University Press
Resign FAU’s finest news source
January 7, 2014
Vol. 15 # 16
Armed Robberies
Jesus Stomp
campus life
x-factor
FAU President
Resignation
GEO STADIUM
Suspicion
Campus Insecurity
James Tracy Controversy Former University President
Mary Jane Saunders
Person is
of the
Year
For better or for worse, FAU’s 10 most interesting people of 2013
Student protest Read us - upressonline.com Like us - facebook.com/universitypress Follow us - @upressonline First issue is free; each additional copy is 50 cents and available in the UP newsroom.
The Staff
Read us - upressonline.com Like us - facebook.com/universitypress Follow us - @upressonline
TUESDAY
January 7, 2014 Peter Amirato
James Tracy Carl Pelini
Editor-in-chief - Lulu Ramadan MANAGING EDITOR - Michelle Friswell Creative Director - Breanndolyn Lies BUSINESS MANAGER - Ryan Murphy Copy DESK CHIEF - Carissa Giard Assistant Copy DESK CHIEF - Cristina Solorzano NEWS EDITOR - Kathryn Wohlpart FEATURES EDITOR - Jamie Vaughn Reviews Editor - Maddy Mesa SPORTS EDITOR - Wesley Wright
SENIOR EDITORS - Emily Bloch, Dylan Bouscher, Ryan Cortes, Austen Erblat CONTRIBUTOR - Alexander Adams DISTRIBUTION MANAGER - Christopher Massana ADVISERS Dan Sweeney Michael Koretzky
COVER - Former University President Mary Jane Saunders
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What has Student Body President Peter Amirato been up to since the roller coaster election? By Jamie Vaughn
Photo by Michelle Friswell
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Photo Michelle Friswell
SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR - Cealia Brannan
Photo by Ryan Murphy
MULTIMEDIA EDITOR - Miranda Schumes
Photo by Max Jackson
PHOTO EDITORS - Max Jackson, Kiki Baxter
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After winning just five games in a two-year tenure as FAU football coach, Carl Pelini was relieved of his duties after implicated use of illegal drugs.
28 FAU’s “nutty professor” blogs on, even after the controversy. By Kathryn Wohlpart
By Wesley Wright Page 10
Getting hit by a car isn’t easy for anyone, especially when the driver is the president of the university. So, where is Britni Hiatt now? By Miranda Schumes
Page 30
Page 16
Alex Kinsey serenades America as he wins X-Factor with his girlfriend Sierra Deaton. By Alexander Adams
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What is former President Mary Jane Saunders doing now? Does she even go here? By Kathryn Wohlpart
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JANUARY 7, 2014
A Wild Ride
A letter from Editor-in-Chief Lulu Ramadan
I
was thinking about former head football coach Carl Pelini when I opened up the Year in Review issue the University Press published this time last year. It was exactly one year ago that we published a story about the football program’s growing promise under one year of Pelini’s leadership. Pelini made our yearly recap issue again (see page 26), but not exactly in the same light. Athletic Director Pat Chun accused Pelini of illegal drug use mid-season and Pelini bailed on his job. He then cleared himself of said drug allegations in an attempt to get his job back, but Chun fired Pelini anyway for failure to supervise his staff. And he’s only number three on our list of FAU’s Most Interesting People of 2013. Gracing our cover is former University President Mary Jane Saunders (page 30), the most interesting person of the year by our standards. This year, the UP staff scoured through past issues to find the people we wrote about the most, social media to find the people you tweeted about the most, and other publications to find the stories that will interest you the most. The people behind them made our list of the 10 most interesting people of 2013. Saunders resigned mid-year after our university endured more bad press than any other year. Saunders and our Board of Trustees — the group that votes on all major decisions at FAU — sold the naming rights of our $70 million stadium to a prison company with loads of legal baggage for $6 million. Students protested by holding a sit-in outside of Saunders’ office in February. They continued protesting and at one parking lot protest, Saunders accidentally clipped a student before she drove away. But that’s not the most interesting part. Saunders is still employed at our university and getting paid 80 percent of her old salary. Saunders, who holds a doctorate in botany, is doing research that “will help guide critical decisions by senior leaders regarding whether or not to pursue a program to train physician assistants at FAU,” according to FAU Media Relations. Saunders was not available for an interview, and we still can’t figure out the progress of her research in the College of Medicine, but there’s nothing like an aire of mystery to add to the intrigue. We had tons of stories and people to choose from — so many that we couldn’t fit them all in one issue. So, we didn’t. As you flip through this issue, you’ll meet the 10 most interesting people of 2013. But if that’s not enough, go to upressonline.com/YIR and you’ll find more stories about what made this year so interesting.
Photo by Kiki Baxter
Maybe you’ll come to the same shocking realization we did:
we’ve had one hell of a year.
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Peter Amirato Photos by Max Jackson
He started from the bottom, now he’s here. FAU Student Body President Peter Amirato talks about being disqualified from the student body elections and what he’s been up to since. By Jamie Vaughn Features Editor
A
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fter dedicating countless hours of time and effort to campaigning, the last thing Peter Amirato ever expected while running for student body president was to be disqualified. “To put all of this work and time into it and then be disqualified for something you know you didn’t do, that was the toughest part,” said Amirato, “I was seriously depressed. I didn’t go to class for a solid week. My professors thankfully understood, they let me make up assignments.” The FAU Student Court disqualified Amirato and his Vice President Patrick Callahan on March 20 because they didn’t fill out forms properly. The technicality left Amirato facing a system he had lost all faith in. “If the system was any good I wouldn’t have been disqualified in the first place,” he said. But Amirato fought back before the results of the election even came in. He appealed the decision to disqualify him despite thinking he had less than a 5 percent chance of getting approved. And he lost — or at least everyone thought he did. On Feb. 20, Student Government announced that Amirato’s competitor, then campus Governor Ella Tepper, won the vote according to the unofficial results. It turned out that the votes were misrepresented by a third party company, Voter Net Solutions, that tabulated the votes. Turns out, the odds were in Amirato’s favor. He won.
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“I was actually at Relay For Life when I was told my appeal had been granted and the results were final. I remember I jumped on Mike Brown, the chair of Elections [Board],” said a smiling Amirato. “It’s a good thing he’s a big guy because I almost took him down.” That corner office of Student Government, on the second floor of the Student Union, has been his for nine months and Amirato has made progress as the student body president. In that office, among the burgundy couches and a cluttered desk, is what Amirato calls “The Board” — a list of every good thing Amirato wants to do during his term. He feels his greatest accomplishment so far is the checkmark next to the words “SeaTech.” SeaTech, FAU’s College for Ocean and Systems Engineering at the Dania Beach campus, was in danger of being closed down. It was Amirato’s goal to keep SeaTech open for the more than 60 students in the program, including himself. And his next big goal? Pushing to place lights on the speed bumps on campus so they are more visible. “It might seem minor,” he said, “but when you [unknowingly] drive past a speed bump, it hurts when you hear that clunk.” At the end of the day, Amirato says that the roller coaster election experience made him appreciate his position even more.
Amirato’s Choice: HIS TOP FIVE NEWS STORIES OF THE YEAR PELINI - “In a very public position as the leader of a group of guys who get in so much trouble if they do any drugs, how could you look them in the eye after doing an eight ball? Allegedly, at least.”
GEO Group- “I actually ended up in the protest parade, accidentally. I gave
a golf cart ride to a woman who looked like she was in pain and then she started chanting while on the cart. I was like, I hope the UP doesn’t get a picture of me.”
False Armed Robbery - “Even though it was a hoax it still messed with people’s psyche.” TUITION STAYING THE SAME FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS -
“In case you didn’t know, tuition stayed the same. That has to be top five. It impacted every student.”
OWLS FOR MILES - “Student Government Association started an annual relay run event between the FAU campuses to symbolize the connection of not only the three campuses, but the outlying communities as well. The run goes from Jupiter to Boca and Davie to Boca.”
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JANUARY 7, 2014
Britni Hiatt March 22 made Hiatt more than just another student at FAU. She became “the girl that got hit by President Saunders.” Five interesting facts about Britnit Hiatt that don’t involve her getting hit by a car:
Pets: two maltipoo
Other events on campus:
puppies and an
This semester Hiatt was involved in Take Back the Night, an event dedicated to raising awareness, bringing support and uniting women against domestic violence and rape.
orange fat diabetic cat
named Linus.
She performed a stand up comedy show on the Jupiter campus.
When she was younger she wanted to be a comic book artist and voice actress.
T
Hiatt is
one-fourth Korean.
VVVRRRRRUUUHHHHOOOMMMM.
he sound made by former President Mary Jane Saunders’ car echoed through Britni Hiatt’s ears just moments before Saunders reversed and struck Hiatt with her side mirror. It all started when the FAU Board of Trustees voted to name FAU’s football stadium the GEO Group Stadium in exchange for a $6 million donation from a for-profit international prison company based in Boca. Some students weren’t fond of naming the stadium after a prison company that has multiple alleged human rights violations. As a result, Hiatt, along with other students, started an organization called the Stop Owlcatraz Coalition. On March 22, 2013, Hiatt, a first-year graduate student of women’s gender and sexuality studies, organized a protest on the FAU Jupiter campus where Saunders was attending a faculty event. As Saunders was leaving, students surrounded her car as they continued to protest. That’s when Hiatt was hit on the right side of her waist as Saunders was backing out of her parking space. While there was no internal bleeding, an MRI revealed two herniated discs in Hiatt’s back. She attended physical therapy for seven weeks over the summer and also attended psychiatric therapy, where she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder UPRESSONLINE.COM
JANUARY 7, 2014
from the accident. But that didn’t stop Hiatt from protesting. She continued her efforts with the Stop Owlcatraz Coalition until the stadium deal with GEO Group ended on April 1. In response to the accident, Hiatt’s parents demanded an apology from Saunders, which they never received. Hiatt has also hired a lawyer in hopes of getting her medical bills paid by both Saunders and the university. Saunders’ now-infamous hit was an even bigger hit with the media and has made Hiatt a recognizable name within the FAU community. During a job interview for a position with the FAU United Faculty Union — an organization that protects higher education and faculty members in Florida — Hiatt was asked if professors, staff and students recognize her as the student involved in the accident with President Saunders. “To me, the question reflected the fact that the car accident already has impacted my professional career,” Hiatt said. Despite her initial feelings, Hiatt told the interviewers, “I do not see my involvement negatively impacting any position I may hold in the future.” Hiatt got the job. Today, Hiatt continues to fight for the school she loves, despite never getting an apology from Saunders.
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By Miranda Schumes Multimedia Editor
Photo by Michelle Friswell
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Brian Wright After taking over for Carl Pelini, Brian Wright won four straight games, salvaging a season that could have easily gone awry. Photo by Michelle Friswell
By Wesley Wright Sports Editor
Just what FAU needed:
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here are very few men who would willingly take control of a team reeling from a coaching scandal and embarrassed after a blowout loss. Interim head football coach Brian Wright not only took leadership of the team, but also flourished, winning four consecutive games to end the season — something never before seen in FAU football history. Brian Wright began the 2013-2014 football season as the offensive coordinator under second-year former head coach Carl Pelini. A system of switching between quarterbacks Jaquez Johnson and Greg Hankerson was mostly to blame for an offense that looked shoddy the first two weeks of the season in losses to Miami and East Carolina. Johnson emerged as the clear starter after a five-touchdown performance
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versus Middle Tennessee State. As the quarterback’s play steadily progressed, the entire FAU offense began to better its level of play. Combined with a stout defense, the Owls began to play very encouraging football, although Florida Atlantic suffered some close losses. Even after after a blowout loss to a superior Auburn team (who played for the national championship), the Owls had an opportunity to win the remainder of their games and become bowl eligible. Then, turmoil. Carl Pelini and defensive coordinator Pete Rekstis both were accused of illegal drug use and left the program abruptly. While Pelini was cleared of the drug accusations, FAU terminated his contract, citing a failure to supervise his staff. Wright was promoted to head coach just three days before the Nov. 2 game versus a bowl-eligible
Wright brought the Shula Bowl trophy back to Boca Raton with a 21-6 victory over FIU. The win made the Owls bowl eligible, but they were not awarded a bowl bid.
The Owls defeated a bowl-eligible Tulane team on Nov. 2, just three days after Wright was promoted to head coach.
WRIGHT went 4 - 0 in his stint as interim head coach. The FOUR CONSECUTIVE WINS are a feat never before seen in the history of FAU football.
JANUARY 7, 2014
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Continued on Page 14
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The E x e r c i s e
Continued from Page 12 Tulane team. Wright galvanized the team, defeated Tulane 34-17 and continued on to win the remainder of their games. The FAU Owls became bowl eligible after a 21-6 victory over FIU. A four-game win streak and the support of Wright on behalf of his players gave Wright a solid shot at securing the head coaching job and graduating past the interim title. Athletic director Pat Chun removed Wright from consideration for the job on
Dec. 11, due in part, perhaps, to a lack of Florida roots. Even so, Wright’s efforts to salvage a season that could have easily gone awry are praiseworthy. The head coaching job would eventually go to Charlie Partridge, who then extended an offer to Brian Wright to return to the FAU coaching staff as the offensive coordinator — an offer that Wright accepted. Patridge is a Plantation, Fla. native with many connections to high school coaches in South Florida, which will play a significant part in recruiting within
FAU’s talent rich region. Though he had expressed interest in the head coaching position, Wright saw the entire situation through a rosy lens. “I want to thank Mr. Chun for the confidence in me and allowing me the opportunity to lead the FAU football program since the end of October,” he says in reference to his tenure as interim head coach. “The last month and a half allowed me the chance to prove that I will be a very successful head coach at any level.”
Photo by Max Jackson
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JANUARY 7, 2014
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Alex Kinsey Former FAU student wins the third season of FOX’s X-Factor.
Five facts about Alex Kinsey according to his social media accounts:
By Alexander Adams Contributor
Alex was a marketing major at FAU Photo by Max Jackson
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and a member of Hoot/Wisdom Recordings. He is featured on Hoot/Wisdoms compOWLation Vol. 2 with “I Like It,” a song he wrote and produced with close friend and current Hoot/Wisdom President Matt Smith.
As the first group to win FOX’s X-Factor, Alex and Sierra’s first single “Give Me Love” is already available on iTunes.
Alex is a diehard Jason Mraz fan and has said many times that he is inspired by Mraz’s music. After being on X-Factor, pop Alex is a
vegetarian.
I
singer CHER followed both Alex and Sierra on Twitter.
t was just three months ago that former FAU marketing major Alex Kinsey and his girlfriend, University of Central Florida student Sierra Deaton were serenading FAU students at a concert on the Boca campus. They were helping promote “CompOWLation Vol. 3” — the oncampus record label Hoot/Wisdom Recordings’ latest compilation album of student artists. Now, the duo is the winner of the latest season of FOX’s X-Factor. It’s the journey from hometown superstar to national singing sensation that makes Alex Kinsey one of the most fascinating people of 2013. “The best feeling I’ve ever felt is being passionate about music and I want to give that to somebody else,” Kinsey, who made his first television debut on the 12th season of American Idol, said in an interview with the UP in 2012. Kinsey did not make it on American Idol, but he didn’t let the defeat mute his dreams. Six months later, Kinsey began his X-Factor adventure as half of
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JANUARY 7, 2014
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the dynamic duo, Alex and Sierra. After receiving a unanimous “yes” from all four X-Factor judges for their rendition of Britney Spears’ Grammyaward winning song “Toxic,” Alex and Sierra were propelled into superstardom which has been unmatched by any other act this season, with two of their cover songs gracing the top spot on the iTunes songs chart. “They are great artists who deserve the recognition,” junior education major Laura Baughman said. Kinsey said earlier this year that his ultimate goal with music is to inspire others to be passionate about something. Well, as a reality show record-breaker (Alex and Sierra have the most entries on the iTunes Top 100 Songs chart in reality show history), it’s clear that audiences across the nation are responding to his passion for music. Only time will tell what the future holds for Kinsey, but with his drive and passion for music he is bound to see more success.
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Armed Robber describes half of all broward county” @ThatsWhatHeCed: “FAU is spending more money on the sprinkler system than on university police/security.” @WDukes19: “So my homie get shot right outside of FAU now it’s a r m e d r o b b e r y on campus smh”
“FAU ain’t got no president, no football coach and no security...wtf I’m paying y’all all this money for ?!” @CrossProMed:
I
sidora Jovanovic was in a practice room on Oct. 19 focused on music, unaware that the door to the small room was about to be opened and a man armed with a knife would rob her. FAU police department sent out a brief description through texts, emails and phone calls asking any student who had seen the suspect to report it — but the suspect was never caught. Less than a week later, on Oct. 23, an FAU alert lit up students’ phones yet again. This time, Vincent Philipps filed a police report after allegedly being ambushed by five men in the parking lot near FAU’s campus recreation center, forced to drive to an ATM to withdraw money and left beaten on the side of the road. Two days later, Philipps recanted his accounts of the robbery and FAU PD released a statement verifying that the Oct. 23 incident was a hoax. FAU PD investigated the incident and discovered that Philipps had been beaten during a drug deal and fabricated the story to cover it up. FAU PD would not release any more information on the case, stating
UPRESSONLINE.COM
By Kathryn Wohlpart News Editor
@Gerardo_Reyes5: “Fau, that descrption about the armed robber
JANUARY 7, 2014
that it was an open investigation. Campus security was improved after the falsely reported armed robbery — new security towers were put up and more police officers were hired. Yet, another robbery happened soon afterward. On Nov. 11, three men robbed a student of electronics and cash in University Village Apartments. Pictures of the three robbers circulated, but no more information regarding the case was released and no suspects were apprehended. Some students on campus were worried about their safety and questioned how a student could get robbed in what they thought was a safe space. “It kind of made me scared though, that this is a place people are targeting as easy pickings for anybody that can come in and take what they want,” said applied music major Ernesto Guerrero, who was also a victim of an armed robbery in the Arts and Letters building in November 2012. All three of these cases still remain under police investigation and all suspects remain at large.
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Photo courtesy of Fotolia
FAU students made some noise about campus security after the robberies, here are their tweets:
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Three reported armed robberies on FAU’s Boca campus caused students to question how safe they really were.
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Deandre Poole
5
FAU’s “Jesus stomping” exercise may have been banned by administration, but the professor who put on the exercise returned after several months of administrative leave.
By Kathryn Wohlpart News Editor
Photo by Ryan Murphy
T
hink about something or someone that holds high value to you. Now think about writing that object or person’s name down on a piece of paper and stepping on it. Would you hesitate? Would you do it at all? This was the experiment FAU professor Deandre Poole followed from a textbook last March that ended up temporarily costing him his job. Ryan Rotela, one of Poole’s students in the intercultural communication course where he taught this exercise, refused to step on a piece of paper with the word “Jesus” on it — illustrating that symbols hold meaning in all forms. Rotela approached Poole after class and, according to Poole, said “he wanted to hit [him].” Poole called campus security which lead to Rotela’s suspension from the class. Rotela told CBS4 News that he was suspended for refusing to participate in the exercise. Rotela wasn’t the only one who faced disciplinary action from FAU — Poole was placed on administrative
leave. “As an institution of higher education, we embrace academic freedom, but with that comes a level of responsibility, which we did not uphold. Based on the offensive nature of this exercise, we will not use it again. It was insensitive and hurtful, and we are truly sorry,” Sr. Vice President of Student Affairs Charles Brown said about the decision to place Poole on administrative leave. Brown also clarified that Rotela was no longer facing disciplinary action. Poole was reinstated in late June and will remain teaching online classes as result of threats made against him, according to FAU. Poole continues to teach online in spring 2014. Students put together a petition in favor of Poole, which helped the administration make their decision to reinstate him. “They are the reason I love my job, why I’m here. We’re all here to learn; students learning from students and students learning from professors,” said Poole.
Some stomped back about the controversy. Here are their tweets:
@SaintPetersBlog:
“Mind numbing ridic is that @FLGovScott weighs in on #JesusStomping, but cares less about FAU naming stadium after prison company. #sayfie”
@JEVONWHITE: “Jesus Stomping? Really? Only One Individual In Class Had An Issue With This? #fau #Jesus #jesusstomping #redstate”
@FBillMcMorris: “Subjects worthy of stomping
#DeandrePoole @FlaAtlanticU pic.twitter.com/O1pdWXL1zE”
Photo courtesy of @FBillMcMorris
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GEO Group Stadium FAU Football Stadium was renamed GEO Group Stadium in 2013 for a brief time. Protests, sit-ins and an April Fools’ Day fake celebration led to the football stadium returning to its previous nameless state. By Kathryn Wohlpart News Editor
S
ix million dollars over 12 years was all it took for “GEO Group Stadium” to replace the unnamed football stadium on FAU’s Boca campus. “We are incredibly grateful for this wonderful gift,” said FAU President Mary Jane Saunders. “It is so exciting to now have a name for our beautiful stadium.” While FAU’s former university President Mary Jane Saunders stood beaming and posing for pictures with the GEO Group’s CEO George Zoley, students started looking
into the organization whose name graced the football stadium. Citing over 100 human rights violation lawsuits against the private prison group, including sexual mistreatment of inmates and illegal drug smuggling, FAU students banded together against the football stadium naming deal. The Stop Owlcatraz Coalition, a joint effort of students from organizations including Students for Justice in Palestine, Lambda United, FAU Feminists and Occupy FAU rallied, protested and staged sit-ins to
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A protester stands outside of the stadium during the Open Forum Q-and-A with former President Mary Jane Saunders
Photo by Max Jackson
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end the deal. A sit-in outside of Saunders’ office on Feb. 25 led to her agreement to hold a Q-and-A session with students about the GEO Group deal. “FAU students trust that our school [stands] for integrity, ethics and honor. We sincerely hope that our university will restore that faith,” said Gabi Aleksinko, a protester at the sitin. On March 22, FAU’s Faculty Senate — a representative body of tenured-track professors who govern FAU’s education policies — voiced its opinion about the GEO Group deal, agreeing with the student protesters and passing a resolution opposing the deal.
JANUARY 7, 2014
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On April 1, the Stop Owlcatraz Coalition staged a protest in celebration of April Fools’ Day where they celebrated the mock cancellation of the GEO Group deal. Later that evening, they discovered that the deal was actually cancelled. “What was originally intended as a gesture of GEO’s goodwill to financially assist the university’s athletic scholarship program has surprisingly evolved into an ongoing distraction to both of our organizations,” said GEO Group Chairman and CEO George Zoley. The “gift” of $6 million was withdrawn after months of controversy.
Stephen Colbert’s sarcastic view on why FAU should accept the GEO Group’s money:
“Brazen sexual misconduct? Well that’s a NATURAL FIT with football.” “This criticism is just one of the down sides of paying millions of dollars to have people pay attention to your company. People start paying attention to your company.” “Then asking ridiculous, i n v a s i v e questions like: ‘So the MONEY you’re using to pay for these naming rights on a school building came from profits you made from locking up children and OCCASIONALLY ABUSING them?’ While ignoring more important questions like: ‘Is the money green?’”
“Besides, fans all across the country love free hat day. Think about how much they’ll love free shiv-madefrom-a-broken-spoon night.” Photo by Ryan Murphy
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Students Hold Sit-in Outside President’s Door
Football Stadium Dubbed “Owlcatraz”
Professor Questions Sandy Hook and Boston Bombing Reporting
University President Hits Student With Car, Drives Away
University Press Searches For Next Big News Reporter Make money and a name for yourself as you build your resume and list of professional connections. If you’re interested, email us at universitypress@gmail.com or come to our Friday meeting at 2:00 p.m. in room 214 of the Student Union. NOTE: All headlines depicted on this page are actual events that have occurred at FAU within the last year. Yes, this stuff actually happens. Communication Professor Encourages Students To “Step On Jesus”
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Carl Pelini The second head coach in FAU football history lost his job not because of his on-field results, but because of implications of illegal drug use.
H
ow many college football coaches were accused of cocaine and marijuana use in 2013? Just one, and his name is Carl Pelini. A man who always stressed accountability from his players, the former FAU head football coach resigned amid allegations of illegal drug use three days before the Homecoming game. After a 3-9 season in 2012, Carl Pelini entered the fall with a team debuting in a new conference and backed by what some have called the best recruiting class FAU football has ever seen. Under the tutelage of FAU defensive coordinator Pete Rekstis and Pelini (a former defensive coordinator at the University of Nebraska), the defense showed that it was a force to be reckoned with, playing disciplined, cohesive football. Even so, their staunch play was undermined early in the season by an offense that had very little rhythm while trying to incorporate so many new pieces. The offense eventually began to come along, but some close losses had the Owls looking at a 2-6 record after a 45-10 blowout loss to the Auburn Tigers, who played in the national championship game. On Wednesday of the following week, Pelini and Rekstis resigned from the FAU program after being confronted by
Pelini’s career record as head coach stood at 5-15.
Pelini resigned on Oct. 30 amid allegations of
ILLEGAL DRUG USE.
In late November, FAU rejected Pelini’s official resignation and fired him, citing a failure to supervise his staff. Photo by Michelle Friswell
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Athletic Director Pat Chun with evidence of illegal drug use. Pelini was escorted off of the campus by police, and his only contact with the players came through a statement delivered by Chun. “I apologize for exercising poor judgment,” Pelini wrote in the official statement. “My greatest concerns at this time are for my family, the dedicated FAU players and my staff. I am confident that Pat Chun and the university administration will continue to move the program forward.” A week after his resignation, Pelini essentially asked for his job back, imploring FAU officials to rescind his resignation letter and restore his position as head coach. The school did no such thing, and interim head coach Brian Wright finished the season in Pelini’s place, going 4-0 in his stint as head coach. Though he was eventually cleared of all drug use allegations, Pelini saw his contract terminated by FAU because of a failure to supervise his staff. Because he was fired with cause, the school owes Pelini no money (and he owes none to the school — he would have if his resignation had not been withdrawn by the school and replaced with a termination of his contract). In late November, the school terminated Pelini’s contract. After an extensive search, Charlie Patridge became the fourth head coach in FAU history on Dec. 16, 2013.
Pelini’s 2013 accomplishments:
After a 45-10 loss to Auburn on Oct. 26,
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James Tracy James Tracy’s blogging didn’t start in 2013, but the backlash that labeled him a “lunatic” did.
By Kathryn Wohlpart News Editor
J
ust before ringing in 2013, James Tracy blogged about the Sandy Hook shooting, drawing over 800 media outlets to discuss his blog. Most news sources called him “controversial,” while others like Fox News went as far as giving him the title “nutty professor.” Tracy’s long-active personal blog (memoryholeblog.com) was already full of what some call “conspiracy theories” when he added another post on Dec. 24, 2012, stating that there were holes in the media coverage of the Sandy Hook massacre that took place. “While it sounds like an outrageous claim, one is left to inquire whether the Sandy Hook shooting ever took place—at least in the way law enforcement authorities and the nation’s news media have described,” wrote Tracy. Tracy’s posts caused parents and students to call for his resignation when the new year rolled around, sparking an FAU investigation and prompting the university to release several statements that Tracy’s
Photo by Michelle Friswell
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blog was not affiliated with FAU. Tracy stated that the reports on the controversy “became less to do with my critique of the media and more to do with this human interest element.” People sent emails to FAU outraged about Tracy’s blog. FAU alumna Stacie Nevadomsky Berdan, wrote: “I will remove my donation to the University from my estate planning…I even put my [FAU] t-shirt at the bottom of my drawer, embarrassed to wear it.” Tracy continued writing blog posts and stirred up more controversy with his posts about the Boston bombing in April like “Sandy Hook and the Boston Bombing: You’ve Been Hoodwinked” and “More Photographic Evidence Suggests Boston Bombing Was Training Exercise.” FAU never confirmed an investigation and no disciplinary action was ever taken against Tracy. He continued blogging, including five posts about the Sandy Hook shooting after the one-year anniversary.
A timeline of Tracy:
Dec. 20, 2012: Tracy posted first blog about the Sandy Hook Shootings, “Analyzing the Newtown Narrative: Sandy Hook’s Disappearing Shooter Suspects”
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FAU issued a statement that Tracy’s blog was NOT ASSOCIATED with the university.
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Over
800
outlets on
the
caused
blogging
media
picked
up
controversy
by
Tracy’s
and
his
affiliation with FAU.
Tracy claimed he was being investigated by FAU — but no disciplinary
4
action ever took place.
Tracy posted more controversial blogs, this time about the Boston bombing (April 18, 2013: “Hard Questions Posed on Boston Bombing”), while continuing his posts about Sandy Hook (Dec. 24, 2013: “Sandy Hook Elementary Now Levelled”).
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Mary Jane Saunders FAU’s former President Mary Jane Saunders--who sold the naming rights of FAU’s football stadium to a prison group with a bad reputation and hit a student protester with her car--is still on FAU’s payroll as a faculty member. By Kathryn Wohlpart News Editor
W
hat started out as a $6 million deal with a major private prison group earning naming rights for FAU’s football stadium ended with FAU’s sixth president, Mary Jane Saunders, resigning from her presidency and rejoining FAU faculty. The GEO Group was accepted as the new donor for the FAU football stadium on Feb. 19, giving FAU $6 million. “When I started as president, we had two main things on our agenda: first was getting the financing and building the beautiful stadium, the second was opening the medical school,” Saunders said. While Saunders opened the medical school in 2012 without a problem, her plan for financing the stadium met resistance. Students, faculty and FAU community members protested the name, starting the Stop Owlcatraz Coalition. Forums held so Saunders could speak with protesters and supporters about the GEO Group deal left students more frustrated
Photos by Ryan Murphy
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than before. “We just want to talk to her. We just want her to one day stay in the room and talk to us like human beings, not step away and dismiss us completely,” said one protester, FAU student Arely Baugh. Britni Hiatt was protesting as a part of the Stop Owlcatraz Coalition on the Jupiter Campus on March 22 when Saunders’ car hit her. According to Cate Armuelles, then a junior women’s studies major, Hiatt was moving out of the way, as police had ordered them to, when Saunders’ car left Hiatt “keeled over in pain.” Other protesters and witnesses claim that Saunders had time to stop and avoid the incident entirely; instead, Saunders drove away from the protesters. In the police report, Saunders was not reported to have driven away from the scene, yet other witnesses stated that she did. Hiatt stated “the police immediately asked me why I was in the parking lot to begin with, then basically giving me the rhetoric of ‘I
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was asking for it.’” When asked if she felt she deserved an apology from the students, Saunders said “I think yes, I think that they overreacted. I think that they got caught up in the excitement of the moment.” On April 1, the GEO Group pulled its bid, leaving FAU’s football stadium nameless. The deal was said to have
“evolved into an ongoing distraction” by GEO Group Chairman and CEO George Zoley. Saunders resigned on May 14, writing “The issues and the fiercely negative media coverage have forced me to reassess my position as the President of FAU,” in her resignation letter. Saunders chose
to remain a professor in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, where she has been assigned a research project, according to FAU’s press release on her resignation. When asked if she’d consider holding another presidency, Saunders said “I’d have to ask how many newspapers are in town first.”
More about Mary Jane: On Feb. 19, the GEO Group, a Boca-based private prison company run by FAU alumni, bid $6 million to rename the university’s football stadium.
Saunders and other FAU administrators argued that selecting GEO Group had little to do with money — Saunders stated “It is especially meaningful because George Zoley, GEO’s chairman, is a two-time FAU alumnus and former chair of our Board of Trustees.”
Saunders clipped Britni Hiatt, a student protester, with her car while driving away from students protesting the GEO Group deal on March 22. In March, FAU achieved a perfect score on the reaffirmation of accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (the association that checks to make sure all schools are up to specific standards), which is only achieved by 2 percent of schools.
Saunders RESIGNED on May 14.
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