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Tuesday, February 7, 2012
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Issue 19 I N D E P E N D E N T
PUBLISHED SINCE 1906 http://utdailybeacon.com
Vol. 119 S T U D E N T
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UT welcomes parents for fun weekend Victoria Wright Student Life Editor Knoxville became a playground for students and their parents this past weekend at the 2012 Winter Family Weekend. The three-day event kicked off Friday with a check-in at the Student Services Building. About 600 students participated in 10 events around Knoxville, including a dinner at the Neyland Stadium West Club on Saturday and a Family Weekend Lunch on Sunday. Patrick Ladd, assistant director of Parents Association, said the events gave parents an opportunity to see campus life. “At different times of the year, family weekend gives parents the opportunity to visit campus, visit with their student and kind of get an idea of what types of things are happening on campus,” Ladd said. Ladd also said Family Weekend is nostalgic for former UT students. “A lot of the folks who come back for family weekend are alumni, and they are always happy and surprised to see the places where they used to have class and used to walk around when they were here,” Ladd said. “It’s just a real good opportunity for folks to stay connected with their students and what’s happening on campus.” Provost Susan Martin spoke to students and parents during dinner on Saturday about some new enterprises. “She informed parents about ‘volvision’ and
the ‘quest to be a top 25 institution,’” Emily Parker, director of Parents Association, said. “It kind of gave an update because ultimately the parents the stakeholders,” she said. “They’re helping our students financially and supporting them to be here, so hearing from top-level administrators like the provost and meeting with them at dinner is very helpful for them to find out what’s going on at the university.” Parker said the majority of visitors attended the Vols and Lady Vols basketball games Saturday and Sunday. Parents and students bonded over UT’s victories against Georgia and Auburn. “It really gave parents an opportunity to go to a ball game with their student,” Parker said. “A lot of the students chose to sit with their parents, or their parents asked them to sit with them. Maybe the students didn’t ‘choose,’ but they sat with them.” Latasia Woods, coordinator of Parents Association, said the organization attempts to change the events so the parents don’t come back the next year and do the same thing. “The previous years we’ve had dinner at Calhoun’s (and) lunch at the UC,” Woods said. “We try to do different things and different menus.” Woods said some families have attended every Family Weekend, so it’s important to change the schedule each year to avoid disinterest. The Parents Association is already planning the next Family Weekend for September 2012 and expects about 700 people to attend.
• Photo courtesy of Emily Parker
Clay Talbert, undecided freshman, and parents Ronnie and Terri, enjoy activities in the UC at UT’s Winter Family Weekend on Sunday, Feb. 5.
Exhibit encourages creativity downtime, can find students, faculty and visitors arranging the words to form different phrases. The UT community will Wade Scofield notice that it doesn’t take particular artistic skill to create Staff Writer something worthwhile from the stick poetry. “I love the way it engages students, the interactive aspect During the month of February, UT students will have a of art,” Leigh Schlactus, senior in English literature and unique opportunity to express themselves in a public fashion. The Visual Arts Committee (VAC) is sponsoring its sec- Women’s Coordinating Council chair, said. “I wouldn’t really ond annual poetry stick exhibit in the western second floor of consider myself an artistic person. As opposed to the pictures the University Center. Designed as an interactive exhibit for hanging on the walls, I think it’s a different side to art that the UT community to enjoy, students will find that the Velcro- students don’t think about. It’s more modern, updated if you will. It, for a lot of people, breaks down that barrier of what based words can be arranged you would consider art, in any manner. and that especially for “This event from CPC’s VAC as a student group Visual Art Committee is I think that’s more excitperennially successful,” ing for them reaching Meredith Whitfield, senior in more members of the political science and Cultural student community and Attractions Committee chair, having more of an said. “Last year Central impact on campus.” Programming Council gave it Although an enticing an award, and it’s consistentfeature of releasing the ly one of their highest-expoinner child in us all can sure events, and an excellent be a distraction, it can interactive one to get stuWade Scofield • The Daily Beacon be a casual way to dents in a creative mood for PostSecret, one of VAC’s other Random words come together to form unexpected phras- express inner creativity big events coming up later this es in the Visual Arts Committee’s poetry stick exhibit in with minimal mess. “Some of my friends semester. People tend to use the UC. The exhibit allows students a chance to express and I spent almost an the words in interesting ways. their own ideas and interact in an artistic medium. hour in the UC playing I saw the people promoting the with it,” Samantha blood drive use them to say, ‘Volunteers/we need you/we want blood,’ which was pretty Thiesen, senior in political science, said. “We absolutely bonded over magnet usage. I think it’s fun. It’s a way to clever.” The poetry stick exhibit was set up in the UC on Thursday release creative energy within the craziness of university life.” “The way I see it, the UC is the refrigerator of our univerand will continue until the end of February. During the day, those wandering the halls of the UC, looking for food or sity,” Schlactus said. “Keeping students cool.”
Bill to help computer security The Associated Press WASHINGTON — A developing Senate plan that would bolster the government’s ability to regulate the computer security of companies that run critical industries is drawing strong opposition from businesses that say it goes too far and security experts who believe it should have even more teeth. Legislation set to come out in the next few days is intended to ensure that computer systems running power plants and other essential parts of the country’s infrastructure are protected from hackers, terrorists or other criminals. The Department of Homeland Security, with input from businesses, would select which companies to regulate; the agency would have the power to require better computer security, according to officials who described the bill. They spoke on condition of anonymity because lawmakers have not finalized all the details. Those are the most contentious
parts of legislation designed to boost cybersecurity against the constant attacks that target U.S. government, corporate and personal computer networks and accounts. Authorities are increasingly worried that cybercriminals are trying to take over systems that control the inner workings of water, electrical, nuclear or other power plants. That was the case with the Stuxnet computer worm, which targeted Iran's nuclear program in 2010, infecting laptops at the Bushehr nuclear power plant. As much as 85 percent of America’s critical infrastructure is owned and operated by private companies The emerging proposal isn’t sitting well with those who believe it gives Homeland Security too much power and those who think it’s too watered down to achieve real security improvements. One issue under debate is how the bill narrowly limits the industries that would be subject to regulation.
Summaries of the bill refer to companies with systems “whose disruption could result in the interruption of life-sustaining services, catastrophic economic damage or severe degradation of national security capabilities.” Critics suggest that such limits may make it too difficult for the government to regulate those who need it. There are sharp disagreements over whether Homeland Security is the right department to enforce the rules and whether it can handle the new responsibilities. U.S. officials familiar with the debate said the department would move gradually, taking on higher priority industries first. “The debate taking place in Congress is not whether the government should protect the American people from catastrophic harms caused by cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, but which entity can do that most effectively,” said Jacob Olcott, a senior cybersecurity expert at Good Harbor Consulting. See COMPUTERS on Page 3
TN WWII relic goes down, some hope to preserve parts of it The Associated Press OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — K25, the world’s largest building at the time of its construction in World War II, is getting smaller by the day as workers — using an armada of bulldozers, cranes and other tools of demolition — take down the brawny facilities that once processed uranium for atomic bombs and nuclear reactors. Thousands of truckloads of contaminated rubble and debris have been hauled away from the site since demolition of K-25 began in December 2008. Work on the West Wing was completed in early 2010 by Bechtel Jacobs Co., the U.S. Department of Energy’s former cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge. Work on the East Wing is proceeding at an accelerated pace under the direction of URS/CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), which took over cleanup operations last summer. The pace could pick up even more if DOE reaches a final agreement with historic preservation groups. DOE last week distributed draft copies of a Final Memorandum of Agreement, which outlines the federal agency’s commitment to spend more than $9 million on a series of projects to make up for the loss of historic K-25 — one of the socalled “signature” facilities of the Manhattan Project that produced the first atomic bombs. Under the agreement, DOE would sponsor a K-25 History Center at the site (now known as the East Tennessee Technology Park), including an adjacent facility to house some original equipment that was used to process uranium in a gaseous form and concentrate the fissionable U-235 isotope. DOE would also provide a $500,000 grant to go toward preservation of the much-deteriorated Alexander Inn, originally called the Guest House. The
Guest House served as a home away from home for such luminaries as Robert Oppenheimer, technical director of the wartime Abomb project. DOE also is committed to saving the “footprint” of the original mile-long, U-shaped K-25 facility in order for visitors to appreciate the size and scale of the uranium operation, which was shut down in 1963 after supplying enriched uranium for the nation’s Cold War arsenal of nuclear weapons. David Adler of DOE said the agency and its contractors will try to preserve the concrete pad underneath the four-story K-25 if that proves feasible. There are questions about whether the pad’s surface and surroundings can be sufficiently decontaminated for unrestricted use by the public, he said. The Final MOA was submitted to a number of “consulting parties” for their approval. There is a 15-day comment period to offer suggestions for changes. The key players, in addition to DOE, are the Advisory Council for Historic Preservation, the Tennessee Historical Commission and state's historic preservation officer, the city of Oak Ridge, and the East Tennessee Preservation Alliance. Representatives of those groups and other parties interested in preservation and history gathered Nov. 17 in Oak Ridge to talk about a new agreement, and many opinions and priorities were expressed. Gaining approval of the MOA is important for DOE to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act and to proceed with demolition of K-25. Under a previous Memorandum of Agreement, signed in 2005, DOE promised to preserve the North End of K-25 (the bottom of the “U”) as a central part of efforts to show future generations how the wartime atomic bomb activities were conducted. See ATOMIC on Page 3