The Oracle WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2014 I VOL. 52 NO. 26
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News.................................................................1 Lifestyle......................................................4 Opinion.......................................................6
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
Green is the new purple Survey Students explores discouraged from wearing purple Homecoming shirts views on at Saturday’s game. upcoming elections n
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The force is strong with USF. Page 4
Montage
S PORTS Bulls try to bring back buzz at USF. BACK
By Wesley Higgins N E W S
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Though the campus is decorated with green and gold, it’s the purple for this year’s “Once Upon a Homecoming” theme that may confuse some students, especially anyone familiar with East Carolina. Purchased with $5,600 from student Activity and Service (A&S) fees, 1,200 distributed shirts on campus share the same purple color with the East Carolina Pirates — the Bulls’ Homecoming opponent. “We really want to be in green,” Center for Student Involvement Director Monica Miranda said. “The opposing team’s color is purple, so we don’t want to be in purple.”
Jo Koy performed his stand-up routine for students Tuesday at the USF Sun Dome. n See
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By Wesley Higgins N E W S
The Homecoming committee paid $5,600 for 1,200 shirts that share the same color as East Carolina. ORACLE PHOTO / ADAM MATHIEU The shirt’s primary color is grape with white letters advertising the list of the week’s events on the back and the Homecoming Superbull XVIII
logo on the front. About 200 of the purple shirts were passed out to promote Homecoming week. By Friday,
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Most of Florida’s youth think medical marijuana is a step closer to legal recreational toking, but many also aren’t sure how to vote on it. The fifth release of the 2014 Sunshine State Survey, an annual survey conducted by the USF College of Arts and Sciences in partnership with Nielsen Holdings, was released Tuesday morning. It examined on a variety of Floridian opinions, such as health policies and election processes. The survey asked, for the first time, if the constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana, which Floridians will vote on in November, would lead to voters eventually approving of recreational marijuana use. About 66 percent of the respondents agreed, with high support coming from both the unemployed and the fully employed, the divorced, the never married and those living in Miami. “As you might imagine, the people who thought it would lead to recreational use are 18 to 34 year olds,” said Susan MacManus, survey developer and political science professor at USF. The respondents who disagreed were more likely to be part-time employees, widowed or living around Naples.
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Jo Koy: anything but coy at Stampede Comedy Show By Roberto Roldan M A N A G I N G
E D I T O R
Comedian Joy Koy took the stage to the roars of cheers and laughter from a packed Sun Dome on Tuesday night as part of the Homecoming Stampede Comedy show. Koy’s walk on stage was accompanied by Drake’s “Trophies,” pretending to sing along, mumbling and making noises as the song went on. “My son has been saying the same lyrics since he was a year and a half,” Koy said. “You need to pay my son, Drake.” Throughout the show, Koy did a number of the racial impressions that he is known for and picked out students in
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Miranda said someone brought up the oversight to the Campus Traditions Board. “It’s a student committee,” she said. “They didn’t realize purple was the color of the opposing school.” Though purple is an approved accent color for the university, no more purple shirts will be distributed to students this week. Students may still get the chance, however, to grab a free shirt this week as Miranda said an order for 1,000 green shirts was received Tuesday. The shipment of the green shirts costs about $4,200, funded by the A&S fee. Students currently pay a $7 flat A&S fee per semester for a fund that Student Government allocates. This year, SG allocated $412,134 to the Homecoming steering committee. Within the
the audience to poke fun at. When Koy found out one student, Mario, was Puerto Rican he went on a 15 minute tirade about Puerto Ricans. “Puerto Rican men have the sexiest accents,” Koy said. “I’m not gay, but their Puerto Rican accent will make you gay for a minute.” Most of Koy’s routine centered around racial stereotypes, but as the show progressed, Koy turned more toward the comedy he’s found in his family life and the challenges he faces as the father of a preteen boy, from using deodorant to getting his son to clean his room. “He doesn’t brush his teeth, ever,” Koy said, referring to his son, Jo. “I taught him how to
brush his teeth for 11 years and if he doesn’t want to brush his teeth, f--- it, Jo, I’m done!” He also talked about the differences between his son and his friends’ daughters around the same age. After seeing his friend’s daughter “sneeze glitter,” he lamented how less polite his son is. “When my son sneezes, he doesn’t even know he’s going to sneeze,” Koy said. “His face just explodes.” For a moment, Koy got introspective about being on the road and not being able to see his son as much as he would like to, but after a brief pause, he got back to doing what he does best. Koy told the audience about how he rented out a paintball
arena for his son’s birthday and got excited when he realized he could abuse his son without consequence. “And the cops can’t do s---, because he signed that waiver,” Koy said. “I was going to f--my son up!” Koy’s set was full of sex and profanity that kept students audibly entertained throughout. He ended the night talking about lovemaking songs and some of his favorites, namely old-school R&B such as Boyz II Men. “I want to take selfies with everyone,” Koy said to the crowd. “I’ll be at Gate D at the end of the show, but we’re using your phone.” Koy was joined by Florida comedians Mike Charette,
James Ponce and the night’s MC Krishna Reddy, a USF biomedical sciences graduate student. Delaney Kelly, a freshman majoring in business, said she was glad she attended Tuesday’s show and said her favorite acts were Ponce and Koy. “My favorite part was when (Ponce) was making the sign language woman say bad words,” she said. “I couldn’t stop laughing.” Koy currently has an ongoing podcast and said he is working on his routine in the hopes of doing a new comedy special, but didn’t specify when it would be coming out. Koy’s performance cost $25,000.
Homecoming budget, $30,000 was budgeted for marketing, of which $11,626 paid for promotional items such as shirts, cups and sunglasses. As for the remaining 1,000 purple shirts that have been discontinued, Miranda said the university has not decided what to do with them. Claudia Garrett, a sophomore majoring in marketing, said she feels “weird” wearing the purple shirt after hearing it is the same color as ECU. She also said she hopes she doesn’t see USF students wearing the shirts in the stands Saturday while she is playing in the marching band. “It is Homecoming, come on; we should root for the right team,” she said. “Next time, we should look at what team we’re playing.” On whether students will continue wearing the purple shirt, Garrett said she doesn’t plan to throw hers away. “It’s comfortable,” she said. For Homecoming, students started handing out green shirts Tuesday at events such as the Stampede Comedy Show featuring comedian Jo Koy. ORACLE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU “It’s a free shirt.”
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The survey also examined whether Floridians feel informed about everything on the ballot before going to vote. Only 25 percent of respondents said they had a good grasp of the pros and cons of each amendment on the ballot, while 55 percent said they didn’t understand the amendments at all. “A lot of people are confused,” MacManus said. “They simply don’t vote on them.” Amendment 1 is supposed to dedicate a third of net revenue collected from real estate transaction taxes toward water resource protection and land conservation. Amendment 2 would legalize medical marijuana. Amendment 3 plans allow the governor to proactively appoint a new justice to a Florida Supreme Court seat in anticipation of a current justice vacating their seat, potentially allowing outgoing governors to dramatically shape the court. “The third one is probably much more confusing than the others,” MacManus said. “We can see that Floridians are very antsy.” MacManus said the straw poll administered Tuesday should give a better idea of whether the youth feel informed. In the straw poll’s initial results, 51 percent indicated they didn’t understand Amendment 3; while 28 percent didn’t understand Amendment 1; and 11 percent didn’t understand Amendment 2. Masiel Pelegrino, president of USF’s Pi Sigma Alpha national political science honors society, said many students who filled out the poll asked administrators to explain the amendments. “It’s amazing to see the confusion level on some students,” she said. “Believe it or not, a lot of students didn’t even know
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there was an election coming up in November.” Both MacManus and Pelegrino said the lack of information should be a wake-up call to public officials. “This is also a call to action for the state’s media, who play a big role in informing voters about these amendments,” MacManus said. “When you amend the constitution, that’s a very serious change.” Adding to the burden of the democratic process, the U.S. Census Bureau found nearly a third of eligible Floridians are not registered to vote. MacManus said some respondents said they were registered elsewhere, simply never got around to it, don’t like the candidates or don’t think their votes count. Most respondents who said they didn’t vote were ineligible, often because of non-citizenry or a felony record. The survey also found 32 percent prefer automatic restoration of voting rights for felons who complete their sentencing. Florida got high marks for making it convenient to vote. However, the survey also found today’s youth are often confused about the election process. “The young generation is the least informed about all of the laws and procedures about how to register and how to vote,” MacManus said. Pelegrino said she hoped Tuesday’s straw poll would help familiarize students with the upcoming election. MacManus said election supervisors will use the survey results to help youth get informed and encourage them to vote. The final release of the Sunshine State Survey will be released next Tuesday and will focus on whether Floridians feel the state is going in the right direction.
Budding support
United for Care brought Amendment 2 proponent John Morgan to campus Tuesday to rally support. ORACLE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU
lifestyle
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FESTIVAL TAKES READERS TO A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY By Elig Rojas C O R R E S P O N D E N T
Darth Vader will soon be roaming the halls of USF, along with a few stormtroopers, some Jedi and maybe a droid or two. The third annual Star Wars Reads Day will be celebrated Saturday across the country. This year, the USF School of Information will host a Star Wars Reads event with help from the College of Arts and Sciences. The event will take place at USF on Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. in the Communication and Information Sciences Building.
“It’s about literacy,” said Peter Cannon, an officer of Student Organizations of Library and Information Science (SOLIS). “It’s not really about Star Wars movies, but it’s about getting people to understand that literacy is important.” The event will feature science fiction and fantasy authors John Hope and Chris Berman, who will talk with students about the process of writing. “A lot of times, we just open a book and we read the words, but we don’t fully understand how those words actually make it on to the page,” Cannon said. While the event’s focus is
on the importance of literacy today, rather than a civil war in a far off galaxy a long time ago, Cannon said Star Wars provides a great backdrop for educating people on the importance of reading because its easily recognizable and its fan base spans every demographic. “The first book of Star Wars is used to teach writing because it follows a template called ‘the hero’s journey,’” Cannon said. “. . . Which is actually the same template in every movie we see. Disney uses the same formula that’s in Star Wars, the original movie and the book that was written by George Lucas.” Students and faculty are
encouraged to come dressed up as their favorite Star Wars character and will have the opportunity to compete for prizes in a costume contest. The event will also include a visit from The 501st, a volunteer organization that brings the characters from Star Wars to life with moviegrade costumes. “It’d be very hard to find another fandom that has as much material available and appeals to as wide of an audience,” said Edd Schneider, assistant professor in the School of Information. The event is free and open to students, as well as any other book-loving Star Wars fan.
“Some people might see this as marketing to sell Star Wars books, but, realistically, Lucas is allowing teachers and librarians to use Star Wars as bait to say to young people, ‘Hey there’s more than just the movies; why don’t you read about this kind of content?’ And hopefully all of us will start reading Star Wars books; but then they might transition to Isaac Asimov and then transition to Kurt Vonnegut,” Schneider said. “At the end of the day, that’s really the goal here: essentially, to convince people into reading and give them sort of a starting location that they know and they like.”
Star Wars Reads Day is free and open to all students. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE
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Bulls search for second AAC win By Chris Villar C O R R E S P O N D E N T
Coming off its third straight win, USF men’s soccer looks to keep the streak alive as it faces the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa (5-4-1, 1-1) currently ranks second in the AAC behind No. 16 USF. They are currently on a twogame winning streak after their 4-2 victory over Cincinnati. “We know Tulsa’s a very good team,” senior captain Lucas Baldin said. “They’ve had a very good program for a very long time. It’s conference play now; we’ve got to get everybody together and it’s going to be a very important game for us.” The Golden Hurricane pulled the upset by beating the No. 14 Virginia Cavaliers earlier this season in double overtime. “It’s always nice to have a good opponent because it means we have to step our game up,” senior forward Tyler Blackwood said. “They’ve beaten good teams, so it’s a good test; it makes us raise our level of play.” In Saturday’s game against
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Men’s Soccer
Senior midfielder Lucas Baldin has played a big role in the USF offense lately by recording an assist in each of the past five games. ORACLE FILE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU Temple, the USF goalkeepers did rhythm and playing style. not record a single save due to “I believe everybody is contribthe constant pressure of the USF uting in their own way,” Baldin defense. said. “As you can see from the last “The defense has been unbe- game, everybody went in, so every lievable with the shutouts these player is important to this team. last few games,” Blackwood said. Everybody is putting in good effort, “Our defense hasn’t been giving so that is why we are getting these our keepers anything to do; they’re wins.” sitting there having a cup of tea. The seniors have led the way for But again, these guys are feared the Bulls recently, with Blackwood in the league. Who would want to contributing four goals last week come here and play against our and Baldin recording one assist per defense?” game in five straight matches. After stumbling to a 2-2 start to The Bulls play Tulsa tonight at the season, the team has found its 7:30 in Corbett Stadium.
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visibly excited players has been sophomore quarterback Mike White. “I haven’t seen a frown on (White’s) face all week,” Taggart said. “He’s walking around fired up.” Davis’ return marks the first time that all USF starters will be healthy since the opening game. When he was out, he spent his time studying film and breaking down defensive coverage, which he said has taught him more about the game. “I actually know how to prepare even better, like seeing coverages and how to get open on routes,” Davis said. Chandler will also rejoin the team after sitting out against Wisconsin after he took a gloved finger to the eye at practice. He couldn’t play because he had yet to regain vision in his right eye after the incident. Taggart’s recruiting USF added four-star Stanford
transfer Reilly Gibbons in its bye week, and while he is a highly regarded player, Taggart said this isn’t how he wants to build his program. “We don’t want to be that program where guys go off somewhere else and then want to come back home,” Taggart said. “We’re not going to build it that way. It’s important to have kids that want to be here.” But bringing talent back to Tampa has already proven to be a strong suit for Taggart, after being able to recruit junior safety Jamie Byrd and sophomore wide receiver Rodney Adams, as well as Gibbons. Taggart said he’s able to get these players back to Tampa by maintaining good relationships, even though they didn’t originally choose to play for USF. “We don’t ever burn any bridges,” Taggart said. “You hear stories about coaches that get ticked off and go off on a kid because they don’t come to your school. That’s not the right thing to do, we don’t get bent out of shape over losing guys.”
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Too much pumpkin in the patch gotten a little out of hand and it needs to stop. Coffee is one thing, but when people started losing their minds after a rumor of pumpkinspice condoms hit Twitter, it had clearly become too much. According to the marketing firm Nielsen, U.S. sales of pumpkin-flavored products increased by 18.8 percent between 2012 and 2013. Additionally, pumpkin sales brought in over $290 million in 2012. Though pumpkin coffee, cakes and beer seem to be flying off shelves, Nielsen reports pumpkin pie filling still ranks supreme, holding 42.7 percent of all pumpkin sales. Starbucks has sold over 200 million PSL’s to date, making it the most popular seasonal drink they offer. However, Starbucks managed to offend vegans by not offering a dairy free option, sparking a change.org petition. In 2012, one Starbucks customer tweeted “My world almost ended this morning when the local Starbucks
Brandon Shaik COLU M N I ST
The beginning of autumn ushers in cooler weather, unnecessary Ugg boots, a higher frequency of scarves in Instagram selfies and, of course, pumpkin-spice flavored everything — seriously, everything. Pumpkin pie is a staple on the tables of many households during the fall season, but when Starbucks introduced the revered Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL) in 2003, a mania commenced that led to pumpkin-flavored bagels, gum, Greek yogurt and vodka. This cultish obsession that everyone seems to have with gourd-flavored products has
the Oracle
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What you said Correspondents Katelyn Montagna and Sebastian Contento asked students why they should vote in the upcoming November elections.
told me they were out of the Pumpkin Spice Latte,” according to The Wall Street Journal. People are getting genuinely angry over pumpkin, equating a lack of caffeinated artificial pumpkin flavoring with a personal apocalypse. The Internet has taken full advantage of the ludicrous craze, creating fake products to cover all of the basics: pumpkin spice iPhone 6, pumpkin spice yoga pants and a pumpkin spice Michael Kors bag. However, these don’t really seem too far off from reality. Next year, the arrival of the PSL will probably happen in mid-July, giving everyone an excuse to throw on flannel and pretend they aren’t suffering from heatstroke. For now, enthusiasts can soak up every bit of the nauseating pumpkin-flavored products while everyone else can surely expect pumpkin spice toothpaste to hit stores next fall.
“It gives me rights in my daily life as a Florida citizen. For instance, I’m glad my vote has an impact on the state’s decision to pass a law or not. If I decided not to vote, I am deciding not to care.” — Shirley Zitan, a senior majoring in psychology and biology “Being able to vote on circumstances regarding issues like medicinal marijuana give me the right as a citizen to care about what goes on in the state.” — David Lee, a junior majoring in biomedical sciences “I do think it’s important, but more importantly, I think students should be educated on what laws and who they are voting for.”
Brandon Shaik is a senior majoring in psychology.
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“It’s important to vote because not voting will have an impact on the results just as much as voting. One vote could determine the outcome of the winner in a negative way.” — Tuyetnhung Nguyen, a junior majoring in biology
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Football
Bulls trying to bring the ‘buzz back’
By Vinnie Portell S P O R T S
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USF hasn’t won against a ranked opponent since it defeated Notre Dame in the opening game of the 2011 season. Senior nose tackle Todd Chandler said he remembers the campus was full of excitement and that’s something he wants to bring back in his final season at USF. “This will be a great week to get us a win, not only to be number one in our conference, but to beat a ranked team and get that buzz back at USF,” Chandler said. While the players are hoping to get the campus excited about the team, coach Willie Taggart is more concerned with just getting back in the win column. “Where we’re at right now, you should be excited about any win,” Taggart said. “Whether it’s a ranked team or not, it’s a game and you want to win it – and it’s a confer-
ence game.” A win for the Bulls over No. 19 East Carolina would keep them atop the AAC standings, but it would also give the team what it has been craving: confidence. “The more we win, the more confidence our guys get,” Taggart said. “When you win a game you’re not expected to win, it gives you tremendous confidence. I think if there’s anything our football team needs, from a mental standpoint, it’s that.” As far as what it would take for the Bulls to pull off the upset, Taggart was clear that the Bulls will have no room for mistakes. “We need to go out and have a perfect game,” he said. “That’s what it takes to win games like this, with teams that can score as fast as they Senior nose tackle Todd Chandler is returning to the starting lineup against East Carolina on Saturday can, and playing with the con- after recovering from an eye injury. ORACLE FILE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU fidence they have. You have to in the season opener against “You can just see it in our guys up. I see a difference in be able to match it.” Western Carolina, senior wide guys now in practice, just fly- our offense, just with his presreceiver Andre Davis will return ing around out there and hav- ence being around.” Bulls finally healthy to action Saturday, which is ing fun,” Taggart said. “(Davis Taggart said one of the most something his teammates are has) been making some of the n See BUZZ on PAGE 5 After bruising his sternum certainly looking forward to. catches he makes and it fires
Men’s Golf
Men’s golf disappointed with fifth place finish By Jacob Hoag A S S T .
S P O R T S
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USF men’s golf entered this weekend ranked eighth in the country after placing first and second in its first two events. The Bulls had another strong showing over the weekend at the Erin Hills Collegiate hosted by Marquette, placing fifth out of 11 teams. However, coach Steven Bradley said the showing was disappointing and not up to the team’s potential. “We finished fifth, but at one point we were in third,” Bradley said. “There’s obviously some good to take away from it, but we’re pretty disappointed with how we finished.” The cold and windy weather
played a factor in the team’s ability to produce consistent rounds, but Bradley said the team has to learn how to adjust. “The weather conditions never got above 46 degrees, and for us, we’re not used to playing in those conditions,” Bradley said. “You’d like to think we could handle those things, but if you don’t ever get a chance to practice in those conditions, it takes its toll on you.” Junior Chase Koepka didn’t card a single bogey, shooting a 6-under par 66 in the final round — a tournament low — to jump him into a tie for fourth place after shooting a combined 5-over in the first two rounds. “(Koepka) played solid,” Bradley said. “I think he hit every fair-
way and 15 greens, so he never really gave himself any trouble out there.” Koepka led the field in birdies (12), as well as making par on 34 of 54 holes. Koepka notched his first win of the season in the team’s first event, but struggled in the following tournament. He has had a roller coaster year so far, but Bradley expects him to gain momentum. “With the first event that he won, I think he just got frustrated and wanted to win again,” Bradley said. “When he wasn’t playing well, it just frustrated him more, but he just has to manage his expectations week in and week out and know that they’ll change a little bit.”
Sophomore Rigel Fernandes was the only other Bull to finish in the top-15, shooting 5-over for the tournament, landing him in a tie for 14th. Senior Trey Valentine and freshman Claudio Correa also had strong showings; both finished 29th out of 66 golfers. “The team has as much talent and firepower as anybody in the country,” Bradley said. “We’ve just have to play smart and be flexible to change our game plan to the conditions without beating ourselves.” With first, second and now fifth place finishes under their belt, the Bulls look to build momentum as they look forward to their next event, the Gifford Collegiate in San Martin, California on Nov. 3-5.
Junior Chase Koepka tied for fourth in the tournament. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE/ GOUSFBULLS.COM