INSIDE
The benefits of being a yogi Is ‘ Big Rich Texas’ insulting? Student reaction to Kony 2012
Swimming results. PAGE 7
PAGE 2 PAGE 5 PAGE 6
WEDNESDAY
MARCH 21, 2012
Wednesday High 70, Low 52 Thursday High 72, Low 52
VOLUME 96 ISSUE 72 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
CAMPUS
SMU engineers give gift of water CHANDLER SCHLEGEL Contributing Writer cshlegel@smu.edu
SPENCER J EGGERS/The Daily Campus
Consumers are feeling the heat from rising gas prices this Spring season, thought to be caused by global demand and tension in the Middle East.
Gas prices continue to rise BRIDGET BENNETT Senior Staff Writer brekow@smu.edu Ester Henderson uses a lot of fuel. The 47-year-old Dallas native uses over 40 gallons of fuel every two weeks to fill up her Dodge Ram pickup truck. That’s about the same amount she uses to fill her work’s 18-wheeler … every day. “It’s hurting everybody, not just us people that are going to and from work. I’m sure it’s hurting businesses and companies that use fuel throughout the day and to operate their business,” she said. Henderson’s employer — the City of Dallas — said that assumption is spot on. The City of Dallas spends
nearly $22 million on fuel each year, a budget that is set and approved at the beginning of every fiscal year. That $22 million comprised just over one percent of the overall city’s budget, but it was important enough to be mentioned in the executive summary of this year’s city budget. “It’s pretty volatile, with all the tensions in the Middle East and all the things that go on in the fuel market. It requires us to spend a lot of time keeping an eye on a lot of other moving parts,” said Errick Thompson, the Director of Equipment and Building Services for the City of Dallas. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said the market could get even more volatile in the next few months. Since the first of the year, the price
for a gallon of regular unleaded gas rose 58 cents to a national average of $3.87, according to weekly reports from the EIA. Its projections show this increase is just the beginning of the annual spring and summer climb in fuel prices. Last year, gas prices peaked in May at $3.97 a gallon nationwide. This year, the EIA estimates the national average could exceed $4 per gallon by June. Thompson said those figures are for general consumers; the City of Dallas pays a slightly lower cost per gallon because it purchases fuel in bulk under a contract agreement. But even with a contract in place, prices still vary. “We basically pay based on an index price that fluctuates every
day so as the market changes, so do our weekly or daily fuel prices,” he said. A small increase can make a big impact with the city’s volume of fuel usage — 6.7 million gallons each year. That price climb of about 50 cents per gallon could mean an additional $3.4 million to the budget. According to the Federal Highway Administration, the average American drives 13,476 miles every year. Applying that average to the city’s 4,800 vehicles, the city is supplying fuel for 64.6 million miles of travel. But Thompson said there are many variables that increase city vehicles’ mileage and fuel consumption such as vehicle
See FUEL page 4
COMMUNIT Y
62 years later, Goff ’s still serving burgers
TECHNOLOGY
‘Draw something’ draws attention STEPHANIE BROWN News Director stephanieb@smu.edu
CHANDLER SCHLEGEL Contributing Writer cschlegel@smu.edu When James Francis III bought the Goff ’s Hamburgers franchise in the fall of 2004, he might have been motivated more by Goff ’s barbecue sauce and sentiment than by a good business investment. “One of the reason I wanted to buy it I think is because I loved the hickory sauce and I wanted the recipe,” Francis said. He grew up going to Goff ’s and remembers fondly the burgers and atmosphere of the restaurant. Francis loved the food and the relationship the staff had with the customers. SMU historian Marshall Terry doesn’t share the same nostalgia Francis does. Instead, his strongest memories of the joint from when he was an SMU student are of a gruff owner who harassed the customers. “We usually avoided Goff ’s. The owner would appear from time to time and act ugly to students,” Terry said. But despite that, Terry would still make the occasional visit to Goff ’s just for the burgers. Goff ’s Hamburgers has been an institution in Dallas since they opened their doors in 1950. Abe Gough and his wife started the company 62 years ago on Lovers
While most SMU students spent spring break relaxing, a select group of Lyle students decided to volunteer overseas. SMU’s Engineers Without Borders chapter sent some of its members to Panimacac, Guatemala to install a water pump that has the potential to help an entire community. The water pump will help farmers with irrigation and provide a reliable source of drinking water to the rural Guatemalan village. None of the students had ever visited the site before, and only a few of them speak Spanish fluently. However, the students prepared for their trip over a span of two years. “We are putting in a better engineering system, an enhanced system,” Travis Miller, president of SMU’s Engineers Without Borders, said. An assessment trip took place a few years ago to test the soil and water in the area, but all the students on that trip graduated before work on the project started. The organization first stumbled upon the project when they were searching the national Engineers Without Borders’ database of potential projects. Miller said their organization felt the
SPENCER J EGGERS / The Daily Campus
With signature sauces that range from relish to Hickory BBQ, Goff’s is a staple among Highland Park eateries.
Lane and the Toll Road. They opened nine other locations before handing the company off to their son Harvey. Harvey expanded the restaurant to 13 different locations in the Dallas area until he decided to sell the franchise and land the company had acquired. The Goff ’s properties were sold off relatively quickly, but the franchise itself remained unsold. The future of Goff ’s was unclear. That is when Francis stepped
in. He had always loved Goff ’s and feared that if he didn’t take advantage of the opportunity presented to him, one of his favorite burger joints would cease to exist. So Francis bought the company and moved the location over to Hillcrest Avenue, near the SMU campus. That location opened in February of 2005. Francis wanted the new location to feel the same as the original. He tried to replicate the look he
remembered from the restaurant as a kid. He brought over the old tables and chairs from the original place. He also wanted the recipes to stay as true to the original as possible. But Francis did make a few alterations after buying the restaurant. Francis used to watch the former owner hassle and ridicule the customers whenever he went to the
See GOFFS page 4
Guatemala trip was manageable for a relatively new organization. Group members are also passionate about the cause. “This was a community whose biggest problem was water and once that was clear, it would grow,” Miller said. The design the engineers mapped was too complicated to complete during spring break. Miller and other members plan on taking a second trip mid-May. During the first trip, they began installing the tank and will finish connecting all the pipes and testing the water at the end of the school year. The student engineers believe their plan is solid, but members are cautious about the final result of their efforts. “I would say that the biggest challenge will be the one we don’t expect. Obviously, you can come up with the best, most efficient plan possible, but the situation on the ground is never going to be exactly what you thought it would be,” Connor Kite, a junior, said. Miller is still in disbelief that the trip is happening. He is excited to give back and change the lives of those who live in the community. “ I don’t think I have fully realized the implications of what we are doing,” Miller said. “You’re loving people and you’re serving them. That’s a beautiful thing.”
OMGPOP brings a whole new meaning to Pictionary with its new app called Draw Something. The free app allows users to draw from three objects of which he or she has to choose and then draw. Think of it like an electronic version of ‘pictionary.’ The users compete against each other in trying to guess what the other has drawn by sorting out a series of tiles into the allotted spaces to complete the word. Though it may seem elementary, Draw Something now has 13 million daily users who are logged in through Facebook, compared to Zynga’s Words With Friends, which has 8.6 million daily active users. After only five weeks in the App Store, it has received more than 30 million downloads. “This is the most fun I’ve had with an addictive app in a long time,” junior Lauren Oliver said. “I like it because it’s more of an interactive game where you can compete without
it being too much of a video game.” What do Draw Something and Angry Birds have in common? Apart from the fact that they are incredibly popular apps, they may both fall under the same umbrella company, Zynga. Zynga is the world’s leader in smartphone application innovation. The company is responsible for such app hits like “Farmville,” “Cityville” and “Words with Friends.” Zynga is talking with OMGPOP, the creators of the newly popular app, about acquiring it. After unseating Words With Friends with the number of daily users on Facebook, Zynga has good reason to be interested in such a popular and fast-growing app. Though Zynga and OMGPOP have not entered the next stage of finalizing any sort of deal, speculations for the price of the acquisition range from $150 to $200 million. Should these speculations come to fruition, it will be Zynga’s largest publicly disclosed acquisition to date.