VANGUARD
THE
VOL. 51, NO. 1
“If it matters to the USA family, it matters to us.”
JUNE 4, 2012
INSIDE
Graduation a bittersweet finale Medical 2,795 received degrees for the 2011-2012 academic year
student shoots for the stars Drew Smith will start residency in Birmingham
BY CASSIE FAMBRO | EDITOR
By AMBER DAY anb@jaguar1.usouthal.edu
►Editorial: How was the
Moulton Tower paid for? Where does your tuition go and what does the state have to do with it? See Opinion, page 8.
► Life Spotlight: UCUR spot-
lights student and mentor research with its summer program. Paid research gives students an edge. See Life, page 5.
► Sports: Lady Jags take top honors in Sunbelt conference after beating their opponent in Boca Raton, Florida. See Sports, page 9.
87 Days until football!
Hannah Yeats and Lauren Gessner embrace after graduation.
By CASSIE FAMBRO editor.in.chief@usavanguard.com
S
pring commencement was a particularly emotional experience for many graduates in May. The majority of the graduating class were high school sophomores when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, sixth graders when September 11 occurred, and are walking into post-college life with an
uncertain economy. As USA approaches its fiftieth anniversary, the graduating class of Spring 2012 marked USA’s total degrees awarded to 72,586 according to USA President Gordon Moulton. USA stands on the cusp of great growth that has taken place over the last several years, and students are excited about it. On the same research level as Alabama and Auburn, USA is becom-
COURTESY OF LAUREN GESSNER
ing even more competitive on a national scale. Moulton calls the Carnegie Foundation research classification “a compelling statement on the quality of our faculty and institution.” Incoming USA football player Joseph Scelfo “can’t wait to get to South Alabama” and make it his new home, a sentiment shared by dozens of recruits taking to social media to show that they’re See Grads Grads, Page 2
Student Center is still a year away By JAYSON CURRY jasyon-curry@hotmail.com
T
he University of South Alabama campus has undergone a facelift over the past year. Students have watched as new buildings and renovations have come to fruition all over campus. Some of those projects have either recently been completed or will be in the near future, leaving some unanswered questions. The brand new engineering and computer science building, Shelby Hall, was recently finished. Summer engineering classes started in Shelby Hall and the engineering department is in the process of moving from its old
space into Shelby Hall. The space left open by the engineering department is now up for grabs for any other department and the University is in the process of determining what they will do with it. According to USA facilities director Randy Moon, the University has appointed a special committee named the Space and Facilities committee who will make the decision on who moves where on campus. “Nothing is really decided or approved at this time,” Moon said. “What they are doing is they are looking at all the available space after the engineering department moves to the Shelby building and trying to find the
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best space utilization, which departments would fit there and finding the most economical cost. “There is a lot of discussion of who may go somewhere but until the committee makes a recommendation to the president and it gets approved by the administration, there is no plan,” Moon added. Another University project that is of concern to students is the Student Center. According to Dean of Students Dr. Michael Mitchell, the project could start any day now. “The actual beginning of the project was supposed to be a year ago. It is the second phase of a two phase project. The first stage of the project was
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BY CASSIE FAMBRO | EDITOR
Student Center has undergone large renovations.
the food court and once that phase was finished the second phase was about to begin; but, there were some problems with the building commission,” Mitchell said. See Construction Construction, Page 2
The next several weeks will be extremely busy for senior medical Drew Smith students Resident who have graduated from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine. Now that medical school graduates have attended Honors Convocation and commencement, they will move to the next phase of their training as they report to their residency programs. Drew Smith is among those who will be starting their residencies this summer. Smith will start at the Baptist Health System in Birmingham, Ala., for a transition year, and then to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md., for his residency training. “I felt I was reaching to the stars by shooting for Johns Hopkins,” Smith said. “When I found out that I had matched at Johns Hopkins, I was ecstatic.” Smith was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a heart defect where the vessels leading from the heart to the lungs are constricted. “My condition was fairly severe and I had my first operation at the age of 18 months,” Smith said. See Smith Smith, Page 2
In this Issue: Life, Page 5 Opinion, Page 8 Sports, Page 9