INSIDE
House of Cards is destroying America
Valentine’s Day recipes
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Moody Madness takes over
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The prevalence of the pixie cut
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february 14, 2014 FRIday High 68, Low 41 SATURday High 70, Low 45
VOLUME 99 ISSUE 59 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
Students get new dean Jehadu Abshiro News Writer jabshiro@smu.edu
A large cardboard cutout of Peruna is propped behind Joanne Vogel’s mahogany desk. A welcome banner lies across the sofa across from her desk. Her shelves are barely filled except with a couple books. Vogel has just moved into her new office, as associate vice president and dean of Student Life in SMU’s Division of Student Affairs. Vogel used to serve as a director of Wellness and Counseling and Psychological Services at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla. Vogel, a Florida native, was not actively searching for other employment. “I read the posting for this job description and had a spiritual connection to it,” she said. Vogel, a Duke University graduate, had never considered coming to SMU as an undergrad. She majored in history and political science at Duke and went on to Stetson University for a Master of Science in mental health counseling and a Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision from the University of Central Florida. SMU’s mission, strategic plan and people spoke to her. “The energy here is exciting, and once I visited, I knew that I had to be here,” Vogel said. She visited for a week in January and attended a professional
development conference with Vice President for Student Affairs Lori White and Assistant Vice President Robert Watling. This week is her first official week. “I am happy, fulfilled and affirmed that this was the right choice for me,” Vogel said. “The level of sincerity, generosity, warmth and support that I have received thus far is unparalleled.” Vogel will oversee several different functional areas include Student Development and Programs, Parent and Family Programs, New Student Orientation and Student Support and Student Conduct and Community Standards. She hopes to ensure that students know the roles and function of various offices to advocate for them. One of Vogel’s goals is to insist that SMU community act as responsible members of the community and care for each other. “You want to be respectful of the culture and ways that things have been accomplished in the new setting while, at the same time, offering new insights and ideas that will continue to advance us,” Vogel said. The easiest part for Vogel is working on tasks similar to the kind she worked on at Rollins College, such as crisis management, substance abuse prevention, and issues related to Title IX such as sexual assault
Business
Comcast strikes deal to buy Time Warner Associated PRess
Courtesy of SMU
Incoming Dean of Student Life Joanne Vogel.
and intimate partner violence. For Vogel, figuring out the logistics is the hardest part. “It takes time to get the lay of the land,” Vogel said. Assistant to the Dean Michael Hogan noticed within the few days that Vogel has been at SMU, she has already learned the names of the people she interacts with. “She is going to bring a fresh perspective and energy,”
Hogan said. “She is very good at making people feel at ease. That’s an advantage.” Vogel hadn’t planned going into the field of higher education, however she respects the role of education in advancing society. “It is a natural fit with all of the things that I value and my true passion for supporting people [students and staff] in reaching their full potential,” she said.
FE ATURE
Hosseini brings a new light to Afghanistan Karly Hanson Contributing Writer khanson@smu.edu Imagine an Afghanistan where kids play in the streets and families browse the markets without the fear of hearing gun shots. Imagine boys flying kites and kids attending school. Imagine roads free of the Taliban — no packs of people riding around in SUVs with AK assault rifles. This is the country that Khaled Hosseini was born in. This is where he spent the first 11 years of his life. “There was a time where [Afghanistan] was very peaceful and quiet,” Hosseini said. “In some ways, it was even idyllic.” Hosseini is the author of three novels, the most famous one being “The Kite Runner,” and though
the three stories are distinct, they all have roots to his homeland. Hosseini traveled to Dallas to speak on SMU’s campus as part of the Tate Lecture series Feb. 7 during both the Turner Construction Student Forum question and answer session, and the evening lecture. “I know about his books, and I plan to read them,” senior SMU student Allie Hawks said. “I couldn’t miss the opportunity to hear him speak.” Even though it was not his intention, his books have sparked interest across the world in the problems Afghanistan is facing. Students know who Khaled Hosseini is, and they are seeking out his novels to educate themselves about the problems the war was provoked, and to
experience the deep and invasive emotions his writing evokes from his readers. “After I read his books I was shocked,” First-year Olivia Ngyuen said. “It was a good recreation of the war.” Hosseini created the Khaled Hosseini Foundation to bring humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan. He said that where people end up in life is random. He has been fortunate in his adult life, and he is inspired to reach out to those who are not as lucky. “It’s aimed to reach people that are like the characters in my book,” Hosseini said. Despite the country’s turbulent history, Hosseini still argues that there are good things that have come for Afghanistan. The life expectancy is increasing, it was
once at 40 years and now it is climbing into the 60s. Maternal mortality rates are declining, health clinics are opening and there are people helping who can. “Even in its heyday, it was one of the most impoverished nations in the world,” he said. “The only thing that gives me hope, is that it’s a very young country. The young people are importing new ideas into Afghanistan and I’m hopeful that that’s an agent of change.” Afghanistan will elect a new government April 5. Hosseini knows it will take longer than the term of one elected president to cure the devastated country. “Time. That is what Afghanistan needs to heal,” Hosseini said. “This is a marathon. It will take a long time, and it will be painful to watch.”
With a single behemoth purchase, Comcast is creating a dominant force in American entertainment and presenting federal regulators with an equally outsized quandary: How should they handle a conglomerate that promises to improve cable TV and Internet service to millions of homes but also consolidates unprecedented control of what viewers watch and download? Comcast, which was already the nation’s No. 1 pay TV and Internet provider, says its $45.2 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable will provide faster, more reliable service to more customers and save money on TV programming costs. If the acquisition is approved, Comcast will serve some 30 million pay TV customers and 32 million Internet subscribers. But industry watchdogs say the deal will give the company too much power and ultimately raise the price of highspeed connections. “How much power over content do we want a single company to have?” said Bert Foer, president of the American Antitrust Institute, a Washington-based consumerinterest group. The all-stock deal approved by the boards of both companies trumps a proposal from Charter Communications to buy Time Warner Cable for about $38 billion. It also represents another giant expansion following Comcast’s $30 billion purchase of NBCUniversal, operator of networks like NBC, Bravo and USA, which was completed last March. Comcast says it will continue to operate under conditions the government imposed when it approved that transaction, including a requirement that it provide standalone Internet service without tying it to a pay TV package, make programming available without discrimination to other providers, and treat all Internet traffic the same, even if it is for video competitors such as Netflix. However, those conditions expire in 2018, and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was not prepared to voluntarily
extend those into the future in a conference call with journalists. “Those Internet conditions would apply on Day One,” he said. “How long that goes is not something I want to speculate on, but many years at the very minimum.” Roberts argued that the cable industry has been losing TV subscribers for the last decade because of increased competition from satellite TV providers that include DirecTV and Dish and telecom companies like AT&T and Verizon. Despite gaining subscribers in the final quarter of last year, the forecast is to lose more in 2014. While video services are competitive, they are becoming less important for cable operators as higher programming costs cut into profits. On the other hand, Internet services are highly profitable and in many markets, cable companies offer the best speeds available. “In most places outside of a few big metro areas, you’ve only got cable as the only game in town,” said Craig Aaron, president of Free Press, a public-interest group that focuses on the media industry. “I don’t see there on their list of proposed consumer benefits prices going down.” In fact, Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen told reporters on a conference call that Internet-service prices will probably keep going up. “We’re certainly not promising that customer bills are going to go down or that they’ll increase less rapidly,” Cohen said. In an interview, Cohen argued that cable companies shouldn’t be “punished” for being the dominant player in too many markets, and noted that competitors like AT&T had twice the annual revenue of Comcast before the deal, with plenty of cash flow to improve their own broadband networks. Antitrust lawyers say that prices for Comcast’s services will probably be one focus of a review expected to be handled by the Justice Department. “If there’s no claim of consumer gain at all, they’ll have trouble gaining the Justice Department’s approval,” said Keith Hylton, an antitrust expert and professor at the Boston University School of Law. “They tend to demand efficiency gains in the form of lower prices to consumers.”
Nation
Texas teen in skydiving mishap says she blacked out Associated PRess A 16-year-old Texas girl who plummeted more than 3,000 feet to the ground in a skydiving accident last month in Oklahoma said Thursday that she remembers screaming and then blacking out when she was unable to correct a malfunction with her parachute. Makenzie Wethington, whose injuries included damage to her liver and a kidney, some bleeding in her brain, and a broken pelvis, lumbar spine in her lower back, shoulder blade and several ribs, spent a about a week after the Jan. 25 accident at a Chickasha skydiving school at an Oklahoma City hospital before being transferred to Dallas. “I remember jumping out of the plane and looking up
Courtesy of AP
Makenzie Wethington, center, smiles during at a news conference.
and seeing that there was a complication with the parachute and so I started kicking my feet like I was taught in the class and I looked up and it still wasn’t fixing so I tried to pull the toggles apart,” Wethington, who is from the small town of Joshua, said
at a news conference at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. “I just was not strong enough to fight off the wind. I just remember screaming and then I blacked out and I don’t remember anything after that, for three days after.”
“I know I was scared and I know that there was something very wrong. I think I was focused on how I could fix it and what I could do,” she said, adding, “I think I went into shock.” Dr. Seema Sikka, who is treating Wethington at Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation, said she expects Wethington to make a full recovery, noting the teen is already walking “a good amount” with a walker. Sikka said Wethington may be released from the hospital in about a week. After that she’ll continue to need various outpatient therapies. “I’m good. I feel good. I’m doing better every day,” said Wethington, who was in a wheelchair and had a neck brace, adding, “I’m very thankful that I can move as well as I can.
Her parents agreed to allow her to skydive as a 16th birthday present, and her father jumped ahead of her. Wethington said she had wanted to go skydiving for years and had convinced her parents to let her do it after learning someone could skydive at the age of 16 in Oklahoma with parental consent. The owner of the skydiving school has said the parachute opened, but Wethington began to spiral downward when the chute went up but not out in some kind of malfunction. The owner has said Wethington and other divers were given instruction beforehand on how to deal with such problems. Wethington said she wasn’t scared as she jumped. “I remember getting in the
plane and feeling that rush of excitement,” she said. Her father, Joe Wethington, said that when he ran up to her where she’d fallen in a cow pasture, the teenager couldn’t catch her breath and had a frightened look on her face. “Every time she would catch a breath she would just scream and ask me to rub her back,” he said. Makenzie Wethington said she’s always wanted to be a surgeon, but her experience after being injured has made her want to focus on being a trauma surgeon. When asked if she ever wanted to skydive again, she replied: “As much as I would like to, I think that my parents and the rest of my family would die if I did. They’re against that now.”