Technique
Hope through art
Friday, March 2, 2012 • Volume 97, Issue 26 • nique.net
A North Korean artist uses satire to shed light on a regime he says needs change. 415
The South’s Liveliest College Newspaper
NADH late-night attendance remains weak After 2 a.m., the number of patrons per hour at NADH drops quickly. To the right is a breakdown of when students visited it during a representative day each month while it offered 24-hour service. GT Dining did not collect data in December and did not offer 24-hour service in January.
SEPTEMBER
46
2 a.m. to 3 a.m.
OCTOBER
3 a.m. to 4 a.m.
63
NOVEMBER FEBRUARY 0
10
4 a.m. to 5 a.m.
70
5 a.m. to 6 a.m.
68 20
30
40
50
60
70
6 a.m. to 7 a.m. 80
Number of patrons at NADH Infographic by Lisa Xia / Student Publications
By Sam Somani Staff Writer
Despite the reinstatement of 24-hour service and hot breakfast at North Avenue Dining Hall (NADH) earlier this semester, student traffic between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. at NADH remains weak. “We are seeing a little more activity from the 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. time period, but after 3 a.m., there are many 30-minute windows where there are no students coming in,” said Dori Martin, marketing director for Dining. “We have a facility open, food out, staff present and no customers.”
This poses a challenge for the longevity of 24-hour service at the location. During most business hours, an average of 30 people enter NADH every 15 minutes. However, between the hours of 2 a.m. to 7 a.m., fewer than five students enter the facility during each 15-minute interval. “We want to be sustainable as well and utilize our resources and put them where people are actually using them,” said Staci Flores, general manager for Dining. The reinstatement has been prolonged to the end of this semester as sort of goodwill to the community, according to Martin.
“Reinstating is not a permanent decision, in the sense that the numbers aren’t speaking to what the students want,” said Eran Mordel, SGA Vice President of Campus Affairs. “The administrators will look at this again.” At the beginning of this semester, Dining removed hot breakfast from the menu at NADH and cut its hours between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. This provoked a reaction from students who felt that they were no longer receiving the services they had paid for at the beginning of the year. “We didn’t have enough time to communicate it properly be-
cause of that December break,” Flores said. “We wanted to open back up and be transparent and communicate to students saying, ‘There is low participation and for us to continue this program that everybody says they would like, we need you to use it.’” According to Dining, the closure of the aforementioned services at NADH allowed them to reallocate resources to other projects and services. “When we did close during that time period, all of that food that was under-utilized was food dollars that we could put towards the lunch and dinner programs,”
Martin said. “So, you were seeing a lot more interesting, creative and more proteins, on the menu because we are better able to afford those things when we better utilize our food dollars.” The closure allowed for efficient allocation of staffing time. “We also redistributed labor at Brittain and NADH so they opened up an additional breakfast line,” Flores said. Following the outcry, Dining agreed to reinstate the cancelled services at NADH. The data that Dining acquires this semester will See Dining, page 7
GOP race sees talk of college, science Students hold By Mike Donohue News Editor
As the Republican presidential nomination race hurtles towards its ten-state Super Tuesday contest on March 6, the four remaining candidates have each staked out positions
regarding higher education, as well as science and technology. Concerns about a growing national debt and suspicion of college-educated elites have colored each candidate’s rhetoric as their public statements have drifted rightward since the beginning of the cam-
paign. Higher education has come up in the campaign partly as a proxy punching bag for those whom the GOP candidates believe are “elite,” including President Barack Obama, and partly as an example of federal overspending.
Most recently, Rick Santorum raised eyebrows when he called Obama a “snob” for what Santorum said on Meet the Press were Obama’s calls for all Americans to attend college and be remade in Obama’s
See Election, page 7
Photos by Gage Skidmore / Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich represented Georgia in the House of Representatives for twenty years, four of which he served as Speaker. He is credited with unifying and molding the modern Republican Party during his tenure, which was marked by a refusal to compromise and a tight fiscal policy. Despite shutting down the government for weeks, his Congress passed a balanced budget under the Clinton administration in the late 1990s.
Ron Paul
Ron Paul, currently serving Texas in the House of Representatives, is a staunch libertarian, garnering a consistent minority vote on the GOP ticket. He proposes a deconstructivist domestic policy coupled with an isolationist foreign policy, placing him at odds with many mainstream voters. Paul draws most of his support from the younger end of the conservative electorate, who often state that he receives too little media coverage.
Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney has held positions in both business and politics, serving as CEO of Bain & Company and Governor of Massachusetts. He is the most moderate of the candidates and is thus considered most electable by many voters. His significant wealth and aloof persona have at times distanced him from less well-off voters. He remains the most successful in terms of delegates and many believe he is the most likely to win the nomination.
Rick Santorum
Rick Santorum is a former senator from Pennsylvania who has crafted a presidential campaign from a resolutely conservative social ideology. He argues for the presence of government in determining social values and promotes conservative Christian positions on marriage and reproductive health. His persistent and rigorous campaigning ethic has given him a recent sweep of success and made him the second most successful candidate.
conceal carry license debate By Jordan Lockwood Staff Writer
Students gathered on Feb. 23 for an open forum to share student perspectives regarding the proposed Georgia House Bill 981. HB 981 would allow the concealed carry of a firearm on all educational campuses in Georgia, except for private institutions that choose to maintain their restrictions. Should the bill pass, Tech would not be able to opt out of the requirement to allow concealed carry on its campus. The College Republicans, GT Marksmanship Club and Students for Concealed Carry sponsored the forum. The moderator for the discussion was David Wilkes, vice president of the Marksmanship Club. Some students in attendance felt that this onesided sponsorship contributed to the heavily biased nature of the debate. “I thought that if they had reached out directly to more organizations, a more balanced debate could have been had,” said John Koch, president of the College Democrats of Georgia and a fifth-year HTS major. “I look forward to trying to work with them to have a more fair discussion of the issues.” “It was a bit disappointing that more people who are against it didn’t come out to let their thoughts be known,” said Andrés Celedón, chairman of the Georgia Tech College Republicans and a third-year PUBP major. Many students at the debate spoke in favor See Debate, page 5