Daily Toreador The
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 2, 2013 VOLUME 88 ■ ISSUE 27
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Mall attack costs Kenya $200 million in tourism NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — When Ohio resident Bill Haynes heard about the shooting at Westgate Mall by Islamic extremist gunmen last month, he considered canceling his upcoming 17-day safari to Kenya and Tanzania. “You can’t help but be concerned,” said Haynes, 67. “Here’s a place we’re going to be in about five days and there are some terrorists shooting the place up. That would cause anybody to give some pause.” Acting on advice from a friend in Nairobi, Haynes went through with his trip except for a stop at Lamu, a coastal city near Somalia where a French woman was kidnapped in 2011. The risk to tourism was one of the first concerns officials expressed after the attack that left at least 67 dead including 18 foreigners. Tourism generates 14 percent of Kenya’s GDP and employs 12 percent of its workforce, according to Moody’s Investment Services and the World Travel and Tourism Council.
BP oil executive defends spill response tactics NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A BP executive who led the company’s efforts to halt its massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico testified Tuesday that his decisions were guided by the principle that they shouldn’t do anything that could make the crisis even worse. James Dupree, BP’s first witness for the second phase of a trial over the deadly disaster, said his teams worked simultaneously on several strategies for killing the well that blew out in April 2010. Dupree said the company scrapped plans to employ a capping strategy in mid-May because the equipment wasn’t ready. He also said he was concerned that it could jeopardize other efforts to seal the well. “We were very intent not to make the situation worse,” said Dupree, who was promoted to BP’s regional president for the Gulf of Mexico after the spill was stopped.
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Gleinser: MLB commissioner retirement good for baseball
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Tech prepares for shutdown effects By CARSON WILSON Staff Writer
In light of the U.S. government shutdown, Texas Tech President M. Duane Nellis emailed students, faculty and staff explaining the university’s response to the shutdown Tuesday. Interim Provost Lawrence Schovanec said before the government closed, Nellis asked offices across campus to respond as to how they would be affected by an impending shutdown. “I would say Tech was prepared to deal with this,” Schovanec said. “If you don’t get resources you were expecting you have to adjust. We had considered what the implications would be, and those responses had been given to the president some time ago.” Even though Tech was prepared for a closed government, effects will still take place within the university.
All proposal submissions for research grants whose deadlines were after Tuesday, will be impacted, according to Nellis’s email. No one will receive the proposal submissions at federal agencies. This could negatively influence Tech while the university is trying to reach national research prominence. “You would hope this would be a shortterm situation,” Schovanec said. “Without fairly sponsored research it clearly affects our ability to conduct research and to carry ongoing programs. So it is a significant issue, but we have to take a wait–and-see attitude as to what really happens and how long this effect would really be in place.” New grant applications can continue to be submitted but will not be processed further by the federal agency until the authority and funding are restored, according to Nellis’s email.
There are some university employees who get a portion of their salary from grants provided by the federal government, Schovanec said. However, he said he is confident the majority of these people will not be affected. “I wouldn’t say they are employees of the federal government, but they do receive federal support through funded research, and so, that would be a concern,” Schovanec said. “Often, people on research funds take that support during the summer, so by then we would anticipate that this issue would be resolved.” One result of the shutdown that will impact students the most is student financial aid. As of now, Student Business Services and Financial Aid are operating normally, senior managing director of financial aid, Becky Wilson, said. Wilson received a notification from the National Association of Student Financial
Mentor Match-up Health Sciences Center hosts kickoff to pair students with mentors
Aid Administrators regarding the shutdown. “Right now students are not in danger of not receiving funding because we have received notification that financial aid is not affected at this point,” she said. However, if the shutdown continues, student federal financial aid and reimbursements could be delayed. In case of a delay, the Student Business Services and Financial Aid offices will notify any affected students, including those who receive military benefits, that Tech will provide institutional loans to bridge that gap for expenses until federal funding is once again available, according to Nellis’s email. “A delay has not occurred and we don’t expect it to,” Wilson said, “but we do have that contingency in case it does.” SHUTDOWN continued on Page 2 ➤➤
University Advising hosts scavenger hunt
By KATY HOLLIFIELD Staff Writer
By JOSE SOSA
The Pre-Professional Health Career advising program partnered with the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center for the third semester of the pre-mentoring program. The first meeting took place at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Academic Classroom Building on the HSC campus. The program first began in Spring 2012 semester and is a joint venture that pairs pre-med undergraduate students with medical students. The meetings will occur about once per month. “We want you to know what you’re committing to,” Dr. Greg Gellene, director of the Pre-Professional Health Center advising program, said to the mentees in attendance. Gellene said it was hard for advisers to deliver all of the information to prospective medical students. “It’s kind of unique,” he said. “It really doesn’t exist at other places in Texas.” He said the program allows prospective students to sit in classes and attend medical school lectures, participate in hands-on training and gain other experience not found on an undergraduate campus. “It helps the undergrad campus see what a health professional in that program goes through,” Margret Duran, the assistant vice president of Student Services at HSC, said.
One of the most popular conversation starters in any given university is what a student’s major is. However, finding the answer to this question has become increasingly difficult for students. That’s why the Texas Tech Department of University Advising is hosting its first Discovery Social Media Scavenger Hunt. “The main objective of this event is to broaden knowledge across campus of the Discovery program and to increase the social media outreach for Tech’s Advising department where the Discovery program is housed,” said Melissa Aday, lead academic adviser of the Discovery program. With more than 150 undergraduate degrees offered at Tech, the advising department recognizes it can be hard choosing a major, according to the Discovery website. “There are approximately 2,000 students who are undeclared or undecided,” Aday said. That is roughly 9 percent of the undergraduate population, she said. The program is composed of four key elements: exploration, research, investigation and confirmation, Aday said. During exploration, students find their skills and interests.
Staff Writer
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PHOTO BY ISAAC VILLALOBOS/The Daily Toreador
MATT REYHER, A sophomore pre-nursing student from Philadelphia, Pa., and Sammy Hajar, a sophomore pre-nursing student from Midland, speak with each other before sitting down with their mentors during the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center event hosted Tuesday in the Academic Classroom Building.
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University Career Center hosts resume critique day for students By CARSON WILSON Staff Writer
Student earns internship at Walt Disney World — La Vida, Page 5
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Texas Tech University Career Center hosted an all-day resume critique Tuesday. Students were encouraged to bring their resumes to the Career Center’s office in Wiggins Complex from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. “We open up our doors on these resume critique days a couple of times each semester to be all hands on deck and help those students get resumes whipped into shape beforehand,” Amy Bafford, the associate director of the Career Center, said. Career Center employees met with students to discuss resumes for future careers and internships. An important marketing tool for students, resumes can be the difference between getting the job or internship, Bafford said. “It’s important because if all an employer is seeing at first is a piece of paper with information on it, it needs to look good, it needs to have the right information on it and get the message across to
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the employer,” she said. The center expected 50 to 150 students to bring in resumes for critiquing. Students who take advantage of the opportunity can expect to learn more efficient ways to write a resume so it appeals to employers. “Based on research, our discussions with employers and evaluations that have been done we give them feedback on how to correct their resume,” Bafford said. “We talk to them about how they can tailor it more toward their target audience.” Megan Ortegon, a senior English and history major from El Paso, said she has had her resume checked more than 20 times. “When I showed my resume for the first time to get critiqued it was during the resume critique day,” she said, “and it really helped because I had a lot of information on there that I didn’t need or could be presented in a different way, so it really helped me structure my resume.” Resumes are structured differently for varying employers and positions. Ortegon said she believes the Tech Career Center
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PHOTO ILLUSTRATIONBY BRAD TOLLEFSON/The Daily Toreador
UNIVERSITY CAREER CENTER employees critique student resumes Tuesday to help prepare students for upcoming job fairs and expos.
helps students shape their resumes toward their goals.
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