INSIDE
Food challenges in America
PAGE 2
Review of Garrone’s ‘Reality’
PAGE 3
Sunnis left out in Iran
PAGE 4
Witten takes our No. 4 spot PAGE 5
FRIDAY
MAY 3, 2013
FRIDAY High 64, Low 43 SATURDAY High 79, Low 50
VOLUME 98 ISSUE 87 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
student life
Social media obsession grows caroline hicks Contributing Writer chicks@smu.edu
CHRISTOPHER SAUL/The Daily Campus
The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum opened its doors to the public to a crowd of hundreds Wednesday.
Bush Center opens to public julie fancher Assignments Desk Editor jfancher@smu.edu Less than one week after five living presidents joined the highprofile dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, the center officially opened to the public on Wednesday. The public opening did not draw as much media attention, but certainly drew a crowd. The door’s opened at 9 a.m. to hundreds of people who lined SMU Boulevard to be some of the
first to tour the museum. “We opened up this morning at 9 a.m. and not to sound cheesy, but it came together, there was a symphony and it was beautiful,” National Archives and Records Administration spokesman John Orrell said. While many waited in line, the first members of the public to tour the museum were 43 children ranging in grade from kindergarten to high school. Those students were surprised by George W. himself, who took pictures with the kids in the full-
scale Oval Office replica. Kenneth Bain, a 1982 SMU alumnus, stopped by to tour the museum on his alma mater’s campus. “I’m looking forward to going through it and seeing what really happened, as opposed to what were told happened,” Bain said. He said his favorite exhibits were the Decisions Points Theatre and the Oval Office. According to library curator Amy Polley, to get the Oval Office to be almost an exact replica took a lot of research.
“We have the same patterns, the same furniture, we did recreations of all the art, so it really looks like the real thing,” Polley said. Other exhibits feature Hurricane Katrina, the War on Terror and Bush’s domestic policies. The library will be open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Tickets are $16 for adults, $14 for children 13-17 and are free for SMU students, faculty and staff.
When SMU sophomore Taylor Goerke walks across campus to class, she scrolls through her phone to check her social media. “I find myself unable to walk to class without checking my phone for new Facebook notifications or Snapchats,” Goerke said. “One time I actually ran into someone on the boulevard because I was so focused on the new photos I had been tagged in that I wasn’t paying attention.” Students walk around campuses with their heads down scrolling through photos, newsfeeds and tweets on their iPhones. People stop speaking mid-conversation to pose for a “selfie” to send via Snapchat to a friend across the room. Social media sites and applications are dominating the social life on college campuses and diminishing chances for personal, uninterrupted conversation. “It’s definitely an addiction,” Goerke said. “It started out as an obsession with texting, but as sites like Facebook have popped up on cell phones, it’s a whole new ballgame.” According to a Pew Research Center study, 67 percent of social media users use Facebook. Students rely on Facebook for the majority of their photo and event updates. “For younger students, Facebook is the most popular,” SMU Adjunct Professor Steve Lee, who teaches Social Media and
Online Communication, said. Haylee Dawe, a sophomore at Elon University in North Carolina agreed. “It’s everything,” Dawe said. “It’s a way to be in the know with everything going on with friends at your school, but also at other schools. It helps me keep in touch with friends from all over.” Lee said younger students overuse social media sites, but older students have learned to manage their use so that it is academically helpful. Lee’s course teaches students interested in communication how to use social media strategically for business purposes. “The focus [of the class] is on the strategic role each social media platform and function plays in both internal and external communications for the organization,” he said. “[Students] learn how to write, how to manage various platforms, and how to monitor and evaluate and report results back to senior management.” SMU sophomore Schuyler Mack uses social media to advance her business. She uses a “DevouringDallas” account on the popular app Instagram to document her favorite restaurants in Dallas. She uploads photos of meals and uses the location capability to geographically tag the restaurant. The account has over 1,744 followers. “It’s an easy advertisement…
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career
activism
Hegi Career centers offers job interview advice to graduates
Workers speak up to defend rights
Kelly Gilliland Contributing Writer kgilliland@smu.edu Upon graduation, many students at Southern Methodist University want to earn a job “with purpose and tangible daily progress,” said SMU junior Connor Flynn, who wants a job he will be proud of. Though he is confident that he can get a job after graduation, he worries whether that job will be a good one. Everyone wants a job when they graduate from college. What most people don’t realize is how important it is to prepare each step to getting a job… any job. Before graduating, hopefully a student will have applied for 1020 positions in his or her desired field. If they are lucky enough, some companies will extend an invitation for an interview. From a survey of 1,200 students who graduated from Southern Methodist University, 65-85 percent report being offered a job or acceptance to graduate school within six months of graduation. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, approximately two-thirds of 2012 seniors are expected to have a job right after graduation. But now, times are looking bleak for college graduates, as The Huffington Post reported that nearly half of recent college graduates are employed with jobs that don’t require a college degree.
If an applicant has been invited for an interview, the company already likes the person, and wants to know more about them, according to Director of SMU’s Hegi Family Career Development Center Darin Ford. In addition to dressing well and speaking comfortably, Ford said that being prepared is perhaps the most important thing someone can do when going into an interview. An applicant needs to research the company and the people who are going to be interviewing them. When researching the company, applicants need to know as much about its culture, competitors and partners. This way, during the interview, you can refer back to how well you know them and what they do.
GET ADVICE SMU’s Hegi Family Career Development Center helps students every day with their resumes, interview skills and job searches. Any SMU student can visit the office in Hughes-Trigg Student Center for advice about future careers, resumes, internships, interviews and networking. “Career Express” dropin service is available Monday-Friday 11 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
When researching an interviewer, LinkedIn is a useful tool. “You’re hoping to gain more of a relationship-oriented conversation with them,” Ford said, “so the more I know about you, then maybe I can pull you out of ‘interview mode,’ and the more I can pull you into dialogue, relationship and conversation.” Ford shared that it’s also important to be authentic and treat everyone with respect. An interviewer can tell when the person they are talking to is trying too hard and embellishing the things they say. It’s natural to get nervous when interviewing for a desirable job. SMU first-year student Kathleen Bockman said she likes to “psych [herself] down” before interviewing, to make the interview seem like less of a big deal, so she doesn’t get nervous. Flynn uses humor to ease tension or anxiety during an interview, and advises having a really good joke to tell. Selling yourself without bragging is a tricky line, according to Ford. You need to tell the interviewer, “this is why I deserve it,” by highlighting your skills and attributes, and make them know you want the job. Ford assures that if you don’t stand out to the interviewer, or make them see that you are special, there will be no reason to be interested in you anymore. They are trying to find ways to
See JOB page 6
Christopher saul Photo Editor csaul@smu.edu Labor organizers gathered on the Hilltop Wednesday to discuss May Day, the religious traditions of workers rights, migrant workers and the impact of the Wal-Mart business model on workers. The Workers Defense Project and the Embry Human Rights program hosted the event. Dr. Georj Reiger, an SMU theology professor, said Moses and Jesus were some of the earliest examples of labor leaders in recorded history. “Moses was also a man who led the slaves [to freedom]. So, he was one of the early labor leaders in history. One day he sees the slaves being abused; this is often what happens to people of privilege, we don’t really know what going on,” Reiger said. In this way, Reiger said the SMU community is like Moses before he sees the suffering of the slaves. Dr. Reiger also said that the story of Jesus held a narrative that supported worker’s rights. “Jesus was born into a working class environment. He could have gone to Jerusalem and climbed the ladder. He doesn’t. He stays with the people until the end. He organizes them. He said, ‘blessed are you poor and woe to you who are rich.’ The Romans were not scared of him just because he was a powerful preacher, but because he was a skilled organizer,” Reiger said. Dr. Reiger also talked about the modern church’s support of workers.
CHRISTOPHER SAUL/The Daily Campus
Labor activist Gene Lantz performs a musical history lesson on May Day.
Both the Methodist and Catholic churches explicitly support the right to organize into unions. Roberto Corona also spoke about the difficulties migrant workers face when trying to find a better life in America. Corona said the passage through Mexico is a difficult and dangerous one. Eight of every ten women who attempt the passage are raped. In addition the migrants must ride on the tops of trains and avoid local police, who will brutally beat the migrants if they are caught,
according to Corona. Despite the risks, the migrants feel that they are forced to make the journey. “I cant go back and risk my children dying of hunger” one migrant said to Corona. The migrants problems are not over once they reach America. When they finally reach their destination it is hard to find work, because they do not have the documentation that would allow
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