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“Les Miserables” an emotional ensemble performance
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 Issue 5
PUBLISHED SINCE 1906 http://utdailybeacon.com
Vol. 119
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FUTURE program BCPC hosts MLK Day celebration brings ‘spectrum’ disorder awareness Justin Joo
Staff Writer
Taylor McElroy Staff Writer If one were to look up “autism” in the medical dictionary, chances are he would find that it is a “spectrum” disorder. The term “spectrum” is given to disorders that include a broad range of symptoms. In this particular case, “spectrum” disorder refers to the fact that people with autism can range from mild to severe. Autistic people can be bright and verbal, as well as intellectually disabled and non-verbal. Those closest to the disorder tend to see it differently. Aside from its definition as a medical disorder, the word autisim is often associated with a pure heart and being very sensitive and finding a way to survive in an overwhelming, confusing world. The University of Tennessee is aware of this aspect of autsim and funded a post-secondary education program called FUTURE. The program attempts to provide a future for those who suffer from autism or another intellectual disability. As one of 27 states across the country awarded funding, the two-year program is designed for those who have completed high school without earning a regular high school diploma. Since every case is different, this nonresidential program will ensure individualized academic, social, vocational and independent living skills to students between the ages of 18 to 29 who suffer from intellectual disabilities. FUTURE is hoping to get students involved in becoming tutors or workout mentors for the program. Participation in FUTURE will provide students with a local or regional option for continuing their education beyond high school to increase employment opportunities.
“We are very excited about this opportunity for FUTURE students and encourage everyone to participate,” Elizabeth Fussell, FUTURE program director, said. University student volunteers, or educational mentors, have the opportunity to meet different groups of people. Mentors with FUTURE students can build new relationships during their college experience. Independent study course credit is available to qualified mentors. FUTURE students audit one UT course and one prep course. They are required to take core courses with the FUTURE Program. The program will also feature an individualized schedule for each student based on personal career aspirations achieved through a people-focused planning process. Mentors are asked to work two hours or more a week with students, such as speaking to students about life skills. Other activities include going to lunch together, introducing students to their friends, including students in extracurricular activities such as basketball games, and exercising with students. Mentors sometimes create a compilation of pictures and videos of a FUTURE student’s college experience. “People need to understand that suffering from something, whether it is autism, multiple sclerosis or even ADD is just a small part of who and what a person is, and who they can be,” Monica Calvillo, freshman in chemistry, said. “If given the opportunity a person can really achieve some truly amazing things, and I am proud my school is helping people get that chance.” To sign up or for more information, contact Sarah Whisman, FUTURE volunteer coordinator,at sbraunre@utk.edu.
The annual MLK Day of Celebration took place Monday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement. The program was presented by the Office of Multicultural Student Life and the Black Cultural Programming Committee. “This is something we do every year,” said Ashley Omelogu, junior in food science and technology and member of the BCPC. “This year, instead of a regular speaker, we wanted someone to reenact and perform. We usually start planning over the summer, but it takes about a month to get everything finalized.” The UC was filled with over 100 attendees by 3 p.m. The program began with a recording of King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Then BCPC member Derrick Thompson gave the formal introduction, listing some of the events to come and stating the purpose and meaning of the MLK Day of Celebration. “This is about the history and evolution of AfricanAmericans,” Thompson said. Next, Elizabeth Sueing, member of the Zeta Delta Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, sang the Black National Anthem. The audience stood and sang along with Sueing. The anthem’s lyrics, written by James Weldon Johnson, were provided in the event’s programs. After the audience returned to their seats, a selection of slam poetry was performed. Each poem covered different issues of civil rights, including the history of the movement, the future of the civil rights struggle, and whether or not King’s “dream” had yet been fulfilled.
Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon
The Love United Gospel Choir performs during the MLK Day of Celebration event in the UC Jan. 16. The group was founded in 1970 and also has a dance team that was started in 2005. For more information on the Love United Gospel Choir, visit http://web.utk.edu/~lugc/. An audio-visual slideshow documenting King’s life followed the poetry. The strip featured pictures from King’s childhood, wedding, his family, protests, his assassination and funeral. The strip concluded with a photo of former President Ronald Reagan signing the bill that would make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday in 1983. Actor Elliot Porter then performed the first part his skit “Wisdom of Willie Brown.” The skit was divided into three segments, each performed at different times throughout the entire MLK Day of Celebration. The skit is both a humorous and dramatic chronicle of Willie Brown’s early survival of an attempted lynching, meeting King and his
involvement with the Civil Rights Movement. The Love United Gospel Choir then took the stage to perform. The group of over 25, all dressed in matching black and red attire, were accompanied with live drums, guitar and keyboard, and sang three songs, concluding with “We Shall Overcome.” Although initially hampered by technical difficulties, the UT chapter of the NAACP also paid tribute to King and the Civil Rights Movement. Their presentation featured a slide show with pictures and biographies of many Civil Rights leaders, including Rosa Parks, Malcolm X and even President John F. Kennedy. Near the end of the celebra-
tion, members of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity performed. Members walked down the aisles of the auditorium toward the stage while reciting verses from the poem “Thy Will be Done,” which was written anonymously. The fraternity pays tribute to King yearly, and the celebration is particularly meaningful to them as King was a member of the fraternity. “With him being a brother, we always want to take part in the program,” said Akoma Onwuzuruigbo, a member of the fraternity who performed in the skit. “It’s always about respecting Dr. Martin Luther King. His presence in our fraternity, his presence in the black community, and really his presence in everyone’s lives.”
Scientists find lost Darwin fossils The Associated Press LONDON — British scientists have found scores of fossils the great evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin and his peers collected but that had been lost for more than 150 years. Dr. Howard Falcon-Lang, a paleontologist at Royal Holloway, University of London, said Tuesday that he stumbled upon the glass slides containing the fossils in an old wooden cabinet that had been shoved in a “gloomy corner” of the massive, drafty British Geological Survey.
Using a flashlight to peer into the drawers and hold up a slide, Falcon-Lang saw one of the first specimens he had picked up was labeled ‘C. Darwin Esq.’ “It took me a while just to convince myself that it was Darwin’s signature on the slide,” the paleontologist said, adding he soon realized it was a “quite important and overlooked” specimen. He described the feeling of seeing that famous signature as “a heart in your mouth situation,” saying he wondering “Goodness, what have I discovered!”
Falcon-Lang’s find was a collection of 314 slides of specimens collected by Darwin and other members of his inner circle, including John Hooker — a botanist and dear friend of Darwin — and the Rev. John Henslow, Darwin's mentor at Cambridge, whose daughter later married Hooker. The first slide pulled out of the dusty corner at the British Geological Survey turned out to be one of the specimens collected by Darwin during his famous expedition on the HMS Beagle, which changed the young
Cambridge graduate’s career and laid the foundation for his subsequent work on evolution. Falcon-Lang said the unearthed fossils — lost for 165 years — show there is more to learn from a period of history scientists thought they knew well. “To find a treasure trove of lost Darwin specimens from the Beagle voyage is just extraordinary,” Falcon-Lang added. “We can see there’s more to learn. There are a lot of very, very significant fossils in there that we didn’t know existed.” See DARWIN on Page 3
Graduate killed in random beating The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA — A recent college graduate left a bar with his girlfriend just steps from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia’s tourist district, yelled at a cab that wouldn’t give him a ride and was savagely beaten by men who piled out of a car, perhaps in the mistaken belief he was yelling at them, investigators said. Police are seeking four suspects and offering a reward in the beating of Kevin Kless, 23, early Saturday after he shouted at the cab while he and several friends looked for a ride, authorities said. Three men got out of a car behind the cab and started kicking and punching Kless, who fell to the sidewalk severely injured. The three men and the driver of the car drove off. Kless was pronounced dead at a hospital several hours later. Investigators were still looking for the four men Tuesday and trying to get more information on the brutal attack, Officer Christine O’Brien, a police spokeswoman, said. The city announced a $10,000 reward for arrests and convictions, and Mayor Tara Sripunvoraskul • The Daily Beacon Michael Nutter took to Twitter Tyler Thomas, freshman in pre-med, plays a round of pool in the UC Down Under Jan. 17. Any student can play to condemn the killing: for $2 per half-hour. “Encourage ANYONE who
knows or saw anything about this incident to give us info, we need to catch these people, asap!” the mayor wrote. The apparently random and brutal attack was the latest in a string of killings in the City of Brotherly Love, where there have been 20 homicides so far in 2012, up from 12 at the same point last year. Last week, a 30year-old man with a long arrest record was charged with gunning down a carload of seven teenagers who had been feuding with his stepsons. Three of the boys died. Investigators have little information in Kless’ killing, which happened as he and several friends tried to stop the cab near Lucy’s Hat Shop, a bar in the city’s historic section. The area, home to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, is also home to many bars and restaurants and is a popular hangout for young adults. When the cab stopped, police said, Kless got involved in a conversation with the cab driver, who then drove off. The suspects, who were in a car behind the cab, apparently thought Kless was yelling at them, according to police. Three of them got out and began beating Kless near the historic Second Bank of the United States.