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“Michelle and I have been in your shoes. When we got married we got poorer together” -President Barack Obama on student loan interest rates

MICHAEL BIESECKER Associated Press

GREENSBORO — The aide who helped John Edwards hide his pregnant mistress testified Tuesday that the former presidential candidate directed him to seek money from rich friends to provide the woman a monthly allowance.

F o r mer aide Andrew Young took the witness stand for a second day Edwards at Edwards’ criminal trial. Edwards has pleaded not guilty to six criminal counts related to campaign finance violations involving nearly $1 million in secret payments provided by two wealthy donors as he sought the White House in 2008.

Young testified that Edwards directed him to start giving money to the mistress, Rielle Hunter, in May 2007 after she threatened to go to the media and expose the affair. Young said he suggested asking Rachel “Bunny” Mellon. The now 101-year-old heiress had already given generously to Edwards’ campaign.

Without telling Mellon what the money would be used for beyond that it was a “noncampaign” expense, Young said she offered to provide $1.2 million over time to help pay for the candidate’s personal needs.

Under federal law, donors are limited to giving a maximum of $2,300 per election cycle.

Young said they hatched a plan where Mellon would send the checks to her interior designer in Charlotte, who would then endorse the checks to be deposited in a personal account controlled by Young and his wife, Cheri.

“We were scared,” Young said. “It was a truckload of money, more money than had ever flowed through our accounts. ...

It was crazy.”

Young said he expressed concern to Edwards, a former trial lawyer, that they might be violating federal campaign finance laws.

“He told me he had talked to several campaign finance experts and that it was legal,” Young testified. “It felt and smelled wrong. But he knew more about the law than we did.

We believed him.”

Prosecutors showed the jury a series of cancelled checks from Mellon written to the interior designer, who would then endorse them and send them to the Youngs. Starting in June 2007, Mellon would eventually provide checks totaling $750,000.

That June, Young said Hunter

PHOTO BY KENNETH L. HAWKINS, JR.• THE A&T REGISTER

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA speaks to 8,000 people at UNC-Chapel Hill about student loan interest rates on Tuesday, April 24, 2012.

Obama talks loan debt with students KELCIE C. MCCRAE Editor-in-Chief

CHAPEL HILL — Jumpstarting his mission to get the college vote, President Barack Obama kicked off his two-day college campaign tour at UNC-Chapel Hill Tuesday to voice his opposition of the proposal to increase student loan interest rates.

As of July 1, federal student loan interest rates will double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent, affecting well over 7.4 million students with college loans — a

measure that Obama said cannot happen.

“Whether you’re here at a four-year college or university, or you’re at a two-year community college, in today’s economy, there’s no greater predictor of individual success than a good education,” he said. “We can’t make higher education a luxury. It’s an economic imperative — every American family should be able to afford it.”

Starting off in the Tarheel state and continuing to Colorado and Iowa — all battleground

states for November’s election, Obama says he understands the frustration of tuition hikes, and the mounds of loans students are now building up.

“This is something Michelle and I know about firsthand,” he said. “We’ve been in your shoes —we didn’t come from wealthy families, so when we graduated from college and law school, we had a mountain of debt. When we married, we got poorer together.”

This is the first time in history that student loan debt has

surpassed credit card debt. In North Carolina, 160,018 students are now piling up on average over $20,000 worth of debt in federal student loans.

Keeli Ogron, a UNC-CH sophomore global studies major from Swannanoa, N.C. is one of them.

“I panic every time I think about the future,” she said.

“Obama said students shouldn’t be in debt when they graduate, I wish that was the case but it’s not and that’s why I freak out about the future.”

 See OBAMA on Page 2

KKPsi & TBS dominate at stroll-off

PHOTO BY KENNETH L. HAWKINS, JR. THE A&T REGISTER

SYLVIA OBELL

Tau Beta Sigma Sorority, Inc. & Kappa Kappa Psi Fraternity, Inc. stroll together after winning 2012 Iota Phi Theta Stroll Competition in Corbett Sports Center on Friday, August 20, 2012.

Managing Editor

The 6th Annual Stroll Off was held in Corbett Sports Center for the first time last Friday.

“We wanted to give the stroll off a new look and feel. Moving it to Corbett gave more professionalism with the lighting options

 See EDWARDSon Page 2

and bigger venue,” said Adrian Gray, a member of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. and head planner of the stroll off.

The event, hosted by Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc., started off with a bang — better yet — a series of beeps.

The fire alarm went off as students began to file in

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Students from local colleges marched to the courthouse to vote against Amendment 1.

More thean 1 billion people are without a steady supply of clean water. Check out Opinion’s Editor Trumaine McCaskill thoughts.

Patricia Cage-Bibbs resigns as head coach for the Lady Aggies basketball team. What is next for the team?

The Triad Music Festival that headlined J. Cole and Big K.R.I.T showcased outdoors at the White Oak Amphitheatre.

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Ogron takes out $23,000 worth of loans per year — the maximum amount available through Federal Stafford Loans.

She said her parents say that this is the only way she can pay for college.

In tough economic times, middle class and low-income American families are barring the brunt of these ever-high climbing tuition and loan fees.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates that about

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to get their seats. The entire sports center had to be evacuated and fire trucks came to check out the situation. After they got the approval from the Greensboro Fire Department, people began to re-enter the building.

“We were told it was someone curling his or her  See STROLL-OFF on Page 2

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STROLL-OFF From page 1 hair in the locker room before the stroll [competition],” said Gray.

Participants in this years stroll off included: Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.; Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.; Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.; Kappa Kappa Psi Fraternity, Inc.; Swing Phi Swing Social Fellowship, Inc.; Tau Beta Sigma Sorority, Inc.; and for the first time in recent years, the National Association of Engineer’s (NSBE) step team.

EDWARDS From page 1 told Edwards she was pregnant.

Young said Edwards then called him and told him to “take care of it.”

“He said she was a crazy slut and there was a 1-in-3 chance that it (the child) was his,” Young testified.

In later testimony Tuesday, Young said in December 2007, Edwards had the idea of the aide claiming paternity of Hunter’s baby. It came after reporters from a tabloid tracked Hunter down in a North Carolina grocery store. By that time, nontabloid media had also started to pick up the trail as the campaign was preparing for the primaries that began in just a few weeks.

Edwards said they needed to “give the press something they would understand, an affair between two staffers,” Young testified.

Hunter had produced several videos documenting life on the campaign trail for Edwards.

Young said Edwards “talked about how this was bigger than all of us.”

The Youngs agreed to get the mistress out of North Carolina.

They began a cross-country odyssey of travel on private jets and stays in luxury hotels.

While they were on the run, the federal indictment alleges that more than $183,000 in bills related to Hunter’s care was paid

by Fred Baron, a wealthy Texas

“NSBE hasn’t been in the stroll off since at least 2006,” said NSBE Step master Jeremy Simms. “The Iota’s were all for it. We decided to do it just for fun. I like stepping and strolling. We wanted to showcase that non-Greeks have stepping talents too.”

The competition was split up into three rounds. The first two rounds allowed participants to pick the music they wanted to perform to. Songs such as “Rack City,” “Birthday Cake,” “The Motto,” “Faded,” “Rolling in the Deep,” and more were used by the particilawyer who served as Edwards’ campaign finance director. Baron has since died.

Young testified that Edwards put him in touch with Baron’s people.

When asked why he agreed to claim paternity, Young said power was the lure.

“I wanted my friend to be president,” Young said. “Being friends with the most powerful person on earth, there are benefits to that.”

Young said Edwards also directed him to use the money from Mellon to provide a monthly allowance to Hunter of between $5,000 and $12,000.

The money would allow her to travel and continue to meet up with the married candidate while he was away from his home and now deceased wife, Elizabeth, who had grown suspicious of the affair.

Edwards has denied knowing about the money provided

by Mellon.

In opening statements on Monday, Edwards defense lawyer Alison Van Laningham said the Youngs siphoned off the bulk of the money to pay for the construction of their $1.5 million house near Chapel Hill.

The indictment filed by the U.S. Justice Department last year recounts more than $933,000 in unreported payments from the two campaign donors who had already given the maximum contributions allowed by law.

pants in their various strolls. In the final round the DJ picked a song at random and all seven groups had to come up with a stroll fitting for it on the spot.

In between rounds the host, Brian Sampson, gave away tickets to the Nxlevel Vanilla Sky All-White Affair, which will take place this upcoming weekend. Audience members had to correctly answer questions about the Iota’s history in order to win the prize.

After all three rounds, the judges’ scores were tallied up.

The judges represented vast Greek organizations, A&T

OBAMA From page 1 37 million people have outstanding student loan debt.

With these bills continuing to climb, many of these Americans are finding it difficult to pay for anything other than their student loans.

“When a big chunk of every paycheck goes towards loan debt, that’s not just tough on you, that’s not just tough for middle-class families,” said Obama. “It’s painful for the economy, because that money is not going to help businesses grow. The sooner you can start buying a house, that’s good for the housing industry. The sooner you can start up that business, that means you’re hiring some folks -- that grows the economy.”

Obama is not the only one stressing the need to keep interest rates low, his likely Republican opponent in November’s election Mitt Romney is also

staff members, and a representative from Bennett College.

The stroll off ended with Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma winning 1st place for the men and women respectively. Phi Beta Sigma and Delta Sigma Theta took home the 2nd place prizes.

“I think it went really well, great turn out. It was different this year. I think the Greeks enjoyed it more, they had more room to stroll and do their steps on the side,” said Gray.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the stroll off; I enjoyed the new venue with the lights and stuff. joining Obama’s plight.

“Given the bleak job prospects that young Americans coming out of college face today, I encourage Congress to temporarily extend the low rate,” Romney said in an earlier statement.

Not only are students at UNC nervous about this interest rate hike, but also students at N.C. A&T. “As a student I feel the education system is very expensive already,” said Danielle Neal, a junior biology major from Decatur, Ga. “For them to increase the rates even more, that really hurts my pocket, and has me questioning whether or not I can continue my education and come back here next year.”

Neal takes about $10,000 in loans a year, and as an out-ofstate student she said she had to become a resident assistant in order to help with the cost of tuition.

Despite her on campus job, she said it barely helps.

It was a good move forward for the event,” said Vice President of External Affairs Chris Wade.

The stroll off was one of the final events of Aggie Fest, which the VPEA and SUAB President partner on. “Overall Aggie Fest was good. We just wanted it to be an opportunity for students to have a break before finals,” said Wade.

WEDNESDAY

25

-smobell@ncat.edu and follow her on Twitter @YngBlkandFancy

The Pirates! Promo Williams Dining Hall 11 a.m.- 3 p.m.

UNC-Chapel Hill’s chancellor, Holden Thorp stressed that Obama’s visit to the campus was only right being that they are the first public institution of higher learning in the nation.

“This is a rare and pleasurable thing for a university to be able to host a sitting president of the United States,” he said.

“It’s even better to get him here to talk about college affordability, an issue that has been on our mind for 200 years.”

Obama also visited the University of Colorado at Boulder on Tuesday, and will be speaking at the University of Iowa today.

“What he is doing is great, but without Congress and more support nothing is going to get done,” said Neal. “I’m glad he’s advocating, however we the students, and the parents need to get out there and voice our opinions against this bill.”

-kcmccrae@ncat.edu and follow her on Twitter @Kelcie_McCrae

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An Evening with India Arie Harrison Auditorium 7 p.m. -11 p.m.

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Phi Mu Alpha presents: Youth’s Got Talent Harrison Auditorium 6:30 p.m.

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Students rally against Amendment 1 Erik Veal

Online Editor

Marching to the polls, students chanted, “No Justice, No Peace” and “Hey hey, go go, Amendment 1 has got to go” as they walked from Hayes-Taylor YMCA through downtown Greensboro to continue their rally with bystanders watching.

Students from N.C. A&T, UNC Greensboro, Greensboro College, Bennett College for Women, Elon University and Guilford Tech Community College all participated in the rally to bring awareness to a new bill could ban same sex marriage within the state of North Carolina.

“I am here for early vot-

ing against Amendment 1 because I think everyone should have equal rights and be able to marry whomever they want and that it is not for people to decide what is valid and what is not,” said Lauren Brownridge, a senior electrical engineering major from Aurora, Illinois.

Though same sex marriage is already illegal in the state of North Carolina, this amendment will appear on the May 8 ballot as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment.

If this is approved, it will amend Article 14 of the state constitution by adding a new section.

It will state, “marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recog-

nized in this state. This section does not prohibit a private party from entering into contracts with another private party; nor does this section prohibit courts from adjudicating the rights of private parties pursuant to such contracts.”

“I think that it’s good for students to get involved and vote against this amendment,” said A&T graduate and North Carolina House of Representatives member, Marcus Brandon.

Brandon, representative for the 60th House District in Guilford County, feels that being a member of the LGBT community and a part of the N.C. General Assembly that this amendment is one that not only affects homosexuals but

the state overall.

“I think Amendment one is egregious (offensive) and no matter how someone feels about the bill itself or homosexuals, it is not right to pin this against same sex couples.”

Brandon feels that the legislative is wrong for putting people’s rights up for vote and that the constitution is for individual rights and not for majority rights.

Within approving this bill, Carolinians main concern is losing the right to marry in same sex relationships but the negative affects on the state.

Domestic violence protections, domestic benefits for straight and gay couples and health care benefits could be stripped away.

“I think it is wrong to have a piece of legislature that is discriminating against certain communities,” said Jasmine Brown, a junior biology major from Charlotte and a member of the N.C. A&T chapter of NAACP. Organizer of the rally and member of the Coalition to Protect NC Families, William Robinson felt that sponsors of this bill do not care about African-Americans and that this bill is leading towards trying to exploit the black vote as a whole.

“I’m not for discrimination and codifying hate into the constitution and I am not for majority vote on the rights of the minority,” said Robinson.

“The constitution is not a

minority or a majority of the people, it is for everybody so it should never be to secure someone’s moral beliefs but it should protect every citizen of this country.”

For more informaion on the North Carolina General Assembly and the new amendment, go to: www.ncleg.net and you can learn more about the Coalition to Protect North Carolina Families by going to: www.protectncfamilies. com.

-jeveal1@gmail.com and you can follow him on Twitter @_erikveal

Str8kickinit with fresh kicks all the way down to the Blind Tiger symone kidd

Register Reporter

Str8kicknit, a premiere sneaker showcase held on campus last semester, moved its location off campus to the Blind Tiger.

The successful crowd that the event drew last semester and cooler feel of a bar inspired the change in location.

Str8kicknit is an event put on by Entourage, My Unlimited Style, and I Am Music and Media, serving as an outlet for all those who have a love for sneakers, “sneaker-heads,” to engage and share in similar interest.

At the event held on Sunday, sneaker-heads were able to buy, sell, or trade sneakers while also being able to answer trivia ques-

tions to win prizes and enjoy great music provided by DJBeazy and AJ from 102 Jamz as the MC. Those with extensive sneaker collections set up tables with their sneakers on display to be judged in competition for a grand prize.

Among those who set up a competing table with their collections were Louis Harrell, Kris Abel and Onimisi Aiyede, Sole Quest, and Mike Lane.

Harrell, a senior computer science major, has been collecting sneakers for a year but keeping up with them for longer. “I’ve always been a spectator so I decided to become a part of the action,” said Harrell.

Bringing in their collection of Nike Dunks and SB’s, Abel and Aiyede decided to enter the

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competition after hearing about the event through IAMM to stray away from the basic sneakers everyone else may have. “Our shoes are not just basketball but skate and underground. The availability is more exclusive and that, to us, is true sneaker collecting,” said Abel.

The event had a decent turn out considering the bad weather that may have stopped those who were interested in attending to make the commute.

Devon Vincent, a graduating senior and a part of My Unlimited style blog said, “It’s very hard to put on a successful event such as this one. It took three months and seven people working together to organize, fundraise, and put together small details to pull off a big event.” Vincent continued, “Str8kicknit is an important event because there aren’t many events like this one that cater to the many sneaker-heads in the Greensboro

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“A sneaker-head is someone who has knowledge, dedication, knows release dates, stands in lines, and puts up the money,” said Chris Carver, who is not only a sneaker-head but also an Aggie football player and member of Sole Quest.

Sole Quest is a group formed two years ago with seven guys who consider themselves to be sneaker-heads. They have over one hundred pairs of sneakers and had 90 at the event.

Their display was strategically planned by having a blacklight box with their Galaxy collection, a Christmas section with all their shoes that came out in December, a Jordan section that consisted of Jordan’s 1-19, Penny’s and Foamposites valued at $3,000, Black History section, Year of the Dragon and Rabbit, Nike Sportswear section, and of course, the LeBron and Kobe section.

The winner of the competition was Mike Lane and his legends collections.

Lane, a student at North Carolina Central, had never felt the need to participate in competitions because he did not want to risk being classified as a loser.

“For me it’s really about collecting presentable [sneakers] and being able to show them off to others. My sneakers are considered memories,” said Lane.

-sckidd@ncat.edu and follow us on Twitter @ATRegister

Aggies & Poets get a hip-hop flavor in Harrison Register Reporter

Hey Aggies!

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kicks cover the inside of the blind tiger for the premiere sneaker showcase hosted by I Am Music and Media, Str8kickinit.

Aggie Fest continued with the Student Government Association’s popular program, Aggies and Poets. Students packed Harrison Auditorium to capacity to see the anticipated show.

DJ Red October kept the crowd excited before the show began a little after 8 p.m. The mood was set quickly with red and white lights and the setting on the stage. Jordan Brunson, Mr. A&T, opened the show performing his first spoken word piece.

He was a little nervous but the crowd gave him a standing ovation. The theme of the night was “Respect the Mic.” Brunson surprised the crowd as the host of the show with professor Bryan Thurman. To give the show a twist, the poets performed at a miniature stage on the side to give off a more intimate feel. Poets like Shay, B-Rock, JHook and Mark Wells, and Micah spoke their hearts out and received standing ovations.

Projected on the screen was a cypher featuring students from N. C. A&T and UNC Greensboro.

They were recorded on top of parking decks spitting their latest flows. It was a great addition to the show even though it was hard to hear what they were rapping about.

There was one dance group, Rhythmic Manifesto, who performed a tribute to Hip Hop and really hyped up the crowd.

Singers and rappers also performed. Among rappers, S.H.E.E.M. stood out with his song “By the Boatload.” He had the crowd dancing and rapping along with the chorus. Another rapper, Cape had break-dancers and performed on the trumpet while performing. Miss Freshman, Amber Woodard, sang a mix of songs that had the crowd singing along.

The last singer and performer of the night was Terra, a native of Alexandria, Va. The junior computer science major sang a tribute to Lauryn Hill. “ I didn’t want to do something that was typical and

Lauryn Hill is very influential to the Hip Hop culture.” This was Terra’s second time performing at Aggies and Poets.

The SGA secretary plans Aggies and Poets every year. This year was Whitney Walker’s, a junior nursing major from Durham, N.C., turn to plan the event.

“Planning wasn’t hard because once you open up the floor to rappers, singers and poets, they come flooding. The hardest thing was picking who was going to be in the show and who wasn’t because I had so many people to choose from.”

There were some changes she made to the show from last semester’s. She changed the venue from Exhibit Hall in the Memorial Student Union to Harrison, which gave more students the opportunity to attend and made Aggies and Poets more of a production, not a talent show. She also included it during Aggie Fest week.

“I did it during Aggie Fest because Chris Wade, vice president of external affairs, proposed the

idea because he wanted to make Aggie Fest bigger and different than it was in the past. He also felt like the one last semester was a success, so he wanted to include it during Aggie Fest.”

Students like Lamont Williams, a junior biology major from West Philadelphia, Pa, had a great time. “I think the show was good. Jordan Brunson really did a great job and everyone else followed suit.” He also loved the crowd participation. “ The crowd was really into it and it displayed the Aggie Pride that was talked about when I transferred here.”

Next year, the show will be a hard one to live up to, but Walker thinks it can be done. “The new SGA secretary should continue to raise the bar. One thing he should consider is to showcase different students and not picking the same people for next year’s show. Making these few changes will make Aggies and Poets hard to beat.”

-nmjackso@ncat.edu and follow us on Twitter @ATRegister

Tate administration gets inaugurated into office Ameera Vines Contributor

The inauguration ceremony for the Student Government Association was short, sweet, and to the point.

During the ceremony, the incoming Tate administration, along with senators from the varying schools on campus and other elected officials were officially sworn into service for the 2012-2013 academic school year.

A&T’s outgoing SGA president, Christian Robinson, presented the incoming SGA members with the purpose of the student government and encouraged them to continue

to represent A&T to the best of their ability.

Judy Rashid, associate vice chancellor for student affairs, presented the oath to the new SGA. The inaugural address by newly elected president, Allahquan Tate, highlighted his vision for not only his executive board, but for the SGA as a whole. During and after his speech, Tate shared his goal of making the SGA more transparent and available to the student body.

“My plans are to be transparent, let more students get their voices heard and then just establish that jolt in Aggie Pride that we have been miss-

ing,” said Tate.

To show their support for their president, the Tate administration plans to be more available to their students through different programs throughout the year and activities that promote unity between the different organizations on campus.

Newly inaugurated vice president of internal affairs, Canisha Cierra Turner, plans to do her part by making sure that the student government senate more visible to A&T students so they can come to them with any concerns they might have regarding their respective schools or colleges on campus.

“Last year many of our students did not know who their

senators were for their respective schools or colleges, so I plan to increase the representation of the 45th legislative assembly because that is the main component of rebuilding the D.R.E.A.M,” said Turner.

Overall, the Tate administration is committed to knowing their students and living up to Tate’s nickname for his administration as the “Dream Team.”

Through hard work, organization and determination, the Tate administration is focused on achieving this goal and defending A&T’s reputation of always maintaining Aggie Pride.

-asvines@ncat.edu and follow us on Twitter @ATRegister

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The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Uganda Kony-hunting soldiers face jungle threats RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press

RIVER VOVODO, Central African Republic — For Ugandan soldiers tasked with catching Joseph Kony, the real threat is not the elusive Central Africa warlord and his brutal gang.

Encounters with the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels are so rare that Kony hunters worry more about the threats of the jungle: Armed poachers, wild beasts, honey bees, and even a fly that torments their ears.

A soldier crossing the Chinko river in the Central Af-

rican Republic on Wednesday was drowned and mauled by a crocodile, spreading terror among hundreds of soldiers who must camp near streams because they need water to cook food.

“A crocodile has just taken one of my men,” said Col. Joseph Balikuddembe, the top Ugandan commander of the anti-Kony force.

He contorted his face, walked to a map and pointed to Chinko, one of several rivers that the Kony hunters have been stalking in hopes that the LRA might be there looking for

water. But it is dry season these days, and the rivers are teeming with hungry crocodiles.

This week’s crocodile attack was the second in two months, highlighting the perils of trying to catch a rebel leader about whom so little is known and who could be anywhere in this vast Central Africa jungle.

There have been no signs of Kony in a long time, and the soldiers whose goal it is to catch him are in fact more likely to be killed by elephants and snakes whose paths they cross.

Even honey bees can be a serious menace when they are

migrating.

Soldiers told an Associated Press reporter who traveled with them through the jungles about a tiny black fly that persistently hovers around and even enters their ears, reducing their capacity for concentration.

The soldiers can be seen shaking their heads violently, or desperately slapping their ears, but the flies keep coming in huge numbers.

The soldiers look forward to night, when the flies go away.

A crocodile attack last month on the banks of the Vovodo

river left a soldier with horrific injuries all over his body.

He was later taken into intensive care in a Ugandan hospital.

“The man just survived that crocodile,” Balikuddembe said.

“It grabbed his leg and he poked it in the eyes. Then it left him, and as he ran away it came for his arm, then his buttocks.”

Most Ugandan soldiers here remain hopeful that Kony, who last month became the focus of international attention after a U.S. advocacy group made a

successful online video seeking to popularize his crimes, can still be caught despite the challenges.

Invisible Children’s campaign wants 2012 to be the year Kony is caught, and the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has said he thinks Kony will be arrested soon.

“Who says it is easy to catch Kony? Let me tell you, Kony is not a grasshopper that’s there waiting to be caught,” said a Ugandan soldier, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to a reporter.

Five militants arrested and attacks U.S. activism pose threat to have seized in Afghanistan national sovereignty in Egypt PATRICK QUINN and RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan security forces have arrested five militants with 10,000 kilograms (22,000 pounds) of explosives that they smuggled in from Pakistan to carry out a massive attack in Kabul, as well as another three suspects allegedly planning to assassinate the vice president, an official said Saturday.

The reports of new planned attacks in the Afghan capital came a week after militants said to be part of the Pakistan-based Haqqani group launched coordinated assaults in the heart of Kabul and in three other cities.

U.S. officials say they have stepped up pressure on Islamabad to crack down on the

Haqqanis, who specializes in high-profile strikes against wellprotected targets.

Three of the five men arrested with the explosives were members of the Pakistani Taliban, while the other two belonged to the Afghan Taliban, National Director for Security spokesman Shafiqullah Tahiry told reporters.

He said the men’s orders came from militant leaders with ties to Pakistani intelligence.

He did not say when the arrests took place, nor what their intended target was.

Tahiry said the seized explosives were packed in 400 bags and hidden under potatoes loaded in a truck with Pakistani license plates.

The men confessed that they “had planned to carry out a ter-

rorist attack in a key point in Kabul city,” Tahiry said.

He provided a DVD showing images of the truck and the recorded confessions of the men, but did not provide other proof to back up the claims.

He said that the three Pakistani members of the group picked up the explosives just outside the Pakistani city of Peshawar, and were under the orders of two local Taliban leaders named Noor Afzal and Mohammad Omar, who Tahiry said had ties with the country’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI. Tahiry also said that security forces had foiled an assassination attempt by the Haqqani network against Afghan Vice President Mohammed Karim Khalili.

hannah allam MCT Campus

CAIRO- Egypt’s caretaker government on Monday denied licenses to eight U.S.based civil society groups, effectively suspending their work here, on grounds that their activism posed a threat to national sovereignty.

Among the organizations banned was the Carter Center, which former President Jimmy Carter founded and which is known internationally for its work gauging the legitimacy of elections.

The ruling came exactly one month before Egypt’s first presidential election since the toppling last year of former President Hosni Mubarak.

The decision appears to be an extension of the government’s controversial campaign against nongovernmental organizations that are accused of illegally receiving foreign funding and fomenting unrest.

The crackdown, which included raiding offices and putting American and Egyptian workers to a show trial, so outraged Washington that lawmakers sought to end the annual $1.3 billion U.S. aid package to its once-close ally.

That crisis blew over when Egypt lifted a travel ban on American and other foreign defendants in the case, allowing them to flee the country after paying steep penalties.

In the latest move, however, more NGOs will have to halt their projects after the Min-

istry of Insurance and Social Affairs found that their work “contradicts state sovereignty,” according to a report by the state news agency MENA that cited an unnamed senior official.

Other than the Carter Center, the NGOs denied licenses were difficult to discern from the Arabic renderings of their names, which were given as the American Security Institute, Seeds of Peace, International Education Association, Latterday Saints Association, Coptic Orphans and two groups whose names as rendered couldn’t easily be identified. The state media report said authorities’ concerns were about not only the groups’ “slogans and activities,” but also their mechanisms for reaching Egyptians.

theBIZ

The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, April 25, 2012

5

Student loan debts Greek apparel has gone more upscale grow as main threat to the economy campus notebook

liliane long Contributor

Becky yerak

MCT Campus

CHICAGO- Move over, mortgages. Get out of the way, Greece.

Another economic doomsday scenario is emerging.

Student loan debt has reached about $870 billion, exceeding credit cards and auto loans, and balances are expected to continue climbing, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said last month.

In February, the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys referred to a “student loan ‘debt bomb’” and wondered if it was shaping up to become “America’s next mortgage-style economic crisis.”

Such a burden could crimp an already weak economy.

“Student debt poses a large and growing threat to the stability of our economy,” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan testified March 20 before a U.S. Senate judiciary subcommittee hearing in Washington on the looming student debt crisis.

“Just as the housing crisis has trapped millions of borrowers in mortgages that are underwater, student debt could very well prevent millions of Americans from fully participating in the economy or ever achieving financial security,” Madigan said.

In January, Madigan’s office sued for-profit Westwood College, claiming it misleads students enrolled in its criminal justice program, puts them deep in debt and awards a nearly worthless degree.

She told the Senate last month that since filing the suit, 1,000 former and current Westwood students have come forward to complain about their experiences.

A spokesman for Westwood said last week that a motion to dismiss the case is pending.

The hearing was convened

by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who is pushing legislation, the Fairness for Struggling Students Act, which would allow students who borrowed from private lenders for their education to wipe out that debt in bankruptcy proceedings, just as credit card borrowers and many other unsecured debtors may do. In 2005, Congress changed bankruptcy laws and made private student loan debts nondischargeable in bankruptcy, with few exceptions.

“It’s clear that too many students have been steered into loans that they will not be able to repay and that they will never be able to escape,” Durbin said.

Private student loans often carry higher and variable interest rates and fewer consumer protections than government loans, which are more likely to offer interest rate caps, loan limits, income-based repayment plans and forbearance in times of economic hardship.

“While the overall growth in

student indebtedness is troubling, the most pressing concern is private student loans,” Durbin said. “Private student loans are a riskier way to pay for an education than federal loans.”

Under Durbin’s legislation, students would remain responsible for repaying governmentissued or guaranteed student loans and would be unable to discharge those in bankruptcy.

Current bankruptcy law treats financially distressed students the same way as people trying to wiggle out of child-support debts, alimony, overdue taxes and criminal fines, Deanne Loonin, lawyer for the National Consumer Law Center, said at the hearing.

Danielle Jokela, 32, who lives in Chicago, testified that having the option to clear away student debt in bankruptcy would give borrowers a chip to negotiate with lenders.

Currently, she said, there is no incentive for lenders to work with financially strapped borrowers.

Jokela said she does feel she bears some responsibility for her student debt of $98,000.

“I don’t want someone to wipe my debt clean, but I just want my lender to be reasonable and work with me,” she said in an interview.

Others argue against allowing student borrowers to discharge their private loan obligations in bankruptcy court.

For one thing, if lenders knew borrowers could escape repayment through bankruptcy, they might raise interest rates to account for that risk and lend to fewer people.

It would “result in a dramatic increase in the cost of student loans for all borrowers, ultimately drying up the availability of such loans for those who need them most,” testified Marcus Cole, a Stanford University law professor.

He called it an “unjust transfer from innocent lenders who did nothing more than give money to people in hopes of being repaid someday.”

It could also encourage students to be careless about the debt they take on, said Neal McCluskey, associate director for the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom.

“Students might be more apt to take such loans if they think that they will be able to unload their debt without repaying it,” he said.

But student lender Sallie Mae supports reform that would allow federal and private student loans to be dischargeable in bankruptcy for those who have made a good faith effort to repay their loans over a five-to-seven-year period and still experience financial difficulty, agency spokeswoman Martha Holler said.

Recent UNCG graduate, Charity Colman, mixes her love for the arts and business mentality to create a business, with her friend Alexis Franks, that would not only benefit her fellow National Pan-Hellenic Council members but her community as well.

“Coming into college as an art major, there is a lot of discouragement from people wondering what you can do with an art degree,” said Colman. “So I wanted to do something that would uplift both African-Americans and the arts by showing that there are no limits to what you can do with an art degree.”

Founded in March 2012, Colman and Frank’s business, Imbrace: Upscale Greek Apparel, specializes in Greek organization t-shirts but also creates art and clothing that is positive and uplifting to all African Americans.

The t-shirts run between $15-25 because Colman believes that clothing should be made out of quality material.

“I crossed AKA at UNCG,” said Colman. “Looking around and at the things everybody sells, sometimes it seems like people just throw letters onto anything. If we are supposed to represent greatness we shouldn’t take that.”

The business also creates pins and buttons for churches and other businesses around the Greensboro area and hopes to

expand and provide items such as Greek paintings and paddles.

At the moment the company does not have a physical location, but interested persons can purchase items online at www. imbracegreekapparel.com In addition to providing apparel, Colman and Franks also hope to aid ex-convicts by providing them with second chance staffing as part of a rehabilitation program after jail and plan to aid communities by starting a non-profit organization.

The non-profit organization will help to uplift the arts in African-American communities.

“We want to encourage African-Americans to pursue a degree and career in the arts through mentoring, sponsorship programs and by providing scholarships,” said Colman.

“By doing this we hope to encourage individuals to embrace their dreams and touch their fears.”

A launch party will be occurring on May 2 from 6-9 p.m. at Krest Terrace to celebrate the business’ start. The gathering is free and is open to the public. It will have live entertainment as well as a DJ and it will be cocktail attire event.

For more information concerning the business, individuals are encouraged to tweet @imbraceme or email them at info@imbracegreekappareal. com -lrlong14@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ATRegister

2012 graduates face underemployment hope yen

Associated Press

WASHINGTON— The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.

A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don’t fully use their skills and knowledge.

Young adults with bachelor’s degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example and that’s confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.

An analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press lays bare the highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor’s degrees.

Opportunities for college graduates vary widely.

While there’s strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder.

Median wages for those with bachelor’s degrees are down from 2000, hit by technological changes that are eliminating midlevel jobs such as bank tellers.

Most future job openings are projected to be in lowerskilled positions such as home health aides, who can provide personalized attention as the U.S. population ages.

Taking underemployment into consideration, the job prospects for bachelor’s degree holders fell last year to the lowest level in more than a decade.

“I don’t even know what I’m looking for,” says Michael Bledsoe, who described months of fruitless job searches as he served customers at a Seattle coffeehouse. The 23-year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree.

Initially hopeful that his college education would cre-

ate opportunities, Bledsoe languished for three months before finally taking a job as a barista, a position he has held for the last two years. In the beginning he sent three or four resumes day. But, Bledsoe said, employers questioned his lack of experience or the practical worth of his major. Now he sends a resume once every two weeks or so.

Bledsoe, currently making just above minimum wage, says he got financial help from his parents to help pay off student loans. He is now mulling whether to go to graduate school, seeing few other options to advance his career. “There is not much out there, it seems,” he said.

His situation highlights a widening but little-discussed labor problem. Perhaps more than ever, the choices that young adults make earlier in life — level of schooling, academic field and training, where to attend college, how to pay for it are having long-lasting financial impact.

“You can make more money on average if you go to college, but it’s not true for everybody,” says Harvard economist Richard Freeman, noting the growing risk of a debt bubble with total U.S. student loan debt surpassing $1 trillion.

“If you’re not sure what you’re going to be doing, it probably bodes well to take some job, if you can get one, and get a sense first of what you want from college.”

Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University who analyzed the numbers, said many people with a bachelor’s degree face a double whammy of rising tuition and poor job outcomes. “Simply put, we’re failing kids coming out of college,” he said, emphasizing that when it comes to jobs, a college major can make all the difference. “We’re going to need a lot better job growth and connections to the labor market, otherwise college debt will grow.”

By region, the Mountain West was most likely to have young college graduates jobless or underemployed — roughly 3 in 5. It was followed by the more rural southeastern U.S., including Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. The Pacific region, including Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, also was high on the list.

On the other end of the scale, the southern U.S., anchored by Texas, was most likely to have young college graduates in higher-skill jobs.

The figures are based on an analysis of 2011 Current Population Survey data by Northeastern University researchers and supplemented with material from Paul Harrington, an economist at Drexel University, and the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank.

They rely on Labor Department assessments of the level of education required to do the job in 900-plus U.S. occupations, which were used to calculate the shares of young adults with bachelor’s degrees who were “underemployed.”

About 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degreeholders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years. In 2000, the share was at a low of 41 percent, before the dot-com bust erased job gains for college graduates in the telecommunications and IT fields.

Out of the 1.5 million who languished in the job market, about half were underemployed, an increase from the previous year.

Broken down by occupation, young college graduates were heavily represented in jobs that require a high school diploma or less.

In the last year, they were more likely to be employed as waiters, waitresses, bartenders and food-service helpers than as engineers, physicists, chemists and mathematicians combined (100,000 versus 90,000).

There were more working in office-related jobs such as receptionist or payroll clerk than in all computer professional jobs (163,000 versus 100,000).

More also were employed as cashiers, retail clerks and customer representatives than engineers (125,000 versus 80,000).

According to government projections released last month, only three of the 30 occupations with the largest projected number of job openings by 2020 will require a bachelor’s degree or higher to fill the position — teachers, college professors and accountants. Most job openings are in professions such as retail sales, fast food and truck driving, jobs which aren’t easily replaced by computers.

College graduates who majored in zoology, anthropology, philosophy, art history and humanities were among the least likely to find jobs appropriate to their education level; those with nursing, teaching, accounting or computer science degrees were among the most likely.

In Nevada, where unemployment is the highest in the nation, Class of 2012 college seniors recently expressed feelings ranging from anxiety and fear to cautious optimism about what lies ahead.

With the state’s economy languishing in an extended housing bust, a lot of young graduates have shown up at job placement centers in tears.

Many have been squeezed out of jobs by more experienced workers, job counselors said, and are now having to explain to prospective employers the time gaps in their resumes.

“It’s kind of scary,” said Cameron Bawden, 22, who is graduating from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in December with a business degree.

His family has warned him for years about the job market, so he has been building his resume by working part time on the Las Vegas Strip as a food runner and doing a marketing internship with a local airline.

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The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Romney’s roof-riding Irish setter MCT CAMPUS Contributor

Rick Santorum is finally in the rear-view mirror and Newt Gingrich is hanging on to the bumper by his fingernails, but Mitt Romney just can’t seem to shake the Irish setter on the roof of his car.

Almost 30 years ago, during a road trip from Boston to the family’s summer retreat in Canada, Romney was forced to make an unscheduled rest stop to hose down the car and the dog, Seamus, who’d been riding in a crate strapped to the rooftop luggage rack.

As Ann Romney patiently explained to ABC’s Diane Sawyer this week, the dog had slimed himself and the station wagon not because he was terrified of the trucks whizzing past him on the interstate but because he’d snagged some turkey off the kitchen counter before being latched in the crate for the 12-hour drive.

Talk about watchdog journalism: Romney has been hounded about the Seamus incident since 2007, when a Boston Globe reporter described it in a seven-part series on the presidential aspirant. In Romney’s second campaign, it seems everyone _ MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Time’s Mark Halperin, Fox News’ Chris Wallace _ has a bone to pick with him over the dog’s famous ride.

New York Times columnist Gail Collins admits she has “made a game” of mentioning Seamus whenever she writes about Romney. “This is because the Republican primary campaign has been an extremely long and depressing slog, and we need all the diversion we can get,” she wrote last month.

In September, the truth squad at Politifact.com evaluated the Seamus tale as related

by Collins and rated it Mostly True.

“It’s important to note that the dog was not literally strapped to the car, as in tied around its midsection,” the fact-checkers stressed. “Rather, Seamus was in a container with a protective windscreen that Romney had built.”

The dog-on-the-roof story was offered by the Globe as evidence of Romney’s knack for “emotion-free crisis management.” Well, OK. Picking a president is all about deciding who’ll have a finger on the button for the next four years, and the last thing we need is a guy who loses his cool when the stink hits the windshield at 60 mph.

But really, was it such a good idea to put the dog up

there in the first place? Sixtyeight percent of voters say no.

That’s right, there’s a poll.

There’s also a Super PAC, Facebook pages, Twitter hashtags and a line of merchandise that includes doggy attire emblazoned with the slogan, “I ride inside.”

The Seamus incident has been the subject of a Gingrich attack ad; a Santorum adviser described Romney on CNN as “a guy who strapped his own dog on the top of a car and went hurling down the highway”; and Obama strategist David Axelrod tweeted a photo of the First Dog, Bo, riding in the back seat of the presidential limousine.

Both Romneys insist that Seamus bounded willingly into his special crate many times.

“The dog loved it,” Ann Romney told Sawyer. We don’t doubt it. What dog doesn’t want to go for a ride?

Dogs love to hang their heads out the window and let their ears flap like flags in the breeze. They also like to eat cat poop, chase cars, swallow socks, tangle with skunks, roll in fish guts and, yes, steal stuff off the counter that makes them sick.

But this is 2012, and if you’ve rescued a pet from your local shelter lately, you know all about the background checks and the home inspection and the many promises you must make, in writing, about safeguarding your new family member’s health and well-being.

You know better than to confess to the case worker that you once, even 30 years ago, transported a dog in a rooftop kennel.

Romney’s real problem isn’t that he drove from Boston to Ontario with Seamus on the roof in 1983. It’s that he doesn’t understand what the fuss is all about today. Would he do it again?

Sawyer asked him. “Certainly not with the attention it’s received.” Grrrrr.

Will Seamus come back to bite Romney in November?

The Public Policy Polling survey found that 74 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of Republicans and 66 percent of independents agree that it’s “inhumane” to travel with a dog on top of the car. But only 35 percent said they were less likely to vote for Romney as a result. That suggests there’s a subset of American voters who think Romney is more qualified to be president than to adopt a dog.

Or maybe we’re all reading too much into the Globe’s pooper scoop.

6

Let’s try to save one billion people If I were to ask the average person on the street right now, “what is the deadliest thing facing many human beings today” the answers would be endless.

Some may say disease, war, George Zimmerman, etc.

Yet more often than not, the thought of that answer being water would rarely cross people’s minds. However, it’s true.

Water is one of life’s most basic needs. In the United States, we see water as something that we have always, and probably always will, have.

The thought that water covers 70 percent of the planet, yet an incredible number of people die from thirst everyday is mind boggling to most of us.

Since elementary school we’ve all heard people complain about drinking water out of water fountains because they think that water is “nasty” or “dirty.”

However, try taking your complaints to areas such as Africa, Latin America, and South East Asia where the nearest clean water supply is more than likely miles away.

Many people spend nearly three hours a day traveling to the nearest water supply, which is normally contaminated with and exposed to an incredible amounts of disease, bacteria, and germs. Because of this, nearly one billion people live without clean water.

And the problem doesn’t just stop with water. Water affects

everything.

Let’s look at one problem a society could face without clean water.

No water means no restrooms.

No restrooms TRUMAINE mean the for- MCCASKILL mation of extremely high levels of germs.

High levels of germs naturally causes sickness. Sickness leads to a lack of production for that

“Research shows that about every 19 seconds, a mother in this world loses a child due to a water related sickness.” society because attendance at work and schools steadily decreases. Sickness also causes a bigger issue, which is death.

And how often does this occur?

Well research shows that about every 19 seconds, a mother in this world loses a child due to a water related sickness.

Perhaps this will never affect you, your loved ones, or

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anyone you may know personally. However, does that make it okay for us to sit back and do nothing while a billion people suffer from something that can easily be fixed?

There are organizations such as charity:water, Blue Legacy, Wine to Water, CannedWater4Kids, Lifesaver bottle, and many more that have dedicated themselves to reversing the water crisis. At A&T, we lead the country in graduating black engineers.

With the knowledge this group of people have gained, think of the many lives alone could save if A&T actually funded for these students to travel to one of these countries and help form a new way to bring clean water to a village. With many charities willing to support this, as well other organizations with connections to these villages, imagine the impact an A&T clean water project could bring to a society.

A water project can help people save time on travels to get water. This time saved can help increase the attendance in local schools, and thus increase global literacy in countries where 50 percent or less of the citizens can read and write.

A proper education cannot only help a society grow; it can open up doors for our entire world that was once closed.

Clean water in Africa alone could open up 40 billion hours

(the collective time spent by most Africans collecting water) of time spent doing other things such as reading, researching, and exploring.

Clean water also means less disease. This means the world economy can spend far less money on medicine and spend more on books, buildings, and structures designed to help build society.

In a campaign I started on my birthday, I found out that just $20 could help provide clean water to one person in his or her village for 20 years.

We’ve always heard there is no solution to saving the world.

However, by spending $20, the same amount of money many of us spent on Nxlevel’s white party ticket alone, you could help bring life back into a society that is suffering simply because it is denied access to life’s most basic need: water.

No one solution can fix the problem. However, by educating yourself about this crisis, we can all help to one day end this crisis.

Did you go see the movie Think Like a Man? What’s your opinion on it?

the Lakers.

Guy #1- I went and I thought it was a good movie. I only went because my girl forced me to go but while I was there I found myself laughing and getting caught up in the story. I think we all face the things all the guys went through so that gave it a personal touch. It’s funny because my girl and I quote stuff from that movie all the time now and neither of us read the book.

Guy #2- I think for it being a chick flick, the movie was good.

It made me laugh at times and there was a lot of truth in it. I liked it but I think they could have done it without referring to Steve Harvey every other scene.

I know he wrote the book and everything, but they didn’t have to mention him all the time. You don’t see Harry Potter movies always shouting out J. K. Rowling. I think the movie could have been good if they just left him out of it because Steve Harvey can get annoying when he’s trying to be a “relationshup guru.”

Guy #3- I actually haven’t seen it yet but I have heard nothing but good reviews about it. I plan on going to see it soon. I think it’s good that a movie like that is getting a lot of attention.

It seems to be one of those feel good comedies and we need more of those. To my knowledge it doesn’t make black people look stupid, yet it still tells a good story and shows black people actually reading a book and educating themselves about the world around them. So I support it!

Who do you predict will win the NBA Title? Why? Guy #1- I am always going to be a Lakers fan, however this year I think I’m going to have to give it to the Heat. They look pretty good this year. Last year they had moments where they looked weak and that came back to bite them. But this year they look way too confident for me to give it to anybody else. But if not them, then I’ll give it to

For more information on this topic, feel free to research any of the listed organizations, or visit www.mycharitywater.org/ empoweringgloballiteracy.

-tlmccask@ncat.edu And follow him on Twitter @TrumaineWasHere

Guy #2- I think it’s wide open for anybody to win it this year. From the East you got Chicago, Miami, Boston, and the Knicks making a lot of noise.

However, on the West you got the Clippers, Lakers, Thunder and Spurs all fighting for that spot. However, if I were a betting man I would give it to the Thunder.

Guy #3- People never think about the fact that the NBA does series, not just one game eliminations. With that being said, I don’t see anybody beating the Heat four out of seven times this year. However, the same goes for the Thunder. I think it will be those two in the Finals and it will go seven games.

VH1 recently did a “Behind the Music” special on Nas. If you could pick their next artist, who would it be and why?

Guy #1- If I could pick I think I would do Outkast. I’ve been a huge Outkast fan since I was a kid and I’ve never seen a “Behind the Music” on them. I think a special on them would get a lot of views and hopefully convince them to get back in the studio together.

Guy #2- I’ve been waiting to see a “Behind the Music” on Jay-Z. Maybe I’ve missed it, but I think it would be nice for them to do one on him because he is such a musical legend, not just hip-hop either. I could be wrong but I don’t think they’ve ever done one on him or Beyonce and I think that would be very interesting to see.

Guy #3- It would be cool to see a “Behind the Music” special on Bon Jovi. That may not be the answer you were looking for but I like their music. They have great songs they can connect to everyone. I know you were probably looking for a hiphop group or artist but I think if more black people gave them the chance, they would too. But in any event, I think Bon Jovi would have a dope special.

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, April 25, 2012

Big changes in both basketball programs symone kidd

Register Reporter

While Coach Patricia Bibbs made HBCU history this year by getting 500 wins here at A&T she has decided to resign as the lady Aggies basketball coach.

Bibbs announced last Friday that she would be taking the position as head coach at Grambling State University.

It may not come as a surprise that Bibbs would return to Grambling State, her alma mater and where her college coaching career began before coaching at Hampton University and A&T. “I was upset but I understand that everybody has a calling and other important things that have to been done,” said rising senior guard, JaQuayla Berry of Bibbs.

“She came and did what she had to do or said she was going to do now there’s other things she has to take care of.”

“There are not enough words to express my gratitude for all Aggie Nation has meant to me and my family. At this time in my life however, I want to be closer to my immediate family,” said Bibbs to WFMY News “I’m looking forward to the fortunate opportunity I have to coach at my alma mater again. I will miss the A&T fans and my players so, so much, but I will cherish all the outstanding memories we shared.”

Not only did Bibbs make history this past season she has been making A&T history since she arrived. With her as head coach the lady Aggies became the MEAC’s premiere team winning

three consecutive regular season championships.

In 2009, she coached the lady Aggies to a MEAC Tournament win which advanced them to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 14 seed. In 2010, the team won their first two games of the 2010 postseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament, and became the first Division I HBCU to do so.

“We had the privilege of being in the presence of a true college basketball coaching legend,” said Earl Hilton. “We are honored that many of coach Bibbs’ milestones were achieved at A&T. Those moments will always be a part of our storied history.

Grambling State University ended its 2011-2012 women’s basketball season with an overall 15-15 season and an overall 10-8 conference season.

“I hope the next coach is caring and a go getter…not willing to take any mess. Coach Bibbs leaving means that the next coach will have some nice sized shoes to fill. We are losing a true leader,” said Berry.

Also, as reported on March 28, the men’s head basketball coach, Jerry Eaves, was released from his duties and a new coach will be sought to take over the program.

Last Friday, Director of Athletics, Earl Hilton, announced the hiring of Cy Alexander, a Winston-Salem native, to be the new head coach of the Aggie men’s basketball team.

Alexander is no stranger to the MEAC conference bearing

five tournament titles.

“I’m grateful and honored and thankful to chancellor Martin and Earl Hilton for giving me this opportunity,” Alexander reported to the Winston-Salem Journal.

Alexander, a long time coach at South Carolina State University, was also the head coach of Tennessee State University until 2009 and the assistant coach at Howard University back in 1976 where his time in the MEAC began.

“We haven’t met with coach Alexander yet but he has a very impressive resume and my teammates and I are sold,” said DaMetrius Upchurch, one of seven rising seniors on the team.

By his second year, Alexander broke the school record for wins, won their first MEAC tournament title and advanced to the NCAA tournament.

“The goals and objectives for our men’s basketball program are clear,” said Hilton. “We want an inspired program… As an A&T family, we believe Cy Alexander has both the knowledge and the wisdom to help us achieve these goals and objectives.”

Along with Alexander’s team accomplishments, he has personally received MEAC Coach of the Year three times and in 1996, he was named American Sports Wire National Coach of the Year.

Alexander is projected to be a coach who can build up a winning team and be a tough competitor in the MEAC but his background does not erase the factor of team adjustment.

7

AGGIES RUNDOWN BASEBALL TEAM

MEAC

Delaware State Norfolk State MD Eastern Shore Coppin State

14-1 10-7 8-10 0-14

25-14 14-21 9-31 0-38

13-4 9-8 7-8 7-8 5-13

24-16 13-27 15-25 13-26 7-38

MEAC

OVR.

Northern

OVR.

Southern Bethune-Cookman North Carolina Central Savannah State North Carolina A&T Florida A&M THIS WEEK’S GAMES: Wednesday Gardner-Webb Bolling Springs, N.C. 3 p.m.

Friday Bethune-Cookman War Memorial Stadium noon Saturday Bethune-Cookman War Memorial Stadium 1 p.m., doubleheader

SOFTBALL TEAM

Northern

Delaware State Norfolk State Coppin State Hampton Howard Morgan State MD Eastern Shore

Photo by kenneth L. hawkins, jr. • the a&t register

Coach cage-bibbs finished her career at A&T as the first coach to get 500 wins at HBCUs and returns to Grambling State where she started coaching.

“It’s going to be difficult to make an adjustment at first because we are so used to coach Eaves,” said Adrian Powell, also a rising senior, “but if we work hard day in and day out, we will be the team we need to be.”

An official news conference

will be scheduled to formally introduce Alexander as the new men’s basketball coach in the near future and the players will meet with him today.

-sckidd@ncat.edu and follow us on Twitter @ATRegister

9-3 9-3 8-4 7-4 6-6 2-10 0-11

Southern Bethune-Cookman Savannah State Florida A&M North Carolina A&T South Carolina North Carolina Central

8-0 8-1 4-4 5-6 3-6 0-11

THIS WEEK’S GAMES: Thursday Western Carolina Lady Aggies Softball Complex 3 p.m., doubleheader Saturday Presbyterian College Clinton, S.C. 2 p.m., doubleheader

19-14-1 20-20 15-17 19-26 9-32 8-21 0-27 23-23 19-19 17-26 12-24 14-23 3-41

8

hotlist

thescene

The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, April 25, 2012

a g g i e

April 25th to May 1st The A&T Register’s guide to what’s going this week in arts and entertainment.

f e s t

Cole and K.R.I.T shine through the rain trumaine mccaskill Opinion Editor

Nearly four years ago, Big K.R.I.T was debating on giving up rapping and J. Cole was nothing more than a fan still paying for tickets to A&T homecoming events.

Four years later, these two young southern artists have joined together to put on a performance that left fans on their feet from beginning to end.

After a week of events that many people classified as bland and somewhat dry, it was nice to see that Big K.R.I.T and J. Cole, along with other artists, brought life into a show that was nearly canceled.

The show began as scheduled. Opening acts Beautiful Experience, 2 AM Club, and The Foreign Exchange all came out and kept the crowd entertained while people were trickling into the Greensboro Coliseum Complex’s White Oak Amphitheater.

The crowd enjoyed music along with free samples of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Brita

water. Although the opening acts kept the crowd controlled for a couple of hours, the anticipation to see the two headliners was heavy in the air.

But before the concert even began, it nearly came to a halt when bad weather delayed the show for roughly 30-45 minutes. While fans patiently waited in their cars, event coordinators backstage were unsure if the show would go on as planned or not.

However, as quickly as the rain came, the sky cleared up and fans were allowed back to their seats. After a brief wait, the lights came on, the speakers were tested, and Big K.R.I.T walked on stage rapping one of his latest singles, “Bobbie Miles.”

Big K.R.I.T, the Mississippi native who started his music career in the early 2000s by making beats on PlayStation’s “MTV Music Generator”, showed the crowd that although he may be unknown as of now, that would not stop him from putting on a great performance.

“Some people don’t want to listen to me or other artists from

e t s i ’ o h D W ty s t r ’ a n P Do &

DON’T

the south because they think we don’t have anything to say,” K.R.I.T explained. “And honestly that’s cool because I’m here to prove all of that wrong.”

And although K.R.I.T was an opening act for J. Cole, his fan base came out in large numbers to support him. His energy level and passion for his music was just what the crowd needed after nearly being rained out.

Big K.R.I.T not only stayed true to his fan base who came out to support him, but also proved to the rest of the crowd that regardless or whether he is the headliner or the opening act, he can definitely put on a great show.

His performance consisted of songs such as “Temptation,” “4 Eva N a Day,” “Just Touched Down,” “Hometown Hero,” “Rotatin’ My Tires,” “Country S**t,” and ended with his latest single, “I Got This.”

Although K.R.I.T did a great job, the hometown hero, J. Cole, put on a performance which showed everyone that going mainstream did not change the fact that he is one great performer.

Latisha freeman Contributor

DON’T No colored or striped cardigans or vests. It takes away from the all white attire, you don’t want to be that one colored dot in the sea of beautiful white.

DO!!

Accessorize your white outfits with colorful accessories. Ladies do this with your clutches, shoes, belts, and your jewelry.

Men it is ok to wear colorful ties, bowties, watches and even Wear everything white! Let get creative with your socks. your small pop of color live through your accessories!

Have fun!

DO!!

Questions Aggie fest edition

on stage.

What seemed to stick out about the show overall is that all of the performers are very young artists with the talent, hunger, and ability to take their craft to the next level.

The music was great and the performer’s energy was nothing short of amazing.

Rarely do you find artists who still jump into the crowd and interact with their fans during their performance, or artists who are not afraid to step aside and allow the DJ to control the crowd for a few minutes. Luckily, this show consisted of both elements.

The A&T and UNCG community may have held their heads low after the rain delayed the show, but very few fans left with negative attitudes towards the artists and their performances.

For some skateboarding is just a hobby, but for Taylor Wilson it has become a lifestyle. He has been officially signed with Skate Hard, a skate shop off of Spring Garden Street in Greensboro.

Wilson is a freshman visual arts design major from Raleigh and has been skating for about four years. He picked up skating out of after school boredom during the off-football season.

Wilson initially went to Skate Hard to by a skateboard for a friend, but figured he would take the chance and ask the owners if they were currently sponsoring skaters. “I posted a video of myself in action, they simply liked it and decided to put me on the team,” said Wilson.

Skate Hard signed Wilson about a month ago, after viewing his video on Facebook. As a signed skater, Wilson will be shooting videos to promote himself and the company. The company sells skate boards, skate shoes, skate clothes and other skating paraphernalia.

“The best part about being a signed skater is going to the shop or being around campus and people already know who I am. It’s kind of like being a local celebrity,” said Wilson.

Newly signed, Wilson does not teach lessons but gets asked frequently by others if he could teach them how to skate. In addition, eager beginners also ask

The five-year engagement stars Jason Segel and Emily Hunt. This movie follows a couple who has been engaged a long 5 years and just planning their wedding. This movie is a comedy and has received good reviews with the plot being believable and relatable to those couples who are in no rush to be married. The movie looks entertaining and the two main characters have both been successful in the comedy realm, with their talents and a good plot I recommend this film.

-tlmccask@ncat.edu and follow him @TrumainWasHere

on stage

Aggie makes hobby a success

Even though colorful blazers are must haves for the spring time, do NOT wear them to accessorize your white party outfit because you will not get in. Put them in your closet to resist temptation.

20

Performing with a live band behind him, the North Carolina native not only impressed fans who may have recently caught on because of his major label debut, but he also took it back and performed songs from his very first mixtape, “The Come Up.” In addition to taking his fans through a time machine and performing his older and newer work, J. Cole even took a seat on the sideline and allowed his band and DJ to have solo performances for the crowd. This gave the crowd an opportunity to truly get a wide range of fantastic music, not just hip-hop.

Throughout his performance Cole was able to control the crowd by not only hyping everyone up in asking “Who Dat?” but he was also able to get the crowd to sway from side to side when he played slower songs such as “Lights Please.”

Overall, the energy J. Cole and his band brought to the stage left many people in the crowd satisfied. The show concluded with overwhelming cheers and applauds and even one fan throwing her underwear

on screen

Wilson how to do tricks along with how he faces these challenges.

“I could teach others about skating all day but they have to put in the work. Skating is really an individual sport,” Wilson said. “People usually stop skating because they don’t take the time to practice, and researching new tricks is a great way to stay dedicated. You control your future in skateboarding.”

Taylor continues to give words of advice for new skateboarders and to boarders who want to be signed as he was by saying that people who are serious about skateboarding cannot be hesitant to take their skills to the next level. “Becoming satisfied with your skateboarding skills only means that you will not continue to grow,” said Wilson. “Make sure you have a camera man in order to record your skills. Use the evidence and send that to companies of your interest.”

Other than traveling to various places such as YDG Skate Park in Graham, N C. with Skate Hard to shoot videos, Wilson is currently working on his own clothing line called Black Society. He plans to promote himself through videos and commercials.

-TheATRegister and follow us @ TheATRegister

1. Did you survive Aggie Fest ‘12? 2. Didn’t Aggies & Poets feel like the BET Hip-Hop Awards? 3. Do all the A&T rap cyphers happen on top of the parking deck? 4. Are you gettin’ money “by the boatload”? 5. Why was NSBE in the Stroll-Off? 6. Do you have to pledge to be an engineer now? 7. Were you shocked to find out the people in McNair do something other than study? 8.

Who would win in a brawl between the Alphas & Sigmas? 9. Was that a dumb question? 10. Was anybody surprised to see KKPsi and TBS win? 11. Why are they so good? 12. Did the terrible hosts ruin your buzz too? 13. Couldn’t we have done something better to commemorate 4/20? 14. Why didn’t SGA just sponsor a ‘hotbox’ in Moore Gym? 15. Did you make it to #PPF that night?

16. Do you even know what #PPF stands for? 17. Are you about that life? 18. Does Mother Nature have beef with J.Cole and K.R.I.T.? 19. Did the people at the coliseum forget to check the forecast last week? 20. Aggie Fest was cool and all but can we skip to GHOE ‘12?

ain’t misbehavin is now playing on the Triad Stage.

Go and support some of your fellow students who are in this musical as well as your Aggie jazz ensemble. The songs of “Fats” Waller explode in this celebration of some of the best American music ever written. Go to www.triadstage.org to buy tickets.

on campus india. arie will be on campus today in Harrison. The event is presented by Lycem Series.She has held a contest on campus for students to open for her show. The show is no longer free for Aggies if you have not already purchased your tickets. Tickets are now $20. The show begins at 7p.m. and will end at 11p.m. Allow your soul to vibe along with India. Arie’s cool relaxing vibes tonight at the show.

Come be a part of theScene Contributors Meetings every Wednesday at 5 p.m. in GCB 328A