The Oracle- October 25 2013

THE RETURN OF PURPLE PALOOZA | PAGE 11

PICTURES FROM THE FRAY | PAGE 3

WHAT’S SO SCARY ABOUT CARRIE? | PAGE 13

More stories and exclusive content at tntechoracle.com

THE

Tennessee Tech University | Cookeville, TN | 38505 | Est. 1924

O

RACLE

Volume 97 | Issue 5 | Free in single copy | October 25, 2013

Editor sights lack of rushing attack for OVC losing streak

By JAMAL FERGUSON Sports Editor

For the second year in a row, it’s Homecoming and the football team does not have an OVC win. The team is 0-4 in the conference two years removed from their OVC championship.

It’s time for the blame game.

You know those question marks that the offense had headed into the season, now we know the answers to them.

Junior quarterback Darian Stone is dynamic on the field. He led the Golden Eagles over the conference champion UT-Martin Skyhawks last season, accounting for over 460 yards on his own.

Stone rushed for just under 500 yards and threw for over 750 yards in his first four starts as a Golden Eagle.

His play spelled good fortune this upcoming season.

Things have not panned out that way.

Tech can’t move the ball down the field this year.

These problems stem from a lack of run game. The Golden Eagles are second worst (if one is still counting winless rival Austin Peay as competition) in the OVC in rushing yards per game, averaging a measly 125 yards.

Without a run game, Stone and the offense have struggled to put together consistent drives this season.

The Golden Eagles only average 19 first downs a game, making the them sixth in the OVC. They also have the highest number of punts (26) and average the most punts per game (6.6) in conference games.

Stone has gotten hurt a few times this season, causing the offense to be under the command of redshirt freshman Jared Davis. Davis was asked to come off the bench and immediately thrown into the fire with a lack of a run game.

This put the defense on the field more than they

By SARAH SHANKS Beat Reporter

Photos by James Dillon

The Golden Eagles (top) haven’t been able to run the football (left) affectively this season putting more pressure on the defense (right) and causing them to be on the field much more than normal.

would like to have been.

They have responded by having a season that is on par to match or even do better than the Golden Eagle defense from the 2011 OVC Championship campaign defense, statistically.

The defense in 2011 ended its season with 11 interceptions, 15 sacks, 53 tackles for loss and 10 recovered fumbles.

Through eight games this season, the defense already has 10 interceptions, 17 sacks, 58 tackles for loss and eight recovered fumbles.

Senior Malcolm Mitchell’s 4.5 sacks and seven tackles for loss has him in the top eight of the OVC in both categories. Redshirt Junior Marty Jones leads the OVC in tackles with 71 and averages 8.9 per game. in 8

games played this season.

Jones has also had multiple double-digit tackle games.

Just last week, the defense held Eastern Kentucky to 148 yards on the ground at the final horn. EKU averages 213 yards per game.

The Golden Eagles rushed for an upsetting net total of 27 yards. As embarrassing as that number is, it is skewed because of the

two sacks on redshirt freshman quarterback Jared Davis that cost the rushing total 19 yards.

Facts are facts and stats are stats.

Luckily for the Golden Eagles, the team played most of the tougher teams in the conference first. Tech will close out the season with at least two or three wins.

Nursing building dedicated to President Robert and Gloria Bell

By QUEENA JONES Guest Writer The community celebrated Bob Bell’s service to Tech Thursday when the Nursing and Health Services Building was renamed Robert and Gloria Bell Hall, in honor of the former president and his wife.

Bell served as the president of the University for more than a decade.

“Dr. Bell recognized the need for a strong nursing school in rural Tennessee and garnered support from the state legislature, U.S. Congress and private and corporate donors to fund the construction of the Nursing and Health Services Building,” said TTU President Phil Oldham.

“Dr. Bell envisioned that

this building would lead to the establishment of auxiliary programs in family life, nutrition and healthcare as catalysts for innovation and growth,” said Oldham.

“This building also signaled a transformation in the nursing program so that it now better meets the needs of traditional students as well as working professionals.

“As always, Dr. Bell’s initiative was to equip students to succeed,” Oldham said.

“Our students consistently pass the national licensure exam with passage rates of 97-98 percent or greater.”

As eighth president of Tech, Bell led the University through more than a decade of steady enrollment growth.

TTU was consistently ranked among the nation’s best universities during his tenure,

TNTECHORACLE.COM FRIDAY 69/46 °F

Golden Eagle alumni welcomed back home

SATURDAY 65/36 °F

Lori Shull Awesome Eagle stands outside newly named Bell Hall. as he unveils the new T-Sign for Bell Hall, formerly reffered to as the Nursing and Health Services Building and the TTU endowment more than doubled during his presidency.

Bell joined the TTU faculty in 1976 in the College of

Business, and he served as its dean from 1991 to 2000.

Gloria Bell embraced the role of serving the university and the community as first

@TNTECHORACLE SUNDAY 66/38 °F

lady of Tennessee Tech. She hosted many events, established campus traditions and created a culture of appreciation for the arts, service and education.

In 2003, she created the university flag to symbolize the strengths of TTU – a proud spirit, a solid academic reputation and a foundation of character and commitment – that permeate every program at the University.

Robert and Gloria Bell Hall is located at 10 West 7th Street on the TTU campus.

The TTU Brass Arts Quintet provided a prelude and ceremony music.

TTU professor William E. Woodworth provided carillon music, playing the system of bells from the clock tower of Derryberry Hall before and after the naming ceremony.

Tennessee Tech’s Alumni Association is doing its best to keep the alumni up-todate for homecoming this weekend.

The Alumni Association has planned several events that involve alumni for both Friday and Saturday.

According to ttualumni. org, the Alumni Association’s main focus is to act as liaison between Tech alumni and the University. They want to make sure alumni still feel apart of Tech years after they leave the campus. Emails are constantly sent out to inform Tech’s alumni about any big upcoming events that are going on around campus, including Homecoming.

“They do a great job of keep me informed about things that are going on,” said Rosa Webb, TTU alumna from the Class of 1990.

“I usually get an email about something every few weeks.”

This year, the Alumni Association has set up a breakfast for the alumni to enjoy on the second floor lobby of the University Center while watching the parade floats pass by.

“I remember coming back to the Oracle for Homecoming after I graduated,” said Webb. “ My favorite part was just sitting up there having cookies and coffee while catching up with my old advisor. That was one of the best things about Homecoming.”

Though the Alumni Association sets up many events for the alumni from past years to attend, some of the different colleges on campus have set up other activities for their own alumni.

The College of Business has invited its alumni to join Dean James Jordan-Wagner, along with current students and faculty to its Parade Watching Party at the home of Lee and Kim Jones. “We have done this for years,” said Dr. James JordanWagner, whom is currently the Dean of the College of Business. “Our alumni can enjoy themselves and catch up with lost classmates while watching the beautiful parade pass by.”

The college is also having a pre-game luncheon for the alumni in Johnson Hall with President Phil Oldham, professors and staff.

“We know that there will probably be more mingling than eating,” said the Dean Wagner. “ But that is what these events are for seeing someone you haven’t seen in years and going off somewhere to sit and catch up.”

See “Alumni,” page 3

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NEWS Page 2 | October 25, 2013

Up to date campus crime information at: tntechoracle.com

CRIME BRIEFS: - Oct. 19- 7:45 Classification: Larceny Location: Bryan Fine Arts building Disposition: Closed.No subjects or witnesses.

Notes: None.

- Oct. 11 - Not available Classification: Open theft Location: McCord Disposition: Open case.

Notes: Theft of bicycle.

- Oct. 10 - 11:30 Classification: Theft from motor vehicle Location: Volpe Library & media center Disposition: Closed. No subjects or witnesses.

Notes: None.

- Oct. 10 - 11:30 Classification: Open theft.

Location: M.S. Cooper Disposition: Open case.

Notes: Theft of bicycle.

- Oct. 10 - 12:00 Classification: Destruction/Damage/Vandal ism Location: New Hall South parking lot Disposition: Open case.

Notes: Vehicle was vandalized.

tntechoracle.com

Homecoming candidates events @ tech campaign for crown

By RICHARD MOSLEY Beat Reporter Students experienced the opportunity to vote for Homecoming King and Queen Oct. 17.

Candidates utilized different strategies in efforts to receive votes.

Derek Decker, senior human resource major, is the candidate running for Sigma Chi fraternity. He said he felt that social media, flyers, food, and location were the biggest assets to his campaign. Decker also said that he wanted to separate himself from the rest of the competition and that a big advantage would be catching the lunch traffic.

Allison Boshears is a senior public relations major and Homecoming court candidiate for Phi Mu Fraternity.

“We want a campus who is involved and excited about our Homecoming court, not

just all of Greek Life,” said Boshears.

Boshear’s campaign strategies were a bit simpler; she planned to ask all of the people at Tech she has met over the past three years to vote for her. She also had digitally designed banners and flyers made with help from her sorority sisters, who helped her with her campaigning on voting day and the day before.

“Whether it be for myself or the other awesome candidates, I want Tech students to vote. Only about 30 percent of Tech’s campus votes every year,” said Boshears.

Andrea Shook, senior sociology major and candidate for Kappa Delta, had a slightly different approach to her campaigning. She said that being herself, having help from her sisters, and her involvement on campus would be everything she needed to

bring in votes. Shook is the president of Kappa Delta, has been a student orientation assistant for two years, Tennessee Tech tour guide, senator for the College of Arts & Sciences, and is also a university 1020 peer mentor.

“You aren’t required to necessarily do anything when you become Homecoming Queen but it would provide a great platform for me to help get things done and improve campus since I’m already involved a lot around campus,” said Shook.

Homecoming will be held Saturday, Oct. 26. The Homecoming parade begins at 10 a.m. in the Hobby Lobby parking lot and will head down Dixie Avenue, ending at Tucker Stadium. The Homecoming game will kick off at 1:30 p.m. Homecoming King and Queen will be crowned at halftime and tailgating will last all day.

- Oct. 8 - 9:35 Classification: Drug/Narcotic violation Location: Hooper Eblen center Disposition: Closed. Referred to the Dean of Students.

Notes: Crime occurred during the concert.

- Oct. 6 - 11:14 Classification: Drug/Narcotic violation Location: Ellington parking lot Disposition: Closed. Subject arrested.

Notes: None.

- Oct. 2 - 2:00 Classification: Open theft Location: 9th & 10th street Disposition: Open case.

Notes: Subject lost cell phone at above loca tion. Phone was tracked to cell phone com pany where subject tried to get an employee to unlock the code; it wasn’t unlocked. Sub ject stated he would turn phone into Tech police department but has not yet.

- Oct. 2 - Not available Classification: Destruction/Damage/Vandal ism Location: New Hall South parking lot Disposition: Open case.

Notes: Vehicle was vandalized.

- Sept. 30 - 10:00 Classification: Destruction/Damage/Vandal ism Location: Browning parking lot Disposition: Open case.

Notes: Vehicle was vandalized.

- Sept. 30 - Not available Classification: Destruction/Damage/Vandal ism Location: New Hall North parking lot Disposition: Open case.

Notes: Vehicle was vandalized.

- Sept. 30 - Not available Classification: Theft from building Location: Derryberry Hall Disposition: Open case.

Notes: Student left purse and returned later to find it missing. The purse has not been turned in.

8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Preston Light, tuba, Senior Student Recital Wattenarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

26 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.

H2O-Lympics! Safari Saturday for Young Learners Millard Oakley Stem Center 1:30 p.m.

Homecoming game vs.

Jacksonvlle State University Tucker Stadium

3 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Nolan Derrick, tuba, Student Recital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

- Oct. 10 - Not available Classification: Destruction/Damage/Vandal ism Location: STEM center parking lot Disposition: Open case.

Notes: Vehicle was vandalized.

- Oct. 8 - 9:20 Classification: Drug/Narcotic violation Location: Hooper Eblen center Disposition: Closed. Subject arrested.

Notes: Crime occurred while trying to enter for the concert.

7 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Cody Dailey, euphonium, Student Recital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

2 p.m. - 3 p.m.

Travis Robertson, tuba, Student Recital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

- Oct. 10 - 7:45 Classification: Open theft Location: Jobe bike rack Disposition: Open case.

Notes: Theft of bike.

- Oct. 9- Not available Classification: Destruction/Damage/Vandal ism Location: Hooper Eblen center parking lot Disposition: Open case.

Notes: Vehicle was vandalized.

25

27

- Oct. 10 - 4:00 Classification: Theft from motor vehicle Location: Volpe Library & media center Disposition: Open case.

Notes: None.

- Oct. 9 - 6:00 Classification: Intimidation Location: New Hall North 4th floor Disposition: Closed. Referred to Dean.

Notes: Subject has option to get a warrant but doesn’t want to at this time.

October

Melissa Edwards The Homecoming court attendants are presented during the Homecoming pep rally, Thurs.

Oct. 24.

4 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Cooper, tuba; Wormsley, euphonium; Student Recital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building 5 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Austin Vogt, euphonium, Senior Student Recital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

28 12 a.m.

Spring 2014 class schedule is available online 7:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.

William Bugg, bass, guest vocal artist recital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

29

7 p.m.

Erin Brockovich, guest speaker Derryberry Hall Auditorium 7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Alex Hill, tuba, Student Recital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building 8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Briana Engelbert, euphonium, Senior Student Recital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Buidling

30 7 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Chamber Music for Tubas Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building 8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Ryan Snell, tuba, Graduate Student Recital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

31 7:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

NEWS tntechoracle.com

Page 3 | October 25, 2013

CLOCKWISE C OC S Top left The Fray’s lead guitarist Dave Welsh hammers out a guitar solo at the S.O.L.O. concert. Top right-- The Fray perfroms to a sold out Hooper Eblen Center.

SGA President Clay Stubblefield and a hipster dressed Awesome Eagle at the concert.

Slade and drummer Ben Wysocki show their love for the Golden Eagles before the concert. Bottom rightSlade serenades the crowd from his piano. Bottom middle--S Slade lade raises his eagle high to the excitement of the students. lead singer Dan Layus sings powerfully to warm up the crowd.

Women’s basketball assistant coach Erin Batth and Issac Slade of The Fray compare heights.

Slade reaches out to the crowd during the world debut of one of their new songs.

Photos courtesy of Drake Fenlon and Dillon James

Not afraid to show love for the Golden Eagles

By DRAKE FENLON & KIM BIGGS Managing Editor & Assistant Managing Editor Chart-topping, alternative band The Fray and rocked out the Hooper Eblen Center on Oct. 8.

Augustana was the opening act for the sold out concert.

Students, faculty, and general public alike with a ticket filled the floor, lower bowl, and parts of the upper bowl of the basketball arena to see the performances by the two bands.

“My favorite part of the concert was when all the students pulled out their phones and waved the lights around during one of their songs,” said sophomore, mechanical engineering student Wes Demirjian.

Debuting songs from their upcoming album, The Fray demonstrated their musical abilities with a 90-minute set, playing all of their hits and one encore with a one-of-a-kind, personalized Golden Eagle screech.

The Fray did not stop there when making the show unique to Tech. Unleashing their Awesomeness, group frontman Isaac Slade brought a ceramic eagle bust from the Tech women’s basketball office suite onto stage for added adornment to the top of the band’s piano.

The boys of The Fray are no strangers to playing shows on college campuses.

“We do a lot of campus shows,” said Slade.

The Fray was partially formed while Slade and drummer Ben Wysocki attended the University of Colorado Denver. Slade said they played shows around their campus and still appreciate the college campus atmosphere these days.

The band enjoys performing at college venues due to the high energy and crowd participation found at those events despite not being in the same age demographic as college students anymore.

“They make us feel

old,” said Wysocki.

Awesome Eagle entertained the crowd dressed as a doctor during the intermission between the two shows. Referencing one of The Fray’s most popular songs, Awesome tossed handfuls of LifeSaver candies into the eager crowd whilst holding a sign saying, “I know How to Save a Life.”

Each semester the Student Government Association forms a committee to choose a list of bands for the students to then vote within the given genre for that semester. This decision will determine the performance.

According to the SGA constitution Article XIV, section 3, the purpose of the S.O.L.O. fund is to, “enrich and advance the quality of a complete college experience at Tennessee Technology University.”

The S.O.L.O for the concert is being decided on, and a ballot will be made available in the next few weeks.

NEWS Page 4 | October 25, 2013

tntechoracle.com

Stephen Sexton Cadets prepare to raise the American flag before a home football game kickoff.

Golden Eagle Battalion closure could affect cadets’ futures

By MELISSA EDWARDS Beat Reporter

Stephen Sexton Sophomore cadet Corey Robinson simulates pulling squad security during a lab training exercise.

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Cadets of the Golden Eagle Battalion are already facing the effects of the Army’s Oct. 2 announcement to close Tech’s ROTC program by the end of the 2014-2015 academic year.

While the majority of current juniors and seniors will be able to complete the program, it is the freshmen and sophomores who have been affected the most.

Freshman cadet Ellen Shultz, an ROTC scholarship recipient, expressed the reaction of both herself and her parents to the news.

“I think we all kind of felt a sense of irony because I went through a lot to get here,” Shultz said. “They didn’t want to accept my medical stuff because I had an allergy. I had like five different doctor appointments, tests, letters and things I had to get.”

The Army is providing assistance to cadets in closing programs, encouraging them to transfer schools to complete the remainder of their training or cross-enroll within schools with ROTC programs nearby.

Some cadets have the option to opt out of their contracts completely. Shultz has decided to apply for

Vanderbilt University to complete her training.

“It was kind of my dream school in high school and I got rejected last year. So I’m getting another shot at it,” she said.

Shultz is still considering her career options but hopes to serve on active duty overseas in the future.

Michael Aliff, a sophomore cadet enlisted in the Army National Guard, expected to contract with ROTC after returning from basic training in August.

“I was really speechless,” Aliff said. “I enlisted just for this ROTC program. I left for basic. I come back expecting to contract next semester. But now I can’t. So I’m transferring.”

Despite the sudden decision, both Shultz and Aliff willingly continue to participate in the training and support the program’s events.

“I’m not mad about it because it’s the Army,” Aliff said. “It is what it is. I’m going to finish out strong. You can’t be upset because something didn’t happen your way.

You’ve just got to drive on.”

He plans to transfer next semester to UT-Chattanooga and pursue a career as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard upon graduation.

Freshman and sophomore

enrollment in the program is expected to drop at least by half next semester. The current junior cadets stand to lose opportunities to lead and mentor underclassmen as they become seniors during the Fall 2014 semester—when the freshman, sophomore and junior classes will be completely removed.

“I don’t get the same experience as the other seniors before me,” junior cadet Jesse Cotton said. “That’s the main thing for me to learn is how to lead. That’s what officers do— they lead people. Without any people below you, you’re not really learning how to lead anybody.”

Cotton also expressed looking forward to alternative training that next year’s seniors will possibly receive, such as field training with nearby Army units from Fort Campbell, KY and visits to local battlefields for historical value and battle analysis.

He hopes to commission as an engineer officer in the Army National Guard after graduation.

With the guidance of the ROTC instructors as well as support from the school administration, friends and family, 17 remaining juniors and seniors are scheduled to commission as second lieutenants within the timeframe of the closing.

“We are a young team, but we still did very well, especially considering how we lost one of our best debaters last year to graduation,” said team member Ken Brown, a sophomore political science major. “We had a first time varsity team make it to the top four and in total won more than 20 awards. So, the future is looking extremely bright for the program.”

Graham Kash has taught in the communication department for decades and has long coached the team. Jacob Metz, professor of English, also coaches the team. The coaches said they are excited to be working with the team and have high hopes for the season, which will consist of five more tournaments.

“I am excited about it [this year’s team],” said Metz. “We’ve brought back a strong varsity squad from last year, which should compete really well. With having a strong varsity core, they are able to work with our novice, and help them get better faster than if it were just the coaching staff.”

While the team is doing well, there are still obstacles that must be overcome in order to ensure the team’s longevity and success.

“Continuing recruitment is a constant struggle,” said Metz. “But we are working on improving our recruitment avenues, so that we can get more people involved and ensure that we are better known across campus and heard of more.”

Key said this year’s team is very diverse, and getting everyone on the same page has been challenging.

“We are very various in our ideas, and the challenge has been getting all those various ideas together, but it is definitely possible,” Key said. “We can make our differences work for the good or for the bad. But we are definitely striving to make them work for the good.”

The team relies heavily on support from alumni members for both funding and guidance. Key said alumni members provide connectedness, fellowship and provide a solid base.

Additionally, they are able to relate to current members, because they have been there, and they know how to prepare for and impress the judges.

Each year, on the day of the Homecoming game, the team hosts a breakfast for all alumni members.

“It is a get-together for the alumni to meet the current crop of competitors and for the competitors to meet the alumni,” said Metz. “We want to continue to form those bonds and that community with each other.”

Both coaches, as well as the president of the team, encourage anyone who is interested in the Speech and Debate team to attend a practice. Each week, two practices are held; they are on Monday and Wednesday nights in RUC room 369 starting at 6:30 p.m.

Undebatable greatness

By CAYCE MCDONALD Beat Reporter

In Tech’s Office of Communications there proudly sits a large, old, wooden trophy case, where dozens of glimmering gold trophies stand tall and erect.

Some of these trophies date back to the early 1940s. The trophy case appears to be busting at the seams, yet each year more and more trophies enter the case to rest triumphantly on a shelf.

Tech’s Speech and Debate team has a long, rich history of success. This year’s team is continuing the winning tradition for which they are well known across the Southeast.

The first tournament of the fall semester was held Oct. 18-20 in Berea, Ky. The team racked up on awards, including second place in the large school debate sweepstakes, and third place in the large school individual event sweepstakes.

“We did overall well,” said Laton Key, a junior who is serving as president of Speech and Debate team.

“There are definitely some things that we need to improve on, but we definitely faced some challenges this weekend, as a team, that are going to help us grow.”

There were 11 total competitors representing Tech at the tournament, many of whom are new to the team.

Based on this past weekend’s experiences, team members are optimistic about future opportunities for success.

NEWS tntechoracle.com

>>”ALUMNI” CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The College of Business will also be giving every alum who attends these events a free ticket to the football game.

After the game is over, the TTU American Society of Civil Engineers student chapter and the department of civil and environmental engineering will be celebrating with their annual pig roast.

Page 5 | October 25, 2013

There will also be a Geekbox Jam concert after the game at 5 p.m. inside the Hooper Eblen Center.

The Alumni Association sent out emails informing alumni about these Homecoming events and posted them on the Association’s Facebook page.

On this page, the Association posts pictures of games or events happening at Tech so those how were unable to attend can see what they may have missed.

Housing overflow continues late into fall semester

By AARON VICK & SARAH TOWNSEND Beat Reporters Approximately 45 students are still residing in overflow hotels due to a lack of available on-campus housing.

Last year, Residential Life emptied the overflow hotels within one week.

Students residing in the hotels are disconnected from campus life. As the semester goes on and the number of students in the hotels lessens, the few remaining students are left with even fewer connections to Tech. Many students and parents have questions as to why this issue exists.

Residential Life has a policy that requires freshmen and sophomores to live on campus. Sophomores can apply to be released from the halls at the end of the fall semester when choosing where to live for the following semester.

For transfer student Lauren Roach, living on campus was her only option.

Without many contacts in Cookeville or time to search for other housing, Roach assumed that a residential hall would be the best way to get connected to other students and Tech events.

“It was mostly an inconvenience when it came to transportation,” Roach said.

“I waited one day for over half an hour for either of the buses and ended up having to drive myself to campus because the bus never showed up.”

Fortunately, for Roach, she was not there for an extended period of time.

“They did do a good job about getting us all into the dorms quick, though. I was out after just a week and I

was at the end of the list,“ Roach said.

Not all sophomores are approved to leave the halls, however. Residential Life has been observing the need for more hall space and is making the adjustments needed in order to release sophomores to make room for other students wanting to live in the halls.

“We will continue to look at the sophomore requirement,” said Charlie Macke, Director of Residential Life at TTU. “[We will] see how that plays into this and what we can do with that to release some of the pressure on campus housing.”

Macke also said releasing too many students could result in negative business outcomes for Residential Life because the department is an auxiliary service, meaning all the department’s revenue comes from the fees paid by the students living in housing.

“What you worry about from a business standpoint is what happens if you lose 300 folks,” said Macke. “Now, [the halls] will open with 200 spaces, and at $2,000 a space [we would be losing] huge bucks.”

Despite the possibility of having an imbalance between residents and living spaces, Macke said he does not think drastic sophomore requirement policy changes would have a significant impact due to the results of slight policy changes in the past.

“Last year we released sophomores on the first of April,” said Macke. “We didn’t see any more sophomores take advantage of that than the year before, and we released them two years before in May.”

Planning Organizations perform at for annual Homecoming Pep Rally

By WHYTNIE CLEMMER Beat Reporter

Thursday night, several organizations participated in Pep Rally, one of Homecoming’s biggest events.

Teams performed practiced routines in a competition to earn points. These organizations spend hours of time preparing for this event.

Lacey Renfro is a sophomore and captain of the pep rally squad for Phi Mu Fraternity and Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. She said she was excited to see how her team would do Oct. 24.

Renfro was picked last semester to lead her sorority and another fraternity for Pep Rally.

“I started working on the routine around August,” said Renfro.

Renfro spent most of the summer coming up with

ideas for Pep Rally this year to top last year’s performances. She even created moves that were inspired by dances she had seen in movies. However, she said there is not one certain routine she chose to incorporate into her routine.

“It is a mixture of the things I saw and liked along with things I thought the team would like,” Renfro said.

Renfro was selected captain of the squad last spring.

When she joined Phi Mu in 2012, she tried out for the team and made it. Phi Mu and their 2012 partner Sigma Phi Epsilon received second place for their overall performance.

“When I joined last year, I watched how my coach went about leading the team and teaching the routines and I knew that’s something I wanted to do,” Renfro said.

100

Renfro has many years of experience as a competitive cheerleader that she said she believes helped her in picking a team and organizing a routine.

Rachel Kerr, a senior and Pep Rally chair for Tech Activities Board, explained that planning for Pep Rally is started the April previous to the event. During competition, each team is scored on technique, presentation and spirit. The spirit from the crowd at the Pep Rally competition helps, as well.

Pep Rally is not only just for organizations to compete.

The Golden Eagles football team will be in attendance and presented to the crowd.

The Tech cheerleading and dance teams will also perform routines.

The Homecoming court will be introduced during the Pep Rally intermission, also.

Melissa Edwards

Tech’s dance team looks on as organizations perform at Thursday’s Homecoming pep rally. Both the dance team and Tech’s cheer team performed, also.

Students design Homecoming floats

By WHYTNIE CLEMMER Beat Reporter Among the many events that take place during the week and day of Homecoming, one of the largest and most observed contests is the float competition.

Sarah Reese, senior, is a member of Phi Mu and the sorority’s Homecoming chair. Phi Mu has paired up with Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity for their Homecoming competition.

The chosen theme for their float is Operation.

The iconic board game has been created from pomping, manipulated tissue paper placed and molded to create shapes.

“We bought over 30 cases of pomp,” Reese said.

“We rolled and placed about 240,000 pieces.”

Phi Mu and SAE also used plywood and a small amount of cardboard for detail.

SAE’s homecoming chairs and Reese have been planning for the float since September.

Their organizations officially started working towards the end of that month.

Ben Orban, a senior

member of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, paired with Delta Gamma to create a float theme from the game Mouse Trap. Their float consists mainly of wood and paper, like pomping.

“We have at least $700 worth of pomping put into the float,” Orban said.

SigEp and DG have also worked on their float for about a month.

This year, pomping is the main technique being used on floats.

There is a lot of paper used on these floats which can create a fire hazard.

Each organization that creates a float has to follow the same rules as the other.

“We worked to make everything on our float fire retardant because that’s a rule TAB stresses for safety,” Reese said.

Along with the floats being fire retardant, other rules explain the floats have to be built on one trailer and cannot be over 13-feet tall.

Also, no one will be throwing candy into the crowd as a rule of safety to protect parade watchers.

The full list of rules can be found in the Homecoming packet online at tntech.edu/ homecoming.

years of Tech

Centennial celebration planning underway

By SARAH TOWNSEND Beat Reporter

Tennessee Tech is celebrating homecoming this week so it may not be at the forefront of students’ attention that the university’s 100th anniversary is approaching, also. Though Tech’s centennial is not until 2015, planning and organizing for the commemoration is already taking place.

Tech alumna Laura Clemons is the centennial coordinator in charge of planning projects for the occasion.

Some of them require the two years of planning that is allotted while others are a matter of organizing and getting funding approved.

“At the moment nothing is set in stone.” She said, “ There are so many good ideas, the hard part is picking.”

The main goal of the centennial events is to mark this time in the university’s history for future generations while observing the past.

One of the events planned, which would embody this idea, is a retrospective art exhibition of the late Joan Derryberry’s paintings, many of which document Tech’s history. She was an instructor of music and one of the university’s past first ladies.

“We get a picture of what we looked like from 19401974 by seeing her work,” Clemons said.

With many of the larger projects, like the possibility of a centennial memorial, which would require a large amount of funding, are in the earliest stages of development and have yet to be approved. This is one of the main reasons why planning for these undertakings begins now.

Clemons said, “the idea of a public art project takes a ton of lead time to figure out where its going to be, how much we’re going to spend on it” and deciding who will create the piece. The process of finding an appropriate artist to bring the idea to fruition could take months itself. “Of all the projects, this is probably the biggest” she said, the goal is that people “won’t have to go inside a gallery to see it.”

Clemons is also editing a book, with the working title People and Places, to explain Tech’s history in chronological order through illustration, photography, and recently recorded memoirs from the university’s past. Several faculty members will be contributing content, including Lori Shull and Professor Michael Birdwell, PhD. Clemons is focused on collecting stories from alumni and retired faculty these would otherwise be forgotten. She says, “These interviews that go into these kinds of books are so important to capture” while the people are still able to recall them.

She hopes to soon have a website launched to feature some of these stories and photographs for public viewing.

She said, “we want to commemorate the moment in time with something that is going to live on past us.

Something that will hopefully be here forever.”

NEWS Page 6 | October 25, 2013

tntechoracle.com

Erin Brockovich scheduled to speak on campus

By PAIGE STANAGE Beat Reporter Consumer advocate and environmental activist Erin Brockovich will visit Tennessee Tech to speak about motivation and personal empowerment Oct. 29 in Derryberry Hall Auditorium at 7 p.m.

The Commission on the Status of Women proposed Brockovich to be their speaker for this semester. The Commission’s chairwoman Julia Baker said Brockovich is regarded as a strong and outspoken woman who has made a difference in the world. Baker said those qualities are what the Commission looks for when choosing a speaker.

“I think women are strong but they are weakened by perceptions of what society thinks they should be,” Baker said. “Hopefully, Erin

will show women in Tech’s audience that they can be outspoken and stand up for their rights.”

The Commission has previously presented speakers such as Maya Angelou, a world-renowned author, and Anita Hill, a prominent American figure and attorney.

Brockovich’s topics during her presentation discuss the importance of motivation in everyday life and personal strength in all individuals.

Brockovich includes her four steps to success and the power of one. She will also discuss “RAM”, which stands for realization, assessment, and motivation.

Anne Thurmond, coordinator of Center Stage Events, said, “I hope that the audience will take away a sense of hope and a positive feeling that they can make a change and a difference.”

Brockovich began her career when she started working as a file clerk at a law firm in California. While working there, she discovered medical records, which, through heavy research, indicated a drinking water contamination with hexavalent chromium.

This discovery led to the largest medical law settlement in American history, which included $333 million to 600 residents in Hinkley, Calif.

Brockovich’s current work includes finding a cause behind the Louisiana Sinkhole and the negative health effects possibly caused

by Accutane and its generic versions.

She has also written the New York Times best-seller “Take It From Me: Life’s a Struggle, But You Can Win.”

HEY MISTER, LET’S PLAY TWISTER

Photo courtesy of cbsnews.com Erin Brockovich speaks to an audience at one of her events. Brockovich is known for her environmental activism.

Professors coordinate with Russian schools for education

By WILLIAM WEBB Beat Reporter

Sarah Dingwall Students participate in a game of Twister at the Homeconing Bash Thursday, Oct. 24 in the Tech Pride room. The Homecoming Bash was sponsored by the Tech Activities Board and was free for students to attend. TAB provided food and refreshments as well as games for those in attendance. Students livng on campus earned points for Tech Wars for attending the event. For more information on Tech Wars and other events sponsored by TAB, visit the TAB website.

Degree Works helps students with decisions

By CAYCE WOODARD Beat Reporter

Tech will open a new piece of software to students in the spring that will ease the advisement process.

Degree Works is a software system purchased

by Tech last year that will allow students to plan out their courses before they meet with their advisors and register for classes.

“We are excited,” ITS coordinator Jerri Winningham said. “I believe this is a powerful piece of software.”

The new software does not eliminate the requirement for students to meet with their advisors before registration. Degree Works is intended to help students better prepare them for when they go to advisement.

“I want students to be aware that their advisors have this,” Winningham said. “Degree Works is a tool that will help the faculty advise students.”

Currently, Degree Works has course catalogs for 2011, 2012 and 2013. Students who are using a course catalog from before 2011 will need to use the What If function on the software.

The What-if function of Degree Works also helps students decide on what courses they need to take depending on their major.

“The What-if function of Degree Works will especially help students who have not decided what they want to major in,” Winningham said.

In addition to registration, Tech hopes that Degree Works will also help with the graduation process.

“For example, we hope to use Degree Works to write reports to help students substitute classes when they apply for graduation,” Winningham said.

Though Degree Works is not available to students yet, the faculty and staff are learning how to use it this semester. Tech has offered training courses to help them become more familiar with the software before students get access to it.

“The process helps faculty learn the ins and outs of Degree Works as well as helping us learn what needs to be fixed,” Winningham said.

Tech purchased Degree Works from Elusian last year.

More information about Degree Works is available at www.tntech.edu/em/ degreeworks-faq/#whatif.

tech students receive 10% discount

Russia is a place that is moving towards a better understanding of individuals with disabilities, and some professors in the special education department at Tech are getting the opportunity to help with that.

On Nov. 2, Helen Dainty, Laura Graves and Amy Callender are making a trip to Siberia for eight days. The professors said they will be attending a conference that will hopefully raise awareness and cause a change in Russia’s views on students with special needs.

Callender said Russia is a country that needs help with their movement to understanding and working with students with disabilities because their past on the subject isn’t very strong.

“They have very little inclusive opportunities for students with disabilities,” said Callender. “The students with moderate to severe disabilities are not typically being educated by peers without disabilities.”

The professors indicated there is a very high importance level associated with this trip due to the history that Russia has with individuals with disabilities.

“It’s huge because, in the past, parents were

prompted to give their child up at birth to the state if [he or she] had a disability,” said Graves. “We’re just now seeing parents start to take a step back and say, ‘Oh, I don’t think I want to do that.’”

Graves said Russia just passed its first actual special education law in 2012.

She said there’s a big difference between the United States and Russia in this regard. The U.S. has had laws in place for special education since 1975.

Dainty said the conference that the teachers are attending will take place on Nov. 7. It will concentrate mostly on autism, and will cover some elements of the Putnam County schools’ Independence Program.

Dainty also said there is going to be a timeline presented that shows how far the United States has come in the history of special education. The presentations given at the conference are going to be presented in both Russian and English.

“An online conference was held Sept. 20 that helped to make the actual trip to Russia possible,” Graves said.

“The online conference was really the lead-in for this conference in Russia,” said Graves. “It was all actually their idea, and it’s been pretty extensive getting ev-

erything set up and worked out for the conference.”

Students are not able to make this trip with the professors. However, Tech students have been able to communicate with some of the individuals from Russia via the online conference and other presentations Russian teachers have sent that were used in the classroom.

“The students here were just floored when they heard how individuals with disabilities were treated in Russia,” said Callender. “It’s interesting because our students’ perceptions are vastly different than ours on how they would educate students with disabilities.”

The professors said they do have hopes to take students overseas in the future.

“We wish that we could take students because there is a lot of student interest there, but we don’t currently have an agreement to get them there,” said Graves.

“We want to incorporate our students in this as much as possible, so that they have a broader understanding of what is out there across cultures.”

The professors will be staying with host families while they are in Siberia.

They will be flying overseas Nov. 2 and will be returning to Cookeville Nov. 9.

NEWS tntechoracle.com

Page 7 | October 25, 2013

Tau Kappa Epsilon to bring Tennessee rappers

By ALLISON MILLS Beat Reporter

Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity will be hosting a Big Smo concert at Cowboys Nov. 13.

“TKE is very excited to host an event that all Tech students can enjoy,” TKE member Nate Stout said. “It is awesome that we have the opportunity to partner up with Cowboys and these upcoming artists and bring some exciting entertainment to Cookeville.”

Big Smo is a new upcoming country rapper from Shelbyville with a few major hits. He just signed a contract with Warner Brothers Records. Artists Tha Styder, Momoney and Yung J will be opening for Big Smo. Yung J is an upcoming artist from the Cookeville area.

“Fraternities can register events such as concerts for Tech students, but you don’t see it often,” Stout said. “We saw the opportunity with Cowboys and we jumped at the chance. It is always nice to meet new Tech students and give them something fun they can attend that gives them a stress-free break from school.”

Some students are excited to go see these upcoming artists.

“I like to listen to Big Smo’s music,” freshman Marianna Cheplick said.

“His music gets me hyped.

In my opinion, he kind of sounds like Colt Ford. I am pumped he is coming to Cookeville. I can’t wait to go see him with all my friends.”

David Farmer said he loves seeking out new music and is always excited when

upcoming artists come to the area.

“I really love finding unique artists to listen to,” Tech student David Farmer said. “I haven’t heard anything from Yung J, but I have heard a couple of Big Smo’s songs on Youtube. I’m excited to discover these new artists and kick back and chill with friends at Cowboys.

The venue is perfect.”

Madison Chumley, sophomore, said, “My major is really stressful and challenging and it is like a breath of fresh air to have something like this that we can do to get our minds off of school. The music is good, the venue is good and it is an inexpensive activity to do with friends. Being a broke and stressed college student, that sounds like a win to me.”

Photo courtesy of last.fm The brothers of TKE will be hosting Shelbyville rapper Big Smo and other Tennessee rappers.

The show will be Nov. 13 at Cowboy’s.

Conference looks to nurse TAB to host spooky double synergy among majors feature for Tech students

By KIM BIGGS Assistant Managing Editor Tennessee Tech University’s WhitsonHester School of Nursing is considering a potential curriculum change in the near future involving other majors.

After attending an interdisciplinary collaboration conference in Chicago, professors in the nursing program considering redesigning the typical clinical setting. The collaboration conference was geared toward simulating a real world scenario with different professions working alongside each other to treat a patient with varying needs. Attempting to demonstrate a collaborative effort, simulations were designed at the conference to illustrate the need for a

productive partnership of separate majors.

“The neat thing about the conference when we left we sort of had a plan of what we wanted to do,” said assistant professor Susan Reeves.

Tech’s nursing program is hopeful about the possibilities this conference offered for their programs and others alike. Reeves described a clinical setting where students of different fields of study would work together to fully treat a patient. Treating a patient involves several different professions, not just nurses.

Reeves and her coworkers see the potential in the project. She hopes to eventually see nursing students working alongside nutrition or social work students.

“At this point right now, we are thinking of it as pilot project,” said Reeves.

Within the next semester, the nursing program hopes to test their new collaboration clinical.

Working with different colleges, students will perform in a clinical setting to see the what the effects are of working collaboratively.

Reeves is positive about the reality of the project.

Believing in the faculty of TTU, Reeves said this dream can take reality with the support of students and faculty. As far as implementing an actual class, Reeves is unsure of when that will take place.

“We can do this,” said Reeves. “We don’t have to be a big fancy medical school. We could really do this.”

By LEE WHITEHEAD Beat Reporter

On Halloween night, the Tech Activities Board will be showing two scary movies to Tech students.

Katie Williams, coordinator of Student Activities, said the movies that will be shown are still undecided, but will be posted on TAB’s Facebook page later in the week.

The Halloween movie double feature will be held on Oct. 31 from 9 p.m. until 1 a.m. in the RUC Multipurpose Room.

Williams said free drinks and popcorn will be available to everyone that attends the double feature.

“The event is completely free to

students,” said Williams.

“They only need to bring an Eagle Card to get in.”

TAB is a student organization made up of volunteers that schedule and create campus activities targeted towards all students.

“The types of activities we try to plan are catered to maybe different demographic groups of students, but we try to hit as many as we can with different types of events,” said Williams.

The main goal of TAB is to promote diversity and get all types of students involved in the activities.

In order to have the money available to sponsor these movies and

other events, TAB relies on a budget that is given to them by the University.

“Our budget varies from year to year, and is based on student fees,” Williams said. “There is a fee on your student account that is paid, and we get a portion of that money to do programming.”

This budget funds all of TAB’s events and student activities.

TAB also sponsors giveaways, public speakers, concerts and even comedians.

For more information on TAB activities, you can visit the Tech website or the Tech Activities Board Office in the RUC.

OPINION Page 8 | October 25, 2013

tntechoracle.com

Reserve Officer Training Corps to close due to budget shifting SARAH DINGWALL Opinion Editor

Where to start? What to say? What do you even do when someone tells you all of your well thought out plans are now irrelevant?

This is what many of our students in the Tech R.O.T.C. program were told about three weeks ago.

Even though we have all heard by now what the Army is planning to do, we are still reeling from the suddenness of this decision. This decision will shift programs from smaller universities to larger ones and to increase diversity and the number of commissioned officers.

President Oldham is doing what he can to reverse this decision or is at least trying to figure out some other way for these students to be able to remain here and finish their education.

R.O.T.C. shouldn’t only be about how many commissioned officers the Army is supposed to have; it should be about the quality of the education, not diversity or numbers. Quality over quantity is better than having nothing at all.

The worst part about this shutdown is how this affects the students. Don’t kid yourself; this will affect students not in the R.O.T.C. program. We go to classes with these students, take the same tests, cheer on the same team. They are a part of this school community and they are being g taken away y from

us.

If you are anything like me, you hold on to your family even when you don’t really know them. Your extended family is still important to you. People you go to the coffee shop with or attend church with, no matter what, are a part of you and affect you in ways you may never understand.

In the recent article in the New York Times, an economist was quoted basically calling people in the South usually overweight with no inclination to exercise. She is claiming that we have no inclination to even try and meet the Army’s high standards for physical fitness and education because we are rural and in the South.

Here is what I say to her: just because you study for years doesn’t mean you actually know anything. I can honestly say this, I have been in college for six and a half years and I have found that you can never truly know the people you don’t have a personal investment in.

This school has a personal investment in the students in the ROTC program. It is dedicated to giving them an extremely high standard in education and pushes them into a vigorous physical fitness program that helps each and everyone of them strive for more.

We are one of the topranked schools in the South

and we have a long history with high-ranking officers in the Army. The reasons behind this closure still baffle me.

I am proud to say this, the students in the ROTC program are handling this better than most of us. Most are adamant about staying their course and continuing at a different school if they must. Some are sure they will not leave this school.

My only prayer is that the ones who were relying on the scholarships they receive don’t end up having to drop out of school. They may possibly go directly into the military and be deployed.

Some will never come back and finish their degrees.

Some may not come back at all. This shutdown makes a viscous cycle continue in the South. One where a high school diploma is all that they will get, just like their parents and grandparents.

Carl W. Stiner, an alumni of the TTU R.O.T.C. program, is now a retired fourstar general. He said it best in the New York Times article.

“I don’t believe in shifting, just to get more people of different backgrounds, at the expense of these R.O.T.C. programs,” Stiner said. “You will deny people who want to be commissioned through the R.O.T.C. program and serve their country.”

My thoughts on this shutdown will forever be against it but Army officials aren’t elected. However, I will not sit and take it. These students deserve to be here and they work very hard.

Those in our program may be few but they are mighty and I am proud to know they come from Tech.

James Dillon

Cadets on the color guard wait for the pregame festivities to begin before marching onto the field. These students are in the program slated for shutdown.

ROTC on the chopping block LYDIA-CLAIRE BROWN Assistant Opinion Editor

Let me be totally upfront with you: I normally have zero opinion about the military. The military, in theory or practice, just doesn’t play a large part in my life.

Apart from complaints about the bloated defense budget (Seriously, the tanks you currently have aren’t good enough? Are you sure you need brand-spanking new ones?), I generally have no opinion, good or bad about the military.

That’s why this editorial killed me. I had no idea what to write.

So I approached this situation from the standpoint of my only military opinion - budget. From what I can tell, we’re being cut for two reasons, and they’re both budget.

First, we’re being cut because ROTC is essentially

THE

an education program. It is the training of future officers while they are attending university and preparing to become leaders in the defense of our country.

Education is ALWAYS the first thing to get cut.

Education is not an investment with an immediate return; it can be very difficult to see how any money spent on education, even military education, would be paid back in a reasonable amount.

So, even though we can all agree that cutting education is a TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO-GOOD, VERY BAD THING (done by soulless bureaucrats), we can all see how its bottom line puts it up on the chopping block so often.

Especially when a program, such as ours, is measured according to quantity, not

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Stephen Sexton

Sophomore cadet Daniel McGee and junior Jesse Cotton shoot the cannon after Tech scores during a home football game. quality. things that see in black and chopped across the board, even in defense.

For example, if we turn white, color eludes it.

Now, of course, just beout eight really good candiEducation is heading to dates a year, but the quota the guillotine because of the cause they have to tighten is 10 candidates, it doesn’t second reason: the military their belts doesn’t mean the matter how excellent those as a whole is trimming the Army’s going to go without people are -- the national fat and tightening its belt. its new tanks, or any fancy administration of the ROTC Because of the automatic new drones. Nope. Why program can’t see that. All spending cuts in the Budget should they cut that when they see is that we’re not Control Act of 2011, better they can just cut all of the meeting quota. It’s an effi- known as the Sequestration, inefficient ROTC programs? cient system, but, like most government spending was That’ll save a few bucks.

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Ridiculous. You can’t replace people. What’s going to happen when there are no more highly trained, intelligent people to drive those tanks? Are you going to spend money you don’t have to build robots to drive the tanks you shouldn’t have bought? Robot - Soldiers = Bad Idea. Didn’t you see the Matrix?

In this whole sordid mess, I feel the most for our ROTC students. I can’t imagine planning your college career with the end goal of serving our country, only to get the rug ripped out from under you. Hopefully, you will still be able to achieve your career goals, as well as the personal goals set by joining our armed forces.

I exhort all the Tennessee Tech family to remember this moment next election season. Remember that a source of our university’s pride and our national recognition has died.

It was killed by a Capitol that cares more about cushy committee placement and lobbyist lobster than the needs of the American people and their defense.

Remember, remember, next November.

ALLISON MILLS, HAYDEN MCMILLEN, SARAH REESE, SARA SHANKS, WILLIAM

SHECKLER, PAIGE STANAGE, SARAH TATE, SARAH TOWNSEND, AARON VICK, CASEY WOODARD, WILL WEBB, REANNA YOUNG.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect those of Tennessee Tech University’s employees or of its administration.

OPINION

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Page 9 | October 25, 2013

Letter from a Cadet

The closing of the Golden Eagles Battalion is a mixture of sadness and understanding for me. The sadness comes from the closure of a program in which, as a junior, I am deeply invested. The loss of the tradition and the comradery as a cadet here at Tennessee Tech is a sorrowful event.

There are many cadets, myself included, that are prior service soldiers. We share that bond as such, while working together to build our skills as an officer; we continually strive to better each other and work as a team in order to be the best officers we can be upon commissioning.

The feeling of understanding comes from the realization that the Army is downsizing currently. The Army looks at production and the means of that production is officers by inputs and outputs. It is a numbers game in order to take the bias and partiality out of this production.

This by-the-numbers approach allows for the quality of soldiers and officers to be at the forefront of the force that is

being emplaced to make up the Army. Therefore, it is understandable that the Army would elect to shut down the ROTC program here at Tennessee Tech because of lack of production.

There is a set number of officers to be commissioned every year that is decided by Cadet Command. This number is set so that the input of cost that it takes to train an officer is balanced by this set number, the output; the quality issue is answered through the evaluations that are done along our ROTC careers which determines if you will be commissioned as an officer in the United States Army.

Therefore, an under production for several years equates to a closure of that program.

That being stated, there is still a factor of tradition and quality that has made the ROTC program at Tennessee Tech a program that produces excellent officers for its entire history.

There have been several generals and high ranking engineering and infantry officers produced through Tech who have gone to com-

The shutdown of The Golden Eagle Battalion is set to take place with the last commissioning class in the spring of 2015. It is very unfortunate.

Affecting all TTU cadets in a different way, the MS III & IV (Military Science Levels 3 & 4) cadets will experience the least amount of changes while the freshmen and sophomore cadets will be stuck with an ultimatum. These students must transfer to another school that will continue their ROTC program or withdraw completely and continue education as a civilian.

Although the effects that the upper level cadets will witness seem minimal in comparison to the lower level cadets, changes will be seen. As a result of the choice that

the MS I & IIs are forced to face, we will be stuck with a minimal amount of cadets to carry out leadership training with, which may prove to be problematic in creating life-like situations to develop our cadets.

Despite the circumstances that we face, like the Warrior Ethos that has been engraved in our minds, we will not give up.

The Golden Eagle Battalion will finish strong, prepare our MS III cadets for LDAC (Leadership Development Assessment Course) and continue to produce quality officers until its completion.

Letter from a Cadet

Letter to the Editor

SAMUEL DICKSON, MSIII CADET

OF REVENGE. FEEL THE PAIN YOU SUBJECTS. STEVE MOORE, CITIZEN OF COOKEVILLE

EVAN RICHARDS, MSIV CADET AND GOLDEN EAGLE BATTALION COMMANDER

Letter from a Cadet

With the closure of the ROTC program at Tech, I now have to find a new path to take, including making the decision on whether or not to stay at this university.

My options have now been narrowed down to leaving Tech for an affordable school that offers both an accredited nursing program and an ROTC program or staying at Tech and risking the chance of being deployed with my unit before I finish my degree.

While the obvious choice would be to leave Tech behind to have a secure chance to finish nursing school, the prices of many of the other schools are simply out of reach for me and Tech

plete the hardest schools the Army has to offer and have commanded large forces in many of the wars in which this great nation has been victorious.

There have been numerous ranger, sapper, and Special Forces qualified officers to come from this university. So, a feeling of sorrow is founded and an unsatisfaction arises in my mind, wondering and voicing a question that requires an answer for the seemingly lacked accountability of this Stephen Sexton quality production of officers taken by Cadet Cadets prepare to raise the American flag before a home football game kickoff.

Command.

It is a sad yet honorable legacy ahead of our junior class to be the last commissioning class to come from this great university in The letter to the editor was originally submitted hand written and in all caps. the spring of 2015. It is IT OUGHT TO BE AS PLAIN AS THE NOSE ON YOUR FACE. this legacy that we will THE REASON FOR THE ANNOUNCED CLOSURE OF TTU’S ARMY ROTC carry proudly with us throughout our careers.

PROGRAM IS BECAUSE TENNESSEE IS A RED STATE. THE THREE PROGRAMS It is an understand- SCHEDULED FOR CLOSURE ARE ALL IN REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL ing and the support of DISTRICTS. our higher command REMEMBER THE CAR DEALERS WHO WERE TARGETED FOR CLOSURE that brings this honor; SEVERAL YEARS AGO BY THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION? THEIR OWNERS yet, it is the unanswered SUPPORTED JOHN MCCAIN. IT IS PURE VINDICTIVENESS ON THE PART OF questions that bring PRESIDENT OBAMA. HE WILL STOP AT NOTHING TO EXACT HIS MEASURE about the sorrow.

has been the only school that I have wanted to go to since I was 15.

The decision to close Tech’s ROTC program will also deter so many potential students from the University simply because of the absence of the program.

There are many others in my shoes who only have the option of joining the military and such a program simply to get to college because they have no other possible means to pay for it.

By closing the program, the Army is going to miss out on some great individuals who would do well if they were given the opportunity.

SARAH SHORT, MSI CADET

Melissa Edwards

Cadets prepare to do pushups after Tech scores a touchdown during a home football game. Many of these Cadets will be able to graduate from Tech as commissioned officers before the projected shutdown slated for the spring of 2015.

Sometimes in life, things do not go according to plan. It is what we do in moments like these that define who we are. My name is Caleb Anderson and I am currently a contracted cadet at Tennessee Tech.

As some of you may know, our program is slated for closure at the end of this school year. This news was not easy to hear.

Many things are going through my mind at

CORRECTIONS OCT. 4 The story “Hippogriffs rein in the Thestrals for a tie in first game of season” in the Oct. 4 issue of The Oracle was printed with incorrect content. The story reported Tech winning one game and losing the other in the two game set played on Sept. 29. Additionally the story reported that the match was the first game of the season when it was in fact the first home game of the season played in Sherlock Park. The Oracle

Letter from a Cadet

this moment. Why did this happen? Where will I go? What will happen to my fellow cadets?

The Army gave cadets a few options.

As a contracted cadet, I have the option to forgo my contract. I can also transfer to another school’s ROTC program to fulfill my contract. I am choosing the latter.

I made a commitment to serve my people, and I will stand by that. I have wanted to be

a soldier since a day in September many years ago. On this day, we were attacked.

Many men and women took an oath the next day to defend this country. The Army however, would not allow 8-year-olds to enlist. I was blessed to be able to take my oath in February of this year.

This will be my last semester at Tech.

This university has taken great care of our

An updated version of the TTU Quidditch story as well as other great Web Exclusive stories are waiting for you online at

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program and me. For this, I will be eternally grateful.

To say Tech is a “military friendly” campus is a gross understatement. I will truly miss this place. My fellow cadets and I will be all right. We will as always, adapt and overcome.

CALEB ANDERSON, MSII CADET

SPORTS tntechoracle.com

Page 10 | October 25, 2013

Photos by James Dillon

The Golden Eagles defensive line has held the team in many games this season. This week’s game will be won or lost up front with the defensive line.

Golden Eagles prepare battle in the trenches

By JUSTIN MATHENEY Beat Reporter

The Tech Golden Eagle football team is looking to end their three game losing skid this Homecoming weekend against OVC rival Jacksonville State (5 – 2, 1 – 2).

This weekend’s matchup showcases the strength of both teams against each other - Jacksonville State’s rushing attack against Tennessee Tech’s rushing defense.

Jacksonville State sits right outside the FCS Top 25 in this week’s polls. Through

seven games, the Gamecocks have rushed for a stout 211 yards per game average, which ranks second in the OVC and 26th nationally.

They use a stable of running backs to reach that mark.

DaMarcus James leads the way for the Gamecocks with 587 yards and 11 touchdowns. Troymaine Pope and Miles Jones have rushed for 349 yards and 333 yards, respectively. Eli Jenkins, one of the quarterbacks Jacksonville State will use, is fourth on the team in rushing with 245 yards and two touchdowns.

The Tech defense should

be up to the challenge this Saturday. The Golden Eagles rank fourth in the OVC in rushing defense in conference games, allowing only 140 yards a game at 3.6 yards an attempt.

Through four conference games, the Golden Eagles have been led in tackling by junior linebacker Tra’Darius Goff. Goff has registered 40 tackles total in OVC games, ranking first in the OVC. Goff is also credited with 3.5 tackles for loss, tying him for 10th in the OVC. His 1.5 sacks earned him eighteenth overall in the conference.

Goff has forced two fumbles in conference.

Redshirt Junior Marty Jones is tied for third in the conference with 35 tackles.

Jones has recovered two fumbles tying him for second in the OVC. Jones is tied for twelfth in the conference with junior teammate Austin Tallent for passes defended.

Both Jones and Tallent have two passes defended this season and each of them has registered an interception.

Junior corner James Huguley has five passes defended this season ranking him eighth in the conference.

Redshirt-freshman Terrell Rollins celebrates with freshman Kevin Robinson-White (78) as he gets his first career fumble recovery against UT-Martin in the second annual blackout game.

On the other side of the field, sophomore corner Demario Donnell has defended four passes, tying him for ninth in the OVC. Sophomore defensive end Harrison Reid has tallied 3.5 tackles for loss in conference games this season. Senior defensive end Malcolm Mitchell has registered 1.5 sacks through the four conference games ranking thirteenth in the conference.

Offensively, the Golden Eagles are poised to get starting quarterback Darian Stone back from a hand injury. The

injury caused him to miss the last three quarters of the UT-Martin game two weeks ago and the entire game at Eastern Kentucky last weekend. Stone looks to bring back the running threat the quarterback position has been lacking in his absence.

This week’s game will be won or lost in the trenches.

The team that can control the line of scrimmage consistently throughout the ball game will have the best chance to win on Saturday.

The Homecoming game starts at 1:30 p.m. in Tucker Stadium.

Jamal Ferguson

Natalie Penrod and teammates celebrate after a kill earlier this season.

Mental errors plauge volleyball

By MATTHEW HILL Beat Reporter

Photos byJames Dillon

Senior defender Taylor Hicks (top) and Senior forward Ellie Iaciofano (bottom) look to close out their last regular season weekend playing for the Golden Eagles with a few wins.

Seniors hope to get big wins this weekend

By EMILY HOMAN Beat Reporter

The Golden Eagle soccer team will look for success this weekend against Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky in the team’s final home weekend of play.

The games will mark the final matches played at the Tech Soccer Field for five seniors as they celebrate their playing careers at Senior Day on Sunday.

Fourth year assistant coach Rachel Yepez said, “It’s important for the players who aren’t from around here to have their families in town this weekend.

Hopefully, it will give them all a little edge and they’ll show out for them.”

Despite a pair of losses last weekend to UT-Martin and Southeast Missouri, the team hopes to get some

points to qualify for the OVC tournament. The team h e a d s into the weekend standing in ninth place and looking to break into the top six that will go to the Yepez tournament.

Senior defender Leigh Heffner said, “This weekend means that we need to come together despite the odds and the doubts everyone else has about us. The mindset for us is that we will win, not just hoping to win these games.”

Heffner will be recognized before the match on Sunday along with fellow seniors, Ellie Iaciofano, Shannon Rountree, Taylor

Hicks, and Jessica Wilson.

“We are really excited it’s senior weekend and there is a lot going on,” Iaciofano said.

“These games are a must win in order to have a chance in the tournament so a winning attitude is necessary.”

With only one OVC win this season, the mindset is hopeful for the team.

“Most of the games have been a one-goal game,” Yepez said. “Morehead and EKU are right in the middle of things so it’s still anyone’s spot. We need to put ourselves in a position to not rely on other teams.”

The games will be held at the Tech Soccer Field on Friday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Fans who are unable to attend the matches can tune into the live stream of the games on the OVC Digital Network.

After falling behind 1-8 in OVC play, the Golden Eagles look to make a mid-season comeback as they head to Nashville today for a 6 p.m. match against Belmont.

With two of the team’s top starters injured, Coach Zelenock said he needs some girls to step up.

“We have to start carrying things over from practice,” said Zelenock. “We’re working on some things at practice and the girls are doing a great job at it, but then we get to games and they don’t show up at all.”

The top eight teams advance to OVC tournament play and the conference is split in half by six teams in both the East and West divisions. Zelenock said this means the Golden Eagles have a lot of work to do to make the tournament.

“It’s small mental errors that have recorded our losses,” said Zelenock.

“Physically, we’ve got the ability but mentally we are not bringing things over from practice to the games.”

Today’s match against Belmont will be the first of four opponents the Golden

Eagles will revisit in hope of favored results. Only seven matches remain in the season.

Belmont (5-3) sits atop the OVC as the number two seed in the East division and swept the Golden Eagles in three sets earlier this month.

Tech-dominated runs have come late in sets in nearly every match this season. Coach Zelenock said these runs have to come in the beginning in order to start winning.

“Our game plans are sound and teams are doing exactly what we have told our girls they would do; we just have not performed,” said Zelenock. “The scouting reports are correct and our game plans will work but we tend to wait until late in the set or match to start following them and then see the results with our late runs. “ Junior libero Courtney Smith is currently third in the conference in digs per set with 4.90 per set and will be an asset to the Golden Eagle defense as they embark on the second half of conference play. However, Tech’s offense has struggled to put up points all season.

Senior Elise Robertson and sophomore Cody Dodd are among the top three lead-

ing scorers on the Golden Eagle squad but Zelenock said he believes they can do more.

“It would be great to have Elise Robertson really show the OVC what she is capable of by putting up numbers like she did in preconference,” said Zelenock.

“Cody Dodd is also capable of putting up huge numbers, but it has really been our outsides that have been our major stability.”

Tech’s only conferencewin this year came in early October on the road against UT-Martin. The team is looking for change as they host a rematch against leader of the East division, Morehead State and number three Eastern Kentucky next week in matches at the Hooper Eblen Center.

Zelenock said confidence and consistency over any game play specifics will have a major role in determining the success in the second half of conference play.

“They are just not very confident due to things that have carried over from past seasons,” said Zelenock. “I don’t think it’s going to be one thing that gets them going. I think it’s consistency.”

SPORTS tntechoracle.com

Page | October25, 4, 2013 2013 Page 11 5| October

Goal-oriented women’s basketball looks to build on last season’s success

By SHEA HAILE Assistant Sports Editor With basketball season around the corner, the women’s team is looking to build off a solid performance last year.

In head coach Jim Davis’ first season at Tech, the team finished the regular season as Ohio Valley Conference champions.

They would, however, lose the OVC championship to UT-Martin.

The success of last year’s season has the Golden Eagles feeling confident about this year’s campaign. Davis said he really wants his team to be goal oriented.

“Our theme for this year is 21-1-2, we want to win 21 games, win the OVC tournament, and win two games in the NCAA tournament,” said Davis.

The women’s basketball team has a large amount of talent returning for them.

Pre-season all conference Diamond Henderson and Molly Heady are among the returning stars for Tech.

This year’s edition of the team also showcases great size with five players; Tia Nicholson, Kayla Brewer, T’Keyah Williams, Candace Parson, and Mariah Dean are each over 6feet tall.

“We are very blessed to have five ladies who are 6 feet 2 inches or taller,” said Davis.

“This is good in any division.

They are not only big, but they are athletic. If they play as hard as we expect them to, it will be strength.”

One of the most important aspects that will help Tech is leadership.

“We have a lot of young faces, including young guards,” said senior forward Molly Heady. “I really want to be a source of leadership.”

Despite the rough schedule, the team is still confident it can succeed.

The schedule includes early season challenges against the Southeastern Conference’s Mississippi State Nov. 21 and versus Arkansas Dec. 20.

The team will also face former OVC rival Middle Tennessee State University Jan. 2. This contest will take place in Murfreesboro. The battle guarantees to be intense between two schools that are only a few hours apart.

The team will also travel to Las Vegas for the South Point Thanksgiving. While out West, the Golden Eagles will take on Marquette University and Ball State University. Davis views this tough schedule as an advantage.

The Golden Eagles women’s basketball team’s first home game is Nov. 5 against Truett-Mcconnell at 7 p.m.

Jamal Ferguson

Senior guard Jeremiah Samarrippas shoots a 3-pointer during the scrimmage segment of last year’s Purple Palooza.

PURPLE PALOOZA: Second annual basketball kickoff brings excitement and trick-ortreating to Hooper Eblen Center

By SHEA HAILE Assistant Sports Editor

Jamal Ferguson

Preseason all OVC junior guard Diamond Henderson (top) and Senior forward Molly Heady (bottom) look to lead the Golden Eagles back to the OVC tournament title game.

Baseball to join in on Homecoming weekend with events for alumni ALUMNI EVENT The Tennessee Tech baseball team is joining this year's Homecoming festivities, hosting its annual alumni event on Saturday, Oct. 26 beginning at 10 a.m. CDT at Quillen Field at Bush Stadium at the Averitt Express Baseball Complex.

All former Tech players are invited to come back and meet the players and coaches as well as enjoy some talks

with both current head coach Matt Bragga and hall of fame coach David Mays. The team will practice and put on fielding and hitting drills for those in attendance with a lunch to follow at 12:30 p.m.

Alumni will also be invited to take on-field batting practice, infield drills, and partake in a quality at-bat contest.

"We love it when our former players can make it out to

these events and get know the future of our program," said Bragga.

PURPLE AND GOLD The Tennessee Tech baseball team has been playing their fall intrasquad scrimmages as of late.

They played four of the five scheduled regular intrasquad scrimmages and will play followed by the Purple

and Gold Series after the final scrimmage friday at 2:45 p.m.

The Purple and Gold series is a mock “world series” in which the senior class picks their team to compete. The series will feature four contests.

All games will take place in the Averitt Express Baseball Complex.

This information features stories from TTU Sports Information.

If you want an early start on trick-or-treating or to get an preseason look at the men’s and women’s Golden Eagle basketball teams, the second annual Purple Palooza is the event to attend.

This year’s Purple Palooza will begin at 6 p.m. with trick-or-treating in the Hooper Eblen Center. The on-floor activities including the 3-point shootouts, slamdunk contest, meet and greet with the players and coaches, and prize give-a-ways will begin at 7 p.m. Tech’s cheer and dance teams will also be featured.

“One of the highlights of the night will be the dunk contest of course,” said senior guard Jeremiah Samarrippas.

“We got last year’s winner, Javon Mckay, going against some new teammates.”

The Palooza is meant to introduce the community and student body to the 20132014 basketball squads and provide a fun environment for trick-or-treating and other Halloween activities.

Student organization and other groups from around the community are encouraged to set up booths.

Fans will be able to interact with their favorite players.

The players said they are looking forward to this event.

The teams welcome the support from the students and others in the community.

“I’m excited for the event. I think it’ll be a great chance for some of the TTU fans and students to get to know this year’s teams,” said Samarrippas.

“It is a good event for the teams and the cheerleaders,” said senior forward Molly Heady. “It is a good way to get the excitement going.”

“We always love having student support,” said Heady. “Both men’s and women’s have good teams so it should be an exciting year.”

The teams hope that this year’s Palooza will be as successful as last year’s inaugural event “I think it’ll be a fun atmosphere and very entertaining,” said Samarrippas.

Women’s golf closes out fall 2013 schedule strong

By JAMAL FERGUSON Sports Editor

The women’s golf team wrapped up the first half of its 2013-2014 season Oct. 22.

With top 10 finishes in all of its tournaments so far, head coach Polk Brown was pleased with the team’s progress.

“We’ve made some really good strides, team play and individual play,” said Brown.

“I kind of wish we had some more tournaments to play in.

I feel like it’s starting to come

together.”

Brown said he felt the team’s best tournament was the CSU We n d y ’ s Invitational.

The stats would back him in this statement.

This was the only tournaBrown ment that Tech had two girls finish in the top 10 and the overall score was un-

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der 300. The Golden Eagles would finish with a score of 293, which is tied for 7th best team round in the Ohio Valley Conference.

“Breaking 300 at our level is a good notch to have,” said Brown.

Strong play from sophomore Maddi Everts and freshman Whitney Robertson has led the Golden Eagles so far. Everts’ consistency has been what the young team has needed.

The most recent tournament was her best outing this season as she finished sixth out of 84 players helping the Golden Eagles to a ninth place finish. Robertson has had two top 10 finishes in the last three tournaments. Both players are in the top 15 in the OVC for average round score.

Though the team is doing well, putting has been troubling for them.

“We’ve got to improve our putting,” said Brown.

“That’s the most important part of the game and I think that’s the part that’s held us back.”

This portion of the season’s tournaments has come to a close. The team’s first tournament of 2014 is scheduled for early March in South Carolina.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how things go when March rolls around,” said Brown.

Photo Services

Coach Davis challenges sixth man W A N T S “I want to challenge students to take pride in this women’s basketball team,” said Davis. “I want them to have a good time, be the sixth man and give us home court advantage.”

“I a llot of people how “ don’t d ’ think h l know h successful women’s basketball has been at Tennessee Tech,” said Davis. “Tech has the nig most wins of any women’s basetball team in NCAA divison 1 history.”

ENTERTAINMENT Page 12 | October 25, 2013

tntechoracle.com

An interview with The Fray Katy Perry’s ‘Prism’ is filled with fun

By JAKE THREET Entertainment Editor

By KIMMY MANNING Entertainment Critic

Before The Fray rocked The Hoop for the fall SOLO concert, I got the opportunity to interview a couple of the guys from the band. I, along with fellow journalism students Drake Fenlon, Kim Biggs and Dillon James, had a 20-minute sit-down interview with Isaac and Ben from the band.

This was my first interview with a prominent entertainer, and I was full of excitement and extremely nervous. I have always enjoyed The Fray’s music and can pretty much belt out any of their tunes word-forword. Their style of music has always been something I easily connected with and enjoyed. Some people like to joke that when listening to them one needs a tissue in hand, but I disagree.

There’s more to the band than just their signature slow hits. Check out their past albums, each is filled with songs that do more than just tug at your emotions.

Tuesday evening, before the concert, we all gathered in the lobby of the basketball offices at the Hooper Eblen Center to interview the guys. I quickly learned Isaac and Ben, the lead singer and drummer respectively, were

Combine motivational r h y t h m , u p b e a t sounds and lyrics to sing at the top of your lungs, and you’ve got Katy Perry’s new album, “Prism.”

In this album, she dives into the emotional curves she experienced in her 2011 divorce to Russell Brand.

With such a deep topic, we are left to experience a less bubblegum-pop vibe as in her previous album, “Teenage Dream.”

However, her new songs welcome a new genre of sounds from Perry.

This week was the release of her fourth studio album with 13 tracks total.

However, a 16-track deluxe edition is available on iTunes.

As her songs echo positive, catchy measures, we get to experience the reality of her career as she braves the world, coming to a personal with her KatyCat fan club.

In songs like “By The Grace of God” and “Double Rainbow,” we get to grasp her more repressed emotions from her divorce.

In “By The Grace of God,” she sings, “We were living on a fault line, and I felt like the fault was all mine,” exclaiming the deep-seated hurt she pours into her writing.

Courtesy of Erin Batth

Myself (left), Isaac, Drake, Ben, Dillon, and Kim pose for a group shot after a fun interview before the SOLO concert.

far from high maintenance celebrities with diva demands.

Both guys were extremely laid back, engaging, and hilarious.

Both were very gracious with each question asked and they provided us with a good question and answer session along with some hilarious banter.

I asked the guys about their forthcoming album and if they could give us an update on the yet untitled cd. The guys announced that the album would be released on January 14th of 2014. The new single from the album, ‘Love Don’t Die’, was released on Monday and is very catchy.

On a side note, I wanted to ask the guys if I could join them on stage to sing ‘Never Say Never’ with them.

However, I quickly realized how dreadful my singing is and thought better of the situation, but I digress.

The guys also genuinely inquired about the University and wanted to know details of its history and student body. Isaac particularly enjoyed Tech’s Golden Eagle mascot, as he snatched a statue of one off the basketball office front desk to hold while we all took some group shots.

He later brought the same statue on stage during the concert and proudly sat it on his piano.

Later that night, The Fray took the stage and put on an excellent concert for Tech fans and proved to be more than just a slow ballad-singing group. It was a pleasure to get to interview Isaac and Ben and their authenticity really shined through. I appreciated them being very welcoming and their sense of humor made for a better interview. They made an awesome first interview for me.

Courtesy of Pop iTunes

Katy Perry’s new album, “Prism”, is predicited to debut atop the Billboard 200 Chart with around 275,000 units sold.

In songs such as “Roar,” we get energized to stand up and be confident in our choices–very contradictory to other tracks you’ll find on “Prism.”

Another genre that fans are attracted to on this album are her songs such as “Dark Horse,” “Walking On Air” and “Birthday,” which give club-like pulses–very new to Perry’s musical collection.

One error I find in Perry’s new production is that her niche is currently MIA. “There is no high

volume party anthem like ‘Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)’ that captured her silly and playful side,” ABC News said. One thing that makes Perry so memorable is her authentic and gravitating spirited character.

‘Prism’ currently is the top album on the iTunes chart. Multiple songs from the album are also charting on the singles chart.

As her sound develops to new genres, we can be assured that “Prism” is still relevant and promises variety.

‘Captain Phillips’ is a smash

By HANNAH BENJAMIN Entertainment Critic I ’ m calling it now - this film is going to the Oscars.

“Captain Phillips” is a biopic of the 2009 hijacking of the U.S. container ship Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates. Paul Greengrass directs this standoff starring Tom Hanks as Captain Richard Phillips and Barkhad Abdi as Muse, the pirate who takes him hostage. From the moment the piratess head towards the unarmed ship, a standoff begins and leaves the crews in the hands of forces beyond their control.

“Captain Phillips” does an excellent job giving backstory to both Phillips’ background as well as to the pirates’ motivation for stealing from ships. Even if the audience has no interest in maritime affairs, the film intensifies from the moment the pirates take off to the final moments of the movie, leaving an effective catharsis on the audience when the U.S. Navy finally rescues the captain. The scenes are effectively intertwined and leave no dead space for the audience to get bored.

It’s no secret that Tom Hanks is an amazing actor, but this film showcases his brilliance and range. He perfectly balances a fear for his life with a determination to outsmart the pirates and get home to his family.

He displays a humanness that the audience roots for the whole way through.

Opposite Hanks, Barkhad Abdi dominates the role

Elecrtic Shadows

‘Captain Phillips’ debuted in second place at the box office with over $27 million, behind the blockbuster “Gravity”.

of a pirate trapped in the profession because of a war-torn country, who puts himself in an impossible position against the U.S. Navy. The depth of his character, conflicted by what is right and the need to survive, is incredible coupled with the chemistry between himself and Hanks.

The film delivers excitement all the way through, and ends in a realistic manner that leaves the largest impact on viewers. Rather than a brilliant score and Captain Phillips being reunited with his family sailing off into the sunset, Greengrass chooses to show the captain

being treated for shock by a U.S. Navy nurse. The performance by Hanks in this scene alone is worth an Oscar, and caused many tears from both myself and those surrounding me in the audience. It adds a powerful reality to the film.

Featuring some cool naval operations and outstanding performances, this well-directed film is one on which to keep an eye in the coming award season. How could we expect any less from Tom Hanks?

The film is rated PG-13 for sustained intense scenes of menace, some violence with bloody images, and substance use.

ENTERTAINMENT tntechoracle.com

Page 13 | October 25, 2013

‘American Horror Story: Coven’ is series’ best

By JAKE THREET Entertainment Editor Beginning its third season three weeks ago, the newest season of the ‘American Horror Story’ series is the best season yet. The great thing about this show is that if you miss a previous season, there’s nothing to go back and catch up on. Each year, there is a brand new storyline and it is a completely different show. The cast generally has stayed the same, with some changes here and there, and so the audience gets that feeling of having familiar faces around.

The star of the show is Jessica Lange, and every season brings a thrilling new character for her to portray.

This new season is titled ‘American Horror Story: Coven’ and it is all about witches and their struggle to survive and avoid extinction. They must battle to gain control over their powers and try to use magic in ways that will not be disastrous to the world around them.

Lange plays the role of Fiona Goode, the supreme witch who is the most powerful of them all. She is obsessed with trying to find a potion or spell to keep her youthfulness and turn back the hands of time.

In the premiere episode, she finds her way to the school that her daughter, Cordelia (Sarah Paulson), runs for young witches. At the school, Cordelia teaches the young witches how to survive in the modern

Courtesy of Scifi Mafia

“American Horror Story: Coven” has garnered the best critical acclaim of the series’ three seasons. The series was co-created by ‘Glee’ creator Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk.

world. Fiona and Cordelia have a very strained relationship, but Fiona makes it clear to Cordelia that she is there to stay in order to help protect and guide the girls with their powers.

This season stems from actions conducted during the Salem Witch Trials.

Newly added to the cast to fill this story arc is Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett.

Bates plays Delphine LaLaurie, also known as Madame LaLaurie, a Louisiana-socialite and serial killer known for her torturing and murder of slaves. Bassett plays Marie Laveau, a dangerous voodoo practitioner scorned by LaLaurie who framed her boyfriend.

Laveau later comes to give Madame LaLaurie a

potion to make her look more youthful, but it is really a potion that curses LaLaurie with everlasting life. Laveau, along with the slaves that worked for LaLaurie, hang all of LaLaurie’s family and bury her in a coffin where she would remain until discovered by one of the girls of the school who could hear her trapped under ground.

It’s a great combination of magic, voodoo, and drama wrapped into an hour of television. The storyline is strong and the jumps between the two time periods are essential to telling the story. Superb acting is found throughout and each character brings something new and fresh to the show.

Viewers seem to agree,

as the show debuted with 5.5 million viewers and was the series’ most watched episode ever.

Critics are praising it and many agree that this season will standout from the first two seasons.

Only three episodes in, it’s not too late to catch up on this bewitching new season. It’s solid right out of the gates and is the strongest season of the ‘American Horror Story’ series to date. The all-star cast also includes Emma Roberts, Frances Conroy, Lily Rabe, Gabourey Sidibe, Patti LuPone, Evan Peters, and the return of Taissa Farmiga to the series.

‘American Horror Story: Coven’ airs Wednesday nights at 10/9 central on FX.

‘Carrie’: an unnecessary remake of a classic

By HANNAH BENJAMIN Entertainment Critic

Just in time for Halloween, “Carrie” is a remake of the 1976 classic based on a novel

by Stephen King starring Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore. Carrie is a shy teenage outcast who is overshadowed by her deeply religious mother (Julianne Moore). She discovers she has a telekinetic ability, and unleashes the terror on her small town when she is pranked at her senior prom.

While this film is true to the original, it adds a few subtle updates like cyberbullying that make it a little more true to life than the 70s version.

Moretz gives more depth and understanding to her character than the original, which allows the audience to understand where she’s coming from, if not relate entirely to the weirdness of being a teenager. She’s more human than the weirdo we remember from the classic.

Julianne Moore plays

‘The Walking Dead’ returns, is most seen show on TV this season

By KIMMY MANNING Entertainment Critic After people from Woodbury were rescued, the compound was claimed as home and The Governor fled, we were left to wonder how season four of “The Walking Dead” was going to begin.

H o m e g r o w n vegetables, story time and blue skies disguise themselves as a comfortable habitat for our friendly apocalypse survivors in the series opening.

The season premiere had “become so tranquil that lawman Rick could contemplate a semblance of order to his makeshift farm,” as stated in “TIME” this week.

However, a strange, eerie tone is overtaking as the show is now developing a further problem: infection.

A saboteur is present on the compound and is seen to be feeding rats to the walkers on the other side of the fence, possibly displaying the root problem of this epidemic.

What was once a disaster separated by barbed wire has now become an internal problem within the community of survivors. A new breed of walkers is emerging. They are “calling this new breed of zombies the woggers: they’re faster than walkers, but they don’t quite jog; they move at a walk-jog—a wog.”

Not only are these “woggers” catching symptoms differently than before, but they are intelligent in their forms of execution. When Patrick took his first unlucky victim in this week’s episode, he went straight for the throat to hush his victim from screaming.

As an infectious race appears on the scene, we are also battling an inner and more destructive issue: the vandal. The end of this week’s episode set up a downhill escapade of questions without answers.

Pitiable Tyreese walks down the jailhouse corridor with flowers in hand, only to find carnage and blood ultimately tracing back to his much dead girlfriend, Karen–thus illustrating significant damage control in the future episodes.

We were led to believe that Karen was catching on to the virus, but it appears as though someone on the inside decided her fate before that could have been made so.

As questions are now multiplying like woggers, we can rest assured that fans are just as infected to watching “The Walking Dead” this season as the victims in the compound.

The season 4 premiere of the series garnered 16.1 million viewers and over 20 million for the entire night. In the coveted 1849 demographic, it scored a 10.4. The demographic ratings are bigger than any show on TV this fall, network or cable. The second episode of the season dropped down to 13 million viewers, but still averaged 16 million for the entire night.

Show creators are being quite as to what to expect this season, but they do say each episode builds on the other. Slowly, but surely panic and chaos will swarm the survivors again and they will have to fight for their lives.

‘The Walking Dead’ airs Sunday nights at 9/8 central on AMC.

By MORGAN RICHARDS Guest Critic

amount of mystery to be Christian Grey. What can I say? He could take me to his red room!

The role of Anastasia Steele was given to Dakota Johnson, the daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson.

Anastasia Steele is described as a young brunette with big blue eyes. If they don’t dye Johnson’s hair dark, count me out! Besides the minor hair color difference, I think Johnson fits Anastasia very well.

Anastasia is described throughout most of the series as a plain and simple type of girl, and I think they will be able to incorporate that very well with Johnson’s looks. However, I feel like Johnson looks a little bit too old to be playing the fresh-out-of-college Anastasia, and I imagined her being a little bit prettier and more youthful.

While I had my favorites for the roles, I think the directors have done a relatively good job of choosing a great lead cast, and I think that Dornan and Johnson will do a great job in the film and please fans everywhere!

‘50 Shades of Grey’ is tentatively scheduled to be released in August of 2014.

‘50 Shades’ finally cast

Courtesy of Scifi Mafia

Sissy Spacek (right) portrayed Carrie in the original film in 1978. She stated she was excited for the reboot and approved of Chloe Grace Moretz (left), calling her “a wonderful actress.”

Margaret White, Carrie’s religious nut mother, with a carefulness that the audience can’t write off as simply crazy, but must begin to

understand the motivations of why she is how she is.

Unfortunately, the story is just too much of the same thing. The story doesn’t set

itself apart enough to be a substantial remake. Some choices were great, like the real fake blood as opposed to CGI and other cool effect, but even still it doesn’t redeem the entire film from being predictable and unnecessary.

If you’ve seen the original, you’ve seen this film. Even with a well-acted cast and a timely update, this version doesn’t do much to stand apart from its predecessor and is boring in that respect. Audiences that haven’t seen the original will be able to appreciate the story much more as a creepy thriller instead of a poor remake.

This film is rated R for bloody violence, disturbing images, language, and some sexual content.

The 50 Shades of Grey series took the country by storm when it was released, and now fans everywhere are anticipating the movie set to be released in 2014. Fans had their dream picks for the lead roles Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele before the movie was even announced.

There were polls all over the Internet and social media. A Twitter profile was even made for Christian Grey. Waiting for the cast to be announced was like a kid waiting for Christmas morning for most fans, including myself.

Originally, Charlie Hunnam was chosen for the role of Mr. Grey, but, as a fan of the books, I was not a fan of this choice. I felt that Hunnam did not fit the role of the savvy Christian Grey as well as other choices. To most everyone’s surprise, he soon dropped out and was replaced by Jamie Dornan, a much more appropriate choice in my eyes.

Christian is supposed to be a very handsome, successful businessman with a dark side who would catch any woman’s eye, and Jamie Dornan definitely catches my eye!

His eyes have the perfect

NEWS Page 14 | October 25, 2013

WTTU would like to welcome all 31 of the new DJs of the Fall 2013 semester/ 31 out of 31 DJs completed the Fall 2013 DJ class.

A hearty congratlations to them

tntechoracle.com

C Chris Hillebrand Will Gabelman Bree Goodchild Anthony Allen Mike Parrigan Zachary Z Arnold Sarah Byrne Kevin Casler Jake Threet Clint Lofton Thomas DeBow III Charli Bray Neil Stanton Dillon Kruppa Emilie Roberts Ryan Ritchie Haylee Eaton Tucker Shaw Nathanael Nelms Brandon Beaver Jackson Hardin Ashton Breeden Jacqueline Atkielski Aaron Phillips Ha Harold Cunningham C Cassandra Byrge Tyler Rhodes Elizabeth Rein Erik Graubner Kayla Clouse Chris Kirk

Rocky Horror opens 21st season at Backdoor Playhouse B KYLE GOSSETT By B Beat Reporter

Current Schedule:

The Backdoor Playhouse is all set to kick off its 59th season with the “Rocky Horror Show” opening Halloween night. The show will run a total of nine times between Halloween and Nov. 9. One thing unique about this run is that it includes a special midnight showing, set for Nov. 2.

The show will be directed by Mark Creter, who said he is excited to kick off his 21st season as artistic director to the playhouse.

“If I had to pick a show that has been most requested throughout the years, “Rocky Horror” is the one,” Creter said. “It has always been in the back of my mind, and this year just seemed like a

good time to do it. The exciting thing is this is a show that I’m very familiar with, with an iconic movie to go along with it. So, it has been has fun to take this well-known production and bring it to Tech.”

Creter said the play does follow along with the movie in most places, however there is a song featured in this production not featured in the movie, and rarely heard in other productions.

Brent Fleshman, a local disc jockey for 94.7 FM, is also involved with the production, playing the narrator.

“What’s so great about the Backdoor Playhouse is its not exclusive just to Tech or the drama program,” Fleshman said. “There are open auditions, and I was

lucky to be chosen to play the narrator.”

This isn’t the first production Fleshman has been involved with at the playhouse; he took part in “Cabaret”, and also had a starring role in “Marat Sade”, which played last semester. He, too, said he is excited about bringing “Rocky Horror” to Tech.

“I’m very excited about it. It’s a legendary play and movie, and the program this semester has a lot of fresh faces and new talent.”

Tech students get in for free with a Tech ID, and public tickets will be sold at the door. Ticket prices are $12 for a regular ticket, $10 for seniors, and $5 for non-Tech college students with another college ID.

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