The Auburn Plainsman 04.02.15

The Auburn Plainsman A Spirit That Is Not Afraid

Thursday, April 2, 2015 Vol. 121, Issue 34, 14 Pages

First copy is free. Additional copies 50 cents per issue.

branding

Online

‘War f@#$%!& Eagle’

ThePlainsman.com VIDEO: Organizations sign up to receive funds inside campus

Page A3

Star Wars fish uses the force

How the University cracks down on unlicensed gear David McKinney

Assistant Sports Editor

“If you don’t bleed orange and blue take your b**** a** home.”

That’s what one unlicensed T-shirts in the Office of Trademark Management and Licensing reads.

And that’s just one side.

Flip the shirt over and it reads “Auburn f****** Alabama.”

There has also been a shirt made with the words “War f****** Eagle” written on the front.

These shirts are not officially licensed products by Auburn University and are confiscated when they’re seen, but some aren’t as obviously ripped off.

Jason Harbison and Jennifer Blackmon of the Office of Trademark Management and Licensing said there are other ways to tell when you’ve been sold an unlicensed product.

“If you’re trying to explain to people how to tell if something is licensed or not, there’s a couple of different things to do,” Blackmon said. “If it’s being sold out

» See gear a2

community

contributed by Jason Harbison

The T-shirts above were confiscated by the University because they used the Auburn logo without permission,

Without warning

health

administration

Student media restructuring leads to the elimination of nine University positions

Page A8

A day in the life of a firefighter

Becky Hardy Editor-in-Chief

sports

Page A9

nated. The article linked to a 2014 AL.com article pertaining to county STD rates.

Sterling Wimbish, STD program manager for public health areas eight and 10, said the Alabama Department of Public Health releases STD information every quarter.

“Everybody who tests positive for an STD, be it a public venues, such as the health department, or a private, like

Nine student media employees were unaware of what was about to happen when they walked through the doors of the Office of Student Affairs March 19.

Elizabeth Stone, communications specialist for the Office of the Vice President, and Bobby Woodard, vice president of Student Affairs, restructured the student media program and will lay off nine people from their jobs, some of whom have been working for the University for more than a decade, starting May 15.

This restructuring of student media follows the restructuring of Student Affairs at the beginning of the 2015 spring semester, which resulted in student media being placed under the Office of Communications and Marketing instead of the Ofice of Student Involvement.

Later in the evening, on March 19, Woodard; Stone; Corey Edwards, director of Student Involvement; and Lady Cox, special assistant in the Office of Student Affairs, informed the student organizations, including The Plainsman, “The Glomerata,” “The Circle,” Eagle Eye TV and WEGL; there would be restructuring of the student media department.

» See std a4

» See media a2

kelsey gainer / graphic designer

Equestrian team faces uncertainty intrigue

The graphic shows STD rates in Lee County and Tuscaloosa County.

Auburn has an itch it just can’t scratch STDCheck.com ranks Auburn with top-five highest STD rates Kris Martins

Campus reporter

Page A12

University custodians want to be respected more index Campus Opinion Community Sports Intrigue

A1 A5 A6 A9 A12

During the first week of March, STDcheck.com released a blog stating Auburn University and the University of Alabama are among the top five colleges with the highest sexually transmitted disease rates.

The article did not provide statistics specific to Auburn University or the University of Alabama or attribute from what source the rates origi-

Are you moving to Birmingham?

Crowne at Grandview

becky hardy / editor-in-chief

Above is a list of the new faculty positions for student media.

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We have the perfect home for you!

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Crowne at Overton Village

Crowne at Cahaba River

Campus A2

The Auburn Plainsman

media

DUI reports

» From A1

The following were arrested and charged with driving under the influence by the Auburn Police Division from March 17-27: March 17: -Krissy Annette Stephens, 20 Opelika Road, 2:31 a.m.

March 18: -Zachary Herschel Bullock, 20 N. Gay Street, 1:34 a.m.

-Richard David Blackmon, 52 E.Thatch Avenue, 10:23 p.m.

March 21: -Kellye Candice Sanders, 43 Shug Jordan Parkway, 12:46 a.m.

-Robert G Mcintosh, 51 Wire Road, 5:45 p.m.

March 23: -Tom Mike Vongkhoth, 23 E. Glenn Avenue, 12:57 a.m.

March 25: -Jacob Parker Dyer, 21 N. Ross Street, 1:27 a.m.

March 27: -Gregory Lamar Bonner, 28 I-85 at Bent Creek Road 10:29 p.m.

A full crime report provided by the Auburn Department of Public Safety is available online at ThePlainsman.com.

–Reports provided by the Auburn Department of Public Safety

gear

» From A1 of a backpack, pretty much, it’s not going to be licensed.”

Not only is unlicensed gear illegal, but it’s also likely to be of a lesser quality than official gear.

“When you buy unlicensed gear, especially on game day, the quality is typically going to be very poor,” Blackmon said. “It’s not something we would ever approve in this office.”

Many fans would assume unlicensed gear may come at a cheaper price than on-campus stores, but Har-

The restructuring will start immediately.

Woodard said the current full-time and part-time employees are allowed to apply for new positions.

Restructuring has been talked about since 2010, and an external report was published about changes needing to be made to student media, according to Edwards, but no one from student media, including advisers, were notified the restructuring was going to happen this semester until after decisions about laying off employees had already been made.

“I believe there were good intentions to improve student media, but the execution of this restructuring was handled very poorly,” said Amanda Foster, Eagle Eye TV station manager. “The students feel blindsided. They were not consulted about these huge changes that will affect the remainder of their time here at Auburn, and, more importantly, their careers.”

Woodard said no one was notified because the five new positions created in the restructuring became a human resource situation, which deals with personnel privacy of individuals, which is similar to Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act rules with students.

Five full-time employees will replace the nine employees. Positions include an administrative support associate, advertising and marketing adviser, broadcast adviser, editorial adviser and technical adviser.

Although there are five advisers, according to Woodard and Stone, all media are expected to share all advisers whenever needed.

All print media will share one editorial adviser.

bison said this isn’t the case.

“We found a guy outside the SEC Championship game selling (an unlicensed T-shirt) for $40 on the street in Atlanta,” Harbison said.

Harbison pointed out several errors in the printed shirt, including misspellings, incorrect color schemes and skewed graphics, which differ from what a shirt with official Auburn logos and trademarks would look.

Even though Harbison and Blackmon have confiscated plenty of unlicensed gear, they both said it isn’t a big issue on the Plains.

“We’ve not had a huge problem

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Eagle Eye and WEGL will share the broadcast and technical adviser.

Also part of the restructuring is moving “The Glomerata” and “The Circle” into the existing The Plainsman office side and move The Plainsman office to the existing advertising and marketing side of the paper’s office.

No plan has been set in place by Student Affairs about the new location of the advertising and marketing office.

“In order to create a more collaborative atmosphere and to better serve the students and their needs, we will be relocating the organization spaces to provide an opportunity to work more closely together and share editorial expertise, meeting spaces and training areas,” states a letter by Student Affairs given to faculty and students about the restructuring.

Stone said the furniture did not promote a collaborative atmosphere and impedes communication with tall, physical barriers in the middle of the offices.

Although nothing is permanent yet with where each organization will be placed, Woodard said, Greek Life has the possibility of moving into “The Glomerata” and “The Circle’s” current office.

“It became glaringly evident that much of the plan had not been fleshed out once members of student media began asking questions,” Foster said. “While there are many parts of the restructuring that have the opportunity to benefit student media, it is imperative that the students are finally brought into the conversation as the plan is further developed.”

Another part of the restructuring is The Plainsman will no longer have its own advertising team, but will share one with all five student media.

Stone said allowing advertisers to buy

with people coming on campus selling out of backpacks,” Blackmon said.

“We may get one or two of those a season, but not a lot. We’ve been very lucky in that sense.”

Blackmon said she thinks part of the reason backpack vendors are less of a problem at Auburn than at other schools is the strict approach the school takes towards licensing.

“I think we have a reputation for not putting up with that on our campus,” Blackmon said. “We’ll police campus on game days, so we really haven’t had a huge issue with that.”

Though there aren’t a lot of face-

ads for all media will allow ad packages to be purchased, which she said can bring in more revenue. Currently Eagle Eye is only allowed to use sponsorships of companies, not ads and WEGL is not allowed to advertise per FCC regulations.

According to Woodard, some of the main reasons behind the restructuring are the new advertising model can allow the media to make more money with advertising sales, and the restructuring could allow students to be more marketable to future employees by working more closely with other student media.

“While we [“The Glomerata”] are saddened by the lack of student involvement and communication from the Vice President of Student Affairs’ office regarding the new plan for restructuring Student Media, we look forward to coming together with the other media groups sharing talents, work space and ideas to create quality media to serve the students of Auburn University,” said Stephen Caton, “The Glomerata” editor-in-chief.

According to Stone, the first position to be filled will be the administrative support associate. The next position to be filled will be editorial adviser.

The nine laid-off employees include Judy Riedl, The Plainsman general manager and advertising director; Dafni Greene, Eagle Eye and WEGL adviser; Kim Rape, The Plainsman administrative support associate; Keely Streetman, “The Glomerata,” “The Circle,” Eagle Eye TV and WEGL administrative support associate; Austin Phillips, The Plainsman part-time adviser; Jim Jackson, Kevin Fichtner and Keith Brewer, Eagle Eye part-time advisers; Brit Bowen, part-time WEGL adviser and Benjamin Arnberg, “The Circle” and “The Glomerata” adviser.

to-face vendors, Harbison said that doesn’t mean there still aren’t any issues with selling unlicensed gear.

“Our biggest issue with unlicensed product, especially T-shirts, is online right now,” Harbison said. “You see them on social media, the ads on the side, most of those are targeted because you like Auburn things. Hardly any of those are licensed.”

When those sites pop up, the trademark office is responsible for getting them down, which Blackmon said has been a frequent practice in the last year, with 293 takedowns.

Even though unlicensed on-campus

vendors may be few-and-far-between, there are still consequences for those caught peddling counterfeit gear.

“Typically, if they are on campus, the position that the University takes is, they are cited for trespassing and they can voluntarily turn over their product to us,” Blackmon said. “They usually leave campus after that.”

If a person is caught selling unlicensed products a second time, Harbison said the siutation is then handled on a case-by-case basis.

“There’s no concrete answer of what the next steps would be,” Harbison said.

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Thursday, April 2, 2015

Campus A3

The Auburn Plainsman

science

New species uses the force

Professor names catfish species he discovered after ‘Star Wars’ character K ris M artins

Campus Reporter

Jonathan Armbruster, biological sciences professor and curator of fishes at the Auburn Museum of Natural History, recently named a new species of catfish after Greedo, a character featured in “Star Wars Episode IV.” Armbruster discovered the fish species, Peckoltia greedoi, on a visit to a Brazilian museum in 2004.

“Most of the stuff we actually find are things that somebody else has collected — sometimes hundreds of year ago even,” Armbruster said. “But this was a group of specimen that were collected in 1998.”

David Werneke, fish collection manager at the Auburn Museum of Natural History, wrote the description characterizing the specimen.

Werneke said Armbruster requested the specimen while making revisions for a study on the genus.

That’s when he realized it was a new species.

Though a host of traits distinguish related species, the P. greedoi differ in color patterns and tooth count, according to Werneke.

“It takes a good knowledge of the group you’re working on to know something more interesting that recognizes a new species or not,” Werneke said.

According to Werneke, it wasn’t until the team was brainstorming species names that Christopher Hamilton, graduate student in biological sciences, mentioned the catfish looked like Greedo.

“Once he said that, it kind of seemed like a perfect opportunity to name it after a character we all liked,” Werneke said. “This seemed like a good way to get it out there. It was very descriptive in our minds of a character it looked like.”

Armbruster said he’s watched “Star Wars” since he was a child and still watches the movies with his son.

“Greedo has always been a fan favorite, and it seems ap-

Contributed by Jonathan Armbruster

Jonathan Armbruster discovered the new species on a visit to a Brazilian museum in 2004.

propriate to have a species named after him,” Armbruster said.

According to Armbruster, to name a species, the researcher has to be able to thoroughly describe how it’s different from other related species, prepare analyses, write a description and have the paper peer reviewed and deemed acceptable for publication.

Milton Tan, graduate student under Armbruster, collected data on the physical measurements of the fish and edited the paper.

Tan said the paper on the specimen was published Feb. 2 in “ZooKeys,” an open-access journal.

Researcher predicts sustainability

“People are keying in on the fact that it’s named after Greedo,” Tan said. “New species get described all the time.

In fact, there are two other species in the same paper that are being described that aren’t getting any attention at all.”

According to Tan, the two other species in the paper, Peckoltia ephippiata and Peckoltia lujani, were personally captured by Armbruster and Werneke in the early 2000s.

“The huge media attention, we weren’t expecting,” Tan said. “I don’t mind that it’s gotten way more attention than some of the other species. I think any attention to bring to the scientific research and the importance of describing these species is really good to have.”

faculty spotlight

water scarceness Rebecca Oliver Campus Writer

Auburn University assistant professor Shufen “Susan” Pan has conducted research on global climate change that suggests there may be water scarcity in more than half of the world’s land area by the end of the 21st century.

Pan is one of the researchers for Auburn’s International Center for Climate and Global Change research, which has been recognized by the White House for its contributions to the U.S. National Climate Assessment, according to Auburn University Center for Climate and Global Change director Hanqin Tian.

Pan said her research shows the ratio of evaporation to precipitation in 60 percent of the world’s land area.

According to Pan, the ratio of evapotranspiration to precipitation is defined as a measure of how much water will return to Earth after going through the water cycle.

With climate change increasing, less water is making its way back to Earth.

Pan said Africa and other similar areas would be hardest hit by the by the effects of evapotranspiration.

“The people in these areas already lack access to clean and reliable water,” Pan said. “In areas like the U.S., we don’t think about whether we will have enough water to last us day to day, but there, for example, the women have to go collect water in jugs. The effects of evapotranspiration would worsen the existing problem.”

According to Pan, her research on water scarcity is part of a study that links water, food

and energy in a changing climate.

“We need a systems approach to deal with such a complex issue. We need to better educate the public so that we can influence policy makers.” Pan said. “We need to better educate the public so that we can influence policy makers.”

Pan said she understands climate change is a controversial issue many people are undereducated about it.

“I use my scientific data to provide factual information that links climate change to food and water security so that we can better communicate to people the importance of the issues,” Pan said.

Pan conducted her research with a team of professors and graduate students by using the Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model, a model developed by the International Center for Climate and Global Change Research.

According to Pan, the model uses terabytes of data to predict future ecosystem interactions.

The information is then validated by comparing the model to observed data.

Graduate research assistant Shree Sharma Dangal worked on Pan’s team, validating the input data of the Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model.

Dangal said the research used field data and satellite data to form that helped lead the team to coming to their conclusion on water scarcity possibly affecting have the Earth’s land area.

“It’s important to understand the relation between the computer model data and the field data to show to validate our findings to the public so they will be better informed,” Dangal said.

CONTRIBUTED BY Shufen Pan

Shufen Pan researches water scarcity in Inner Mongolia, China.

contributed by allen landers

High school students attend the Summer Science Institute that Allen Landers started.

Professor awarded for faculty outreach Haley Lanigan Campus writer

Allen Landers, physics professor in the College of Science and Mathematics, was the 2014 recipient of the Auburn University Award for Excellence in Faculty Outreach.

James Hanson, professor and chair of the physics department, nominated Landers for the award.

“We look at what professors are supposed to do, and he does it all and does it extremely well,” Hanson said.

“He’s characterized by his concern for students.”

Landers said there are many ways to think about his outreach, but, overall, he wanted to relay the importance of sharing findings to the students he works with.

“Ultimately, I’m a scientist,” Landers said. “But I think, to be a complete scientist, you can’t just go into a lab and do experiments, and you can’t just sit and calculate things and write theories.

You have to think about science as a whole, and that includes the most important part of science, in my opinion, which is reporting what you find to the rest of the world.”

According to Hanson, Landers started the Summer Science Institute, which brings high school students to Auburn for a week and teaches them about research projects going on at the University.

“(The Summer Science Institute) has turned out to be extremely useful for faculty throughout the college to talk to high school students about their research projects,” Hanson said.

Landers was inspired to start the project because he said he felt it was important to reach out to students beyond the University. He said there is no point in doing research alone because, then, there is no connection to society.

“The students on the university level—that’s only one part of the population, and, if you want to think broadly and in terms of the public, the next segment of the population upon which you can have an impact would be kids,” Landers said. “For me, the first place to look is just a step below of what we have here, and that’s high school students.”

Mary Lou Ewald, director of Outreach in the College of Science and Mathematics, said Landers’ love of outreach is what makes him stand out from other professors.

“Our faculty in COSAM, as a whole, is very supportive of outreach,” Landers said. “They get involved in a lot of the different programs that we do. Dr. Landers stands out because he is invested to the point that he will help write the grants and travel off site to actually train the teachers.”

landers According to Ewald, Landers has been very interested in outreach since he first began working for Auburn.

“Right off the bat, when he came here, he was really interested in doing outreachtype programs that I work with,” Ewald said. “We do a number of K-12 science programs throughout the year.”

Landers said the outreach is not about the awards. He said he just finds it to be a very important aspect of his career.

“I just felt like this as something that I wanted to do or needed to do because I love students, and so any chance you get to work with students or excite them is fun at all ages,” Landers said.

Ewald said Landers has truly become an asset to the College of Science and Mathematics and inspires his peers with his work.

“I think he became a role model for other faculty when he put more time and energy into outreach,” Ewald said. “I think it brought other faculty into the mix and made them want to participate.”

Campus A4

Thursday, April 2, 2015

The Auburn Plainsman

student government

Organizations programming bill approved Ben Ruffin

Campus Writer

SGA’s Monday, March 30, meeting saw new orders of business in the form of a program expansion fund and the confirmation of the student senate chairpersons.

India Way, senator for the College of Business, proposed a bill in the form of a program expansion fund.

The expansion fund allocated $2,000 to the Organizations Programming line item of the Center for Student Organizations and Welcome Week fiscal budget.

This increases the volume of nominations for the Involvement Awards, according to Way. “Involvement awards are recognizing leaders on campus who have been nominated by their constituents who have shown great lead-

ership,” Way said.

Way said students are taking advantage of the awards.

“It’s just a really good recognition for student leaders, and the number of people nominated this year increased exponentially partly because there are more students and partly because this is kind of a new thing,” Way said.

“Now that people know about it, they’re really taking advantage of it.”

This bill came through senate last year as a program expansion fund.

According to Way, however, a clerical error in the body of the bill caused the senate to revisit this program expansion fund request during this week’s senate meeting.

“It came through senate executive committee and was passed as a program expansion fund,” Way said.

upcoming events

The whole process had to be repeated, according to Way. “It made it to the senate floor and the subject line said, ‘program expansion fund,’ but there was a typo in the body of the bill and it said, ‘reserve fund request,’” Way said. “Since it was passed with that wordage in the actual bill, that’s what it was documented as. That’s why they’re having to come back again and go through this process again.”

The bill passed unanimously.

The change will make the funds permanent, rather than temporary as accidentally filed last year.

In other SGA news: • The senate confirmed the 2015-16 student senate chairpersons.

The chairpersons sit on the executive committee and include Brandon Honeywell as the

std

» From A1

Thursday, April 2 • New Horizons Lecture with Ace Atkins in 258 Foy Hall at 2 p.m.

Friday, April 3

• Tango Orchestra Club Atlanta in Goodwin Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m.

Monday, April 6

• Cater Porch Talk with Bonnie MacEwan at Cater Hall at 3 p.m.

Tuesday, April 7

• Campus Conversation: Earth Day and Caring for Water: Why Does Citizen Participation Matter? in Student Center Room 2310 • Auburn Author Awards in RBD Library at 3 p.m.

• All majors career expo in The Hotel at Auburn University at 3 p.m.

• Spring 2015 York/Littleton-Franklin Lecture in 113A Lowder at 4 p.m.

Wednesday, April 8

• Honors College k(no)w poverty lecture series with Conner Bailey in Langdon Hall at 6 p.m.

Are you a campus or non-profit organization? Send your events to calendar@ThePlainsman.com or submit them to The Plainsman’s online calendar at ThePlainsman.com/calendar to be featured online or in the paper.

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ThePlainsman.com

292 cases of gonorrhea and 541 cases of trichomoniasis. There were 28,351 cases of chlamydia, 7,501 cases of gonorrhea and 12,323 cases of trichomoniasis throughout the state.

John Adams, practice manager at the Auburn University Medical Clinic, said there are several variables to consider in collecting data for STD rates.

“It’s tough to gauge what is intermittent STI checks and what would constitute ‘a lot,’” Adams said. “As far as rates of STIs, it would be too hard because of the sampling we have. The problem is, not everyone who is concerned about getting tested comes in and gets tested nor do we always get positives when they do come in to get tested.”

Adams said the stigma attached to STI’s could play a role in the accuracy of the data.

“It’s not like the flu, where you come in and get tested for it, there’s no stigma with it and there’s treatment right

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a physician’s office or hospital, it’s reported by that provider to the state health department,” Wimbish said.

“That information is collected in a database and compiled for study purposes so we know what kind of funding we need to request from CDC.” If universities use a laboratory to test individuals, the information should be reported to the state health department, according to Wimbish.

“High (STD rates) is a relative,” Wimbish said.

The first quarterly report for Alabama’s STD rates can be found at adph.ord/std.

According to the first quarterly report for Alabama’s STD rates, from January to December 2014, Lee County had 711 cases of chlamydia, 159 cases of gonorrhea and 218 cases of trichomoniasis.

Tuscaloosa County had 1468 cases of chlamydia,

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chairman of the Executive Committee, Jacqueline Keck as chairman of Academic Affairs, India Way as chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee, Meredith Smith as chairman of the Code of Laws, Drake Pooley as chairman of the Diversity and Multicultural Affairs Committee and Lucas Tribble as the chairman of Student Affairs.

Next week in SGA: • India Napier, former senator for the College of Veterinary Medicine, will face appointment as the president of the Graduate School Council.

• Burcu Ozden will face appointment as the vice president of the Graduate School Council.

• A recognition of Michael Waller’s advising position and contribution to the College of Liberal Arts will come across the senate floor. there,” Adams said. “It’s just a little harder to nail down with STDs.” Adams said he was unsure whether the clinic sends data to the state health department and referred The Plainsman to Dr. Fred Kam for medical information.

Kam was not available to comment before publication deadline.

Eric Smith, director of the Health Promotion and Wellness Services, said the office’s sexual health resources are limited because it has not been that big of a need.

Smith said most students come to the office to grab the free condoms available, yet the office can refer students to a professional in student counseling services or the medical clinic upon request.

“We currently do not offer from our office any counseling specific to sexuality,” Smith said. “Maybe it’s down the road we could think about if the students really wanted it and had a big desire for it.”

Print Deadline Noon three business days prior to publication

Opinion

a5

Thursday, April 2, 2015

ThePlainsman.com

Opinion

our view

Left out of the loop

SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE PLAINS

Responses to “Auburn Police partners with U.S. Marshals”

Topic:

student affairs has combined all student

Kathy McWilliams “Proofread please.”

media under one umbrella

Randall Cox “Sounds like Federalization of a local PD. How is this good?”

Viewpoint:

student affairs handled this situation poorly, did not do enough research to make changes

Mendy Davis “That’s good news!”

Student Affairs has recently revealed plans to combine all student media, The Plainsman, WEGL, “The Glomerata,” “The Circle” and Eagle Eye TV under one umbrella.

What does the term umbrella imply?

We wish we knew. From a vague email, a hastily thrown-together meeting the Thursday before spring break and a series of individual meetings over the break, student media still don’t have important details about this restructuring.

Some new features, such as new furniture, remodeling the offices and promising more advertisement sales, are ideas we can get behind.

Others, such as laying off dedicated employees and combining offices, we cannot agree with, especially when we were not consulted this semester. Also we believe it is wrong the decisions came after a few quick visits around our offices and a 2010 external review.

Throughout the meeting with students, where the majority of our information was gathered, it was said The Plainsman and the other student media are professional organizations. But the way we were consulted, informed and spoken to was not how you would treat professionals.

We were told what was going to happen and given no options. Children are told what to do. Adults make decisions and compromises. We felt we were not respected enough to be consulted.

Overall, this situation was poorly handled. We are not against change. Change is something that needs to happen regularly in the media industry. More revenue from advertisement sales is necessary to keep our paper alive. New furniture will be great. Remodeling the offices will help.

However, many of the changes they say they are making would be detrimental to our operations, something we could have easily informed them if we had been consulted.

Also, the external review, upon which they decided most of their changes, was conducted five years ago. If changes were truly needed they should have been put in place after the report came out.

We were told we were not informed about this restructuring because of the human resources issues dealing with hiring personnel.

Four full-time staff positions and five part-time staff positions were laid off to make way for these changes.

Judy Riedl, general manager and advertising director for The Plainsman, has been an employee here for four and a half years.

Kim Rape, administrative associate at The Plainsman, has been an employee for 26 years, longer than most of us have been alive.

Riedl and Dafni Green, Eagle Eye TV and WEGL adviser, were consulted in regards to what restructuring needed to happen in order to better student media in both revenue and content and gave detailed feedback.

Student Affairs then laid them off.

Using some of their ideas for remodeling

Responses to “Building paves over snake habitat” Justin Koen “As an avid outdoorsman I can tell you that trillium and kingsnakes are all over the place. Get over yourselves if you think that 15 acres destroyed an entire species. If you’re that naive then you should be ashamed that the foundation of the house you live in did the exact same thing! And remember to vote Democrat and drink some free kool-aid :)” Anslie Brant “lol that last sentence was so unnecessary. caring about the environment shouldn’t be a political stance. the fact that you see kingsnakes often means nothing. the eastern kingsnake is protected in alabama for a reason.” kelsey gainer / graphic designer

without telling them their jobs would be at risk and then laying them off is a betrayal to them and the concept of the Auburn Family.

Five new full-time positions will be created as part of this so-called rescue of the student media. Kim and Judy have been told they can apply for these new positions.

However, when the University has shown such positions are not stable and, even after 26 years of employment, you are easily expendable, it’s understandable if they feel scorned.

Among these five new positions will be an editorial adviser. They will work mostly with the print media, The Plainsman, “The Glomerata” and “The Circle.”

To clarify, one person will advise a newspaper, a yearbook and a literature and art magazine. The Plainsman alone currently uses three people to assist with our online content and weekly editions.

Our current adviser, Austin Phillips, who will also be laid off once the new editorial adviser position is filled, is one of three people. On paper, his job requires only part-time work.

In reality, he is there to help at 3 a.m. on a Sunday morning when breaking news happens over a holiday.

He reads the entire paper and reviews our stories in meetings with editors to suggest what other options we could have done and what we could do better. And that’s not even half of what he does.

We can only hope the new adviser will go above and beyond what is simply written in their job description as all of the current employees do.

As The Plainsman is officially dragged under Auburn University’s student media umbrella, we hope to maintain our editorial independence, even if that is not always in the University’s favor. In the meeting, we were assured our editorial adviser would not be able to change our content.

But we feel powerless. Student Affairs has shown they have no problem exercising every power to control student media.

Student Affairs has stepped onto a slippery slope that we are concerned will end with them controlling The Plainsman’s content. We are nervous about the power student affairs has shown they have.

At The Plainsman, we are worried 122 years of tradition of providing unbiased news will be slowly converged into another public relations department for the University.

Those who made the decisions to restructure do not know the ins and outs of every medium like they should.

If they did, they would not be moving the advertisement and marketing section away from our office, while potentially moving Greek Life offices downstairs into the current “The Glomerata” and “The Circle” office. They would have seen that on deadline days frantic trips to change out or reorganize ads happen mere minutes before deadline.

They would understand FCC guidelines prevent WEGL from running advertisements because it is currently on 91.1, a Class A non-commercial college radio station. WEGL can have sponsorships and direct listeners to a website, but they are limited in what they can say in promotion of a business. Advertisements are not allowed.

They would also know we are not isolated, which is one of the reasons they listed for moving Greek Life downstairs. We do our best to cover every event that happens on campus.

Throughout the meeting, we were assured we would keep our independence and we were still separate organizations. If that is true, then we need to maintain separate offices and finances.

Student Affairs representative Elizabeth Stone should have visited the offices Student Affairs planned to re-do more than once or twice this semester.

We are the student media. We have a voice through print, online, television and radio. It was instilled, through our training, we should use this voice to keep conversation with the Auburn Family so they remain informed and keep the University in check.

Now it is Auburn’s turn to keep us in the conversation. Many of the decisions made can not be changed whether or not they maintain the integrity and independence of one of Auburn’s oldest institutions. From now on, involve us in every new step along the way.

When important meetings are called, let us know in explicit terms with more than a day’s notice. We want to be involved in what types of furniture and renovations will be done. We want to be involved in selecting the adviser who correlates with our organization. We want a student representative to be involved at every meeting that involves The Plainsman.

Talk is cheap, and we have seen how easily spoken words can be skewed. We want these promises in writing.

Ashtyne Cole

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Jim Little

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Skip Croniger “You drive a car. The fumes emitted damage plants and wildlife. You create garbage and continue to buy overpackaged items. You mow a gas mower creating carbon dioxide. You use electricity created by coal. You heat with natural gas a short term commodity. You buy clothes and good from China and Japan to fill your own vanity. I understand the need to maintain the environment, but I think this is much less damaging than the things that each and every one of us do every day. Change your footprint and these trivial conversations become mute.”

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Community Thursday, April 2, 2015

A6 ThePlainsman.com

Community

City

Contributed by the city of auburn

A rendering of what the new intersection will look like once construction is complete this fall.The center square of the intersection will be raised and infrastructure for a stage will be installed for special events.

‘New corner for a new generation’

Construction to begin at Toomer’s Corner intersection after A-Day Rachael Taylor Community Writer

While the new trees were planted Feb.14, there will soon be more changes to Toomer’s Corner.

According to Jeff Ramsey, the public works director and city engineer for the City of Auburn, construction will start Monday, April 20. Ramsey said, if the construction goes to plan, it should be completed Aug. 17, which is the start of classes for the 2015-16 academic year.

According to Ramsey, plans include raising the asphalt to meet the curve to add an event space, the addition of plugs for band hookups so there can be more concerts in downtown Auburn in the future, and seat walls that people can

charge their phone with.

The seat walls will also contain LED lights that can be changed based on the event happening at the intersection.

Other changes will include wider curbs, silva cells, which are spaces under the pavement for the tree roots to grow into, and changing of traffic signals.

The tiger paw in the middle of the intersection will become permanent, but instead of the painted tiger paw, it will be in brick inlay. The brick will be ochre and red to match the University. The crosswalks will also be in brick inlay, according to Ramsey.

The construction is scheduled to be complet-

ed by August 17 in time for the 2015 football season, according to Ramsey.

While the planting of the new trees was the Univerisity’s plan, according to Ramsey, the goal of the City’s plan is to make the trees and corner look like one project.

Ramsey said he has been meeting with the downtown merchants who may be affected by the construction.

According to Jennifer Fincher, vice president of communication and marketing for the Auburn Chamber of Commerce, she will help communicate to the community that downtown is still open during construction.

Fincher said the Chamber of Commerce is

working on plans for how downtown merchants will handle the construction, but nothing is official yet.

According to David Dorton, public affairs director of City of Auburn, the downtown master plan has been in the works for some time now.

Some of the plan is a result of input given at public meetings.

“It’s is a new corner for a new generation,” Dorton said.

Dorton said the plan will try to complement what has been done with the new trees.

The intersection will be closed at some point in the construction, but there will be detours, according to Dorton.

City teams up with Save Our Saugahatchee group to monitor creeks Kailey Miller

Community Reporter

The Water Resource Management Department has partnered with the Save Our Saugahatchee and the Alabama Water Watch to improve the water quality of local creeks.

Water Resource Management will utilize the volunteer monitors from SOS. “There’s only three employees in the watershed division in water resource management, and we understand that we can only cover so much ground, and, by utilizing the volunteers at SOS, they’re able to utilize their own labs,” said Dan Ballard, watershed division manager. “They’re able to run analysis much cheaper than we are.”

Ballard said, as opposed to water resource management having to monitor 50 sites, they can now narrow down their monitoring to a certain area they know they need to concentrate on by utilizing the data from SOS to help prioritize where they need to conduct monitoring to identify the sources.

The Water Resource Management Department is required to monitor the water quality of the impaired waterways within the city, including the Saugahatchee Creek, Parkerson Mill Creek and Moore’s Mill Creek.

They monitor these creeks for E. coli, siltation and other pollutants.

Ballard said this is the first time they have been providing financial support for the monitoring.

“The volunteers simply provide the monitoring,” Ballard said. “They have stations which they monitor, and then they provide us with that monitoring data. We’ll take their data and decipher their data to help us prioritize which areas we need to focus on.”

The partnership also includes Opelika and the Lee County Highway Department. These partners contributed monetarily to the effort.

“Contributing to SOS, who through their efforts in monitoring the water, helps assure that we’ve got some more eyes on the water in the county,” said Joey Hundley with the Lee County Highway Department. “If there’s issues with water quality along the Saugahatchee, then the monitoring will help bring that to the forefront, and we can address the problem in the areas that there may be a problem.”

Eric Reutebuch, director of Alabama Water Watch and member of SOS, said concerned citizens formed SOS in 1997 to address some of the environmental problems in the Saugahatchee watershed and the Saugahatchee Creek.

Today, there are approximately 100 members.

Of those 100 members, Reutebuch said approximately a dozen of them are water-quality monitors.

Alabama Water Watch is a statewide program that works with approximately 60 or 70 groups in the state, of which SOS is one.

“The Alabama Water Watch program supports

Kenny Moss / Assistant photo editor

The lake in Chewacla State Park is fed by Moore’s Mill Creek, which Save Our Saugahatchee will monitor.

volunteer monitoring, water monitoring by providing training in water chemistry and bacteriological monitoring and stream biomonitoring,” Reutebuch said.

They provide free training via workshops. On April 10-11, anyone from the community can receive training in bacteriological certification

monitoring and water chemistry. The building is located on Auburn University’s campus.

“It’s a statewide program training volunteers to monitor their water quality and also teaching them how to use that data in a productive way to protect the water and restore their water quality in their local watersheds,” Reutebuch said.

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Thursday, April 2, 2015

Community A7

The Auburn Plainsman

business

Local chef offers homecooked meals to order Kendyl Hollingsworth Community Writer

Yum Yum’s, which opened in December 2014, is a food specialty shop that provides customers with home-cooked meals they can request and pick up in the same day.

Tod Bottcher, chef and owner of Yum Yum’s, has been in the food business for more than 25 years. He said he has started several restaurants and worked in the kitchens of his own restaurants, as well as restaurants owned by others.

A native of Oneonta, Bottcher has lived in Auburn since he attended Auburn University in 1981. He has always had ties to the University, with several members of his family being alumni.

He also met his wife, Linda, in Auburn, and they decided to stay because they loved the area and saw it as a great place to raise a family.

Bottcher said he and Linda came up with the concept for Yum Yum’s one night after he realized working in a restaurant on nights and weekends was wearing him down.

“My wife and I sat around one night, and we came up with this idea because (cooking) is what I love to do,” Bottcher said. “Cooking is who I am. It’s what I do.”

Bottcher’s wife, Linda, said she also likes that Yum Yum’s is a place that allows people to easily get a home-cooked meal that might have taken them hours to cook on their own.

“We are all so cramped for quality time with our family and friends, and a home cooked meal can be the highlight of our time together,” Linda said. “Convenience and good food are a lot of the times mutually exclusive. That’s what I like about this idea.”

Bottcher also said he came up with the idea to cook fresh meals every day, which benefits both him and the customer. It allows Bottcher to close at a set time every day so he can spend time with his family, and it ensures the food is always fresh.

“At 10 o’clock in the morning, that’s when people will have their first hunger pangs, and you do think about dinner,” Bottcher said. “And that’s where I came up with 10 as the cutoff [for placing orders].”

Bottcher said the 10 a.m. cutoff also gives him time to go out and obtain any extra ingredients he may need to fulfill a request. He can make anything off the menu or the Pinterest link on their Facebook page, and he also works with dietary restrictions. He then prepares the meal before it

Ellen Jackson / photographer

Tod Bottcher cooks home-style meals ordered to go.

can be picked up from 4-6 p.m.

According to Bottcher, the original idea for Yum Yum’s focused more on providing soups, salads and sides to go for dads who needed something extra to go with a basic meal. It has since expanded to provide more entrée-like foods and is popular with students, busy mothers and anyone who wants to take a night off from cooking.

Yum Yum’s has a wide variety of items on the menu, most of which are Bottcher’s original recipes. He said some of his personal favorites include the death by chocolate, dolmades, twicebaked seafood potatoes and the house salad dressing, which is a 45-year-old family recipe.

According to Bottcher, one of the most popular items on the menu is the hamburger pie.

The menu also includes a few recipes from Bottcher’s uncle, Charlie, who he credits with sparking his passion for cooking early in his life.

From the time Bottcher and the other kids in his family were 8 or 9 years old, they were helping their uncle cook for his catering business before he opened his first restaurant.

“That’s where I found my love for food,” Bottcher said. “It’s just so cool to make something that’s delicious.”

Bottcher would follow a similar path to his uncle and open the first of his own restaurants in 1993. Bottcher’s Grill, which was also located in Auburn, ran successfully for 13 years.

A former Auburn student himself, Bottcher said he understands students’ cravings for homecooked meals.

“I can cook at least as good as their moms, if not better,” Bottcher said, laughing. “I just want these kids to know that I can mama them, and they don’t have to put up with the nagging.”

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Community A8

Thursday, April 2, 2015

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Day in the life: firefighter Kailey Miller

Community Reporter

A call crackled out over the radio at 2:35 p.m. and four firefighters at Fire Station 1 on East Magnolia Avenue were on alert.

The firefighters listened intently as they gathered up their turnout gear and piled onto the truck.

Hunter Billingsley, student firefighter, took his place behind the wheel of the fire truck. Lieutenant Joshua Smith took the front seat. Cameron Wineman and John Konstant, both student firefighters, took seats inside the cab.

The call was for the Family Health Clinic, located on Opelika Road — a medical call.

Auburn has five fire stations and only one ambulance station, so they dispatch the fire station first.

The Auburn Police Division was also on the scene.

“We establish command and the police make sure everything is safe on scene,” Smith said.

“We come in, and, any basic first respondent care, we provide it. We get some baseline vitals for the paramedics and patient information, and then, once the ambulance gets on scene, we assist them with anything that they need.”

If the situation is bad enough, sometimes a firefighter will ride with in the back of the ambulance with the patient to the hospital.

Smith said they respond whether it is a stubbed toe in the middle of the night or a more serious medical emergency such as a heart attack, the majority of the their calls invovle some type of medical issue, according to Smith.

The station handles a variety of calls that differ each day from minor car accidents to full-blown fires.

“I was working with someone else on a different shift, and we had a fire in some apartments a few weeks ago,” Wineman said. “It was fully involved. We put it out and everything, everybody was safe. It went well.”

Not all of their calls involve fires, however, and on the way back to the station, a call came over the dispatch involving a car accident on East University Drive and North College Street.

Billingsley turned the truck around and headed towards the location of the accident.

An ambulance was already on site along with the APD when the firetruck arrived a few minutes after getting the call.

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The firefighters got out of the truck to assist with the accident. The drivers were shaken up, but no one was injured.

Battallion Chief Joe Lovvorn was at the scene and, once it was safe, gave insight to firefighters’ peculiar hours.

“When I met my wife, I was doing this career, so she’s used to me being on this schedule and my kids are used to me being on this schedule,” Lovvorn said. “It’s tough being away from the kids on the nights I have to work, but I make the most of my days off.”

Career personnel, such as Lovvorn and Smith work 24-hour shifts with 48 hours off.

Student firefighters work day shifts from 7 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Nighttime is supposed to be their downtime, but they have to run calls when necessary.

Each day of the week there are specific duties that have to be done.

Smith said they do those tasks when they have time between calls and daily duties.

During the first week of April, all of the stations were required to do their bi-annual hose testing to see if any of the hoses were damaged.

Smith and his group were covering for the other stations that day through Station 1 so everyone else could test the hoses. Their usual station is Station 2 on Shug Jordan Parkway.

“Early this morning, we did some fire drills,” Billingsly said. “We did them for the University where we go in and make sure everybody is familiar with exiting the buildings. We did three of those today.”

After leaving the scene of the car accident, the truck headed out to Kiesel Park, where they set up for a CPR class they would be teaching the next morning for city employees needing to update their training.

“We do random stuff every day; nothing is ever the same,” Smith said. “This afternoon was setting up CPR stuff and hose testing, and the next shift it will be pre-fire plans and fire hydrant maintenance.”

Smith said one of the most fun parts of their job was training the youth within the department who are unlike anywhere else.

The crew does a lot together, in and outside of work.

“We’re here for 24 hours, so we live together, we work together, we eat together,” Smith said.

photos by Kenny moss / assistant photo editor

above: A firetruck sits ready to go at a moments notice. below: Firefighters prepare a community CPR class.

Left to right: Joshua Smith, Matthew Thomas, Cameron Wineman and Hunter Billingsley pose in front of a firetruck.

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Court-Approved Supplemental Information About The Deepwater Horizon Economic Settlement Claim Deadline

June 8, 2015 – Deadline to File

Claim(s) with the Deepwater Horizon (BP) Economic Settlement Program The Class Settlement and its objective, financial data based causation tests have been approved by final judgment.

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Not every claim filed will be eligible, but you have the right to file and find out.

To file your claim go to: Or Call (866) 992-6174

Sports

A9

Thursday, April 2, 2015

scoreboard Baseball (18-11, 3-6)

ThePlainsman.com

Sports

gymnastics

Living up to the hype

RECENT Win vs. Samford, 9-4 Loss at Mississippi State, 3-1 Win at Mississippi State, 4-0 Win at Mississippi State, 5-0 UPCOMING April 3-5 vs. Arkansas

No. 7 softball (35-4, 8-1)

Kenny Moss / assistant photo editor

Caitlin Atkinson completes a routine on the uneven bars and during the floor exercise. A three-time All-American, Atkinson broke Auburn’s all-around scoring record with a 39.750 against Alabama this season.

Gymnast embraces pressure during record season Andrew Monson Sports Writer

RECENT Win at No. 20 Missouri, 10-8 Loss at No. 20 Missouri, 5-4 Win at No. 20 Missouri, 14-6 UPCOMING April 2-4 vs. Tennessee April 8 vs. UAB

no. 8 Gymnastics (6-5)

Before she was an All-American at Auburn, and even before she was a national recruit as a teenager, Auburn gymnast Caitlin Atkinson knew she had the talent and the drive to become great.

“I always kind of knew when I was younger because, even from the start, I always wanted to go more, always wanted to train more hours,” Atkinson said. “So, even from my first years when I was four or five years old, I just wanted more and wanted to be the best I could be.”

That mindset led to her becoming a prized recruit, and though she is from Houston, rivals Alabama and Auburn

were her top schools.

In the end, Auburn prevailed because of a few factors.

“Honestly, the coaches, the team and the school itself because, once gymnastics is over, school is the most important thing, so the draw to the University was really big for me,” Atkinson said. “I just fell in love with every aspect of it.”

Coach Jeff Graba said he knew how good she could become and did everything he could to sign her.

“She was one of our first big, elite recruits that we got,” Graba said. “In the gymnastics world, when you recruit athletes, there’s no secrets. Everyone knows who’s good. Everyone knew

Caitlin was going to be good, and we feel like we did a terrific job recruiting her and got lucky.”

During her time at Auburn, Atkinson has lived up to the hype.

She is a three-time All-American and broke the school all-around scoring record this season with a 39.750 against Alabama.

Graba said he believes her success stems from her competitiveness and her composure under pressure.

“She loves competition, and the bigger the competition, the more she loves it,” Graba said. “That’s a positive because you need some people like that on your team that rise to the occasion and embrace the pressure. A lot of peo-

Equestrian

RECENT SEC Championships 4th - 196.925 UPCOMING April 4 - NCAA Regional Auburn Arena - 6 p.m.

equestrian (7-7, 2-6)

LAST WEEK Win vs. No. 1 S. Carolina, 13-6 Loss vs. No. 3 Georgia, 13-6 UPCOMING NCEA Championships April 16-18

Men’s Tennis (14-8, 2-6)

LAST WEEK Loss vs. Florida, 4-1 Win vs. Jacksonville State, 4-0 UPCOMING April 3 at Texas A&M April 5 vs. LSU

Recommendation leaves NCAA future ‘in limbo’ Eric Wallace Sports Editor

Lost in recent discussions of autonomy and student-athlete compensation, one of Auburn’s most successful athletic sports faces an uncertain future with the NCAA. The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics recommended to remove equestrian from a list of emerging sports in October 2014 after the sport failed to meet the minimum of 40 schools in 10 years.

According to Leah Fiorentino, executive director of the National Collegiate Equestrian Association (NCEA), 24 schools currently sponsor equestrian at the NCAA level.

While that number falls short of the NCAA requirements, recent organizational changes have many convinced the sport’s future may be brighter than it seems.

“We have all these plans laid out and ready to go, but we’re just waiting in limbo for the NCAA to make a decision one way or the other,” Fiorentino said. “We are cautiously very optimistic about the direction equestrian is going to move in.”

In a December 2014 summit of collegiate equestrian coaches, Auburn equestrian coach Greg Williams said initiatives were undertaken to better organize the sport’s power structure.

Williams said the most impactful change has been the addition of Fiorentino in an executive director role and the establishment of a national advisory board to support the financial stability of the sport.

According to Williams, the sport’s reorganization has allowed for greater networking between sponsors and invested parties, while also debunking myths about the sport.

“I think a misunderstanding plays a big role in this,” Williams said. “Across the board, equestrian is one of the most inexpensive [sports] per head. People just automatically think it’s expensive.”

The Auburn athletic department’s 2014 budget report backs up this statement.

According to tables gathered by the OpelikaAuburn News, equestrian posted the fewest losses of any women’s sport on campus, with $139,528 in losses.

Fiorentino said the work of Williams and Auburn is the model for equestrian programs nationwide.

“We’re trying to help other campuses get to

“

The NCAA is focusing on all types of stuff like the O’Bannion case and cost of attendance, so they don’t want to focus on something that is small on their radar.”

—Leah Fiorentino National Collegiate Equestrian Association executive director

a point like where Greg Williams has Auburn,” Fiorentino said. “They’re really a model to kind of follow suit and become more independent as a financial contributor to the athletic profile.”

For now, however, it’s a game of wait-andsee for NCAA equestrian, which is low on the NCAA’s priority list according to Fiorentino.

“If you want to call it a perfect storm, we have the definition of a perfect storm,” Fiorentino said. “The NCAA is focusing on all types of stuff like the O’Bannion case and cost of attendance, so they don’t want to focus on something that is small on their radar. There are teams that are considering, but they don’t want to do it until the recommendation clears one way or the other.”

Williams said he expects the NCAA will make a decision on the recommendation by October 2015 at the latest.

If the NCAA were to accept the recommendation, Fiorentino said a contingency plan of reapplication is in place.

This plan would only require 16 letters of support from interested universities.

“If they do accept it, there is a plan in place to reapply for emerging sport status,” Fiorentino said. “We already have the mandatory number of letters of support that would allow us to be reinstalled into that emerging sport category.”

Meanwhile, Williams considers equestrian’s future at Auburn to be bright regardless of the NCAA recommendation, and said he hopes to add a junior varsity team in the near future.

“Between Animal Science, the College of Veterinary Medicine and the equestrian sports and athletics, it’s a great synergy,” Williams said. “We have what could be one of the greatest on-campus groups.”

ple, even high-level athletes, have to manage the pressure. She’s not one of those. The higher the pressure, the better she gets. When the meet’s on the line, she’s the one you want up.”

Atkinson said she would rather focus on the team than personal goals, and knowing her success helps the team is the most satisfying part.

“As far as personal scores, I try to go into each meet doing what I can for the team, so I don’t really go into it thinking about my all-around score or what I can get for my personal benefit,” Atkinson said. “It’s rewarding to be able to do it for the team, and then afterwards realize that my score either broke a record or been one of my highest.”

Track and field

wade rackley / auburn athletics

D.J. Smith clears a jump at the 2015 SEC Championships.

Smith won Auburn’s first SEC high jump gold since 2007.

Successful career ends with Smith’s SEC gold C.J. Holmes Sports Writer

For those who don’t know of former track and field star D.J. Smith, they may not know of one of the most storied careers in Auburn history.

Originally a two-sport athlete, Smith excelled in both basketball and football, receiving high-level college interest in both sports.

However, the Atlanta native didn’t consider competing in track and field until the assistant basketball coach at Warner Robins High School in Warner Robins, Georgia asked Smith to put his vertical leap to the test.

At the end of Smith’s threeyear career at Northside, he was a three-time Georgia state champion in the high jump, a two-time U.S. junior national champion in the high jump and earned a silver medal at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada, by clearing a personal-best 2.24 meters.

He was also named Georgia’s Gatorade Athlete of the Year as a high school senior.

High-level schools were lining up for his services, but as a three-sport athlete, Smith

had to make a decision on what sport to stick with.

Ultimately, Smith chose track and field, and according to him, he doesn’t regret it.

“I narrowed it down to which sport was going to last longer and which sport would give me more options,” Smith said. “I like to travel too, and I also like my freedom, so track was the way to go.”

Smith would go on to have a decorated college career, where he was named to multiple All-SEC Teams and took home multiple SEC Championships.

Smith’s biggest accomplishment came during the 2015 indoor season, where he became the first Auburn Tiger to win a SEC Championship in the high jump since Donald Thomas in 2007.

“I was excited when I won, but it didn’t really hit me until a couple of days later,” Smith said. “In the moment, you see so far into the future that you don’t really get to enjoy what is right in front of you. When I finally realized that I was an SEC Champion, I understood that this is an accomplishment that nobody can ever take away from me.”

Sports A10

Thursday, April 2, 2015

The Auburn Plainsman

Football

Smith moves to receiver, Davis tears ACL Andrew Monson Sports Writer

Football coach Gus Malzahn has started rotating his receivers in spring practices as the Tigers came back into practice Tuesday, March 31, after spring break.

Former Mississippi Gulf Coast dual-threat quarterback Jason Smith is concentrating on being in that rotation at wide receiver more than before.

The nation’s No.1 JUCO athlete told coaches he wants to concentrate on receiver and have a smaller role as a quarterback, Malzahn said.

After throwing for 1,566 yards with 18 touchdowns and two interceptions last season, coaches guaranteed Smith a chance to compete for the starting quarterback position.

Now, it appears Smith has made the decision to make his role at receiver more permanent outside of his package role at quarterback.

“We’re really trying to transition him into the wide receiver spot,” Malzahn said. “We want to give him the chance to learn the wide receiver position and everything that goes with it. He’ll still have some type of package or role as far as playing

quarterback. We’re still trying to figure out what that is.”

According to what other players and coaches have seen out of the sophomore, Smith has a chance to have a role in the receiving corps.

“You can tell he is athletic,” said senior receiver Ricardo Louis. “He was a quarterback coming in, but we knew that he could be more. We tried him out at receiver and he has good hands. He runs the routes. He’s fast.

He’s picking up everything quickly and nothing is really new to him.”

Sophomore tight end Chris Laye said Smith’s athleticism allows him

to do things other people can’t.

“I think, as he learns what he is supposed to do, he can be a huge asset to the team,” Laye said.

In addition to Smith’s move, Malzahn said cornerback T.J. Davis underwent surgery for a torn ACL, and is out indefinitely.

“He injured his knee last week, before we left,” Malzahn said. “That’s a tough blow, but we’re hoping to get him back during the season. He was making some progress at defensive back, and he was one of our better special teams players too. He’ll do everything he can to get back.”

kenny moss / assistant photo editor

Jason Smith jogs on the field during spring practice, where he plans to focus on receiver.

Men’s Tennis

Senior leads young players Lauren Christopher Sports Writer

Ellen Jackson / photographer

Senior Lukas Ollert plays a forehand during a match against Mississippi State earlier this season.

This season, the Auburn men’s tennis team is credited for showcasing the talents with students from around the world. Lukas Ollert is one of these exceptional players, born and raised in Munich, Germany, who also serves as team captain, reigning as the only senior on the 2015 team.

The decision to play at Auburn was easy for Ollert, who was swayed by a former player who was also from Germany.

“I actually didn’t want to go to college,” Ollert said. “I wanted to study in Germany, and then a former player, Tim Puetz, just told me to visit, and I liked it.”

Many athletes who decide to attend Auburn are usually local residents, at least in the United States. For Ollert, the relocation was a huge change in culture.

“Being from Germany is like being from New York here,” Ollert said. “It’s a stressed life. Everything is busy. People are kind of mean.”

Ollert said he likes the change.

To him, it’s a more peaceful environment to focus on tennis.

“The South is, in general, a really nice place,” Ollert said.

“People are more chill. It fits me a lot. It makes me happy.”

Since Ollert currently stands as the only player in his last year at Auburn, it fits he stepped up to team captain. When younger players get stressed about unnecessary distractions, Ollert helps to calm them down.

“It’s a tough thing, I think, because we have lots of young guys,” Ollert said. “I’m the only really experienced guy… I have to lead them.”

Sophomore Olle Thestrup said Ollert brings a higher level of maturity as a teammate and helps set a positive example for his younger, inexperienced teammates. “(Ollert teaches us) everything really … on and off the court,” Thestrup said. “Being physical as well as professional, making good grades, always showing up on time, taking everything seriously.”

Thestrup also said he has al-

ready learned the importance of being close with your teammates as a newer player.

“Telling people how you feel is an important factor,” Thestrup said. “It’s a small team, so keeping good relationships with everyone is important.”

Looking back on his time at Auburn, Ollert said his favorite experience was his match against Alabama, where the team defeated the Crimson Tide on their home court.

As far as plans for after college go, Ollert said he’s not 100 percent sure of where he will go from here.

“I set myself a goal,” Ollert said. “If I make top 15 in college, I’ll play professional, and I hope I get there. If not, I’ll probably be a graduate assistant.”

Coach Eric Shore said he thinks Ollert has a good shot at going pro.

“If that’s what he decides to do, I would encourage him to give it a shot,” Shore said. “He’s come a long way since he was a freshman.”

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Thursday, April 2, 2015

Sports A11

The Auburn Plainsman

emily enfinger / photo editor, jim little / community editor, kenny moss / assistant photo editor

LEFT: Megan Walker performs on the balance beam. MIDDLE: Pitcher Lexi Davis celebrates with teammates after a shutout inning against Kentucky. RIGHT: Elizabeth Benson clears a fence against South Carolina.

This Week in Auburn Sports Baseball

The visiting Auburn Tigers continued their winning ways Tuesday, defeating the Samford Bulldogs 9-4 behind strong performances from Anfernee Grier and Kyler Deese.

The Tigers (18-11) were locked in a tight battle early, tied at three after four innings, but they broke the game open in the seventh when Deese launched a two-run homer to put Auburn up 8-4.

Starter Rocky McCord threw five strong innings, allowing three runs on eight hits and five strikeouts to pick up the win, and Justin Camp closed the game to claim his fifth save of the season.

Daniel Robert extended his career-best hitting streak to nine games on a double in the fourth inning, and he later scored on a single from Deese.

Robert’s RBI groundout in the ninth added an insurance run for the Tigers.

Auburn returns to Plainsman Park this weekend to face conference opponent Arkansas on April 3-5.

Gymnastics

Auburn junior Caitlin Atkinson was selected as a first-team All-American on all-around, and senior Megan Walker was selected as a secondteam All-American on beam by the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches and

Women.

Atkinson, from Houston, Texas, ranked seventh nationally in all-around this season with a 39.535 average. She won 20 event titles, including seven straight heading into the SEC Championship.

This is Atkinson’s third All-American honor and second consecutive first-team selection.

Walker, from Brackney, Pennsylvania, ranked 11th nationally on beam this season with a 9.905 average. She won 10 event titles including seven on beam and three on bars.

This is Walker’s first All-American selection.

She was also selected to the All-SEC team following her 9.9 on beam at the SEC Championship.

No. 8 Auburn competes in the NCAA Regional on Saturday, April 4, in Auburn Arena at 6 p.m. against No. 5 Alabama, No. 17 Minnesota, Iowa, Maryland and George Washington.

Softball

The No. 7 Tigers are now 35-4 after defeating the No. 20 Missouri Tigers in an away match Sunday, March 29.

Both Tigers battled back and forth for the lead throughout the game, with a standstill tie at 4-4 in the sixth inning.

Freshman Carlee Wallace then hammered a hit

down the middle infield to break the tie, bringing in Jade Rhodes.

Kasey Cooper then brought in another, and Emily Carosone nailed a grand slam to plate four, spacing out the score 10-4.

Missouri then succeeded in scoring an additional four runs off of Rachel Waters, but it wasn’t enough to take the lead in the end of the seventh.

The victory was mostly owed to Carosone, who achieved her fifth grand slam of the season in the seventh inning, bringing in the additional four runs the team needed to finish the game strong and take home the victory.

Carosone holds five of the team’s nine grand slams this season and is now tied with Jade Rhodes with 15 homeruns, with both players contributing to the 75 total homeruns the team currently holds.

Kasey Cooper isn’t far behind with 13 homeruns in the 2015 season.

Auburn returns to action at home against Tennessee starting Thursday, April 2, at 6 p.m.

Equestrian

The No. 6 Auburn equestrian team upset No. 1 South Carolina, 13-6, on Friday, March 28, en route to a third-place finish at the SEC Championships.

1888 Ogletree Rd. Auburn 826-1207

Auburn was impressive in College Station, winning all four events against the Gamecocks with four Tigers taking home MOP honors.

Sophomore Ashley Foster beat Samantha Kraus, 168-136, and senior Demi Stiegler defeated Amber Henter, 165-157, giving Auburn an early 3-2 lead after equitation over fences.

After earning her 36th win in fences, junior Elizabeth Benson became Auburn’s all-time win leader in the event, which was formerly held by Jennifer Waxman, after knocking off Sydney Smith, 169-158.

Auburn led 6-4 at halftime and didn’t miss a beat after the intermission.

After winning reining and horsemanship, sophomore Tory Hoft sealed the Tigers’ win by defeating Katherine Schmidt, 160-157, in Equitation of the Flat. Benson then finished the match by winning 165-154 over Samantha Kraus.

Bensons’ score of 165 is the second-highest equitation of the flat score in SEC Championship history.

With momentum on their side, equestrian will now shift their focus to the NCEA Championships in Waco, Texas, beginning Thursday, April 16.

Compiled by Eric Wallace, Andrew Monson, C.J. Holmes and Lauren Christopher

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Intrigue Thursday, April 2, 2015

A12 ThePlainsman.com

Intrigue

campus

The Invisible Hands: day in the life of a custodian Andria Moore Intrigue writer

Every hour, Auburn University accumulates trash, dirt and dust.

In the classrooms, bathrooms and hallways, there is everything from apple peels to Starbucks cups.

This trash doesn’t just disappear; it is left for Auburn’s custodial staff to clean up.

Every morning, Monday through Friday, Jessie Stinson rises at 3:30 a.m. to get ready for the day.

Her shift starts at 5 a.m. and ends at 1:30 p.m.

Most of the time, when she comes to the University in the mornings, there is trash everywhere.

“All of the classrooms have trash cans, but there will still be paper, food and trash everywhere,” Stinson said. “Some people just don’t think about anybody but themselves.”

The custodians are responsible for vacuuming and mopping all floors, as well as taking out all of the trash and dusting all surfaces.

Linda Payne, also a University-employed custodian, said her job doesn’t end at 1:30 p.m, when her shift ends.

After leaving work, she goes home to pick up her grandkids and do the rest of her household chores.

Payne said the days become so long and grueling sometimes she doesn’t know if she can handle it.

“Sometimes, I’ll walk in a classroom, and I’ll see the trash, and I’ll just feel like closing the door and turning around,” Payne said.

Besides the early hours, Stinson said she believes one of the hardest parts about her job is when she is disrespected.

“When you clean the restrooms, especially the men’s, we put the signs out in front so that people know not to come in,” Stinson said. “But some young men will just walk right past you up to the urinals and do their business.”

The University’s custodial staff is divided into the people who were hired through the University and the people who were hired through Centaur Building Services, a company that provides janitorial and related services.

Stinson said Auburn is currently short of custodial staff, so the custodians who do work have extra jobs and duties.

“When people leave and retire, they don’t hire more people, so we have to do their jobs too,” Stinson said.

“

Give me respect for my job, because this is a way to provide for my family.

Everybody doesn’t have the same talents ...You give people respect in whatever they do because that’s their personal choice.”

—Jessie Stinson custodian

Some of the custodial staff said they wish for some changes to be made to increase the amount of custodial employees on campus.

“I think Auburn needs to bring back all of the in-house staff [those hired through the University] because they do a better job,” said Charnita Wright, another University-employed custodian.

Rushing to class or a meeting, it is easy to throw a cup toward the trash and miss. It is also easy to take for granted how that cup will become extra work for a custodian.

“If we don’t clean up and keep it clean, you would have to come here and sit in filth,” Stinson said. “I feel like we should get a better pay scale than what we get because, right now, we are at the bottom.”

Wright said the custodial staff was called out by the operations manager, Darren Chamblee, at the last meeting for not “doing as much work as they should.”

“I work through my break,” Wright said. “If you see me sitting down, that‘s because I’m catching up on my break.”

Stinson, Payne and Wright all agreed if there was one thing they could make people understand about their job, it would be they deserve respect just as much as the next person.

“Give me respect for my job because this is a way to provide for my family,” Stinson said. “Everybody doesn’t have the same talents, some do this and some do that. You give people respect in whatever they do because that’s their personal choice.”

andria moore / intrigue writer

Every Monday through Friday, a custodian’s day begins at 3:30 a.m. to clean up after students.

TRAVEL

Students take a break from spring break and live on the wild side

CONTRIBUTED BY TOMMIE REEVES

Students such as Tommie Reeves chose South American destinations for their spring break vacations over more popular locales such as Destin or Gulf Shores.

Andria Moore Intrigue writer

On Friday, March 21, the clock couldn’t have moved slower as students waited in anticipation to be out of school and on the beach.

For many, spring break destinations are a simple process of elimination: Will it be Destin, Gulf Shores or Panama City, Florida?

But for other students, the beach was never an option.

Ashley Harris, senior in zoology, said she was much happier spending her spring break on an iguana reserve in the Dominican Republic.

“The Samaná Island in the Dominican Republic is the only place in the world that you can find both species of rhino iguana thriving natively,” Harris said.

Harris and her boyfriend, Ryan Burgener, originally chose the Dominican Republic as their vacation destination because they wanted to “get away from the hustle and bustle” of spring breakers in the United States.

“We took more of a do-it-yourself approach to traveling,” Harris said. “I feel like we had much more of a cultural learning experience.”

Tommie Reeves, senior in accounting, said he also had a cultural learning experience during break.

Reeves and a few of her friends went on a seven-day cruise that took them from New Orleans to Cozumel, Mexico; Belize City, Belize; Roatan, Honduras; and Costa Maya, Mexico.

“My favorite part was getting to drive a jeep around Cozumel, Mexico, and exploring on our own, doing whatever we wanted, not going to the typical tourist places,” Reeves said.

Reeves said besides the joy of driving, she especially loved the incredible scenery of Honduras and the island Little French Key. “There was a man there that had all these animals he had rescued, and you could play with them if you wanted,” Reeves said. “They let us swim with the jaguar.”

While Reeves was enjoying the relaxation and wonder of island culture, Isabella Premont, senior in industrial engineering, was leading a team of students to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to collaborate with Widows Harvest.

According to their website, Widows Harvest is a ministry that serves widows in distress.

“It was very cool seeing how trusting these women were and how much faith they have even after all they have been through,” Premont said.

Premont said she felt her spring break differed from the typical student’s because she not only had to work, but she was also learning life lessons from a widow.

“There was this one woman I met who basically gave me some of the best career advice I’ve ever received,” Premont said. “She told me to try to find something that you personally have to offer, like, for me, I’m a girl working in engineering, and use what you have that makes you, you, to help other people.”

CONTRIBUTED BY TOMMIE REEVES

Clockwise: Tommie Reeves, Amanda Cyr, Jordan Santi and Kelsey Rushing were among students who spent their break traveling South America.

Harris said she also enjoyed helping another culture, and learning about how they help themselves.

“It turns out that the iguana reserve we were at isn’t funded by the government or donations,” Harris said. “Everything they make comes from what people buy in the souvenir shop there, and it goes to protecting the animals and environment.”

Realizing the world is smaller than you think can be both terrifying and motivating, something Premont said influenced her during her spring

break.

“Our generation does really care about making the world a better place, and that’s cool, but they also seem to have this attitude of, ‘I’m awesome, I can save the world,’” Premont said. “Learning how to save the world, but being more humble about it, is hard.”

Whether preserving endangered iguanas, cruising islands or learning to grow from widows in Tennessee, these spring breakers took an unusual twist to a typical break.

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Intrigue A13

The Auburn Plainsman

MUSIC

Student returns to campus after pursuing her dream

Anna Claire Terry Intrigue Writer

Jessica Williams, sophomore in media studies, is pursuing her dream of becoming a singer/songwriter.

Williams has been playing guitar since she was 13 years old, and she has been writing songs since she was 15 years old.

According to Williams, the music she makes is a mix between pop, country and acoustic.

“It’s kind of a genre of its own, I guess,” Williams said.

As a freshman, Williams started out her college career in interior design. She said she felt more focused on her music.

“I thought to myself, ‘I don’t know if I can do interior design for the rest of my life,’ so my parents let me move,” Williams said.

Williams then spent a year in Nashville, Tennessee, where she had the opportunity to network.

“The music industry is all about who you know, and I got to meet a lot of people and learn so much,” Williams said.

She turned to Tom Douglas for mentorship.

Douglas has written songs for celebrities such as Miranda Lambert and Tim Mcgraw.

Williams said she would send Douglas songs she had written, and he would give her feedback.

He even let her perform in one of his own shows.

Williams said Douglas has been helpful and encouraging, and she said she knows he will continue to help her with her music.

Williams said her time in Nashville was a learning experience and said it helped her see if she wanted to pursue her dream after her time at Auburn.

Williams ultimately decided to return to Auburn and finish school.

“Getting a degree is important, and it’s something that I needed to do,” Williams said.

Upon her return, she changed her major form interior design to media studies with a minor in marketing.

Williams performs at venues in the Auburn area. She has upcoming shows at Coffee Cat and at Earthfest at Davis Arboretum in April.

Sara Bedsole, junior in communication dis-

orders, said she lived next to Williams freshman year and walked in to her room because she could hear her playing through the walls.

“Since then, it has been such a neat experience to see her grow as an artist,” Bedsole said. “She is a true example of someone who is chasing a dream.”

Austin Cain, freshman in accounting, plays gigs with Williams and said she has even taken the time to help him with music.

“The music business is a very narcissistic industry always looking to self-promote and stand out, but Jessica is very selfless and humble with the talents God has given her,” Cain said.

Williams said a lot of her inspiration comes from her friends.

“Being around my friends is a good way to get inspired for songs,” Williams said. “I feed off of them. When I’m by myself or in a more businesslike songwriting setting, there is only so much to write about. I like being able to write a song about something I’m going through because it’s kind of a therapy thing. The more I sing a song about something, the quicker I get over it.”

Williams also said she is inspired by music about issues she can relate to.

“I like that one person can a write a song that other people in the world can relate to,” Williams said. “That’s what I want to be able to do for other people.”

Williams said her biggest cheerleader is her grandmother, but she also gets great support from her parents and friends.

According to Williams, one of her favorite things about writing songs is when other people know her songs.

“I love when I’m performing a song and my friends sing the words back to me,” Williams said. “That’s my dream: to hear other people sing the words that I write in my bedroom back to me.”

Williams continues to work on her music. She said she recently recorded three songs and will put one, “Radio,” on iTunes in a month or two.

“I would love to be signed, but it’s fine if that doesn’t happen,” Williams said. “I’m just seeing what the Lord has in store. Just seeing what all I can do.”

CONTRIBUTED BY JESSICA WILLIAMS

Jessica Williams, above, spent time in Nashville,Tennessee, to network in the music industry with hopes of becoming a musician.

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