Massachusetts Daily Collegian: Dec. 2, 2013

SOUR NOTE UMass ends season

Three sharp rockers Get to know Amherst– based band The Sharpest

with loss to Ohio

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THE MASSACHUSETTS

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DAILY COLLEGIAN DailyCollegian.com

Monday, December 2, 2013

Serving the UMass community since 1890

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Marching band performs at Macy’s Parade with pride

SHAINA MISHKIN/COLLEGIAN

The UMMB marches through New York City on Thanksgiving.

SHAINA MISHKIN/COLLEGIAN

The UMass Minutemen were up at 4 a.m. on Thanksgiving to practice for the parade.

Members spend their holiday in New York

By Shaina MiShkin Collegian Staff

This Thanksgiving, the sounds of “Fight Mass” and “Sweet Caroline” could be heard up and down 6th Avenue as the University of Massachusetts’ Minuteman Marching Band paraded towards Macy’s Herald Square in New York City.

Though the parade officially began at 9 a.m., UMMB members woke long before dawn on Thursday to begin their final parade preparations. Karen Podorefsky, a junior flute player and three-year marching band member, said she and her roommates woke up at 1:50 a.m. to be on the busses bound for Herald Square by 3 a.m.

“Being able to rehearse at 4 a.m. was like nothing I had ever done before,” she said. “We stood in the middle of the street waiting to sprint onto the star and go

The audience cheers for the UMMB as they march by.

“We found out that we were going in the spring of 2012. A year and a half and hours and hours of preparation later, it is over. That’s crazy to think about. I watch the videos to relive the experience, but it is nothing like standing there performing for millions of people.”

Karen Podorefsky, a junior flute player

over our drill for only 10 minutes.

The lights were shining on the buildings and it just felt surreal.”

For Emily Gluck, a four-year UMMB trumpet player and UMass senior, reality hit during this early morning practice.

“I never in a million years thought that I would be wearing the uniform that means so much to me on the streets that mean so much to me,” said Gluck, a New Jersey native. “As a senior, this is the last time many of us will ever put on a marching band uniform. For me in particular, it was a great way to go out.”

The band arrived at the

SHAINA MISHKIN/COLLEGIAN

Marriott Downtown in Manhattan around 3 p.m. the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Upon checking in, members had free time to explore the city. Rehearsals began the next morning, first in sectionals, then all together.

The band was slated to practice in a high school gym in New Jersey on Wednesday but rehearsed in the Downtown Marriott’s Grand Ballroom instead due to inclement weather.

“We sort of made do with what we had and it definitely worked,” said Gluck. “We taped the Macy’s star on the floor of

the ballroom so we could practice the full Macy’s set.”

After arriving uptown around 4 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day, band members warmed up in sections as they waited to be called to Herald Square for practice. The band ran through their song “Big Noise from Winnetka” three times in front of Macy’s before heading back to the buses.

After the band returned from practice at 5 a.m., members had an hour to pack and pick up breakfast before they returned to the buses, this time bound for Central Park West. Upon arrival, the band unloaded their instruments and warmed up outside the parade area.

“Some other bands were around; we all exchanged friendly words and wished each other luck,” said sophomore alto saxophone player John Coggeshall.

After waiting to step off, the band took to the parade route, following The Power Rangers and preceding Fall Out Boy. Marching down the two-and-a-

half mile parade route, the band ran through their repertoire multiple times, eliciting notably loud cheers when the band passed a section of UMass alumni while playing “Fight Mass.”

“The parade moved faster than other parades we did, but it was magical to hear and see so many people cheering. The performance itself felt like it was over in 10 seconds,” said Coggeshall. “[The feeling after the performance] is very hard to describe, but it is one of the best feelings I have ever felt in my life.”

“We found out that we were going in the spring of 2012. A year and a half and hours and hours of preparation later, it is over.

That’s crazy to think about,” said Podorefsky. “I watch the videos to relive the experience, but it is nothing like standing there performing for millions of people.”

Shaina Mishkin can be reached at smishkin@ student.umass.edu.

People’s Market having Contest held to make new new financial troubles dorms feel more social Construction has been interfering

By CeCilia Prado Collegian Correspondent Despite the fact that the People’s Market offers some of the best and cheapest coffee on campus, along with a warm and welcoming atmosphere, the student cooperative has been working to improve its finances following a rough patch.

The People’s Market is a not-for-profit, student-run collective business founded in 1973 that aims to provide alternative, quality foods to the community. They are located in the Student Union at the University of Massachusetts and offer a variety of different foods, beverages and personal care products.

But the ongoing construction outside the Student Union seems to be the reason for the decline of customers at the People’s Market through the last year. The business seems to be blocked at every possible entrance, making it difficult for students to access the store.

“People want convenience. No one wants to walk an extra five minutes to get a coffee – it’s a tradeoff. Cheap prices or being late to class.” says Lynn Tran, one of People’s Market’s 18 co-managers, “Ultimately, people choose convenience.”

However, thanks to team effort and staff dedication to the establishment, the store has been on an upward trend since October. Members of the collective have been working hard to match the

financial profits of years past, before the construction began.

Even though there is still a lot to do, the store has managed to recover due to increased advertising, a new credit/debit machine and other strategies.

According to Tran, thanks to recent press, people are beginning to realize what an asset the business is to the campus, and consequently choose to go the extra mile to get there.

The co-managers of the student business are planning to create more food and product deals, as well as increase advertising in order to create awareness about what they have to offer and the impact they have on campus.

For the last couple of months, the business has see

MARKET on page 2

Not all students felt it was effective This article is part four in a series addressing student reactions to the Commonwealth Honors Complex.

B y C atherine F erriS

A

Collegian Staff

sense of community is something students may find comfort in when away from home at college.

To help with this, the Commonwealth Honors College Residential Community (CHCRC) at the University of Massachusetts offered a three-week competition earlier in the semester which simply required res-

Because the doors automatically close if left alone, students had to improvise some kind of doorstopper. Despite the prizes, however, many students said they were not interested in participating. idents to keep their doors open in order to meet fellow dorm mates.

This competition was held in CHCRC buildings including Elm and Linden. According to an email sent out by CHCRC Residence Director Andre Manukyan, the point of the competition was to help those living in these areas build a community.

To motivate students to participate, prizes would be awarded.

The most successful “suite/apartment can win a $100 gift card to a

retailer of [their] choice and [their] floor could win a pizza party,” Manukyan said in the email.

Many of these dorm buildings are suite style, having a common room that leads into the bedrooms. The rules, simply enough, stated the suite/ apartment doors had to be open with people sitting in the common area in order to get one point. An RA walked up and down the halls to give points out twice per day. see

CONTEST on page 2

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THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

Monday, December 2, 2013

THE RU N D OW N ON THIS DAY...

In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of France, the first French emperor for a thousand years. He ruled until 1815.

AROUND THE WORLD

China launches rover to the moon BEIJING — China launched a rocket carrying a buggy-like vehicle that is expected to roam and explore the moon’s surface for three months.

The Long March rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province at 1:30 a.m. Monday, Beijing time (12:30 p.m. EST Sunday), the official Xinhua news agency reported.

If all goes as planned, a landing vehicle and the roving vehicle will land on the moon’s surface in about two weeks. It will be the first time anyone has done a soft landing on the moon since 1976, when the Soviet Union landed its Luna 24 probe.

The unmanned rover is a gold-colored vehicle that looks like a dune buggy. It is expected to conduct various scientific experiments such as planting a telescope on the moon’s surface and exploring under the surface of the moon, as well as transmitting photographs back to Earth.

The real purpose, aerospace experts believe, is to practice the techniques to eventually put a man on the moon.

“It comes at a time when America is dithering.

Russia has lost the plot a bit. China sees the possibility of leading,” said David Whitehouse, a British astrophysicist who has written a book about the moon. “It will upset the Americans because the Americans think they own the moon.”

For domestic audiences, the propaganda value is huge and Chinese media are playing it to the hilt.

Even the name of the rover, Jade Rabbit, was selected by a public poll. The name refers to the pet rabbit of the Chinese moon goddess, Chang’e – which is the name of the landing vehicle as well. Two previous Chang’e missions orbited the moon in 2007 and 2010.

Only the United States and the Soviet Union have successfully landed on the moon in the past. The U.S. is the only nation to land people on the moon.

Moon exploration enthusiasts are eagerly waiting to learn what the Chinese mission will uncover.

Since the burst of moon exploration in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly the 1969 landing by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the moon’s appeal has waned in favor of the planets and asteroids. In 2010, President Barack Obama canceled the Constellation program, which was supposed to return Americans to the moon by 2020.

–Los Angeles Times

DailyCollegian.com

Electric car chargers to be installed Part of effort to be more eco-friendly

By Jaclyn Bryson Collegian Staff

According to a press release, in an effort to reach the University of Massachusetts’ goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, five new electric car chargers will soon be installed in three different locations by Transportation Services.

During the spring semester, two public level two chargers, each of which can fully charge an electric car in four to five hours, will be installed in the Robsham Visitors Center and an additional pair will be added to the parking garage. Each charger cost around $1,000 dollars and was funded in part by the Chancellor’s office, Parking Services and other organizations, the press release says.

A level three charger, the first to be installed

MARKET

in Massachusetts, will be located at Transportation Services outside the Enterprise Rent-a-Car branch. The $35,000 charger can charge an electric car from zero to 80 percent in 30 minutes. According to the press release, Bill Watts of Transportation Services said the charger was donated by Nissan USA but the cost of installation will be covered by the University.

Since 2007, when UMass became the 15th college in the nation to sign the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, departments across campus have been trying to be more environmentally friendly, such as by encouraging the use of electric vehicles over typical gas-guzzlers, for one.

“It was a bit of a chickenand-the-egg situation,” said Watts in the press release, who knew there could be no support for electric cars without the proper char-

gers available, and no need for chargers if people didn’t use electric cars. But with the help of the Campus Sustainability Coordinator, Ezra Small, this project was made possible.

“We’re building the infrastructure to make it easier, better,” Watts said in the release.

The electricity for the charging chargers will come directly from the Central Heating Plant. The plant will use natural gas to generate energy, and the electricity from this will then be made available to the cars. According to the release, this reduces vehicles emissions to 25 percent of what they would be for typical gas-fueled cars.

For now, according to the press release, Watts said that there is still some debate on the price of parking and charging a car, but adds that it will not be more expensive than parking a regular car. He also added that it’s currently difficult to

continued from page 1

been seeing new faces along with their daily costumers. Students such as Andres Patino have become aware of the food alternatives that the People’s Market has to offer.

“They have very cheap coffee and fantastic fruit drinks and snacks,” he said.

The staff at the People’s Market has a strong commitment to their customers, and they understand the importance of keeping them happy and offering the best service possible.

The store offers local, fair trade and organic food at low price and supports local businesses such as Benson’s Bagels in Springfield, Henion Bakery in Amherst and local drink suppliers.

CONTEST

Tran mentioned that one of their teas, “Good 4 U” is actually made by a former co-manager.

The People’s Market, being a non-profit organization, also donates one half of all tips to charity. The store has recently made a large donation to Food for Thought in Amherst and is currently in the process of making a donation to Safe Passage in Northampton for their annual Hot Chocolate Run. The People’s Market is run by 18 UMass students, who make decisions through a democratic system, each having an equal amount of input for every decision that affects the establishment. Instead of being employees working for a salary, each co-

manager has a stake in the business. For them, working at this store represents more than just a job.

“It is incredibly empowering, challenging; sometimes it makes you scream and kick, but at the end of the day you have a second home, a huge family and you’re part of something great on campus,” Tran said. “I always say working at People’s Market is so much greater than punching the time clock and it’s more than just ringing the cashier. We all learn valuable lessons that range from communication, team work and other practical skills in running a business.”

Cecilia Prado can be reached at sprado@umass.edu.

continued from page 1

“The floor with the most points as a proportion to the number of suites/apartments on the floor wins a pizza party,” the email said.

In the case of a tie, there would be a random drawing that would determine the winner.

Because the doors automatically close if left alone, students had to improvise some kind of doorstopper.

Despite the prizes, however, many students said they were not interested in participating.

Nancy Chomitz, a sophomore, initially took part in the competition, and said she was “super excited about it.” She went on to say that socializing was much more difficult, especially because of the suites.

Chomitz, however, did not continue with the competition because keeping the automatically closing door open “wasn’t the first thing to think about when coming back from a class.”

She also added that despite the point of the competition being to increase student interaction, there also wasn’t much difference in terms of socializing when the door was open.

“People just walked by,” she said Debbie Tschong, a junior, and her suitemates did not take part in the competition, but received information about the competition through emails. Sophomore Ben Clabault did not participate either, but did receive the emails and updates

about the point standings.

Kyle Ostrander, a junior, kept his door open throughout the competition, but didn’t win anything.

“There was some improvement in socializing, but not much,” he said.

The competition, many students said, seemed to not have many people participate, which resulted in less socialization than originally intended.

However, those people who did take part in the open door competition managed to meet new people, and won that $100 gift certificate and pizza party for their floor.

Catherine Ferris can be reached at caferris@umass.edu.

gauge public opinion of the initiative, but the chargers will supply the data needed to make future expansions and improvements.

The release also said that Watts has secured a longterm deal with Jerry Rome Nissan in West Springfield to offer Leafs, electric cars produced by Nissan, to students and faculty at the same price they are available to the auto manufacturer’s employees.

As a Leaf owner himself, Watts said in the press release that there are numerous benefits to owning an electric car.

For example, purchasing one could earn you up to $7,500 in federal tax credits and Watts estimates that it costs just $20 to drive a Leaf 700 miles. Watts also added that maintenance costs are much cheaper when compared to those of typical internal combustion automobiles, since the Leaf composition is different.

For example, the electric

car doesn’t have an engine belt, coolant or exhaust pipe that would need constant repairs and the oil never needs be changed. “(These cars are) solid and safe with five-star ratings,” said Watts in the release. “They’re a lot of fun …sometimes, it’s just fun to step on it.”

In the future, according to Watts, the next step will be to install five units of each level charger throughout the campus and to include two level one employee parking stations that will be able to fully charge an electric car in 12-16 hours.

“We should do not just one thing, we have to do everything,” he said. “It’s the way of the future. We’re going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; we’re going to make this work and we’re going to have some fun doing it.”

Jaclyn Bryson can be reached at jbryson@umass.edu.

Alaska villagers rescue plane crash survivors Six passengers saved, four killed By nathaniel herz, Devin Kelly anD tegan hanlon Anchorage Daily News

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Two Western Alaska villages mustered a heroic community response that led to the rescue of six passengers from a plane crash Friday that killed four people.

Emergency responders credited local residents and health aides with saving passengers’ lives - finding the wreckage in the darkness outside the village of St. Marys and helping carry the survivors to safety.

The single-engine Cessna 208, operated by Hageland Aviation, crashed in conditions described by local residents as foggy and frigid.

“The people on the ground, they’re the ones who should get the credit,” said Clifton Dalton, a paramedic for LifeMed Alaska, who flew into the village to help get the victims to hospitals. “They’re the reason there are so many people that survived.”

The survivors were taken to Anchorage hospitals.

The plane took off from Bethel at 5:40 p.m. Friday on a regularly scheduled flight to Mountain Village, which was to be followed by a stop in St. Marys, according to Steve Smith, a spokesman for Era Alaska, which owns Hageland Aviation.

An hour later, the airline was told that the plane had crashed near St. Marys without having arrived in Mountain Village. Smith said he did not have any more details about the pilot’s route.

“All we know is he left Bethel,” Smith said. “He was supposed to go to Mountain Village, and then St. Marys.”

First responders in St. Marys, a village of about 500, learned of the crash when one of the passengers, Melanie Coffee, called from a mobile phone to the village’s on-call health aide, said Fred Lamont Jr., a village police officer there.

Coffee made the call while giving CPR to her infant son, Wyatt, who died, Lamont said.

Forty to 50 local residents on foot and on snowmobiles began a search for

the wreck, which was about four miles from St. Marys near the local landfill.

After heavy fog hindered initial efforts, Coffee eventually left the plane and walked to the landfillwhich some witnesses said was as far as three-quarters of a mile away-where she found the search party, then showed the way back to the plane, Lamont said.

“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “She’s the hero in this.”

According to the passengers, the plane crashed without warning, Lamont said.

“They were just flying over, and next thing they know, they were just falling straight out of the sky,” he said. “The plane just dropped.”

A stream of residents from St. Marys and Mountain Village made their way to the crash site to help, according to paramedics who flew in from Bethel to evacuate the injured passengers.

“People were just rolling in-a constant influx of snow machines, ATVs, trucks,” said Paul Garnet, one of the paramedics.

“There were so many people. They were doing everything. There were people clearing pathways through trash to make flat spots for us to walk,” he said. “I saw people carrying backboards and litters.

I had no idea there was that many backboards in St. Marys.”

Some of the passengers were still in the plane when the paramedics arrived at the crash site. The paramedics would not give specific descriptions but Dalton said that the survivors had suffered a range of injuriessome critical, and some less severe.

The village residents carried each person out on a litter to waiting ambulances and vehicles, Garnet said, in an effort that was chaotic but ultimately effective.

“We had terrain to go over and bushes to go through,” he said. “People were carrying and moving as fast as they could, and then setting the patient down, and panting and catching their breath and sweating, and then picking them up as far as they could before that happened again.”

THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

DailyCollegian.com

Monday, December 2, 2013

3

Four die in NY Cause of Walker crash unknown occurred train derailment onAccident usually quiet road 11 people remain in critical condition

By Tina SuSman Los Angeles Times

NEW YORK — A passenger train derailed Sunday in the Bronx, killing four people and injuring dozens.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators were expected on the scene Sunday, where cars of the Metro-North Railroad train remained scattered across the tracks hours after the 7:20 a.m. crash.

Some lay just feet from the waters of the Harlem River,

a diesel train, with seven coaches pushed by a locomotive. It had left Poughkeepsie, N.Y., shortly before 6 a.m., as scheduled, and was due to arrive at Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal at 7:40 a.m.

The train was not scheduled to stop at Spuyten Duyvil, which is where the Harlem and Hudson rivers meet. Trains passing through the area have a 30 mph speed limit as they round the curve at that point on the track, said Anders, noting that the speed limit on straight tracks is often near 70 mph.

Anders said in a television interview that the train’s engineer was the one who

Several of the injured had to be cut out of the wreckage.

More than 60 people were injured. where they were hurled as Metro-North’s 8088 out of Poughkeepsie ran off the tracks near the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx.

Fire officials said three of the four people confirmed dead were found outside the train, thrown from the train during the crash. Several of the injured had to be cut out of the wreckage.

More than 60 people were injured, 11 of them critically.

Speed, the activities of the train’s operator, equipment failures and criminality are among the potential areas of investigation.

M e t r o p o l i t a n Transportation Authority spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said the train was

called in to report the accident and that the call was recorded. In addition, there in an event recorder on each train.

“The maximum allowable speed in that area is 30 miles per hour,” Anders said.

“What the actual speed was will be determined by downloading the event recorder.”

Anders described the train’s engineer as a 20-year veteran with “an unvarnished record, from all accounts.”

The New York police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, said there were three conductors and a motorman on the train and that all were accounted for.

By SamanTha Schaefer and JameS Barragan Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Investigators were working to determine the circumstances surrounding the single-vehicle crash that killed actor Paul Walker and another man Saturday, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials said Sunday.

Speed may have been a factor in the crash, which occurred about 3:30 p.m. on Hercules Street, a normally quiet road with a 45-mph speed limit, in Valencia, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said. Walker was apparently the passenger in the 2005 red Porsche Carrera GT3.

The four-lane road up the hilly street has signs warning drivers to slow down as they approach an uphill curve near the site of the accident.

The firey crash north of Los Angeles left charred trees in the secluded area near a business park, and a burned smell lingered in the air Sunday. The car, which was reduced to an ashen hulk, had toppled a tree and a concrete lamp post, which crews from Southern California Edison removed Sunday. Looping tire tracks were visible on the asphalt nearby.

Investigators were looking at whether the tire tracks are related to the crash, but the investigation is ongoing, said Sheriff’s Deputy Peter Gomez.

There probably will not be an update on the investigation until Monday, he said.

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Because of the condition of the bodies, which were badly burned, dental records will be used to positively identify the victims, said Los Angeles County coroner’s investigator Dana Bee. Autopsies have not been scheduled.

A video taken moments after the accident shows black smoke billowing from the crumpled red Porsche, which caught fire, and debris scattered about the roadway.

“The car is in half. I can’t tell if there is someone in there,” one person on the video is heard saying.

Seconds later comes an answer: “Yes, there is someone in there.” At least one person heard on the video expresses concern that the burning car could explode.

Walker, 40, and his friend, whom witness Jim Torp identified as Roger Rodas, took a red Porsche out for a spin as a charity event held in support of Walker’s organization Reach Out Worldwide was winding down.

Torp said he heard a loud boom, and knew in his heart his friends had been in an accident. The smoke from the crash was visible from Always Evolving Performance Motors, which Rodas owned, where car enthusiasts and supporters were still gathered - some thinking it was just a fire on a nearby hill.

His son, Brandon Torp, 28, grabbed a fire extinguisher and headed up the hill, followed by about 20 other workers, the elder Torp said.

“There was nothing they could do,” he said.

Torp said his son saw his two friends burn in the car before the Fire Department arrived. Officials at the scene

held back a childhood friend of Walker from pulling his body from the burning car, and firefighters had to pull Rodas’ young son away from the wreckage, said Jim Torp.

Eduardo Luna, who owns the warehouse across from where the event was held, saw the Porsche leave the parking lot moments before the crash. Ten minutes later, he heard about the accident and ran down to Hercules Street where he saw the car in flames.

“They just didn’t want to believe this happened,” Torp told fans and media at the crash site on Sunday. “It was ‘Fast and the Furious,’ that’s what it is. Both race car enthusiasts, both loved speed, both knew how to handle cars and this had to happen.”

Walker was in good spirits earlier in the afternoon, and overwhelmed by the event’s success, Torp said. The parking lot of the shop had been full of high-performance cars, and he and Rodas were greeting people, shaking hands and enjoying themselves.

Reach Out Worldwide was formed in 2010 as a quick response first-aid organization, and the event was one of many car shows Rodas helped put on each month, Torp said.

Proceeds are to be donated to families affected by the typhoon in the Philippines and a tornado in Indiana, Torp said.

When Rodas’ wife and young daughter arrived at the Always Evolving warehouse after the accident, Torp said he heard screaming through the doors after they learned of Rodas’ death.

Rodas, 38, was active in philanthropy and supported

several charities through his racing. He competed in 10 Pirelli World Challenge GTS races in 2013, according to the racing organization. Torp, who with his son has worked with Always Evolving for several years, described Rodas as a compassionate, fun man who cared deeply about others, and “loved his American cars as much as he loved his $500,000 cars.”

“They died doing what they enjoy doing,” he said.

“Two close friends died together right next to a church. They’re both with God.” Walker’s death was confirmed by a statement posted to his Twitter account Saturday.

“It is with a truly heavy heart that we must confirm that Paul Walker passed away today in a tragic car accident while attending a charity event for his organization Reach Out Worldwide,” the statement said. “He was a passenger in a friend’s car, in which both lost their lives. We appreciate your patience as we too are stunned and saddened beyond belief by this news.”

At the time of his death, the “Fast and Furious” star, who also appeared in “Pleasantville” and “Varsity Blues,” was working on the seventh film of the franchise.

Dozens of fans gathered in Valencia early Sunday at the crash site, where a makeshift memorial was growing.

“Fast and Furious” memorabilia was placed alongside candles and flowers. One sign read, “Paul Walker Race in Heaven.”

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Opinion Editorial THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

“Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil.” - Thomas Mann

Monday, December 2, 2013

The value of a pause

Microfinance and psychometric testing All over the world, poor people are regularly excluded from formal financial systems. The degree of this exclusion ranges from par-

Makai McClintock tial exclusion in developed countries to full or nearly full exclusion in developing countries. In response to these needs, a new branch of financial services has emerged called microfinance.

Microfinance is the provision of financial services to micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses which have traditionally lacked access to financial services such as insurance, credit, savings and methods for transferring funds. Its aim is to reduce poverty by providing loans to impoverished individuals and groups with the goal of helping them increase their earning potential through entrepreneurial ventures.

Various pilot projects implementing psychometric testing … have found that the test is an accurate and costeffective predictor of creditworthiness.

asked questions pertaining to whether they would repay a loan given a difficult family or economic situation; the response would allow those personality traits that correspond to the borrower’s likelihood to repay the loan to be measured, therefore allowing the lender to minimize the risk of default.

Today, these tests can be used to asses a variety of skills and characteristics, including cognitive, sensory, perceptual and motor functions. Prospective employers have come to embrace these forms of testing in order to gain a more accurate insight into a prospective employee’s characteristics and abilities than can be gleaned from a resume.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a multilateral institution financing development efforts in Latin America, released an article earlier this year arguing that psychometric testing can be used by financial institutions to reduce defaults on loans by 20 to 45 percent and increase profits by 15 to 30 percent.

These numbers are based on a study of a form of psychometric testing developed

by Harvard University’s Entrepreneurial Finance Lab Research Initiative, which, according to its website, is dedicated to evaluating “the impact of psychometric screening tools and alternative financial contracts on access to finance and entrepreneurial growth” in developing countries.

The test consists of 150 questions measuring potential borrowers’ business savvy, ethics, general intelligence, beliefs and other personal traits. This information is used to generate a score that is meant to indicate potential borrowers’ willingness and ability to repay a loan. According to the IDB article, the testing “costs little, and has already been implemented by financial institutions in 11 countries in Africa and two in Latin America.”

Various pilot projects implementing psychometric testing have compared the scores of tested borrowers and their actual business performance and repayment rates. According to IDB, these projects have found that the tests are accurate and efficient predictors of creditworthiness.

The promise of psychometric testing is simple: certain financially self-sustainable MFIs have the potential to fundamentally alter the way we approach economic development and poverty reduction. The MFIs’ traditional lending models enable them to maximize their economic and social impact.

It’s a win-win for all parties involved, and is sure to alter the way the microfinance industry operates.

The poor are often unable to provide collateral for loans in the traditional form of cash or valuable property, and are therefore ineligible for credit through formal lending services. As a result, poor people often turn to moneylenders, individuals or groups who offer small loans at exorbitant interest rates. Microfinance attempts to offer loans at significantly lower interest rates as a means of combating poverty.

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have historically struggled to offer microfinance services while remaining financially sustainable and self-sufficient. Recent advancements in psychometric testing may be able to solve this problem, allowing MFIs to be both effective and self-sustaining.

The field of psychometric testing dates back to the late nineteenth century. Sir Francis Galton created some of the first psychometric tests and analytical procedures to measure individual differences in aptitude and personality. The tests sought to quantify the degrees of various human behaviors by presenting questions of a somewhat ambiguous variety, offering answers that related to a person’s underlying characteristics and personality traits.

Participants must make difficult decisions that align with their personal characteristics and beliefs. For Makai McClintock is a Collegian example, prospective micro- columnist and can be reached at finance borrowers may be mmcclint@umass.edu.

Editorial@DailyCollegiancom

The clock rang six I woke up washed up dressed up ate food went to class then the next then the next then the next ate food did some work wound myself back up like a toy went to sleep.

That’s my day.

Maral Margossian But not really. I am not a wind-up toy, going through motions mechanically without thought. The events of my day are not bullets fired from a machine gun in rapid succession, desperately chasing each other for their end goal. My day has commas and periods and semicolons; it has pauses.

I value these pauses in my day. I need these pauses: we all do. Whether we like to admit it or not, most of our lives are designed like factory assembly lines. We have our routines and stick to these routines every day, day after day, with slight variance, if any. And these routines, like assembly lines, are created to maximize efficiency in our lives: get as much work done in as little amount of time as possible.

This leaves us with little room to take a break from the world and let our minds wander as they wish.

Consequently, we live highstress lives feeling dejected and dissatisfied. As Thoreau eloquently stated, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

Today, slipping into a life of “quiet desperation” is made easy by the evergrowing role of technology in our lives. The evolution of the cellphone from a bulky

calling device to a sleek, pocket-sized computer illustrates the impact of this role.

Cellphones used to simply allow us to easily communicate with others while we were out and about during our day. Today, they have revolutionized the idea of the workplace.

The ability to readily read our email allows us to access our work without physically being there. We can connect to bosses, professors, coworkers, and colleagues with great ease.

This ability, without a doubt has its advantages, but it has also made it so that we never actually leave our work. It’s not a matter of clocking in and out anymore, the work comes home with us as stowaways in the digital luggage we carry in our pockets.

To keep up with all that we need to do, we set events and reminders in the calendars in our phones. We set alarms to wake up because our bodies are unable to wake up when we want them to, exhausted by being stretched too thin. We make lists and memos of things we need to do or get. We set small increments of goals to achieve, holding dear to our heart the conditioned belief that hard work pays off. When all signs seem to contradict this “work hard, go far” mentality, we hurl ourselves into the future, silently chanting “it gets better, it gets better,” which

soon becomes the mantra of our lives. We march to the beat of those four syllables in desperate pursuit of happiness, but it’s too late. We have sunk into our “lives of quiet desperation.”

Medco Health Solutions Inc., “America’s State of Mind,” one in five adults took medication to treat a psychiatric disorder in 2010, and that during the decade between 2001 and 2010, there was a twenty-two percent increase in the use of prescription medication to treat mental disorders.

Although there is no agreement about the cause of this increase, high amounts of stress and inadequate amounts of sleep, especially when coupled together, have been linked to anxiety and depression.

Perhaps taking a moment of pause may help to reverse this increase.

We all have busy lives, but we can’t always make room for breaks in our schedule because there will always be something to do. How can we make sense of our lives if we never have a moment of reflection? In the midst of daily life, it’s easy to lose sight of the things that matter. Having moments to ourselves allows us to shift things back into perspective and feel more appreciative of our lives. Our daily routines, though comforting in their predictability, can be numbing. Taking time to pause and reflect can bring back the feelings of life we may have forgotten existed.

[We silently chant], “It gets better, it gets better,” which soon becomes the mantra of our lives. We march to the beat of those four syllables in desperate pursuit of happiness, but it’s too late. We have sunk into our “lives of quiet desperation.”

We refuse to acknowledge this state of our lives and remain fatally optimistic. We turn to technology to sustain this optimism. We create virtual realities with rose colored lenses for all to see. We filter photos displaying manufactured creativity.

We capture selfies from our good side, at just the right angle, with smiles that don’t reach our eyes: self-portraits of packaged, split-second moments. The final products of our photoshopped virtual worlds are faint shadows of our actual realities. We become masters of illusion, starring in our own reality television shows.

In actuality, our lives are not so bleak, but many of us can’t help but feel dissatisfaction. Unsurprisingly, the use of medication to treat anxiety and depression has Maral Margossian is a Collegian risen in the past ten years. columnist and can be reached at According to a study by mmargossian@umass.edu.

Letters to the edItor

Editorial@DailyCollegian.com

To the editor:

do exist under the law in our society.

I’m responding to the September 30 article “In liberal democracy, the ‘liberal’ is more important.”

To see how we are living in a false age of liberalism, we must look to who holds the power – who wields it, who has access to it and, finally, how the people in power use it. Is it just and fair to give decision-making power to a board of trustees numbering 23, in which UMass students are represented by four members and only two votes? Is it equal to use those uneven votes to decide on issues directly related to the students, such as how much money we pay to attend our school?

Different opinions abound as to the way our country is run, the solutions to our many struggles, and the way we choose to exemplify and act on our nation’s ideals.

Occasionally, these ideals have been scrutinized and are the subject of differing opinions and debate. While it is true that these many conflicting opinions will exist as long as there are people to voice them, it is always important to consider and analyze the things that are not opinion – the cold hard facts.

It came to my attention that some of the facts regarding our country’s implementation of democracy and liberalism have been distorted and misused in a way that does not accurately reflect the reality of our nation.

Specifically, there was a misconception that our country embodies a textbook definition of liberalism, a political philosophy based on liberty and concerned with rights, equality and freedom under the law. Yet there is simply too much evidence to indicate the contrary, especially for students studying at a public university such as ours.

Consider just this past June, when the UMass board of trustees voted to follow through with a 4.9 percent increase in tuition costs, an increase we students would be feeling now had efforts by the state not temporarily frozen the tuition increases. This is merely one example of the inequalities of power, freedom and equality that

And for those would-be students so horribly affected by these inequalities, the ones who truly could not afford to attend public university here at UMass, how is it equal, just or fair that they are denied access to a higher education because they could not afford it? If we were a truly liberal society, these questions would be irrelevant.

It is unfortunate but true that access to education is not equal, not in society or under the law, and even sadder that higher education is not the only institution plagued by these inequalities. Until the day comes when access to power becomes an equal opportunity protected and respected by the government and the law, we cannot truly be a liberal society.

Devinne Zadravec ‘16 Amherst, MA October 22, 2013

Letters to the editor should be no longer than 550 words and can be submitted to either to Editorial@DailyCollegian.com or to DailyCollegian.com We regret that, due to space constraints, not all letters will be printed but can be found online.

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The Massachusetts Daily Collegian is published Monday through Thursday during the University of Massachusetts calendar semester. The Collegian is independently funded, operating on advertising revenue. Founded in 1890, the paper began as Aggie Life, became the College Signal in 1901, the Weekly Collegian in 1914 and the Tri–Weekly Collegian in 1956. Published daily from 1967 to 2013, The Collegian has been broadsheet since January 1994. For advertising rates and information, call 413-545-3500.

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Arts Living THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

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Monday, December 2, 2013

Arts@DailyCollegian.com

BAND PROFILE

‘The Sharpest’ band in Western Massachusetts A rocking local independent trio

By Sarah roBertSon Collegian Staff

Amherst-based band, The Sharpest, brought their unique and experimental sound to campus this October when they performed at the Agricultural Engineering Building.

Stage left stood Vasili Kochura, vocalist and guitarist for The Sharpest, and opposite him, bassist Adam Barbati. In contrast to Kochura, who sang calmly and composed, Adam flailed around violently, getting a feel for the crowd.

“Personally, I really like when people are flipping out and stuff, I feed off that,” said Barbati.

Matt Huszar sat just behind Barbati and Kochura on his drum kit keeping a steady tempo before launching into their first song, an uptempo track titled “A Sunrise” from their first EP “Charm.”

“It’s fun to play music where people will push

each other and stuff,” said Huszar, “but it’s also fun when we can play a show and people will just watch and are there for the show.”

Somehow, The Sharpest has found a genre that can satisfy all of their musical preferences. Playing their brand of experimental math rock, The Sharpest has defined their band around being undefinable.

Their songs feature changing tempos and sound effects that change so frequently that an untrained ear might think they are trying to play several songs at once.

The band’s sound has evolved drastically since their inception years ago.

Having started off as an indie band, The Sharpest now sees itself more as a math rock group. Each of their three released albums has a distinctive sound and style vastly different from its predecessor.

“They are recorded at different phases in our lives, sometimes by different people,” says Kochura.

“Each one is a good representation of where our band was at that moment.”

“And to be honest they

SHAINA MISHKIN/COLLEGIAN

Adam Barbati is known for his wild thrashing stage antics.

are all different, they are all super different,” adds Huszar.

The Sharpest has released one full-length album, three EPs, and has a fourth album on the way.

The first two EPs, “Charm” and “Seasons Happen,” were released with the band’s original vocalist and have sound much more like indie-pop music.

Their latest album “Tophet Chasm” was released in May 2012 after the band lost its original vocalist and began to focus on the more technical side of their music. Some of their favorite songs to play are “Chains” and “Echo Sacchi,” but as of late they have been playing their more recent songs as the new album release nears.

The Sharpest admits that because of their eclectic style and tastes not everyone “gets” their music. They draw influence from other math rock and post-hardcore bands such as This Town Needs Guns, Fall of Troy, The Mars Volta and Tera Melos.

They say bands like this have made the math rock genre more popular, something The Sharpest aims to do as well.

“We are trying to be accessible and math rock at the same time,” says Huszar.

Kochura and Huszar first started the band five years ago during their senior year at ActonBoxborough Re gional High School where the two met. Together they went through years of trial and error, gaining and losing members and testing an array of sounds until they finally settled on their current trio. Barbati also

SHAINA MISHKIN/COLLEGIAN

Vasili Kochura and his band The Sharpest often play shows at DIY venues in the Amherst area. attended high school with Kochura and Huszar, but officially joined the band just two years ago.

“Adam was our merch guy,” says Huszar.

Barbarti is currently a UMass student who lives off campus with his fellow bandmates. Huszar graduated from UMass last year, while Kochura is a graduate of Suffolk University.

For The Sharpest, balancing their education, work and music means limiting their tours to summers and school breaks. During the school year, they play local shows in the Amherst and Northampton area as well as around central Massachusetts, but the band has gone on tour as far as Chicago and Baltimore in the past.

“As an indie band booking a DIY tour, we have to look at our resources collectively,” explains Huszar,

“It’s important for touring bands to book cities where there is someone there to help bring people out, get supporting acts and sometimes promote, even if it’s just a Facebook event.”

One of the more difficult challenges facing a small independent band like The Sharpest is simply finding venues to play at. In Amherst, venues that cater to local bands are scarce and often difficult to work with, making a road trip to Chicago or New York City a viable option.

“I like going on tour not only because it’s nice to share my music with people around the country but it also restores my faith in humanity,” says Huszar, “People will just take you into their house and feed you and sometimes give you beds and it’s just so awesome.”

“Exploring is almost the

coolest part of it,” Barbati adds, “Sometimes we show up to a venue and don’t know what to expect, it’s almost like a gamble.”

The band does not have any more upcoming tours planned as they are working on their next album, which is scheduled to be released within the next few months. Again, the short album is very different than what the band has put out previously, but they are proud of it all the same.

“This new one coming out is definitely a blend of the three,” says Huszar, “It is more poppy and clean and more well done.”

The Sharpest’s complete discography can be found on their Bandcamp page at thesharpestrock.bandcamp.com. All albums are available for download for free or pay-what-you-want.

Sarah Robertson can be reached at srobertson@umass.edu.

CONCERT REVIEW

Frank Turner turns up at the Calvin Theater A folk-punk show to be remembered

By Sarah roBertSon Collegian Staff

On Sunday Nov. 24 Frank Turner and his fivepiece band, The Sleeping Souls, played at the Calvin Theater to a room full of impassioned punk fans. The crowd gathered in front of the stage early on to be as close to the English punkrock singer as possible. The dedicated fans of the group who weren’t singing every lyric were either crowd surfing or dancing throughout the entire show. The performance marked Turner’s 1503rd show of his career, and his second time playing in Northampton.

Opening the show was the interactive dance party duo Koo Koo Kanga Roo. The Minnesota based pair, simply known as Bryan and Neil, sang songs about the alphabet, cats, friendship bracelets

and “awesome rainbows” that were better suited for a five-year old’s birthday party than a rock concert.

Nonetheless, the audience danced along as the band played a half hour of their hyperactive children’s pop.

Next up was the Australian punk quartet The Smith Street Band. Their music, while rough and almost inaudible at times, got the show back into the right mindset and ready for a real rock concert. The Smith Street Band played nonstop for half an hour and ended their set with their most popular song, “Young Drunk.”

Their style of classic punk was the perfect warm up to prepare the audience for Turner’s set.

To kick off the show, Turner ran on stage as the band started playing one of his very first hits, “Photosynthesis” from the album “Love Ire & Song.”

Anyone that was still sitting quickly stood up as soon as they recognized the tune and

remained standing for the remainder of the show.

Afterwards, without hesitation, the band launched into one of their new songs, “Plain Sailing Weather,” to keep the momentum going.

Behind Turner hung a massive tapestry of his tour flag: a picture of a human heart with a cassette tape inside of it for the newest album, aptly titled “Tape Deck Heart.”

The band played many songs from the new album, but they made sure to play the classics as well to please the longtime fans in the audience.

After the first few songs, Turner took a break to explain how a back injury was preventing him from playing the guitar that evening. He apologized for his injury, but assured that it would take nothing away from the performance, and it certainly did not. Two slipped discs in his back were not enough to keep Turner from jumping and dancing around the stage throughout

the whole show.

True to his antagonistic ways, Turner did not forego playing some of his older, more controversial songs. He played “Glory Hallelujah,” in which he states “There is no god/no heaven and no hell” and the tongue-in-cheek breakup ballad “Reasons Not to Be an Idiot.”

While Turner is not shy when it comes to sharing his beliefs and making a few enemies, he has no tolerance for any animosity among his fans. At one point, a fight broke out in the standing section of the audience and Turner went so far as to stop the show and reprimand the brawlers for ruining the concert for everyone else. After the fighters were escorted out, the audience applauded Turner’s profanity-filled rant and the band restarted the song “I Am Disappeared” with even more fervor than before.

Some other standout songs by Turner were his sing-a-long to “Wessex Boy,”

FRED ROCKWOOD/FLICKR

Folk–punk rocker Frank Turner originally started out as the vocalist of the now defunct post-hardcore band Million Dead. an energetic rendition of “If Ever I Stray” and finally his newest hit single “Recovery.”

In between songs Turner preached happiness and community, giving the entire show a positive feel. He ended the show easily with a new track “Four Simple Words” that soothed the audience before they left for the evening.

Turner is now reaching the end of his worldwide

tour as he moves on to his next few shows in Boston, Canada and Pennsylvania before returning to England.

Undoubtedly the band’s tour flag, a fan-sponsored flag that has somehow made its appearance at every show on the Tape Deck Heart tour this year, will make its way there too.

Sarah Robertson can be reached at srobertson@umass.edu.

PHOTO IN FRONT PAGE TEASER COURTESY OF CHANCE VILES/COLLEGIAN

6

THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

Monday, December 2, 2013

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If you plant this years turkey giblets now, you’ll have the first all–natural, plant–based turkey.

pisces

Feb. 19 - Mar. 20

leo

Jul. 23 - aug. 22

Some people prefer dark meat, some prefer white. But to just eat the skin, that’s just... weird.

virgo

aug. 23 - Sept. 22

Can’t think of what to do with leftovers? Two words: Turkey jerky. Also, stuffing jerky.

Putting out little bowls of leftover cranberries probably won’t go as fast as leftover Halloween candies.

aries

Mar. 21 - apr. 19

libra

Sept. 23 - Oct. 22

scorpio

Oct. 23 - nOv. 21

Try applying your left over cranberry sauce to your whole body. I hear its really good for exfoliation, plus everyone loved the “Carrie.”

Freezing turkey stock, no matter how delicious it was with dinner, does not make for a satisfying Popsicle.

taurus

apr. 20 - May. 20

Take your mashed potatoes, ball them up, and roll them around in the dirt. No one will know they’re not straight potatoes.

Make those leftovers last for weeks with the addition of mayonnaise. Only mayonnaise.

gemini

May. 21 - Jun. 21

sagittarius

nOv. 22 - Dec. 21

Substitute one meal a day for the next year with helium. By next Thanksgiving, you might be aired up enough to fly in the parade.

Ah yes. Pillsbury crescent rolls and gravy bread pudding. Nectar of the gods.

cancer

capricorn

Jun. 22 - Jul. 22

Leftover turkey sandwiches are great, even leftover stuffing casserole might be good.

Leftover trimming pancakes however...

Dec. 22 - Jan. 19

If you run out of sides for your turkey, adding it to a post–workout shake gives a nice protein kick.

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Monday, December 2, 2013

7

HOCKEY

Minutemen drubbed by No. 5 Quinnipiac on the road UM winless in its last seven games

By Nick caNelas Collegian Staff

With a 6-1 drubbing at the hands of No. 5 Quinnipiac on Saturday night, the Massachusetts hockey team can finally QU 6 part ways with a forUMass 1 gettable month of November. And forgettable might be an understatement.

The Minutemen were victorious just once all month, and that came all the way back on Nov. 2 against Maine.

In the seven games since, they’ve been shut out twice, been beaten by three goals or more three times, includ-

ing a 9-0 debacle against New Hampshire, and have slid to the bottom of the Hockey East standings despite playing more conference games (nine) than any other team.

On Saturday, it was about as ugly as it could get for UMass.

The Minutemen (3-10-2) had a mere 10 shots on goal – a combined four shots in the last two periods – to go with a whopping 39 penalty minutes, including a fiveminute major and game misconduct on goaltender Steve Mastalerz for spearing, resulting in three powerplay goals for the Bobcats.

It appeared for a brief moment that UMass was going to give last year’s national runner-up a battle after Michael Pereira netted the game’s first goal three minutes, 42 seconds into

DISAPPOINTMENT after Saturday’s loss to Ohio. “This team is ready to turn the corner and we need a leader to help us make that turn faster.”

The weaknesses don’t come down to just the players, either. Molnar still has plenty to prove after a number of questionable decisions to go along with some clock-management difficulties left him subject to criticism week after week.

UMass Athletic Director John McCutcheon told the Daily Hampshire Gazette last week that Molnar will be the Minutemen’s coach next year. But anything beyond that, if you ask me, will be judged under the watchful eye of the athletic department.

There’s no telling where this team is at in its transition because not much has changed from Year 1 to Year 2. We all knew this was a process that wouldn’t be complete overnight. And definitely not in a two-year period, either.

But the Minutemen can’t be happy with the

the first period to give the Minutemen the early lead.

But Quinnipiac (13-2-2) answered less than two minutes later with the first of six unanswered goals for the Bobcats in their most lopsided win of the season.

Kellen Jones scored the equalizer after Zach Tolkinen intercepted a pass off a UMass turnover and fed Sam Anas, who found Jones for the shot from the left circle that beat Mastalerz high.

Quinnipiac pulled ahead for good 16:42 into the first period when Bryce Van Brabant scored on the power play off assists from Jordan Samuels-Thomas and Tolkinen to take a 2-1 lead into intermission.

Things only got worse from there for the Minutemen.

Travis St. Denis doubled

Nick Canelas can be reached at ncanelas@umass.edu and followed on Twitter @NickCanelas.

FINALE

continued from page 8

MARIA UMINSKI/COLLEGIAN

A.J. Doyle and the rest of the quarterback position is an area of concern for UMass football going into next season. results this year. The sympathy period is over. From now on, this progress has to start reflecting on the team’s record or else more changes beyond the reported firing of offensive coordinator John Bond and wide receivers coach Allen Suber on Saturday could be in the works.

We may not have learned much about UMass this

the Bobcats lead 9:21 into the second period, then Anas scored on Mac Haight following Mastalerz’s game misconduct to break the game open at 4-1.

Connor Jones and Brayden Sherbinin put some padding on the lead with goals in the third period, while goaltender Michael Garteig was given a relatively easy night, needing to make just nine saves in a winning effort.

UMass will look for a change in fortunes when it travels to South Bend, Ind., next weekend to take on Notre Dame in its final two Hockey East games before the holiday break.

season relative to what took place just the year before.

But the Minutemen at least gave everyone – fans, media, all of college football – a quick reminder that this program still has a long, long way to go before this transition is complete.

Nick Canelas can be reached at ncanelas@umass.edu and followed on Twitter @NickCanelas.

ALEX ARITAN/COLLEGIAN

Conor Sheary had an assist for UMass hockey in its 6-1 loss to Quinnipiac on Saturday night.

continued from page 8

first quarter on a 2-yard pass to Chase Cochran to put his team up 14-0 at the time. His next one didn’t come until there was 4:08 remaining in the third quarter on a 4-yard pass to Landon Smith that put the game well out of reach for UMass at 38-20.

The Bobcats didn’t just score on offense; they were also aided by two big mistakes by Minutemen quarterbacks that led to 14 points. Travis Carrie returned an interception 66 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter and then followed it up with a 30-yard interception return to put the icing on the cake with 4:19 left in the game.

The first interception return was especially critical as it put Ohio back up by double digits after UMass had cut the lead to 14-10.

“Well he was pressured and stepped up and threw the ball when he was moving to the side and just wasn’t on balance and

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

“(Quarterback) is an area we need to improve quickly.”

Charley Molnar, UMass coach I’m sure he would want to take that throw back, I certainly wish he could,” UMass coach Charley Molnar said. “I could really feel our guys thought they could get back into the football game. I don’t think all the wind left our sails, but it definitely hurt us.”

Despite the lopsided final score, UMass did find some success on offense, especially in the running game. Walk-on freshman running back Shadrach Abrokwah ran for 110 yards and one touchdown in his second game for the Minutemen.

“He’s a talented young man and we haven’t seen the best of him. I can tell you he works really hard and he has some talent,” Molnar said. “We kept pounding him because that is what was working best for us today.”

The quarterback play was shaky throughout the game. A.J. Doyle only completed four of his 12 pass attempts for 109 yards and a touchdown to go with his two picks. Mike Wegzyn also saw some playing time and completed 2-of6 attempts for 28 yards and an interception. Matt Quinn also got a chance at quarterback, but his one attempt fell incomplete.

Finding the quarterback of the future is now one of Molnar’s top tasks heading into the offseason.

“It’s obviously is an area we need to improve quickly,” he said. “This team is ready to turn the corner and we need a leader to help us make that turn faster.”

Cameron McDonough can be reached at cameronm@umass.edu and followed on Twitter @Cam_McDonough.

COLLEGE FOOTBALLL

No. 12 Wichita State escapes at SLU Ohio State playing Shockers remain for title game spot unbeaten with win

By Paul suelleNtroP The Wichita Eagle

ST. LOUIS — Everything about Wichita State’s road wins look familiar, except the names.

Instead of Toure Murry or Malcolm Armstead making the big plays, it’s Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet.

Instead of Ben Smith or Joe Ragland making gamechanging three-pointers, it’s Cleanthony Early.

What those Shockers started, way back when winning on the road wasn’t taken for granted, continues in much the same manner. The 12th-ranked Shockers defeated Saint Louis 70-65 on Sunday afternoon at Chaifetz Arena.

Wichita State survived a season-high 18 turnovers and trailed by 10 points in the first half. It trailed by seven points with under seven minutes to play. No matter. The Shockers (8-0) made all the right plays in the final minutes, quieting a near-sellout crowd of 9,031 and depriving the Billikens (6-2) of a marquee victory they desperately wanted.

“It shows how tough we are,” Wichita State guard Ron Baker said. “This was a big win to put on our resume.”

The Shockers struggled to move the ball against Saint Louis’ physical half-

court traps and seemed on the verge of unraveling after back-to-back turnovers helped the Billikens go up 58-51 with 6:40 remaining.

While Wichita State wasn’t flawless, it made the plays Saint Louis failed to in the final minutes. The Shockers scored on four straight possessions to take a 64-63 lead.

In the final minutes, they outscored Saint Louis 6-1 with the Billikens missing three shots and a free throw.

“Road warriors,” Wichita State center Chadrack Lufile said. “A lot of guys stepped up. We used every weapon we have on our team and we were unselfish.”

Baker led Wichita State with 22 points, one short of his career high. He scored 20 or more points for the fourth straight game.

Lufile added a career-high 12 points and Early also scored 12.

Dwayne Evans led Saint Louis with 18 points. On Tuesday, it lost to No. 10 Wisconsin 63-57 in the Cancun Challenge.

“You only get so many opportunities for statement wins,” Evans said. “We’re playing well, but we’ve got to pull one of these out.”

A switch to a zone defense late in the game kept Saint Louis out of the lane and off the foul line.

“We’ve been struggling with the zone,” Saint Louis guard Mike McCall Jr. said.

“We don’t get aggressive

against the zone. It’s like we freeze.”

Wichita State took a 66-64 lead on Baker’s bank shot in the lane. Up by one point, Wichita State’s Fred VanVleet dribbled through the press to find Early for a layup and a 68-65 lead.

After a Saint Louis airball, VanVleet made two free throws with 3.2 seconds to play.

“It was a great basketball game – two very, very tough teams,” Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said. “I’m just glad it was a 40-minute game and not 43 because their run was coming next.”

Saint Louis trailed 51-49 when its defense forced a rash of turnovers by the Shockers, keying an 8-0 run.

The Shockers started to get the line and they made six straight free throws to cut the lead to 58-57. Early’s three-pointer from the wing gave Wichita State a 60-58 lead with 3:46 remaining.

Saint Louis took a 61-60 lead on a three by Jordair Jett. Early made another three from the wing to regain the lead, 63-61. Jett’s short jump shot tied it 63-all.

Wichita State took a 66-64 lead on a bank shot

by Baker, left alone near the basket after he drove and passed to VanVleet in the corner. The Billikens, scrambling on defense, left Baker open for a just a second. Baker wasn’t open for long and he caught the ball even with the back-

board before bouncing off a defender and banking in a shot.

“At first, I thought Fred was going to shoot it, because I was out of bounds,” Baker said. “It was kind of an awkward place to get the ball wide open. I looked and I just made a play.”

VanVleet almost fell out of bounds.

“I think the help defender, that slid over to take him, went back to his own man and that’s he got so open,” VanVleet said.

Saint Louis missed two threes, but the Shockers couldn’t track down either rebound. Early fouled Jake Barnett on an inbound play with 30.1 seconds remaining. Barnett made one of two free throws to cut WSU’s lead to 66-65.

The Billikens opened the game with an 8-0 run and closed the first half with a 13-4 run to lead 29-28 at the break. Neither team shot well in the first half – WSU 12 of 29 and Saint Louis 11 of 28. WSU missed 10 of its first 12 shots to fall behind 16-7. When the Shockers tightened up their pick and roll defense, they forced 11 straight missed shots and went up 24-16.

Saint Louis’ defense increased its pressure and forced three turnovers, scoring after each, to regain the lead 25-24. WSU, averaging nine turnovers a game, committed eight in the first half.

OSU No. 2 in new BCS Standings By teddy GreeNsteiN Chicago Tribune

Mark Dantonio is no dummy.

By voting Ohio State No. 1 in the latest USA Today coaches poll, Dantonio probably earned himself some back pats at the next Big Ten meetings. And if Michigan State beats Ohio State in Saturday’s Big Ten title game, he can say the Spartans took down the best.

Only four of 62 coaches put Ohio State atop their ballot.

The other 58 went to Florida State, which pounded rival Florida 37-7 to remain unbeaten. Auburn is third in the latest BCS standings.

For the first time in its three-year history, the Big Ten title game will affect the national-title chase.

Two years ago, 10thranked Wisconsin edged past No. 17 Michigan State 42-39. Last year unranked Wisconsin throttled No. 12 Nebraska 70-31.

Now the Big Ten gets this beauty: the No. 2 Buckeyes against the 10th-ranked Spartans. They combined to go 16-0 in conference games, last meeting in their 2012 Big Ten opener. Ohio State won it 17-16.

This matchup is an absolute dream for the Big Ten, considering Lucas Oil Stadium was less than twothirds filled for last year’s game, despite two mighty fan bases. Only 41,260 showed up.

The eyes of America will be on the SEC and Big Ten title games to see who gets the two spots for the Jan. 6 showdown in Pasadena.

“America is ready for a playoff,” Meyer said.

True, but Buckeyes fans won’t complain if Ohio State remains ahead of Auburn after the Tigers’ miracle victory over Alabama. Perhaps the most dramatic play in the history of SEC football might end up killing that conference’s hope for an eighth straight national champion.

Meyer said Ohio State’s buses picked up the CBS signal as they entered Columbus at the end of their trip from Ann Arbor. The players and coaches saw the game’s final two plays.

“It was absolutely nuts for 15 minutes,” he said.

Ohio State had its own drama, beating Michigan 42-41 by denying its twopoint conversion.

The Buckeyes gave up 603 yards to a team that had averaged 216.5 yards against its four previous opponents: Michigan State, Nebraska, Northwestern and Iowa.

THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

Monday, December 2, 2013

Sports@DailyCollegian.com

@MDC_SPORTS

FOOTBALL

END OF ANOTHER TOUGH YEAR UM downed by Ohio to end season at 1-11

By Cameron mCDonough Collegian Staff

Year 2 of the Massachusetts football team’s move up to the Football Bowl Ohio 51 Subdivision is in the books, UMass 23 and the results look awfully similar to Year 1.

The Minutemen closed out the 2013 season with only one win and 11 losses, the same record as last season, with that one win coming against a winless Miami (Ohio) team.

And in similar fashion to last season, UMass closed out the year on a sour note, losing to Ohio 51-23 on Friday in front of a crowd of 13,162 at Peden Stadium in Athens, Ohio.

The Bobcats (7-5, 4-4 MidAmerican Conference) jumped out to an early 14-0 lead over the Minutemen and would never look back despite UMass (1-11, 1-7 MAC) pulling withing four points early in the second quarter. However, that was as close as it would get as Ohio pushed the lead up to 31-10 by halftime.

The Bobcats had their way with the Minutemen’s defense throughout the game as they ran for 215 yards and threw for 246, finishing with a total of 461 yards compared to UMass’ 290.

“I’m really pleased to see them bounce back and play – what I thought – were four quarters of pretty good football,” Ohio coach Frank Solich said. “Every now and then a drive would stall and the other team would get things going, but that’s football.

“For the most part, we played very hard and very well for four quarters of football.

That’s what we wanted to end the regular season.”

Beau Blankenship led the Ohio rushing attack with 124 yards and a 50-yard touchdown to open up the scoring. Ryan Boykin also chipped in with 28 yards and a 6-yard rushing touchdown with 6:29 left in the second quarter.

Quarterback Tyler Tettleton was 18-for-27 passing with two touchdowns and an interception. His first touchdown throw came at the 10:45 mark in the

ROBERT RIGO/COLLEGIAN

The UMass football team is now 2-22 in two years under coach Charley Molnar, but will reportedly be back to coach the Minutemen next season.

UMass proves it has a long way to go in transition

F

or a program in transition, the goal is to get better every year. So after a 1-11 record in its first season in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the Massachusetts football team had its sights set on bigger and better things – more wins being the obvious – in 2013.

With a 51-23 loss to Ohio in its season finale on Saturday, the Minutemen were left in a stalemate.

UMass finished its second FBS campaign no better than Nick it did last year as far Canelas as wins and losses are concerned.

Instead, the season was a mirror image of 2012; a 1-11 record that included plenty of blowout losses and the lone win coming against a team – Miami (Ohio) – that didn’t win a single FBS game, and a number of fans’ fingers pointing toward UMass coach Charley Molnar.

The moments we will all remember from 2013 certainly won’t be good ones, starting in Madison, Wis., on Aug. 31 when the Minutemen had a chance to cut then No. 23 Wisconsin’s lead to 10-3 with halftime approaching at Camp Randall Stadium. Blake Lucas hit what would’ve been a 47-yard field goal, but Molnar called a timeout as the play clock was expiring just before the snap.

Lucas missed the kick on the second opportunity, Badgers running back Melvin Gordon ran for a 70-yard touchdown two plays later and UMass opened the year with a 45-0 defeat.

Of course, instead of chalking it up as a mistake on everyone’s part, Molnar said, “(Lucas) should’ve made it the second time like he made it the first time, really.”

That was just the beginning.

There was also the loss to Football Championship Subdivision rival Maine the following week, the alumni petition over the alleged

mistreatment of players and Molnar’s decision to go for the two-point conversion rather than taking the tie and overtime with an extra point against Western Michigan on Oct. 26.

There were some gruesome results both on and off the field for the Minutemen this season.

However, it would be unfair to say that UMass wasn’t at least an improved product in 2013.

UMass was just a few plays away from what would’ve been an impressive three-win season; the defense made enormous strides after getting torched for 598 yards at Wisconsin, almost single-handedly keeping the Minutemen in games; the secondary spent most of the season in the top half of the Mid-American Conference in pass defense and UMass’ future at running back appears bright with the emergence of freshmen Lorenzo Woodley and Shadrach Abrokwah late in the season.

But right now there are simply too many questions that remain

on this team, especially at quarterback.

A.J. Doyle will likely be the signal-caller to start next year after Mike Wegzyn lost the starting job just six quarters into the season.

But if the numbers are any indication, the Minutemen won’t be any more successful in 2014 with either one at quarterback.

Doyle finished the season with 1,274 passing yards, a 54.5 percent completion percentage and threw 11 interceptions compared to just six touchdowns. Wegzyn, on the other hand, completed less than half of his passes and threw just three touchdowns to seven interceptions. Unless one of those two has a breakthrough year next year, UMass will have to find answers elsewhere because this guessing game of “When will Doyle/Wegzyn get pulled?” each week can only last for so long.

“It obviously is an area we need to improve quickly,” Molnar said see

DISAPPOINTMENT on page 7

see

FINALE on page 7

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Minutewomen suffer tough OT loss to William & Mary UMass winless at Maine Invitational By anDrew Cyr Collegian Staff

For the first time this season, the Massachusetts women’s basketball team got off to an early lead and looked like it was going to W&M 96 cruise to a win against UMass 88 William & Mary in the Maine 86 consolation UMass 56 game in the University of Maine Invitational.

However, sloppy play and costly turnovers proved to be the downfall for the Minutewomen once again as they fell to the Tribe 96-88 in overtime on Saturday.

Leading 81-80 with eight seconds left in regulation, Nola Henry went to the freethrow line with a chance to extend the UMass lead to three points. Henry made just one of her two attempts to extend the lead to 82-80 with no William & Mary timeouts remaining.

The last thing the Minutewomen wanted to do in this situation was commit a foul. But on this day, Henry fell trap to the cardinal sin of basketball and sent William & Mary’s Latrice Hunter for a chance to tie the game.

Hunter made them both and the game headed to overtime.

That’s when the Tribe took over, outscoring UMass 14-6 in the extra five minutes to earn their first win of the season.

UMass (2-6) opened the

CADE BELISLE/COLLEGIAN

Nola Henry’s (above) struggles led to her losing her starting spot to Rashida Timbilla for UMass women’s basketball on Saturday. game on an 11-2 run after Jasmine Harris drilled a 3 and then converted an easy transition layup off of a Kymber Hill steal.

But the Tribe (1-6) ended the final eight minutes of the first half on a 19-6 run, forcing the Minutewomen to commit seven turnovers during that

stretch.

Statistically UMass had its best offensive game of the season, scoring a season high 88 points, shooting 32-for-64 from the field and hitting 7-of15 attempts from behind the arc. Four different players scored in double figures for the Minutewomen, including

a career day from Rashida Timbilla.

Timbilla played a gamehigh 43 minutes, finishing the day with a career-high 25 points on 12-of-17 shooting with 13 rebounds and six assists.

At the beginning of the season UMass coach Sharon Dawley expected Timbilla to be one of her most efficient forwards that could play guard if need be. But since returning from an early season injury, Timbilla has been playing primarily on the perimeter with the offense running through her hands.

Dawley gave Timbilla the start at point guard, replacing a struggling Henry. After the performance that Timbilla had, she could be there to stay.

the University of Maine Invitational on Friday with a 86-56 loss at the hands of the Black Bears.

Co- Captain Emily Mital led the Minutewomen with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and 3-for-3 from behind the 3-point line.

Jasmine Harris was the only other UMass player in double figures, finishing the game with 11 points.

Maine forward Liz Wood hurt the Minutewomen all game, scoring 24 points while guard Ashleigh Roberts had a double-double (18 points, 11 rebounds).

The Minutewomen are back in action Dec. 4 when they host in-state rival Boston University at 7 p.m. at Mullins Center.

UMass falls to Maine

Andrew Cyr can be reached at arcyr@ umass.edu, and can be followed on Twitter @Andrew_Cyr.

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