INSIDE
n SMU Soccer star signs
PAGE 2
n Spring’s best watches
PAGE 5
n Pollock Gallery’s new show
PAGE 4
Another one bites the dust PAGE 4
FRIDAY
JANUARY 20, 2011 Friday High 77, Low 43 Saturday High 53, Low 45
VOLUME 96 ISSUE 49 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
sports
SMU get BCS bowl eligibility BROOKE WILLIAMSON into the Big 12 as well as Missouri to the SEC. Sports Editor kbwilliamson@smu.edu Following conference SMU has fulfilled their goal to join a Bowl Championship Series Automatic Qualifier (BCS AQ) conference with SMU Athletics joining the Big East in all sports. Along with SMU, the University of Central Florida and Houston will join the Big East in all sports while Boise State and San Diego will be members bound by football only. SMU, UCF and Houston will begin competing in the Big East beginning in the 2013-2014 academic school year. SMU takes part of conference realignment along with many other schools across the country including Texas A&M’s move from the Big 12 to the SEC, West Virginia’s move
realignment this past season was similar to trying to sort marbles while blindfolded—impossible. The 2013 Big East conference will not have east and west divisions until they reach a 12-team football conference. Returning to the BIG EAST will be Connecticut, Cincinnati, Louisville, Rutgers and South Florida. Joining them will be Boise State, San Diego State, Houston UCF and SMU. The Big East has been courting Air Force and Navy as football members only, however both schools have yet to commit. Many believe Navy, currently a football independent, has yet to join due
See FOOTBALL page 5
Big East means big basketball MERCEDES OWENS Sports Editor mmowens@smu.edu With SMU’s acceptance of the Big East Conference invitation, the Big D community is sure to see some change, especially on the basketball court. Not only is the Big East a Bowl Championship Series Automatic Qualifier conference, but it’s also the leading NCAA Division I basketball conference in the nation. Joining teams on the court such as DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Notre Dame, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall and Villanova
will benefit SMU’s basketball program tremendously. Donors, game day attendance, coast-to-coast recruitment, media and the branding of SMU are several areas of SMU that are sure to grow with the joining of the Big East conference. After the 2011 expansion of the Big East the conference now has the largest footprint of any other football conference in the nation. Crossing over eight state boarders and five regions from coast-to-coast, the new conference will allow SMU to have a larger recruiting base for
See BASKETBALL page 5
SIDNEY HOLLINGSWORTH/ The Daily Campus
President R. Gerald Turner addresses an excited crowd during SMU’s official presentation into the Big East Athletic Conference.
Eastbound.
ERIC SHEFFIELD Video Editor esheffield@smu.edu
Crowds cheered and tubas bellowed as Hughes Trigg Student Center filled with more than 100 people to celebrate SMU’s joining the Big East Conference Thursday afternoon. For the first time since the days of the Southwest Conference, SMU will be playing against prominent athletic competition. SMU President R. Gerald Turner and Big East Commissioner John Marinatto were among those who spoke at the event. After absorbing SMU and four other universities, Commissioner Marinatto said that the Big East will have “by far the largest footprint of any Division I conference in the country.” President Turner believes that the move will not just benefit
SMU but the community at large. “If SMU has that sort of visibility, just think about it, how much more visible Dallas will be,” Turner said. By joining the Big East, many doors will open for SMU athletic teams. The Big East is an extremely competitive basketball conference for both men and women. “We take hoops very seriously,” Marinatto said. The conference includes basketball powerhouses such as Syracuse, University of Connecticut, Villanova and Georgetown. Big East men’s teams have won the national championship three out of the last nine years while women have won it seven of the last twelve years. Despite the recent success of Big East basketball teams,
student athletes are excited for the opportunity to play greater competition. Senior Samantha Mahnesmith believes the conference shake up will have a major impact on the team. “It’s going to be better for us. It will raise our level of competition and I think we’re ready for it,” Mahnesmith said. Additionally, the football regular season champion of the Big East Conference is automatically qualified to participate in one of the five BCS bowl games. Student Body President Austin Prentice had a gift for Commissioner Marinatto, He presented the commissioner with a SMU football helmet. “After being a member of the Southwest Conference for over seventy years, primetime athletics is not only what SMU deserves, but also supports,” Prentice
said. Marinatto returned the favor by giving the student body with a helmet emblazoned with the Big East logo. To close out the ceremony, June Jones presented the BBVA Compass Bowl trophy to president R. Gerald Turner. The Mustangs won the bowl game 28-6 against the University of Pittsburgh on Jan. 7. SMU will become a full member in all sports of the Big East Conference at the beginning of the 2013 to 2014 school year. As president Turner said“Thirteen will be a big year at SMU.”
Go to:
smudailycampus.com for Video
finances
Libraries
Textbooks on the cheap
Dickens best works visit DeGoyler
PARTH SHETH Staff Writer pmsheth@smu.edu It may still be January, but it is never too early to start thinking about Spring Break. While visions of sandy beaches and sunny skies are a welcome change from this dreary winter weather, spring break can also be very expensive and requires students to start saving well ahead of time. The solution? Save money by getting cheap textbooks. Some students order their books directly from the bookstore simply because this is convenient. However, if you’re willing to spend a little bit of time searching, you can save hundreds of dollars. Questions that may pop into students’ heads when looking for textbooks are whether to buy or to rent their textbooks and where they can get books for the best prices. An alternative to buying books from the bookstore is ordering your books online from websites such as Amazon, Chegg or eBay.
Per onal Finan e Amazon allows you to buy books directly from the site for a reasonably discounted price. You own the book while you use it for the semester and after you are done with it, you have the option to sell it back to Amazon. The only catch is that they usually will give you about twothirds of the money you paid for it. So, you are essentially paying a third of the price to “rent” the book. You can also buy textbooks from other sellers on Amazon if you do not want to go through the company itself. Chegg is an online bookstore that has been called the “Netflix of textbooks.” This company sells and rents books out to students with a specific due date on each book (usually in June or December). If you rent from Chegg, know that you can highlight the pages — but not write on them.
As a bonus for those of you who are environmentally conscious, Chegg promises to plant one tree for each book order it receives. The company has planted over 5 million trees worldwide to help restore wildlife habitats and regenerate areas damaged by forest fires and forest clearing. Lastly, eBay is another good place to find cheaper books. Like Amazon, you can order textbooks from other individuals or from bookstores. The advantage of this is that you can get a used or even new textbook for a relatively good price. The downside is that the seller may or may not be reliable. You can help protect yourself from unscrupulous sellers by checking the seller ratings and feedback. Finally, the up-and-coming trend in technology today is tablets and e-readers, which are primarily used to read digital books but have other applications as well. You can now rent and buy digital editions of textbooks that are identical to the physical books
See BOOKS page 6
RAHFIN FARUK News Editor rfaruk@smu.edu A rare collection of books and historical memorabilia from Charles Dickens—arguably the most prominent author of the Victorian period—will be on display at DeGolyer Library until May 12. Dickens achieved fame during the Victorian period for his periodical style of writing that involved monthly cliffhangers and summaries. Formally named “Charles Dickens: The First Two Hundred Years,” the collection comes from Stephen Weeks, an SMU parent. The DeGolyer Library and the Friends of the SMU Libraries are sponsoring the exhibition. “It is an honor to have such a treasure at our libraries,” Pamalla Anderson, head of public services at the DeGolyer Library, said. “It is an absolute joy to see these pieces.” The collection contains many first edition publications from “David Copperfield” to “A Tale
of Two Cities.” Lesser known works like “Little Dorrit,” “Bleak House” and “Dombey and Son” are also on display. More eclectic collections include “The Opinion of the Press” by Dickens’ scholar, B.W. Matz, and “Dickens’s Dictionary of London, 1886: An Unconventional Handbook,” a dictionary printed without Dickens’ permission. Prominent Dickens illustrators like George Cruikshank have numerous pieces in the exhibition. Cruikshank produced more than 15,000 book illustrations throughout his lifetime. His works are so precise in detail that many historians look to them for more knowledge about Victorian architecture and clothing. “We have school groups and archivists coming in. Kids and adults are interested to see what we have here,” Anderson said. “It is much more than just a ‘wow’ factor.” The DeGolyer Library is optimistic about the number of people that will come visit
the exhibition in the upcoming months. “We hope the English department and students come in to see the pieces,” Anderson said. “Even history majors studying the Victorian era will get a lot out of this collection.” Local high school and university students have been encouraged to plan fieldtrips to DeGolyer. But the exhibition has also sparked national interest. “I have already sold material to people from Rhode Island and New York,” Anderson said. With some of Dickens’ first editions running in the thousands, the collection is valuable from both a monetary and magnitude standpoint. “We have Dickens’ top 200 pieces on display in commemoration of 2012 being 200 years from his birth,” Anderson said. “Anyone that wants a rich context for that time in history from much more than a literary standpoint should come give it a look.”