Explore Dallas dining without a car
INSIDE
New app brings the salon home
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Burcham shows promise as QB
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Fashion at the Bush Center
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WEDNESDAY
AUGUST 20, 2014
Wednesday High 97, Low 77 Thursday High 97, Low 78
VOLUME 100 ISSUE 2 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
Residential Commons program promotes change across campus
ACADEMICS
NSA honors Lyle School of Engineering
Claire Kelley Chief Copy Editor cakelley@smu.edu Anyone who has stepped foot on SMU’s campus within the past several months has noticed a big change, or five. The new residence halls are finally completed and RAs have already settled in, soon to welcome their first residents. While the new build may be the most obvious change in residential life, it’s perhaps not the most transformative. What some students don’t know is that the term “residential commons” refers to a new system being implemented across campus in every residence hall, not just the five newest ones. This system will introduce a number of changes to the residential experience. One big shift is the implementation of Faculty in Residence (FiRs). These are professors and deans who will live in each residence hall among students to serve as mentors and be accessible to residents at all times. These faculty members were selected based on their desire to connect with students outside of the classroom, students’ opinions of them and recommendations from their deans and department chairs. “Dr. Kirk takes students to Hilltop on the Hill. She also does
Claire Kelley Chief Copy Editor cakelley@smu.edu
Student Media Company
The university hopes the Residential Commons model will encourage a larger sense of community on campus.
SMU-in-London. Dr. Thomas goes on alternative spring breaks. Wheaton mentors students really intensely about their passion for economics, and that’s the type of person we’re looking for,” said Jeff Grim, associate director for Academic Initiatives and Campus Partnerships. Perhaps the broadest change in the system is its programmatic aspect. Each commons will now have a group of peer leaders, which includes a peer dialogue leader, a
peer health educator, a peer tutor and a peer academic leader. These people are available to residents and can answer questions about curriculum, courses and deadlines. “Those people get paid in hugs and T-shirts,” said Grim. “They are doing this just to be leaders in the community, which is awesome.” The Commons Council, previously called the Community Council, also offers more leadership opportunities for residents.
For example, there is a new position called the Coordinator of Public Relations. This student will be responsible for writing a beat about his or her commons that will appear weekly in The Daily Campus. Another novel feature is the implementation of the Commons Cup, similar to the competitions between houses in the “Harry Potter” series. The Cup is a series of events throughout the year that provides
COMMONS page 5
METROPOLITAN
The NSA and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have named SMU a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance/Cyber Defense Education through 2021. The organizations jointly sponsor the National Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) program, whose goal is to reduce vulnerability in national information infrastructure by promoting higher education and research, and producing a growing pipeline of professionals with information assurance expertise in various disciplines. Department chair Suku Nair is excited about the designation and what it means for the future of the school. The label is a goal that the department has been working toward. “We have built this program and now we want to go to the next level,” Nair said. Along with the prestige of the designation come scholarship and funding opportunities. Universities earning the designation stress faculty efforts in improving IA/CD scholarship, professional development and instructional capabilities.
Many companies look for the title when deciding which schools their employees should attend. This makes SMU a destination for the numerous organizations in the area in need of curriculum that meets national standards. “We may have the largest concentration of different contracting companies outside the D.C. area and all these companies need cyber security,” Nair said. “They want to make sure the curriculum is conforming to the standards of the NSA.” The Computer Science and Engineering Department at SMU strive to educate a generation of leaders to build critical cyber systems, applications and networks, and research significant challenges and opportunities within the industry. Lyle School Dean Marc Christensen is delighted with the designation, which was first awarded to SMU in 2006. “We are pleased that this designation confirms the alignment of our efforts with national priorities in cyber security,” he said. Nair believes that Lyle will continue on the upward path with the addition of the Darwin Deason Institute for Cyber Security. “The Lyle School’s Computer Science and Engineering department has long been at the forefront of education, training and research in Information Assurance,” he said.
Philanthropy
‘Ice, ice baby’
Students participate in ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Claire Kelley Chief Copy Editor cakelley@smu.edu
Courtesy of BigSkyline.com
Dallas’ arts district and international community contributed to giving the city a place in Forbes’ ranking.
Dallas above New York in Forbes’ coolest cities ranking meredith carey Assignments Desk Editor mbcarey@smu.edu Look out, world. Dallas is moving on up. Forbes recently named this fair city as the 10th coolest in America. Partnering with Sperling’s BestPlaces to rank the 60 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas and Metropolitan Divisions, Forbes found that Dallas ranked higher than New York (11) and Los Angeles (16). Using calculations of entertainment options, the number of restaurants and bars per capita and diversity, the news outlet found that Washington D.C. fit all the boxes, giving it the title of the coolest city in America. Dallas, on the other hand, ranked particularly high for arts and culture, scoring 95 out of
100 points. Recreation and food (extra points to our variety of local eats) also stood out among the top 10 cities, which include Seattle and Denver. With a significant percentage of young professionals between 20 and 34 years old, and a high migration rate, the city shines in the Forbes study as a newlyminted hot spot for jobs. The Dallas and Fort Worth areas continue to draw major companies like Toyota, which is moving its headquarters from California to Plano. Texas is also leading the country in moves from other states, making it an up-andcoming city that is making strides in separating itself from its country roots. “Dallas is also very livable— housing prices are not what they are on the East and West Coasts
and the weather is reasonable for most of the year,” said Professor Caroline Brettell, who teaches the “Greater Dallas Experience” course. “I have always said to faculty we recruit at SMU that you eat better in Dallas than you used to 25 years ago, largely because of our greater diversity and the growing interest in being plugged in to the world.” A growing refugee and international community add to the diversity, Brettell continued. With those individuals comes the cosmopolitan culture that most stereotypes of Texas fail to highlight. Downtown boasts the largest urban arts district in the United States and a growing local culture in Oak Cliff that was recently highlighted in The New York Times.
DALLAS page 5
SMU’s Phi Delta Theta chapter has recently reached its goal of raising more than $10,000 for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research through the recently popular ice bucket challenge. The fraternity, whose philanthropy changes from year to year, landed on the ALS Association as this year’s beneficiary. If anyone has visited Facebook, Twitter or Instagram recently, his or her feed has likely been inundated with videos of your friends and favorite celebrities pouring buckets of ice water on their heads as a part of the campaign to “strikeout ALS.” Countless SMU students have completed the challenge as well. Phi Delta Theta’s Ice Bucket Challenge ’14 Facebook group boasts 238 members and the feed is almost exclusively videos of members and their friends accepting the challenge. ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, attacks nerve cells and leads to paralysis. Life expectancy is usually two to five years from the time of diagnosis and about 30,000 Americans have been diagnosed. The challenge requires nominees to pour buckets of ice water on their heads and nominate their friends to do the same within 24 hours, or donate $100 to ALS research. The fad started with a video posted by Pete Frates, a 29-yearold former college baseball player, who has been diagnosed
Courtesy of YouTube
Vanilla Ice pours two buckets of ice water on himself to show his support for the strikeout ALS campaign which combats Lou Gehrig’s disease.
with the disease. Frates nominated himself for the challenge, and instead of being iced, he bobs his head to Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby,” writing, “ice water and ALS are a bad mix.” He accepted the challenge again August 14, this time taking the cold plunge with Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks and manager John Farrell. Before Frates, NBC’s Today Show host Matt Lauer accepted the challenge from golfer Greg Norman on air. But instead of donating to ALS, he chose to give to the Hospice of Palm Beach County. The challenge itself has been criticized by bloggers and journalists alike. Will Oremus of Slate.com encourages readers to take the “no ice bucket challenge,” and simply donate money instead of posting about it on
social media. “More than anything else, the ice bucket videos feel like an exercise in raising awareness of one’s own zaniness, altruism, and/or attractiveness in a wet T-shirt,” he wrote. “Just donate the damn money, whether to the ALS Association or to some other charity of your choice.” Some are criticizing the challenge for its disregard of water and energy conservation. The Daily Currant even posted a satirical blog about California fining participants of the challenge. But there’s no denying this trend is benefiting the ALS Association. As of Aug. 17, the organization said it had received $13.3 million in donations since July 29, gaining about 260,000 new donors. During the same period last year, the association had raised $1.7 million.