OLD GOLD&BLACK W A K E
F O R E S T
U N I V E R S I T Y
T H U R S D AY, A P R I L 9 , 2 0 0 9
VOL. 92, NO. 14
“Covers the campus like the magnolias”
Outside the Bubble... Earthquake in Italy kills over 200 Before dawn on April 6, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit central Italy. As of March 7, 207 people had died, 15 were still missing,and 100 out of the 1,000 injured were in serious condition. There was an aftershock on April 7 of a magnitude of 5.6. This was the first major earthquake to strike Italy in almost seven years.
Man who planned to kill Obama released Turkish authorities released a Syrian man on April 7 who was arrested for being involved in an alleged plan to kill President Obama during his trip to Turkey. The man was arrested April 3 and, upon arrest, revealed that he and three others had plotted to stab Obama with a knife during the Alliance of Civilizations Summit in Istanbul. He was released because authorities believed that the president’s life was never in serious danger.
President
have previously done.” Interestingly, the president’s race received fewer votes than the race for speaker of the house or that for secretary. This could be due to the fact that Haenn ran unopposed as the only presidential candidate, thus receiving all 788 official votes. The pattern continued with only 700 votes cast in the also uncontested race for treasurer. However, the contested secretary and speaker races received 985 and 1,082 votes, respectively. Some student voters opted for the write-in vote. For example, the race for president received almost 100 write-in votes, and the race for treasurer received almost 40. This makes for an interesting statistic in the presidential race, as more than 1 in 10 students who voted for president chose to write-in a vote. While many were legitimate names such as junior Jermyn Davis, current president, or Munshaw for president, who each received several write-in votes, other students saw the uncontested elections as a chance to get creative. Some of the most interesting write-in votes included Barack Obama, Wu Tang Clan, Ishmael Smith, Spaghetti Cat, Jesus and “Chimpanzee riding on a segway.” A few students also took the write-in vote as an opportunity to express their discontent that there was no option for a vote of “no confidence” in the uncontested elections. Even Haenn, who received an easy victory as an uncontested candidate, was
By Elliot Engstrom | Managing editor As the evening of April 7 came to a close, the Student Government elections committee was busy tallying up the votes from the day’s elections – and the results are in. Next year’s SG executive board will consist of junior President Meghan Haenn, junior Treasurer Saket Munshaw, sophomore Speaker of the House Alex Liccketto and sophomore Secretary Swayze Smartt. “I am excited to be working with such a great team for exec next year,” Haenn said. “Saket is obviously bringing a great amount of experience to the role of treasurer, and I know that we will be relying on his knowledge to help us out, especially in the beginning. Alex Lickketto and Swayze Smartt are both outstanding members of Student Government, and I am sure they will attack their jobs in exec with as much diligence and excitement as they
Missing California girl found dead Sandra Cantu, an eight-year-old from Tracy, Ca., was found dead April 6 after having been missing since March 27. Her body was found stuffed into a suitcase that was raised from a pond at a dairy farm.
Man steals plane with hope of being shot down Adam Dylan Leon stole a training plane from a flight school in Ontario and led U.S. military air crafts on a seven-hour flight across the Midwest. Leon was a student enrolled in Confederation College’s Flight Aviation Management program and stole one of the school’s planes for his journey. After crossing the border over Michigan, U.S. F-16 jets followed Leon to Missouri where he landed the plane. He told authorities that he was trying to commit suicide and wanted to be shot down.
disappointed with the lack of competition in the races. “I think that more competition for the officer positions would have served our organization and the student body better,” she said. “It is important that students have choices in the election. However, I very much believe in the dependability and strength of each of the individuals who won tonight. They are all capable of earning the respect of the student body.” Haenn also took a chance to respond to student concerns about having an SG president who ran
See SG, Page A2
2009-’10 student trustee appointed By CeCe Brooks | Contributing editor
Vermont becomes fourth state to legalize gay marriage On April 7, Vermont’s House and Senate voted to override Governor Jim Douglas’ veto of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. The Senate voted 23-5 to override the veto while the House voted 100-49. This vote ends Vermont’s 10 year battle to legalize same-sex marriages. It is the fourth state to do so after Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa.
Haenn
Rachel Cameron/Old Gold & Black
Jermyn Davis is appointed the student trustee for 2009-2010.
This year’s student body president and prominent leader on the university campus, junior Jermyn Davis, was approved on April 2 as the student trustee for the 20092010 year. For most students Jermyn Davis is a familiar name. Davis has been on Student Government since he first transferred to the university from Juilliard in the fall of 2006. In addition to his role as president, students know him through many other organizations. He has been in other organizations such as the University Committee for Library Plan-
ning and the gospel choir, and he helped plan the Twin Cities Leadership Conference, which focused on gathering leaders from the area’s four major universities. “I think that’s what helps me. Being in so many organizations outside Student Government. People feel like they can relate to me,” Davis said. “I think the only community I’m not a part of is the Greek community, but after this year I think they feel like they can relate to me and I can relate to them.” Although the trustee position is uncharted territory for Davis, he is eager to start this new role.
“I’m really excited about this new challenge,” he said. “It’ll be a lot different than student body president. Student body president is a lot more about day to day life, where I think the student trustee’s role is about thinking how I am going to affect students that aren’t here yet.” Davis plans to learn from the past trustees he has known and admired. “What’s hard is I think I’m following behind two really good student trustees, Lauren Hubbard and Carolyn Harbaugh,” he said. “They’ve set a high bar of being
See Trustee, Page A2
Debate team places second in tourney Admissions By Lauren Dayton | Staff writer
Seniors Seth Gannon and Alex Lamballe won second place at the National Debate Tournament (NDT) hosted by the University of Texas at Austin on March 30. They were defending the title they won last year. Gannon, an English major, and Lamballe, a political science major, are the first university team to have reached the finals of the NDT twice and one of only five teams to have done so in the tournament’s 63-year history. The university debate team also qualified two other teams, who both made it to the top 32 round on the second day of the four-day tournament. The other teams were composed of juniors Seungwon and Doowon Chung and sophomore Ryan Stevens and junior Will Sears. The university’s teams have advanced to the final round in three out of the last four years. In addition, Gannon was the fourth-place individual speaker and Lamballe was the eighth-place individual speaker among 156 debaters in the tournament. Both Gannon and Lamballe debated on
their high school teams, at Woodward Academy in Atlanta and Montgomery Bell in Nashville, respectively. The duo has been debating together since their freshman year. Both Gannon and Lamballe have defined their college experience through the university debate team. “Wake debate has pretty much been my college experience. Our team is really unique, I’ve never seen a group of people who value the history of the team so much and really work together. There is so much emphasis on the team as a whole, rather than the individual,” Lamballe said. Gannon agrees, and particularly emphasized the depth of support the team receives. “The amount of support from the coaches, the other players, the communication department and the alumni is phenomenal,” Gannon said. Membership on the university debate team requires a huge time commitment. There are currently 20 students on the team and in the weeks leading up to the NDT, many of them spend five to eight hours a day doing research. Research “is basically every waking moment except food,” said Gannon, who spent spring break doing research
Life | B7
INSIDE:
April Entertainment
Brieflies
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Police Beat
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Spotlight
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Don’t let studying get you down. There are many things going on around the state during the next month.
The Hot List
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In Other News
Sudoku
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• Jimmy Carter to speak at religious convention | A2 • University opens new Deacon Shop | A3
14 hours a day to prepare for the NDT. Each of the three university teams took seven 14-gallon Rubbermaid tubs full of papers to the NDT – the accumulation of this year’s research. The next largest aspect of the debate team’s preparation is talking about the topics amongst the group. All of the members share research and divide up elements of the questions in order to cover the most ground. The teamwork required by research is part of the community aspect of the university debate team. “Every time a Wake Forest partnership wins a debate, the Wake Forest debate team as a whole played a role,” Gannon said. Teams around the country debate the same general topic throughout a given academic year. In the past the topic has been Supreme Court decisions, relations with the Middle East and relations with China. This year the general topic was whether the U.S. should reduce its subsidies of agriculture. In the final debate, Gannon and Lamballe debated on whether the U.S. should cut grain subsidies -- they were argued the negative.
Sports | B1 In love with the game Men’s assistant coach Chris Brandi and women’s coach Jon Stokke both played collegiate tennis and now continue to do what they love.
staffs meet to discuss changes By Katie Phillips | Staff writer
As most people are aware, the university was the first nationally ranked top-30 university to eliminate the requirement of the SAT submission for potential applicants. On April 15 and 16, the university will host a national conference to discuss college admissions practices and the role that SAT/ACT scores are playing in the admissions process. Leading researchers and admissions officers from UC-Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, University of Texas at Austin and University of Virginia, among others, will be in attendance. The conference is called
See SAT, Page A3
Opinion | A5 Pleading the first Although degrading, Playboy must be protected as one’s right to free speech.