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The Oracle MONDAY, JUNE 15, 2015 I VOL. 52 NO. 126

Inside this Issue

University campaign passes $860 million mark on its way to $1 billion goal.

Behind the scenes of Tampa City Ballet’s production at USF. Page 4

Montage

S PORTS Four-star offensive tackle cleared to play in 2015.

BACK

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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

Unstoppable: the art and science of fundraising n

LI F E STYLE

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The Index

News.................................................................1 Lifestyle......................................................4 Opinion.......................................................6

By Grace Hoyte N E W S

E D I T O R

USF is well on its way to having raised $1 billion for its eight-year-long Unstoppable campaign. To put that in perspective, if one were to spend $1 million every day for two years, he would still not have spent $1 billion.

To date, the USF Foundation has raised over $860 million for the campaign, and Foundation CEO Joel Momberg said there is an art and science to this kind of fundraising.

The science: “In our case, we have a central staff that handles the donor base, the computer system, (and) the prospect management — in other words, who the potential donors are,” Momberg said. “You categorize those by a lot of different factors you put into the computer to see their amount of wealth, their habits, their propensity to give, and so on.”

The art side is actually reaching out to potential donors.

Momberg said each college has a certain number of “development officers,” individuals who reach out to donors.

“That officer will put them in their portfolio, and they’ll call on those particular donors and take them out to lunch, take them on tours, introduce them to students, introduce them to the deans, take them to football games,” he said.

“There are a number of different ways you would court a donor to tell them about the university.”

According to Momberg, one of the best places to attract donors is through the university’s athletics department.

Naturally, this method is most effective when a school’s teams are doing well.

“Usually, athletics are the first place (some donors will) donate to a university. They come in, see a football game, buy tickets … and they might participate in a couple events,” Momberg said. “Then they get more involved in the university and they learn about what’s going on.”

But fundraising isn’t just a matter of courting donors and then dropping them after the first gift.

“Chances are, donors who give once will give repeatedly throughout their lifetime,” he said. “So there’s a big stewardship piece to fundraising.”

In other words, the development officers continue to maintain a relationship with the donor in order to foster the possibility of further donations. What’s more, the continued relationship is not

The USF Foundation’s Unstoppable campaign has surpassed the $860 million mark for its $1 billion goal, led by Foundation CEO Joel Momberg. In the 2013-2014 fiscal year, the Foundation raised over $113 million. INFOGRAPHIC VIA USF FOUNDATION just beneficial for the university. USF hosts scholarship dinners and lunches where those

who have donated are able to see how their gift has been

n See CAMPAIGN on PAGE 3

Downtown medical school timeline in hot water

By Grace Hoyte N E W S

E D I T O R

What had begun to look like a slam dunk for USF could be in trouble in the middle of the special session of the Florida Legislature, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Funding for the medical school the university hopes to build in downtown Tampa,

with the help of Lighting owner Jeff Vinik, could be at a standstill as state senators debate how to raise the funds.

Some, including the Florida House of Representatives, have advocated for borrowing on the bond market. Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Senate disagree, citing the negative impact borrowing would have on the state debt level.

According to Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, it is unlikely that the state will give as much money to the university as the borrowing would provide.

The Times reported the cost of the downtown medical campus will be between $150 million and $163 million. The buildings will be constructed on land donated by Vinik as

part of his $1 billion plan to reinvigorate Tampa’s downtown.

USF is seeking $17 million for the Morsani College of Medicine and $15.75 million for the USF Health Heart Institute from state funding.

However, according to the Times, the sum may be too high because the university

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MyUSF gets a makeover

By Christopher Collier A S S T .

The new MyUSF page will be released June 17-19.

N E W S

E D I T O R

The new MyUSF service will be available for use by faculty, staff and students Wednesday after several months of development.

This change will introduce the third look for the MyUSF website in about as many years.

The third iteration will bring the site “more in line with the university brand,” USF Director of Information Technology Christopher Akin said.

The new system is designed to be more aesthetically appealing as well as provide a more user-friendly experience, according to Akin. One problem that the new site will solve, he said,

The current MyUSF site is the jumping off point for most a student’s everyday school work, with links to OASIS, DegreeWorks and Canvas.

is mobile viewing.

“It should look much better on your cell phone,” he said.

“There should be what’s called a responsive design, and so it will be readable on your cell phone, whereas the current site, not so much.”

The site will also differ in format in terms of clarity and ease of use.

“We’ve paid attention to some of the feedback we’ve received on readability and navigation and we’ve tried to improve on that as well,” Akin said.

The old service relied on the user knowing where to go and, more importantly, what information he was looking for. The upgrade is anticipated to make the information students are

searching for easy to access and diminish potential headaches with using the service.

Any software launch has potential issues and concerns that can inconvenience the user.

According to Akin, the expected amount of downtime is minimal.

“We’re really only expecting a couple of minutes of downtime,” Akin said. “We’re going to run the current site, and this new site is completely separate, so we’ll just switch over to it when the time comes … So we’re not expecting any downtime.”

The new site is set to go up between June 17-19.

— ­ Additional reporting by Grace Hoyte

The old MyUSF page was replaced at the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year.

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CAMPAIGN

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individuals who really have invested in USF as a big ecoContinued from PAGE 1 nomic engine for this area,” Momberg said. “Corporations will give money because they received and meet the scholarfeel that this is their workship recipients. force, and they’re investing in In this way, Momberg said their future employees.

USF will continue to raise “Or they have a special feelfunds for the campaign. Thus ing for USF because they’ve far, the campaign has funcseen the growth and developtioned in this way to collect ment and they want to particihistoric donations for the unipate in that. You see a number versity. of different kinds of folks who In just a six-month span, the will invest.” university received $10 milAccording to the 2013-2014 lion in September to create report, the largest group of the Kate Tiedemann College donors was parents and of Business on the USF “There are a friends of the university, St. Pete campus, $25 million from Les and Pam number of different ways coming in at 55.6 percent of donors, or 26,145.

Muma to create the Muma College of Business on the you would court a donor Alumni ranked second with 17,485 donors, employees Tampa campus, and $10 to tell them about came in third with 2,000 million from alumna Lynn donors and corporations Pippenger to rename the the university.” ranked fourth highest with School of Accountancy.

1,055.

Most recently, in March, Joel Momberg Regarding the allocation USF alumnus and adverCEO of USF Foundation of the money, Momberg tising mogul Jordan said the funds are directly Zimmerman donated connected to benefiting the $10 million to rename university. the Zimmerman School USF’s alumni donor base, university.

Of the approximately $113 of Advertising and Mass Momberg said, is still fairly Communications. young, but some are now million raised last year, about Since its start five years ago, at a point in their lives and $108.7 million went to prothe campaign has surpassed careers that making consider- gram enhancements, scholarits early $600 million goal and able donations to the univer- ships, fellowships, chairs and works to raise money for schol- sity is possible. The Mumas professorships. Additionally, arships, fellowships, building and Pippenger, for example, $393,281 went to improved upkeep, program maintenance are USF alumni and substantial facilities and equipment.

“It directly helps students and other university needs. donors.

“When they first came up However, alumni are not the in one way or another. Much with the campaign number, only donors to the Unstoppable of that is scholarship dollars, all of the deans got together campaign. In fact, most of which directly impact a lot of with the Provost and looked the donations come from the students, … facility dolat all the needs that they had non-alumni, Momberg said. lars, … program support, … across the board. And then According to the Foundation’s endowed chairs,” he said. “It they looked at realistically 2013-2014 performance all enhances USF — it brings how much could be raised,” report, only about 37 percent us along.”

Momberg said. of donors are alumni.

Originally, the deans came “Most are corporations and up with a figure close to today’s $1 billion goal, but the university deemed the number too ambitious for a five-year campaign. To confirm the number, the university hired a consulting group that conferred with individual donors.

In 2013, the university raised just over $620 million with donations from alumni and community partners, surpassing its original goal and expanded its view to $1 billion, which, if achieved, would be one of the largest fundraisers in state history for a public

TIMELINE

Continued from PAGE 1

is also looking for $12.3 million to finish construction on the 68,000 square-foot Kate Tiedemann College of Business building on the USF St. Pete campus.

According to a Times article from October of last year, before the plans were approved by the USF Board of Trustees, the university expected at least $130 million in donations and state contribution to fund the project.

There is disagreement in the Legislature, though, because many feel borrowing is a bad idea that will only serve to increase the debt. Scott is

among those in opposition to the idea of borrowing.

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn is in favor of the downtown project and said he believes it will continue to be “perceived positively” by members of the Legislature.

“I think (Scott) recognizes what an economic boost it would be for downtown,” Buckhorn said in an interview with the Times.

For the time being, USF will have to wait to see how much the state is willing to give.

With enough state contribution, the university can move forward with construction as soon as the fall. Otherwise, the university may have to sit back down and wait until the next legislative funding cycle.

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Behind the looking glass A behind-the-scenes look of on-campus production ‘Alice in Wonderland’

By Christopher Collier A S S I S T A N T

E D I T O R

In the world of performing arts, several unknown hands are influential in shaping the future of a production before audiences lay their eyes on the finished subject.

The Tampa City Ballet production of Alice in Wonderland finished its run at USF Theatre I Sunday to crowds and smiling faces.

Nathalie Adams, 14, played Alice and shared some of her experiences with preparing for and playing a lead role.

“I watched all the videos of production companies such as Royal Ballet and then I took some of the acting and steps from there and put it into my body,” Adams said.

“I tried to bring out my personality while I was dancing and doing the role of Alice.”

Adams said her time in pre-production was hard work, with a rehearsal period

of two months. She said her time with America’s Ballet School gave her a solid foundation with the fundamentals in dance. Several of the performers were children, some as young as 3.

According to USF faculty member and the play’s Artistic Director Paula Nunez, Alice in Wonderland required a larger budget than other productions she oversees.

She estimated the budget was roughly $25,000 with all the costs included.

“This is the second time we’ve produced this Alice in Wonderland,” Nunez said.

“So it was easier for us because we had a lot of the production already.”

This production was not a one-off event, there has been a steady production cycle of different ballets through the years at USF hosted by the organizers of this production.

“We did it four years ago, but I think it’s a production that we wanted to maintain,”

Nunez said. “This thing, The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty, so we’re going to try and do it at least every three years so we can maintain the costumes and all the work that is done live.”

Nunez said the funds were raised by volunteers around the Tampa Bay Area. The volunteers may contribute monetarily or through assistance within the production itself.

“We have volunteers — they are designers, they are fashion designers, they sew,” Nunez said. “So we do everything that you see … it’s made, it’s painted by hand.

Like the flowers, all of that is designed and painted. A lot of them are hard work, just putting all the paint and everything together.”

Nunez said the team of designers and technicians work together for the sake of the community and for the children they work with in order to bring a piece of culture to Tampa. She said

that community is one of the driving forces of the production.

“We feel, in this school, we are part of the community,” Nunez said.

Alice in Wonderland is hard to produce, according to Nunez, because of the number of props, cues and set pieces stagehands have to change and keep track of.

Sadie Lehmker, the person in charge of the organized chaos of production night, is a USF staff member and the theater’s stage manager. She said getting past the dry-runs of the show without actors on stage and the full production was on a tight schedule.

“We started loading in (Saturday) at 10 a.m., finished loading about one and then we started our techcueing run about 1:30. That went until about 5:30, and then the show was at 7,” Lehmker said.

Cue-to-cue is the process in which the staff backstage

work from each cue to make sure that the timings for lights and other things sync up with the actors. A cue-to-cue is generally an arduous process that can’t cover everything. Indeed, the only issue that Lehmker addressed as noteworthy was the timings involved.

“Last night’s run, since we only had one run of the second act during the cue-tocue, we were able to squeeze two runs of act one in … during the run last night I was like, ‘Oh, I need a blackout’ but there wasn’t a blackout so then it was just awkward,” Lehmker said. “Today there actually was a blackout, so each time you do it you are able to see things and then you’re able to tweak it for the next show.

“It’s always…different. No matter how much you practice there’s always something new that happens because they get onstage and they become someone else.”

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NCAA

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out Felix Obi of Baylor by two inches.

“In my last jump, there was a lot of pressure to get into the finals because my prior two jumps weren’t that good,” O’Neal said in a statement.

“After I jumped and saw where it landed, I was praying that it was long enough to get in and it was. They took the top nine and I was the ninth one.”

But O’Neal was unable to improve upon his previous mark, jumping 51-feet-11 inches in his longest jump in the final round.

Senior David Shepherd, the only other USF athlete to compete in the NCAA Championships, ended his NCAA career as an NCAA AllAmerican by finishing in 16th place in the men’s pole vault.

“This experience is secondto-none,” Shepherd said. “It was an accomplishment in itself just to get here. But to perform the way I did today, I’m very happy with it.”

The senior pole vaulter competed in his first and only season with USF this year after transferring from the University of North Florida.

Shepherd cleared the opening height of 16-feet-10 3/4 inches on his second attempt, but was unable to clear the bar in the next round.

His final attempt would have set a new school record if he had cleared the bar, but Shepherd came up just shy.

“I was over the bar and was like ‘yes’ and put my chest right into it,” Shepherd said.

“I’m not too upset about it, but I kind of am because it would have been a PR and a school record.”

NOTEBOOK

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“I think we’ve gained a tremendous player in Elyse,” Draper said. “I remember her well from her senior club season playing with Dakota Hampton, and now she has two years of collegiate experience under her belt. She’s a complete six-rotation player.”

Maryland kick time announced Following the announced kick times of the Bulls’ games against Florida A&M and Memphis last week by the AAC, the Big Ten revealed USF will play at Maryland at noon when the teams match up Sept. 19.

The game will be played at Byrd Stadium in College Park, Maryland and will be broadcast on ESPNews.

Opinion

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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

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

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What you said In light of New Jersey Gov. and potential presidential candidate Chris Christie recently stating that debt-free college is wrong because a college education provides economic opportunities to students, editor Isabelle Cavazos asked students whether they think opportunity should come at a price.

Isabelle Cavazos

Alex Rosenthal oracleeditor@gmail.com

Grace Hoyte oraclenewsteam@gmail.com

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Stress not an excuse for police brutality

Editor in Chief

News Editor

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“I don’t know if there’s such a thing as debt-free college. Someone would have to pay, even if it’s not the students. I imagine it would come from tax-payers.”

COLU M N I ST

Police brutality against black men and women are constantly in the news throughout the U.S., frequently reminding the nation where law enforcement falls short.

Yet, one officer apparently wants a pardon for being under too much stress.

A recent cellphone video captured by a 15-year-old boy attending a pool party in McKinney, Texas caught former Cpl. David Eric Casebolt shove a 15-year-old girl’s face into the grass and wave his handgun at three boys to get them to leave, according to the New York Times. Since being placed on administrative leave and eventually resigning from the McKinney Police Department, Casebolt gave a half-formed apology last week through a statement from his lawyer.

What prompted a call to the police in the first place, according to the Times, was the party becoming “out of control” after a security guard at the suburban community pool turned away more teens than allowed in the area. Upon Casebolt’s arrival, he is seen shouting profanities at the teens and trying to get rid of them until he grabs Dajerria Becton, who had lingered, and unreasonably forces her to the ground as she cries for her mother.

Rather than admit his overuse of force clearly seen in the video, Casebolt’s lawyer, Jane E. Bishkin, said Casebolt was under extreme emotional stress that day after answering two suicide calls earlier, one in which a man shot himself in front of his family and another being a teenage girl’s suicide attempt where he calmed the girl down, as the Times reported.

Yet, the attention Casebolt draws to himself in his apology downplays the wrongs he committed against Becton and the boys he threatened.

His attempt at empathy after the video only further affirms that having a hard day doesn’t excuse creating a horrifying event as if his position of control could justify his behavior. While someone doesn’t have to be an officer to realize it’s a stressful job, it’s still an officer’s responsibility to never let that stress out on others.

Though his apology goes out “to all who were offended,” his reaction showed no sensitivity and leaves many activists wondering if Casebolt would have responded as he did if the teens were white.

It’s not impossible to say race did play a role. For instance, the boy who filmed the scene recently spoke out saying he was one of the few white people there at the moment, and that Casebolt demanded his black friends to sit down while skipping over him.

He told Buzzfeed News that he felt “invisible” in comparison to the minorities being put to the ground.

According to CNN, once the video was released on YouTube, the Texas NAACP held meetings under the suspicion that what happened was about race, and, as reported

by Yahoo News, Casebolt previously jailed an African-American man for a broken headlight and faced a suit from another man for racial profiling and excessive force.

Considering this, along with his unnecessary aggression against a teenager, the sincerity of his apology is hard to swallow, especially when “he never intended to mistreat anyone.” Hopefully as the police department comes to a decision on whether to charge him, his excuses and intentions don’t overshadow what actually happened on tape.

— Brent Houston, a senior majoring in social science education “Debt keeps students from taking risks and going for more education. If people are encouraged to go to school, there will be more variety in jobs people are qualified for.” ­— Harika Tatineni, a senior majoring in health sciences “Education is a right to every student. Holding a high school diploma doesn’t guarantee a better quality of life. Some students need to get that free opportunity.”

— Hessa Alsuhail, a doctoral student studying early childhood education “It’s hard to increase the economy if students are in debt because they would be more focused on paying than bettering their lives.”

— Melissa Dam, a junior Isabelle Cavazos is a senior majoring in health sciences

majoring in English and Spanish.

Classifieds UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

To place a classified ad go to HELP WANTED Veterinary Technician/Assistant needed for animal hospital close to campus. Part-time or full-time. Experience a plus, but will train. Email resume to acahhiring@gmail.com.

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The Rundown

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Gibbons cleared for 2015 S P O R T S

According to a report by ESPN’s Outside the Lines, student athletes at UF and FSU were most likely to get away with a crime than student athletes at the other eight major universities that were investigated.

UF athletes had charges against them dropped 56 percent of the time compared to 28 percent of the time for all other college-age males in Gainesville.

In Tallahassee, charges were dropped in 70 percent of cases involving student athletes compared to 50 percent for other college-age males.

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Notebook

By Vinnie Portell

Outside USF

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E D I T O R

Coach Willie Taggart and the Bulls aren’t sure who will be taking snaps under center when USF opens the season Sept. 5, but the question of who will protect that quarterback became slightly clearer Friday when Stanford transfer Reilly Gibbons was cleared to play in the 2015 season.

Gibbons, a freshman offensive tackle, transferred to USF from Stanford in January without playing a down of college football.

He was originally denied eligibility for the 2015 season due to NCAA transfer rules, but the decision was appealed Friday.

As first reported by 247Sports, Taggart called Gibbons on Friday afternoon to let him know of the NCAA’s decision to rule him eligible

to play.

The 6-foot-6, 305-pound freshman was ranked as a four-star recruit coming into Stanford and will add depth to an offensive line that lost three players to graduation.

Volleyball adds transfer from Marshall

After losing former AAC Player of the Year Erin Fairs to Louisville, coach Courtney Draper added an experienced right side hitter Friday when the school announced Elyse Panick will transfer from Marshall.

The 6-foot-2 left-hander started 52 of 62 matches for the Thundering Herd. Last season, the junior had 271 kills and 302 digs, which would have been second-best in both categories on the Bulls, behind only Fairs.

n See NOTEBOOK on PAGE 5

Coach Willie Taggart added depth to his offensive line Friday when the NCAA declared Stanford transfer Reilly Gibbons eligible to play in the 2015 season. ORACLE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU

Track and Field

O’Neal, Shepherd All-Americans in NCAA Championships

By Vinnie Portell

AAC Update No AAC men’s track and field athletes were able to win their event at the NCAA Championships, but two placed third, earning First Team All American status.

Avion Jones, a junior from East Carolina, came in third in the high jump with a jump of 2.25 meters.

In the 110-meter hurdles, Isaac Williams of Houston secured third with a time of 13.31 seconds, edging out Joshua Thompson of LSU by 0.03 seconds.

S P O R T S

E D I T O R

Breaking records is nothing new to USF track and field athlete Matthew O’Neal.

He’s set and broken the record for the longest triple jump in school history in both the indoor and outdoor versions of the event.

Friday, USF would add his name to the record book once again as he became the first USF men’s track and field athlete to be a four-time NCAA All-American at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

The junior earned Second Team All-American status with his jump of 52-feet-10 3/4 inches, which put him in ninth place in the field of 24 competitors.

O’Neal’s final jump was his best and it was just enough to send him to the finals, beating

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Junior Matthew O’Neal is now a four-time NCAA All-American after earning Second Team All-American honors Friday in the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE