INSIDE
SMU victorious over McNeese State
Unpaid internships spark debate
PAGE 2
Soccer could revitalize Qatar
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How real are reality shows?
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WEDNESDAY
December 4, 2013
Wednesday High 81, Low 46 Thursday High 46, Low 30
VOLUME 99 ISSUE 43 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
Bowles, Simpson discuss budget
Athletics
Natalie Yezbick Contributing Writer nyezbick@smu.edu Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson sat down together to unravel the nation’s fiscal situation for The Omni Hotels Tate Lecture Tuesday night. Bowles, a Democrat, formed multiple financial firms before serving as the administrator of The U.S. Small Business Administration, deputy chief of staff, and chief of staff under President Bill Clinton. Simpson, a lawyer and Republican, served in the Wyoming House of Representatives, in the U.S. Senate, and on the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. Bowles and Simpson joined together in 2010 to co-chair the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and they later co-founded the Campaign to Fix the Debt. They headed up the Simpson-Bowles Commission, which drafted a budget plan that was rejected by the Obama administration. When Bowles met with the president in a private meeting Obama said he would be “savaged by the left” if he passed it, according to Bowles. The president also said that Republicans would walk away from the budget plan if it had his support, a point that Simpson agreed with. According to the paie, the country’s economic situation
Courtesy of SMU Athletics
The first game in the renovated Moody stadium will be Jan. 4 2014.
New Moody student ticket plan requires advance pick-up ANNA CLARKSON / The Daily Campus
Erskine Bowles speaks while Sen. Alan Simpson listens during Tuesday’s Tate Lecture.
is just as dire as when the commission was formed. Bowles blames his generation for “this fiscal mess.” “We not only don’t have a long range plan, we don’t have a budget,” Bowles said, calling the country’s “month-to-month budget” as “crazy.” Bowles highlighted examples of government spending with less than desirable results and said that America can no longer operate on this “standard set of extraordinary measures.”
The sequester particularly irked Bowles, who called it “stupid” at least four times. He said the cuts were “across the board” and mainly in discretionary spending, instead of in the growing entitlement programs as he believed they should have been. Bowles said the best case scenario in the post-sequester fiscal climate was to make smarter cuts in military spending and to create a “few fees that republicans won’t call tax increases.” America spends the most
out of any nation on defense; this country spends more than the next 17 biggest spending countries combined, according to Bowles. When Simpson audited the government on its defense contractors, he was told that there were between 1 million and 10 million contractors and that the “cost is inauditible.” There are currently 64 Department of Defense schools, and the price per student is more
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EVENT
ELLEN SMITH / The Daily Campus
The University Christmas Tree lit up in front of Dallas Hall during Monday night’s 36th annual Celebration of Lights.
Continuing the tradition
Student Foundation hosts 36th annual Celebration of Lights BRie Strickland Contributing Writer bsstrickla@smu.edu This Monday the university celebrated its 36th annual Celebration of Lights. From humble beginnings, the event has become a staple of the SMU and Dallas communities. Thirty-six years ago, Student Foundation founding President Mike Miller had a vision for Celebration of
Lights. He raised enough money to purchase 5,000 Christmas lights and a new tradition was born. The program has grown over the years, and at the conclusion of Monday night’s event, nearly 138,000 white lights twinkled across Dallas Hall Lawn. Beginning at 7 p.m., the program brought out current students, alumni and Dallas-area families who hoisted small children above their shoulders for a glimpse
of the Christmas enchantment. Student Foundation provided song lyrics, candles, Tiff ’s Treats and hot chocolate for all attendees. Student Foundation President Antonea Bastian welcomed the student body as Jack Murphy introduced the first group of performers. The Southern Gentlemen crooned carols and Ryan Cole, a 2013 alumnus, made a special appearance to sing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” As
the seasonal tunes set the mood, attendees began lighting each other’s candles. Soon enough the darkness of night was illuminated by hundreds of individual candles and President R. Gerald Turner was vividly narrating “The Christmas Story.” Shannon Conboy, a sophomore vocal performance major, sang “Silent Night.” Halfway
LIGHTS page 3
Mustang Mall
Katy Roden Editor-in-Chief kroden@smu.edu SMU Athletics announced a new system for complimentary student tickets for the men’s basketball games beginning Jan. 4 in the newly-renovated Moody Coliseum. Students are now required to pick up the free tickets in advance of the games. Seven student sections take up almost half of the lower arena of Moody and one section in the upper deck. “In exchange for this premium placement, and in anticipation of increased demand, SMU students will now be required to pick up their complimentary game tickets in advance,” an email from the SMU Athletics Department read. “This helps to ensure that the seats will be filled on gameday in support of our student-athletes and a national television audience.” The tickets will be available in four distribution block dates, with tickets to three upcoming games. Distribution of 725 complimentary student tickets will start Monday at 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. The pick-up window is at the Mustang Ticket Office at the north end of Gerald T. Ford Stadium. If tickets are still available after the Monday distribution, it will continue Tuesday and Wednesday until all tickets have been distributed. The issued tickets will be assigned a section — 100, 108, 109, 110, 114, 115 or 214A — and those sections are firstcome, first-served. Section 112 will be reserved for “The Mob,” a student fan group that any
student can join for $49. Students who claim tickets during distribution should use them or give them to a fellow student with a valid student ID to use because all tickets are associated with the individual’s SMU ID. If the ticket goes unused, the student with the associated ID will not be able to pick up tickets in the next distribution block. Those who do not utilize tickets they pick up will be notified by SMU email. For the University of Louisville game March 5, the system will give priority to those students who have attended all previous games. Students can bring one extra valid SMU ID to pick up one additional ticket at the window. All SMU students who pay the general student fee — all fulltime undergraduates and some full-time graduate students — are eligible for complimentary student tickets. “We are very excited to have so many students surrounding the court,” said Brad Sutton, Senior Associate A.D. for Public Relations and Marketing. “It should give us a true home court advantage and create a tremendous game atmosphere.” The introduction of this new student ticket plan follows another change to come with the reopening of Moody — the sale of beer and wine in the venue. While the sale of alcohol was one of 79 recommendations by the President’s Task Force on Athletics Marketing, Attendance and Community Outreach, Sutton said the new student ticket plan was not related to the task force.
Student ticket plan Q&A
Information provided by SMU Athletics Q: Can I guarantee that I will have a seat at all men’s basketball home games? A: Tickets are not guaranteed. Seven-hundred and twenty-five tickets will be reserved for students to pick up on the designated pick-up dates. The best way to obtain a ticket to a game is to show up as early as possible on the Mondays listed above as ticket pick-up dates. Q: Do students get assigned seats? A: No, students will be assigned to a particular section (Sections 100, 108, 109, 110, 112, 114, 115, & 214A). Seating within each section is first-come, first-served (general admission). Section 112 is reserved for members of “The Mob.”
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