The Oracle WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014 I VOL. 52 NO. 56
Inside this Issue
The Index
News.................................................................1 Lifestyle......................................................4 Opinion.......................................................6
www.usforacle.com
classifieds..............................................7 Crossword.........................................7 sports............................................................8
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
Students protest police brutality By Chelsea Mulligan S T A F F
LI F E STYLE
Language classes take students back in time. Page 4
Montage
S PORTS Bulls struggle with fouls in loss to Alabama. BACK
W R I T E R
Students gathered outside Cooper Hall on Tuesday in solidarity with protesters across the country to demonstrate against police who act with an excessive use of force. The demonstration took place in the wake of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri and the decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson for the shooting. The students initially stood in silent protest. They held signs that brought attention to their objections, with slogans such as “Doing Nothing, Saying Nothing, Changes Nothing” and “You are a sheep if you think we live in a post-racist society.” Many signs included hashtags such as “#USF4HumanRights” and “#BlackLivesMatter.”
n See PROTEST on PAGE 2
Students stood outside Cooper Hall on Tuesday protesting police violence against minorities, recently escalated by the verdict not to indict an officer in Ferguson, Missouri. ORACLE PHOTO/SEBASTIAN CONTENTO
New contract to benefit graduate assistants By Wesley Higgins N E W S
USF Graduate Assistant Union votes today on a contract negotiated at the collective bargaining meeting on Nov. 19. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE
E D I T O R
Graduate assistants, the unsung heroes of writing lesson plans and grading papers, will likely receive more recognition from the university soon — at least financially. The USF Graduate Assistant Union (USF GAU) is voting today on the 2014-17 contract that university negotiators approved at the collective bargaining meeting last week. “We think overwhelmingly that this bargaining session was a positive outcome for the GAs on campus,” said Megan Flocken, USF GAU co-president and a graduate assistant (GA) for the philosophy department. If the union members pass the contract, and the Board of Trustees also does so later in the month, then the new pro-
visions will include significant changes, including support for union operations, unpaid leave for family medical emergencies and a one-time bonus. The university agreed to a one-time, tax-free bonus of $500 for all GAs who work at least 20 hours a week. “It will really help us through the holiday season,” Flocken said. “Any amount of money in the pocket is a great victory.” GAs who work fewer hours would still receive a prorated bonus. For example, a person working 10 hours a week would receive $250. Those who work more than 20 hours, however, would not receive more than $500. During the first bargaining meeting in summer, the USF GAU demanded a $700 stipend increase for full-time GAs. Instead, the university
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PROTEST
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Then students began shouting “No justice, no peace, no racist police” and marching toward the MLK Plaza while chanting “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot.” Additional demonstrators joined in during the procession. The event was organized by Amnesty International at USF, but a number of other groups spoke during the protest, such as Students for a Democratic Society, Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Student Association. The student groups gave speeches on racism and police violence to a crowd of about 30 people made up of organization members and bystanders. The first speaker, Zaid Dabus, a freshman majoring in finance and the president of the USF chapter of Amnesty International, said he organized the event after members of the organization brought the issue to his attention. After doing some research,
CONTRACT
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offered the bonus. Those at the master’s level are currently paid $10,580 and those at the doctorate level earn $11,855. Negotiators also agreed to six weeks of unpaid family medical leave, including time off in the event of an emergency involving a dependent or spouse. “Say if someone had a baby in the middle of the semester, they might lose not only their appointment but also their health insurance,” Flocken said. “Without this written, it placed GAs in an incredibly precarious position.” GAs do not currently have any unpaid leave options, though they are allowed five days of paid leave. In addition, the university would allow GAU personnel more time to conduct union business without infringing on the time of their respective college department. “The administration showed us that they will support the
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Dabus discovered that Amnesty International had strong opinions on Brown’s death. According to Dabus, the Amnesty International-led USF demonstration was a peaceful protest against police brutality. Dabus said any signs and chants were not the product of Amnesty International, but representative of individual viewpoints. The demonstration brought out a variety of opinions and attracted a crowd outside Cooper. James Kramer, a political science major and a member of Students for a Democratic Society and Students for Justice in Palestine, said he was demonstrating against racial inequality and police militarization. “Human lives are human lives,” he said. “We all need to be protected the same way.” Danya Zituni, a member of two of the participating organizations and an international studies major, spoke on behalf of Students for Justice in Palestine regarding historical and current connections between Palestinians and African-Americans.
“When I stand with the people of Ferguson, I regard them as fellow Palestinians, because our common goal is to live in peace and not to fear for our children’s lives when they are walking down the street,” she said. “Racism is what drives the violence that we see both in Palestine and in Ferguson.” A chant of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous quote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” erupted during the final speech. Some groups of students walking past Cooper could be heard discussing and disagreeing among themselves. Connor Lawler, a student majoring in biomedical sciences, said the police officer was simply trying to do his job. “What would you do?” he asked. The demonstrators have planned an additional protest for Friday and handed out flyers for a discussion panel entitled “Could Ferguson Happen Here, Should Ferguson Happen Here?” set to take place at 4 p.m. on Sunday at the Uhuru House on 18th Avenue South in St. Pete.
union so that GAs don’t have to choose between their professionalization in their own academic discipline or working for the union,” Flocken said. “We can do both.” Another revision would ensure that health insurance — for GAs working at least 10 hours a week — is fully covered, and rising premiums are continually matched. The total cost to the university for the increased coverage for more than 2,000 graduate assistants would be roughly $365,000, according to Kofi Glover, USF vice provost of Human Resources and Facilities. “It’s one last thing we don’t have to bargain every year for,” Flocken said. Language was also included to make sure GAs enrolled in health care would not accidently lose coverage at the start of a new semester. The university also agreed to give an official office space for the union. “We were nowhere. We were basically meeting in different GA department spaces across campus wherever we could
find them,” she said. “That made it incredibly difficult to hold office hours.” The university agreed to most of this year’s demands. During collective bargaining, Glover said that every time the GAU makes demands, the university gives more than asked. “The point I’m trying to make is that the university is very conscious to invest in its graduate students,” he said. “We go beyond what you ask for and what your expectations are.” “You should thank me personally,” Glover joked at the end of negotiations. Next year’s negotiations will begin in the early summer, where the GAU may bring three issues for negotiation. An increased stipend is always an obvious request, Flocken said. The demand to reduce or eliminate fees, such as when signing up for classes, may also be brought back to the table, as the university rejected it this year. “We’ll listen to our members to hear what issues they care about,” Flocken said. “We work from the bottom up.”
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Protesters marched toward MLK Plaza on Tuesday with their hands up, symbolizing Michael Brown’s alleged surrender before an officer shot him in Ferguson, Missouri. ORACLE PHOTO/SEBASTIAN CONTENTO
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LANGUAGE
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“I think it’s really eye opening to learn the older forms and see how what was old has become new again,” Discenza said. She said Modern English is very similar to Middle English because of the variety of dialects. Old and Middle English were not standardized and, though they were contained on a single small island, included various written dialects. Today the English language is broken up on a global scale into standardized dialects such as Singaporean English, American English, and British English. “There’s a great value in studying language, and sometimes ancient languages, or so-called ‘dead languages’
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get undervalued,” Discenza said. “I think it really informs our understanding of language and our understanding of people and cultures as well.” Kantzios said studying classical languages is important in modern society, especially when it comes to modern religion. “I believe that if all those denominations (and) all the people who belong to those denominations were able to access the Bible in the original, there would be much less misunderstanding,” Kantzios said. “Not only that, but sometimes there is … multifaceted-ness in the Greek words that sometimes does not transfer into English. “In the St. John’s, ‘In the beginning there was the world,’ that’s how we translate it, but the ‘world’ in Greek
is logos. Logos, it may mean ‘world,’ but it also means ‘reason.’ Those things, when you transfer them from Greek into English, those nuances disappear.” Classical societies and languages are entwined in American culture. Polt said that it is impossible to throw a stone in the U.S. without hitting something classically inspired. “It is important to preserve the original languages because we are so much dependent in the past,” Kantzios said. “We cannot escape our past, we can learn from our past and we can use it in a way that will be helpful and active. The past is here with us, either we can learn and utilize and not have to reinvent the wheel, or we just start from square one.”
Lifestyle
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
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‘Dead languages’ find life at USF By Courtney Combs L I F E S T Y L E
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hen it comes to understanding modern language and literature, it pays to look back. Most students will study a second language such as French or Spanish while in college. But there are more benefits to studying languages that no one speaks anymore than students may think. “When we’re talking about dead languages, I find it almost a kind of prejudice term in one sense — in the sense that the languages are not dead, they’re just transformed or they’re mutated,” said Ippokratis Kantzios, a USF associate professor in the world languages department. He said the evolution of language is a process, rather than a “death and rebirth,” as many people think. Kantzios said he believes there are misconceptions about learning classical languages, such as Latin or ancient Greek. Students worry about potential careers and believe getting a degree in classics will not aid them in finding a job after graduation. “The most popular class our department – the classics program – offers is a course called Medical Terminology, which in essence is terminology based on Greek and Latin words,” Kantzios said. “Every semester we have something like 900 people taking the course. If it’s dead, why do people
care so much about that? … They’re still around, they’re still very relevant.” While it is common for students who study languages to continue on to medical or law school, Kantzios said students could do a thousand things with a degree in classics. The department’s website mentions that Mark Zuckerberg, J.K. Rowling as well as a slew of other prominent individuals studied classics.
“There’s a great value in studying language, and sometimes ancient languages, or so called ‘dead languages’ get undervalued.” Nicole Discenza USF associate professor
“The vocab obviously gives you a big leg up in STEM fields, but Latin is an intensely analytical language, it’s really strongly structured, it’s really rule based,” said Christopher Polt, another USF professor in the world languages department. “In a lot of ways, learning Latin at first is like doing a crossword puzzle mixed with algebra.” Polt said studying Latin could improve a student’s analytical skills, and their
USF professor Nicole Discenza teaches her students to read Old English during Chaucer, ENL 4311. ORACLE PHOTO / ADAM MATHIEU ability to slow down and handle complex tasks. Over 60 percent of all English vocabulary is Latin based, and another 10-15 percent is Greek. Kantzios said a majority of his students feel that studying Greek helped them understand English better. Nicole Discenza, a USF associate professor in the English department, teaches courses that cover the history of English as a language and
examine texts written in Old and Middle English. “Old English doesn’t just die off somewhere in a corner, it becomes Middle English and then Modern English,” Discenza said. “So when we learn to read those languages, we’re learning about the language we’re still speaking.” In her class on “The Canterbury Tales,” by Geoffrey Chaucer, Discenza has her students memorize
and recite the first 18 lines of the poem. She said by doing this, her students are able to better understand the sounds, syntax and vocabulary of Old English. Discenza’s History of the English Language course, ENG4060, which will be offered next semester, covers topics from Modern English dialects to Proto-IndoEuropean language.
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Football
Numbers tell real story of Bulls’ 2014 season Zach Lowie C O M M E N TA R Y
USF will spend the offseason trying to regroup and figure out what it needs to do to be somewhat competitive in the AAC in 2015. With three conference wins, the Bulls improved last year’s conference record of 2-6 by just a single game. Friday’s 16-0 loss to UCF was a good indicator that the Bulls still have a long road ahead of them on the way back to relevancy. Last year, USF went to Brighthouse Stadium in Orlando with a 2-8 overall record, taking on No. 17 UCF and future first round pick Blake Bortles. The Bulls played the game close, nearly stealing the game in a 23-20 loss. This season was a very different story. From start to finish, the Knights eliminated any chance of a USF win. Even against this weaker team with a brand new quarterback, a team that went from winning a BCS bowl last year to ending this season 8-4, the Bulls couldn’t muster up any kind of offense. “We got better from last year,” senior wide receiver Andre Davis said Friday after the game. “Last year with two wins, this year with more than two wins. It’s definitely on a good track.” However, such optimism may be undeserved. A 4-8 record doesn’t necessarily represent anything better than the 2-10 season the Bulls turned in last year. USF doubled its win total, yet the team didn’t make major statistical progress from last season. The Bulls played one less ranked opponent this year than last, had a much easier conference schedule and played underperforming teams such as UConn and SMU, whose combined record includes only two wins. The Bulls still managed to only beat Division-II Western Carolina and three AAC teams that have a combined record of 4-29 by an average of four points. USF is back at the bottom yet again in 2014.
Despite starting sophomore quarterback Mike White at the beginning of the season, coach Willie Taggart once again began another round of his quarterback carousel when he started junior Steven Bench against Houston in Week 9. Taggart had given both Bench and freshman Quinton Flowers a shot at the starting role by the season’s end. The trio failed to produce, with a combined completion average of 49 percent. On top of that, their touchdown total matched their interception total of 11, which is not a recipe for success. The switch was one that affected everyone on both sides of the ball, with no clear leader on the team. Each week the biggest question on anyone’s mind was which quarterback Taggart would start. “There are a lot of issues with our football team,” Taggart said after Friday’s loss. “We’re making those steps, but we’re not making those steps to everybody’s expectations.” Without establishing a consistent quarterback, the Bulls turned to their run game for dire offensive support. Freshman running back Marlon Mack surged out of the gate as the frontrunner, finishing the season with 1,041 yards and nine touchdowns. Even with this young talent, USF still averaged fewer than 16 points a game. Not to mention, the Bulls ranked 120 out of 128 FBS teams in total offense. To put the Bulls’ performance this season into perspective, all of the FBS teams they beat this season ranked below the Bulls in total offense at 123 (Tulane, 2-9), 126 (Connecticut, 2-9) and dead last (SMU, 0-11). What doomed the Bulls this season was their defensive unit’s regression as the season went on and its inability to make up for the offense’s lack of production. The defense gave up 324 total points on the season, ranking 68th in the country. At the start of the season, USF was ranked as one of the best defensive groups in the nation. Four weeks through the season, USF was tied for the most turnovers forced. However, poor tackling and lack of pass cover-
age led to a downward spiral in the latter part of the year. Looking at USF’s play from a statistical standpoint, it’s easy to see no improvement has been made. Total offense went from 123rd overall to 120th and defense from 74th to 68th. The win total doubled, but this team still failed to qualify for a bowl game and also couldn’t even manage a .500 record in conference play. The days when USF went to six straight bowl games and the thought of UCF beating the Bulls was more of a joke than a prediction are long gone. When it comes down to it, the Bulls aren’t improving quickly enough and need to find a way to win before they’re shut out of the national spotlight for good.
Mike White (left) and Steven Bench were two of the three quarterbacks coach Willie Taggart started this season. ORACLE FILE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU
Opinion
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
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New calorie guidelines may curb appetite for junk food still important and not as easily controlled by federal guidelines. Unfortunately, Americans still do not get vital nutrients from their home-cooked meals, as they tend to spend too much money on junk food and not enough on whole foods, according to the USDA. Home-cooked meals are, after all, only as healthy as the ingredients used to make them, and with many Americans relying on convenience foods to make “home-cooked” meals, restaurantstyle problems often follow them home. Calorie counts also ignore nutrition in favor of numbers. For instance, a spoonful of peanut butter has a few more calories than a spoonful of Nutella and often a good deal more fat. Obviously, peanut butter is healthier, but trumpeting calories over actual nutritional value can cause consumers to lose sight of that reality. In fairness, the regulations do require that restaurants provide full nutritional information upon request, but the idea of eating out at most restaurants nowadays is to save time. Thus, many Americans won’t request extra information during their 30-minute lunch break. Perhaps the biggest flaw in the
Chelsea Mulligan COLU M N I ST
The average American, according to the Calorie Control Council, consumes over 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving, along with the average holiday weight gain rolling over year after year. This is in a country where 27 percent of the population was already obese as of 2013. These statistics, along with the food-centric holiday season, suggest that the time is right to tackle the U.S.’s overeating disorder, and new FDA guidelines aim to do just that. One suggestion to curb the U.S.’ increasing girth is to require calorie labeling at a number of restaurants, vending machines, movie theaters and other retail outlets across the country, as well as online, according to the guidelines. At first, this makes sense because Americans now consume a third of their calories outside the home, according to the FDA. However, there are also a number of aspects surrounding the obesity problem that this approach misses. For one, meals at home are
the Oracle
guidelines is that there is some evidence to suggest that listing calories does not actually change consumption patterns, although some restaurants started cutting calories before the FDA regulations were formally unveiled. A Johns Hopkins’ study that revealed restaurants cutting an average of 60 calories from their 2013 menu items seems to indicate a pre-emptive strike against the now-forthcoming regulations. In this way, it seems that addressing restaurant culture is a decent first step in dramatically shifting the U.S.’s relationship with food. Restaurants and other vendors that have not already changed voluntarily have been given one year to adapt, and it will be interesting to see how U.S. consumers respond. Most of the information has been available online from various restaurants such as Wendy’s for years, but looking up the nutrition data certainly takes time that many Americans just do not have. With an extra level of convenience worked into the system, maybe Americans will start to think twice about what they eat and drink.
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What you said Multimedia editor Adam Mathieu asked students where they like to study when preparing for finals week.
“The Education Building has the IT lounge on the second floor. It’s never crowded and they have good resources.” — Keila Lopez, a senior majoring in biomedical sciences
“The Library, first floor, at three in the morning, when it is empty and quiet.” Daniel Lopez, a senior — majoring in biomedical science
“The third floor of Marshall Student Center because it’s quiet and the Library has a lot going on.”
Chelsea Mulligan is a freshman majoring in international studies.
— Darion Ezekiel, a senior majoring in exercise science
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“The Marshall Student Center or the Interdisciplinary Sciences Building. In ISA, there are random tables and it is normally quiet.” — Gage Van Gorden, a senior majoring in psychology
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Sports
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Men’s Basketball
Bulls’ fouls allow Bama to coast to victory By Vinnie Portell S P O R T S
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USF (5-2) has struggled with fouls recently, allowing an average of 32 free throw attempts over the past four games, which made it difficult for the Bulls to keep up with Alabama (5-1) in a 82-71 loss Tuesday in Tuscaloosa. Not only did the men’s basketball team foul often Tuesday night, but the fouls also came early, forcing coach Orlando Antigua to sit two of his starters earlier than usual. Junior guard Nehemias Morillo and senior guard Corey Allen Jr. were both limited to only 23 minutes on the court because of their foul troubles. Morillo fouled out of the game with 8:33 remaining on a charge and Allen ended the game with four fouls. Even though the guards were limited in their time on the court, they ended up being the two leading scor-
ers for the Bulls. Allen had 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting and Morillo had 13 points on 4-of-9 shooting. With the Bulls’ two leading scorers on the bench for most of the first half, the Crimson Tide was able to dominate the game from the start, despite a poor 3-point shooting performance. Alabama made only eight of 25 3-pointers and was outshot by USF for the game, but it was able to take advantage of the free throw attempts it was given for the Bulls’ excessive fouls. Alabama made 20 of 25 free throws, compared to the Bulls’ 9-of-19 mark. After leading by 11 at halftime, Alabama coasted through most of the second half, with USF only able to cut the deficit to eight. USF will continue its road trip with a visit to Michigan to play Detroit (5-3) on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Corey Allen Jr. led all USF players in scoring with 16 points, despite being limited to only 23 minutes due to early foul trouble. ORACLE FILE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU
Women’s Basketball
Bulls look to bounce back against Hatters By Vinnie Portell S P O R T S
Alisia Jenkins leads the Bulls in shooting percentage, making 62.1 percent of her attempts. ORACLE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU
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Coming off a four-point loss to No. 9 Kentucky in the Paradise Jam Tournament, USF (5-2) will return home to host Stetson tonight. The Hatters have compiled a 5-1 record by defeating opponents by an average of 17 points. The team’s only loss, a 54-point blowout against No. 13 Baylor, is the only blemish on an otherwise perfect start to the season for Stetson. Sophomore guard Brianti Saunders leads the Hatters with 17.2 points per game on
50.7 percent shooting. She has led the team in scoring in every game this season except for the season opener against Bethune-Cookman. USF has benefitted from the exceptional play of a guard of its own. Junior guard Courtney Williams is averaging 19.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game for the Bulls and will most likely be the go-to weapon on offense, as she has taken 37 percent of the team’s shots this season. Another key contributor for the Bulls has been forward Alisia Jenkins. The junior has averaged 13.4 points and 9.7 rebounds per game while
leading the team with a 62.1 shooting percentage. Beside Williams and Jenkins, the Bulls have a significant drop off in players they rely on heavily. The two average at least eight more minutes per game than every other player and only one other player, Laura Ferreira, has started every game this season. For the Bulls, a win tonight could push the team back into the top 25 in the nation. USF came into this week receiving votes for the top 25, but fell just short of the final spot. USF matches up against Stetson at 7 p.m. in the Sun Dome.