MISSION THE BEST AROUND ACCOMPLISHED McFadden receives college lacrosse’s highest honor SPORTS | PAGE 8
The A-Team delivers on summer blockbuster fun DIVERSIONS | PAGE 6
Thursday, June 10, 2010
THE DIAMONDBACK Our 100TH Year, No. 142
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER
Future of hovercraft challenge in flux Commons Professor hopes to reinvigorate freshman engineering requirement BY CLAIRE SARAVIA For The Diamondback
The success of upcoming changes to the engineering school’s freshman hovercraft project will determine whether the iconic requirement will disappear from the university’s curriculum, according to an instructor who helps oversee the college’s programs. The hovercraft project — which plays an integral role in the first courses engineering majors take at this university — involves working in teams to create two-foot-long contraptions powered by fans, batteries and microprocessors that compete against each other in an obstacle course at the end of the semester. But after students have navigated a hovercraft obstacle course every semester since
2006, Keystone instructor Evandro Valente said it’s getting increasingly difficult to preserve the creativity that was once its biggest appeal. Valente, who teaches the class and designs the course, said fellow instructors start to give too many hints and students might re-use old reports if the project isn’t regularly changing. Next year, students will need to navigate their crafts through a patch of sand similar to sand paper instead of having them open a gate, as was the requirement this year. “It could be the case that after the sand patch we will change to a new obstacle or to a different project,” Valente said, adding that there was no way of knowing yet whether the project would be good for one or 10 more years. This particular change is intended to make the course
Officials repeat warnings of service cuts, hiked rents if trend continues BY LEAH VILLANUEVA For The Diamondback
In the freshman engineering hovercraft challenge, contraptions such as the one above compete against each other in an obstacle course. COURTESY OF RAMEL GOMEZ
slightly easier, said Bill Fourney, an associate dean in the engineering school. According to Fourney, four out of five hovercrafts were un-
able to open the gate in the early portion of past obstacle courses. Although the students’ grades
see HOVERCRAFT, page 2
BOOKS FOR A BETTER FUTURE Student group provides resources to needy African schoolchildren BY SARON YITBAREK For The Diamondback
Members of Books Across Borders, an organization that grew out of a College Park Scholars Public Leadership project, prepare to ship thousands of books to schoolchildren in African after one of their many book drives. MATTHEW CREGER/THE DIAMONDBACK
After spending days sorting and packing, weeks running book drives both on and off the campus and months of planning, junior history major Brendan McCormick appeared at the university’s Mail Services facility May 7 with 2,000 children’s books. McCormick and the other members of Books Across Borders were finally going to ship out their collection of schoolbooks to a New York charity, the first stop on the collection’s way to Africa.
So when the man behind the front desk told McCormick he couldn’t ship the FedEx boxes most of the books were packed in, there was only one thing that seemed logical: Take them back to their storage room in Taliaferro Hall, where — armed with index cards and Sharpies — he and three others spent hours marking out the FedEx labels on each box. Such dedication does not surprise Stacy Kosko, their former professor and associate director of the College Park Scholars Public
see BOOKS, page 3
A plunge into infamy Former student accused of murder dies in cliffside stand-off BY RICHARD ABDILL Staff writer
In 1998, an economics major threatened to dismember his MATH 111 instructor. Then he went to prison. Then he became a porn actor in California. Then he killed a co-star with a samurai sword. Then, on the run from police last week, he fell off a cliff. Former university student Stephen Clancy Hill spent hours Saturday on a rock outcropping outside Los Angeles in a standoff with police threatening to kill himself with a sword after spending several days on the run as a murder suspect. He
fined office hours forthen fell or jumped to ever. He asked the his death when police teacher, Alvaro Alfinally tried to capture varez-Parrilla, for a him, according to the private meeting, the Los Angeles Times. Washington Post reThe pornographic ported. When Hill actor performed showed up, he under the name Steve flashed a gun and Driver, and he was alasked, “What is more most as disruptive in STEPHEN College Park as he CLANCY HILL important to you ... giving me an ‘A’ or was in Los Angeles. In FORMER STUDENT your life?” 1999, Hill was convictHill was arrested several ed of threatening to chop up a teaching assistant, according to days later after a traffic stop in a Washington Post article from which campus police found a loaded gun and three fully the time. Called “Chilly” by his friends, loaded magazines in his car. At Hill missed an exam and rede- his trial the following March, he
TOMORROW’S WEATHER:
faces plague of vandalism
Partly Cloudy/80s INDEX
testified he did indeed threaten to kill the instructor — but only after the teacher requested oral sex; Alvarez-Parrilla denied doing so. Hill ultimately served about two years in prison. More recently, on June 1, Hill had fled from police after allegedly stabbing fellow actor and ArmpitGirls.com webmaster Herbert Wong repeatedly with a sword, the Los Angeles Times reported. According to the Internet Adult Film Database, Wong worked on at least six films with Hill, including Cum Fart Tsunami 2, under the
NEWS . . . . . . . . . .2 OPINION . . . . . . . .4
see HILL, page 3 FEATURES . . . . . .5 CLASSIFIED . . . . .6
A series of thefts and vandalism struck the South Campus Commons over the last several weeks — many in the complex’s newest building — prompting a warning to residents to keep an eye on who they let into their buildings. Last month, the apartment buildings faced such issues as stolen lounge furniture, damaged or stolen smoke detectors, broken windows, wrecked exit signs, smashed glass doors and even “unreported vomit in the entranceway” to Commons Building 5 and “defecation found in the trash room” on the third floor of Commons Building 7. Officials suspect students who don’t live in Commons are responsible for the bulk of the damages, which are estimated to be more than $10,000, according to Erica Poindexter, associate director of the South Campus Commons. University Police spokesman Paul Dillon said his department officers are investigating the incidents and had made no arrests by Wednesday. Until last month’s spree of incidents, vandalism in Commons was down sharply compared to last year. Students appeared to shape up after being threatened with service cuts or higher rent in response to about $10,000 worth
of separate vandalism in the fall. Dennis George, assistant director for housing partnerships, said most of the recent incidents occurred close to spring semester finals, which may have contributed to the resurgence. “I think in the warm weather, more people are out and about, and people are more stressed out at the end of the semester,” George said. Commons residents expressed mixed reactions — ranging from serious concern to nonchalance — to the thefts and vandalism. “I think that it’s definitely unacceptable,” said junior government and politics and history major Robyn Gougelet, who lives in Commons Building 7, which opened in January. “But they were very prompt in fixing the vandalism and sending out e-mails, so I think they’re taking the right steps to stop this.” The e-mails sent to Commons residents called on them to monitor their guests’ behavior, not allow strangers to enter the building and report any incidents or safety concerns to Resident Life or University Police immediately. “We want everyone to be mindful, aware and report what they see,” George said. George said because thefts and vandalism lead to costs not
see COMMONS, page 3
English dept. may add creative-writing minor Planned program remains to be approved by Univ. Senate in the fall BY SOHAYL VAFAI For The Diamondback
The English department may add a creative-writing minor after the new program won approval from the arts and humanities college last month. The new minor — which must still be approved by the University Senate in the fall — would help encourage upper-level students to take more creative-writing courses, officials said. Until a few years ago, English majors needed to select creative writing or another concentration, said Thomas Moser, the director of English undergraduate studies. When the major’s requirements were streamlined, Moser said, the concentrations were eliminated, and there was less incentive to take creative writing. “Since then, we’ve had fewer students taking upper-level creative-writing courses. So it made sense to us to propose a credential for creative writing,” Moser said. Beyond that, Moser said he expects the minor to help attract more non-English majors into the arts and humanities college, diversifying the makeup of the English department’s students. “We want to make it easier for students who are not in the humanities to get into upperlevel creative-writing courses,” DIVERSIONS . . . . .6 SPORTS . . . . . . . . .8
Moser said. For sophomore history major Jihan Asher, the new minor could not come any sooner. “One of the things that I love is creative writing and another is history,” Asher said. “The two don’t go hand in hand. If I can minor in creative writing, they will.” Under the proposal put forward by the arts and humanities college’s Programs, Curricula, and Courses Committee on May 6, students must either earn an A in a 200-level creativewriting course or submit a portfolio of work to the English department’s Creative Writing Program before they can enroll in the minor. As proposed, the creativewriting minor would require 15 credits — three at the 200 and 300 levels, six at the 400 level and three from an upper-level English literature course — in either a poetry or fiction track. Under the proposal, students would be able to double count up to six credits of the creative-writing minor toward an English major or the Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House program. “There will also be students who will complete both the minor and the Writers’ House program. It’s a win-win for
see MINOR, page 3
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