Mostly Sunny 10% chance of rain HIGH LOW 86 62
Follow us: @DailyBeacon
Check out the Beacon Weekender
Exclusive interview with Dave Hart
Thursday, June 8, 2012
PAGE 6 T H E
E D I T O R I A L L Y
Issue 3 I N D E P E N D E N T
PUBLISHED SINCE 1906
PAGE 5
http://utdailybeacon.com
Vol. 120 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
O F
T E N N E S S E E
Orientation for incoming students begins Preston Peeden Managing Editor For current UT students, the summer holidays are a time for one of three pastimes: relaxation, work or summer school, with no two holiday experiences being alike. This, however, is not the summer itinerary for the 5,000 plus incoming freshman. For those recent high school graduates, the months of June and July will hold at least one weekend when all will share a similar experience. For all of these new UT students, Freshman Orientation is either in their present or future plans. The first session of orientation opened June 5, and has slowly been churning out new crops of Volunteers daily. For most of these students, their time at orientation represents a pivotal learning experience, where they come to better know their school, their peers and themselves. “It’s really exciting,” said Sarah Schulze, an aspiring marketing and advertising major from Trenton, Tenn. “I feel like I’m starting something new. It is a little stressful with all of the stuff they’re throwing at us, but it’s kind of exciting to think that in a couple months I will be here full time.” Andrew Walters, an incoming freshman from Memphis, shared Schulze’s enthusiasm for orientation. “Orientation is tiring, but it’s very beneficial I think,” he said. For many of these soon-to-be students, one of the biggest transitions they faced was their new concept of campus as more than just a place to visit, but instead as their new home. “I’ve been on campus two or three times before,” Riley Duncan, who is undecided on his major and from Nashville, said. “This just feels more real for me, it’s a different than football games. I feel like I’m apart of the campus now.”
Even for Knoxvillians, the orientation environment changed their perception of campus. “It just feels completely different for me now,” Aaron Baer, a Central High School graduate and chemistry major hopeful. Walters shared Baer’s and Duncan’s new perception of the campus. “I’ve been to football games before but this is the first time I’ve actually walked around here,” Walters said. “... It’s kind of weird too. My high school had 800 people and this is such a bigger scale now.” Not only does this experience represent a new changing perception of campus for many of these students, but it also is one of the first tastes they will get of who they will be sharing this campus with. And it was in these new connections that many students found their favorite aspect of their orientation experience. “We had our Orientation Leaders talking to us in the Vol-to-Vol segment and I really liked my last session there,” Schulze said. “They really connected with us and brought our own fears to help us.” Duncan and Callie Jaggers both shared Schulze’s enthusiasm about the connections that these discussions made. “I really liked the small groups,” Duncan said. “We had a lot of really good discussions.” “I loved meeting new friends, the lectures weren’t too much fun,” Jaggers, an aspiring biology major from Jackson, Tenn., admitted. For some, these connections were not only beneficial for their time at orientation, but also for the months and years to come as they move from high school to college. “My favorite part was meeting all of these new people,” Walters said. “Especially the Orientation Leaders, it’s good to know that I am going to know some people, in particular them. It will help me look for guidance in this transition.”
• Photo courtesy of The Office of Student Orientation
Orientation Leaders smile with Cuonzo Martin in this undated picture. Orientation Leaders are responsible for creating a perfect environment for incoming freshman to be familiarized with campus. The students take the time during their two days at UT to meet other students, learn about organizations on campus, and be advised for their first semester in the fall.
Venus spotted in rare event Florida A&M presi-
dent won’t resign over hazing incident The Associated Press
• Photo courtesy of Brian Sims
Wesley Mills News Editor If you weren’t paying attention Tuesday night, you probably missed something you’ll never have the opportunity to see again. For six hours and 40 minutes, Venus passed across the sun. From Japan to Jamaica, South Korea to Santa Monica, people across the globe stopped and paused for the few minutes that they could see, from their vantage point, the planet pass across the sun. Only six times has this event occurred before 2004, and it will likely not occur again until 2117. Sophomore Jordan Achs viewed it from her driveway in Illinois with her sister and a friend. “I observed it with a pinhole camera I made out of a couple of shoeboxes,” she said. Though Achs is a business management major, she took an astronomy class last spring, and learned about this phenomenon while covering Venus. “I briefly forgot about it until a few days prior to the event when I read about it in an Internet article,” Achs said.
Achs said she could not find anyone that sold eclipse sunglasses, but because this was a “once-in-a-lifetime event” she had to see it. “I researched online other ways to safely look at the sun, and many mentioned pinhole cameras which are popular with those who want to view solar eclipses,” she said. Achs said her homemade viewing device wasn’t difficult to make. “Just take a shoebox and cut a one-inch hole in it, and cover that hole with aluminum foil,” she said. “Then, using a tack or needle, poke a hole in the aluminum foil. Place white paper directly across the pinhole and cut another side of the box that allows you to see the paper.” The way she built it protected her eyes from the sun while still allowing her to view Venus clearly, and the shoeboxes were used because of their availability. Along with Venus, Mercury is the only other planet that will pass across the sun. Achs said Venus’s orbit is what makes its path cross the sun. “Venus has a smaller orbit than Earth does, so at some points we align just right so that Venus is blocking a very small portion of the sun as viewed by the Earth,”
Achs said. When looking at this phenomenon, Achs said she had to be careful, lest the sun blind her. Melissa Eggert, senior in anthropology, didn’t see Venus cross in front of the sun, but heard about it both before and after the fact. “I think it’s pretty cool that they use Venus crossing the sun to measure the size of Venus, and I think they can measure other things by seeing Venus cross in front,” Eggert said. Eggert said she saw pictures afterwards, and even though she didn’t see it, she was certainly intrigued by it. “I think it’s a really big deal,” she said. “This coming from a someone who thinks space stuff is very interesting; just to think about how big the galaxies are.” Eggert said she would like big events like this to be advertised more by the national and local media, especially since phenomenons like these are seen just once in a lifetime. “I feel like the astronomy department would want to get students involved and want to at least send out a mass email to UT students about the upcoming event,” Eggert said.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The president of Florida A&M University received a no-confidence vote Thursday from school trustees for his handling of the hazing death of a drum major in its famed Marching 100 band, but he said afterward that he won’t resign. The board voted 8 to 4 to approve the no-confidence measure against university president James Ammons. Ammons signed a five-year contract extension last year. He said he plans to remain in his post and help the university stamp out what many call a culture of hazing surrounding the university and its nationally recognized band, which has played at Super Bowls and inaugurations. “This is very serious for the future of this university,” Ammons said after Thursday’s vote. “You have my commitment to fix them and get this job done.” The school has been reeling since the November death of drum major Robert Champion. Eleven members of the band have been charged with felony hazing for allegedly beating him to death. The death exposed a wide culture of hazing at the school. Critics say Ammons and other administrators ignored it. Champion died after being beaten in a band bus outside an Orlando hotel after a football game. Ammons suspended The Marching 100 soon afterward and last month announced he was continuing the suspension for the coming year. Ammons became president in 2007 following a
budget scandal that threatened the school's accreditation. He said recently that the current crisis triggered by Champion’s death marks the biggest challenge of his career. Trustees who voted against Ammons not only cited problems with hazing and The Marching 100, but also the fact that a top auditor at the university resigned after it was revealed that false audit summaries were presented to the board of trustees. The university is also struggling with financial woes because of state budget cuts and a likely decline in enrollment this fall. The school, meanwhile, wants to launch a major fundraising campaign in the coming year but its athletic program, now grappling with a deficit, must figure out how to fill football stands this fall even though the band has been suspended for the coming year. “I do not have confidence in Dr. Ammons to lead us out of this crisis,” trustee Bill Jennings said. Narayan Persaud, the faculty member on the board, said he had concluded that the university was “caught in a wilderness of errors.” “How can we reclaim control of the dignity of this once prestigious university has been pulled backwards and backwards?” Persaud said. Last month, university officials acknowledged 101 members on the 457-member marching band roster were not FAMU students. Earlier this week, Ammons proposed limiting the band to only fulltime FAMU students and stiffening requirements for membership.