NEWS Technique • Friday, October 26, 2007 • 1

TECHNIQUETECHNIQUETECHNIQUET“The South’s Liveliest College Newspaper”

Serving Georgia Tech since 1911 • Friday, October 26, 2007

Homecoming 2007 By Keun Hwayoo / STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

2 • Friday, October 26, 2007 • Technique NEWS

By Craig TabitaNews Editor

Overwhelmed with joy just after being named Ms. Georgia Tech during halftime of the Tech/Army homecoming game, Lauren Miller began to cry, but it was when her friend Luqman Abdur-Rahman was named Mr. Georgia Tech that the tears really started fl owing.

“It defi nitely meant a lot to have someone that I knew personally and that I felt was extremely deserving of the honor to get it with me. It just made the moment extra special,” Miller said.

Abdur-Rahman felt the same way.

“Just to be recognized with someone of [Miller’s] caliber is very humbling. Th at was an honor in itself,” Abdur-Rahman said.

Students entered their votes throughout the week after the semifi nalists were selected after an application and interview process, with the winners of the voting an-nounced during halftime and taking the ceremonial ride around the fi eld in the Ramblin’ Wreck.

Both Miller and Abdur-Rah-man were sponsored by the African American Student Union.

Miller is a fourth-year Manage-ment major from Fairburn, GA. She is involved with numerous campus organizations, including serving as

By Jason Ossey / STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

Luqman Abdur-Rahman and Lauren Miller accept the 2007 Mr. and Ms. Georgia Tech honors during halftime of the Tech/Army game.

a captain of the GT Dance Team, president of the National Panhel-lenic Council, and honorary chair of Hands On Atlanta, a community service organization, as well as the founder of BOPSOP, a youth men-toring organization.

Upon graduating in the spring, she hopes to continue to graduate school either at Harvard, Stanford or Columbia to pursue an MBA as well as a doctorate in educational

leadership.“I’ve always been passionate about

working with children. I don’t think we as a society invest as much in our children as we need to. To me it’s obvious that lots of our children are falling through the cracks and nobody’s doing anything about it…. If we don’t invest in our children then our society is going to be nothing in

Miller, Abdur-Rahman named Mr. and Ms. GT at Homecoming

Rising above thethethe

ompetitionthethe

ompetitionompetitionthe

ompetitionthe

ompetitionCHomecoming 2007 event winners

Phi Kappa Tau (254.5 pts)Delta Chi (254.0 pts)

Sigma Phi Epsilon (238.0 pts)Pi Kappa Phi (189.5 pts)

Delta Sigma Phi (178.5 pts)

CCF (188.5 pts)Band (141.5 pts)740 BCM (62.0 pts)Towers Dorm (45.0 pts)

Order of the Arrow (44.0 pts)

Alpha Xi Delta (287.5 pts)Alpha Chi Omega (281.0 pts)Alpha Gamma Delta (240.0 pts)Phi Mu (236.0 pts)Alpha Delta Chi (168.0 pts)

By Blake Israel/ STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

Top Overall Student Orgs

Top Overall Fraternities Top Overall Sororities

See Mr/Ms GT, page 4

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NEWS Technique • Friday, October 26, 2007 • 3

See Vito, page 7

Associate dean Vito takes newly-created vice provost position

Booyah! Jim Cramer’s Mad Money storms campus

By Corbin PonAssistant News Editor

Ray Vito, former associate dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering, has become the first vice provost for Graduate and Undergraduate Studies. The newly created position in the reorganized Office of the Provost oversees and coordinates all activities and pro-grams in support of undergraduate and graduate education.

“We held an internal search [for the new position] to have someone who could understand Tech,” said Anderson Smith, senior vice provost for Academic Affairs. The final de-cision was made after the final two candidates participated in campus-wide interviews.

“Ray had a record of... teaching both the undergraduate and graduate levels.... He has a lot of experience

By Jon Drews / STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s Mad Money, speaks during the taping of the show in the College of Management courtyard on Oct. 18.

By Craig TabitaNews Editor

Jim Cramer brought his popular television show Mad Money to Tech Square on Thursday, Oct. 18, as the latest stop on his Back to School Tour.

The taping was originally sched-uled in April, but was postponed after the shooting at Virginia Tech.

Cramer said one of the main reasons he chose to visit Tech was the “groundswell” of enthusiasm and support that he observed.

“I like to go where I’m wanted... My experience with [universities] that are open-armed is that every-thing goes much more smoothly. When I have administration, donors and students that all want me, then it all coalesces into a better opportunity for me to spend a lot more time with people and for my staff to put on a better show,” Cramer said.

The program, which airs week-days at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on CNBC, was taped during the afternoon in the College of Management courtyard. A limited number of tickets were issued, primarily to Management majors.

He began the day by lecturing a

management class and meeting with the GT Investment Club.

“The school itself is one of the places that seems to have an af-finity for the market and I will emphasize—that’s rare… You clearly have something going here,” Cramer said.

By 4 p.m. taping of the show was underway and drops of rain threatened to disrupt the proceed-ings, but the rain cleared up after a few minutes and didn’t return for the rest of the afternoon.

He spent the first segment of his show recommending the stock Intercontinental Exchange (ICE),

an Atlanta-based company which operates commodity marketplaces. He described it as the “best way to play the volatility in oil,” since ICE makes money anytime there is an oil trade. He also featured another, more well-known Atlanta company, Coca-Cola, which he likes for its strong growth and the exposure it will get at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing. This was a pre-taped seg-ment in which he interviewed Coke CFO Gary Fayard at the company headquarters.

Next was the Lightning Round, where Cramer displays his uncanny ability to take a stock suggestion from the audience, no matter how obscure, and instantly, with no reheasal, deliver an analysis. Unfortunately, Jim didn’t like most of the companies the students came up with.

“[Participating in the Lightning Round] was very awesome, other than being on national TV and having Jim tell me I was an idiot,” said Andrew Burch, a fourth-year Management major.

He then spoke with members of the GT Investment Committee, who pitched suggestions to Jim that were

See Cramer, page 4

working with students as a faculty member and as an administrator.” S mith said.

“ I had a very similar role in the College of Engineering. [Taking this role] is a fairly logi-cal step for me. We have a tremendous student body. We have the oppor-tunity to do new things, and we can do the old things even better,” Vito said.

Vito will also be charged with work-ing with Deans, School Chairs and Undergraduate and Graduate Co-ordinators to ensure all education programs meet the highest standard of excellence as well as ensuring that academic support and service

programs for both undergraduate and graduate students are provided to enhance the educational experi-ence.

Some of the programs that will

report to Vito include the Honors Program, the Office of Undergradu-ate Studies and the Office of Gradu-ate Studies.

“The hard part is [going to be an-

swering] ‘how do we make this new position work?’ The opportunity to have someone at a high level looking at all the undergraduate and graduate programs... is a new thing for [Tech].

Graduate and undergraduate programs were divided before into pieces, and [now] having them under one umbrella is logical,” Vito said.

Vito made it clear that he doesn’t intend to come in and

start managing the various programs that report to him. Instead, he has stated that he said that he believes in empowering the faculty.

“Tech is a very dynamic place with

a tremendous and entrepreneurial faculty... [and] we are here to educate the students.”

“The bottom line for me is [ask-ing if what we are doing] meets the needs of the students.... The key is student engagement. I’d like to see [the students] more aware of and take advantage of the opportunities Tech provides. [It is up to us] as a faculty to help encourage [the students],” Vito said.

Touching on engagement, Vito says the undergraduate programs have expanded opportunity for students to enhance their academic experience.

“One of the opportunities that students should consider is [under-graduate] research. It will allow them to have more enriching experiences and help them make career choices....

“I’d like to see [the students] more aware of and take advantage of the opportunities Tech provides.”

Ray VitoVice Provost for Graduate and Undergraduate Studies

“[Tech] is one of the places that seems to have an affinity for the market and I will emphasize—that’s rare.”

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4 • Friday, October 26, 2007 • Technique NEWS

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From the files of the GTPD...

Campus CrimeAggravated Assault

10/21/2007 1:40:00 hrs. Location: Brittain Dr. between Fourth St. and Bobby Dodd Way Incident: Report of aggravated assault/battery - gun

Motor Vehicle Theft10/21/2007 10:20:00 hrs. Location: Tau Kappa Epsilon Incident: Report of a stolen vehicle

Cramer from page 3

Larceny-Theft10/23/2007 14:00:00 hrs. Location: Student Health Center Incident: Report of stolen box of pregnancy tests

Burglary10/22/2007 13:00:00 hrs. Location: North Avenue Apart-ments Incident: Report of a stolen laptop computer, Nintendo, controllers, game cart and memory card

10/21/2007 10:20:00 hrs. Location: North Avenue Apart-ments Incident: Report of a stolen Toshiba laptop computer and Wachovia Visa card

10/21/2007 11:00:00 hrs. Location: Tech Parkway behind Campus Recreation Center Incident: Report of a tan ‘99 Chev-rolet Monte Carlo was entered and currency taken10/17/2007 11:00:00 hrs. Location: Parker H. Petit Building Incident: Report of a stolen Geor-gia driver’s license and key set

Traffic Violation10/21/2007 12:50:00 hrs. Location: Tech Parkway @ State St. Incident: Offender arrested for driving on suspended license, driv-ing with no insurance and conceal-ing identity of vehicle

Criminal Trespass10/20/2007 23:00:00 hrs. Location: O’Keefe Building Incident: Report of a damaged door and card reader

generally better received. That is, until the final student suggested the fashion accessory company Fossil.

Cramer was so bored by that com-pany and its prospects for growth, as described by the student, that he brought out the official Mad Money pillow and blanket and pretended to fall asleep.

In the final segment of the show students were invited to ask Jim about anything, finance-related or not. Jenna Schmidt, an Industrial Design

masters student, drew laughs with her question: “In terms of investing in my future, would it be best for me to date a guy with a Roth IRA or a 401(k)?”

Having the show taped at the College of Management brought exposure of the program to the show’s many devoted viewers and portrayed Tech as more than simply an engineering school.

“You can’t buy this kind of publicity…our business school is on the rise and this just [confirms that],’” said Institute President Wayne Clough.

Mr/Ms GT from page 2the future,” Miller said.

Aside from graduate school, she says she is going to audition in the spring for some Broadway plays.

Abdur-Rahman, who is from Decatur, GA, is currently pursu-ing a masters degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA, and plans to graduate in December. He gradu-ated from Tech with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in Spring 2005 and began graduate studies that fall.

He is the president emeritus of the African American Student Union and serves on the President’s Council Governing Board. He also spends a lot of his time with volunteer projects in the Vine City area near the Georgia Dome, including after-school and summer school programs and coaching youth soccer.

He is currently interviewing with companies and hopes to start a career that will help him develop leadership skills that will allow him to pursue his long-term goals. Like Miller he sees education as an area in desperate need of improvement.

“Engineering is all about problem solving and I think we have a prob-lem with education right now…. I want to offer an opportunity to not only make [science, technology, and engineering] relevant and get more kids in [those fields], but just to make learning more enjoyable and more relevant,” Abdur-Rahman said.

“My nonprofit work is helping me a lot. I get so much back from that, and it encourages me to go to school and do those things so I can provide an opportunity to do hopefully some kind of nonprofit work in educational reform,” Abdur-Rahman said.

By Kenny Baskett / STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

Technique Online Voice your opinion!

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Last issue’s question received 73 responses.

My classes don’t use T-Square - 18%

It’s better than WebCT, I guess - 19%

The new features are great and it will only get better - 3%

I am sick of all the issues it’s having - 60%

10/23/2007 9:00:00 hrs. Location: Molecular Science Build-ing Incident: Report of stolen comput-er bag, cell phone, and calculator

NEWS Technique • Friday, October 26, 2007 • 5

Each week, elected members of the houses of the Student Government Association (SGA) meet to consider allocation bills and talk about campus issues. Here are summaries of those meetings.

Council

ach week, elected members of the houses of the Student Government

Clippings

Bills passed• Joint Allocation to Musician’s Network Campus-Wide Concert

• Joint Allocation to ASA for Taste of Africa Event.

• Changes of wording in JFC Policy

• Joint Allocation to TEAM Buzz

Bills postponed• Joint Allocation to Caribbean Student Association

By Emily ChambersSenior Staff Writer

Th is week’s meeting of the Under-graduate House of Representatives began with debate over the implica-tions of parliamentary procedure in the meetings. Th e House moved the joint allocation to Musician’s Network to old business, prompting discussion over bill placement.

After last week’s meeting was canceled due to a lack of representa-tives present to vote, Matt Peeples, executive vice president, moved the bills in new business from that week into old business based on precedent.

Representative George Ray raised the issue that no bills could have been moved into old business without a meeting last week, and as such the group should suspend the bylaws to individually move all bills into old business. After 30 minutes of debate over the appropriate use of parliamentary procedure, the house voted to follow the decision of the chair and keep the bills in old business.

Th e fi rst bill considered was the Joint Allocation to TEAM Buzz. Th e group was requesting funds to

By Craig TabitaNews Editor

In this week’s meeting of the Graduate Student Senate, three funding bills passed, one was post-poned indefi nitely and some minor changes were made to the wording of the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) policy.

Th e meeting began by appointing senator Mitch Keller as the chairman pro tempore to take the place of executive vice president Carl Yerger, who was unable to attend.

In his report, Brock Wester, graduate student body president, informed the senate that a new policy may forbid students from attending classes they are not currently enrolled in. Th is would, for instance, require students who attend language classes but are not signed up for them to audit them.

He also discussed the proposed Undergraduate Learning Center, which will be built on the Skiles parking lot next to the library upon its groundbreaking next fall.

Th e fi rst bill considered by the senate was a joint allocation to Musician’s Network for a campus-wide concert scheduled for Friday, Nov. 9 in Yellow Jacket Park featur-ing the band Copeland. Th is bill was under new business, but moved to old business so that it would be addressed before Th ursday, when a contract with the band would have to be signed.

Th e ensuing discussion centered around many topics, including whether Musician’s Network had pulled Copeland out of a poll, which they had not but instead judged its popularity using its two million views on MySpace, and alternate sources of funding, which may include $5,000 from Buzzfunds, $5,000 from Student Life Fund,

Debate over procedure delays UHR meeting

Graduate Student Senate

Undergraduate House of Representatives

GSS narrowly passes concert bill

See UHR, page 7

By Jon Drews / STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

Ryan James of Musician’s Network speaks to the GSS about the concert his organization is planning. The bill for the concert passed 17-14.

Bills passed• Joint Allocation to TEAM Buzz

• Joint Allocation to WREK radio

• Joint Allocation to SGA

• Joint Allocation to Women’s Rugby

• Joint Allocation to ASA

• Changes to wording in JFC Policy

• Joint Allocation to Musician’s Network Campus-Wide Concert

cover their annual service project. Th e bill was amended to the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) recom-mendation of $2,563.88 and passed with 41 votes in favor and one vote against.

Th e second bill was the Joint Al-location to WREK radio. WREK’s general manager Brad Petrick spoke for the organization, requesting

and an estimated $2,500 by selling $10 tickets to non-members of the Tech community.

The total amount requested was $27,072, of which the biggest expense was the $15,000 fee for the headlining artist, and the JFC recommended amending the bill for a Technique advertisement at $112.50.

Senator Grant Farmer strongly opposed the bill, stating that “[the GSS] is not under obligation to give them money on their timetable,” and “I strongly urge [the GSS] to think about what we can use $27,000 in the future.” In addition, senator Linda Harley said that she did not think it made sense to compete with Sting Break by hosting a big-name band.

Despite the opposition, the bill passed, albeit by the narrow margin of 17-14.

Th e next bill was a joint allocation to the African Students Association for their Taste of Africa event, featur-ing African dance, drama, food and a fasion show, to be held Saturday, Nov. 3 in the Student Center Ballroom, asking for $235, $100 of which was for 500 fl yers. Varun Prasad, vice president of fi nance, stated that

See GSS, page 7

Bills postponed• Joint Allocation to Caribbean Student Association

• Institute-Wide Committee ap-pointments

• Appointment of Undergraduate elections chair

www.nique.net/sliversliver

brains... braaains...ATTN: people who throw frisbees in their free time, grow a pair and throw a footballGo go, Gorgonzola!Fashion less for the boys of GT: shorts with white socks pulled up high is not ok!Fashion advice for the girls of GT: If you have fat rolls, hide them! I don’t want to see them!stop being emo on facebook... kthanx“I’m purple this year!” Green Route SUCKS! give the drivers watches.Yay! I unkilled Jonathan!Professors(male and female)....Moustaches are overrated.Th e Tech preview channel is one of my favorite channels to watch. It plays nothing but 80’s music.Nick, “where are my glasses? I need my glasses.” Steven, “here they are.” Nick, “I dont want these.”Can I get some jelly in Woodies that isn’t a soup?what? no paper last week? there’s gonna be a sliver buildup this week.i don’t know what Creative Loafi ng was smoking, but WREK radio is terrible.one year into the drought, tech housing decides to think of doing something about. gee, so proactivegoogling cupchicks changed my lifeBlonde girl in the music listening room, will you marry me?You know you’re in Georgia when you use an umbrella, sweatshirt, and sunscreen separately all in one day.You appear to have the moral scruples of your average slice cheese.Roomie who sleep with you boyfriend A WEEK after you break up are hoes. (Don’t worry, the sex wasn’t that great)If you support legalizing it, wear green on FridaysI have voices in my head. One of them’s a mime.Dude, you need to start worshipping Loki- he’s the only god with a philosophy you can wholeheartedly agree with....You need a hole in your head like you need... wait...

6 • Friday, October 26, 2007 • Technique NEWS

NEWS Technique • Friday, October 26, 2007 • 7

UHR from page 5

By Jon Drews / STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

Brad Petrick, general manager of WREK radio, speaks on behalf of the radio station to request funding to attend a radio conference.

Vito from page 3

$1,400 for three students to attend a conference on radio management. The bill was amended down to $400 per the JFC recommendation and passed without any discussion.

Next the house considered a bill presented by Student Government Association. The request was for a Joint Finance allocation of $700 to fund a laptop for SGA meetings. The house passed the bill with 28 votes in favor, 12 votes against and one abstention.

The fourth bill brought before the house was the Joint Allocation to Women’s Rugby. The team, which was only chartered last spring, was requesting an operating budget for the year, including travel fees and equipment. The bill was amended to $9,405 from the Prior Year Account and was passed with 42 in favor, one opposed and one abstention.

Next the house considered the Joint Allocation to the African Students Association. The group is holding a cultural event called Taste of Africa and was requesting funds for advertising and rental fees.

The house amended the bill per JFC recommendation, and then further amended the bill to add in a Technique ad so as to bring the bill in line with the version passed by the Graduate Student Senate and avoid sending the bill to conference com-mittee. The bill passed with 42 votes in favor and two votes opposed.

The next two bills considered were respectively the Appointments to Institute Wide Committees and the Appointment of the Undergraduate

Elections Chair. Representative Leah McCormick, the House nomina-tions chair, was unable to contact the various appointees, and as such both bills were postponed until next meeting.

The eighth bill voted on by the house was Changes to the Policy of the Joint Finance Committee. The policy had been sent back to SGA by the Student Activity Committee for two grammatical changes. Dis-crepancies were noticed between the amendments seen in the house and in the senate, spurring debate over the extent to which the bill could be amended. As any amendments would have changed the UHR bylaws, which require notice, no motions

flyers can be printed for 4.5 cents each at the Student Involvement Office, so 500 flyers could be made for only $22.50. After amending to reduce the total amount as a result, a movement to amend for a $112.50 Technique ad passed unanimously, and the bill to fund the event passed 29-1 with one abstention.

The Senate then discussed some wording changes in the JFC policy, clarifying but not changing the meaning of sections relating to organizations’ obligations when requesting funding. The changes passed 25-3.

The next bill was a joint allocation to the Caribbean Student Associa-tion, but Prasad informed the Senate that the organization has obtained

GSS from page 5

to amend the bill were entertained, and the bill passed 38 to five. The bill will now be in conference committee between the GSS and UHR.

The ninth bill was the Joint Allocation to Caribbean Students organization, which was postponed indefinitely, effectively killing the bill.

The final bill of the evening was the Joint Allocation to Musicians Network. Ryan James, the head engineer, explained that the group was presenting the band Copeland live for the student body and was requesting $27,113.22. The group expects nearly 1,000 Tech students to attend, equating a price of $27 per student. The bill passed 37-6.

enough funding elsewhere that they no longer need SGA to fund it. As a result, a motion to postpone the bill indefinitely passed unanimously.

The final bill was a joint al-location to TEAM Buzz for its annual community service event on Saturday, Oct. 27, with a total amount requested of $2,705.36. Prasad recommended reducing it to $2563.88 because flyers and banners could be obtained at lower costs, and the amendment to change per JFC policy passed unanimously.

However, by this point in the meeting people had left and there was concern that they no longer had quorum, and two senators with poor attendance had to be expelled so that the GSS could vote on the bill this week. Once that was accomplished, the bill passed unanimously.

If you just show up for class, then you can miss a lot,” Vito said.

As for the graduate programs, Vito said that Tech does a great job training students for research careers and the question comes down to how to mentor graduate students for suc-cess in their academic careers.

“We could do more to help our students in the non-research parts of the careers,” Vito said. Some of the areas where offerings could be provided include speaking and presentation skills, help with grant writing and teaching skills.

In general though, Vito said he wants to make sure students are able to succeed in a rapidly chang-

ing world.“One of the things I’d like to see

in the current generation of students is that students learn how to learn....You need to be nimble in today’s world, and one way to be nimble is learning on your own and we need to help students develop this ability,” Vito said.

Vito believes Tech has some unique characteristics as a university, including a bottom up approach that is driven by the programs and the faculty.

“We always need to be asking if we are educating students for success in their careers, and how can we as a faculty help ensure this. It’s the small changes that make a difference, you don’t have to turn the whole place upside down,” Vito said.