BOXED OUT
TRANSFORMING?
Terps gave up a significant rebounding edge to Villanova in Sunday’s 95-86 loss
Chris Brown has a new look but typical music on his latest album, Graffiti
SPORTS | PAGE 8
DIVERSIONS | PAGE 6
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
THE DIAMONDBACK Our 100TH Year, No. 69
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER
Panel examines campus diversity struggles Univ. aims to replace smoking cessation funding Cordell Black gives little hint of future plans, focuses on university problems
sentation on the campus and whether the country’s racial climate has changed since the election of this country’s first black president. But many attendees came seeking the answer to a question that was never asked: whether Associate Provost for Equity and Diversity Cordell Black would be interested in staying on in his position if the university were to renege on the decision to to dismiss him.
BY ALLISON LYONS For The Diamondback
A lack of diverse representation among students and faculty might be driving away talented minority students, members of the university community said at a panel last night. The event — Diversity of Thought Panel: The Unraveling of Campus Tensions — touched on an array of subjects including minority repre-
“There is an overem“I want to make sure phasis on SAT scores,” he wants it back,” said said Black, who recalled Aundrea Small, an several students he alumna and former worked with over the member of the Black years who had come into Student Union who the university with relaattended the panel. tively low SAT scores and But Black gave no hint graduated with 4.0 GPAs. to his inclinations with Other members of the the dozens of people who CORDELL BLACK ASSOCIATE PROVOST FOR panel included women’s came to the Nyumburu EQUITY AND DIVERSITY studies graduate student Cultural Center to participate in the discussion. Instead, he Angel Miles and two university focused on areas where he feels the alumna: state Rep. Aisha Braveboy university needs to renew and improve its focus on diversity. see DIVERSITY, page 3
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GREEN HOUSE effect effect Student group hopes energy audit can convince council to adopt green loan program BY DANA CETRONE Staff writer
In an effort to bolster support for their Green for College Park campaign, UMD for Clean Energy held an energy audit to prove their Energy Loan Fund plan would be a success. About 14 members of the group crowded into a local home Sunday to observe greeNEWit, a company that performs residential and commercial energy audits to demonstrate how energy-efficient upgrades can save homeowners money. Group members hoped that the live energy audit would encourage support for an Energy Loan Fund, the main part of their Green for College Park platform, which has faced recent legal challenges. The loan fund would be a pool of money lent out to College Park homeowners to make energy-efficient upgrades in their homes, which the College Park City Council would collect back by levying property
see HOUSE, page 2
Prince George’s County cut $28,000 from health center program BY DERBY COX Senior staff writer
The University Health Center is scrambling to find funding to continue to offer free smoking cessation products after the county cut its $28,000 in funding. Although the center would still offer stress management techniques and counseling to the university community, students, faculty and staff will have to start paying for nicotine gum, nicotine patches and acupuncture if the center is unable to find an alternate funding source. “It’s hard to tell what impact that will have on the program,” Vice President for Student Affairs Linda Clement said. “Students are more and more financially stressed, so it’s been a terrific benefit that we were able to do that. So it remains to be seen what the impact will be.” Most of the funding for the program comes in a grant from the Prince George’s County Health Department, but the money is controlled at the state level. The money stems from a 1998 legal settlement between 46 states and the tobacco industr y. According to a state law passed in 1999, at least half of the $1 billion the state won in the
see SMOKING, page 2 CHARLIE DEBOYACE/THE DIAMONDBACK
A lonely lobbyist
Cutting emissions from air travel poses challenges
Capitol Hill’s only marijuana advocate speaks on campus
BY NELLY DESMARATTES Staff writer
BY JACLYN BOROWSKI Staff writer
“We’re dangerously close to marijuana legislation. Why do I say dangerously? Do any of you feel prepared?” Aaron Houston, the only full-time marijuana lobbyist on Capitol Hill, discussed the best methods for advocating legalized marijuana and emphasized how close the movement is to succeeding in a talk last night sponsored by Students for Sensible Drug Policy. “I knew the climate was changing, but I didn’t realize how close he feels we are to legalization,” SSDP Vice President Nyssa Bryant said. “It’s really exciting.” As the movement continues to grow, Houston said, the possibility of legalizing marijuana is nearing reality. And more and more states are legalizing medical marijuana — Maine was the latest to join the ranks by passing a referen-
Aaron Houston, the one full-time marijuana lobbyist on Capitol Hill, spoke to students last night during a talk sponsored by SSDP. JACLYN BOROWSKI/THE DIAMONDBACK
dum to legalize medical marijuana in early November. “The world has basically changed very recently,” Houston said. “It may be hard to tell, but something is happening in College Park. Something is happening in Maryland. Something is happening in this country. People are starting to talk.” And the people are taking their concerns straight to the president. A survey on President Barack Obama’s website, Houston said, asked people to vote for
the issues they saw as the most pressing for the country. Each of the four times the survey was conducted, legalizing marijuana was the number one choice. Houston is working on a bill for Congress detailing how a legalized marijuana policy would realistically be implemented. Though Houston believes Obama wants decriminalization, he said he thought that it likely
see LOBBYIST, page 3
Air travel is responsible for releasing about 14 percent of all campus greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report from the Center for Integrative Environmental Research. About 43 percent of all transportation greenhouse gas emissions from July 2007 to June 2008 can be accounted for in air travel by faculty, staff and students, the Campus Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report revealed. About 30 percent of all air travel is comprised of students in study abroad programs, which were factored into the total travel emissions count for the first time, said Ramy Serour, a research assistant in CIER. The university must therefore strike a delicate balance between globalizing the university and becoming a model of a sustainable campus, both of which are key points in the university’s strategic
plan, researchers said. “It is challenging to balance these priorities, and certainly for things like study abroad, there is no substitute for being there in person,” said Heather Lair, project manager for the Office of Sustainability. “But there are ways to reduce our travel footprint without compromising the educational and research aspects of our mission.” According to the study, the total campus emissions for the 2008 fiscal year — extending from July 2007 to July 2008 — there were 311,345 metric tons released, or the equivalent of emissions from about 52,590 cars. Released two weeks ago, the report concluded that air travel emitted more than 42,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases during the same fiscal year. In total, nearly 95 percent of the university’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2008 could be attributed to energy and transportation.
see EMISSIONS, page 3
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