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Emily DeLanzo brings the Hike of the Week
Friday, March 2, 2012
PAGE 6 T H E
Issue 37
E D I T O R I A L L Y
PUBLISHED SINCE 1906 http://utdailybeacon.com
Vol. 119
I N D E P E N D E N T
S T U D E N T
N E W S P A P E R
O F
T H E
U N I V E R S I T Y
PAGE 5 O F
T E N N E S S E E
Hodges enters final phase of renovations Maximizing space, adding electrical outlets, buying furniture planned for summer Justin Joo Staff Writer The libraries administration and faculty of the John C. Hodges Library are preparing for renovations on the second floor Commons. The main goal of the renovations is to maximize the space available at the library. The wall dividing the South Commons and the Studio will be torn down. This will make the area more open and allow for more space to be used by students. The outer wall next to Starbucks will also be torn down to open up more space. According to Rita Smith, the executive associate dean of the libraries, there will also be an effort to put in more electrical outlets. “As we are able to do renovations,” Smith said, “we try to look at the electrical power situation and create more places to plug in, as we are able to do that within the budget of the project.” The renovations will also include additional furniture being purchased and the floor being refurbished. The Research Center will be combined with Circulation. There will also be $20,000-30,000 invested in new cameras and laptops for students to check out. The current renovations are the third phase of a plan that started in 2005. The most recent updates Hodges has gone through (the second phase) involved the creation of both the North and South Commons in 2007. The long time gap was due to the library administration gradually getting the full amount of
funding they needed year after year. “The third phase was already on paper with the idea of integrating the Studio and Media Services and opening things up,” Smith said. “We didn’t get the funding until (recently). You get a little bit of funding and you’re able to do it.” Now with all the resources they need, officials plan to begin the renovations in May, once the summer semester begins. The construction should be finished by early August. While there may be some inconvenience with the noise and portions of Hodges closed off, the Commons will remain open during the summer. Resources from the parts of the library under construction, such as the video cameras in the Studio, will be temporarily relocated so they can still be available for student use. The library administration is also planning additional renovations for the first floor. While still in the planning phase, potential first floor renovations could include relocating some of the reference material. Dean of Libraries Steven Smith said there are also plans to create a better environment for displaying some of the library’s special collections. “We want to create a better exhibit area,” Steven Smith said. “We have spectacular rare books and manuscripts in Special Collections, but no great place to exhibit them.” See LIBRARY on Page 3
Wade Rackley • The Daily Beacon
Old carpet from between the stacks waits to be moved during construction in summer 2010. More construction is to continue on the second floor in the Commons, Starbucks and the Studio this summer.
Special menus help food bank Wesley Mills Staff Writer One week out of the year for the second year in a row, Knoxville puts on its own restaurant week. Over 30 fine-dining establishments across the city offered specially priced menus as an add-on to their regular menus from Feb. 26 to March 2. The public is not the only one that benefits from the cheaper cuisine. Five dollars for every meal purchased go towards Second Harvest Food Bank, which will help feed the hungry throughout Knoxville and surrounding areas. This week is great for businesses like Ruth’s Chris Steak House, which last year almost doubled what it did three years ago during restaurant week. General manager Paul Hohe of Ruth’s Chris Steak House said that this year they are giving options to their guests to choose from the special restaurant week menu. Guests are able to choose from a New York strip steak, salmon, filet with shrimp and a stuffed chicken as an entrée with a choice of salad or soup, as well as a side dish and dessert. Hohe said they do not try to manipulate the menu or trick customers into not buying the cheaper foods. “What we do is we hand out our normal menus, and on top of that is the restaurant week menu,” Hohe said. “It’s very prominent; everyone will see the menu. In fact, Sunday night, the first night of restaurant week, over 90 percent of our guests who came in ordered off that menu.”
Season’s Café, like Ruth’s Chris Steak House, offered more than just a single selection on their menu. For the main dish, one could order Angus beef medallions served with mashed potatoes and asparagus or a beef tenderloin served with mashed potatoes with a rosemary demi-glace, brought out with a boneless chicken breast and asparagus. Appetizers such as mixed baby greens and a cheesecake dessert are also part of this threecourse meal. But it’s not all about the food. “There is a very challenging economy right now, a lot of people are in need, and we felt the need to help out,” Hohe said. “And since we are a restaurant and feed people we felt like it was a natural fit to work with Second Harvest, who also feeds people.” Season’s Café general manager Drake Little said that the atmosphere this week was much more lively and caring than other weeks. “It definitely boosts the morale of the people that came in,” Little said. “People know what they’re doing when they come in when they are ordering from the menu. They know exactly where it’s going. A lot more smiles on faces.” Little said he’s happy people come in and visit their restaurant, but he knows they are also coming in knowing they are helping out more than their stomachs. “You can just tell when they walk in the door that they are there for that specific reason,” Little said. “Obviously we’re a great restaurant and we love having them there. But it’s almost an extra incentive for them. Not only do they get a great meal, but they are getting the opportunity to help out.”
George Richardson • The Daily Beacon
Lizzy Sovine, sophomore in physics and astronomy, reads outside HSS on Tuesday. The warm weather will end with storms this weekend and colder weather coming in next week.
Rutgers suicide case gains national relevance The Associated Press NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — The man prosecutors say was secretly watched via webcam while kissing a Rutgers University freshman in a dorm room could testify as early as Thursday in the privacy-invasion trial of the student's roommate. The man, who has been identified only by as M.B., has been mentioned often in the first three days of testimony in the trial of Dharun Ravi, 20. Ravi’s roommate, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide in September 2010, days after prosecutors say Ravi briefly watched streaming footage of the encounter with M.B. Ravi was a member of the school’s Ultimate Frisbee club, and the former team captain testified Thursday that the defendant told him about trying to use a webcam to “capture images of his roommate.” He said Ravi seemed uncomfortable with the idea of his roommate being gay. Little is known about M.B. from court filings, but witnesses have described him as a “sketchy” man around 30 years old. One student witness got a laugh from the jury when she described him as “not obscenely old;” another said his age — not that he was a man — made his liaison with their dormmate “scandalous.” His identity has been kept secret, and it remained unclear Thursday morning how tightly M.B.’s identity would be shielded during his testimony. Parry Aftab, a lawyer and online privacy expert, said that prosecutors are trying to keep his name and image from being made public because he’s the alleged victim of invasion of privacy, which is considered a sex crime. She said it’s a point of law that’s untested in New Jersey. “It may or may not be a sex crime,” she said. “The real question is: is that sexual conduct, sexual activity, which triggers the law?” No one has testified that
they saw genitalia or sexual acts — only kissing by men who had their pants on. When the man takes the stand, it could mark the highest-profile testimony in the case, which has drawn national attention as an example of the societal challenges facing young gays and lesbians. Ravi is not charged in the death of Clementi, who jumped off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River days after the encounter. Charges against Ravi include a hate crime, invasion of privacy and several counts that accuse him of trying to cover his tracks. In earlier testimony, former Rutgers student Molly Wei said Ravi showed her a live web stream of Clementi, 18, kissing a man in the dorm room the young men shared. Wei said she invited Ravi, whom she had known since middle school, to her dorm room for a snack a few minutes after 9 p.m. on Sept. 19, 2010. When Ravi tried to go back, she said, Clementi told him that he wanted the cramped dorm room to himself for a few hours. So Ravi returned. Within a few minutes, she said, he used her computer to view live images from his webcam. It was then, she said, that she saw about two seconds of Clementi and an older man kissing. She said she agreed to turn the webcam back on at the request of a woman who was among a group dropped by her room. “It was the exact same image, except that they had taken their tops off,” she said. “As soon as they saw it, I turned it off.” She said she called Rutgers police a few days later after learning about a Twitter message Ravi posted on Sept. 21, when Clementi requested privacy in the room again. “Anyone with iChat,” he posted, “I dare you to videochat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes, it’s happening again.”
2 • The Daily Beacon
Friday, March 2, 2012
OPINIONS
Letter
to the
To the Editor of the Daily Beacon:
Editor
We offer the following concerns about the recently announced “Big Orange, Big Ideas” campaign to promote the University of Tennessee through the development of a brand. We hope that the administration will accept our constructive criticism as representative of a popular voice on campus which does not share the vision of UT promoted by the “branding” campaign. The promotion of our university through the advertisement of our brand and slogan is an inefficient use of our resources. The budget of the “Big Orange, Big Ideas” campaign, which is far from negligible, represents money that could be spent on improving the quality of our university instead of our image. Many professors and students are consequently confused as to whether our brand is being used to promote their “big ideas” or if their “big ideas” are being used to promote the brand. Whereas the “branding” of UT is designed to distinguish our university from others, it is effectively a sort of conformity to the trend of branding. The slogan “Big Orange, Big Ideas” is not specific to UT’s identity because all similar universities have school colors and strive for “big ideas.” A distinguished university will attract attention, recruit bright minds, and build its reputation on the basis of real achievements, which UT certainly does not lack. Furthermore, branding is the wrong strategy to promote our university because branding is directed at consumers who seek commodities, a category to which UT does not belong. In marketing, the purchase of a product is the essential measurement of a brand’s success, whereas a university’s success is based on immeasurable, albeit real, variables, namely the acquisition of truth and the improvement of humanity through knowledge and action. Commodification of a university undermines efforts of scholarship and academics. The reduction of our university’s identity to the slogan “Big Orange, Big Ideas” jeopardizes the complexity of something that is necessarily complex. We do not mean to critique the work of those who designed the slogan, but to suggest that the nature of a university makes a slogan unnecessary. A brand and a slogan may even be counterproductive in that those who seek an intellectual community are likely to be repelled by branding on principle. We share in UT’s pride and desire to promote itself, and this is precisely why we are skeptical of the branding campaign. The message conveyed by our new brand and the ethics of branding in general conflict with the primary interests of our university. As a first step toward reasserting our identity as something more than a commodity, we propose that our university remove the “Big Orange, Big Ideas” banner from the outside of Hodges Library. The Hodges Library is a monument to the complexity of ideas and the universality of human knowledge. This is the site where school colors and simple slogans are the most out-of-place, and removing the banner would be a dignified recognition of the value of UT.
Respectfully, The Progressive Student Alliance: Elias Attea Melanie Barron Eric Brackett Andrew Davis Andrew Emitt
Amien Essif Alex Fields Jessica Fowler Kristen Hatten Kaitlin Malick Karen Principe Leslie Principe Jim Sheffield Kathleen E. Bohstedt, retired professor, Department of Philosophy John Bohstedt, professor emeritus, Department of History Les Essif, professor of French studies Michael Handelsman, professor of Latin American literature and distinguished professor in the humanities Randal L. Hepner, Ph.D., Department of Religious Studies Tricia Hepner, associate professor, Department of Anthropology Peggy Jackson, UT alumna and current graduate student in geography, MS Zak Koenig, student manager at RecSports, coach - Tennessee crew Benjamin Lee, assistant professor, Department of English Katherine Newell, graduate student in history Lydia M. Pulsipher, professor emeritus, Department of Geography
New slogan, not world’s end David Cobb Staff Writer Much controversy has arisen in the wake of UT’s unveiling of the new, “Big Orange, Big Ideas” brand. But before you go take out another student loan you should know that it only cost you and your parents around $3.50. That’s right, you can expect about a .0003 percent tuition increase because of the much-maligned $75,000 hiring of Chicago-based consulting firm Lipman Hearne to assist with research for “Big Orange, Big Ideas.” That percentage is not fact. But it comes from simple math based solely on a conservative estimate of tuition revenue for the university. The intention of the new slogan is to project a positive image of Rocky Top to the outside world as UT continues on its quest to become a top-25 research institution. That explains why the university used some spare change from its comparatively low tuition rates to purchase professional help from the sector it’s attempting to win over — the outside. Looking in the mirror is helpful, but ultimately the goal is not to impress yourself. In the era of “The Big Orange Screw,” the popular thing to do is bash UT and its approach to just about everything. And while I don’t agree with every decision made by the administration, and I would question the sanity of someone who did, it’s equally as insane to criticize everything about the school you chose to attend. Lipman Hearne’s clients include Harvard, Cornell, Brown, Northwestern, Ohio State, North Carolina and the University of Chicago, just to name a few. So they’re good enough for some of the most prestigious universities in the country, but not good enough for us? By the way, if you don’t believe that UT’s tuition rates are relatively low, then go see how much it costs to attend any of the above schools. Frankly, the outsourcing of our athletic department to the University of Alabama’s support staff is far more detrimental to the UT brand than the implementation of a simple slogan that actually contains UT-specific jargon. I’ll take “Big Orange, Big Ideas” over being categorized under “Dreamers. Thinkers. Doers.” at the University of Memphis any day. I’ll even take it over the current “Knowledge is Power” campaign at the highly respected University of Virginia.
That’s a phrase that reminds me of Saturday morning cartoons on ABC and it is being used to raise $3 billion at UVA. The “Big Idea” is UT’s future, which is something bigger than the value-menu items that you could have bought at McDonald’s before Jimmy Cheek maliciously robbed you of $3.50. Maybe it’s the actual “Big Orange, Big Ideas” banners that upset you. Well they were designed in-house by the creative communications department. In fact, the decision on the slogan was only made after lengthy analysis of the results of focus groups consisting of current UT students, future UT students, UT faculty and UT alumni. Maybe a better slogan would have been “Big Orange, Big Picture.” Ten years ago the average ACT score for UT students was 23.5. Today it is almost 27. And while tuition usually rises, parking can suck and professors don’t always cancel class the day before Thanksgiving, UT’s investment in the future is undeniable. No, most of us won’t get to reap the benefits of a new University Center. But then again our predecessors from the early 2000s were relegated to working out in HPER while the TRECS was under construction. You’ll win some and lose some with the decisions of any university you decide to attend. That’s just the way it goes at a major state institution. No, Most of us will never have a face-to-face conversation with Cheek or system president Joe DiPietro during our tenure in Knoxville. But I am content with UT sometimes taking two steps forward and one step back if it means that the investment I am making will make me an alumni of a top-25 school. And while $75,000 is a lot of money to you and I, it’s just a drop in the bucket when compared to the costs of a music building, a better University Center and a better UT. However, if you really despise everything that is going on here, perhaps you should drop out, get a job at Burger King and “Have it your way.” I’m not necessarily brimming with Big Orange Ideas, but hopefully this column and its fast-food analogies will encourage you to hold off on crucifying the university for one of theirs. — David Cobb is a freshman in journalism and electronic media. He can be reached at dcobb3@utk.edu.
Friday, March 2, 2012
SPORTS
The Daily Beacon •3
Talented, versatile Steckenrider leads Vols Robby O’Daniel Recruitment Editor Drew Steckenrider is a baseball Renaissance man. He is a starting pitcher, a reliever, an outfielder, a first baseman and a designated hitter. He has been a switch-hitter — batting both right-handed and left-handed — since he was six. Baseball has shown it is difficult to both be a hitter and a pitcher. Pitchers that hit well are rare, and position players that pitch well are even more rare. But the 6-foot-5 Steckenrider just thinks about how fun it is to have the opportunity to both pitch and drive in runs as the team’s cleanup hitter, like he was on Tuesday against Middle Tennessee State. “I just take it one at a time,” Steckenrider said. “If you have a bad inning, you don’t want to take it to your at-bat because it’s obviously going to affect you. (It’s) really just staying with it. If I’m on the mound, obviously I’m not hitting right then. Worry about that when I get the third out and step into the batter’s box.” He does not consider himself a position player who also pitches or a pitcher who plays in the field sometimes. “It’s about 50-50,” he said. “I wouldn’t consider (myself) to be better at one or the other, just like to go out every day and do my best at whichever I happen to be doing that day.” Steckenrider has served as both a pitcher and a position player since his time in high school at Greater Atlanta Christian School. In his junior year there, he hit .387 with seven home runs and 25 RBIs. His pitching success rivaled his hitting prowess. He tossed 36 innings of work that year, compiling a 7-1 record with a 1.17 ERA and 46
LIBRARY continued from Page 1 In preparation for the renovations, the libraries administration held a free luncheon for selected students and student-employees of Hodges to have an open discussion on what the administration is doing right and what could be improved on. Both Steven Smith and members of the administration were in attendance. “We at the library are engaged in a strategic planning process,” Steven Smith said. “Part of that process is to get various feedback from your stake holders and constituencies. And the students, of course, are our most important constituencies.” The forum gathered in the
strikeouts. He improved at the plate in his senior year, hitting .488 and setting a school-record .627 onbase percentage. Baseball America rated him one of the top 100 overall prospects in the class of 2009. But when he initially came to UT — after picking the school over Ole Miss, Auburn and Hawaii — he was only an outfielder. “We got a couple of guys hurt, my freshman year, and (we) needed some guys on the mound,” he said. “And I had pitched in high school, had a pretty good arm and decent stuff, so I threw a bullpen. And ever since then, I’ve been a pitcher.” As a pitcher, Steckenrider relies primarily on his fastball. “This year I’ve been working on my breaking pitches — slider, changeup — just being able to throw those for strikes in any count, 0-0, 3-2, whatever it may be,” he said. Even though he came to UT as an outfielder, Steckenrider embraced the opportunity and saw more appearances as a pitcher in his first two years at UT (29) than games played as a position player (27). Indeed, Steckenrider has always looked for just the opportunity to play, since he first came to UT. “I came looking to start right away, right off the bat,” he said. “In the outfield, (former Vols center fielder) Kentrail Davis was here the year before me. It was his year to leave, so taking over his role in center field and working in right field and eventually onto the mound.” UT head coach Dave Serrano ranks Steckenrider highly. “Drew is as talented a player as I have ever been around in my years of coaching,” Serrano said. “He has pure ability that you just have to be born with. I tell the team all the time that there
Mary Greer Room in the Commons and discussed the library for an hour while eating pizza and drinking sodas. Some of the areas where the students felt the library was doing well included the provision of study areas (both group and quiet), the helpful resource services such as the OIT Help Desk and the Resource Center, and having many tutorials on the library’s website that explain how to use everything from the cameras in the Studio to the research databases. But the students provided a variety of topics where Hodges could be improved. The biggest concern was the availability of electrical outlets for students’ laptops. Steven Smith agreed and said it was not the first time the concern was brought to his
attention. He admitted there is some difficulty in getting more outlets to the upper floors, but he hopes to provide more in the near future. “One way to get power to those study tables would be to bring in drop poles,” he said. “We’ve never done that because it doesn’t look very pretty. But there’s such a demand I think as a temporary, two- or three-year solution, I’m about ready to see if we can do that in some areas.” Additional concerns brought up included the availability of parking, the need for more computers for printing only (as well as having a master login on the printer computers so students won’t have to continuously logout and login with each individual use), and the price of using the copy machine.
isn’t a single player that is more important than any other, but Drew has the talent to help us become a more successful team consistently this season.” For Steckenrider, baseball was always apart of his childhood. When he described growing up, he left it at this: “a lot of baseball, a little of basketball.” “Unfortunately I wasn’t too good at basketball, so that really didn’t last too long once I got in high school,” Steckenrider said. He lived in Lawrenceville, Ga., a city southeast of Atlanta. His father, Paul, was a salesman with an engraving company before he retired. His mother, Cindy, works in human resources at Blackberry. He was the kind of child that was always outdoors, playing something. He quickly acclimated to the year-round pursuit of baseball, playing during the season and getting in shape in the winter. He loved hitting so much that he worked hard to improve. A cage was in the Steckenrider family’s backyard. Each day before school, at around 7 a.m., father and son could be found there, with the father tossing whiffle balls for his son to hit. At 7:30 a.m., his father would take him to school. When his father returned home, he would pick up all the balls in the yard. All that hitting practice immediately paid dividends in Steckenrider’s very first at-bat as a Vol on Feb. 19, 2010, against Xavier. The very first pitch he swung at was a home run, one, he said, he would remember for the rest of his life. “The guy made a pretty good pitch,” he said. “I remember, fastball, low and in, and I just got the barrel head to the ball and squared one up. I hit a screamer down past the right-field foul pole.” But Steckenrider’s fondest memories of his time thus far at UT are not any plays or particu-
larly good or bad games he has had. He remembers the lifelong friends he has made in his fellow players in the clubhouse. “It’s special, something that no one can take away from you,” he said. “Of course, like in high school, you talk to the guys for the rest of your life. They’re going to be at your weddings. We all are going to be in each other’s weddings.”
Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon
4 • The Daily Beacon
Better
Friday, March 2, 2012
OPINIONS
Than
Reality TV
‘Life’s Too Short’ runs trite, disjointed Robby O’Daniel Recruitment Editor The new HBO comedy “Life’s Too Short” feels familiar because it was written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the creators of the original version of “The Office” and “Extras.” But is that a good thing? In many ways, “Life’s Too Short” feels simply like an extension of “Extras,” one from a different viewpoint. There are instances where the creative echoes pay off. In the first episode, viewers meet Warwick Davis, who struggles to find success as an actor while also being a dwarf. He shows off his house for a documentary crew when suddenly his wife returns home and reminds Davis that they are separated and he should not be here. Davis channels Gervais to hilarious results in this scene. Embarrassed, he attempts to talk his way out of the situation and does not succeed, using mannerisms familiar to anyone who has ever seen Gervais’ David Brent from the British version of “The Office.” Davis, playing a fictionalized version of himself, has not had much success lately, primarily because he keeps mentioning dated films like “Return of the Jedi” or mostly unknown ones like “Willow” as career highlights. Gervais and Merchant aptly embrace Davis’ time as an Ewok in a “Star Wars” film by placing him at a science-fiction convention and a “Star Wars”-themed wedding in the series’ second episode. In particular, a scene, in which a poor journalist tries to hastily interview Davis without even knowing his name, is hysterical. Davis visits his friends Gervais and Merchant, also playing themselves, setting up sketches with famous celebrities. Again, like “Extras,” Gervais and Merchant undermine expectations about certain celebrities with fantastic results. “Extras” had a knack for having one five-minute, must-see scene per episode — like Ian McKellen’s guide to acting and Patrick Stewart’s idea for a story — and “Life’s Too Short” continues in the same vein. In the first episode, Liam Neeson asks Gervais and Merchant to write for his stand-up comedy act. In a cold tone, Neeson insists that he is a funny guy. It becomes laugh-out-loud hilarious when Neeson angrily demands to participate with Gervais in an improvisational comedy bit immediately. The resulting
failed attempts at comedy deserve out-of-context viewing if one sees nothing else from “Life’s Too Short.” Similarly, the series’ second episode has Johnny Depp confronting Gervais about his fiery cynicism when hosting the Golden Globes. Depp is a genius here, acting fully like a scorned child. “Nobody makes fun of Tim Allen on my watch,” Depp says, and one wonders how anyone kept a straight face long enough to record this scene. He says a group of people that Gervais made fun of at the Globes all got together and wrote demeaning jokes about Gervais, like “Why do people take an instant dislike to Ricky Gervais? It saves time.” These scenes remarkably manage to both make fun of Gervais, as well as the actors who had hurt feelings after the Globes. Granted, “Life’s Too Short” is a funny show, and in particular, the sketches with Neeson and Depp are comedy gold. But the show is almost too similar to “Extras.” Admirably, Gervais and Merchant’s take on television throughout their careers has been to create relatively short series. Unlike the American version of “The Office,” which will continue until enough cast members leave and force it into cancellation, Gervais and Merchant are determined to actually write endings and to finish on a high note. Particularly, all of Gervais and Merchant’s projects before this have attacked completely new material. “The Office” looks at the workplace. “Extras” explores fame and celebrity. “The Ricky Gervais Show” ponders the very nature of things in a humorous, off-the-cuff manner. Their new show, “Life’s Too Short,” seems to just go back to fame and celebrity again. And in “Extras,” those standout comedic bits with the celebrity guest star never felt out of place because the guest star was in that particular episode throughout. He or she was key to the central plot of the episode. In “Life’s Too Short,” Neeson just enters Gervais and Merchant’s office, in order to begin the sketch. Depp has a scene with Davis, but they randomly decide to go see Gervais and Merchant, just to get Depp and them in the same room. As a result, “Life’s Too Short” ends up feeling disjointed. Ironically, if “Life’s Too Short” eliminated the involvement of Gervais and Merchant, took out the celebrity guest stars and focused solely on the central plot of Davis, the series would feel more cohesive and whole, but it would not be as funny. — Robby O’Daniel is a graduate student in communications. He can be reached at rodaniel@utk.edu.
SCRAMBLED EGGS • Alex Cline
THE Great Mash Up• Liz Newnam
Columns of The Daily Beacon are reflections of the individual columnist, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Beacon or its editorial staff.
Video game potential not maximized T he Bur den o f I n fa l l i b i l i t y by
Wiley Robinson The video game industry is doing well. Since 2002, annual product line receipts for the entertainment software publishing industry have increased over 130 percent, from about $4-9 billion in the last eight years. At real annual growth rates of around 17 percent from 2005 to 2008, it’s showing a consistent pattern of everincreasing growth unseen in a majority of industries. It’s worth reminding that “Modern Warfare 3” made more money on its first day than any entertainment release (that’s books, music, movies, theater, everything) in human history; “MW3” went on to make more money than “Avatar,” which is the fifth movie to gross more than $1 billion. Video games even have a noticeable presence in the U.S. GDP, contributing about $5 billion. Yet the term “video game” itself has a strong stigma about it left over from the earliest years; a stigma that, compared to the movie industry, simply hasn’t significantly changed since Atari. The sheer newness and novelty of this medium has shaped the public’s perception of what a video game can be: a frivolous, shallow pastime. The industry uses more objective terms like the “interactive entertainment software industry,” but to the rest of us, the name remains what it has been since the advent of coin arcades, where Pong amazed with its stimulating ball and paddle physics. And what can a video game be? The video game is a blank digital slate whose raw potential has never been popularly, and hardly, if at all, academically analyzed. If only because of the recent threats of financial usurpation, let’s compare video games to movies and remind ourselves what movie and film, which continue to be the most accessible and versatile form of popular entertainment, have the potential to be by existing precedent. Film can be social commentary, can be a catalyst for social change by exploring social norms in new ways, can express and blend emotions in an infinite variety of ways; they can visually communicate perhaps what comes closest to an artistic expression of universally experienced truths about the human condition, can be propaganda or educational, and so much more, all of which are strengthened, not weakened, by the entertainment power of the medium. The most serious, instructive art is not exempt from needing to be entertaining to be effective; the idea of good art through suffering, art that is simply “good for you,” is a falsehood
that assumes a base quality of “entertainment,” simply because some (perhaps most of) entertainment is indeed base. More can be gotten out of a sentimental painting of a girl by more people than from a painting of black and white cubes — this applies to all mediums. Art that is entertaining is art that is relevant, that speaks to an audience, and doesn’t separate the intellectual from the emotional; the intriguing thing about video games, especially the most popular releases of today, is that they don’t even allow themselves to enter that artistic realm that film is so comfortable in. Most of the 100-man teams that spend years developing the StarCrafts, Halos and Call of Dutys don’t have so much as an English major on them. The credits for these games claim to have “writers” on the staff, but all of the factors that go into a game seem to roundly alienate any narrative, intellectual or emotional, from shining through whatsoever. The rudimentary steps of a narrative are usually taken, character development, etc., but these developers attach stories to their games like Ayn Rand tagged on epistemology to objectivism, in essence stating that epistemology is a useless pursuit. There’s some irony, there. The interactivity of video games gives them a level of persuasiveness and emotional investment that is potentially unmatched by any medium, including the passivity of movies. The Master Chief, the decade old Halo series’ iconic protagonist, says incredibly few lines, and is very direct when he does, but for some reason he’s become one of the most charismatic figures in the industry; his character, with no discernible effort or priority put on the part of the developers, created an emotional investment in the plot for so many players merely because he was a fleshed out and likable enough character so that his actions had meaning, yet everyman enough to instantly sympathize with. “Halo: Reach,” for some reason, has dropped this dynamic, and as such, the single-player campaign in that game has the emotional involvement of a trip to the DMV. Developers, for whatever reason, have either not wanted or been able to address the challenge of balancing the interactivity of this medium with narrative. Perhaps it’s the infatuation with how rapidly the technology is growing. Or maybe it’s the sudden success of an industry that has found a medium so inherently entertaining, and an audience that will uncritically purchase its products, that the business models discourage investing extra resources in something as unnecessary as an emotional reason for playing. Tragically, these myopic fools, blessed with wealth and infrastructure, haven’t unlocked a fraction of this medium’s expressive power — and IGN.com keeps dishing out the 9/10s as if the industry wasn’t so obviously in its infancy. — Wiley Robinson is a junior in ecology and environmental biology. He can be reached at rrobin23@utk.edu.
Promote historical accuracy, not spin Chao s Theory by
Sarah Russell
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Usually, I am not one to discuss politics, mostly because I honestly admit that I am less informed than many are about the candidates and the issues. I generally approach politics with a willingness to learn and a healthy dose of skepticism about why candidates take the stances that they do. I also tend to believe that on most issues, there are in fact two sides, each with some valid points and each with some points that need reevaluation. There is one issue, however, that really gets my blood boiling: when politicians drag the so-called “Culture Wars” into their political agendas. The Culture Wars and the politics that accompany them are hardly a recent phenomenon in American history. Politicians have been trying to create metanarratives of our nation since its origins; the founding fathers did not merely have intentions of benevolence and good will when they wrote of equality in the Declaration of Independence. From the expansion of Americans into the Western frontier (ever heard of “Go West, Young Man?”) to the Gilded Age, through World War II and into the present day with our War on Terror, the ideologies and stories that our politicians have constructed and that we have accepted about our nation’s history are pervasive and all-encompassing, leaving little room for reinterpretation or alternate narratives. In fact, attempts to counter or alter these accepted narratives of the “American Experience” (as EPCOT so aptly put it) have been shut down, ignored or labeled as “revisionist” versions of history. On the surface, being called a revisionist may seem fairly benign, but in the rhetoric of politicians, revisionists are nothing less than terrorists against the very concept of the American Dream. As they are often seen, or at least portrayed, by politicians, revisionist historians are radical leftist academics who seek to emphasize the less-thanglamorous moments of America’s past (slavery, Japanese internment camps, foreign relations with Latin America) in order to undermine the narrative that depicts America as glorious and powerful, a land of equal opportunity and of unfettered individualism. Historians who do not subscribe to this traditional conception of America are unequivocally given the revisionist label and denounced
for blatant lack of patriotism. This issue is clearly manifest in the recent conversations within the state of Tennessee, initiated by the Tennessee Tea Party, about eliminating slavery from textbooks. This group apparently takes issue with the fact that the founding fathers themselves had slaves; Hal Rounds, the spokesman for the group, emphasized that there has been “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders … having slaves or being hypocrites.” Evidently, this group has not read much history themselves, because the supposedly “made-up criticism” about the founding fathers holding slaves is anything but made-up. Even tour guides at Monticello, the bastion of Jeffersonian America, mention Thomas Jefferson’s affair with his slave Sally Hemings in their talks. This does not mean that people are required to be comfortable with this evidence; in truth, there is no denying that the evidence forces us to ask difficult questions about what our founding fathers really meant when they wrote that “all men are created equal.” Nonetheless, to remove the institution of slavery from school textbooks because of the negative light it casts on our founding fathers and on the country is not only detrimental to education, but is fundamentally wrong. We are not doing our children any favors by glossing over the unpleasantness of the American story. Given the prevalence of scholarship on these subjects, students will sooner or later learn about Japanese internment camps, the Ku Klux Klan, or the Trail of Tears. Furthermore, the removal of these subjects from textbooks gives an entirely false and unbalanced perception of America, making the country seem perfect when in reality it was, and is, anything but perfect. This is not teaching our children history; it is indoctrinating our children about history, something we have long accused our enemies of doing themselves. Rather than attempting to destroy the American narrative, “revisionist” historians are attempting to add to it, to flesh it out and make it a more accurate representation of the failures and successes of our young nation. We espouse democracy as the primary goal of our country, meaning we as citizens are called to political action. Far from unpatriotic, historians with alternate views of America are acting upon their knowledge and research in order to create a more nuanced and inclusive narrative of American history. — Sarah Russell is a senior in history. She can be reached at srusse22@utk.edu.
Friday, March 2, 2012
The Daily Beacon • 5
ARTS&CULTURE
Galleries buy rare paintings “It’s true we’ve depleted our resources very considerably by the acquisition,” he said. “But if we hadn’t taken this opportunity I think we would diminish our chances of further bequests in the future. “I know some people might think, why not buy 10 lesser things, but I think the National Gallery was founded primarily as a collection of great masterpieces.” The purchase means the painting will be reunited with its companion piece, “Diana and Actaeon,” which the two galleries bought for 50 million pounds in 2009. The prices, agreed with owner the Duke of Sutherland, are only about a third of what the paintings have been estimated to be worth on the open market. Robert Korzinek, a fine art underwriter at insurer Hiscox, said the paintings are among a select group of artworks whose market value is potentially sky-high.
The Associated Press
Emily DeLanzo Design Editor People normally flock from Florida to the Smokies to see the snow atop of Newfound Gap during the month of March, but this unseasonably warm weather is already pushing forward most of the wildflower blooms. Newfound Gap is the highest point accessible by car at the moment within Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Newfound Gap parking lot rises just above 5,000 feet in elevation. Although the parking area is constantly flooded with visitors to admire the monument and the scenic overlook, the Appalachian Trail accessible through the same area provides a great escape from the buzz of Knoxville. In order to get to the Appalachian Trailhead going north at Newfound Gap, the visitor has to stay straight on US 441 South going towards Cherokee, N.C. Newfound Gap is just 30 minutes away from Gatlinburg and a total of roughly 14 miles. Seventy-two miles of Appalachian Trail zigzags its way across the Smokies. For upcoming Spring Break, I highly encourage a backpacking trip down a part of the Appalachian Trail, just make sure to reserve your shelters in advance. A high point along the Appalachian Trail is Charlies Bunion. Named after everyone’s favorite foot deformity, this
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EMPLOYMENT Associated Therapeutics, Inc. is seeking motivated, energetic individual for Fitness Staff position at our Health and Fitness Center. Exercise Science/ Physiology majors encouraged to apply. Associated Therapeutics, Inc. 2704 Mineral Springs Rd., Knoxville, TN 37917. Phone 687-4537 or fax 687-3938. E-mail mthompson@associatedtherapeutics.com. Auto Sales Customer Service Rep needed. Good people skills and knowledge of cars. Flexible schedules. Near campus. E-mail resume to dougjustus07@me.com or call 755-7663. Camp Counselors, male/ female, needed for great overnight camps in the mountains of PA. Have fun while working with children outdoors. Teach/ assist with A/C, Aquatics, Media, Music, Outdoor Rec, Tennis, & more. Office, Nanny & Kitchen positions available. Apply online at www.pineforestcamp.com.
bare rock formation provides a neat geologic formation and an exhilarating view sure not to be forgotten. Charlies Bunion is an eight-mile roundtrip hike down the Appalachian Trail. This part of the trail is accessible from the Newfound Gap parking area. The trail gains only 1,640 total feet over the spread of four miles. The first mile proves to be some of the steepest part so once you get past that part, the trail is only an easy walk along a mountain ridge. The trees are finally starting to spring back to life, and this classic hike will give you stunning views. This trail is extremely popular in the summer time. Because the visibility and air quality are exponentially better in the winter and early spring, right now is the time to go see the Bunion and the gorgeous views around it. Please be careful once you get to the summit. Sharp drops do occur, and falling will not only hurt your pride but also possibly your life. Be sure to wear layers because Newfound Gap is 20 degrees cooler than the normal low elevations around Gatlinburg and Sugarlands. Water is always a necessity, and first aid kits come in handy. Lastly, enjoy your hike. Bring a picnic and read up on Horace Kephart, who I see as one of the fathers of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Kephart hiked this trail a century ago, and visitors can enjoy this scenic hike all thanks to his dedication to the national park service.
LONDON — Two major British art galleries have raised 45 million pounds ($72 million) to buy a Renaissance masterpiece that has been in the U.K. for 200 years and keep it on public display — a purchase announced Thursday as a substantial cultural victory in tough economic times. Britain’s National Gallery contributed 25 million pounds to buy Titian's “Diana and Callisto,” which it will own jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland. The rest of the money came from an art charity, lottery profits and private donors. The galleries did not appeal to the public for funds. National Gallery Director Nicholas Penny said the purchase had used up most of the gallery’s 32 million pound reserve fund, accumulated from a century of bequests.
James Hayden • The Daily Beacon
— Emily DeLanzo is a junior in environ- Students listen to Elizabeth Pallardy’s presentation on writing a resume on Feb. 27. mental studies. She can be reached at ede- Career Services will be hosting another workshop, Job Search Strategies, on March lanzo@utk.edu. 14 at 4 p.m.
EMPLOYMENT
EMPLOYMENT
UNFURN APTS
FOR RENT
FOR RENT
CONDOS FOR RENT
CONDOS FOR SALE
COMPUTER TECH (PT 10-20 hrs/week) Primarily a web technology based position responsible for online database development and maintenance. Demonstrated operational knowledge of HTML, XML, CSS, PHP, SQL, Dreamweaver, InDesign, and exp with PC/Mac platforms. Please e-mail a resume, cover letter, and three references to Ila Vee McGahey at imcgahey@utk.
Terminus Real Estate PT marketing /office assistant needed. Show space for rent and answer phone for downtown real estate company. $8.50/hr. to start. 15-25 hrs per wk. Self motivate, honest, hard worker. Email resume to danielle@terminusrealestate.com.
South Knoxville/ UT downtown area 2BR apts. $475. Call about our special (865)573-1000.
HUNTINGTON PLACE UT students! Only 3 miles west of campus. Eff. to 3BR. Hardwood floors. Central H/A. Pets allowed. (865)588-1087.
Walk to class! 3, 4 or 5 bedroom houses in Ft Sanders. Large rooms, hardwood floors, laundry facilities and parking. Available Fall. Please call 865-300-6772.
Condo for rent 3BR 2BA near campus. All hardwood, W/D included. $999/mo. Available for fall. Call (865)310-6977.
Condo for sale. Easy walk to campus. 3BR unit. 3rd floor. Laurel Station Condos. 1517 Laurel Ave. 615-969-1013. Priced to sell.
Gage Talent is seeking models for bar and local promotions. Contact Gage at gage@gagetalent.com Landscaping company looking for FT and PT help. Must be able to drive pick-up truck. Leave name and number at (865)584-9985. Part-time light auto mechanic needed. Car dealership near campus. Flexible hours. Call Doug 755-7663. Pride & Joy Children’s Academy 4418 Kingston Pike, (across from Western Plaza in the Sequoyah Hills area) has immediate part-time positions available working with school age children. Hours Tues and Thur 12-6. Previous experience with this age group preferred. Also avaliable full-time positions working in our summer camp with school age children. Must be available all summer. Exciting fieldtrip could include Dollywood/ Splash Country. Please call Jenny @ 414-6072 or 524-7907 to set up an appointment. Savvi Formalwear Now ing PT sales associates. ary plus commission. work environment. (865)898-4742.
HirSalFun Call
THE TOMATO HEAD KNOXVILLE Now hiring dish and food running positions. Full and part-time available, no experience necessary. Apply in person at 12 Market Square or apply online at thetomatohead.com.
THE TOMATO HEAD MARYVILLE Hiring all positions Full and part-time. No experience necessary. Apply in person. 211 W. Broadway, Maryville, TN (865)981-1080 or online www.thetomatohead.com.
LOST & FOUND Lost keys on Ag. Campus near parking Staff 66. Has Airport Honda tag. If found call 974-1535.
UNFURN APTS 1 and 2BR Apts. UT area and West Knox area. Call for appointment (865)522-5815. 16th PLACE APARTMENTS 3 blocks from UT Law School (1543- 1539 Highland Ave.) 1BR and 2BR apts. only. Brick exterior, carpet, laundry facility on first floor. Guaranteed and secured parking. 24 hour maintenance. No dogs or cats. 32nd year in Fort Sanders. www.sixteenthplace.com. brit.howard@sixteenthplace. com. (865)522-5700.
VICTORIAN HOUSE APTS Established 1980 3 blocks behind UT Law School. 1, 2 and 3BR apartments. VERY LARGE AND NEWLY RENOVATED TOP TO BOTTOM. Hardwood floors, high ceilings, porches, 3BR’s have W/D connections. 2 full baths, dishwashers. Guaranteed secured parking. 24 hour maintenance. No dogs or cats. www.sixteenthplace.com. brit.howard@sixteenthplace. com. (865)522-5700.
FOR RENT 1 BR CONDOS Security/Elevator/Pool/Pkg 3 min. walk to Law School. $520R, $300SD, No app. fee. 865 (4408-0006 , 250-8136). AVAILABLE FOR FALL 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5BR units in the Fort. No pets. Call now for best selection. Leave msg (615)300-7434 (865)389-6732. 1BR apartment and 3BR houses. Walking distance to UT. Lease required. Call 523-1331, 522-1917. 1BR apartment. 1412 Highland Ave. Extra large available now. Free parking. No pets. $450/mo. ATCHLEY PROPERTIES. 865-806-6578. Campus Condos Available in August 2BR, 2BA and 3BR 3BA units available. W/D in unit. Reserved off street parking. 3 minute walk to Law School and stadium. $475/mo. (770)744-4238.
HOUSE FOR RENT
Student Housing in The Fort. 3, 4 and 5BR units still available for Fall semester. Call 521-7324. WALK TO CAMPUS Great Specials! 1,2,&3BR Apartments. Available. No security deposits. Prime Campus Housing (865)637-3444. primecampushousingtn.com.
Walk to class! 1-7BR units available. Call for more information (865)388-6144.
UT condos for sale. Marty Hartsell with ERA Top Producers 691-5348. 1BR, 2BR, and 3BR from $65k. Call my cell 237-7914 or www.martyhartsellgetsitsold.com.
CONDOS FOR LEASE ON UT CAMPUS 2 & 3BR units available for lease in popular complexes on UT Campus. Most include internet, cable, W/D, water, sewer and parking. University Real Estate & Property Mgmt., LLC 865-673-6600 www.urehousing.com or rentals@urehousing.com
5, 6, 7, 8BR houses in Fort Sanders showing now for August 2012. Newly remodeled, W/D, HVAC, parking, large bedrooms, walk to campus. Best houses go or quickly! 865-274-7286 Volrentals.com.
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Houses in the Fort available for Fall. 4, 5, and 7BR, includes appliances and Internet. All have a front yard and parking. Call 521-7324.
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NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD • Will Shortz ACROSS 1 Actress Stone and others 6 “Just playin’ with ya” 10 Base characters? 14 Meccan, e.g. 15 Ones sitting on pads 16 Cut off one’s ears? 17 One asking questions he already knows the answers to 19 Cousin of contra20 Highness 21 “Figures I’d have this problem!” 23 French expert in body language? 24 Draw back 25 Education dissemination locations 30 Solidifying agents 31 Vase lookalikes 35 Bouncing off the walls
36 Enclosure … and an alphabetical listing of letters not appearing elsewhere in this puzzle’s answer 37 Sylvester’s “Rocky” co-star 38 A Ford 39 “___ Girl” (“Bells Are Ringing” tune) 40 One swimming with flippers 46 Logical ending 49 Accessible for shooting 50 Like pool racks 52 Host of PBS’s “Scientific American Frontiers” 56 Baseball All-Star Kinsler and others 57 “1984” shelfmate 59 Ordeal for jrs. 60 Part of some pools 61 Rose partially 62 Clinic shipments 63 Henry James biographer
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11 Stack at IHOP, say 12 See 9-Down 13 Like some punk hairstyles 18 Cracked open 22 Stocking-up time? 23 Lay claim forcibly 25 Weak 26 Quaint euphemism 27 Film holders 28 True companion? 29 Pundit 32 Highness: Abbr. 33 Mass action 34 Mosel tributary 41 Begin a conversation with 42 Cut back 43 Contact liquid
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DOWN A.B.A. members’ titles Wailuku’s county California’s ___ Woods Wood shop shaper “Scrooge” star, 1951 “Likely story” Lawn flamingos and such Pop alternative With 12-Down, lidocaine delivery option Risk board territory
44 Nail topper 45 Home to a muchvisited tomb 46 Sticks in a makeup bag 47 Sweep the board? 48 Mosul money 51 The Charleses’ pet 52 Not close 53 Like fashionable partygoers? 54 It may knock you out 55 Concert pieces 58 54-Down for a trip
6 • The Daily Beacon
Friday, March 2, 2012
THESPORTSPAGE
Projected Starters Tennessee 17-13 (9-6 SEC)
Vanderbilt 21-9 (10-5 SEC)
G Trae Golden G Jordan McRae G Cameron Tatum F Jeronne Maymon F Jarnell Stokes
G Brad Tinsley G John Jenkins F Jeffery Taylor F Lance Gouldbourne C Festus Ezeli
13.3 9.2 7.8 12.6 9.0
How They Match-up UT 69.0 65.2 44.7 36.5 69.5 +3.2 4.3 13.0 5.7 -2.0
VU
Scoring Offense Scoring Defense Field Goals % Three Point % Free Throw % Rebound Margin Blocks per game Assists per game Steals per game Turnover Margin
Last year January 15, 2011 in Knoxville Tennessee 67 - 64 George Richardson • The Daily Beacon
Forward Jarnell Stokes goes for the basket against UConn on Jan. 22. In 13 games the freshman has scored 117 points and averages 9 points per game.
February 22, 2011 in Nashville Tennessee 60 - 51
74.0 66.1 46.5 40.2 70.7 +3.2 4.3 13.1 5.9 -0.73
8.8 20.1 17.4 8.8 10.4
Why the Vols will win: It’s really simple for Tennessee: this is a must-win if it wants to get in the NCAA Tournament as an at-large bid. Not that a win would ensure that, but losing at home would likely ensure just the opposite, especially with a surplus of teams in The Bubble this season. The Vols have won seven of eight games (also nine of 12), and seem to have found their stride, even if it hasn’t been pretty at times. UT is currently tied with Alabama for fourth in the conference, and along with Vandy and Florida, are vying for a top-four conference finish, which rewards in a first-round bye in the SEC Tournament. Kentucky has already clinched the regular season title and the No. 1 seed, but the remaining top seeds will be decided on Saturday. With a UT win and a Kentucky victory over the Gators, Tennessee would finish second after being picked 11th in the preseason. A UT loss ensures a fifth-place finish, forcing the Vols to play in the first round next Thursday. Tennessee’s capable of the win, especially at home. This game will all be about pride for UT.
Why the ‘Dores will win: Yes, the Huskies have lost three of their past five after starting off the season 12-1 in defense of their national championship. Yes, they’re once again missing freshman point guard Ryan Boatright (who averages 10 points, three assists) because of a pending NCAA investigation. However, UConn plays some defense, holding opponents to just 36 percent field goal shooting, while also grabbing 39 rebounds a game and blocking seven shots. They’ll need sophomore Jeremy Lamb (18 points a game) to step up even more and improve his 3-point shooting as of late. Although he’s shooting 36 percent from the season, he’s just 3-of-19 in his past four games. For a team that powered through the NCAA Tournament last year, a hostile environment at Thompson-Boling Arena shouldn’t be a problem.