Feb. 2 Issue

THE A&T

REGISTER FREE

VOLUME LXXXIV. NO. 19

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

NCATREGISTER.COM

SERVING THE AGGIE COMMUNITY FOR OVER 80 YEARS

WEDNESDAY

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF NORTH CAROLINA A&T

February One events ‘Salute our past; Secure our future’ KELCIE MCCRAE

Managing Editor

This year’s annual breakfast celebration honoring the anniversary of the A&T Four’s march to the Woolworth’s Counter saw first — a student delivered the keynote address.

SGA President Wayne Kimball Jr. , a senior civil engineering major from Roanoke Rapids, Kimball NC,became the first student in the history of this celebration to deliver the words to pay homage to the A&T Four.

“It was honor within itself,” said Kimball.

“It was truly a humbling experience, and I feel extremely fortunate and blessed to have had the opportunity to be selected and even asked to do it,” he said.

As usual, students showed up to volunteer at the breakfast in the A&T Alumni Foundation Event Center on Feb. 1 at 6 a.m.

The breakfast honors the A&T Four — Ezell Blair Jr, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond. Nearly every seat was filled as students, community members, faculty and staff showed their pride in the movement the four A&T freshmen started in 1960.

“Today, we pay homage,” was the message Kimball conveyed to audience members during his speech.

Painting the picture of the struggles within the African-

American community dated from slavery, to the A&T four, and beyond in Kimball’s words was necessary for this year’s theme of, “Saluting our past; Securing our future.”

“Not only were we paying homage to the A&T Four, but also to the people who came before and after,” said Kimball. “I think this year’s theme is a true testament for us to truly salute our past, and secure our future because the true reality of it is that a lot of people helped us get to the point of the A&T Four, and after them.”

After the speech, Kimball received standing ovations from the crowd, and remarks from three of the original four and David Richmond Jr., the son of the late David Richmond.

Two Guilford County students received scholarships for $1000 for first place and $500 for second place.

The student that won first place read his essay on the theme “What would you be willing to sit-in for today?”

He described the freedom of speech guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution in his essay.

The winner of Human Rights medal, presented by Chancellor Harold L. Martin, was Rev. Dr. Howard Chubbs.

Chubbs was honored for his contributions towards changing the social climate of Greensboro.

The celebration, in its 51st year, ended with a wreath laying at the A&T Four Memorial Statue, and a panel discussion with the honored guests in Harrison Auditorium.

PHOTO BY KENNETH HAWKINS/ THE A&T REGISTER

The Shuttle Service Aggie Shuttle three that servies the union and other various location on campus.

Students voice shuttle concerns ADRIAN EZELL

Register Reporter

Auxiliary Services put on an open forum in Boss Webster’s discussing the shuttle services on campus.

The event, supplied with free food from Pizza Hut, brought out many students willing to voice their opinions about problems and making improvements.

Hired by Auxiliary Services, The Solstice Transportation Group informed students of the changes that could come.

As of January 26, there is a new Bus buzz system put into effect to allow students the make comments about buses, routes, and even the drivers.

With a lot of students complaining about drivers being late, making personal stops or even using their cell phones while driving, the students seemed happy to hear about

the new system.

Vice President of Internal Affairs, Raymond Beamon, spoke briefly about how the students would appreciate it more if the drivers where more respectful and on time, saying that a lot of students do not ride the shuttle because they believe it will make them late.

Aside from the issues of drivers and time, some students spoke on an idea for the shuttles to run later.

Christina Evans, a sophomore accounting major from Durham, NC agreed to extending the shuttles services, but not by too much saying “It’s not safe for students to be waiting at bus stops late at night, besides that’s what the Aggie Escort is for.”

Another comment was made about useless stops being on the shuttles route, as well as why there is not a route that goes by the campus bookstore.

Other suggestions to improve the shuttle services included increasing the frequency that the shuttles come through campus, creating new routes, and even adding a weekend service.

Aside from the issues with the campus shuttles, students also had complaints about the Heat Bus services.

The Solstice Group also works in conjunction with the Heat Bus systems and were happy to take comments about it as well.

Jasmine Brodie, a freshman agricultural business major from Bunn, NC, spoke about an incident involving her and her friends.

“We were suppose to meet our friends at Ihop at 8 p.m. and the bus was suppose to come at 7:52 p.m. It got around 8:20 p.m. and the Heat bus still didn’t come, so we had to go pick them up.”

Brodie’s compliant was only

one of many concerning the Heat bus systems, as numerous students commented about having similar experiences with the buses being late to stops.

The Solstice Group ended the forum by informing every one of the different ways to make comments and concerns about the shuttle services, besides the bus buzz system.

Students can send their comments through text message, Facebook, Twitter, and through a website that is currently being built.

Until then, students are strongly encouraged to visit the student affairs website and take the survey about the shuttles.

While it would be difficult for changes to take affect until mid-semester, students were assured they would definitely see a change at the start of next semester.

Quality enhancement program to enhance student’s critical thinking The Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) is a five-year research project set in place here at North A&T State University to enhance students’ critical thinking skills.

QEP is the midterm report required by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools that disclose to its members, and ultimately the United States Department of Education, data that proves the University is consistently providing students with a “quality” education worthy of accreditation.

Implementation of the program began in the summer of

2010 and course instruction began the spring 2011 semester.

Over the course of 5 years, randomly selected classes within the Department of Human Performance and Leisure Studies in the School of Education, the Foreign Language Department in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Electronics, Computers and Information Technology in the School of Technology will participate in the project. Currently, there is no system is in place for students to know which classes sections are participating.

“I think the QEP is a beneficial program and I would be happy to take one of the courses involved. It’s important to learn

how to think critically so we can make important decisions on our own. A&T hasn’t focused enough on critical thinking in the past so I think this is a great step in the right direction,” said Xavia Johnson, a senior public relations major.

The first year of QEP is the pilot study, and while participation by the professors is not mandatory, it is highly encouraged. A comprehensive training on ways to incorporate the critical thinking elements into their classes is not given to official QEP professors, but some strategies are suggested. Many of them are discussed at the monthly workshops, otherwise known as institutes, organized by the

QEP Advisory Council headed

by Dr. Pedro Nino. These institutes provide resources on ways to convey the student learning outcomes within the classroom.

The five critical thinking learning outcomes of the program will focus on improving students’ abilities to analyze critical thought, evaluate information, design strategies to solve problems, synthesize findings, and communicate effectively in written and oral communications.

The workshops are open to all faculty and staff, and later some will encourage some student participation.

Some workshop participants who are not official QEP classes

have participated and thus saw the potential it had to enhance the classroom experience and voluntarily decided to unofficially participate.

Senior electronic media and journalism major, Chris Crenshaw said, “Being able to communicate effectively is vital to be successful in any career path.

I think many A&T students will learn a lot about critical thinking and reasoning through the QEP program. I feel as though it is long overdue.”

An incentive to encourage faculty participation is the Funding for Faculty Program, also known as the “Three F Program.” Professors have the opportunity to compete for small

funding assistance, to attend the spring 2011 Critical Thinking Workshop sponsored by the Foundation and Center for Critical Thinking.

“When professors go and learn from the experts, then come back and engage the campus, we feel it will promote a culture of critical thinking learning communities among the students,” said Dr. Nino.

A committee of 21 faculty members with representation from all seven schools and colleges, Bluford Library, the Department of Graduate Studies, and the University Studies program was created in the fall of

ONLINE

theYARD

theWORD

theSCORE

theSCENE

WEATHER

TAKE OUR SURVEYS

A&T PICKS TOP MODEL

ASK A BLACK GUY

BRYANT BRIDGE GAP TO CHINA

ANNUAL STROLL COMPETITION

Keep up with breaking news on our Web site. Slideshows, videos and more are available online.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. hosted their annual program A&T’s Next Top Model, choosing one female as the winner.

Read the newest edition of the popular editorial column ‘Ask a Black Guy’ featuring black men of A&T’s campus.

The L.A. Lakers star Kobe Bryant is working to help the relationship with the U.S. and China as he opens a charity in the country.

The 5th annual stroll competition hosted by Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. left some confused, some happy and others frustrated.

PAGE 6

PAGE 7

JESSICA GRISSOM & LARIA LAND Register Reporter

www.ncatregister.com

PAGE 2

PAGE 8

 See QEP on Page 2

WEDNESDAY

62° Low: 26° High:

THURSDAY: Cloudy| High 43° FRIDAY: Rainy | High 46°

2

events

theYARD

The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, February 2, 2011

QEP From page 1

inFOCUS

2007 to develop the QEP initiatives. A total of 14 student representatives were active on the committee as well.

The Advisory Committee has projected a budget of $418,776 to the first two years of the QEP project and $625,534 for the final three years, totaling of $1,044,310.

Funding comes from a Title III Grant and will pay the department operation costs, which includes the salaries of all personnel, office equipment, standardized testing to gather data, and professional development measures such as the monthly workshops.

QEP is a substantial investment that the university believes will be of great benefit to both faculty and students.

“The ultimate goal of the QEP project is to get students to consider various perspectives to make educated decisions that are well informed so they can make positive decisions in the personal and professional lives,” Dr. Nino.

In an effort to remain as transparent as possible, a draft of the official QEP Report is available on the official QEP website linked to A&T homepage for review and discussion.

In addition, summaries of the major components of the project will continuously be updated as well.

Anyone associated with the University, especially students, are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the QEP project and questions can be directed to the advisory committee.

The University in turn will also benefit greatly.

WEDNESDAY

2

Black History Think Fast

Memorial Student Union Exhibit Hall 6 p.m.

International Movie Club

Memorial Student Union Commuter Lounge 7 p.m.

Music Program

PHOTO BY KENNETH HAWKINS/ THE A&T REGISTER

Junior Class General Classroom Building Room 218 7:30 p.m.

Ayden Hyatt watches the stroll competition between the barricade on Thursday, January 27, 2011.

Think we missed something?

Have some info? Let us know!

Email us at theatregister@gmail. com!

University galleries host exhibition for high school students DESHAWN FLEMING Register Reporter

University Galleries hosted the Second Annual “Celebrating Tomorrow’s Artist Today” and “Celebrating Creative Teaching”: Guilford County High School Art Exhibition Opening on Jan 28.

North Carolina A&T’s Department of Visual and Performing Arts partnered with Guilford County High Schools to provide a venue for young artists to display their artistic abilities.

The opening of the exhibit included a live jazz band which played upon entrance into the Henry Clinton Taylor Gallery, to intensify the mood.

The event started a little after 5pm as visitors continued to trickle in.The night began with the comical Ms. Donna Bradby, a Theatre Professor, as the hostess for the event.

She introduced the opening speaker Mr. LeAnder Canady, a Visual Arts Professor, the Mayor of Greensboro William H. Knight, the Superintendent of Guilford County Schools Maurice “Mo” Green, and other esteemed guests.

The exhibit displays work from junior and senior high school students, from various high schools in Guilford County.

“Something new we added this year was to allow teachers who taught these students, to submit work as well,” said Visual Arts professor Mr. LeAnder Canady.

All 17 Guilford County High Schools are represented at the exhibit. There are 14 exhibits designed by teachers and 43 by

theBLOTTER

students.

They range from a Mountain Dew inspired aluminum hat, to oil based replicas of still pictures.

The students were judged

by Mr. Canady and another art teacher on the quality and style of their work.

Of the 43 students, three deserving artists were rewarded a $50 visa gift card “to use however they please” said Canady.

Helen Palmenteri, an art teacher from Northeast Guilford since 2003, stated that three students from her school submitted art for the exhibit.

“I think that this is a great idea” Palmenteri said between bites.

“I always tell my students about being professional; so this is a great way for them to experience being professional.”

A host of other art teachers and principals from all over the county came to show support for their schools.

Jazmine Henderson, a sophomore Nursing major, volunteered for the event.

When she heard about the exhibit she knew she wanted to help.

For Henderson, the exhibits brought back memories “I use to draw when I was coming up” she said. “Looking at these exhibits I’m like ‘I used to do that’” she laughed.

The exhibits will continue to be displayed until March 11.

“A lot of students and teachers did a really good job” said Henderson. “I really enjoyed myself.”

January 27

Case Closed with Arrest

1:35 am East Market St.- DWI Case Closed with Arrest

January 29

11:20 pm Cooper Hall- Drug Violation Case Under Further Investigation January 28 2:26 am Moore Gym PVA- Vehicle Accident Case Closed with Arrest 7:52 am Marteena Hall- Weapons Violations

THE A&T

REGISTER Box E-25 1601 E. Market Street Greensboro, NC 27411 Newsroom: NCB 328A (336) 334-7700 www.ncatregister.com

9:00 am Aggie Suites- Larceny Case Under Further Investigation 11:00 am Aggie Suites PVA- Vehicle Accident Case Under Further Investigation

THURSDAY

3

Brown Bag Discussion SGA

Memorial Student Union Stallings Ballroom 11:30 a.m.

Lyceum Series presents Rebecca Skloot

Memorial Student Union Stallings Ballroom 4 p.m.

NSBE Full Body Meeting

McNair Hall Room 240 6:30 p.m.

FRIDAY

4

One Planet One Voice Speak Out

SGA General Classroom Building Room 218 6 p.m.

Agency believed child’s mother was addict SUSAN HAIGH

Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A girl who was kidnapped as an infant from a New York City hospital and grew up in Connecticut told state officials when she was a teenager that she believed her birth mother was a drug addict who had given her up, the state’s new child welfare commissioner said Tuesday.

Carlina White, who was raised in Bridgeport as Nejdra Nance, told the Department of Children and Families back when she was 16 that the woman raising her, Ann Pettway, had informed her that a drugaddicted mother had given her to Pettway as a baby in 1987, Commissioner Joette Katz told reporters at a news conference announcing her top staff.

“No one thought kidnapping was on the scene at that time,” said Katz, who has ordered a special internal review of the agency’s involvement in the case. “She thought she came from a woman who dropped her on somebody else’s doorstep.”

Pettway, who recently lived in Raleigh, N.C., surrendered last month and has been charged with kidnapping White, who now is 23 and has reunited with her biological family.

January 30 6:55 pm East Market St.- Resist, Delay and Obstruct Arrest Case Under Further Investigation EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jasmine Johnson MANAGING EDITOR: Kelcie McCrae NEWS EDITOR: Sylvia Obell OPINIONS EDITOR:Trumaine McCaskill SPORTS EDITOR: Lauren Morgan SCENE EDITOR: Jonathan Veal COPY DESK CHIEF: Yulanda Henderson COPY EDITOR: Justine Riddick PHOTO EDITOR: Kenneth Hawkins STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS: Michaela Edwards, Shanté Mathes

Pettway has confessed to taking White from Harlem Hospital as a baby in August 1987, the FBI says.

Pettway was ordered detained in New York on Jan. 24 after her lawyer said no bail application would immediately be made, and she didn’t enter a plea.

Her lawyer said she was very upset and felt bad and understood the gravity of the charges against her, which could result in more than 20 years in prison if she’s convicted.

Katz said the state child welfare agency had forwarded information about the case and questions about the identity of the girl’s biological parents to the FBI and local police.

The FBI on Tuesday did not immediately respond to a request from The Associated Press for comment.

The Department of Children and Families has said that in 2005 it opened a file involving White and Pettway. Katz said the agency provided housing and educational assistance to the girl and “got her through college.”

However, Katz said the agency failed White by not doing enough to help her find her biological family.

“Children need to know and want to know where they came from,” she said. “That’s something that lives with them forever.”

Katz said this case shows that the health and welfare of children under her agency’s watch should be addressed in a more holistic manner.

“Clearly, this child was looking for something,” she said.

White was 19 days old when her parents took her to the hospital with a high fever late on Aug. 4, 1987. Her parents, Joy White and Carl Tyson, said a woman who looked like a nurse had comforted them.

The couple left the hospital to rest, but their baby was missing when they returned the next day.

A police investigation failed to find the baby.

Carlina White, who lives in the Atlanta area, said she had long suspected Pettway wasn’t her biological mother because she could never provide her with a birth certificate and because she didn’t look like anyone else in Pettway’s family.

She periodically checked the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children website and last month found a photo that looked nearly identical to her own baby picture.

She contacted Joy White through the organization, and they met in New York before DNA tests were complete, confident they were mother and daughter.

Test results later confirmed it.

SATURDAY

5

Fullbright Alumni Reunion Luncheon

Faculty Dining 1:30 p.m.

MONDAY

7

WNAA presents The Valentine’s Day Expo

Memorial Student Union Exhibit Hall 6 p.m.

Battles of the Sexes Junior Class

General Classroom Buildilng Room 218 7:30 p.m.

TUESDAY

8

Word -n- Love Couture Productions

Memorial Student Union Stallings Ballroom 5 p.m.

If you ever see anything suspicious or need assistance call Campus Police

(336) 334-7675 EDITORIAL CARTOONIST: Evan Summerville NCATREGISTER.COM: Keclie McCrae SENIOR REPORTER: Charles Johnson REPORTERS: Shequia Cole, Chanel Davis, Ashley Vaughn ADVERTISING& BUSINESS MANAGER: BUSINESS STAFF: FACULTY ADVISER: Emily Harris

THE A&T REGISTER is published every Wednesday during the fall and spring semesters by students at North Carolina A&T State University. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Register’s newsroom (subject to availability). All subscription requests should be directed to the Business department.

THE A&T REGISTER has a weekly circulation of 5,000 copies on-campus and in the community and is a member of The Associated Press, The Associated Collegiate Press and the Black College Wire.

theYARD A&T’s Next Top Model goes Disney The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Shequia cole

Staff Reporter

Tiffany Patrick walked away with two sashes during A&T’s Next Top Model competition on Jan. 31.

The Alpha Mu chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated brought the program to Stallings Ballroom. It began at 7:13 p.m. and was $5 to enter.

The theme was The AMazing World of Disney. Members of Delta Sigma Theta wore Mickey Mouse ears and there was even a costumed Mickey Mouse character.

The six contestants who battled for the sash included

political science major, Deline Tengen from Washington, DC; applied mathematics major, Jasmine Silas from Ponder Springs, GA; biology major, Amira Carter from Durham, NC; electronic computer technology major, Megan Pettus from Baltimore, MD; public relations and marketing major, De’Onna YoungStephens from Walkertown, NC and psychology major, Tiffany Patrick from Kinston, NC. Emcees of the program were Miss Senior and Alpha Mu member, Crista Greenlee, and former Mr. Alpha Mu, Joe Thompson.

The DJ was Roger Weathers aka DJ World-Premiere.

There were five judges ranging from an A&T alumnus to Couture members.

Greenlee opened the show in

a storytelling manner to introduce the first portion of the program called Fairytale Dreams.

Each contestant entered the room through the audience, walking, posing and dancing their way to the stage wearing different colored tutus and fairy wings.

After approaching the stage they performed a dance routine to songs from artists like Nicki Minaj and Willow Smith.

Scene one, For your Amusement, was inspired by rides at Disney World. Some of the rides reflected were Pirates of the Caribbean, Dumbo and Peter Pan. After each scene one contestant was eliminated. Eliminations resembled those of the America’s Next Top Model tele-

vision show. Contestant three, Amira Carter was eliminated first.

Scene two entitled She’s a Monster was based on Disney villains such as Cruella Deville and the evil queen in Snow White. The second contestant to be eliminated was number four, De’Onna Young-Stephens.

There were plenty of breaks between scenes. The DJ provided music for the audience, but there was more.

The Mickey Mouse character danced on stage and even challenged audience members to a “dougie off.” There was also a performance from a high school modeling troupe and a walk-off between audience members of the Verge and Couture modeling troupes.

Scene three, Candy Shop, was the swimsuit edition in which each remaining contestant modeled their swimsuit decorated with candy. After this scene contestant two, Jasmine Silas was eliminated.

Then came the twist. It was announced that the contest would have two winners. One being A&T’s next top model, to be determined by the judges, and the other would be “Miss Pump”, to be determined by the audience, Showtime at the Apollo style.

The contestants had an individual walk-off where two girls were eliminated. The four remaining models “ripped the runway” together, whipping hair, dropping it low and determined to outshine one another.

3

The winner was contestant six, Tiffany Patrick.

During scene four: Fireworks, all the contestants returned as Disney princesses in their ballroom gowns.

They entered the room to Drake’s song “Fireworks,” doing a Miss America style wave.

There was also a confetti burst which sounded like Fireworks.

Remaining contestants were asked one question in which they had to answer on the spot.

The last was entitled Disney after Dark. Models were judged on looks, style, creativity and charisma, and in the end Tiffany Patrick took it all.

“It was nice, I really enjoyed it,” said Siedah Bohanon, Junior, Marketing major from Cincinnati, Ohio.

School serves chicken on MLK day U.S Freshman feeling overwhelmed Nate Jackson

MCT Campus

LOS ANGELES — A last-minute decision to serve fried chicken and waffles in a campus dining hall in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. was a regrettable choice and lacked sensitivity, officials at the University of California, Irvine, acknowledged Wednesday.

The meal was served at Pippin Commons on the first night of UCI’s 28th annual Martin Luther King Jr. symposium, a three-day campus event themed “Uniting our Voice for Change.”

Past speakers have included Dick Gregory, Julian Bond and the late Yolanda King, the civil rights leader’s eldest child.

The Jan. 17 menu _ and a sign in the dining hall reading “MLK Holiday Special: Chicken and Waffles _ were pulled together at the last minute by a chef and other staff members at the cafeteria, a culinary choice that was made without any oversight from the university, said UCI spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon.

UCI student Ricardo Sparks, the 20-year-old co-chair of the university’s Black Student Union, lodged a formal complaint with the administration after seeing the sign and the entree.

Sparks said the insensitivity of the decision has sparked outrage within the student union and other ethnic student organizations on campus.

“It’s just another in a long line of small events on our campus that aren’t meant to be taken in a certain way, but are at least questionable in their cultural legitimacy,” said John Murillo III, 21, director of communications for the Black Student Union.

The fact that the incident occurred during the symposium was especially disappointing, Murillo said.

“It takes all the radicalism and activism that we tried to do with the symposium and then (the cafeteria) serves chicken and waffles and takes away from all the stuff that we did,” Murillo said.

Officials at the university agreed Wednesday that serving chicken and waffles at a campus cafeteria on Martin Luther King Jr. Day was not in “good taste.”

Lawhon said the intention behind the menu was to offer comforting food for students in conjunction with the MLK Day holiday.

“But it probably wasn’t the most sensitive thing,” Lawhon said.

Thomas Parham, vice chancellor of student affairs, tried

without success to schedule a meeting with Sparks and another student who had filed a complaint, Lawhon said.

Sparks said he had waited to respond until he rallied other students to attend to meeting.

University officials said they are now trying to set up a meeting with Sparks and others next week.

No disciplinary action has been taken against the chef, and it was unclear if any action would be taken in the future, Lawhon said.

Officials with Aramark Corp., which provides dining services for student housing, said they will conduct cultural sensitivity training for all managers and chefs.

Sparks and other students on campus said that racially inappropriate incidents have been dealt with lightly in the past.

“I understand people have prejudice and ignorance,” Sparks said. “But this is out in the community and nobody is saying anything about it.”

Last week, the Thalia Surf Shop in nearby Laguna Beach was criticized for offering 20 percent off black-colored items for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The shop’s owner later apologized.

Larry Gordon MCT Campus

LOS ANGELES — This year’s college freshmen report feeling higher levels of emotional and financial stress than their predecessors did, according to a national survey conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The annual “American Freshman” report, released Thursday, showed that only about half of current first-year students, 51.9 percent, rated their emotional health above average or higher, down from 55.3 percent last year and the lowest since the question was first asked 25 years ago. Just 45.9 percent of women in the class described themselves as emotionally strong, compared with 59.1 percent of the men.

In addition, nearly twothirds of this year’s freshmen, 62.1 percent, said the recession had affected their choice of college, and 73.4 percent, up from 70 percent last year, are depending on grants and scholarships to help them through.

The young people, interviewed just before they started classes in the fall, also reported relatively high rates of parental unemployment.

“What it means is that go-

ing into college, students are already feeling more stress and feeling more overwhelmed and have lower emotional reserves to deal with that stress,” said John H. Pryor, lead author of the report and managing director of UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute, which operates the survey.

First given in 1966, the annual survey is considered the nation’s most comprehensive assessment of college students’ attitudes. This year’s report was based on the responses of more than 201,000 incoming freshmen at 279 four-year colleges and universities around the United States.

Pryor said he was struck this year by the gap between young men and young women in discussing whether they frequently felt overwhelmed by all they had to do at school, home and jobs as high school seniors. Nearly 39 percent of women said they were often overwhelmed, more than twice the share of the men.

Overall, more than 29 percent said they had felt such stress, up 2 percentage points from the year before.

The gender gap, Pryor speculated, may be attributed to what young people do at home. “The guys are spending more time in stress-relieving activities, like watching TV and playing video games. The girls are more likely

to be helping out with chores at home,” he said, citing responses to other questions in the survey.

But on the positive side, record high proportions of the freshmen said they expected to participate in clubs and community service in college and to receive good grades. A strong majority, 57.6 percent, said there was a “very good chance” they would be satisfied with their college experience, the highest share since 1982. Pryor said he found that optimism to be heartening.

The report also looks at political attitudes of students, finding that 46.4 percent describe themselves as middle-of-theroad, 30.2 percent liberal or far left and 23.5 percent conservative or far right. Researchers say that shows a modest shift from the liberal and left side of the spectrum to the middle, and may indicate a slight waning of the enthusiastic youth activism surrounding President Barack Obama’s election in 2008.

In a new question this year, the survey found solid support among students for the legal right of gays and lesbians to adopt children, with 76.5 percent agreeing strongly or somewhat. That included a majority of freshmen who described themselves as conservative or far right politically.

Undocumented student lives in limbo at Unv. Calif.

Cruz Sentinel MCT Campus

Hey Aggies!

Monday-Wednesday: 2 LARGE 1-topping pizzas $14 Every day special: LARGE pizza Any way you want it $10!

Every day deals: $7.99 1 LARGE 1 topping OR 1 MEDIUM 2 topping

(336) 954-7575

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Xochitlquetzal hates the words “illegal” and “alien,” especially side by side.

“It’s dehumanizing this idea that a person can be ‘illegal,’ and by calling someone an alien you label them as an ‘other’ as not human,” the University of California, Santa Cruz, student said.

The community studies major has a remarkable memory and tells vivid stories from childhood, many of which come back to an endless struggle for acceptance.

Xochitlquetzal carries a serious demeanor, with broad shoulders that seem to support an unseen weight.

None of this is surprising when Xochitlquetzal stares with his large, dark, emotive eyes and begins to tell the story of growing up in California an undocumented immigrant and transgender.

Xochitlquetzal is a nickname.

The student’s legal name is being withheld to protect identity.

Xochitlquetzal neither identifies as a female nor a male.

Xochitlquetzal’s father immigrated to the United States from Mexico City, and helped pay for the guide, or “coyote,” that would lead the infant Xochitlquetzal, an older brother and two uncles across the Mexico/ U.S. border into California.

One uncle carried Xochitlquetzal on his back, the 3-yearold bouncing up and down, cold and hungry, as they ran under

the cover of darkness through the desert. The uncle tripped on a rock, and Xochitlquetzal went flying. Scraped and bleeding, the uncle wiped the blood off the young child’s face, muttered a Spanish curse word and kept running.

Eventually they made it to Concord, Calif., to be with their father, where the real battle would begin.

Xochitlquetzal’s father immediately instilled the importance of learning English in his two children, knowing it would be a key to their assimilation.

Coming to the country at 3, Xochitlquetzal had no problem feeling at home. It was the vitriolic atmosphere in Concord that challenged that notion.

One day, while walking home from school with a classmate, immigration officials pulled up. The friend ran, and they chased after him, leaving a terrified Xochitlquetzal behind.

The friend never came back.

Later, Xochitlquetzal was attacked by a group in Concord that yelled “go home” and an immigrant slur as they swung with bats.

The assault left the student bruised and bloody, feeling isolated and targeted, but it also sparked a political side and a devotion to nonviolent protest.

Later, while posting fliers for a march of undocumented immigrants, Xochitlquetzal was accosted again. The attackers ripped up the fliers, swore, said go back to “your country” and spit on the student’s face.

“That one hurt a lot,” Xochitlquetzal said.

At that point the burgeoning

activist was devoted to aiding the cause, and helped organize school walkouts in 1998 to support AB 540, the California legislation passed in 2001 that offered in-state tuition to undocumented students, children of military personnel and others who attended California high schools for at least three years.

Xochitlquetzal hears the chorus, the one coming from advocates of tougher immigration enforcement saying “go home.”

But if this isn’t home, where is?

The student looked into filing for citizenship or transgender status asylum, but to no avail.

The student is wary of giving critics “ammunition” against undocumented immigrants.

Xochitlquetzal does not work, has no driver’s license and, since the money for education comes mostly from donations and fundraising, lives frugally.

There are no expensive lattes to make it through all-nighters, beers to celebrate an “A” paper or any other unnecessary expenses.

“We’re talking about a highly driven, highly passionate student. Undocumented students really want their education,” said Rosie Cabrera, director of the Chicano Latino Resource Center at UCSC. “They are mostly from low-income backgrounds and they are high achievers who are used to doing exceptionally well.

“These students have to do a lot of creative financing and fundraising, and their parents go through tremendous sacrifice for them to be here. Something average students take for granted, such as buying books, can be a

challenge for them,” she said.

With other UCSC students, some with a legal status, others without, Xochitlquetzal lives in an informal co-op not too far from downtown Santa Cruz.

They share resources, cooking and shopping for the group.

Xochitlquetzal, not eligible for state or federal financial aid as an undocumented student, takes time off from school every now and then to raise money.

The student participated twice in the “Tour de Dreams,” in which undocumented students ride bicycles between Berkeley and Los Angeles, raising money with every mile covered.

There are between 35 and 50 undocumented students at UCSC, according to administration, and once on campus Xochitlquetzal eagerly anticipated a welcoming community.

The student joined Students Informing Now, a group advocating for undocumented students, and interned at the Lionel Cantu Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Intersex Resource Center.

There are counselors and support networks at UCSC that help, but Xochitlquetzal said some students still do not accept their presence and barriers to acceptance persist.

“There is a deep sense of isolation,” Cabrera said. “When you come to the university it’s supposed to be such a wonderful time for students. They come into their own as young adults, and learn so much about their identity. But with the undocumented students there is a shroud. They think, ‘I can’t let people know truly who I am, they don’t know how I feel.’ “

theWORLD 4

The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Egypt’s Mubarak says won’t run for new term HADEEL AL-SHALCHI & SARAH EL DEEB Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he will not run for a new term in office in September elections, but rejected demands that he step down immediately and leave the country, vowing to die on Egypt's soil, in a television address Tuesday after a dramatic day in which a quarter-million protesters called on him to go.

Mubarak said he would serve out the rest of his term working to ensure a "peaceful transfer of power" and carry out amendments to rules on presidential elections.

But the half-way concession — an end to his rule months down the road — was immediately derided by protesters massed in Cairo's main downtown square.

Watching his speech on a giant TV set up in Tahrir square, protesters booed and waved their shoes over the heads in a sign of contempt. "Go, go, go! We are not leaving until he leaves," they chanted, and one man screamed, "He doesn't want to say it, he doesn't want to say it."

The 82-year-old Mubarak, who has ruled the country for nearly three decades, insisted

that his decision not to run had nothing to do with the unprecedented protests that have shaken Egypt the past week. "I tell you in all sincerity, regardless of the current circumstances, I never intended to be a candidate for another term."

"I will work for the final remaining months of the current term to accomplish the necessary steps for the peaceful transfer of power," he said.

Mubarak, a former air force commander, resolutely vowed not to flee the country.

"This dear nation .. is where I lived, I fought for it and defended its soil, sovereignty and interests. On its soil I will die. History will judge me like it did others."

His speech came after a visiting envoy of President Barack Obama told Mubarak that his ally the United States sees his presidency at an end.

Frank Wisner, a respected former U.S. ambassador to Egypt who is a friend of the Egyptian president, made clear to Mubarak that the U.S "view that his tenure as president is coming to close," according to an administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the ongoing diplomacy.

Visit our website www.ncatregister.com

More egypt coverage

Egypt crisis puts pressure on US allies KARIN LAUB

Associated Press

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Jordan's king fired his Cabinet on Tuesday and the Palestinian president promised to hold long-delayed elections as America's Mideast allies came under pressure for democratic reforms because of the popular uprising sweeping Egypt.

But the Western push for reform in this tumultuous region has backfired in the past, strengthening Islamists at the expense of pro-U.S. moderates.

The Egyptian revolt against President Hosni Mubarak's 30year rule has raised two urgent questions: Will it spread and perhaps destabilize other countries, and will it bring more democracy to the Arab world?

The democracy question is particularly pressing for U.S. allies like Jordan and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which have long faced pressure from Washington to uphold democratic values.

Even as they loosen the reins a bit more now, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appeared concerned about inadvertently giving a boost to their Islamic rivals.

Abbas feels he was already burned once, when his Fatah movement was trounced by the Islamic militant Hamas in 2006 parliament elections he called under intense U.S. pressure.

The following year, Hamas grabbed control of Gaza by force.

The Palestinian split is now a key obstacle to any Mideast peace deal. While many Palestinians lament the ongoing political divide, they also feel that the West employed a double standard by refusing to deal with a democratically elected

Hamas government.

In Jordan, Abdullah faces formidable opposition from the Muslim Brotherhood, a pan-Arab movement of Islamic fundamentalists with roots in Egypt, where it has been a key Mubarak opponent. Hamas is the Gaza branch of the movement.

On Tuesday, Abdullah fired his government, bowing to public pressure for reform, including several large demonstrations inspired by events in Egypt as well as Tunisia earlier last month.

The king instructed the new prime minister, Marouf al-Bakhit, to correct mistakes of the past and lead "real political reforms, which must increase popular participation in the decisionmaking." Outgoing Prime Minister Samir Rifai was blamed for a rise in fuel and food prices and slowed political reforms.

Opposition groups dismissed the change as cosmetic. "We reject the new prime minister and we will continue our protests until our demands are met," said Hamza Mansour, leader of the Islamic Action Front, Jordan's largest opposition movement.

The opposition in Jordan says it doesn't seek regime change but wants to curb the king's power. Jordan's constitution gives the monarch exclusive authority to appoint prime ministers, dismiss parliament and rule by decree; the opposition argues that the post of prime minister should go to the elected leader of the parliamentary majority.

Abdullah is willing to speed up some reforms, including introducing legislation governing political parties and elections, according to a top Jordanian official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with briefing regulations. However, he said the king is worried about possible U.S. pressure for further reforms that could strengthen

hard-line Islamists.

Abbas has similar concerns.

Since the Hamas takeover of Gaza, he has clamped down hard on Islamists in the West Bank, curtailing democratic freedoms in the process. His security forces have rounded up Hamas activists, shut down Hamas-allied institutions and tried to dry up foreign funding for the militants. Hamas has taken similar actions in Gaza against its Fatah rivals, prompting complaints of human rights abuses in both territories.

Earlier this week, Abbas met with his security chiefs and told them to clamp down on any protests in support of the Egyptian demonstrators and to make sure anti-Israel marches don't turn violent, a senior Palestinian security official said Tuesday.

Abbas told the chiefs he was concerned that loosening the grip could provide an opening to Hamas to destabilize the West Bank, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to discuss details of the meeting.

Despite such worries, Abbas' Cabinet promised Tuesday to set a date next week for municipal elections. The vote, which was to have been held last July, was canceled by Fatah at the last minute when it became apparent it would likely lose against independents. Hamas said at the time it would not participate.

Tuesday's announcement said elections would be held in the West Bank and Gaza, though Hamas again said it would not cooperate.

Even if Hamas stays home and votes are only cast in the West Bank, Abbas and Fatah would be taking a risk.

Peace efforts with Israel are frozen and Abbas suffered another blow last week when the widely watched TV station, Al-

Jazeera, reported he secretly made major concessions to Israel, citing hundreds of leaked transcripts of negotiating sessions.

In the West Bank, dissatisfaction is bubbling under the surface, particularly among young Palestinians who belong neither to Hamas nor Fatah, said Palestinian analyst Khalil Shikaki.

"They feel that the West Bank is turning into a police state," he said.

Meanwhile, there have been stirrings of discontent among nations in the region that aren't U.S. allies, notably Syria and Sudan.

Syria, like Egypt, is plagued by poverty, unemployment and corruption.

Drawing inspiration from the Internet-savvy Egyptian protesters, an online campaign called for anti-government demonstrations Friday and Saturday in the Syrian capital Damascus.

"Together for a Day of Rage in Syria," read one Facebook page joined by more than 2,500 people. Another 850 joined a page backing Syrian President Bashar Assad, a British-trained physician who inherited power from his father in 2000, after three decades of rule.

Assad has since moved slowly to lift Soviet-style economic restrictions, letting in foreign banks, opening the doors to imports and empowering the private sector. But he has not matched liberal economics with political reforms and critics of the regime are routinely locked up, drawing an outcry from international human rights groups.

In Sudan, calls for anti-government protests Thursday were posted on a website. Earlier this week, dozens of university students demonstrated against price hikes, but were quickly arrested.

Egypt’s economy suffers blow TAREK EL-TABLAWY Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's economy suffered a fresh blow Tuesday after yet another credit agency lowered its ratings and its currency approached a fiveyear low with slim chance of a quick rebound amid surging street protests.

Estimates of the losses sustained during the week of unrest roiling the country have yet to emerge, but one thing is certain: Hopes for another year of solid economic growth in the Arab world's most populous nation are long gone. Companies are suspending operations, workers are staying home, banks remained closed, and tourists are fleeing by the thousands.

"We have a few months of uncertainty, as opposed to a few days," said Said Hirsch, Mideast economist with the London-based Capital Economics, summing up investor sentiment in a climate in which it remained unclear whether President Hosni Mubarak could further withstand emphatic calls for his ouster.

Standard & Poor's joined Moody's in cutting Egypt's ratings — the second such downgrade in as many days. The third major ratings agency, Fitch, lowered its outlook for the country to negative last week. All three agencies citied the deteriorating situation in the country. More than a quarter-million people massed in the heart of the capital Tuesday in the largest demonstration to date against Mubarak.

S&P lowered Egypt's longterm foreign currency sovereign rating to BB from BB+, and warned that another downgrade was possible within the next three months. The move put the rating solidly in junk status.

It also warned the cuts could affect the creditworthiness of two main Egyptian banks — the Commercial International Bank and the National Bank of Egypt.

Egypt, which had prided itself on decades of stability and, more recently, impressive GDP growth, was increasingly taking on the appearance of an investment pariah — if only for the short term.

The Egyptian pound, viewed as relatively stable because of solid Central Bank support, was trading at 5.8550 pounds to the dollar. It hit 5.8570 earlier in the day, approaching the January 2005 low of six pounds to the dollar. It appeared increasingly likely that the depreciation against the dollar would stoke inflationary fears in a nation where prices, critics complain, go up on a whim and rarely come down.

"Egypt's foreign reserves should be sufficient to prevent a complete collapse in the currency, but it will become increasingly difficult and expensive to manage rising inflation," said Hirsch.

Reflecting the prevailing worries in the country, a new round of companies announced they were suspending operations in Egypt.

Dubai-based DP World was among the most prominent, with the port operator saying the step was taken as "a precautionary measure." The move affected its operation at the Red Sea port of Sokhna, near the Suez Canal's southern entrance.

In a rare bit of good news for Egypt, however, traffic along the canal — a key artery through which shippers can avoid the perilous trip around Africa — appeared to be running smoothly.

Swiss-Swedish engineering giant ABB said it had closed temporarily shuttered its factories in Egypt "for security reasons," said company spokesman Thomas Schmidt. The company has 1,600 staff in Egypt, where it produces generators and other power supply machinery.

More daunting were the implications of the ratings cuts.

S&P said the cuts "reflect our expectation that the violent

demonstrations of the past week will persist, despite the appointment of a vice president and the dismissal of the government." It added that "at present, a state of political impasse appears to exist in the country."

S&P also lowered its long and short-term local currency ratings to BB+/B from BBB/ A-3, while the short-term foreign currency rating of B was unchanged.

The downgrades mean that the cost of borrowing would rise, burdening any Egyptian government in the short-term, be it one led by Mubarak or someone else.

The expectation among many analysts was that the government would have to ramp up spending in order to address the financial concerns that have been a significant catalyst in the protests.

Subsidies, which drain upward of 100 billion pounds ($17 billion) of the government's budget, will likely have to be boosted to offset the expected commodity price increases and that undercut efforts to lower the public sector deficit.

"Fiscal deficits will be going up this year," said Hirsch. "Any money they need to borrow is going to be more expensive."

But other factors also weighed heavily. Tourism, which accounts for up to 5 percent of GDP, was taking a hit as foreigners fled the country and others canceled planned trips.

Cairo airport saw passenger traffic swell to more than 18,000 Tuesday as people sought seats on commercial flights, or flew out on jets chartered by various governments for their nationals.

Foreign direct investment — another key revenue source — was also looking questionable as investors worried about the stability of the country.

"People are going to be extremely careful to get involved again until they get some sort of clarity," said Geoffrey Dennis, an emerging markets analyst with Citigroup.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Friday, February 4

theBIZ

The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, February 2, 2011

5

Gulf residents miffed by BP resuming dividends HARRY R. WEBER

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — BP’s decision to resume paying dividends rankled Gulf Coast residents Tuesday who saw it as another sign the company wants to move even though many are still suffering from last year’s massive oil spill.

Oil stains linger in marshes along Louisiana’s fragile coast and tens of thousands of victims are waiting for final payments from a $20 billion compensation fund, while a large number of people haven’t received any money at all.

The 7 cents per ordinary share payable to BP shareholders March 28, or about $1.25 billion overall, isn’t a lot by

BP’s standards its half what the company paid investors for the final quarter of 2009 but Gulf residents frowned on the idea of going back to business as usual.

“BP has so much money that we can’t really fathom it, but BP has to take care of its obligations to us,” said Pass Christian, Miss., shrimper Bobby Barnett.

Barnett said London-based BP still owes him compensation, which he has filed for, for damages from a shortened season after the spill halted shrimping in some areas for much of the summer.

He’s also worried about the long-term effect on Gulf seafood of the dispersants BP used to break up the oil.

“This is a slap in the face to the thousands of victims forced

to watch BP line its shareholders’ pockets while they struggle to pay their mortgage and put food on the table,” said James P. Roy, a lead attorney for plaintiffs suing BP and other companies over the disaster.

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu acknowledges that it’s up to BP to decide when and how much it pays in dividends to its shareholders.

But, the Louisiana Democrat said, “I intend to hold them accountable for paying every penny they owe to make businesses and families in Louisiana whole again and to repair the damage the spill did to the state’s coast and our seafood industry.”

She is pushing for at least 80 percent of the penalties ultimately charged to BP under the

Clean Water Act to be returned to the Gulf Coast for long-term economic and environmental recovery.

BP announced in June that it would not pay dividends to shareholders for the rest of 2010 as it sought to get a grip on its huge liabilities from the April 20 rig explosion and oil spill that followed. At the same time, BP agreed to commit $20 billion to a fund to compensate victims of the spill.

A schedule of payments to the fund called for BP to make an initial contribution of $3 billion last summer and $2 billion in the fall, followed by $1.25 billion per quarter until the full figure is reached.

But as of last week, some seven months after the fund was

announced only $3.54 billion of the fund had been spent, according to BP. The administrator of the fund, Washington lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, is preparing to make final payments to individuals and businesses.

Any money left over in the fund is expected to be returned to BP. The Associated Press reported Monday that the fund has paid a final settlement to just one of the thousands of people and businesses waiting for checks, and that $10 million payout went to a company after the oil giant intervened on its behalf.

As of last weekend, roughly 91,000 people and businesses had filed for final settlements.

Thousands of people have received some money to tide them over until a final settlement amount is offered, but only one business listed as paid on the facility’s website has so far received a check.

Billy Nungesser, president of oil-soaked Plaquemines Parish, said he’s not opposed to BP giving a return to its shareholders, but he has a problem with the timing considering the company’s unfinished business to restore the Gulf. Such payments only benefit investors Roy, Landrieu, Barnett and Nungesser said they don’t own any BP stock.

“I feel like they think this is something in the past and they want to close the book on it,” Nungesser said.

Two large newspapers Democrats push aviation bill as jobs program in N.C. will cut 40 jobs Joan Lowy

Associated Press

AP

Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — McClatchy Co.’s two daily newspapers in North Carolina will look to save money by cutting 40 jobs and furloughing employees.

The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer of Raleigh will each cut 20 positions, including five in each news department.

Many employees at the newspapers will also have to take weeklong furloughs.

The Charlotte Observer announced its layoffs on Monday.

Publisher Ann Caulkins said the move comes as a shaky economy continues to plague advertisers and revenues remain short of the company’s goals.

During a meeting with employees Monday morning, Caulkins said the company was

“living quarter by quarter with our budgets.”

Despite some improvement in ad revenue last year, the economy remains turbulent, and revenues have reflected that, Caulkins said.

But both she and editor Rick Thames said the commitment to news gathering remains strong.

About two weeks ago, The News & Observer of Raleigh announced it was cutting 20 jobs across the staff for the same economic reasons.

The newspaper said some affected employees in Raleigh will have an opportunity to accept a voluntary severance package.

“It is never easy to say goodbye to our friends and colleagues,” Publisher Orage Quarles III wrote in an e-mail message to employees, “but we must make these additional cuts to sustain our company and adjust to economic realities.”

Interested in writing?

The A&T Register wants you!

Stop by the newsroom.

GCB 328

FREE TAX

PREPARATION and e-file

Federal & All States Returns Location: 1st floor Merrick Hall Tuesday 4-6 pm by appointment Contact Dr. Gwen McFadden-Wade School of Business & Economics - Dept of Accounting

@ 336- 334- 7581 x 6006 E-mail us @ mcfaddeg@ncat.edu Begins Jan. 25 through March 22

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic leaders brought an aviation bill that authorizes $8 billion for airport construction to the Senate floor on Monday, pitching it as a jobs measure in keeping with President Barack Obama’s call to boost the economy through transportation projects.

The American Association of Airport Executives estimated the airport construction funds will support 90,000 current or new jobs and have a beneficial spinoff effect on the employment of another 190,000 workers. The estimate is based on a calculation that $1 billion in federal spending supports 35,000 jobs. It presumes a 20 percent match by local airport authorities in addition to the federal dollars.

The bill presents Democrats with a means to show quick re-

sults in answer to Obama’s call in his State of the Union speech to put Americans to work modernizing roads, bridges, trains and other transportation infrastructure.

“On the Senate floor this week we’re going to pick up where the president left off in his speech,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters in a telephone media briefing with other Democratic leaders.

The measure is identical to a bill the Senate approved 93-0 last spring. It later stalled when Congress couldn’t reach agreement on several side issues, including the distribution of landing slots at Reagan National Airport near Washington, the fee airline passengers pay to support airport improvements and a labor dispute between delivery giants FedEx and United Parcel Service.

This time, Democrats are predicting a smoother flight for

the measure, which has bipartisan support.

“We cannot let this bill be stymied as a result of relatively small issues,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. “If there was ever a jobs bill, this is it.”

The bill’s main purpose is providing authority for Federal Aviation Administration programs for the next two years, including an acceleration of the modernization of the nation’s air traffic control system. The agency plans to spend about $20 billion over the next decade to transform the air traffic network from one relying on radar to a more efficient satellite-based system.

The last law providing long-term authority for FAA programs expired in 2007.

Congress has since kept FAA programs going through a series of 17 short-term extensions.

In the House, Republicans

have also signaled they intend to fast-track an FAA bill. Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., the new chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has said the bill will be his first priority.

It is unclear what a House bill might look like, although Republicans will be searching for ways to cut spending as they seek to make good on campaign promises. FAA operations cost more than $14 billion annually.

One target is likely to be the essential air service program, which subsidizes the cost of scheduled airline service to small airports, often in rural communities. The program has often been criticized for underwriting air service that serves relatively few people or in communities where there is access to other airports or trains within a reasonable travel distance. Some House Republicans want to eliminate it.

Despite China’s might, US factories maintain edge Paul Wiseman

AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. factories are closing. American manufacturing jobs are reappearing overseas. China’s industrial might is growing each year.

And it might seem as if the United States doesn’t make world-class goods as well as some other nations.

“There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products,” President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union policy address last week.

Yet America remains by far the No. 1 manufacturing country. It out-produces No. 2 China by more than 40 percent. U.S. manufacturers cranked out nearly $1.7 trillion in goods in 2009, according to the United Nations.

The story of American factories essentially boils down to this: They’ve managed to make more goods with fewer workers.

The United States has lost nearly 8 million factory jobs since manufacturing employment peaked at 19.6 million in mid-1979. U.S. manufacturers have placed near the top of world rankings in productivity gains over the past three decades.

That higher productivity has meant a leaner manufacturing force that’s capitalized on efficiency.

“You can add more capability, but it doesn’t mean you necessarily have to hire hundreds of people,” says James Vitak, a spokesman for specialty chemical maker Ashland Inc. The industry’s fortunes are brightening enough that U.S.

factories are finally adding jobs after years of shrinking their payrolls.

Not a lot. But even a slight increase shows manufacturers are growing more confident.

They added 136,000 workers last year — the first net increase since 1997.

What’s changed is that U.S. manufacturers have abandoned products with thin profit margins, like consumer electronics, toys and shoes.

They’ve ceded that sector to China, Indonesia and other emerging nations with low labor costs.

Instead, American factories have seized upon complex and expensive goods requiring specialized labor: industrial lathes, computer chips, fighter jets, health care products.

Consider Greatbatch Inc., which makes orthopedics and other medical goods.

The company is expanding its manufacturing operations near Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Greatbatch wanted to take advantage of a specialized work force in northeastern Indiana, a hub of medical research and manufacturing.

“When you’re talking about medical devices, failure is not an option,” CEO Thomas Hook says.

“It’s a zero-mistake environment. These products are customized and high-tech.

They go into patients to keep them alive.”

Hook says the United States offers advantages over poorer, low-wage countries: reliable supplies of electricity and water, decent roads. And some localities support businesses by providing infrastructure and vocational training for potential hires.

Centerline Machining & Grinding in Hobart, Wisconsin, which makes custom parts

for manufacturers in the paper industry, plans to add to its staff of 26.

But it’s struggling to find the skilled tradesmen it needs for jobs paying $18 to $25 an hour.

CEO Sara Dietzen laments that local vocational schools cut back training courses in recent years, having concluded that the future for manufacturing was dim.

Not from her view it isn’t.

For her company, output is all about speed.

“Our average customer wants a turnaround in less than three weeks,” Dietzen says.

“You’re not going to get that in China.”

Still, economist Cliff Waldman of the industry research group Manufacturers Alliance/ MAPI doubts that U.S. factories will continue to expand their payrolls in the long run.

Manufacturing, he says, is “not a job creator for the U.S., basically.”

Global competition will always force factory managers to try to replace expensive workers with machines or with low-wage labor overseas, Waldman says.

Mark Perry, a visiting scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, likens the loss of manufacturing jobs to the exodus of workers from farms between the 19th and 20th centuries.

If that migration hadn’t happened, Perry says, “we’d still have millions of people working in agriculture. Now, we can employ fewer people in factories.”

But the transition can be painful, he concedes.

The U.S. remains No. 1 in global manufacturing, accounting for 18 percent of global manufacturing output in 2008. But China is catching

up. Its share of manufacturing output jumped from about 6 percent in 1998 to 15 percent in 2008.

Critics have a ready explanation for that: unfair competition.

Robert Scott of the leftleaning Economic Policy Institute says China is cheating in world markets — keeping its currency artificially low to make Chinese products less expensive overseas and unfairly subsidizing its exporters.

Scott and other critics want to see the Obama administration support U.S. manufacturers by pressuring Beijing to drop the subsidies and let its currency rise freely.

A higher-valued Chinese currency would make U.S. exports cheaper for Chinese consumers.

Centerline CEO Dietzen says she isn’t fazed by Chinese manufacturing.

Some of her customers have placed orders with Chinese companies, she says, only to return, frustrated, to her company.

Chinese factories want mainly big orders. And they demand lots of time to fill them.

Dietzen says her clients are “finding when they get their parts back from China, they’re not always what they want. So we end up doing the work anyway.”

“A common misperception,” Greatbatch CEO Hook says, is that the United States doesn’t make anything anymore.

The reality is rather different.

“We need a highly skilled work force,” Hook says. “So it’s very advantageous to be in a country like the United States where people are educated and ready to be hired.”

theWORD 6

The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, February 2, 2011

‘To be or not to be’: The struggle of the Greensboro Four When I was in middle and high school I was a firm believer in the actions and words of Malcolm X. Even to this day, the message he delivered in his speeches, books, and actions have changed my life more than anyone else outside of my family.

With this being said, many times I found it hard to see how anyone being oppressed could fight their oppressor by just sitting, marching, and praying.

Quite frankly, it made no sense to me that anyone thought these actions would change much of anything. I viewed it as passive and cowardly.

However, years later I’ve had some time to grow, study, and rethink my ideas. Today I realize I was 100 percent wrong.

51 years ago, at the Woolworth counter in Greensboro, NC, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair Jr., and David Richmond all took the

initiative to sit. Until recently, I never took the time to process the heart and courage it took to sit.

These men sat against hundreds of years of oppression, hatred, social ignorance, fear, the status quo, etc.. These men, who were just kids at the time, proved that not just anyone can sit.

This was a group of kids who realized they were living in extreme times. A time of revolution. A time where there had to be a change. People who were in power had misused it, and there had to be a change and a better world had to be built.

The only way to do this was to use extreme methods. And to be able to have the ability to be able to sit across from a white person in the early 1960s and refuse to move was not only foolish, but also extremely courageous.

I say foolish because the

consequences may have been fatal. However, this action was courageous because it proved that these young people were TRUMAINE more than just MCCASKILL talk.

I believe Patrick Henry said it best when he said “Liberty or death!” Although, 51 years later, three of the four have lived to tell the tale of that faithful day, this was surely an action that could of resulted in life or death.

College students or not, to stand up to any white man or woman in the early 1960s meant that you were either looking for trouble, or simply tired of being classified as a second-class citizen. Either way, this was a major risk.

A physical death was the

price that many had to pay to free their children of a permanent psychological death. And these four youngsters were highly aware of the possibility of becoming one of those people.

So 51 years later I ask “Was it worth it?”

William Shakespeare once presented the question “To be or not to be?” This is a question that will continue to be asked during the course of the rest of our lives. However, on February 1, 1960 the question at hand involved freedom and equality.

“To be a nigger, or not to be?” “To be a man, or not to be?” “To be silent, or not to be?”

“To be an example for the next generation, or not to be?” “To be treated as less than a person for the rest of my days, or not to be?” “To be a person who sits back and does absolutely nothing to change my own miserable condition, or not to be?”

Mother sentenced to prison for caring too much Last week an aspiring teacher and mother of two middleschool aged daughters slept in a jail cell. Sharing common grounds with drug dealers, molesters, murders, and thieves, Kelley Williams-Bolar now bears the title of convicted felon for simply wanting a safer life for her children.

The 40-year-old mother and teacher aide was convicted and received a five-year sentence for altering official records.

She claimed that her daughters lived with her father in a suburb of Akron, Ohio in order for them to go to a safer school than the one zoned for the housing project in which they actually lived.

After hiring an investigator, school officials in the CopleyFairlawn district discovered the secret of a desperate mother’s attempt to make sure her children were safe.

Despite the unequivocally harsh sentence for WilliamsBolar, the judge ultimately re-

duced the sentence to 10 days, and on Jan. 30, after nine days served she was released with the understanding that she will be on two years probation, and serve 80 hours of community service.

After the sentencing, the distraught mother’s pastor Lorenzo Green said, “It’s just sad, when I see the media here today you would think it was a serial killer.”

Although a serial killer would likely get more than five years in prison, the length of Williams-Bolar’s sentence is the same amount as numerous significantly higher heinous crimes.

For a five-year sentence, Williams-Bolar could have sexually assaulted or kidnapped someone. She could have committed manslaughter, burglary, or even contaminated public water or food for terrorism, yet the crime she was initially sentenced for only tampering with documents for the safety of her

children.

Nonetheless her actions were illegal, and she should face some sort of punishment; however, the KELCIE one that she received does MCCRAE not reflect the nature of her crime.

Prior to the change in schools, Williams-Bolar allegedly filed twelve different reports with the Akron, Ohio police department on crimes within the area of the housing project where she and her girls lived.

After their house was broken into, she decided enough was enough and moved her daughters into the nearby CopleyFairlawn schools, a suburban school district.

If her daughters went to a school in an area that was clearly unsafe, how could they

possibly learn? Some experts have shown that in order for a student to perform to their best abilities, school safety is needed.

Too many times reports of the inequalities between inner-city schools and suburb schools come into question.

Not only are they now unequal in the quality of the education, but the notion of safety has also come into play with these disparities.

Why must this obviously caring mother be the poster child for this crime? Why must she be made the example? Why must the actions of a parent to make life better for their children result in excessive punishment?

Simply put, the times have changed.

To think that a woman who’s only true crime was caring too much about her children would go this far is without a doubt a disgusting disappointment to our legal system.

The A&T Register is your chance to be heard.

Technology reunites family after 23 years Computers and Internet have become so much part of our everyday lives that we can use them to do almost anything, even solve your own kidnapping.

Nejdra Nance had doubts that the family raising her was not her blood family. She didn’t look like them and she didn’t even have a birth certificate or social security card.

It turns out that the woman being raised as Nejdra Nance was really Carlina White. Nance had been kidnapped on Aug. 4, 1987 by a strange woman pretending to be a nurse. She was hospitalized for a fever in Harlem Hospital, just a few weeks after her birth.

NYPD was unable to track her kidnapper, leaving the case unsolved. Nance was raised in Bridgeport, Conn., by a woman

AggieLife

named Ann Pettway.

Tw e n t y three years later, Nejdra Nance went on the website for the National Center for Missing ESSENCE & Exploited LEE Children and typed in her birth date. On the website, she found an ageprogressed photo of a girl who looked like her and had the same birthday.

“This is somebody who knew something was wrong in her life and took the initiative. She said, ‘Things aren’t the way they should be,’ and so she reached out. All we did was follow the information that she gave us,” said Ernie Allen,

president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Nance then got in touch with the organization and they contacted her biological mother, Joy White, on Jan. 4. After White and Nance talked, White contacted the NYPD to see if they could be of any help.

Detective Martin Brown, the detective who got the call, said, “It sounded legitimate and credible, so I had Missing Persons reach out to her.” DNA tests were administered to Joy White and her ex-husband, Carl Tyson. The results confirmed that Nejdra Nance was Carlina White, their daughter.

Carlina White’s biological family was excited to see her.

Her aunt, Lisa White, said, “I’m just so happy she’s back.

I said, ‘you’re going to get so

many hugs! You’re going to be sick of us.’ She said, ‘you know what, I never had hugs like that.’ I’m just happy she’s back. Thank you God thank you Jesus. I don’t want her to ever go back I want her to stay here.”Carlina White also has a 6-year-old daughter named Samani, who was also introduced to her biological family.

Ann Pettway, the woman who kidnapped Carlina White, has surrendered to police in Bridgeport, Conn., according to officials. Pettway, 49, has many aliases and a long criminal history with crimes such as embezzlement, forgery, theft, and drugs listed. She is currently on probation until 2012 for embezzlement in North Carolina. So far, no charges have been filed against Pettway pertaining to the kidnapping.

A ton of questions that may seem easier to answer in 2011 than it ever would have been in 1960. From a land that preached integration and practiced segregation, to be a Negro in America was much like being a wet match in a dark cave.

African Americans were surrounded in darkness. However, many people, especially the A&T Four, refused to be swallowed by it. And although today their vision is very clear, I’ve always wondered how a man or woman could put his or her life on the line for people they have never met, and will possibly never see.

Even though I may never fully understand, I do know that every fight is not fair, however someone must still fight every fight. Regardless of the outcome, it is important to fight. It is important to be willing to give up everything because some fights may take everything.

So when asked was it worth it, I say yes with no hesitation.

We may not have been there to start the fire, but we are here now to carry the torch.

The generation of fighters we have today would be nothing without the men and women who came before us and showed us what we are even fighting for.

So now our future is clear because we know our history.

Sometimes I must admit that I would like to give up, or at least take a break. However that’s usually when I close my eyes and see Emmitt Till’s face.

For as hurtful and deceitful this country has been to black people, it amazes me that if most of the people who lived during the country’s most difficult time were forced to do it all over again, they would gladly do it in the same skin they’re in.

For there is proof that love, patience, and a dream can change the entire world.

Ask a Black Guy Would you say that young men such as the Greensboro Four are still around today?

Guy #1 I think so. But the struggle is just not the same. I firmly believe that if faced with the same issues our generation would stand and deliver. However we do not have to march for equality. We do not have to overcome the white man. We do not have to worry about being second-class citizens. We do have to worry about battling ourselves though. I think the battles we face are more internal. So the soldiers that we do have now kind of go unnoticed because they aren’t standing on the front lines. They are professors, doctors, and have simple jobs that change the world as opposed to being civil rights activist and things such as that.

Guy #2 The Greensboro Four were great for what they did. However, the expansion of the movement shows that although they were the first, they were simply people responding to events that they had been facing all their lives. Sort of like black fraternities and sororities. Yes Alphas and AKAs may have been the first, but we all know black Greeks were coming eventually. My point is, I think these men were great, but they were ordinary people put in extraordinary positions. And given the opportunity, this generation could do the same.

Guy #3 I wish I could say yes but I really don’t think so.

I think the Civil Rights Movement was a movement like no other. So to think that we have more soldiers out here like that today is very far fetched.

I think the younger generation has nothing to fight for so they would never know how to react in a situation like that.

What are your views on plus size women?

Guy #1 I think they are nice girls but I’m not trying to date any of them. I have quite a few big friends, but they know that we will never date. It’s nothing against them, but I’m not attracted to anyone who has to be considered plus size. I know they need love too. But they just won’t be getting it from me.

Guy #2 I love big women!

Plus size is too nice of a phrase

for me. If you’re big then you’re big. Don’t try and cover it up with nice phrases because we all see that you are a big woman. But with that being said, no one cares! I love big women who know they are big, but still show off their sexiness. There is nothing sexier than a woman who uses her imperfections as a means of empowerment. Always know that no matter how big or skinny you are someone loves you regardless. And I am that someone!

Guy #3 I only like big girls who take care of themselves.

There is a difference between being sloppy and being big. In the black community we know that being big can be genetic so it is pointless to deny these women. But I love women who try and take care of their appearance. So in essence I guess your size has nothing to do with it. As long as you take care of yourself I support you.

Why are sports so important to men?

Guy #1 Not all men find it important. I enjoy watching sports, but I’m not a die-hard sports fan. I think most guys like the competition to it though.

It gives us a chance to be apart of something that is bigger than ourselves. A community full of football fans or a community full of basketball fans is easier for guys to relate to than a community full of Sex and the City fans.

Guy #2 Because I’ve grown up watching them and playing them. Sports are a huge part of our culture. It’s liberating to sit down with a bunch of guys and watch any sporting event. It’s as American as apple pie. I think sports are not only important to men, but also important to our society. Women who actually take the time to pay attention and learn the rules seem to love sports just as much as I do so I don’t think this is a man thing.

Guy #3 What else am I supposed to like? Sports are one of the only things on TV today that are catered to men. Shows like Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, The Game, and 16 & Pregnant are mostly for women to be honest.

So its not that I love sports, I’d just rather watch that and relate to that. The rest of the shows are simply garbage.

Evan Summerville Editor’s note:The opinions expressed on The Word are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the staff of The A&T Register. All house editorials are written and revised with input from the editorial board, staff, and is approved by the editor. All submissions must be sent to theatregister@gmail.com to be considered for submission and should be no longer than 250 words. Submissions must be received by the Sunday prior to publication at 5 p.m. to be considered. The A&T Register reserves the right to edit all submission content for clarity and grammar. Submissions become the property of The A&T Register and will not be returned.

theSCORE The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Bryant promotes China Steelers in Big D JACOB ADELMAN

Associated Press

BELL GARDENS, Calif. (AP) — Kobe Bryant is renowned for carefully executed game plans that tilt the score in his favor.

So it seems fitting that he would develop an affinity for a country that is doing much the same thing on the geopolitical stage.

Bryant is taking that affection for China — and its goodwill toward him — to cast himself as a bridge between East and West through a campaign of philanthropic contributions, promotional activities and cross-cultural exchanges.

“They welcomed me with open arms and have been very positive about wanting to learn the game of basketball,” Bryant said Monday.

The Lakers shooting guard’s charitable foundation helps fund the initiative, which includes Mandarin language lessons, Chinese cooking courses and martial arts classes.

About 150 students at five schools participate in the language and culture program, said Shannon Mayock, a spokeswoman for After-School AllStars, which was established by Arnold Schwarzenegger to provide extra academic support to disadvantaged students. before he became California’s governor.

Bell Gardens seventh-grader Joshua Garcia said he liked the idea of being able to communicate with people if he ever goes to China, but he especially enjoys the program’s martial arts class.

“I feel like Jet Li,” said Garcia, 13.

Mayock said the program hopes to expand its Chinese offerings to additional campuses over the next few years.

She declined to specify how much the Kobe Bryant Family Foundation contributes, citing a contractual obligation.

Bryant’s fondness for China has been reciprocated; his is the National Basketball Association’s top-selling jersey in China, and millions of Chinese viewers tuned in to the reality show “Kobe’s Disciples,” which aired on that country’s most popular TV station.

NBA has recognized that popularity as the association seeks to expand its business in China. Along with the 2008 formation of NBA China, an independent entity that conducts the league’s China-based businesses, stoking Kobe-mania is a big part of the association’s business plan.

He was featured prominently, for example, in the NBA-sponsored installation at the 2010 Shanghai Expo’s USA Pavilion.

Nike Inc. has also been both an enabler and beneficiary of Bryant’s success over the Pacific. The company uses his image widely in its Chinese advertisements and at its retail stores, and it has for years sponsored training clinics featuring the star at Chinese schools and community centers.

This week, Nike paid for 10 Chinese middle-school students to visit the United States, where they joined After-School AllStars participants at the Bell Gardens event. When Bryant stepped in front of a video camera for interviews after a practice session with the kids, a pair of special “China Edition” Nike sneakers was left prominently in the frame.

Nike spokeswoman Jacie Prieto-Lopez said the company’s relationship with Bryant gives them an instant connection to China’s massive population of

basketball fans.

“He helps us resonate with that core consumer,” she said.

Marc Ganis, president of Chicago-based consultancy SportsCorp, said Bryant seems to have developed his bond with China in the aftermath of his arrest in Colorado on sexual assault charges in 2003.

Although that case was dismissed, U.S. fans lost some of their enthusiasm for the rising star, and many sponsors sought to distance themselves from him.

But in China, Bryant’s popularity grew unabated, reaching a crescendo with his appearance in the U.S. team in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Ganis said.

“He was viewed as the leader of that team,” Ganis said.

Susan Jain, a professor of Chinese language instruction at University of California, Los Angeles, said Bryant is performing an invaluable service by promoting familiarity with China as the country grows in stature and influence.

“I think it offers some wonderful opportunities for these kids,” Jain said. “We’ll be preparing the next generation to jump into the work force and use the language and culture.”

Bryant, however, stressed that his interest wasn’t merely to push Chinese language and cultural literacy.

He said more important was that young Americans become familiar with some place — any place — beyond their national borders, something he learned to value while going to school in Italy, where his father played basketball after retiring from the NBA. “I think it’s important for kids to kind of learn more than just the world that is around them,” he said.

BARRY WILNER

AP Pro Football Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The big rodeo is in town. It’s called the Super Bowl.

If Monday is a fair indication, this could be a wild week in Big D. Video cameras and cowboy hats were in order for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers when they arrived six days before they’ll face off for the NFL championship.

With dozens of fans chanting “Go Pack Go,” the Packers witnessed Super Bowl frenzy for the first time in 13 years.

Many of the players aimed their cell phones at the crowd to take pictures before heading to news conferences.

A few of them wore cowboy hats, but Steelers veteran receiver Hines took the “True Grit” route, decked out in a cowboy hat, Texas-sized belt buckle and jeans.

“I’m in Dallas, Texas,” Ward said, smiling as if he’d just won the Super Bowl MVP trophy, something he did in the 2006 game. “I wanted to put on my whole cowboy outfit and enjoy it. No nerves.”

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger held his mobile phone high, taking photos of the six-deep pack of reporters at his podium.

“Just taking it in stride, enjoying this opportunity regardless of what comes or how it comes,” Roethlisberger said.

“Take it all in.”

Taking it all in were the big guys who block for him. They paid tribute to tackle Flozell Adams, who spent a dozen seasons as a Dallas Cowboy before joining this Pittsburgh team, by wearing his No. 76 Michigan State shirt as they deplaned.

“It’s special to bring back the throwbacks, for all the guys to wear them,” Adams said. “They’re all still walking around with them on. I’m grateful for it.”

There were plenty of fans in black and gold outside the Steelers’ hotel; but they were far outnumbered at the Packers’ hotel in Irving a few hours later when the NFC champions pulled in.

Maybe that has something to do with Pittsburgh making its third Super Bowl appearance in six years. Not that the players are blase about it.

“It’s always exciting for the opportunity to close up the season by playing in the Super Bowl,” Roethlisberger said. “I don’t think you ever get tired of this, so take as much video and pictures as you can.”

The first day of Super Bowl week was not about blocking blitzers or sidestepping tacklers. Confronting anything more pressurized than answering questions from the media was not a consideration.

Ward got a kick out of how some teammates who haven’t traveled this far into the postseason handled the trip from Steel City to Big D. “I think a lot of guys kind of overpacked,” he said. “They were just excited to be here.

With neither team practicing until Wednesday, there’s one more day of frivolity: media day.

This should send a jolt through the Packers, who have just three players with Super Bowl experience. Charles Woodson and Ryan Pickett, both lost in the big game, and John Kuhn was on the 2008 Steelers’ practice squad and watched them win from the sideline.

“Maybe ignorance is bliss for us,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers cracked.

7

AGGIES RUNDOWN men’s BASKETball TEAM Bethne-Cookman Hampton

Morgan state

Coppin State Norfolk State North Carolina A&T Delaware State

Florida A&M South Carolina State Howard

MD Eastern

MEAC

OVR.

7-1 7-2 6-2 5-3 5-3 4-4 4-4 2-6 2-6 2-7 1-7

13-9 17-5 10-9 10-10 7-13 9-13 8-12 7-14 6-15 4-17 4-17

NEXT WEEK’S GAME: Feb 5 at Delaware State Wilmington, Del. 7 p.m.

Feb 7 at MD Eastern Shore Princess Anne, Md. 7:30 p.m.

Women’s basketball TEAM

MEAC

Hampton 8-1 6-2 Morgan State 5-3 Florida A&M 5-3 North Carolina A&T 5-4 Howard Bethune-Cookman 4-4 4-4 Coppin State 4-4 MD Eastern Shore 2-6 South Carolina State Norfolk State 1-7 1-7 Delaware State

OVR. 15-6 12-8 10-9 9-10 8-14 11-9 7-12 7-14 6-12 8-10 5-15

THIS WEEK’S GAMES: Feb 5 at Delaware State Wilmington, Del. 5 p.m.

Feb 7 at MD Eastern Shore Princess Anne, Md. 5:30 p.m.

NEws and notes WOMEN’S BASKETBALL UPDATE: The Lady Aggies fell to Morgan State 49-51 on Jan 31. Prior to the game against MSU, the Aggies defeated Coppin State 75-74 on Jan 29.

MEN’S BASKETBALL UPDATE: The Aggies fell to Morgan State 66-68 on Jan 31. On Jan 29 they fell to Coppin Sate 7088. They are now on a three game losing streak, falling to 4-4 in the MEAC.

8

The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Stroll Competition ends in dismay Jonathan veal Scene Editor

A sold out crowd of students and guests came to Moore Gym on Jan. 27 for the fifth annual Stroll Competition presented by the Zeta chapter of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc., hosted by chapter members, Adrian Brand and Austin James.

The four National PanHellenic Council (NPHC) sororities along with NPHC fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc and National Honorary band fraternity and sorority, Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma competed in the battle for the best strolls on campus.

In addition, nursing sorority, Chi Eta Phi and Perishing Rifles also competed in the stroll competition.

Since Iota Phi Theta was hosting the event, they could not participate.

The stroll competition followed the same rules and regulations as of last year but this year they added a panel.

“We decided to add an panel this year to make it more fair and for it not to be so bias with the crowd reaction,” said December 2010 graduate from North Carolina A&T and spring 2009 initiate into Iota Phi Theta, Marcus Robinson.

“It would be more equal to everybody,” Robinson added.

The first round of competition consisted of each organization performing to a song of their choice.

Alpha Kappa Alpha performed first, followed by Kappa Alpha Psi, Zeta Phi Beta, Perishing Rifles, Chi Eta Phi, Kappa Kappa Psi, Delta Sigma Theta, Sigma Gamma Rho, and Tau Beta Sigma.

20

Questions

Some of the songs chosen included “6 foot 7” by Lil Wayne and “Bring It Back” by Travis Porter.

Second round, a random song was played for each organization to perform to.

A technical difficulty with the DJ occurred leaving National Honorary band sorority, Tau Beta Sigma to finish their stroll to the crowd reciting “Roman’s Revenge” by Nicki Minaj.

After the second round closed, the third round begun with each organization having to perform to the same song, “Black and Yellow Remix” by Wiz Khalifa featuring Snoop Dogg, Juicy J and T Pain.

After each group performed there was a brief intermission in which the Iota’s performed their signature, “Centaur Walk.”

To further extend the intermission, all the organizations including Alpha Phi Omega, Omega Psi Phi, and Phi Beta Sigma performed their individual strolls.

After the intermission, James announced that there will be a final stroll off between Alpha Kappa Alpha and Zeta Phi Beta but forgot to announce that the stroll off was for second place and not first.

“It was a miscommunication between the judges and Austin James on the final round,” said spring 2010 initiate into Iota Phi Theta, Moyo Olusesi.

After both groups performed, a sound meter was used to determine the winner based on the crowd reaction.

James announced that the Zetas came in second place, which gave Alpha Kappa Alpha the perception that they won.

Unfortunately, James clarified that the first place winner was Delta Sigma Theta.

hotlist

thescene

Feb. 2nd to 8th The A&T Register’s guide to what’s going on this week in arts and entertainment.

on screen

Photo by Kenneth hawkins •The A&T Register

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. wins first place in the Iota Phi Theta 5th Annual Stroll of Competition for the second time in a row. Kappa Kappa Psi Fraternity, Inc. wins first place in the Iota Phi Theta 5th Annual Stroll of Competition on Thursday, January 27, 2011.

“First place was already decided that the Deltas won,” said Robinson.

“We tallied up the scores through crowd reaction, creativity, and precision,” Robinson added.

“Through the three judges score sheets, the Deltas won and the AKAs and Zetas were tied,” said Olusesi.

The final verdict for the stroll competition is Delta Sigma Theta, who came in first,

received a $500 prize followed

by Zeta Phi Beta with a $250 prize. On the fraternal side, Kappa Kappa Psi came in first and Kappa Alpha Psi came in second, both receiving the same monetary prizes.

Overall, the event was successful, some attendees felt otherwise. “It was very confusing and misleading,” said sophomore Biology major, Jasmine Brown.

“It was like an embarrassment

to everyone who thought they won,” Brown added.

The first place winners’ organization name will be on plaque that will sit in the office of Greek Life for a whole year.

“The turnout was incredible and a huge success.

Hopefully next year we can make it bigger and better and host it in Corbett,” Robinson added.

1. Did you go to the stroll competition? 2. Do you feel the Kappas should have won the “Best Dressed” award? 3. Do you think the panel of judges were needed this year to decide a winner? 4. Do you feel the Deltas should have won? 5. If so, are you one of the thousands of females who want to be one by April? 6. What do you think of the Perishing Rifles and Chi Eta Phi participating this year? 7. Do you feel Perishing Rifles should have performed an rifle exhibition drill instead? 8. Did you see the tweet about Chi Eta Phi stating: “They can step and save my life?” 9. Did you feel sad that AKA’s hearts were crushed when they found out they did not place first after all of their excitment? 10. Or did you bust out laughing? 11. Did you show your support for Tau Beta Sigma by reciting Nicki Minaj when “Roman’s Revenge” cut off? 12. Did you watch Saturday Night Live featuring Nicki Minaj? 13. Did you learn the new dance crave called, “The Creep?” 14. You think Nicki look good in her nerdy outfit? 15. Did you attend A&T’s Top Model Monday night? 16. Did you see all of Verge’s members run up to the stage to get their 10 seconds of fame? 17. Did you notice some people almost slipped and fell on stage? 18. Do you think the theme, AMazing World of Disney was represented by the costumes featured in the event? 19. Did you get annoyed by the Mickey Mouse running around Stallings Ballroom? 20. Who do you think was in that costume?

the roommate starring Leighton Meester, Minka Kelly, and Alyson Michalka comes out Friday. The start of a new academic year at a college puts two freshmen female students together in a dorm.

Soon, deranged roommate, Rebecca becomes obessed with Sarah and she torments and brings violent attacks amongst Sarah’s peers, keeping Sarah all to herself.

-J.V.

on shelves let me in starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Grace Moretz and Richard Jenkins is out on DVD. A lonely 12-yearold boy befriends the strange new girl who’s moved into his building, only to discover that she’s not everything she seems. But that the girl is a vampire.

- J.V.