PICK UP YOUR COPY OF TOPPER EXTRA BEFORE TONIGHT’S GAME
HERALD UNDERGROUND
MORGAN THOMAS ONLINE, WKUHERALD.COM
TTHURSDAY, HURSDAY, SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER 11,, 22016 016 > W WESTERN ESTERN KKENTUCKY ENTUCKY UUNIVERSITY NIVERSITY > VVOLUME OLUME 992, 2, IISSUE SSUE 4
Racial slur carved into student’s vehicle BY EMMA COLLINS HERALD.NEWS@WKU.EDU On Wednesday, a WKU student’s car was vandalized in Parking Structure 2 with a racial slur. Cheyenne Mitchell, a senior from Lexington, returned to her car after class to find the racial slur carved into it. Mitchell said there had been an brief altercation earlier between a friend of hers and the man who allegedly vandalized her car. Prior to the vandalism, Mitchell said her friend was standing in an empty parking space in PS2. He was holding the spot for Mitchell to park her car. “The guy was mad because the person that was holding the space for me wouldn’t let him pull in it,” Mitchell said. “[The guy] was trying to force my friend out of the way with his car, and my friend wasn’t going to move.” Mitchell said the man who she could not identify proceeded to call the Bowling Green Police Department before backing away from the spot and driving away. Mitchell added she was then able to pull into the parking space. As they were exiting PS2, Mitchell said her friend briefly spoke to the man before heading to class. It was not until Mitchell returned to her car after class that she saw the vandalism. “It upset me some and scared me a little bit because I didn’t know what to do,” Mitchell said. “I was in shock about it that somebody would do that to my car in broad daylight.” Mitchell reported the vandalism to the WKU Police Department who have since opened an investigation. “They called the Bowling Green police also, and they’re trying to connect with each other to find out who it was that did this,” Mitchell said. Rafael Casas, a sergeant major with the WKUPD, said there is currently an open investigation. “We’ve been working all the leads and everything that we have, so as of right now it’s just an ongoing investigation, and we’re trying to exhaust our leads,” Casas said. In a statement, President
SEE VANDALISM PAGE A2
Go Phish IT department releases idea to prevent phishing
BY EMMA COLLINS HERALD.NEWS@WKU.EDU
I
n an effort to protect students from phishing emails, the Information Technology department at WKU has a created the Phish Bowl where students can view recent emails that have been sent by scammers. The Phish Bowl is designed to help people identify these emails. An email sent from Greg Hackbarth, director of enterprise systems, to all faculty, staff and students, recommends that recipients of mysterious email go to the Phish Bowl. The Phish Bowl contains a list of various emails that have been sent to members of the WKU community. “If the email is on the Phish Bowl, it is a confirmed phishing scam,
and you can delete it,” the WKU IT department said in the email. According to Phishing.org, a website dedicated to providing information on how to avoid phishing emails, phishing is defined as a “process where a targeted individual is contacted by email or telephone by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure the individual into providing sensitive information.” This information is then used to access an individual’s accounts which can result in financial loss or identity theft. If the email is not on the Phish Bowl, then the individual can forward it to phishbowl@wku.edu or contact the IT department. The Twitter account for the IT department, @wkuIT, also posts images of phishing emails that have been tweeted by other mem-
bers of the WKU community. Many of the phishing emails are sent from a WKU address such as @topper.wku.edu and @wku.edu. In an email Hackbarth said phishers are able to gain access to these email addresses in a number of ways. “They gain knowledge of the existence of a topper account in various ways, either by discovering topper addresses published on the web or looking up accounts in the WKU directory,” Hackbarth said. “Once they gain access to a topper account, they can look up other user addresses there.” Hackbarth said the IT Department has considered the idea to make WKU addresses harder to find; however, doing so would affect the accessibility of contact information.
SEE PHISHING PAGE A2
Construction on new dorm to begin in November BY MONICA KAST HERALD.NEWS@WKU.EDU
Construction on the newest dorm on campus, Hilltopper Hall, will begin in November, according to the Student Life Foundation. Hilltopper Hall will be the first building of the 10-year Student Life Foundation Master Plan announced earlier this year. The plan will focus on creating more suite-style housing, similar to what is currently offered in McLean Hall or Bates-Runner Hall on campus, according to Brian Kuster, executive director of the WKU Student Life Foundation. Kuster said the layout of the rooms will be similar to McLean or Bates, but the rooms will be slightly larger. “This master plan is not about adding additional beds,” Kuster said. “What we’re really doing is taking buildings that are community bathrooms and moving those into private bathroom buildings to get more of what our students are wanting.” Hilltopper Hall will be located in the Valley
SEE HILLTOPPER HALL A2
An artist’s rendering of the new Hilltopper Hall. Courtesy of WKU Planning, Design and Construction