02 20 14 The Crimson White

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2014 VOLUME 120 ISSUE 90 Serving The University of Alabama since 1894

NEWS | JUSTICE SYSTEM

8%

92% Judicial

In Alabama: Overrides rides to life

OVERRIDE RIDE DE on trial

JUDICIAL OVERRIDE In cases involving the death penalty, judges can overturn the jury’s verdict.

rides to death Overrides

July of 2011, 21 percent of the DEATH ROW: In death row inmates in Alabama were

override still exists in three states. It has been STATES: Judicial used to impose a death penalty 27 times since 2000.

Alabama used it 26 times, and Delaware used it once.

sentenced to death via judicial override.

1 DELAWARE

26 ALABAMA

FLORIDA

CW | Hannah Glenn; Information obtained from the Equal Justice Initiative

State justice system permits judges to modify sentencing

By Samuel Yang | Staff Reporter It’s an unexpected coda to one of America’s most iconic institutions. The jury of 12 strangers, summoned by the state, emerges into the spotlight and tensely delivers the sentence before dissolving back into anonymity.

Afterward, the judge reviews the case and reverses the jury’s sentence.

These are, in theory, outliers – cases that launched themselves into the public spotlight or polarized a community, cases where a jury became an instrument of vengeance rather than justice.

In those cases, judicial override, the power of a judge to overturn a jury’s verdict, is supposed to let judges moderate the process, said Talitha Bailey, director of the Capital Defense Law Clinic.

“In theory, it was supposed to be something to assuage the passions of the community,” Bailey said. “Judges would take care of

TODAYON CAMPUS Career fair WHAT: Technical and Engineering Career Fair WHEN: 11 a.m. - 4 p.m WHERE: Bryant Conference Center

these outlier cases.”

But over the years, the state of Alabama has become the outlier in the equation when it comes to national death penalty trends, said Randy Susskind, deputy director of Equal Justice Initiative.

Since 2000, judicial override has been exercised 27 times, 26 of those times in Alabama, according to a 2013 Supreme Court dissent.

A July 2011 EJI report, “The Death Penalty in Alabama: Judge Override,” refers to Alabama as the only state where judges can override decisions “without standard.”

WHAT: Girls Game Free and Fight Night WHEN: 6 p.m.

WHERE: Hive Bang Gaming

Nightlife WHAT: Nic Snow Band WHEN: Midnight WHERE: Rounders

SEE JUDICIAL PAGE 12

SPORTS | MEN’S BASKETBALL

Jacobs leaves team indefinitely Men’s basketball team will play without junior forward

By Charlie Potter | Assistant Sports Editor

Gaming scene

In a nation where the death penalty is falling out of favor, Alabama sentences more people to death per capita than any other state. Susskind said judicial override has contributed to those figures. EJI’s report found that 21 percent of Alabama’s 199 death row inmates were sentenced via a judicial override.

“Our view is that overriding a life recommendation is unconstitutional,” Susskind said.

The Alabama men’s basketball team will be without junior forward Nick Jacobs for the remainder of the season. The 6-foot8-inch forward has taken an indefinite leave of absence from basketball activities, coach Anthony Grant announced Wednesday.

“Nick and I met early this week regarding a pattern of behavior and inconsistencies with his responsibilities as a studentathlete,” Grant said in a statement released

by UA Athletics. “When addressed with these off-the-court issues, he requested a leave of absence, which I granted. He

and I both feel it is in his best interest to step away from the team for the immediate future. We will continue to provide Nick the support and assistance he needs to reassess his priorities and focus on his well-being.”

The Crimson Tide’s first game without Jacobs’ services will be Thursday when the team travels to College Station, Texas, to face the Texas A&M Aggies.

Jacobs has been an integral piece to Alabama’s team on both ends of the court.

He saw the court in all 25 of the Crimson Tide’s games this season and averaged 8.4 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.

Grant said he is confident with the players who will make their way to Texas.

“We’ve had a good week of practice,” Grant said. “We’ve got a team of guys

that’s prepared to go in there and compete and play well, so we’ll go as normal, the normal preparation.”

But not having Jacobs on the floor for Alabama is not normal.

The big man was the Crimson Tide’s third leading scorer behind guards Trevor Releford and Retin Obasohan. Going on the road without one of its best players will be hard for this team to overcome.

Texas A&M boasts a 4-1 record at home against Southeastern Conference opponents, while Alabama has struggled away from Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide is 0-8 in games on the road this season, something Grant said he is aware of.

“The challenge for us is to go and get a SEE BASKETBALL PAGE 3

CULTURE | FILM

Tuscaloosa film community thrives

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77º/41º

64º/36º

CONTACT

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Friday

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Thursday

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INSIDE

Sports Puzzles Classifieds

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today

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Briefs Opinions Culture

SEE FILM PAGE 3

CW | Austin Bigoney Danny Ryan partnered with Leigh Rusevlyan to start the Black Warrior Film Festival, showcasing student films and opening networking opportunities in Tuscaloosa.

s

today’s paper

WEATHER

When talking about film, students might think of festivals like Cannes or Sundance, living in L.A. or New York, or large-scale Hollywood productions. Tuscaloosa’s film scene may be the last thing to come to mind, but students, faculty and community members are working to change that.

Henry Busby, a University of Alabama alumnus, said he believes Tuscaloosa’s film culture began to change while he was a student at Alabama. Busby, who graduated in

Schwartz and Andrew Grace were all big additions to the department, Busby said.

The focus of the film department began to move toward storytelling and hands-on producing. There was an increasing effort to make sure students had what they needed to be effective filmmakers after graduation, and Busby said that made a big difference.

“It’s a building process,” Busby said.

“Each year, though, things are getting more and more creative.”

Last year, the film department took another big step with the start of a local film festival. The Black Warrior Film Festival was established by students who recognized

recycle thi

By Laura Testino and Alexandra Ellsworth | CW Staff

2012 with a degree in telecommunication and film, said film was not much of a priority during his first year at the University. In fact, he said the film department was more focused on broadcast news, rather than creating movies.

“I was always really interested in film,” Busby said. “But it seemed like a lot of people were really frustrated and unhappy with the film department at the time. It was much more focused on broadcast news, and though they were doing that really well, there was not much of an outlet for people who wanted to create films.”

Busby saw a big change his sophomore year. The University began hiring several new professors. Rachel Raimist, Adam

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Art of filmmaking localized with series, student festivals

email

editor@cw.ua.edu

website cw.ua.edu

CAMPUSBRIEFS

Thursday February 20, 2014

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Saban subpoenaed due to lawsuit Alabama football coach Nick Saban is being subpoenaed in connection with a lawsuit by Crown Automobile against Mercedes-Benz to prevent the opening of an Irondale location.

According to court documents uploaded to al.com, Saban is being asked to hand over all correspondence that discusses Saban “participating in the ownership and operation of a Mercedes dealership, including but not limited to a dealership in the Birmingham, Alabama area.”

SCENEON CAMPUS

Compiled by Kayla Howard, Marc Torrence and Charlie Potter

‘The Help’ author to speak at UA New York Times best-selling novelist and University of Alabama alumna Kathryn Stockett will share the story behind her novel “The Help.” The talk will take place at 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28, in Moody Music Hall. The event is free and open to the public, and there will be a brief question and answer session following the lecture.

Stockett will also be available to sign copies of her book after the event.

Compiled by Taylor Manning

St. John to discuss Saban article

CW | Lindsey Leonard Freshman Cameron Goalen and high school senior Chris Spencer practice percussion rhythms on the Quad Wednesday.

Warren St. John, author and former “New York Times” reporter, will speak about his recent profile of coach Nick Saban, published in the September issue of “GQ” magazine. The talk is open to the public and will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday in Reese Phifer Room 216.

FRIDAY WHAT: Desperate Measures WHEN: 4 p.m.

WHERE: Rhythm & Brews

Compiled by Taylor Manning

Moundville kicks off series The University of Alabama’s Moundville Archaeological Park will host “Saturday in the Park,” a series of educational programs that run during the spring months.

The program will begin Saturday and will feature guest speaker Betsy Irwin, the park’s education coordinator. Park admission is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors 55 years and older and $6 for students. Residents of Moundville and children 5 years of age or younger will be admitted free.

Compiled by Taylor Manning

P.O. Box 870170 Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 Newsroom: 348-6144 | Fax: 348-8036 Advertising: 348-7845 Classifieds: 348-7355

SATURDAY

TODAY WHAT: Technical and Engineering Career Fair WHEN: 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

WHERE: Bryant Conference Center WHAT: Toast of the Tour and Silent Auction WHEN: 5:30-7:30 p.m.

WHERE: V & W Supply, 712 20th Avenue WHAT: Nic Snow Band WHEN: Midnight WHERE: Rounders

WHAT: Softball vs. UFC WHEN: 6 p.m.

WHERE: Rhoads Softball Stadium

WHAT: International Coffee Hour WHEN: 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.

WHERE: 121 B.B. Comer Hall

WHAT: On the Town: Chris Tucker WHEN: 4:30 p.m WHERE: Stardome Comedy Club

WHAT: Glow Run 5K WHEN: 6 p.m.

WHERE: Downtown Tuscaloosa WHAT: After Dark Party WHEN: 8 p.m.

WHERE: Hive Bang Gaming

WHAT: Baseball vs. Stephen F. Austin WHEN: 6 p.m.

WHERE: Sewell-Thomas Stadium

WHAT: Friday Night Magic: The Gathering WHEN: 6:30 p.m.

WHERE: Crimson Castle Games

WHAT: Mallet Open Mic Night WHEN: 7:30 p.m WHERE: Palmer Hall basement

EDITORIAL editor-in-chief

Mazie Bryant editor@cw.ua.edu

managing editor

Lauren Ferguson

production editor

Katherine Owen

visuals editor online editor news editor

Anna Waters Mackenzie Brown Mark Hammontree

culture editor

Abbey Crain

sports editor

Marc Torrence

opinion editor chief copy editor

Christopher Edmunds

video editor

Daniel Roth

photo editor

Austin Bigoney

lead designer

Sloane Arogeti

community managers

Elizabeth Lowder Lauren Robertson

ADVERTISING advertising manager

territory manager

special projects manager

creative services manager

account executives

BURKE

John Brinkerhoff

LUNCH

Steak Roasted Vegetable Bulgur Salad Seasoned Corn Home-Style Mashed Potatoes Eggplant Parmesan with Marinara Sauce

DINNER

BBQ Brisket Pepperoni Pizza Scalloped Potatoes Cheese Pizza Eggplant Parmesan with Marinara

Tori Hall 251.751.1781 cwadmanager@gmail.com Chloe Ledet 205.886.3512 territorymanager1@gmail.com Kristen Morrow 205.873.2190 osmspecialprojects92@gmail.com Hillary McDaniel 334.315.6068 Ali Lemmond William Whitlock Kathryn Tanner Camille Dishongh Keenan Madden Julia Kate Mace Katie Schlumper

The Crimson White is the community newspaper of The University of Alabama. The Crimson White is an editorially free newspaper produced by students.The University of Alabama cannot influence editorial decisions and editorial opinions are those of the editorial board and do not represent the official opinions of the University. Advertising offices of The Crimson White are in room 1014, Student Media Building, 414 Campus Drive East. The advertising mailing address is P.O. Box 870170, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487.

The Crimson White (USPS 138020) is published four times weekly when classes are in session during Fall and Spring Semester except for the Monday after Spring Break and the Monday after Thanksgiving, and once a week when school is in session for the summer. Marked calendar provided.

The Crimson White is provided for free up to three issues. Any other papers are $1.00. The subscription rate for The Crimson White is $125 per year.

Checks should be made payable to The University of Alabama and sent to: The Crimson White Subscription Department, P.O. Box 870170, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487. The Crimson White is entered as periodical postage at Tuscaloosa, AL 35401. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Crimson White, P.O. Box 870170, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487. All material contained herein, except advertising or where indicated otherwise, is Copyright © 2014 by The Crimson White and protected under the “Work Made for Hire” and “Periodical Publication” categories of the U.S. copyright laws. Material herein may not be reprinted without the expressed, written permission of The Crimson White.

FRESH FOOD

LAKESIDE LUNCH

DINNER

Seasoned Roast Beef Basa Slider Carrots Steakhouse Potatoes Brown Rice and Bean Sauté

Cajun Pork with Bigarade Sauce Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwich Spicy Corn and Tomatoes Black Beans and Cumin Quinoa and Red Pepper Slider

LUNCH

Fried / Baked Chicken Chicken Broccoli and Cheddar Panini Mashed Potatoes with Corn Glazed Carrots Grilled Veggie and Black Bean Wrap

New student media leaders named

By Katherine Owen | Production Editor The University of Alabama Media Planning Board named Deanne Winslett, a junior majoring in journalism from Huntsville, as editor-in-chief and Keenan Madden, a junior majoring in marketing from Mobile, as advertising manager of The Crimson White for the 2014-15 school year.

“I am very excited,” Winslett said. “I am excited in particular about the direction The Crimson White is going. We’re coming off of a lot of success from this past year, so I’m very honored to carry that over into next year and see how we can take The Crimson White to the next level.”

Chris Roberts, head of the Media Planning Board, said the board was pleased to have several qualified candidates and looks forward to Winslett’s leadership.

“We were fortunate to have lots of people who can do the job,” he said. “It’s the kind of problem you want to have. We were impressed with her dedication to the paper and forward thinking to improve the paper.”

Winslett began writing for The Crimson White in 2011, her freshman year, as a contributing writer for the culture desk.

She then moved up as a culture desk staff reporter in 2012 and assistant culture editor in 2013.

As a writer on culture desk, Winslett covered local and campus art, theater,

Deanne Winslett music, food and international student groups and culture.

Winslett said she hopes to continue the success of the recent years with The Crimson White, following Will Tucker and Mazie Bryant, former and current editors-in-chief, respectively. Winslett said she specifically would like to work on audience interaction and expanding the newspaper’s (coverage.)

“I am very excited about our newsroom’s potential,” Winslett said. “We are in a position where it’s bittersweet. We’re losing a lot of our staff because we have a lot of seniors who are going out, but that means we have a lot of positions to fill, which is an opportunity to put emphasis on having a lot more diversity in our newsroom. I’m very excited about the opportunity to get some new perspectives in there and see what visions they have

Keenan Madden for the newspaper moving forward.”

Madden began her tenure with The Crimson White advertising team as an intern her freshman year. After being hired as an account executive, she covered zone four before moving to zone eight.

“I am very excited for next year,” Madden said. “I love the ad reps I work with now, and they will be a great team to manage. I think next year will be very successful.”

She said she hopes to improve Gameday magazine and the annual coupon booklets. She said she is confident the new staff will help achieve the goals she already has in mind.

“I’m really excited about next year’s team,” Madden said. “I think we have some strong senior reps and some great new ones coming up.”

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Thursday, February 20, 2014

Festivals encourage campus film interest FILM FROM PAGE 1

a need in Tuscaloosa for a creative outlet.

After attending Sundance last year, Danny Ryan, a junior majoring in telecommunication and film, and Leigh Rusevlyan, a senior majoring in telecommunication and film, began the Black Warrior Film Festival as a way to showcase student film and begin to establish Tuscaloosa as a base for networking opportunities.

“We came back and felt that there was really no place anywhere near us that appealed to student filmmakers in a festival

setting, and if there’s not a place for you to showcase your film, you’re not going to make films,” Rusevlyan said. “We felt like there’s so many great, talented people in Tuscaloosa that we wanted to provide an incentive for student filmmakers so they’d have a place to showcase and make it a big event.”

The second annual Black Warrior Film Festival will take place April 11 through 13 and will feature narratives, documentaries, music videos and experimental films from students in universities across the South.

Lectures and workshops led by industry professionals will be interwoven into the presentation of student films.

“I think that going to the

panels and discussions and everything, and hearing from professionals and how they got to where they are, is one big step. And another big step is being able to network with other students from the University and from other universities and really build up your network so you’ll have contacts all over the country,” Ryan said.

In addition to establishing connections with professionals and other student filmmakers, students have the opportunity to explore all the aspects of film as a product of an intense collaborative process.

Ruseylyan said they want the film festival to be a big deal on campus this year.

Students outside of the TCF

Nick Jacobs takes leave of absence BASKETBALL FROM PAGE 1

win on the road,” Grant said.

“Obviously, that’s been a task that we’ve not been able to get over the hurdle with this year. But I think our guys are looking forward to going on the road and trying to get this win.”

After Thursday’s game, Alabama will travel back to Tuscaloosa to host the Missouri Tigers Saturday.

It is a quick turnaround for the Tide, but it is not an unfamiliar occurrence for this year’s team. Alabama saw another one-day break between games at the end of January with a home loss to

department are encouraged to participate in the Black Warrior Film Festival.

The Bama Art House Film Series began in winter 2010 and could be a substantial contributing factor to growing interest by bringing independent filmmaking in town.

“There are more of those kinds of things coming around creating culture in the city, and with the Black Warrior Film Festival too, the city is moving more in that direction,” Busby said.

Professors like Grace said they want to see growth in the film culture of Tuscaloosa, as well.

Grace’s class, Documenting Justice, is geared toward teaching students to look at the world outside of their

PLAN TO GO WHAT: Men’s basketball vs.

Missouri WHEN: Saturday, 7 p.m.

WHERE: Coleman Coliseum Florida on Thursday, Jan. 23, followed by a home victory over LSU on Saturday, Jan. 25.

“They’ve done a pretty good job of being able to turn the page quickly and get prepared for the next task,” Grant said.

“We try to take one game at a time. Right now our total focus is on Texas A&M. We’ll have a day to get ready for Missouri, so we’ll be prepared.”

Justin Work Boots

own perspective.

“What I hope [students] come out of [the class] with is that there are few opportunities in your career here at The University of Alabama to really think about and experience the world from somebody else’s perspective,” he said.

“I think it’s pretty easy to avoid those classes and avoid those topics and avoid, as a college student at UA, ever having to think about the world from somebody else’s perspective.

And to me, the greatest benefit of making a film and making a documentary film is the ability to get outside of your own experience and think about what the world is like from somebody else’s vantage point.”

Busby said a recent testament to the success of the University’s film department comes through looking at alumni who have been taught by professors like Grace.

“There are so many people who are actually getting out of school and going to New York or L.A. or San Francisco and working in film,” Busby said. He is currently working in photography and film in New York with another UA alum.

“Changing film culture is a long process,” he said. “But if you have creative people and people with concoctions who are helping like they do at Alabama, then things will happen, and we can see it happening now.”

NEWSIN BRIEF Model UN to speak on Ukraine Around 150 high school students from Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee will attend the sixth Alabama Model United Nations Conference, which features guest speaker Mark Conversino. Conversino, the dean of Montgomery’s Air War College, will address the current unrest in Ukraine. Mark Nelson, vice president for student affairs and vice provost, will also speak.

In the model UN conference, participants will play the parts of UN member nations. A portion of the conference will simulate the young-adult novel “The Hunger Games,” in which students will represent the “12 districts.” The conference is from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday in Lloyd Hall. It will also run 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

Compiled by Taylor Manning

Educator award nominations due The Capstone Inspiring Educator Award recognizes high school teachers who have inspired UA students to achieve their academic and career goals through outstanding teaching, mentoring and support.

The award was begun in 2010 by the Office for Academic Affairs, and any graduating seniors can nominate a high school teacher that they felt inspired them and impacted the significantly.

Award winners are recognized during UA spring Commencement activities at which the teachers will be special guests of the University.

The nominations are due March 5. The nomination form can be accessed at www.inspiringteacher.ua.edu/nominations.html.

Compiled by Mark Hammontree

p.4 John Brinkerhoff | Editor letters@cw.ua.edu

Thursday, February 20, 2014

COLUMN | CULTURE

Tattoos should not affect perceptions of professional quality

By Beth Lindly | Staff Columnist

CW | Kasey Jowers

COLUMN | SGA ELECTIONS

Campaign rules limit candidates

By Nathan James | Senior Staff Columnist If you’re a new student who’s thinking of seeking out opportunities in student government, you’re in luck. Our student handbook tells us that SGA elections are for any student who meets a modest GPA requirement.

But don’t get ahead of yourself.

Remember that candidates aren’t allowed to leave fliers in university buildings, or distribute T-shirts before the day of the election, or have their own websites, or announce their candidacy without the University’s permission, or announce their candidacy in an event lasting more than one hour. Additionally, remember the $600 campaign limit for executive offices, and make sure to submit every shred of your campaign material for University approval 24 hours before posting.

Also, try not to get too upset when a Greek candidate crushes you. It happens to everyone.

I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be rules surrounding when and how SGA candidates can campaign, because obviously you want to keep the process pure. You don’t want wealthy candidates to buy votes by holding massive parties, and you don’t want campaign materials

Nathan James plastered over every inch of campus.

By restricting the scope of campaigning activities, administrators ensure that a candidate’s capital doesn’t win him the election.

The problem with this system is that it doesn’t restrict the only capital that really matters, which is Greek support. We all know that the Greek system mobilizes during elections to rally for Machine candidates, and we all know that Machine-backed candidates win their elections. I think we also know that’s not a coincidence.

So now we’re in a vicious cycle. It’s impossible for a non-Machine candidate to drum up the support to beat 8,600-plus Greeks, so no one bothers to vote or oppose Machine candidates. This makes it even less likely that someone will somehow beat

the system and get elected without Greek support.

Let’s not beat around the bush.

By prohibiting almost all campaigning activities, our administration is actively crippling all non-Machine candidates. Moreover, they’re creating a community where political activism is stifled at the executive level.

Voter participation is all well and good, and we should absolutely encourage the Univerisity’s student body to be more active. But we shouldn’t let that argument distract us from the fact that our SGA electoral process is broken, and administration is keeping it that way. And until our administrators can show a good faith effort to improve things, no one is likely to convince our student body that voting is worthwhile.

So let’s allow candidates to have their own websites. Let’s give them longer than two weeks to drum up support. Let’s allow them to distribute buttons and T-shirts. Let’s even raise the spending limit a little bit.

Why not make changes? A restrictive, unfair and dysfunctional system is all we have to lose.

Nathan James is a junior majoring in public relations. His column runs weekly.

“Be yo u r s e l f . ” “Live your dreams.”

“Follow your heart.”

As Americans, we are daily bombarded with sayings and clichés reminding us to pursue that good old American dream of success and individuation. Self-expression Beth Lindly is invaluable to our culture and society – that is, until you offend older higher-ups in the workplace with your appearance.

Tattoos (along with vibrantly colored hair and piercings) are becoming more and more common among our generation, and yet we still see a high level of discrimination against them in a professional setting. According to research conducted by Statistic Brain in December 2013, a whopping 14 percent of Americans have at least one tattoo. If we go by the estimated 2013 Census, that means approximately 44,258,037 people in this country are inked up, and the number rises every day.

It is presumptuous and, frankly, immature to subscribe to the belief that those with visible tattoos will not uphold a completely professional and watertight work ethic when they have a job. One of my good friends has a half-sleeve, a tattoo that goes down her arm to her elbow, and she worked as a sales associate at Nordstrom Rack.

A doctor at my old pediatrician’s office has a huge tiger wrapped around his arm. I never heard a parent complain that he couldn’t treat their child because of the way he looked. Shockingly, it would seem that appearances take the back seat when you can actually do your job well.

The simple truth is that Bob Dylan was spot on when he sang, “The times, they are a-changing.” Society is evolving in the way it perceives pretty much everything, and with Generation Y graduating college and entering the workforce, statistically we will see more and more young professionals who do not fit the typical straight-laced, button-down workers we have grown so used to seeing ourselves.

Tattoos can also be a simple form of rebellion against the way the world is at this point. We’ve been left by older generations in crippling debt in a society where a college degree means slightly more than a napkin on which “Please hire me” is written, and then we’re told to clean ourselves up to perform to their standards. When you aren’t sure if your job will need you the next week, you take control through other avenues – altering your appearance, for example. It’s kind of empowering to have art that is specifically yours and that no one can take away from you on your body forever. And you’ll make a pretty intimidating lawyer with two full sleeves, don’t you think?

Shockingly, it would seem that appearances take the back seat when you can actually do your job well.

Beth Lindly is a junior majoring in journalism. Her column runs biweekly.

COLUMN | SGA ELECTIONS

SGA would see stronger elections with an in-class voting reminder

By Leigh Terry | Staff Columnist Spring is on its way, complete with “norts,” spring break planning, midterms and the threat of severe weather. Oh, and SGA elections. Did the 83 percent of campus who did not vote last year forget about those again?

A little amnesia is understandable under the circumstances of 2013. It is even understandable as a normal function of the college brain. Elections come around one day out of the year. How can we be expected to remember it when sometimes we are lucky just to remember when our next paper is due?

I propose we work to eliminate that excuse. Since SGA is under the Dean of Students Office and endowed, staffed and housed by the University directly, shouldn’t participation in its elections be enabled and encouraged by class curricula? To eliminate

Leigh Terry the “I didn’t know when or how to vote” excuse, on Tuesday, March 11, every professor should devote the first three to five minutes of class time to instructing the class on how to log on to mybama, click on the “VOTE” box in the top left corner of the home screen and select their preferred candidates. Students should then be given a few

minutes to place their votes as they so choose before continuing with normal class material.

Voting is a civic duty we as students owe to the Capstone community. Therefore, no professor should require voting or offer incentives for students to vote.

They should merely provide students with a friendly reminder and a few minutes of class time with no other purpose than fulfilling that duty. College is the time to learn the duties and responsibilities of active citizenship that will be expected of us throughout our lives in a democracy, so why shouldn’t campus voting practices mirror those of the working world where employees have time allotted on election day to go to the polls?

If turnout remains low under this initiative, then students will have no one left to blame but themselves, because they were given every opportunity

Elections come around one day out of the year. How can we be expected to remember it when sometimes we are lucky just to remember when our next paper is due?

to have a voice in their student leadership. High turnout is even more crucial this year considering the number of races contested between highly qualified

EDITORIAL BOARD

WE WELCOME YOUR OPINIONS

Mazie Bryant editor-in-chief

Letters to the editor must contain fewer than 300 words and guest columns less than 800. Send submissions to letters@ cw.ua.edu. Submissions must include the author’s name, year, major and daytime phone number. Phone numbers are for verification and will not be published. Students should also include their year in school and major. The Crimson White reserves the right to edit all guest columns and letters to the editor.

Lauren Ferguson managing editor Katherine Owen production editor Anna Waters visuals editor

Mackenzie Brown online editor Christopher Edmunds chief copy editor John Brinkerhoff opinion editor

candidates.

The onus should be on the individual candidates to convince their classmates why their leadership skills and innovative ideas will best serve the campus community. However, the burden should not be entirely on them to attempt to inform close to 35,000 students how and when to vote.

This is the University’s grand experiment in campus governance, and faculty members and administrators should give as much support to increasing participation in the election process as they do to empowering the winners to be effective leaders.

To the passionate faculty at The University of Alabama, give your students five minutes of your class time, and they just might give you a better campus.

Leigh Terry is a sophomore majoring in economics. Her column runs biweekly.

Last Week’s Poll: What is your favorite locally brewed beer?

(I don’t drink beer: 34%) (Black Warrior Brewing Company: 26%) (Druid City Brewing Company: 26%) (None of the above: 14%) This Week’s Poll: Do you believe the University should have removed the Bama Students for Life poster from the Ferg? cw.ua.edu/poll

Thursday, February 20, 2014

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p.6 Mark Hammontree | Editor newsdesk@cw.ua.edu

Thursday, February 20, 2014

International community faces limits Visas restrict graduate options

By Dylan Walker | Staff Reporter

PACKAGE HEADLINEGGG CW | Lindsey Leonard The International Spouse group meets Tuesday morning for support and community.

Family group offers support

By Josh Sigler | Contributing Writer When Cong Nguyen came to the United States from Vietnam, the transition was difficult at first.

“The first time I went to the bank to open a bank account, I just signed whatever they handed me because I could not read the forms,” Nguyen, a doctoral candidate in engineering, said.

Difficulties similar to this are common for most international students and faculty, making it hard for them to adapt to life in Tuscaloosa.

Yet as difficult as it may be for The University of Alabama international community to adjust to new lives, the spouses of these students and faculty face challenges of their own.

“I just followed him here,” Thi Nguyen, Cong Nguyen’s wife, said. “While he studies, I just stay home. I cook or clean or try to teach myself English.”

This is the story for many spouses and families of international students and faculty who come to the U.S. but are unable to work or study due to visa restrictions.

“To switch their visa type to a full-time student visa, the dependent visa holder would first be admitted to a program of study and then could apply to either change status to an F-1 from within the U.S. or apply for a new visa abroad,” Charter Morris, director of Capstone International Services, said.

A change of visa requires going through a three-step process. The first step is to meet with a CIS advisor to determine whether that person is eligible for a change of visa. The second involves preparing more than a dozen different forms and documents. The final step is to meet with the CIS advisor again to review the application and send it to the proper office. This process usually takes between four to six months, so even if the spouse has all the necessary requirements to enter a program, the timeline of the visa change prohibits them from doing so immediately.

“The biggest challenge for many families is that the spouse feels isolated and really isn’t a part of the community,” Morris said.

In order to help international families, Dorit Cohen, a spouse of a University professor who is originally from Israel, started the International Spouse group.

“I lived in Australia for a few years, and there was a group there that helped international spouses learn Australian culture and slang,” Cohen said.

She was able to meet with Morris, who told her that a group like did not exist at the University and encouraged her to start one. The group’s first meeting was held in fall 2012, and since then, the group has met regularly Tuesday mornings to discuss challenges that they face and to get connected with one another.

“The group is always changing. Some people come, and they meet new friends, and that is enough for them, so they leave. To me, that is excellent, because I am happy they at least have someone to meet for coffee, and they won’t feel so isolated,” Cohen said.

For the 2012-13 school year, the University had 1,670 international students and 232 international faculty, staff and scholars, according to the University of Alabama International Student and Scholar Report 2013. While 133 of the international students are graduates who remain on the University’s visa sponsorship, the 1,537 active, enrolled students represent 78 countries and regions. The faculty, staff and scholars come from 36 different countries and territories.

While the group boasts members from all around the world, it is also reflective of the international campus community. Students and faculty from China make up the largest group of the international community on campus, with 882 enrolled during the 2012-13 school year. The meetings often have many spouses and family members from China, India, Nepal, Vietnam, Thailand and the U.S. With so many countries represented in the group, members said they see it as a way to learn about other cultures and share experiences. Each week, a different group member leads discussion of a topic they have prepared.

The discussion topics can include anything from cultural traditions to the merits of studying or traveling abroad, to relationships or challenges members face.

“The main struggle is that all of us had work experience and education from our countries,” Cohen said. “We all got great jobs and promotions, and coming to a different country is a struggle, because while the spouses’ careers go up, ours goes down.”

With graduation approaching, University of Alabama seniors are applying for graduate school, looking for jobs and getting ready for the future. While some seniors may already have jobs lined up, others might choose to take a year off. However, for the 104 international seniors, the future is approaching with a hard deadline.

“It’s a massive bureaucratic behemoth,” Charter Morris, director of Capstone International at the University, said. “Planning needs to be during the first year of studies.”

Most international students at the University have F-1 visas that give them two options after graduation, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website. There is a 60-day grace period for students to leave the country, or they can apply for optional practical training, a year-long extension of the visa that allows students to work, paid or unpaid, in their field.

According to the UA International Student and Scholar Report 2013, 133 UA students are currently working via the OPT. “The stereotype is that students come over and want to get a green card,” Morris said. “But a lot of students end up going home. They’re just trying to learn and improve their education for a better life.”

For the students who stay in the U.S., OPT can provide opportunities to connect with employers wh can then apply for a permanent H1B visa at the end of one year. During the year of training, students are allowed 90 days of unemployment, so they may apply for OPT before a job or internship is secured.

“The goal here is not money,” Morris said. It’s training. The OPT is important because it’s not always hard to come back, but it’s a lot easier to stay.”

Before international students graduate, they can only work on campus or intern through curricular practical training. This is also a way for students to meet employers and gain experience.

Lisa Schedlinski, a senior from Germany majoring in marketing and management, is a managerial trainee at the Hertz Corporation through the CPT program.

“I like the fact that I can work and get paid,” Schedlinski said. “I didn’t know that was possible. Since I’m a management trainee at Hertz, when I graduate, I might become a manager. ” Niklas Fahl, a senior from Germany majoring in computer science, has not been able to work off campus through a CPT. He works on campus with the Center for Advanced Public Safety.

“It’s pretty complicated, the whole system,”

Fahl said. “I was pretty lucky getting jobs here on campus.”

Fahl is in the final round of applicants for a job at Apple Inc. However, Fahl was unable to apply at BMW and other companies, even Germanbased corporations, due to his international status.

“It would be nice if companies could let you know ahead of time if they hire internationals, because I know I’ve wasted a lot of time talking to people without knowing that they couldn’t hire me,” Fahl said.

Morris said companies are sometimes wary of hiring international employees because the government only issues 65,000 H1B visas to companies each year, with an additional 20,000 for employees with an American graduate degree.

The process of getting visas, even OPTs, scares off some hiring managers, but Morris said immigration attorneys and schools are willing to help.

“Employers can have a knee-jerk reaction to hiring an international, and that’s something we’ve tried to fight,” Morris said. “What they could do to arm themselves is honestly don’t think of trying to take this on by themselves.”

If an international worker doesn’t get a permanent H1B visa during their year on OPT, a 17-month extension can be given to workers in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. The extension can put employees and students through another round of visa applications.

Truc Phan, a senior from Vietnam majoring in management, finance and math, said some companies will open themselves up to applicants from certain countries. Morris said companies do this to break into desirable markets.

“Companies will be amazed with my resume but have no international sponsorship,” Phan said.

After having little luck at career fairs, Phan met up with companies in New York City over Christmas break to make connections and talk about job opportunities.

“Once you’re gone, you’re gone for good,” Phan said. “My mom paid a lot of money for me to be here, and I want to make sure I get a good job to pay her back in some way. If I want to work, I have to make it happen myself.”

Morris said he encourages students to explore their options early and remains positive for the graduates.

“The immigration landscape changes so quickly, so if they’ve had difficulties in the past hiring international workers, maybe it’s not so bad now,” Morris said. “I’m hopeful for Niklas and the others.”

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p.7

Thursday, February 20, 2014

College of Engineering to offer 2 new degrees

By Karly Weigel | Contributing Writer

CW| Adam Dodson Letters on sign outside Presidential Village have been ripped off for most of the semester.

Dorms see uptick in weekend vandalism

By Adam Dodson | Contributing Writer Since the beginning of the school year, residence halls like Presidential Village and Ridgecrest have taken a beating. Vandalism in these buildings has grown rapidly, with most instances occurring on the weekends at the hands of a few groups of students.

Broken and torn signs, holes in the ceilings and trash left in the elevators show evidence of the increasing damage of property at the residential halls, where the majority of freshman students are housed each year.

The issue has been a concern to those who are responsible for the well-being of the residence halls and safety of the students who reside there.

“We’re concerned that a few members of the community are affecting the security and comfort of the rest of the community,” Alicia Browne, director of housing for Housing and Residential Communities, said.

Reports of vandalism go beyond breaking objects and punching holes.

“On any given night, you can go on an elevator, and there are dozens of items of trash and even urine on the floor,” A.J. Jackson, a junior and a resident advisor for Presidential Village, said.

The problem has also been troubling for many other resident advisors because of the workload it puts on the janitors of the buildings who have to clean up the mess that is left behind.

Some people concerned with the rising

destruction of property question the motivation behind it.

“Would you tear up your wall at your own house? Probably not,” Judy Burrows, a resident advisor, said. “Here, you have more freedom, but people abuse that freedom too much.”

The vandalism and damage to property not only puts other students’ safety at risk, but also causes a financial burden on the residence halls. Residence halls are responsible for hiring people to repair walls, replace destroyed signs and clean up trashed hallways and elevators.

So far, little has been enforced to counter the destruction of University property, with the hundreds of students who live in the residence halls making it difficult to predict when vandalism will occur and pinpoint perpetrators. However, solutions are likely to be implemented soon, such as the possibility of hiring more staff to watch for illegal activity.

“One night, a security guard stood outside the door where a lot of chaos takes place, and the building was completely quiet,” Briah Golder, a resident advisor for Presidential Village, said.

Browne also said another way the residence halls might shift responsibility onto the residents is through the use of group billings of the housing contracts. Group billing would legally hold all of the students in a room responsible for one person’s damage of the property and would relieve the financial burden of the damage.

University of Alabama students will have two new majors to choose from in the fall. The College of Engineering will add degrees in environmental engineering and architectural engineering to meet demand in the state and country. Along with the pre-established construction and civil engineering degrees, students in the department of civil, construction and environmental engineering will have a total of four majors to choose from.

The University is the first in the state to offer both majors, which will give students an opportunity to acquire specialized skills that help benefit the state and stand out to potential employers. The change requires the addition of one class for environmental engineering, and no new staff will need to be hired.

“These two new programs will allow students more options so they can follow their passions and interests in the engineering field,” Rick Nail, professor emeritus and UA engineering alumnus, said.

“Both of these two new degrees mesh well with our current civil and construction degree programs and will enrich and enhance our current courses being offered.”

The architectural engineering degree focuses on the design of buildings and being able to work directly with architects when dealing with structural design and mechanical, electrical and construction elements. Also, students will be able to assist on the overall operation of the building.

Architectural engineering is currently available as a minor, and by adjusting the curriculum, students will have the option to major in it as well.

The environmental engineering degree will focus on air and water quality and purification of

land, health and safety systems.

Ken Fridley, professor and head of the department of civil, construction and environmental engineering, said he believes the college offers a unique experience for students in and out of the classroom.

“The College of Engineering offers students the ability to find an experience that is right for them, both in the academics with the curriculum we offer and also with the extra- and co-curriculum,” Fridley said. “Whether that is co-op, study abroad or research as an undergraduate, they get the education they want.”

Nationally, fewer than 60 universities offer architectural engineering programs, and fewer than 20 offer environmental engineering, Fridley said.

He also said the engineering department has 700 undergraduate students and hopes to grow to more than 1,000 students within a few years.

During freshman and sophomore years, all engineering students take basic prerequisite classes to build a strong engineering foundation. During their junior year, students are encouraged to select a major from the four options. Upcoming sophomores and juniors will also be able to take advantage of the two new degrees.

Nail said he feels that the addition of two new majors will benefit students even more during their time at the Capstone. As a member of the engineering advisory board, Nail has watched the college grow in quantity and quality. He said he believes this trend will continue. Furthermore, he said he sees that there is a significant number of engineers and contractors retiring, which leaves a deficit in the workforce that will need to be replaced.

To learn more about the engineering programs, visit eng.ua.edu.

new major: ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING

new major: ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

WHERE: College of Engineering

WHERE: College of Engineering

WHO: Upcoming sophomores and juniors and younger students

WHO: Upcoming sophomores and juniors and younger students

WHAT: This degree focuses on the design of buildings and working with architects when dealing with structural design, mechanical, electrical and construction elements.

WHAT: This degree focuses on air and water quality and purification of land, health and safety systems.

CW| Hannah Glenn

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Thursday, February 20, 2014

Phi Sigma Pi hosts food drive

By Emily Sturgeon | Contributing Writer Phi Sigma Pi is hosting a two-week canned food drive to benefit the West Alabama Food Bank that will conclude this Friday.

Drop-off boxes are located at the Student Recreation Center and at every sorority house.

Every five cans donated is worth one Panhellenic point.

Students can also receive service hours through the Service Learning Pro organization Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. by helping to collect cans from various locations.

The West Alabama Food Bank collects and distributes food to nine counties in West Alabama through outreach agencies, such as churches. Executive Director Henry Lipsey said it takes about 12,000 pounds of food every working day to keep the operation going, which amounts to about 3 million pounds a year.

“It’s just kind of a constant struggle every day to keep food coming in and keep food going out,” Lipsey said.

In addition to receiving the 2013 trophy for Beat Auburn Beat Hunger, which now resides at the Northport WAFB office, the University works with the nonprofit in other ways to provide food to residents of the community who live below the poverty line.

Another such program is The Fifth Quarter, a project of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and Phi Gamma Delta fraternity to salvage leftover food after football and basketball games.

Lipsey said he estimates that the University donates close to half a million pounds of food a year.

Students can also receive service hours through the SLPro program by volunteering their time at the WAFB. Lipsey said there is most likely someone from the University volunteering at or visiting the food bank almost every day, and a lot of help is needed packaging food for their various initiatives.

These initiatives include a senior supplement program, which provides boxes of food to the elderly below the poverty line, and Secret Meals for Hungry Children, which places meals for the weekend in the backpacks of children in need. Lipsey said their main source of donations is retail stores such as Publix, which provides shipments of food at least once a week that would otherwise be thrown away, and retailers are eager to donate because they are relieved of liability associated with food distribution once their product has been donated to a nonprofit organization.

He said other stock is either bought or donated through drives like this one.

The organization is also grateful for monetary donations that help with shipment costs, he said.

Phi Sigma Pi has collaborated with the West Alabama Food Bank before with the soup kitchen, Service Chair Caroline Armbrester said.

“They’re so accommodating, so we were so happy to go work with them,” she said.

Armbrester said the organization’s work with food relief began during Hurricane Sandy, when one of their brothers asked for help through Facebook, and they shipped 200 cans of food to distribute in the brother’s local community. She said they then decided to focus on the Tuscaloosa area, especially after the April 27, 2011, tornado.

“We just want to keep giving back to our community that’s obviously done so much for us,” Armbrester said. She said they planned the drive during the spring because it is an off-season for donating, unlike holiday seasons.

President Katie Malone said Phi Sigma Pi focuses on service.

Food Bank

The University of Alabama contributes 500,000 pounds per year to the food bank’s 3 million pounds per year.

College is honestly a really selfish time, so our organization thrives on service. We love it.

CW | Hannah Glenn

— Katie Malone

“College is honestly a really selfish time, so our organization thrives on service. We love it,” she said. She said she is proud of the work that her organization does in the community.

“The service event is something that really just shows how students can come together and make a difference in an impactful way,” Armbrester said.

Malone said she encourages anyone who values Phi Sigma Pi’s threefold goal of scholarship, leadership and fellowship to consider becoming a member.

“It’s just all the fun you would get in a Greek society without all the pressure of one,” Armbrester said.

For questions about Phi Sigma Pi’s canned food drive, contact Caroline Armbrester at cearmbrester@crimson.ua.edu.

Local group provides free dancing lessons for students

By Kailey McCarthy | Contributing Writer Students who fear they have two left feet can learn a variety of dances with free lessons offered by a local dancing organization.

The Crimson Tide Ballroom Dancers is a Tuscaloosa-based group involved in a variety of ballroom dancing and music. The organization was initially founded by Jimmy Kunz in October 2006. In 2010, CTBD formed an official student organization affiliated with The University of Alabama.

Evan Blitzer, president of CTBD, said he is proud to be a part of an organization that brings ballroom and swing dancing to students.

“Crimson Tide Ballroom Dancers teaches

people of all ages how to ballroom, swing and country line dance,” Blitzer said. “We try to have our dances themed with music that corresponds to make it more fun. We have mostly students at our dances, but do have some adults that come and laugh when they see what fun us students have ballroom dancing.”

CTBD offers free beginner and intermediate dance lessons every semester.

“We wanted to do free lessons so that everyone would be able to participate,” Kunz said.

“Our lessons are open to everyone.”

Shannon Robinson, current vice president of the group, said the free lessons are intended to promote dancing on campus and throughout the city.

“As an organization, we want to get college students interested in ballroom dancing and also to promote dancing in the Tuscaloosa community,” she said. “The best way we could think of to do that was with free lessons that are open to anyone.”

Blitzer said the free lessons are held every Sunday for 12 weeks, with beginner sessions from 3 to 4 p.m. and intermediate sessions from 4 to 5 p.m. Most lessons take place at Calvary Baptist Church but sometimes are held on campus in Moore Hall. CTBD also has country line dancing lessons Monday nights from 7 to 8 p.m. in Presidential Village.

“We have these free lessons to help people learn how to dance the various dances,” Blitzer

said. “If we didn’t do this, people would not know what they are doing when they come to a dance.”

Kunz said that the organization has grown, as has the skill of the regular attendees. He said students will have an opportunity to show off their skills at a competition in April.

“We have had as many as 70 people at our lessons, but we average between 25 to 30,” Kunz said. “Our regular students have become very good dancers, and some of them will be competing at the University Ballroom Competition on Saturday, April 12, at 1 p.m. at the Rec Center.”

For more information and an up-to-date schedule of the dances and lessons, visit ctbd.org or their Facebook page.

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Thursday, February 20, 2014

Hudson Strode carries on the word of Shakespeare

By Jason Frost | Contributing Writer

CW File Lakeside’s environment changes after dark when entertainment meets apetite at its Late Night events.

Diverse students come together to dine, dance at ‘Club Lakeside’

By Connor Fox | Contributing Writer Lakeside Dining Hall serves more than just food to students at The University of Alabama.

On any Tuesday night at Late Night Lakeside, the atmosphere is nothing short of electric as hip-hop and rap music echoes through the open space of the hall. The daily setup of tables and chairs is cleared and transformed into a dance floor.

Affectionately known as “Club Lakeside,” the activity has been an integral part of many students’ campus life for years. Senior Kirkland Back said she vividly remembers going her freshman year and acknowledged the program’s defining culture.

“The most memorable part about it was definitely the dancing,” Back said. “It was always the same crowd. They seemed to really enjoy a space where they could dance and hang out on campus.”

In an effort to be more accessible, Bama Dining extends the dining hall’s hours of operation from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday nights to serve breakfast food. With a DJ providing entertainment, Tuesday nights are highly anticipated by attendees.

Rachel Barwick, marketing coordinator for Bama Dining, said Late Night Lakeside began seven years ago and has experienced some changes over the years to keep it new and exciting.

“It was started in order to give the students a place to go relax, hang out with friends and enjoy some breakfast-type menu items,” Barwick said.

In the beginning, some students were skeptical of its purpose. Kendall Mays, a graduate research assistant in the journalism department, recounted

his initial opinion as an undergraduate student at the University.

“The first night I walked into Late Night, I was really caught off guard,” Mays said. “I remember my friends and I thinking, ‘This is really stupid.’ We openly joked about how it was going to blow up in UA’s face.”

Other students had even more doubts after an incident two years ago when a UA student was stabbed in the restrooms of the dining hall after an altercation with another student in November 2011 at Late Night Lakeside. Despite the incident and skepticism, Mays said there was a noticeable difference in the vibe on campus before and after the incident because of Late Night Lakeside.

“For about two years, there was a group of guys who’d choreograph dance steps specifically for Late Night Lakeside,” Mays said. “All of sudden, you didn’t just get food, you got a spectacle.”

After seven years, many consider the event to be a vital part of campus culture. Barwick said she believes it has positively impacted students.

“It allows freshmen and upperclassmen the chance to interact with one another in a safe and comfortable setting,” Barwick said. “It also gives them a social environment where they can visit with old and new friends, enjoy some good food, stay close to home and … avoid the Strip.”

Freshman Autumn Underwood said Late Night Lakeside has allowed her to meet and interact with new people every week.

“The fun nights keep me coming back,” Underwood said. “I wouldn’t be able to meet new people, because there are no more dining halls like this.”

Hudson Strode taught at The University of Alabama for 47 years. In that time, his classes spawned students who would publish more than 55 novels and 101 short stories, according to records at Hoole Special Collections.

Strode himself published 16 works, including a three-volume biography of Jefferson Davis. Well-known alumni of his class include Borden Deal, Ann Waldron and Elise Sanguinetti. Now, his memory is being preserved through the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies.

“He was tough, difficult, but stood by his students, promoted their work and helped them succeed in publishing or in many of the other fields they entered, including science, medicine, law, public service, you name it,” Program Director Sharon O’Dair said. “He was beloved by those who took his courses.”

Assistant Director Nicolas Helms, who hosts the program’s Improbable Fictions, a Shakespearean-staged reading series, assists in planning various discussions about literature relating to the curriculum as he pursues a doctorate in Shakespeare and cognitive theory.

“It’s a graduate program in English Renaissance literature composed of small, seminar-style classes that cover many literary and popular works from the 16th and 17th centuries, including those of Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton,” Helms said. “Class discussions are informal, vibrant and in-depth.”

O’Dair said the program typically has about 15 students working on either master’s or doctorates. According to the English department website, 100 percent of all graduates who enroll in the program land tenure-track jobs after graduation. As a discussion-based program, it sponsors a number of discussions and lectures in addition to the Improbable Fictions series.

On Feb. 10, Grace Tiffany, from Western Michigan University, came to speak with students in the program about her books, “Paint” and “The Turquoise Ring,” which retell Shakespearean plays from the perspective of women.

“The truth? I was having trouble

PLAN TO GO WHAT: Strode Reading; novelist Jean Hegland will read from her book ‘Still Time’ WHERE: Paul R. Jones gallery WHEN: March 3, 5 p.m. getting people interested in another historical novel without prominent female characters,” Tiffany said. “But there’s an expectation that historical novels need women characters, so I started ‘Paint’. Once I did start, then I got interested in it in its own right.”

Three other speakers will be featured during the spring semester, all of them women who have reworked the plays of Shakespeare in their own writing. On March 3, novelist Jean Hegland will read from her book “Still Time” at the Paul R. Jones gallery, and in April, the program will present Mary Bly, also known as Eloisa James, and Valerie Minor in Morgan Hall.

“It’s the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birthday this year,” O’Dair said. “All over the world, there are lectures and series and symposia and celebration. I thought it would be different, maybe a little edgy, to see how women writers revision Shakespeare.

There’s a line in ‘Macbeth’ in which he is told he’ll never be killed by a man born of woman. Macduff comes on stage and says ‘I am not of woman born’. He was untimely ripped by cesarean section, so I decided to play with that line and call this lecture series ‘Of Woman Born: Women Novelists Adapt Shakespeare.’”

On April 14, the Hudson Strode program will also host a viewing of the Italian film “Caesar Must Die” at the Bama Theatre, which is about the attempts to bring Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” to prisons. All Hudson Strode events are free and open to the public.

Undergraduate students are encouraged to attend and engage in the creative aspects of the program, even if they cannot enroll.

“If you don’t like something in a play, you can always write your own,” Tiffany said. “It’s a very Renaissance thing to do.”

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

p.10 Thursday, February 20, 2014

Abbey Crain | Editor culture@cw.ua.edu

Local bands vie for shot at Wakarusa festival CW | Austin Bigoney In September 2012, Tuscaloosa-born band The Doctors and The Lawyers perform at Wings of Hope, a philanthropy show held on the lawn of Sigma Nu that raises money for the Ronald McDonald House and St. Jude’s.

By Francie Johnson | Staff Reporter On any given night, Tuscaloosa bands The Doctors and The Lawyers and Mother Funk can be found playing for a crowd of drunk, sweaty college students at a local bar. Fast-forward to this summer, though, and you might just see them on stage at Wakarusa Music Festival, thanks to a nationwide contest called the Waka Winter Classic.

“I’ve known about Wakarusa for a long time,” Josh Ferrell, recent University of Alabama graduate and lead vocalist for Mother Funk, said. “For me, it’s a personal thing. Just to see my name on this lineup with some of my favorite musicians ever – what an accomplishment it would feel like to be part of something like that.”

Each year, the Waka Winter Classic tour travels to cities across the nation in search of bands to perform at Wakarusa Music Festival, a four-day event held in early June at Mulberry Mountain in Ozark, Ark. This year marks the 11th annual Wakarusa Music Festival and the eighth annual Waka Winter Classic.

Beginning in early January, the Waka Winter Classic tour hit 16 cities nationwide, with Birmingham as its second-to-last stop. Up to five bands compete at each location, and one winning band from each city will play at Wakarusa this summer. The show’s tickets also serve as ballots, and audience members can vote for their favorite band at any point during the night.

Mother Funk and The Doctors and The Lawyers applied for the contest by submitting an electronic press kit and music samples

We put our own spin on it because we know who we are as a band now.

— Josh Ferrell on ReverbNation, an online music platform for independent artists to promote and distribute their music. A couple of days later, both bands received email confirmations saying that they had been selected for the competition, along with Huntsville-based Post War, Decatur-based The Wheelers and Birmingham-based True Blue.

“We weren’t really confident when we applied,” Chris Wilhelm, lead guitarist for The Doctors and The Lawyers, said. “So many people had already applied, and we were applying so late.”

Mother Funk applied to play at the Waka Winter Classic last year but never made it into the top five. This year, though, the band’s ReverbNation page featured original music instead of covers, which Ferrell said gave them a leg up.

“I think that the music has really developed,” Ferrell said. “Things just come together a lot easier now because we can identify with the kind

of music we’re trying to play. It wasn’t a bunch of covers on our ReverbNation page. It was our own stuff. We put our own spin on it because we know who we are as a band now.”

Although members of both The Doctors and The Lawyers and Mother Funk enjoy performing in Tuscaloosa, they said the culture creates a less-than-ideal atmosphere for getting one’s music heard.

“In Tuscaloosa, you’re playing in bars for college students, who are really just there to drink most of the time,” Ferrell said. “Of course there’s people who come in and want to listen to you guys, but for the most part, you’re just background noise. People aren’t really there for the music a lot of the time.”

Tuscaloosa’s music scene often favors cover songs over original music, creating another limitation for bands striving to make it in the music industry.

“When we play [in Tuscaloosa], a substantial portion of our show has to be covers,” Evan Brooks, lead vocalist of The Doctors and The Lawyers, said. “Otherwise people are gonna walk out of the bar, and you’re not gonna get hired back if no one’s having a good time. If we played at Wakarusa, we’d probably only get an hour-long set, and it’d be strictly originals, maybe one cover.”

More than just the setlist would change if The Doctors and The Lawyers were to perform at Wakarusa. Bands playing at the festival could potentially perform for an audience of 20,000 people. “[At] a music festival, those are music lovers

and listeners, and [the Mother Funk members] all are music lovers and listeners,” Ferrell said.

“We think that we can really connect on a musical level with people like that. When you play for thousands of music lovers, you’ll inevitably relate with some of them. Who knows, maybe that’s all we have to do to take another step up the ladder.”

Even an hour-long set at Wakarusa could be monumental for a band’s career. In addition to performing for a broad, more attentive audience, Waka Winter Classic winners also receive VIP artist passes. This creates networking opportunities backstage with fellow musicians and music industry professionals, not to mention a great addition to a band’s resume.

“This is kinda the thing that’s gonna tip the scale for us,” Brooks said. “The Lumineers were playing at the Backwoods Stage, which is where we would play, for 500 people [in 2012]. Now look where they are.”

Regardless of how they fare in the competition, Brooks, Wilhelm and Ferrell said they agreed that just playing at Workplay is a prize in and of itself.

“It’s a huge deal,” Ferrell said. “Even if we don’t win, we got to play at Workplay. That’s a landmark in Birmingham for touring artists, and we get to play on that stage, on that equipment.

That’s really cool.”

Waka Winter Classic will be held at the Workplay Theatre in Birmingham Thursday at 8 p.m. The Doctors and The Lawyers play from 8:50 to 9:25 p.m., and Mother Funk plays from 11:20 to 11:55 p.m. Attendees must be 18 years or older, and there is a $3 cover charge for those under 21.

p.11

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Students relax with hookah

By Reed O’Mara and Shakarra McGuire | CW Staff

CW| Lindsey Leonard The Blue Caterpillar Hookah Lounge on the Strip offers five different brands of flavored tobacco.

For some, stress relief comes from yoga classes, curling up with a good book or Netflix. For Adham Abdelraouf, stress melts away with the exhale of every hookah puff.

“It’s just like a stress reliever,” said Abdelraouf, a senior majoring in economics and finance. “It relaxes you. It’s not per se addicting. I mean, I’ve gone a month or so without smoking. It’s more like, if I’m feeling stressed out and want to relax a little bit, I can smoke hookah.”

Hookah, or narghile, is a smoking apparatus from India and the Middle East where flavored tobacco called shisha is passed through a water basin before the steam is inhaled. Hookahs can have one or more hoses for multiple smokers and have become increasingly popular among college students.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, prevalent hookah use among college students in the U.S. is between 22 and 40 percent.

Sarah Salava, a junior majoring in finance and management, has been smoking since her freshman year and said though she finds it hard to judge, hookah smokers on campus have increased.

“My perception is that there’s more people [smoking hookah],” Salava said. “I don’t know if it’s because I know more people and have gotten into different groups of people, but my freshman year I would smoke with people who hadn’t ever done it, seen it, before, and now it’s like, with my friends, it’s not uncommon pretty much anywhere you go. Somebody’s got a hookah.”

Hookah is an activity centered on social interaction and is not usually smoked alone. Abdelraouf said it’s more about fitting into the situation than anything else and that smoking alone or every day is pointless.

Salava said hookah can be a mix of productivity and social interaction and is not limited to a party scene.

“I mean, a lot of times when we

hookah, it’s a group of five or six of us sitting around doing homework,” Salava said. “We’ve got our books, our laptops out, and it’s just a way to do homework but also do something social.”

When it comes to cigarettes, Abdelraouf said “absolutely not.”

He said he has heard nothing but negative information about them since he was a kid. Abdelraouf said hookah should not be grouped with activities that raise health concerns such as drinking or smoking.

“I understand where they’re coming from with the health aspect of it, but it’s not a thing like cigarettes where you do it every day or multiple times a day,” Abdelarouf said.

“It’s not as harmful as drinking. You don’t lose sight of what’s going on, whereas if you get drunk, you get sloppy.”

Salava has her own opinion about cigarettes versus hookah.

“For the health risk, [hookah] seems a lot less than cigarettes because it’s not actual smoke, it’s just vapor,” Salava said. “And they say that it’s bad, but what isn’t?”

She said the more prominent risk with hookah for her is burns in her carpet.

“I burned my carpet once last year, which I had to pay for. The coal was heating on the stove, and I put it on a plate to bring it to the hookah, and the hookah wasn’t ready yet, so I just set the plate on the ground, and of course it burned through the plate and melted the carpet to the plate,” Salava said.

Hookah is cheaper than cigarettes, especially after the initial investment on a personal hookah, which is less expensive in the long run than going to a hookah bar regularly. As the flavors of tobacco and nicotine intensities vary, so do the prices.

“When you do it with friends, you can get three or four sessions probably for 15 bucks, so we share the cost of it,” Salava said.

A more common association with hookah is the assumption that it is illegal and a way to smoke marijuana, or, as in the Middle East, opium.

Whether for relaxation or

otherwise, hookah is an activity that unites.

“You can go out with your friends and do something, go see a movie or run around town, but a lot times, if you’re not wanting to be drinking, and you’re just hanging out in your living room, it’s just something to share rather than all sitting there and staring at the wall,” Salava said.

Students now have even greater opportunity to try out hookah with the opening of a new hookah lounge on the Strip.

Von Ewing, a former Crimson Tide football player left his position as a regional manager for Verizon Wireless to open the newest addition to student life on the Strip: the Blue Caterpillar Hookah Lounge.

The lounge opened in November 2013.

The Blue Caterpillar offers five different brands of flavored tobacco, the most of any hookah lounge in Alabama. The prices range from $10 to $16 based on quality and customer preference.

The newest addition to the Strip reaches out to a less rowdy crowd, Ewing said, because he recalls just how unpredictable nights on University students’ favorite playground can be.

“It’s sociable; it’s relaxing,” Ewing said. “We want to bring a realm of calmness to the Strip.”

Despite the understandable realm of competition among the different bars on the Strip, he said the business atmosphere is not quite a recreation of “Mean Girls.” He credited the owner of Steamers with giving him a few new business tips and emphasized that his main goal is to make happy customers.

“We are a new business,” Von Ewing said. “We have a plan to be the best hookah lounge in the state of Alabama, and we want to be known as a student lounge.”

The Blue Caterpillar is open Monday through Sunday from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. Nightly drink and hookah specials can be found online by following their T w i t t e r, @ B l u e C a t H o o ka h , or their Instagram account, thebluecaterpillarhookah.

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p.12

Thursday, February 20, 2014

State overrides flip death penalty cases JUDICIAL FROM PAGE 1

CW | Austin Bigoney President Judy Bonner joins students at a table in the Ferguson Center.

Pulse Check lunch joins students, administrators

By Dylan Walker | Staff Reporter University of Alabama President Judy Bonner, alongside Mark Nelson, vice president for student affairs and vice provost, joined students at a table in the Ferguson Center to discuss University affairs and student life.

The lunch resulted from a collaboration between BLEND, which hosts mingling lunches for students every Thursday, and the Division of Student Affairs’s Pulse Check lunch.

“It’s important for the campus to come together as a community,” Bonner said. “I think that this type of thing promotes that kind of atmosphere.”

More than 20 students gathered at a designated table to discuss classes, study abroad and the upcoming SGA elections as Bonner and Nelson ate Chick-fil-A. Kaitlin Hartley, coordinator of leadership programs at the University, said the event is important, as it is one of the few informal interactions between administration and students.

“It’s a way for the administrators to show that they care and that students’ opinions are being listened to,” Hartley said.

After small talk about humidity, Syria and homework, students asked Bonner about diversity on campus. She responded with praise for the groups present at the lunch and their commitment to bringing the student body together.

“It seems like BLEND is a great way to bring everybody together,” Bonner said.

Kevin Jones, a sophomore majoring in chemistry and marine science, said he heard about the event through the Mallet Assembly. He

attended to ask Bonner and Nelson about recreational facilities for club sports.

“I thought this would be a good opportunity to talk to Dr. Nelson and Dr. Bonner,” Jones said. “I’m on the rugby team, and we’ve had a lot of issues with practice facilities and getting to practice as much as we need to.”

Anthony James, a sophomore majoring in microbiology and Spanish, attended the event on behalf of UA United Students Against Sweatshops, a club that connects students and laborers around the world to fight for worker’s rights. James was prepared for a direct conversation with administration about Alabama’s responsibility for workers’ rights.

“We’ve been trying for quite a while to get in contact with Dr. Bonner to get the school affiliated with WRC, which is the Worker Rights Consortium,” James said. “The WRC is an independent watchdog organization that will monitor all of the factories that produce UA apparel and make sure that they’re being produced ethically and in sweatshop-free conditions.”

Mary Sellers Shaw, a senior majoring in communication studies and civic engagement and BLEND president, said she wants to foster dialogue among students and administration in the future to overcome the social separations that occur frequently on a large university campus.

“We’re really excited this week to be partnering with Pulse Check,” Shaw said. “We’re coming at campus unity from a student’s perspective, and they’re coming at it from an administrator’s perspective, and I think combining both of those is a really cool way for everyone to bridge some of these gaps.”

Another major figure with concerns about the state of Alabama’s capital punishment system raised similar concerns in November. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor penned a 15-page dissent upon the Supreme Court’s declining to hear a case challenging override.

In the opinion, she cited a concern about whether the use of elected judges has led to judicial politics shaping capital punishment.

Bailey said factors as basic as the capital statute (which is very broad in Alabama, meaning the death penalty can be considered in more cases) contribute to the concern.

“It was never in control.

From day one, these are the results that we’ve had. The problem really is in the system,” Bailey said.

One of the biggest issues at hand, she said, is the fact that judicial overrides disregard the work of juries.

“Some of these override decisions I have read literally just say, ‘I have considered the jury’s recommendation for life, and I disagree.’ And that’s it,” she said. “It’s just incredible to me that the judges would have that much disrespect for the very, very difficult work that these jurors have to do, that we ask them to do. They didn’t volunteer to sit on these cases.

That’s just a shame.”

Judge Samuel Henry Welch, a UA School of Law alumnus currently serving on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, served as the only judge in the 35th Judicial Circuit for 18 years. He said the Supreme Court has upheld judicial override in the past.

“Judicial override is a part of Alabama,” he said.

During his service as a judge, Welch has used judicial override twice because he felt the balance of “aggravating” and “mitigating” factors, which are weighed by judge and jury, indicated the death penalty was appropriate.

Sometimes, he said, judges are privy to information a jury is not, and in Alabama, juries issue advisory verdicts, leaving sentencing power to judges. Though their advisory verdicts are sometimes overturned, he said, they are not shut out of the process.

“The fact that the jury recommends life without parole is a mitigating factor,” he said.

Since being upheld by the Supreme Court as constitutional, the use of judicial override has gradually dwindled.

Only Alabama, Florida and Delaware still retain the mechanism.

Susskind, who called Alabama’s override system “very arbitrary,” said Delaware as a whole rarely imposes the death penalty, and Florida has since added strict rules and regulations that make override possible only in cases where a judge finds the jury’s verdict unreasonable.

Bailey said judicial override is still favorably viewed in some legal circles, but among the lawyers who come to the University’s clinic, it can be a source of devastation.

“The lawyer introduces the defendant to them in such a way that they can have mercy on this defendant,” she said. “And then to have this snatched away by a judge who doesn’t even have the courtesy to say why – when these 12 members of the community, randomly selected, show up, and they’re willing to have mercy. It’s crushing for the lawyers.”

Other trends can also be reflected in judicial override figures. Susskind said there are signs of racial bias, and the EJI report said 92 percent of overrides passed down by elected judges overturn a life sentence and impose the death penalty.

Bailey said this stems from the impression of judges who use the death penalty as being “tough on crime” a favorable image come election time.

Bailey and Susskind said the only fixes will come from the legislative and judicial systems, but that hasn’t stopped UA students or Sotomayor from voicing their opinions.

Andrew Grace, director of Documenting Justice at the University and co-teacher of “Anatomy of a Trial,” a class that deals with capital punishment, said he has had arguments with friends who insisted the override system could not exist as he described.

Grace helped two of his students make a documentary on judicial override and said documentaries can be a tool for helping people who might not otherwise be able to fully investigate a topic.

“Most people don’t ever sit on a death penalty case. Most people don’t have any interaction with the capital justice system at all,” Grace said.

Bailey encouraged students to vote and take ownership of their surroundings.

“This is your justice system. This is not the department of corrections or some judge that’s executing people.

This is the state of Alabama that’s executing people,” she said. “Whenever you’re talking about the criminal justice system, you’re talking about your state. We have to ask ourselves, ‘Is this the kind of state we want to live in?

Is that what we expect from our state?’”

p.13

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Wade Bowen brings Texas sound to town Four on the Floor tour includes performance with artists Randy Rogers, Josh Abbott, Stoney Larue

By Kinsey Haynes | Contributing Writer The country music sub-genre Red Dirt is an important element of the Texas music scene.

Early pioneers include Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Bob Childers. Recently, bands like Cross Canadian Ragweed, No Justice and The Randy Rogers Band have started refining this style to sound more distinctive.

Wade Bowen, a native of Waco, Texas, is one of the artists is helping to keep the Red Dirt scene prosperous.

His upcoming tour, Four On The Floor, will stop in Tuscaloosa on Thursday night at The Jupiter Bar. It will also include Randy Rogers, Josh Abbott and Stoney Larue, other prominent members of the Red Dirt genre.

“Randy and I have been friends for years,” Bowen said. “I’m anxious to see everybody’s shows. It’s going to be a lot of camaraderie.

This is something that has never been done before with four major acts from this region, getting together and doing a show. It should be a lot of fun.”

One aspect of this tour Bowen said he is most excited about is crowd response. He has been to Tuscaloosa fewer than five times and is looking forward to exploring new territory.

“We’ve been trying really hard the last two years just to get out of our region, and it’s worked really well,” Bowen said. “It’s friendly competition. We all try to support

PLAN TO GO WHAT: Four on the Floor WHEN: Thursday, 7 p.m.

WHERE: The Jupiter Bar

each other, and we all know that if one of us succeeds, we all succeed.”

This isn’t the first time the musicians have played The Jupiter Bar. Jeremiah Jones, owner of The Jupiter Bar, has booked each artist for individual shows in the past.

“It made sense to do a package show like this,” said Jones, who expects a large crowd Thursday night.

Bowen said the diverse styles that separate the Red Dirt scene will be apparent with all four acts that are performing.

Red Dirt is just Texas, Bowen said.

“It’s always meant home, life on the road and to live my dream and follow it out,” Bowen said. “When I first started, I thought I had to move to Nashville to make a living. After starting a band, I found out I didn’t have to do that.

To me, Texas music is life. It’s country. It’s rock. It’s no boundaries – anything you want to play, sing about. It’s complete and total freedom.”

The Four on the Floor Tour starts at 7 p.m. at The Jupiter Bar. Tickets are $18.

To me, Texas music is life.

It’s country. It’s rock. It’s no boundaries.

— Wade Bowen

Photo Courtesy of Cambria Harkey Wade Bowen, a native of Waco, Texas, contributes to the country music sub-genre Red Dirt.

He will perform Thursday at The Jupiter Bar as part of the Four on the Floor tour.

Weekend Band SCENE

BARS

THURSDAY

RHYTHM & BREWS Chad Wesley Band

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

Desparate Measures

Jason Miller

GREEN BAR

Nightmare Boyzzz and Three Crown Imps

Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires

N/A

INNISFREE

The Bama Gamblers

Earl Williams Band

Druid City Band

JUPITER

Randy Rogers Band

Bam Jam: featuring IQ Crew and DMND Club

N/A

ROUNDERS

Nic Snow Band

DJ Spinzz

Plato Jones

EGAN’S

Baak Gwai

Pen Pals

N/A

CW | Hannah Glenn

p.14 Marc Torrence | Editor sports@cw.ua.edu

Thursday, February 20, 2014

SOFTBALL

Case adapts to new role on team

By Kelly Ward | Staff Reporter

CW | Austin Bigoney Sophomore Kallie Case is stepping up to a different role after a season in the infield.

Sophomore Kallie Case is a true utility player.

She plays wherever the softball team needs her.

In 2013, that meant the infield. So far this year, she’s been a staple in left field, playing in all 10 games and starting eight. She has big shoes to fill after three-time All-American Kayla Braud graduated.

“Kallie’s typical, similar to Braud. Throws right, hits left, very fast, gets good jumps on the ball,” Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said. “She made a diving catch out in Arizona – really good play … The best arm should be in right field, so the shorter throw is obviously left field to home plate, and she’s got a good enough arm to play left field. That would be our only question mark with it, but so far it’s been really good.”

Last year, she played primarily at second base.

She hit .241 in 29 at bats and stole six bases on eight attempts in 2013. She’s almost matched her at-bat mark and batting average in the first 10

PLAN TO GO WHAT: Easton Bama Bash WHEN: Friday-Sunday WHERE: Rhoads Stadium games this season.

“It’s a lot different for me because last year I was just kind of – I guess I wasn’t really as much of a role player as I am this year, so this year it’s a lot different, but it’s a lot more calming because you’ve already got your freshman year. All the jitters are out,” Case said.

Case is majoring in elementary education, and she’s started practicing teaching on her teammates. This year, she’s something of a role model for the younger players.

“She’s the epitome of someone you want,” freshman Peyton Grantham said. “Every day, it’s

more about you than it is her. She puts everyone before herself. She’s a sophomore, but she’s one of our biggest leaders on the team. She might be having a bad day, but you’d never know it when you got here.”

No. 7 Alabama returns home this weekend after two away tournaments. In the last two games, the Crimson Tide was shut out twice by then-No. 24 Arizona.

“We just didn’t put the ball in play enough,” Murphy said. “We had two hits the last game and just need to put the ball in play consistently.

And the defense was fine. Just got to throw more strikes, because we walked six people.”

The team is looking forward to playing at Rhoads Stadium again after the pair of losses in front of the Arizona crowd.

“We have the best fans in the nation for sure,” Case said. “It’s just a totally different atmosphere. We played in front of 3,000 of Arizona’s fans, and it’s just not the same without our home crowd here.”

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Williams takes lead in rookie season

By Nick Sellers | Staff Reporter Ashley Williams is listed as being from Covington, Ga., but the freshman said she had at least seven different homes during her childhood. Williams, the only daughter in her military family, picked up basketball in her early teens.

“I started in eighth grade,” Williams said.

“Just being a new kid in a new school, [I] just wanted to try something different. I always ran track, so it was something different to do.”

It might have seemed unlikely she would end up playing basketball at a Southeastern Conference university, but Alabama coach Kristy Curry said the variety of experiences and diverse background has helped Williams make the impact she has in her rookie season.

“Ashley’s been in a lot of different environments and had to handle different situations,” Curry said. “And you can just tell whatever’s thrown at her daily doesn’t seem to faze her, because she’s had different experiences along the way growing up. It’s not just been the same thing.”

Having started every game at forward since the loss to UT-Martin on Dec. 4, Williams

PLAN TO GO WHAT: Women’s Basketball vs.

Mississippi State WHEN: Thursday, 7 p.m.

WHERE: Foster Auditorium has had opportunities to develop consistency under Curry, who is also in her freshman season in Tuscaloosa.

In that game against the Skyhawks, Williams led her team in points with 18. She also led the Crimson Tide in points and rebounds at home against the Wisconsin Badgers on Nov. 21, Alabama’s first win of the Curry era.

Williams’ poise this season has been noticed by several of her teammates, including junior Daisha Simmons.

“She doesn’t play like a freshman, she doesn’t act like a freshman, and I think that’s big for us,” Simmons said. “She knows that she’s a big impact, and she just comes out every day confident. And we tell her that, ‘You’re not a freshman anymore. We really

need you,’ and she just answers it really well.”

After the Crimson Tide’s last game, a 71-46 loss to Texas A&M on Feb. 16, Aggies head coach Gary Blair, who won the 2011 national championship and has only suffered one losing season in his 26 years as a head coach, praised Williams’ play and named her one of the top-5 freshmen in the conference.

After big come-from-behind wins at thenNo. 10 Kentucky and at home against Georgia, Williams was named the SEC Freshman of the Week, becoming the first Crimson Tide player since 2011 to receive the award.

For the season, Williams leads the team with six rebounds per game and is third in points with 11.8. Going forward, Curry said she expects Williams to be key in the Crimson Tide’s hopeful ascension in the SEC ranks.

In the more immediate future, however, Williams said she knows what aspects of her game need work in the offseason.

“Working on my shooting, and just taking my time in the post and rebounding,” she said.

Curry said the freshman’s game has room to improve, but on an otherwise youthful Alabama team, Williams’ play has proven she isn’t just one of the young ones.

CW | Lindsey Leonard Forward Ashley Williams has started every game since Dec. 4, leading the team in rebounds.

p.15

Thursday, February 20, 2014

BASEBALL

White in leading role for Tide

By Kevin Connell | Staff Reporter

CW| Lindsey Leonard Mikey White, a sophomore from Hoover, Ala., started in all 63 games for the Crimson Tide last season.

One of Mikey White’s fondest memories growing up was always the annual Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament held in his hometown of Hoover, Ala. He can still recall the time Alabama faced Auburn in the 2003 tournament, when a 10-minute drive to the stadium took an hour and a half and Alabama came out victorious.

He dreamed that one day he, too, could play on that field for the Crimson Tide in front of his friends and family and beat the rival Tigers.

A little more than 10 years later, that dream has become a reality.

As a freshman last season, White, playing for Alabama, defeated Auburn 6-3 in the first round of the tournament.

White contributed almost every step of the way for the season, starting all 63 games for Alabama and posting a .287 average and .365 on-base percentage, both good for second-best on the team.

He was even named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American and Second Team All-SEC for his efforts.

However, Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard said achieving his dreams and accomplishing so much in so little time has not changed White one bit.

“I think a lot of it is he’s on a mission to be great, and I really don’t think the accolades mean that much to him,” Gaspard said. “It’s nice that you’re getting them and you’re being recognized, but I think there’s something bigger out there for him, and that’s to be the best player that he can be, and he prepares that way.”

So far in 2014, White has backed up his coach’s praise.

After the opening series of the season last weekend against Saint Louis, White leads the team with a batting average of .400, 3 runs, 4 hits, 1 triple, a slugging percentage of .600 and an on-base percentage of .538. In Game 2 of the series Saturday, he scored the winning run at a play at the plate for Alabama’s first win of the season, which ultimately helped the Crimson Tide take the series, 2-1.

This is just the beginning of what White said he hopes to accomplish this season.

His personal goals are simple: He said he wants to stay consistent and avoid going into a slump similar to the 0-for-22 streak he had at one point last season.

He would like to hit for more power this season, after working on that area this offseason, but won’t be discouraged if it doesn’t come. And if the accolades come, he said his approach will be the same.

“I don’t really look that much into those things; I just try to go about my business

PLAN TO GO WHAT: Stephen F. Austin at No. 21 Alabama WHEN: Friday, 6:05 p.m.; Saturday, 2:05 p.m.; Sunday, 1:05 p.m.

WHERE: Sewell-Thomas Stadium RADIO: : 99.1 FM (Friday and Saturday), 790 AM (Sunday) the same way every day and try to make an impact on the team and try to help my teammates get better every day,” White said. “I don’t strive to win those accolades and things.”

On a team with five sophomore everyday starters, White will play a bigger role than most his age this season, going far beyond just one series of play.

“He’s on a mission to not just be a good player, but a great player. He prepares that way each day, and then it shows up in the game,” Gaspard said. “And that’s how you have great plate appearances; that’s how you make great defensive plays, but as much as that, he means that much to the team in just the way his leadership and the things that he brings to our program.”

COLUMN | OLYMPICS

US men’s hockey team faces uphill battle in fight for gold medal

By Sean Landry Thirty-four years later, almost to the day, and there will be no repeat of the “Miracle on Ice,” after the host Russians fell 3-1 to underdog Finland. There never would have been, really, with a U.S team made up of some of hockey’s greatest players.

The United States team is captained by Zach Parise, one of the most exciting and dynamic players in the NHL, where he has 36 goals in 44 games. Phil Kessel accounted for 52 goals in 48 games last season. Patrick Kane was not only a Stanley Cup Champion last season, but also won the Conn Smythe Trophy, given to the most valuable player for the championship team.

Beyond those three, there are veritable all-

stars in players like Ryan Kessler and goalie Jonathan Quick, and solid role players like the newly popular T.J. Oshie.

All the same, the road to gold will be an uphill battle for the USA. Despite the influx of NHL talent, the United States has a propensity for underachievement.

The Americans haven’t won gold since Lake Placid in 1980. Only two Olympiads ago, the U.S. posted an embarrassing eighth place finish.

After Wednesday’s victory over the highoctane Czech Republic, the U.S. will take on Canada in a rematch of the heart-breaking gold medal contest from the Vancouver Games.

That game ended in an overtime Sidney Crosby game winner and untold anguish for the U.S. players and fans.

Now, four years later, the U.S. has the chance

for redemption, though on a slightly smaller stage.

Despite its struggles against Latvia, this Canada team is still talented. The roster is a murderers’ row of the NHL’s best: Crosby, Stanley Cup winner Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, P.K. Subban, Patrice Bergeron, Rick Nash, goalie Roberto Luongo, Shea Webber – and the list goes on.

The best NHL teams’ greatest players are Canadians. Also, the Nashville Predators’ best player is Canadian, and I know they aren’t any good, but Webber is. I promise.

Assuming the U.S. does, in fact, best its northern neighbors, it’ll have one of the top-2 ranked teams in the world waiting in the final: Sweden or Finland.

The Swedes are the top-ranked team in the

world and the current World Champions. Like the Canadians, their roster is packed full of NHL All-Stars. The Swedes are the only team to make it through the qualifying rounds with a clean sweep and carry a 44-7-16 record against the United States.

The Finns are the second-ranked team in the world. Finland is captained and led in attack by the ageless Teemu Selaane, the all-time Olympic points leader. At the back, the Finns are anchored by Tuuka Rask, one of the NHL’s best goalies.

Some say the U.S. should be favored for gold, even to cruise its way to the podium. But hockey isn’t basketball, and this sport isn’t dominated by Americans. For the Americans to bring home gold, it may not take a miracle, but it will take a great performance.

p.16

Thursday, February 20, 2014

GYMNASTICS

CW | Austin Bigoney

DeMeo strengthens routine mentality

After a fall ended the Tide’s season last year, Sarah DeMeo has competed in every routine this year.

By Marc Torrence | Sports Editor While Alabama gymnastics coach Sarah Patterson has changed her lineup around this season, mixing in freshmen to get experience while holding out some veterans to ease their workload, there has been one constant in the mix.

Senior Sarah DeMeo has competed in every routine this year, the only gymnast on the team to do so. She’s vaulting for the first time since her freshman year, and in last Friday’s meet against Auburn she won the all-around with a career-high 39.5.

“I’m extremely excited to be competing all-around again,” DeMeo said. “I finally feel confident in myself being an all-around gymnast and being that kind of contributor to the team. Of course the team comes first, and that success. If I come out on top on certain events and the all-around, that’s just icing on the cake.”

Things weren’t exactly rosy for DeMeo coming into the season.

If I come out on top on certain events and the allaround, that’s just icing on the cake.

— Sarah DeMeo At last year’s NCAA Super Six finals, Alabama was neck-and-neck with the Florida Gators for the championship. On the Crimson Tide’s final rotation, the balance beam, Kayla Williams lost her balance twice. DeMeo followed with a fall, and the Gators took home the title.

“How I ended the NCAA championships was definitely the toughest situation I’ve had to go through,” DeMeo said. “It takes some time to get over hardship, and I made that my biggest goal in and biggest area to improve on for this year. I really have just focused on the mental cues. And I think I’m doing a great job, and I continue improving because that’s what it comes down to in those high pressure situations. It just made me mentally stronger.”

Patterson said that is a critical reason why DeMeo has been able to carry so much of the load for No. 5 Alabama this season.

“We’ve worked really, really hard on narrowing her focus, not letting things distract her,” Patterson said. “Or if she kind of got in a mode where something wasn’t going right, ‘O.K., how do I change that mental focus?’

And I think the more she works on it, I think the better she gets.”

The perfect example of this came before Alabama’s meet at Auburn.

In warmups, DeMeo opened up on a tumbling pass and “crunched her ankles a little

bit,” Patterson said. In the past, this would’ve been a confidence killer for her, and Patterson would have taken her out.

“She turned around and she was like, ‘This is all mental. I’m fine,’” Patterson said. “And then she went out and had the best floor routine she’s had.”

While it’s unlikely DeMeo will continue competing in the all-around in every meet through the rest of the season, she’s shown an increased mental capacity and an ability to bounce back from adversity. And she can be a workhorse for Patterson at the end of the season, when the lineup tinkering will be over and Alabama’s big guns will try to win the program’s seventh title.

“My biggest goal for this year is to conquer those mental cues while I’m competing,” DeMeo said. “Especially in high pressure situations, like that NCAA championship situation following Kayla on beam. I want to practice like that in the gym so that when it comes out, maybe on the night of Super Six, I’ll be ready and I’ll be confident in myself.”

SPORTSIN BRIEF Alabama Football adds UL Monroe Baseball adds 5 televised games

Spielmann earns SEC honor

The Crimson Tide has scheduled a rematch with Louisiana-Monroe for Sept. 26, 2015, according to reports from TideSports.com and ESPN.com. Alabama was upset by the non-BCS Warhawks 21-14 back in 2007. Alabama will open the 2015 season against Wisconsin in Arlington, Texas. The team then has a bye week, followed by the home game against Louisiana-Monroe.

Alabama women’s tennis player Danielle Spielmann was named SEC Freshman of the Week, the league announced Wednesday. This award marked the first weekly allotment for Spielmann and the second of the season for the Crimson Tide. Spielmann helped Alabama defeat No. 10 Virginia in singles Saturday by winning 6-1, 6-3. She also picked up an 8-2 victory in doubles.

The Alabama baseball team acquired five additional games that will be televised during the 2014 season. The Crimson Tide’s first television appearance will be Saturday, March 1, as the team plays nationally ranked Louisiana-Lafayette. The first two games of the SEC series at Texas A&M will also be televised. CBS sports will televise two Alabama home games against Florida and Mississippi State.

Compiled by Kayla Howard, Marc Torrence and Charlie Potter

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Thursday, February 20, 2014

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