7-6-15

The Oracle MONDAY, JULY 6, 2015 I VOL. 52 NO. 132

Inside this Issue

www.usforacle.com

The Index

News.................................................................1 Opinion.......................................................6 Lifestyle......................................................4 Crossword.........................................7 sports............................................................8

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

University Mall to get major overhaul

By Russell Nay A S S T .

LI F E STYLE

Shark Week: it’s back!

Page 4

Montage

S PORTS Asiantii Woulard shares his view on committing to USF. BACK

N E W S

E D I T O R

Tampa’s University Mall is scheduled to receive its largest renovation since last year’s addition of the shopping center’s Studio Movie Grill.

In a press release published late June, real estate and investment firm CBRE announced the first phase of major redevelopments planned for University Mall.

Former Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe is the executive director of the Tampa Innovation Alliance — the public-private partnership tasked with redeveloping the USF-Tampa area — and said the new additions to the mall are a step in the right direction for helping dissolve the stigma surrounding the area as Suitcase City and for attracting more people to the area.

“They’d like to make the

University Mall, located west of campus on Fowler Avenue, could see new stores and renovations as early as the beginning of 2016. ORACLE PHOTO/RUSSELL NAY mall a destination for students,” Sharpe said. “That’s helping to drive some of the decisions they’re going to

make on how they redevelop the mall.”

Beginning in early 2016, the mall is expected to

receive three new major retail stores and two new standalone restaurants along East

n See MALL on PAGE 2

Florida poised for big gains in BP settlement

By Russell Nay A S S T .

N E W S

E D I T O R

Years after USF researchers were called to investigate the worst disaster to hit the Gulf of Mexico and found lesions on fish and samples of sand with chemicals connected to BP washing up on the shores of Pinellas County, a settlement has finally been struck between the state and the oil company.

In a $18.7 billion settlement, BP has agreed to give significant funding to Florida, four other gulf states and the federal government to compensate for the devastation caused by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, in which nearly 134 million gallons of oil spilled into the gulf, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

As reported by the Times, in a settlement reached Thursday,

Florida could see more than $3.25 billion over 18 years, $2 billion of which is for economic losses in the tourism and seafood industries.

For penalties under the Clean Water Act, BP will also pay $5.5 billion to the federal government. Though settlements are still ongoing with individual businesses and local governments, it is possible that the Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO) housed at USF, representing 30 marine science research and education institutions working collaboratively through the Institute, could be eligible to receive future funding from the settlement in attempts to prevent future disasters.

William Hogarth, FIO’s director, said the Institute has been closely involved with researching the effects of the spill since day one.

“We got a call (to respond)

almost immediately asking if we could get out to take some samples so (the federal government) could know what was going on and to what extent,” he said.

This settlement may provide much-needed funding, as FIO did not receive the requested $6 million to replace its 45-year-old research vessel — the R/V Bellows. Despite being a priority on USF’s list of legislative funding requests, it did not survive the final version of the state budget.

FIO is home to two research vessels, the Bellows and the Weatherbird II, which have both made numerous research trips to study the 2010 BP oil spill.

Though it is not clear how exactly the money from the settlement will be spent and will be paid over a period of years, Hogarth said FIO planned on using a new state-

of-the-art vessel to spearhead several current research projects, including mapping the different animal habitats within the Gulf of Mexico to better prepare for potential oil spills in the future, as well as researching red tides and developing new methods for measuring fish stocks.

“It’s a very important vessel for protecting Florida’s tremendous marine resources, for enabling our faculties in their research and for training the scientists of the future to protect marine biology,” he said.

The preliminary designs FIO submitted to the Florida Board of Governors (BOG) for a new ship depict a 78-foot, threefloor research vessel, and Hogarth said FIO planned to equip the new vessel with upto-date equipment and electronics for conducting marine

n See FLORIDA on PAGE 2

2

M O N DAY, J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 5

FLORIDA

Continued from PAGE 1

research.

While it would be docked at USF St. Petersburg, the ship would be available for use by all the institutions FIO represents, including Florida’s 12 public universities.

“I would describe it as a 2015 version of the R/V Bellows,” he said. “A lot has happened in 45 years.”

Not only does the Bellows lack current technology, but Hogarth said the ship is also slowly deteriorating due to old age and may hinder FIO from being able to effectively respond to future disasters, such as hurricanes or oil spills.

He said ship experts have In a press release published late June, real estate and investment firm CBRE announced the first phase of major redevelopments planned for University Mall. ORACLE PHOTO/RUSSELL NAY

MALL

Continued from PAGE 1

Fowler Avenue, as well as a 37,000-square-foot health club on the second floor.

The first phase of new construction also includes a cosmetic update for the 41-yearold mall in the form of landscaping, water features and open air sections. The mall’s East Fowler Avenue entrance will be redeveloped and a new walkway connecting the cinema to the rest of the mall will be created.

The three new retail stores will be located inside the space of the old J.C. Penney, which left the mall in 2005, and the existing enclosed common area between the previous J.C. Penney location and the rest of the mall will be demolished to create space for the first-floor entrance of the health club.

Patrice Gingras, University Mall’s interim general manager, said while any redevelopment is good for the mall, this is more about the overall growth of the Tampa area surrounding USF. “We’re actively involved with the area’s economic development growth,” Gingras said. “We’re partnering with USF, we’re partnering with everyone interested in seeing

this area grow. It’s not so much change as growth.”

Shihao Wu, a graduate student in finance at USF, said he only goes to the mall two or three times a year because he feels it has a limited selection and will usually go to International Plaza in Tampa or to a mall in Orlando instead.

He said University Mall’s newly announced redevelopment sounds interesting, however, and he will likely visit the mall once construction is finished.

Nicholas Hermsen, a senior majoring in business, said he only shops at University Mall due to its close proximity to campus, and he said the mall’s new additions would further affect how often he visits the mall. He also said, however, that he feels the updates to the mall are sorely needed.

“It needs an update,” he said. “I can tell the business for the place is depreciating slowly. It’s not the busiest mall I’ve ever been to, so they need it just so it doesn’t actually close down.”

Currently, the mall is still in negotiation with what stores and restaurants will move into the mall, and the cost of University Mall’s redevelopment, as well as what future phases will consist of, has not been released.

informed FIO the Bellows is at the end of its life as a research vessel, and it suffers from metal fatigue, faulty electronics and long periods of downtime.

“When something (breaks) now, we can’t even find parts for it,” Hogarth said. “It’s costing us an awful lot to operate it.”

Not operating it at all, however, is also costly to FIO, as the Institute still relies on the ship for chartering research cruises and providing a place for professors to teach their students. According to the new vessel proposal FIO sent to the BOG, the Bellows spends 100 to 150 days at sea each year, producing an annual revenue of $500,000 to $750,000.

While FIO still has the Weatherbird II, Hogarth

●

T H E O R AC L E

said FIO cannot rely on the Weatherbird II for all its needs, as the vessel has its own schedule of research cruises, and the cost of operation is double that of the Bellows. He said for now, FIO will have to re-evaluate its use of the Bellows and may need to look into renting other research vessels.

Whatever the solution, Kristen Buck, a chemical oceanographer at the College of Marine Science at USF, said having a research vessel available is vital for students and researchers involved in marine studies.

“There is no comparison to going to sea and doing the work,” she said. “(Research vessels) are irreplaceable.

There’s nothing like them out there.”

M O N DAY, J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 5

●

T H E O R AC L E

3

Lifestyle

4

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

●

M O N D AY, J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 5

●

T H E O R AC L E

Shark Week 2015 shows it’s (almost) safe to go back in the water

By Adam Mathieu E D I T O R

The film “Jaws” has become a staple of pop culture, and serves for many as the first exposure to sharks, which typically means a fear of putting a toe in the salty sea. However, for the past 28 years, Discovery Channel has dedicated a week of programming to both educate and entertain the public on what these fish are really like and the vital role they play in the ecosystem.

For Floridians in particular, beaches are a staple of the summer life, as everyone flocks to the coasts with towel and sunglasses in tow.

Knowing sharks and what it means to step into the water with them, often unknowingly, is smart, and allowing Shark Week to be a sort of summer school is a useful method of learning.

Surviving Shark Week can be a rewarding experience. There are many species of sharks and many facts out there to enhance public knowledge of these creatures that have lived in oceans for 450 million years.

Many people are familiar with the great white shark, but not the large filter-feeding sharks such as the basking and whale sharks. Or, perhaps viewers have never even heard of the Greenland shark or know a shark can easily be put into a trance when turned upside down.

While in recent years Discovery has had an unfortunate tendency to air faux documentaries, such as 2014’s “Shark of Darkness: Wrath of Submarine” which supposedly tracked a 35-foot long great white shark and provided audiences no useful facts or information on the true marine predator. Thankfully, this year Discovery appears to be prioritizing education over dramatization as programs step away from these faux docs, perhaps because National Geographic Wild serves as competition now with its own shark-oriented programming block, SharkFest.

This year’s lineup sees Discovery balancing the fun of seeing great whites hunt, arguably the main attraction, while providing doses of a broader

understanding of sharks. For instance, Monday’s lineup has the sensationalized “Return of the Great White Serial Killer,” a ridiculous title for what is really an investigation of recurring attacks at Surf Beach. Yet, after that program there is “Alien Sharks: Close Encounters,” in which viewers will see the uncommon shark species that live in the deep sea.

As for the Florida beach bum, one new program airing this week specifically focuses on Florida’s waters. “Shark Trek” features researchers trying to understand the rise in great white sightings along the Sunshine State’s coasts, a study hyped as the biggest look at the great whites which call Florida waters home.

Beyond the entertainment aspect, Discovery does enter the depths of conservation for the sharks that make the week of watery programming possible. The channel has made it a yearly effort to raise awareness about the nearly 100 million sharks killed every year solely for the harvesting of their fins as part of the shark fin soup market. Additionally,

Discovery has petitions ready to get finning banned in certain waters or get major chains to drop shark fin soup from their menus.

There are many rows of teeth in Shark Week’s jaws, with education and entertainment being the main drawing points of the week of underwater programming. There are the fun shows that show great white sharks launching out of the ocean to catch a seal, but there are also the documentary-heavy shows that highlight other sharks or the ecosystems of certain waters. Regardless of what a shark fan may be on the prowl for, there are plenty of options to pick from the week-long airing of shark programs that started Sunday, from the highly informal to the purely entertaining.

Perhaps after a week of digesting shark facts, visiting the beach will invoke less imagery from the rogue great white of “Jaws” and more of an understanding that there are fish out there, a few which are potentially dangerous, but mostly just minding their own business.

“Bride of Jaws” Tracking and following a massive 18-foot female great white off the Australian coast Tuesday @ 9 p.m.

“Ninja Sharks” Six sharks with specialized adaptations that make them deadly apex predators Wednesday @ 10 p.m.

“Shark Planet” A global view of sharks from various oceans and climates.

Thursday @ 9 p.m.

“Shark Clans” A shark attack survivor is tracking sharks to better understand how to protect them against humans Friday @ 10 p.m.

“Sharksanity 2” A highlight reel of Shark Week 2015 Saturday @ 9 p.m.

“Shark Island” A study of Reunion Island, a location home to many recent fatal attacks Sunday @ 8 p.m.

M O N DAY, J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 5

●

5

T H E O R AC L E

UCLA QB

Continued from PAGE 8

invitation to the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, which is a game featuring the top 90 high school players.

When deciding on where he would transfer, Woulard said he was talking with several schools, but playing for the Bulls made the most sense as Tampa is close to his home of Winter Park and he was already familiar with the coaching staff.

Woulard said he was particularly impressed with coach Willie Taggart and his decision to switch to a spread offense.

“Coach Taggart is just a genuine guy, I think he really wants to bring the best out of his guys,” Woulard said. “I think it’s perfect timing with him going to more of a spread or no huddle offense. That’s what kind of guy I am and what I like to run.”

He won’t be able to test out Taggart’s new offense just yet,

as he will have to sit out the upcoming 2015 season due to NCAA transfer rules.

But Woulard said he’s still excited to join the Bulls, who he sees as a talented team, despite the results on the field over the past two years.

“I’m not really sure what the struggles have been about because they have good players, but I think the main issue has been finishing games,” Woulard said. “They’ve competed in every game they’ve played in. It shows they have players who can compete, but now we have to put it together and finish.”

He said he knows Taggart’s job could be in jeopardy if the Bulls fail to reach a bowl game again this season, but he said he’s committed to USF for the long haul no matter who’s coaching.

“I would still stick with USF if coach Taggart is fired,” Woulard said. “You can’t get away from everything, no situation is going to be perfect.

You have to take it in stride and keep moving.”

If you have an news tip or story idea you would like to see in The Oracle, let us know!

Contact the news team at 813-974-1888 or email the editor at oracleeditor@gmail.com.

Opinion

6

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

the Oracle the University of South Florida’s student newspaper since 1966

Alex Rosenthal oracleeditor@gmail.com

Grace Hoyte oraclenewsteam@gmail.com

Sports Editor Vinnie Portell oraclesportseditor@gmail.com

Opinion Editor Isabelle Cavazos oracleopinion@gmail.com

Multimedia Editor Adam Mathieu

Assistant Editors Christopher Collier Russell Nay

Graphic Artist Ashley Barzaga

Advertising Sales Lauren Alford Rachel Carpenter Abby Pereira

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).

BY PHONE Main . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sports ................

Lifestyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . .

Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Website: Facebook: Twitter:

974-6242 974-5190 974-1888 974-2842 974-2398 974-2620 974-6242

usforacle.com facebook.com/usforacle @USFOracle

CORRECTIONS The Oracle will correct or clarify factual errors.

Contact Editor in Chief Alex Rosenthal at 974-5190.

M O N D AY, J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 5

Progressive pope’s climate concerns go beyond faith

Editor in Chief

News Editor

●

Using the summer heat of June, Pope Francis delivered an encyclical, a letter distributed to the Roman Catholic Church’s bishops, concerning global warming and the damage done to the Earth by resources such as fossil fuels, in which the pope referred to the world as becoming a “pile of filth.”

While it’s typically St. Francis who is connected to ecology in the Catholic faith, Pope Francis himself used his 184-page encyclical to address Catholics around the world to create a discussion on the reality of global warming.

This move was a wise one for the pope, as it engages the more than 1 billion Catholics across the world and gets them thinking about their role in climate change.

One immediate positive response is taking place in Catholic colleges here in the U.S. Huffington Post reported on students from schools such as Georgetown, Notre Dame and the University of Dayton campaigning to see their schools divest in fossil fuels. On June 4, Georgetown was the first of these major Catholic schools to take an important step by divesting from mining companies using the resource in energy production.

Georgetown even admitted that it was the pope’s encyclical that sparked conversation on the environment. Seeing schools take initiative is a great sign, but even the pope knows there needs to be massive steps taken if any real global warming prevention is possible.

As reported by CNN, the pope called for more than everyday recycling, as we still need bold political moves and societal sacrifices, both of which he feels may be beyond reality.

Still, the fact the pope tacked

●

T H E O R AC L E

Trump needs to put comments on immigrants to rest

Adam Mathieu

Isabelle Cavazos

COLU M N I ST

COLU M N I ST

these problems in his encyclical, even calling out consumer obsession with technology, serves as a great launching point to inspire and influence the global Catholic population to rethink what they can do to care for the world.

However, not all have received the pope’s message positively.

Steven Mosher of the New York Post attacked the encyclical as being full of fictions and lacking evidence to support the pope’s sweeping statements in his column titled “Do the pope and I live on the same planet?”

Mosher pulled numbers praising the longevity of the human life span and improved drinking water sources, but what critics overlook is that the pope is calling attention to the problems that will arise if precautions are not taken now to avoid irreversible damage from human activity such as pollution.

Religion aside, the pope made valid points and asked for measures to be made by not just Catholics, but the entire global population. Specifically, when the pope asks for changes in “lifestyle, production and consumption,” or to think about the generations to come, there is certainly a message that goes beyond faith.

Being a pope for the poor and for equality, Francis proves again that he has an active agenda of uniting people rather than dividing them. Using his massive influence to get people discussing a real-world problem that impacts humans no matter what class, race or faith is a terrific use of power, and hopefully the pope’s followers will be inspired enough to act on his words in the time to come.

Adam Mathieu is a senior majoring in studio art.

Donald Trump wants to “Make America great again!” in 2016, and he decided early on who does and doesn’t fit into that plan of greatness.

At his announcement to run, Trump, a billionaire tycoon known for his NBC show “The Apprentice,” made his reservations against Mexican immigrants clear because they are “bringing drugs,” “bringing crime” and that “they’re rapists.” Since then, major TV networks, department stores and celebrities have backed out of deals with him. However, according to the Associated Press, Trump argued what he really meant was for legal immigrants to not be disadvantaged by those coming illegally.

Not only did Trump say outright who he thinks America’s enemies are, he also perpetuated the stereotype that Mexican immigrants are inherently dangerous.

In addition to boycotting Macy’s for not carrying his clothing line and suing the network Univision for not broadcasting the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, Trump defended his cause again on Friday after a random, fatal shooting in a San Francisco tourist spot was committed by an immigrant illegally in the state.

But, Trump took Friday’s tragedy as proof of why the U.S. needs a walled border, calling it a “totally preventable act of violence.” The issue isn’t just Trump’s ignorance of cause and effect; it’s also the fact his empty arguments are already supported.

As Trump told his supporters, immigrants who come illegally hurt legal immigrants by taking jobs and not paying taxes — the tired points anti-immigration activists have long contended.

The real danger is that Trump’s line of thought may be backed

by Republicans as true, as a Quinnipiac University and CNN poll found that Republicans support deportation over citizenship by 54 to 27 percent.

After President Barack Obama made a measure to excuse 5 million immigrants from deportation, giving deportation relief to adults with children born in the U.S., the opposition against immigration reform came to a head.

Despite the Republican backlash against Trump’s claims, the poll’s finding that fewer than half of Americans support a path to citizenship, with 35 percent believing immigrants should be required to leave, shows it’s not just Trump with a dim view of immigrants.

From an economic standpoint, allowing legal status to immigrants wouldn’t be disastrous. It could mean another $144 billion in federal, state and local taxes over 10 years, according to the Center for American Progress. It would also allow these workers to earn higher wages and contribute to the economy more than they can without citizenship.

These immigrants are not just money-makers, either. The Center for American Progress also addresses how they are often part of a family of documented immigrants, with nine million of these families having a child born in the U.S. If anything, it shouldn’t be Trump’s obliviousness remembered from this mess. Instead, it should be a reminder to let go of these baseless, yet strongly held assumptions about immigrants, regardless of how aggressively they’re defended by those in power.

Isabelle Cavazos is a senior majoring in English and Spanish.

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

To place a classified ad go to

Crossword

●

M O N D AY, J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 5

http://www.usforacle.com/classifieds

●

T H E O R AC L E

7

Sports

8

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

●

M O N D AY, J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 5

●

T H E O R AC L E

Football

UCLA quarterback committed to turning Bulls around

By Vinnie Portell S P O R T S

E D I T O R

Unlike his recruitment out of high school, Asiantii Woulard was fully confident in his decision to return home to Florida and play for the Bulls, announcing via Twitter on June 29 he would be transferring to USF. The former UCLA quarterback de-comitted to USF twice in his recruitment out of Winter Park High School in 2013, but the four-star quarterback had little trouble making up his mind this time around.

“I feel like it’s a good sit-

uation,” Woulard said. “The whole community, city and university has just been waiting for that spark to come around and I want to be a part of it and help bring them where they’re trying to go.”

Woulard spent two years on the bench at UCLA, learning the playbook and biding his time until he would be given a chance to take over the reigns.

But that chance never came.

Despite not playing a down in his time at UCLA, Woulard said he has no regrets and he would make the same choice again.

“At the time, I just felt that UCLA was a better fit,” Woulard said. “I just needed

to get away for a while, go see another world, another environment. I still don’t regret it, it’s probably one of the best decisions I’ve made.”

In his senior season at Winter Park, Woulard passed for 1,400 yards and 13 touchdowns and rushed for 11 touchdowns.

Woulard also won the MVP award of the Elite 11 quarterback skills competition, which included quarterbacks such as Joshua Dobbs of Tennessee and Malik Zaire of Notre Dame.

His success at Winter Park led to ESPN.com ranking him as the top dual-threat quarterback and earned him an

n See UCLA QB on PAGE 5

Asiantii Woulard, a four-star recruit in the 2013 class, transferred to USF on Thursday after spending two years on the sidelines at UCLA. PHOTO PROVIDED BY ASIANTII WOULARD

Notebook

NC State receiver transfers to USF

By Vinnie Portell S P O R T S

Coach Willie Taggart added N.C. State receiver Marquez ValdesScantling along with UCLA quarterback Asiantii Woulard to the Bulls on Thursday. ORACLE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU

E D I T O R

Coach Willie Taggart continued remodeling his offense Thursday when the school announced the transfer of North Carolina State receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling as well as UCLA quarterback Asiantii Woulard.

Valdes-Scantling, who played for Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg, is the eighth player originally from the Tampa area to transfer to USF under coach Willie Taggart.

“Nearly all of the transfers we’ve asked to join our program are guys we knew very well,” Taggart said in a statement. “We built very strong relationships with them and their families during their high school recruiting process and are confident how they will benefit our program.”

The 6-foot-3, 208-pound receiver had 44 receptions for 538 yards in his two seasons with the Wolfpack.

He will have to sit out the upcoming season due to NCAA transfer rules and will have two years of eligibility remaining.

Taggart replaces tight ends coach Coach Willie Taggart quickly found a replacement for former special teams and tight ends coach Stu Holt when he promoted graduate assistant David Gilbertson on Thursday.

Reports began circulating Tuesday evening that Holt was leaving the program for a position with Appalachian State.

In a release, the school stated Holt took the job to return closer to his family.

Gilbertson is now an assistant coach, specifically dealing with the tight ends.

In college, Gilbertson played quarterback at Washington State under former USF offensive coordinator Paul Wulff.

Williams, Team USA wins opening game Courtney Williams was held scoreless in her first game playing for Team USA in the World University Games in Gwanju, South Korea, as the team defeated Italy, 80-68, on Saturday.

In 27 minutes of play, Williams had four rebounds, an assist and a steal, but her impact was limited in the 12-point victory.

Aerial Powers of Michigan State and Erica McCall of Stanford led the way, with each scoring 22 points.

For its next game in group play, Team USA faces China (0-1), broadcast on ESPNU this morning. Results can be found online at gwangju2015.com.