INSIDE
SMU tramples Temple 75-52
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Debating the drinking age
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New movie “Gloria” impresses
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Kitchen LTO opens, a second time PAGE 2
FRIDAY
february 7, 2014 FRIday High 36, Low 23 SATURday High 59, Low 36
VOLUME 99 ISSUE 56 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
Dedman Law gets new Dean Davis supports Politics
Katelyn Gough Editor-in-Chief kgough@smu.edu
Jennifer M. Collins, graduate of Yale and Harvard universities and current vice provost of Wake Forest University, will join SMU this summer as the new Judge James Noel Dean of Dedman School of Law. Collins elaborated on some of her own goals and implementations she hopes to bring July 1. “Two huge goals for me are one, making sure that we’re giving our students the best education we possibly can and, two, getting them the best jobs that we possibly can,” Collins said. She said one of the key roles of a dean is to do, “a lot of outreach to potential employers and alumni who can hire our graduates.” Building that base network for the law school as a whole is one of her priorities. Skills for recent graduatess preparing to enter the workforce will likely be a key aspect of Collins’ new ideas. “Lots of folks just don’t know how to go about the job market. Networking is hard, writing an email to someone you’ve never met...is hard,” Collins said. “You’ve got to think, ‘Are we giving [students] the educational background that they need and are we giving them the tools... they need to be successful in the job market?’” University President R. Gerald Turner has spoken out on the school’s reputation for academic rigor and the legacy it has built
already, adding that the addition of Collins will only continue to build and expand upon the strong foundation already there. “Because Jennifer Collins’ career spans a lengthy tenure as a federal prosecutor as well as serving in academia, she is uniquely positioned to continue the Dedman School of Law tradition of preparing men and women to enter a competitive legal market,” Turner said in an interview with SMU News and Communications. Likewise, Collins plans to take advantage of the “fantastic building blocks in place” at Dedman Law currently, as well as the unique position Dallas the city offers law students. “[Dallas] is one of the economies in that United States that’s really thriving; it has just amazing potential career options for students,” Collins explained. “Being in a larger legal market just means you can do more for students both during and after their time at law school.” In taking from and continuing to build on her current experience as vice provost, Collins will work to further integrate the law school into the larger SMU community. She cited extensive alumni associations and mentorships between law students and lawinclined undergraduates as possibilities to implement. “There are wonderful Boulevard parties for the law school and they’re looking at doing more social events for alumni, and those kinds of things are really important because it helps build a community,” Collins
open carry laws Associated PRess
Courtesy of wfu.edu
Jennifer M. Collins will join SMU as the new dean of Dedman School of Law.
said. “Spending a lot of time listening to and engaging with alumni is another big priority.” Following a nation-wide search for the new dean, Collins was named the successor to current Dean ad interim Julie Forrester — to whom SMU Provost Paul Ludden has expressed his gratitude for her work since last June. “Professor Forrester provided a great service to Dedman Law, providing outstanding leadership
and laying the groundwork for a smooth transition,” Ludden told SMU News and Communications. Now eager to join the Dedman Law faculty, Collins said she looks forward to coming on board in the next few months. “I thinks it’s really important for a new dean to come in and listen,” Collins said of joining the existing establishment. “[Listen to] what folks want, to what folks need and to what their dreams are.”
RELIGION
Student Life
One28 campaigns against porn Stephanie Embree Contributing Writer sembree@smu.edu One28, a Christian ministry on campus, put up a large wooden sign Tuesday asking students “What do you think about Porn?” Students scrawled their answers in sharpie: “I don’t think about it, I live it.” “Destroyed my parent’s marriage.” “Only good with lots of hot guys.” “I wish I would stop watching it.” The sign was a promotion for One28’s Wednesday night service, where guest speaker Jonathan “JP” Pokluda talked about the dangers of pornography. It’s not uncommon for a Christian church or organization to take a stand against porn, but with topless women in almost every episode of “Game of Thrones” and books like “50 Shades of Grey” on the best-sellers list it’s unclear who agrees with them. “Porn is whatever Google brings up,” joked sophomore Zack Fout. As for the nudity and sexual images used in shows like “Game of Thrones,” Fout, who considers himself nonreligious, called it “a positive move to openness because it’s less suppression of free will, doing what you want.” “I don’t watch [porn] but I don’t have a problem with it,”said Katie Braden, who is nonreligious. “I don’t think anything bad can come from it.” First-year Emma Conlon thinks porn is “this bad thing that’s not really talked about.” However she doesn’t think what’s online or in the media contributes. “People can make their own choices,” she said. “They don’t
The Wild West tradition of openly carrying your six-shooter on the street has long been banned in Texas under state law. But the next governor could change that. Rising Democratic star and gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis has joined her top Republican rival in supporting a proposed “open carry” law. It would allow people with concealed handgun licenses to wear a pistol on their hip, in full view, while in public. Davis has said she supports expanding gun rights in Texas. In a statement to The Associated Press, she said that includes open-carry — a position that puts her at odds with her own party but could keep her from alienating gun rights advocates in a deeply conservative state where the Second Amendment is sacrosanct. Davis’ position now aligns her with her Republican gubernatorial rival, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, marking her latest effort to eliminate it as a wedge issue in the campaign. But her party and influential Democratic colleagues, including a fellow state senator running for lieutenant governor, disagree. “There is little or no public safety justification for open carry,” said Emmanuel Garcia, spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party. History suggests that Davis’
position is a pragmatic one. Former Gov. Ann Richards, a Democrat, vetoed a concealed handgun measure, but Republican George W. Bush made it a major campaign issue when he defeated Richards for governor in 1994. Texas passed its concealed handgun law the next year. Davis, who said she keeps a gun at her home for protection, supported legislation last year to allow college students with concealed handgun licenses to keep their weapons in their cars. She also voted for reduced training requirements to get such a license. Still, gun rights advocates were skeptical. Texas State Rifle Association spokeswoman Alice Tripp noted Davis’ previous calls for more restrictions on gun show sales and past votes against allowing concealed license holders to carry their guns in classrooms and buildings on college campuses. “Wendy Davis has a very bad record as far as gun owners go,” Tripp said, calling Davis an “opportunist.” Texas does allow open carry of long firearms, such as rifles and shotguns, with virtually no restrictions. In recent months, rifle-toting Second Amendment advocates have held public demonstrations at the Alamo in San Antonio and near the Capitol in Austin.
Perkins school takes J-term trip to Israel-Palestine Jehadu Abshiro News Writer jabshiro@smu.edu
STEPHANIE EMBREE / The Daily Campus
One28 set up a sign on campus for students to comment on porn.
have to be influenced.” Chris Fish, a junior and member of Beta Upsilon Chi, agrees that everyone has a choice. “The reason is not that they’re ignorant college kids. It’s because they are still living under sin.” Another attendee at One28, first-year Kaci Rood, said “the Bible talks about sex as a bond between a man and a woman, but people that don’t necessarily believe that don’t see it that way, they just see it as another activity.” An activity that the event’s speaker Pokluda, believes has serious consequences. “I’ve used cocaine, ecstasy, I was an alcoholic. All those things I could leave behind but not pornography.” Pokluda, the director of young adults at Watermark church, explained that, “porn is biologically powerful.” Claiming
it is an addiction and that he has, “met men who cannot have sex with their wives without a magazine open or something on the TV.” During his message Pokluda tossed things like X-rated DVDs, pornographic magazines and a laptop computer onto a bed that was set up on the stage. “This will be in your bed that night with your wife,” he said. Near the end of the night Pokluda ripped off the comforter of the bed, throwing everything on the floor. “Jesus can make you a new person,” he said. “In running to Jesus you’re running away from porn.” Ultimately Pokluda said he thinks porn is dangerous. “This is the world your children will grow up in. This is why you have to fight this issue, because it’s rewiring America,” he said.
Israel and Palestine. Religion, conflict and peace talks come to mind when those two areas are mentioned together. It’s not where most people go to spend winter break, and it’s not where most SMU students had their J-Term. The group, lead by Director of Perkins Global Theological Education Program Robert Hunt, was participating in a Palestine-Israel immersion class from Dec. 29-Jan.13. Hunt has been taking the cross-cultural immersion trip with students from the Perkins School of Theology since 2004. “The purpose is for students to be immersed in the different cultures one finds in the Israel and Palestine territories and to get a sense of the cultural difference,” Hunt said. “So that they understand how those cultures are different from our culture and those cultures are different from each other and react to the reality they are part of.” Unlike previous years, where groups spent more time with Palestine Christians, this group spent five days in Israel and five days in Palestine. The group spent five days on the Israeli side studying contemporary Israeli culture at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a Jewish think tank. The group also visited various holy sites and locations
Courtesy of smu.edu
Students who went on the Perkins trip visited many holy sites.
within Tel Avi, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Jericho, Bethlehem, Ramallah and the Sea of Galilee. “Jerusalem has its own flavor and is very religious. Basically you can tell anyone’s religion by just looking at them,” 25-year-old Scott Gilliland said. “There is a lot of diversity and very noticeable. It’s divided.” Where a person can go is often determined by their religious beliefs. For example, at the Temple Mount, the location of the Wailing Wall, a person enters based on their gender and religion. “You’re very conscience of who you are, where you are and which culture you are currently touring,” Gilliland said. “You don’t understand their culture fully, so you’re always aware.” Gilliland, a youth pastor, went on the trip along with his wife and fellow student Raegen Gilliland. He didn’t have a spiritual connection to the holy sites until he came to the Garden of Gethsemane. A small garden with
eight olive trees, the oldest believed to be 2,200 years old. “It was largely the one that was largely untouched,” Gilliland said. “It was one place were I felt there wasn’t a church built on top of it, and didn’t have the whole Mickey Mouse tourism marketability with it. Just being in that place and thinking Jesus was walking there, that was cool for me.” “Being an American, it’s easy to turn off because it’s a conflict that’s overwhelming because there is a lot of nuances to it,” Gilliland said. “I walked away wanting to pay attention. There was a lot of hope.” The group spent five days in Palestine at the Dar al-Kalima University and the Bethlehem International center. “It means a lot to me as a teacher to see what it does for my students,” Hunt said. “To see how it transforms them and changes them in good ways. That’s what it means to me, to see the transformation in my students.”