03-19-15

The Oracle THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015 I VOL. 52 NO. 96

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The Index

Opinion.......................................................4 Classifieds..............................................8

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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

Bulls set to defend the Dome

By Zach Lowie S T A F F

W R I T E R

After the best regular season performance in program history, USF will look to continue that success in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday against LSU. Coach Jose Fernandez has said all year his team has talent, and its rise into national spotlight has come at a swift pace. Fernandez said the privilege of having a home-court advantage for the first two rounds definitely won’t hurt USF’s cause.

“Our kids are familiar with the environment,” Fernandez said. “We’re going to have our season ticket holders, students and the Tampa Bay community here supporting us and it’ll be great.”

USF was second in the AAC in attendance behind UConn and averaged almost 2,000 fans each game. Fernandez said the rigorous non-conference schedule earlier in the season has prepared the Bulls for their tournament experi-

ence.

Junior guard Courtney Williams said it’s strictly business against LSU. Though the Sun Dome is expected to be packed, she feels no pressure come Saturday.

“We’ve been working all season,” she said. “Now it’s time for us to show the world what South Florida is all about.”

Even with such a remarkable season behind them, Williams has acknowledged the late-season loss to East Carolina as a wake-up call that reminds the team there’s always potential for someone to knock the Bulls off their pedestal.

“That (loss) was great motivation,” Williams said. “It was very humbling for us and I think every team needs that kind of humbling moment.”

The Bulls have had prolific scoring this season, and average a +12.5 point scoring margin compared to the Lady Tigers’ 3.2 due to a weak defensive presence. USF has maintained this high separation even with one-sided losses against UConn in the regu-

lar season. If they can keep up their current pace, then there will be no outdoing the Bulls’ talented starting five.

USF forwards Laura Ferreira and Alisia Jenkins will try to continue their dominant play by outmatching LSU in the paint. The duo combined for almost 21 points and 16 rebounds per game in the regular season, nearly double the efforts of LSU forwards Anne Pedersen and Sheila Boykin.

Williams and the team are focusing on LSU’s guard play, which is three players deep — with starting talent in Danielle Ballard and Raigyne Moncrief, and DaShawn Harden coming off the bench, the three players combine to score an average of 37 points per game for the Lady Tiger’s offense.

Even though LSU (17-13) is often outrebounded down low, its percentage from beyond the arc is one of the best in the SEC at almost 35 percent.

USF (26-7) is often considered a strong team from three, but its season average is just over

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The women’s basketball team and coach Jose Fernandez gathered Wednesday at Marshall Mayhem to build hype for their first game of the NCAA Tournament this saturday. ORACLE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU

Lecture shares wisdom of tomfoolery

By Zach Leete S T A F F

W R I T E R

When Randy Pausch gave his famous “Last Lecture” after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he stressed the importance of not taking life too seriously.

On Wednesday night, sociology professor Shawn Bingham mirrored that message with “My Days and Nights Researching What Funny Does … Seriously.”

More than 150 students and faculty attended Bingham’s lecture at the Marshall Student Center Oval Theater.

“I want to start by saying and warn you that I am not very funny,” Bingham said. “I know there’s some uncomfortable laughter there. I’m an academ-

ic — we deal with theses, not jokes. Theses are the antithesis of jokes.”

Though Bingham said he isn’t dying anytime soon, he lectured as if it was his last chance on earth.

The speakers of the Last Lecture Series are asked to give a presentation based on the question, “If you were to have one last chance to speak to a group of students, what would your message be?”

Bingham’s message was clear: “Humor reveals important boundaries in everyday life.”

“If it’s true that people who don’t like sports become sports journalists, and frustrated novelists become English professors, people who are not funny

study humor,” he said.

Nonetheless, the audience was kept entertained throughout the hour-long lecture while Bingham discussed forms of humor and their uses.

Relief humor helps the user navigate life and issues.

Incongruity humor points out the difference between expectation and reality. Selfdeprecation asks us to not take ourselves so seriously. There’s even police humor that is developed to defuse hostile situations without resorting to violence.

“I have a serious bias against people who take themselves too seriously,” Bingham said.

“These people have shorter life expectancies, are less accepting, less flexible and while they

are around they want the rest of us to be miserable with them.”

Bingham said the absence of irony in academia is disturbing. Logically, an industry that prides itself on critical thinking should embrace the ability to laugh at oneself.

For 1.73 million published articles about depression, he said there are only 280,461 about humor — a 6-to-1 ratio.

“One of the critiques mounted against looking at humor has been that like analyzing a poem, having to tell why something is funny kind of kills it,” Bingham said. “But like a flower or an animal, you have to kill a joke in order to study it.”

In his classrooms, Bingham said he uses humor to break up the illusionary hierarchy that

separates students and professors.

“Some humility and some self-deprecation makes you — and there’s research on this — more likeable,” he said. “I could suggest that academia could use a little more of this.”

When used correctly, Bingham said humor is a tool for dealing with other human beings.

“Humor can be a shield, an invitation, a way to process and make sense of everyday life,” he said. “It can be a way to connect things that are seemingly unrelated. It can be a flashlight that unveils hypocrisy, inconsistency, or even the fact in my case, that someone is taking something (more) importantly than it needs to be.”

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Tampa Bay Times secures USF Athletics sponsorship

By Wesley Higgins N E W S

E D I T O R

The Tampa Bay Times is paying $90,000 over the next three years to be USF’s exclusive print media sponsor for athletic events.

In addition, the contract includes a trade amount worth $500,000 a year for “gift cards, vouchers, trade credits or rental agreements.”

A university spokesman said the $500,000 will consist primarily of advertising through the Times. The ads will pertain to either university

athletics or academics.

As part of the contract, the Times will receive four season tickets to USF baseball games, four season tickets to men’s basketball games and eight season tickets for football games.

Additionally, the Times’ brand will be advertised online, on tunnel covers, the scorer’s table and the game day booth. The paper’s brand will also be featured on university radio and television programs, as well as mentioned over PA announcements and video board segments, according to the

contract.

As of the contract’s execution last month, the Times will pay the university biannually in $15,000 installments.

“The Times has supported the University of South Florida since its early days. Both organizations invest in Tampa Bay and look to its future, so this is a natural partnership between two institutions of similar purpose,” said Times CEO Paul Tash in a statement. “Together, we can use our strengths to benefit both organizations and, we hope, the citizens of Tampa Bay.”

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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

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“Blurred Lines” lawsuit hits repeat button

Things appear to be on repeat, as Time magazine reported the “Blurred Lines” copyright case may now look to take rapper T.I., the label and the future sales of the song to court.

This comes after Marvin Gaye’s family won a $7.4 million copyright lawsuit against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams for their song “Blurred Lines,” which sounds a little too close to Gaye’s 1977 song “Got to Give it Up.” Thankfully, the jury heard just how similar the music is in the two songs and clearly defined copyright for the duo.

This is nothing new for the music business, as one of the most famous incidents includes Vanilla Ice lifting heavily from Queen and David Bowie’s

“Under Pressure,” a case which was settled outside of court.

Only eight years ago, there was another case with Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend,” as she reached an undisclosed settlement with the Rubinoos after it was found the chorus of her song was close to the group’s “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.”

Unless outright confessed, it is hard to know whether these musicians are just having a “great minds think alike” moment or if they thought it would be OK to replicate another artist’s song without asking.

Apparently, Thicke and Williams might think their song is an original, since they now want to file a motion for a new trial.

Given that confidence, Thicke and Williams lack a good ear for things they don’t want to hear, whether they are similar sounds or the word “guilty.”

The Gaye family winning the case is only right, and wishing to push further to sue T.I. and the record label is fair, as both had their part in “Blurred Lines.”

However, wanting to stop future sales of “Blurred Lines” is excessive. According to the Time article, the Gaye family claims that the song continuing to be sold causes the family “irreparable damage.” Surely

the Oracle

the University of South Florida’s student newspaper since 1966

Adam Mathieu COLU M N I ST

Editor in Chief: Alex Rosenthal ............................... oracleeditor@gmail.com Managing Editor: Grace Hoyte ........................... oraclemeditor@gmail.com

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winning the case and whatever part of the over $7 million they will receive after lawyer fees should be enough for copying instrumentals from a 38-yearold song.

The legal landscape now contains lawsuits flying in every direction, despite a jury having declared that “Blurred Lines” did violate copyright issues.

The whole issue should be settled on the side of Thicke and Williams, as the court proved, and anyone with ears can hear, that the two songs are very similar, at least instrumentally, if nothing else. Granted, there is a stretched possibility that Thicke and Williams did come up with the tune on their own, but the verdict has been given and the duo needs to move on and try to be “Happy” again.

If this case stands for anything, it is that artists are often influenced by their predecessors.

Sooner or later, that influence can transform into replication.

Perhaps, if dealing with copyright lawsuits are too stressful, then Thicke and Williams should have considered reaching out to the Gaye family and struck a deal to lift from Gaye’s song.

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What you said Editor Adam Mathieu asked students if they think the smoking age should be increased after USA Today reported that the Institute of Medicine found that if the minimum age were raised to 21, smoking would decrease by 12 percent when today’s teens are adults.

“I feel like some kids will still find a way to get cigarettes, but increasing the age could be a good way to make them less accessible.”

— Chayla Lee, a junior majoring in health sciences

“I think that most kids start smoking before they are legal now, anyway, so I don’t think it would make a difference.” ­— Sierra Teegarden, a senior majoring in biomedical sciences “They’ll find a way; plus it would just increase regulation. When prohibition was happening, drinking went up, so maybe it would just make things worse.”

Adam Mathieu is a junior majoring in studio art.

— Ahnaf Siddiqui, a sophomore majoring in biomedical sciences

The Oracle is published Monday through Thursday during the fall and spring semesters, and twice weekly, Monday and Thursday, during the summer.

The Oracle allocates one free issue to each student.

Additional copies are $.50 each and available at the Oracle office (SVC 0002).

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“It might be beneficial to change it; maybe by the time they reach 21, they will have a lack of an interest in trying cigarettes.”

— Sarah Grimard, a senior majoring in biochemistry

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33 percent, which gives LSU the slight edge.

While he has high aspirations for the team, Fernandez said he continues to tell the team to take the experience one game at a time.

“I’m going to tell them to just play,” he said. “We won’t be able to be a part of the Sweet 16 unless we take care of business on Saturday.”

No. 6 USF will face No. 11 LSU in the Sun Dome at 6:30 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on ESPN2. The first 500 USF students with their student IDs will receive free admission to the game.

Students are directed to go to Gate D for entry.

After the first 500 tickets, student tickets are $8 and nonstudent tickets go on sale for $18. Parking in the Sun Dome lot is free and gates open at 2:30 p.m. Prior to the LSU vs. USF game, Louisville will face BYU at 4 p.m. Tickets can be bought at the gate or on ticketmaster.com.

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USF second in line for performance-based funding

By Wesley Higgins N E W S

E D I T O R

For the third year in a row, USF sits near the top of Florida’s performance-based funding model that is meant to reward academic excellence and improvement.

The Board of Governors (BOG) announced Wednesday the 201516 performance rankings of the 12 state public universities. USF was second only to University of Florida, which positions the university to receive millions of dollars in government investment.

Last year, when USF also ranked

second, the university received more than $22 million that went to fund a career success center at USF Sarasota-Manatee, new faculty in USF St. Petersburg and a revamped career resources center in USF Tampa.

The amount USF will receive this year won’t be known until the final state budget is finalized in two months, though Gov. Rick Scott has indicated he wants to pump more money this year into the performance-based model.

Scott’s budget plan, released last month, proposed an additional $130 million to the $330 million

base, more than twice the amount he proposed last year.

The performance model was established two years ago. After slashing public university funding by $300 million across the board in 2013, Scott and some legislators emphasized the program as the key to improving universities through competition.

The BOG uses a system of different metrics to judge a university’s merits. Some include how many graduates find employment, how many students graduate within six years, how many students are awarded STEM degrees and the

average wage of graduates.

“Performance funding signifies a new era for our State University System, one that places a renewed emphasis on university accountability,” said BOG Chair Mori Hosseini in a statement. “USF has made strategic investments in its students and that focus is paying off.”

The rankings consider a university’s improvement from the previous academic year. This year, USF saw an increase of six-year graduation rates from 63 to 66 percent.

There was also an increase in graduates finding employment or

continuing their education from 70 percent to 75 percent.

“I couldn’t be more proud, quite frankly,” said Provost Ralph Wilcox to the Tampa Tribune. “The focus (and) the discipline that our leadership, our Board of Trustees, our faculty, staff and of course our students have exhibited is tremendous. While we’re pleased with where we are, and sometimes my colleagues get a little leery of me saying this, but there’s certainly still room for improvement. We are not satisfied.”

The BOG is expected to finalize the results today after a vote.

Classifieds UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

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Baseball

Teaf’s late sac fly lifts Bulls over Panthers

By Tiana Aument C O R R E S P O N D E N T

Shortstop Kyle Teaf reached base in all of his at-bats — except in the eighth when his sacrifice fly lifted USF over FIU for a 4-3 victory Wednesday night at the USF Baseball Stadium.

The Bulls (15-6-1), who are on a nine-game winning streak, surrendered a three-run lead in the eighth.

Tied at three, third baseman Zac Gilcrease worked a one-out walk.

He advanced to second on an error and to third on a failed pickoff attempt with Teaf at the plate.

“They brought the infield in on me,” Teaf said. “I was trying to get a pitch that was up that I could elevate to get to the outfield. I fought off a good pitch — a change-up or something, and then I got the

Monica Santos has been a big contributor to the Bulls’ offense this month, with a .471 average. ORACLE FILE PHOTO/ ADAM MATHIEU

fastball I wanted and put a good swing on it.”

FIU outfielder Jack Schaaf ran down the ball and caught it deep down the left-field line before Gilcrease tagged up and ran home.

In addition to that game-winning RBI, Teaf went 2-for-2 with two walks, a double and a run.

The junior is on an 11-game hitting streak and a 21-game on-base streak.

Teaf seems to have found his swing as the season progresses.

“The approach never changes,” he said. “I was a little uncomfortable, trying to do a little bit too much in the beginning of the season. I’m just going back to being comfortable and doing what feels good.”

Right fielder Luke Maglich also seemed comfortable at the plate, and went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, a

double and a home run.

The Bulls have nine home runs on the season, which equals the amount they totaled last year.

“Coaches tweak some of the guys’ swings just a tiny bit,” Teaf said. “Guys are confident at the plate, taking good swings, good hard cuts at pitches they would normally lay off or take. They’re putting good, powerful swings on pitches and producing for us.”

After leading off the eighth with a home run, the Panthers (9-12) loaded the bases with a single, an error and a walk. They scored on a fielder’s choice and a sacrifice fly to tie the game at three.

Tommy Peterson (1-1) earned the win after pitching two shutout innings. The right-hander took the mound with the bases loaded and no outs in the eighth to relieve Jordan Strittmatter.

Kyle Teaf, who is currently riding a 21-game on-base streak, knocked in the winning run against FIU on a sacrifice fly to left field Wednesday. ORACLE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU “We battled,” coach Mark That was the key.”

Kingston said. “Our defense was a The Bulls travel to play Illinois little sloppy there in the eighth, but (15-4-1) for a three-game series for the most part, our defense was beginning Friday at 5 p.m. good, and we got a few key hits.

Softball

USF heating up as AAC play nears

By Jacob Hoag A S S T .

S P O R T S

E D I T O R

In late February, the USF softball team hit a wall, and came off a slump in which it lost four of five games. Since March 1, USF has won 18 of its 19 games by an average of four runs, and with conference play arriving, USF is getting hot at just the right time.

As a young team coming in with 12 underclassmen, USF’s first month was littered with mistakes — 27 errors in the first 27 games.

Now with 36 games under their belt, the Bulls are jelling as a unit, and have committed only two errors in their past nine games.

“I think it was just nerves in the beginning,” senior Sam Greiner said. “We had a lot of young players out there on the field. Now we’re a tightly knit group. We support each other and love playing together and that helps a lot.”

It’s hard to pin the recent success on one particular factor. The Bulls (28-8) have improved in virtually every category and are beginning to turn heads.

It starts with dominant pitching.

The pitching staff had a combined ERA of 0.81 in March prior to its two shutouts this week. That’s down from a staggering 3.56 ERA in February.

“It’s the mark of a great player,” coach Ken Eriksen said. “They learn from their mistakes and they don’t do it again. We’re rectifying (mistakes) and coming together.”

This isn’t the work of just one ace in the lineup. All four pitchers have earned at least three wins this month, with ERAs under 1.04 while holding opposing batters to hitting just .191.

Senior Karla Claudio (7-2) has been USF’s workhorse in recent weeks, appearing in 13 of 21 games, while leading the nation in saves with six.

Greiner (8-2) leads the team in wins, redshirt freshman Susan Wysocki is an undefeated 6-0, and junior Erica Nunn (7-4) has the fourth-best ERA in the conference (1.68) with a no-hitter under her belt.

But pitching can only go so far.

What has kept USF from cooling

off has been its potent offense.

USF has outscored its opponents 104-19 during this stretch while leading the AAC in batting average (.326), runs (202), RBIs (168), steals (63), triples (13) and the list goes on.

Runs lift the burden off the shoulders of the bullpen.

“In past years we haven’t been a great scoring team,” Greiner said.

“We scored maybe two or three and then held teams, which is great, but it takes the weight off and allows you to just throw the pitches you want to throw.”

Junior Monica Santos leads the team with a .471 average for the month with seven extra-base hits, but the Bulls have gotten production out of virtually every player.

“It’s been such a long season already that people forget that (Juli) Weber was carrying us early on and Spivey has been consistent all year long and D’Anna Devine … so, the depth is there,” Eriksen said.

The Bulls’ offense is clicking and they are hitting their stride at just the right time as they travel

to Houston on Saturday for a twogame series to begin conference play. “(The momentum) is huge,” Greiner said. “Going into conference play with the record we have is great. We have that momentum and we’ll take it into Friday, Saturday and Sunday to Houston and we have the confidence that we can play with anybody.”

USF leads the all-time series with the Cougars 13-9, including a series sweep in 2014.

Houston (14-16) has a small ballpark — 200 feet at center field — that will benefit USF’s highpowered offense which, though it doesn’t rely on power, can send balls over the fence.

USF has hit 20 homers this season, eight of which have come from catcher Lee Ann Spivey, who passed Carmela Liwag earlier this month for eighth on the all-time home runs list with 21.

The Bulls hope to maintain their run as the series with Houston kicks off at 2 p.m. Saturday and again at 1 p.m. Sunday.