INSIDE
Meadows art show sells out
Fashion week goes social
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Breaking out of the bubble
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Mustangs ranked by AP
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wedNESDAY
february 12, 2014
Wednesday High 48, Low 27 Thursday High 63, Low 41
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Hosseini talks Afganistan Meredith Carey Contributing Writer mbcarey@smu.edu
A nearly full house in McFarlin Auditorium was graced with the literary words of wisdom of bestselling author of “The Kite Runner,” Dr. Khaled Hosseini, at Tuesday’s Tate Lecture Series. Speaking about his writing process for his three novels, which include “A Thousand Splendid Suns” and more recently “And the Mountains Echoed,” Hosseini invited students, faculty and Dallas patrons to join him and The Dallas Morning News Assistant Arts and Features Editor, Micheal Merschel on an exploration of creative writing and Afghan history. “I hope that my books have helped segue, have been a kind of window into the country, to make it more human, more relatable than seeing it on the television as a news story,” Hosseini said. The son of an Afghan diplomat, Hosseini fled Afghanistan at the age of 11 and found a home in California after seeking refuge in the United States at 15. Not speaking a word of English, Hosseini enrolled in American high school just two weeks after arriving in the States. “To say that [my success] is unexpected is a massive understatement. I wanted to write from the time that I was a boy but that I managed somehow make that come true in my third language and to connect with the number of people that I have is really miraculous,” Hosseini said.
GRACE GUTHRIE / The Daily Campus
Khaled Hosseini, author of “The Kite Runner,” speaks in front of the crowd at Tuesday’s Tate Lecture.
For a trilingual who started his career as a physician, Hosseini’s success still comes as a surprise to the author himself. “About a year after ‘The Kite Runner,’ I started seeing people reading it at the airport and at Starbucks and it was weird. It freaked me out,” Hosseini said. But after resigning from medicine in December of 2004, Hosseini has committed to his writing as a way of life. “I’ve always written because there was something inside of me that I wanted to explore,” the author said. It makes sense then that all three of his books have revolved around
a country and a population that is near to his heart: Afghanistan. “Who was it that said that all writing is autobiography at the end of the day? You’re writing about stuff that you feel, that you think, that feels true to you,” Hosseini said. “There are bits and pieces of me all over my books. I think there is an element of guilt that is a recurring theme in my books. I know it has to do with my life.” First-year Laura Kohner noted that Hosseini’s passion comes out not only in his writing, but in his speech as well. “He was speaking from the perspective of someone who
identifies with both Afghan and American culture. He considers himself truly a mix of the two and he is still weighing the two sides of himself,” she said. As the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ Goodwill envoy and the founder of the Khaled Hosseini Foundation, which provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan, Hosseini continues to connect with his homeland. “The foundation gives me the opportunity to reach those people that are just like the characters in my books,” the author said.
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Meadows elects new senator Jehadu Abshiro News Writer jabshiro@smu.edu
Courtesy of Connor Volz
Meadows Senator Connor Volz
which they decide which classes fulfill what when it comes to degree requirements. “I wish to soon write legislation that will help students and future students become better acquainted with and succeed more efficiently
with this still new U.C. that we are now under,” Volz said. He hopes to become more openminded and understanding of the others with his experience in senate. “I wish to become more openminded and understanding of the various ideas people may have,” Volz said. “Lyle majors aren’t going to think the same way as Cox majors or have the same desires for across campus. My objectives will vary from others around me and that’s how the world works.” Volz plans on continuing his work in the senate after this term. “I just love serving on the forefront of organizations and seeing exactly how they operate,” Volz said. “I have always tried to be involved in whatever association I
am part of.” Meadows senators are currently working on an initiative to help build community by hosting an arts festival on the Quad. “Our goal in this endeavor mainly is to help break down the barriers that exist between Meadows and other communities on campus, but also to make art more accessible to other SMU students, to showcase our art, and to generate interest in what we do here in Meadows,” Rothstein said. The plan is for this to become an annual event, like Brown Bag, and the hope is that it will foster community by opening up communication and creating connections between arts and nonarts students.
Metropolitan
Women take over in Snider plaza businesses Paige Kerley Contributing Writer pkerley@smu.edu Beyonce wasn’t kidding around when she said girls run the world. Women are doing anything, everything and experiencing tremendous success in careers of all fields. Female entrepreneurs are quickly rising to the top of the business world. Some of these women are right in SMU’s backyard in Snider Plaza. Suzanne Roberts, owner of Suzanne Roberts Gifts, opened her store in Snider Plaza 38 years ago. “There were no gift shops, there were no antique shops,” Roberts said. “It was very low key.” Roberts also said she was “lucky” when she got into the retail business. Roberts was a librarian at a Dallas
Embrey presents $30,000 in awards Avery Stefan Contributing Writer astefan@smu.edu
Representation
Connor Volz, a second year student from Rowlett, Texas, and a finance and music major is joining current Meadows senators Becca Rothstein and Anthony McAuliffe. “Connor’s role will be to help better represent our constituents, as well as to embrace his other senatorial roles,” Rothstein said. Volz’s responsablities includes sitting on one of the Senate Committees, maintaining office hours, voting on bills and passing legislation. One of Volz’s goals is to quicken the process between administrators, directors and professors in
Academics
school and attended a warehouse sale for library supplies. When she arrived, lots of gold and silver gifts were across the aisle from the things she needed for the library. She bought $100 worth, which was half the cost of wholesale, and sold it to her friends at wholesale value. She continued selling gifts and did so well that in 1988 her husband suggested she quit her job as a librarian and sell gifts full time. Years later, Roberts is still tucked away in Snider Plaza. Her business continues to sell small gifts, but the stationary section of the store is being downsized. “Everyone sends evites, emails,” Roberts said. “Paper is slowly diminishing.” Roberts’ store is very tech-savvy, hosting a website, blog, Twitter account and Facebook page, but she pointed out the ways that
paper does what the computer can’t. “Love letters aren’t love letters if they’re emails,” she said. Down the street from Suzanne Roberts Gifts, Jenny Grumbles Koziol didn’t always plan on owning her own business either. “I had originally wanted to be a reporter,” she said. Koziol, SMU class of 2002, graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism. After accepting a reporting job in Eureka, Calif., Koziol realized a career in journalism just wasn’t for her. “I didn’t love it as much as I needed to,” Koziol said. Koziol followed in her mom’s footsteps and opened her first store Uptown Country in California. After a few years, the Dallasborn, California-bred Koziol decided to move back to the Lone Star state. Eight years ago, she moved her home goods store to Snider Plaza.
“I love Snider Plaza, I love SMU,” Koziol said. Moving back to Texas seemed to be a popular theme for the women in Snider Plaza. When Adriane Sack, owner of Gemma Collection, was let go from her job on Wall Street, she decided to “try something completely different.” Sack, a native of Austin, Texas, moved to Dallas and opened Gemma Collection, a contemporary jewelry boutique. Sack wanted her store to have a slightly different concept. Gemma Collection features affordable, high quality fashion jewelry. Sack also does a lot of custom pieces. Many of her pieces feature initials, monograms, or even charms of U.S. states. Sack said it’s great to have SMU close by. “With the Greek
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The Embrey Human Rights Program (EHRP) recently announced the implementation of the Triumph of the Spirit Award to recognize an individual who has and continues to contribute significantly to the greater good and dedicate his or her life to social justice and human rights issues on a local, national or global scale. The winner will be announced by July 1 and awarded $25,000 at a ceremony in the fall of 2014, at which point a related award of $5,000 will be bestowed upon a human rights defender specifically in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. “The Triumph of the Spirit Award is meant to serve as a symbol of hope in the continued struggle for human rights,” said EHRP Director Rick Halperin in a press release for the award. The Triumph of the Spirit Award is the manifestation of an almost eight year-long idea in the making. Since the EHRP’s naissance in 2006, Halperin wanted to design a premier award that would bring to light some of the most relevant and important human rights activism happening globally. While the primary reward can be allocated to an
individual in any location, the separate award for $5,000 will draw attention to human rights work being done on a more local scale. Due to the fact that the award is indisputably substantial, it may be surprising to some that the funding was given to the EHRP in its entirety by an anonymous donor. Bradley Klein, assistant director of the EHRP, personally feels that the donor’s generous donation reflects a genuine commitment to ameliorating the world on a global and local scale. “The work of human rights is bigger than all of us, as the anonymity of this wonderful gift suggests,” Klein said. The monetary component of the award will be presented to the recipients sans obligations — in other words, the money will be theirs for whatever they please, no strings attached. However, because the recipients will have been selected carefully for their commitment to human rights and the greater good, Klein expressed that the EHRP imagines that most of the funds will go towards furthering the recipient’s continued work or be reinvested into the cause. “What excites me most about the award is the opportunity to shed light on a global connection to dignity, truth and justice, as it is focused in the work of one
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E vent
Students call attention to domestic violence at symposium Tess Griesedieck Contributing Writer tgriesedieck@smu.edu Wednesday Hughes-Trigg Student Center Theater hosts SMU’s inaugural domestic violence symposium. Virginia Brooks, an SMU graduate student, created the event after being inspired by an exercise in her domestic violence class taught by Professor Sarah Feuerbacher. The Association of Student Counselors, Zeta Phi Beta and Alpha Chi Omega sororities will host the event. “We hope to educate the SMU community about how prevalent and serious domestic violence is,” Alpha Chi President Molly Murer said. Alpha Chi’s involvement was inspired by their goals for their sorority philanthropy involvement with Genesis Women’s Shelter. “This is a cause that receives very little publicity,” Murer said. “There is no national campaign to end domestic violence.” Many of the women working on the symposium presentation hope to change how little domestic violence is talked about. According to statistics, one in every three women is abused by their partner. “Seventy six percent of all Texans have themselves, a family member or a friend
experience some form of domestic violence,” Feurbacher said. At the symposium, guests will hear from a panel of experts on domestic violence. The panel will include SMU’s Feuerbacher and Renee McDonald. Every person on the panel works closely on the study of relationships and with victims of domestic violence. McDonald said she was invited, “because [her] academic area of expertise is in the area of family violence — both intimate partner violence and child abuse — teen dating violence and sexual assault.” The aim is to equip the students who attend with the ability to speak out against domestic violence for themselves. “Abuse only happens if there is a safe target, so SMU students can begin to speak up with it seems like a person is being hurt, or even when it is a friend hurting someone else,” Feuerbacher said. Feuerbacher hopes attendees will leave with more knowledge about the cause and a desire to end the cycle. “[The goal is that] people will become empowered to make healthy choices in their own relationships, and encourage others to do the same in order to ultimately break the silence on domestic violence,” Feuerbacher said.