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Tuesday, September 27, 2016
RACLE Volume 101 | Issue 3 | Free in single copy
The primary news source of the Golden Eagles since 1924 Serving Tennessee Tech weekly during the fall and spring semesters
Literature class performs marathon reading to fund raise for trip to New York By MARANDA TANKERSLEY Beat Reporter Students of the English Department performed a marathon reading of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” Saturday at the Talon Theatre in Foundation Hall. The reading was comprised of students of the Topics of American Literature class and event attendees took turns reading portions of the novel in order to raise funds for the class’ trip to New York City during fall break. “I had the idea for at least a year, year and a half before this semester to have a class that would visit New York City and to structure a literature class that would make use of New York City,” Ted Pelton, English department chairperson, said. The class covers literary works written by the “beat generation,” focusing on authors Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg and William Burroughs, who were all living in New York City at the time, Pelton said. According to Britannica, the beat generation was a social and literary movement located in communities in San Francisco, Los
Angeles and New York City in the 1950s. Members of the generation “advocated personal release, purification, and illumination through heightened sensory awareness that might be induced by drugs, jazz, sex or the disciplines of Zen Buddhism.” The class’ trip is mostly funded by an EDGE Creative Inquiry grant, which Pelton said, are used to help students develop better critical thinking skills. For his class, they are focusing on the question “to what extent does urban environment generate creativity?” Though while the majority of the trip’s funding comes from the $5,000 EDGE grant, students are required to pay for their flights. The fundraiser’s goal of $1,200 is for extra expenses the class may need. With the help of library circulation desk supervisors, student Carolyn Shafer said she was able to pass along the pledge sheet throughout the library staff to gather $210 in pledges. “I think we’ll reach our goal, but that isn’t our largest concern at the moment. We just hope everyone read-
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S.O.L.O. fund decrease causes lowered cap for organizational requests By ASHLEY MOYERS Beat Reporter
Maranda Tankersley l The Oracle “ON THE ROAD” - Tom Pelton, English Department Chairperson, reads from Kerouac’s “On the Road,” during the marathon reading Saturday.
ing “On the Road” will enjoy themselves,” student Joseph Hargis said. Pelton’s itinerary for the trip focuses on areas that Kerouac and other beat authors spent their time at. The class has planned to visit Kerouac’s apartment, Riverside Park, the Brooklyn Bridge and an
appointment to look at Kerouac materials in the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library. The total amount of donations have yet to be determined, but Hargis said that the marathon reading took an estimate of 11-12 hours to complete from cover to cover.
This semester’s S.O.L.O. general fund has decreased by roughly $70,000. Each semester students are charged a fee of $20 to fund the two SGA accounts. 85 percent of the fee goes toward the super fund and 15 percent of the fee goes toward the general fund. The SGA super fund is used to pay for the concert each semester, whereas the general fund is used to supply S.O.L.O. applications. When compared to previous semesters, the general fund would typically have $80,000- $100,000 to last the entire semester. For the fall 2016 semester however, the current total for the general fund is $20,0920.50. Because of the general fund’s decease, pertinent aspects such as the S.O.L.O. cap amount have been affected. Each semester an organization on campus can request a certain amount of money to support an event the group is sponsoring. In previous years, organizations could ask up to
$2,500 per semester, but with the recent decrease in funding the new cap amount is set at $500 per semester. Each organization can either ask for the cap amount or present two applications to SGA per semester, regardless if they hit the full cap amount of $500. SGA treasurer, Hope Duke, addressed these factors of the funding decrease at last Tuesday’s SGA meeting. “Due to enrollment being down 10 percent, a record breaking amount of summer S.O.L.O. applications, and a culture of being fiscally irresponsible, we are lower on funds than previous years. It was kind of the perfect storm,” she said. Regarding summer S.O.L.O. applications, the money used for spending comes from the fall semester funds since the spring semester funding is “at the end of its rope,” SGA president, Alex Martin, said. In previous years, SGA has often used money from both the general fund and the super fund to pay for things throughout the semester. See “S.O.L.O Fund” >> Page 2
Cardboard City camp out shows reality of homelessness By OLIVIA HOFFMAN Beat Reporter Tech’s Residential Life and Cookeville Rescue Mission are in the process of planning Cardboard City, a chance for students to understand the reality of homelessness. For the past six years, students and volunteers have gathered on Main Quad to sleep in cardboard boxes through the night and donate supplies to the Cookeville Rescue Mission. This year’s slogan for Cardboard City is “Think Outside the Box,” which encourages students to think about what home-
lessness looks like. Tisheika Snow, New Hall North hall director, has one major goal for the event. “My goal is to change the stereotype of what homelessness looks like. It’s not always people sleeping under a bridge; it can be people that are constantly moving. Homelessness can be caused by mental illness or people that just lost their jobs and ran out of money,” Snow said. The Cookeville Rescue Mission provides dental care, health services, ministry, housing, meals, laundry service, referrals to jobs and a hair salon for the homeless. They are open 24/7 all days of the year.
“For 40 years, the nonprofit Cookeville Rescue Mission has provided emergency, temporary shelter for the homeless … lasting from three to 30 days for men, women and families in need,” according to Cookeville Rescue Mission’s website. Activities like face painting, corn hole and board games are provided for participants. A hands-on service activity for students and volunteers is preparing hygiene kits for the homeless, which can only happen if there are enough donations of hygiene products. The Cookeville Rescue Mission also judges how well students
build their cardboard “home.” “There are no rules as to how much cardboard you can bring, but we will provide duct tape if you bring donations,” Snow said. Tech’s Service Learning Program also is playing a role in the event. Michelle Huddleston, Service Coordinator, has a couple activities planned. “I hope to have one of my volunteers doing face painting with phrases like “I heart service” or something related to service,” Huddleston said. “We will also be there with hot dogs that you can pay for with canned items and donations for the Rescue Mission.”
The event is planned to begin at 7 p.m. on Oct. 5 and last until 7 a.m. If students plan to stay the night, the event will end around 7 a.m. In the case of rain, the event will be located in Memorial Gym. Snow advises students to bring a blanket. “I want to inspire people to go out and make a difference on campus and in the world. I also want to make aware volunteering opportunities in the community,” Snow said. Volunteer forms can be found at cookevillerescuemission.org for anyone wanting to volunteer in the future.
ROTC cadets expand skills in Fort Benning training courses By CADET LUKE HORNBY Guest Contributor
This summer, three Tech Golden Eagle Battalion cadets added their accomplishments to the Long Purple Line by earning their wings and graduating from two of the Army’s premier training schools: the Fort Benning Air Assault School and the United States Army Airborne School. The three cadets earned their respected qualifications while training with other cadets and soldiers from across the armed forces. Cadet Andrew Whittenbarger, a sophomore Chemical Engineering major, attended the Air Assault School in Fort Benning, Georgia. Where he trained in three phases that involved rotary wing aircraft. Read More Online
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Phase one involved learning helicopter capabilities as well as hand and arm signals and basic pathfinder operations. Phase two involved sling load operations on helicopters. In phase three, the focus was on rappelling, in which the final stage included rappelling out of a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter. “My favorite part was meeting other cadets and soldiers all across the United States and making new connections,” Whittenbarger said. Cadet William Nakamoto, a senior accounting major, and Cadet Harrison Scott, a sophomore engineering technology major, both attended the U.S. Army Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia. The U.S. Army Airborne School is also a three-phased course of instruction.
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The first week, ground week, consists of learning the proper procedures of how to jump out of an airplane and how to hook up a parachute harness. Cadets also learned how to land a jump, which is called a parachute landing fall (PLF). The second week, tower week, is an accelerated ground week. Cadets performed a mass exit out of a 34-foot tower, which consisted of four people jumping out right after another. Cadets also trained utilizing the swing load trainer (SLT). The SLT required students to jump from a 12-foot high platform while attached to a harness, and drop whenever the instructor decided to let them fall. The third week, jump week, as the name implies, consists of five
Cadet Sarah Sholly l TTU ROTC GOLDEN EAGLE BATTALION - Cadet William Nakamoto and Cadet Harrison Scott completed summer training at the U.S. Army Airborne School in Fort Benning, Georgia. jumps out of either a Lockheed C-130 or Boeing C-17 transport aircraft, with four jumps occurring during the day and the fifth jump at night. “My favorite part was the night
jump,” Scott said. “It was both exciting and scary at the same time, due to the fact that you could only partially see everybody else and the ground with the limited light provided from the moon.”
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