A&E | PAGE 5
OPINION | PAGE 6 Editor-in-Chief Taylor Adams says goodbye to The Daily Campus
SUMMER PREVIEW VOLUME 96, ISSUE 96
FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
Weather WEDNESDAY High 74, Low 55 THURSDAY High 79, Low 58
LIGHT OF DAY
How safe are SMU students?
On-campus sexual assaults, alcohol-related crimes increased
A SIDE OF NEWS
U.S. ponders release of photos
By CAROLINA BRIOSO Contributing Writer cbrioso@smu.edu
The Obama administration is debating whether to release photographs of Osama bin Laden’s body as well as video of his burial at sea. Officials are worried about inflaming bin Laden’s sympathizers by showing graphic images of the body, but they also want to shut down any belief that he is still alive. Navy SEALs have also reportedly made off with a trove of al Qaeda evidence that the CIA is now combing through for hints about the whereabouts of the presumed next in command.
An analysis of on-campus crime data from 2009 shows an increase in the number of sexual assaults and alcohol-related incidents. The analysis is part of the Light of Day project, a collaboration between The Daily Campus, the SMU Daily Mustang, journalism students statewide, the Texas Tribunee and the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. Journalism students, in conjuction with The Daily Campus
Obama to visit Ground Zero President Obama will visit the site of the Twin Towers on Thursday for the first time as president, just days after a U.S. military operation killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. According to White House officials, Obama will visit with families of the victims of the terrorist attack. Since bin Laden’s death Sunday, crowds have gathered at the site to celebrate.
Controversial levee blasted The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blasted a levee Monday at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to save the town of Cairo, Ill. The blast was a controversial move since it will flood more than 100,000 acres of Missouri farmland. Missouri officials tried to legally block the levee blast, but the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear their appeal Sunday night.
Mummy could be Playmate Los Angeles County coroners are working to confirm that a mummified body found in the home of former Playboy Playmate Yvette Vickers is hers. The body appeared to have been there anywhere from several months to a year. The 82-year-old Vickers also appeared in cult B-movies like “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman” and “Attack of the Giant Leeches.”
Mother statistics released The 12th annual Mothers Index by Save the Children says Norway is the best country in which to be a mom, with its low maternal and child mortality rates, high women’s life expectancy and lengthy education. Australia and Iceland placed near Norway, while the United States dragged behind at 31st. Afghanistan, with a women’s life expectancy of 45 years and one out of every 11 women dying in childbirth, came in last.
Want more news? Visit us online at
Contact Us Newsroom: 214.768.4555 Classified: 214.768.4554 Online: smudailycampus.com
Index News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,2,3,7,8 Arts & Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . 5 Opinion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 2011
SMUDAILYCAMPUS.COM
Illustration courtesy of Elizabeth Erickson
SMU journalism students scored SMU on their compliance with the Clery Act. The full scorecard is available at smudailycampus.com.
SMU shows Clery improvement By KASSI SCHMIDT Contributing Writer kschmidt@smu.edu
During the early morning hours of April 5, 1986, Lehigh University freshman Jeanne Clery was tortured, raped, sodomized and murdered in her dormitory. Her killer, another student at the university, entered her room by walking through a series of three propped-open doors. Jeanne’s parents discovered shortly after that Lehigh University failed to inform its students of almost 40 violent crimes on the campus in the three years before their daughter’s murder. Because of this statistic and
the tragic death of their daughter, they fought to raise a greater awareness among students of crime on college campuses. This incident led to the passage of the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. The federal law, now more commonly referred to as The Clery Act, took effect in 1990. It requires colleges and universities to disclose timely and annual information about campus crime and security policies. After a semester-long review of SMU’s compliance with the Clery Act, 15 SMU journalism students
in Assistant Professor Jake Batsell’s Technology Reporting class found that the campus fell short on only one of the mandatory Clery Act checkpoints, a major improvement since 2004. The research was conducted as part of the Light of Day project, a statewide collaboration with other university journalism students, The Texas Tribune and the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. Students, in conjunction with The Daily Campus and the SMU Daily Mustang, collected and analyzed 2009 crime data on and off-campus.
See CLERY on Page 8
EDUCATION
and the SMU Daily Mustang, gathered on-campus crime data and created interactive online maps to showcase high-crime areas on the SMU campus. They also gathered SMU Clery Act reports from recent years. Students found that the interactive maps and SMU’s 2009 Clery Act report illustrate a significant two-year increase in the number of forcible sexual offenses reported to police or campus officials. In 2007, there were three sexual assaults; in 2008, there were five; in 2009, there were nine. There was not one particular
See ON-CAMPUS on Page 8
Off-campus crime present around student destinations By ASHLEY WITHERS Associate News Editor awithers@smu.edu
Police lights are flashing. A search helicopter circles overhead. A corpse lies on the ground. Though this description sounds like a scene straight out of the popular television show “CSI,” some SMU students called this home for a few frantic hours in February. Dallas area crime hit close to campus on Feb. 16, when a shooting in the Burger Street drive-thru on Mockingbird Lane left two men dead and The Phoenix apartment complex became part of the investigation area. The Phoenix is a popular off-
campus housing option for SMU students because of its proximity to the school. The fatal shootings at Burger Street, which police described as drug-related, are just the most recent of violent crimes in the area. According to the crime data Mockingbird Lane sees a steady flow of theft, burglary, assault and robbery. SMU senior Dexter Hostetter, a three-year resident of The Phoenix, said that he still feels relatively safe. “I never had any problems with crime or felt like I was ever personally in danger,” Hostetter said in an email interview. “I think
See OFF-CAMPUS on Page 7
ART
Increase in Hispanics leads to dual-language schools By ELIZABETH ERICKSON Contributing Writer eerickson@smu.edu
A group of first and second grade boys stand in front of Lakewood Elementary School in Dallas, only minutes after their school day has ended. The boys are engaging in impromptu wrestling matches and one-up competitions. The group, a hearty mix of Caucasians and Hispanics, has one important thing in common: they share an elementary classroom where they’re learning two languages. Jonathan Jungerman, 7, is one of the students enrolled in a dual literacy program at Lakewood Elementary. A first grade student, Jonathan spends three-quarters of his school day in classes taught in Spanish, with the remaining classes taught in English. “Mi favorito clase es Miss Leal’s,”
Jonathan said in reference to his class taught by Mabel Leal. Recent census data shows that the Hispanic population in Texas has increased 41.8 percent since 2000. Subsequently, non-Hispanic parents are taking note of this population shift and opting to have their children instructed in both Spanish and English. Jonathan’s mother, Dabney Jungerman, is one such parent. She enrolled her son when he was two years old in the Spanish Schoolhouse, a full-time program for preschoolers. She then elected to enroll him in the dual literacy program at Lakewood when he began kindergarten. “We live in a state that has a very high Spanish speaking population, so
See SPANISH on Page 3
PROFILE
Prof. encourages students By CHRISTINE JONAS Contributing Writer cjonas@smu.edu
When writing his “little thesis” in Italy many years ago, artist and professor Barnaby Fitzgerald decided to focus his writings on tapestries. He hated tapestries, but that was the reason he chose this subject to research and write about. “I don’t like that about myself, I don’t like not liking things. So I’ll go and explore something I don’t like,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s the great thing about research, if you research something you will probably find that you love it. There is a whole world there just waiting to be opened and looked at.”
Just like the choice to study tapestries, Fitzgerald made another unlikely career decision when he found himself relocating his family—his wife and two children—to Dallas to work at SMU. Compared to the art department at SMU, Fitzgerald had more prestigious job offers, but a life-changing interview made the decision very clear to him. “When I got the interview with SMU, it was the best conversation I had in years,” Fitzgerald said. “It was very down to earth, and at the same time we discussed philosophy and scientific ideas—how they relate to painting and drawing, and how to propose ways of
See BARNABY on Page 3
Photo Courtesy of K Witta
Guerilla knitters hit a Parisian statue with a yarn bomb.
Knitters go guerilla, drop yarn bombs By MEREDITH CRAWFORD Contributing Writer mcrawford@smu.edu
Whether you call it guerilla knitting, knit graffiti or yarn bombing, Dallas knitters are taking their craft to the streets. These urban artists knit pieces together to cover things in public such as stops signs, fire hydrants and light poles. One local yarn bomber does her handiwork under an anonymous name, K Witta. “I just want to make people smile and look at things differently,” Witta said. This year Witta started yarnbombing lampposts outside of the Lakewood Public Library where she meets with her knitting group,
the Knit Wits. She has knit cozies for fire hydrants and put little knit skirts on stop signs across the Lakewood area. Witta said that the response to her yarn bombing has been both positive and negative. “Some people ask, ‘Why don’t you knit for charity?’” Witta said. Witta has been knitting for 25 years. She’s received awards for her knitting and has even sold some of her pieces. “It’s a creative outlet,” Witta said. “I love the creativity and designing pieces with whimsy.” Some people don’t understand yarn bombing. Chloe Madinger, an SMU junior, spotted a piece of yarn bombing on her way home to her apartment in Lakewood.
“I don’t know what the purpose is,” Madinger said. Witta said that she followed the progress of the Austin based yarn bombing group Knitta Please, where the use of yarn as graffiti originated, and its founder Magda Sayeg. She recently heard about a yarn bombing event in Salt Lake City from a friend and was inspired to get this new form of art started in her own city. “We have to make Dallas cool,” Witta said. Magda Sayeg began the yarn bombing movement in Houston in 2005. Karen McClellan, administrative assistant for Knitta Please, said, in an email, that it began under the radar because Sayeg wasn’t
See YARN on Page 2