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The University of Maryland’s Independent Student Newspaper

T H U R S DAY, F E B R UA R Y 25 , 2 01 6

UNIV courses to address sex misconduct Orientations to include sessions on topic as well

steps to address sexual misconduct and student safety beginning this summer, university officials said.

Freshman two-day orientation programs this summer will include

By Lexie Schapitl a session on campus security with @lexieschapitl “special attention” given to uniStaff writer versity policy on sexual assault and safety precautions, Gerry Strumpf, T his university’s orientation SGA President PATRICK RONK speaks at an SGA the university’s orientation director, programs and college transition meeting April 15 in the Benjamin Banneker Room of Stamp Student Union. file photo/the diamondback courses will be taking additional wrote in an email.

Specific language and final details for the program are in development but are not available at this time, Strumpf wrote.

Next semester, the University Health Center’s Campus Advocates Respond and Educate to Stop Violence office also plans to incorporate its Step Up! bystander intervention training into all sections of UNIV100: The Student in the University, said

Graduate Hills, Guilford Road apts report stolen property

Other Big Ten schools are united with their medical, law schools

By Michael Brice-Saddler @TheArtist_MBS Staff writer

By Darcy Costello @dctello Senior staff writer

IT’S LIT Lightning arcs over South Campus Commons apartments last night. University Police issued a severe weather warning earlier in the evening urging students to remain inside between 6 and 7 p.m. because of heavy wind gusts, lightning and potential hail. tom hausman/the diamondback

See BURGLARY, Page 3

SGA passes resolution in support of Noah’s Law Bill requires ignition interlocks after DUIs

By Samantha Reilly @samansayshi Staff writer

Dining Services found stipulations too costly

The SGA passed a resolution last night in support of Noah’s Law, which would require state residents convicted of driving under the influence to install ignition interlock devices in their vehicles for at least six months following their arrest.

T he vote was 16-0 with no abstentions.

“I’m thrilled that young people are taking drunk driving seriously,” said Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery), one of the sponsors of the bill.

By Grace Toohey @grace_2e Senior staff writer

Dining hall food would have had its preparation methods and providers publicized under the terms of a bill voted down by the Residence Hall Association’s Dining Services Advisory Board. file photo/the diamondback bill timely, costly and not feasible.

“This would be a huge undertaking to track down every ingredient in every recipe and stay current on it,” Dining Services spokesman Bart Hipple said. “All of our ingredients do come through approved sources; they are safe products; they are highquality products. … I’m just not sure

ISSUE NO. 21 , OUR 105 TH YEAR OF PUBLICATION DBKNEWS.COM

Submit tips, comments and inquiries to the news desk at NEWSUMDBK@GMAIL.COM

A bill introduced in the state legislature Feb. 18 would unite this university and the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus to create one overarching University of Maryland, complete with a research institution, law school and medical school.

St reng t hen i ng t he st rateg ic p a r t n e rs h ip b e t we e n t h e t wo h i g her educ at ion i n st it ut ion s would create greater opportunities for research, improve the standing of the university, strengthen the economy and create jobs in research and education, the authors of t he Un iversity of M a r yl a nd Strategic Partnership Act of 2016 argued in the text of their bill.

“The State must plan now for what See Bill, Page 3

RHA board shoots down transparency in dining bill

Freshman Erik Rosenbaum was eating French toast and eggs with friends at the North Campus Dining Hall in early February when he began to wonder.

“Where does this come from?” the landscape architecture major said.

Rosenbaum proposed a piece of legislation calling for more transparency from Dining Services, but the bill gained no support from the Residence Hall Association’s Dining Services Advisory Board on Wednesday afternoon.

Rosenbaum’s proposal would have required Dining Services to publish where food comes from and how it is prepared. Though Dining Services officials and RHA representatives support food transparency, they said, they found the requirements of the

See ORIENTATION, Page 3

UMB, this univ could join under new bill

Police look into two burglaries

Pol ice a re i nvestigati ng two burglaries that occurred T uesday night in off-campus residential areas.

A burglary occurred between 10:30 and 11 p.m. at the Graduate Hills Apartments, and another occurred at 11:30 p.m. at an apartment on Guilford Road.

University Police responded to the Graduate Hills Apartments on the 3400 block of Tulane Drive at 11:02 p.m., according to a University of Maryland Safety Notice.

A male student from this university reported hearing strange noises coming from his living room while in the shower. While examining the scene, the student saw his kitchen window had been closed and his front door was unlocked.

The student also noticed missing property and found a window

Stephanie Rivero, a CARE assistant coordinator who oversees education.

This involvement, which has “been a long time coming,” would include the Honors College, Freshman Connection, CIVICUS and other specialized versions of the class, Rivero said.

“We’ve always wanted to have a presence in orientation,” she said.

@thedbk

TheDiamondback

where we’re not being transparent.”

Dining Services hasn’t received many questions of this nature, Hipple said, so they were surprised by the legislation. Students with questions about food or where it comes from can contact Allison Lilly, associate See DINING, Page 2

SPORTS

‘MAKE HIM PROUD’ Terrapins softball pitcher Brenna Nation honored her father’s memory in return to home state P. 14

OPINION

DIVERSIONS

SAFETY NOTICES

ON THE LINE

We need timely crime alerts P. 4

Help Center volunteers offer campus a hand P. 9

In 2013, Maryland officers arrested 1,033 people between the ages of 15 and 20 for impaired driving, according to the Maryland Vehicle Administration. Overall, impaired driving accidents affect drivers ages 21 to 29 more than any other age group, accounting for about 30 percent of all drivers involved, injured or killed.

An ignition interlock device is a breath tester that prevents a car from starting if the driver’s breath has an elevated alcohol level.

State law currently requires repeat DUI offenders or first-time offenders with a blood alcohol level above .15 percent to install the technology, but does not require offenders in the .08 to .14 range to do so. The bill would See SGA, Page 2

2

THE DIAMONDBACK | THURSDAY, February 25, 2015

CRIME BLOTTER

By Michael Brice-Saddler @TheArtist_MBS Staff writer

TRESPASSING

University Police responded to Stamp Student Union at 7:13 Un iversity Pol ice re- p.m. Saturday for a report of sponded to reports of a Title trespassing. Police encountered IX-related incident, theft and a man who was behaving disortrespassing, among other in- derly, appeared intoxicated and cidents, this past week, ac- did not speak English.

The trespasser was unable cording to police reports. to answer police questions. An interpreter was sent by police THEFT to talk with the individual, On Feb. 18 at 5:15 p.m., who spoke Spanish. They deUniversity Police met with a termined he was on the campus male student at this university by mistake and was attempting who said his wallet had been to find an ATM. Police helped the man call a taken at some point during the day. The victim received a call cab and issued him an advisefrom somebody who found ment of trespassing. This case his wallet, but the money is now closed. had been removed, according to police spokesman Marc OTHER INCIDENTS Limansky.

This incident remains open.

Police responded to Lot 15 by the Graham Cracker at 8:04 a.m.

TITLE IX-RELATED Saturday for a report that a large boulder had been rolled into the INCIDENT roadway, blocking the entrance (NONCRIMINAL) of the driving lane.

Faci l ities M a n agement University Police respondremoved the boulder soon after, ed at 5 a.m. Friday to Somerset Hall, where they met Limansky said. The case is closed.

On Feb. 17 at 12:56 p.m., Uniwith a female student who had recently learned that her versity Police responded to the male friend had a girlfriend. Patuxent Building. A female Upon learning this, she told student from this university her male friend she would claimed her MacBook Pro, iPad be contacting his girlfriend and iPhone had been hacked, on social media to alert her causing them to malfunction. of sexual texts they had sent She noticed different messages that she hadn’t authorized, ineach other.

In response, the male cluding the word “Hello” apstudent made statements of pearing at sporadic times.

The student has an ongoing a sexual nature toward the complainant. There was no issue with her ex-partner, who physical altercation between she believes might be causing these issues, Limansky said. the two.

The victim did not want to This incident is still under go to court or get their families investigation. involved, Limansky said. This case is closed. mbricesaddlerdbk@gmail.com

sGA From PAGE 1 mandate ignition interlock devices in all DUI arrests and double the time for which offenders’ licenses are suspended.

Raskin introduced the bill with Del. Ben Kramer (DMontgomery) following the death of Montgomery County Police officer Noah Leotta in December. A car struck Leotta as he was returning to his cruiser from a different DUI arrest in Bethesda.

The Student Government Association’s Ellicott Community representative, Mihir Khetarpal, a sophomore economics and government and politics major who works as an intern for Raskin, sponsored the SGA resolution

DINING From PAGE 1 director of new initiatives for Di n i ng Ser v ices, or email umfood@umd.edu, Hipple said.

“Transparency between the d i ners a nd the students is i mporta nt, but when it comes to this bill specifically, it’s just not a good idea,” said Darius Cra ig, ch a i r m a n of t he RHA Dining Services Advisory Board.

Originally, Craig supp or te d t he bi l l , b ut he described the proposal as unrealistic upon taking a closer look.

Rosenbaum originally sent his proposal to the University Senate, but the Senate Executive Committee decided on Feb. 19 that the RHA would be a more appropriate governing body to review the policy, as it oversees Dining Services.

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT Maryland Media Inc., publisher of The Diamondback, Mitzpeh, and the Terrapin Yearbook seeks at-large applicants for its 2016-2017 Board of Directors. This is an excellent opportunity for someone to participate in the running of this important, UMD campus based business. Maryland Media is a non-profit 501(c)3 which has been independent of the University of Maryland since 1972. MMI receives no university or state funding and is entirely self-supported through the sale of advertising, yearbook sales and donations.

The Board of Directors is responsible for hiring the business staff as well as the editors of the Diamondback, the Terrapin Yearbook and Mitzpeh. It provides guidance to over 100 student employees, sets annual budgets, makes investment decisions, and establishes policies and guidelines.

The board meets for approximately 60 to 90 minutes just 8x per year during the months that school is in session.

supporting Noah’s Law. “As sad as Officer Leotta’s death was, it brought to life this one issue that we need to solve ,and brought to life a way that we can solve it,” Khetarpal said.

Twenty-five other states have already passed similar legislation, and the Centers for Disease Control has found the interlock systems can reduce instances of intoxicated driving by up to 70 percent when installed. Mothers Against Drunk Driving reported this year that interlock technology prevented 1.77 million instances of drunken driving.

“We simply cannot allow the forces of big liquor to prevail in the political context anymore,” Raskin said. “We’ve been legislating under the influence for too long.”

Noah’s Law addresses an issue that has long been a concern in

With the Dining Services Adv isor y Boa rd’s l ack of support, the legislation will not move forward to the RHA floor. It will be sent with recommendations back to the student affairs vice president, Craig said.

Though Dining Services provides nutritional facts about a l l of thei r mea ls o n l i n e, R o s e n b au m s a i d knowing where food comes from is just as important. “ T h e r e ’s s o m e p o w e r knowing what is going on behind the scenes,” he said.

“Not that I’m particularly suspicious, but [I want to] to be more knowledgeable as a consumer because there’s not really much choice when it comes to the dining plan.”

Rosenbaum wrote about the d i n i ng ha l ls’ “suspiciously perfect fruit,” “oddtasting eggs” and “feathered chicken wings” in his proposal but said he doesn’t have a problem with the food at the dining halls.

iNTERSTATE 95 close to College Park. A new state bill would require residents convicted of driving under the influence to install ignition interlock devices. tom hausman/the diamondback the College Park community. In 2011, John Hoover, a student at this university, died in a drunken driving accident along with two other victims.

Senior psychology major Gabriela Arrazola Pulido attended Magruder High School with the three victims, who died when she was a junior at Magruder. Pulido sang at a 2014 drunken driving awareness concert hosted by this university’s Sigma Nu chapter and the Happiness Foundation.

“It’s nice because some of us are from Magruder, and we get

to sing in honor of our classmates,” she said.

Leonardtown representative Adler Pruitt, a sophomore economics and government and politics major, said it was good to take a stand for an issue that affects many people.

“I was happy to see [the resolution] gain unanimous support. … Drunk driving has affected a lot of us,” Pruitt said. “Any piece of legislation that makes it safer is a good one.”

“TRANSPARENCY BETWEEN THE DINERS AND THE STUDENTS IS IMPORTANT, BUT WHEN IT COMES TO THIS BILL SPECIFICALLY, IT’S JUST NOT A

Cherubet also has never voiced her concerns about dining hall food — and continues to eat it — she said she has wondered how it got onto her plate.

“Sometimes I’m in the line and I see them opening plastic packages and I’m wondering if it’s fresh or not,” the public health sciences major said. “So I wonder what factory that’s coming from and where they get it from.”

Cherubet said she doesn’t look into the components of her dining hall food, but her roommate does — and usually she finds what she needs, she said.

“We do not want to hide any of this information,” Hipple said. “But to make it accurate and guaranteed would be a huge expensive endeavor, and it would be an ongoing expense. … I think the fi rst step would be for people to come in and talk to Allison [Lilly]. … As far as we can tell, no one has reached out.”

GOOD IDEA.” DARIUS CRAIG

RHA Dining Services Advisory Board chairman

“You base your choices on the information you have, so if you don’t have the information, you can’t make informed decisions,” he said.

Rosenbaum said he didn’t know of a way to pose questions to Dining Services but that an individual answer isn’t the outcome he wants.

“It wouldn’t change anything for just me knowing,” he said, explaining that he still thinks there should be more public transparency about the food.

Though freshman Nicole gtooheydbk@gmail.com

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016 | NEWS | The Diamondback

ORIENTATION From PAGE 1

Student Government Association President Patrick Ronk commended addressing sexual misconduct in orientation and UNIV100 programs. The SGA passed a bill in November to create a committee to push for in-person sexual assault training.

“These conversations are so important to have in person with someone, not just in an online video,” Ronk said. “For a lot of freshmen for who, you know, are frankly naive to the problem of college sexual assault, it will be a good wake-up call for them.”

The university implemented an online sexual misconduct training in fall 2014. The training is designed to create a “baseline of knowledge” about what sexual misconduct is, the university’s sexual misconduct policy and what resources are available to students, said Kevin Webb, an Office of Civil Rights and Sexual Misconduct training manager.

During the 2014-15 academic year, about 83 percent of undergraduate students completed the online training, according to an Office of Civil Rights and Sexual Misconduct report. The office has discussed using registration blocks as an enforcement mechanism, but there is currently no consequence for students who do not complete the training, Webb said.

He said it is important for incoming students to be aware of what his office does and the resources that are available if students have questions, concerns or wish to file a complaint. More in-person training will effectively contribute to a long-term culture change around sexual assault prevention, he said.

Sophomore biology major Meg Wickless said integrating sexual misconduct training into orientation is a good idea for an unfortunate reality.

“I just think that it sucks that we even have to do that,” Wickless said. “It’s necessary, but it shouldn’t be.”

“We’ve always wanted to be able to train every incoming student.

This is something that we’ve wanted since the beginning of the CARE program.”

The Step Up! bystander intervention program is designed to empower students to act in potentially dangerous situations. The training covers issues of sexual violence, relationship violence and stalking, as well as binge drinking, hazing, mental health emergencies and other topics, and encourages students to “do something about it, and let us tell you how you can do something about it,” Rivero said.

CARE trained about 1,600 students in the fall, said CARE assistant coordinatorLaVonne Whitehead, who oversees Step Up!.

About 1,200 of those students received training in UNIV100 courses, Whitehead added.

There are more than 150 sections of UNIV100 and equivalent classes planned for fall 2016, according to the Testudo website’s schedule of classes.

This past fall, Rivero, Whitehead and about 14 student CARE peer educators worked to hold Step Up! programs, Whitehead said. Moving forward, CARE will be partnering with other health center employees and student coordinators so that potentially 60 to 80 people will be involved in the training, Whitehead said.

“The goal moving forward is to definitely reach every incoming student,” Whitehead said. “Next fall,that’snotgoingtobeapossibility.Sowe’regoingtoreachasmany people as we can with the support that we can, and then hopefully we’ll be able to find a sustainable measureinordertobeabletoreach all of the incoming students.”

CARE hopes to hold the training sessions between the third and 10th week of UNIV100 courses, allowing students to first settle into school and bond in their classes, Rivero said. lschapitldbk@gmail.com

3

BILL

Thought College Park Scholars program and the interdisciplinary law and society minor that launched in 2014.

Through the joint program, research awards totaled nearly $79 million over three years.

The initiative “demonstrates the potential of a reunified major public research institution with the public professional schools in Maryland,” the bill reads.

Putting the partnership into law would make it permanent, said u n iversity President Wallace Loh, thus securing the relationship between the two campuses.

When the conversations about a partnership began four years ago, the proposal was a complete merger: creating one university with one president.

The proposal never came to fruition, and instead MPowering the State was created.

The current bill calls for two presidents but also grants the Board of Regents the power to conduct a search for one president for both campuses, if one of the current presidents step down.

“It says that someday, if the Board of Regents wants to have one president, fine, and if they don’t, that’s fine too,” Loh said. “In the meantime, we’re going to continue doing the joint activities that benefit students and benefit the state.

We’re going to continue what we’ve done the past four years — except that, if the bill passes, we’re going to expand on that

and build on the successes.”

This university and UMB “enjoy a close, collaborative and productive partnership under University of Maryland: MPowering the State,” UMB spokesman Alex Likowski wrote in an email. “We already do so much together with UMCP. It will be fascinating to see what new collaborations might come from this.”

A fter closely fol low i ng the MPower program and its “phenomenal” successes, state Sen. Bill Ferguson, the bill’s cosponsor, started a conversation about the potential merger on a visit to College Park over the summer.

“I brought it up; I said, you know, ‘I really think there’s a huge benefit to both institutions if there was a stronger alliance between the two,’” Ferguson said. “A stronger relationship is only to the advantage of both institutions.”

In the past, Ferguson said, there had been some hesitation from Baltimore City about combining the two campuses. Now, though, Ferguson described a sense of the city’s readiness to move forward.

“Baltimore City is in a different place now. It’s more willing to accept new ideas, particularly after seeing the benefits of MPower and what a strong partnership can create,” Ferguson said. “There’s real evidence that a stronger alliance would enhance both of us.”

Student Government Asso-

ciation President Patrick Ronk praised the bill’s proposal and cited the MPower program and its success as the “first step” to the partnership.

Should the two campuses pool their resources, Ronk said, it would raise the national profile and prestige of the university.

“I’ve always thought it was kind of weird that UMD doesn’t have a medical or law school of their own; most Research I institutions and state flagships do,” Ronk said. “In a lot of ways, I think uniting them makes a lot of sense. It will be a good thing for both College Park and University of Maryland, Baltimore.”

In addition to combining the two campuses, the bill would create a Center for Maryland Advanced Ventures, which would pursue funding through research grants, and a University of Maryland Center for Economic and Entrepreneurship Development.

All in all, Ronk said, the proposal would benefit both campuses and create a stronger flagship university for the state.

“It would unite resources together, making it easier to apply for research money, easier to share grants, share funding, increase collaborations between undergrads and grads,” Ronk said. “And frankly, combining both universities for rankings certainly doesn’t hurt.”

burglary that occurred there the night before.

Victims told police that a From PAGE 1 man came into their apartment screen had been damaged on through a back door that might the outside of the building. have been unlocked, according Prince George’s County to a safety notice.

T h e m a n t r i e d to t a k e Pol ice responded to a n apa rtment on the 4200 proper ty f rom one of the block of Gu i l ford Road residents but ran away after yesterday morning for a she screamed.

No one was injured in either incident, but University Police

spokesman Maj. Marc Limansky said students and residents should be careful and vigilant of suspicious behavior.

“Our officers will go out a n d t a l k to re s i d e n t s to remind them to keep their apartments secure whether they’re in for the night or they go out,” he said.

I nvestigations of these burglaries remain active, and police encourage people with

information regarding this case to contact University Police at 301-405-3555 and Prince George’s County Police at 301-352-1200.

“We ask people to lock their doors and windows and report suspicious behavior, look out for each other and call us if you see something suspicious,” Limansky said.

From PAGE 1 for what we know will create the technology and research jobs that will power our economy and ensure that Maryland is the place to go for state-of-the-art research, to take that research and spin it off into the marketplace and to successfully build a company and create jobs based on the education and research opportunities in this state,” the bill’s preamble reads.

With the exception of this university, all Big Ten institutions include medical and law schools under one university umbrella. UMB’s peers also maintain research institutions, according to the text of the bill.

Prior to this proposed partnership, this university launched an initiative with UMB in 2012 called MPowering the State, now “MPower,” designed to facilitate collaboration between the two institutions, particularly in research and academic programs.

Originally, the partnership coupled this university’s public health school and the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. It has since expanded to involve UMB’s Francis King Carey School of Law, the Justice and Legal

BURgLARY

“PLEASE HELP ME - I am suffering”

Actual Perdue Supplier Photo by Mercy For Animals

Dear Friend, By the time you read this, this chicken will be dead, after being kicked and beaten and electrically shocked in his face, so I speak for all the other chickens in the Perdue factory in my hope that you will not want to eat chickens anymore when you know how badly they are treated. An undercover investigator from Mercy For Animals stated that:

I watched as workers kicked and stomped the chickens to death or picked them up by their heads and spun them around by their necks. One worker picked up a chicken and threw her head against the wall and then violently kicked her. At Perdue, cruelty is everywhere. And it isn’t only Perdue.

A Tyson worker wrote how the poor, sad little chickens are so scared on the slaughter line: “They try to hide their head from you by sticking it under the wing of the chicken next to them.”

Wh

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All these chickens know of life is pain and fear and punishment.

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mbricesaddlerdbk@gmail.com

4

THE DIAMONDBACK | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

OPINION

EDITORIAL BOARD

Matt Schnabel Editor in Chief

NATE RABNER

Managing Editor

OLIVIA NEWPORT

Deputy Managing Editor

More worrisome, however, is the crime’s lack of exposure via nearly all official police channels. University Police’s Facebook and Twitter accounts stayed mum on the incident — certainly the most frightening crime reported on the campus this semester, if not the entire academic year. The university’s email system eventually pushed the safety notice to students, but not all at once.

OUR VIEW

Students and police must report firearm-related incidents faster to protect and inform the community.

Police officials explained the delay between the department’s response and the safety notice as standard operating procedure; officers must verify information provided in initial reports and clarify it before issuing a notice to the university community.

Had the victims reported the crime to police soon after it took place, the department would have issued a more timely UMD Alert via text message and email,

police spokesman Maj. Marc Limansky told The Diamondback.

“It’s not intended as a news source; it’s intended as a safety notice for people to make safe decisions,” Limansky said.

Given the nation’s tragic propensity toward school shootings, though, this editorial board feels that every on-campus incident involving a firearm warrant attention. Students deserved to know that a gunman was on the campus even if police had deemed the perpetrator no longer an immediate threat.

Police could have sketched the barebones details of the incident the night that they responded to the victims’ report in a manner that wouldn’t have incited a panic. Students would have appreciated the transparency, especially considering the rash of robberies — armed or otherwise — on and around the campus since the start of the semester.

With safety a rising concern over the past few weeks, students owe it to one another to report crimes in a timely fashion, and police owe it to the community to release details of potentially life-threatening incidents as soon as possible. This week, those efforts fell short.

EDITORIAL CARTOON

Eva shen/the diamondback

Sanders is the Democrats’ Trump

A

t first glance, Sen. Bernie Sanders and businessman Donald Trump share little in common. Sanders, a longtime Vermont politician, is a selfdeclared “democratic socialist” who often criticizes the excesses of Wall Street and the economic “1 percent.”

Trump, a successful businessman, is highly critical of illegal immigrants and “unfair” international deals.

For most millennials, Sanders is a shining light in the political darkness, and Trump personifies everything that is wrong with American politics. Regardless of whether this is true, the notion obscures a stunning truth: Trump and Sanders are ideological allies.

Sure, Trump claims to be a conservative and Sanders a democratic socialist, but beneath the self-declared labels, each candidate embraces a brand of populism that thrives on blaming and belittling a group perceived as a threat to the general population. For Trump, this is most manifested in his attacks on immigrants, especially illegal immigrants.

For Sanders, this is clear in his stump speeches decrying America’s richest.

But the similarities don’t stop there.

Take health care, for example. Both candidates support universal health care, which is especially unusual for a Republican like Trump. Each dislikes the Affordable Care Act — more explicitly in Trump’s case but implicitly in Sanders’ plan as well. Sanders’ universal health plan would mostly eliminate the need for private insurers, which comprise a key part of Obamacare. Trump is less specific with his plan but makes clear the government must insure the less fortunate.

Then there’s free trade. Both candidates are adamant opponents of free trade agreements such as the TransPacific Partnership and the North American Free Trade Agreement. They agree that such deals hurt the average American worker while benefiting large multinational corporations. Trump seems to believe he can win lopsided trade deals, but it is clear he is opposed to basic free trade as vehemently as Sanders.

On foreign policy, Sanders and Trump are again in lockstep. Both were strongly against the Iraq War and generally favor noninterventionist foreign policy. Each

MAtt Dragonette Opinion Editor

COLUMN

Report campus crime faster

E

Opinion Editor

CONTACT US 3120 South Campus Dining Hall | College Park, MD 20742 | opinionumdbk@gmail.com | PHONE (301) 314-8200

STAFF EDITORIAL

arly Sunday evening, a man knocked at the door of a Montgomery Hall dorm room. One of the six students inside answered, only for the man to force himself inside the room and brandish a handgun. A second man entered the room, and the two stole some of the students’ possessions and fled the scene.

More than 36 hours later, students across the campus finally received word of the alleged incident via a University Police safety notice. While no one was injured, at least one armed man had gained access to a university dorm with apparent ease, made off with students’ belongings and — for all we know — headed back to his own dorm or apartment. The notice made no note of the perpetrators’ affiliation with the university.

About 24 hours had gone by after the incident before the victims reported the crime to police, and at least another 12 had passed before the news made it to students’ inboxes. It’s likely that the encounter left the students in question afraid and disoriented, rendering the delay in reporting the incident a bit more understandable. After all, when was the last time a gunman forced his way into your apartment or dorm room?

Patrick An

has unusually strong support for veterans; Sanders’ only nonpostal legislation in Congress was a veterans’ affairs bill, and Trump has shown strong private support for veterans, leading to awards and accolades. Trump certainly favors “American exceptionalism” more than Sanders, but each is willing to cut military spending — usually a no-no for either party.

Even on immigration, Sanders’ record matches Trump’s policy stances — if a little more civil and a lot less belligerent.

Dolores Huerta, the famed Latina civil rights activist, criticized Sanders’ record on immigration while in Congress in a recent column. She points to his somewhat pro-deportation voting record, his voting against the failed 2007 Democratic immigration reform bill and his protection of the Minutemen. Trump’s policy proposals need no introduction, and while they’re definitely more radical, each appears distrustful of immigrants in part thanks to labor advantages granted to businesses.

If you’re tired of the policy similarities, let’s not forget each is a party outsider. Sanders is a longtime independent who has generally supported policy proposals considered more radical than the typical Democrat. Trump, once registered as a Democrat, has never held political office and in no way represents a typical politician. And of course, each candidate has shunned special interest money and criticized the role of business and interest groups in politics.

Remarkable.

The candidates are not identical — especially on social issues such as abortion and Trump’s tendency for truly offensive and bombastic comments about various groups. Each has different policy priorities, mannerisms and the like. But they also share fascinating similarities stemming from their populist leanings.

It’s no surprise that each has gathered a fervent (mostly white) base of support yet will unlikely gain widespread support in a general election. Trump’s supporters cross-cut ages, income and education, but most are angry with government and its priorities. Many are distrustful of immigrants and Muslims. Sanders’ supporters are generally younger and distrust big business, Wall Street and

politicians who associate with them. His campaign promises of cheaper government-provided services resonate with them. His supporters are generally more diverse and inclusive, but some are also distrustful of widescale immigration. In addition, the “Bernie Bro” phenomenon has made his movement seem less inclusive at times.

What’s the common denominator?

Americans are angry. With big business, mounting debt and government.

Some blame rich people, some blame immigrants, but each takes issue with the current political establishment in both parties. But the same things that unite and energize their supporters also make them unsuitable to uniting the country.

For his part, Trump’s tendency to alienate women, minority groups and people in general makes him unlikely to unite large swaths of the country — and will certainly energize his opponents.

Even his Republican populism is distrusted by primary voters, who often prefer more conservative policies across the board. Frankly, many conservatives find it tough to trust Trump.

Sanders has his own issues. Popular in his own state and party to be sure, his ideology is alienating to Republicanleaners distrustful of government and supportive of capitalism. His stance on guns will prove divisive, as well as his general distaste for “American exceptionalism.” He too would not unite the country — even as he attracts a fervent primary following.

Trump and Sanders might appear opposites thus far in the presidential election. They have a fundamentally different way of treating fellow human beings; that much is clear. But each commands large rallies, generates fascinating headlines and proposes outside-the-box policies. They appeal to a vocal support base and display populist roots. Many of their beliefs and policy proposals are strikingly similar. Win or lose, they will certainly leave their mark on American politics for decades.

Matt Dragonette, opinion editor, is a senior accounting and government and politics major. He can be reached at mdragonettedbk@gmail.com.

Pay every intern

T

he first three months at my current internship at the National Institutes of Health, I was useless. I couldn’t pipette or open a bottle with my left hand, and I didn’t even know how to do serial dilutions. I contaminated solutions, wasted valuable tissue and on one occasion almost broke a microscope lens worth more than $8,000. In all fairness, I probably ended up detracting from my workplace with all of the time and effort people spent fixing my screwups.

If I was to give an honest evaluation of myself during those first few months, I would without a doubt say that I didn’t deserve to be paid based on the work I had done. Money is usually given in exchange for quality work being produced, and by all measurable standards, I sucked. This is probably true for most entry-level internships in which applicants have little to no experience in the field coming in. There is a learning curve to everything, and until someone stops sucking at their job, they don’t deserve to be paid.

BUT WAIT. Does this mean corporations and government agencies and nonprofits now have an excuse not to pay their interns, straight from the mouth of an entitled Generation Y millennial? Absolutely not. Just because interns don’t deserve to be paid, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be. By making internships unpaid, employers are inherently disadvantaging poor applicants.

Take Joe and Jack, for example.

Joe and Jack are applying for the same internship in San Francisco. They have the same GPA

and the same resume, and they are both offered the position, which is unpaid. The only difference is, Joe comes from a family who can’t afford to support his travel and living expenses to go to across the country for the internship, but Jack’s family can. Or maybe Joe’s family can cover his living and travel expenses, but Joe can’t afford to take an unpaid job in the summer because he has to pay for his college tuition in the fall.

In today’s world, internships and connections make up the currency in the job market much more than GPAs and test scores. Even though Jack and Joe have the same qualifications and were provided the same job opportunity, the fact that the internship is unpaid inherently disadvantages Joe because of his financial situation and puts him at even more of a disadvantage for future jobs because of the missed opportunity. If the internship was paid, Joe could use the money to cover his living and travel expenses or his college tuition, leveling the playing field.

This isn’t about entitlement. It’s not about the millennial generation whining or the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality we were raised with. It’s about equality. By making internships paid, employers allow all applicants to have the same opportunity to accept the internship, regardless of financial status.

After four years at the NIH and a lot of mistakes, I don’t suck (as much) anymore. Interns are worth the investment. But the next time you hire an intern, make sure you’re investing in a future in which everyone has an equal chance.

Isobel Hawes is a sophomore biology and English major. She can be reached at ihawesdbk@gmail.com.

Why do we hate political flip-floppers?

A

curious aspect of the way Americans vote is that they typically look for someone who is set in their ways. In other words, they hate flip-floppers. A flip-flop is a sudden change in stance on an issue that is politically charged. Stephen Colbert r e c e n t l y d e m o n s t ra te d a n example of flip-flopping in his “2016 Top Tremendous All-YouCan Trump Luxury Presidential Debate.” This might be more of an example of lying rather than flip-flopping, but I am curious why a politician having a change of opinion to reflect that of his supporters, and moreso potential supporters, is a bad thing.

The candidates in this year’s presidential debate have taken to pointing at their opponents’ lawmaking decisions in years past as proof of their true opinions and stances. Bernie Sanders has criticized Hillary Clinton’s 2002 Iraq vote several times; Clinton often throws his 2005 gun control vote into the ring; the conservatives mostly debate about how conservative the other opponents are. This habit suggests that changing one’s opinion over the course of decades indicates that a candidate is unreliable, inauthentic or even untrustworthy. Jamelle Bouie of Slate pointed out that some of our best presidents — Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson — have been flip-floppers. Lincoln changed his position on slavery and Wilson entered World War I despite running on the idea that he would not.

Voters often ask for transparency from their elected officials.

They want to know all about their personal lives and what their positions on each issue are and will be 10 years from now. This denies the concept of personal growth and even privacy. As a constituency (or audience), we often minimize the necessity of privacy when it comes to our officials. We

can look at a person like Anthony Weiner, who has not only lost his political position but also many jobs because of a few sexts back in 2011 (and again in 2013). He was by almost all standards very authentic: He has been described as “a man without impulse control” and was unequivocally liberal. Full disclosure means distraction from the political process and often disruption of political careers.

In discussing the authenticity of leaders, Herminia Ibarra wrote in the Harvard Business Review that being too authentic works against a leader being great. “By viewing ourselves as works in progress and evolving our professional identities through trial and error, we can develop a personal style that feels right to us and suits our organizations’ changing needs.” She defines authenticity as “Being true to yourself,” “Maintaining a strict coherence between what you feel and what you say or do” and “Making values-based choices.” Doing any of these things makes for representatives who only consider themselves rather than their constituents when voting. It also generally makes them shoddy politicians. Politics requires compromise, self-sacrifice and behaving diplomatically, none of which work with a person who is rigidly authentic.

Don’t we want our representatives to represent our views? Politicians who are obstinately stuck in their ways are typically those who are clogging up the political process. It seems to reflect the American adoration of the patriarch: a strong, stern man who throws down the gauntlet when his law is unheeded. With millennials being so invested in authenticity, it will not be a surprise if the votes sway to the candidate who is the most rigid in their views and bombastic in their defense of them.

Emily Shwake is a senior English m a j o r. S h e ca n b e re a c h e d a t eshwakedbk@gmail.com.

POLICY: Signed letters, columns and cartoons represent 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.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016 | The Diamondback

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The Diamondback | spring CAREER GUIDE | THURSDAY, february 25, 2016

THE DIAMONDBACK’S

SPRING CAREER GUIDE

FINDING THE RIGHT FIT

University students, officials weigh the positives and negatives of finding a job at different types of companies

By Joel Eliach @thedbk For The Diamondback

it’s better to shoot for the top and try to join a big company or if it’s better to be a big fish in a small pond.

A n n ie Wei n schen k, a n As students at this univerindustry development spesity consider different jobs and internships, their minds might c i a l i s t at t he Un iversit y fill with conflicting ideas. Career Center & The PresiThey might wonder whether dent’s Promise, said the right

company size depends on the type of individual interviewing for the position.

“I would say be open to both [large and small organizations]. It’s going to depend on who the person is [who is] searching,” Weinschenk said.

“Experience as many different

types of interviews and settings that you can.”

Larger companies tend to offer more structure and name recognition, she said, while smaller organizations often have less competitive hiring and give a wider range of responsibilities to interns.

Univ sophomore creates, operates music recording studio out of home basement

By Tom Hausman @thedbk For The Diamondback Upon meeting Elie R izk and finding out he’s working toward a psychology degree and a minor in neuroscience, one would not immediately think he has a different job already — he’s on his way to becoming a record producer.

Rizk, a sophomore, devotes most of his time to his passion for music, managing his own studio in his basement while pursuing a degree full time.

He and longtime friend and “jam partner” Angelo Munafo,

Sophomore Swati Patel, who is enrolled in letters and sciences, said that she wants to intern at a large hospital to prepare for a premed track and that she is interested in learning about trauma care.

“If the hospital is bigger, you’ll get more emergency

cases, and there’s more opportunity to learn,” she said.

Averi Millet, a freshman community health major, said challenges could come with working for a larger organization.

See COMPANIES, Page 8

Freshman friendly: Univ Career Center offers up tips, services

By Gillian Vesely @thedbk For The Diamondback

one stone studios llc is a local music studio owned and run by senior psychology major Elie Rizk. a University of Pennsylvania sophomore, turned a high school senior project of theirs into reality this past year.

They officially opened the doors to their music studio, One Stone Studios LLC, in

photo courtesy of one stone studios llc

Timonium in July. headfirst into starting their “It’s scary,” Rizk said. “I company, which caters to found that I never have any budding musicians, with idea what I’m doing; things just have a way of working See studio, Page 8 themselves out.”

Rizk and Munafo jumped

Promise, located in Hornbake Library, works with all undergraduate students and has programs in place that aim Freshmen at this univer- to be freshman-friendly. sity might not have many The Peer Career Educators thoughts about a post-college program, one of the services career. But there are several the Center provides, is made resources on the campus to up of about 10 trained underhelp fi rst-year students get graduate student-workers who started on the path toward review resumes, help students landing a job if they want to understand online resources begin the search early. and give career advice.

T he Un iversity Career Center & The President’s See FRESHMen, Page 8

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THURSDAY, february 25, 2016 | spring CAREER GUIDE | The Diamondback

7

Univ offers interest-specific career fairs throughout semester

By Chris Spencer @thedbk For The Diamondback The annual Spring Career & Internship Fair, hosted by the University Career Center & The President’s Promise, is here again and in full swing. But students may be unaware of the other career fair events that take place at this university throughout the semester.

This university has a series of “boutique fairs” that serve students in an array of particular disciplines ranging from architecture and real estate to education, geographical science, health and business startups.

EDUCATION The Maryland Metropoli-

tan Education Expo is set up as an opportunity for students to network with employers in the education field and potentially land a job. It comprises two components: a career fair and on-site interviews.

The expo presents a collection of recruiting school systems, such as Carroll County Public Schools, Alexandria City Public Schools and D.C. Public Schools, as well as ESF Camps. The fair is open to all interested students.

The event will be at S t a m p S t u d e n t U n i o n ’s Grand Ballroom on March 9 from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Students should schedule interviews with employers via Careers4Terps prior to the event so school systems and organizations can review applications and decide which

candidates are qualified.

HEALTH PROFESSIONS SCHOOLS T he Health Professions School Recruitment Fair is a public career fair that invites students of all majors, but especially those who are interested in attending a medical, dental or allied health school.

T h is event is at Sta mp Student Union’s Grand Ballroom on April 6 from 2 to 5 p.m.

the University career center & the president’s promise is hosting its 2016 Spring Career & Internship Fair, which began on Wednesday and is concluding on Friday, Feb. 26. Recruiters met with students in Stamp Student Union. tom hausman/the diamondback

perience as an intern or part-time employee. The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities recognized the event with its Connections Award for efficacy of fostering innovation STARTUP CAREERS and entrepreneurship, talent deThe UnShelled: Startup Career velopment and community and & Internship Fair is a recruitment cultural development.

T he UnShelled fair will tool for all university students and alumni who are interested take place April 21 from noon in working for a startup or are to 4 p.m. in Stamp Student seeking an entrepreneurial ex- Union’s Colony Ballroom.

GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCES

zations like ADNET Systems, Geographic Services Inc., the NASA DEVELOP Program, the The Geographical Sciences U.S. Census Bureau and this Advising Office and the Career university’s Master of ProfesCenter created an internship fair sional Studies in Geospatial to unite geospatial information Information Sciences Program sciences and environmental at the fair. science and policy students with The event will be held in public, private and nonprofit 1124 LeFrak Hall on April 1 employers, although students of from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. all majors are welcome to attend.

Students can expect organi- newsumdbk@gmail.com

CHANGING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION Even if university students feel stuck in a career path, there are resources to help them find a better one

By Molly McClellan @thedbk For The Diamondback

major, said Becky Weir, assistant director of student services and academic outreach at the University Career Center & The If halfway through your President’s Promise.

“Part of a person’s success major requirements you realize your program is not for you, you in this whole career decisionmight feel as though you’re making process is knowing stuck. The work might not be about themselves and what interesting, and you can’t see their skills are, what their inyourself having a career in this terests are, personality, values,” she said. field after graduation.

To help with this, the Career For a lot of students, changCenter offers Focus2, an online ing their fields could seem daunting, but with the right career assessment, to help stuplan, students can switch their dents analyze what they know paths to find rewarding and ex- about themselves and how it relates to the world of work. citing ones.

The first step to changing Focus2 can be helpful in nara career path is to recognize rowing down possible career which initial interests made paths, Weir said. “[It shows] what some of the student choose the original

those jobs titles might be about, what academic majors lead to a successful career in that career file, versus just immediately jumping into a major,” she said.

Each department also offers resources to help students decide what interests them.

Senior nutrition and food s c i e n c e m a j o r O l a olu w a Adeoye enrolled at this university as a cell biology and genetics major but changed her mind after talking to staff in the nutrition department.

“The department I was interested in told me how to go about the process, what to do, who I need to talk to; everybody in AGNR was really helpful in the process,” she said.

One of the biggest reasons

students tend to change their career paths is that they don’t know enough about their major to begin with. Learning about the career path or major you’re interested in is vital when choosing a track to start in, but talking to people within the field is important, too.

“The best is doing informational interviews, where you’re talking to people who are doing what you think you want to do,” Weir said.

Because reaching out to a stranger could be uncomfortable for students at first, the Career Center offers Candid Ca reer, wh ich showcases videos of industry professionals doing informational interviews. Additionally, the

Career Center has the University of Maryland Alumni Advisor Network, through which students can connect to alumni and talk about what they do in their respective fields.

While changing a major might seem like the obvious solution to being unsure about a career path, it’s not always necessary, Weir added. When looking for jobs or internships, students should focus on their skills and talents that can be used in the fields they are considering, regardless of their academic backgrounds.

Hannah Borison, a freshman education major, is in the process of changing her career path to journalism. She said she

is finding new ways to develop skills for the field.

“I have been trying to emerge myself in different journalism experiences, so I shadowed the broadcasting news channel,” she said.

If it does come down to changing a career path, students should do it because they want to, on their own terms.

“The person that has the support to explore and develop strengths that match what they know about themselves tend to be much more successful than somebody that’s just in a major because they have to or they felt that they could get a job,” Weir said. newsumdbk@gmail.com

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8

THE DIAMONDBACK | SPRING CAREER GUIDE | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

COMPANIES From PAGE 6 “It’s more intimidating, I feel like, and you have to work ex t ra h a rd becau se every day somebody’s doing something great, and you’re trying to do something great so you can be noticed,” she said.

M i l let sa id she wou ld eventually like to work at a large organization like Johns Hopkins Hospital but would like to first start out somewhere smaller to learn from

STUDIO From PAGE 6 no real business training, moving one step at a time. Rizk has had years of recording experience, but he quickly learned that producing and acting as a studio technician required more knowledge than he started with, he said. Through trial and error, he adapted and learned the physics and engineering of recording.

One Stone Studios’ first client — one of Rizk’s friends from high school — was the first person he ever recorded besides himself.

The experience taught him about the recording process and being a businessman.

“You have to put on this

any potential mistakes. That way, she said, she hopes she will be ready to make her best impression when she starts with a larger organization.

“I want to be the best I can be before I show them who I am and what I can provide.” she said.

B ut sen ior k i nesiolog y major Joseph Louis said he prefers working in a larger organization because there is less of a risk that it could go out of business.

He added that larger organizations seem to offer more opportu n ities for getting

facade of ‘I do know what I’m doing,’ so I’m masquerading as this professional, when in fact I had no idea what I was doing,” he said.

One Stone Studios has six artists who record there regularly, he said.

Rizk won the Best Original Soundtrack award at the University of Maryland Film Festival for his score in the short film “Ways.” Lizzy Coplin, a senior environmental science and policy major who directed the film, said working with Rizk “enhanced the tone of [her] film.”

“I was amazed on his ability to take my vague musical ideas and flesh them out into full composed songs,” Coplin said.

“He’s very energetic and such

promoted and moving up, establ ish i ng con nections a nd reach i ng the success you want.

Kelly Fernandez, a senior electrical engineering major, said she likes the social opportun ities and financial resources available at larger organizations but is overall more interested in company culture than size.

She pre fe rs “ wh ateve r compa ny … h a s a goa l of changing society and a cer ta i n aspect of society a nd wa nts to i mprove it, and is really passionate and

a hard worker.”

All of the work is put to the test when he balances his schoolwork with his studio work, to which he said he dedicates his entire weekends.

“It’s been tough,” Rizk said.

“Your social life takes a hit, your academic life takes a hit, but I found I don’t have many other options. There’s some overlap because you can’t not do schoolwork on the weekends.”

It is not always particularly serious work, though, Munafo said. One time, the duo got hired to record a jingle for a friend’s Mediterranean catering business. “[Rizk] said, ‘Change of plans, we’re writing a jingle,’ and like that, over the course of the afternoon and the evening,

dedicated towards that goal [and] wants to work towards it a nd not ju s t m a k i n g a profit,” she said.

Drawing from her own experience, Weinschenk added that she would advise students to consider both types of organizations.

“Keep a n open m i nd to large and small organizations, as they both offer different and amazing things and opportunities — and that was something I didn’t do,” she said. newsumdbk@gmail.com

we came up with a jingle,” Munafo said.

The duo began work writing a theme song for an upcoming online television series called “StandUp/BreakDown,” and Munafo said they plan to work on music for the rest of the series as well.

Even though both studio owners share a passion for the business, Munafo said Rizk’s hard work and dedication to learning the tools of the trade surpass his own.

“Every second that he isn’t studying or working or doing something, he is reading up online about microphones or recording techniques,” Munafo said. newsumdbk@gmail.com

NEWS

U, city officials to discuss 2020 plan Diamondback-hosted panel to take place in April will cover city development

By Jessie Campisi @jessiecampisi Staff writer W h i le u n iversity, city, county and state officials strive toward partnership between this university and College Park, this goal cannot happen without impacting the community.

The College Park-University Partnership’s Vision 2020 reimagines the city as a college town attractive to university employees, faculty and their families. And many aspects of the project are already underway, including new housing, thriving businesses and a more walkable downtown area.

“College Park’s place in the region is changing, and it’s becoming better known as a cultural, intellectual and economic center,” said Eric Olson, executive director of the cityuniversity partnership. “The city is always changing, and it’s good to have public discussion to talk about what the future of

College Park is looking like.”

On April 5, students and residents can engage in this discussion as The Diamondback’s editor in chief, Matt Schnabel, talks to a panel of community leaders about the city’s future.

“This is a turning point for the city right now, and this panel is great for us,” said College Park Mayor Patrick Wojahn, one of the panelists.

“It could highlight the changes that are happening, what the changes could look like and what residents want to see. It’ll help get that dialogue going.”

Un iversit y Vice P resident of Ad m i n ist rat ion and Finance Carlo Colella, Southern Management Corporation CEO David Hillman and Assistant Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for Economic Development of Prince George’s County David Iannucci will join Olson and Wojahn on the panel.

Wojahn said he was pleased with the diversity of voices on the panel and added that he

hopes to contribute the city’s perspective to the event.

“Residents and students are stakeholders, too,” said John Cohan, Southern Management’s marketing director.

“They should have an interest in how we see the future, and there have been concerns that we’ve addressed.”

The discussion allows for community members, including students, longtime residents and business owners, to learn about the redevelopment projects, ask questions and address concerns, Olson said.

When residents weren’t pleased about The Hotel at The University of Maryland, one of Southern Management’s projects, blocking a local historical airport and causing traffic along Route 1, the company dropped the hotel’s height and began to mix concrete on-site, Cohan said.

Un iversity President Wallace Loh said another concern is a lack of housing for university graduates interested in staying in the area.

“We graduate fantastic students and they all go, ‘Bye-bye, we’re out of here,’” Loh said.

“We should be able to retain at least some of them here — and that also goes for faculty and staff. That’s what builds a great university town.”

As College Park strives to attract more families by building more housing units, it must also continue efforts in sustainability — perhaps with additional public transit to make the city more walkable, Olson said.

“We need to be diligent and make sure that this serves our residents as best we can.

There are a lot of positive things happening, but there ca n somet i mes be d rawbacks,” Wojahn said.

T he event, held at t he Sa muel R iggs I V A lu m n i Center, is open to students and residents. Admission is free but requires advance registration.

“College Park has always been an area of opportunity,” Cohan said, “and we’re certainly looking forward to providing information [to community members] about the progress of these projects and how they fit into the future.” jcampisidbk@gmail.com

THE UNIVERSITY CAREER CENTER & the PRESIDENT’S PROMISE offers freshmen career resources they might not have known were available. tom hausman/the diamondback

FRESHMEN From PAGE 6

for a job yet, so I’d rather do it, like, junior year,” he said.

Outside of the Center, the publ ic pol icy school, the engineering school and the business school have career centers specifically for their students.

The arts and humanities college, the public health school, the behavioral and social sciences college and the computer, mathematical and natural sciences college e a c h h a s it s ow n bra nc h within the Center.

Ashlee Kerkhoff, the business school’s d i rector of undergraduate career programming, said the school’s career services office is able to provide guidance geared toward business students.

“Because we’re only targeted at a specific function, that allows us to tailor our prog ra m m i ng,” she sa id.

“It gives us the opportunity to do things that are much more specific to business careers.”

Students of all years and majors a re encou raged to attend the Spring Career & Internship Fair, which began yesterd ay a nd cont i nues today and tomorrow.

Even fresh men who a re not looking for a job or internship could benefit from meet i ng w it h recr u iters, Ryan said.

“Just going and introducing yourself and practicing those skills of what it’s like to articulate your skills and i nterests a nd va lues to a stranger … really helps alleviate a lot of those jitters,” she said.

“ W h a t’s n i c e [a b o u t t h e P C E s] i s t h e y c a n ta l k f rom ver y speci f ic personal experience and rel ate w it h students i n a way that I don’t think that I can,” said Stephanie Ryan, program director in the Center’s career f o u n d a t i o n s d e p a r tment. “T hey’re a rea l ly good conduit to reaching students.”

Ryan said PCEs and the Center collaborate with classes such as UNIV100: The Student in the University, to encourage more freshmen to get involved at the Center.

Junior communication major Cierra Belin learned about the Center in a UNIV course her freshman year, a nd a f ter work i ng w ith a PCE , she beca me one herself in August 2014.

“O u r work w ith the UNIV classes, I think, is definitely really beneficial,” she said. “For my U N I V class, if we had never had someone come i n f ro m [t h e C e n t e r] I probably wouldn’t know it was here.”

D e s pite t h e C e nte r ’s c l o s e wo rk w i t h U N I V classes, Ryan said most of the students who use the PCE services are juniors and seniors.

Ben Eckley, a freshman a e ro s p a c e e n g i n e e r i n g major, said he has never met with a PCE but would consider going to see one.

“I’m not really looking newsumdbk@gmail.com

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THE DIAMONDBACK | THURSDAY, February 25, 2016

DIVERSIONS

9 ON THE SITE

FOOD FOR ALL Staff writer Anna Muckerman takes a trip to the Maryland Food Co-op where, every Thursday night, free Indian food is served to the masses. Visit dbknews.com for more.

FEATURE | THE HELP CENTER

TALK TO ME tom hausman/the diamondback

With official resources overbooked, mental health support is coming from students and a phone at the Help Center

By Michael Errigo @M_Errigo Senior staff writer On the door there are people without faces. They are cutouts made of paper, taped to the wood in slightly overlapping pairs. Their rows cover most of the surface, save for a big square in the middle that reads “Help Center.” Each blank body is marked up with a different handwriting and each seems to be answering the same question: What do you live for?

“I live for every fall when the leaves change,” one reads.

“I live for kettle cooked chips,” says another.

“I live for every time my boyfriend calls me beautiful.”

“For brunch.”

“For kissing.”

“For drawing bunnies in my notebook.”

To get to the door, one must enter the South Campus Dining Hall and take the stairs. Head down a wide hallway littered with abandoned chairs, past the office offering help with student legal aid, past the activist headquarters, past the newspaper newsroom, past the sign that says “Senior Photos” with an arrow and past the bulletin board with the flier asking you to “say no to the corporate deathburger” that features a large picture of what looks to be a Big Mac. Make it through all that, and you arrive at a quiet corner and the door with its coded lock, its doorbell

and its reasons for existing.

Behind the door is this university’s Help Center. Run entirely by student volunteers, it is one of the most immediately available mental health resources on the campus. With its doorbell available to walk-ins and a hotline number posted all over the campus, the Help Center offers an alternative to university options that are overbooked, understaffed and unavailable for as much as several weeks to those who wouldn’t classify their situation as an emergency.

It’s no secret that this university has had its fair share of mental healthrelated events in recent years. Every day, on a campus of more than 37,000, people face emotions that are hard to combat alone. Right now, this door, this place, is the foremost hand being held out. In the fight on this campus against the stigma of talking about how you feel and the fear that those feelings are anything other than normal, this is the front line. *** Founded in 1970, the Help Center used to be located in an off-campus house that was open 24 hours a day.

The problem became that people would show up at odd hours, often drunk, seeking a couch or maybe something to eat instead of psychological assistance. Now, having been above the dining hall since the late ’90s, the center is open between eight and 12 hours each day.

The current headquarters has big

windows and several rooms. There’s the common area with its pamphlets and the staff lounge that has handprints on the wall from volunteers past and present. Across from that is the room where walk-ins can talk to someone. There is a small couch, a pile of books on a shelf and a pillow with raspberries on it. On the table is a box of pregnancy tests. In the corner, there is Guess Who?, a board game about trying to determine who someone is.

The staff of volunteers number about 80, 50 or so of whom are currently active. Shifts last four hours and can be staffed by anywhere from one to seven people. A busy day would see 15 or more calls and maybe a walkin. But someone must be in the final room of the Help Center, the call room, at all times. Access to the call room is forbidden to anyone not on staff.

It’s supposed to be a haven for those people in it, a place where nothing else matters besides the voice on the other end of the line and the person sitting next to you.

“It’s a safe spot, kind of like your bedroom at home. You can focus and you know that you’re safe there,” said Help Center President Leah Sukri, a biology and psychology major. “The people in that room have shared experiences.”

Those people who take calls are called counselors. The process to become a counselor can take anywhere from two to four semesters and is so necessary to the organization that, of

the active members, the trainee-tocounselor breakdown is close to 1-to-1.

And who are these students that want to join the Help Center, to volunteer their time, to sit by the phone or wait by the door? Well, you know that kid on your floor freshman year whom people felt like they could talk to? Who would sit cross-legged on their bed and listen as you fidgeted on the desk chair, hammering away at your schedule or your friends or the way things were?

The one that would ask questions and talk and talk and talk if need be? Those kids? They work at the Help Center.

“Oh God, everyone here is so nice,” counselor Michelle Dagne said, laughing as though it were some kind of bizarre phenomenon.

“Surprisingly kind,” junior English and mathematics major Sam Cunningham, currently a trainee, said of his co-workers. “Everyone here, they’re all the kind of people who go way out of their way to be there for someone.”

They come not only from the social sciences but also a variety of majors and backgrounds. They are good speakers and even better listeners. But they are also students with schedules and stresses and worries, just like the person on the other end of the line.

“Maybe you pulled an all-nighter or maybe you have relationship issues and you come in and you pick up the phone, and that can be hard,” Dagne said. “Putting away everything else that’s going on in your life is hard.”

In order to be a Help Center em-

ployee, you have to learn how to make that happen, how to put someone else’s situation before yours, if only for a while. It can be a challenge, but every day it’s done, there in the haven or in the room with the couch and the raspberry pillow. *** In the 20th century, before the advent of texting and chatting and direct messaging, there was something called a person-to-person call. It was when you asked the operator to put you in touch with someone specific. The term is antiquated now, but it in a way it captures what happens when someone calls the Help Center hotline. No names are exchanged. Just two people on the line, two voices taking turns. It’s not a call intended for a particular recipient, this person to person. It’s a call for someone, anyone, to answer.

And it can go on for as long as it needs to. One rule amongst counselors is that you never hang up the phone. Ever. The caller must be the one to hang up, and sometimes that takes a while. According to the volunteers, more calls tend to come in the afternoons. Sometimes the numbers go up at times when classes let out, people reaching out as they make their walk across the campus.

The conversation isn’t designed to provide the caller with answers, and unlike professional help, it will never end in a label.

See help, Page 10

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COLLEGE PARK A 2020 VISION

You are invited to join the Diamondback's editor in chief, Matt Schnabel, as he engages with community leaders in a lively discussion about the future of College Park.

Civic leaders have described a vision of a college town where whe professors and other employees want to live and raise their children — a certified green community with a vibrant downtown that has balance between pedestrians, bicyclists, transit and motorists.

Exciting hotels, restaurants and new housing options are already well underway.

What will all of this mean for longtime residents, business people and the university community?

Our distinguished panel includes: • Patrick Wojahn College Park mayor • David Iannucci Assistant Deputy CAO for Economic Development and Public Infrastructure of Prince George’s County • Carlo Colella Vice President of Administration and Finance at the Colella University of Maryland • David Hillman Founder and CEO of Southern Management Corporation • Eric Olson Executive Director of the College Park City-University Partnership Tuesday, April 5 at 5 p.m. at the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center on the University of Maryland campus Admission is FREE but advance registration is required, so reserve your space today!

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10

THE DIAMONDBACK | diversions | THURSDAY, february 25, 2016

HELP

ESSAY | EDDIE REDMAYNE IN THE DANISH GIRL From PAGE 9

Counselors say the idea is more to walk someone through something, to use listening as a tool.

“Sometimes just being made to string thoughts together in a coherent way, as we’re expected to in any conversation, can really help you to make a path through your situation,” junior psychology major Morgan Benner said. “We’re not there to take their feelings away over the phone, we’re there to share the burden with them.”

But sometimes sharing that burden can take its toll, especially considering the finite nature of a phone call.

“Working at Help Center requires a lot of self-care,” Benner said.

“As a counselor, you handle a lot of situations where you don’t necessarily know whether you’ll be able to help them. People call and you can be there for them and talk them through things, but at the end of the day, they hang up and you don’t know whether it’s going to be OK.” Sometimes after a shift, Dagne said she just needs to put on Netflix for a while and watch something light. It helps to clear the mind. She said she has gotten emotional after working before and that it was to be expected sometimes. It’s natural.

Benner said her experiences at the Help Center have changed the way she thinks about her surroundings.

“You end up having a rapport with someone on the phone, and you grow to care about their situation and you realize that it could be anyone walking around with you,” she said. “And you realize that all these people around you have these issues that they might want to talk about. Everyone has their own stuff that we have to deal with all the time. Sometimes it weighs on me that the people around me may not have someone to talk to about it.

“Everyone is just walking around. With their stuff. Carrying it around. That’s what weighs on me.” *** People come and stay in different ways. Sukri first heard about the Help Center from her freshman-year resident assistant. She joined that spring. Benner also joined the second semester of her freshman year. She says she did so because she enjoyed hearing people’s stories. Dagne came to this university as a biology major and changed to psychology in part because of her experience at the Help Center. For Cunningham, his majors remain English and mathematics, but the Help Center has had a different effect.

“It seems almost selfish because the whole motivation for being here is, of course, at the heart, selfless, but goddamn, you get a lot from it,” he said. “I wanted to do something in the technical fields, but now I want to go into mental health. There’s still so much to do; some stigma that needs to be broken down.”

It’s clear in talking with Help Center volunteers that the entire organization is dedicated to the external: anyone out there who needs them. But it’s also clear that the organization serves a purpose on many levels for those on the inside, too. Whether it provides career-oriented experience, a hobby to feel good about or just a group of like-minded friends, the center commands a devotion not found among many other student groups.

It’s that bond between students that remains the defining trait of the Help Center and sets it apart from the other mental health resources. The helping hand can be offered with such strength, such certainty, only because it has a body to support it.

“There’s not really going to be a point in my life where I don’t think about how much [Help Center] has affected me,” Cunningham

MAKING THE CASE Why Eddie Redmayne deserves to win Best Actor on Sunday

By Danielle Ohl @DTOhl Senior staff writer the help center door sits relatively quiet above the dining hall. tom hausman/ the diamondback said. “It has a blanket statement over my whole existence at this point that it’s changed me.” *** In the past two fiscal years, funding directed toward student services — a category that contains the mental health offerings by this university’s Counseling Center and the University Health Center — decreased by $245,908. While mental health awareness has arguably gone up on the campus recently and administration is making efforts to keep that trend going, the school still faces logistical issues.

“Knowing that mental health resources are backed up on campus, I just wish we could do more,” Dagne said. “But you can’t make people call in.”

Help Center volunteers say that this fact — that any kind of help they can offer takes place in a process that can only begin one way — is something that must be accepted. All they can do is get the word out and let people know it’s OK to call, no matter what the issue. The line will be open.

“A lot of people think we’re only here for extreme situations, and that’s not true,” Benner said. “I would love people to know more about calling for maybe a roommate issue or maybe just something you don’t want to tell your friends.”

Added Sukri: “It’s something that has a stigma. Reaching out to someone can be a weird concept. But I think slowly that’s being chipped away.”

That might be true. But for now, the corner door is not overwhelmed with entrants. It is mostly volunteers punching the code, arriving just to be there. The door closes behind them, covered by the faceless people and their handwriting. Even though some of the marker has begun to fade and some of the tape peels, each one still touches another. merrigodbk@gmail.com

To celebrate Oscar week, we’ve been writing essays all week arguing for the movies or performers we think deserve success this weekend. To give you a taste, here is why Eddie Redmayne from The Danish Girl should win the award for Best Actor.

Check out the rest online at dbknews.com.

This year’s Oscars celebrate nuance.

The actor and actress nominees, from top to bottom, are craftsmen and craftswomen who can break hearts, incite fear and elicit longing with subtle movements, quick words or expressive faces.

None, however, can do this with more devastating accuracy than Eddie Redmayne, whose performance in The Danish Girl nabbed him a Best Actor nomination.

Redmayne plays — a better word would be becomes — two people, or rather, one person whose physical profile does not match the character’s mental identity. Though the transgender woman Lili Elbe is soft, demure, vibrant

and excited, her former identity, painter Einar Wegener, is self-conscious, guarded, weary and even afraid. Redmayne had to be all of that and more.

And he did it, in the most spectacular fashion.

Almost as though he internalized both personas, Redmayne portrays both Einar and Lili with guarded eyes, a quick, blooming smile and a delicately placed hand. He allows both to be present at every moment, fighting each other for realization in a world completely ignorant to their struggle. Redmayne’s performance is seldom vocal (he conveys more with movement than dialogue), but it pays beautiful homage to the woman who risked everything to give transgender people a physical presence and predecessor. Against Alicia Vikander’s valiant supporting role (which might get a shoutout later this week, so stay tuned), he is able to honor a story both painful and inspiring with equal measures of each.

No other has done that. No other should win. dohldbk@gmail.com

THURSDAY, February 25 , 2016 | Sports | The Diamondback

11

Gymnast adapts to life on sidelines after injury

By James Crabtree-Hannigan @JamesCrabtreeH Staff writer This season, Terrapins gymnastics junior Nikki Dragon has developed a unique routine on meet days at Xfinity Center.

While her teammates complete warm-ups and head back into the locker room, Dragon remains on the gym floor, puts on a pair of headphones and prepares to be a commentator for the Big Ten Network’s live stream of the meet.

After suffering a concussion that “never really went away,” Dragon was forced to medically retire from gymnastics this year.

Now, she’s adjusting to being a team manager in addition to providing insight on meet days. “[Dragon] said, ‘I’ll just have to find a new role and have to put all my positive energy into that,’” junior Sarah Faller said. “She is still very much a member of the team.”

Dragon suffered an eye injury in the Terps’ second meet last year. She finished that competition against Minnesota, but the eye injury persisted, eventually turning into a concussion. She never returned to competition.

Up until this past fall, she had hopes of competing in 2016.

But eventually, she decided that wouldn’t be possible.

“I was in a lot of pain every day in practice,” Dragon said. “I realized that maybe it was time to put gymnastics aside and focus on school.”

Her title isn’t yet official, but the Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, native is currently acting as an undergraduate assistant coach for the Terps. Dragon attends every practice and home meet, assisting around the gym and coaching the team. She’s especially helpful on floor; coach Brett Nelligan called Dragon “a phenomenal dancer.”

“Everyone’s rallied around her and been supportive of her transition,” Nelligan said, “and since she’s giving back to the team, it’s

a great relationship.”

Faller, who was Dragon’s roommate their freshman year, wrote her a card earlier this year commending Dragon’s strength through adversity, a compliment the rest of the team echoes.

“I’ve definitely had some hard days, and it’s amazing to know that I can count on every single one of [my teammates] and know they don’t look at me any differently,” Dragon said.

Dragon also credited Nelligan for his encouragement. He was the one who thought the junior would make a good commentator and asked her if she’d like to try it.

She agreed, and after the first meet Dragon announced,

compliments came pouring in, Nelligan said. The veteran coach wasn’t surprised.

“She’s so talented and so smart, she can really handle anything that comes her way,” Nelligan said.

One thing Dragon would be able to do on the sidelines is cheer for the team, which she tries to avoid when offering play-byplay. She uses her inside knowledge of the Terps and their routines but does her best to remain impartial and professional.

In her head, though, Dragon said she’s “cheering for her teammates, like, so loud.”

“It’s not been an easy road, but everybody’s here for her, and I

think she knows that,” Faller said.

“I think that’s definitely helped.

We’re such a family here.”

Sophomore Abbie Epperson said Dragon has ended up “right where she’s supposed to be,” even after all she’s been through.

And in some ways, Dragon agrees. She appears to have made the most of an unfortunate situation.

“Retiring was definitely a hard decision to make,” Dragon said, “but I’m in a much happier place now, and [I’m] realizing that I can still have gymnastics in my life without actually doing the sport.” jcrabtreehdbk@gmail.com

WOMEN’S LACROSSE

PFIRMAN From PAGE 14

Robinson made sure to construct a drill suited to Pfirman’s strength — her mid-range game — while also striving to help Pfirman further incorporate the three-point shot into her repertoire. After making one of her seven long balls the past two seasons, Pfirman is 15-for33 from beyond the arc this year.

“There was one time when we were doing transition threes and I was like, ‘I’m not going to shoot these in the game,’ and he’s like, ‘Yeah, you will,’” Pfirman said.

“Ever since then I just kind of haven’t held back in my shooting game and just shot.”

Robinson has labeled Pfirman a “zone buster,” as her stroke from 17 feet and beyond forces teams to extend its defense. And if opponents decide to man up, Robinson said, doubling down on a Terps frontcourt player would leave Pfirman alone for an open shot.

“You can always count on Tierney,” center Malina Howard said. “She’s going to knock down the shot. I know we’re always looking for her.”

Howard has always had faith in Pfirman, who was the No. 22 overall player out of high school, according to ESPN.com’s Hoop Gurlz rankings.

Now in her final season with the Terps, she’s a vital asset to a team looking to advance to its third straight Final Four.

“The difference with T now is she’s really trying to find out how good she can be and how much of an asset she can be to the team,” Robinson said. “Now you’re seeing the results of all of that commitment and that new mental focus. You’re seeing it transform on the court.”

work Pfirman put in during the offseason to maximize her potential in her final season in College Park.

“I just think it was a mentality of just your last year — senior year — just leaving it all out there for what it’s worth,” Pfirman said.

“Just to perform what they need me to do and whatever they ask me to do out on the court, and just let the game come to you and not try to force anything.”

The highly touted recruit from Pennsylvania made an immediate impact with the Terps, starting 12 games and averaging 7.3 points in nearly 20 minutes as a freshman, but her numbers in those categories dropped the next two seasons even though she played in 71 of 74 games.

The Terps (25-3, 14-2) advanced to the Final Four in both campaigns, but Pfirman wanted to contribute more.

So after she got her tonsils removed last spring, Pfirman started running on the treadmill and getting more shots up in the gym. She also paid closer to attention to her nutrition, an area Robinson said Pfirman would admit she didn’t focus on earlier in her career.

Even when Pfirman suffered setbacks in preseason workouts — a stress fracture in her fibula followed by a hamstring injury forced her to miss about threeand-a-half months — Robinson ensured that his veteran player wouldn’t fall too far behind.

While the rest of the team practiced, Pfirman engrossed herself in individual workouts with Robinson. kstackpoledbk@gmail.com

Steele off to strong start as rookie Freshman scored hat trick in her second career game against Georgetown

midfielder caroline steele sprints upfield with the ball during the Terps’ 18-8 win over Georgetown on Saturday at the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex.

By Scott Gelman @Gelman_Scott Staff writer It didn’t take rookie Caroline Steele long to get involved.

The Terrapins women’s lacrosse midfielder scored the first goal of her college career less than four minutes into the regular season. But she did it a nontraditional way.

After receiving a pass from defender Nadine Hadnagy, Steele cut toward the net before taking a be-

hind-the-back shot. The highlight-reel goal punctuated a day of firsts for the freshman, who included her first start, shot and draw-control victory.

Steele, like many others on coach Cathy Reese’s roster, is used to success following a productive high school career.

To start what became a record-breaking senior season at Severn, Steele scored 10 goals.

On Senior Day, she set a single-game record by scoring 11.

A two-time All-Metro midfielder, Steele ended her time at Severn by setting school records for goals in a single

season and career. She scored 94 times in 2015 and 239 times over her four years.

When Steele decided to play for Reese’s squad, she was unsure if she would have an opportunity to compete for a starting job as a freshman. But that’s not what she was thinking about.

“I’m just honored to have a spot on the team,” Steele said after the Terps’ 19-7 victory over William & Mary on Feb. 14. “It’s really awesome.”

As a starter in the first two games of the season for the No. 1 Terps, Steele has consistently contributed to an offense that’s tallied 37 scores.

In her debut, Steele scored twice and secured a draw control. Then Saturday against the Hoyas, she notched a hat trick while recording four ground balls and winning another draw control.

It isn’t the early success Steele is having that has impressed Reese, though. The 10th-year coach is pleased with Steele’s ability to put other attackers and midfielders in positions to score.

“It’s great because we have her coming from the left side,” Reese said. “To be a left-handed attacker over in that area, she’s really creating a lot of opportunities for herself and for her teammates.”

Steele’s ability to contribute offensively so early in her career hasn’t surprised

christian jenkins/the diamondback

midfielder Zoe Stukenberg.

She said this year’s freshman class, ranked No. 2 in the country by Inside Lacrosse, has a distinct characteristic.

“Caroline and some of our other young players, they’re not shy about taking it to the house,” Stukenberg said. “Obviously, we lost a lot on offense.

It’s great to have attackers step in and fill that void.”

The Terps offense graduated multiple top scorers after last season, including midfielder Kelly McPartland and attacker Brooke Griffin.

Stukenberg said the upperclassmen have made it a goal to ensure Steele and other young players have the confidence to produce consistently.

“We don’t expect anyone to play differently because you’re [midfielder] Taylor Cummings or because you’re Caroline Steele,” Stukenberg said. “We want to instill that confidence so that younger players have success week after week.”

As the Terps prepare to face No. 5 North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Steele likely will be in the starting lineup again.

And Reese isn’t expecting different results.

“She’s done a tremendous job,” Reese said. “We’re only two games in, but it’s coming along nicely.” sgelmandbk@gmail.com

STUDENT MEMBERS NEEDED FOR STUDENT PUBLICATIONS’ BOARD Maryland Media, Inc., the publisher of The Diamondback, Terrapin, and Mitzpeh, has openings on its board of directors for two full-time students. No publication experience necessary. All that is required is a desire to learn and be involved.

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For an application, stop by room 3136 South Campus Dining Hall and ask for Craig Mummey.

Applications are due by Tuesday, February 29th at noon.

12

THE DIAMONDBACK | Sports | THURSDAY, February 25, 2016

DODD From PAGE 14

Coach mark turgeon claps his hands as he brings his team together for a huddle during the Terps’ 86-82 victory over Michigan on Sunday. christian jenkins/the diamondback

NEEDELMAN From PAGE 14

the country resided in College Park. And for good reason — the Terps were at their best against the Buckeyes, operating in concert on offense and defense.

It was a flawless display of basketball. It was Beethoven on hardwood.

Since then, things have been a bit different. No, the sky hasn’t fallen. But it’s come close.

A road loss to thenNo. 11 Michigan State on Jan. 23 wasn’t disheartening, but a home loss to Wisconsin on Feb. 13 was. A 68-63 defeat at the hands of a Minnesota team that entered 0-13 in conference play was as close to a nightmare as one could have in college sports.

“I got to figure out a way to get us going again,” Turgeon said Feb. 18 after the game.

“We’re not ourselves.”

The Terps began the season ranked No. 3, a nod to their uber-talented roster.

But 28 games in, the Terps have indisputably underperformed. They are galaxies more talented than their No. 10 ranking and 23-5 record suggest.

In a college basketball season devoid of a true powerhouse, Turgeon has let a perfect opportunity to stand atop the country slip from his fingers, one surrendered offensive rebound and turnover at a time.

Traditional powerhouses of years past have fallen off a bit.

Kentucky hasn’t played like Kentucky. Duke hasn’t played like Duke. The No. 1 ranking in the country has proven untenable, the slot changing hands faster than an Aroldis Chapman fastball. The loss to Minnesota assures the Terps won’t hold the No. 1 ranking in the country for the first time in program history. That’s off the table.

But maybe they learned something from the embarrassing loss. Maybe, as the shocked Golden Gophers fans stormed the court, the Terps learned something about themselves.

Maybe, as the cliche goes, they needed to taste failure to learn how to succeed.

Or maybe they aren’t as good as we thought they were.

position in the national landscape.

With back-to-back losses to Wisconsin and Minnesota over the past two weeks, though, the Terps have deservedly seen their stock tumble. While they were once tabbed a No. 1 seed by many outlets, The Washington Post’s Patrick Stevens said the Terps are now likely to be a No. 3, No. 4 or even a No. 5 seed.

Saturday, the Terps start a stretch that could prove the doubters wrong. It marks the first of the Terps’ final three regular-season games, two of which come against ranked squads on the road — No. 20 Purdue and No. 18 Indiana.

To be fair, garnering a high seed isn’t akin to receiving one of Willy Wonka’s Golden Tickets. There are no guarantees to success in March Madness. Recall No. 11-seed VCU reaching the Final Four in 2011. Or No. 10-seed Davidson, led by a young guard you may have heard of — Stephen Curry — qualifying for the Elite Eight in 2008.

Or even No. 11-seed George Mason, which reached the Final Four in 2006.

But where the Terps end up seeded will be telling. Pair a strong showing in the final three regular-season games with a Big Ten tournament title, and we could be talking about a No. 1 or No. 2 seed.

Get bounced in the first round of the conference tournament, and coach Mark Turgeon’s team will probably end up (God forbid) lower in the bracket than last year, when it was a No. 4 seed.

Are the Terps contenders or pretenders?

“In the first half, we were on a roll,” Turgeon said after his team’s 86-82 win over Michigan. “It was the first time in maybe four or five weeks we looked like the team that we were.”

Five weeks before Turgeon’s comments, the Terps were the No. 3 team in the country, fresh off a 100-65 lambasting of Ohio State on Jan. 16.

At that point, we started hearing murmurs that the best college basketball team in jneedelmandbk@gmail.com

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“I label myself as one of the best shot-blockers in the nation,” Dodd said Feb. 20, a day before the Wolverines game.

Before the season, coach Mark Turgeon said Dodd had the ability to win NCAA Defensive Player of the Year. The Centreville native averaged 1.5 blocks per game as a sophomore, which ranked 10th in the Big Ten. But after starting 31 games last season, Dodd has primarily served as a backup behind the freshman sensation Stone.

Dodd started 13 games this season but only one (Minnesota) of the past eight, when Stone sat out to serve a suspension.

He seemed to turn a corner in the start against

the Golden Gophers on Feb. 18 when he swatted a career-high six shots in the 68-63 loss. It was the first time he blocked more than three shots in a game since doing so five times as a sophomore.

“Damonte is coming off his best defensive game maybe in his career here at Minnesota,” Turgeon said.

Dodd carried that success into the matchup with the Wolverines. When guard Derrick Walter Jr. drove into the paint with 11:49 left in the first half, Dodd helped off his man and deflected Walton’s layup.

The next time Michigan came down the floor, Dodd again helped off his man to defend the rim. Forward Kameron Chatman attempted to lay the ball off the glass with his left hand, but Dodd swatted it out to the perimeter to force the shot-clock violation.

“He caused a lot of havoc

around the rim,” forward Robert Carter Jr. said. “We want to stay close [to] their shooters, so he was just big for us in the middle, helping over and making them adjust their game plan.”

While his blocks per game have taken a dip this season — he’s averaging 0.8 — Dodd said practicing against better post players this season has helped him hone his game. The Terps didn’t have a true center last campaign, while Stone is averaging double figures in scoring as a freshman.

“Going against Diamond and Rob — great scorers down there — every day, it’s just making me better because they’re one of the best scorers in the nation,” Dodd said. “So going against them is just making my game take a big leap defensively.”

Dodd isn’t the only one benefiting from practicing against better competition, though. He believes he’s

making the starting bigs better by blocking their shots in practice.

“If Diamond, Rob, etc. is finishing over me, they shouldn’t have any problem finishing over people in the game,” Dodd said. “So that’s why I try to block all their shots in practice, just to make them better.”

Prior to his six-block game at Minnesota, Dodd had only recorded blocks in two of the Terps’ 13 previous conference games.

Over the past week, however, he’s looked more like the shot-blocker Turgeon alluded to in the preseason.

With just three regularseason games left before postseason play starts, Dodd could be hitting his stride when the Terps need him most.

“I’m happy for Damonte,” Turgeon said. “He is finding his niche at the right time.” rbaillargeondbk@gmail.com

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THURSDAY, February 25, 2016 | Sports | The Diamondback

NATION From PAGE 14 Since the loss of the man she called her best friend, Nation has used softball to regain her peace of mind.

She said she feels closest to her father when out in the pitching circle.

“I didn’t think I would be able to get back out there [on a softball field] at first.

It was a big deal for me, and I avoided it for a while,” Nation said. “But now it’s that one lasting connection that I have with him that no one else had any involvement in.”

In the Terps’ first game of the season against Boston College, she was “hit like a train” with

FIONN From PAGE 14 the Terps could focus on High Point, he watched his teammates jump out to a 2-0 lead before entering halftime in a two-goal hole.

That didn’t erase Fionn’s smile, though, as he stood with his family at midfield waving to cameras and the crowd as the announcer promoted Team Impact and the Terps’ involvement.

During the break, Fionn — clad in a red shirt with a big block “M” and black sleeves — also returned to the locker

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Though she faltered in the sixth, allowing five runs on five hits, Nation left the mound with a lasting memory.

“He would have killed to see me pitch against Oregon,” Nation said. “So I thought I might as well make him proud.”

The junior has come a long way since October, when she said she was a “rambling mess.”

In fact, she said the experience has made her grow as a person.

“I don’t let little things get to me as much anymore,” Nation said. pitcher brenna nation hugs her father during a softball game. Her father, Frank, died in Coach Julie Wright, whom October of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a terminal brain illness. photo courtesy of the nation family Nation described as a second emotion when she stepped into cally there, she realized ev- mom to her during the grieving erything he had taught and process, agreed. the circle.

“She’s handled herself bril“That first day was really instilled in her was.

She started against No. 6 liantly,” Wright said. “I’m very hard,” Nation said.

The second day was easier. Oregon and pitched five con- proud of her.”

On Sunday in Atlanta, the While her father wasn’t physi- secutive scoreless innings.

room before standing in the tunnel to slap more high-fives as his teammates emerged for the second half.

“When he came into the locker room — right before we were going out in the tunnel — I got chills just seeing him,” attackman Dylan Maltz said.

“It makes you want to play that much harder knowing we have someone like that on the sidelines.”

Fionn and his dad, Conor Crimmins, retreated to their seats for the second half to eat hot dogs and chocolate chip cookies while watching the Terps come back for a 15-10 win.

But as the clock wound down on the Terps’ season opener, Fionn had one thing left to do.

He wanted to make sure he was back on the field in time to shake hands with the Panthers players.

“Aside from playing in the game,” Conor Crimmins said, “he did every single thing.”

Saturday wasn’t Fionn’s first time in Maryland Stadium.

During the preseason, the

Terps wore purple warm-up jerseys to help raise awareness for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The gesture was first suggested by Wright and pitcher Madison Martin in the offseason and will take place every Sunday this year.

back in her home state pitching in front of her loved ones.

She said she struggled to control her emotions and continues to work toward a balance between pitching and the feelings that drive her.

“I just missed my dad,” Nation said of the weekend.

“HE WOULD HAVE Frank taught Nation to love KILLED TO SEE ME softball when she was too scared to run the bases alone, PITCH AGAINST but later, he taught her to find OREGON. SO I her own strength.

THOUGHT I MIGHT When Nation got her first hit AS WELL MAKE HIM in the season after the terrible collision at second base, she PROUD.” waited for her father to grab BRENNA NATION her hand as he had done so many Terrapins softball pitcher times before.It took on added meaning “He just didn’t,” she said. “He this weekend with Nation, was a tough-love kind of guy.” wearing her own purple hair bow in memory of her father, dbernsteindbk@gmail.com

And before returning to College Park in January for the spring semester, Dubick drove from his home in Potomac to the Crimmins’ house in Kensington with two pints of ice cream — chocolate and vanilla, Fionn’s favorites.

Dubick and Fionn, along with Conor Crimmins and Fionn’s 2-year-old brother, Deaglan, had a boys’ night, complete with the dessert, Legos and magnet tiles.

Fresh off the first game of his college career, Dubick posed for a picture with Fionn. The image shows Dubick hoisting Fionn up on his shoulders, but the Terps say the young boy’s presence does the heavy lifting. fionn crimmins wears a Terps helmet and gloves on the sideline at Maryland Stadium on Saturday. photo courtesy of maryland athletics “Given all he’s been through Crimmins family attended a this winter; he hadn’t been game, racing around the field to at his age, it seems like a lot of team dinner in Tyser Tower, introduced to the sport before collect extra balls with a stick the worries we have seem a where Fionn ate with the joining the Terps. bit trivial, [so] when you see almost twice his size.

His parents said he’s proTerps, played tag throughout Then he found attack- what he’s gone through and the media suite and rode the gressed this season from con- man Louis Dubick, one of what he’s battling, you know, fusing the words “hockey” and the Terps who has formed coming back from being down elevator for fun.

He also came to a preseason “lacrosse” to looking forward an especially close bond a couple goals really isn’t that practice, shooting on goal and to starting a spring league with Fionn. Dubick was one big a deal,” Tillman said. “I told passing with the players. It after Easter. of three players who went him he was the magic.”

Perhaps that’s why Fionn was bowling on campus with was extra practice for Fionn, who started playing lacrosse so comfortable after Saturday’s Fionn in November. ccaplandbk@gmail.com

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PAGE 14

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

MEN’S LACROSSE

Fionn honored in season opener

By Callie Caplan @CallieCaplan Senior staff writer As the Terrapins men’s lacrosse team convened in the locker room before its game Saturday, the squad realized an unexpected visitor had tagged along.

Fionn Crimmins, a 5-yearold boy with acute lymphoblastic leukemia whom the Terps drafted through Team I m pa c t t h i s sea s o n , h a d

warmed up with the team. He dashed around on the Maryland Stadium turf, participating in pregame stretches and making the rounds for high-fives.

B u t “ u n b e k n o w n s t to anybody,” Fionn followed his teammates off the field and “was just running around the locker room,” coach John Tillman said with a smile after the game.

It was one of Fionn’s highlights during an afternoon the Terps dubbed “Team Impact

Day.” The team honored Fionn and his family and held an auction to raise money for the program, which pairs kids with life-threatening and chronic illnesses with local college teams.

Since the fall, the Terps have befriended and supported Fionn while he completes the maintenance phase of his cancer treatment. The Terps said the young boy with shaggy blond hair and an ear-to-ear smile has inspired them, too.

“There’s definitely a reverse effect with him,” midfielder Bryan Cole said. “We’re trying to pick him up and keep his spirits up, but at the same time, when he comes in the locker room, when he’s on the field … it just makes us tremendously happy and definitely gives us a different perspective when we’re playing the game.”

Once Fionn’s parents took him out of the locker room so fionn crimmins walks down the stairs in the bleachers at Maryland Stadium on Saturday See fionn, Page 13 toward the field, dressed in his Terps helmet, gloves and jersey. photo courtesy of maryland athletics MEN’S BASKETBALL | COLUMN

SOFTBALL

Home stretch crucial for seed JOSHUA NEEDELMAN

MEN’S BASKETBALL COLUMNIST

In 17 days, the Terrapins men’s basketball team will hear its name called on Selection Sunday, deemed one of 68 teams worthy of competing for the NCAA championship.

That shouldn’t come as a shock. The Terps aren’t the bumbling mess of a football program that plays its games a few buildings away, one that

pitcher brenna nation prepares to pitch during the Terps’ 7-1 loss to Miami (OH) on Saturday. The redshirt junior didn’t think she could handle losing a parent. photo courtesy of maryland athletics

Hand in hand

A violent collision at second base on a field in Chickamauga, Georgia, made 4-year-old Brenna Nation hate softball.

So for the remainder of the season, her father, Frank Nation, held her hand each time she rounded the bases.

On Friday, Brenna, now a junior on the Terrapins softball team, returned to the state where she spent countless hours working to perfect her game with her father.

But without Frank at the Georgia State Tournament to cheer her on, she had an emotional weekend. On Oct. 26, Frank died.

“To see my entire family out there and not my dad kind of shook me a little bit,” Nation said.

Frank had started feeling dizzy sometime in late September.

He went to the hospital, endured a series of tests and was diagnosed with vertigo. Over the next couple of weeks, his conditioned worsened.

His hand would draw up, his face would twitch and his body would spasm.

Doctors “couldn’t really figure anything out,” Nation said. “But my mom told me not to worry.”

Then, midway through a fall exhibition contest, a Terps coach came out to meet Nation at the mound. She was removed from the game.

“I actually left the ballpark because my dad had gone to a hospital. He was on a ventilator, and the small twitches he had been having were focal seizures,” Nation said.

After running another set of medical tests, doctors diagnosed her father with

See NEEDELMAN, Page 12

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Offseason work aiding Pfirman

Brenna Nation returns to softball after losing her father in October

By Daniel Bernstein @danbernsteinUMD Staff writer

didn’t receive an invitation to a bowl game in 2015.

And these aren’t the Terps of 2013-14 who were denied entry into all three major postseason tournaments, the NCAA Tournament, National Invitation Tournament and College Basketball Invitational.

But Selection Sunday will still hold importance, as we’ll learn what seed the Terps earn. For months, pundits and fans have speculated about the No. 10 Terps’

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a terminal brain illness without a cure. Ten days later, he was dead.

The sudden loss stunned Nation, who didn’t think she could handle losing a parent.

She said her father had been the person she “wanted to hang out with more than my friends at home.”

A shared passion for softball was a key fixture in their relationship.

“He was the guy who would drive an hour and 45 minutes for a 45-minute pitching lesson,” Nation said, adding that he would often leave work early to catch her games.

And when Nation didn’t think she was good enough to compete at the college level, her father insisted that she could.

“He always kept pushing me,” she said.

See NATION, Page 13

By Kyle Stackpole @kylefstackpole Senior staff writer W h e n t h e Te r ra p i n s w o m e n ’s b a s k e t b a l l team met at center court Wednesday around 3 p.m., it marked the end of practice for most players.

Not Tierney Pfirman.

A f te r t h e Te r ps d i s persed from their huddle, assistant coach Shay Robi n so n wa l ke d w i t h t h e forward toward the end of the court and began a shooting drill that lasted about 20 minutes. The second-year coach fed Pfirman the ball at various

locations on the floor, and the 6-foot-2 forward put s h o ts u p w i t h o u t ta k i n g a dribble. Rarely did she watch her attempt clank off the rim.

“It’s just day in and day out,” Pfirman said. “Just repping the same thing over and over and over again.”

Entering Thursday’s game against Wisconsin (7-19, 3-13 Big Ten), Pfirman has provided crucial offensive production off the bench this year, averaging a career high in points per game (8.0) and three-point shooting (45.5 percent). It’s a tribute to the See PFIRMAN, Page 11

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Dodd’s defensive efforts earn praise from Turgeon Junior calls himself one of best shot-blockers in nation

By Ryan Baillargeon @RyanBaillargeon Senior staff writer

to meet him. Center Diamond Stone jumped on top of him.

Others extended their arms for high-fives.

Everyone wanted to conAfter the Terrapins men’s gratulate the 6-foot-11 junior basketball team forced a shot-clock violation in the for his defense over the prefirst half Sunday, forward vious minute. Dodd had just Damonte Dodd walked to the swatted shots on back-to-back sideline smiling and shaking possessions only 37 seconds his head. The bench ran over apart midway through the first

half of the Terps’ 86-82 win over Michigan.

Dodd entered the season pegged as a top rim-protector, but his shot-blocking prowess didn’t show for the first 13 games of conference play. In the last two contests, though, Dodd has blocked a combined eight shots.

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See DODD, Page 12

forward damonte dodd defends the ball during the Terps’ 86-82 victory over Michigan on Sunday.

christian jenkins/the diamondback

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