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1 MEET,
SWIM & DIVE
Vol. 88, No. 39 Monday, February 27, 2012
13 RECORDS Workin’ like a dog Two German Shepherds retire from police force after serving, sniffing for almost 10 years MATT SCHMACHTENBERG / THE BREEZE
TOP Swimmers compete in a home meet against the Naval Academy in October. BOTTOM The team practices in January. The Dukes had an early lead at the CAA championship meet last week, winning by 146 points.
Dukes break school, individual records in first CAA win since 2001 By CARLEIGH DAVIS The Breeze
The JMU “swomen” crushed Colonial Athletic Association competition last week, breaking school records during the four-day championship event in Fairfax and propelling some members to the National Collegiate Athletic Association championships. In addition to school records, individuals also broke their own records. Junior Anna Susko swam a time of ::, becoming the first player in JMU’s history to break the two-minute mark in -yard backstroke. Although proud of her individual success, Susko was more impressed with the success of the team. “I have never seen this team fight as hard as they did this weekend and we did it with heart and pride,” Susko said. “Everyone did their part and left all they had in the water.” This championship win is the first the Dukes have had since , an achievement they earned by having more points than second-place Towson. “The past few years, the team has just been moving up in place and last year we were hoping to be one and we got two,” said junior Andrea Criscuolo. “This year we came back and we just wanted to fight harder than ever. It was such an amazing feeling when you get everyone on the team to work together. Everyone was up and cheering and it was just so amazing.” Even during downtime, the team continued to be as involved in the races as possible. The team is small, having only members, but wasn’t invisible at any point in the competition. “We knew how to make our presence known, even with such a small team, and we never let up on being loud and proud,” Susko said. This presence was one of the more important aspects of the team’s success, Criscuolo said. “Whenever I was up to race, the whole team would stand along the side of the pool cheering you on,” Criscuolo said. “The support of the whole team being there was amazing. You feel like you have so much support and we couldn’t have done it without being behind each other for each race.” The divers also played a big part in the Dukes’ success. Senior diver Nicole Jotso brought home the CAA Diver of the Year award and placed first
Records broken
ROBERT BOAG / THE BREEZE
800-yard freestyle relay 200-yard medley relay 100-yard individual butterfly 200-yard freestyle relay 400-yard medley relay 400-yard freestyle relay 500-yard individual freestyle 200-yard individual medley 50-yard individual freestyle 100-yard individual freestyle 200-yard individual breaststroke 200-yard individual butterfly 200-yard individual backstroke
on the one-meter board, an event that boasted five JMU divers. “Bringing back five girls for finals is something that has never been done in JMU history,” Jotso said. “Each girl went out there and gave it their all, and it showed.” As a senior, Jotso has been a part of the team that has fallen just short of first through the years. “We made sure to support everyone percent,” Jotso said. “That’s the kind of team we are. “We’re a family, through the good times and bad. The feeling of bringing home a championship after years is an indescribable feeling that is hard to put into words.” The swimmers who qualified for the NCAA championships will travel March - to Auburn, Ala., to represent JMU on the national level.
One solution proposed by the faculty senate to raise faculty salaries is to make students pay for it. A resolution put forth by the budget and faculty concerns committees of the faculty senate requests that President Linwood Rose ask the Board of Visitors for a tuition raise to accommodate faculty salaries. Interim Provost Jerry Benson said that salary increases for all employees of the university is a top priority. All JMU employees have faced a salary freeze since the - academic year.
2/27 INSIDE
The request will be reviewed by the full senate before it’s sent. Another problem compounded by the salary freeze is the potential salary inversion faced by faculty members who fall behind as new ones are hired at ever growing salaries. Benson presented a faculty salary inversion study to the senate on Thursday. The study was undertaken by consulting firm Segal Sibson last semester to find out whether salary inversion is a problem and what faculty members are affected by it. Only full-time instructional faculty were targeted in the study, which
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Sniffing out drugs and explosives for about years in the field may seem like an eternity, but in dog years, it’s a normal career for two of Harrisonburg’s furriest. Nobel, an -year-old German Shepherd, and Robi, a -year-old German Shepherd, are officially retiring from the K- unit of HPD. Nobel’s handler, Lt. Rod Pollard, has been a part of the police department since . Nobel was Harrisonburg’s first bomb and explosives detection dog but was considered “dual purpose” because he also sniffed out narcotics such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, Pollard said. Robi, who has worked since , was used as a drug detection dog. One of Robi’s biggest finds was pounds of marijuana in a package at the local post office, according to his handler Brian Moyers. Both Robi and Nobel were constantly used during road checks or on routine patrol. According to the handlers, the dogs take their jobs very seriously and at first had a difficult time adjusting to the retired life. Nobel especially is the more aggressive of the two dogs. “I left for work without him and he rearranged my furniture for me,” Pollard said jokingly. “Their whole meaning in life is to be a police dog.” The handlers said that whether on the job or in training, the dogs consider it a game. “They associate everything with play, play, play,” Moyers said. “When they’re out here all they’re trying to do is find the ball.” The dogs typically worked what’s called a “power shift” with their handlers, in which they were on the job from a.m. to p.m. When they weren’t on the clock, the dogs went home with their handlers. “Every crime or violent crime in the county we’ve had our K- unit utilized on these cases,” Moyers said. Although the dogs have always worked to help the community,
CONTACT Carleigh Davis at breezesports@gmail.com.
Faculty senate suggests pay raises come from students’ pockets By GEORGINA BUCKLEY The Breeze
By JOSH HAHN The Breeze
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defined inversion as a situation in which similarly ranked faculty hired in - or later were hired with greater salaries than those hired before -, according to a letter from Benson to the faculty senate. Benson said salaries for of those pre- faculty are potentially inverted. It wasn’t indicated which faculty from which departments were affected, but those faculty will be notified of their inversion and their salaries will be adjusted accordingly on July . Some senators weren’t satisfied with the conclusion of the survey. Mark
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Nobel, an 8-year-old German Shepherd, poses with his handler, Lt. Rod Pollard. Nobel is retiring from the HPD K-9 unit after working there since 2005.
Pollard said he and his family have also appreciated Nobel’s commitment to his handler on a personal level. “As much as these dogs have been a resource to the department and the community, he’s kept us out of harm’s way numerous times through their commitment and bravery in any situation,” Pollard said. Both Nobel and Robi were brought to the United States from Europe early in their lives, but are considered “green dogs” because neither experienced much outside of the country. Because of their early training in Europe, the officers’ commands to the dogs aren’t in English. Moyers speaks Dutch when giving commands to Robi, who is from Hungary. There are typically five dogs in the K- unit at full staffing, according to Pollard. Max, a Belgian Malinois, has already been chosen as one replacement. The other will be chosen sometime later in spring. Officers expose the dogs to reallife, scenario-based training so they’re prepared for anything on the job. see DOGS, page A4
Police investigate weekend stabbing Harrisonburg police officers are pursing several “people of interest” involving a stabbing that occurred around : a.m. on Friday. No charges have been handed down. Officers responded to an apartment on S. Main St. after a report of a man being stabbed. Two men and one woman got into a physical argument before the stabbing occurred, according to police. The man was stabbed in his torso and the woman also had minor injuries to her hand. Both were taken to Rockingham Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police have also identified a third man who was involved, but are still looking for him. — staff report
see FACULTY, page A4
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COURTESY OF MARY-HOPE VASS
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LIFE Taco truck tussell
We surveyed three area taco trucks to see whose cusine reigns supreme.
LAURA WILKINS / THE BREEZE
A man and woman were stabbed at an apartment on 22 S. Main St. at 1:15 a.m. on Friday.
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SPORTS Baseball strikes out
The Dukes fall hard this weekend, losing three of four in a series against Bucknell.