What’s Really Going to Happen? PAGE 1
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Vol. 106, NO. 63 UATRAV.COM
TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012
Union Renovations to Finish in March by KRISTEN COPPOLA Staff Writer
Changes abound at the Arkansas Union – some unexpected by students and others eagerly anticipated but delayed. The biggest changes are the new developments from the old bookstore, which has become the home for the Student Technology Center and the University Recreation Fitness Center, a satellite branch of the HPER. Both were scheduled to open in November, but “they should be open in early March,” said Mike Johnson, vice chancellor of Facilities Management. Many students have been anxiously awaiting the opening of the new Fitness Center, because of overcrowding at the HPER. “The new year has brought with it overcrowding in the HPER and with new year’s resolutions and spring break fast approaching. Hopefully this new facility will be able to relieve some of the tension on both the HPER and its staff,” said Shelby Chamness, junior. Whereas the University Recreation Fitness Center is a branch of a current location, the Student Technology Center is a new offering for students. It is the brain-child of Susan Adkins, the assistant director of UA IT Services. “For many years I have had the vision to build a comprehensive Student Technology Center that would provide a place, staff support and services for all the areas in which Information Technology Services supports students,” Adkins said. The Student Technology Center will consist of a digital media lab, gaming studio, tech lounge, team room and equipment checkout center. There will be 21 computers where students may edit audio and video
MELEAH GROSS STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Changes are being made at the UA, many of them being in the Union, pictured above. RZs, Club Red and the Connections Lounge are among the places being renovated, as well as the water fountains throughout the building. and develop multimedia and web Club Red have been extended to the Union. Chargers are provided for the ciate director of the Arkansas Union. projects, Adkins said. edge of awning, eliminating the cov- most popular phone models such as There are five water bottle re-fillThere will also be four soundproof ered lounge areas, Johnson said. iPhone and Droid, said Lynne Wil- ing stations. Two are located on the rooms for students who would like to These changes are a part of a great- liams, director of business services. sixth floor, one on the second, one record music, Adkins said. er plan for the Arkansas Union. Students may drop off their phones in the Union living room, and one Other changes to the Union, “Additional features generate more for 30 minutes of regular charging outside of the food court. There will which are currently available to the traffic which generates more revenue and will receive a token for pick-up, also be a station in the Fitness Center students, include a device charging which means we can then do other much like a coat check. If the student when it opens, Smith said. station, five water bottle re-filling sta- things to continue to fix [the Union] does not pick up his or her phone, Each station also has a graphic tions, and expansions to both RZ’s up,” Johnson said. “we log it into our lost and found sys- showing how many bottles have been and Club Red. The device charging station is tem so it’s secured and locked up until saved through its use, Smith said. The exterior walls of RZ’s and open at the Information Desk in the you come back,” said Sue Smith, asso-
Latina Sorority Joins Greek Life
Creating Blueprints for the Future
by MANDY MCCLENDON Staff Writer
LOGAN WEBSTER STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The campus studio of Marlon Blackwell is filled with students modeling, graphing, and designing new concepts of architecture.
In This Issue:
News
News
Reform Could Affect UA Grades Via Email Not Students Against Policy
Features
Emails between students and professors concering grades Album review of the band’s is not against UA policy. latest, “El Camino.”
Page 3
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Sports
TODAY 59°
Even the rich and famous had to work entry-level jobs.
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WEATHER FORECAST
Features
The Black Keys and the Students’ Minimum- Sanchez’s Time? State of Rock n’ Roll Wage Jobs: Celebrities Arkansas senior forward Michael Sanchez scored a Music Today Had Them Too career-high 20 points the
Potential reform could affect thousands of international students.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012 VOL. 106, NO. 63 8 PAGES UATRAV.COM
Hermandad De Sigma Iota Alpha, Inc., known simply as Sigma Iota Alpha, is the first Latina sorority recognized by Greek Life at the UA. It is a part of the Multicultural Greek Council and its first seven members were initiated in December, members said. Students approached Greek Life about the new sorority in 2010. By September 2011, representatives from the organization visited the UA and established a chapter on campus. Those interested in joining the sorority went through a new member program during the fall semester and were initiated Dec. 4. When the process began everything simply “fell into place,” said Jessica Galan, president of Sigma Iota Alpha. “My sister, Magdalena Arroyo, came to me with the idea of forming a sorority. We then talked to
WEDNESDAY 60°
THURSDAY 55°
last time the Hogs played Vanderbilt.
SATURDAY 51°
see SORORITY on page 2
Opinion
Resident Interhall Congress: State of the Resident A Traveler columnist looks at the need for a more visible RIC on campus.
Page 4
Page 7 FRIDAY 52°
other friends and looked at Hermandad de Sigma Iota Alpha Incorporada’s national website and fell in love with everything it stood for. After we did research, we contacted nationals and the Office of Greek Life.” The girls recruited their friends to become members, Galan said. The sorority is up to seven members, and the first five have known each other since middle school. Sigma Iota Alpha is the second addition to Greek Life’s Multicultural Council. It joins Phi Iota Alpha, the Latino fraternity on campus. Greek Life officials welcome their new cultural additions and looks forward to their growth at UA. “I am excited that Sigma Iota Alpha accepted our invitation to establish a colony at Arkansas, and I look forward to beginning the work of a successful chapter,”
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NEWS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012
PAGE 2
Temporary Sidewalk Added to Razorback Road by KRISTEN COPPOLA Staff Writer
A temporary asphalt sidewalk is being paved across from Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium as a result of construction, a facilities management official said. “As we work on the football operations facility, which is in between the indoor practice facility and the stadium, we will have to block the sidewalk on the east side of Razorback Road in order to tear it out and realign it,” said Mike Johnson, vice chancellor of Facilities Management. The new temporary sidewalk will link the two crosswalks across Razorback Road, providing an alternative route during the construction, Johnson said. The sidewalk is located in front of Lot 72, where many vehicles park during home football games. “Ideally, we’ll still be able to use them [for parking spots] in the future. We’re MIKE NORTON STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER hoping we’ll have some of this A temporary sidewalk has been built on the west side of Razorback Road to accomodate opened up before next Sepconstruction of the new football center. The center will be completed in the summer of tember,” Johnson said. 2013, according to Facilities Management officials.
The football operations building will not be finished until sometime in 2013. Some students are unhappy with the closing of the HPER parking lot in the midst of the construction, including HPER student employee Rachel Ricca. “Unless I’m working a closing shift and can park in faculty parking, I normally just walk to work. It’s pretty rare that I’d find a spot,” Ricca said. Alternative parking, however, is available for students who wish to go to the HPER. “Lot 55 has been reconfigured with meters so that people using HPER can use that. There’s still that parking [in Lot 74] at the end of Meadow [Street] across the street,” Johnson said. “You may have to walk a little ways to exercise.” The HPER parking lot will return shortly, though, he said. “The new practice fields [have] some parking under a half of that to support the HPER,” Johnson said. “We’re hoping that will be done this August.”
ABOUT THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER The Arkansas Traveler, the student newspaper of the University of Arkansas, is published every day during the fall and spring academic sessions except during exam periods and university holidays. Opinions expressed in signed columns are those of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Traveler. The editor makes all final content decisions. One copy of The Arkansas Traveler is free to every member of the UA community. Additional copies can be purchased for 50 cents each. Mail subscriptions for delivery within the continental United States can be purchased for $125.00 per semester. Contact the Traveler Business Manager to arrange.
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STAFF EDITORIAL
SORORITY from page 1
said Parice Bowser, director of Greek Life. Recruitment for Sigma Iota Alpha is already taking place. The sorority will hold informational sessions during the semester for those interested in joining. Members also plan on becoming more active on-campus
in order to gain more interest. Next semester, the formal rush process will begin. Kate Ross, a freshman Spanish major, said the sorority is a great way to bring culture to the campus. “I’m a part of Greek Life, but I’m also very interested in Latino culture. I think this sorority will be a great tool in the future for those who are interested in these things as well. It’s
CRIME REPORT January 26
Theft Of Motor Vehicle A student reported someone stole his motor scooter from Lot 59.
important for students to learn about different cultures, especially Latino, due to the growing population in the northwest Arkansas community.” Sigma Iota Alpha was founded on Sept. 29, 1990, by 13 women from four universities in New York. The women “dedicate ourselves towards the goal of creating an organization that would help our communities, unite women, and uphold
a distinct set of goals.” These goals include reaching out to women of other ethnic groups, according to the sisterhood’s website. Galan said that the sorority brings diversity to the UA and provides an outlet for learning about Latino culture. “We embrace girls of every ethnicity,” she said, “which makes us so precious and rare.”
SABA NASEEM
January 23
Criminal Mischief A student reported someone broke a window in his vehicle while the vehicle was parked in the parking lot at Pi Beta Phi sorority house.
Burglary; Theft of Property A student reported someone stole a light fixture from his desk in an architecture lab in Memorial Hall.
January 22
Possession Of A Controlled Substance (Marijuana); Possession Of Drug Paraphernalia; Underage Driving Under The Influence Of Alcohol; Minor In Possession Of Alcohol; Refusal To Submit To Chemical Test Two students were arrested in the Administrative Services Building metered parking lot at Razorback Road and Nettleship Street.
January 20
Public Intoxication A student was arrested in Humphreys Hall.
January 19
Theft Of Motor A student reported someone stole her motor scooter from Lot 41.
Theft Of Property A student reported someone stole his cell phone while it was unattended on bleachers in a gymnasium in the HPER Building.
Theft Of Property (Shoplifting) A student was arrested at the University Bookstore.
BRITTANY NIMS Asst. News Editor
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JAIME HOLLAND
A UAPD officer noticed graffiti on a wall on the roof of the Arkansas Union. Investigation revealed someone inside the building pried open a door to gain access to the roof.
News Editor 575-3226 travnews@uark.edu
LAUREN LEATHERBY
A staff member reported two unidentified people stole a table and chair from campus grounds between the Arkansas Union and Mullins Library.
Criminal Trespass; Criminal Mischief
CHAD WOODARD
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January 24
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January 25
Theft Of Property
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CORRECTIONS The Arkansas Traveler strives for accuracy in its reporting and will correct all matters of fact. If you believe the paper has printed an error, please notify the editor at 575.8455 or at traveler@uark.edu.
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HAVE A TICKET? CALL 575-7275 TO RESOLVE IT
The Transit and Parking office handles parking permits and passes and transit for students, including bus routes and GoLoco Ride Sharing. Students with parking violations can contact the office to appeal their citation.
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Otherwise known as 575-SAFE, the mission of the Safe Ride program is to provide students with a safe means of transportation from any uncomfortable or inconvenient situation. Safe Ride brings you home safely.
NEED TICKETS? CALL 1-800-982-4647 Don’t forget to call early and reserve your student football tickets for the 2010-2011 season. The ticket office is located on Razorback Road next to Baum Stadium.
PAGE 3
NEWS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012
Special Traveler Section
COLLEGES Reform in Washington Could Affect UA Students by JACK SUNTRUP Staff Writer
President Barack Obama pressed lawmakers in his State of the Union address to reform the nation’s student visa program, a sliver of broad immigration reform he would like to sign. If passed, the legislation could affect more than 700,000 international students nationwide, according to export.gov and more than 1,200 students at the UA, according to the Office of Institutional Research. “As soon as [foreign students] get their degree we send them home to invent new products and create new jobs somewhere else,” he said. “That doesn’t make sense.” International students enrolling in a U.S. institution for the first time increased 5.7 percent between 2010 to 2011, according to export.gov. Realizing the complexity of the American system and election year politics, the president linked immigration to an issue that raised everyone’s antennas: the economy. “Let’s at least agree to stop expelling responsible young people who want to staff our labs, start new businesses and defend our country,” he said. The system the president spoke about from Washington D.C. is handled locally at the Office of International Students and Scholars in Holcombe Hall. “We spend an immense amount of time with the regulations and they are very complicated and tend to change,” said associate director Audra Johnson. “Students in the U.S. who come from other countries are actually one of the most regulated and most tracked populations of any foreign population that comes to the U.S.” Handling of international students grew more complicated post-Sept. 11, Johnson said. “After 9/11 things really started to change rapidly,” she said. “Sometimes it can be a real drawback because there are some things and some requirements that students and scholars have to comply with that don’t make that much sense.” International students who want to stay in the U.S. often find their immigration status entangled in a mess of rules, fees and waiting once they graduate. “Once I graduate, I have to ask for permission to work in the U.S. for a year,” said Ana Paz-Soldan, a student from Bolivia. The permission is called Optional Practi-
cal training and costs $365, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It does not guarantee employment. “You have to pay a certain amount of money to get it,” she said. “The hard part is you have to get a job, get interviews.” While some graduates shoot for obtaining a green card, Paz-Soldan aims to be a voting U.S. citizen one day. “[Bolivians] think great things about here,” she said. “The technology is better, people are better. People have more money, more opportunities.” That attitude does not always reciprocate from Americans to foreigners, Johnson said. “There’s quite a misconception with many people out there that they assume someone coming from outside the U.S., who stays here is stealing American jobs, but that’s not the case,” she said. “We are not as a country producing enough people in the [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] fields to keep us technologically competitive.” In a time of 8.5 percent unemployment, the U.S. is not graduating enough permanent residents to fill openings in the STEM fields, according to TIME magazine. That’s why keeping knowledge here is imperative, Johnson said. “We’re letting people come in from all over the world and benefiting from our education system, which is great,” she said, “but then we’re going to make it so hard for you to stay here that we’re going to send you home and export back all that we taught you, which leaves us at a terrible disadvantage.” Though 22 percent of international students came to the United States to study business last year, students studying in the STEM fields made up around one-fourth of international students, according to Open Doors. An institute of international education, Open Doors, found the number of international students has increased 32 percent since 2000. Part of the office of International Students and Scholars’ work is engaging in advocacy on behalf of those students. “We let [Congress] know you’ve got a great diverse population here that benefits the community on multiple levels,” Johnson said. “Not just economically, but they benefit the diversity of the community.” Economically, the National Association of International Educators found that UA international students and scholars have a $26 million impact on the region through rent, dependents and tuition in the 2011 academic year.
COURTESY GRAPHIC
While Paz-Soldan doesn’t keep track of the monetary value of her and her peers, she is aware that she may not be able to stay as she pleases. However, the unique opportunities she said America has is what drives her. “I learned a lot of things here about values,” she said. “How people are responsible for different things. Back in Bolivia it’s different. At my age, back there nobody works, nobody lives by themselves. Everybody lives with their parents.” “Sometimes people envy the States because of how great it is,” Paz-Soldan said. Wanting to provide these same experiences to as many students as possible has the international office working on expanding and attracting more students. The UA has unique arrangements with Bo-
GIVE BLOOD FOR YOUR TEAM!
Grades Via Email Not Against Policy, Official Says by BAILEY KESTNER Staff Writer
Emails between students and teachers discussing grades have come into question at the UA. “There is nowhere specific in the Code of Student Life in the UA handbook that says students may not ask professors for their grades via email,” said Scott Flanagin, director of communications and outreach for University Relations. It is understandable why it may be a bad idea though, he said. “The problem comes into effect when a student is hacked by another student, or even a parent to find that student’s grade without their permission,” Flanagin said. There is no way for the professor to know for sure
the student is actually the person emailing asking for a grade, he said. “Though I can’t speak on behalf of the professors, I can see why many avoid emailing grades.” “I’ve personally never sent an email to a professor requesting my grade in a class,” said Anna Bagwell, a sophomore. “I have mixed feelings on the topic. I’ve never specifically been told it is against policy or anything, but know my professors look down upon it. One of my professors told the class he would not email grades due to an occurrence in the past when a parent hacked a student’s email in order to find her son’s grade in a class.” While she said she thinks it would be convenient, she also said she understands why one-on-one interaction is the best method.
Because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law that protects the privacy of a student’s education records, even parents can be restricted from seeing their child’s grades, according to the U.S. Department of Education. “Through the FERPA law, grades cannot even be released to parents of students without the permission of the students themselves,” Flanagin said. Grades are very important and private, he said. “I have never had a student ask for their grade through an email,” said Brenda Zies, professor of psychology. “I make sure to keep grades updated through Blackboard and tell the students in class the specifics of the grading process.” Though she said she wouldn’t mind assisting a
student in calculating their points at the end of the semester, she said she would rather not email the actual grade. “I feel as more and more professors begin utilizing Blackboard to show grades, students will be less inclined to resort to emails to find their grade in classes,” Zies said. Since it is not against a policy in the UA handbook, it is technically up to the professor whether they send grades over email, Flanagin said. It is generally looked down on because of the risk in giving confidential information to the wrong person, he said. “From what I know, emails between students and teachers discussing grades is not too much of a problem on the UA campus.”
livia in that citizens in good academic standing can pay in-state tuition. At the UA, Bolivians are the fourth most represented country with 69 students, behind China, India and Korea. Other efforts, most notably interacting with UA alumni like the President of Panama Ricardo Martinelli, are opening doors for more students, Johnson said. For students affected by things like communism and oppression, the American experience follows students for the rest of their lives, Johnson said. “Whatever problems the U.S. may have, and everybody has problems, it’s still a better alternative,” Johnson said. “It’s the best alternative.”
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OPINION THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012
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EDITOR: SABA NASEEM MANAGING EDITOR: MATTIE QUINN
FROM THE BOARD
Cars On Campus: Just Plain Hassle? For many university and college students, the chance to keep a car on campus as a freshman or sophomore is entirely non-existent, let alone the school providing ways beyond a transit system for us to get around town. At the UA, we get both – the opportunity to keep our cars on campus, provided we can find a space, and a rental car system by Hertz. If you haven’t noticed the rental cars provided by Hertz Demand, it’s time to pay attention. With a car rental service that provides students with a low cost (only $6 an hour, including insurance) way to make a Wal-Mart run, go on a weekend trip or take a drive through town, it really doesn’t make much sense anymore to bring our cars to campus. More importantly, a lack of parking spaces after a huge influx of students and a wave of construction, plus the many ways to get around town, through Razorback transit, carpooling with friends or renting a car for the day, should we bother to bring our own transportation to school? Money wise, it’s a hassle to keep a car on campus – parking passes, the odd ticket, gas and insurance all add up on top of other monthly bills. The bus system is free for students, the rental car option is a cheap way to only drive when you need to, and with much of our week spent on campus, the hassle of parking sometimes seems more trouble than it’s worth. Being one of few schools to offer such extensive transportation options gives students the ability to choose how much extra baggage we want to carry to campus each semester, so next time you consider bringing your ride back to school for the year, make sure to weigh up how much trouble you want to take on through the extra costs and hassles when there are perfectly good options available for little to no cost.
From Graduation to Unemployment For the majority of us, if we don’t get federal aid each semester, we turn to the student loan giant – Sallie Mae. In recent reports, more than 70,000 college graduates are protesting the $50 fee for repayment delay because of to unemployment. While those pesky repayment bills can hit hard each month, especially after the 6-month grace period following graduation, it doesn’t make much sense to protest the fact that we borrow money with the intention of paying it back. Student loans, for most of us, are required to get through school, but knowing that we have loan bills in the mail and graduation around the corner, we need to be prepared to work a few bad jobs to get by in the months after leaving the college world. It seems that nowadays that students are leaving campus and expecting to fall straight into their dream job. Truth is, it’s just not realistic. When did the idea of building your way to the top disappear? As students, we have to understand that when we graduate college, entry-level jobs are what are in the cards for the greater majority, and if we are falling back on unemployment, then maybe we just aren’t trying hard enough. The job market right now isn’t where we need it to be for us all to have decent paying jobs, but if our only option after graduation is delivering pizzas for a year, we need to let down our pride and take what we can get. Starting a petition to stop the $50 delay fee seems just a little like we aren’t willing to pay back our loans because we are still stuck in the college mindset, unwilling to jump back to reality and become fully functional adults. Sure, we know that it’s a tough economy, and that many people really are suffering from financial crisis, but with a number like 70,000 signatures that is still growing, maybe we need to bite the bullet, get any job we can find and work our way through the first few years to get to the top. It’s tough after graduation, but our student loan repayments need to be at the top of chain for repayment, or we will find ourselves consumed for a very long time by a growing debt for four years of school.
Traveler Quote of the Day “We’re letting people come in from all over the world and benefiting from our education system, which is great,” she said, “but then we’re going to make it so hard for you to stay here that we’re going to send you home and export back all that we taught you, which leaves us at a terrible disadvantage.”
MARCUS FERREIRA Staff Cartoonist
Love-Hate Relationship With Your Major Expanding Horizons
by DESHAUN ARTIS
Traveler Columnist
College is the land of discovery and opportunity, the place where we figure out what we love to do and what we hate to do. It is the place where one can study what they want to study, but is that always the case? When choosing a major, or a career for that matter, I think it is wise to choose a field that you at least somewhat enjoy. We all know that doctors, lawyers and engineers make big bucks, but if that is your only incentive in working in a field then you could wind up pretty unhappy. If you know that you absolutely despise mathematics with every ounce of your being, I would say it is not the wisest decision to choose to major in something math intensive such as engineering. Sure, a quick Google search will reveal that starting sala-
Rocket Science
byJOE KIEKLAK
Traveler Columnist
EDITOR Saba Naseem MANAGING EDITOR Mattie Quinn OPINION EDITOR Emily Rhodes The Arkansas Traveler welcomes letters to the editor from all interested readers. Letters should be at most 300 words and should include your name, student classification and major or title with the university and a day-time telephone number for verification. Letters should be sent to traveler@uark.edu.
gineering and math fields. Some of their responses were that they do not know much about these fields, these fields are too challenging and that they were not well prepared in school to seek out a career in these fields. The sad thing about this is that the reputation surrounding this field may scare away some of those students who may have considered a STEM major but settle for something else because of a lack of knowledge about the subjects.
“If you can wake up every day and are happy with what you are doing, then that equals success.” This can make students choose careers that will not be enjoyable to them, settling for majors that they feel will not be as challenging as STEM. While these fields take much hard work, dedication and persistence, so does any form of getting what you want. So where is the happy medium between what makes the most money, what makes you happy and what is the most challenging? A common piece of advice would simply be to do what you love, but in reality, that is much easier said than done,
therefore I say: do what you are good at and do not let anything limit that. Finding your passion can be a difficult task but finding what you are good at can help you to find things that you enjoy, or can at least guide you in the direction of what you things you enjoy. Our campus’ Division of Student Affairs is big on StrengthsQuest, a personality assessment that names your strengths in given areas. StrengthsQuest is a great place to start if you are searching for areas you are good in. The MyersBriggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is another assessment that deals more with personality. While these assessments cannot directly tell you what to study, what career to choose or what you are passionate about, they serve as stepping stones to learning more about yourself and what you may be better at. There are a lot of possibilities out there, and part of the college experience is finding out which of those possibilities are best for you. So I challenge you to not fear failure, but search for your strengths, because strengths turn to talent, talent turns to success and success turns to happiness. DeShaun Artis is a Traveler Columnist. His column appears every other Tuesday.
Resident Interhall Congress: State of the Resident
- Ana Paz-Soldan, student from Bolivia, “Reform in Washington Could Affect UA Students,” page 3.
EDITORIAL
ries for engineers are among the highest of all college graduates, but this raises the debate of money versus quality of life. To me, monetary success is extremely nice but a very narrow view of what success truly is. Everyone has his or her own definition of success and mine happens to be happiness. If you can wake up every day and are happy with what you are doing then that equals success to me. We are all here to discover more about ourselves and hopefully during this time we will discover something that we truly love. With the economy not in best condition and it becoming more difficult to find jobs after graduation, it is easy to be attracted to those majors, which seem to offer a guaranteed job upon graduation, but the thing about college is we come here to develop ourselves so that we can get a job that we want to do, not that we have to do. The love of money may be driving some students to pick careers where a money is the main motivation instead of happiness. The Huffington Post revealed the results of recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which found that 60 percent of a group aged 16 to 25 named factors that prevent them from pursuing work or education in science, technology, en-
Tuition is like a pot of stew, an extremely expensive pot of stew. This poor metaphor is one of the only ways I’ve concluded possible to model the cost of college. Each cost being a different ingredient. While classes, room and board and a meal plan are costly, the smaller fees of college quickly add up. One of those fees is to pay for student governments on campus, such as Associated Student Government or the Residents’ Interhall Congress. Now, when money is concerned, especially in a crippled recovering economy in the U.S., most students would hope that our money was being used appropriately. One can find cases, however, where the funds squeezed out of students by tuition fees have been allo-
cated for what may seem like a positive cause, yet isn’t. The case to be examined today is RIC, an organization that is given more than $40,000, collected by a housing fee. Now, before I dive deeply into the topic, it’s worth mentioning that RIC has good intentions, but has been falling short of what it needs to do. The first of which, is to be a visible student organization. Notice, I don’t posit that it should be more visible; it needs to actually gain the attention of the student populous. In their first meeting back to campus, RIC mentioned that one its core initiatives this semester would be to better represent themselves on the campus. This is a serious problem though, as this should have been a core initiative of the first semester. Any organization on campus that is drawing such vast amounts of funding out of student fees should be overt to the campus, obnoxiously visible, even.Their most recent attempt to accomplish this is to change the logo of the organization. There are two problems with this. First, the previous logo wasn’t recognizable to the student populous. While RIC has a smaller constituency because it only serves residential stu-
dents, this is not an excuse for less quality of government. The second issue is graver, as it’s representative of the nature of RICs first semester. The logo was created by RIC executives, with no input for the body itself. There isn’t an inherent problem there, but there is a problem when the majority of legislation passed by RIC is written by executives, and then passed through students through an RIC senator. Instead this vast amount of money being used by residence hall representatives, it’s being accessed through them, and more importantly, residential students as a whole. This isn’t to say that RIC hasn’t put on positive programs this year, as it has just accomplished an on-campus garden for students to grow fresh food, as well as helping sponsor Rollin’ With the Razorbacks, earlier in the year, a program to help students attend away football games. There are ways though, that this government has poorly used its funds. Earlier in the year, RIC spent thousands of dollars on a trip to enhance leadership abilities at the South West Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls. This may have been well worth it if the organization had pro-
duced great leadership after the conference, but the leadership seemed to be worse than ever, as it wasted money. What RIC does have going for them is raw talent. Cameron Mussar, RIC President is a strong example of a committed leader, as are a handful of the other executives. Their commitment needs to be channeled in different ways, though. Instead of committing to the organization, the commitment needs to be channeled into the students that have contributed money to the organization through their student fees, their constituency. While the organization has much potential, we’ve rarely seen it exhibited. This semester, Mussar must rally RIC to better use student funds, and be a legitimate oncampus student government. This is dire after a rough showing last fall. Through betterchanneled student leadership, and more visibility to the campus through carefully crafted legislation, RIC may be able to rightly claim themselves the “Voice of on-campus students.” Joe Kieklak is a Traveler columnist. His column appears every Monday.
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THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
FEATURES PAGE 5
TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012
FEATURES EDITOR: LAUREN LEATHERBY ASST. FEATURES EDITOR: KELSI FORD
by NICK BROTHERS Staff Writer
MADDIE LOGAN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A student pulls a copy of the “Popol Vuh” from the shelves of Mullins Library. The “Popol Vuh” is the sacred book of the Maya that discusses the Mayan creation myth, the Mayan calendars and many other aspects of the sacred Maya culture.
by EMILY DELONG Staff Writer
2012 is upon us, and the world hasn’t ended—yet. But millions of people are planning on it and even beginning to prepare for it. While many apocalypse scares have happened in the course of history, this year’s doomsday possibility—known as 2012ology—is different in many ways. 2012ology combines astronomy, New Age philosophy, ancient civilizations and a hodgepodge of other theories to create a convincing argument that the end of the world may be coming soon. But what did the Maya actually say about 2012? It’s a long and complicated story. The Maya used many different calendars to determine many different things, such as the length of days and certain astronomical cycles. One of their calendars, known as the Long Count, began in 3114 B.C.E. and is set to end on December 21, 2012 (or, in Maya numerals, the date 13.0.0.0.0). On this date, thirteen b’ak’tuns will have passed, signifying the switch to another calendar, or cycle. This can be equated to the end of our 365-day calendar, during which we celebrate at the beginning of a new year. The Washington Post asserts that the end of the Long Count is no different than the end of any of their other calendars: December 21 will simply be the day to start a new calendar. Yet it still is a momentous occasion—13 ba’ak’tuns don’t simply pass overnight—and it is quite exciting (mysterious, even) that we will get to experience this day in our lifetimes. Adding to the mystery of this rumor is the fact that December 21 is the date of a solstice, as well as when the earth and the sun will be roughly aligned with the center of the Milky Way. This, and countless more coincidences lining up on December 21, have combined to form what we know as the 2012 doomsday prophecy. The real beginning of the 2012 phenomenon began, when a stone plaque inscribed with
the date 13.0.0.0.0 was found in 1996, and it was hastily determined to be the forthcoming of an underworld god, according to the Washington Post. Upon further inspection by specialists, however, the plaque only suggests that on 13.0.0.0.0, a local ruler was to impersonate said underworld god. By the time this reappraisal came out, though, it was too late: the Internet had gotten a hold of this doomsday prophecy, and such things, as we know, spread like wildfire. Before that, though, there were some pushing Maya-related apocalypse theories. CNBC mentions a man named Jose Arguelles, a professor at the University of California, who began to popularize the connection between the Maya and astronomical events in the 1980s. Arguelles even predicted an event which was to occur in 1987—the “Maya-Galactic Harmonic Convergence”—which, while not panning out as predicted, sparked enough interest in the Maya to hold on today. Interestingly enough, even if the world is set to end on date 13.0.0.0.0, it may not occur on December 21. The GMT is the generally accepted conversion equation used to relate Maya dates to the Gregorian calendar, but many other correlations exist. Some predict the actual date to be many years before or many years after December 21. Regardless of if and/or when an apocalypse occurs, the effect it has had on society remains significant. According to the Huffington Post, Mexico is bracing for a tourism boom this year and expects millions of visitors. If nothing else, 2012ology has been a wonderful way to promote the history of an ancient Mexican culture as well as help out Mexico’s struggling economy. Although most scholarly evidence points towards an uneventful December, the possibility of an event, large or small, still remains. There is no way to truly know what will happen until it does, but it does provide an excuse to get to work on those bucket lists.
There was only one true rock n’ roll album released in 2011. While there were many variants of rock, delivered in all mixes of genres and sounds, in reality only one stood out as a true rock album—the seventh album by The Black Keys, El Camino (Nonesuch records). A stellar piece of work, El Camino is one solid example of head bangin’, stiff-upper-lip rock n’ roll music. The music on this album finds the perfect balance of simplicity and sophistication, and it’s the kind of stuff you want to hear again and again. The guitar riffs by Dan Auerbach are awesome, and the album features some of the Keys’ fastest and hardest tracks to date. It’s sort of disheartening when you think about it, though. With so few real rock albums being released, it’s as if rock n’ roll is slowly fading from the realm of popular music. Bands like The Black Keys are some of the few out there that are staying true to the traditional aggressive rock sound. Yet, as with many bands, rock has evolved into a newer, more alternative sound with the likes of AWOLNATION and Mutemath, and the music industry has never been one to discourage experimentation. But when it comes to gritty, riffing rock music, it’s unquestionable that El Camino is one of the few and the proud. “I think rock n’ roll, as far as your initial thoughts would be for it, has evolved into different things,” said Sarah Stricker, sophomore ad/pr major. “There are very few bands out there that still have that core rock n’ roll sound--The Black Keys being one of them as well as the Foo Fighters--where they are trying to hold onto the traditional sound of rock n’ roll. I definitely feel like traditional rock is dying off, but it’s turned into something much more than that in the bands today.” Looking at the top 50 best-selling albums on iTunes, and only counting those by rock artists, there’s two albums by the Black Keys (El Camino at #2, and Brothers at #34), Wrecking Ball by Bruce Springsteen (#12), Journey’s Greatest Hits (#14), and Here and Now by Nickelback (#35). Besides the Keys’ albums,
two of those are by rock acts that were popular in the 80s, and the other is considered one of the most polarized bands in current music. The Keys’ drummer Patrick Carney even commented on his feelings about the downward turn of rock n’ roll in a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, even going as far as to call out the band Nickelback. “Rock & roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world,” Carney said. “So they became OK with the idea that the biggest rock band in the world is always going to be s*** – therefore you should never try to be the biggest rock band in the world. Rock & roll is the music I feel the most passionately about, and I don’t like to see it ruined and spoonfed down our throats in this watered-down, post-grunge crap, horrendous s***.” Ben Faircloth, a UA sophomore majoring in environmental sciences, believes that rock music started to see its decline after the grunge movement in the ‘90s. “Rock n’ roll is in need of a serious revival,” Faircloth said. “There’s bands out there like the Black Keys and the Kings of Leon that have a new sound, and they’re taking rock n’ roll in a new and fresh direction. Whenever grunge died out in the late ‘90s, rock turned into a mainstream kind of thing and a lot of pop bands were turning into rock n’ roll, and in the process people forgot what real rock n’ roll should sound like.” One thing is for sure, music fans out there are clamoring for new, old rock. The Black Keys are on the fast track to popularity right now with El Camino as a bestselling album, and they’re selling out shows left and right. Considering this, you can’t deny this is what the people want. There’s this void of great rock music out there, and The Black Keys are one of the few bands out there that are stepping up to the plate. So is rock dead? Not entirely; it’s just changed a little, and there’s less of it. The question is, for better or for worse? If bands like the Keys keep on doing what feels right, and if other bands follow in their stead, then there is much to look forward to in the years to come.
COURTESY PHOTO
Students’ Minimum-Wage Jobs: Celebrities Once Had Them Too by CAITLIN MURAD Staff Writer
In college, many UA students work minimum wage jobs just to make ends meet, but none should let these jobs discourage them from pursuing their dreams. Even celebrities had to endure minimum wage such as sweeping floors and working at donut shops before they made it to their dream jobs. Before Ashton Kutcher landed his first real acting job on That ‘70s Show, he had a job sweeping floors at a General Mills plant during college. Once in college, Kutcher was so broke that he gave blood just to make some extra cash, according to IMDb. Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt was first hired at El Pollo Loco restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. His job was to draw
customers into the restaurant by wearing a chicken suit. People Magazine voted Pitt the “Sexiest Man Alive” two years in a row, but it wasn’t until after he surrendered his chicken suit. Before Amy Adams starred in Enchanted as a Disney princess and in the movie Doubt as a nun, she got her first real job working as a Hooters girl. She was hired right after she graduated from high school while she was trying to save up money to buy a car. Adams quit her job at Hooters shortly after they required her to wear the trademark Hooters uniform. Winner of the People’s Choice Award of favorite actress, Julia Roberts worked as an ice cream scooper for one of her first jobs in her teens. She put her ice cream days behind her after her success in Pretty Woman led her to become one of the most popular actresses in America.
Even the most high-ranking businessmen today started out at minimum wage jobs. Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, delivered newspapers as a teenager. Donald Trump collected bottles, cans and other recyclables and turned them in for cash. President Barack Obama, almost 40 years before being elected to office as head of state, worked at a BaskinRobbins in his home state of Hawaii. The Baskin-Robbins is still in business in Honolulu today. Rapper and record producer Kanye West once made his money folding clothes at the Gap, according to the Huffington Post. While in school studying theatre, Rachel McAdams worked for three summers at McDonalds with her two siblings. In 2004, McAdams’s dream job took off with her debut in Mean Girls and The Notebook. Who knew
queen bee Regina George from Mean Girls started out her career as a McDonald’s worker? Queen Latifah was born into royalty landing her first job at Burger King at age 15. After three years of taking orders and flipping burgers, she swore off the King and joined a rap group called the Ladies of Fresh as beat-boxer. Pop sensation, Madonna had a very humble start to her career working as a clerk at Dunkin’ Donuts as a teenager. Later in 1977 while Madonna was pursuing a career in dance, she studied in New York and worked several odd jobs in order to pay her rent. Madonna no longer has to worry about paying for rent. In 2008, she was featured in Forbes magazine as the world’s wealthiest female musician, earning more than $72 million a year. Another pop star, Gwen Stefani,
also came from humble beginnings, mopping floors at Dairy Queen. When Gwen was just a teenager, she and her brother began a band called No Doubt in which Gwen was the lead singer. In 2004, Gwen recorded her first solo album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Gene Simmons, co-founder of rock group, KISS, was a newspaper delivery boy in New York. In the early 1970s with the help of songwriter Paul Stanley, he created his dream band based on his childhood. Not on his childhood of throwing papers, but on his love for comic book superheroes, monster, and rock and roll music. No matter what your job is in college or over the summer, do not let it discourage you from following your true calling in life. It did not stop these celebrities from being successful and following their dreams.
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THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
DOWNTIME
Comics, Games, & Much Much More!
PAGE 6 TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012
LAUGH IT UP
SUDOKU
Q: What do you call a dog with no legs? A: It doesn’t matter, he won’t come anyway...
My recliner and I go way back. Q: Why do hipsters like Harrison Ford? A: Because he’s indie.
Difficulty:
My friends have been telling me I’m patronizing. That means I talk down to them.
TODAY’S SOLUTION
Q: What’s Beethoven’s favorite fruit? A: BA-NA-NA-NAAAAAAAAAAA...
WELCOME TO FALLING ROCK
Josh Shalek
THAT MONKEY TUNE
Michael A. Kandalaft
BREWSTER ROCKIT
Tim Rickard
BLISS
Harry Bliss
CALAMITIES OF NATURE
CROSSWORD ACROSS
DOWN
1 Superfluous thing 6 Copy room unit 10 Good-sized building site 14 __, meenie ... 15 Best way to make a mistake 16 Like a fly ball that hits the foul pole, ironically 17 *Classic little red wagon 19 Thomas __ Edison 20 Old AT&T rival 21 Dockworker’s gp. 22 Sign of the Ram 23 Tchotchke stand 26 O’er and o’er 28 VW forerunners? 29 Fifth canonical hour 30 *Memorable, as a day 33 Part of DOT: Abbr. 34 Marvin or Majors 35 Bern’s river 36 They’re not in the incrowd ... and read differently, what each starred answer has two of 40 Humorist Bombeck 43 Snitch 44 Video game pioneer 48 *One seeding clouds 51 Animal toxin 52 Berlin conjunction 53 Tarzan raiser 54 Comes out of hiding 56 Wooden peg 58 Yoko from Tokyo 59 Tokyo, before 1868 60 Currier’s partner 61 *Knee-slapper 65 Experiment 66 Soothing additive 67 Doting aunt, perhaps 68 Art Deco master 69 Heckle 70 More than reasonable interest
1 Turn to wine, as grape juice 2 *Nuclear plant sight 3 Home to Purdue 4 Full deck at Caesar’s palace? 5 “Seinfeld” uncle 6 *Suitcase lugger’s aid 7 “Shepherd Moons” Grammy winner 8 Unreturnable serve 9 Sea, in Paris 10 Out yonder 11 Actress Flockhart 12 *Rosie’s role 13 Puzzle solver’s smudge 18 Commonly decorated tree 22 Consumed 24 Columbus, by birth 25 “Mi casa __ casa” 26 Scarfed down too much, with “on” 27 Run for the hills 31 In-crowd 32 Busy employee of a paranoid king 37 Snare 38 “Oh, for pity’s __!” 39 “Must-see” review 40 Scholarly 41 *Broke up late, as a meeting 42 3-Down’s region 45 “And Still I Rise” poet 46 *Short-antlered animal 47 “Forgive me” 49 Practice opening? 50 *One paying a flat fee? 55 Pierre, to Pierre 57 Tequila sunrise direction 58 Bassoon kin 61 Indian rule from 1858 to 1947 62 __ de la Cité 63 Hosp. heart ward 64 Ring victories, briefly
Crossword provided by MCT Campus
SOLUTION
Tony Piro
SPORTS THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
PAGE 7
Scan here to go to the Sports section on uatrav.com:
SPORTS EDITOR: JIMMY CARTER ASST. SPORTS EDITOR: ZACH TURNER
TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012
BASKETBALL
Reemergence of the Sanchize?
COMMENTARY
DGB is Key Extra Points
JIMMY CARTER
jicarter@uark.edu
and one of the best low-post defenders in senior Festus Ezeli. Jenkins comes into the game averaging 20.0 points and is connecting on 44.3 percent of his 3-point attempts. Ezeli, who has played in just 11 games for the Commodores this season due to suspension and injury, is 6-foot-11, 255 pounds and averaging 8.5 points and 6.6 rebounds. “He is such a big target,” Anderson said of Ezeli. “He is a fifth-year year, and he may have redshirted, so he is a man more than anything else. When you talk about a guy who is that tall and athletic and demands your attention because he posts up real deep into the paint, he knows
Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino preaches the importance of finishing strong to his players all the time. They get a chance to finish against LSU, Alabama and Auburn. He and his staff had a chance to finish the recruitment of one of the most highly-touted high school football prospects recent history. Dorial Green-Beckham is the consensus top high school receiver in the nation and is rated the No. 1 recruit in the country by Rivals and Scout. The Razorbacks are finalists for Green-Beckham along with Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri, the home-state school for the Springfield, Mo., native. He has drawn comparisons to Randy Moss and Calvin Johnson. One of his finalists will land an immediate impact player when he announces his decision Wednesday at 9 a.m. on ESPNU. “We can have a very good recruiting class, but like we tell our players all the time, you have to finish,” Petrino said in mid-January. “It’s going to be important for our coaches and myself to make sure we finish and finish this class of the way we need to.” Last week, 14 of 15 national recruiting analysts from ESPN, Scout and Rivals predicted GreenBeckham would sign with the Hogs. By Monday, that number had fallen to 11 and the Tulsa World reported Green-Beckham will sign with Missouri. Fair or not, the perception of the Hogs’ 2012 recruiting class lies with Green-Beckham’s decision. Signing him less than a month after finishing the season ranked
see SANCHIZE on page 8
see EXTRA POINTS on page 8
LOGAN WEBSTER STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Arkansas senior forward Michael Sanchez and the Razorbacks face No. 25 Vanderbilt Tuesday night at Bud Walton Arena, where Arkansas is 15-0 this season. Last season, Sanchez had a career-high 20 points on 8 of 12 shooting from the field to help Arkansas knock off the then ranked No. 19 Commodores 89-78 in Nashville, Tenn. by ZACH TURNER
Asst. Sports Editor
Vanderbilt is one of the hottest teams in the Southeastern Conference, having won 11 of its last 12 games and entering the Associated Press poll at No. 25 on Monday. A season ago, Arkansas senior forward Michael Sanchez teamed with former Razorback Rotnei Clarke to form the hottest duo on the court when the Hogs traveled to Nashville, Tenn., and upset then No. 19 ranked Vanderbilt 89-78. Sanchez had a career night, dropping 20 points on the Commodores. “I have the tape at home and it is in my DVD player right now,” Sanchez said. “It was a great game and I really enjoyed it. The best part
about it was, not my individual performance, but we went into a tough environment and took the W away from them.” Sanchez and Clarke combined to shoot 20 of 28 from the floor as the Razorbacks knocked off their only ranked opponent of the season. “It was crazy because we didn’t do anything different that day,” Sanchez said. “We just prepared for that game and it just happened to work out.” Mike Anderson, in his first season as Arkansas head coach of Arkansas, said he watched the film of Sanchez against Vanderbilt shortly after getting hired. “I saw it when I first got here, and he did a good job,” Anderson said. “He was making some plays and fin-
ishing some plays. (Delvon) Johnson got in some foul trouble and I thought Mike was allowed to go out and play and had a career night. Hopefully it is something he can reproduce.” As Arkansas prepares to host Vanderbilt as part of ESPN’s Super Tuesday college basketball broadcast, Sanchez said he thinks he can have similar success this year as well. “I try to look at every game like that,” Sanchez said about repeat success. “With this team though, roles are a lot different this year. Coach really talks about everyone’s role and figuring out what you do best out there. I think that game last year was something I had to do for us to win.” Vanderbilt boasts the SEC’s top scorer in junior guard John Jenkins,
TRACK
Freshman Record Breaker Nixon shatters junior world mark
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Putting in Overtime by MONICA CHAPMAN Staff Writer
Confidence. Arkansas’ women’s basketball team has it, especially after a 73-72 double-overtime win against Florida on Sunday, the fifth-consecutive win for the Razorbacks. “This game is going to give us a lot of confidence,” Arkansas junior post Sarah Watkins said. “But also with this game, we’re feeding off a couple other games we played earlier in the season even in non-conference with Florida State and South Florida that gave us some confidence. So we really could tough it out and finish games. “I think going in this game we knew we could fight and win a close game we just had to go out and do it in the SEC.” The Razorbacks have done a com-
Arkansas freshman Gunnar Nixon set a junior world record in the heptathlon in his collegiate debut, leading the Hogs in the Razorback Invitational. by ZACH LIGI Staff Writer
Arkansas freshman Gunnar Nixon didn’t waste much time making an impact in collegiate career. Nixon set the new junior world record in the heptathlon, winning the event at the Razorback Invitational with a score of 6,022. He broke the 23-yearold record score of 5,953. “I had no idea until coming into mid day to-
day coach told me what the point totals were and I was like ‘Oh wow, I have a chance to go for it,’” Nixon said. The heptathlon consists of the 60-meter dash, 1,000-meter run, 60-meter hurdles, high jump, pole vault, long jump and shot put. Nixon placed first in the long jump, second in the high jump and third in the 1,000-meter, 60-meter hurdles and shot put. “He knows he just has to come out every day
and work hard,” assistant coach Travis Geopfert said. “We talk about focusing on the process and if you do that good things will happen. Every day at practice he just focuses on what he needs to do and getting it done.” Nixon was making his collegiate debut. “I think he obviously needs to get a lot stronger as he gets older,” Geopfert said. “With his frame he can put on a little bit of mass and his throws are gonna improve, his pole
plete turnaround since starting conference play a month ago, going on the winning streak after losing their first four SEC games. Arkansas went on four-game losing streak late in SEC play last season and couldn’t recover enough to make the NCAA Tournament, settling for an NIT bid. This year’s team responded well to the adversity. “I never stopped believing in last year’s team and this team is basically last year’s team with a year of experience,” Collen said. “I think we’re just a little more poised. We’re a little tougher. We don’t play in fear so much.” The Razorbacks trailed the Gators by 12 at halftime, but used a 13-2 run to send the game into overtime. “We knew we couldn’t get
see OVERTIME on page 8
UA MEDIA RELATIONS
vaults are gonna improve a lot. And we have to keep working on his jumps, which are already good.” Despite setting the world record, Nixon isn’t satisfied. “This is just something to build off of,” Nixon said. “Coming into this first meet I wanted to do well. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself. I just wanted to do my best in each event
see NIXON on page 8
LOGAN WEBSTER STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Arkansas’ women’s basketball team has won five games in a row and is competing for an NCAA Tournament berth.
SPORTS from SANCHIZE on page 7 how to finish.” With Arkansas already without junior forward Marshawn Powell and with senior forward Marvell Waithe still unavailable due to calf injury, the Razorbacks
are down to just three forwards on the roster to match up against Ezeli. “We know he is a big guy with a big presence,” Sanchez said. “He is very skilled and we will have to keep him off the glass.” Arkansas remains a perfect 15-0 at home playing at
TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012 Bud Walton, but Vanderbilt is 4-1 on the road this season with wins at Marquette and Alabama. Arkansas freshman and leading scorer averaging 14.4 points per game, BJ Young, thinks the preparation for the Commodores will be the key. “Hopefully we will trans-
late everything we do in practice on Monday over to the court Tuesday,” Young said. “We are just going to try and have a big win. We are going to close out hard on shooters, gang rebound as a team and try to limit them to one shot.”
LOGAN WEBSTER STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Arkansas senior Michael Sanchez and the Razorbacks will try to upset a ranked Vanderbilt team for the second consecutive season. Sanchez will be matched up with 6-foot-11 center Festus Ezeli, who averages 8.5 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game. from NIXON on page 7 and see where the points lie in the end. I came up with a good result using that strategy.” Nixon became the first youngest athlete to break 6,000 in the event and the first athlete younger than 20. He is also only the fifth athlete to break 6,000. Nixon was a highlydecorated athlete in high school, running track at Sante Fe High School in Edmond Okla. Nixon was ranked the No. 1 decathlete in the nation. He also was named the
Gatorade National Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year. He set three national high school records in the decathalon. “(I am) starting out with a clean slate,” Nixon said. “Every event that I do in college, the first time I do it, that’s my new PR. I just have to build off that. Training is so much different. In high school when I went to a track meet, I was pretty fresh every track meet, here we train through track meets in order to stay in shape and not peak too early.” Nixon’s goal for the event was 6,000, before he
even knew it was a record, he said. “I actually didn’t know what the world junior record was coming in,” Nixon said. “I just knew that 6,000 point barrier would be something awesome to achieve. All the guys were encouraging me.” said Nixon “they were giving me like everything like ‘Come on man, you got this.’ They just helped me a long the way.” Despite being a freshman, Nixon has meshed with his teammates well, Geopfert said. “It’s a great group of guys and Gunnar fits in real
well,” Geopfert said. “Gunnar and (sophomore) Kevin (Lazas) push each other and cheer for each other at the same time. When you get a dynamic like that, two guys that put their egos aside and just want to help each other improve. That’s a special combination. I’m really proud of both of them.” Nixon has the potential to be the first athlete in track history to record multiple 6,000s. “I don’t see any records after this very soon, just trying to improve myself in every event and wherever the point lie, that’s how it will turn out,” Nixon said.
from EXTRA POINTS on page 7 No. 5 would put the rest of the nation on notice that the program is on its way to being elite. Rarely has Arkansas signed a highly-rated, out-of-state player pursued by other big name programs. Green-Beckham would be the most high-profile recruit to sign with the Razorbacks. If he doesn’t put on a Razorback hat Wednesday, an option that looks increasingly likely, it would be a disappointing finish for the Hogs, who were hoping to grab national headlines. Arkansas will have missed a big opportunity to further change the national perception of the program. Not to mention missing a player advertised as a once-in-ageneration talent. He’s 6-foot-6, 220 pounds and runs a 4.37 in the 40-yard dash. He finished his high school career with a national-record 6,353 receiving yards and 75 touchdowns. Green-Beckham visited Fayetteville on the weekend of Jan. 21. Razorbacks fans had signs, standing ovations and a good
from OVERTIME on page 7 down on ourselves,” senior guard C’eira Ricketts said. We had to keep our heads and try to run our offense and stay together as much as possible. We had to fight. We knew we had to fight until the end and that’s what we did. Arkansas is on its second big winning streak of this season. After losing their first game, the Razorbacks won 11 in a row before starting conference play with the four consecutive losses. Now the Razorbacks are tied for fourth in the overall SEC standings. “I think we believe in ourselves more than we did two weeks ago,” Collen said. “I think we’re going to believe in ourselves tomorrow more than we did at tip-off in this game.” Sunday’s game against Florida
PAGE 8
time around town. The Hogs were considered the favorite by fans and national analysts. Then Green-Beckham visited Missouri over the weekend, taking nearly his entire family to visit the in-state school days before he makes his decision. By all accounts, the Tigers made up enough ground to change Green-Beckham’s mind. That clever MIZ-DGB cheer got to him. Scan the internet and you can find compelling arguments for why he will pick both teams, “inside” information from both fan bases and pleas for the mega-recruit to pick their school. If he picks Missouri, the Hogs will still have playmakers on offense and Tyler Wilson running the show. Losing out on Green-Beckham would be a tough blow for Petrino and a coaching staff that has recruited him for four years, though. Does Petrino live up to his own mantra? Jimmy Carter is the sports editor for The Arkansas Traveler. His column appears every Tuesday. Follow him on Twitter @jicartersports. proved to be a huge lesson for Arkansas, Collen said. “Bottom line in athletics, sometimes you can give it everything you’ve got, you can work your tail off, you can do everything right and still lose,” Collen said. “Sometimes it’s hard for kids to understand that they maybe haven’t learned a lesson unless they come away with a win. Today they came away with a win so I don’t think they’re going to have fear of being behind next time it happens.” The winning streak has positioned the Razorbacks to make a postseason push. “That’s the nature of the SEC at this time,” Collen said. “Every game you play ma y be the game that’s difference maker for us getting into the NCAA tournament or not. If you believe in yourself you can overcome those obstacles.”