The Appalachian Thursday. September 17, 2015
RUGBY
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Men's club soccer returns to App State
Photo courtesy of Susan Davis
by Chris Warner Sports Editor
A
s each member of the men’s club soccer team arrives to the Ted Mackorell Soccer Complex for practice, senior Ryan Bateman, the team’s president, stares at the brightly lit field where they’ll practice, and reflects on the journey it took to field a team. “I’m so jealous of the freshman that are coming out for these teams that got to just go to a tryout, be placed on a team, and get to compete and play,” Bateman said. Because Bateman knows all too well what an uphill battle it’s been just to afford them this opportunity. When he transferred from the Uni-
versity of South Carolina to Appalachian State in 2013, he went looking for a club soccer team to join, only to find disappointment. What he discovered was an old, outdated team website. Upon further investigation, he learned that no such team actively existed as part of the university’s club sports program. He was floored to see that a university with such a significant student population didn’t have an active team, and reached out to contacts listed on the outdated website. One of those contacts was, and still is, the team’s faculty adviser Shea Tuberty, an associate professor in the biology department at the university. Bateman approached Tuberty to learn about the team’s history and
Technology showcase
what led to its demise. Tuberty said that the team’s previous officers, of whom he’d only met the president at the time, weren’t attending the mandatory twice-amonth meetings with the club council, a requirement laid out in the university’s club sports manual. To make matters worse, during one of their final road trips before being shut down, Tuberty said the team returned a first-aid kit they rented from the university filled with tequila bottle caps. “That was like putting the last nail in the coffin,” Tuberty said. “The program director for club programs called me up and said ‘we’re pulling the plug on you guys. There’s nothing you can do to prevent it. It’s happen-
ing.’” The team was suspended, meaning they no longer had the right to affiliate as an Appalachian State club sports team, and no longer had access to facility privileges or funding granted to club sports teams. In learning about the team’s fallout, Bateman also found that a former team member who graduated, Bradley Harrington, had begun the process to re-affiliate the team with the help of Tuberty. Harrington graduated the semester before Bateman arrived, leaving the process unsettled. But for Bateman, this was a starting point. The list of procedures to affiliate
Duke professor shares border research stories by Sarah Cho Intern News Reporter
Justin Perry
The Belk Library Department of Technology Services held a technology showcase Wednesday to show off the various technologies available for student and faculty use. Students were able to get hands on experience with the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, 3D printing, and audio recording among other devices. Equipment can be checked out from the Belk Library Tech Desk located on the lower level.
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Charlie Thompson, Duke University professor, author and documentarian, spoke to ASU anthropology students on his recent research and accompanying book “Border Odyssey” on Tuesday evening in Belk Library. Thompson, a former farmer, is an expert on farmworkers, immigration, and agriculture. Recently, he has concerned himself with the complexities and implications of the U.S.Mexico border. “'Border Odyssey' is a con-
tinuation of a number of projects,” Thompson said. The book is written as a series of vignettes, and the online guide to the project includes short films and outside resources on groups of people he has met while conducting research like “Faces of Time,” a bilingual profile on the braceros. According to Thompson, he has traveled the entire 1,969-mile expanse of the divide and directed several documentaries on his findings after years of field work. Despite the extent of his
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