December 6, 2011

American University’s student voice since 1925

theEAGLE

December 6, 2011 Volume 86 – Issue 13

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AN AMERICAN

!"#$%&$ 1970 – 2011 PAGE 3

(Left) Vietnam War, May 1970; (Center) Occupy D.C., Fall 2011; (Right) Karl Rove, April 2007

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1

CORRECTIONS — NOV. 22 ISSUE • The Nov. 22 article “Safe Space expands to ad-

Columbia University.

dress GLBT policies” incorrectly read that AU’s

• The Nov. 22 article “Students ‘plug in’ to track

Communications and Marketing office hopes

energy usage in Bender Library” read that a

to start Safe Space 2.0. The GLBTA Resource

hair dryer consumed 150 watts, but it actually

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American University’s student voice since 1925

POLICIES

MISSION The Eagle, a student-run newspaper at

Center launched Safe Space 2.0.

consumed 1,500 watts.

• The Nov. 22 article “College dating site offers

• The headline of the Nov. 22 article about the

the American University, serves the commu-

of The Eagle. Unsigned letters will not be

The Eagle has a commitment to ac-

hope for lovelorn students” reported that “Date

AU staff member who was on “The Price is

nity by reporting news involving the campus

published. The Eagle reserves the right to

curacy and clarity and will print corrections

My School” started as a social networking

Right” incorrectly identified Bernard Schulz as

community and surrounding areas. The

edit letters and guest columns for length

or clarifications. To report a mistake, call

startup for students in the District. It was actu-

a professor. He is a staff member.

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Diana Bowen

Eagle Rants Got any Sodium jokes? Na.

Michael Slater

This week’s best & worst of daily Eagle Rants

My foreign born professor con-

10 minutes looking for a fork eve-

I’m sorry I made you feel like all my

so thick, even the squirrels are

jackets with scarves and flip flops,

stantly uses the word “sexy” in

rytime you want to eat”, the other

friends hate you. I’M SORRY. If you

lookin like babes

I’m confused.........

I’m kind of weirded out by the fact

place of “provocative”. It makes for

day I walked around to every fork

only knew how much I loved you

that people here find me attractive.

an interesting block class, but re-

container and could not find a sin-

and how much I would do for you.

“Oh hey, it’s the end of the semes-

Anyone else tempted to sign up for

I’m not sure if it’s just the AU gog-

ally, when is someone going to clue

gle fork, so I ate my salad with a

I just want to feel like you feel the

ter, I should assign a long paper,

DMS because of the video on their

gles or the fact that they never met

him in?

spoon. :(

same way.

group project, and have some

homepage? That cartoon is so con-

quizzes.”-Every Professor

vincing!

awkward middle school me. Any other guys have similar experi-

I love reading intelligent responses

Dec. 16 can’t get here soon enough.

Sexiled at 5 on a Thursday when

ences?

on Eagle Rants. It gives me hope

What happened to the editor’s

the research for the paper I wanted

I once had a thing for a socialist...

Egypt, calm down! I WANT TO

knowing that among the numer-

notes? Please bring back the edi-

to work on instead of going out to-

That awkward moment when you

VISIT YOU!!!!

God there are too many eligible

ous biddies and frat boys here at

tor’s notes, Madame Editor.

night is in my room :[

and your friend make a bet about

girls at this school. I can’t pick just

AU, there are students who actually

[Editor’s note: Some days this edi-

one

think.

tor is merely uninspired.]

That awkward moment when the

this effing chair promotes bad pos-

My monthly trust fund check is

one guy you absolutely can’t stand

ture uggghhhh my baaaacckkkk

late. WTF. #richgirlproblems

and the girl you have an unbeliev-

when your other friend will finally

This may be creepy, but the person

Why is everyone here obsessed

realize they are gay and come

who was on the computer before

with cats?

out.....

me submitted a rant and now I feel

Even though its forty degrees out,

Oh my God. The hamburgers in

thank God for all the hot women

TDR for dinner on December 1

compelled to rant about them. You left sweat on the keyboard.

able crush on are flirting with each

I love cats. I love every kind of cat. I

No internet. No homework. No sit-

with nice legs still wearing mini-

were SOOO good. For once, I felt

One day I’m going to work up a nice

other =/

just want to hug them all but I can’t.

ting next to your friend = 3.5 hours

skirts.

that the $16 swipe was worth it.

big fart, let it rip on the 2nd Floor of

Can’t hug every cat. meowwwwww

of pissing off broke alumni for bank People forcing their anti-fur agenda

The Sun will come out tomorrow... love the man with the stuffed dog

#thatawkwardmomentwhen you’re not sure if a rant is about you or not.

the library and walk out.

Because no one will turns down

I’m sorry I called you at 4 AM and

on other in the anonymous Rant

the girl who folded the napkins into

woke you up, only to yell at you for

section make me want to buy fur.

Because sending your relationship

cool shapes…

not calling me that day. I’m sorry

Lots and lots of fur...

problems to the Eagle Rants is a clin-

“There are never forks at TDR,

I accused you of not trying in our

ically proven form of stress relief.

you have to walk around for like

relationship and of not loving me.

There are bloody foot prints in the bathroom. And still no one believes

I am part of the 99%....whose tired of

me that this place is haunted.

the 1% yelling on the quad Man, these AU goggles are getting

Dear AU Students wearing winter

All I want for Christmas is sleep.

MEET THE MAN

AU alum, journalist David Gregory speaks on campus 6

News

PIPE DREAMS

Facilities Management to repair pipes in McDowell 8 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2011

From Vietnam to Ladner, AU has rich history of protests In light of the recent Occupy protests on campus and across the country, The Eagle looks back at the most infamous of AU protests.

By PAIGE JONES & REBECCA ZISSER EAGLE STAFF WRITERS

Though Occupy AU and A New AU, two student-led AU movements that emerged this fall, are advocating for different causes in different ways, they have similar goals: to improve the lives of AU students.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all fighting the same fight more or less,â&#x20AC;? said Tom Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Connor, a freshman in the School of International Service and a member of both groups.

To help understand which organization does what and what each organization has accomplished, The Eagle has put together the following chart.

PJONES@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

Understanding the Student Movements A NEW AU

WHAT IS IT?

VIETNAM WAR PROTESTS, May 1970 Tear gas filled the air from Massachusetts Avenue to the Quad as police and students volleyed canisters back and forth over Ward Circle in May 1970.

MGC was plastered with scribbled posters warning tear gas victims to keep out. The gas had already seeped into the ventilation in buildings as far as MGC and residual tear gas chemicals on the protestersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; clothes caused other students in the building to experience eye irritation.

Before 1970, AUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campus had been relatively stable. But when the â&#x20AC;&#x153;MorBUPSJVN UP &OE UIF 7JFUnam War,â&#x20AC;? a series of antiwar protests across the country, started that year, on-campus protests began to gain steam.

Students had held demonstrations on campus BHBJOTU UIF 7JFUOBN 8BS and against racial segregation, but the infamous clash between police and students at Ward Circle in May 1970 sparked a revolution on campus.

School of International Services Professor Gary Weaver, who also edited and contributed to the book â&#x20AC;&#x153;The University and Continued on Page 4

A look at AUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dogs 5

3

OCCUPY AU VS. A NEW AU AU officials debate protestorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; claims

By LEIGH GIANGRECO EAGLE STAFF WRITER

THE DOG HOUSE

OCCUPY AU

A New AU is part of the Community AcOccupy AU is an offshoot of the larger tion and Social Justice Coalition, a student- Occupy movement. The group is not recrun coalition of on-campus social justice ognized as an official organization on camgroups. pus, unlike A New AU.

WHEN DID IT BEGIN?

WHAT ARE MEMBERS TRYING TO DO?

WHAT HAS THE GROUP ACCOMPLISHED?

WHATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S UP NEXT?

Late October 2011

Early November 2011

Occupy AU focuses on student debt, loans and post-graduation employment rates.

A New AU focuses on campus issues â&#x20AC;&#x153;Occupy AU is reinvigorating activism such as: on campus,â&#x20AC;? said Mitch Ellmauer, a sophot 3FXSJUJOH UIF 6OJWFSTJUZ T DPSQPSBUF TP- more in the College of Arts and Sciences cial responsibility code and a member of both groups. t 7PUJOH B TUVEFOU NFNCFS POUP UIF School of Public Affairs sophomore AnBoard of Trustees drew Menefee said Occupy AU protests t *ODSFBTJOH USBOTQBSFODZ PG UIF 6OJWFS- issues that are relevant to all students. sityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s finances â&#x20AC;&#x153;Occupy AU forms a link on how the national society is being affected currently,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It links campus with national issues.â&#x20AC;?

Last month AU President Neil Kerwin pledged to improve the Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s social responsibility code both through better business practices and by making more socially responsible investments, The The group is still advocating for student Eagle previously reported in its Nov. 22 debt, loans and employment. issue. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A lot of â&#x20AC;Ś A New AUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s purpose has been achieved,â&#x20AC;? said Ethan Miller, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences.

A New AU does not have any more concrete plans for this semester. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s getting towards the end of the semester so things are winding down,â&#x20AC;? said Mitch Ellmauer, a junior in CAS. But A New AU will continue to follow up on the achievement of its goals this fall, particularly in regards to the social responsibility code, Miller said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We want to make sure it actually does something,â&#x20AC;? he said.

Miller said A New AU will work to increase the transparency of University finances.

Occupy AU is participating in two backto-back rallies Dec. 6 and 7 to protest student debt and encourage student engagement, according to Ellmauer.

The first event, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Take Over Congress,â&#x20AC;? will begin at 9 a.m. in front of the Capitol %FD UP QSPUFTU $POHSFTTNBO 7JSHJOJB Foxxâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposed cuts to the Pell Grant program. Members will be â&#x20AC;&#x153;Shutt[ing] Down K Streetâ&#x20AC;? by rallying outside major lobby firms, banks and lending institutions to urge for a resolution to student debt.

broad participation in the resource allocation process.â&#x20AC;?

AU administration may Kerwin disagreed with address the demands of the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; view that students groups such as A there is a lack of student New AU and Occupy AU input in University matthrough a meeting next se- ters. mester between President He said AU has been Neil Kerwin and student taking student concerns representatives. into account by keeping â&#x20AC;&#x153;I will work to arrange a tuition increases at their meeting with your organi- lowest in 15 years, focuszation and others as early ing on maintaining useful as possible in the spring financial aid for students semester to explore these and improving the Univermatters in greater detail,â&#x20AC;? sityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sustainability.

Kerwin said in a letter to The University also Ethan Miller, a junior in takes student input into acthe College of Arts and count through suggestions Sciences, and to other stu- from project teams and dent organizers. academic departments, in The proposal â&#x20AC;&#x153;[dem- addition to input from the onstrates] Dr. Kerwin non-voting Washington and the administrationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s College of Law student willingness to engage in on the Board of Trustees, a dialogue with students Kerwin said. about their concerns,â&#x20AC;? AsKerwin also said he sociate Director of Media regularly meets with the 3FMBUJPOT .BSBMFF $TFMMBS University Council, which wrote in an email. has representatives from However, representa- the Student Government, tives wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be able to imple- the Graduate Leadership ment change instantane- Council and the Student ously since the University Bar Association. is tied to the Budget Comâ&#x20AC;&#x153;The AU administration mitteeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s schedule, which has been listening to the will hold public comment various questions, suggessessions in late summer tions and requests from 2012, according to Ker- various student groups, win. At these sessions, the including Occupy AU, A University community can New AU, CASJ, the Studiscuss the issues the stu- dent Worker Alliance and dent groups raised such as others, at meetings, town parking rates and financial hall forums and through transparency. direct correspondence,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;I believe that remov- Csellar said. ing issues from the esLast month, Kerwin tablished budget process pledged to create a comwould undercut our ability mittee with students, facto take a truly comprehen- ulty, staff and alumni to sive view of institutional review the Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs,â&#x20AC;? Kerwin wrote in investment practices to the letter. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Such actions make sure money is only taken without the involve- given to companies that ment of the Budget Com- share AUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commitment to mittee would also compro- social responsibility. mise our commitment to ZCOHEN@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

By ZACH C. COHEN

EAGLE STAFF WRITER

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4

AU embraces its rich history of protests Students protested at Ward Circle, Rove speech Continued from Page 3

gas mask on the way to his car that day.

“My brother was in the navy at the time and gave it to me,” Weaver said. “He joked, ‘You need it more than I do.’ I used it frequently enough.”

William Causey, a 1971 School of Public Affairs alumnus, was president of the student government at the time of the protests.

While Causey was personally opposed to the war, he saw many D.C. students getting arrested for civil disobedience. Howard University shut down for at least three days in 1968 after students seized administrative buildings, according to The Eagle.

Causey commended then-AU President George Williams for keeping the University open in light of the student protests.

“They were frankly very accommodating and understanding of what was going on with the student body,” Causey said. “There was frankly not a great deal of opposition or resistance to what was happening on campus. I think one of the hallmarks of a university is to promote open, free discussion of an issue.”

With the exception of the tear gas incident, protests at AU were vocal but peaceful.

Then-Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird used to ride his limo home up Massachusetts Avenue

by Ward Circle. Students threw marshmallows and leaflets at the car, both of which stuck to the wheels of the car, according to Weaver.

The Secret Service became angry when the car slowed down.

“His car was never stopped,” Causey said of the scene. “But when he went through the circle that one morning when there were a lot of students there, he made a gesture that was not a favorable gesture.”

LADNER PROTESTS, August 2005 Although former AU President Ben Ladner’s fiscal indiscretions marred AU’s reputation, the inci-

dent united the campus.

Ladner, once one of the highest paid university presidents in the country with a salary of $880,750 a year, spent $125,000 from University funds between 2002 and 2005, according to The Eagle.

In August 2005, The Washington Post alleged that Ladner had used the money for personal expenses, including lavish vacations with his family and a personal chef.

The University Board of Trustees offered Ladner $3.75 million to leave the school, a severance

sidewalk and posting flyers.

She said the protests started out small but grew quickly outside a Sept. 27, 2005, Board of Trustees meeting on the issue. Students called for Ladner’s suspension and eventually stormed the meeting in Butler Pavilion, The Eagle previously reported.

Some of Linehan’s rallying methods were less orthodox. She rented a U-Haul for a weekend to protest Ladner’s moving expenses with a homemade sign reading: “We’ll move your stuff for free.”

“I just remember driving down

COURTESY OF THE TALON

ALBERTO HALPERN / THE EAGLE

package called the “golden parachute” by members of the AU community who were angry with how AU administration handled the Ladner issue.

Students like Megan Linehan, a 2006 College of Arts and Sciences alumna, said the movement against Ladner evolved organically.

With Facebook still in its infancy, Linehan rallied the students the old fashioned way: going door to door in the dorms, chalking the

ABOVE: D.C. police officers used tear gas on students at a May 1970 anti-Vietnam War protest.

LEFT: Students protested a speech

by Karl Rove in April 2007.

Connecticut thinking, ‘I’m gonna hit something,’” Linehan said.

The Ladner scandal resonated with professors as well. Linehan said several faculty let their students out of block classes early to protest.

“We felt a great solidarity; they didn’t seem afraid,” Linehan said.

Still, she and her longtime friend Maeve Reed, a CAS ’06 alumna, had some trepidation the night before the first protest.

“What do you think is going to happen?” Reed said to Linehan that night in her apartment in the Berkshires. “There’s this kind of element where you’re just nervously laughing because Ladner could do whatever he wanted at this point. There was a degree of

fear to it as well.”

For Reed though, civil disobedience is a family affair. Her great grandmother was a suffragette, and her uncle, also an AU alumnus, was arrested during the Vietnam protests. Her grandparents even had to bail him out of jail.

“My grandparents were really proud and excited that I was out there protesting because they’re kind of activists,” Reed said.

KARL ROVE PROTESTS, April 2007 A smaller but vocal group of protesters confronted Karl Rove when he spoke in Ward in April 2007. Over 80 students came to Ward to protest Rove, even lying down in front of his limo.

Matt Kent, then-President of the College Democrats and a 2008 SPA graduate, said Rove was a federal criminal because he violated the Presidential Records Act of 1978, the Eagle reported. The Act ensures that all White House written communication is open to the public.

Eagle reporters and other media were cut off from the intimate speech. Tickets had been available through the College Republicans website or at its general meeting, but it had not been advertised on Today@AU. Some protesters complained the event was not publicized enough.

The Community Action and Social Justice Coalition gathered outside Kay Spiritual Life Center before the protest at 5:30 p.m., planning to block Rove’s entrance to Ward, The Eagle previously reported.

The protesters then linked arms, forming a human chain around the building. They let attendees in but insisted they were there as a group to make a citizens’ arrest of Rove.

By the time Rove exited the building after the speech, the protest crowd had expanded to almost 100 people.

The protest became physical when 16 demonstrators broke from the crowd to lie in front of Rove’s limo.

Campus police and security guard ran to the protesters and pulled them away. One protester claimed that a Public Safety officer dragged her by her hair.

Another protester was more mischievous in his contempt for Rove, mooning the limo.

LGIANGRECO@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

Occupy AU evicted from Main Quad

By ZACH C. COHEN EAGLE STAFF WRITER

A Public Safety officer and Clayton Pencek from Student Activities stopped members of Occupy AU from handing out fliers on the Quad Dec. 5.

Pencek, a Student Activities events and marketing assistant, said Student Activities did not approve the fliers and they could not appear on campus until stamped with the Student Activities logo.

A banner that read “Occupy AU” and had been hanging on the side Mary Graydon Center was also taken down.

Pencek said the students would have to leave the Quad with their materials, but he offered to approve the fliers that day if the students sent digital formats of the fliers.

Mana Aliabadi, a student in Occupy AU and an Eagle columnist, told the Public Safety officer and Pencek that Occupy AU was organized through the Community Action and Social Justice Coalition, which would give them the right to table on the Quad and get fliers approved by Student Activities.

However, Vice President for Student Life Gail Hanson told The Eagle in an email that Occupy AU is not a recognized student organization.

ZCOHEN@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

ZACHARY C. COHEN / THE EAGLE

A student encourages passers-by to talk to members of Occupy AU on the Quad.

theEAGLE NEWS TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2011

Students with diverse interests unite in Occupy D.C. movement

By SAMANTHA HOGAN EAGLE STAFF WRITER

From sleeping on sidewalks to organizing vigils in McPherson Square, AU students in Occupy AU and other student groups are giving their continued support for the Occupy D.C. movement. Here are what each group is doing to support the Occupy movement.

Community Action and Social Justice Coalition CASJ is leading AU student engagement in Occupy D.C. The coalition acts as an organizing collective for 14 campus clubs that coordinates independent events and directs interested students to clubs within the coalition, according to Mitch Ellmauer, a junior in the School of Public Affairs.

CASJ started in the 1960s as an anti-war and anti-draft counseling center and is not funded by AU. CASJ clubs including Movement for Global Justice, Student Worker Alliance and Fair Trade Student Association have had student representation at Occupy D.C. During the first two weeks of Occupy D.C., CASJ had 10 to 12 students and alumni actively participating together in the events, some of which stayed overnight in sleeping bags at the protests.

“The point is to try to get people to see and know what’s going on in the city in terms of activism,” said Mary Donoghue, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Participation has lately been on a more individual basis and has been less consistent.

“The thing about Occupy is that it’s trendy, so people will go once or twice then lose interest,” said Rachel Mandelbaum, a junior in the School of International Service.

CASJ will be focusing on student democracy next semester, which would include increased student input in University decision making that goes beyond student government. The coalition hopes to put an elected student with voting power on the Board of Trustees.

Students for Justice in Palestine While many members of Student for Justice in Palestine have participated in the Occupy movement independently, the group helped organize a vigil Nov. 6 in McPherson Square for the victims of Operation Cast Lead, the 2008-2009 war in the

Gaza Strip.

The vigil was not an official Occupy D.C. event, but many D.C. occupiers joined in, Steve Demarest, a junior in SPA, wrote in an email.

SJP also protested Israel’s use of Caterpillar bulldozers during Operation Cast Lead to destroy homes, factories, food and water systems, Demarest said.

“There is a diverse group of political views within the Occupy movement, but I think the one common thread that unites protesters is opposition to corporate abuse, i.e., putting profit over people,” Demarest said.

Eco-Sense Eco-Sense has been advocating for sustainability and environment awareness in the Occupy D.C movement. Members volunteer and engage in political activism on environmental issues on campus and in D.C. A handful of Eco-Sense members were recently involved with the Occupy D.C. movement.

Mandelbaum; Megan Lyle, a sophomore in CAS; and other AU students attended the Anti-Tar Sands Keystone XL rally Nov 6. The rally was not directly a part of Occupy D.C., but many occupiers attended it, Lyle said.

The protest focused on stopping the construction of the Tar Sands Keystone XL pipeline, which could potentially pollute major water supplies and transport tar sands oil that burn dirtier than other oils, according to Mandelbaum.

The pipeline would stretch across thousands of miles from Canada, through the continental United States, to Texas to transport unrefined oil, Lyle said.

American Vegan Outreach American Vegan Outreach has not been directly involved with Occupy D.C., but numerous AU vegans have joined the Occupy D.C. movement, according to Paige McNamara, a sophomore in CAS. The Occupy D.C. Declaration directly mentions opposition to factory farms, a key AVO issue, McNamara said.

McNamara held teach-ins about veganism at Occupy D.C., offering the platform for discussion on why veganism should be a viable option for all people.

“I hope to be able to introduce the idea of veganism as a tool of liberation, not just for animals but for workers, people, consumers to the

people at McPherson,” she said.

McNamara also said sustainable living practices are a major theme at the Occupy D.C. camp. McNamara said it is only natural that veganism will be the next major discussion at Occupy D.C. Justice Not Jails The prison reform advocacy group took part in a march from the McPherson Square to a Wells Fargo bank Dec. 2 to protest the bank’s investment in the GEO Group. Demarest said the GEO Group is a private prison company that cuts costs by assigning one doctor for every 1,300 prisoners at the Rivers Correctional Institute, where many D.C. residents are held.

He saw “a decent amount” of people at the protest.

“Once we got to Wells Fargo, many people spoke about their own thoughts and experiences with private prisons and the prison system in general,” Demarest said.

College Democrats College Democrats is one of the largest clubs at AU and has differing opinions when it comes to the Occupy D.C. movement, said Chris Litchfield, president of College Democrats and a junior in SPA and CAS. College Democrats agrees with Occupy D.C.’s major issues, but not with the methods the group has proposed for solutions, he said.

One of the major issues that College Democrats has focused on is wealth inequality. The Democratic Party is looking for a more equitable tax structure to help shrink the wealth divide between the 99 percent and the 1 percent, Litchfield said.

“I think there is still a role to play when it comes to advocacy in government,” he said.

He also said he sees a lot of overlay between the future of the Democratic Party and Occupy participants.

“Occupy is not an arm of the Democratic Party, but moving forward, this will be a very defining time,” Litchfield said. “It is nice to see other people than the Democratic Party talking about these issues.”

On campus, College Democrats hosted a panel on debt negotiation Nov. 30 after the failure of Congress’ Super Committee and plans to host events in the near future focusing on student education of important issues facing the United States and AU. SHOGAN@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

5

AU’s top dogs bring ‘puppy love’

By PAIGE JONES EAGLE STAFF WRITER

Kya and Elias frequently go on walks around campus with McDowell Resident Director Matthew Le Brasseur and Anderson Resident Director Amanda Morley. They even have play dates with one another in Morley’s room.

Although Kya and Elias are campus residents, their contribution to AU is a bit different — they are dogs.

Resident directors are permitted to keep dogs in the residence halls, since they live in these halls year-round. However, they must pay a deposit of $560 to fully clean the room when the resident director leaves.

“It’s like having a real apartment on campus,” Le Brasseur said. “Most schools have this policy.”

Kya is a mix between a golden Labrador and German shepherd, according to Morley. The reddishbrown dog loves living on campus and cuddling with

students.

“She’s adapted well to living on campus,” Morley said. “She loves any kind of attention and loves living here.”

Kya formerly lived with Morley’s partner in her on-campus apartment at George Mason University.

She decided to bring Kya to AU to help separate the feeling between work and home.

“It’s nice coming home to somebody,” Morley said. “I just feel bad that I can’t give her as much attention.”

Morley said she found Kya running down the street while visiting her partner’s family in Kentucky. Kya was the runt of a family and was going to be placed in a shelter or put up for adoption before Morley decided to adopt her.

Morley wakes Kya up at 6 each morning for a walk before leaving work, which is just a few rooms away from her apartment in Anderson.

Continued on Page 9

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AU adjunct professors move to join local labor union Faculty will vote by secret ballot for unionization on campus

By PAIGE JONES EAGLE STAFF WRITER

Some AU adjunct professors filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board Dec. 2 to become a union.

A secret ballot election will be held soon for adjunct professors to vote for an American University Adjuncts Union.

Erik Cooke, an adjunct professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, said adjunct professors began organizing in the past few weeks to make this possible.

“It just kind of snowballed,” Cooke said. “It happened very quickly; there was nothing magical.”

Cooke said adjunct professors have become more informed and aware of their numbers through meetings outside the University.

“Now’s the chance to convince the rest of our peers about our need for this and talk about the state of adjuncts in the AU community,” he said.

Cooke said he is hopeful the adjuncts will create a union.

“I hope that we win,” he said. “Hopefully a year from now, we’ll be better organized and represented in a union.”

AU administration could not be reached for comment in time for publication.

PJONES@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

NBC’s David Gregory urges students to expand horizons

ZACH C. COHEN / THE EAGLE

David Gregory, an AU alumnus and host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” spoke to students about his experiences in journalism in the SIS atrium Dec. 5.

By LEIGH GIANGRECO

Class of ’12 picks financial aid fund donation as senior gift

By ZOE CRAIN EAGLE STAFF WRITER

The Class of 2012’s senior gift will be a donation to the Emergency Relief Scholarship Fund, which helps students who are within a certain number of credits from graduating pay tuition after experiencing a sudden financial crisis.

Class of 2012 Council President Stephanie Eichmann said the council was able to raise approximately $500 at an event held at Public Tenley Nov. 11, in her report to the Student Government Undergraduate Senate Dec. 4.

The group’s goal is to have 200 seniors contribute to the gift.

Eichmann also explained how the group plans to raise more money. Events are difficult, she said, because they must balance spending a minimal amount of money while planning events that would make people want to attend. The group also plans to use Phonathon to call parents of seniors and encourage them to donate.

The Senate also voted at the Dec. 4 meeting, the last meeting of this semester, to support investigations into lengthening Terrace Dining Room hours and expanding meal swipes to cover all Bon Appétit-owned dining facilities, including Sushi and Pronto.

School of International Service Sen. Rory Slatko, the bill’s sponsor, said TDR’s current hours are inconvenient to students who have jobs or late-night classes.

Expanding TDR’s nighttime hours might encourage students to buy bigger meal plans, generating more revenue for the program, he said.

“They’re all owned by Bon Appétit,” he said of food vendors in Mary Graydon Center. “If they can take meal swipes at the Tavern or Salsa, why not the other places?”

Some members of the Senate raised concerns about whether this would place an unfair burden on dining facilities workers. Slatko addressed these qualms by explaining that Eagle’s Nest is able to remain open until 2 a.m., so there is staff available for extended hours at other dining areas.

The Senate also passed Slatko’s second bill, which encourages improvements to the EagleBuck$ program.

The bill advocates for either a studentstaffed department or an administration position that could assist with the maintenance and function of the program. Their responsibilities, according to Slatko, would include expanding the number of off-campus locations that take EagleBuck$.

The Senate also passed a bill sponsored by Class of 2015 Sen. Patrick Kelly to create an LGBT Studies minor in the College of Arts and Sciences.

This minor would encompass a series of classes regarding the history, contributions and development of the LGBT community, according to Kelly.

ZCRAIN@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

EAGLE STAFF WRITER

David Gregory advised students to keep an open mind and think outside their majors during a casual coffee talk in the School of International Service Atrium Dec 5.

“Don’t be siloed,” Gregory said. “When I show up on campus, I don’t walk into the School of Communications because I’m a journalist.”

The 1992 SIS alumnus was dressed more comfortably than his usual attire as host of NBC’s Sunday news show “Meet the Press.” He sat his long limbed body on top of a table rather than the armchair next to him when he addressed students.

Gregory told students that, although he was not an SIS major, he thinks journalism permeates every school on AU’s campus.

“What I love about SIS is that the tentacles go everywhere, and I hope minds go everywhere as a result,” he said.

Gregory said the liberal arts curriculum at SIS allowed him to explore global issues and practice critical thinking, both invaluable tools in journalism. During the discussion, students challenged Gregory on the sensa-

tional state of journalism today.

“I think it’s incredibly important that inside this fantastic building, there is an active discussion of American journalism,” he said. “Journalism is every bit a part of SIS as it is in those other schools.”

While studying as an SIS student, Gregory had already begun a firm path toward a journalism career. During the summer of his freshman year, he worked as the Washington correspondent for KGUNTV in Tucson, Ariz., and his “office” was his dorm room in Letts Hall. Gregory was also the news director of ATV. Gregory said he was sure his campus experiences would prepare him for his KGUN-TV internship. But when he had technical difficulties shooting video on the Hill, he realized he needed professional assistance.

“They hired a professional crew, and they still paid me,” Gregory said with some surprise.

He credited his success today to his early ambition and aggression. But he said he still knows how to balance assertiveness with manners.

His best advice to aspiring journalists comes from fellow NBC reporter Ted

Koppel, who told him to always listen to interviewees.

“When I can relax and just listen to what they’re saying, it’s amazing what I can do, because I can respond, I can catch them if what they’re saying is not true,” Gregory said.

However, he said he still struggles to ask questions during some interviews, particularly with presidents.

“One of the challenges of interviewing Bill Clinton is finding a way to interrupt,” Gregory said.

During a more casual interview, Gregory said he once annoyed former President Clinton while trying to ask a question.

“He shot me this look that said, ‘You speak when I’m done speaking,’” he said.

Gregory also told students to make an impression at their internships, emphasizing the importance of getting to know your employer.

“The onus is on you not to just breathe the air,” Gregory said. “I always say to interns, ‘If I don’t know who you are that’s not my problem. You come up to me and introduce yourself.’”

LGIANGRECO@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

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Congressman criticizes Bureau to GOP’s stance on LGBT issues investigate student debt

By RYAN MIGEED EAGLE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

FELICIA AFUAN / THE EAGLE

Openly gay Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., spoke about gay representation in Congress and the Republican party’s “anti-gay” bias Dec. 1.

“You should either be here fully, legally or not at all, and currently the status quo encourages this huge illegal populaRep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., said Repub- tion,” he said. licans’ anti-gay bias was not only hurting When speaking on the economy, Polis the LGBT community, but also the party’s said there would be no simple solution to national political position, in a speech to fixing unemployment. The government AU students Dec. 1. should save during good periods and “Wearing my partisan hat, I think Re- spend during bad ones, he said. He also publicans are very good at being selfish, blamed some of today’s economic woes and they seem to care about things the on policymakers’ failure to have smart most when it affects them,” he said. spending practices.

Polis, a staunch gay rights advocate, During his talk, Polis was not afraid to said he believes more gay representa- speak his mind about Republicans. tion is needed in Congress. However, “We have a long way to go, and I think Polis expects there are more gay people the Republicans are really showing their in the House of Representatives than the bankruptcy of ideas both in the super four openly gay representatives, which in- committee as well as with their presidencludes him. tial campaigns and the campaign trail,” he “There’s a few closeted ones that you said. can Google who will sit on the other side Originally raised in San Diego (but of the aisle, if you feel like it,” Polis said. born in Boulder, Colo.), Polis was the Polis said he wished to see closer to 20 sixth richest member of Congress in to 25 openly gay members of Congress in 2011, according to Roll Call. Polis also cothe future. founded online businesses such as AmeriDuring the event, the congressman can Information Systems, bluemountain. also discussed immigration reform. He com and proflowers.com. said those wishing to live in the United He spoke out against the Stop Online States will benefit the country by bring- Piracy Act, a controversial piece of pending their talent here. ing Internet legislation that could give the “The countries with the real immigra- government more power to stop online tion problem are actually countries like trafficking of intellectual property.

Mexico and other countries where the Polis said he believes many commonly best and brightest want to leave,” he said. used sites will be shut down if the bill is Polis said it would be necessary to passed. He pointed out that successful change the partisan makeup of both the sites — such as YouTube and Facebook House and Senate to pass the DREAM — wouldn’t have existed if the law had Act, an important part of what Polis sees been implemented earlier. as practical immigration reform. Giving “It’s a very, very bad bill,” he said. undocumented aliens - who fit within the “And we hope that we can prevent it from act’s requirements - a path to citizenship becoming law.” is key to fixing the immigration crisis, he NEWS@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM said.

By ALEX GRECO

EAGLE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is launching an investigation into the private student loan industry, which it will publish as a report to Congress.

The CFPB will collect information from students, families, the higher education community and the student loan industry about the roles of schools in the market for loans, terms of repayment, loan modifications and more.

Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in July 2010, establishing the CFPB. The brainchild of Harvard professor and U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, the CFPB’s core duties, as listed on its website, include: • Conducting rule-making, supervision and enforcement for Federal consumer financial protection laws; • Restricting unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices; • Taking consumer complaints; • And promoting financial education.

Some members of the AU community have received the news enthusiastically.

“It’s important that this issue is raised,” said Tom O’Connor, a freshman in the School of International Service and selfdescribed “student activist” in the A New AU campaign. “Any sort of investigation,

any sort of oversight, is required.”

O’Connor finds it troubling that Sallie Mae, the biggest lender of private student loans in the United States, was both a lender and collector of loans.

“People who lend out these loans should do so honestly and responsibly,” O’Connor said.

Jake Coz, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, agreed “the government has a right to investigate fraud.”

However, Coz argued that an investigation should be done only if there’s reason to think fraud has occurred.

“You can’t pull over a car unless there’s reasonable suspicion,” he said.

Coz said some members of Congress may consider a resolution to forgive all outstanding student debt loans. He said such a resolution should not pass.

“It’s someone else’s money, so you have an obligation to pay it back,” he said.

The CFPB investigation is the second recent initiative by the Obama Administration in regard to student loans. Last month, President Barack Obama signed his new “Pay As You Earn” proposal to extend income-based repayment, which allows borrowers to pay back their loans in smaller monthly payments based on their current incomes.

O’Connor said these recent actions show progress, but that there’s room for improvement.

He also said he will definitely respond to the CFPB’s call for information by providing his own personal experience on the website and urging his fellow students to do the same.

“It’s never counterproductive to have your voice heard,” he said.

NEWS@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

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4

insulation in public spaces Nov. 11-16, according to an email sent to McDowell residents. But due to health concerns, the entire project was delayed until winter break.

By PATRICK BURNETT ell this summer, according edicktus said.

“With doing insulation to an email from Facilities She said one of the pri- replacements, you have EAGLE STAFF WRITER Management sent to Mc- mary reasons the repairs to be aware that there are The heating, ventila- Dowell residents. will be done during winter air particles and things tion and air conditioning However, Benedicktus break is due to the large like that, so we didn’t insulation in Mcwant occupants Dowell Hall will of the building to be replaced during come into contact winter break due to with any potential a manufacturer deissues, any parfect that led to dripticular allergens ping pipe sweat and things like that,” ceiling stains.

Benedicktus said.

Pipes naturally While Ben“sweat” when the edicktus expects surrounding air the issue to be temperature is resolved once the cold, but the inefinsulation is refective insulation of placed, she said these pipes couldn’t Facilities ManageBAILEY EDELSTEIN / THE EAGLE contain the excess Excess water from ineffectively insulated pipes in McDowell Hall dripped ment won’t know water, according to onto ceiling tiles throughout the building, staining ceiling tiles. if the project was Sophia Benedicksuccessful until lattus, the assistant director said there would be no size of the project. er in the spring semester. of operations for facilities more new stains until the “We have to go into eve“Because we’re not goand vendor services in HVAC units get switched ry student room, all the ing to be in cooling seaHousing and Dining. The to providing air condition- public spaces and literally son for another couple of excess water dripped onto ing during the spring and take the ceiling tiles out months, we really have to ceiling tiles throughout summer. of the ceiling and replace wait it out to be 100 perthe building, leading to “Now that we’re into all of the insulation that cent sure,” Benedicktus stains on the tiles. heating season, there isn’t surrounds the pipes,” Ben- said.

The defective insulation really an issue anymore edicktus said.

PBURNETT@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM was installed during a ren- because the pipes are no Facilities Management ovation project in McDow- longer sweating,” Ben- had planned to replace the

News editor pushes Facilities to replace pipe insulation in McDowell Hall for stronger education system

WILLA HINE / THE EAGLE

Indian-American journalist Atul Singh is the founder and editor of the global magazine Fair Observer.

By JENNI MUNS EAGLE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Atul Singh, the founder and editor of global magazine Fair Observer, told AU students the significant differences between Indian and American education affect both nations’ societies and economies.

“In India, learning is culturally prized,” Singh said. “The popular kids in school are the ones who are really smart. Whereas if you’re a young kid in America, you’re probably looked at as cool if you’re good-looking and good at sports. This is fine, but it doesn’t help the U.S. economy very much.”

Singh spoke to about 30 students in the School of International Service Founder’s Room Nov. 29 about the relationship between India, his home country, and the United States through three “prisms”: politics, history and economics.

“In my mind, ‘international relations’ is a fancy word for nothing but applied history, politics and economics,” he said.

“Those are the foundations upon which all international relations rest.”

Singh came up with the

idea of Fair Observer at the New York Global Media Summit in March 2010.

He told AU students he wanted to create a magazine that was “a global platform for exceptional ideas.”

“If you look at the current global media market, you have too much news and too little analysis,” Singh said in an interview with The Eagle.

He also noted that The Economist is his magazine’s biggest competition, though it has its weaknesses.

“While The Economist is fairly rigorous and much better than many other magazines, it is very much an Oxford and Cambridge view of the world,” he said.

Singh said the best advice he can give to anyone, especially undergraduate students, is to learn to fail.

“People should figure out what they love, work really hard at it,and start living instead of worrying,” Singh told The Eagle.

The Kennedy Political Union, the South Asian Student Association and the Fair Observer sponsored Singh’s lecture.

NEWS@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

Former gov. slams US policy toward Native Americans

By SEAN CUDAHY EAGLE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating spoke to AU students about what he sees as America’s poor record on Native American policy in Weschler Theater Nov. 29.

“The cruelty to Native Americans was boundless,” Keating said.

Oklahoma has the nation’s largest Native population, with 35 recognized tribes.

Keating, who served as governor from 1995 to 2003, spoke to adjunct School of Communication professor Richard Bened-

etto’s “Dissident Media” class.

Benedetto and Keating formed a relationship during Benedetto’s time as a reporter with USA Today.

Benedetto covered Keating during his two terms as governor, during which Keating was a consideration for the 2000 vice presidential nomination.

Keating has visited Benedetto’s class every year since 2006.

“After I retired [in 2006] and started teaching, I just asked him to come in and he did,” Benedetto said.

Keating continues to visit campus each year because he feels that he and

students mutually benefit from his lectures.

“It’s not only engaging and educational for me but it gives me an opportunity to listen and learn what’s on [the students’] minds,” he said.

Keating framed his lecture around his 2008 children’s book “The Trial of Standing Bear,” the story of one Native American’s battle with the American legal system. He focused on a moment in the story when Standing Bear boldly stood up for his people.

“I ask all of you in this auditorium: Will you have your ‘Standing Bear’ moment?” he said. “The answer is yes. How will you respond?”

Outside of politics, Keating has also worked in the life insurance industry and with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He currently serves as CEO of the American Bankers

Association.

He joked that working in life insurance put him alongside people who were generally happy with their jobs, while just the opposite happens in his current position in the banking industry.

James Connors, a sophomore in SOC, said he felt the lecture was worthwhile.

“Listening to the [former] Governor speak was a privilege,” he said.

“Hearing him talk about his experience made for an interesting class.”

Although Keating’s political career is behind him, the former governor has another big moment ahead of him: He is releasing a new children’s book on George Washington Jan. 3.

NEWS@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

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Furry campus residents lend a helping paw Continued from Page 5

DIANA BOWEN / THE EAGLE

Resident Director Amanda Morley’s dog, Kya, is a welcome addition to the Anderson Hall community. Resident assistants regularly offer to take Kya on walks.

for

“She normally just naps the whole day,” Morley said. “She’s really good; she doesn’t disturb anything.”

The Anderson Hall staff is an active part of Kya’s life, Morley said. Some resident assistants occasionally walk her or watch her for short periods.

“A few staff members are very proactive about walking her,” Morley said.

“If they’re ever stressed out, they ask to take her out for a walk.”

Le Brasseur said he receives a similar reaction to Elias in McDowell Hall.

“Students in the building love him,” he said. “I

get offers to walk him all the time.”

Elias stays in a crate and sleeps for the majority of the day until Le Brasseur returns.

“I usually take him for a walk in the morning and when I get home,” he said.

“I usually go by what he looks like he needs.”

Le Brasseur first brought Elias to McDowell Hall when he became the resident director in July 2010. He adopted him from The Humane Society since Elias had three previous owners.

“He has anxiety and abandonment issues,” Le Brasseur said. “He gets a little panicky when I step out, but he’s getting better.”

Le Brasseur said the Humane Society told him Elias was potty-trained when he adopted him, however it was soon evident this was not the case.

He mentioned one incident where Elias pooped in front of the glass doors to the first-floor lounge while students were eating dinner last year.

“It was so embarrassing then, but it’s hilarious now,” Le Brasseur said.

Elias enjoys living on campus as well and even ventures on “puppy play dates” with Kya occasionally.

“He’s cute and really likes people,” Le Brasseur said.

PJONES@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

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SILVER SCREEN

The Scene shares its picks for best TV shows and films of the year. 11 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2011

MIXTAPE MEMORY STICK Call me romantic, but I miss the days (and by days, I mean movies) where people made mixtapes on cassettes. I want to dance on my bed to horribly cliché music, like Kirsten Dunst in “Bring it On.” The cool part about this cassette is that it actually has a USB Memory Stick inside, since most people don’t own a boom box anymore. The Mixtape Memory Stick is about $25 and is a cute way to tell someone that you care while showing him or her some good songs that puts the nostalgia back into sharing music.

–Kendall Breitman

JUST DANCE 3 By now, everyone has probably gotten over the novelty of “Just Dance” on the Wii because of the sheer number of ripoffs that the game has spawned. You’re probably even wondering when the second “Just Dance” game came out.

But for Christmas, one great holiday gift you could get for a family member or a friend would be “Just Dance 3.” The sole reason being that “Let’s Go to the Mall” is on here. Anyone who is a “How I Met Your Mother” fan would know this song. It’s a fabulously bad song by the fictional Canadian pop star Robin Sparkles that was created to parody bad ’80s songs (and to create a hilarious running gag in the show), so it’s a wonder the song even made it onto a legitimate video game.

But let’s not question it, and just put on our jelly bracelets and our cool graffiti coat and learn that dance by heart.

–Hoai-Tran Bui

Scene GET YOUR GIFT ON

WINTER WONDERLAND

Find ways to put a holiday spin on sightseeing in the District. 12

10 The holidays are right around the corner and you’re too busy with finals to even bother coming up with great gift ideas. Don’t worry, the Scene’s got your back. Check out the Scene staff’s favorite gift ideas and then pretend to pass them off as your own. It’s cool, we don’t mind.

RECORD PLAYER So you have a friend who loves music.

You’re not going to buy them a CD. An iTunes card, maybe, but both you and I know that this “friend,” more likely than not, pirates their music online. So buy them a record player.

Before you do so, forget the ignorant assumption that records are silly “hipster” trinkets. Records have been around 90 years before we were born. There’s nothing “trendy” about records — in fact, I can hardly think of something more timeless.

Our great-grandparents bought and listened to records. And the key word there is they “bought” them, as you have to do with every physical album. There’s no Internet pirating scheme with vinyl records.

So please, buy your music-loving friend a record player. A cheap one will do. You’ll help introduce them to the lost pleasure of buying a record for two bucks just because the album art is awesome.

Almost all new releases today come out on vinyl, included with a code for a free MP3 version, so there’s certainly no limit in variety. You’ll be supporting independent labels and their artists, who depend in part on vinyl sales. And most importantly, you’ll be encouraging a life long pursuit and love of owning his or her music.

–Maeve McDermott

3RYAN RADIO This gift is perfect for those overtaken with retro nostalgia. 3ryan radios are vintage radios, custom-made with an iPod dock. In addition, it un-digitizes your MP3 tunes, giving it that warm, crackling sound you’d expect from a record player.

In order to purchase one, go to 3ryan. com and select a model that you like, because each is an exact replica of a radio from the ’50s and ’60s. It’s pricey (they could run anywhere from $175-$675) so set it high on your wish list and start perfecting those puppy dog eyes.

–Yohana Desta

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SILVER SCREEN

From time traveling aliens to meth-cooking chem teachers, Scene picks 2011’s best TV American Horror Stor y I’ll be the first to admit that I really can’t handle scary movies — at all. That demonic little girl from “The Ring” still gives me nightmares. And yet, I can’t stop watching FX’s creepy new series, “American Horror Story.”

The show is based on the aptly nicknamed “Murder House” and its many inhabitants that have met a gruesome end there. Each episode begins with a flashback, telling the story of previous residents.

There’s the gay couple that died in a double suicide; two nurses who were stabbed to death by cult-esque killers; trespassing twins murdered by some sort of demon.

But what really holds the plot together is its element of surprise. Each episode leaves you hanging just a little bit, curious about what will happen to its current residents, a family of three, each with their own issues. And did I mention it’s created by the same people who made “Glee?”

Just let that sink in for a few minutes.

–Yohana Desta Doctor Who If you had all of time and space at your disposal, where would you go? “Doctor Who,” the 2005 continuation of the famed British sci-fi series that has been on the air since 1963, explores exactly this question.

To be specific, “Doctor Who” is a show that explores the impossible. The story of a timetraveling alien, known only as the Doctor, who picks up human companions to go on adventures in time and space, “Doctor Who” sounds like the most ridiculous concept ever. But somehow, it’s not.

“Doctor Who” is purely magical, escapist entertainment that isn’t bound by notions like logic, time or place. Having just finished its sixth season, “Doctor Who” is in a creative golden age with showrunner Steven Moffat at the helm and the wonderfully quirky performance by

the current incarnation of the Doctor, Matt Smith.

–Hoai-Tran Bui Breaking Bad This one isn’t a question.

“Breaking Bad” has evolved from its relatively simple firstseason premise — Walter White (Bryan Cranston, “Malcolm in

CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS AMC’s “Breaking Bad” has won six Emmy awards.

COURTESY OF AMC

the Middle”), a high school chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with terminal cancer and begins cooking meth to support his family — into the darkest, smartest, most twisted show on television. “Breaking Bad” is a show that requires your ultimate attention. Blink and you’ll miss a minor event that’ll come back five episodes later and turn the show’s action on its head.

All the while, fans have been able to follow the stunning emo-

tional journeys of Walt and Jesse (Aaron Paul, “Big Love”), his accomplice and former student, as the two become impossibly trapped in the darkest underworld imaginable, swirling with greed, gratuitous violence and the endless pursuit for Walt’s chemically impeccable crystal meth.

Thematically, “Breaking Bad” couldn’t be more different from AMC’s first dramatic series, “Mad Men,” and while “Mad Men” is all chrome and lipstick, “Breaking Bad” is soaked with blood and grit.

But both shows share a keen sense of subtlety and have a way of weaving together all the themes, characters and minor plot elements into a stunning conclusion.

And what other show on TV today could make a meth-addled mother crushing her husband ‘s under a stolen ATM look like the most natural occurrence in the world?

–Maeve McDermott Dexter What makes “Dexter” one of the best TV shows in 2011? It’s addicting. By day, Dexter Morgan is a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Homicide Department. By night, he’s a vigilante serial killer who takes out the trash that his day job couldn’t.

The plot and character building that takes place throughout the six seasons leaves the audience invested in the storylines from one episode to the next.

Each character carries his or her own stories, and every episode advances those stories in exciting ways. For anyone looking to get into a new show, give “Dexter” a try. (No thanks to Netflix, who recently took it off of instant play — I’m not bitter).

–Kendall Breitman THESCENE@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

COURTESY OF AMAZON

One of the Scene’s favorites is “Bridesmaids,” co-written by Kristen Wiig.

Movies made for all ages top Scene’s favorite year-end flicks Hugo There is a wave of nostalgia sweeping the movie theaters and nothing embodies that sentiment more than the visual feast that is “Hugo.” It’s a grandiose adventure blending animation, live-action and classic film.

The great thing about “Hugo” though, is that you can appreciate it for more than just the sum of its parts. Sure, on one level it’s a kid’s movie about a Parisian orphan boy named Hugo (Asa Butterfield) who befriends a broken old man (Ben Kingsley) and tries to fix him, but on another level, it’s an appreciation for film and silent cinema.

Altogether, “Hugo” is a majestic film that weaves together a tale about a few lost people trying to find a purpose in life with a few nudging winks and references to classical film, held together

by Butterfield’s emotive performance and Martin Scorse’s brilliant direction. A candy-colored and dreamlike visual masterpiece, “Hugo” is the rare kid’s film that makes you feel more intelligent after you walk out the doors.

–Hoai-Tran Bui Bridesmaids It seems like the storyline that everyone knows: a group of off-kilter bridesmaids sorting through the chaos that is modern-day wedding planning. But, this year’s release of “Bridesmaids” took the seemingly overused story and crafted it into one of the funniest comedies of 2011.

Although almost the entire cast is made up of women, this movie is not a simple chick flick, but instead talks about love and

life in a hilarious way that both guys and girls can relate to. And with a cast that includes Saturday Night Live alumna Maya Rudolph and current cast member Kristen Wiig, where could you possibly go wrong?

In the end, my favorite movies are the ones that can truly make me laugh, and going along with that criterion, “Bridesmaids” definitely got the job done.

–Kendall Breitman Submarine Richard Ayoade’s first fulllength film is a sparkling gem amongst the trashy teen fodder that gets pushed into theaters.

Based on the novel of the same name, “Submarine” revolves around Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts), a 15-year-old boy who is part planner and part dreamer and thinks about his life far too much.

His goal is to get a girlfriend, get his parents close again and just generally survive his inept friends and brawny bullies.

Ayoade’s aesthetic is both dreamy and light-handed, filmed in Swansea, Wales. It’s a drama with a funny streak that doesn’t get bogged down by taking itself too seriously. The film does a great job in portraying the headspace of a 15-year-old, and viewers, filled with Tate’s own neuroses and viewpoints, find themselves both bewildered and amused.

Plus, be sure to keep your ears perked for the luscious soundtrack, which has six songs provided by a softly crooning Alex Turner (lead singer of Arctic Monkeys).

–Yohana Desta Continued on Page 13

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D.C. CHILLIN’ Giving classic D.C. sightseeing traditions a festive holiday spin

By CHELSEA CLAYS EAGLE COLUMNIST

After living here for a few years, or even after just one semester, sightseeing around D.C. unfortunately can have a been-theredone-that feel.

However, the holidays are a great way to spice up the classic traditions of visiting the monuments at night or checking out the National Zoo. Here are some activities to make D.C. feel like a winter wonderland!

Rest of the year: Waiting in line for the amazing cupcakes that D.C. has to offer Ļ During the holidays: Order ahead for holiday flavors Everyone loves cupcakes, from the various D.C. “cupcakeries” whether it’s a red velvet-flavored Georgetown Cupcake or a Chococo from Hello Cupcake. They’re the perfectly portioned dessert in classic flavors, but with the holiday season comes a whole new selection of limited edition flavors.

Try the candy cane and gingerbread flavors at Hello Cupcake or the scrumptious chocolate eggnog and white chocolate peppermint flavors at Georgetown Cupcake.

Taking picture in front of your home state at the WWII Memorial Ļ Take a picture in front of your state’s Christmas Tree Everyone has a Facebook profile picture from Welcome Week with themselves standing beneath their home state’s column at the WWII Memorial, pointing up with pride. Why not put a holiday spin on this picture? Along with the National Christmas tree, each state decorates a Christmas tree representing special traditions from that state (crabs with Santa hats adorn my home state of Maryland’s tree). No two Christmas trees are alike.

Strolling along the Monuments at night Ļ

Check out holiday lights at ZooLights Not many places in the District are as pretty to me as the monuments lit up at night, but for six weeks every year the National Zoo sets up light displays throughout the zoo. These spectacles of light pay tribute to D.C.’s more exotic animal residents as well as the city’s unofficial mascot, the panda.

Check out these holiday light displays before heading home.

5-9 p.m., Nov. 25-Dec. 11 (Friday through Sunday nights) and Dec. 16-Jan. 1 (every night except December 24, 25 and 31)

COURTESY OF SMITHSONIAN MAG

Shopping at Metro Center and Chinatown Ļ Gift shopping at the Downtown Holiday Market H&M and Urban Outfitters are immensely popular places to shop in the Metro Center/Chinatown area for AU students, but when looking for gifts for your loved ones, branch out beyond these retails chains. The Downtown Holiday Market hosts over 125 artisans and crafters selling their unique gifts and trinkets throughout December. Support a small local business without fears of double gifting your friends and significant others.

Dec. 2-23, noon to 8 p.m. Centered on 8th and F Streets NW Picnic on the Mall Ļ Ice Skating in the Sculpture Garden and Hot Chocolate As the weather turns colder, the National Sculpture Garden opens up its ice skating rink. It’s definitely a top wintertime treat and a great D.C. tradition to replace picnicking on the Mall. Enjoy a more cultured way to ice skate as you watch friends attempt spins and backwards skating while admiring fabulous sculptures. $7 for Students with ID for a twohour session Monday–Thursday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.

Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m.–11 p.m.

Sunday, 11 a.m.–9 p.m.

COURTESY OF NGA.GOV

‘TIS THE SEASON Take some time out of your finals to explore D.C. with a winter holiday twist.

Go to the National Zoo at night to see the beautiful neon lights (top), the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art to go ice-skating (middle) and the Downtown Holiday Market (left) to get special gifts for everyone on your shopping list.

THESCENE@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

COURTESY OF DOWNTOWN HOLIDAY MARKET

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Get a dose of British comedy with film ‘The Trip’

The Do’s and Don’ts of Foodie Gift-Giving

34

Kennedy Center goes ‘mad’ over latest improv play

By ZACH C. COHEN EAGLE STAFF WRITER

Continued from Page 11

The Trip Spoiler alert — I haven’t seen a movie in months. In 2011, I saw the movies that everyone else saw too.

I shed a few tears at the ending of “Harry Potter.”

Old ladies glared at me for munching on popcorn too loudly during the “The Tree of Life.” I glumly watched “The Hangover II” insult my intelligence by being the same movie as the first “Hangover.”

But when I did step out of a multiplex and into my neighborhood indie theater, I stumbled upon the year’s best buddy comedy, “The Trip.” Starring British comedy B-listers Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as themselves, the largely improvised movie follows the two men on a hilariously fancy restaurant tour of the English countryside.

Along the way, Coogan and Brydon offer honest takes on fame, family and growing old, all wrapped up in a sense of humor that’s always droll and often insightful.

Everything about the movie feels real, from its patient, slow-moving pace to its lack of a real plot and especially the authentic and mature rapport between the two stars.

But what made this movie my favorite of the year is the pure delight of being the third person at Coogan and Brydon’s table for two, laughing uncontrollably as they go tit-for-tat with dueling Michael Caine impressions.

–Maeve McDermott THESCENE@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

COURTESY OF BLT STEAK

COURTESY OF IRON CHEF

FOODIE FUN — Rather than get your favorite foodies a cheesy cooking video game or add to their abundant collections of kitchen appliances and tools, try a classic cookbook or make reservations for dinner at a restaurant of their dreams instead.

By KELLY HOLLIDAY EAGLE COLUMNIST

Though anxiety over finals is slowly but surely bubbling in my stomach, I still found time to procrastinate over Thanksgiving break and make my Christmas wish list.

Along with a plethora of books (I’ve decided to jump on “The Hunger Games” bandwagon) and the “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” DVD (Hello, Ryan Gosling’s abs), I’ve listed a number of gifts that will satisfy my foodie soul.

As someone who has asked for and received food-related items for the past several holidays, here’s my advice on the do’s and don’ts of foodie gift-giving this season.

Do: Give something completely unexpected.

Foodies love a quirky culinary gift, and there’s no shortage of them nowadays.

Consider giving a cheese-making kit for the dairy-lover in your life: The Cheese Supply offers creamy ricotta, rich mozzarella or tart goat cheese kits for less than $30.

For the Italian enthusiast, think about adopting an olive tree from a hillside olive grove in Italy. Nudo-Italia is a collection of olive groves that allows you to adopt an olive tree of your choice, and sends the olive oil it produces to you over the course of one year. At over $100, the price is hefty, but the flavored oils that arrive in the autumn shipment are well worth the cost.

Don’t: Give kitchen appliances or tools.

There’s nothing a foodie dislikes more than having a drawer full of wooden stirring spoons and mismatched sets of measuring cups. This holiday, avoid giving another food processor or

citrus zester unless it’s specifically mentioned on the receiver’s list.

Do: Give a classic cookbook.

Irma Rombauer’s “The Joy of Cooking” is essentially the bible of cookbooks, but it’s kind of like the “Citizen Kane” of food: Everyone’s seen (or read) it, but no one owns it. Correct that by giving the chefs on your list the classic cookbook they’ve been dying to put on their bookshelf.

One Christmas I hunted down an early edition of Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” for my dad, who’d been searching for one in second-hand bookshops for months. It was one of my favorite gifts to give.

In a seemingly innocuous hair salon in Georgetown, anything can happen.

Therein lies the wild plot for “Shear Madness,” now in its 24th year at The Kennedy Center.

Along the way, never is a moment lost to make the show more topical. “Shear Madness” has been around quite a long time, but never in this form. In fact, the show changes every night. Improv and satire are king in the Theatre Lab at the Kennedy Center.

With constant references to U.S. Speaker of the House “John Boehner’s tanning salon,” the Republican primary, “the Style section of the Post” and a hat tip to Dupont Circle, the script is tailored to the local audience, as are all of the “Shear Madness” performances playing around the world.

Running the show in every way is Nick O’Brien (Aaron Shields, who studied theatre at AU). With the help of his trusty sidekick Mike Thomas (Joel David Santner), O’Brien is looking to catch the evil mastermind who killed Isabel Czerny, a washed-up concert pianist who lives above the parlor and is preparing for her upcoming revival tour when she was suddenly stabbed with a pair of — you guessed it — shears.

Continued on Page 14

Don’t: Buy any sort of cooking video game.

Food and Xbox sound good in theory, but in reality they just don’t mesh. Take last year, when my mom bought my brother “Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine” — he played with it for about five minutes, and I think it’s still gathering dust on top of his Blu-ray player.

Do: Make reser vations for dinner at the restaurant of their dreams.

As a foodie, I have an entire section of my bucket list dedicated to cuisine, starting with dining at Michel Richard’s Citronelle. With the meal starting at $350 dollars, you can see why it hasn’t been crossed off yet. This year, treat the food-obsessed with a meal from a restaurant that would otherwise break their bank. For D.C. dwellers, consider a plate of braised short ribs and trufflemashed potatoes at BLT Steak, or the 22-course feast at Komi.

KHOLLIDAY@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

COURTESY OF SCOTT SUCHMAN

There are almost no rules for the Kennedy Center’s long-running play, “Shear Madness,” which adapts itself to each city in which it’s performed.

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34

Comedy brings ‘shear’ delight PLAY ALLOWS CROWD TO PICK EPIC ENDING Continued from Page 13

And that’s where the fun begins. The next hour and a half is a whirlwind of confusion as the two undercover cops, with the help of the audience, interrogate their four witnesses.

The most fabulous of those suspects is Tony Whitcomb, marvelously played by Neil A. Casey, the wonderfully flamboyant barber and owner of the Shear Madness Hair Styling Salon, who has a bit of a grudge.

At his side is Barbara DeMarco, the flirty shampoo girl and the heir to Czerny’s material wealth.

And what’s a whodunit without some romance? DeMarco’s love interest, the sleazy Eddie Lawrence (Nick DePinto) slinks around the salon, allegedly trying to buy Czerny’s grand piano.

And finally, the fabulously wealthy Mrs. Shubert (Brigid Cleary), or Pookie, if you prefer, does everything she can to get out of that salon just to make her trip to Bermuda. However, the four are caught in the same predicament as the mystery unravels, and they must navigate their way to the truth while locked in the Shear Madness Salon.

But here’s the twist: there are four different endings, and the audience gets to choose. O’Brien and Thomas poll the audience on their chief suspects shortly after intermission, where attendees have just finished interrogating the actors themselves. From there, the actors have taken their cues and play out the ending with the discovery of the true criminal.

In the performance The Eagle attended, the audience accused Lawrence. But, O’Brien retorts as the play concludes, Whitcomb, DeMarco and Shubert all could have been the villain, and Lawrence could have been an innocent Rachmaninoff lover with a natural fear of blood. It all depends on the whim of the audience.

Do yourself a favor: if and when you go see this show, vote for Whitcomb. Casey truly delivered the most outrageously hysterical (read: crazy-over-the-top and simply comedic gold) performance of the evening, and there’s no doubt it would be a riot to see him take center stage as his rage against his neighbor takes him to the edge.

But no matter how you vote, you’ll get a night of entertainment, and it will never, ever be the same as the night before.

ZCOHEN@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

Gary Oldman takes on double life in new film

VITAMIN O

Staying healthy over break

By OLIVIA STITILIS EAGLE COLUMNIST

There is nothing if not an abundance of health information at our fingertips these days. Yet, information is conflicting — carbs are good one day, bad the next; coffee cures cancer if you have three cups, but causes cancer if you have four; no one really knows the health benefits of dark chocolate.

We can feel so overwhelmed that we don’t even care anymore.

Now that it’s officially the holidays, and now that we have finals, present buying and New Year’s Eve planning to stress over, who needs to exert more energy figuring out what the healthiest food and drink options are this time of year?

There is also nothing if not an abundance of food and drinks during the holidays. A holiday party here, an end of the semester happy hour or a cookie exchange there and, according to Men’s Health magazine, the average person can consume up to an extra 600 calories a day between Thanksgiving and New Years, which translates into 6 pounds!

Fear not readers, Vitamin O’s holiday edition of Eat This, Not That is here to help!

Eggnog vs. Hot Chocolate Choose the hot chocolate. The main ingredients in eggnog are milk, cream and eggs, not exactly a one-way ticket to flat abs. Eggnog also packs 14 grams of fat as compared to 4 from hot chocolate.

However, for hot chocolate, the healthiest option is homemade to avoid the full-fat milk or whipped cream when ordered out (or just ask for skim milk). Chocolate, in moderation, is also proven to lower blood pressure, lower your risk of heart disease and contains antioxidants that help lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol.

Mulled Wine vs. Champagne Go for the bubbly. A glass of champagne only has 5 grams of sugar, whereas mulled wine can have over three times as much.

Even though the main ingredient in mulled wine is red wine, which has clear health benefits, all of these are cancelled out by the massive

amounts of sugar usually added. In comparison to champagne, which usually has around 100 calories per glass, the sweetest of mulled wines can have close to 350 calories per glass. In order to combat this sugar overload, make your own mulled wine and just lessen the sugar and increase the amounts of spices and oranges instead.

Gingerbread vs. Fruitcake Despite including fruit in its name, fruitcake is not healthy at all. How could it be when the three main ingredients are sugar, corn syrup and butter? A slice can set you back almost 400 calories and 13 grams of fat. Meanwhile gingerbread cookies are usually (depending on size) between 50 and 100 calories and 2 to 5 grams of fat. Gingerbread has the potential to be made healthier by swapping white flour for whole wheat and offers plenty of good spices like cinnamon, ginger and cloves, which all have health benefits.

ONE CRAB CAKE HAS THE SAME CALORIES AS 36 SHRIMP Shrimp Cocktail vs.

Crab Cakes In this battle of the appetizers, shrimp cocktail definitely wins, as it is significantly healthier. In fact, one crab cake has the same calories as 36 shrimp! One crab cake also has 19 grams of fat and one shrimp has only 1 gram. Crab cakes are usually laden with mayo, bread crumbs and then fried, whereas shrimp is nothing more than the shrimp and, of course, the cocktail sauce which is also low calorie, but high in salt — so remember, a little goes a long way.

Happy holidays readers! Enjoy the festivities, eat, drink and be merry, but remember you can always reference Eat This, Not That for some healthy eating pointers as you celebrate into 2012!

OSTITILIS @THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

By HOAI-TRAN BUI EAGLE STAFF WRITER

Gary Oldman is a serious man. You could tell by his dark clothing, thick glasses, dark blue cravat and the quiet demeanor with which he spoke when he and director Tomas Alfredson sat down with The Eagle and four D.C. media outlets to talk about their new film “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” A spy thriller set within the walls of MI-6 during the Cold War, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” is a slow burn of a film based on the 1974 novel of the same name by John le Carré. The film stars Gary Oldman (“The Dark Knight”) as George Smiley, a retired MI-6 agent who is called back into service to find a mole in the “Circus,” the code name for the MI-6 agency. Previously, the book was adapted as a TV miniseries in 1979 starring Alec Guinness, whose performance, Oldman stated, loomed large.

“It’s the paranoia, the insecurity,” Oldman said.

“Doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing it, you still have those doubts that you can pull something off. That’s what exciting about the work as well. You hope that what I call ‘the cloak of inspiration’ will fall and that you will be able to pull it off.”

However, Oldman and Alfredson didn’t have to worry too much about being faithful to previous adaptations.

Before the start of production, le Carré approached them himself to tell them he would rather they put their own spin to the story.

“We didn’t do this film to please John le Carré,” Alfredson said. “We did it to please you or to interest an audience. So it’s not a crucial thing, but when he said that it was very liberating, and it made me jump and made me dare to do it at all.”

One liberty the film took with the story was adding some homosexual implications that had only been implied in the original novel.

“It was considered a very subversive thing to be gay then,” Oldman said. “And you had to take on another persona. It was another lie, anyway, that you were living.

Outside of the service or outside of the workplace, you were still living a double life because you couldn’t publicly come out.”

The film doesn’t shy away from being extremely cryptic in its use of code words and the slow unfolding of the underlying mystery. Alfredson said he wasn’t worried about alienating audiences and wanted to make a film that considered the audience to be grown-up and allowed for audience participation.

“We don’t have all the answers,” Oldman said. “So you’re discovering this as George is on this journey, on this investigation. It’s difficult with this genre, with this type of movie, it’s sort of a tightrope that you walk because you don’t want the audience to be ahead of you.”

While Alfredson and Oldman weren’t afraid to deviate from the norm, they acknowledged that the story told in “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” was timeless.

“For me, this story is very much about loyalty and friendship and betrayal,” Alfredson said. “And those subjects are eternal.”

“I mean there’s so many things happening in the world today,” Oldman said. “It’s just the faces have changed, the enemy has changed. We’re continually dealing with it, but the enemy changes. The world’s a mess. And it’s perfect. It always has been.”

HBUI@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

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AUDIOPHILE

!"#$%&'()(#$*+,(#$-.+)/$01"##2"13$4566)($ Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis

The Scene staff recommends some of our favorite albums of the year. Check it out, your earbuds will thank you.

M83

HURRY UP, WE’RE DREAMING M83 takes its name from Messier 83, a galaxy 15 million light-years away, and that’s precisely where “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” inhabits.

From its dreamlike interludes to its expansive synth melodies to Anthony Gonzales’ careermaking vocals, everything about “Hurry Up” suggests an existence somewhere far from Earth.

What launches “Hurry Up” into the stratosphere is one of the strongest album openers in recent memory, the one-two punch of the sweeping, Zola Jesus-bolstered “Intro” and the breath-

ARCTIC MONKEYS SUCK IT AND SEE

Oh, the indie rockers from Sheffield have only gotten better over the years. Bursting onto the music scene in 2006 with their furiously fast rock debut, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not,” Arctic Monkeys received critical and mainstream success.

This past summer saw the release of their fourth album, the cheekily titled, “Suck It and

FLORENCE+THE MACHINE CEREMONIALS Released Oct. 28, “Ceremonials” is Florence + the Machine’s second album, and is a worthy successor to 2009’s “Lungs.” Florence + the Machine’s trademark ethereal sound doesn’t waver,

NICKI MINAJ PINK FRIDAY

“Pink Friday” by Nicki Minaj was officially released in November 2010, but since some of her newest singles released in 2011 have been considered part of this album, this can still be my

34

lessly exuberant “Midnight City,” the latter featuring a sax solo that puts all the other 2011 saxophone-soaked records to shame. Apologies, “Beth/Rest.”

“Hurry Up” is a triumph, a double album absent of any bloated tracks or pretense, a record that’s effortlessly epic. Followers of indie rock have grown accustomed to “cinematic” albums that swing for the rafters — and even witnessed Arcade Fire win a Grammy for one such album early this year — but Anthony Gonzales’ magnum opus sets a new standard.

M83 rises above the bevy of other 2011 releases by inhabiting an entirely different universe — one of its own making.

— MAEVE MCDERMOTT

See.” It’s full of sumptuously melodic guitars and summery, esoteric lyrics, like “Jigsaw women with horror movie shoes / Be cruel to me, ‘cause I’m a fool for you,” courtesy of lead singer Alex Turner, whose lyricism always has a head-in-theclouds quality.

However, the band hasn’t gone soft by any means. Check out guitar-heavy jams, “Brick by Brick,” “Don’t Sit Down, ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair” and the catastrophic “Library Pictures.”

Be sure to check them out live when they go on tour next March with blues rock duo The Black Keys!

— YOHANA DESTA

and the album has a stronger and more unified theme than “Lungs” did. Here, the band, led by singer Florence Welch, experiments with shrieking violins and spectral choirs, giving a gothic tone to songs like “Leave My Body.”

“Ceremonials” is a hauntingly beautiful album, with ephemeral ballads like “Never Let Me Go” or “What the Water Gave Me.” It’s is a massive triumph after the near-perfection that was “Lungs.”

%07899 1 Useful app for a smartphone 11 Meas.

14 Telephone booth, for Bill and Ted 15 “What are you waiting for?!”

16 Programmer’s bane 17 1996 Olympic torch lighter 18 Organic chemistry topic 19 New York team 21 “99 Luftballons” band 22 Completely flummoxed 26 Marina Del Rey sight 27 It may be renewable 29 Informal voucher 30 Attach, in a way 31 Scoville unit veggie 32 Scapula mover 37 Was charming?

38 Makes an effort 39 Flushing Meadows stadium 40 Medevac conveniences 44 Origami mishaps 46 Baltic waterway 47 Cut the crop 49 Automatic-door feature 51 Actress Campbell 52 Engage in a summer activity?

53 “Jeannie Out of the Bottle” memoirist 59 Do stuff?

60 Bond’s Aston Martin had one 61 Words of praise 62 Black Gold and Northern Dancer, e.g.

-8:; 1 One with the gold 2 “Ta-da!”

3 Guys 4 “__ Mine”: George Harrison book 5 Musical fourths 6 Suffix for sciences 7 19-Across org.

8 “O __ Mio”: Annette Funicello hit 9 Genesis name 10 Honor a favor 11 Lawless 12 Sign of a lawn infestation 13 Drawstring alternative 14 High school subject?

20 Musical dynasty 22 __ Inácio Lula da Silva: 2003’10 Brazilian president 23 Bird: Prefix 24 Left no stone unturned in 25 Like a bungee cord 28 Meghan Daum piece, e.g.

31 Astrological delineation

32 “We’re on!”

33 Tended some bald patches 34 Fellers grasp it 35 Classmates 36 Rabin’s predecessor 41 “Gunsmoke” actor 42 Rocker Ramone 43 File menu command

45 Able to walk a straight line 48 Bottled (up) 50 Indian dignitary 54 TiVo button 55 Abbr. in old dates 56 Greek airport, on itineraries 57 Hundred Acre Wood denizen 58 Sheet music abbr.

*+,+-./

— HOAI-TRAN BUI

favorite album of 2011.

From catchy upbeat songs like “Super Bass,” to songs where Nicki’s true weirdness shines to a point only she can go, like “Roman’s Revenge,” “Pink Friday” established Minaj as the newest face of female rappers (sorry Kim). Minaj’s next album “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded” comes out on Valentine’s Day and will hopefully have more “Did It On Em” and less “Right Thru Me.”

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2

3

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— KENDALL BREITMAN

READ MORE AUDIOPHILE AND WATCH THE MUSIC VIDEOS AT THEEAGLEONLINE.COM/SCENE

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© 2011 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved.

Opinion

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STAFF EDITORIAL

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ARE OUT-OF-STATE STUDENT DRIVERS OUT OF LUCK? AU students should be used to the surrounding neighborhood’s consistently contentious reactions to the Campus Plan. After several months, lawn signs reading “Oppose AU Campus Plan” now provoke little more than an eye roll. But the Advisory Neighborhood Council 3D has just taken a step too far.

This week, our own ANC 3D announced its support for the Residential Parking Protection Act, which is now before the D.C. Council. According to its own language, this legislation would “prevent full-time students who reside within the District of Columbia boundaries from being issued or from using a reciprocity parking sticker for out-of-state vehicles.”

Essentially, students bringing cars from home would be unable to park on D.C. streets unless students reregister their vehicles to receive D.C. tags. Such a policy would have unacceptable consequences for AU students, and, in the long run, would harm the community whose parking spaces it attempts to make exclusive.

Proponents of the resolution point to the current ban on out-of-state vehicles at Georgetown University, arguing that such a policy should be applied citywide.

Yet the clear differences between the

Georgetown’s urban setting and AU’s residential neighborhood clearly undermines this argument.

If passed, the resolution would prevent students from parking on the streets in front of their apartments or houses anywhere in the District, in addition to the

residents, instead of the economic benefit we are.

Annually, AU students inject $64.7 million dollars into the District. Besides our daily commercial impact, the estimated 7,000 AU students that live off campus create a huge demand for rental hous-

ANC 3D seeks to legally prevent students with cars from home from parking on D.C. streets.

This is unacceptable. streets surrounding AU. Making it more difficult for students to use cars in a suburban setting, where public transportation is not always sufficient, is hardly prudent nor is it fair. Like the very residents supporting such a proposal, AU students should be able to park at their own home.

The two should not be mutually exclusive.

This legislation is unfortunately typical of the neighborhood pathos throughout the Campus Plan proposal process — a shortsighted and emotional response that sees students only as an inconvenience to

ing. Should off-campus students begin to choose only apartment complexes within walking distance to AU, the benefits of the thriving local real estate market would be drastically cut for the surrounding community.

As such, we look to Deon Jones to lead the fight against this proposal. This is exactly why our campus organized and fought through countless barriers to elect a student representative to the ANC. Beyond our student leaders, AU should also play a role in preventing this

Dish rags to riches ADAM GALLAGHER | NO HUMOR IN HEAVEN

AU’s obsession with holding internships is misguided.

For all its strengths, one of the reasons I hate AU is the perceived need to have three or four internships to get a good job after graduation.

While I certainly think internships help — I have to believe I didn’t lick those envelopes for nothing, I just have to — I no longer consider them the be-all end-all that so many of my peers make them out to be.

I never realized until this summer how many hardworking ‘Hillterns’ have a tough time translating their getting-yelled at experience into the getting-paid money experience.

Take my first anecdote. An AU student, we’ll call him Steven, spent his summer laboring in a senator’s office in his home city. Then he spent his fall interning in the same senator’s D.C. office, again unpaid.

This looked great on Steven’s resume, in a purely aesthetic sense, but when summer rolled around he found himself working at a bagel shop because he hadn’t heard back from a single internship he applied to.

The bagel shop didn’t hire him because of his ‘Hillterning-ways’,

they hired him because he interviewed as an outgoing, competent worker.

But don’t cry for him, or judge him condescendingly. A kid on my kickball team (judge me condescendingly) was waiting tables one night and one of the patrons hooked him up with a job at a large financial institution where he’s now making $80,000 a year, fresh out of college.

Which isn’t to say you wouldn’t make great professional contacts chatting your life away at the Department of Labor, but since so much of life is based on chance encounters, why spend it in a cubicle?

I have taken an informal survey of my least formal peers and have come to the definitive con-

rule from being enacted. We recognize that discouraging students from driving is the official position of our school, and we recognize its environmental merits.

Yet a community that blatantly discriminates against college students would act as a detriment to AU recruitment efforts.

Recognizing this harm, administrators should seek to form a coalition with other D.C. schools, shop owners and landlords that may be adversely affected by any rule that discourages students from living in and attending school in D.C. Unfortunately, the situation thus far looks grim. Six of the 13 members of the D.C. Council are cosponsoring this bill, with only a simple majority needed to pass. Our response to this must be strong. And it must come quick.

The officials who represent our University aren’t often given such a clear chance to advocate for the needs of students. Yet now we are faced with a policy aimed directly at discriminating against AU students.

Attention Deon Jones, Student Government President Tim McBride, President Neil Kerwin and all AU officials: this is one of those times. ≠ !

clusion babysitting is the only way to achieve Nirvana.

To those babysitters who have yet to discover the path to freedom from suffering and will complain about obnoxious children, I will remind them that, while children are by nature sometimes unbearable, office managers choose to be unbearable. The menial tasks of interns are well documented, so I won’t delve into those soul-crushing depths. Anything for a buck, though, right?

Well, in 2010 the New York Times reported anywhere between 25 percent and 50 percent of internships are unpaid, and by my estimates nearly 100 percent of those were illegal. I base that on the Labor Department’s criterion for legal unpaid internships: “The employer … derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern.” Creating databases of media contacts may not be too hard, but it is helpful to the company.

Anyway, I promised the edi-

EDPAGE@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

tor not every one of my columns would cite the Labor Department, and that’s something I’m going to work on.

Keep in mind, however, while interns volunteer their time away for the reward of being treated like 7-year-olds, others are treating 7-year-olds to ice cream and getting paid upwards of $20 an hour doing so, and most at least $15.

Many do so poolside, books in hand, letting the lifeguards ensure all parties are employed the next day.

Others spend their summer afternoons at more hellacious places of screaming children such as playgrounds.

But as John Milton wrote, “Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.” And to call the Hill Heaven is as inappropriate as calling ‘Hillterns’ slaves, and not nearly as accurate.

Adam Gallagher is a senior in SOC. EDPAGE@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

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A Christmas comparison line JULIA GREENWALD | RANTING WITH MYSELF

The lack of religion in the U.S. version of Christmas is clear, but is it bad?

The majority of AU students are used to a blistering cold December and a white Christmas, with chestnuts roasting in an open fire.

But after living in Brazil for years, I feel at a loss without my warm beaches, coconut water and tropical South American Christmas.

However, it is more than weather that is making Christmas such an intense case of culture shock for me here in the United States.

At first I wanted to say it was capitalism — the fact that Christmas has gone commercial.

Nevertheless Brazil is a capitalist country too, and I would be lying if I said that Santa and Christmas weren’t both commercialized and used as a tool to draw in consumers.

However, a very distinct experience brought my realization full circle.

At our local Tenley CVS, I was shopping for a birthday card for a friend. A woman next to me grabbed a card that said “Happy Holiday’s.”

All of a sudden, it struck me that the religious sense of Christmas is much more present in Brazil and South America than in the States.

By religious, I don’t mean those abstract values that many people say is lacking in modern culture, such as love, charity and family, but instead the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Brazil is the most “Catholic country” in the world, with the largest population of Catholics.

This is especially evident during Christmas. Many Christmas cards include God or Jesus, and the nativity scene is present both at malls and public locations.

Churchgoers adhere to dietary restrictions, so much so that bacalhau, a Portuguese fish, is in high demand during the Christmas sea-

son. Both pre- and post-Christmas masses are held, as well as Christmas mass, with an ever-increasing number of attendees.

While we still buy and exchange gifts, the religious value of Christmas is very important to Brazilian culture and the holiday itself.

The US is going through the opposite effect.

To many, it seems as though there is a war against Christmas and its religious roots, most present in the substitution of the term “Merry Christmas” for “Happy Holidays” in cards, slogans and ads. The idea that there is a “War on Christmas” has been promoted by Bill O’Reilly and other red-state talking heads for years, and they intend to fight back by demanding that private enterprise make Christmas overt and with legislation requiring governments to use the phrase “Christmas tree.”

However, I don’t see the problem as a “War on Christmas,” but just the simple fact that the US is a melting pot of both cultures and religions.

While the religious undertone of Christmas may not be as present in the United States as it is in Brazil or Latin America, it can be attributed to the myriad of other religions that are present in the country and celebrated during the holiday season.

Although the US is the third most Catholic country in the world, it is also one of the largest immigrant countries. The acceptance of different cultures and religious values gets to the root of one of the true meanings of Christmas, love and acceptance, ideals that Jesus continuously preached.

While I’m still not used to this politically correct Christmas and at times feel homesick, I too am ready to accept the different religions that constitute the Holidays.

Unlike Bill O’Reilly, I won’t see “Happy Holidays” as slamming a door at Christmas’ face, but instead opening doors of interpretation and integration.

Julia Greenwald is a freshman in the School of Communication.

EDPAGE@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

34

Seeking the American Dream MANA ALIABADI | THE EXAMINED LIFE Growing up as an IranianAmerican, my most challenging internal struggle was reconciling my Iranian cultural identity with the American way of life.

I found myself constantly faced with one choice to assimilate and another to maintain my cultural allegiances. So when my elementary school friend happened to have an extra PB&J sandwich in her lunchbox, my decision between eating her sandwich and the Iranian food my mother had packed me that day would always be escalated into a stress-inducing identity crisis.

As I grew into adolescence and its increased demand for self-reflection, I began to compare what I knew of Iranian society with the American lifestyle, scrutinizing the two with the hope that I could ultimately resolve my conflicted identity.

In making these comparisons, I began to reach an unsettling conclusion: unlike the close-knit, community-based existence I observed in Iranian society, American life exuded nothing of the sort. Instead this country seemed to be a place of alienation and soullessness, a place that never provided the identity affirmation and sense of belonging that I had discovered in Iranian culture.

After a while, I was exposed to an idea that seemed like a revelation at the time.

When I first learned about the concept of the “American Dream,” I thought I finally had a grasp on the American experience. It seemed simple enough: starting from nothing, working hard and (with a bit of luck) ultimately ending up with an improved, comfortable and successful livelihood. Thus, the American Dream was the alluring promise of social mobility.

Despite the hope it seemed to inspire in many (including my immigrant family), I also

soon learned that the promise was an empty one.

The American Dream was not the common experience but rather the common American motivation.

Although it existed in theory, this dream was a completely false construction of how our society functions. Thus, it seemed, the dream was a grotesque hallucination induced by the grind of this culture’s value system and alienation. Like something out of an absurdist drama, the promise was something to hold us over as we futilely awaited the arrival of a better way of life.

country has been during my participation in social change initiatives and other such movements.

Ultimately, it seems that, in the pursuit of the American Dream, we have forgotten to build up our American community.

The extreme individualism, which we perceive is demanded of us, has inhibited us from understanding this fundamentally human concept of solidarity. We depend on a comforting yet deceptive life trajectory constructed by this society, simply going through the motions instead of contemplating and truly living.

Although we hear, we aren’t really listening to each other.

Although we look, we aren’t actually seeing each other.

So the question becomes, what can revive and bring to surface the humanity left in us? What can overturn our numbed disinterest, immobilizing skepticism and unwarranted individualism?

The answer seems to rest in reestablishing our human community bonds and sense of solidarity with one another. Yet we can only begin to revive our solidarity if we feel indignation and rage against the daily grind and injustices that have deprived us of our souls for far too long.

As the 20th century Welsh poet Dylan Thomas advised us all: “Do not go gentle into that good night / Old age should burn and rave at close of day / Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

So it seems that our common potent rage is really an empowering, combative force in the battle against our humanity’s dying light.

The American Dream is not the common experience, but rather the common American motivation.

At a recent organizing meeting for an upcoming student march/direct action next week, I was exposed to the harsh consequences of this promise for other people my age.

At the beginning, we decided to our share stories of why we were involved in the student movement. I was astounded and deeply moved. From heartbreaking home foreclosures to unbearable education loans to rampant unemployment, I found a running theme of broken dreams in everyone’s story.

Yet while I felt a deep sadness bordering on rage, I also felt a profound sense of community and solidarity with everyone around me. I now realize that the only time I have ever felt this true sense of community in my 12 years living in this

Mana Aliabadi is a freshman in the School of Public Affairs.

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OP-ED

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

A New AU campaign in review

Financial Aid Office offers context to student debt debate

In October, student clubs from across campus came together to form the New AU campaign, fighting for democracy, transparency and accountability on campus.

Starting out with a week of action that culminated in a rally and letter delivery to President Kerwin, there was real momentum behind the movement, between groups that had no prior experience working together.

Since then, the New AU campaign has continued reaching out to other student groups and continuing to spread the word about the issues that we have been working on.

The momentum of the early actions transformed into more grassroots support, as AU students began to stand up for increased democracy, transparency and accountability — students who had never been involved before. We met with administration figures to advocate for our central issues in AU offices as well as on the Quad.

As the semester ends, it is time to reflect on the achievements of the New AU campaign and how to take further steps to ensure our voices are heard on campus.

A few weeks ago, President Kerwin released a new statement on social responsibility, addressing many of the issues brought up by the New AU campaign, and pledged to put together a working group that will include students in order to amend and implement these new policies. At the open forum with the Board of Trustees, Kerwin said this working group would be put together in the beginning of the spring semester.

We consider this a significant victory for recognizing the voices of students on campus when it comes to social responsibility on campus.

As with anything, the devil is in the details: the administration must take this endeavor seriously for it to work, and students will continue to hold the administration’s feet to the fire if administrators choose not to stand by their statement on social responsibility.

Across campus, students are organizing for a better, new AU. The Student Worker Alliance has been addressing a variety of student and worker concerns, especially relating to parking rates. Occupy AU has been mobilizing students to get involved with the Occupy movement and has been raising awareness around a variety of issues affecting students on campus, especially student debt. The Disability Rights Coalition has been working towards creating a more accessible campus. Take Back the Tap has been a major initiative of EcoSense, trying to reduce our campus’ environmental footprint. And American Vegan Outreach is fighting for a more vegan friendly environment here at AU. The New AU campaign is now winding down. The focus of much of our action is shifting as we continue to pressure the University to stand by the policies it espouses.

And as the New AU campaign will not be continuing as we have known it into the spring semester, the fight continues. We will be there when the Board of Trustees meets again in February.

We want to encourage any and all students interested in activism to seek out the organizations that interest you.

Start an organization of your own, and help us build the movement.

Building A New AU isn’t about a single campaign or ‘flyering’ or marches. It is the collective effort to build a better university, and together we can do that.

The recent article, “American University has highest student debt among D.C. Universities,” touches upon financial concerns that are reverberating nationally, as well as here at AU. However, AU’s average student indebtedness figure for the class of 2010 ($36,206) as reported by the Project on Student Debt and cited by The Eagle can be somewhat misleading when not explained in context.

We understand that the average debt figure seems daunting, especially in these hard economic times, but keep in mind the figure only focuses on the percentage of the class who took out student loans. What is not reflected in the figure reported is amount of financial assistance that AU provides to our students to help reduce costs and allow them to meet their educational goals.

To put financing one’s education into perspective, let’s talk numbers for AU’s class of 2010: • 78 percent of the class of 2010 received some form of financial aid; • 61 percent of the class received some form of AU institutional funding (merit and/or need-based); • 56 percent of the class borrowed student loans; • 44 percent of the class did not take out a loan.

Ethan Miller (CAS ’13) and Chris Litchfield (SPA/CAS ’13) are members of the Organizing Collective of the Community Action and Social Justice Coalition

Interestingly, the percentage of loan borrowers at AU is below the 65 percent national average for students attending four year, private, nonprofit universities who took out a student loan during their college tenure, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Now, to break down the numbers for the 56 percent that borrowed: Twothirds only borrowed federal loans, and, of those, the average indebtedness at graduation was $21,146. By contrast, 19 percent borrowed private loans, and their average loan indebtedness was nearly three times greater than those borrowing only federal loans. This small contingent of large borrowers drastically skews the student loan indebtedness average for AU’s class of 2010.

Moreover, nearly a quarter of students who borrowed private loans did not demonstrate financial need and/ or did not apply for financial assistance. These are students who, most likely, opted to use loans as a financing tool.

Additionally, for the 2010 graduating class, AU provided far more institutional grants and scholarships than students borrowed — by more than 60 percent. Institutional expenditures totaled $152,906,566 compared to $91,239,120 in loan expenditures dur-

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

AU term faculty serve an important role on campus Last year, term faculty successfully fought for University support.

Many faculty members were pleased to see The Eagle’s coverage of the possibility of AU adjunct faculty joining a union. However, the article doesn’t take into account a large cohort of faculty that is distinct from tenure-track and adjunct.

In the latest faculty manual, this other cohort was designated “term faculty.” We want to make sure The Eagle’s readers get the complete picture of the work force at AU.

For perspective: term faculty account for over 20 percent of the university faculty. In fall 2010, term faculty taught 43 percent of 100-299-level courses (i.e., generally the first- and second-year courses), and they taught 35 percent of the 300-499 courses.

Term faculty positions are fulltime positions, and term faculty have access to multi-year contracts, which means that they can — and do — have long relationships with AU, just as tenured faculty do.

While term faculty positions are teaching-dedicated, term faculty contribute a great deal to the life of the university outside the classroom, serving as advisors to student organizations and to independent studies, serving on committees, presenting at conferences, researching and publishing, etc.

ing the same four-year period.

Since the recession, our office and the University have had a heightened sensitivity to unexpected financial hardships families are facing, and we have taken steps to determine how best to use the University’s resources to increase institutional support to students.

This academic year alone, $69 million of the University’s budget has gone towards financial aid, and financial aid expenditures are third behind personnel (faculty and staff) and supplies in the overall budget, an indication of the University’s commitment towards the students.

In addition, one strategy we implemented this year to aggressively address student need was to redirect funds used for merit scholarships to need-based financial aid in order to cover a greater percentage of the financial need of students. As such, nearly 100 percent of eligible incoming students had 100 percent of their demonstrated financial need met.

As always, we encourage students and families to contact our office if they have concerns regarding financing an AU education. For current students, the best place to start is AU Central at x8000 or via email at aucentral@american.edu.

Brian Lee Sang Director of Financial Aid Sharon Alston Vice Provost for Undergraduate Enrollment

Within the last few years, term faculty successfully fought for the right to promotions and other support from the University.

The Chronicle of Higher Education published a piece about this new development in June. As the Chronicle reports, AU is actually ahead of the curve when it comes to “adapting its governance structure and policies to today’s academic work force.” It goes on to state that AU “has found ways to offer its term faculty members new career tracks, research opportunities, and more say in university affairs.”

The Eagle’s separate editorial of Nov. 22 was right to encourage a debate about the job situations of adjunct faculty, but Eagle readers (students, faculty and prospective students and parents) should know about these important term faculty gains as they think about how to contribute to that debate.

Kelly Joyner & Heather McDonald Writing instructors in the College Writing Program

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34

No. 7 AU wrestling suffers setback

By JACK KERNOCHAN EAGLE STAFF WRITER

The AU wrestling team dropped a 23-14 decision to the University of Maryland in a battle between two nationally ranked teams Dec. 2 at College Park.

The Eagles came into the bout at No. 7 in the InterMat rankings, while Maryland entered the match at No. 20 in the country.

The Eagles trailed early, as Shane Gentry defeated AU’s Thomas Williams 2-1 in a hard-fought match at 125 pounds.

After Maryland’s Geoffrey Alexander beat Chris Brienza at 133 pounds, the Eagles found themselves in a quick 8-0 hole.

But AU would not back down, and two strong victories from No. 9 Matt Mariacher (141 pounds) and Kevin Tao (149 pounds) cut the deficit to one, at 8-7.

Mariacher took down Frank Goodwin 7-4, and Tao followed with a 12-4 major decision against Ben Dorsay.

With the score tight, No. 4 Ganbayar Sanjaa stepped to the mat for the Eagles against No. 16 Kyle John in one of the most anticipated matches of the day.

Sanjaa came up big for AU in the 157-pound bout, earning a clutch 14-6 major decision and propelling AU into the lead for the first time all afternoon at 11-8.

But the Terrapins quickly reclaimed the lead in the 165-pound match.

AU’s Sean McCarty fought hard against No. 2 Josh Asper, but Asper recorded the technical fall over McCarty and gave Maryland a 12-11 advantage.

Phillip Barreiro (174 pounds) attempted to give AU some momentum with a victory over No. 17 Jimmy Sheptock, but Sheptock earned the technical

fall at 17-2.

Immediately afterwards, Maryland’s Ty Snook defeated Thomas Barreiro 8-3 in the day’s 184-pound match. Snook’s triumph allowed the Terps to extend their lead to 2011 and head into the final two bouts in great position to collect the victory.

The day’s second-to-last matchup featured No. 8 Daniel Mitchell competing for the Eagles for the first time this season. Mitchell faced a tough opponent at 197 pounds in No. 20 Christian Boley, and nearly earned the victory.

But a late takedown by Boley gave the Maryland grappler a 7-6 victory and extended the Terps’ lead to 23-11.

The final bout of the afternoon was another matchup of ranked opponents, as AU sent Ryan Flores, the nation’s top heavyweight, to the mat against No. 10 Spencer Myers. Flores earned a strong 7-3 victory, sending the Eagles home on a positive note despite the loss.

The Flores-Myers matchup marked a rematch of the NWCA AllStar Classic Nov. 21, a bout Flores won 11-2.

Despite the loss, there were several positives to take away for the Eagles.

Three of AU’s four ranked wrestlers earned victories in their matches, while Mitchell looked strong in his first action of the season and should be a huge part of the team going forward.

The Eagles will look to rebound Dec. 10 when they take on George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. SPORTS@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

Delaware defeats AU in first round of volleyball tournament Continued from Page 20

RACHEL DEVOR / THE EAGLE

Lisa Strack and the Eagles had a tough time against the No. 6 Terrapins, falling 76-42 at Bender Arena. Strack, who leads the team with 11.2 points per game, will look to help AU get back on track in its Dec. 11 contest at Troy.

Terps overpower women’s basketball

By SAMANTHA RAPHELSON EAGLE STAFF WRITER

The AU women’s basketball team fell to the No. 6 University of Maryland Terrapins 76-42 Dec. 4 at Bender Arena, as the Terps picked up their ninth-straight win and posted their best defensive performance of the season.

Geleisa George scored a team-high 10 points for the Eagles (5-4, 0-0 PL) off the bench, while Lisa Strack chipped in nine points and four assists. Twenty of AU’s 42 points came from bench players.

“We’ve got really good players coming off the bench,” AU Head Coach Matt Corkery said. “We’ve got players that are plenty capable of being starters if we wanted to use them in that way. I think it’s great that when we substitute, we get energy, we get an added boost and we have players who bring a new dimension to the game.”

Maryland (9-0, 0-0 ACC) saw five players reach double figures, led by Alyssa Thomas’ 17 points on 8-10 shooting.

“I think the lead kind of got away from us a little bit when they were getting easy transition opportunities or second chance opportunities,” Corkery said. “But overall [I’m] proud of the effort, proud of how hard we played and how we got after it today, despite the outcome.”

AU jumped out aggressively as Strack hit a 3-pointer less than a minute into play.

But the Eagles only held the lead shortly, as Maryland put up three jumpers in a row.

With AU falling behind by three points,

Alexis Dobbs cut the early Maryland lead to 8-7 with a jumper. That would be the last time the Eagles would score for the next few minutes, as Maryland went on an 11-0 run that was not broken until George came off the bench and nailed back-to-back jumpers.

The Eagles knocked in only five more points on the half, as the Terps continued to take advantage of the struggling AU offense that went 7-29 in the opening half.

The half ended with Maryland leading 38-16.

AU was unable to stop the Terps in the second half, having similar offensive woes and letting the deficit grow larger.

The highlight of the half came when Maryland’s Brene Moseley made a steal, passed to Thomas and started the fast break. It seemed Thomas would go for the easy layup, but at the last minute, handed off to Moseley who converted the layup for a 54-23 advantage.

The game ended with AU going 16-54 from the field and 2-22 from beyond the arc.

“I feel like we got a ton of open looks, they just didn’t drop,” Strack said. “But like coach said, I can speak for myself a lot of the times when I took my 3’s, my feet weren’t set; I hopped into it. I think we had good looks, we just got to knock them down.”

The Eagles will next travel to Troy, Ala., where they will face Troy University Dec. 11 before beginning a three-game homestand.

SRAPHELSON@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

blocks, we get momentum.”

But AU wasn’t able to complete the comeback, and Delaware took the second set to even the match at one.

Throughout the third set, the Eagles struggled to make good passes, which led to them committing eight attacks errors.

“Our ball control wasn’t that great, and when we don’t have ball control, everything else just kind of falls apart,” said freshman hitter Sara Rishell, who tallied 10 kills and six blocks.

The third set entailed six lead changes and nine ties. However, Delaware picked up two points off a Heath service error and Katie Hank kill to take the game 25-22.

“There was a point in the third set that we lost, and everything just felt tense,” said sophomore Morgan Hendrix, who led the Eagles with 12 kills.

“We weren’t playing like we usually play, and we kind of freaked out.”

The fourth and final set was more of the same for AU, as the team struggled to make good passes and get solid hits on the ball en route to a 25-23 fourth set loss that clinched the match for Delaware.

“We’re a young team, and to get that far is outstanding,” Rishell said.

“A loss puts a chip on our shoulder, and I’m really looking forward to going back to the tournament next year to turn some heads.”

SPORTS@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

Women’s basketball

Terrapins prove to be too much for Eagles 19 #$%&'()*+'%,%-.%/+0*+!"11

Sports

Hinkle propels Eagles to win Senior forward scores 32 points in 66-60 victory

By JOSH PAUNIL

Wrestling

No. 20 Maryland takes down No. 7 AU in College Park, Md. 19

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Volleyball closes with NCAA loss

By JOSH PAUNIL EAGLE STAFF WRITER

EAGLE STAFF WRITER

For the first time since the 2008-2009 season, the AU men’s basketball team has won seven straight games with its 66-60 triumph over the St. Joseph’s University Hawks Dec. 4 at Bender Arena.

“That was a real nice win,” AU Head Coach Jeff Jones said. “We scrapped, we played with a purpose, we had focus [and] we had a lot of different guys making contributions.

So it was just a really nice win, and I’m really happy with the team.”

Charles Hinkle recorded a career-high 32 points on 10-16 shooting from the field to go along with a team-high eight rebounds for the Eagles (72, 0-0 PL). The NCAA leader in total points scored (211), Hinkle shot 5-9 from beyond the arc and 7-7 from the free throw line.

“It was just one of those days where everything was clicking for me,” Hinkle said.

“My shot was going in, my teammates were setting great screens and passing it to me in the right spots.”

One of Hinkle’s biggest plays of the game came with 5:11 left in the second half, when he converted a fourpoint play that extended the Eagles’ lead from 53-51 to 5751.

“We were a little bit stagnant and it was an unsettled situation,” Jones said. “We actually had tried to run something, but there was a breakdown and he just kind of bailed us out. Good players make big plays and that was a big moment in the game.”

Prior to Hinkle’s play, the Eagles had only scored four points in the previous 6:30 and it looked as though they might give up their lead after allowing a 14-6 St. Joe’s run.

The AU volleyball team saw its season come to an end when it fell to the University of Delaware 3-1 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament Dec. 2 at Penn State.

The Eagles (23-11, 13-1 PL) lost by set scores of 25-17, 22-25, 22-25 and 2325 to the Blue Hens (21-13, 11-3 CAA), who were champions of the Colonial Athletic Association.

AU’s 10-game winning streak that started Oct. 19 at Howard University snapped with the loss.

After their victory in the first set, the Eagles were unable to continue their excellent passing and defense, which was one of the determining factors in the match.

“We weren’t playing like we usually play, and we kind of freaked out.”

—Morgan Hendrix, Sophomore

RACHEL DEVOR / THE EAGLE

Riley Grafft chipped in four points in AU’s six-point win against St. Joseph’s University Dec. 4 at Bender Arena. The Eagles will take a seven-game winning streak into their Dec. 7 home game against Hampton.

Outside of Hinkle, Troy Brewer was the only Eagle to reach double digits with 12 points on the night.

Carl Jones led the Hawks (5-3, 0-0 A 10) with 13 points but struggled throughout the game, shooting 5-16 from the field and missing all four of his 3-pointers.

The Eagles did a good job of controlling the pace throughout the game and limited transition opportunities for St. Joe’s. They were able to hold the Hawks to 13 points fewer than their per game av-

erage, while the Eagles committed just two turnovers in the first half.

“I thought we played very solid defensively,” Jones said.

“We really, really emphasized the importance of getting back in transition. They understood we better make it a half-court game. We didn’t want to milk the clock, but we didn’t want to rush and we certainly didn’t want to get in a track meet.”

Another thing that proved valuable for the Eagles was their ability to make free

throws.

They shot just under 90 percent as a team (14-16) and went 6-7 in the final 45 seconds of the game.

AU also shot an impressive 44 percent from the 3-point line.

“For us to get a win like that, it shows teams that we’re playing at a higher level and higher caliber,” Brewer said. “And at the same time, it helps build our confidence.”

SPORTS@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM

“A couple areas of our game fell apart,” said Rebecca Heath, who recorded a double-double with 14 digs and 10 kills for AU. “Passing wasn’t where it normally is, and we just weren’t as tight on defense where we needed to be, and that was big.”

After being in control for the entire first set and not allowing Delaware to lead at any point, AU fell behind 13-7 in the second set. The Eagles fought back and earned a couple of points, but were down 22-15 after the Blue Hens took advantage of multiple AU attack errors.

However, the Eagles made their most impressive run of the game by scoring six straight points to cut Delaware’s second set lead to 22-21. “[Head Coach] Barry [Goldberg] always says blocks come in bunches, and it all started to come at one time,” said freshman Kelly McCaddin, who totaled 11 kills and had a match-high hitting percentage of .526. “We’re a big team, so when we make kills and get Continued on Page 19