The Daily Reveille - November 7, 2014

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Reveille

football Les Miles shouldn’t be compared to Nick Saban page 5

The Daily

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2014 from the editor

Previous stories erroneously portray Law Center

lsureveille.com/daily

opinion Birth control use doesn’t lead to promiscuity page 9

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stop, bama time

Volume 119 · No. 51 campus life

‘It’s On Us’ aims to change campus culture

BY chandler rome editor@lsureveille.com

BY Jayce Genco jgenco@lsureveille.com

I have one of my favorite quotes scribbled in green marker on my office whiteboard. “The only thing you deserve is what you earn,” Iowa wrestling coach Tom Brands once told his team after a tough meet. His words are how I try to live my life, run my newspaper and project my career. In managing The Daily Reveille, my mantra is the same as Brands’ — work as hard as I can to earn your trust. But I made some missteps last week. In the Oct. 28 issue of The Daily Reveille, we published a story detailing the formation of a diversity task force at the LSU Law Center. A week later, we published a story regarding a 2012 incident where Kenneth Barnes — a member of the task force and current president of the Student Bar Association — experienced a racially motivated verbal attack by a fellow law student, who was white, at an off-campus function. Barnes is black. In both instances, The Daily Reveille failed in a cardinal tenet of journalism — providing both sides of a story. Law Center Chancellor Jack Weiss, or anyone else affiliated with the Law Center’s administration, was not contacted for the Nov. 4 story concerning Barnes’ incident, an egregious fault that I am still incredulous I did not catch before going to print. Both stories fundamentally misrepresented the Law Center’s efforts to increase its diversity, failed to adequately and clearly state the Law Center’s actual diversity numbers when compared to other schools, and the final story neglected to highlight fully the Law Center’s response to Barnes’ allegations. For these journalistic shortcomings, I fully apologize. The type of well-reported, thorough story I expect for my newspaper would have

Sexual assault awareness and prevention initiatives are sweeping the nation and seem to be centered around college campuses nationwide, including the University. Student Government’s “It’s On Us” initiative is trying to change the University’s culture regarding sexual assault. In September, the White House launched its own “It’s On Us,” campaign, geared to “engage college students and all members of campus communities in preventing sexual assault in the first place,” according to a White House news release. The White House’s efforts have included reaching out to student governments of universities and colleges around the country. In light of University track athlete Nethaneel MitchellBlake’s forcible rape accusation on Oct. 20 and a lewd sexual phrase decorating Kappa Sigma Fraternity’s Halloween party that read “No means yes and yes means anal,” Alexis Wilson, communication studies senior and organizer of Survivor Speak Out, said she has not seen a change in the culture around campus. K.C. White, dean of students, said the University is still trying to gather information from Kappa Sigma about the sign, pictures of which circulated online on Halloween. “I don’t think we have all of the facts, I’m not even sure if we have half of the facts,” she said. White said the only information the University currently has is a copy of what was posted and information from the Kappa Sigma National Fraternity not condoning the action. From what she understands, Kappa Sigma is starting its own disciplinary process to hold the individual who wrote the sign

see law center, page 4

Javier Fernández / The Daily Reveille

LSU senior safety Ronald Martin (26) celebrates during the Tigers’ 10-7 victory against Ole Miss on Oct. 25 in Tiger Stadium.

Defense looks to carry hot streak into pivotal showdown BY Jack Chascin jchascin@lsureveille.com It’s do or die for the No. 14 LSU football team this Saturday night. When the Tigers (7-2, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) face off against No. 4 Alabama, all eyes will be on LSU’s stingy defense to see if it can continue its string of dominant performances to help keep the Tigers in the tight SEC West race. “We have something to prove,” said junior linebacker Kwon Alexander. “We want to win, so we’re going to go out there and we’re going to win. That’s the plan.” There’s a rebirthed confidence in the Tigers’ defense heading into its biggest game of the year, and rightfully so. The Tigers are coming off arguably their greatest defensive performance of the season against then-No. 3 Ole Miss. LSU shut down the Rebels’ potent offense, holding it to 313 yards while forcing seven straight punts,

four of which resulted from three and outs. LSU has held its opponents to a total of 10 points in its past two games, and LSU coach Les Miles said he believes the defense is improving both physically and mentally with each week. “There’s some technical things that have taken place since we played those guys that have allowed us to play better,” Miles said. “Our guys are recognizing that they can’t be washed out of a gap, and there’s some very important technical pieces that have come to play, and I think we’re better.” The Tigers are one of the best defenses in the country in opponent third down conversions. LSU has held opponents to a petty 28.79 conversion percentage on third down, which ranks first in the SEC and eighth nationally. LSU’s defense has been suffocating, but it hasn’t yet faced anything quite like Alabama’s (7-1, 4-1 SEC) offense this year.

see alabama, page 4

Check out more content from this weekend’s game at

lsureveille.com/alabama.

see campaign, page 4


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