Torch Issue - January 28. 2009

TORCH GRAPHIC/ZACH DAVINO

WHAT’S INSIDE News......................2-7 Entertainment....17-21 Comics....................10 Features..............24-26 Editorials............12-14 Sports.................27-32

Lunar New Year On-Campus Celebration A mass and dinner are some of the events planned to celebrate this important Asian holiday.

NEWS page 7

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Last week’s poll results Do you like St. John’s new e-mail service?

57% Yes 43% No Check out our new poll every Wednesday “Think Outside. . .”

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Directory

Managing Board LXXXV

GREGORY LEPORATI, Editor-in-Chief CHRISTINA HEISER, Managing Editor EVERTON BAILEY News Editor

ANTHONY MORREALE

MATT CHOQUETTE

Sports Editor

Chief Copy Editor

PASQUALE PASSARELLA LAURA AMATO

ELIZABETH JALONSCHI

Editorial Page Editor Photo Editor

General Manager

PATRICE BENDIG

JONNATHAN COLEMAN SARA RHODES

Features Editor

Online Editor

CAITLYN NOLAN

ZACH DAVINO

EntertainmentEditor Art Director

Layout Editor ELLEN CAREY Advisor

Business (718) 9906576 Advertising 990-6756 Editorial Board 990-6444

Features 990-6445 Letters 990-6445 News 990-6444 Sports 990-6444

Special thanks to Richard Rex Thomas for assisting in the design of The TORCH

Inferno 2009 Oscar Nominees Frost/Nixon is one of the five movies nominated for Best Picture at this year’s Oscars.

But which one will win? Read our guide.

Inferno pg. 19 Torch Delights Chocolate Caramels Are you in the mood for chocolate? Try this simple, easy to follow recipe to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Features pg. 26

Men’s Basketball On the Rebound

NEWS

The St. John’s men’s basketball team won their second Big East conference game of the season with a 70-59 win Saturday over Rutgers.

Sports pg. 30

UC, Taffner receive perfect health inspections

OPINION PG. 14

28 Jan. 2008

NEW E-MAIL

CHRISTINA HEISER Managing Editor

The TORCH

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TORCH PHOTO/LAURA AMATO

Students line up in Montgoris Dining Hall last Thursday to get a taste of food offered during “International Thursdays,” a new series of weekly themed dinners featuring cuisine from France, England, Egypt and other countries.

FOR MAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS: 718-990-6756 The TORCH is the official student newspaper of St. John’s University. The Torch is written, edited, designed and produced by students of the University. All contents are the sole responsibility of the editors and the editorial board and do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of St. John’s University unless specifically stated.

To contact The TORCH by mail: The TORCH, St. John’s University 8000 Utopia Parkway Queens, NY 11439

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St. John’s is getting straight A’s when it comes to its health inspections: the dining areas in Taffner Field House and the University Center recently passed with perfect scores.

According to Ken Waldhof, executive director of Auxiliary Services, the point system begins at a zero (a perfect score) and as infractions are found, the number of points increases.

“As much as we anticipate good scores from these smaller dining units an inspection resulting in a score of zero points cited is an achievement,” he said.

The New York City Department of Health conducts these inspections at random, without any notices given beforehand.

Waldhof was pleased with the scores that the dining areas received.

“We have had perfect scores before, but to have two days in a row of perfect scores, that was pretty nice to see,” he said.

Waldhof explained the difficulty of receiving perfect scores for these health inspections.

“They look for more than just food. They check the walls, the ceilings, cabinets, everywhere,” he said. “So, all our food products may be at the right temperature but there may be water on the floor in the staff kitchen or a hole in the wall and we’ll lose points there. Or the milk for the coffee may be too warm and we’ll lose points.”

Waldhof cited the work of Chartwells as the main reason for the perfect scores.

“Basically, when Chartwells came in, they made [health inspections] one of their big priorities,” he said. “They have an independent company that they pay to bring in to do their own inspections. If they find anything wrong, it is corrected immediately.”

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TORCH PHOTO/BRYAN BURTNER

Members of the St. John’s community gather in St. Thomas More church earlier this week for the 2009 Founder’s Week opening mass. The theme for this year’s weeklong celebration is “Changing Hearts, Creating Peace,” meant to reflect the ideals of St. Vincent de Paul.

Founder’s week celebrates change and peace THOMAS CARNEVALE Staff Writer

Paul and a presentation on Monday in the Little Theater called “Transformation: Values and Vision” by Major General Joseph A. McNeil.

The presentation by General McNeil focused on his experiences in the civil rights movement, which he used to explain the struggles in modern human dignity.

“I [enjoyed the event],” said Joseph Jazinski, a sophomore. “I liked how he related his old experiences to current problems.”

There was also a play on Tuesday in St. Thomas More Church about Fr. Damien of Molokai, who dedicated his life to serving those with affected with leprosy.

Overall, Fr. Kettelberger said he has found the purpose of Founder’s Week to be one of self-reflection.

“For me, and I believe for everyone else, this is an opportunity for us all to stop and think about who St. Vincent de Paul was, how do we each live a life of service today here at St. John’s and how are we transforming because of the influence St. Vincent has on us,” he said.

“This is all a time of reflection, for us all to look within ourselves, into who we are and how we are living under St. Vincent de Paul.”

Wednesday

Friday

• “Vincentian Tradition and Systematic Change,” featuring Patricia P. de Nava, a member of the Ladies of Charity-International Associations of Charities- 4 p.m., Belson Moot Courtroom • Vincentian Convocation- 8 p.m., St. Thomas More Church

• St. Vincent de Paul Society Student Retreatall day • “Voices of the World: A Concert for Peace,” featuring singers and dancers from Italy, China, Mexico and India- 7 p.m., Little Theater

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• “Transforming Hearts: Love Your Neighbor DayPerforming Random Acts of Kindness Day”- all day, O’Connor Hall • “Acting Locally and Globally” featuring Mary Halpin, president of World Youth Alliance- 7 p.m., Donovan Community Room

Thursday

The TORCH

Upcoming Founder’s Week events on the Queens campus

28 Jan. 2009

International Associations of Charities, an organization originally founded by St. Vincent de Paul and, according to Fr. Kettelberger, will be discussing “how the work of St. Vincent not only continues here but on an international level as well.”

Thursday’s events end with a Vincentian Convocation at 8 p.m. in St. Thomas More Church honoring individuals in and outside the St. John’s community who are living a Vincentian way of life.

An all-day St. Vincent de Paul Society Student Retreat is scheduled for Friday, along with a concert in the Little Theater at 7 p.m. called “Voices of the World: A Concert for Peace,” featuring singers and dancers from Italy, China, Mexico, India and other countries.

“This is going to be a great opportunity for everyone to come together to celebrate world cultures and to promote world peace,” said Fr. Kettelberger.

This year’s Founder’s Week activities conclude with Service Day, an event where students can sign up to volunteer their time to aiding the less fortunate.

Events that have already happened include a Founder’s Week mass on Sunday, which officially started the weeklong celebration of St. Vincent de

NEWS

The 15th annual Founder’s Week continues today and for the rest of the week with events aimed to urge students and faculty to help those in need and promote peace. The weeklong series is held to celebrate the Vincentian heritage and values of St. John’s.

This year’s theme, “Changing Hearts, Creating Peace,” is a premise chosen to reflect the ideals of St. Vincent de Paul, said Fr. John Kettelberger, director of Residence Ministry.

“St. Vincent de Paul experienced a transformation from helping himself to helping others and this year’s theme revolves around how we all can change our behavior to help those in need and to build and transform the world into a world of peace,” he said.

Today’s Founder’s Week events kick-off with two administrator and staff luncheon sessions led by Rev. Patrick Griffin, CM, executive vice president for Mission and Branch Campuses, at 11:45 a.m. and 1 p.m. in the U.C.’s Storm Center.

At 3 p.m., Mary Halpin, president of the World Youth Alliance, a non-

governmental organization that seeks to protect human rights, will be giving a lecture called “Acting Locally and Globally,” also in the Storm Center.

While working with the organization, Halpin has traveled to Mexico, Germany, Hungary, The Philippines, Kenya and Rwanda.

Junior Matthew Knotts, who helped bring the WYA president to campus for this year’s Founder’s Week, said he looks forward to the event.

“I’ve heard her speak previously and one of the things that struck me about her is that she was very engaging with people our age,” he said. “I think she brings a unique take on social justice issues and in the end, I hope people leave with a deep appreciation for the human person and that this becomes a great moment for reflection, because we are all still growing.”

Thursday’s events include a faculty panel book discussion and lunch at 12:10 p.m. in St. Vincent Hall, a student leaders’ luncheon at 12:15 p.m. in the Donovan Community Room.

The Belson Moot Courtroom in the Law School will host “Vincentian Tradition and Systematic Change” with Patricia P. de Nava at 4 p.m. De Nava is a member of the Ladies of Charity-

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Civil Rights activist reaccounts life experiences THOMAS CARNEVALE Staff Writer

“

The civil rights movement [taught] us to be tolerant of others. Our diversity is our strength.

”

-Joseph h McNeil

of teamwork and cooperation.

“We had leaders from everywhere,” he said. “You could take out one or two of us and we’d still have the movement.”

Students reacted positively to the presentation.

“I liked how he connected [the Civil Rights Movement] to the current problems in the world,” said John Firzgoff, a junior.

Another student, senior Keri Lee, felt similarly.

TORCH PHOTO/BRYAN BURTNER “I thought it was going to be a military presentation, I really liked it,” she said. Joseph McNeil, a retired Major General in the Air Force Re“Hearing about his struggles made me serves and member of the Greensboro Four, shares his life experiappreciate my life much more.” ences with students and faculty in the Little Theater on Monday.

ERICA CURTISS Staff Writer

Points System Academic Standing GPA 10 points- 3.75 or higher 8 points- between 3.5 and 3.74 7 points- between 3.25 and 3.49 5 points- between 3.0 and 3.24 4 points- between 2.51 and 2.99 3 points- below 2.5 Judicial History (based on the Student Code of Conduct and Residence Hall Policies and Procedures) 10 points- no violations 8 points- one minor violation 6 points- two minor violations 4 points- one serious violation 2 points- one serious violation and one minor violation 0 points- two or more serious violations Class Status 4- Senior (fourth, fifth, and sixth year Pharmacy)- 91 or more credits 3- Junior- between 56 and 90 credits 2- Sophomore- between 25 and 55 credits 1- Freshman- between 0 and 24 credits

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week for many reasons.” said Petruzelli.

“It’s more convenient for the school because when we had room selection day on a Saturday, all the offices on campus were closed. But, more importantly, it’s better for the students.

While there is a new point system there is no actual point requirement for any of the buildings except the town houses.

“The only requirement we ask is that students applying for the town houses have at least a 4 for judicial history” says Mohan.

Also, a new off campus dorm will be opening next semester on Henley Road. According to Petruzzelli and Mohan, it has only doubles with two to four bedroom apartments, a full kitchen, and very close to floor to ceiling sized windows.

While it seems that upperclassmen are receiving all the perks, it seems that the freshman class will gain something as well. The on-campus upperclassmen hall, Carey Hall, is being converted into a freshman hall as of next semester.

“I wouldn’t say freshman only,” says Petruzelli, “but as of now we are considering moving freshman into Carey Hall.”

Other changes: • Roommate request forms, which are due on March 6, will now be completed electronically.

• The new off-campus dorm on Henley Road will open next semester, containing two to four bedroom apartments and a full kitchen.

The TORCH

Students have mixed reactions towards the revised points system for this year’s room selection process, which now includes class status as a factor.

Under the previous system, students were awarded points from 3-10 based on grade point average amd 0-10 based on judicial history.

But this year, students are awarded additional points based on their year, with the combined GPA and judicial history points being multipled by the corresponding points.

Freshmen scores are multipled by one, Sophomore scores are multipled by two, Juniors by three and Seniors by four.

For example, under last year’s point system, if a junior and sophomore applied for housing and had a 3.75 GPA or higher along with no judicial violations, they would both have scores of 20.

However, with the new system, the junior would have 60 points and the sophomore would have 40 points.

Dominic Petruzelli, director of residence life, said he believes the new system should not be much of a hinderence for students living where ever they choose next semester.

“Anyone has the opportunity to get residence hall of their choice in any hall,” he said. “Students should keep in mind that they are not being punished for their class rank, but they are being rewarded.”

Some underclassmen still feel the new system is unfair.

“It’s like my grades don’t even count,” said freshman Erick Medina. “Even if I had perfect grades and a perfect judicial history if I multiply that by my class rank I only get a 20, while if a senior with the same credentials as mine multiplies 20 by four he or she will get 80.

So who do you think is [going to be able] moving into that townhouse?”

On the other hand, many students believe that as upperclassmen they have earned the right to have first choice of residence halls because they have been here longer.

“It wouldn’t be fair for me to have the same chances as getting into the town houses as a freshmen,” said Alma Rodriguez, a sophomore. “I have seniority and that’s the way it always should have been.”

According to Kavita Mohan, residence life coordinator, the revised points system as well as other changes to this year’s room selection process were the results of student suggestions.

“It was student feedback that led to all these decisions,” she said. “Many students felt that if they were an upcoming senior with a good judicial history and grade point average that should hold some weight over an upcoming sophomore.”

Other room selection modification is the expansion of room selection day, when students select the residence halls where they will live for the follow semester, to an entire week.

“We stretched room selection day to a

28 Jan. 2009

Revamped point system among changes to room selection

NEWS

A retired Major General in the Air Force Reserves and the Federal Aviation Administration shared his experiences from the Civil Rights Movement with students this week.

Joseph A. McNeil, LL.D. Hon. presented “Transformation: Vision and Values” on Monday, Jan. 26 at 4:30 p.m. in the Little Theater as part of the University’s 15th annual Founder’s Week.

McNeil was involved with the United States Air Force and was the mobilization assistant to the commander. He was a graduate of the ROTC program at North Carolina A&T and upon graduation in 1963 he entered the U.S. Air Force as a second lieutenant. McNeil also spent a considerable time flying in Southeast Asia as a participant in Young Tiger missions.

“I think our actions in the Civil Rights Movement helped make us better Americans,” he said. “It helped us end prejudice.”

McNeil recounted one of his first experiences getting involved in the civil rights movement, which took place during his time as a student at North Carolina A&T State University. McNeil and three of his friends planned a “sit-in” at a Woolworth’s lunch counter because at the time the Woolworth’s lunch counter only served to whites, even though blacks could shop in the store.

“The beauty of it was that young people pulled this off,” he said.

McNeil connected the work done during the Civil Rights Movement to St. Vincent

de Paul, who is celebrated during Founder’s Week.

“We didn’t realize it at the time that we were embracing Vincentian principles of giving,” he said. “The Civil Rights Movement [taught] us to be tolerant of others. Our diversity is our strength.”

McNeil also emphasized the importance

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CUTBACKS: New SJU faculty hires on indefinite hold EVERTON BAILEY News Editor Like many universities across the country, St. John’s has been affected by the current economic recession.

According to multiple department chairs, the University has put an indefinite hold on the hiring of new faculty members.

“We made no hires last semester and we have none for this semester,” said Stephen Sicari, chair of the English department in St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“We’re hardly the only department not hiring, but this is the first time we haven’t had a new hire since 1996 or ‘97.”

In a conversation last week with the Torch, Dr. Julia Upton, university provost, said, there is “currently no hiring freeze,” but that new hires must go through more filters now than in the past.

“If a department wants to hire a new person, it goes through an extra level of review,” she said.

“So, for example, instead of a dean approving a hire, it’ll be the dean and the provost approving the hire.”

Although faculty members

have noted there has been no formal announcement declaring a University-wide hiring freeze to date, many say new hires have been scarce within St. John’s since the fall.

“I asked for some new faculty and it was originally approved during the fall, but then I was told that my request was put on hold, not that they were canceled, just put on hold,” said Professor Joseph Trumino, Social Sciences chair for the College of Professional Studies.

Other departments have had similar experiences.

“We were told that hiring will be limited and based on need,” said Professor Luba Racanska, Government and Politics department chair for St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“So [my department hasn’t] done any new hiring this year, but I’m sure there are some departments where a position was vacated because someone retired and they needed to be replaced and they were granted that replacement.”

Along with the hold on hires, some departments have had to contribute funds from their budget towards student financial aid.

Upton also confirmed these details last week.

“We have asked the departments to go through their budgets and return funds that are not essential so we can use them for aid to students,” she said.

“For example, if a department prints a five-page newsletter every semester, maybe they can print a three-page newsletter.”

It seems St. John’s College has been affected the most.

Sicari said the English department had to give up around $3,000.

“I was able to find some money in our travel budget and returned those funds,” he said.

“There have been little things here and there that we have cut back on, like maybe we won’t have catering for every event, but we haven’t had to make any significant cuts as of yet.”

Racanska said her department had to give 10 percent of their budget.

“We’ve had to curtail travel expenses that were deemed unnecessary, like to conferences that are substantially far out of the area, and to curtail any spending that was not student oriented,” she said.

However, other department chairs said they have not had to

cut much, if anything.

In fact, Professor Anthony Missere, chair of the department of Hospitality, Tourism, and Sport Management, said things have been operating like “business as usual”.

“We’ve had to cancel a few classes, but that was due to a low number of students registering,” he said. “But for the most part, we aren’t doing anything differently here than from last spring.”

Missere added that his department has also had to hold off on new hires and offered his own theory on why his budget has remained relatively the same.

“We haven’t had to cut anything probably because we have nothing to cut,” he said.

“We haven’t been living large here.”

Trumino said another method he has noticed St. John’s implementing in an effort to cut costs is to “not allow professors to overload the number of courses they teach each semester.”

“Each professor who works full-time is allowed to teach up to four courses per semester.

Now let’s say a professor goes on to teach a fifth course, because

another professor is unable to teach the course and they step up to take over, then they have to be paid overtime,” he said. “For a full-time professor that would be about 1/12 of their salary, maybe $6,000-7,000. So instead of having a full-time professor take an extra course, they’ll permit a part-time professor to take it and they are paid at a set amount, up to $3,000.

“It makes sense, it saves the University money and with this economy, everyone has to save.”

Sicari said he believes next semester will be a very telling sign as to whether things take a turn for the better, or worse.

“I think people are waiting for what next year is going to look like,” he said. “A lot is going to depend on what enrollment is going to look like next year. Even if enrollment is steady but we have an increase in students who need more financial aid, that money has to come from somewhere.”

“A lot depends on how deep this recession goes, too” he said.

“But I have every confidence that the University will return to the growth they are accustomed to, if things get better.”

Lunar New Year celebration set to welcome the year of the Ox CHEN CHEN Contributing Writer

NEWS PHOTO COURTESY OF FOODMAYHEM.COM

A mass and dinner celebrating the Lunar New Year, one of the most important holidays in Asian culture, will be held this Friday in St. Thomas More Church and Marillac Cafeteria, respectively, beginning at 5:30 p.m.

“It has a big impact on our Asian students and it allows them to continue to know and remember who they are,” said Duong, who is Vietnamese. “For me, this celebration has always brought me back to who I am.”

Some students say they are excited to ring in the New Year again.

“I am so looking forward to celebrating the Chinese New Year, even though I can’t spend time with my family,” said junior Kun Song. “However, under the help of Ms. Rosa Yen and Project A.I.M., I strongly feel that St. John’s is my second home.”

Additional reporting by Everton Bailey

torchonline.com

sure the number will continue to grow this year.”

Yen also said she has extended invitations to St. John’s students of the Manhattan and Staten Island campuses as well as alumni.

“Usually the event is open to current students, but this year, we decided to also have past students return for this occasion,” said Yen. “This is just a good chance to bring everyone together and celebrate.”

Father Tri Duong, a campus minister and one of the priest who will be delivering blessings at the mass, said the yearly observance of the event at St. John’s is especially important for students who have roots in Asian culture.

The TORCH

learn more about the Chinese Zodiac and be able to find their sign as well as engage in other aspects of Lunar New Year traditions.

Despite a slow start, Yen said, the annual Lunar New Year celebration at St. John’s has become quite popular.

“This has become a very popular event in the last couple of years,” said Yen. “I remember the first year we only had about 50 people and the majority of them were Asian,” she said. “But over the next few years, people have been bringing more and more of their friends and telling other people about it.

“Last year we had over 200 people attend the dinner and I would say 30 percent of them were non-Asian. I’m

28 Jan. 2009

With the month of January almost in the books, many believe the year of 2009 has been well under way. But, for those who follow the lunar calendar, the New Year just started this past Monday.

In honor of the Lunar New Year, Project A.I.M. (Asian-student Involvement and Mentoring), the Office of Student Life and other campus organizations are hosting a Lunar New Year Celebration on Friday, Jan. 30 beginning at 5:30 p.m.

The Lunar New Year, sometimes referred to as Chinese New Year, is one of the most important holidays in Asian culture. Monday ushered in the year of the Ox, the second sign of the Chinese Zodiac, which symbolizes strength, prosperity and hard work.

“We have a lot of Asian students here on campus who have family outside the United States and Lunar New Year is always during the school year, so these students usually spend this time away from their loved ones,” said Rosa Yen, associate director of Leadership Development and Multicultural Affairs.

“This is a good chance for these students to get a little taste of home, for all members of the St. John’s Asian community to get together, as well as for people of other cultures to be exposed to and embrace Asian culture.”

The fourth annual celebration begins with a New Year mass in St. Thomas More Church at 5:30 p.m. which is intended to give students good luck.

“We’ve always had a mass before dinner,” said Yen. “This is for anyone, regardless of race, religion or culture, to receive blessings for the New Year.”

Following mass, a Lunar New Year dinner will be held in Marillac Cafeteria at 7 p.m. featuring various Asian cuisines from China, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan.

Along with the dinner, students will

TORCHCOMICS 28 January 2009

Geek Zach Davino

Short Shorts Tim Olwell

Ethel & Wilfred Chris Lauto

I Can’t Draw Alex Reyes

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Editorial Board LXXXVI GREGORY LEPORATI Editor-in-Chief

Illustrator’s Corner:

CHRISTINA HEISER Managing Editor EVERTON BAILEY News Editor PASQUALE PASSARELLA Editorial Page Editor

FLAMES OF THE TORCH

Editorials are the opinions of the Editorial Board of The TORCH. Columns are the opinions of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of The TORCH. Opin-

torchonline.com

OPINION 28 Jan. 2009

The end of each semester brings a great deal of stress into the lives of college students. Finals are approaching, spring break plans need to be finalized, and summer internships or jobs need to be applied for.

Resident students deal with the added pressure of the room selection process. They have to figure out where they want to live, with whom, and whether they have the qualifications to do so.

In the short history of St. John’s residential housing, the room selection process has followed a system that awards housing to students based on merit, rather than seniority. This year, however, that has changed.

There have actually been a number of changes to the housing selection process. The most sweeping change, though, has been to the points system.

Previously, housing was based on a 20-point system where a maximum of ten points was based on GPA and ten on judicial history. This placed all students, regardless of year, on the same playing field.

A freshman who earned a high GPA and did not have many violations had the same chance to get into on-campus dorms as a junior who did the same.

This system clearly favored those who did well in class and kept out of trouble in the dorms. It rewarded those who proved they could handle living away from home and balancing their social and academic lives.

This semester, a new system has been instituted that incorporates one’s year as a factor in the selection process.

The same 20 points from GPA and judicial history remain, though that base number is now multiplied depending on seniority.

Freshman housing points remain the same, sophomore points are doubled, juniors’ are tripled, and remaining se-

The TORCH

Seniority a priority? niors or upperclass pharmacy students have a multiplier of four.

This is a total reversal of the University’s previous policy favoring academic and judicial excellence over seniority.

When asked about this change, administrators explained that many upperclassmen have requested that they be given some priority over students with fewer credits.

While this is a reasonable issue for debate, and many other universities take seniority into account for housing, the way that St. John’s has implemented it seems a little extreme.

A freshman who maintained a good GPA and had no violations can receive a maximum of 20 points. A junior who does the same will receive three times as many points due to the new multiplier.

This also means that a junior who received only eight housing points because of judicial violations or a lower GPA would still receive 24 points and, therefore, a higher priority than the conscientious freshman.

Again, the decision to make seniority a priority is not the problem. It is the execution that could perhaps use some rethinking. Adding additional points based on year would be much less extreme than multiplying one’s housing points.

Rather than a 20-or-40-point margin separating freshmen from sophomores or juniors, there could be a rift of only about ten points. This would be enough to give upperclassmen an edge while making sure freshmen still have a chance.

The end of the semester is stressful enough for residents already, without adding the fear that a student has no shot at getting into the dorms merely because of the amount of time they have spent at St. John’s.

EDITORIAL POLICY ions expressed in editorials, columns, letters or cartoons are not necessarily those of the student body, faculty or administrations of St. John’s University.

TO CONTRIBUTE Mail letters to: The TORCH Letters, St. John’s University, 8000 Utopia Pkwy, Jamaica, NY 11439 E-mail letters to: torcheditorials@gmail.com

Please include your full name, year, and college (or department). Letters have a limit of 350 words and may be edited for content, grammar, or space. Unverifiable or anonymous letters will not be published.

All letters are subject to the approval of the Editorial Board of The TORCH.

TORCH CARTOON/CHRISTOPHER LAUTO

Letters to the Editor To the Editor: I am writing in response to last week’s editorial by Greg Leporati, particularly in regards to his statements about Winter Carnival and Student Government.

As a former committee chair and representative of Student Government, I am afraid that this article may lead to misunderstandings about Student Government, Inc. SGI is incorporated, meaning that it is a seperate legal entity from the University as a whole.

While SGI is a corporation whose purpose is specifically for St. John’s students, Student Government funds are not co-mingled with that of the University. In fact, Student Government’s funds come specifically from the funds collected as the Student Activity Fee. While Mr. Leporati speaks of the extravagance of this year’s event, the raise in student government spending is directly correlated to the raise in the Student Actitvity Fee in the 2006-7

academic year.

Also, Student Government spending is not unrestricted. Student Government, Inc. must balance their budget every year and expenditures require floor approval.

While the article makes it sound that Student Government just decides to spend as much as it wants, there are procedures to make sure that the spending is wise, such as special allocations requiring budget committee approval.

Once again, this is only speaking about Student Government, Inc. funds, not St. John’s University funds. While there are definitely signs of an economic slowdown in official university hiring, Student Government, Inc. and its spending are different from the University and SGI spending should not be interpreted as “SGI versus other departments.”

Benjamin R. Blum SJC Graduate 2008 Former Academic Affairs Committee Chair, SGI

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Life’s lessons learned The most important education is not received in the classroom The recently late, always great John Updike once noted, “Four years was enough of Harvard. I still had a lot to learn, but had been given the liberating notion that now I could teach myself.”

And after four years of St. John’s, I’d have to admit that I’m thinking similarly to Updike.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I can’t compare myself too heavily to Updike.

After all, I did not receive a full scholarship to Harvard, I have not written any novels, and I certainly have not won any Pulitzer Prizes.

But after reaching the tender age of 22 this January, and coming face to face with the realization that I will end my undergraduate studies at St. John’s soon, I’ve started reflecting, like Updike, more and more on what I’ve actually learned in college and, naturally, what lies in store for me in the future.

Professors and classes have come and gone – some good, some bad, some life changing, some too easy.

But while I remain undecided on how effective some of my classes have been, I am entirely certain about one thing: the most important lessons I’ve learned these past four years have hardly come from a classroom; rather, they’re the type of life experiences that we are constantly learning, inside and outside of college.

What stands out most is a moment from the second semester of my freshman year. I had just entered St. John’s, had begun forming a social life around campus, and was attempting to fully immerse myself in academia. I spent all my time on campus and, in a sense, came to live in a sort of college bubble.

But soon into the semester, a lifechanging event snapped me out of my world of classes, organizations, and social gatherings.

My parents picked me up one morning outside Gate 6 to drive to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan to visit my grandmother, who had recently taken ill. I had been terribly busy in the week or two prior, and was largely unaware of how she was doing, or how serious it was.

As I got into the car, my dad looked back at me.

“Alright guys, let’s get prepared for this,” he said. “I’m sure this won’t be easy.”

I paused for a moment to digest these words. My grandmother, in fact, was slowly dying; and, perhaps just as devastating, I was not aware of the situation. I had not been keeping track of what mattered most in life.

The trip to see my grandmother proved to be one of the hardest, but most rewarding, experiences of my life. It is almost impossible to describe just how difficult it is to see a loved one in such pain, and to see someone for what you know will be the last time. It’s the type of experience a classroom could never replicate.

These issues of life and death – these important lessons that only experience can teach us – are what make the most lasting marks on our personality and our character.

Since that semester, I’ve learned to think outside the college bubble – to not let myself get so immersed in schoolwork, TORCH work, or anything college-related that I lose track of what’s most important.

Rather, I more fully realized that college is just a complement - a means of educating ourselves to better understand the problems we face as we progress through life.

And now that my time on campus is almost up, I fully agree with the late John Updike: four years of college is enough.

In all truth, there’s more to learn offcampus than on; the best we can hope for is that our time at St. John’s can help us understand and cope with the difficult decisions, situations, and issues that arise so often throughout life.

With a little luck (cross your fingers), I will earn enough credits to graduate in May. And as I rise to get my diploma, I’m almost positive that I won’t be thinking of any class I took these past four years, a professor that made a lasting impact on me, or the late hours I spent at the TORCH office.

I’m sure that I’ll be thinking of my grandmother, and the invaluable lesson she taught me so early on in my college career – a lesson that no textbook can ever adequately teach.

So while school may be important, it’s essential to remember Updike’s words: we still have a lot to learn.

Gregory Leporati is a senior English major.

He can be reached at: torcheic@gmail.com

Obama’s first week should silence skeptics over $100,000 a year, and has moved fast in working with Congress to sign his new American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.

President Obama promises that this new plan will “update our electric grid by laying more than 3,000 miles of transmission lines; weatherize 2.5 million homes; protect health insurance for more than 8 million Americans in danger of losing their coverage; secure 90 major ports; renovate 10,000 schools; and triple the number of science fellowships.”

With our economy in the state it is in, surely there is no plan “too ambitious” or a poli-

STUDENTSPARKS

tician “too eager” for the challenges at hand.

Barack Obama has taken office and immediately begun to move towards improving the nation. As noted in his Saturday morning web address, Obama hopes to sign the recovery plan within the next month.

Would those skeptical of Obama’s agenda rather see their President act slower and with less enthusiasm?

The bottom line: we have not seen a president with this much overt passion for the United States in a long while, and to not appreciate the candor of our new Commander-in-Chief would be a disservice to the country.

COMPILED BY THOMAS CARNEVALE

The TORCH

What improvements would you make to Montgoris?

28 Jan. 2009

Since the beginning of his presidential campaign, President Barack Obama’s platform has consisted of ambitious change.

His speeches are filled with resilient promises that comfort hurting Americans and as he was sworn into office in front of a record gathering of inaugural spectators, it was pretty hard not to be inspired with hope.

During a time when the state of the nation’s politics and economy could seemingly get no worse, President Obama inspires

Jan. 24, Obama addressed these doubters saying, “I know that some are skeptical about the size and scale of this recovery plan.

I understand that skepticism, which is why this recovery plan must and will include unprecedented measures that will allow the American people to hold my Administration accountable for these results.”

The President has already displayed in his first days in office that he is willing to take action, and is not all talk.

Obama has signed five new executive orders, implemented various fiscal moves including freezing the salaries of any White House worker making

OP-ED

hope with promises of immediate reform and change.

But while many Americans believe in the sweeping changes proposed by the Obama agenda, there are skeptics.

These skeptics resentfully object that with the current decline of the economy and foreign affairs, the agenda President Obama has set for his first few months in office is far too ambitious for the current state of the nation.

Some believe that the President’s staunch optimism is simply a sedative for the American people’s troubles.

In his first Saturday morning web address to the people on

JUSTIN THRIFT Staff Writer

I think breakfast needs to be later. I would like breakfast to be switched over at 11:30.

They should have more theme nights, sushi and Asian food.

Zoe Kitsios

Zalika Timothy

Jenny Min

torchonline.com

I really don’t like the school serving the entrées. It takes a long time and sometimes I want less than what they give me.

14

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

TORCH CARTOON/KERI DODGE

The new face of St. John’s e-mail Does the new e-mail provider really bring anything new to SJU?

torchonline.com

The TORCH

28 Jan. 2009

OPINION

MARK MCDONALD Staff Writer St. John’s recently switched over to a new e-mail system. This new system was supposed to bring vast improvements over the previous one, and in some ways it does, most notably in storage space. However, it seems as if this new e-mail system is more of a blast from the past than a glimpse into the future.

Just last semester, St. John’s was using the same campus e-mail system it had been depending on since St. John’s Central was first established. To many, its simplicity, ease of use, and relatively bug-free interface made it the perfect choice for an e-mail client.

This semester, the system was replaced by the Microsoft Live Hotmail (Hotmail’s latest incarnation) client.

Although the new system is not particularly flawed in any way, the interface is nowhere near an improvement to the previous system.

Storage space has been an issue in the past, and so the switch does make sense. It just seems as if there could have been a compromise: a way to keep the old system and get additional storage would have undoubtedly been the best solution.

It would have saved all of the hassle of setting up the new account, and getting used to the new interface. People tend to be resistant to change, especially ones that seem to make their lives even the tiniest bit more difficult.

Yet the new e-mail provider brings with it a major inconvenience. All of the e-mails from the old account have been moved to another location, meaning that anyone who needed an e-mail that was received before the switchover had to forward it from the storage drive to their e-mail account.

This would have been a mild inconvenience if all you had to do was

select each e-mail and then click a button to send it all at once. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Each e-mail to be forwarded must be viewed and sent individually.

This would make recovering important e-mails a very tedious process, especially if a student has tens or even hundreds of e-mails to forward to the new account.

The new e-mail system is not all bad, though. You can still check your e-mail, send messages, and store or delete various messages in your inbox.

This e-mail client does everything it is supposed to do; it just doesn’t seem to do it as well.

Whereas the original system seemed to remember and recognize safe addresses, the new system does not. It constantly asks whether or not to download images and other parts of an e-mail, which does improve computer security. However, even obviously safe addresses and messages are plagued by this extra security, which can often be more of a hassle than it is worth.

Overall, this change just seems like a massive step backwards for the e-mail system here at St. John’s. The University was on the cutting edge when using the old system. By reverting back to Microsoft’s aging Hotmail system, everyone is thrust back into the nineties.

Although they claim to have updated the system, the changes that have been made over the years are minimal, and many of them decreased its usability. This new e-mail system isn’t going to drastically affect people’s lives, but it will almost certainly keep them from becoming simpler.

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Visit our Web site for online exclusives. torchonline.com

STEPHEN PINTO Staff Writer For the next four years, incoming freshmen will be left astounded by stories told by upperclassmen and professors about “how it used to be.”

Every student who has been at St. John’s for even one year has heard, if not told, the same story: missing an important e-mail from a professor or the school because your mailbox was filled to capacity. Starting this semester, St. John’s has gotten past that embarrassingly low-tech problem with its new email client, Live@edu.

Since Google’s popular e-mail service, Gmail, launched in 2004, most e-mail users have become spoiled by a virtually unlimited amount of space to store old e-mails and attached files.

But, it was not only Gmail. In response to the gigabyte of space that Google offered its users, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and AOL all upped their storage space as well.

With every major free e-mail service offering more storage space than the average user could ever need, it was easy to become accustomed to the convenience – except for St. John’s students.

No matter how convenient your personal e-mail service was, you were still limited by your comparatively diminutive St. John’s e-mail account, which you inevitably had to struggle through using.

What’s more is that students had no choice in the matter. Perhaps the storage size would not have been so bad if users could just forward all incoming mail to a personal account. But it was not to be, as the client offered no e-mail forwarding option.

With Live@edu, St. John’s e-mail client has finally brought itself up to speed and can stand alone as a respectable and usable e-mail service. In fact, St. John’s outdid itself by offering 10 GB of storage, more than most free ser-

vices are currently offering.

Adding the extra storage space alone made St. John’s e-mail system incredibly more convenient: no more bimonthly cleaning out of the mailbox, cringing when a friend sends a few attached photographs that wind up taking a 30-percent bite out of your storage, or missing important messages about class because your professor’s e-mail was blocked.

While that would have been enough, Live@edu offers other features that make using St. John’s e-mail more convenient. While there still seems to be no option for e-mail forwarding, it is now possible to sync your St. John’s e-mail with a mobile device.

As more students get smartphones capable of fetching e-mail through wireless networks, this feature will become invaluable. Instead of finding a computer and logging onto St. John’s Central to check e-mail, students can have it delivered straight to their phone the minute they receive it.

For those with mobile devices capable of obtaining e-mail, Live@edu could hardly be any easier: no more clicking through several screens before finally arriving at your inbox. Your whole inbox is in your pocket, whenever you need it.

Along with that feature comes improved spam control and a 25 GB Sky Drive, which could be moderately useful to students who need to share large documents or files with others or between home and school computers.

Of course, there is still some room for improvement. E-mail forwarding would still be nice, though it is no longer a necessity. And certainly, for those accustomed to the clean, minimalist look of Gmail, the client still looks a little heavy-handed and busy. But, Live@ edu has fixed the biggest problem St. John’s e-mail client had and gave students a few handy features they had not even asked for. The increased convenience and usability make the launch of the new e-mail client a success.

17

ENTERTAINMENT

28 Jan. 2009

The TORCH

torchonline.com

pg 19

And the Oscar Goes To...

19

WITH AWARD SEASON IN FULL SWING, THERE ARE FEW SURPRISES WITH THIS YEAR’S NOMINEES ALEX QUEVEDO Staff Writer

W

e mentioned last week that award season was coming into its own.

Now, with the announcement of 2009’s Oscar nominations, we can officially say it is in full swing.

There are not too many surprises this year. In all actuality, the nominations were a bit too predictable.

If we may be so bold, the nominations are a little… boring.

But there are a few nominations that muster up some interest. There are two that touch base with most movie-goers, but a couple that may not resonate quite as well as they should.

First case: the nominations of Heath Ledger and Robert Downey, Jr. for Best Supporting Actor.

For a year now, well before the July release of The Dark Knight, Ledger was a “favorite” to garner a

nomination. But a win? That would be the harder part.

As the year progressed, audiences were treated to other solid performances. Nothing, though, quite like Ledger’s turn as the psychotic clown prince of crime, the Joker.

Not even Dev Patel’s solid performance in Slumdog Millionaire could quite match Ledger’s memorable offerings.

So while it is not quite the biggest surprise to see Ledger nominated, in a way it still is. Why? The Golden Globes. Ledger was nominated and won Best Supporting Actor. With that out of the way, the Academy could have easily dismissed nominating him for an Oscar.

But perhaps they are trying to get more in tune with the general public, as the demand for an Oscar nomination for Ledger was high.

This is where Downey, Jr. comes into play. Typically, comedies are not given too much consideration in terms of Oscar nominations. That especially holds true for a comedy like Tropic Thunder. So it is a decent surprise that Downey, although very entertaining, was nominated.

Maybe the Academy is trying to make connections to the public, even if they are taking baby steps.

While those baby steps might get them a few more

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVETHENOVELIST.WORDPRESS.COM

viewers, the nominations for The Wrestler and The Visitor might make a few others slightly reconsider tuning in for the show. Both leads for The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei, are nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively. The Visitor’s Richard Jenkins also grabbed a nomination for Best Actor.

Perhaps you have heard this before, but it still holds true. These are films that are low key compared to other films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/ Nixon and Milk. Viewers may be more prone to switch the channel during these segments. Just imagine if the academy nominated The Wrestler or The Visitor for best picture.

That certainly would have alienated enough people who did not see either film. If people do not see these films, they will have no vested interest in seeing who wins.

Regardless, it will be interesting to see which films win certain categories. Prime example: Best Cinematography nominees include Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight and Slumdog Millionaire. If you have seen those films, you know they were fantastically filmed. But back on point, the nominations are both a step forward and a stall for the Academy connecting with the public. Now, we just have to see how the voting turns out.

PHOTO COURTESY OF COLLIDER.COM

2009 Oscar Preview INFERNO GIVES YOU A REVIEW OF BEST PICTURE NOMINEES

Staff Writer

A

lthough many foresaw this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Picture, not everybody has seen these films. Inferno gives you a quick breakdown of the nominees.

Milk Milk is the remarkable biographical film of Harvey Milk, who in 1977 became the first openly gay man to be voted into office in America. Sean Penn makes an extraordinary performance as Harvey Milk, who after turning 40 years old, moves to San Francisco with his partner Scott Smith (James Franco) after deciding he needs more purpose in his life. He ends up becoming a human rights activist and an outspoken advocate of change, dealing mostly with the gay rights movement.

Milk eventually becomes an elected official who attempts to work with another elected supervisor, Dan White (Josh Brolin) to further his political agenda, which in turn ends up conflicting with his own. The fantastic cast involved, specifically Sean Penn, makes Milk one of the must-see movies of the year.

3.5 / 4 stars

Michael becomes torn, when he realizes he has a piece of information about her that can potentially save her, that however, she deliberately does not reveal. The Reader is a very complex and interesting film, but ends up falling flat and can be dull at points. Kate Winslet makes an incredible performance chronicling nearly four decades in Hanna Schmitz’s life.

2.5 / 4 stars Slumdog Millionaire One of the most popular and talked about movies of the year, Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of an Indian “slumdog” named Jamal Malik who has landed a spot on the hit television series “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”

Jamal ends up doing so well on the show, that the producers alert the police and have him interrogated in suspicion of cheating. While the interrogation is taking place, the powerful story of Jamal’s life is told by flashbacks, going through how he knew every answer on the show, which in turn end up being chapters of his life. The flashbacks show his childhood in the intense slums of Mumbai and chronicle his entire life up to the present. But as the story progresses, audience soon discover why Jamal, a teenager with no desire for riches, is on the show in the first place.

A near perfect job done by director Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire will almost certainly be taking home this year’s Oscar for best picture.

3.5 / 4 stars.

torchonline.com

The Reader Based on the novel, The Reader is a drama, which tells the story of German lawyer Michael Berg, who has an affair with an older woman, named Hanna Schmitz, (Kate Winslet), while a teenager in late 1950s Germany.

Much of their relationship centers around making love and literature, specifically Michael reading novels to Hanna. Suddenly, Hanna disappears and Michael finds himself at law school nearly a decade later. He ends up crossing paths with her again, when she is suddenly on trial for her crimes as an S.S guard in Aushwitz.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LATIMES.COM

The TORCH

Frost/Nixon Director Ron Howard brings to the screen a historical drama depicting the battle between former President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) and David Frost (Martin Sheen), a popular British television satirist. Based on the stageplay, the film focuses on the period following Nixon’s resignation when he agrees to have four 90-minute interviews

conducted by David Frost. Frost takes a huge financial risk by agreeing to pay $600,000 for the interviews, in hopes of getting some huge admission from Nixon regarding the Watergate scandal, which at the time still remained somewhat of a mystery to the American people. Whereas, the Nixon administration saw this as an easy way to make a solid last impression and enforce his positive accomplishments while in office. These conflicting motives and excellent acting make for a captivating and engaging battle of wits.

3 / 4 stars.

28 Jan. 2009

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Adapted from the 1920’s story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a romantic drama that tells the life story of a man who ages backwards. Brad Pitt plays the role of Benjamin Button, who is born in New Orleans in 1918 as a man with the physical limitations of an 85 year old. The film, which is told in flashbacks by an elder Daisy (Cate Blanchett) on her deathbed, centers around the unusual relationship of Benjamin and Daisy whose lives repeatedly cross paths whilst aging in different directions. The film, which at points feels very similar to Forrest Gump (also written by Eric Roth), is visually stunning, but ends up being rather predictable and uninteresting. While grabbing the most Oscar nominations this year, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button seems to have stripped the short story of most of its magic and left audiences wondering what could’ve been.

2.5 / 4 stars

ENTERTAINMENT

CHRIS IMPARATO

Not Just Another Fantasy Film

21

FANS OF CHRONICLES OF NARNIA AND HARRY POTTER SERIES WILL ENJOY THE UNIQUE INKHEART SARA RHODES Layout Editor INKHEART-

OUT OF 4 STARS

F PHOTO COURTESY OF FUSENUMBER8.BLOGSPOT.COM

ollowing the trend in recent cinema, Inkheart is another fantasy adventure adapted from a novel. The obvious parallels for Inkheart are the Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia movies. And although Inkheart is directed toward this same fan base, it has its own unique story to tell.

Brendan Fraser stars as Mo, a book binder who has the ability to read characters out of books. His daughter Meggie learns about this talent when characters from a mysterious book called Inkheart start appearing. She realizes that this talent is why her father had kept so many secrets from her, including the whereabouts of her mother who disappeared when she was young.

When Meggie was an infant, Mo had read Inkheart to her and her mother. As a result, several characters came out of the book, including a fire juggler named Dustfinger and a villain named Capricorn. When the characters came out of Inkheart, Meg’s mother disappeared into the book. As a result, Mo has

PHOTO COURTESY OF CAMBRIDGEREPORTER.COM

continually been searching for another copy of Inkheart to find his wife.

When Dustfinger and Capricorn return to their lives, Mo and Meggie are swept into a magical and dangerous adventure. Capricorn, played by Andy Serkis, wants to continue his criminal activities in this world. He kidnaps Mo and Meggie to use their talents to read the evil Shadow from the book. To escape, Mo and Meggie depend upon Dustfinger, whose only motivation to help is that he wants to have Mo read him back home.

Although Inkheart is a little predictable, it is a lighthearted fantasy tale fit for all ages. Paul Bettany convincingly plays Dustfinger as the deceiving character with a one-track mind who simply wants to get home.

He keeps the audience and the characters questioning whose side he is on throughout the entire film. In addition to Bettany’s solid acting, Serkis also adds a lot to the movie. As Capricorn, he is a rather humorous villain giving the movie the necessary comic relief to keep things lighthearted. One of his most memorable lines is celebrating the wonders of duct tape, which does not exist in his world.

While this style of fantasy movie has become increasingly popular over the past few years, Inkheart is a good contribution to the genre. It’s a charming movie with a good message for its audience, celebrating the power and adventure held in the written word.

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ENTERTAINMENT

Writers welcome.

Photographers, graphic designers, cartoonists, editors, and businesspeople welcome too.

The TORCH

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The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John’s University

28 Jan. 2009

If you have an interest, the TORCH has a role for you.

Come visit us for our next meeting of the semester, on February 3 during Common Hour in the UC room 29.

24

Features Trayless Debates Think Outside...

4

Section

Students have mixed reactions to new dining initiatives on campus GREGORY LEPORATI

torchonline.com

The TORCH

28 Jan. 2009

FEATURES

Editor-in-Chief

Sophomore Stephen Olympia would be the first to admit that Chartwells Dining Services has implemented a number of changes to on-campus dining during its first year at St. John’s. But whether all of these changes have been good ones is an issue he’d be more than willing to debate.

Namely, Olympia singles out the Trayless Tuesday and Thursday program as his biggest complaint.

“I only eat dinner once a day,” he said. “I come here straight from class, with my backpack on and carrying books, and then I have to juggle plates. It’s very inconvenient.”

But for every student like Olympia, who is vocal about his dislike of Montgoris’ trayless days, there seems to be just as many students in support of the initiative.

Freshman Jason Lopez, for example, is fine with going trayless.

“I’m supportive of what they’re trying to do,” he said.

“Whatever helps, I’m willing to go along with it.”

Trayless Tuesday and Thursday is just one of many changes that Chartwells Dining Services has implemented during its first year with the University, and, like some of its other changes, the program has been met with a fairly even split of student supporters and detractors. The aim of the initiative, according to St. John’s administrators, is to reduce the amount of water used to clean trays and, as a result, contribute to the University’s attempt at reducing its carbon footprint and saving the environment.

Ken Waldhof, executive director of Auxiliary Services at St. John’s, stressed that the goal of having trayless days is entirely to help with the conservation effort.

“The University as a whole is attempting to reduce its carbon footprint,” he said. “This is just an extension of those efforts.”

According to Waldhof, the idea of going trayless came about during the summer and is a strategy that a number of schools have adopted.

“Some schools went cold turkey,” Waldhof said. “We took a conservative approach. We went into the semester and made two days trayless. We took a student survey and found that 69 percent of students supported Trayless Tuesday and Thursday, and a high percentage said they would voluntarily give up their tray on other days.”

Waldhof went on to note that they considered expanding the amount of trayless days going into the Spring 2009 semester, but decided against it until “we make sure we have student support.”

He also mentioned that students can obtain trays on Tuesdays and Thursdays upon special request.

Students like Olympia, though, remain skeptical of

TORCH GRAPHIC/ KATRIN ASTARITA

the real reasons for implementing trayless days.

“If the University really wanted to be environmentally friendly, they’d drop Coca-Cola and other corporate sponsors, like Nike, which implement horrible practices and damage the environment,” he said.

But there have certainly been some students who have responded more positively to the initiative. For example, freshman Noah Lease said that he would not mind an expansion of trayless days, and noted that he has already gotten used to the current two trayless days.

“At first, I’m sure it would be a bit of a pain to get used to,” he said. “But after a while, I would get used to it. It’s really not that big a deal, and it helps the environment.”

But the benefit of trayless days goes beyond just reducing the school’s carbon footprint. According to St. John’s officials, it is also saving money for the University – money that is being spent on other additions to St. John’s dining facilities, including the Marillac meal exchange, which, officials said, is an example of how the University is using the money and not charging students for it.

According to Waldhof, the meal exchange has been receiving more than 1,000 students nightly. Future additions to dining on campus, officials said, include a dinertype burger joint at St. Vincent Hall, which the University hopes to have open by the end of the semester, and a food court in the new Student Center, complete with a Starbucks.

But not all of the additions Chartwells has brought with it have been met with enthusiasm.

According to Edward Taraskewich, resident district manager of Chartwells, late-night dining at Montgoris, for example, only registers around 50 to 75 students a night, and is not boasting the types of sales that most

administrators expected.

St. John’s officials say this lack of enthusiasm may be attributed to the location, since Montgoris, Waldhof said, may be viewed as “a bit more institutional.” Future late-night dining options, officials said, like the St. Vincent’s dining, will feature booth seating and a different atmosphere from Montgoris.

Still, perhaps the biggest complaint from students is the hours of operation for Montgoris Dining Hall.

Lease, who gets out of class at 9:40 p.m. on some nights, does not like that Montgoris is only open until 8:30 p.m.

“My only option is Marillac, and at that time, there are usually only a few things available, like Taco Bell.,” he said. “It’s a bit annoying.”

Olympia, meanwhile, faces an even bigger problem.

He has three night classes a week that get out at 9:40 p.m., and cites the hours as a major complaint he has with St. John’s dining.

“They need to increase their hours here,” he said.

“The lifestyle college breeds is nocturnal, and these hours just don’t accommodate that.”

Administrators and Chartwells officials are hopeful that future additions can be made to dining on campus and that some of the money saved from trayless days can go towards that.

“We’re constantly looking at how to expand hours – and, of course, there are financial implications with that,” said Taraskewich.

“We just want to be responsible. If we add hours, will that impact the students? Will it affect pricing? We are just looking at everything very carefully and thoughtfully to make sure we meet everybody’s expectations.”

The man behind Founder’s Week

25

Students aspire to live the mission of St. Vincent de Paul JAVASIA WIGGINS Staff Writer

This week is St. John’s 15th annual Founder’s Week, an event that honors the legacy of St. Vincent de Paul, a man whose vision and mission has touched the lives of millions.

Although his teachings are promoted throughout the year, students and faculty members take time out to honor who St. Vincent de Paul was, what it means to be a Vincentian University and what St. John’s does as a college to continue the Vincentian mission. Additionally, Founder’s Week also recognizes those who stand out in the Vincentian community.

Vincent de Paul, founder of the Congregation of the Mission, spent a great deal of his life enriching the lives of the disadvantaged.

His ability to join the poor with those willing to help has trickled down hundreds of years generating organizations that focus on giving back to the less fortunate.

His mission and his teachings gave birth to countless facilities that would help the world as a whole prosper. Even in death, his mission lives on throughout the world.

Here at St. John’s, students and faculty take pride in going to a Vincentian University. At a time where giving may seem difficult, this University strives.

Campus Ministry’s service programs always have students and faculty members at St. John’s busy.

From filling the stomachs of the less fortunate with their weekly midnight runs, to helping rebuild lives after tragedies as they do in the PLUNGE service project, St. John’s paints a vivid picture of what a true Vincentian University means.

Students here are so eager to help, it’s no surprise that many of their service projects fill fast.

“We have waiting lists,” said Abby Furness, campus minister for Vincentian Service and Justice in regards to their service projects.

“The midnight runs that we run every Wednesday have a waiting list by October.”

Many students feel that it is wonderful thing to give back to the community. “I think it’s excellent that St. John’s does volunteer trips such as PLUNGE and trips to the soup kitchen. It achieves the Vincentian mission. I also think by students taking part in these activities helps build their character, makes them feel grateful for what they have and allows them to grant those same gifts to those less fortunate than them,” said Giselle Castro, a senior at Queens campus.

Teachers consider working at a Vincentian Univer-

sity as not only rewarding but as also a necessity to promote well-roundedness in students.

Countless professors and faculty members at the University have gone above and beyond when it comes to following the Vincentian Mission, including Dr. Larry Boone, associate professor of Management.

His involvement with the mission has been a great one and his dedication to continue the path of Vincent de Paul has proven successful.

He is a teacher of leadership in Ministry at Rockville Centre diocese’s Immaculate Conception seminary.

Also, as director of the Executive-in-Residence Program at the Tobin College of Business, he has dedicated students involved in projects with local not-for-profit organizations such as Covenant House, Goodwill Industries, Momma’s House, along with others.

His efforts as a follower of St. Vincent de Paul have awarded him recognition during Founder’s Week.

“I am very proud and privileged to receive this year’s Vincentian Mission Award,” said Boone.

“I know that many community service-minded St. John’s personnel have received this award in the past. I’m very happy to be recognized as part of this group,”said Boone.

As Founder’s Week comes and goes, everyone at St John’s has a chance to partake in events that help celebrate the legacy of St. Vincent de Paul and the Vincentian Mission. It is a time to reflect about the man who created such a lasting impression.

“It’s really nice to be teaching in a setting where the larger goal of the University is also oriented towards serving our fellow human beings,” said Professor Susan Kuhn.

“I think the act of teaching itself is one of service. I applaud it and appreciate it.”

It is evident that the mission and way of life of St. Vincent de Paul is alive and well at St. John’s University, through the actions of students, faculty and the Vincentian community.

TORCH PHOTOSL/ LAURA AMATO

St. Vincent de Paul is visible on campus in the form of a statue behind Marillac Hall.

SEAN McGRATH Staff Writer

torchonline.com

Then he analyzes how Asian culture and language affect their ability to do math.

He ends the book on a personal note.

He takes a look at how Jamaican cultural legacies and extraordinary opportunities helped his mother become a successful writer and family therapist.

It is an interesting look into the family history of Gladwell (fun fact: Gladwell is distantly related to Colin Powell) and at the same time gives us an excellent casestudy of the main points of his book.

It is easy to confuse the message of this book. One could assume that since hard work alone will not make you a success, then there is no point in working hard.

One might say, “I don’t have the opportunities that Bill Gates and professional hockey players had, so why should I try to become an outlier?”

The point of Gladwell’s book is not to dissuade the reader from trying to become an outlier. The point is to let him know that in order to become an outlier, one needs to take advantage of the opportunities that are all around him and to be aware of their cultural legacy in addition to putting in the hard work.

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The Beatles got invited to Hamburg, Germany where they had to play 8-hour concerts every night. A surprising number of professional hockey players were born

in the first few months of the year because the cut-off birth date for youth hockey teams is January 1.

A boy born on January 2 could be playing next to a boy nearly a full year bigger and stronger than him. Of course, the bigger and stronger boys will get funneled into the more prestigious hockey teams where he will practice more and get better coaching.

All of these examples show that these outliers owe their status to the opportunities they had as much as to the hard work they put in.

Still, it is important to remember that each of those 10,000 hours was a conscious effort to strive to become better at what they did.

In the second part of the book, Gladwell talks about cultural legacies. He explores the “culture of honor” that developed in towns like Harlan, Kentucky up and down the Appalachian Mountains in the 1800s. This “culture of honor” resulted in hundreds of murders and family feuds.

He also explores the cultural reasons why Korean Air pilots were more prone to crashes than anyone else in the world and what Korean Air did to change this.

28 Jan. 2009

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is written in typical Gladwell fashion: he takes a simple idea that is contrary to common belief on a subject and then uses entertaining anecdotal and statistical evidence to back up his claim. In this case, Gladwell disputes the claim that successful people owe their success solely to the hard work they put into their lives.

Instead, Gladwell says that remarkably successful people, or what he calls “outliers,” owe their success as much to opportunity and cultural legacy as they do to themselves.

The first section of the book deals with the idea that outliers have many more opportunities than most people. One of the most interesting points Gladwell brings up is the 10,000 Hour Rule, which states that in order to become an expert at something, one must spend at least 10,000 hours practicing.

At first this would seem to be contrary to Gladwell’s point. In order to put in all these hours, however, one needs to have

some pretty extraordinary opportunities.

For example, Bill Gates had free access to a computer at a time when few others did and spent several hours every day programming.

by Malcolm Gladwell

FEATURES

Outliers

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26

Dear Devil’s Advocate, I had a ton of fun this winter break. I got to see all of my friends and hang out with my family. The only problem? I didn’t work.

I have a job over the summer that pays fairly well, but they’re not open during the winter so I can’t go back over break. I don’t have the time for a job during the school year either. I’m beginning to regret all the times I went out over break and the money I wasted. I had a ton of fun, but was it really worth it?

Now I’m faced with an entire semester of weekends and only a few hundred dollars to my name. I still have to buy textbooks and pay for some of my class fees.

I don’t know what to do! How am I going to really enjoy this semester if I can’t pay for anything?

I don’t want to leech off my friends, but that’s starting to look like the only option I have left.

I want to have fun on the weekends, but I don’t know if I can do that without money.

Broadway. Or check out Central Park or the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They’re both easy to get to and free.

If the city isn’t your thing, there’s no shame in spending the night in. Organize a movie night with your friends or watch an entire season of your favorite TV show on DVD. Sometimes just being with your friends can be as much fun as anything else. Make some popcorn and you’ll be set!

Game night is also a fun, cheap pastime to do on a Friday night. Get a group of friends together, a bunch of board games and let the fun begin! It’s also a great way to get to know friends better, with games like Apples to Apples, Outburst, or Scattegories.

In the end, it’s not about where you are or what you’re doing, but who you’re with that’s the most important thing of all.

Signed,

Sincerly,

Devil’s Advocate

Poor Patrick Dear Devil’s Advocate, Dear Poor Patrick,

FEATURES

We all know how difficult it can be to manage our money. It’s easy to just throw down your credit card and pay for a night of fun in the city with your friends. But that’s where this all begins: you have to do everything in moderation.

Luckily for us, going to school in New York City gives us plenty of opportunities for fun that are also free.

Buy a MetroCard and spend the day with your friends exploring.

Get off at a subway stop downtown and just walk; you never know what you can find just walking up

So classes are just starting and I’m really excited.

I’m taking courses I like and, even better, I met a cute guy in one of them. He even asked me out!

I really think this could be great; the two of us really seem to click and we had a ton of fun when we went out.

I’m a little nervous about the coming weeks though, especially Valentine’s Day. It’s not like we’ve changed our relationship statuses on Facebook yet, so I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to do.

What’s appropriate? Should I buy him a gift or not?

I don’t even know if he’d like what I would get him.

Should I ask him to do something that night?

I really like this guy and I don’t want to mess it up

Photo Editor

What You’ll Need: -1 c. butter or margarine, melted

28 Jan. 2009

-1 bag of square, pre-cut, caramels

The TORCH

Sincerly, Nervous Nora

Dear Nervous Nora, It’s completely normal to be worried at the start of a relationship. It can be scary to leap into something completely new.

But you can’t let your anxiety get in the way of this.

This can be exciting if you don’t stress out too much! If you overthink this situation too much, you will stress yourself out, and not have fun.

Honestly, you shouldn’t even be thinking about Valentine’s Day right now. It is an overrated holiday created and jacked up by the media that makes single people feel miserable about themselves, and couples stress for weeks about what to get their significant others, That day is weeks away and there’s absolutely no reason to stress about it now. There is plenty of time for your relationship to grow, or you may find he is an undercover jerk and want nothing to do with him. With love and relationsips, it is a day-to-day thing. You never know what will come next.

If you’re still together then great. Even if this doesn’t pan out, don’t worry – there are plenty of other things to do. Go out with your friends or just relax.

Trust me, there are plenty of other things to freak out over. New relationships should be fun, not nervewracking. Enjoy it!

Signed, Devil’s Advocate

Crafty chocolate caramel LAURA AMATO

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before it even starts to get good.

I don’t want to scare him away but I don’t want to miss my chance either. What should I do?

People have been known to say that you can cure any problem with a bar of chocolate.

Ok, sure. But take that chocolate bar one step further by adding caramel and you could probably save the entire world if you had a mind to.

Cooking is never easy for college students and desserts can be even more difficult without the help of an oven.

That’s where this recipe may cause some shouts of excitement. All you need is a microwave and the ability to mix together a few ingredients: something even the busiest of us have time for.

After mixing your ingredients and microwaving them, just pour the chocolate over the top of the caramel squares and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

While you sleep, the treat will finish all on its own, ready and waiting for you the next day.

These caramel squares are a perfect way to relax after the inevitably stressful days college life brings.

They’re also a great treat to share, so make an event out of it; invite some of your friends over to make them while watching your favorite movie.

Maybe you’ll even figure out how to save the world while you do it.

What To Do: -Blend first four ingredients in large microwavesafe bowl.

-1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

-Microwave on high for 17 minutes, stirring every three minutes, mix in vanilla.

-1 c. light corn syrup

-Pour into buttered 9x13 pan. Chill in refrigerator overnight.

-1 (1 lb.) pkg. light brown sugar -1 tsp. vanilla extract -2 c. semisweet chocolate chips, melted

-Pour melted chocolate over caramels. Cut into one-inch squares.

-May substitute almond bark for chocolate chips or increase amount of chocolate and dip caramel squares into chocolate to coat on all sides.

-Yield: 10 dozen.

27

Last-second loss is fifth straight CHRIS HARRIS Staff Writer Two last second free throws would probably have ended the St. John’s women’s basketball team’s four game skid. But only capitalizing on one resulted in a 59-58 familiar defeat to the No. 25 DePaul Blue Devils (16-5) Tuesday evening in Carneseca DEPAUL

59

ST. JOHN’S

58

Arena. The Johnnies (13-6) have now lost five games in a row, each to conferenece opponents, and the last three by a total of just five points.

“I’m hoping that all of these tight games are preparing us for the long haul of our season,” said head coach Kim Barnes-Arico.

The conference stretch has been tough on the Johnnies (1-5 Big East) this season who haven’t won a game against a member of the Big East since defeating Providence in the first week of January.

Despite the Blue Devils’ press, the Johnnies controlled the pace of the first half. They jumped to an early 21-16 lead that would grow to a 10 point advantage midway through the half.

Senior Kelly McManmon contributed all of her eight points in the first half as the Johnnies

TORCH PHOTO/ LAURA AMATO

Kelly McManmon’s eight points all came in the first half against DePaul. headed into halftime comfortably ahead 36-28.

High hopes from the Storm deflated quickly as the Blue Devils came out of the half on a 8-1 tear. Crucial play from freshman Da’Shena Stevens had kept the Storm in the game. Stevens

finished with 14 points, but only six came in the second half.

The Blue Devils stayed in the game, closing in on the Johnnies lead for much of the second half.

A big three pointer by Sky Lindsay put the Johnnies up by six with less then 10 minutes to go.

But that would be the end of the momentum high for the Storm.

But costly turnovers and missed easy baskets by the Storm, helped the Blue Devils make a 13-4 run, resulting in their first lead since the beginning of the first half.

Led by Deidre Naughton, the Blue Devils didn’t look back and took their lead on the Storm in to the very last seconds. The Johnnies would have a chance to tie the game after junior Aricia Mitchell was fouled by Felicia Chester with 1.5 seconds left in the game. Mitchell made only the second free throw.

Like the recent games, the Johnnies were not able to capitalize in the closing seconds to earn the victory.

“These last few games have been very close and frustrating,” said Stevens, who hauled up the last shot in the closing seconds of the game.

“The pressure and defense was expected,” said Lindsay.

“But we have to look forward and stay positive.”

Senior Monique McClean finished with a quiet 11 points and six rebounds for the Storm.

Lindsay finished with 14 points and 3-5 from behind the three point line.

DePaul now leads the series against the Johnnies 3-1, and is on a three-game winning streak through their conference play.

DePaul sophomore Sam Quigley finished with 11 points and 5 steals. Her persistent defense and timely scoring along with 13 points and 11 rebounds from Keisha Hampton propelled the Blue Devils to victory.

The Storm will have to regain momentum on the road while they reach the thick midpoint of their Big East schedule when they face Seton Hall on Saturday.

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will take on the Blue Devils on Feb. 19 at Madison Square Garden and then one more time next year at Cameron Indoor

Stadium, but Duke does intend to renew the series which started in 1999.

Though on the surface it seems as though all that will be removed from the Johnnies schedule is an assumed loss, it is really much more than that. When the Duke game is played at Madison Square Garden, it’s a huge draw for St. John’s and the revenue produced helps keep our administration satisfied with current state of the Storm.

The TORCH

TORCH PHOTO/ LAURA AMATO

The Red Storm against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium in 2008.

Though, The Post article cites a source inside St. John’s as saying that several other major programs, including UCLA, have contacted the University about the possibility of a series, and that one of those programs would be an easy replacement of the Blue Devils.

Though the list of teams whose East Coast fanbase rivals that of Duke’s is very short, and UCLA simply ain’t on it.

As a fan, take this news as an insult.

Take it as a statement by Duke that St. John’s has slipped so far below their caliber that the series has become a lose-lose for them. A win over the Red Storm does nothing for their national ranking, while a loss is a tragedy that Shakespeare himself couldn’t have written.

But there may be some good that comes of this punch in the gut. Things must get worse before they get better and if the Red Storm have not hit rock bottom yet, maybe when they get there the administration will understand that they’re in need of some serious help. Maybe when Madison Square Garden takes a page out of Duke’s book and tells the Johnnies to take a hike, someone will get it. Maybe when Harrington’s bank account gets low enough, he’ll try something to save himself and the Red Storm.

Because, though it may be dirty, sometimes “hit ‘em where it hurts” is the only way to get something done.

28 Jan. 2008

The list of generic sports advice is long and full of gems.

There’s, “Always give 110 percent” – the most beautiful mathematical impossibility this side of squaring the circle.

And of course there’s, “just take it one game at a time,” – a brilliantly-scripted reminder that you can only be playing one game at any given moment.

Then, from sports’ softer side, comes the deeply spiritual statement, “believe in yourself even when no one else out there does.”

And the list goes on from, “you win as a team, you lose as a team,” all the way to, “a tie is like kissing your sister.” But perhaps the pinnacle of them all, the diamond among lesser clichéd gems, is “hit ‘em where it hurts.”

Hit ‘em where it hurts sounds dirty. It sounds like the last ditch effort of a moral-less boxer or a football team’s desperate attempt to steal victory from the jaws of deserved defeat. Hit ‘em where it hurts isn’t classy, it isn’t sportsmanlike, but it is damn effective.

Well, St. John’s men’s basketball has been hit where it hurts more than any place else; not the gut, not the groin, but the wallet.

According to a Jan. 25 New York Post report, St. John’s basketball relationship with Duke University is officially over after the 2010 season. The Red Storm

SPORTS

The Red Storm get hit where it hurts

29

See Speedy run Kutu-Akoi wins weekly conference award MATT PASCONE Staff Writer

PHOTO COURTESY OF ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

Senior sprinter Phobay Kutu-Akoi is the first Big East athlete of the week in St. John’s history.

With a nickname like Speedy you’d better be fast.

And that’s exactly what St, John’s track and field star Phobay Kutu-Akoi is.

The senior captain has been sprinting at record pace, and the outside world has been taking notice.

Last week, she was named the Big East Female Track Athlete of the Week, posting her second-best-ever 60-meter dash time of 7.58 seconds in the finals of the Penn State Open. The week before she recorded her career best time of 7.52 seconds in the 60-meter at the Yale Intercollegiate.

“It means so much, I didn’t really expect it,” Kutu-Akoi said of the award.

“I’m really excited, I’m just grateful.”

This is the first year the Big East has given out the award and Kutu-Akoi is the first St. John’s track star to have achieved the honor.

“We have had great athletes in the past,” said KutuAkoi. “They were all Big East Champions and coach [Harrison] told me that they never got a weekly honor and that made me feel really good, I’m proud of myself that I was the first one to get it.”

With a self-described passion for running, the Liberian-born sprinter moved to the United States when she was 12 and has been moving at a fast pace ever since.

She was dubbed Speedy in high school and thanks to a teammate at St. John’s, that name has stuck with her.

“I came here freshman year and [senior sprinter/ jumper] Venisa Clarke-Lee, asked me what [my nickname] was and I told her, and then coach [Harrison] started calling me that,” Kutu-Akoi said.

Kutu-Akoi has had to put in a lot of hard work on her own in the offseason, but has been able to rely on the mentoring of a former high school coach as well as former professional hurdler Yvonne Harrison, her current sprinting coach.

In her third season as sprinting coach, Harrison has seen Kutu-Akoi grow and she believes that the sky is the limit for her senior captain.

“Phobay has a tenacious attitude,” Harrison said. “She is a quick learner, she adjusts and adapts immediately. She doesn’t stop herself either.”

Off to a successful start to the winter season, Kutu-Akoi has been achieving personal bests on the track. Her work ethic and “tenacious” attitude has caused her to dream big.

Although, she knows as the good results continue to come in, more will be expected from her.

“That’s the scary part,” Kutu-Akoi said. “Two weeks in a row I stepped onto the track and I ran faster than I’ve ever ran, so now it’s like I have to do it. I’m trying to just take control and relax.”

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The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John’s University

The TORCH

If you have an interest, the TORCH has a role for you.

Come visit us for our next meeting of the semester, on February 3 during Common Hour in the UC room 29.

28 Jan. 2008

Photographers, graphic designers, cartoonists, editors, and businesspeople welcome too.

SPORTS

Writers welcome.

Kutu-Akoi has found that the less she thinks about it, the faster runs.

“It happened when I really wasn’t thinking about it,” she said.

“I wasn’t going on the track saying I want to beat everyone, I just want to run fast, execute right and run with proper technique and when I focused on that, the times came.”

The times have been coming so far this season for Kutu-Akoi, who will be running as a member of the Red Storm for the last time this May. Having already qualified for the Big East Championships and ECAC Championships in her career, KutuAkoi has made it a personal goal of hers to become a Big East Champion this year as well as qualify for the national tournament.

“I want to graduate as a Big East Champion,” KutuAkoi said.

“I also want to go to Nationals. I don’t want to leave the season saying, I wish I could have done this. I don’t want to have any regrets.”

“As I see it, she’s top three in the Big East right now,” said Harrison. “All she has to do is step on the line believing her preparation is solid, which it is, and she can get it.”

With Nationals and the Big East Championship a couple of months away, “Speedy” is hoping her fast start to the winter season can propel her into a position she’s never been in before.

30

MEN’S BASKETBALL

A big bounce Horne’s career night earns a second conference win BILL SAN ANTONIO Staff Writer

torchonline.com

The TORCH

28 Jan. 2008

SPORTS

The Red Storm had 37 rebounds in their 70-59 win over Rutgers on Saturday, but Sean Evans had the most important one of the night.

After a 5-0 run in the game’s final minutes brought the Scarlet Knights to within two points of the Storm at 61-59, Evans grabbed a defensive board off a missed Mike Rosario layup and finished with one of his own at the other end.

ST. JOHN’S

70

RUTGERS

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Evans scored 11 points despite spending the better part of the first half on the bench due to early foul trouble, but it was Paris Horne that had one of the biggest nights of his career. He established a new career-high with 27 points on 12-13 shooting from the field – his only miss coming on a three-point attempt in the first half.

“He’s more confident in himself and what he can do, but he’s not doing anything he doesn’t normally do in practice,” head coach Norm Roberts said.

“We wanted him to be aggressive; I think he got into a really nice rhythm.” Horne started off by scoring six points in the first five minutes of the game.

When asked if he was more satisfied by the 18 points he scored in the first half or the fact that he held Rutgers’ freshman phenom Rosario to just 2-5 shooting in that time, Horne responded: “I didn’t even pay attention to my points. I just know that defense wins games.”

Horne and fellow guard D.J. Kennedy had the assignment of stopping Rosario, who finished with 16 points on 7-16 shooting.

But Rosario wasn’t the Red Storm’s biggest problem in beating Rutgers. St. John’s almost saw an 11 point lead disappear in the waning moments of the game. Jaron Griffin nailed two key threepointers that brought the Scarlet Knights within nine, and as numerous fouls and turnovers mounted for the Red Storm, so did comeback points for Rutgers.

With just under three minutes remaining, the Scarlet Knights had come back to within two.

As Roberts called two timeouts in the span of 1:19 to kill Rutgers’ momentum, Kennedy demanded the ball be in his hands. He then proceeded to make five free throws to subdue the comeback.

Kennedy finished with 16 points, seven rebounds, six assists, a steal and two blocked shots.

“It was probably my best allaround game of the season so far,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy’s impressive stat line came just two days after his ejection from St. John’s 71-60 home loss to Cincinnati, when he and Rashad Bishop were involved in an altercation and had to

TORCH PHOTO/ LAURA AMATO

Paris Horne scored a career-high 27 points and helped hold Mike Rosario to just 2-5 shooting in the first half. be separated.

Saturday’s win marked their second in conference and the first in exactly three weeks for St. John’s who, in that span, lost to three ranked opponents. Their last win came on Jan. 3 against then-No. 7 Notre Dame.

“I told our guys in the locker room, this could be a character win,” Roberts said. “We have a lot of character and character guys in our locker room who’ve been dealt some bad cards.”

The Red Storm were finally dealt the right cards on Saturday.

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Looking ahead to WVU St. John’s will have to contend with a West Virginia team coming off its first loss since Jan. 14 tonight.

The Mountaineers are anchored by forward Da’Sean Butler. The junior led the team with 21 points against Pittsburgh and averages 17.1 points per game and 6.1 rebounds, shooting just under 50 percent from the field.

Look for an interesting match-up between Butler and Justin Burrell in the paint.

Two talented freshmen in forward Devin Ebanks and guard Darryl Bryant round out a starting lineup of two juniors and a senior. Bryant averages 25.5 minutes per game, and has averaged more than 10 points per game for

the season. He scored 12 points and had six assists against Pittsburgh.

Ebanks brings a lean 6-9, 205 pound frame to the paint, where he averages 6.9 rebounds per game. Ebanks and Butler combined for 11 rebounds against Pittsburgh.

Last season, the Mountaineers defeated St. John’s 73-64 at the West Virginia Coliseum. Butler scored 19 points on 7-12 shooting in the win.

Larry Wright led the Red Storm with 15 points on 3-7 shooting, and went 6-6 from the free throw line.

Anthony Mason, J.R. contributed 14 points of his own.

Neither will be on the floor tonight.

31

back win

Burrell adjusts to loss of headband

Leavin’ their Mark

Around the Horne

TORCH GRAPHIC/ZACH DAVINO

Justin Burrell is averaging 9.5 ppg while playing from behind the mask. one of the few bright spots of the game. through it.”

He had 15 points, five rebounds and was a And in the end, Burrell isn’t overly sedominant force in the paint. rious about how the facemask inhibits him In the Rutgers win on Saturday, he on the court. nearly missed a double-double, with nine “The most negative thing about wearpoints and eight rebounds. ing the mask is that I can’t wear a head“You can’t let something like that band,” he said. change the style of your game,” Bur“I’ve been wearing headbands rell said about his recent success. for as long as I’ve been playing “You got to just continue to play basketball.”

“

The most negative thing about wearing the mask is that I can’t wear a headband.

I’ve been wearing headbands for as long as I’ve been playing basketball.

”

-Justin Burrell

Headin’ this Way Red Storm home games

Men’s Basketball: Feb. 1 Feb. 8 Feb. 19 Feb. 22

USF Louisville Duke Seton Hall

2 p.m.

1:30 p.m.

7 p.m.

5 p.m.

Women’s Soccer: Feb. 8 Feb. 11 Feb. 14 Feb. 25

Cincinnati Connecticut Syracuse Seton Hall

4 p.m.

7 p.m.

2 p.m.

7 p.m.

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Rutgers comeback.

Kennedy also made an impact on the glass, grabbing seven rebounds in the 7059 win, and had six assists on a night when freshman point guard Quincy Roberts’ ailing ankle limited him on the floor.

Kennedy’s complete game shined, as he continued his strong defensive campaign in helping stop Mike Rosario, the first McDonald’s All-American in Rutgers history.

He and Paris Horne, who also guarded Rosario, held the star freshman to 2-5 shooting in the first half.

Kennedy had two steals of his own, and Horne intercepted an errant Rutgers pass and fed it to Kennedy on the fast break, a pass he took all the way to the hoop for the easy layup. “[The win] was important to me, it was important to my team,” Kennedy said. “I thought I let them down. I just wanted make sure we got the W and do whatever I can to win.”

Blowin’ in the Wind

28 Jan. 2008

of two separate apologies. “After the game everybody was down, because we lost the game.”

Luckily for Kennedy, the St. John’s men’s basketball team is a forgiving group, who recognized the sophomore’s importance and significance in the midst of four straight losses.

“They knew I’d bounce back next game,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy also left his teammates with a promise.

“I told them I let them down and that the next game I would step it up,” he said.

Less than 48 hours after the incident, the Red Storm took the floor at Madison Square Garden to take on Rutgers. Kennedy was back in the lineup, and had one of the best games of his career.

Though he shot just 3-8 from the field, he finished with 16 points, including 1011 free throws. He went 5-6 from the line in the last 2:17 of the game to help quiet a

The St. John’s men’s tennis team opened its spring season with a 7-0 sweep over Colgate on Sunday afternoon at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.

SPORTS

D.J. Kennedy knows a thing or two about leadership.

Consider him a connoisseur of humility and the ‘team’ concept, too.

After he was ejected from St. John’s 71-60 home loss to Cincinnati for a verbal altercation with Bearcats forward Rashad Bishop, Kennedy watched from the bench as his teammates lost the battle to Deonta Vaughn, who torched the Red Storm with 18 of his 23 points following the ejection.

Kennedy knew he let the team down, and apologized to his teammates twice following the loss: once after the game on Thursday night and again then at practice on Friday.

“I think the talk right after the game was bigger than the talk before practice,” Kennedy said, describing the significance

CAST

Brushing off Colgate

Kennedy apologizes with 16 points BILL SAN ANTONIO Staff Writer

STORM

For the third time this season, St. John’s sophomore guard Paris Horne earned Big East honors, and captured the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association Player of the Week award.

Over the past two games Horne has played a solid all around game, averaging 23.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.5 steals, while shooting 78.3 percent from the field.

Horne has also displayed some sharp shooting from beyond the arc, nailing seven of his eleven attempts.

In a 70-59 win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Jan. 24, Horne flirted with St. John’s history. He hit 12-13 shot attempts (3-4 three pointers) for a game-high and career-best 27 points. His 92.3 field goal percentage was good for third all-time in a Big East game for St. John’s.

This was the third time in four games that Horne has scored 20 or more points. He knocked down a career high four 3-pointers, during a 20 point performance, in a 71-60 loss to the Cincinnati Bearcats on Jan. 22 at Carnesecca Arena.

KATIE BECKMANN Staff Writer Those who have followed the Red Storm this season have been treated to a new-look Justin Burell.

It’s not that the 6-8 sophomore forward’s game has changed dramatically from his standout freshman season. It’s that he literally looks different.

Burrell was injured in practice on Dec. 19 when he collided with teammate Sean Evans during practice and has been sporting a clear plastic protective facemask since his Dec. 27 return against Miami.

The wardrobe addition, though, is something that has taken some getting used to for Burrell.

“The only difference is out of the peripheral,” he said. “It’s kind of tough to see because where I sustained my injury and the mask has to cover that area, which is by the corner of my eye.”

Burrell struggled in the statline early on after his return. Though he scored 10 points against Miami and 18 against Notre Dame (Jan. 3), he managed just three points against Providence (Dec. 31), five points against Pittsburgh (Jan. 11) and only two against Connecticut (Jan. 15).

But Burrell insists that the mask isn’t the cause of any dropoff in offensive production.

“For a while in the beginning I was nervous,” he said. “Only in the heat of the moment you can’t really remember if you have the mask on.”

And in the past three games, the sophomore had seemed to finally found his touch back.

In the Villanova loss (Jan. 18), he chipped in 13 points and seven rebounds.

Then in the following game, the heartbreaking Cincinnati loss (Dec. 22), he was

TORCH SPORTS

SPORTS 28 JANUARY 2008 | VOLUME 86, ISSUE 14 | TORCHONLINE.COM

TORCH PHOTO/ LAURA AMATO

The men’s basketball team rebounded from a heartbreaking loss to Cincinnati with an 11-point win over Rutgers.

The basketball series with Duke will not be renewed after next season. Read sports editor Anthony Morreale’s take on it.

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