Sept 28 issue by The A&T Register

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Mary,Mary gets a bigger venue EriK VEal

Online Editor

After hearing that tickets to the homecoming gospel show featuring duo Mary,Mary were sold out on Sept. 10, many students around campus were angered. “I’m mad the gospel concert is sold out,” tweeted senior business major Jasmine Farrar when she first heard that the tickets were gone. The concert was initially scheduled for Harrison Auditorium which seats 908 people according to the campus website. After many students claimed to have been unable to buy their ticket for numerous reasons, and from that they let their displeasure be known.

According to Chris Wade, vice president of external affairs and co-chair of the homecoming committee, many upset students spoke out about not being able to get ticket. From that, many of them sent emails to him and Kawanna Foster, president of SUAB, requested a bigger venue for the concert. “With the gospel concert selling out so early, students stood up and had their voices heard to force administration and other parties involved to move to a bigger venue,” said Wade. SUAB eventually secured and has moved the concert to Corbett.” He added that this action is a testament of the power of the  See gosPEl on Page 2

Obama says the GOP would ‘cripple’ U.S. EriCa WErNEr

Associated Press

aTHErToN, Calif. — President Barack Obama charged Sunday that the GOP vision of government would “fundamentally cripple America,” as he tried out his newly combative message on the liberal West Coast. Aiming to renew the ardor of Democratic loyalists who have grown increasingly disenchanted with him, the president mixed frontal attacks on Republicans with words of encouragement intended to buck up the faithful as the 2012 campaign revs up. “From the moment I took office what we’ve seen is a constant ideological pushback against any kind of sensible reforms that would make our economy work better and give people more opportunity,” the president said at an intimate brunch fundraiser at the Medina, Wash., home of former Microsoft executive Jon Shirley, where about 65 guests were paying $35,800 per couple to listen to Obama. Similar messages followed at an event in Seattle and two more in California’s Silicon Valley Sunday evening, as Obama pushed through a seven-stop fundraising swing that was taking him from Seattle to Hollywood to San Diego through Monday. The three-day West Coast swing, ending Tuesday in Denver, offered him the chance to re-engage with some of his most liberal and deep-pocketed supporters. The trip comes as Obama has shifted from focusing on

compromise with Republicans on Capitol Hill to calling out House Speaker John Boehner and others by name. The president has criticized them as obstructionists while demanding their help in passing his $447 billion jobs bill. The revamped approach is a relief to Democratic activists fed up by what they viewed as the president’s ceding of ground to the GOP on tax cuts and other issues while the economy has stalled and unemployment is stuck above 9 percent. Obama said 2012 would be an especially tough election because people are discouraged and disillusioned with government, but he also said he was determined because so much is at stake. The GOP alternative, Obama said, is “an approach to government that will fundamentally cripple America in meeting the challenges of the 21st century.” At an event in Woodside, Calif., Obama took a direct shot at one of his potential GOP opponents, Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Without mentioning him by name Obama mocked Perry as “a governor whose state is on fire, denying climate change.” Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan responded, “It’s outrageous President Obama would use the burning of 1,500 homes, the worst fires in state history, as a political attack.” Obama also criticized the audience reactions at recent GOP presidential debates, including people booing a gay service member. Said the pres See oBaMa on Page 2

SepTeMbeR 28, 2011

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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF NORTH CAROLINA A&T

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robinson hits airwaves KElCiE C. MCCraE Editor-in-Chief

Student Government Association president Christian Robinson is taking a cue from famed U.S. president, Franklin Roosevelt, by starting his own version of Roosevelt’s fireside chats. Starting Thursday, Robinson will deliver his state of the campus address on North Carolina A&T’s radio station WNAA 90.1, which mirrors Roosevelt’s radio chats in the 1930s. “I wanted to do something different,” said Robinson. “And we wanted to help make 90.1 more student-friendly. It’s already doing a lot for the students, but you can never do too much for them.” Slotted for 10 a.m., this is the first time a president has used the radio station for student government purposes since Fall 2008, according to program and music director D. Cherie Lofton. She says that not only is it good for the students, but also it is good for the community. “Sometimes the community wants to know what the students are doing,” she said. “This is a fine opportunity for them to hear it for themselves.” According to Robinson, recent presidents have held their student addresses at campus venues such as Memorial Student Union, Williams Dining

Hall, and a variety of other locations. Robinson says that hosting the event in those places did not reach a large enough audience as he hopes his method will. “They’ve tried many other places on campus, and there has been an okay response and an okay crowd,” he said. “I figured a lot of people listen to the radio, and maybe I can share information to a wider audience and out into the community.” Members from Robinson’s executive board say they are excited about his new venture to the airwaves. “I was very excited when I heard about it,” said student government secretary Whitney Walker. “It’s a good idea and its going to bring awareness to SGA as well as give students a better feel for the Robinson administration.” The campus radio station, which is housed in Crosby Hall, reaches a listenership 50 miles outside of Greensboro. It also has an Internet station where listeners can tune in all day, as well as a HD2 station. Students, alumni, and the community make much of the listeners for WNAA. “We’ve really tapped into our resources,” said Robinson. “This is a student-run radio station, and we wanted to use them.” Lofton says she was all for Robinson’s desire to change

PHOTO BY rEggiE CHErrY• contributor

sga PrEsidENT christian robinson tapes his state of the campus address on tuesday, september 27, 2011.

venues. “Here students can hear what their president wants to do,” she said. “Not just in the paper, not just on Twitter or Facebook, but also on the ra-

sYlVia oBEll

Managing Editor

PHOTO BY KENNETH l. HaWKiNs Jr. • the a&t register

MEMBErs of suab set up for the ﬁrst outdoor Mr. suab competition.

For the first time the Mr. SUAB pageant is outdoors. “Mr. SUAB is outside this year because we wanted to do something fun and different,” said the Student Union Advisory Board President Kawanna Foster. There were a few clear implications to having the pageant outside. The forecast was scheduled to rain Tuesday. Also, a lot of students expressed their concerns about seating arrangements. “Shifting the Mr. SUAB pageant outside this year is going to be interesting. It may have some people on their feet for a while,” said James Totton, a senior landscape architecture major. Foster addresses both of these concerns. “There will be chairs outside set up for people to sit and in case it rains we will bring it into Stallings Ballroom,” she said. However for some students it goes beyond just seating and possible rain. “My preference

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

Student debaters meet regularly to debate academic topics.

See why contributor Kalyn Hoyle feels that Troy Davis was just another victim to the legal system.

Coastal Carolina head football coach Dave Bennett triumphs over the Aggies 31-14.

N.C. native J. Cole’s 1st album recently hit shelves. Check out what we rated it.

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dio.” Robinson says he will be addressing his administration’s plans and goals for the  See radio on Page 2

s.u.a.b. hosts its first outdoor pageant in quad

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is that the pageant should be inside to make it more formal. Also I think the audience would be more comfortable because they could sit back, relax and enjoy the show without having outside distractions,” said sophomore computer engineering major Jordan Coles. The pageant had a “Back to the Future” theme with the young men competing not only for the title of Mr. SUAB but a $400 scholarship as well. It became a scholarship competition last year. “This was to add an incentive for males who wanted to be what we used to call Mr. Aggie. With Mr. A&T coming into effect we just wanted our male competition to have a good incentive,” explained Foster. SUAB Treasurer Trevor Thornton echoed Foster’s sentiments, “I honestly believe the scholarship is a great reward and a great incentive for our contestants to do their best.” The duties of Mr. & Miss SUAB are to represent the orga See suaB on Page 2

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The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, September 28, 2011

inFOCUS

getting to know what he and his executive board members are responsible for. “We really are emphasizing true governance this year instead of programming as

much as in the past,” he said. “We really are fighting for our students, and we want A&T to rise above the ranks.”

during the spring elections and one young lady did win. However she was not able to serve as Miss SUAB due to personal reasons,” explained SUAB Advisor Nichole Florence. In a situation such as this it is protocol for the SUAB Executive Board to decide if they would like to appoint someone

into that position or hold an election to fill the vacancy. “We will be electing a Miss SUAB in the spring semester,” said Foster.

September 21

September 23

September 26

5:05 a.m. Voluntary Commitment-Closed/Info

2:15 a.m. Pride Hall Communicating threats-Further Investigation

1:55 a.m. Blufird Street Wanted Person OFA-Closed/ Arrest

11:15 a.m. Benbow Road Hit and Run Vehicle AccidentFurther Investigation

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radio From page 1 remainder of the school year. He also goes on to stress the importance of the campus

suab From page 1 nization and provide community service opportunities. As many may have noticed, there is no current Miss SUAB – a normally elected position. “We had several young women run for Miss SUAB

-kcmccrae@ncat.edu and follow

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

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Flag football teams across campus are gearing up for another season.

GOSPEL From page 1 student voice and he encourages students to buy more tickets to fill up Corbett. Lyceum series co-chair and promoter, Greg Horton, feels that it was a good time to have Mary Mary come to campus but has concerns as to whether the

OBAMA From page 1 ident, “That’s not reflective of who we are.” Obama got a friendly welcome from invited guests. But he was also met by scattered demonstrations from liberal activists. “We want to see Obama stand up as strongly as he can to fight for the people of this country who are working out there to make ends meet,” said Kathy Cummings, communications director for the Washington State Labor Council. The council helped organize a demonstration outside Seattle’s Paramount Theatre, the site of an Obama fundraiser with about 1,800 guests. An activist’s sign urged Obama, “Tax the rich.” Obama and the Republican presidential candidates are working overtime to raise campaign cash ahead of an important Sept. 30 reporting deadline that will give a snapshot of their financial strength. Obama’s West Coast fundraisers brought in the Silicon Valley and Hollywood elite. The last event of the night Sunday was at the Atherton, Calif., home of Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, and pop singer Lady Gaga was

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concert will still be impactful because of the venue change. “Harrison is better for concerts,” said Horton. “With the show now being in Corbett, my main concern will be can we hear them and will they be comfortable in that space.” According to Wade, there are still plenty of Tickets for the gospel concert.

They can be purchased at the ticket office, located in Brown Hall.

among the guests. The expected haul from all seven events: $4 million or more. In addition to the fundraising, Obama scheduled a town hall-style event Monday in Silicon Valley, hosted by social networking company LinkedIn. The trip ends Tuesday with a speech to supporters in Denver. Obama was pushing throughout for his job proposal, which combines tax cuts, unemployment benefits and public works spending. The bill faces a hostile reception on Capitol Hill, particularly because Obama wants to pay for it with tax increases opposed by Republicans. If he can’t persuade Congress to pass the bill, Obama has said he wants to make sure the public knows who’s standing in the way. Jobs are a major concern in California, where unemployment stands at 12.1 percent, highest of any state except Nevada. Mark DiCamillo, director of California’s Field Poll, said that’s contributed to a softening of support for Obama among Democratic and independent voters. Obama’s job approval rating dropped to 46 percent among

Californians in a Field Poll this month. Among Democrats it was 69 percent, but that was down 10 percentage points from June. “Californians voted for him by 24 points in 2008 and the Democrats and nonpartisans were the backbone of his support and he’s losing some of that now,” DiCamillo said. “They’re looking for Obama to do something.” The summer’s nasty debate over raising the government’s borrowing limit turned off voters. Many liberals bemoaned the deal that cleared the way for a higher debt ceiling, with Obama agreeing to Republican demands for steep budget cuts without new taxes. But Democratic supporters are heartened by the jobs plan and Obama’s insistence that Congress must raise taxes to pay for it. Now they’re hoping that the confrontational Obama they’re seeing now is the same one they’ll see through the 2012 campaign. “We wish that his fighting spirit had been there a few months ago, but it’s here now,” said Rick Jacobs, head of the Courage Campaign, a progressive online organizing network in California.

9 p.m. Price Hall Breaking and EnteringClosed/Leads Exhausted 10:04 p.m. McNair Hall room 225Water Leak-Closed/Info

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Wednesday

HRL Casino Night Stallings Ballroom 7 p.m.

thursday

The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, September 28, 2011

An underground battle of the minds U’Leasa Joseph Contributor

The fight club is an open space where every Thursday night, students and faculty alike can close their books, loosen their ties and discuss subversive and radical ideals through dialogue and argumentation. In a regular classroom setting, students cannot freely express thoughts against mainstream issues without hostile or negative reaction, whereas the fight club promotes individuals to challenge mainstream principals and not just take them for face value. According to a handout written by co-founder and grad student D. Noble, the club “operates from a premise that society itself is inherently corrupt…which is why society and it’s attachments to race, sex and capitalism should be confronted to prevent students from…becoming agents of their own op-

pression.” The fights begin with someone coming to the board and writing down an argument they want to discuss. Subject matter can deal with, but is not limited to, race, aggression, justice for African Americans, hip hop, athletics and/or events that have recently taken place. After the argument is written, the person then reads their claim aloud thus welcoming all challengers to come to the board and present a counter argument. The fight remains a two person debate until another person has a counter argument, if any. After a few minutes of persistent dialogue, the club director Dr. Sims, psychology professor, takes a vote to articulate who won. Finally the floor is opened for any other comments or remarks on the subject before moving onto the next topic. “The fight club was…an underground meeting because

of the controversial topics discussed. You could only attend a meeting if you knew someone in the club, Sims explains.” It originally began as a community initiative of the first annual Dialogue on Progressive Enlightenment (DOPE) conference in the spring of 2010. Individuals wanted a free space where they could openly talk about issues they felt needed to be brought to light. Although the club is still not an official university organization, that does not stop the many people who come to participate. In the past year, the club has opened its doors and students from UNCG, community members and even A&T’s groundskeepers come to be a part of these meetings. Occasionally students will even Skype in from the University of Michigan. Certainly the fight club is bringing something unique

to their meetings that keep so many individuals involved and anxious to return. Most enjoy it because of the freedom to discuss unconventional matters. Shayla Mason, junior English major, said, “I like that we can be free to express any idea and that you see things from a different angle… but if your close minded or easily offended, then this club isn’t for you.” Also, because the subject matters are very relatable to many A&T students, this club can be seen as a medium for radical change within the campus community. “The sheer nature of the topics that we’re discussing are subversive to mainstream thoughts…these are not matters that are readily accessible via mainstream news nor Facebook, Twitter or even through generic conversations among students. We should question what are the

possibilities, how did it get this way and how could we change it not just accept ‘it is what it is’,” said Noble. The fight club reinforces artistic and intellectual ideas that defy the norm while also forcing participants to be knowledgeable and to be precise and clear when making an argument. If you are interested in joining the club then come with a topic or the voice to challenge a topic. The fight club meets every Thursday at 7 p.m. in the new science building in room 237. The club, along with Dr. Sims, welcomes all but also states that he’s more concerned with, “folks who are passionate and interested in progressive development and not just packing people; it’s not the numbers that make fight club dope, it’s the dialogue.” – Email uleasajoseph@yahoo.com and Follow @ATRegister on Twitter

Hispanic Heritage Festival Stallings Ballroom 6 p.m.

friday

Lee romney and larry gordon

Greek Wars: Odds vs Evens Holland Bowl 4 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Monday

Mr. Alpha Phi Pagaent Stallings Ballroom 7 p.m.

Tuesday

COP Full Body Meeting Exhibit Hall 5 p.m.

Students plan anti-affirmative-action bake sale MCT Campus

SAN FRANCISCO — A student group at the University of California, Berkeley, is stirring both support and outrage nationwide over its planned Tuesday bake sale that has priced items according to a buyer’s race, ethnicity and sex. The satirical event — titled the Increase Diversity Bake Sale — is a reprise of similar cookie sales on college campuses by Republican clubs over the years. It was scheduled to counter another student-led effort urging Gov. Jerry Brown to sign a bill to allow California’s public universities to consider race, ethnicity and gender in student admissions, as long as no preference is given. Leaders with the Berkeley College Republicans said their intent was to highlight the impropriety of basing decisions on race or gender. The sale,

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

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according to a posting on Facebook, will offer five pricing levels, with pastries described as “White/Caucasian” going for $2, “Asian/American American” for $1.50, “Latino/Hispanic” for $1, “Black/African American” for 75 cents, and “Native American” for a quarter. A 25-cent discount will be offered to women. “If you don’t come, you’re a racist,” said an announcement late last week publicizing the event. The response was swift. “It blew up on Facebook and social media, with students of color and [their] allies,” said Joey Freeman, an officer with the Associated Students of the University of California, which supports the admissions legislation. “We were really taken aback and, frankly, disgusted,” he said. That organization’s Senate on Sunday unanimously approved a resolution condemning “the

use of discrimination whether it is in satire or in seriousness by any student group.” Alfredo Mireles Jr., a UC San Francisco nursing student who sits on UC’s Board of Regents, issued a statement criticizing the sale as “a common stunt performed by college Republican groups to protest affirmative action policies.” Student clubs at UCLA, Berkeley and elsewhere hosted similar events in 2003 — provoking similar protests and allegations that the organizers were racist. “Not only is it offensive, but it’s unoriginal,” said Mireles, who warned that an overreaction to the tactic could distract from the more important policy discussion. “If they are trying to get media attention, they’ve been incredibly successful,” he said. By Monday, in fact, the event’s defenders were making their opinions widely known. At the heart of the controver-

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sy is legislation that the student Senate unanimously endorsed this month. Authored by state state Sen. Ed Hernandez (D), the bill would allow the UC and Cal State systems to consider — but not give preference to — applicants’ race, gender, ethnicity, national origin, geographic origin and household income — along with other relevant factors. California voters in 1996 approved Proposition 209, which forbids using ethnicity as an element of college admissions decisions. In a legal brief filed recently in support of a federal lawsuit seeking to deem the initiative unconstitutional, Brown cited a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found race could be considered in admissions if it did not involve quotas or predetermined weight in decisions. Shawn Lewis, president of the Berkeley College Republicans, said the bake sale will go

on as planned in Sproul Plaza — not far from the Associated Students’ phone bank in support of the bill. A Berkeley vice chancellor said the bake sale violated no rules and would be allowed to proceed, with some students planning to hand out “cupcakes of conscience” in counter-protest. A spokesman for UC President Mark Yudof, who last year created an advisory council in response to campus incidents that proved offensive or intimidating to minority students, said Monday that Berkeley was handling the dust-up “just the way we’d like it to be handled. They listened and turned it into a teaching moment.” Even Freeman said the dialogue was productive. “They certainly made a statement and they got people talking, so at least in that way their mission was accomplished.”

Gender neutral dorms get first Rutgers’ students Patricia Alex

MCT Campus

HACKENSACK, N.J. — Thirtythree students have moved into so-called gender-neutral dorm rooms at Rutgers University this semester as part of a pilot program that allows them to choose a roommate of any gender. About 60 schools nationwide, including Ramapo College and Montclair State University, offer the housing option designed to make students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer more comfortable. The gender-neutral rooms are available at two dormitories at the university’s Newark, N.J., campus and three residence halls at the flagship campus in New Brunswick-Piscataway. “We’re the No. 1 diverse school in the country, particularly on our campus, and we thought it was time to bring it here,” said Angie Bonilla, interim associate dean of housing on the Newark campus. Rutgers officials said genderneutral housing for upperclassmen was under discussion for nearly three years but its launch was hastened by the suicide last year of Ridgewood, N.J., native Tyler Clementi, the first-

year student who leapt from the George Washington Bridge after his roommate allegedly secretly video-streamed his gay encounter in their room. In Newark, there are four suites with four rooms that are designated gender-neutral. The university says the concept of gender-neutral housing “goes beyond the assumption that there are two genders: male and female,” and recognizes that there are an “infinite amount” of genders. Rebecca Pero is one student who identifies as “genderqueer,” not identifying as either gender. She lives in one of the gender-neutral dorms in New Brunswick with a female roommate. She also participates in the Rainbow Perspectives _ a so-called learning community in the dorm where students will study gender-related issues together. “Everyone should be able to feel comfortable and safe in their living environment,” Pero said. The university is also offering a roommate matching option for first-year and transfer students who are interested in being paired with a member of the LGBTQ campus community, said spokesman EJ Miranda.

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The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Jackson’s voice echoes in L.A. courtroom ANTHONY MCCARTNEY & LINDA DEUTSCH Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — First, prosecutors showed a photo of Michael Jackson’s pale and lifeless body lying on a gurney. Then, they played a recording of his voice, just weeks before his death. Slow and slurred, his words echoed Tuesday through a Los Angeles courtroom at the start of the trial of the doctor accused of killing him. As a worldwide audience watched on TV and Jackson’s family looked on from inside the courtroom, a drugged Jackson said: “We have to be phenomenal. When people leave this show, when people leave my show, I want them to say, ‘I’ve never seen nothing like this in my life. Go. Go. I’ve never seen nothing like this. Go. It’s amazing. He’s the greatest entertainer in the world.’” Prosecutors played the audio for the ﬁrst time during opening statements as they portrayed Dr. Conrad Murray, 58, as an incompetent physician who used a dangerous anesthetic without adequate safeguards and whose neglect left the superstar abandoned as he lay dying. Defense attorneys countered that Jackson caused his own death by taking a drug dose, including propofol, after Murray left the room. Nothing the cardiologist could have done would have saved the King of Pop, defense attorney Ed Chernoff told jurors, because Jackson was desperate to regain his fame and needed rest to prepare for a series of crucial comeback concerts. A number of Jackson’s family members were in the courthouse, including his father Joseph,

mother Katherine, sisters LaToya and Janet, and brothers Jermaine, Randy and Tito. LaToya Jackson carried a sunflower, her brother’s favorite flower. Murray, who arrived at court holding hands with his mother, is charged with involuntary manslaughter. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison and the loss of his medical license. Speaking for more than an hour, prosecutor David Walgren relied on photos and audio recordings to paint Murray as an inept and reckless caretaker. Walgren showed a photo of a lifeless Jackson on a hospital gurney. He juxtaposed the image with those of Jackson performing. Walgren also played the recording of Jackson speaking to Murray while, the prosecutor said, the singer was under the influence of an unknown substance roughly six weeks before his death. Jackson trusted Murray as his physician, and “that misplaced trust in Conrad Murray cost Michael Jackson his life,” Walgren said. The recurring theme was Jackson’s never ending quest for sleep and propofol, the potion he called his “milk” and that he believed was the answer. Jurors were told that it was a powerful anesthetic, not a sleep aid, and the prosecutor said Murray severely misused it. The prosecutor said while working for Jackson, the doctor was shipped more than four gallons of the anesthetic, which is normally given in hospital settings. Chernoff, the defense attorney, claimed the singer swallowed several pills of the sedative lorazepam on the morning of his death and that was enough to put six people to sleep. After taking propofol, Jackson did not even

have a chance to close his eyes, Chernoff said. Chernoff, who had long hinted that the defense would blame Jackson for his own death, added a surprise. He claimed tha Jackson died not because his doctor continued to give him the drug but because he stopped it, forcing Jackson to take extreme measures. “What we will hear is that Dr. Murray provided propofol for two months to Michael Jackson for sleep,” Chernoff said. “During those two months, Michael Jackson slept. He woke up and he lived his life. “The evidence will not show you that Michael Jackson died because Dr. Murray gave him propofol. The evidence is going to show you Michael Jackson died when Dr. Murray stopped,” the attorney said. He said Murray was trying to wean Jackson off of propofol and had been giving him other sleep aids known as benzodiazepines trying to lull him to sleep. On June 25, 2009, the last day of Jackson’s life, Chernoff said, he was in the third day of a weaning process and it didn’t work. “Michael Jackson started begging. He couldn’t understand why he wasn’t sleeping.... When Michael Jackson told Dr. Murray ‘I have to sleep. They will cancel my performance,’ he meant it,” Chernoff said. Murray, in a recording of his interview with police detectives, acknowledged that he relented and agreed to give Jackson a small dose of propofol. Walgren said Murray’s claim that he gave the singer a minuscule dosage, enough to keep him asleep perhaps ﬁve minutes, was not true. He also accused Murray of deception when he hid from paramedics and hospital emergency

Columbus statue runs aground in Puerto Rico DANICA COTO

Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — It would be the tallest structure in the Caribbean and among the tallest statues in the world, a monument to Christopher Columbus in a region where he has not been regarded highly for many years. So far, though, the nearly 300foot (92-meter) bronze likeness of The Great Explorer just seems like a monumental morass or perhaps a colossal joke. Originally intended to grace the skies of a major U.S. city, it has been shuffled from one locale to another and lies in pieces as a businessman and the mayor of the small Puerto Rican town of Arecibo try to finally erect it overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on the island’s north coast. But this still may not be the final chapter in what has so far been a 20-year saga. The statue’s final resting place is far from certain: Its backers must gather a long list of permits, including from the Federal Aviation Administration, to install a monument so tall it could interfere with air traffic. And now, Puerto Rican officials are competing to bring it to their parts of the island as a lure to tourists. Then there is the fact that the roughly 600-ton (544-metric ton) statue, like many other large-scale public works, inspires more criticism than awe, especially since Columbus is commonly viewed now as the harbinger of genocide rather than the discoverer of the New World. “To be honest, it’s a monstrosity,” says Cristina Rivera, a longtime activist against the creation of private beaches in Arecibo who has been vocal about her opposition to erecting a giant Columbus in her town. “Why do we have to bring such an exaggerated piece of work here?” It’s just that kind of reaction that has doomed the project in the past and could do so again. Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli, 77, built the statue in 1991 to commemorate the 500th anniversary

of Columbus’ 1492 arrival in the Western Hemisphere. The artist is internationally renowned for giant, expensive and sometimes unwanted works. But his pieces have found a home in the U.S. before, including in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York, and he remains confident his rendition of the Great Explorer will eventually reach a destination. Tsereteli, in an email interview with The Associated Press, notes that even the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower faced criticism and challenges. “Now they are symbols,” he said. “Without those symbols, those places would be unimaginable.” During a visit to Russia in 1990, U.S. President George H. W. Bush stopped by Tsereteli’s studio in Moscow and picked one Columbus model out of three presented to him. In September 1994, Tsereteli traveled to the U.S. with then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin and presented the chosen model to President Bill Clinton. South Florida was one of the first proposed locations for the statue, which features Columbus with shoulder-length hair, an unusually sharp and straight nose and large and slightly protruding eyes reminiscent of a Cubist painting. One county commissioner joked it would make a good artificial reef while another suggested they could just display the head and not bother with the rest of the statue. Some also worried about erecting something that would pay homage to a person associated with slave trading and brutal colonization. The statue then made its rounds through New York, Ohio and Maryland, with no success. “Various private organizations said they would put it up,” said Emily Madoff, Tsereteli’s spokeswoman. “Then they realize what’s involved in something so big. ... You just don’t plunk it on top of the land.” In 1998, Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Rosello accepted it as a gift

and spent $2.4 million in public funds to bring it to the island. Then the mayor of Catano, a suburb of San Juan that draws thousands of tourists to its Bacardi rum distillery, requested the statue. But the plan ran into trouble when aviation authorities said the proposed location would interfere with flight paths, and residents whose homes would have to be demolished to make way for the statue protested the plans. Then Columbus went into storage. “It was awful, really awful,” Madoff said. “It just sat there.” In 2008, a port management company, Holland Group Ports Investments, agreed to take the statue and store it in the western coastal city of Mayaguez, where it remains. A Russian crew recently flew there and ensured that most of the 2,700 pieces still fit together as plans seemed to move forward in Arecibo. Arecibo Mayor Lemuel Soto says the statue would add to the allure of the town, which draws people to its limestone caves and one of the world’s largest telescopes. Madoff says funding should not pose a problem, that investors have the $20 million it would take to erect the statue. But now that the permit process is under way, a new threat has emerged. Puerto Rican Rep. David Bonilla has begun lobbying to put up the statue to lure tourists to the western corner of the U.S. territory, perhaps on the island of Desecheo, which is uninhabited except for the occasional errant Dominican migrant trying to escape the U.S. Border Patrol. San Juan Mayor Jorge Santini, an influential figure on the island, also has weighed in, saying he wants Columbus in the capital. Santini envisions it near a popular lagoon or even atop an old landfill. The artist’s spokeswoman insists it’s too late to start looking for a new site and that Columbus will rise in Arecibo. History says otherwise.

PHOTO BY AL SEIB • MCT CAMPUS

Dr. Conrad Murray wipes a tear during the defense opening arguments in his involuntary manslaughter trial in downtown Los Angeles Superior Court, Tuesday, September 27, 2011.

staff that he had given Jackson propofol. He said they were desperately trying to revive him but didn’t know about the drug. He returned repeatedly to the fee Murray was to be paid — $150,000 a month — and pointed

out that he ﬁrst had asked for $5 million. “There was no doctor-patient relationship,” Walgren said. “... What existed here was an employer-employee relationship. He was not working for the health of Michael Jackson. Dr. Murray was

working for a fee of $150,000.” Chernoff countered with a description of Murray’s history of treating indigent patients for free. At times during the defense attorney’s opening statements, Murray appeared to be crying and wiped his eyes with a tissue.

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HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED RELATIONSHIP

VIOLENCE?

Attend the Domestic Violence Awareness Forum, featuring two

nationally

acclaimed

domestic violence prevention programs to better understand the epidemic of relationship violence on college campuses.

MORE THAN

HALF HAVE OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

Domestic Violence Awareness Forum October 5, 2011 2:00 – 5:00 p.m. (Refreshments will be served) North Carolina A&T State University 1601 E. Market Street Harrison Auditorium Nocho Street Greensboro, NC 27411

Attend the Domestic Violence Awareness Forum, featuring two

nationally

acclaimed

domestic violence prevention programs to better understand the epidemic of relationship violence on college campuses. Attendees will learn: • What is relationship violence? • The ways abusers control and manipulate. • How to get out of an abusive relationship. • How to help someone in need. • How to get involved.

“Telling Amy’s Story” – the awardwinning documentary ﬁlm and training tool that depicts events leading up to a domestic violence homicide. Engaging Men in Healthy Relationships – the interactive workshop that challenges society’s view of women and promotes healthy manhood and relationships.

Attendees will learn: • What is relationship violence? • The ways abusers control and manipulate. • How to get out of an abusive relationship. • How to help someone in need. • How to get involved. ROXANNE UMPHERY finishes pumping gas at the Catonsville, Maryland Safeway

PHOTO BY MCT CAMPUS

High gas prices in review mirror “Telling Amy’s Story” – the awardwinning documentary ﬁlm and training than inleading the gas tank,” says. toolJONATHAN that FAHEY depicts events uphe to Associated Press Prices for oil, gasoline and a domestic violence homicide. other commodities dove last

NEW YORK — Soaring gaso- week along with world stock line prices are in the rearview markets over concerns the Engaging Men global ineconomy Healthy is headed for mirror. another recession. When econoFor the ﬁ rst time in months, Relationships – the interactive retail gasoline prices have fallen mies slow, demand for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel falls as drivbelow $3 a gallon in that places, inworkshop challenges society’s cluding parts of Michigan, Mis- ers cut back on trips, shippers view of women and promotes healthy fewer goods and vacasouri and Texas. And the relief is move tioners stay closer to home. Oil likely to spread thanks to a sharp manhood and relationships. fell to $79.85 per barrel Friday, decline in crude-oil prices. The national average for reg- a drop of 9 percent for the week. ular unleaded gasoline is $3.51 Oil reached a three-year high of per gallon, down from a high of $113.93 on April 29. Economists caution that gas$3.98 in early May. Last week’s plunge in oil prices could push online savings, while welcome, the average to $3.25 per gallon won’t matter much to people if the worst economic fears come by November, analysts say. Economist Philip Verleger to pass. “Yes it produces some reequates it to “a stimulus program for consumers,” leaving lief, your bill at the gas pump them more money for clothes, goes down, but it’s going down dinners out and movies. Over a because there are worries that year, a 50 cents-per-gallon drop people won’t have jobs,” says in gasoline prices would add James Hamilton, an economroughly $70 billion to the U.S. ics professor at the University of California, San Diego. “The economy. Arthur De Villar, a 48-year- news has not been good.” And gasoline prices remain old safety inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration, historically high. Gasoline has paid $2.96 for gasoline near averaged $3.56 this year, the his home in Manchester, Mo., highest yearly average ever. a suburb of St. Louis — and he Americans have cut back drivrecently replaced his SUV with ing in the face of high prices, but they are likely to spend a four-door sedan. With three boys at home be- more on gasoline in 2011 than tween the ages of 11 and 14, the ever before — close to $490 bilmoney De Villar saves on gas lion, according to Tom Kloza, still gets spent. But it goes to chief oil analyst at the Oil Price the amusement park, a Cardi- Information Service. Kloza says the latest drop in nals baseball game or the movie prices will stick around through theater. “It’s far better to be able to most of the fall. And while that put (the money) anywhere other may only add $20 a month to a typical commuter’s wallet, driv-

ers say it matters. Pat Wolf, 60, a retired information technology professional from East Lansing, Mich. responded with a “Holy Mackerel!” when he got a text from his wife Friday morning that said a station nearby was selling gas for $2.98 per gallon. Wolf said prices in the area were $3.49 earlier in the week and he had no hope that they’d fall below $3. “It’s one other thing in the back of your mind if you are deciding whether to buy some gizmo or other,” he says. Aureleano Duran, a house painter in Dallas, gave the cashier at a RaceTrac gas station $55 to fill up his red Dodge pickup Friday night, but the tank began to overflow before he shut off the nozzle — at $49.21. Duran plans to sock away roughly $30 a week in gas savings. “I’m trying not to spend a lot of it,” he said. Then he excused himself: “I’ve got to go get my change.” Gasoline prices have always varied from state to state, but the gap now is especially big. Drivers along the coasts are paying significantly more than drivers in the middle of the country, analysts say. California drivers are paying the highest average price in the lower 48 states, at $3.89 per gallon on Sunday. Missouri drivers are paying the least, $3.21 per gallon, according to AAA, OPIS and Wright Express. Differences in state taxes explain much of the gap. Another factor is that most of the oil used by refineries on the coasts comes

from overseas, making it far more expensive than oil piped to refineries in the middle of the country from places such as North Dakota and Canada. The coastal refineries must compete with the growing economies of Asia for shipments of oil. Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy. com, says that while he expects the national average to fall to between $3.25 and $3.50 between now and Thanksgiving, some areas could hit $2.50. He says prices in Lansing, Mich., and St. Louis had fallen below $3 already. A price war between filling stations near Bridge City, Texas, pushed prices to $2.62 last week. “In some of these areas prices are collapsing,” DeHaan says. The trend could reverse, analysts say, if the world economy does not descend into recession. That’s because the growth in oil demand from China and other developing nations will more than make up for falling demand in Europe and the United States. The investment bank Goldman Sachs forecasts that oil will rise to $120 per barrel within the next six months. That’s a jump of 50 percent from last week’s closing price of just under $80 per barrel. “Whatever we see gas prices falling to, it won’t be the new normal. It will be a launching pad for winter and spring prices,” says Kloza, from Oil Price Information Service.

We’re always looking for local BIZ stories! Know any? Have ideas? Let us know! Email theatregister@gmail.com!

NY judge tosses Madoff suits targeting hedge funds LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press

NEW YORK — A judge has thrown out several lawsuits by investors who blame hedge funds for failing to detect Bernard Madoff’s massive fraud, saying the one-time Nasdaq chairman “cleverly leveraged his considerable reputation” to dupe even the most sophisticated ﬁnancial entities, including regulators and Wall Street banks. In a Friday ruling that was made public Monday, Judge Deborah Batts concluded that investors in the hedge funds run by J. Ezra Merkin were sufﬁciently warned about risks. “The list of victims that failed to detect Madoff’s fraud is lengthy,” Batts wrote, citing the Securities and Exchange Commission among them. “In line with what other courts have done, this court will not recognize a claim against those who did business with Madoff,

simply by imputing the suspicions of a few — albeit, wise — people who suspected Madoff’s fraud before it was ever discovered.” Merkin’s funds had put more than $2 billion of investors’ money into Madoff’s investment business. The Manhattan judge noted that the plaintiffs had cited testimony by Merkin that he was aware of a number of people who were suspicious of the returns Madoff claimed to achieve. The 73-year-old Madoff confessed in December 2008 that he was running a multi-decade Ponzi scheme and that more than $65 billion he claimed to have on hand for investors had dwindled to a few hundred million dollars from an original investment of about $20 billion. He is serving a 150-year prison sentence. Batts said there was no basis to let the lawsuits proceed “just because a non-party had a hunch or a gut feeling about

Madoff, especially when juxtaposed against his considerable reputation and success within the investment community.” Batts added: “It is now wellestablished that Madoff cleverly leveraged his considerable reputation in order to perpetrate his massive fraud, for many years, without detection by some of the most sophisticated entities in the ﬁnancial world: the SEC, Wall Street banks and the like.” The ruling was made after a series of lawsuits were ﬁled by the New York Law School, a pension plan and several family trusts on behalf of investors in three hedge funds: Ascot Partners L.P., Gabriel Partners L.P. and Ariel Fund Limited. Merkin was the general partner of the Ascot and Gabriel funds and the sole shareholder and director of Gabriel Capital Corp., which was the investment adviser to the Ariel Fund. The lawsuits claimed Merkin and related defendants failed to disclose the funds’ investments

with Madoff and should have performed better due diligence in connection with the investments. Messages left for lawyers on both sides were not immediately returned. Merkin still faces a lawsuit in federal bankruptcy court in which the trustee recovering assets for Madoff investors is seeking more than $500 million. That lawsuit claimed Merkin was aware Madoff was a swindler and called Merkin “a sophisticated investment manager who was a close business and social associate of Madoff.” Merkin managed several funds through his Gabriel Capital Corp. that withdrew more than $500 million in “nonexistent principal” from Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities in the 13 years before Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme imploded, the lawsuit claimed. Andrew Levander, a lawyer for Merkin, has said the bankruptcy claim has no basis.

theWORD 6

The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Troy Davis: Just another victim of our legal system As Troy Davis was put to death for a crime that was very debatable, political tension and feelings of animosity reached a peak amongst protesters as a potentially innocent man met his demise at the hands of the United States Government. As a result of this, the death penalty debate continues. Senator John Kerry once summarized the death penalty in the statement, “A humane and generous concern for every individual, his health and fulfillment, will do more to soothe the savage heart than the fear of state-inflicted death, which chiefly serves to remind us how close we remain to the jungle.” Davis supposedly shot and killed an off duty police officer in a Burger King parking lot. The gun was never found and the prosecution against Davis was completely based on witness testimonies. Many of the witnesses recanted their stories and stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured into testifying against Davis by po-

lice. Capital punishment is an ineffective tactic for deterring crime and is used discriminatorily against minorities, particularly black who commit crimes against whites. The death penalty has been inflicted at significantly higher rates on minorities, specifically African-Americans. In fact, George Baldus and statistician George Woodworth found that death penalty odds are 3.9 times higher if the defendant is black. After acknowledging such a staggering statistic, one might question who makes the critical decisions regarding who lives and who dies. Recent studies found that the district attorneys who make the final decision in death penalty cases in the United States are 98 percent white and one percent African American. The extreme disparities between the percentages explain the racially biased implementation of the death penalty. It seems that racially charged dis-

crimination rooted in the 1600s is still prevalent in today’s “color-blind” society. Death penalty expert, Richard Diet- KALYN er, found that HOYLE blacks who kill whites were more likely to receive the death penalty than any other offender-victim combination. It is quite possible that if Troy Davis had chose to murder a black police officer the district attorney would have allowed him to perish in a cell. Dieter also found that black defendants on average are faced with a distinctly higher chance of receiving the death penalty than all other similarly situated defendants. Such findings point to a judicial system that is inclined and influenced by historically consistent racial prejudices. The implementation of the

death penalty is somewhat if not completely biased towards white Americans. The threat of death by execution does not deter capital crimes more than imprisonment. Clever conservatives use such persuasive political clichés to amplify this plausible concept and to justify their positions, but the facts do not support it. An overwhelming majority of capital crimes are not premeditated, they normally occur in the heat of the moment. Hence, the fear of the death penalty will seldom inﬂuence an offender to restrain from committing a capital crime. Hugo Adam Bedau, a death penalty expert, found that only two percent of those convicted of criminal homicide are sentenced to the death penalty. Therefore, even the infrequent person who somehow evaluates the risk of the death penalty before committing a murder would probably expire in an eight by ten cell block if they play their cards right. Without

JAY SCHALIN

MCT Campus

Well, write for us! Contributor’s Meeting Every Wednesday

5 p.m. in GCB Room 328

Our president is black, but our problems are growing traitor, I challenge you to ask yourself what major moves has our president made since being in office? If the man TRUMAINE makes mis- MCCASKILL takes we must hold him accountable to them. Every time George W. Bush dropped the ball the black community was the first group of people to say what a terrible president he was. For every mistake he made, we held him personally responsible for the mistake and told him he needs to fix it. Now, in 2011, if the Obama administration fails to do what has been promised to the American people, we sit back and declare that the problems with the Obama administration are the fault of his predecessor and will take more than four years to fix. Although I agree with that statement to an extent, what positive progression have we made as a country that would reflect how our president is making strong visible strides? For starters, last week, new census data showed the nation’s poverty rate rose to more than 15 percent, the highest level since 1993. More than 46 million Ameri-

cans are now considered in poverty, 2.6 million more than last year. In an attempt to save us from an economic crisis, the Obama administration put into place the stimulus package. However, many economists have proven that this program was a failure in terms of saving us from the economic crisis we were trying to avoid. Need more evidence to the struggles of his presidency? Well let’s not forget about the debt ceiling and how it is basically non-existent now. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said, “Never again will any president, from either party, be allowed to raise the debt ceiling without being held accountable for it by the American people and without having to engage in the kind of debate we’ve just come through.” Additionally, our relations abroad have not improved. What signiﬁcant things have we seen done to improve our relations with countries in the Middle East and Africa? Many, if not all, of the same issues we faced abroad during the Bush years are still here. The Obama administration can hang their hat on the assassination of Osama Bin Laden and seemingly calming issues in Iran and Iraq. Nevertheless, with the exception of that, the war on terror is still a very likely

A compilation of racially biased death penalty statistics serve as evidence of the racism and prejudice that has plagued the United States for centuries. In a country supposedly founded on Christian principals, our leaders choose to send a message of the permissibility of murder when it is used in an effort to solve social problems. The Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution is violated when a convicted person is stripped of the possibility of new evidence being presented or legal ramiﬁcations that could warrant a reversal or release. The concept of due process under the law has been overlooked for years and could have saved Troy Davis’ life. Whether Davis or any other death row inmate in the United States is guilty or not, the bottom line is that the death penalty is irrevocable and a mistake cannot be pardoned. -kalynhoyle@live.com and follow us on Twitter: @ATRegister

College football and the NFL

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At what point will we hold President Barack Obama accountable for the many issues we are facing in our country today? As an Obama voter, I must admit I have been a tad bit unsatisfied with the progress the country is making right now. I voted to elect him into office not because he’s black, but because I felt he was the best man for the job. However, I feel that the black community is supporting a man because of his race, not his quality of work. In all honesty, if we stepped back and looked, we are probably in worst shape now than we were in 2008 when he was elected. Before I am called an Obama hater let me explain myself. I acknowledge that he has come into office after eight years of one of the worst presidencies in our country’s history. In addition to that, he has adopted the problems of a country that has been piling on debt for years that precedes even the Bush administration. Nonetheless, after three years in office, I have seen no visible, or invisible for that matter, signs of progress abroad or at home. I feel that the excitement of our first black president has come and gone. Now it is time for him to do the job we elected him to do. And for the ladies and gentlemen who will be quick to accuse me of being a sellout or

mentally analyzing the possibility of receiving the death penalty, capital punishment has no significance or use as a deterrent of capital offenses. According to Amnesty International findings, murder rates in death penalty states have consistently been slightly higher than those in abolition states. Unfortunately, this proves that if a person feels that it is necessary to take a life, he or she will take a life. Fear is not an element within the mind of a bonafide murderer, whether he or she is in a death penalty state or not. Death penalty supporters often preach that the death penalty will decrease the number of assaults on police officers. In fact, there have been more assaults on police officers in states that still implement the death penalty than in states that have abolished the death penalty. The death penalty has never and never will keep a criminal from engaging in a criminal act of any kind.

threat. The Obama administration has had quite a few accomplishments in these last three years, but in terms of the major issues (economy, education, issues overseas, etc.) the Obama administration has failed to meet the standards many Americans would like for them to meet. His approval rating is currently at an all time low. Although I do not feel that he should lose the election in 2012, I do believe the Obama administration needs to step up to the plate and take care of the issues we have been facing during his entire term. I believe the Obama administration when they say they are working around the clock to help our country. That being said, I also believe what people do more than what people say. And thus far, I do not see much doing. We have so many people of color who are still on this high of having our ﬁrst black president that we forget that all of the issues we voted him into ofﬁce for in 2008 are not only still here, but are progressively worsening by the day. I support our president, but it would be nice for that change he promised the American people to come sooner than later. -tlmccask@ncat.edu and follow him on Twitter: @TrumaineWasHere

It’s time to recognize that Division I college football is really a minor league professional sport and treat it like the pro game it is. That means making drastic, fundamental changes that end college football’s role as the National Football League’s sole development agency and removing the nonstudent players from campus so America’s universities can focus on their real mission: education. Until such measures are taken, college football will remain a corrupting inﬂuence on both society and higher education. Players, coaches, administrators, trustees, students and even some faculty conspire to hide the deceptions. After many decades of rules changes, little has changed: Last year, 2004 national champion University of Southern California was stripped of its title; this year, 2001 national champion Miami and 2002 national champion Ohio State are in hot water. Reform attempts fail because they ignore the extreme level of fan and alumni support that college football enjoys, the hoped-for rewards from television and bowl games which include not just money but publicity and the fact that playing college football is the only path for talented high school players to get to the pros. As long as these three factors remain, corruption is inevitable. Most cheating begins with offering scholarships to players who don’t belong in college. Winning requires the best athletes, not the best students, and it’s obvious to any objective observer that many Division I football players are not at home in the classroom; at best, they are faking it. They are steered into meaningless classes with “safe” professors; they plagiarize; they get illicit tutoring whatever it takes to retain eligibility. Many coaches, alumni, administrators and faculty facilitate the charade. Even schools with high admission standards routinely recruit athletes with ninth-grade academic skills. At the top-tier University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, it recently was revealed that about half the players in the last six football recruiting classes were admitted through a special committee process required for students who fall below minimum academic requirements. A career in professional football requires physical toughness and aggression big muscles, not a degree in English or physics. So it’s irrational to expect a player’s chance for a possible pro career to depend on his academic perfor-

mance. Some of these players will cheat to get by; to expect otherwise suggests a complete lack of understanding of human nature and incentives. Further complicating the matter are the often-unrealistic demands on players’ time, even for serious scholar-athletes. Many say that colleges exploit players by earning profits from their talent and giving little in return, and should therefore pay them salaries. While serious student-athletes and there are many do improve their futures by earning real degrees, academically unqualified athletes often don’t benefit much from their time on campus. They become prime candidates to accept illegal benefits from corner-cutting coaches, overzealous boosters and rogue agents. Their talents have value, but a college education is the wrong form of payment. Rachel McCoy, wife of former University of Texas quarterback Colt McCoy, discussed the pressures players faced in a candid ESPN radio interview this summer that had many wondering whether Texas would be the next school investigated by the NCAA. “There’s no way that college kids can really, honestly say no to all this stuff,” she suggested. The only way to end the cheating and hypocrisy is to eliminate the one corrupting principle that can be eliminated requiring college for prospective professional football players. Cutting the cord may sound impossible, but Major League Baseball provides a hopeful model for doing it. Major League Baseball subsidizes its own minor leagues, instead of getting colleges to foot the bill for player development. As a result, college baseball is thriving with good players who actually want an education. But players who would rather forgo college also have a route into the pros: baseball’s minor leagues, where they can be paid a salary while improving their skills. To adopt such a model, the NCAA would have to agree to severely punish any school that admits players who have little chance of academic success at that institution. This means many outstanding athletes will never play Division I football. The NFL certainly wouldn’t like it it would have to subsidize the new minor leagues. But the alumni would still have football teams to cheer (manned with real students), athletes with more brawn than brain would still have a route into the pros, and universities could finally end their hypocrisy.

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 are 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, September 28, 2011

Coach Bennett brings the big dogs karmen robinson Sports Editor

After a week off, the Aggies were anxious to get back on the field to avenge themselves on their home field after getting blown two weeks earlier by Appalachian State. In the first quarter, Grant Clayton’s 40 yard field goal at 3rd and long gave the Chanticleers a 3-0 lead and that would be the only score of the first quarter. Neither team could get into their offensive rhythm and were forced to punt after every almost every third down. The second quarter was a different story for Coastal Carolina’s offense. The Chanticleers had three consecutive first downs with just under nine minutes left in the half. Coastal Carolina scored two touchdowns in the last six minutes of the half while quarterback Lewis Kindle and the rest of the Aggie offense still could not manage to execute a big play. Coastal quarterback Aramis Hillary was protected by the much bigger Chanticleer offensive line, when Hillary saw wide receiver Matt Hazel open in the endzone to put coastal up by ten. The Aggies trotted back on the field to play offense, but the defense quickly stepped back on again after Skyler Thomas’s punt was blocked by Coastal’s Dushawn Davis and the Chanticleers regained ball possession and went on to score another touchdown. “We gave seven points in the first half to the blocked punt…

it really changed the momentum of the game,” said A&T head coach Rod Broadway. Wallace Miles, standout wide receiver who is now second on A&T’s all-time receptions list, only had two receptions in the first half and those were in the first quarter. A&T went into the locker room scoreless. The Chanticleers led 24-0 at halftime. In the second half, the Aggies had possession of the ball for the majority of the 3rd quarter. A&T slowly moved its way up the field on a 17-play drive. The Aggies began to get fired up after Miles leaped in the air through two Coastal defensive players to make a crafty catch for an A&T 1st down. In the same drive in the red zone, Kindle connected with an open Miles for a six-yard completion to finally put the Aggies on the scoreboard, bu the Aggies still trailed 24-7. At the start of the fourth quarter, Coastal again was forced to punt early and A&T’s drive started 15 seconds into the quarter. The Aggies yet again couldn’t capitalize off the mistakes of Coastal Carolina and decided to punt at 3rd and nine. Fortunately for the Aggies, Skyler Thomas’s 33 yard punt to the Coastal 20 was fumbled by Niccolo Mastromatteo and recovered by A&T’s Travis Crosby to put the Aggies in good field position. In Coastal territory, the first play of the drive was a 10 yard pass from quarterback Lewis Kindle to Wallace Miles that

Sports Editor

Perhaps the biggest team rivalry of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference took place last Friday. The Eagles of North Carolina Central (1-12) and the Aggies of North Carolina A&T (0-16) met at the net in Durham where the Eagles defeated the Aggies in a 3-0 sweep (25-14, 17, 15). The Aggies were not able to stop the powerful kills of Emmanuel Santos and Shantal Moore who had 23 kills combined. “I think we did a good job. We played good for the situation we’re in,” said sophomore Murphye Williams. An obvious missing presence from A&T was Tatiana Cooper, but the Aggies added another player to their roster. Freshman Ian Thompson is the newest addition to the A&T volleyball roster, which now officially consists of eight players. Thompson recorded one kill for the night. The legendary A&T and NCCU rival-

TEAM

MEAC

North Carolina A&T 0-0 1-1 Hampton 2-0 South Carolina State 0-1 Delaware State 0-2 Howard 1-0 Norfolk State 0-0 North Carolina Central 1-0 Morgan State 1-0 Savannah State 1-1 Bethune-Cookman 0-1 Florida A&M

OVR. 1-2 2-2 2-2 2-2 1-3 3-1 1-3 2-2 1-3 2-1 2-2

THIS WEEK’S GAME: Saturday vs. Morgan State Baltimore, Md. 4 p.m. NEXT WEEKS’ GAME: Saturday vs. Bethune-Cookman Daytona Beach, Fl. 1:30 p.m.

volleyball TEAM

Photo by kenneth l. hawkins jr. • the A&T register

A&T's Mike Mayhew tries to run the ball as Coastal Carolina's Josh Norman leaps to make the tackle.

put the Aggies at 1st and goal. A Mike Mayhew nine yard rush put the Aggies within one yard of the endzone, and Kindle carried the ball in for a touchdown on a one-yard quarterback sneak that cut the score to 24-14. Coastal crushed the hopes of A&T after Hazel’s 33 yard touchdown reception to shut out the Aggies 31-14 in a quick 58 second four play drive, handing A&T its first home loss of the season. Kindle was called for intentional grounding twice that

ry wasn’t the only rivalry in McLendonMcDougal gym that night. Twins Arlene and Darlene Mitchell who both played volleyball for A&T also had their own sibling rivalry going on. Arlene is the assistant coach of A&T, and Darlene is the assistant coach of NCCU. “It’s an interesting, friendly rivalry. It’s a pretty unique situation that we both ended up being assistant coaches at two Division I schools in the same conference who are also rivals,” said Arlene. There was never a quiet moment in the gym as NCCU students and fans cheered Eagles on to victory. Arlene Mitchell was a four-time AllMEAC selection and is still A&T’s alltime leader of kills (1,674) and service aces (277). “My sister and I were always competitive growing up, so I loved beating them,” said Darlene as she laughed. “A&T is always in my heart though.” The two sisters still live together. The Aggies will take on Radford next Tuesday, Oct. 4.

Photo by kenneth l. hawkins jr. • the A&T register

jeana daniels spikes the ball against UNCG in previous match against the Spartans.

AGGIES RUNDOWN football

Two rivals in one match karmen robinson

caused the Aggies to lose a total of 20 yards. “We don’t have continuity on our offensive line,” said Kindle as he continued to explain why the Aggies can not seem to execute their offense. The Aggies received word just one day before the game that they would have to play without offensive lineman, Alex Harper, due to ineligibility reasons. “We knew what they wanted to do. We just couldn’t accomplish it on 3rd down,” said D’Vonte Grant, sophomore linebacker. Grant recorded 12

tackles for the afternoon. “A&T did not quit,” said Coastal Carolina Head Coach David Bennett. “Once they get their program up and the number of scholarships, they’re going to be pretty good.” The Aggies will go up to Baltimore to play their conference opener against Morgan State at 1 p.m. -klrobin2@ncat.edu and follow her on Twitter: @KayRob_

Aggies want a bite of the Bears Aggie Football: On to the Next vs.

kalyn hoyle Contributor

The North Carolina A&T Aggies (1-2) will travel to Baltimore where they will take on the Morgan State Bears (2-2) this Saturday. After suffering two straight doubledigit losses to Appalachian State and Coastal Carolina the Aggies will attempt to avenge themselves against a talented and well coached Morgan State football team. The game will be the Aggies first conference game of the year. During their most recent game against the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, the Aggies displayed significant flaws on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Defensive backs and linebackers were exposed as the Chanticleers were able to pass and run with ease. It would be suprising if the Aggies are able to remain competitive against the Bears for very long. Mental mistakes and poor tackling have hurt the Aggies for the past two games. Donald Hill-Eley is entering his tenth year as the head coach at Morgan State. Hill-Eley is currently the third winningest coach in MSU history and is known as a great offensive minded coach, emphasizing discipline and patience. The Bears are looking to improve from a disappointing 2010 season with a 4-7 record. The Bears displayed a stingy defense against the Howard Bison in week three. Winning 14-9, the Bears recorded one interception and five fumble recoveries. A second-quarter, Michael Dallas, touchdown fumble recovery in Howard's endzone proved to be the difference in the game.

Defense is definitely the strongest part of the Bears youthful-developing team. Sophmore defensive back Kenneth Ridley and freshman linebacker Michael Dallas are the key components of an aggressive Bears defensive unit. Contrarily, the Bears offense was quite rusty against Howard. The Bear offense was not very efficient at all, gaining a total of only 187 total yards. Freshman quarterback, Robert Council could definitely use some polishing as he finished with a decent 12 of 18 passing for 119 yards and an interception. The Bears only converted on 4 of the 15 third down plays against the Bisons. The Bears have no star skill players on offense, but secondteam All-MEAC offensive lineman Lawrence Brewer has outstanding strength and great blocking technique. The undersized Aggie defensive line will have their hands full with the 6'5 290-pound Brewer. The Aggies also hope to see wide receiver Torrian Warren back in the line up after being out for three weeks with a high ankle sprain. It will be imperative that the Aggies get points on the board early against the Bears. The Aggies negative body language when facing deficits early in games communicates a lack of focus and a loss in confidence to fans. Simply, the Aggies must play hard and smart on both sides of the ball to beat the Bears. -kdhoyle@ncat.edu and follow us on Twitter: @ATRegister

MEAC

North Carolina A&T Hampton South Carolina State Delaware State Howard Norfolk State North Carolina Central Morgan State Savannah State Bethune-Cookman Florida A&M MD Eastern Shore Coppin State

0-1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-1

OVR. 0-16 3-7 7-10 1-11 1-14 3-8 0-11 3-11 0-12 6-8 0-9 6-6 3-13

NEXT WEEKS’ GAME: Tuesday vs. Radford University Radford, Va. 6 p.m. Friday vs. Bethune-Cookman Daytona Beach, Fla. Sunday vs. Florida A&M Tallahassee, Fla.

AROUND SPORTS

A R L I N G T O N , Te x a s (MCT)- It wasn't pretty. In fact, it was downright ugly at times. Yet, there is something sweet and satisfying about getting a win when you are not at your best and still puts your team into a three-way tie for first place early in the season. A Cowboys team that finished dead last in 2010 is now in an early three-way tie for first place with Washington and the New York Giants following a 18-16 victory against the Redskins Monday night at Cowboys Stadium. Rookie kicker Dan Bailey capped a perfect night with his sixth field goal of the game_a 40-yarder with 1 minute, 52 seconds left on the clock. And when the Cowboys defense made it hold up with a sack and forced fumble by linebacker Anthony Spencer, the 91,017 fans in attendance and the entire Cowboys sideline went into a frenzy, led by fist-pumping head coach Jason Garrett. "Bailey did a really good job of going out and doing his his job," Garrett said. "The field goals were the difference in the game. It wasn't a perfect performance. It was enough to win the game. The biggest thing we did was keep playing. You have to play through adversity. You have to keep plugging away." "When you can string 2, 3, 4 kicks together_it's rare to have that many attempts, but when you string that many together it kind of gives you the confidence to go out and make it," Considering the four errant shotgun snaps by center Phil Costa, two turnovers, the poor play in the red zone and a number of drive-killing and extending penalties_also quarterback Tony Romo playing with a fractured rib_the Cowboys' win was a testament to the direction the team has taken since Garrett took over as head coach midway through last season. The Cowboys are 7-4 since he replaced Wade Phillips midway through last season _ 5-3 to end 2010 and 2-1 to start 2011. Garrett's leadership through the adversity was not lost on giddy owner Jerry Jones in the postgame locker room. "It's a credit to our team and a credit to JG that we got our act together and won this game." Jones said.

The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, September 28, 2011