FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2012 • WESTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY • WKUHERALD.COM • VOLUME 88 NO. 24 CHH POLITICS Fiscal Cliff
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SPORTS FOR THURSDAY'S BASKETBALL COVERAGE WKUHERALD.COM CHIC CHICKS STAY WARM WITH CUTE COATS PAGE 7 NEWS SOUTH CAMPUS FOOD COURT MAY REOPEN IN SPRING PAGE 8 DIVERSIONS SIGNING SANTA'S COMING TO TOWN PAGE 8
HRL: PFT to be all female next fall
ZIRCONIA ALLEYNE
NEWS@WKUHERALD.COM
On Monday, members of the WKU Housing Residence Life leadership team discussed changing Pearce Ford Tower to an all-female residence hall. But Housing and Residence Life Director Brian Kuster didn’t expect the news to spread like wildfire. “This all kind of came out quicker than what I would have liked,” he said. “But at the same time, I want to be open and honest with everyone. We are looking at making that change, but
we’re still doing our research.” PFT is currently a co-ed residence hall, but effective fall 2013, it will house only females. Kuster said the decision came in an effort to change the “stigma” of PFT. “We do think it will make a change in the view of PFT,” he said. “Any time something happens near the south end of campus, PFT gets the negative connotation.” The hall received a $15 million renovation in 2009, which Kuster said was an effort to change the perception people had on the building.
“It had an effect, but not exactly what we wanted it to do,” he said. Howard Bailey, vice president for Student Affairs, was also on board for the change. “They thought I would brew over it since I was one of the first hall directors (there),” Bailey said. “But it didn’t take me long to make a decision.” Bailey said he simply couldn’t find any negatives about the change, especially since there was “quite a bit” of money invested in PFT. “It’s no surprise in education, in Student Affairs and housing, you know,
that females usually have produced less physical wear and tear on a building,” Bailey said. “We would be maximizing the investment.” For males, this will mean a move from PFT — possibly to Poland Hall. “I’m not sure if Poland will be allmale,” Kuster said. “We may look at other residence halls. We’re looking at it (Poland), but we’re still doing our research.” Kuster said they want to get feedback from students also and that males liv-
SEE HOUSING PAGE 3
Love and Lanterns QUICHE MATCHEN NEWS@WKUHERALD.COM
During Tuesday night’s Student Government Association meeting, Gordon Emslie, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, informed members about a new grading scale proposal. SGA president Cory Dodds attached the email conversations between himself and Emslie along with the proposal to SGA’s agenda. In the proposal, Emslie said the idea is to institute two new grade points — B+ and C+ — as a way to reward students. “Using the top one-third rather than the top one-half of the range provides the necessary motivation for students to improve their grade, while leaving the grade for the bottom two-thirds of the range unaltered: a solid B is a B,” according to the document. The proposed system would not include minus grademarks.
Paper lanterns were released Wednesday in memory of Landon Lovett. For the story, see page 3. SAMMY JO HESTER/HERALD
SEE GRADES PAGE 5
Hip-hop hoax: Class takes to Twitter to fool campus
Schneider, Potter Halls may hold secrets TAYLOR HARRISON NEWS@WKUHERALD.COM
MICHAEL MCKAY NEWS@WKUHERALD.COM
If anyone is still upset over the explosion of tweets Wednesday saying the university would ban hip-hop music, they can blame Craig Lonas. The Scottsville senior came up with the idea of starting a slowburning rumor of a story about the university ban for a class project in “Hip-Hop Democracy,” an AfricanAmerican studies class. “I thought about ‘Footloose,’ and I thought about the whole Twitter scandal last year, and I thought, ‘What if we created this fake fear that hip-hop was going to be banned?” Lonas said. He said the reasoning was that “you don’t appreciate something until it’s gone,” and students who got upset would better appreciate how important hip-hop is. “By telling them it’s going to be SEE HIP-HOP PAGE 5
An aerial view of WKU's campus. PROVIDED BY WKU ARCHIVES
The Ghost Hunters came to WKU for the students, not just the ghosts. One of The Atlantic Paranormal Society investigators, Britt Griffith, said students emailed the Syfy network telling them about the ghost stories. He also said WKU was an amazing place. “It was like a little paranormal playground,” Griffith said. Schneider Hall, which houses the Gatton Academy, was one stop on the Ghost Hunter’s paranormal playground. Schneider is said to be haunted by a girl who was killed by an axe murderer. Bowling Green senior Daniel Hood investigated the claims of the murder at Schneider as part of his urban folklore class, but found no evidence that it occurred. “This particular tale actually has about three to four variants and those are usually about what the girl’s name was that was murdered at the hall, how was she killed, then basically how she haunts the place,” Hood said. In Hood’s opinion, the story is more of a SEE GHOST HUNTERS PAGE 2
FRI. 63˚/ 43˚ SAT. 63˚/ 52˚ SUN. 70˚/ 52˚
VOLLEYBALL OPENS TOURNEY FRIDAY SEE SPORTS PAGE 10
PIN UP GIRLS: ULTIMATE S'MORES CAKE SEE PAGE 7
RETRO RETAILER SEE PAGE 6
MON. 73˚/ 52˚