THENORTHERNLIGHT APRIL 6, 2010
FEATURES
08
Rotaract:
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE
SPORTS
Geared for young adults
06
OPINION
Bruijsten:
17
Playing at home
‘New Dances 2010’ to show at UAA’s Harper Studio Theatre
Living the single life: Recovering from a breakup
Health Care Bill affects young adults
By Heather Hamilton The Northern Light
By Jerzy Shedlock
Dance, like many other art forms, spans across nations, generations, genres and perceptions. Few people can say that there isn’t a style of dance that they enjoy to partake in, or at least watch. “New Dances 2010”, UAA’s annual spring dance concert, is an eclectic collection of dance pieces designed by dance students, internationally acclaimed choreographers and faculty members alike; a collection of people as varied as the dances themselves. Guest artist Katherine Kramer, for example, is a celebrated jazz and tap choreographer from Bozeman, MT who has worked with dancers and choreographers in Prague and has plans to take her work to South America next year. Kramer created a piece called “Pause, Facing West” to the music of Tin Hat Trio to be performed by eight members of the UAA Dance Ensemble. The piece reflects on the vast spaces of the American West through sweeping movements. Conversely, UAA alumni Michelle Steffens’ piece in the show is based in tap and percussion. “Work Whistle” performers create their own music to dance by in this performance depicting workers in nine to five jobs. “It’s a very percussive piece,” said Steffens, “We have five dancers, two tappers and a percussionist.” This is Steffen’s second year choreographing for “New Dances”, but there are firsttimers in the program. Computer Sciences senior Ryan Nixon and Business Management sophomore Chris Branche have a little
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The Northern Light
The debate on health care reform has been a hot topic of discussion since President Obama took office in January of last year. After a year of bitter partisan combat, the president signed legislation on March 23, 2010 to drastically change the nation’s health care system. The House of Representatives passed the bill by a 219 to 212 vote. Young adults and college students are affected by the passing of the Reconciliation Bill in a number of ways. While the majority of college-age Americans do not pay for their own health insurance, the bill will mandate and provide health services in the years ahead. One particular reform under Title I of the bill is sure to please many college students and young Americans. It allows parents to keep their children on their insurance plan until the age of 26. That provision takes affect this year. “I find it really hard to believe that any person (of college) age could independently afford insurance, but if you have a parent who has insurance now you can be covered by their plan until an older age,” USUAA President Michaela Hernandez said. “This could cover the entirety of your college experience as well as graduate school, so you wouldn’t be forced to find insurance until you actually enter the workforce.” Assistant Professor of Political Science April Susky recently met a young woman working as a barista. The barista told Susky she had to have a tooth pulled because she could not afford a root canal and she did not get heath coverage from her employer. “That really made me angry: this beautiful hard-working young girl, barely out of her teens, had to make a bad health decision because the good decision was priced beyond her means,” Susky said. “My great grandma had to have her teeth pulled, but she was a pioneer, for crying out loud.”
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NICHOLAS MONEY/TNL
Performers rehearse their moves on April 1st at the Arts Building. The students will be performing New Dances 2010 April 8th through the 18th. “New Dances 2010” fills the UAA Harper Studio Theatre with 35 performers in 10 eclectic dance premieres.
USUAA elections going paperless
Gymnasts finish difficult season
Some positions have no candidates on the ballot, left up to write-ins By Josh Edge
The Northern Light
USUAA elections have gone paperless. Fear not, there will still be voting stations available on campus during the April 6 and 7 elections. The on-campus voting sites will be located in the Student Union, Rasmuson Hall, Commons lobby and the
Social Science Building from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. At each station there will be a laptop set up for students to cast their vote online. Voters are not required to be on campus in order to vote – it can be done from home. Students enrolled in three or more credits are eligible to vote. Online voting can be accessed at the Union of Students website with a
student ID and password, which is followed by a straightforward ballot. The goal of using the online ballots is to provide students with more information about the candidates. It will assist students in making informed decisions before casting their votes. “The great thing about this year is that we are doing the elections online,
on a fully paperless system,” Hinkley Cahill said, Assistant Director for Student Leadership. “It is so the students know that these are the expectations (of the student government officials).” The ballots contain a job description of each position. If voters click on a candidate’s name, they can view a picture of the candidate as well as
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LOGAN TUTTLE/TNL
Senior Courtney Williams finished her career with the Seawolves with five All-MPSF Honors. For more see GYMNASTICS on page 6.