020509

SIGNING DAY

SWEET CORALINE

SPORTS | PAGE 10

DIVERSIONS | PAGE 7

Friedgen’s recruiting class ranks No. 26 in the nation

Stop-motion animation shines in Henry Selick’s latest

THE DIAMONDBACK THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2008

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER

99TH YEAR | ISSUE NO. 82

State textbook talks start General education USM clashes with students, legislators on need for laws

BY ALLISON STICE Senior staff writer

Lawmakers and students clashed with university system officials yesterday about the need for textbook legislation at a hearing on the issue in Annapolis.

At the hearing, the first on the

topic during this year’s General Assembly session, legislators bristled when representatives from the University System of Maryland insisted the proposed law is filled with hidden costs to the state, the university and students, and would hinder the freedom of faculty to design courses as they wish.

The bill, formally called the College Textbook Competition and Affordability Act of 2009, would require universities and publishers to release more information about textbooks and their prices. It also requires professors to justify, in

Please See TEXTBOOKS, Page 3

committee ready to begin overhaul After strategic plan sparked debate, group will draft CORE replacement

Buried in

BY TIRZA AUSTIN Staff writer

The university took a key step toward creating a new general education program yesterday, announcing the members of a committee who will craft the new plan.

History professor Ira Berlin will head the committee and will seek to create a new program to replace the decades-old

Bagasse

CORE curriculum. The committee was supposed to begin work last semester, but was unable to find a chair.

The overhaul of CORE began with last year’s development of the strategic plan, which proposed a new program. But some faculty members of the University Senate criticized the plan for focusing too much on current issues instead of

Please See CORE, Page 2

SGA aims to boost safety discussion at orientation

Shift to compostable containers tainted by confusing disposal

BY RICH ABDILL AND MICHELLE CLEVELAND

Resolution would ask university to mandate SafetyUMD program for incoming students

Staff writers

When asked about Dining Services’ new ecofriendly carry-out containers, Halima Adenegan was ecstatic in her praise.

“They’re great. Go green, exclamation point,” the freshman government and politics major said.

Still, Adenegan had no idea she was supposed to bring the containers back and has been throwing them out instead.

Adenegan is not alone. While Dining Services’ new containers are made out of biodegradable Bagasse material, the campus can only reap the benefits if students return the containers so they can be properly sorted and composted.

The implementation of the containers, which began on Jan. 1, has been plagued with issues

BY DERBY COX Staff Writer

The SGA will vote on a pair of bills next week aimed to increase the safety awareness of incoming students.

The resolutions, which were originally packaged together, would ask the university to provide more safety instructions at orientation and task the Student Gov-

ernment Association with working to make SafetyUMD mandatory for incoming students. The bills come despite the fact that crime in 2008 was the lowest it has been in the past 12 years, according to University Police.

“Some crimes have gone down, but the level is still, I think, unacceptable and it

Please See SGA, Page 3

Please See BAGASSE, Page 2

Solomon Comissiong, an assistant director of the Nyumburu Cultural Center, leads a Black Male Initiative meeting at Nyumburu Wednesday evening. The meeting was the group's first of the semester. JAMES B. HALE/THE DIAMONDBACK

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JACLYN BOROWSKI AND SHAI GOLLER

Council holds hearing on Perk license Gordon calls refusal to pay city fees a method of ‘civil disobedience’

BY BRADY HOLT Senior staff writer

A lengthy hearing on the College Perk last night exposed details of the coffeehouse’s precarious existence even as its owner said it will reopen within two months.

The offbeat Perk has remained closed since it suffered fire damage this summer, and founder Chris Gordon has continued to occupy the property even after it was sold in a foreclo-

TOMORROW’S WEATHER:

sure auction more than a year ago.

But Gordon said he will be able to reopen once he gets his insurance settlement from the fire, despite these obstacles and a possible challenge from the city council on the renewal of his liquor license.

Gordon came before the council last night after city staff told the council it should recommend to the county liquor board that it not renew the Perk’s license when it expires this spring.

Sunny/40s

City Public Services Director Bob Ryan recommended the council not renew the license because of Gordon’s repeated refusal to pay city fees after the council had also considered challenging his liquor license last year because of similar issues.

At the time, Gordon told the city it did not have the authority to charge him a liquor license fee. But

INDEX

Please See PERK, Page 2 NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 OPINION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Black Male Initiative strives to raise minority graduation rates University group offers a forum to empower black men, discuss the economy and dispel negative stereotypes

BY ADELE HAMPTON Staff writer

Twenty-seven minority men, diverse in age, ethnicity and background, sat in the Nyumburu Cultural Center breaking a statistical trend. Unlike many of their peers, they have graduated — or are on the path to graduate — from college.

Nationwide, college retention and graduation rates in the black community are significantly lower than those of whites, and the problem is worse among males.

FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 CLASSIFIED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

DIVERSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . .7 SPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

The meeting at the cultural center was a result of those unfortunate trends.

In 2005, the university started the Black Male Initiative in attempt to reverse this pattern.

In 2004, 67 percent of white students at the university graduated in four years, while only 43 percent of black students graduated in that amount of time, according to university statistics.

Similarly, almost twice as many black women as black men graduated in four

Please See BMI, Page 3

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THE DIAMONDBACK | NEWS | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2009

WE WANT YOU Story ideas? News tips?

E-mail them to The Diamondback at newsdesk.dbk@gmail.com

NEWSMAKERS BRIEFS Maryland has highest percentage of students taking AP ANNAPOLIS – Maryland has the highest percentage of high school students taking advanced placement courses and of those demonstrating college mastery on the exams, according to a report released by the College Board on Wednesday.

Of Maryland seniors taking the courses, 23.4 percent demonstrated college mastery on exams, compared to the national average of 15 percent.

Maryland also is first in the nation with 37.2 percent of seniors taking at least one AP exam.

The report is more good news for Superintendent Nancy Grasmick and Gov. Martin O’Malley, after the state invested huge amounts in schools during tough financial times. The state’s schools were recently rated the best in the country by the national publication Education Week.

Md. lawmaker wants study of sentence credits ANNAPOLIS – Montgomery County Delegate Luiz Simmons wants the state to consider changes to the system that allow prison inmates to shave time from their sentences with credits for good behavior.

Simmons says citizens are often dismayed to find out that violent offenders are sometimes released much sooner than ordered by a judge. He believes Maryland residents want the state to adopt “truth in sentencing” policies.

Simmons is calling for the creation of an 11-member state task force to study eliminating or changing the credit system.

He also wants the panel to study whether judges should continue to have the authority to modify sentences soon after handing them down.

— Compiled from wire reports

TODAY

@M

ARYLAND

THE POWER OF WORDS: BARACK OBAMA

PHYSICS IS PHUN

An exhibit celebrating President Obama as author, McKeldin Library, near the entrance of the Footnotes Café

Electromagnetic phenomena, featuring the infamous electromagnetic can crusher, Hands-on experiments, 7 p.m., Physics Building, Lecture Halls 1410/12

OVERHEARD

Q+A

he changed tack this year, saying the fee was legal but “unjust” and last night described his reluctance to pay $264 for a city liquor license as “civil disobedience” designed to get the issue into the public eye.

“I’d think during these trying financial times it would behoove the city to help local businesses instead of charge them unnecessary fees,” Gordon said, citing segregation and slavery as further examples of legal practices from the past that were not “morally right.”

Council members would not say whether they were swayed by Gordon’s testimony last night, but District 1 Councilman Patrick Wojahn said he found Gordon’s comparisons between the Perk’s situation and apartheid “insulting to the many people who were involved in real civil disobedience.”

Gordon has also declined to pay for the city to inspect his property as required in the city code, saying he disagrees with some of what they are enforcing.

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SCENE + HEARD

Bagasse trays dumped with trash BAGASSE, from Page 1 from the outset. There is little awareness of the initiative among students and no practical system for collecting the containers. Furthermore, if the containers aren’t composted under specific conditions, they may be no better for the environment than the old plastic foam ones.

The Bagasse can be composted and used to fertilize gardens and ground on the campus, but the containers need to be placed on the dining hall tray-return belts to be sorted and properly disposed of.

During late-night dining, however, the belts do not run and the dining halls serve food exclusively in carry-out containers. While a trash can marked for Bagasse containers was placed in the South Campus Dining Hall last night, students had previous been left to eat from the Bagasse containers

with no means of separating what is compostable and what is trash.

“Why would they change the containers and not collect them?” said freshman psychology major Melissa Pianowski.

“What’s the point?”

On Tuesday evening, The Diamondback observed more than 200 Bagasse containers being thrown into trash cans at The Diner on North Campus between 7 and 9 p.m., less than halfway through a single latenight dining period.

While Dining Services spokesman Bart Hipple said he believed the compostable materials were sorted from the rest of trash, workers at The Diner and Greg Thompson, assistant director of Dining Services maintenance, confirmed that the bags from these trash cans aren’t sorted and are just thrown into dumpsters.

Even during the day when the

conveyor belts run, many students still don’t return the containers to the dining halls, either because they don’t know they’re supposed to or because it’s too much of a hassle.

“It’s a stupid system,” said sophomore kinesiology major Alana Isaacon. “Chances are, you’re going to do what’s convenient and throw it out.”

Hipple also questioned how realistic the idea of students bringing back the containers is.

“I can’t picture myself bringing things back to the dining hall,” he said.

Dining Services launched a marketing campaign asking students to return the containers for proper disposal, but it has thus far consisted only of passing out bulletin board materials to resident assistants.

“I didn’t even know we were supposed to return them,” said freshman engineering major Sean Hamzehee.

Hipple said there should be posters and table tents in each of the dining halls by Friday, more than a month after the program began. He also added that advertisements on Shuttle-UM busses will come out Feb. 21.

Freshman mathematics major Kristina Delacruz said placing bins in dorm lounges would be a more effective method of collection. This proposition, however, is more complicated than it seems.

“It creates this pest problem,” said Carol Turner, executive administrative assistant for residential facilities. She said there are also specific fire regulations that would prevent bins for the compostable trays in the dorms.

Turner added that Residential Facilities is working with the Department of Resident Life and Dining Services to reach a conclusion.

“The good thing about the Bagasse is whether you throw

them away or compost them they will decompose,” said Cindy Felice, the associate director of Resident Life in charge of South Campus.

When not composted, the containers are sent to landfills with the regular trash stream. As far as being better for the environment than plastic foam if thrown away, Heather Lair, project manager for the Office of Sustainability who did research for Dining Services’ sustainability advisory board, said it depends.

“The thought was that [the Bagasse containers] are more likely to break down under most conditions,” she said.

But Lair added that, given the conditions at the bottom of a landfill, the Bagasse probably would not decompose any faster than plastic foam would. abdilldbk@gmail.com, clevelanddbk@gmail.com

CORE plan will take ‘time and intellectual effort’ CORE, from Page 1 long-term philosophical ones.

As a result, the strategic plan was modified and created a task force, jointly appointed by the senate and Provost Nariman Farvardin, that would develop CORE’s replacement.

Berlin called developing the new plan “an extraordinarily intimidating assignment” because of the “deep” and “different” feelings people have about general education. He said the provost originally approached him about chairing the committee toward the end of last semester.

Other members of the 19person committee include Betsy Beise, a physics professor who chaired the strategic plan’s general education task force; Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Studies Kathy McAdams; Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Jim Osteen; Associate Provost Phyllis Peres; wellknown sex expert and public and community health professor Robin Sawyer; and two undergraduates, linguistics major Rose Weiss and biological sciences major Sarah Peitzmeier.

Committee members brought up a variety of concerns they would have with

Gordon compares licensing fees to segregation, apartheid, slavery PERK, from Page 1

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The council also heard from Alireza Aliaskari — listed in property records as the owner of the College Perk property — who is involved in five separate lawsuits in county, state and federal courts trying to evict Gordon and tenants who rent bungalows and apartments on the Perk property.

Aliaskari recalled to the council his monthly mortgage payment on the Perk property to the cent ($5,619.50) that he has been paying since last January, and said he has also paid $24,000 in property taxes.

Gordon said he did not pay property taxes because although he disputes the legality of his foreclosure, state tax records list Daria Land Group LLC as the property owner. Robert Hillman, attorney for Aliaskari’s Daria, said Gordon made “misstatements” on his liquor license application last year when he called himself the property owner.

Gordon would not say how he plans to present his case to the county, citing strategic reasons.

Though more dramatic

than most city business, last night’s hearing was tame in comparison to the council’s previous evaluation of the Perk’s liquor license, when Gordon brought in dozens of loyal customers to speak on his behalf.

City officials gave the hearing the aura of a courtroom trial, with Mayor Stephen Brayman and city attorney Suellen Ferguson asking formal “yes-or-no” questions of the witnesses, but Gordon seemed to enjoy the opportunity to make public comment.

Gordon joked with the council and appeared pleased when at one point he told a spectator he had “caught [him] giggling” during his presentation.

The council will discuss what it heard at last night’s hearing at its work session meeting in two weeks and will vote on whether to recommend that the county renew the Perk’s license later this month.

The county liquor board will make the final decision this spring. holtdbk@gmail.com

the program, but generally said they wanted students to embrace the new plan rather than seeing it as a list of courses to be checked off.

Summing up the challenge, economics professor and committee member Cindy Clement said, “How do you encourage [students] without making it a bureaucratic environment?”

Beise expressed concern regarding potential overlap of general requirements with students’ major requirements.

“How do we come up with a program that’s flexible and still provides a quality education?” she said. “This is a big

university and the needs of the students are highly diverse. We have to look closely at the strategic plan and be very careful. We don’t want to overburden students.”

Cheryl Ehrman, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, stressed the importance of a new task force, saying she expects the committee to take a lot of “time and intellectual effort.”

The overhaul of CORE was one of the most contentious parts of the strategic plan, which is intended to guide the university through the next decade and was eventu-

ally approved by the senate last year with an overwhelming margin.

Berlin said Farvardin had given him a deadline of the end of the fall semester. The committee that originally created CORE took 18 months to finish its task, according to sociology professor John Pease, who chaired it. “[The deadline] doesn’t seem unreasonable to me now, but I may learn better,” Berlin said.

Senior staff writer Kevin Robillard contributed to this report. taustindbk@gmail.com

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2009 | NEWS | THE DIAMONDBACK

3

A camera goes a long way

Univ. Police support making safety program mandatory

Student-created photo site helps Ukrainian orphans

BY ANNA KOWALCZYK Staff writer

A disposable camera costs about $5, but a recent student initiative could yield an even more valuable result by using them to pay for Ukrainian orphans to go to college.

A group of university students sent disposable cameras to orphanages in Ukraine to connect the children with sponsors in the United States through their photos. The pictures, which are posted on Shutters4Scholars.com, are linked to ways to give money to the children who took them.

The website is the brainchild of Yana Jmourko, a senior civil and environmental engineering major and Ukrainian native, who started it with the help of the university’s Quality Enhancement Systems and Teams (QUEST) Honors Fellows Program.

“Helping the orphans was an interest and passion of mine,” Jmourko said. “I’ve seen how important college is for success and want to give these orphans the same opportunity.”

Jmourko spent her childhood in Ukraine before moving to America. Last summer, she returned to the country and visited the many orphanages there. Touched by the children she saw, Jmourko brought back a desire to give these orphans the same opportunities she has been given in America.

With this mission, Jmourko pitched the idea to her QUEST directors of creating a nonprofit to help these orphans.

While most of the students in the QUEST programs work with previously established

organizations, Jmourko’s team was faced with the challenge of starting from scratch.

“The other programs were very business-y,” said senior finance major Shaun Robinson, one of six students who chose to work on Jmourko’s team. “This program made me feel like I was doing something.”

Jmourko said she appreciated the charitable aspect of the program.

“In business, you’re always worried about the bottom line,” she said. “It was nice to not have to have business as our top priority.”

Pairing Jmourko’s experiences with team research, the group chose to work with the non-profit Ukrainian Children’s Aid and Relief Effort, or UCARE Inc., with the goal of sponsoring college-aged students until they graduate.

It costs about $1,000 a year to support a Ukrainian student through college because education is free in Ukraine, Jmourko said. The only money needed is for living expenses.

“At 17 or 18, they’re pretty much kicked out of the orphanages,” senior computer science major Vlad Tchompalov said.

“It’s really a tough situation.”

The group decided to combine its computer and business skills to create a website that connected Ukrainian students with sponsors.

Using relationships Jmourko developed in Ukraine and funding from the QUEST program and faculty advisors, the team sent disposable cameras with visual instructions to orphans in Ukraine. The children were asked to take photographs of important factors in their lives, which were then

SGA, from Page 1 should be lower,” said Outlying Commuter Legislator Omri Arens, who sponsored the combined bill.

More than 1,700 people have used SafetyUMD, an online safety education program created by the SGA, since the program was launched Sept. 5, SGA President Jonathan Sachs said. The program contains information on topics including mental health and campus resources such as NITE Ride.

“I still think it’s a valuable resource for students to use,” he said.

University Police Spokesman Paul Dillon said he supported making SafetyUMD mandatory.

The second bill, which focuses on orientation, is needed to educate students about the realities of crime in College Park, Arens said.

The details of the new orientation information have yet to be refined, Arens said, although he has created a prototype pamphlet including information on crime statistics, emergency numbers and safety tips.

“One of the challenges for new students is their time and everyone wants a piece of the new students’ time,” Dillon said. “It’s sort of a competition to get more of their time, and of course I believe that more time would be useful talking about safety and security.”

During orientation, University Police give parents a safety pamphlet and spend about half an hour presenting safety information to them, Lt. Steven Kowa said. Police cover topics such as theft prevention and the structure of the police department.

“I don’t know what else we

Yana Jmourko with children at the Holy Family orphanage in Ternopil, Ukraine. COURTESY OF YANA JMOURKO

sent back to the university where Robinson developed and posted them to the “Darkroom” on the website.

“Pictures are a universal language,” Robinson said. “I wanted to make it fun to interact with the students. We didn’t want it to be like other charitable sites that make you feel bad — we wanted it to be uplifting.”

The team has no official count for the number of site visitors, but so far they have raised several hundred dollars.

“It’s not as much as we had hoped for, but it’s a start,” Jmourko said.

The team has said its biggest challenge has been getting the word out to possible sponsors.

After tying for first place in a QUEST Capstone competition at the end of the fall semester, Jmourko was featured on PBS for her program, which was the team’s first step toward greater publicity. The group also hopes to gain corporate sponsorship, possibly from camera companies like Kodak

would really need to go into with the parents,” Kowa said.

No direct presentation is made to students, but they watch a video explaining the use of the blue safety phones around the campus, Assistant Director of Orientation Dian Squire said.

Throughout the two-day event, orientation advisers give students safety information and perform skits, some of which focus on safety, Squire said. New students also have the ability to ask safety questions in small groups led by orientation advisers during a “Life at UMD” session.

The orientation office will consider adding more safety instruction time if the bill passes, although it is probably too late to alter this year’s schedule, Squire said.

Arens and Campus Affairs Committee Chair Joanna Calabrese decided to split the bills last night after the SGA Campus Affairs Committee tried to amend the original bill to remove mention of orientation safety.

The committee thought the original bill was unfocused by including sections about both topics, Calabrese said.

After Speaker of the Legislature Matt Lyons, a cosponsor of the bill, said the committee could not strike reference to orientation because it would alter the intent of the bill, Calabrese and Arens decided the best alternative was to submit two separate bills next week.

Calabrese and Arens said they were hopeful the new bills could come to a vote at next week’s meeting, a process that can ordinarily take several weeks.

and Nikon.

Robinson thinks social networking can play a significant role as well.

“If one person spread the word to their friends and family, and they do the same, the message will be spread virally,” he said.

When most of the team graduates in May, the members plan to stay connected to the project and to bring the skills they gained into the workforce.

Robinson hopes to develop Web pages and work with nonprofits to create more sites similar to Shutters4Scholars.

The team also hopes to spread the project to other countries to give students around the world the opportunity to tell their own stories.

“One of our goals was to create a site that would be selfsustaining,” Jmourko said.

“We hope to expand this to include children [outside Ukraine.]” kowalczykdbk@gmail.com

coxdbk@gmail.com

USM: Law ‘overly prescriptive’ TEXTBOOKS, from Page 1

The Black Male Initiative meets for the first time this semester at the Nyumburu Cultural Center Wednesday evening. JAMES B. HALE/THE DIAMONDBACK

Black Male Initiative aims to close education gap before college level BMI, from Page 1 years. About 2,000 black women enrolled as full-time students in this year’s freshman class, compared to slightly less than 1,300 black men.

These statistics have been consistent throughout the years, but the Black Male Initiative is trying to paint a different picture for the future.

The initiative was started with the goal of “the establishment of brotherhood, scholarship and retention of black men at the university.”

“Who will be leaders?”

Assistant Director of Student Involvement & Public Relations of Nyumburu Solomon Comissiong asked. “We can all be Barack Obama ... Our walls are not limited in any shape, form or fashion.”

While graduation rates for black men is a constant issue, the group also talked about other conflicts facing the black community. One major concern was the nation’s economy and how its instability affects black men. Another student was concerned about mainstream stereotypes associ-

ated with black men.

“A lot of these young men work,” Associate Provost for Equity and Diversity Cordell

“We can all be Barack Obama ...

Our walls are not limited in any shape, form or fashion.”

SOLOMON COMISSIONG ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF STUDENT INVOLVEMENT & PUBLIC RELATIONS

Black said. “They work because they have to, and so do women, but women, it seems, are a lot better at juggling all of their responsibilities. If [male students] are having trouble, you can see it in their performance.”

Black said by providing black male students with structure and a forum from which they can receive the help and guidance they need, he hopes those students involved will do well and begin to close this achievement gap.

Besides on-campus programs like study halls, the

initiative is taking strides to reach out to black males outside the university by sponsoring mentoring programs with Greenbelt Elementary School, among others. At last night’s meeting, two participants were from local public schools in Prince George’s county.

The program at Greenbelt, for example, aims at establishing a sense of community when students are young, in hopes of closing the education gap early on. Only 53 percent of blacks in the U.S. graduate from high school, compared to 77 percent of white Americans and 80 percent of Asian Americans, according to a 2007 report done by the Alliance for Excellent Education.

Letters and sciences advisor Brent Hernandez pointed out attendance at these programs has suffered in the past. He stressed the importance of involvement in study halls and other resources provided.

“We started because we also wanted to improve the scholarships,” Comissiong added. “We’re nothing if we don’t graduate.” hamptondbk@gmail.com

Thousands read

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terms of content change, why they chose a new edition over an old one.

“We want the University System to have a policy where everyone — the professor, the publisher, the bookstore — knows the implications of placing that order,” said Sen. Paul Pinsky (D-Prince George’s), the bill’s sponsor.

“We’re not restricting, but we think people need to be sensitive.”

By providing more information on textbooks as well as ISBN numbers to both on- and off-campus bookstores, competition will drive prices down naturally, Pinsky added.

The bill’s legislative backers praised the tuition freeze, but contended that allowing textbook prices to skyrocket makes college out of reach for low- and middle-income families. Sen. Jim Rosapepe (D-Anne Arundel & Prince George’s), who represents College Park, cited estimates that textbooks cost 15 to 20 percent of this university’s tuition cost, rising to one-third of the cost at community colleges.

But USM lobbyist P. J. Hogan, a

former state senator, testified that the system’s proposed textbook policy, along with a federal textbook law passed last year, would be enough to keep prices down.

The state bill requires too much information about textbooks to be released while failing to fund the cost for releasing that information, Hogan said, and would cost the system $17 million in loss of revenue to campus bookstores, he said.

“Doesn’t that speak to the fact that they’re overpriced?” Pinsky countered, to the delight of the other members of Senate Education, Health and Environment Committee.

In College Park, revenue from the campus bookstore goes toward paying off the debt acquired in constructing the Stamp Student Union. Lost revenue from declining textbook prices would result in the raising of other student fees to balance university budgets, said Josh Michaels, a University of Maryland Baltimore County student who serves as the Board of Regents’ student member.

The heart of the debate came down to whether or not a policy was

sufficient and if a law was needed.

“The Regents policy is good policy ... but I can tell the difference between should and shall,” Rosapepe said, adding the law would simply force the university system to comply with their own recommendations.

Hogan argued that policy would allow more flexibility for faculty because it wouldn’t force them to justify choosing newer or bundled textbooks.

“While we support the intent of the bill, we feel policy would be the way to go,” Hogan said, calling the law “overly prescriptive.”

Student Government Association President Jonathan Sachs told the committee the bill was supported by the student body, bringing along 1,500 signed letters of support.

Other provisions that the law includes would require colleges and universities to release ISBN numbers to students, which this university already does; demand that publishers release textbook information, including a list of changes from earlier editions; and to sell bundled course materials separately.

COMPARISON BETWEEN STATE, FEDERAL AND USM TEXTBOOK POLICIES Proposed state law: July 2009 Faculty awareness of textbook prices and issues Requires faculty to justify choosing new editions

Requires faculty to be informed of prices and content and price changes from new to old editions.

Yes.

Required disclosures from textbook publishers

Must release price, title, author, publisher, ISBN and three previous copyright dates. Must provide a list of the differences in content between new and old editions. Must list individual prices of bundled materials. Must disclose other available formats of the book.

Bundled materials

Bookstores are barred for bundling items that are ordered separately; if that’s impossible, must list alternatives and their prices.

Notification to noncampus bookstores and the public

On request, bookstores off the campus may get the information as soon as the campus bookstores receive it. Textbook information must be posted one week after bookstores are notified or when final order is made, whichever comes earlier.

Federal law: July 2010

Proposed USM policy: Fall semester 2009

None.

Requires faculty to be informed about textbook prices.

No.

No, though encouraged to only use new editions if necessary.

Must release price and three previous copyright dates. Must describe differences in content of old and new editions.

Must disclose other available formats.

Yes.

Suggests ISBN and price should be posted on the website, lists no timeframe, allows “to be determined” posting option. None for bookstores.

Should list differences in content of old and new editions. Required to list individual prices of bundled materials.

No.

Asks universities to list ISBN numbers and other basic information no later than May 1 for fall courses and Dec. 1 for spring courses. None for bookstores.

4

THE DIAMONDBACK | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2009

THE DIAMONDBACK

Opinion

STEVEN OVERLY

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Letters to the editor

The dramatic truth A Play in Two Acts The idea of a Good Samaritan policy has been bouncing around the campus for some time now. Last year, the idea was brought before the University Senate, handed off to the office of Vice President for Student Affairs Linda Clement and has now come back to the senate. The senate has organized a working group of students and faculty, tasked with Student 1: Hey, let’s take shots of this alcohol. Let’s take, like, a whole bunch of shots!

Student 2: But what if one of us gets dangerously sick? We’d have to call the resident determining whether students at this school are deterred from calling emergency medical services for fear of punishment. assistant and emergency medical services!

Brad Docherty, the undergraduate student leading the Student 3: And we’re not 21, so it’s against the law for us to drink! working group, is pushing for the senate to make a deciStudent 2: That means when we call the RA’s we’d have to go before the Office of Student Conduct for infractions of official univer- It’s downright silly to argue sion regarding the Good Samaritan policy by the end of Good Samaritan policies this semester. We have absolutely no doubt that the sity policies! Everybody knows that’s section 9, item (o) in the Code working group will find there are students who hesitate of Student Conduct. encourage drinking. to call 911, worrying about losing housing or a scholarStudent 1: [Putting the handles back under his bed with a dejected sigh.] Yeah, you guys are right. Drinking just isn’t worth the risk. Anybody for a game ship. We have no reason to believe that the working group will find anything different than what has been found at Cornell University, where a of Boggle?

Medical Amnesty Policy was implemented in fall 2002.

In the six years since, Cornell has found “an increase in both calls to Act II: [Six months later: The University Senate has passed a Good Samaritan policy, allowing students to call emergency medical services with immunity from judicial ac- the emergency medical services (EMS) and hospital emergency room tion if their friends are in risk of alcohol poisoning. Buildings are burning in the back- visits of acute alcohol intoxication with nonconcurrent increase in the amount of drinking on campus.” Both the number of alcohol-related calls ground and rioters run through the streets screaming obscenities.] to Cornell EMS and alcohol-related emergency room visits increased by Student 1: It’s drinking time, ladies and gentlemen!

Student 2: We’re invincible! We can just abuse this Good Samaritan policy and we’ll nearly 50 percent.

Yet still, there are some senators who have argued that the policy will never get in trouble. send the message that illegal drinking bears no penalties. You should Student 3 [drunkenly]: F--- the po-lice! find that argument exactly as convincing as the two-act play above.

[Fin] Act I: [On a Saturday evening, three students in Easton Hall huddle in their cramped dorm room. One student reaches under his bed and pulls out a handle of Kentucky Gentleman whiskey and Rikaloff Vodka.]

Our View

Editorial Cartoon: Mike O’Brien

In phavor of Phelps By now, a good portion of campus has probably seen the recently released picture of 14-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps lighting a bong at a party at the University of South Carolina.

While I wouldn’t compare the media response to the recent flaying New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress took, discussion has already begun regarding how the picture could “destroy the career of the greatest competitor in Olympic history,” and others are apparently grouping Phelps under the heading of “America’s Tainted Heroes” (see Shai Goller’s Editorial Cartoon in the Feb. 2 Diamondback).

Can we cut the guy a break?

Somewhere between the Olympic records, the magazine covers and the media coverage, I think people have forgotten that Phelps is 23 years old. He didn’t “go to college” like most of us. Instead, he took classes at Michigan while training four years straight for the 2008 Olympics. If you think he’s been around forever and should be old enough to know better, you’re half right. He’s been competing at the international level for almost a decade, making his first Olympic team in 2000 at age 15.

Before you relegate him to “Tainted Hero” status, think about what he’s being accused of. It’s marijuana. It’s not a performanceenhancing drug.

That doesn’t change the fact that it’s illegal, but last I checked, Phelps has never failed a drug test, which is saying something given that he’s taken something like 1,500 of them. He wasn’t in training or competing at the time. He was just unfortunate enough to have been in a party with someone devious enough to snap an incriminating picture and sell it to a tabloid. He also apologized publicly.

If you want to talk tainted heroes, keep your conversation on Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and other athletes who aren’t honest about the drugs that are actually contaminating sports.

MIKE KIRWAN DOCTORAL STUDENT NEUROSCIENCE AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE

Graduate stipends

Grading: The limits of letters

A

few short months ago, students on the campus and at other universities across the country took part in the long tradition of cramming for finals. A marathon of sleep deprivation, cramming is a ritual that has been passed down through the ages and all for the purpose of achieving a lonely letter grade on our transcripts. Those of you looking for whom to thank for this merciless process can look no further than William Farish.

A Cambridge tutor from the 18th century, Farish can either be considered a genius or one of the laziest teachers in history. Up until the Industrial Revolution, teaching consisted mainly of mentorship. But as the 19th century approached, teachers were no longer being paid at a flat rate but awarded based on the number of students they processed. Farish devised the idea of a letter grading system.

What transpired was a grading revolution. While creativity in the classroom was replaced by a more rigid system based on exam performance,

JUSTIN

SNOW

Farish could spend less time teaching and more time making money by squeezing out more students. So here we stand today: anxiety-prone, overcaffeinated drones and prisoners of Farish’s little scheme.

But have hope, my fellow inmates: Change may be coming. A movement is growing to move away from the letter grading system and toward a more flexible approach that reduces grade inflation and focuses on the accumulation of knowledge rather than performance. At the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, there were few kind words for the current grading system.

Many described grade inflation as out of control, and one professor called

grades “the death of composition.”

But what is the alternative? It ranges from narrative evaluations, where students meet with professors to offer their take on the progress of their learning while also hearing the professor’s perspective, to rubrics with clear learning goals. With more and more students studying abroad and grade inflation caused by curving and different teaching techniques, grades have become unreliable.

Skeptics say eliminating grades makes it more difficult to get into professional schools, but it’s quite the contrary: Many law schools, including Yale, Stanford and Berkeley, have eliminated letter grades and award students levels of achievement such as “honors” and “high honors.”

Some also say abandoning the letter grade system will allow students to slack, but in many cases, the workload may actually increase. At Fairhaven College in Washington state, many assignments require a self-evaluation where the students write about their experience working on the assign-

ment they just completed. The workload is also increased for faculty members, who are required to give a detailed analysis of students’ work.

To those with a creative streak, this may sound ideal. But to others who have spent their entire academic careers focused on making the grade, a switch to such an outside-of-the-box approach could prove difficult. But that in itself is proof that a system that awards performance more than knowledge and creativity is flawed.

We hear a lot about how universities are centers for thought and progress, and that may well be true when it comes to research and discovery. But it’s time to help breed that sense of curiosity among undergraduates in classes they may not necessarily be interested in. We are higher education’s future, and it would be best if our knowledge reached further than studying skills.

Justin Snow is a sophomore history major. He can be reached at snowdbk@gmail.com.

Participation: Speaking my mind about keeping quiet

H

ow many points do I get for telling you that Adolf Hitler was mean? Hopefully none — but hopefully I won’t lose any points if I decide that that knowledge could be found elsewhere. Forgive me if I sound frustrated and bewildered, but I have begun to lose hope for the future of intelligent discourse.

You know when you are in class and the teaching assistant calls on someone who did not raise his or her hand? More often than not, that person is me, and more often than not, I did not want to speak, and more often than not, it’s because of a lack of enthusiasm.

Now, I want to be clear: I am not an anti-social introvert who trembles in the face of public speaking, nor do I feel I am in any way superior by defying conformist hand-raising; I am simply one of the thousands of college students who would

rather not contribute unless I have something important to say. As my college career whittles away, I find myself in classes in which participation appears on the grading scale, a policy I find utterly inefficient. By assessing penalties for lack of participation, I constantly see students volunteering trivial responses simply to retain their easy points. Smart students are simply speaking because something has to be said, rather than speaking because something has to be said. The content of the discussion becomes a secondary concern and the lesson itself is lost.

I realize participation grades are enforced for a reason, namely to keep students like myself in low numbers. With no incentive to get involved, our inner apathy would get the better of us, and we would find ourselves sitting in semi-circles all across the campus, staring blandly into the distance. The only reasonable

MIKE

DIMARCO solution to this participation pickle seems to be to reward intelligent contributions without punishing others for an eyesand-ears-only policy. This could be done by offering incentives like extra credit or immunity on small quizzes. Insightful input could substitute for absences or minor homework assignments, and I challenge teachers to look outside of the box — I’d be more than happy to offer my opinion if there were Campusfood bucks in it for me.

The responsibility of the college expe-

rience is a shared one. The instructor’s job is to get the message to us, but in the end we are the ones paying to sit in these classrooms, and therefore we should have the final say in our level of involvement. Now, my indictments do not apply to all classrooms campus-wide; kudos to all instructors who long ago abandoned the participation grade punishment policy.

But to those of you who still feel this method is proper, ask yourself this: The next time you are teaching modern history and ask the class to explain the plight of the United States’ black citizens prior to the civil rights movement, do you really need five people to raise their hands and say, “Um ... bad?”

Mike DiMarco is a junior English major.

He can be reached at dimarcodbk@gmail.com.

POLICY: The signed letters, columns and cartoon represent only the opinions of the authors. The staff editorial represents the opinion of The Diamondback’s editorial board and is the responsibility of the editor in chief.

I would like to add a note to Julia Russell’s excellent and muchappreciated article “Stipends Increase Remains on Track,” which ran in The Diamondback Dec. 15.

Russell writes that “for the 2009 fiscal year, graduate students are projected to earn about $14,000 for a nine-month commitment, which ... is still less than the nation’s leading graduate institutions, where graduate students receive about $18,000 a year.”

Data for the total body of 4,031 graduate assistants supported in Fall 2008 (fiscal year 2009) indicate the following: Although the university sets a minimum stipend for first-year GAs on 9-month appointments at $13,994, only 1 percent of the total number of GAs were compensated at that rate.

Adjusted for full-time equivalence (20 hours per week), the median stipend level for all GAs combined was $18,446 and the mean stipend level $19,372.

Russell correctly notes, though, that the Strategic Plan sets a minimum stipend of $18,000 (in 2006 dollars) for 9.5-month appointments as a 10-year objective. The university remains strongly committed to remaining on track in reaching that goal.

CHARLES CARAMELLO DEAN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

AIR YOUR VIEWS Address your letters or guest columns to the Opinion Desk at opinion.dbk@gmail.com. All letters and guest columns must be signed. Include your full name, year, major and day- and nighttime phone numbers. Please limit letters to 300 words. Please limit guest columns to 600 words.

Submission of a letter or guest column constitutes an exclusive, worldwide, transferable license to The Diamondback of the copyright in the material in any media. The Diamondback retains the right to edit submissions for content and length.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2009 | THE DIAMONDBACK

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Features HOROSCOPESTELLA WILDER 47 Kapitan’s command (hyph.)

48 Slickers 49 Diet spread 50 Phone 51 Trig function

40 Soprano’s rendition 41 Letter starter 43 For some time 46 Charge ahead

Barter Matterhorn echo Pause Steins Greasiest

© 2009 UNITED FEATURES SYNDICATE

Previous Day’s Puzzle Solved:

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You are a natural at many things, but you don’t always do something well unless you are really interested in the task and really want to take it on. When it comes to mere busywork, you are a complete loss; your mind wanders, your skills fail you, and you might as well not do it at all.

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Also born on this date are: Jennifer Jason Leigh, actress; Barbara Hershey, actress; Henry Aaron, baseball player; H.R. Giger, movie special-effects specialist; Red Buttons, actor; William Burroughs, author; Bobby Brown, singer.

To see what is in store for you tomorrow, find your birthday and read the corresponding paragraph. Let your birthday star be your daily guide.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6 AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) — The day can certainly be yours, provided you concentrate on the here and now and don’t distract yourself with past worries or future dreams.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) — An honest approach is advised at all times — but especially when you are up against someone

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) — You’re feeling rebellious, but don’t let temptation get the better of you. Maintain a balanced approach at all times.

with great authority than you can boast.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) — You are a fine judge of character, but it is your own character that may come under the microscope.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) — Some may call you cocky and overconfident, but you have what it takes to make good on all manner of recent boasts. Go for broke.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) — You needn’t offer up too much of an explanation when your motives or methods are questioned. Let the facts speak for themselves.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) — You’ve been moving at a rapid pace for quite some time, but you’ll want to slow down a bit before you start making careless mistakes.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) — It is important that you are in touch with your own feelings, and the feelings of those closest to you.

Your perceptions take precedence.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) — Are you surrounding yourself with those who bring out the best in you? You can make a change that really makes a difference.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) — You can inspire confidence in others, and as a result you can accomplish more yourself than you had originally planned.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) — You may be surprised to learn just who is looking out for you at this time. By day’s end, a new alliance may be in the making.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) — You may be self-sufficient, but there comes a time in everyone’s life in which they are compelled to ask for help or guidance. Yours is now.

Copyright, 2009 United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

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Featuring...

DATE:

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orn today, you are enthusiastic about virtually everything that goes on in life, from the most mundane, routine developments to the most life-changing events. It’s all part of what makes life worth living, as far as you’re concerned — the big and the small, the good and the bad. You are able to take the good things and turn them into great things; you are able to take the bad things and turn them into something good. You are so positive that even those around you who are known for their negativity don’t stand a chance.

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4 Dogs resembling 22 Kilt feature collies 23 Friar of legend 5 Kind of 24 Sturdy lock committee 26 Where Valencia is (2 wds.)

29 Oppositeness 6 Trout’s home 33 Doctrine 7 Fixed the table 34 Compare 8 Naval off.

35 Box-office sign 9 Decompose 36 Televises 10 Yell 37 Distributes 11 Peter Gunn’s girl 38 Very willing 12 Verdi princess 39 2001 to Livy 13 Perchance 40 Garage contents 21 Back financially 41 Soft leather 22 Blueprint 42 Diver’s weapon 24 Joins together 44 Pentium 25 Yeasty brews producer 26 Crooked schemes 45 Bit of straw 27 Doll up 46 Lie in the weeds 28 Craggy abode 48 Gourmet coffee 29 Rock climber’s 51 Dwindles gear 55 Eurasian range 30 Cay 56 Slacks material

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2009 | THE DIAMONDBACK

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Diversions

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: THE PINK PANTHER 2 “The Pink Panther 2 sorely lacks the energy and guile Peter Sellers brought to the franchise through his leading role in the 1960s and 1970s, and is little more than a mindless romp of stunt humor and emaciated narrative form.” — Thomas Floyd RATING: 1.5 stars out of 5

STEVE MARTIN IN THE PINK PANTHER 2

For the full review, click the Diversions link at: WWW.DIAMONDBACKONLINE.COM

arts. music. living. movies. weekend.

REVIEW | CORALINE

THE OTHER SIDE OF LIFE

Coraline’s inspired visual head trip fuels a dazzling journey through the rabbit hole

BY ZACHARY HERRMANN Senior staff writer

There’s something special about Coraline, although looks can be deceiving. Henry Selick’s triumphant return to featurelength stop-motion animation could be easily dismissed as eyecandy for all its visual revelry.

Take heed, though — it shouldn’t be.

While not as iconic as the director’s best-known and mostcelebrated film, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline contains an overwhelming amount of memorable images: button-eyed evil parents, a living, glowing garden and show-stopping circus mice, to name a few. It’s the perfect marriage of directing and source material (a so-called children’s book by reigning fantasy king, Neil Gaiman), as well as technology and imagination.

Coraline is not only an extremely entertaining flick, but also an affirmation of the practical artist, as the director does it all by hand without ever revealing the mechanization. Not to disparage all the wonderful things Pixar has been able to dream up with CGI, but there’s a certain timeless quality to well-executed stop-motion animation that just can’t be topped.

In eye-popping 3D (really, it’s

reel news AN OSCAR MAKEOVER? When Academy president Sid Ganis and Forest Whitaker announced the Oscar nominees, they sadly omitted The Dark Knight from the Best Picture shortlist, and without the presence of a box office darling like Christopher Nolan’s grisly comic book thriller, another year of declining ratings for the Oscars seemed inevitable. The Hollywood Reporter revealed, though, that Ganis is not giving up so easily, as evidenced by this ambiguous announcement at the nominees’ luncheon: “Your categories are being presented in a completely different way. Heads up: You’re in for a big surprise.” Sounds like desperation for a ratings bump, but still consider our interest peaked.

THE DARK TRUTH Christian Bale has anger issues. If we didn’t realize that after London police arrested Batman himself in July for allegedly assaulting his mother and sister, we definitely know it now that TMZ posted Bale’s nearly four-minute long, profanity-laced tirade from the set of Terminator Salvation. Dipping in and out of his faux American accent, Bale rips on cinematographer Shane Hurlbut for walking through his sight-line during a scene. Maybe his role as an axewielding maniac in the aptly titled American Psycho wasn’t such a stretch after all?

the only way to see the film), Coraline may be one of the most visually impressive films to hit the big screen in recent memory.

A few weak points in the storytelling keep it just short of classic status, but these issues do little to diminish the overall wonder and spirit of the piece.

Our little blue-haired heroine, Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning, The Secret Life of Bees), takes a rainy-day escape from her dreary reality by entering a hidden world through a concealed door in her new apartment. Busy with preparation for an annual plant catalogue, Coraline’s mother (Teri Hatcher, Desperate Housewives) and father (John Hodgman, Baby Mama) have little time for their daughter, and initially welcome any activity that will keep her occupied.

Through the strange, halfdream-world crawl space, Coraline discovers an alternate reality not so far removed from her waking life — the main difference being instant gratification.

Her odd neighbors are extravagant rather than pitifully eccentric; dinner is a scrumptious feast as opposed to miserable vegetable goo; and everyone bends to Coraline’s whims.

Of course, there’s a catch. As we (and Coraline) immediately notice, her Other mother and

Other father — and all the Other inhabitants of this double-world — have sewed-buttons in the place of their eyes, supposedly a small price to pay for happiness.

Either way, it sounds pretty painful and stops Coraline from completely giving in to her newfound world.

As the mystery unravels, Selick (who wrote the script, as well) connects the dots from hand-sewn voodoo dolls to missing child ghosts to the landlady’s strange grandson, Wybie (Robert Bailey Jr., The Happening). We get a lot thrown at us pretty quickly, which actually works to the film’s advantage.

Coraline is, after all, a snotty kid with fairly common predicaments, so it’s not really her we’re invested in so much as the strange world she enters in and out of. The real genius of the film comes in its tightly packed and colorfully rendered imagery.

The Other father — a genial, but grossly impotent, reflection of the real thing — first greets his daughter while sitting at his player piano. “This piano plays me,” he exclaims gleefully as two large gloves sprout forth from the piano and take control.

Like Peter Pan, another tale of an “Other” world, Coraline melds the perfections and imperfections of reality, and invests them in the main character’s fantasies. Her mother goes from dismissive to overly attentive, before completely undergoing another, darker transformation, as the separation between the dream- and reality-worlds starts to break down.

Though it is not quite as startling and adult as another overlapping film, Pan’s Labyrinth, Selick’s latest stays true to the tone of his other stop-motion features, The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. They’re all children’s stories, but Selick never panders to his audience.

With plenty-a-nod to Alice in Wonderland (the proverbial trip down the rabbit hole, a feline guide), Selick has created a film that earns your attention through two carefully constructed mirror universes. Maybe it’s only the 3D technology popping the characters forward from their surroundings, but everything else in Coraline jumps out on pure, inspired merit. zherrm@gmail.com

MOVIE: Coraline | VERDICT:

REVIEW | PUSH

When Push comes to shove Sci-fi thriller suffers from familiarity of the superhero genre

BY DAN BENAMOR Senior staff writer

When a genre is as ubiquitous as the superhero film, it takes more than a simple facelift to add something new.

And so it falls that Push, for all its grounded aesthetics and Hong Kong setting, is nothing new to anyone who’s seen a few episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series.

The plot is practically archetypal to the genre: Mutants (in the film, they’re called “special,” but let’s not kid ourselves) are hunted down by the government for nefarious purposes. Here the government division is idiotically called ... Division. It seems as though no one thought further than how cool it sounded to say lines such as, “Are you with Division?”

Division has been trying to augment the powers of captured mutants and, in the process, has killed hundreds of them (it would seem more practical to just use what they’ve got, but that’s never discussed). When one mutant, Kira (Camilla Belle, 10,000 B.C.), survives and escapes, this apparently means Division, Chinese mutant gangsters and a collection of expatriate mutants need to find her.

As outlandish as the plot may sound, director Paul McGuigan (Lucky Number Slevin) and scribe David Bourla

(Larceny) have made the unusual choice of keeping the world of the story very much grounded in a grimy reality. This isn’t the future, and no one is wearing costumes. If anything, the repeated shots of crowded marketplaces and dirty tenements call to mind Slumdog Millionaire. It’s a different approach, but ultimately only in a superficial way.

Despite the realism of the settings, McGuigan and longtime collaborator and cinematographer Peter Sova (Lucky Number Slevin) have maintained their trademark visual stylishness. In films such as Gangster No. 1, Wicker Park and Lucky Number Slevin, the duo have identified themselves with a unique stamp, using uncomfortably intimate close-ups, uneven framing and — in Push, at least — occasionally different film stocks.

They are not afraid to make an audience uncomfortable, which is refreshingly unusual, but sometimes headache-inducing.

For all of McGuigan and Sova’s efforts and the unique setting, interest quickly wanes while watching Push, largely because of deficiencies in the emotional lines of the story.

Push wants you to care that telepathic Nick (Chris Evans, Street Kings) watched his father die at the hands of Division leader Henry Carv-

er (Djimon Hounsou, Never Back Down). But we only see the father and son interact for about 30 seconds before the murder. We get even less of psychic Cassie (Dakota Fanning, The Secret Life of Bees) and her mother, apart from a lengthy scene of expository dialogue explaining their relationship. Push puts little effort into showing these crucial relationships while trying to use them as the emotional heft behind the action. Even from the start, it’s just not enough to make you care.

There are some aspects of Push that do connect, mostly in the inclusion of some superpowers audiences likely haven’t seen before. In the film’s vernacular, there are pushers (they manipulate your thoughts), sniffers (one sniff of your dirty sock and they can find you across town), shifters (they can make $1 look like $100) and many more distinctive mutants. When pusher Kira tricks a Division agent into killing his partner for murdering the brother he never had, it’s a moment darker than most superhero films allow, and for a brief moment, Push hits the audience especially hard.

But then we’re back to fairly routine on-the-run theatrics, not helped by

MOVIE: Push | VERDICT:

less-than-stellar action, characters and performances. Some fight scenes have unique touches (watch out for exploding fish!), but the final showdown between telepathic Nick and Carver’s equally telepathic right-hand man, Victor (Neil Jackson, Quantum of Solace) devolves into a fistfight with graphics.

Evans is, as usual, largely getting by on quick wit and a handsome face.

Fanning is miscast as the spunky Cassie, a rare occasion where her preternatural maturity and stillness work against her. Hounsou, playing the best-dressed villain in recent memory, has little character to exude apart from general menace, and he can only do so much with his role. If anything, the role really working is the one with nearly no lines: Victor.

Jackson has one look, a disturbingly intense stare, and it hits just the right note of psychotic furor. If you blink, you might mistake him for the master of playing lunatic killers, Ben Foster (most recently working his magic in 3:10 to Yuma).

If only the film were as fun to watch as him. dan.benamor@gmail.com

8

THE DIAMONDBACK | SPORTS | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2009

Linebackers were emphasis of Terps’ recruiting efforts RECRUITS, from Page 10 who want to be successful in life, who really have goals that they want to achieve.”

After losing 30 seniors to graduation — 12 in the defensive frontseven alone — the Terps stocked up on linebackers and defensive lineman, including four-star defensive end DeOnte Arnett and four-star linebacker David Mackall. For many of the Terps’ defensive recruits, the chance to play early might have played a large role in their decision.

“Kids today want to be impact players. They want to come in and make a difference immediately,” Sollazzo said. “Now, obviously that’s yet to be determined if they’re capable of doing that, but that does play a big part in the recruiting process because, for the most part, kids want to see themselves on the field immediately, and so do we.”

In addition to seven linebackers, the Terps also lost six offensive linemen to graduation. The Terps had anticipated those holes in past recruiting classes, but Friedgen said a combination of factors including redshirts, injuries, disciplinary and academic issues all led to a large group of senior linebackers last season without enough young backups. As a result, the Terps were forced to recruit heavily at linebacker, and signed eight prospects to the position.

“I think we got some linebackers who are excited about the opportunity to come in and challenge for that job. That’s my biggest concern right now, how we’re going to be at linebacker.”

Rounding out the Terps’ six four-star commitments were running backs D.J. Adams and Caleb Porzel, defensive back Travis Hawkins, and White. Arnett, Hawkins, Mackall and Porzel all

THE TERPS’ FULL SIGNING DAY LIST Player

Position Height Weight

Hometown

D.J. Adams Justin Anderson DeOnte Arnett C.J. Brown Pete DeSouza Ryan Donohue Darin Drakeford Nick Ferrara Eric Franklin Bennett Fulper Lorne Goree Avery Graham Travis Hawkins Bradley Johnson Nick Klemm David Mackall Dexter McDougle Avery Murray Danny O’Brien Caleb Porzel Isaiah Ross Dave Stinebaugh Pete White Marcus Whitfield

RB DL DL QB OL LB LB PK/P DB OL LB DB DB LB OL LB DB LB QB RB LB TE OL LB

Norcross, Ga. Blythewood, S.C. Capitol Heights Cranberry Twp., Pa. Silver Spring Montvale, N.J. Washington Hicksville, N.Y. Baltimore Gretna, Va. Springdale Clarksburg Gaithersburg Dinwiddie, Va. Marietta, Ga. Baltimore Falmouth, Va. Florence, S.C. Kernersville, N.C. Olney Greenbelt Baltimore Washington Germantown

5-foot-10 6-foot-5 6-foot-4 6-foot-3 6-foot-7 6-foot-2 6-foot-2 6-foot-1 6-foot-3 6-foot-4 6-foot-2 5-foot-10 5-foot-10 6-foot-1 6-foot-7 6-foot-3 6-foot 6-foot-1 6-foot-3 5-foot-9 6-foot-2 6-foot-4 6-foot-5 6-foot-2

attended high school in Maryland, while White was the highestranked player from Washington, D.C., according to Rivals.com.

Adams hails from Norcross, Ga. The Terps also signed two three-star quarterbacks — C.J. Brown of Cranberry Township, Pa., and Danny O’Brien of Kernersville, N.C. — both of whom could be competing for backup jobs following the graduation of Jordan Steffy and transfer of Josh Portis.

The Terps snagged four of their home state’s top 10 players, according to Rivals.com, and 13 of the recruits went to high school in either Maryland or Washington. Friedgen has come under fire in recent years for allowing some programs, mainly Penn State, to walk away with much of the

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state’s prime talent. While the Terps did better than in recent years, Penn State still signed six of the state’s top 20 players.

“They did better than they have. A few years ago, when Penn State came in and took [No. 1 recruit] Derrick Williams one year and then took everyone else the year after, that was a rough year for them,” said Mike Farrell, national analyst for Rivals.com.

“Four out of the top 10 is pretty good. I think they want that number to be more six out of the top 10.”

The Terps’ recruiting efforts received a boost in December 2007 with the return of offensive coordinator James Franklin, an active recruiter with strong local connections. Franklin was the Terps’ wide receivers coach from

Defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator Dave Sollazzo brought in a lot of help for the Terps’ defensive front this year. JAMES B. HALE/THE DIAMONDBACK

2000 to 2004 before embarking on brief stints with the Green Bay Packers and Kansas State. Friedgen was very active this past year, paying more visits to local schools and homes, Farrell said.

While Friedgen has emphasized the need to recruit well locally, he has also always emphasized the importance of recruiting good students and finding players willing to work hard both on and off

the football field.

“Football is important, no question, but I want some guys who have vision,” Friedgen said. “To be honest, I’m not really interested in guys who [feel] entitled, and we see that today. That’s not probably a good fit for me, or for this school. We’re blue collar, we gotta come to work.” jnewmandbk@gmail.com

Arnett could earn playing time ARNETT, from Page 10

DeOnte Arnett, shown here at a Nike Training Camp in Chapel Hill, N.C., last spring, vaulted up recruiting boards his senior season but remained faithful to his Terp commitment. PHOTO COURTESY OF RIVALS.COM

now look at him,” Harley said. “And then, in time, when he came to Forestville in ninth grade, [he was] still tall and kind of uncoordinated but didn’t know what to expect. His sophomore year, we were pretty good, and he was pretty dominant for that team. That’s when we realized this kid had the goods to be a great football player.”

Arnett became noticed after a strong junior season in which he collected 15 sacks and had already received two scholarship offers by the time of Franklin’s visit. His stock sky-rocketed even more his senior year, when he totaled 13 sacks, and into the postseason, when he was named the most valuable lineman at the Crab Bowl, a local all-star game.

But Arnett never wavered in his commitment to the Terps, ignoring overtures from programs like Tennessee, Penn State, Georgia and Ohio State.

“I was always at Maryland, and I

made a couple other unofficial visits, and it was after I made those unofficial visits that I knew exactly where I wanted to be,” Arnett said. “I want to own my own engineering firm, and they have one of the top engineering programs in the country.

Also, the football program is young but talented, so there’s a bright future.”

And thanks to a Forestville-alum, Arnett knew he couldn’t renege on his commitment.

In 2006, Forestville offensive lineman Antonio Logan-El, one of the region’s top recruits, had verbally committed to play for the Terps. But when it came time to officially announce his chosen school on television, Logan-El mockingly discarded Florida, Tennessee and Terps hats before stating he was attending Penn State. The event was a public embarrassment not only for Terp coach Ralph Friedgen, but also for Harley, who instituted a new policy for his players: If they committed early, they had to honor that

commitment or they could no longer play for Forestville.

Fortunately, that was never a problem for Arnett, who viewed the university as the perfect blend of academics, football and location.

Friedgen said Arnett, who spoke of providing the Terps “young leadership,” will be given a chance to quickly earn playing time at defensive end, a position long-anchored by departed senior Jeremy Navarre, but he does not want to put undue pressure on the incoming freshman.

But according to Arnett’s old coach, that pressure might be welcome.

“He has a non-stop motor. He gives an extreme amount of effort in everything that he does,” Harley said. “And he feels bad if, if he doesn’t do as well as he thinks he should, he’ll want to go back and do it again.

He’s a relentless worker, and he wants to always do his best with everything every time out.” jnewmandbk@gmail.com

Terps have logjam at wings TUCKER, from Page 10 about his lack of playing time last week, responded with 18 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals — the best game of his Terp career, despite the team’s loss.

“I was proud of him,” Williams said.

“He didn’t play last game, and we talked the last couple days. I was really glad to see what he did because he’s a good kid. He works hard. He got a little bit behind this year after the start of the season, but after what he did tonight, he’s certainly pushed himself back into the rotation.”

Tucker was bumped out of the starting lineup in favor of guard Adrian Bowie in late November. His playing time had been inconsistent since, reaching a nadir last Saturday when he received zero minutes against Miami and spoke his mind about his situation.

“I don’t know what it is; he just don’t want to play me,” Tucker said that night. “I’ve practiced hard, been in his office and talked to him, I did almost everything possible. I don’t know why he’s not playing me. He even told me he was going to play me this game, and he still didn’t play me. So I don’t know what his problem is, but I’m just here to support the team as long as they win.

“I know I can play at this level,” he added.

And against the Tar Heels, with a greater opportunity to show his talents, Tucker proved that point. In addition to making things happen on the court, he avoided mistakes. In 20 minutes, he connected on eight-of-14 shots and had zero of the Terps’ 16 turnovers.

Cliff Tucker, shown here against Delaware State, was a starter at the beginning of the season. JACLYN BOROWSKI/THE DIAMONDBACK

“Cliff ’s got a world of talent,” forward Dave Neal said. “He’s athletic, he’s long, he’s tall, he can dribble the ball, he showed [Tuesday] that he can drive and shoot. Coach Williams is going to have to respect that and see that he played hard.”

But here’s the rub. Last week, when discussing his rotation, Williams connected Tucker’s lack of playing time with the emergence of freshman guard

Sean Mosley.

Mosley has moved into the starting lineup, and doesn’t show signs of slowing down any time soon.

While Tucker played well against the Tar Heels, Mosley led the team with a career-high 19 points.

“It’s not always one guy not doing it; it’s the other guy doing something better,” Williams said before the Miami game. “Everybody’s not gonna play the same amount of minutes. There’s five on the court, eight on the bench — that’s every team in the country.”

If Tucker begins to get more time and Mosley’s minutes stay consistent, Williams will have to start limiting guards Greivis Vasquez, Adrian Bowie and Eric Hayes, who have combined to play about 90 minutes per game during the ACC schedule.

It’s a nice problem that Williams will need to sort out, but it appears as if Tucker has made that job more difficult.

In an otherwise empty hall of the Dean Smith Center near the Terps’ visiting locker room, Tucker and Williams shared a handshake and a brief conversation following the team’s loss to the Tar Heels. The tenor of this conversation was probably more positive than the last.

Tucker’s outlook had changed, as well.

“I just wanted to come out and play hard and help this team win,” he said.

“I’m all about the team. I know I said I wanted to play, but I’d rather the team win if I don’t play.” mseligdbk@gmail.com

After playing well in scrimmages, including the open scrimmage shown above, Tucker fell out of the Terp rotation midseason. JACLYN BOROWSKI/THE DIAMONDBACK

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2009 | SPORTS | THE DIAMONDBACK

9

Frese: ‘It’s going to be very strange not seeing her’ YOW, from Page 10

her memory will be alive for both Debbie and Frese.

“It’s going to be very strange not seeing her on the sidelines,” Frese said. “I just always remember how, being new and young to the league, how she always welcomed you. Her legacy will live on.”

Debbie, who said she’ll be in attendance, remembered Kay for her sense of humor and love of basketball, the sport the three Yow sisters helped cultivate in the late 1970s as the women’s college game was starting to take shape.

When Debbie took over as the coach at Kentucky in 1976, she and Kay were two of just a few full-time women’s coaches, a group that included legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, then known by her maiden name, Pat Head.

“We were kind of this new breed of female that wanted to do nothing but coach and weren’t interested particularly in teaching in the classroom,” Debbie said. “We considered the gym as our classroom.”

Debbie eventually moved into athletics administration before landing this university’s top job in that department in 1994. In the meantime, Kay won 737 career games, led the Wolfpack to 20 NCAA tournament bids and four ACC tournament titles and coached the 1988 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team to the gold medal.

Naturally, the competitive Yow sisters would clash when Kay brought her N.C. State teams north to play the Terps. So Debbie said the two agreed to meet for coffee or lunch the day of the game and talk only about nonbasketball related topics.

“It used to be very traumatic for us when she used to come up,” Debbie said. “Obviously, she wants to win, but I want to win as much as she does. We finally decided we shouldn’t

succumbed to her cancer at the age of 66.

Terp coach Brenda Frese, who said she’d do her best when Debbie relayed the promise she made to her ailing older sister, text-messaged Debbie after the game. “This one is for the Yows,” Debbie recalled in her office yesterday.

When the Wolfpack visit Comcast Center tonight, Kay won’t be coaching the team she led for 34 years. But

Terp coach Brenda Frese recalled how, in her early days in the ACC, Kay Yow took her under her wing as a welcoming opposing coach. JACLYN BOROWSKI/THE DIAMONDBACK

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

As a young coach, Kay Yow was an important figure in establishing women’s basketball nationally. PHOTO COURTESY OF TECHNICIAN

try to say hello to each other after the game because one of us was unhappy. ... It worked much better.”

N.C. State will continue to honor Kay by placing a jersey with the No. 14, the number all three Yow sisters wore in their playing days, on an empty chair on their bench tonight.

Frese didn’t know Kay long, but the unique connection they shared through Debbie made Frese more appreciative of the ACC’s longesttenured coach. Frese shared a chartered plane last Friday with Virginia coach Debbie Ryan to attend Kay’s viewing before the Terps and Cavaliers played that night.

“She was a very caring, loving person,” Frese said. “She was always

about each and every person out there. It wasn’t just about N.C. State.

It was about making the ACC, making women’s basketball better.”

Debbie said she was surprised and happy to see Frese at the viewing on Friday, the day of an away game in Charlottesville, Va. Debbie also said there are characteristics in Frese that remind her of her late sister — an appetite for hardnosed recruiting, an excitable sideline demeanor and a tremendous passion for the game.

So while Kay won’t be there tonight, the Terps and Frese share a special connection with the Hall of Fame coach. And Debbie will always remember the text she received from

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Frese after her win against North Carolina on that Sunday night.

“It was a neat moment,” Debbie Yow recalled, “between three women who love the game.”

TERP NOTE: The Terps will honor former forward Laura Harper with a jersey ceremony after tonight’s game. Harper, who graduated last year and now plays professionally, was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2006 Final Four and became the Terps’ all-time leader in blocked shots. Harper will join former teammates Crystal Langhorne and Shay Doron, whose jerseys were honored last year. akrautdbk@gmail.com

TERRAPIN SPORTS NOTEBOOK

Women’s lacrosse star McFadden named to U.S. squad for World Cup Terrapin women’s lacrosse midfielder Caitlyn McFadden has been named to the United States squad at the 2009 Federation of International Lacrosse World Cup. The junior will be joined by former Terp midfielder Acacia Walker at the event, which runs from June 17-27 in the Czech Republic. Current Terp assistant coach and former player Quinn Carney is an alternate on the team.

McFadden, one of six college players named to the 18person team, was an AllAmerican last season with 27 goals and 27 assists as the Terps advanced to the national semi-finals.

Women’s soccer adds nine The women’s soccer team added nine players as part of National Signing Day yesterday. Coach Brian Pensky received signed letters of intent from high school players in seven different states.

Forwards Caitlin Mooney, Danielle Hubka and Megan Gibbons will try to boost a

struggling attack for the Terps, who finished last season 7-10-1 (3-7 ACC). Midfielders Domenica Hodak and Olivia Wagner, defenders Bailey Bodell and Erica Page and goalies Lianne Maldonado and Shannon Zickler also joined a Terp squad that will try to qualify for the ACC Tournament for the first time since 2005.

Competitive Cheer at Comcast The three-time reigning national champion competitive cheer team will host its only home event of the season Saturday. The Terrapin Classic, held at Comcast Center, will feature the Terps and four other schools in the college division at about 3 p.m.

The Terps, who have won their first three events this season, will try for a fourth consecutive national title in Daytona Beach, Fla., in midApril.

– Compiled by senior staff writer Eric Detweiler. edetweilerdbk@gmail.com

Read the Diamondback.

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THE DIAMONDBACK | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2009

Extra Signing Day Coverage

Sports

Read more on the Terps’ incoming recruiting class, as well as Terp basketball coverage, at The Diamondback’s official sports blog, TerrapinTrail.com.

NATIONAL SIGNING DAY 2009

Friedgen signs No. 26-ranked class 24-player class ‘met a lot of our needs,’ according to Terp coach

BY JEFF NEWMAN Senior staff writer

Ralph Friedgen was happy to get the call.

By late Monday night, the Terrapin football coach already had a good recruiting class lined up. Yesterday’s National Signing Day would be a success. But Friedgen was still waiting for word from Pete White, a 340-pound offensive lineman with family ties to the university.

“His mom played basketball here, his dad got his master’s here and his sister goes here,” Friedgen said.

“And I was scared to death he wasn’t going to go here.”

That is, until he got the call from White, who let Friedgen know of his decision to join the Terps.

“I think I screamed out loud in the car and was very, very excited,” Friedgen said.

White’s commitment capped off the Terps’ 26-member recruiting class, ranked No. 26 in the nation thanks to six four-star players, according to recruiting website Rivals.com. Friedgen and Dave Sollazzo, the team’s recruiting coordinator and defensive line coach, announced the class yesterday.

“It’s a large recruiting class that met a lot of our needs,” Friedgen said. “I think if you were to describe it, it’s a big, athletic bunch of athletes who can run and hit. I think they’re also good students. I know I’ve kind of put an emphasis on kids Ralph Friedgen announced his recruiting class yesterday. He described the class as “a big, athletic bunch of athletes who can run and hit.”

Please See RECRUITS, Page 8

JAMES B. HALE/THE DIAMONDBACK

DE saw stock rise but remained a Terp Even as higher-profile schools called, Forestville’s DeOnte Arnett stayed committed as Terps’ top 2009 recruit

BY JEFF NEWMAN Senior staff writer

When Terrapin football offensive coordinator James Franklin paid Charles Harley Jr. a visit at Forestville Military Academy, where Harley is the football team’s head

coach, last summer, it wasn’t to offer a scholarship to DeOnte Arnett, who played defensive end for Harley.

“Franklin came to see me one evening to talk to local recruits and coaches in the area, and DeOnte happened to be at the school that evening,” Harley said. “DeOnte hap-

pened to have a highlight tape on him.

I popped it in and let Franklin see it.

He watched it for five minutes, walked away, comes back and says, ‘We’re going to offer you a full scholarship.’”

It doesn’t take very long to see on film what makes Arnett special.

Rated by recruiting website Rivals.com as the second-best player in the state behind only superprospect Jelani Jenkins, and the sixth-best strongside defensive end in the nation, Arnett possesses a rare blend of size, strength and athleti-

cism. At 6-foot-4 and 243 pounds, Arnett used his speed and power to dominate hapless offensive lineman throughout his career at Forestville.

But that wasn’t always the case.

Harley knew Arnett long before he enrolled as a freshman at Forestville, and his first memories of the new Terp didn’t leave much to be expected.

“When he played Boys and Girls Club, he played for my father and he was a fat, crying kid back then, and

DeONTE ARNETT DEFENSIVE END RECRUIT Please See ARNETT, Page 8

PHOTO COURTESY OF RIVALS.COM

Frustrated Tucker one of few highlights of UNC loss Sophomore forward scored 17 points Tuesday night

BY MARK SELIG Senior staff writer

Hall-of-Fame N.C. State coach Kay Yow, sister of Terp Athletics Director Debbie Yow, died on Jan. 24. She was known for her coaching ability and as a pioneer for women’s basketball. PHOTO COURTESY OF TECHNICIAN

Kay Yow’s legacy lives on Legendary N.C. State coach had close ties to Terps

BY AARON KRAUT Senior staff writer

T

errapin Athletics Director Debbie Yow remembered back to Jan. 11 when she was watching N.C. State, tonight’s opponent for the Terp women’s basketball team, lose in overtime to thenNo. 2 North Carolina.

After the game, Debbie told

her sister Kay Yow, the longtime Wolfpack coach and breast cancer victim fighting for her life in the hospital, not to worry. Come Jan. 25, the Terps would take care of those Tar Heels, she said, eliciting a smile from Kay. The Terps did beat North Carolina that day, a day after Kay

Please See YOW, Page 9

Terps vs. N.C. State Where: Comcast Center When: Tonight, 7 p.m.

Radio: WMUCsports.com

Cliff Tucker sat, please but perplexed, at his locker after a Terrapin men’s basketball win last week against Miami. The sophomore guard started the Terps’ first five games of the season before receiving an unpredictable amount of playing time — and less than he thought he deserved.

But after playing just one minute against Boston College and registering a “Did Not Play — coach’s decision” against the Hurricanes on Saturday, Tucker received another opportunity to work his way back into the rotation.

Positives are seldom found and rarely discussed after a team loses by 17 points and offers zero defensive resistance. Yet Tucker’s contributions off the bench Tuesday against No. 3 North Carolina might count as an exception.

With 12:03 left in the first half of Tuesday’s game and his team down seven, coach Gary Williams turned to his bench and called for Tucker, the smooth 6foot-6 sophomore swingman.

Tucker, who voiced frustrations

Please See TUCKER, Page 8