more hands-on COUNSELOR p.4

The Latin American Student Organization (LASO) will host events throughout the duration of Hispanic Heritage Month, with their final event-taking place Friday, Oct. 21. 2011.

Hispanic Heritage Month began Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011, and will continue until Oct. 21. LASO plans to host three more events for the remainder of Hispanic Heritage Month. All of them are open to the public to come and meet new people and learn more about the Hispanic culture.

Hispanic Bingo Night will take place Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011, at 7 p.m. in the Stu-

dent Union room 340 A and B. LASO will then host a formal dinner Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011, in the Student Union room 340 A and B at 7 p.m. Dr. Claudia of Avellaneda, a political science professor at UNC Charlotte, will be speaking at the event to encourage students and members of LASO that success can be achieved no matter the circumstances.

The final event, Niner Rumba, takes place in Afterhours, located in the University Cone Center, on Friday, Oct. 21, 2o11, will be held from 7 until 11 p.m. It will be a large celebration with refreshments, a DJ and dancing where students can meet one another and socialize.

LASO, the biggest Hispanic student or-

ganization on campus, promotes cultural awareness at UNC Charlotte and in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area. Marco Campos, the club president and UNC Charlotte student, has participated in the Hispanic Heritage Month events for three years, this being his first year leading the events and coordinating them.

“It’s LASO tradition to hold this, so most of the events are already set up but we just have to make minor detail changes. This will be our eighth year doing the events, it is LASO’s priority to spread awareness, and heritage month is the best time to promote it and a great way to spread the word,” said Campos.

Attendance levels have varied through HERITAGE p.3

NEWS Debate over internet cafe use: Recently, concerns

have arisen of what exactly purchased internet time may be used for.

Save the tatas: October is Breast Cancer Awarness Month.

Digitizing Atkins: For the

past 11 years, J. Murrey Atkins Library has been digitalizing items from the rare collections located on the 10th floor.

OPINION

A&E

FEATURES

NETFLIX BACKLASH?

BOTANICAL GARDENS

Netflix used to be the largest and

It’s estimated that 25,000 guests,

cheapest multimedia distributor with

recorded from 49 states and 30

a subscriber base of 24 million.

different countries, visit the Botanical Gardens each year.

But now they are literally becoming null and void due to their 60 percent price increase and cutting their already out dated services in half. p. 6

The gardens here consist of three major areas: the McMillan Greenhouse

CHRIS PRATT TALKS “MONEYBALL”

complex, the Susie Harwood Garden p.

and the Van Landingham Glen.

p.

PAGE 2

NINERTIMES

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

UNC Charlotte helps save the tatas

Earth balloon used at local schools

CASES OF CANCER IN MECKLENBURG COUNTY

Eden Creamer

The Earth balloon, an exhibit which was present at the International Festival Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011, was an instructional tool at two elementary schools before it was used at the annual UNC Charlotte event.

Students at Nathanial Alexander Elementary School, a Charlotte Mecklenburg School (CMS) and Woodrow Wilson Elementary School a Kannapolis City School (KCS), received the opportunity to learn first-hand about the world they live in.

Various lessons were taught to students using the balloon. Younger students learned about continents, oceans and geographic features, while older students studied weather patterns.

A sponsor of I-Fest, the UNC Charlotte Office of International Programs (OIP) coordinated with the schools to allow elementary school students to benefit from the Earth balloon before it became a display at the International Festival.

Nathanial Alexander Elementary School is part of the Governor’s Village.

The Teacher’s Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA – CREF) and UNC Charlotte partnered together to developed programs for the four schools that art part of the Governor’s Village.

This partnership began at the beginning of the 2011 academic year.

The four CMS schools that were founded as the Governor’s Village in 1996 are John M. Morehead STEM Academy, Nathaniel Alexander Elementary, James Martin Middle and Zebulon B. Vance High.

Number of People

ECREAMER@UNCC.EDU

8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0

7098

2000 (both new diagnoses and those who already had the cancer) 2011 (projected new cases)

3130

2538

1947

1444 377 Colon/Rectum

601 Lung/Bronchus

710 Female Breast

1829 591

Prostate

Other

Graphic by Karen Pierce / NC Central Cancer Registry and the National Center for Health Statistics

Eden Creamer ECREAMER@UNCC.EDU

Many organizations on campus kicked off Breast Cancer Awareness Month Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011, at the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. The event took place in uptown Charlotte, beginning on South Tryon Street.

According to the National Cancer Institute, breast cancer is one of the most diagnosed forms of cancer among all ethnic backgrounds.

In 2011, 7,390 newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer are expected in North Caro-

lina among both genders, based on a study done by the American Cancer Society. This is the second highest expected count for North Carolina, just below prostate cancer.

The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, which began in 1983, is known as one of the largest 5K walks in the world, and raises large amounts of money for breast cancer.

The walk also serves to celebrate survival from breast cancer, and honor those who lost their lives to the disease.

The first annual race in Charlotte, NC, was in 1997, with over 2,000 participants at the first race. The Komen Charlotte Affiliate has grown in the past 11 years, and

now over 16,000 people participate in the race. The Komen Charlotte Affiliate holds numerous fundraisers throughout the year, which includes the Race for the Cure, Passionately Pink for the Cure, Marathon for the Cure, 3-Day for the Cure, Laugh for the Cure and eBay Giving Works.

Money raised at the Charlotte race is kept in local communities for breast cancer education, screening and treatment, and is used to support the National Award and Research Grant Program.

In 2010, there were more than 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States.

NINERONLINE.COM

Police Blotter

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

LARCENY

HIT AND RUN

Sigma Kappa House, sign removed from house.

Union Deck, witness observed vehicle strike another vehicle.

Sept. 24 Sept. 26

Student Activties Center, property was taken without permission.

Wachovia Field House, property removed from secured area.

Facilities Management Building, tools and other equipment removed without permission.

Sept. 29

Storrs building, bike rack, secured bike removed from bike rack.

College of Education, property removed while unattended and unsecured.

CALLS FOR SERVICE Sept. 25

Phillips Road, victim’s vehicle was accidentally struck by a tire being utilized by student for exercise practice.

The Flats, officer responded to a call of a subject that threatened to jump off wall.

Sept. 29

PPS, victim was being followed by an unknown individual.

VANDALISM Sept. 24

Lynch Hall, subject wrote inside elevator with permanent marker.

Lynch Hall, subject wrote inside men’s restroom with permanent marker.

Sept. 23

Sept. 24

Lot 22, car damaged while parked and unattended.

Sept. 25

University City Blvd, subject rear ended vehicle and fled scene.

Sept. 28

Lot 25, car damaged while parked and unattended.

MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT Sept. 29

Lot 13, locked vehicle was not at last known location.

MISUSE OF FIRE EQUIPMENT Sept. 23

Prospector, unknown subject activated a fire pull station.

SIMPLE NONPHYSICAL ASSAULT Sept. 27

Lynch Hall, known acquaintance communicated threats to victim.

Atkins library digitizes rare collections Eden Creamer

ECREAMER@UNCC.EDU

For the past 11 years, J. Murrey Atkins Library has been digitalizing items from the rare collections located on the 10th floor of the library.

Kristy Dixon, Digital Programs Archivist at Atkins, serves as the “project manager” for this undertaking. Dixon oversees students who are hired to work with the materials, and once digitized, the collections go to individuals who catalogue everything online.

“Special collections are materials that are rare, unique, truly one of a kind. Being able to provide online access to that material, whether it is for student work, faculty research, is a great way to introduce people to the kind of materials that are in our collections that are available for them to use,” said Katie McCormick, assistant university librarian for Special Collections at Atkins.

Only a fraction of the material in the rare collections at Atkins has been digitized.

“We have 3,000 items currently up, but we have well over a million unique items in our collections,” said Dixon. “We’re starting to work on our manuscripts. So letters, diaries, that kind of thing.”

The library staff aims at making all of the items in the special collections available online.

“The reality is, though, that it is logistically impossible,” said McCormick. “Our goal is to make everything that we can available at a time.”

New items are digitized each day, though with the size of the collections, it is difficult to know how long it will take before new collections are added to the website.

“Work is ongoing,” said McCormick.

“We are about to release materials from Civil War related collections. These should go out to the public in the next few weeks, and these are from some of our manuscript collections. They’re mostly letters, a couple of essays.”

The items in the collections are diverse, ranging from text-based collections to photos. “We have a lot that would be of interest to students,” said Dixon. “We have aerial photos of the university city area, and of the university, so students can see how the area has changed. Art and photography

students would also benefit from historical photos we have in our collections.”

Students from all across the academic spectrum will be able to use these material “We’ve had students of English come in and do work, students of history, but we’ve also had students from the art department to come and use material,” said McCormick.

Included among the collections are UNC Charlotte yearbooks up to the year 1985, postcards from Charlotte, NC by Mary Boyer, photographs of Charlotte by award-winning photographer Steve Perille, photographs by William H. Sumner, aerial photographs of UNC Charlotte and the surrounding area and the Built Environment Digital Collection. ”We partnered with NC State to completed the Built Environment Digital Collection,” said Dixon. “This resource is great for architecture students.

Students may access the digital collections at http://digitalcollections.uncc.edu/ cdm/.

“Putting digital collections together and making them available enhances the kinds of materials that are available to students,” said McCormick. “Digitizing the material is about publicizing things that we have, about drawing people in to do further research and about making unique materials available to people where they are at.”

Projects such as Google Books aim to digitize all the books from libraries around the world. “Books are an easy thing to digitize. There are differences in them, but you can set up a machine so that you can do that very quickly,” said McCormick.

Digitizing other works, such as the ones in the rare collections at UNC Charlotte, is not as simple as books.

“With manuscript collections, with university archives, there is a variety of legal issues, copyright issues. A single manuscript collection can have 200,000 individual items. And we have 450 manuscript collections, so the time it would take given current limitations in technology, and given that these are photos and letters and things of all different sizes and shapes, somethings are really fragile, will make it difficult to digitize everything in the collection.”

PAGE 3

Debate heats over internet cafe use Lauren Dunn LDUNN8@UNCC.EDU

Business centers, or internet cafes, are a common new trend rapidly popping up around the Queen City, some close to UNC Charlotte.

These business centers, usually situated in strip malls, allow customers to purchase internet time to be used at their discretion.

Recently, however, concerns have arisen of what exactly this purchased internet time may be used for.

While many of these internet cafes advertise a type of business center where faxing, printing and copying can be done, many times it isn’t used for such. Online gambling has become a popular sport among the groups that regularly use these businesses.

“I think it’s a great concept if it were used properly,” said UNC Charlotte senior, Megan Russell. “But, it seems that people seem to abuse it and use it for online gambling or other inappropriate things.”

The Charlotte Mecklenburg Planning Department held a discussion group Thursday, Sept. 29, 2011, for citizens to discuss internet sweepstakes and internet cafes.

The purpose of this discussion was to recruit volunteers for a citizen advisory group which they hope to create to better voice all sides of the issue.

Representatives from the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department, Charlotte’s legal department and Charlotte tax office were all present as were many internet café owners and other concerned citizens.

“People think it’s a dirty business, but it isn’t,” said the owner of one internet café.

Other owners agreed saying they cater to an older crowd that use the internet cafes for entertainment purposes.

Still others voiced concerns about having the internet cafes turning to residential areas without regulations. Then thoughts turned to the worry of having them clustered into predominantly black communities.

One internet cafe owner wanted to express his desire to keep the businesses open for the sake of his employees.

He stressed that, as a business, they do nothing wrong.

They simply allow customers to purchase internet time and with that internet time comes free credits for internet sweepstakes games.

For many of the concerned citizens present, the question of crime was a major factor for their involvement in the issue.

Their fears were whether or not these internet cafes and their internet sweepstakes were considered gambling, or if they would generate other types of crime to the area.

Currently, North Carolina laws are such that the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department is prohibited in taking any action within these cases.

The planning department hopes to be able to form some sort of legislation on what steps, if any, is to be taken with these businesses.

“We want to gather as much information as we can,” said Barry Mosely of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Planning Department.

HERITAGE continued from p.1

Photo courtesy of LASO

out the years with events such as the bingo night and dinner bringing in around 50 students and the Rumba bringing in around 100 people.

“Rumba is always exciting, everyone mingles. But I also really enjoy speaker night. It is always different and inspiring.

This will be my fourth or fifth time coming to these events,” said past club president, Maritza Garcia.

Although most students that come to the events do not help plan, there are many hours that go into coordinating each event.

“Planning the events is time consuming because you want to be innovative so people who came before aren’t bored,” said Campos.

“It’s a fun and interesting way to bring campus together and to let other people

know what we do, our culture. Even though we are a minority we are in college to better ourselves for the future. The campus is diverse, but there are a lot of misconceptions and stereotypes. We try to break that down.”

LASO has also hosted and participated in events outside of heritage month such as participating in blood drives. They hold their meetings on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in the Student Union room 340 A and B. “We are looking for ways to branch out. We have done some mixers with the Hmong student organization as well as lots of community service,” said Campos. “Our organization is open to everybody and anybody. Not just for people of Latin American descent.”

PAGE 4

NINERTIMES

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

Senate welcomes new members Corbin Peters CPETER43@UNCC.EDU

Student representation in UNC Charlotte’s Student Government Association (SGA) nearly doubled at the Senate General Assembly meeting Thursday, Sept. 29, 2011, when 10 new senators and four class presidents raised their right hands and repeated the oath of office.

The SGA members confirmed at the 48th legislative assembly in Robinson Hall room 103 included the four freshman at-large senators, four at-large senators, an RSA representative and four class presidents who won the 2011 fall SGA elections. RSA Representative Joshua Lamb was confirmed along with Civil Engineering Major Evan Wardrop who filled one of the two remaining open College of Engineering seats.

This collection of confirmations bolstered the number of

SGA senators from 14 to 24 and added four class presidents to the executive branch.

While the new SGA members bring increased representation for the UNC Charlotte student body, they bring little diversity in terms of college representation to the already College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) heavy senate.

At-large and freshman atlarge senators are put in place to represent the student body in its entirety, but the eight who were elected are members of only three different colleges.

The newly elected at-large senators are composed of 3 representatives from CLAS and one representative from the Belk College of Business.

Freshman At-large senators consist of two representatives from CLAS and two representatives from University College. Lamb is also a member of University College.

Former six year SGA member and recent UNC Charlotte

Olivia Stott

OSTOTT@UNCC.EDU

New members of SGA at this week’s meeting. Photo courtesy of Corbin Peters

graduate Erin Karriker commented from the gallery encouraging the new members to try to impact campus. He asked that they “take pride in their work” and “if there is something they don’t like on campus, change it.”

During his message to the senate Assistant Director of Student Conduct and Outreach and Senate Advisor, Jonathan Adams, also encouraged the 14 new faces of SGA to try to connect with the student body.

“Executive is only as good

as senate and senate is only as good as executive. The two of you working together along with the judicial branch will make SGA impactful on campus,” said Adams.

Students wanting to meet their new representatives can attend Meet Your Senator Day Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on campus.

Senators will be positioned at two tables on campus to answer constituent and faculty questions directed towards SGA.

COUNSELORS continued from p.1

part of their training.

“The training includes a two week intensive process that teaches OC’s how to handle certain stressful situations they may encounter on the job, how to talk to students and parents and what to do when registering students,” said Kimberly Palmer, the graduate assistant for Student Services.

SOAR Counselors get housing and meals for the summer as payment, along with a monthly stipend.

“If one receives the job of becoming an OC [orientation counselor], the week after school is over the students go home, then the following week they move into provided campus housing for the rest of the summer,” said Palmer. “Then towards the end of the summer, there is a two week break where the student moves out of housing.”

Although the counselor training is hard work, many of them do enjoy the work that they are involved in.

“My favorite part of the program was being able to connect with the incoming

students that I worked with and its cool being able to see my students now and talk to them about how classes are going. I still help them out when they need it,” said Amabile.

The program not only allows counselors to connect with the university and incoming students, but it teaches invaluable skills.

“You definitely learn to work as a team.

You also learn a lot about yourself. Working with so many different people, you have to handle each situation differently,” said Amabile.

The counselor positions are a unique way to get more involved with the university, but counselors are only allowed to participate once.

“Being an OC is a onetime deal and if I could do it again, I would,” said Foster. “I did the next best thing and applied for the SOAR undergraduate intern, so I can oversee the process and new OC’s this year.”

Students at any level of study can apply,

as the more diverse the counselors are, the better they can relate to the diversity of the incoming freshmen class.

“We like to have a wide variety of student leaders, whether they are freshmen or seniors, transfer students or students that have been here since freshmen year,” said Palmer.

The SOAR counselors are usually the first students from the university that incoming freshmen get to interact with before they start school.

“Every student that comes to UNC Charlotte goes through the orientation program, so you will come into contact, in one way or another, with all of them.

Look at it like you are helping all of the incoming students for the 2012-13 school year get registered and adjusted to UNC Charlotte,” said Palmer.

There will also be meetings Oct. 12, 18, 24 and Nov. 2, 2011, at the same time and location.

SAS prepares for upcoming events Ryan Pitkin RPITKIN@UNCC.EDU

The Student Association of Sociology (SAS) will hold a meeting in the Fretwell Building room 460 K Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011, to discuss upcoming fundraising trips and recruiting opportunities.

The meeting, which will be held at 12:30 p.m., will focus on the three biggest upcoming events for the SAS: Majors Day on campus, the upcoming Alzheimer’s Walk and two volunteer trips to Scarowinds.

The Scarowinds trips will take place Oct. 23 and 29, 2011. Participants will work seven hour shifts to raise money for the SAS. “We will be doing anything they ask us to do, but hopefully we will get to scare people,” said Ashley Bland, president of SAS and Alpha Kappa Delta (AKD), Eta chapter, another sociology club that works alongside the SAS. Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011, Bland and her fellow club members will be setting up a table as a part of UNC Charlotte’s Majors Day, during which all departments are represented for a crowd of undeclared students, students exploring minors and any other curious passersby. The group will be informing students about the Sociology Department’s newly acquired honors program, as well as the opportunity to choose concentrations within the department, which is a new addition this year.

The group will also be getting the word out about their study abroad program.

Falling into autumn

Bland just returned from a course in Manchester, England in August, which she described as a “great experience.”

One of the biggest parts of the SAS is raising money for the other people and helping the community as a whole, according to Bland. That is the goal on Nov. 12 when the club will be putting together a team to participate in the 2011 Alzheimer’s Walk. Bland has set a goal to have more than 15 members on the team and to raise over $600 for the cause. Everybody is welcome to join the team, even if not members of any sociology club.

The SAS is a networking group for sociologists and anyone interested in the field of sociology. Members can develop their leadership skills and learn more about the professional activities of sociologists, according to their website.

Bland joined last fall because she has always had a passion for the field of sociology. Now that she is president, the senior enjoys having the opportunity to mentor younger students and help anyone who is interested in the thing she is passionate about, she said.

Although SAS has only been around since 2007, AKD has held a place on campus since 1974. Despite its long tenure as a chapter here at the college, it was never formally recognized as a student organization.

Bland wanted to change that, so in September she gave a formal proposal to the General Assembly of the Student Government

Association. AKD is now recognized as a student organization, which makes it easier to become more actively involved in campus events, she said. This may help AKD’s 5th North Carolina chapter attempt to rebuild after waning activity in recent years.

Although the upcoming meeting will focus on upcoming community events, members are always preparing for what Bland calls their biggest event.

The Southern Sociological Society’s (SSS) annual meeting, titled “Shifting Social Contracts,” will be held between March 21 and 24, 2012, in New Orleans.

The conference lets professionals and nonprofessionals, mostly graduate students, network and give presentations concerning their fields of study. Bland is extremely excited about the upcoming event, especially because some undergraduates from UNC Charlotte will be able to attend, which is rare, she said.

The SAS will be preparing well ahead of the scheduled conference. Beth Rubin, president of the SSS, works in the Sociology department right here on campus. Two of the committees chairs, Elizabeth Stearns and Stephanie Moller, are also employed at UNC Charlotte.

The SAS will be putting together a mock presentation for these three to critique in order to help the group be prepared for the meeting next March. “We have very valuable resources here, so we are going to use them,” said Bland.

The Staff Council will host a Fall Festival Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011, from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. for all staff to connect and interact while supporting the nonprofit group Soldiers’ Angels.

Promoting free food and drinks as well as activities, the event will take place on the West Quad between the Belk Tower and the University Cone Center.

Composed of an executive board and representatives, the Staff Council is responsible for promoting a pleasant working environment for all staff at UNC Charlotte.

Part of this responsibility entails planning events for staff such as this Fall Festival.

The chancellor delegated the Staff Council to also bring attention to matters of concern to the general staff and to take necessary actions to meet those responsibilities.

In addition to providing free food and drinks, the event will have several activities for the staff including a pumpkin carving contest, a dance contest and a bake-off.

In the pumpkin-carving contest, staff will drop off their carved pumpkins that morning, and they will be judged on originality, presentation and being funny/scary.

The winner will be announced at the Fall Festival and will receive a prize.

The event will also host a dance contest for staff. Contestants will be judged on originality, content and rhythm, and the winner will receive a prize. Rules include no explicit dancing, no stepping on another contestant’s feet and everyone must have fun.

Thirdly, the Fall Festival will include a bake-off for apple and pumpkin pie, and they will be judged on taste, presentation and creativity.

In addition to having the purpose of connecting the staff, the Fall Festival will be supporting veterans through the Soldiers’ Angles nonprofit organization. They will be collecting new hygiene products, clothing and miscellaneous items to be donated to our soldiers. Items needed include razors, shaving cream, deodorant, sweatpants, slippers and batteries.

The Soldiers’ Angels is a nonprofit organization with thousands of volunteers and with the purpose of aiding and comforting men and women who have served or who are serving in the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force or Coast Guard. The Soldiers’ Angels also support our troops through donating gift cards, providing care packages and giving opportunity for them to heal with music or other activities.

The Staff Council at UNC Charlotte is proud to support the Soldiers’ Angels organization to support our troops.

NINERONLINE.COM

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

PAGE 5

SORORITY continued from p.1

Kappa Delta has already held an ice cream social on their first day of recruitment and gained an impressive turnout. The event’s main focus was to recruit new members but also to celebrate the Kappa Delta-created International Women’s Friendship Month.

“It was a pretty good turnout,” said Herrman. “I stayed for almost the entire time [and] girls kept coming and going. It was a lot of fun and in my opinion a huge success!

There were girls like me there who knew that they wanted to be a part of Kappa Delta but there were also girls there that had never heard of KD and ended up signing up for recruitment at the ice cream social.”

For more of a one-on-one experience, there will be coffee dates that interested UNC Charlotte students can sign up for on their website, www.unccharlottekd.com. There they will be able to sit down and chat with the chapter development consultants. After they fill out the interest form located there a chapter development consultant will be in touch to decide on a time to meet.

Sarah Morris, a sophomore UNC Charlotte student, attended one coffee date and says it left an impression.

“All the girls and [chapter development consultants] I met were extremely sweet and friendly,” said Morris.

“They would make awesome sisters!”

As a newly formed sorority, Houchin stressed the significance that it could have compared to those already formed sororities.

“Being a founding member of a chapter is an unforgettable experience that is truly an honor for anyone involved,” said Houchin. “The first class of new members will pave the way for hundreds of members to come. We envision this chapter to be a thriving, successful chapter from the start. The women we have met are focused on making a difference through community service and being involved in campus activities, all while maintaining academic success.”

Morris agrees, adding that’s one reason she reached out to Kappa Delta.

“Kappa Delta attracted me because of the fact that it was new,” said Morris. “I thought it would be awesome to be a part of something that was new at UNC Charlotte, whether that meant joining this year and helping start the colony, or joining next year, when it’s still new but more established.”

The weekend of Oct. 7 through Oct. 9 will be Kappa Delta’s colonization weekend. They will be hosting an open

house, information session and preference event.

Their main philanthropies will be Prevent Child Abuse America and the Girl Scouts of the USA. Houchin says they chose these organizations because of their mission to inspire confidence in young women, just as Kappa Delta hopes to do.

“We develop and implement programming for Girl Scouts that will boost their self-esteem and encourage them to dream big,” said Houchin.

“We also work to raise awareness about the effects of child abuse on the children’s self-image and confidence in themselves, and strive to enrich the lives of the people effected by such actions. Kappa Delta is making great things happen across the country, and this chapter is sure to be no exception.”

Until then, ladies interested in joining Kappa Delta can still fill out an interest card and hope to join in on the recruitment process. Other ladies will just have to sit back and wait until Oct. 9 rolls around.

“I went through formal recruitment a couple weeks ago for the other five sororities on campus, but I knew that I wanted to be a part of Kappa Delta,” said Herrman. “Hopefully by next Sunday, Oct. 9, I’ll be a new member!”

PAGE 6

NINERTIMES

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

OPINION Netflix backlash

NINERTIMES Volume 24, Number 11 A PRODUCT OF

Subscribers angered by the unexpected and unannounced changes to services Brandon Batton

B B AT T O N @ U N C C . E D U

In the past couple of months Netflix has taken a huge hit and frankly it serves them right.

Netflix used to be the largest and cheapest multimedia distributor with a subscriber base of 24 million.

But now they are literally becoming null and void due to their 60 percent price increase and cutting their already out dated services in half.

For college students everywhere, this is a major wallet breaker that has to be cut lose.

Netflix now charges almost double for their DVD and instant movies, and now only streams limited titles, in total only 20,000 titles. The majority of these titles are now outdated.

According to the New York Post, Netflix stocks are dropping and the once popular company is losing 186 million dollars a day.

This honestly seems like poetic justice for the way that they have been doing business with customers.

Also, the content for instant movies and DVD rentals is changing.

Showtime no longer allows them to stream their television shows and half of their inventory has been removed, including a lot of new releases.

The real crime that Netflix has committed in recent weeks is to make all of these changes without telling their loyal customers.

A lengthy email sent by the CEO, Reed Hastings, offers an apology and explanation for the changes, a few too many weeks late.

For college students the different between paying eight dollars and seventeen dollars (with tax included) is a big deal.

Raising prices without notifying consumers, changing consumer’s service policies since they no longer have DVD’s without notice and on top of it all they give an empty apology for it.

If you are wondering what the future of Netflix is, it isn’t looking too bright. The company plans on marketing DVD rental through a new site, qwikster.com and keeping only streaming videos under the Netflix

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name, which seems unnecessary.

It should be said that the Netflix service subscribers should all back out of their subscriptions now before things get worse.

According to CNBC, Netflix consumers still aren’t on stable pricing grounds yet.

Since the company is now an unlimited streaming provider, their prices will have to increase for more premium content like pay per views or just all out more expensive service plans to compensate.

One way or another it has been stated that the prices will keep increasing and the service that you may receive is subject to more severe changes for the worst.

However, amidst Netflix fumbling its company around, their competitors have stepped in to take advantage of their loses.

Other streaming networks are now available for a cheap price like VUDU, and HULU PLUS. Also if you own a gaming console it is even easier since both these services are available on PS3 and there is a new streaming service coming to the XBOX 360.

So if you are Netflix user, there is a silver lining in the distance it just doesn’t involve the consumer abusive company Netflix, and it can be agreed that it is better for all our wallets.

Is it fair?

Tell us how you feel at opinion@nineronline.com

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

PAGE 7

Response to Gay marriage amendment The issue of a constitutional amendment against gay marriage in the state of North Carolina is an issue that brings out varying opinions, here’s one from a reader.

Benjamin Lloyd ENLGISH MA STUDENT

In the September 22 issue of Ninter Times, there is an opinion piece regarding the recently introduced North Carolina constitutional ban on gay marriage.

While I certainly don’t have a complaint about its appearing in the paper, I do think both sides of the argument warrant a response.

First, the “progressive” position, which has only one real problem: while Cheyenne does a great job of listing organizations which oppose the amendment, she does little to explain why the amendment should be opposed on nearly all grounds.

Cheyenne adeptly outlines the level of support the equality movement has in our state, but does not clearly espouse its tenets.

It is the “conservative” perspective with which I have real issues.

I would like to preface my criticisms by saying that I do not mind people being bigoted—as citizens in a free country, that is their right.

If an individual doesn’t like anyone who is LGBT, or black, or female, then they’re allowed to do that within the confines of their own home.

However, they are not allowed to take this discrimination with them to work, to the store, and certainly not to the government.

I desperately wish these people were not bigoted, and struggle to see why they feel the need (or the right) to not allow their fellow citizens the same rights they enjoy, but again, what goes on in someone’s head is none of our business.

I find it quite odd that those most in favor of small government want it to extend its hand into our bedrooms, controlling what goes on between consenting adults.

Now, to the opinion itself. Jordan McSwain first states, strangely and hypocritically, that he does not “believe in the exclusion or harassment of homosexuals” before going on to explain exactly why they should be excluded from legal marriage.

Predictably, Jordan’s first point is one regarding his or her faith—Jordan’s version of Christianity believes homosexuality to be a sin, and because “the gay lifestyle” is “against [his] faith,” it should not be allowed.

I have two points regarding this: First, if anyone can find exactly where Jesus himself mentions homosexuality, I would find it extremely enlightening.

As far as I know, he never does—since Christianity is at least ostensibly based on the teachings of Christ rather than those of the old testament, one thinks that Christians would be more concerned with Jesus’ tenets; and if he didn’t mention it, it must not have been that big of a deal.

The context in which homosexuality is most often referenced in the Bible is not consensual sex between adults, and all but four (of twelve mentions) refer to either rape, cult activity, or pederasty, the other four being inconclusive.

Second, what gives you the right to codify the tenets of your beliefs over others’?

Last time I checked the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment clearly states that there shall be no law respecting the establishment of religion.

And as I will point out shortly, the only real arguments (i.e., ones that are not demonstrably false) against gay marriage are religious, which, according to our constitution, cannot have any impact on our government and its control over us.

Jordan’s arguments, once they leave Christianity are, to put it bluntly, nonsensical.

To say that homosexuality is “against nature” or violates “the natural order of life” is asinine.

Homosexual activity has been observed in over 450 species of animals.

And has been around in humans at least as long as there has been recorded history (and it would be ridiculous to believe that it has not been around for as long as us and our ancestors have been around, which is to say, always).

While it is, of course, impossible for a homosexual couple to procreate without in vitro fertilization, this does not somehow make it “unnatural.”

You might as well say that those who are sterile or choose not to have children should not be allowed to marry, because it is unnatural.

Given that other animals do not have the same capacity for choice and reason as we do, one literally cannot say that animal behavior on this scale is unnatural.

Next, Jordan brings up the topic of homosexual adoption, spouting unequivocally disproven conjectures regarding the mental health of children brought up by homosexual couples.

In a relatively recent Senate hearing, Minnesota Senator Al Franken (D) took Focus on the Family to task for this

ridiculous opinion, citing a study which found that a child with two parents irrespective of their gender is better off than a child with one parent.

A child with two fathers or two mothers is as well adjusted as a child with one male and one female parent.

Jordan seems to think that gay parents would “pressure” their child to be gay.

Given the fact that there are gay people (all of whom, I might add, were born to straight parents), I think we can write this off as equally asinine as the “unnatural” argument.

For some reason, Jordan thinks that gay parents would cause “confusion regarding what a relationship is and how some people have heterosexual relationships while others have homosexual one” [sic].

Let’s replace a few words in that sentence: divorced parents may cause confusion regarding what a relationship is and how some people have two parents and others have one parent.

Or, if we want to go back in time 50 years, we can wonder what terrible effect allowing African Americans to marry will have on our country.

In short, there is absolutely zero credible evidence to back up the assertion that homosexual parents cause any harm to their children.

The final, and perhaps the most outrageous, argument is that “if gay marriage were legalized, […] what’s to stop polygamists from demanding rights or people who want to marry animals or inanimate objects?”

This is one of the most mind-bogglingly ignorant arguments against gay marriage that anyone could ever possibly come up with.

Sure, polygamists might start demanding rights, and we should certainly think critically about that. But to equate

gay people with animals and objects?

This makes absolutely no logical sense.

Allowing two consenting adults of any gender to marry one another does not in any way lead to one consenting adult being able to legally marry a goat, or a bagel, or a massaging recliner.

So when you vote next May, Jordan McSwain, you will be voting against the people.

You will be voting against men, and women; against members of our armed forces, police officers, firefighters, and everyone who has sacrificed anything for the ideals of our freedom on which our country was built.

You will not be voting against “the distortion of the sanctity of marriage” (something which plenty of straight couples have done exceedingly well).

But voting to codify bigotry, and to advance an ideology of discrimination and hate.

At least admit that.

Don’t try to hide behind the absurdly specious arguments of “unnaturalness” and the supposed harmful effects of gay people on children.

Admit that there are no logical arguments backing up your position.

Just admit that you’re a bigot.

If you have an opinion on the proposed gay marriage amendment or any other topic: contact us at opinion@nineronline.com

Other states provide rights of marriage or civil union to gay couples. As it stand, North Carolina has a law against gay marriage.

Next May, there will be a vote to add an amendment to the state constitution barring gay marriage. Photo courtesy of MCT Campus

PAGE 8

NINERTIMES

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

A&E

AROUND CHARLOTTE:

First Tuesdays Free Chamber Music Series Tuesday, October 4th 12:10 p.m. & 5:30 p.m.

First Presbyterian Church 200 West Trade Street

AROUND CAMPUS :

Beer Ed - Free beer education and tasting Tuesday, October 4th 7:00 p.m.

Growlers Pourhouse

ON CAMPUS:

Symphonic Wind Ensemble Wednesday, October 5th 8:00 p.m.

Anne R. Belk Theater Robinson Hall

Chris Pratt talks “Moneyball” show I would do a tribute to Andy the way Andy would really want his music video to be. So it wouldn’t be so much a tribute to ‘Parks and Recreation,’ it would probably be a tribute just to Andy, or maybe just April and Andy. There would be a lot of eagles, there would be a lot of like explosions and fireworks, probably some big four-wheel trucks, probably mix things up with John Mellencamp somehow and Eddie Vedder, I would have Peyton Manning show up and he would do the bass for the last bit and it would end with Andy catching a touchdown at the Super Bowl somehow.”

Chris Pratt, as Scott Hatteburg, attempts to succeed as a first baseman in “Moneyball.” Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Publicity Haley Twist

AE@NINERONLINE.COM

On Thursday, the Niner Times was lucky enough to speak with Chris Pratt, who can currently be seen in “Moneyball.” Released in theaters on Sept. 23, “Moneyball” is based on the true story of the Oakland A’s baseball team that struggled for victory and to change how the game is played in 2002. Pratt portrays Scott Hatteburg, an injured catcher who was signed by the Oakland A’s a first baseman. Pratt was also in “Take Me Home Tonight” earlier this year, can currently be seen in the comedy “What’s Your Number?” with wife Anna Faris and is weekly on NBC as the lovable Andy Dwyer on “Parks and Recreation.”

On preparing to play a professional athlete: “You know, it was a lot of baseball training and also just other physical training in terms of losing weight like cardio and running and I got a personal trainer, but in order to kind of pull off the baseball portion I worked with a guy named Chad Kreuter who is an exprofessional major-league catcher and also a former head coach at USC [first question], with their baseball program there, and he kind of gave me exercises on his program there.”

On Brad Pitt pulling pranks on set: “He [Brad Pitt] didn’t really pull any pranks on me, but the one I’ll tell you about is the prank that he pulled that was pretty good on Jonah Hill. We were working for a portion at Sony in Los Angeles, at the Sony lot.

They had built the interior of the Oakland A’s locker room there, so they were doing a lot of stuff in the offices there. We had spent a few weeks there and they gave us all golf carts to go back and forth from set and I came out one day and I saw that Jonah’s golf cart has been basically cellophane-wrapped. Everything was decorated in pink cellophane, and I went to turn the key on and there was some secret hidden speaker somewhere. I don’t know how the hell [Pitt] did it but he rigged the speakers so every time he played it the Wham song ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’ would come on. So he basically made the Wham Mobile. Jonah loved it so much that he rode in this thing around Sony for the next few weeks.”

On relationship differences between actors on “Moneyball” compared to other projects: “You know, there wasn’t a huge difference in terms of the camaraderie…with the other actors. There were some differences between doing something like this [‘Moneyball’] with more dramatic terms and working on something like ‘Parks & Recreation.’ The tone of the product is different but in terms of camaraderie,

it’s really the same. You know you become very intimate with everyone. It’s a close-knit group of people that is kind of like a family: you don’t choose who you are going to be hanging out with, you just are hanging out with them. You develop a really special bond and you are all in close quarters working 15-16 hours a day for a few months, and so you develop a really nice relationship with everyone in a way that’s similar to a sleep-away camp as a kid or something. You know that it’s going to end, it’s incredible and personal and it’s wonderful. You spend a lot of time together, you promise that you’ll never forget and then you kind of move on with your life and you don’t see a lot of those people again. But it still holds this place in your heart and if you saw them again you know that you shared something special, you know what I mean? And I think that sort of transcends the genre, at least in my experience, it doesn’t matter if it is a comedy or a drama.

You get that feeling because it’s just a bunch a people working closely with one another.”

On relating to character’s challenges in “Moneyball”: “I definitely could relate. I mean I had limited baseball knowledge from when I played Little League baseball but one thing he [Scott Hatteburg] and I actually had in common, one of the reasons I could relate is, that all through Little League I played catcher. So I mean it was never my natural instinct to feel round balls or play the infield, it was just something I never did. So I definitely related. I mean I was still never a catcher on a professional level the way Scott Hatteburg was but that was the only experience I had that was similar to the only experience he had, although he had much more experience with playing at a much higher level. But I definitely related to him, not only in just my having been catcher and needing to learn how to play an infielder, but also me having done primarily comedy and trying to do something that is a little bit different and dramatic, so I definitely related to that.”

On his ideal music video for Mouse Rat: “If I were to make a music video and I were to do any song I guess I would probably do [thinks for a bit] ‘The Pit,’ I would do the song, ‘The Pit.’ I mean it kind of already exists a little bit just in sort of the way season one [‘Parks and Recreation’] was wrapped up with the music, but I would do a montage to the pit. I would include everybody who was affected by the pit and maybe just do like a wrap of all my favorite stuff from ‘Parks and Recreation.’ You know what? That’s not true. I would do a different song. I would probably do something as Andy. Instead of making a tribute to Mouse Rat in the context of being on a television

On television sets versus movie sets: “There is definitely a transition between the two.

There are some television sets that feel like movie sets and there are some movie sets that feel like television sets. I will say the adjustments you have to make going from a show like ‘Parks and Recreation’ to a movie like say ‘Moneyball’ are first of all, you’re breaking the fourth wall in ‘Parks and Recreation,’ since it’s a mockumentary and documentary-style format. The characters all have the awareness of the camera, looking in it all the time. And I, after getting done with ‘Parks and Recreation,’ was I think doing ‘Moneyball,’ or something else, so I was doing a movie, and I had the director say, ‘Did you just look in the fucking lens?’

And I said, ‘Sorry man!’ So that’s kind of a bad habit you have to stop in a movie… [laughs] that’s kind of Acting 101: don’t look into the camera. So that’s a little bit different. There’s a slower pace to moviemaking, especially when you’re comparing it to television like ‘Parks and Recreation’ where everything is [shot with] broadcast cameras shoulder-mounted. You’re not laying any dolly tracks, you’re not setting up whole new lighting sets for every little time you turn the camera around, you know? I mean in TV we shot a ton of footage because everything is pre-lit, whereas a film you’re setting up every single shot, and so you have to really learn to pace yourself with film. You can’t just blow everything you’ve done on the first take or the second take, you need to learn how to pick what you want to do and do it over and over and over again. So that’s a difference between film and TV, in TV you want to kind of capture everything with these broadcast cameras and you have two or three cameras working at all times. You want to get better every time. For comedy you want to keep it fresh and do it [differently] every time, and in film you want to try to do the same exact thing over and over and over again so that you can get it from every angle and choose which one is prettier, you know? So that’s the main difference.”

On the differences in roles of Andy Dwyer and Scott Hatteburg: “I wouldn’t say [playing] either one of them is particularly easy, but I would say, probably Andy is a little more… [stops to think] …it’s different because Andy is a fictional character, you know? So there are really no rules or limits or anything against which to compare the character, you know, besides looking at previous episodes or something. I can kind of do anything I want and call it Andy, whereas doing a character like Scott Hatteburg, I mean [he is] a real person living and breathing out there and so I can’t just like all of a sudden break out with some weird accent, do you know what I mean? You’re trying to portray someone who’s real so I would say that’s a big difference between playing those characters. In terms of fun, just straight up fun, I think the television show (‘Parks and Recreation’) is more fun. Andy is more fun because I get to…make laughs. It’s really fun to film and hopefully it’s really fun to watch. Whereas in order to play Scott Hatteburg you have to kind of put yourself in a real head-space of work…thinking of the prospect of never working again at what you’re passionate about or being an athlete and [being injured] so that you’re not a value to this game, like in order to pull that off you have to put yourself in that head-space. I’m passionate about doing it; it’s invigorating, it’s not fun, you know? It’s work, it’s hard work.”

“Moneyball,” the No. 1 box office movie on the Friday of its premiere, grossed about $20 million on its opening weekend and currently has the “fresh” score of 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

NINERONLINE.COM

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

Levine’s “50/50” beats the odds “50/50” combines a dark disease with light-hearted comedy, creating a genuine drama that embraces life’s charming ups and tearful downs

PAGE 9

Campus trend alert: season savvy Haley Twist

Anna Kendrick, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogan in a scene depicting a date between Adam and his young therapist Katherine. MCT Campus

Barry Falls B FA L L S 4 @ U N C C . E D U

“It takes a pair to beat the odds,” reads the tag line of Jonathan Levine-directed “50/50,” which opened last weekend.

“50/50” co-star Seth Rogan, who plays Kyle, had met screenwriter Will Reiser when they were 24 years old and working for the Ali G Show together. About six months after they stopped working for the show, Reiser had discovered that he had cancer. Neither of them handled it well.

The film is loosely based on these events. However both Rogan and Reiser have gone on record saying that several changes to the story have been made, particularly the ones involving Rogan’s reaction to the news.

Last seen playing Charles Xavier in this year’s “X-Men: First Class,” James McAvoy was set to play the movie’s protagonist before he had to step down for personal reasons.

Less than a week before filming was set to begin, Seth Rogan called Joseph Gordon-Levitt personally to offer him the role.

Gordon-Levitt accepted the role only two days before filming began.

Interestingly, Rogan plays himself in “50/50,” while Rogan’s best friend Reiser is played by Gordon-Levitt.

“If you were a casino game, you’d have the best odds,” jokes Rogan’s character as he tries to convince Adam that he can beat the cancer.

Rather than a constant give-and-take between the film’s two leads, “50/50” is largely based on the actions of GordonLevitt’s character and the reactions of the supporting actors.

It works surprisingly well.

Adam struggles to maintain work, a social life and a romantic life, all while trying to accept his 50/50 odds of beating his cancer. His girlfriend, therapist, best friend and parents all try to make the best of the situation.

Cancer isn’t funny. So making a comedy/ drama about

someone being diagnosed with cancer involves maneuvering past several hard-to-avoid pit falls.

They could have focused too heavily on the humor and trivialized the reality of someone coming to grips with his mortality. They could have fixated on the melodrama and promoted defeatism. Or they could have focused too much on the primary character and painted an overly-linear portrait of drama in one person and under-played the effect of cancer on Adam’s friends and family.

Somehow “50/50” manages to elegantly bypass these faults. It remains a touchy subject, as almost everyone has some first-hand experience with a cancer-ridden friend or family member. Without trying to beat its audience over the head with some sort of moral lesson on life and death, “50/50” simply lets the story speak for itself. It shows what you should do and shows what you should not do.

People familiar with Gordon-Levitt’s charming sincerity and Rogan’s lovable dopiness will not be disappointed. Gordon-Levitt does not stray far from his social/romantic ambiguity of his character in “(500) Days of Summer,” nor does Rogan’s portrayal of himself vary greatly from all the other movies where he plays a slight variation of himself. But the characters remain relevant, and the chemistry is fantastic.

Not to be over-looked, supporting actresses Anna Kendrick, as Katherine, Adam’s inexperienced therapist, Bryce Dallas Howard, as Rachel, Adam’s girlfriend and Anjelica Huston as Diane, Adam’s mom, manage to hold their own quite well.

On one end of the spectrum, Diane and Katherine continue to try to get Adam to open up with his emotions. They both try to help Adam with his cancer, but he insists on trying to get through the experience on his own. Both Kendrick and Huston do an immensely convincing job at portraying a sense of desperation as they seem helpless at helping someone they care about.

On the other end of the spectrum, Adam’s girlfriend Rachel seems a bit detached at the beginning of the film but only grows more and detached as the movie progresses. Both Howard’s portrayal of Rachel as well as Rogan’s reaction to her is something a lot of people can relate to.

This very human interaction between the film’s leads and co-stars in addition to the choice of soundtrack and plot progression is what makes “50/50” so different than other flicks that Seth Rogan has been involved in. With a running time of about 100 minutes, there are parts of the film that were left a little too open-ended.

“50/50” fuses cancer drama, dark and light-hearted humor and straight-forward bromance into a film that flaunts its leads’ charm and effectively demonstrates the progression of the cancer-ridden Adam through denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance as his friends and family do the same.

Blending genuine cancer-based drama with real heart and laughs is hard to do effectively. “50/50” manages to do just that. This is how I think it ranks: (500) Days of Summer > 50/50 > Funny People.

Queen City Theatre Company presents “Xanadu” Lee Pham LPHAM7@UNCC.EDU

Queen City Theatre Company presents the musical “Xanadu” to the Charlotte this month at the Duke Energy Theatre in Uptown. The play will run until Oct. 22.

The musical is based on the 1980 film of the same name, which starred Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly.

The film version did not initially receive critical acclaim, but has steadily attained cult status through the years.

In contrast, the film’s soundtrack managed to reach No. 4 on the Billboard 200.

The Broadway production, written

by Douglas Carter Beane, ran from July 10, 2007 to Sept. 28, 2008. Beane is a Tony Award nominated playwright.

“Xanadu” is based on a struggling artist, Sonny, whose job is painting record covers in Los Angeles.

Clio, the Greek muse of history, is sent from the heavens to inspire Sonny to follow his dreams. According to Zeus, her father, muses must maintain a disguise from mortals.

To comply, Clio changes her name to Kira and dresses in 1980s attire with legwarmers and roller skates.

The cast of “Xanadu.” Photo courtesy of Queen

City Theatre Company

Kira inspires Sonny to open a roller disco to combine his love of art with athletics. Sonny comes across the ideal location in the Fairfax district of the city. It is an abandoned theatre called Xanadu.

Meanwhile, Kira’s sisters, jealous of Kira’s endeavors, plot to make her fall in love with Sonny to break one of Zeus’ rules by using a curse. Kira and Sonny inevitably fall in love, which is condemned by Zeus.

He orders Kira to return to Mount Olympus. She confesses her love for

Sonny and tries to flee, but Zeus intervenes.

Sonny, who followed Kira to Mount Olympus, declares that he will fight to love Kira and challenges her father.

Zeus is impressed and pardons Kira, allowing her to return to Los Angeles with Sonny.

Glenn T. Griffin is the director of the Charlotte production of “Xanadu.” He is also the co-founder of Queen City Theatre Company.

The company’s mission is to present theatre that celebrates the many different races, religions, genders and sexual orientations that exist in Charlotte and the world. It is a non-profit organization with volunteer-based employees.

“Xanadu” will feature choreography

by Robbie Jaeger.

Jaeger is a graduate of CharlotteMecklenburg’s Northwest School of the Arts. He continued his education at the American Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in New York City.

Queen City Theatre Company’s “Xanadu” will run from Oct. 6-22. Duke Energy Theatre is located Spirit Square at 345 N. College St. To purchase tickets, visit http://www.queencitytheatre. com/.

AE@NINERONLINE. COM

As the air is getting nippy, the weather change is always exciting for fashionistas who use it as an excuse to update their wardrobe. I am not an exception to this. So when I noticed a change in the temperature outside I drove right to Northlake Mall to celebrate fall with a new pair of boots and some long-sleeved shirts and cardigans.

And then when Monday came around I couldn’t be happier to wear my new boots and cardigan to class.

After I got dressed, gathered my books and shut my apartment door, I shimmied down the stairs, as much as anyone can shimmy in boots, and I opened the door to the…wait, hot sunny morning?

Dealing with this weather that can’t make up its mind can be very frustrating when it’s time to get dressed every morning. That’s why I have put together a list of timeless, and now seasonless, items that are good no matter the season. It’s good to have some things to rely on.

1) Flared dress pants in a color that’s not black. These pants are great with wedges and a tank top in the summer yet work with boots and a sweater for the fall and winter. Try a brighter color like taupe or even coral, which will blend well in the summer and will brighten up your look in the winter.

2) Scarves. Light cotton scarves can be loosely draped around your neck in the summer and spring, and can be paired with jeans or even a longer pair of shorts. To ensure that summery look, make sure you wear the scarves over a lighter-colored t-shirt such white, pink or yellow.

Scarves are also great for the winter.

Go with thicker ones of course, and darken up the colors.

3) White jeans. I have to admit I am terrified of these but be braver than I am this year and get a pair.

In the summer and spring they are amazing with wedges, sandals or flip flops and are great paired with flowy shirts and tank tops. In the winter they are also the perfect complement to a black shirt and black boots.

PAGE 10

NINERTIMES

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

FEATURES Joel Hanel JHANEL1@UNCC.EDU

There are a smorgasbord of plants at the botanical gardens on campus. Photos by Mitchell Harper

Botanical Gardens grow on campus community Mitchell Harper

MHARPE22@UNCC.EDU

It’s estimated that 25,000 guests, recorded from 49 states and 30 different countries, visit UNC Charlotte’s Botanical Gardens each year. The Botanical Gardens here consist of three major areas: the McMillan Greenhouse complex, the Susie Harwood Garden and the Van Landingham Glen.

The gardens are located on the corner of Craver and Mary Alexander Rd., between the McEniry building and Parking Services.

The campus’ Botanical Gardens receive visitors worldwide. Many people support the university’s efforts with donations, volunteer work and endowments bestowed to the Greenhouse.

The arrangement of the gardens is straightforward. The Van Landingham Glen is seven acres long and it consists of over 1,000 different types of plants that are native to the Carolinas. This area is mainly woodlands and has an assembly of beautiful rhododendrons, wildflowers and azaleas.

The Susie Harwood Garden is approximately three acres long and focuses on more ornamental displays, such as winterinterest and Asian plants. The peak of the season for this division of the gardens is from December to February.

The McMillan Greenhouse, the noticeable glass facility at the end of Mary Alexander and Craver Rd., contains over 1,000 species of orchids, primitive, desert, carnivorous and tropical plants. There are eight rooms housed inside of the complex, a courtyard, multiple flower beds and a few terraces.

The objective of the university’s garden is to promote the knowledge and appreciation of plants. The McMillan Greenhouse is open to all visitors, whether they are students or people outside of the university.

Paula Gross is the assistant director of the Botanical Gardens. She has held this position for eight of the 14 total years she’s been a faculty member at UNC Charlotte.

Her goal is to share with people the many different varieties of plants found worldwide.

“The reason the Botanical Gardens are important is because there is a diversity of different plants displayed that are not easily found in Charlotte,” said Gross.

Students and visitors can become involved with the Botanical Gardens here on campus. “Students are encouraged to come in as often as possible,” said Gross. “They can get involved by volunteering or membership.”

Volunteering at the gardens is separated into a variety of activities. Volunteers can do horticulture work in the gardens or

serve as a Sunday host in the greenhouse.

All prospective volunteers should talk to Paula Gross via email at pmgross@uncc. edu or phone at 704-687-2555.

Membership forms are available for students wanting to get involved. Being a member of the Botanical Gardens has different benefits, depending on the amount contributed to the gardens. All members will receive an invitation to friends’ preview day at the popular spring and fall sales, a monthly e-newsletter and the use of the horticultural library (via appointment).

The Botanical Gardens have sales in the fall and the spring. The Fall Plant Sale takes place this month. There is a preview sale on Oct. 6 from 3 - 6 p.m. for on-campus residents, donators and contributors only. The public sale will occur on October 7 and 8 from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.

“There will be more house plants for sale during the sale in February,” said Gross. “We do have some interesting plants on display right now, though. The White Batflower and the Titan Arum are probably the most unique ones.”

Dr. Larry Mellichamp, director of the Botanical Gardens, and Paula Gross have also created a book called “Bizarre Botanicals.” In this book, Mellichamp and Gross take students inside the greenhouse with stunning pictures and documentation of some of the most unusual and exotic plants found in the gardens.

As interesting as the Botanical Gardens are, unfortunately there is not a garden club at the university.

“The odd thing about our predicament is that UNC Charlotte doesn’t offer a degree in horticulture,” said Gross. “Also, there is no garden club affiliated with the McMillan Greenhouse. If one was to be started, it has to be suggested to me by the students.”

The McMillan Greenhouse is an important facility on campus. Students are encouraged to take part in the activities underlined by the staff. There are many ways that students and volunteers can help boost the status of the gardens “We’re not here so much as to ‘wow’ our visitors with brilliant colors of flowers,” said Gross. “We’re here to wow them with the knowledge of plant diversity.”

The headline states, “UNCC has lost its hyphen.” It was the identity crisis solved in 1978, and it seemed everyone was excited for the change. Now students could say UNCC, and get away with it.

The Carolina Journal, which was another predecessor of the Niner Times, featured this story in November of 1978, creating the impetus for a movement that would take over the school.

“After leading a sheltered and naïve 20-year existence, our university finally took the big plunge - it lost its virginity,” said Nancy Davis, the writer of the story.

Though mildly humorous, the article pointed out the sentiment of students at UNC Charlotte. Their basketball team had just gone to the Final Four, and students were glowing with pride in their university.

“It was fine for a while. No one seemed to mind being classified with the other ‘UNC dash’ schools. We let the newspapers get away with it and allowed our friends to address our letters bearing the now forbidden “UNC-Charlotte.” It has been a gradual decision to go hyphen-less, but one we should be proud of.”

This sentiment soon took off over campus, as the quote, “I lost my hyphen at UNCC” began to appear on bumper stickers and t-shirts.

They had followed Davis’ call to be proud and they proclaimed it loud and clear.

To students, it was also the ability to have a school acronym, like USC or UVA. They wanted to be recognized by the short and sweet, “UNCC.” One other possibility apart from the short acronym was the relationship to Chapel Hill.

During the 1977 Final Four, both Chapel Hill and UNC Charlotte were in

the running and confusion was amuck.

“I go to school at UNCC… No, that is not Chapel Hill,” pointed out Davis in her article.

Ken Sanford pointed out in his book, “Charlotte UNC and Charlotte: Growing up Together,” that there was a fear that the double C’s would create confusion as Central Piedmont Community College began to say, “CPCC.” Yet, UNC Charlotte choose to use the ‘UNCC’ script regardless of CPCC’s logo.

As we all know, the identity crisis was not solved with the removal of a hyphen in 1978, it still continues today.

Cumbersome as it is, today the term “UNCC” is technically incorrect, despite the lack of the hypen. At the Niner Times and around campus, the term “UNC Charlotte” is correct because of the branding efforts currently used to promote the university.

Athletics tried in 2000 to solve the identity crisis coining the school’s athletic program “Charlotte,” to help avoid any confusion.

In a statement that year, Judy Rose, UNC Charlotte’s athletic director said, “We’re proud to be members of the North Carolina university system. But, frankly, we are tired of being confused with other institutions or having our own identity misused and misconstrued. It’s harder to make a name for yourself, when your name keeps getting confused. Not only will this logo simplify matters, but it gives the program an exciting new look that better captures our essence.”

In the end, changing letters or calling the university something different will not have much effect on the school’s identity.

Maybe instead, it is the idea of a reputation, branching UNC Charlotte into the community, and having students brag or gloat about their time here.

The lesson learned is that Chapel Hill still hasn’t lost their hyphen.

A bumper sticker that circulated at that time (top) Photo courtesy of Rouges ‘n Rascals The article, UNCC has lost its hyphen!! (bottom) Photo courtesy of The Carolina Journal The plants offer insight to N.C. vegetation.

NINERONLINE.COM

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

PAGE 11

Parkour practices help participants overcome unpleasant situations in life Charlotte Parkour is a local organization that teaches others how to successfully escape dangerous predictaments Sarah Obeid

SOBEID2@UNCC.EDU

Climbing over fences and jumping rails and walls has more meaning than just their literal definitions. Every group or student organization on campus has a focus. Each organization has a purpose for why they are even here to begin with.

An unofficial group, Charlotte Parkour, who is unaffiliated with UNC Charlotte, also has a particular focus, a focus that a good portion of UNC Charlotte students are unaware of.

Charlotte Parkour does, however, utilize our university grounds and resources. It offers to students more than just what it looks to be, learning how to dangerously hop stairs, break some rules and recklessly push off of walls. Charlotte Parkour reaches out to the greater Charlotte community to not only train people to become stronger, but also to give them insight on how to overcome unpleasant, real life situations.

“The ideology of Parkour was originated in Lisses, France in the late 80s by a few group of friends,” said Steve Erdmanczyk, a UNC Charlotte graduate student who is working on trying to get Parkour to become an official club on campus.

The ideology at that time was put simply, using the body to overcome obstacles.

“Parkour is an inspiration to get stronger. We learn how to land, roll and organize different ways of moving around,” said Erdmanczyk.

Erdmanczyk hopes to get an actual Parkour class started soon.

“The goal of Parkour is to make your body strong and useful to escape any bad situation. For example, in Karate, you are not just merely practicing different moves and techniques, but you are trying to better yourself for defense purposes. The idea is to get to point A to point B in the most efficient and quick way possible,” said Cliff Boswell, member of Charlotte Parkour.

Parkour is a group activity, but also a strict discipline that helps people face obstacles both mentally and physically.

“If I can scale a 12 foot wall, any problem should be easy to conquer. I feel as though Parkour can be related to Yoga.

It is about movements and the control you have on your body to overall better yourself,” said Jeff Hadad, CPCC student involved in Charlotte Parkour.

Hadad always liked climbing and doing crazy stunts.

He researched Parkour for two years and signed up for American Parkour. Then, later down the road, he eventually came across NC Parkour. From there, Hadad met several people, learned about Parkour and began training. He

has trained for nine to 10 months already.

“On the surface, Parkour is a physical activity and for some, it stops there. Some are a part of Parkour to solely get in shape. For me, Parkour is much deeper than that, Parkour is a way of life,” said Renato Varga, UNC Charlotte freshman and current Parkour member.

Varga has trained for three years now. According to Varga, Parkour helped him discover the idea that everything is just made of atoms.

“Sure, a pencil is just a pencil because society views the object as strictly a writing utensil and a cup is just simply a cup because we call it that. But really, a cup can be used for something else. Parkour members find different ways to make use for a variety of things. The world is our playground. The stairwell is not just a stairwell,” said Varga.

Varga hates tradition because everyone does or believes something a certain way. Traditionalism goes against Parkour rules.

“I love climbing on stairs and jumping on buildings. We do it safely and its fun. We cannot just walk on stairs because society says this is the only way to get past them,” said Varga.

“On the surface, Parkour is a physical activity and for some, it stops there...For me, Parkour is much deeper than that, Parkour is a way of life.”

Overall, there is no safety issue with Parkour. We do not get injured in any way,” said Boswell.

Individual police are alright with Parkour. Charlotte Parkour does, however, ensure that nothing hazardous will takes place.

Parkour is both a local and nationwide movement.

“Parkour goes all over the state. Many colleges hold Parkour Jams or competitions that could include 30 plus people. We have jams every few months, around three or four a year. Washington D.C. also has a great gym called Primal Fitness. Some of us have practiced there. Virginia Tech joined us for one jam and it was pretty massive,” said Boswell.

Charlotte Parkour holds sessions at UNC Charlotte twice a week in front of the Rowe building at 7:30 p.m. The session usually lasts a few hours.

“We even conduct seminars once every two months that teach people the basics on how to get started with Parkour.

We are going to try to do more seminars, if possible,” said Hadad.

Parkour increases self-confidence, allows for positivity in the real world and makes any kind of instance or problem manageable. The discipline takes years to master and you must start by getting the body in shape before doing anything too advanced. As of today, thousands of people practice Parkour worldwide as it is growing profusely.

As Varga said, “Charlotte Parkour is also an interest group. If Parkour interests you, you will certainly meet people that like what you do.”

-Varga

The Parkour crew trains in a variety of different areas.

“We train anywhere really, usually at UNC Charlotte’s campus, CPCC’s campus, local Charlotte gymnasiums and uptown Charlotte. We like to stick to places that cover our needs. We sometimes even adapt to environments in order to train,” said Varga.

Erdmanczyk believes that UNC Charlotte is the best place to train because he feels the environment of CPCC is unfriendly.

Parkour is a safe activity and has not been reported to cause any danger.

“The UNC Charlotte police do not seem to have a problem with us practicing Parkour on campus grounds.

Recently, this past spring, I remember a policeman was parked normally, watching us for a good 20 minutes. I asked the policeman if we could show him a few Parkour moves. The police agreed and said he was fine with us practicing Parkour, but another source called him to observe.

A member of Charlotte Parkour hurdles across obstacles.

Members of Charlotte Parkour pause from designing and activating escape routes around campus to pose for a picture. Photos courtesy of Charlotte Parkour

PAGE 12

NINERTIMES

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

Zombies invade campus

MCT Campus

The Niners versus Zombies game offers students the opportunity to combat zombies on campus, outside of movies and video games Jordan McSwain

J M C S WA 1 7 @ U N C C . E D U

The zombie apocalypse is coming and it’s time Charlotte is ready for it. It has already swept the world in video games like “Left for Dead” I and II as well as “Call of Duty,” even showing up in films like “I Am Legend” and the quirky teen romance “Zombie Land.”

What started as a small cult following has turned into a mass movement that is touching almost every corner of media.

The obsession can’t really be traced to any specific beginning other than a few geeks in their moms’ basements coming up with something that would actually end up cool.

The Center for Disease Control released a zombie awareness blog post online alerting citizens what to do in the case of a real zombie pandemic. Although it was just a front for a real set of instructions in how to avoid germs, it was still an attention-getter.

Perusing online, one can find an endless amount of zombie protection material and gear. One site even featured an outbreak simulator to project how long a city of any specific size would last before it was completely taken over by zombies. The chances of this outbreak ever happening are slim, but thanks to the infinite number of resources found in modern day pop culture, the world can certainly be prepared for it.

In the past few years the closest thing to a zombie take over has been created and swept across towns and college campuses in the United States like wildfire. Humans

vs. Zombies (HvZ) is a live action game that allows people to play both sides of the war and do their best to either infect others or avoid infection.

During the spring semester of 2011, two UNC Charlotte students made it their mission to bring this game to Charlotte’s campus and actually succeeded. Sean Carrey and Patrick Preudhomme, two engineering majors who are now juniors, found a passion in their hearts and pursued it. Picking up the previously failed tries to play HvZ, Carrey and Preudhomme found a small crew of about five other guys who were just as excited and began spreading the idea through word of mouth and Facebook advertising. They named their endeavor Niners vs. Zombies (NvZ), and about 300 Niners came out last semester to play. The basic rules of NvZ are: 1.

All players begin as humans except for one who is randomly selected to be the original zombie. He or she begins infecting and creating the zombie hoard by tagging humans.

2.

To defend themselves, humans may use marshmallows, rolled up socks and Nerf blasters. If a zombie is hit with any of these weapons, he or she is stunned for fifteen minutes.

3.

The only safe zones are buildings and game play is around the clock.

4.

When inside academic buildings, all Nerf blasters must be put away and hidden.

5.

Zombies wear bandannas around

their heads while humans wear them around the arm.

Niners vs. zombies has a standard “Don’t be that guy” rule, meaning it’s a game where no one should get upset during it. NvZ is a fun situational role-playing event that calls for good sportsmanship and great attitudes.

Each night, there are specific missions for each team. An example of a mission is the humans have to move a convoy across campus while losing as few humans to zombie infection as possible. Each mission has perks for both teams, such as free darts for the humans or “cures” for the zombies, so that a few can be cured and turned back into humans.

On the last night, a special mission is held called the “Union Takeover” in which the humans have to defend the Student Union from a zombie takeover. All students are invited to come out and watch the battle and attend the Zombie Dance Party in Norm’s afterwards which provides music, food and drinks.

Game play begins on Monday, 0ct. 24 and continues through Saturday, Oct. 29.

Last semester, only on campus residents were admitted to play, while this year an invitation is being stretched to commuters as well. Everyone playing must register in the Union from Monday, Oct. 14 through Thursday, Oct. 17.

The first three days are reserved for the registration of residents and the last day is open for anyone. To register, each par-

ticipant is required to donate three canned good items. Apparently zombies don’t only eat flesh; they are major philanthropists as well. When registered, identifying bandanas are provided and a mandatory meeting is being held Oct. 23 at 11:00 p.m. in the top floor of the Union.

During an interview, Preudhomme was asked how the campus administration felt about NvZ and he replied, “Last semester we talked to administration and let them know what was going on and that we were going to follow campus rules. We have a zombie crew that moderates the game and stays very strict during the week. Last year we even talked to one of the deans and the campus police who helped us out during the week. We had no complaints.”

Everyone is welcome to help with NvZ as volunteers are always needed for different kinds of work. Preudhomme said, “We are encouraging all organizations to help

by Facebooking or contacting me to ask what can be done. Organizations like RSA, NRHH, Venture, RUF, Korean organization are helping by just chipping in with publicity or man power or even donating Nerf darts as prizes for missions. Join the event on Facebook, Niners vs. Zombiesm and like us on Facebook.”

Niners vs. Zombies is a way for everyone to play the goofy Jesse Eisenberg character, although no Emma Stone can be promised with registration. Nothing gets campus in the mood for Halloween like killing zombies.

NINERONLINE.COM

PAGE 13

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

DOWNTIME 4

Tuesday

The Power of We: Overcoming Obstacles to Make a Difference Student Union Theater 7pm - 9pm

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Wednesday

V-Games

Norm’s 11am - 3pm

V-Games is an afternoon filled with fun and video games

Incredible India: A Photo Journey CHHS 207 12:30am - 1:30pm

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Jazz Ensembles Robinson Hall 8pm

Part of Student Ensemble Concert Series presented by the UNC Charlotte Department of Music

Arts as Activism McKnight Hall 5pm

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Fall Plant Sale

R.A.D. Class

McMillan Greenhouse 9am - 3pm

Halton Arena 1pm

The Rape Agression Defense Program consists of a hands-on, 12-hour, physical defense course. Students can register with glecomte@uncc.edu. More information is available at studenthealth.uncc. edu/rvam

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Charlotte 49ers Volleyball vs. Dayto

9am - 5pm

Come pick up some great plants to take home or just come by to tour the greenhouse.

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Wear green and head out to Halton Arena to cheer on your Charlotte 49ers volleyball team when they battle conference foe Dayton!

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FOR RELEASE OCTOBER 4, 2011

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis

See the answer to the sudoku puzzle by scanning the code with your smartphone.

The answers:

Get the answers at www.nineronline.com/downtime

ACROSS 1 Its “fleece was white as snow” 5 __ Sutra 9 Go with the flow 14 Pastoral verse 15 Pink-slipped 16 Ladies’ man 17 Nicolas of “Adaptation” 18 Got one’s uniform dirty, maybe 19 Mississippi, e.g.

20 Understand how things are done 23 Many frozen dinners are high in it 24 Taker of vows 25 Def Jam genre 28 Native American group 31 As plain as day, e.g.

33 Tax pro 36 Places to see links 38 Friend 40 Cancún uncle 41 36-Across opening 42 Simple floral garlands 47 Fair-hiring initials 48 Forensic facility 49 Spy wear 51 Sí or oui 52 Do-favor link 54 Broadsided 58 Stage name of Ehrich Weiss, for whom the ends of 20-, 36- and 42-Across were props 61 Wife of Abraham 64 Long, long time 65 “__ Three Lives”: TV oldie 66 Michelangelo figure 67 Pear variety 68 Charity 69 Suisse peaks 70 Like an animated Pea? 71 Cold-cock DOWN 1 The home team gets the last ones 2 Hersey’s “A Bell For __”

10/4/11

By Ed Sessa

3 “Nearer, __, to Thee” 4 Messed up 5 Former Asian state known for goat wool 6 Wheel holder 7 Golda of Israel 8 Supplement 9 Poison in some whodunits 10 Kids’ book connectables 11 GP’s gp.

12 Gently stroke 13 Place for a ring 21 Racetrack surface 22 Door sign 25 Go through energetically, as drawers 26 1966 Michael Caine title role 27 Pasta topper 29 “Little Women” woman 30 Pioneering computer 32 Letters before nus 33 Tea leaves holder 34 Wood shaver 35 Fake name

Monday’s Puzzle Solved

(c)2011 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

37 Slinky’s shape 39 Fashion monogram 43 Steinway alternatives 44 Trucker with a handle 45 Never 46 “Elephant Boy” actor 50 Alaskan brown bear 53 Iraqis, usually

10/4/11

55 Nabisco brand named for its flavor 56 The Penguin, to Batman 57 Playground retort 58 Can’t stand 59 “Ouch!”

60 Fire truck item 61 Mineral spring 62 Feel sick 63 Workout unit

PAGE 14

NINERTIMES

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

SPORTS

SPORTS SCHEDULE

Men’s Tennis vs Milligan

Women’s Tennis vs Milligan

Fri. 10:30 am, Charlotte, NC Fri. 10:30 am, Charlotte, NC

Women’s Soccer vs UMass

Men’s Tennis vs Mars Hill

Fri. 7pm, Charlotte, NC

Fri. 3:30 pm, Charlotte, NC

Volleyball vs Xavier

Women’s Tennis vs Mars Hill

Fri. 7pm, Charlotte, NC

Fri. 3 pm, Charlotte, NC

Charlotte’s trouble finding a home for their football team continues Charlotte has released that they will be playing as a FCS Independent for the forseeable future Ed Niser

SPORTS@NINEROLINE.COM

Charlotte fans have been wondering which conference the 49ers will call home in 2013 when their football team takes the field—the answer is none.

Charlotte has opted to go Independent, as they were desperately searching for a football-only invite from a local conference, such as the Southern Conference or Colonial Athletic Association.

Independent teams often face difficulty in scheduling football games and come 2013, Charlotte will most likely be the only member among FCS Independents, as the other upstart programs have served their time and are moving on to their respective conferences next fall.

People may bring forth the Notre Dame argument about how they are successful as a football independent. The major difference between Notre Dame and Charlotte is that the Fighting Irish have had over a century to brand their team; the 49ers have not even had 75 years.

Notre Dame has competed for national championships in football. Charlotte hasn’t taken the field yet and will be forced to fill schedule slots with local Division 2 opponents like Catawba and Chowan.

If Charlotte remains an FCS Independent for an extended period of time they will find themselves in an unrelenting quagmire, not where you want to be as an upstart football program.

Charlotte possesses a fan base that has no patience to wait around to be a good team; they want the 49ers to be a force in the FCS out the gates, but in reality it is rare that an upstart program is very successful in their first year of existence.

Charlotte’s head football coach Brad Lambert, has mentioned that he and his staff are paying close attention to what Larry Coker’s UT-San Antonio Roadrunners program is doing. The Roadrunners took the field for the first time in their history this fall and now possess the highest attendance for an FCS upstart football

program at 56,783 in the Alamo Dome.

Charlotte’s stadium will seat just over 15,000 people to start, but there are already plans drawn up to expand that project in phases from 40,000 to 60,000 seats giving 49er fans something to drool over.

The CAA has expressed interest in Charlotte on a couple of occasions, but the 49ers were steadfast in their hopes for a football-only invite. The 49ers want to stay in the Atlantic 10 for all of their other athletic teams, but there aren’t many conferences who want to accept a shortterm football-only school.

The CAA took an all or nothing standpoint, so while the Charlotte media market is an attractive and lucrative one, they opted to pass on the upstart 49ers football program.

Charlotte 49ers Athletic Director Judy Rose’s word choice in her interview with the Charlotte Observer Thursday was interesting to say the least. “We’re an Independent in football for an indefinite period of time,” which to me still leaves the door open for Charlotte to secure a spot somewhere in a conference prior to kickoff in 2013.

For those who don’t know the NCAA rules for an upstart college football program, Charlotte must play at least two seasons as a FCS Independent member before they can move on to play a conference schedule.

If the Charlotte 49ers hope to be playing football in a conference come 2015, they must be willing to compromise with the conferences who have offered them an invitation for all sports.

While many see the CAA as a downgrade in some sports, it does have its benefits like any other conference. In football, it is annually one of the better conferences in the championship subdivision and basketball offers some stiff competition such as Old Dominion, Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason, who made a run to the Final Four in 2004.

In a preseason ranking at the start of last season by ESPN, the Atlantic 10 conference was ranked eight among all conferences in

college basketball with the CAA not trailing too far behind in ninth.

While the reason for Charlotte wanting to remain in the Atlantic 10 is understandable, they need to be a bit more flexible when it comes to their future in football.

Charlotte has captured league high 30 championships in the A-10 since joining in 2006, but they have yet to capture a single A-10 men’s basketball crown.

Football is an expensive endeavor for any school to undertake, so Charlotte needs to make sure they give this team the tools they need to get the team running in the right direction.

Rose did not neglect to mention that she is keeping her eyes and ears open for the possibility of a conference coming knocking, as there are conference shifts occurring all across the college landscape.

Charlotte could entertain the possibility of Conference USA offering a spot in their league, if they decide to up their membership number to 14. The 49ers would be an attractive commodity in this case, as they are building a new football stadium and state of the art tennis facility, which would help promote the image of the conference.

The 49ers were a member of Conference USA for a decade during the time frame of 1995-2005, but Charlotte was essentially kicked out of the conference for not starting a football program then.

The reason why Conference USA would be an ideal conference for Charlotte if they wanted to make the fast track to FBS level football is it allows regional rivalries to develop and mature more than being an Independent or member of the Atlantic 10.

We’re not just talking about football, because if Charlotte were to move all their sports into Conference USA, they would be better off in the majority of their sports in the sense that more fans could make the trip to the majority of road games.

Charlotte may have already heard from a larger conference but they are declining to release any information to the media, in

the fear of jinxing any potential deal they may be in the process of hatching out.

The wording Rose used when she met with the Charlotte Observer leads me to believe something bigger and better is on the horizon for Charlotte athletics at a whole.

Other names have been tossed around the inner circle of potential homes for Charlotte, Big East has been one of them as they are currently scrambling to fill the spots vacated by Pittsburgh and Syracuse who packed their bags and jetted for the Atlantic Coast Conference, as UCONN begs to leave the Big East.

The Big East conference has more crumbles than a cookie fresh out the oven.

Would Charlotte fit the model for the reeling Big East conference? Yes, but is the actuality of the 49ers joining plausible?

Charlotte’s only hope for becoming a member of any of the larger conferences involved in the realignment realm is their location.

Charlotte is located in one of the top banking districts in the country and they are also in the top 25 for media market at 24, according to the station index, so why wouldn’t a conference want to stake their claim in the Queen City?

Charlotte has another selling point that may open the eyes of conferences searching for members. The university looks to expand in population from 25,000 to 35,000+ in the next decade. The 49ers currently have fewer than 300 student athletes on their campus, but that number is expected to grow with the coming of football and a few other sports in observance with Title IX policies.

We will just have to play the waiting game to see if Charlotte will receive an invite to play in one of the handful of conferences currently undergoing realignment.

Charlotte receives verbal commitment from Cummings High running back Alan Barnwell runs a 4.4 40 yard dash and scored 13 touchdowns in his Junior season for the Cavaliers.

Ed Niser

SPORTS@NINERONLINE.COM

Barnwell is a senior at Cummings High School and has verbally committed to the upstart Charlotte 49ers football team. Photo courtesy of Brad

Coville/ Freedom News Source

Cummings High School running back, Alan Barnwell, has given Charlotte football fans something to cheer about as students count down the days to kickoff in August of 2013.

Barnwell has offered a verbal commitment to play for Charlotte in 2013 and is the first high school recruit to express interest in playing football for the upstart Charlotte 49ers.

Barnwell has a frame that the 49ers could pack some muscle on, standing at 5-foot-10 inches tall and weighing just 180 lbs. Barnwell offers Charlotte offensive coordinator, Jeff Mullen, something to work with as he possess a 4.4 speed in the 40 yard dash. In highlight reels he has

demonstrated his ability to run off tackle and get the hard two-yards at the end of the play.

Barnwell averaged just over five yards per carry last season for the Buccanneers and compiled a total of 636 yards on the ground as a junior.

Barnwell found the end zone 13 times in 2010 and knows that he will have to pack on a bit of bulk to play at the next level.

He mentioned in an interview with the Burlington Times News that he thinks that the extended time period in making his decision early will allow him to train and better mold himself into a more bigger back.

Cummings head coach, Steve Johnson, has a working relationship with Mullen and believes that it was a turning point in the recruiting process and a

good fit for his young running back.

While Barnwell has just verbally committed to the 49ers, he mentioned that he would not be against making official visits to other campuses this fall. He made an unofficial visit to UNC Charlotte over the summer months.

Barnwell possesses the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield and cause some damage in the open field.

In 2010, Barnwell averaged just over 15 yards a catch from the running back slot. While the commitment isn’t yet official and won’t become that until signing day in Feb., it is still a monumental accomplishment for Head Football Coach Brad Lambert and his staff.

NINERONLINE.COM

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

PAGE 15

Charlotte falls to Colonials in four sets 3-1 and return home Friday Brian Chan BCHAN@UNCC.EDU

This season, the Charlotte 49ers women’s volleyball team has thrived in the opening set and floundered in the latter sets in conference play, resulting in a few tough losses. Saturday night was no exception as the team fell in four sets to the George Washington Colonials (20-25, 25-20, 25-22, 25-18).

Charlotte (6-9, 0-3) extended its losing streak to five matches and dropped to 3-8 away from Halton Arena.

George Washington (12-5, 1-2) snapped a 10-match losing streak in conference play, winning for the first time against an Atlantic-10 opponent since Oct. 17 of last year. The Niners were outhit .274-.179 in the match.

Sophomore libero/defensive specialist Chrissy Drake opened with a pair of service aces as the Niners took an early 7-1 lead in the first set and maintained control as senior outside hitter/right side Leah Leventhal kept the team ahead at 22-13. The Colonials responded with six points to cut the lead to three, but Charlotte managed to hold on with a 25-20 win.

The Niners outhit the Colonials .310-.211 in the first set, continuing the team’s strong play in the opening set in conference play. The Niners improved to 3-0 in the first set against their A-10 foes while sporting a .309 attack percentage in the frame.

In both matches last week, Charlotte experienced a significant drop between the first and second sets as the attack percentage fell to .047. Looking to maintain consistency, the Niners were again off to a strong start in the second set on Saturday night as they took an 8-4 lead, after feature player of the week, senior setter Sheri Davis and junior outside hitter Bianca Rouse each recorded a pair of kills. The Niners scored six kills in their first seven attacks, resulting in an .857 attack percentage.

Following a timeout, after sophomore middle blocker Amanda Videmsek gave the Niners a 9-4 lead with a service ace, the Colonials battled back with six consecutive points and built a 15-11 lead midway through the second set. George Washington evened the match with a 25-20 win in the second

Sheri Davis recorded two kills in the loss to George Washington as they ended the roadtrip with zero wins. Photo by Michael

set, following a game-ending kill from freshman outside hitter Kelsey Newman. Newman, the Charlotte native, tallied five kills in the second set.

In the third set, it was a battle between the teams’ leading attackers as Rouse led Charlotte with six kills in the frame, and junior outside hitter Lauren Whyte provided five kills for George Washington. Whyte gave the Colonials a 21-16 lead with a kill, but Rouse answered with her own kill as part of a 5-0 run to tie the game at 21-all late in the third set.

Whyte broke the tie only to see her counterpart respond with another kill to keep the teams tied at 22-all. George Washington captured the third set with a 25-22 win after a service ace from sophomore middle blocker Jamie Armstrong.

Charlotte managed to cut the lead to two points a couple times late in the fourth set, but George Washington, a team that entered the night with a 10-match losing skid in the conference, maintained its composure and sealed the win with a 25-18 victory in the fourth set. The Colonials had another strong showing, recording a .375 attack percentage with just two attack errors in the frame.

Rouse led Charlotte with 17 kills and contributed nine digs in the loss. Videmsek also had a solid performance with eight kills and six blocks, and Davis logged in 35 assists, seven digs, and six kills while leading the team with a .455 attack percentage.

George Washington was represented with four players in double figures with kills and two players that had double-doubles on Saturday. Whyte registered 12 kills and 11 digs, and redshirt junior setter Katie Crosby added 46 assists and 13 digs. Newman had a team-leading 14 kills, sophomore right side hitter Taylor Knox tallied 12 kills and six blocks, and freshman middle blocker Christy Harper contributed 10 kills.

Junior libero Candace Silva-Martin led all players with 18 digs in the match.

Stennett

49ers drop conference opener 2-1

BY THE NUMBERS

120 697 19 3 4 7 14

Days until Charlotte signs first football recruiting class.

Days until Charlotte kicks off their inaugral football season.

Number of career goals by Senior Macky Wingo.

Men’s Golf placed third overall at Duke’s Myers Invitational.

The Charlotte 49ers get set to kickoff their home conference slate against UMass this Friday. Photo courtesy of Charlotte Sports Information Joel Hanel

JHANEL1@UNCC.EDU

Despite a spectacular goal by senior Macky Wingo, the Charlotte 49ers fell in their first A-10 season game to St. Louis on the road Friday. The 2-1 loss moves the team season record to 2-6-2.

“Tonight was a disappointing result,” said Niner coach John Cullen. “We have to bounce back immediately and that is our sole focus this coming week.”

The game opened up with both teams vying to take the first goal, including several Niner strikes that did not make it past the keeper.

First, freshman Amanda Jones took a shot in the first five minutes of play, firing a little off, and not capitalizing. A few minutes later, Jonna Handra attempted once again, but with a similar outcome.

St. Louis got on board in the twentysecond minute, despite several saves by Niner keeper Natalie Lavigne.

With the Niners down, several scoring attempts were thwarted by the St. Louis keeper including shots from Oni Bernard, Jenna McKeon, and Jonna Handra.

Yet, a few minutes later, Sara Trexler led an attack, passing to the senior Wingo, who fired a shot five yards out to tie the game up. With the point, Wingo now has four goals this season, and 19 in her career with the Niners.

Into the half, the game was tied up, and for the better part of the second half, both teams battled to take the lead. This included shots by Wingo, Handra, and Lacey McGowan, but nothing went pass the St. Louis keeper.

Finally, St. Louis took the lead after

placing a shot behind Charlotte keeper Alex Kubrick off a rebound.

In the end, the Niners were unable to tie the game after the Bilikens took the lead, and the Niners fell 2-1.

“For large parts of tonight’s game we had decent control, but our final passes and our final decisions were not good enough and it cost us a victory. I felt both of their goals could have been prevented and that is the hard thing to deal with in a loss. We have made some positive strides as of late but there is no denying tonight was a setback.” Said Cullen following the match Charlotte returns home for the week, to take on UMass and Rhode Island this coming weekend at Transamerica field.

Women’s cross country placed fourth at Charlotte Invitational

Men’s Cross Country team placed seventh at Charlotte Invitational.

Number of home men’s basketball games this season.

PAGE 16

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

NINERTIMES