THE ORACLE
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U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H F L O R I DA
UP has ‘High Hopes’ for new CBS lip-sync competition
By Jesse Stokes E D I T O R
I N
C H I E F
The University Police Department (UP) is used to facing challenges. But this challenge is different. Though it was not called out, UP challenged themselves to participate in the “Lip Sync to the Rescue” trend. Now, they are the last police department in the state still in the competition. When they decided to participate in a viral lip-sync trend earlier this year, officers Hector Torres and Allyson Cravero knew they would be stepping outside of their comfort zones. “The fact that CBS even reached out to us in the first place was a If chosen to be in the top 10, UP will be featured in a national lip-sync competition on CBS which will shock, let alone one of the top 30 chosen,” Cravero said. “We were be hosted by Cedric the Entertainer. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE/UNIVERSITY POLICE DEPARTMENT reaching all of these other videos while we were researching and department was informed that hosted by Cedric the Entertainer. department was challenged by thinking of what to do and there out of the 30 finalists, 10 will be Currently, viewers can vote for engaging with the community and was a lot of other good ones out featured on the CBS special over their favorite of the 30 online and other departments on campus. there, so it was really shocking.” the summer, where the winner will be able to vote live during the “We did our best to have the Audrey Clarke, a university of the competition will then be CBS special from the top 10. community in the video with us spokesperson, said that the announced. The show will be The next way that the — interacting with the students
and staff and Rocky of course — hopefully, they know that we are here for them and hopefully they will be here for us too and vote,” Cravero said. Torres said he hopes the video will help the USF community to know that he and his fellow officers are approachable and that if they see something, they should say something. “We want (the community) to feel safe where they live and where they go to school … sometimes if someone is unapproachable, you may not necessarily say something if you see something,” Torres said. “We want them to know that we are just like them, we just put a uniform on.” Cravero said that the song the department lip synced, High Hopes by Panic! At The Disco, was chosen for a reason. “One of the biggest things with the song that we chose was the
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SG makes cuts to funding for MSC, Campus Rec
By Alyssa Stewart N E W S
E D I T O R
After the Student Government’s (SG) Activity and Service Recommendation Committee (ASRC) finished approving the initial budgets for the 2019-20 fiscal year, it realized major changes would have to be made. ASRC overallocated $1.5
million of the budget to its departments and student organizations. In order to solve this issue, Sen. Yusuf Fattah said ASRC first made the decision to make reductions within their own department. “We were in a hole, quite a big one,” Fattah said. “So we decided that SG and its entities would take a five percent
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reduction from operations (which handles items like payroll), 10 percent cut to programming and a 10 percent travel reduction.” With the help of the Assistant Vice President of Student Success Paul Dosal and the Associate Vice Presidents, the budget was reduced to $600,000. However, that still meant
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ASRC would have to reduce the allocations for its largest departments. The Marshall Student Center’s initial funding would be reduced by $173,000 and Campus Recreation would be reduced by $82,000. On top of that, the funding for student organizations would be cut by two percent. Dean of Students Danielle McDonald could sense that the
FOCAL POINTS 7
decision to reduce the funding for the departments did not come lightly. “Many people did not agree with those reductions,” McDonald said. “Some were worried about whether there would have to be reduced hours and felt like students would be upset with that.”
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The Oracle THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1966
Editor in Chief Jesse Stokes @JesseStokes813
Managing Editor Maria Ranoni @ByMariaRanoni
Associate Editor Sam Newlon @newlon_sam
News Editor
Alyssa Stewart
Assistant Sports Editor Brian Hattab
Opinion Editor
Aida Vazquez-Soto
Staff Writers
Leda Alvim Amelio Nazarko Jared Sellick
Graphic Artists Avery Dyen Jessica Thornton
Advertising Sales Kayley Alsina Victoria Arama Katelyn Williams
The Oracle is published Monday and Thursday during the fall and spring semesters, and once weekly, Wednesday, 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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CORRECTIONS The Oracle will correct or clarify factual errors. Contact Editor in Chief Jesse Stokes at 974-5190.
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BUDGET
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Officer Hector Torres helped plan the video along with his peer Allyson Cravero. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE/UNIVERSITY POLICE DEPARTMENT
LIP SYNC
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lyrics being ‘High Hopes,’ that is kind of what we ran with,” Cravero said. “In police work and with first responders, you have got to have high hopes for the job that we do and have high hopes for our community too.” In the video, viewers will see all sorts of police units — vehicles, bikes and even a marine unit. “We wanted to show our interaction with the community as well as showcase our department,” Cravero said. “We wanted to show the world that we are here.” Cravero said the department uses the marine unit to aid other local departments with the Gasparilla weekend events, as well as other tasks throughout the year. The entire process of planning, shooting and producing the video took roughly six weeks, Cravero said. Just shooting the video took roughly two weeks by itself, because not all of the officers featured in it are on the same schedules. Torres added that some officers came in during their days off to accommodate the plan.
Members from Innovative Education shot, produced and directed the video, Clarke said. Cravero added that doing the videos brought a lot of laughs to her and her peers, as well as allowed them the opportunity to engage with students, some even by happenstance. She said that one student was asked to be in the video and said he could do a backflip. Then, another student saw it and he too said he could do a backflip. Which is how the double backflip in unison came to be in the video. Torres said that above all else, he has high hopes that viewers will vote for UP to go one to the top 10 of the competition and that this likely won’t be the last of communityengaging activities the department participates in. “Who knows, we might throw a concert for USF next year,” Torres joked. “It seems like a trend now. We did an internal video last year that was for our Christmas party and we did this one this year, so what’s for next year? We don’t even know yet.”
McDonald said Campus Recreation was able to reduce its programming budget by $13,000, operations by $50,000 and administration by about $19,000 in order to get the $82,000 cut. Interim Director of Campus Recreation Chris Marks said the department will have to reduce some of its hours of operations but the employment should remain the same. “The only reduction of hours will take place at the Fit during summer when less students are living in the Village. All programs and facilities will maintain the same operating hours as the current fiscal year from August 2019 until May 2020,” Marks said in an interview with The Oracle. “The same number of students, approximately 500, will continue to be employed through the department.” Marks said any funding that was going to go toward treadmills or equipment had to be reduced. “Campus Rec has a large inventory of fitness equipment at the three fitness facilities as well as equipment to maintain 16 fields,” Marks said. “The reduction on this category will be challenging but Campus Rec has a great staff and should make it work.” In order to help proportion the budget further, ASRC had to vote on two options: To cut Campus Recreation a larger amount or to cut the Center for Student Involvement (CSI) further. An adapted version of option two was decided. ASRC originally planned to cut $60,000 from CSI. However, due to the department’s impact on campus, they took $90,000 out of SG’s unrestricted reserve account and gave it back to CSI. ASRC was also able to allocate
The Marshall Student Center was cut by $173,000 and Campus Recreation was cut by $82,000. ORACLE PHOTO/LEDA ALVIM $8,038 to the MSC. The unrestricted reserve account currently has $750,000. Its purpose is to fund payroll, programming, and new initiatives for SG. “That $90,000 would have done a lot better funding students than sitting in a bank account for a year,” Fattah said. However, ASRC Chair Yousef Afifi had initial concerns about taking money from the account because it was already reduced from $1.5 million to $750,000. “I wasn’t completely on board with taking from the unreserved account because it was cut almost by half, but at the end of the day if that $90,000 balances our budget and if that’s the decision the (ASRC) committee made, then that is a decision I will stand by,” Afifi said. McDonald said that the decision to reallocate CSI was made because the senators did not want to sacrifice USF traditions. “They didn’t want the homecoming concert and Bullstock to be jeopardized,” McDonald said. “ASRC wanted to make sure that it was at least funded to a level that it was at this year,”
However, McDonald said she understands why some senators would want to protect the SG account. “It’s a tough position, some of the decisions ASRC made by keeping the (unrestricted) reserve money, could have changed some things,” McDonald said. “They wanted to protect it for new things that may come up throughout the year.” McDonald said the Senators were put in a position where they had to figure out how to fund new initiatives and added costs when no new money is coming in. Some of these added costs could include utilities that operate the building, increased minimum wage, purchasing new items and funding new organizations. “There are things I could do different, and things ASRC probably would have done different,” McDonald said. “There are still improvements that need to be managed better, but $17 million is worth spending some time debating. “It is their process and hopefully they feel like they represented the student body in a way they are proud of.”
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Research to Evaluate New Tinnitus Treatment Apps
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received last year for wearing circa-1998 Devil Rays jerseys to commemorate the franchise’s 20th anniversary. It was so popular, the Rays are bringing it back this year for several games. The cap the Rays wore with the 1998 jerseys, which isn’t a true throwback as much as it’s an homage to 1998, has been a best-seller on MLBShop.com since it was released and was next to impossible to find in stores for months after that initial release. Which brings up perhaps the most important point — USF could make a ton of money selling throwback merchandise. Using the Rays as an example again, their top-selling jersey online is a throwback Wade Boggs batting practice jersey from 1998. Their No. 3 top-
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selling t-shirt is a shirt with the 1998 cap insignia. By all modern standards, the Devil Rays logo from 1998 is outdated and pretty terrible looking. But people have been opening their wallets like crazy to purchase items with it. It feels like a pretty safe assumption to say USF could have similar results with its similarly horrendously outdated logo from the 1990s. There’s something to be said about a good logo. USF Athletics’ current mark is so good, the university itself was using it for branding purposes for several years before introducing the new academic logo in September 2018. But much like Rome wasn’t built in a day, USF wasn’t built in 2003. It’s time to honor the past — even if it’s the not so aesthetically clean past.
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OPINION
U N I V E RS I T Y O F S OU T H F L O R I DA
What is necessary for successful SG leadership
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By Aida Vazquez-Soto O P I N I O N
E D I T O R
Over the course of two meetings last week, the Student Government (SG) Senate elected new leadership for the 2019-20 school year. Bringing a mix of experienced leaders and fresh faces, there is much to be optimistic about. Whereas, SG is emerging from two years marred by controversies in funding and spending, there now exists an opportunity to move forward in a positive and strong direction. This year the Senate become embroiled in two distinct controversies. Following a stiff funding process for the 2018-19 year that resulted in funding cuts to many departments, SG attempted Next year’s SG leadership needs to stay away from the controversies to fund and host a Correspondents that their predecessors faced. ORACLE PHOTO/LEDA ALVIM Dinner and a Student Government conference. endowment was necessary to raising fees and collecting money The backlash that followed, compensate for a lack of Activity through traditional channels, given especially with respect to the $7,800 and Service Fee (A&S) increases that they and administration are price tag on the dinner, left SG in recent years, the reaction was willing to work together in a good struggling to deal with justifying an again one of feeling that SG was faith way. Senate leadership should event that students felt was exclusive, out of step with its message of fiscal seize the moment and take the first overpriced and hypocritical. responsibility and equity. step toward that partnership. The dinner ultimately occurred Here, Senate leadership will be A positive relationship with the without the additional funding— faced with a unique opportunity. administration will reap rewards for Student Body President Moneer The selection of a new USF SG and students. Senate leadership Kheireddine opted to veto the System President in Steven Currall should pursue that. bill when it came to his desk for and the election of Gov. Ron The path to a Senate that works approval. DeSantis (R) offers a fresh chance for the students starts with its The new leadership should take to call together the Local Fee leadership. The individuals elected note. Recommendation Committee, the to lead this term are diverse leaders Students might be persuaded group charged with recommending who understand the sacrifice to understand cuts to funding an A&S fee increase to the state of that comes with the position and programs and departments but Florida for approval. that leadership is not about selfSG must hold itself to the same The committee must be called to aggrandizement. standard. order by the USF system president, This year we can and should hope Similarly, during my time as irrespective of SG. Current System to see that play out to the benefit of a senator during the 2018-2019 President Judy Genshaft has been SG, to the benefit of students and to funding process, outrage emerged tepid about bringing the committee the benefit of the USF community over the inclusion of a $1.375 million together, likely due to previous Gov. as a whole. endowment. This came in the Rick Scott’s (R) campaign promise to midst of the previously mentioned keep tuition from rising in Florida. Aida Vazquez-Soto is a senior funding cuts. A new governor and a new majoring in political science and While SG argued that the president means SG could go about economics.
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Woods’ comeback is now part of golf lore, but it’s not a story of redemption By Sam Newlon A S S O C I A T E
E D I T O R
Tiger Woods is back. Finally, millions of fans were able to imitate Woods’ iconic fist pump when he won his fifth Masters title and his 15th major championship. But what exactly was everyone celebrating? Was it the fact that the final round of the 2019 Masters featured some of the best golf we saw all season? Or was it that Woods played well enough to stay a step behind Francesco Molinari, who went 49 holes without shooting over par? A New York Times article called Woods’ victory at Augusta a comeback from adversity. Was it? The 2019 Masters was objectively one of the best and most entertaining editions of the tournament. Woods won by just one stroke at -13 while three other golfers tied for second place just one stroke behind him at -12. Certainly, Woods’ Sunday comeback will be etched in PGA history, but adversity? Late in 2009, Woods was caught in an infidelity scandal that involved several women. The most recent incident for Woods came in 2017 when he was arrested on suspicion of a DUI. These low-points are not examples of adversity. In these incidents, Woods made choices to do wrong. What Woods couldn’t control, however, were his injuries. He underwent reconstructive ACL surgery in 2008 then sprained his MCL afterward, causing him to miss three months of play. A pinched nerve in Woods’ back and a spinal fusion surgery dropped him even further down the world golf rankings. His battle with injuries can be considered adversity, but there are plenty of athletes who deal with being hurt
and the rehabilitation process that comes with it. CBS Broadcaster Jim Nantz has covered Super Bowls, Peyton Manning’s farewell and 34 Final Fours. Nantz was even broadcasting when Arnold Palmer played in his final Masters Tournament in 2004. He told The Washington Post that Woods’ win Sunday was “the best event I’ve ever covered.” What has made Woods’ return to the forefront of golf to infatuating? Some have called Woods’ win a tale of redemption while others have called it a story of revenge. Except it’s neither. This is a story about passion. There is no “Tiger Woods” without golf. Professional golf and Woods are nearly synonymous, and he will remain as one of golf’s most iconic figures, especially whenever he is able to wear red on Sundays. Why would anyone go through several surgeries, rehabilitation and subject themselves to public scrutiny and potential embarrassment from people dredging up mistakes from a decade ago like I am now? The simple answer, the only answer, it seems, is that Woods loves the game of golf and he will probably continue playing until his body won’t let him — even with surgeries. Even without his most recent title, Woods is a golf legend. He’s already made plenty of money from winnings and sponsorships. Based on media coverage of the 2019 Masters, Woods’ reputation even seems to be restored. So what does he have left to play for? The answer was evident when Woods sunk a bogey putt to finally win again. Both hands flew in the air and he embraced his caddy and said, “we did it,” while smiling ear to ear.
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Squirrels, students ‘Go Nuts’ over vending machine art project
By Sam Newlon A S S O C I A T E
E D I T O R
Her arms felt like Jell-O after she finally placed her 15-pound creation next to a full-sized vending machine at the Fine Arts Building at USF. Cassie Jacobsen took a step back to make sure her sculpture was in the best position. The open-faced black box made of wood with a metal exterior had a decal along the right side with a fake keypad and a colorful background with two words across the miniature panel: “Go Nuts!” Before she left, Jacobsen stocked the box with walnuts. The project for her sculpture class that started as a joke among her friends was now finished — a vending machine for the squirrels at USF. “The idea came in passing when I was talking with some classmates,” Jacobsen said. “I was like ‘Oh, a vending machine for squirrels,’ because we saw that the squirrels were everywhere.” While it was simply a joke at first, Jacobsen latched on to the idea and decided to make it for the class. She couldn’t have guessed what happened next. Pictures of Jacobsen’s project started circulating around Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and people throughout the art building were talking about how clever it was. The USF School of Art and Art History’s Facebook post had more than 4,000 interactions on the post. Jacobsen’s project became so popular, she had strangers complimenting her work.
“Honestly, it was kind of overwhelming the first day that I found out it had blown up,” Jacobsen said. “Now it’s just something that happened and it’s not overwhelming anymore.” Despite her humorous, popular idea for a sculpture, Jacobsen isn’t interested in pursuing a career in that area of art. She’s most passionate about animation. Jacobsen transferred to USF this year after taking classes in Green Bay, Wisc. because she simply wanted to get out of the state. Her father lives in Tampa and USF was among one of Jacobsen’s best, most affordable choices, she said. But even choosing to study art was a risk. “I feel like art school is kind of a waste of money,” Jacobsen said. “I feel like you can learn things anywhere. You don’t need to go someplace that’s exclusively for art.” Tuition at FSU’s Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota is $42,330, but Jacobsen is able to pay in-state tuition at USF instead. She believes that, although art school can be considered a waste, the degree she is working toward will pay off. “My dad tells me to make sure I get something good paying in my field,” Jacobsen said. “I feel like nowadays, especially with technology, you use animation for a lot of things. It’s not just movies. Graphic design companies use animation for commercials all the time.” Jacobsen has tried straying away from art but hasn’t had much
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USF student Cassie Jacobsen placed a miniature vending machine for squirrels next to a traditional vending machine for a class art project. COURTESY USF SCHOOL OF ART & ART HISTORY success. It seems like she’s always pulled back into this passion of hers. “Every time I wanted to try something different, I always came back to making art,” she said. Jacobsen said she will likely leave the squirrel-sized vending machine in its place until the end of the
semester, but the cost of stocking the box with walnuts is becoming a nuisance — the vending machine has been a hit with the animals. “I should retire now because I’m never going to make anything better than this,” Jacobsen joked. As for her grade on the project, Jacobsen said the only
feedback her professor had was a recommendation to put lights inside the vending machine so its contents could be illuminated at night. “I think I’m going to get a pretty good grade,” she said.
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Baseball
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Checking in midseason with USF Baseball
By Nolan Brown
C O R R E S P O N D E N T
USF baseball is currently 2-10 in the AAC and sitting at rock bottom in conference standings — a stark contrast from coach Billy Mohl’s first season with the Bulls when they finished second in the AAC and made a run in the NCAA Regional Tournament. The Bulls’ conference schedule is halfway over, and with four conference series left to play and zero series wins for USF so far, it may prove a challenge for the Bulls to make the AAC Tournament — the top eight teams make the conference tournament and the Bulls are ranked ninth. The Bulls have been swept twice this season, once against No. 15 ECU and again against Tulane. Last season, USF won both series 2-1, beating ECU, who was ranked No. 7. USF lost five players to the MLB Draft at the end of last season — infielders David Villar and Coco Montes, as well as pitchers Peter Strzelecki, Andrew Perez and Shane McClanahan, are all playing
professionally in some capacity. This season’s record shows that there was a void left when these players departed. Last season, the Bulls batted .292 in the AAC and Villar was the top batter with a .393 average. This season, USF is hitting .227 in the AAC and the current leader is senior Chris Chatfield who is batting .350. “Last year we swung really well, hit the best in the league,” senior Joe Genord said after Tuesday’s loss to North Florida. “This year, we’re not there but we are still a good hitting team.” In addition to this season’s hitting woes, the Bulls lost three key pitchers from last season, making another challenge from the mound. Junior pitcher Ben Koff is out with an injury for the rest of the season and the pitching rotation has been struggling with consistency. Strzelecki was USF’s most relied on pitcher last season, pitching 52.2 innings in the AAC and had a 3.75 ERA. Junior Collin Sullivan, USF’s most utilized pitcher this season with 21.2 AAC innings, has a 7.48 ERA.
Senior Alec Wisely has pitched just one inning less than Sullivan and his ERA is 9.00. Junior pitcher Noah Yager started against North Florida on Tuesday and faced just four batters before he was taken out. Mohl explained that Yager’s elbow was bothering him, which could add to the Bulls’ pitching injury woes. “We’re down a lot of pitching which is hurting,” Genord said. There are some individuals on the team who have had successful seasons. Genord and senior Kyle Phillips both rank in the top 20 for individual AAC statistics. Genord said the team need to play better as a whole despite individual success. “When we do what we need to do for the team, we play well,” Genord said. “We just sometimes get out of character and try to do too much because some guys feel, myself included, we feel we need to do more.” With 12 AAC games left to play, Genord is hoping for a midconference season surge to propel the Bulls to the AAC Tournament.
Joe Genord is statistically one of the best players in the AAC, but he says the Bulls need to play better as a team to make it to the postseason this year. ORACLE PHOTO/JOSEE WOBLE “The ultimate goal is making playoffs and, other than that, I wouldn’t be happy,” Genord said. “I think we can still pull it off…we’ll see what it holds.” So how can USF get to the
postseason this year? “We just need to find ourselves,” Genord said. “We need to get back to what we can do individually, try to win as a team…really just all around play better.”
Commentary
The case for throwback logos at USF Athletics
By Brian Hattab A S S I S T A N T
S P O R T S
E D I T O R
2003 was a transformative year for the University of South Florida. New l o go s we re implemented on both the university’s academic and athletic sides. That 2003 academic logo is being phased out as we speak, but the athletic logo is still going strong, and it’s hard to see it ever being replaced. If
you think people were angry about the new academic logo, replacing the ‘Iconic U’ would make that anger seem like child’s play. But let’s not ignore history — it was far from USF Athletics’ first logo. Between 1997 and 2003, a logo I like to derisively refer to as “Robo Bull” — seriously, it has red eyes! — was used by USF Athletics. By all metrics, it was a pretty terrible logo and students at
the time hated it. But it’s still a part of USF’s history, and it’s past time USF acknowledges it again. Think of the possibility of a throwback night, either at a football or basketball game. Basketball could even breakout a throwback court for the occasion to match throwback uniforms and logos. USF could pair it with alumni nights. How cool would it be to honor Chad Barnhardt, USF football’s first
starting quarterback, then see Blake Barnett wearing the same jersey Barnhardt wore during his tenure at the brand new program? It would be amazing from a fan perspective. People love nostalgia. There’s also precedent for this in the AAC. Memphis wore throwback jerseys in men’s basketball against SMU earlier this year — so throwback that the jerseys were actually from an era when the university
was known as Memphis State. Memphis fans loved it, and who can blame them? UCF football wore throwback helmets during its homecoming game in 2018. It, like Memphis’ basketball jerseys, was a popular move and was a way to engage the past and present, which is what homecoming night is all about. Locally, look at the reception the Tampa Bay Rays
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