Sunny 0% chance of rain HIGH LOW 76 56
Follow us: @DailyBeacon
Fourth ‘Assassin’s Creed,’ DLC deepen games’ development
Baylor cuts Lady Vols’ season short, 77-58
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
PAGE 10 T H E
E D I T O R I A L L Y
Issue 48
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
SGA campaigns lead with hand-outs Students welcome availability of HOPE funds for summer Emily DeLanzo Design Editor
• Photo courtesy of Revolt
• Photo courtesy of Fuel
The ubiquitous parade of free food, T-shirts, buttons and flyers signals SGA elections are upon us. Candidates from both Fuel and Revolt distributed campaign materials on the Pedestrian Mall Monday. Both parties came out early in the morning to set up booths in front of the library, hoping to facilitate dialogue with students. Campaign representatives were hard at work expressing their particular policy viewpoints. Terry Nowell, vice-presidential candidate for Fuel, kept the focus on engaging the student body. “A lot of what we’re trying to do — a lot of the food and a lot of the T-shirts — is about spreading the idea,” Nowell said. “That’s an opening. It’s kind of like an ice breaker in a lot of ways. We entice them with the food and then after that we usually try to talk to them in line about our policy, what we want to get down, and who we have running on the campaign.” Eric Dixon, vice-presidential candidate for Revolt, promoted increased communication between SGA and students. “I think it’s extremely important,” Dixon said. “I think it’s extremely imperative that we are really reaching out to students. It needs to be a continuing relationship and has to be sustained.” The Revolt campaign was focused on making sure that students understood the meaning behind the give-aways.
“The main incentive for students is our message — the message of SGA having true legitimacy in the future,” Dixon said. “Free stuff is great, and we want to bring students in to hear our message with that stuff, but really, students are resonating most with the policy changes that we’re talking about. Not with the free food and not with the T-shirts, but really the substance of change.” The Fuel campaign has taken a long-term approach to their policy planning. “We wanted to choose things and policy points that we knew we’d be able to get done, and also we wanted to chose ones that we knew might take some time,” Nowell said. “We chose Fuel because fuel is essentially the starting of all of it.” The Fuel campaign acknowledges that the impact of their policy goals may not be immediately apparent. “We know that we’re going to be the fuel in a lot of ways and we know that we’re not going to get credit for a lot we get done,” Nowell said. “That’s why we chose big, kind of lofty ideas that we know we want to start, and hopefully four years down the road, my little sister will have what we’ve worked on.” Revolt aims to first increase SGA’s relevance on campus. “(SGA) doesn’t have adequate power to really be a conduit for student voices,” Dixon said. “We want to take SGA to something that actually has a real substance of voice on this campus so that we can enact all the other small policy changes.” Regardless of party allegiance, students enjoyed the various freebies. Both campaigns will be hard at work courting student opinion leading into Wednesday’s voting kickoff.
Blair Kuykendall Editor-in-Chief
Victoria Wright Student Life Editor
The hustle and bustle of fall registration has already begun for some students, but it’s still not too late to enroll in summer classes. With new rules for the HOPE Scholarship, summer courses will not cost an arm and a leg but instead at least six hours of your time. Since its installation for Tennessee public universities in 2004, this summer will be the first time the HOPE Scholarship is available to ease financial burdens for students. Tanner Thul, freshman in history, appreciates the fact that the summer extension will give him the ability to take classes closer to home. “I live in Chattanooga, and the new HOPE changes will cover some tuition if I choose to take classes closer to home during the summer,” Thul said. In order to be eligible for the Tennessee lottery-driven HOPE Scholarship this summer, students must meet certain criteria. All current requirements still apply for the use of the scholarship in the summer. Students must be a Tennessee state resident and maintain a GPA of at least 2.75. Also, students must enroll in a minimum of six hours for the summer semester, and they cannot
use the HOPE Scholarship toward mini-term in May. “There are many advantages to taking summer courses, including smaller classes, a more relaxed campus and an even more focused learning environment,” Susan Martin, provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, said in a press release. “Summer school students often find summer jobs or internships, gaining valuable professional experience and earning some spending money while taking classes. The summer is also a good time to study abroad.” Students who intend to take summer classes need to have completed their Federal Student Aid form for the current academic year. Summer financial aid forms for UTK are available online at http://finaid.utk.edu/apply/s ummer, and must be completed before April 1. The maximum amount of scholarship aid available to students is $6,000 per year which includes the fall, spring and summer semesters. The scholarship money is spread evenly over all semesters. The new availability of the HOPE Scholarship should encourage students to be active learners yearround and embrace the calmer pace in summer classes. See SUMMER HOPE on Page 3
Students help out town during break Caroline Snapp Staff Writer As the sun beamed down, the knocking of hammers could be heard in the background. Blake Sowell was covered in roofing dust and had been up scraping shingles off a roof since 7 a.m. “The work is hard; we have to take off a roof pretty much, which was not put on very well, which makes it harder to take off,” Sowell said. “It’s dirty work and the sun is very hot down here in Moultrie, Ga., but once we get all the roof off, it’s a lot easier putting a new one on.” Most students would probably not visualize this scene when they think about their ideal Spring Break, but for Sowell, a sophomore from Georgia Tech who will be transferring to Tennessee in the fall, it was exactly how he wanted to spend his week. “I decided recently that I’m going to transfer to the University of Tennessee and after talking to friends and family I decided to go on the Cross (Greek Ministry) Spring Break trip,” Sowell said. “Rick Kuhlman, my mentor, really encouraged me to go on this trip and so did my brother Ryan Sowell, who’s been on multiple trips with the Cross, so it’s really a great thing to get involved with.” The Cross Greek Ministry has been going to the small agricultural town of Moultrie, Ga. for the past three Spring Breaks in an effort to improve the community. The projects the students accomplished varied. Some students roofed a house, others built a wheelchair ramp for a paralyzed
man, and some worked on a local park, among other things. Cheryle Reeves is the Discipleship and Connections Coordinator for Heritage Church, which facilitates the trip and hosts the students during the week. She had been working all year to coordinate the projects and has been the Cross’ liaison in Moultrie for the past three years. “It really came through a couple of friendships,” Reeves said. “It seems like something that was kind of a fluke but I really think it was through the sovereignty of God to begin to knit our hearts together with this ministry with the University of Tennessee. So many neat things have happened over the three years.” Students believed the impact they made on the community was invaluable to the people who were affected. Joseph Machett, the executive director for the Boys and Girls Club in Moultrie, was incredibly thankful for all the hours the students put into fixing up the facility. “The impact is priceless in the sense that when kids see the age of the facility, which we don’t control, or the upkeep of the facility, that we do control, are presentable and nice and clean, the kids, who are less fortunate to have that, it’s very valuable to them,” Machett said. The community welcomed the 130 or so students who came on the trip. Heritage Church provided the students a place to stay and facilitated the projects that took place during the week, along with hosting a cookout the first day the students were there. Other local churches fed the students each night. See MOULTRIE on Page 3
Matthew DeMaria • The Daily Beacon
Kata Szekely lines up a shot during a match against Florida on Friday, March 2. Szekely and the rest of the Lady Vols tennis team travel to Nashville this Friday looking to end a three-match winless streak against the Vanderbilt Commodores.