CULTURE CLUB: Did The Onion need to apologize for tweet about Wallis? p. 9
GYMNASTICS: Morrison shines on vault, uneven bars after six surgeries, p. 5
Reveille The Daily
RESEARCH
www.lsureveille.com
Tuesday, February 26, 2013 • Volume 117, Issue 94
STATE
Pennington may open medical school in BR Universities
McKenzie Womack Staff Writer
LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge is seeking to open a four-year medical school focused on research, and the idea has drawn tentative support from the LSU System Board of Supervisors. The LSU medical education expansion, still in proposal stages, would be a branch of LSU Health New Orleans. Each of the four years of study would enroll about 25 students, with a total of 100 students, said Pennington Executive Director Steve Heymsfield. Initially, the school would add students a year at a time.
Steve Nelson, dean of LSU Health New Orleans, said the medical school already has regional programs, but expanding to Pennington is one way to offer students more opportunities. He said the possibility of expanding the Lafayette branch at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, which is directed toward primary care, is another option. Nelson said nothing is concrete. “It is all dependent upon securing additional funding,” he said. A Pennington medical training program has initial support from the LSU Board of Supervisors, said member Ronnie Anderson of Ethel. “There are more applicants than positions in Louisiana,” Anderson said. “This is a great opportunity
for Baton Rouge and for opening up opportunities for med students. It can keep students and doctors in the state.” Board member Lee Mallett of Iowa agrees. “If that’s what we decide to do, it’s a great thing,” Mallett said. “Anytime you can increase doctors and education, it’s great.” Opened in 1988, Pennington, located on Perkins Road in Baton Rouge, is one of 10 campuses under the LSU System. It is a stand-alone unit that focuses on research, and its mission is to eliminate chronic disease, Heymsfield said. Its research has gained national recognition. PENNINGTON, see page 4
Need for Speed
Clayton Crockett News Editor
TAYLOR BALKOM / The Daily Reveille
Steve Heymsfield is the executive director of Pennington Biomedical Research Center, which is seeking to open a medical school in Baton Rouge.
LSU club designs, builds race car
Jonathan Olivier Staff Writer
Blazing speed, careful precision and impeccable design are all elements to consider when designing a race car, and nobody knows this better than Tiger Racing, the University’s own group of students who build race cars from the ground up. The LSU Formula Student Automotive Engineering Club created Tiger Racing to compete in the Formula SAE Collegiate Design Series at the Michigan International Speedway this May. The competition features about 120 universities from around the world, all competing in various areas that test car designs, concepts and students’ understanding of the engineering behind their project. Mechanical engineering junior and Tiger Racing President Matthew Richards said the competition features dynamic and static events. “In the static events, you get judged on your presentation abilities, your cost-effectiveness of the car, your design of the car,” Richards said. “In the dynamic events, you have to actually race the car.” The Tiger Racing team is made up of roughly 30 students from different disciplines, and each shares
MORGAN SEARLES / The Daily Reveille
Tiger Racing members, who will compete at the Michigan International Speedway, work on a race car Sunday in the Engineering Shops Building.
the task of designing and building the car from scratch, Richards said. Students are allowed outside consulting from faculty and alumni, he said, but according to the rules, they can’t physically help with the build at all. Tiger Racing’s car features a metal frame that sits low to the
ground, accompanied by large tires and a 600cc motor taken from a midlevel street bike, said mechanical engineering senior and Tiger Racing Team Captain Chad Becht. When completed, the car will weigh 450 to 500 pounds and have 80 horsepower, he said, and the gearing is set for the car to reach top
unaffected in proposed budget
speeds of up to 90 mph. The car is also capable of going from 0 to 60 mph in under three seconds. The car is still being built and won’t be finalized for a while, Richards said. However, there will be testing in mid-March that will RACE CAR, see page 4
Funding for higher education institutions such as LSU remains unchanged in Gov. Bobby Jindal’s recently proposed executive budget for the 2014 fiscal year, according to officials within his administration. While the numerous budgets under the higher education designation total to $209 million less than the previous year, Assistant Commissioner of Policy and Communications Michael DiResto said this is because of the public-private partnerships pursued by the state for many of its public hospitals, including two within the LSU System. “In a nutshell, what you’re seeing there is the result of about a $223 million reduction in total interagency transfers,” DiResto said. This $223 million would have gone through higher education to funding the public hospitals, but with the pending public-private partnerships, that money has been reallocated to the Department of Health and Hospitals. This transfer does not signify a change in funding to higher education institutions like LSU, said Sean Lansing, press secretary for the governor’s office. The University’s Director of External Affairs Jason Droddy did not return calls Monday. Higher education institutions will see no change “after adjusting for items such as the $22 million annualization of the [fiscal year] 201213 mid-year budget reduction,” according to the budget. “The executive budget reflects $209 million less, but that is not a reduction to higher education schools,” DiResto said. Contact Clayton Crockett at news@lsureveille.com; Twitter: @TDR_news