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The Student Voice of the University of Scranton
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ADVICE FOR THE LENTEN SEASON
A time to open your heart, mind and soul to God. (13)
Volume 85, Issue 11 The Student Voice of The University of Scranton Thursday, February 16, 2012
INSIDE Forum............ 6-7Arts & Life...8-9
Business......10-11Sci & Tech........12
Campus Notes......2News....................3-5
Faith................13Crossword....14
Sports......15-16 The Aquinas Online: www.ScrantonAquinas.com
Advisories absent in spring semester
WHITNEY HOUSTON DIES AT 48
The music artist’s talent will never be forgotten . (8)
JESUIT EXAMEN RETURNS TO UNIVERSITY
New look and website coming soon!
www.ScrantonAquinas.com
Letters to the Editor [email protected]
After rejecting packages Mon-day, Feb. 6, The University’s mail-ing center has worked with the United Postal Service to rectify the issue.
In a statement last week, Su-san Rosenberg, UPS public rela-tions manager, said Ray Burd chose to reject approximately 70 packages that were delivered to campus.
Burd, The University’s director of printing and mailing services, said UPS failed to provide the mail center with an itemized list containing package and recipi-ent information.
Burd said the issue resulted from the UPS driver engaging in a practice The University was unaware of — scanning packag-es in his truck into a group list. The driver then refused to pro-vide the list to the mail center.
“It was a UPS issue,” Burd said.
As of Tuesday, Feb. 7, Burd said The University and UPS had resolved their issues.
“Packages are now scanned in the presence of the mail center staff,” Burd said. “The staff sees
that each package was scanned in, and the following day we get a print out of things scanned from the previous day.”
The mail center staff is cur-rently waiting for a program from UPS that will allow the staff to download the lists from UPS directly onto their comput-ers the same day that the pack-ages are scanned.
The software has not yet been installed, so for now the staff will be receiving lists for pack-ages the following day.
“This is an interim measure and it is not ideal, but it does meet our need to provide a chain of custody on valuable packag-es,” Burd said.
Burd said there have not been any incidences similar to what the mail center experienced last week, and hopes the problem has been solved for good.
“We have had five or six in-quiries that we referred to UPS,” Burd said. “It is important to note that UPS has settled several claims by reimbursing or cred-iting money because the driver took the packages back.”
If students or parents have not resolved their issues satis-factorily with UPS, please con-tact Ray Burd at [email protected] or at 570-941-4198.
Package problems solvedBY CHRISTINA SCULLY
News Editor
With all the stresses of a new semester, the last thing students want to hear is that the book-store does not have their required course material stocked.
Don Drasba, store manager at The University’s bookstore, ac-knowledged that this stock issue can be frustrating, but wants to remind students that there are several factors that determine the amount of time it takes to get books on the shelves.
“The bookstore only orders books once they have received an adoption, or book order, from the faculty member or department,” Drasba said. “We do our best to promote early adoption to provide ample time to search for used cop-ies, order and stock the materials in a timely manner.”
Drasba said that when the bookstore receives orders later than others, the process is delayed and the bookstore will have to ac-count for either more or less books than is needed.
“For these orders, we use the most recent enrollment numbers
and additional sales history ana-lytics to determine the amount of copies to order,” Drasba said. “These numbers can fluctuate with the common add/drop class scenarios, making it a bit more dif-ficult to gauge final enrollment at the beginning of the semester.”
Daniel Townsend, Ph.D., of the biology department said he had only one student in his biostatis-tics class say that the book was
not in stock at the bookstore. He said the student ordered the book in the first week of the semester and is still waiting for it to come in.
“The student didn’t register late,” Townsend said. “What may have happened is that another student registered late and picked up the book before this student could.”
BY JOSEpH kOHUT News Contributor
You may have noticed some-thing missing from both your email inbox and building doors around campus.
Community advisories have been unusually absent from Uni-versity email inboxes, doors and bulletin boards for nearly two months. University Police issued the most recent community advi-sory Dec. 27.
According to University Police Chief Don Bergmann, sometimes the flow of advisories can be un-predictable and vary depending on the time of year.
“Sometimes we go through a period of no community adviso-ries, and then we get a couple in a few days,” Bergmann said.
“Typically in a calendar year, you get 12 community advisories — usually one per month,” Berg-mann said. “And there are certain months where we go through a period where it gets quiet.”
Bergmann said University Po-lice distribute community advi-sories only when a suspect in a crime remains a threat to the Uni-versity community.
“It has to be a crime that rep-resents an ongoing threat,” Berg-mann said. “There have been incidents where, because of cir-cumstances such as the suspect had been identified, there wasn’t the issue that it was an ongo-ing threat. If the perpetrator was known or had been arrested, it
eliminates the ongoing threat.While community advisories
are distributed to inform the com-munity about ongoing investiga-tions, Bergmann said they usu-ally are not used to inform people about completed investigations.
“The purpose of the commu-nity advisory is to provide people with information so they can take the appropriate precautions,” Bergmann said.
Bergmann said that when it seems a specific crime is becom-
ing a trend, University Police or the Dean of Student Affairs will issue a statement informing the community of the situation.
“When we think there is some hazard The University community should be aware of, we put out some kind of advisory in couple different formats,” Bergmann said.
Sophomore commuter student Chris Ritter said the lack of com-munity advisories makes him feel a little safer while on campus.
“The fewer the community ad-visories, the better,” Ritter said. “It does make you feel a little safer. But I’m sure [safety] is much dif-ferent for someone dorming here.”
According to Bergmann, a rea-son for the community advisory drought is because University Police noticed a “marked improve-ment” in safety on and off cam-pus this intersession. According to Bergmann, University Police in-vestigated only one burglary and one attempted burglary during
the intersession break. Bergmann attributes the recent
quiet on campus to the Univer-sity Police’s continued patrols and presence.
“We are consistent with pa-trols throughout intersession and the semester, and I think that’s why there were few burglaries this year off campus,” Bergmann said. “During Christmas break we made a concerted effort in Hill Section patrols.”
Bergmann said patrols in the Hill included both uniformed and plainclothes officers.
Bergmann said decreases in crime on and off campus are sometimes normal for this time of year, which he attributes to the cold winter weather. But Berg-mann says he expects the num-ber of incidents to increase as the weather gets warm.
“In the spring when the weath-er gets better, activity usually in-creases,” Bergmann said.
With the Scranton St. Patrick’s Day Parade less than a month away, University Police is plan-ning its patrol strategy for the eventful day.
“Clearly it’s a busy day,” Berg-mann said. “We’ve already been meeting and coordinating with Scranton Police and the liquor control board.”
According to Bergmann, Uni-versity students can expect to see a “heavy presence” of police both on and off campus this Parade Day.
BY CHRISTOpHER DOLANStaff Writer
THE AQUINAS PHOTO/jErEmy EvANSDON DRASBA, the bookstore’s manager, sorts through textbooks stu-dents have bought, rented and sold back to the store.
Textbook order process broken down
See “BOOKSTORE,” Page 14
THE AQUINAS PHOTO/PETEr POrTANOvATHE UNIVERSITY police patrol campus to keep crime rates down. There has not been a community advi-sory since December. University Police Chief Don Bergmann said crime rates in the winter are low.
See “ADVISORIES,” Page 3
2 THE AQUINASCAMPUS NOTES THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012
Feb. 9 - Feb. 15Provided by
The University Police Office
RepoRt StatiSticS:ALCOHOL RELATED: 1 countDRUg RELATED: 1 countASSAULT: 1 countCRIMINAL MISCHIEF: 1 countsVANDALISM: 2 counts
THE AQUINAS wANTS TO REMIND YOU:
Be safe and Be resPonsiBle when you go out this weekend. don’t make rash decisions.
always travel in grouPs and stay on main and well-lit thoroughfares.
if you Park off camPus, rememBer to lock your vehicle and keeP any valuaBles out of Plain view if you must leave them in your car. check your vehicle a few times in the week and move it often, if PossiBle, so it does not
Become an easy target for thieves.
The Aquinas is on Facebook. Search “The Aquinas - The Student Voice of The University of Scranton.”
SEVEN DAY FORECAST
FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY
41/27sunny
43/30mostly sunny
37/25Partly cloudy
35/21sunny
Forecast from Weather.com
Editor-in-Chief Rosemary Shaver
Managing Editor Michael Zaydon
Advertising Manager Andrew Donet
Faculty AdviserKim Pavlick, Ph.D.
Administrative Staff
News Editor Christina Scully
Forum Editor Christian Burne
Web Editor Justin Kearns
Science & Tech Editor Catie Erbicella
Sports Editors John Lund
Joseph [email protected]
Business Editor Jonathan Danforth
Arts & Life Editors Nicole Lopez-Isa
Michelle D’[email protected]
Editorial Staff
Photo Editors Thomas Heintz
Peter [email protected]
Chief Copy Editor Rose Marie Wong
TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY
39/33Partly cloudy
42/32showers
43/31Partly cloudy
Ca m p u s Ca l e n da rThursday - Feb. 16
+Exhibit: Alphabets from the Zaner-Bloser CollectionWeinberg Memorial Library, Heritage Room 8 p.m.+Exhibit: ‘‘Sacred Birch”Hyland Hall, Hope Horn gallery12 p.m. - 4 p.m.+Jane Kopas women’s Center Organizational MeetingDeNaples Center, McDonnell Room (405)7 p.m. - 8 p.m.+USPB Comedy: Ron G.DeNaples Center, Moskovitz Theater8 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Friday - Feb. 17
+Exhibit: Alphabets from the Zaner-Bloser Collection+Exhibit: ‘‘Sacred Birch”+Schemel Luncheon Series: Can we feed the plan-et witout destroying it? Our global challenge Brennan Hall, pNC Bank Board Room (500)12 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.+Ice Hockey PlayoffsIce Line Quad Rinks, West Chester2:30 p.m.
Saturday - Feb. 18
+Exhibit: Alphabets from the Zaner-Bloser Collection+Celebrate Black History Month at RutgersMeet at Linden Circle6:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m. +IGNITE - Leadership ConferenceDeNaples Center, McIlhenny Ballroom9:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.+Health Professions Organization MeetingBrennan Hall, Rose Room (509)11:45 a.m. - 1 p.m.+The 4th Annual Yevich Memorial Concert with the NY Trumpet EnsembleThe Houlihan McLean Center, Jeffereson Ave.7:30 p.m.
Wednesday - Feb. 22
+Exhibit: Alphabets from the Zaner-Bloser Collection+Exhibit: “Sacred Birch”+Schemel Forum Evening CourseWeinberg Memorial Library, Room 3056 p.m. - 7:15 p.m.
Want your event listed in our campus calendar?
Contact [email protected] by Wednesday at 4 p.m.
We need the organization and event names, location, date and time.
want to advertise in The Aquinas?Contact Andrew Donet Advertising Manager
Phone: 570-941-7464 E-mail: [email protected]
We will send you a rate card and publication schedule
faster than you can say “Jesuit!”
Tuesday - Feb. 21 +Exhibit: Alphabets from the Zaner-Bloser Collection+Exhibit: “Sacred Birch”+Rwandan Art ExhibitWeinberg Memorial Library, Heritage Room8 a.m.+Smoking CessationLeahy Community Health Center9 p.m. - 4 p.m.+Dancing with the Staff (eight week sessions)Byron Complex, Murray Royals Room1:05 p.m. - 1:35 p.m.+African Art Exhinit/ Demonstration/ ReceptionWeinberg Memorial Library, Heritage Room7:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Monday - Feb. 20
+Exhibit: Alphabets from the Zaner-Bloser Collection+Exhibit: “Sacred Birch”+Fitness Challenge for Students, Faculty and Staff3 p.m. +Royal NightsDeNaples Center, McIlhenny Ballroom3 p.m. - 11 p.m. +Schemel Forum Evening Course: “I’m a Big Liar“Brennan Hall, pearn Auditorium (228)5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Thursday - Feb. 23
+Hot Cocoa Surprise - Open House!Institute of Molecular Biology & Medicine (IMBM)10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Sunday - Feb. 19 +Exhibit: Alphabets from the Zaner-Bloser Collection+Exhibit: “Sacred Birch”+Royal NightsDeNaples Center, McIlhenny Ballroom3 p.m. - 11 p.m.
Copy Editors Maria Cleary
Sheila [email protected]
Faith Editor Andrew Milewski
Social Media Editor Tim McCormick
NEwS 3THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012
Want to write for News?email: [email protected]
Last week a New Jersey uni-versity was plagued with a con-tagious virus, which sent many students to the hospital. What should students at The Univer-sity expect if that was to happen here, and more importantly what can students do to prevent it?
“Good sleep, nutrition. That’s always lacking here. Hygiene is ever important,” Marguerite Mannion, a nurse practitioner at The University’s Wellness Center said.
That is exactly what The Cen-ter for Disease Control and Pre-vention (CDC) says. According to the CDC website, norovirus, also referred to as the stomach flu, can be prevented by simply washing your hands with soap and water. This is also some-thing Mannion and Director of the Wellness Center Patricia Popeck suggested, especially be-fore eating.
“They [students] have to come in contact with it somewhere and ingest it,” Popeck said.
Unfortunately for students at Rider University in Lawrencev-ille, N.J., the virus was not pre-vented. According to CNN.com, 40 students were sent to the hospital the night of Feb. 8 with symptoms of norovirus. Accord-ing to the CDC website, symp-toms include vomit, diarrhea and stomach cramping.
Both Mannion and Popeck agreed that The University has good relationships with the three hospitals that are in the area,
which would come in handy if an outbreak was to happen. Popeck said that for healthy col-lege students it is not life threat-ening, but for the elderly or the very young norovirus could be dangerous.
“A healthy young person who is able to swallow fluids would
be okay, unless they have an underlying serious illness,” Man-nion added.
Popeck said the norovirus is something they have seen from year to year, but never enough to be considered an outbreak.
“About five years ago we had a lot of it before finals in Decem-
ber. It was here and then it was gone,” she said.
Popeck mentioned that if Wellness Center saw five cases of norovirus a day for a week, they would be suspicious.
In 2009, when H1N1 Influenza Virus had threatened many col-lege campuses, The University’s
Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) was called into action.
According a letter posted on The University website on May 1, 2009, “Members of CIRT have been in contact with local and statewide officials to keep cur-rent with the latest informa-tion and actions being taken to combat the spread of the virus. The CIRT and University lead-ership will continue to monitor the situation to determine if any actions need to be taken on our campus.”
Director of News and Me-dia Relations Stan Zygmunt ex-plained what CIRT would do if a norovirus outbreak similar to the one at Rider happened at The University.
“The team would be called to do an analysis to see what needs to be done.”
He also mentioned that what exactly CIRT would do would depend on how critical the situ-ation is. CIRT works with all dif-ferent departments around The University, whether it is Resi-dence Life or the Wellness Cen-ter to make sure certain situa-tions are handled appropriately.
If you want to prevent getting sick this semester, CDC has a few suggestions:
• Wash your hands with soap and water.
• Carefully wash fruits and vegetables.
• Do not prepare food for others while you have symptoms and for 3 days after your recov-ery.
• Clean and disinfect all contaminated surfaces
• Wash clothing or linens that have been contaminated.
Norovirus plagues New Jersey campuses, University discusses health safetyBY NICOLENA BASSO
Staff Writer
THE AQUINAS PHOTO/SHAwN kENNEyJANICE RUPP, office manager for the Wellness Center, gets forms ready for Jacquey Tofani, class of 2013, as she signs up for medical help.
The Weinberg Memorial Library is offering a research prize of $500 to University students this semes-ter.
According to The University website, the purpose of the prize is to attract outstanding research projects from courses taught in departments across The University campus.
Bonnie Strohl, Associate Dean of the Library, said that the library created the prize to recognize excellence in research projects that show evidence of significant knowledge in the methods of re-search and the information gath-ering process, and use of library resources, tools and services.
“Information literacy instruc-tion gives students the skills to select the best information to match these various types of as-signments. These skills include how to do research efficiently and how to cite appropriately. The li-brary research prize gives students a chance to receive recognition for writing about their growth in these skills,” Strohl said.
According to The University website, any student who has completed a research project at The University during the Summer 2011, Fall 2011, Intersession 2012 or Spring 2012 is eligible to enter.
In the first year, the research prize was available only to under-graduates. This is the second year the library is offering this prize and there are now two prizes, one for undergraduates and one for graduate students, Strohl said.
“Rosemary Shaver, who was, at the time, a junior history/ politi-cal science major, won first prize of $500. Last year the quality of submission was so good, three ad-ditional undergraduate students
received Honorable Mention: Courtney Fluehr, Benjamin Redan and William Woody. Winners were honored at a reception and awards ceremony,” Strohl said.
According to The University website, submissions will be evalu-ated on: sophistication, originality and exceptional ability to locate, select, evaluate and effectively use library resources in the creation of a project.
It will also be evaluated on evi-dence of significant personal learn-ing in the methods or research and the information gathering process, according to The University web-site.
“These are marketable skills translate from college to life. Stu-dents have given us feedback that
they thought knowing how to find accurate, authoritative, current information was related only to course work until they were asked to use these skills in the jobs they got after graduation,” Strohl said.
Judges include a faculty mem-ber from each college, members of the Library faculty and representa-tives from the CTLE and the Office of Research Services, Strohl said.
Completed application pack-ages must be submitted by April 27 by 4 p.m. The winner will be notified May 7, according to The University website.
University students can vis-it: http://matrix.scranton.edu/academics/wml/infolit/research-prize/index.shtml for more infor-mation.
university promotes library researchBY COLLEEN DAY
Staff Writer
THE AQUINAS PHOTO/SHAwN kENNEyGINA DANIELS researches in the Weinberg Memorial Library. Students are encouraged to apply for the Library Research Prize in order to improve their researching skills.
“ADVISORIES” FROM PAGE ONEWhile University Police will
be ready to respond this Parade Day, Bergmann said he does not anticipate any problems.
“I don’t anticipate anything much different than last year,” Bergmann said. “Nothing has been brought to our attention that we should anticipate any significant issues.”
“This year, it’s at the begin-ning of the break, so some stu-dents are going to leave,” Berg-mann said.
According to an email sent out by Director of Residence Life Barbara King, housing clos-es for spring break at 12 p.m. March 11 — one day after Pa-rade Day.
While some students plan on staying for parade day, sopho-
more John Niemiec said he won’t be staying around for this year’s parade.
“I’m not one for large groups of drunk people, so I’ll probably end up going home,” Niemiec said.
In addition to staying safe on parade day, Bergmann reminds students to take responsibility for their own safety every day.
“Complacency is one of our biggest problems,” Bergmann said. “Very often students feel comfortable here and become complacent and let their guard down and don’t take the appro-priate precautions.”
“We encourage everyone to walk in groups and well-light-ed areas and only in neighbor-hoods you are familiar with.”
cOUrTESy Of THE UNIvErSITy wEbSITE THE UNIVERSITY’S website posts community advisories as they are reported to the University Police. Some students hope more advisories will be posted.
4 THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012NEwS
IgNITE Leadership Conference on campus Saturday
The Center for Student Engage-ment held its first Royal Leader-ship Conference at The University last year. This was a conference for University students, and near-ly 75 students participated in the event.
Students who attended the con-ference gained leadership skills and were able to interact with other leaders on campus in a fun and collaborative way. Though the conference was a success, Assistant Director for The Center of Student Engagement, Michael Baumhardt, could not help but think “Well, what next?”
So, for this year’s conference, The Center for Student Engage-ment is mixing things up a bit. The conference is now called the IGNITE Student Leadership Con-ference. The reason for the name change was to brand it, making it catchier and easier for students to remember.
In addition to the name change, the conference is now open to a larger community of people.
“This year we invited students from other colleges to join in our conference, and we did not want to make them feel excluded,” Baumhardt said. “The name and logo of IGNITE still shows our Je-suit ideals, without being notice-ably dedicated to The University
of Scranton alone.”The schools that have commit-
ted to attend are Baptist Bible Col-lege, Keystone College, Lackawa-nna College, Luzerne Community College and Marywood College.
Anthony D’Angelo, the founder and Chief Visionary Officer for Collegiate EmPowerment, will
speak at the conference. Through-out his career, he has spoken to 2,500 different colleges, and he was at the Royal Leadership Con-ference last year. The topics he will be discussing are different from last year, and will provide both insight and new perspectives for students in attendance.
Other topics that will be cov-ered at the conference include teambuilding, collaboration, self-awareness/reflection, cultural competence, résumés and net-working.
Students who attend will be able to choose what areas they want to focus on through various
activities. This way, students can learn new skills in areas that they feel they need to improve in.
“One of the main reasons be-hind this is because of our pro-grams here at The University — Scranton Emerging Leaders or SEL I and SEL II,” Baumhardt said. “These are quite a time commit-ment, and we realize that not all of our students can commit to it. Through this conference, students can expand their skills without the major time commitment.”
Through IGNITE, Baumhardt is hoping students are able to con-nect with other leaders on campus and from other colleges, develop bonds, interact, collaborate and figure out the skills they need.
Having attended the confer-ence in the past, Emmanuel Ak-pan is looking forward to IGNITE this year.
“IGNITE will be an exciting, fun, and energizing experience,” Akpan said. “Ultimately, I believe students will get the opportunity to learn about others and them-selves as student leaders.”
So far, more than 160 students have registered to attend the event from both The University and other schools in the area. The first 200 people get a free leather pad folio with the IGNITE logo.
The conference is free for all University students. Walk-ins the day of the event will still be able to attend, but you can register in advance at scranton.edu/leader-ship.
BY CHRISTINE pANzITTAStaff Writer
SUbmITTED PHOTO: HOLLy PILcAvAGE fOr THE AQUINASTHE IGNITE Student Leadership Conference is open to students at The University, as well as students from other schools in the area. The conference will be held Saturday.
The College of Arts and Sci-ences Dean’s Office and the Of-fice of Equity and Diversity are pleased to co-host Rwandan Emmanuel Nkuranga, as a visit-ing Artist in Residence, Feb. 20-24. Emmanuel was born in 1987 in Mityana, Uganda, the son of Rwandan former exiles. He has been fascinated by art since he was a child in Uganda and has continued in this medium of ex-pression since he and his family returned to Rwanda.
Emmanuel is now an inte-gral part of a new generation of Rwandan artists and a member of Ivuka Arts, Kigali, a project with a mission “to use art to change lives,” such as the Rwa-makondera Children’s dance troupe, a rehabilitation project for street children. As part of his contribution to Ivuka’s mission, Emmanual volunteers at a local orphanage, teaching children art and selling their paintings at his gallery; he also has begun an art therapy program for local cardiac patients.
Emmanuel’s art and charm-ing personality is known to members of the Scranton com-munity. In January 2011, the Women’s Studies Program, un-der the leadership of Dr. Sharon Meagher and Dr. Linda Ledford-Miller, offered a travel course entitled “Gender Equity in the U.S. and Rwanda.” Although the focus of that course was on formal policy and grassroots ef-forts to promote gender equal-ity, the students visited the Ivu-ka Arts gallery as one means of gaining a fuller picture of life in contemporary Kigali, Rwanda. Previously, Meagher and Led-ford-Miller had met Emmanuel and the other artists in July 2010 when they travelled to Kigali to set up their course. Another University connection is Sondra
Myers, who hosted an art show featuring Emmanuel and other contemporary Rwandan artists; she facilitated a discussion on “The New Rwanda” in Kigali in July 2011.
While he is at The Univer-sity as the Artist in Residence, Emmanuel will stage an art show featuring his work and the work of other Ivuka Stu-dio artists. Visit one show with faculty and students, as well as with student groups
and local Scranton artists.
If you go:
Emmanuel Nkuranga Art Show:
When: Feb 20-27/2012
Reception and Live Art Demo:
When: February 21 Time: 7:30-9:00Where: Weinberg Library,
5th Floor
Rwandan artist visits University campusBY ROSETTE ADERA AND
SHARON MEAgHERDirector of the Office of Equity &
Diversity and Doctor of Philosophy
SUbmITTED PHOTO: rOSETTE ADErA fOr THE AQUINASTHE RWANDAN Art Show, featuring Emmanuel Nkuranga and paintings from Ivuka Arts will be held in the Heritage Room on the fifth floor of the Weinberg Memorial Library.The reception will be held Feb. 21 from 7:30 p.m. -9:30 p.m. A live art display by Nkuranga will be displayed.
University named most politically apathetic college
The election season is heating up. Among the debates and GOP races, however, Scranton students are asked not what their political views are, but if they even care in the first place.
A recent survey from the Princ-eton Review named The Universi-ty as the most politically apathetic school in the nation, and some students question the accuracy of this rating.
The ranking comes from the latest edition of its book, “The Best 376 Colleges.” The book was pub-lished in August 2011 and ranked colleges in 62 categories, ranging from average time spent studying to the quality of food on campus, based on responses from students.
Brian Riordan, a senior senator and political science and history major, said he was unsure if the survey had enough information to make such a conclusion about The University.
“When talking with some of my political science professors, they told me that this survey was based off of one question on whether or not students felt the school was politically active,” Riordan said. “This does not accurately show political activity on campus.”
According to the Princeton Review’s website, schools were ranked in order of political activ-ity based off the responses to the question, “How popular are politi-cal/activist groups on your cam-pus?”
The University has several po-litically-engaged clubs and events, including College Republicans, College Democrats and Student Government, which holds biweek-ly meetings that students are en-couraged to attend.
Political Engagement week was held in November, which included a political movie festival and a panel discussion between students and members of the Scranton City Council. The University’s College Democrats chapter also received the Rising Star award at the an-
nual College Democrats meeting in June.
Riordan said although he be-lieves The University is not as political apathetic as described in the poll, students could do more to become more engaged.
“The political clubs should or-ganize events that allow students to watch the primary debates, become involved in political dis-cussions and to look into current policies that are in dire need of reform and come up with ways to advance one’s political ideas,” Riordan said. “Student Govern-ment can help facilitate this by ensuring that the political clubs are well funded to advance these initiatives.”
Sophomore commuter senator Patrick Sudol said he believes the campus as a whole is politically engaged.
“Everybody I know on campus seems really into the GOP cam-paigns lately, including myself, though that could be the fact I am mostly around SJLA [Special Je-suit Liberal Arts Honors Program] students and student government people,” Sudol said.
Not everyone disagrees with the ranking. Freshman Alexandra Arana said The University’s Jesuit identity may be part of the reason for this rating.
“I always thought you should keep religion and politics sepa-rate,” Arana said. “Because of the role of religion at this university, I don’t think we should be too politi-cally active.”
Riordan said that regardless of polls and surveys, students should become more politically active to better not only themselves, but the country as a whole.
“It is inaccurate that school is totally politically apathetic,” Rior-dan said. “However, I do feel that more needs to be done to ensure that students are well educated on the political process to ensure that they make educated deci-sions when voting. After all, we are the next generation, and the future of our country’s policies is going to one day be driven by us.”
BY CORY BURRELLStaff Writer
5THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012
Students indulge at USpB Mexican fiestaNEwS
USpB’s Mission & Identity hosted “Holy guacamole,“
an event celebrating Mexican culture
Wednesday. The event featured authentic
Mexican food, stories from ISp Mexico participants
and a themed photoshoot. Over 300 students at-
tended the event. USpB’S Mission and Identity runs programs throughout the year that seek to expose University students to issues linked with itsJesuit identity. Senior
grace pfisterer and junior Timothy plamondon chair
the committee.
THE AQUINAS PHOTO/SHAwN kENNEyFIRST YEAR student Nicole Petitto enjoys a plate of Mexican food at USPB Mission and Identity’s “Holy Guacamole” event.
THE AQUINAS PHOTO/SHAwN kENNEyMATT SANIN, Megan Cody, Tim Matsay and Nicole Cobles (left to right) pose for a photograph during “Holy Guacamole.”
THE AQUINAS PHOTO/SHAwN kENNEyALANA BENCIVENGO, Meg Norsigian, Gaby Curcello and Sarah Trinchitella (left to right) listen to Latin music at USPB’s “Holy Guacamole.”
THE AQUINAS PHOTO/SHAwN kENNEyMAUREEN LEE, Aimee Miller, Bernadetta Bernatowicz and Matt Porto (left to right) sit at a table while participating in Wednesday’s well-attended event.
Correction from Previous Issue:
Senior Gillian Naro was labeled incorrectly as John McGill in the second photo of the “SJLA trav-
el course takes students to Uganda” feature.
Also,
“Campus Comment” should be attributed to Shawn Kenney.
The News apologizes for this mistake.
6 THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012Forum
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Forum EditorForumAnother controversial Obama budget
In the year of our Lord 1959 the National Academy of Record-ing Arts and Sciences (NARAS) devised an awards ceremony in-tended to “recognize outstand-ing achievement in music.” Evi-dently, this organization failed to consider the possibility that
dubstep would one day become an unfortunate reality.
Nonetheless, the Grammys take its namesake from the gramophone, an invention by Thomas Edison which the iconic trophy itself depicts. I believe I speak for the majority of “Young Americans” — as a wise poet once said — when I assert that the “Wizard of Menlo Park” is clearly the greatest musician of all time. Please excuse my trademark sarcasm followed by a contrived analogy, but nam-ing a music award after a record player is like creating a hunt-ing competition in order to pay homage to the guy who built the first gun-rack (that’s right, I’m trying to appeal to blue-collar voters now).
But, regardless of which label we decide to arbitrarily slap on this musical swinger’s party, it’s
evident that Brian Wilson, Foster the People and the singer of Ma-roon 5 who suffers from ADHD have absolutely nothing in com-mon, aside from choice of ca-reer. Although one can venture an educated guess as to which of these performers deserves the most recognition, it appears evi-dent that determining objectiv-ity in music — or any art form, for that matter — is virtually impossible. Let’s face it: Award shows just don’t make sense.
After reeling in both the “Best Alternative Album” and “Best New Artist,” Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon voiced a similar opinion.
“It’s hard to accept this award. When I started making songs, I did it for the inherent reward of creating music,” Vernon stated in one of his acceptance speech-es.
Insightful, no? Well, I suppose we must examine the Grammy artist nomination guidelines in order to delve further into this “too cool for school” attitude. The Grammy Award website specifies that “Individual artists must submit their own material in order to be nominated.”
Hold the presses! Did the Al-mighty ‘Skinny Love’ just com-mit a major Uh-oh in the logic department? As a Magic 8-ball might say, “It is decidedly so.” If Vernon submitted his own al-
bum to the NARAS, then why is he complaining? Because, unless you’re rolling in the deep, there’s probably someone out there who can instill urges of jealously and envy within even the most seasoned veterans in the music industry.
And this brings me to my next point: Since when was Bon Iver a ‘New Artist?’ The band’s de-but album, “For Emma, Forever Ago” was written and recorded in 2006. It seems as if NARAS merely ignores important de-tails in order to distort actual evidence to give Americans what we think we desire. Sound familiar? I’ll give you a hint: I used to believe in “Change.” But this is neither here nor there; at least our current president isn’t a blood-thirsty polygamist (yeah, I went there. Hold onto your seats, folks).
I suppose I’ll conclude with the most irritating aspect of Sunday’s Grammy Awards show. Mumford and Sons, the pirate-inspired gaggle of Irish folk mu-sicians who won Best New Art-ist in 2011 for the album, “Sigh No More” also received 2012 nominations for “Record of the Year” and “Song of the Year” for “Sigh No More.” I think I’ll sigh as much as I please . . . oh yeah, I think Whitney Houston died or something. Shame, shame...
SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected]
COMMENTARY BYMATTHEW AUBERTIN Satirist/Generic Nuisance
Half-empty: Sounding off on Grammys
In the midst of a divisive presidential race, a contentious battle to reclaim the Senate and an unsettling struggle to keep the House of Representatives, conservatives finally have a bit of news to rejoice over: President Obama is set to release his bud-get proposal for the 2013 fiscal year. This haphazard appeal to both liberal and centrist voters proves insufficient in both sub-duing the driving factors of gov-ernment spending and tackling the obstacles our nation faces in remaining a globally competitive economic force. This budget’s failure to address any substan-tive reform of Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid – whose combined costs will exceed tax revenue by 2050, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office – is irresponsible not only to this generation but also to future ones. Medicare costs, according to CBO esti-mates, will double over the next thirty years as an aging popula-tion leaves a dwindling work-force to foot their bill.
Perhaps the best solution for this president is to explore one of his past proposals: use the findings of the bipartisan debt commission he set up in 2010, chaired by former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Republican
Senator Alan Simpson. The Simp-son-Bowles commission address-es entitlements from a data-driv-en perspective, choosing instead to tweak these programs so that they remain solvent in the long run. While the president chooses a misguided approach in cut-ting our nation’s defense budget, while failing to touch Medicare and Social Security spending, the Simpson-Bowles commission proposes defense cuts and mod-est adjustments to both the pay-roll tax and Medicare co-pays, as well as slowing the growth in benefit increases for wealthier retirees, and a small increase in
the retirement age for younger workers. These solutions extend the life of both Social Security and Medicare without ushering in the heavy hand of austerity felt in Europe. In addition, they are not politically polarizing, and have a reasonable chance of passing both the Republican House and the Democrat Senate.
To ignore the growing cost of entitlement programs is a fail-ure of leadership on the part of this White House – but not the only one. In the 2013 budget, the president has also failed to tackle substantive and compre-hensive reform of our complex
and outmoded tax code. It’s not as if the president doesn’t have a bit of political leeway – the ma-jority of Americans agree with his argument about a tax code-driven inequality. In addition, House Republicans are more than willing to work with the President on this issue. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s 2010 budget would have levied the equivalent of an 8.5 percent value-added tax in place of the corporate tax. House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp has proposed the Reaganesque approach of lowering marginal rates and broadening the base of
taxpayers. The Simpson-Bowles Commission’s proposal has act-ed upon Camp’s suggestions, advancing three deduction-free tax rates of eight percent, 14 percent and 23 percent. Every tax reform plan, from Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 to the flat tax, from the FairTax to merely simplify-ing the tax code, has been on the table. In every instance, the president has resisted any at-tempt for further conversation on this issue.
What the president fails to realize is that approximately 49 percent of American taxpayers pay absolutely nothing in in-come tax – to tax the heck out of the 51 percent who do is sim-ply illogical. In this budget, the President puts forth an idea that he first proposed during the last State of the Union: a Warren Buf-fett-inspired minimum tax of 30 percent on millionaires. Ironical-ly, though, it was Buffett himself who claimed in a recent CNBC interview that the president’s reluctance to embrace the Simp-son-Bowles tax reform plan was an “absolute tragedy.” To sum, this president’s most timid bud-get yet does nothing to simplify a tax code that most Americans don’t understand and fails to ad-dress the significant drivers of our ever-increasing debt. I sup-pose that its only success is the vacuum of leadership it opens in the political center – a position that Mitt Romney would be glad to occupy.
COMMENTARY BY CHRISTOpHER RITTER
Staff Writer
wIkImEDIA cOmmONS PHOTOPRESIDENT OBAMA recently released his proposal for the 2013 fiscal year national budget. The budget has already generated controversy.
Correction from previous issue:
“Romney’s ‘Vision Thing’” was written by Christopher Ritter, not
Brian Riordan.
The Forum apologizes for this mistake.
Deanna Giorno Forum Editor
7THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012 Forum
The content of The Aquinas is the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief and Executive Staff and does not necessarily reflect the views of The University, its staff or faculty. The University adheres to the principle of responsible freedom of expression for its student editors.All letters become the property of The Aquinas and will be considered for both print and online editions unless the writer explicitly states otherwise. The Aquinas will not print anonymous or pseudonymous letters, except in unique circumstances.Letters will only be edited for style.
Forum
‘U’views
Dan Byorick Nanticoke Class of 2015
“No. Students would get annoyed with the flood of updates.”
“All of them should be reported so that students are aware.”
Alli Watson Roaring Brook Class of 2013
“No. I think what they do now is good.”
Marissa Depaulo Old Lymes, Conn. Class of 2015
“Yes, I think they should.”
John McMenamin Conshohocken Class of 2012
Should students be no-tified about all crimes reported to University
Police?
cHrISTIAN bUrNE
The 2012 Republican presi-dential primary will certainly be known for its uniqueness. Past primaries put strong emphases on early states such as Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Usually the winner of either Iowa or New Hampshire would con-tinue on to win South Carolina, a state with a strong history of picking presidential candidates. The 2012 primary offered a totally new scenario, though, with the three earliest states going to three different candidates.
The 2008 primary ended more quickly as party support went to John McCain following his wins in New Hampshire, South Carolina and the majority of state contests on Super Tuesday. This year, Super Tuesday is less important since it does not have as many states involved. In 2008, Romney with-drew days after Super Tuesday, turning the race essentially into a two way fight between John McCain and Mike Huckabee. By March, McCain had clinched the nomination.
This year, the outcome of the race is less than certain, as can-didates continue to fight for sup-port in various states in what will possibly be the longest primary in modern U.S. political history. From the beginning, the race has been between Mitt Romney and the “anti-Romney,” also known as the “flavor of the month.” However, following the Iowa and New Hampshire Primaries, the number of candidates dropped to four. With Newt Gingrich’s win in South Carolina, it appeared that a three way race had begun among Romney, Gingrich and Rick San-torum. Ron Paul still has yet to win a state and has been focusing predominately on caucus states, which rely on passionate voters who travel to caucus sites to take part in the process.
Mitt Romney appears to have a strong backing by what is re-ferred to as the “Republican estab-lishment.” Many of his supporters feel that he is the best candidate to challenge Barrack Obama be-cause of his background in both the private and public sectors. He also has been able to attract sup-port from Independents as well. However, some argue that he is not able to relate to the average
American. Conservatives question his record as governor of Massa-chusetts, where he put through a health-care system that became a model for Obamacare. Governor Romney argues the constitution-ality of his plan under the 10th Amendment, which grants states powers not explicitly stated to the federal government. Still, some of the support that the governor cur-rently has is not set in stone and open to fluctuations, as was seen in the recent Colorado caucus, in which Governor Romney was ex-pected to win.
Rick Santorum is arguably the current “anti-Romney,” but could surpass the governor if he can pull off more wins in the Mid-west and the South. He tends to capture the support of both evangelicals and conservatives with his strong support for tradi-tional family values. The former Pennsylvania senator was a dark horse candidate for much of the race until his victory in the Iowa Caucus. He has a strong focus on middle class America and has put much of his campaign try-ing to attract the votes of work-ing class Americans. On foreign policy, his strong knowledge of Latin American politics amazed many in a Florida debate, as he ar-gued for stronger ties with Latin American countries. Although his position as a social conservative appears to be attracting conserva-tives to his cause, moderates fear that his strong stance on social is-sues, such as his positions against abortion and gay marriage, will
hurt his chances of winning In-dependent voters. If Santorum hopes to surpass Romney, he will have to show that he is not only the conservative alternative to the governor, but that he also has the capability to beat President Barack Obama. It is still to be seen whether or not recent comments about women in the military will affect his chances in the primary.
While Romney is described to have one of the more consistent campaigns in terms of numbers in the polls, Newt Gingrich’s cam-paign is by far the most volatile in this race. Lazarus was resurrected once from the dead; the Gingrich campaign has already surpassed this number. Gingrich’s strength clearly lies in both his debate skills and his vast knowledge of history. His victory in South Carolina not only changed the dynamics of the race, but also marked a primary first where the winner of South Carolina was a winner of neither the Iowa nor New Hampshire con-tests. Gingrich was able to not only fend off comments and ques-tions regarding previous divorces, but was also able to gain support from his answers to these ques-tions in a South Carolina CNN de-bate moderated by John King. The audience was able to sympathize with Gingrich, helping him to se-cure victory in the state’s primary. However, the victories he gained from past tactics of attacking de-bate moderators began to fade in Florida, where a poor debate per-formance coupled with an attack on CNN’s moderator Wolf Blitzer,
which did not resonate with the crowd, seems to have halted his campaign. As the debates appear to be winding down, Gingrich’s last chance may rest in the re-maining debates before Super Tuesday, one in Arizona and the other in his home state of Georgia.
At this point, it is safe to say that Ron Paul’s chances of win-ning the Republican Primary are slim to none. His second place fin-ish in the Maine caucus hurts him as he has focused mainly on the caucus states. However, if Wash-ington County, whose caucuses were cancelled due to a snow storm, goes overwhelmingly for Paul he could still pull off a late victory that would have to be amended as the Republican Party of Maine already called the con-test for Romney. Either way, a late victory in Maine would be more a hindrance to Romney than a boost to Paul. Congressman Paul’s base differs greatly from that of the rest of the field. He attracts the youth vote, as well as the libertar-ian wing of the party. Supporters argue that his support for civil liberties is unmatched by any of the other candidates in the field; however, critics argue that his non-interventionist foreign policy style poses a great danger to the security of the country. Although Ron Paul will probably not win the primary, the rise in support for his ideals reveals that Libertarianism may be a growing force within our country’s political core.
Although a clear winner is still far from certain, the Republican Primary is shaping up to be quite an active race. If anything is cer-tain, it is the constantly changing nature of the race. No one can cur-rently say whether Romney will maintain momentum and pull off a victory or if Rick Santorum will clinch the nomination based off of performances in Midwestern states, such as his recent victories in Minnesota, Colorado and Mis-souri. After all, Obama was able to secure his party’s nomination by securing the heartland. And we must not leave out Newt Gin-grich; there could yet be one more resurrection of his campaign from political limbo, depending on his future debate performances. One thing is certain, and that is the im-portance of every American voter to have his or her voice heard in these races. As was seen in Iowa, the difference can be made with just a handful of votes.
COMMENTARY BY BRIAN RIORDAN
Staff Writer
Status of 2012 GOP candidates
DEANNA GIOrNO
While the two articles about the birth control controversy in last week’s Aquinas adequately stated the Church’s standpoint on the issue, they failed to ad-dress the reasons for support-ing the decision. The mandate would force all employers, with the exception of houses of worship, to pay for birth control included in their health insurance plans. This issue particularly affects religious organizations such as univer-sities, hospitals and charities whose beliefs clearly oppose any type of contraception.
The mandate exempts hous-es of worship due to the as-
sumption that the majority of the employees will follow the belief system of their employ-er. In larger institutions, where employees are hired regardless of their religious standpoints, the mandate cannot make this exception. An employer should not force employees of varying backgrounds to follow the doc-trine of any religion. Although ideally an organization would not need to pay for something it does not support, the gov-ernment hopes to accomplish the most good for the greatest number of people.
This decision allows all women, regardless of the em-ployers’ religious affiliation, to receive contraception through their health insurance plans. As stated in Brian Riordan’s ar-
ticle, “workers have a choice of where they work”, but a woman should not have to worry that her employer will not cover nec-essary medical treatment. “The pill” is also commonly used, especially among teenagers, as hormone therapy for cycle reg-ulation, acne, polycystic ovary syndrome, and endometriosis.
The mandate will not force any person to use contracep-tion, but it allows employees of religious organizations the op-tion without having to worry about the high expense of birth control. Without insurance, dif-ferent methods of birth control can cost anywhere from ap-proximately $20 a month for combination pills to $6,000 for a sterilization procedure. To show the need for reform, a
study the Guttmacher Institute published less than a year ago stated that 98% of Catholic women in the United States use contraception banned by the Church.
The decision is being hailed as a win for woman’s rights as well as a progressive step for sexual health. For those who choose not to follow the church’s doctrine on premarital sex, contraception becomes a safety issue in the face of STI’s and unplanned pregnancies. To protect the health and lives of sexually active men and women, as well as the health of the potential offspring, people must be educated and capa-ble of protecting themselves, regardless of religious stand-points.
health mandate vs. religious beliefs
wIkImEDIA cOmmONS PHOTOTHE ORIGINAL field of nine Republican presidential-nominee hopefuls has now been trimmed to four.
COMMENTARY BYBRITTANY ESBIN
Contributor
Valentine’s Day came a little early to residents of Gannon, La-vis, McCormick, Hannan, Nevils and Redington Halls. At approxi-mately 11:15 p.m. last Thursday night, five school buses came to the Linden Circle to pick up 210 freshman, 34 sophomores, 1 pro-fessional staff member and, sur-prisingly, three boyfriends.
The exodus was, of course, to see the much-hyped movie, “The Vow,” starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum. The movie premiered that night at midnight, and excitement filled the Scran-ton air.
“This truly was one of the most fun things I have done in the RA job,” Amy Fizzano, the RA master-mind behind the event, said.
Working together with all the RA’s was so fun. The residents were so thankful, which made the work all the more worth it,” Fizzano said.
When she thought about put-ting a program together for “The Vow,” Fizzano had no idea it would gain such widespread popularity.
“I decided to inquire about the program after a few of my resi-dents showed interest in seeing the movie. I spoke to a few RAs in my region [Region 1] and they were all excited. I then attached with Region 2 through Melissa Hannen, an RA in another Fresh-man region,” Fizzano said. “Our number skyrocketed…the inter-est level was out the roof. I was so excited about the interest and success,” Fizzano said.
Shortly thereafter, Jessica Lloyd, a Nevils RA, hopped on board. Kathryn Rigby, an RA in Redington, added 34 sophomores
to the list of participants.“I could only offer her 34 seats
on one of our five school buses at-tending the event, but
she quickly was able to fill all 34,” Fizzano said.
“It was crazy; we had practical-ly the whole theater to ourselves,” Jennie Hofmann, a McCormick RA, said.
Having a theater to yourself is equivalent to having a house to yourself for a weekend: chaos. Many females in attendance inev-itably screamed every time Chan-ning Tatum graced the screen.
The movie itself, however, was not as exciting as the trip to the Dickson City Great Escape The-ater.
“I thought the movie was ‘cute,’ but it did not live up to my expec-tations, and it was a bit predict-able. I had in my mind that it was going to be ‘Notebook-worthy’ and it was not. The ending left me
wanting to see more,” Hofmann said.
All in all, this was perhaps the largest and most successful Resi-
dence Life program at The Univer-sity. Congratulations to Amy and all the RAs involved who made Feb. 9 a night to remember.
Last week, the world lost one of the greatest voices it has ever known. Singer, artist, actress, pro-ducer and model Whitney Hous-ton was found dead in her Bev-erly Hills hotel suite Saturday. The cause of her death is still unknown and the tragedy has elicited doz-ens of statements and tributes, in-cluding one performed by Jennifer Hudson at the Grammys Sunday, extolling the fallen star’s career achievements and passionate out-look on life.
Whitney Houston was born Aug. 9, 1963 in Newark, N.J., to Army serviceman and entertain-ment executive John Russell Hous-ton, Jr., and Grammy-winning gospel/soul singer Cissy Houston. Houston began her journey to fame by following in her mother’s footsteps and singing with her church’s choir. Eventually, she was made a soloist. Houston would also emulate her mother by per-forming in various nightclubs and occasionally performing with her.
Houston’s career really began when she recorded backing vocals on songs such as “Life’s a Party” by Michael Zager Band and “I’m Ev-ery Woman” by Chaka Khan. She spent the early ‘80s working as a fashion model and was the first woman of color to be placed on the cover of Seventeen magazine
and featured in fashion spreads in cosmopolitan and Glamour.
Her first taste of fame came when she released her self-ti-
tled debut album in 1985, which reached number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Through-out her career, Houston released
six other albums and three movie soundtracks, all of which have dia-mond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certifications. As for her sin-gles, she is the only artist to chart seven consecutive number ones in the Billboard Hot 100.
Houston’s acting career began in the ‘90s, when she starred in the film “The Bodyguard.” Although it recieved mixed reviews, the movie still grossed a significant amount at the box office. Around that time, she also dated R&B singer Bobby Brown. They eventually married and had a child, a daughter named Bobbi. The couple would later di-vorce in 2007.
During her lifetime, Whitney Houston was given a staggering total of 415 awards, the most no-table being two Emmy awards, six Grammy awards and thirty Billboard Music awards. She was called the “Queen of Pop” and broke down barriers for black fe-male artists in the music world. Countless artists, including Be-yoncé, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hud-son and Leona Lewis have singled her out as one of their biggest in-spirations.
Although she is gone, her influ-ence and talent will be fondly re-membered long after her death. In the words of yet another great art-ist, Mariah Carey, “[Whitney Hous-ton] will never be forgotten as one of the greatest voices to ever grace the earth.”
Arts & Life arts & Life editorsNicole Lopez-IsaMichelle D’Souza
“Any on-campus apartment.”
Caroline DressSophomore, Willow Grove
Campus Comment: Where do you want to live next year?
“Beekeeper’s Daughter”
by The All-
American Rejects
“The new apartments.”
Dan Herrick Sophomore, Lehman
“In a van down by the river.”
Tom FotiSophomore, Springfield
“Pilarz Hall, corner window, with my friend Colleen.”
Emily GianelliSophomore, Wyckoff, N.J.
“Pilarz Hall, corner window, with my friend Emily.”
Colleen BennettJunior, Monroe, N.Y.
Three years after their last release, the Oklahoma natives responsible for top 40 hits such as “Move Along” and “Gives You Hell” finally began gearing up to unleash their fourth studio album: “Kids in the Street.”
The All-American Rejects has released a preview song from the album, now available on iTunes, called “Beekeeper’s Daughter.” The song is similar to the Rejects’ past contribu-tions to the musical world; it has a catchy pop and old rock ‘n’ roll sound, represented in the guitar solo, and a cheerful “la da da da da” thrown in for good measure. The song is sure to create an anticipatory buzz for the official release, which is scheduled for March 26.
8
BY SHANNON gIOELLOStaff Writer
BY NICOLE LOpEz-ISAArts & Life Editor
THE AQUINAS PHOTO/PETEr POrTANOvA THE FACES behind “The Vow” program (L-R): Chandel Rispin (RA), Jessica Lloyd (RA), Jennie Hofmann (RA), Allegra Indeli-cato (RA), Camille Velasco (RA), Alicia Garbade (RA), Daniella Cataldo (RA), Melissa Hannen (RA), Liz Ali (AC), Amy Fizzano (RA) and Moira McGinn (RA).
Download of the week
“The Vow” lures 244 students to midnight showing
If you are interested in writing for Arts & Life, contact Nicole at [email protected].
whitney Houston: Life and death
mySPAcE PHOTOWHITNEY HOUSTON was the only artist to chart seven consec-utive number ones in the Billboard Hot 100.
The cable network USA Net-work has been rising in popular-ity. These elevated ratings can be attributed to its numerous original series. The hit movies and mara-thons of popular shows, such as “House,” that run on USA have also garnered USA’s popularity.
USA Network has been on the air since 1971, but only in the early 2000s has it come to be appreci-ated. Its rising ratings started with USA’s original series, “Monk.” This was a hit detective series that end-ed not too long ago, in 2009, after an eight year run on air. “Monk” was a show about an OCD detec-tive who solved crimes and ulti-mately looked for the murderer of his wife throughout the series.
A few years after “Monk” pre-miered the show, “Psych” debuted
in 2004. “Psych” is also a detective style show. This dramedy is about a fake psychic-detective Shawn Spencer and his best friend Bur-ton “Gus” Guster, who work to-gether solving crimes. The show follows the antics they get into along the way.
With the popularity of “Monk” and “Psych,” USA Network started to crank out more original series. “Burn Notice,” is a spy-genre, and was the next show to come from the creative minds of USA. The show follows Micheal Westen, a spy who has been burned. Burn notes are issued by intelligence agencies to discredit or announce the dismissal of agents who are deemed unreliable. When spies are burned, their connection to an espionage organization is termi-nated, leaving them without ac-cess to cash or influence.
As the opening narration states, a burned spy has no prior work history, no money and no support
network, so, in essence, no iden-tity. Left with nothing, Westen must rely on an ex-girlfriend, Fio-na, his mom and his friend Sam.
In “Plain Sight” is the show that came out next; it is about US Marshall Mary Shannon and her partner. They recollect people into witness protection, and the show follows their trials that come along with the job, both person-ally and professionally.
The next hit show USA net-work churned out was “Royal Pains.” It follows Hank Lawson, a doctor who actually cares about his patients well-being, and this over attentiveness got him fired from his high-paying job when he let a wealthy benefactor die while trying to save the life of a kid off the street who was shot.
Hank’s brother Evan takes him to the Hamptons to get Hank to relax after the ordeal of getting fired; however, this recreational trip turns into a job opportunity
when Hank becomes known as an excellent doctor. Borris, a rich and private, man supports Hank as he, Evan and a physician’s assistant named Divya create Hank Med, a concierge doctor service for the rich.
The next show by USA was “White Collar,” which follows Neil Caffery, a former white col-lar criminal hired by the FBI. It is actually more like he was caught and offered to be a consultant for the FBI by combating criminals like himself. With the FBI agent that caught him, Peter Burke and other friends, Neil goes up against some of the greatest white collar criminals.
“Covert Affairs” was the next hit show on the USA Network. It follows the story of the girl next door, Annie Walker. She becomes an agent and chaos brakes lose as she tries to balance her unsus-pecting family and “covert” job and make sense of seeing her old
flame that she had been searching for. “Fairly Legal” is USA’s newest show. The premise of this show is mediation. Kate is a mediator and former lawyer; although she comes from a family of lawyers, she detests lawyers because they burn bridges instead of mending them. Her job is to mediate con-flict, but sometimes she finds it easier to mend others problems rather than her own. In the wake of her father’s death, she must re-evaluate her life as she tries to help others against all odds.
Each day of the week there are marathons of popular shows such as “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” “NCIS,” “House” and “CSI.” In addition the network also runs many popular movies such as “Hairspray,” “Semi-Pro,” “The Break-Up,” “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry,” all the In-diana Jones, Pirates of the Carib-bean and James Bond movies.
Americans were glued to their TV Sunday night as they watched the 54th Grammy Awards. This year’s Grammys had the highest viewership in 28 years with al-most 40 million viewers, accord-ing to deadline.com
The night began in somber re-membrance with LL Cool J, who lead the audience in a prayer for the late Whitney Houston. The rest of the night, however, was full of excited winners and ener-getic performances.
While there were many win-ners, there was one winner who stood out among the rest. Adele won six Grammys, including Grammys for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Pop Vocal Album. The Foo Fighters trailed Adele’s six Grammy wins with
its five, including Grammys for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Al-bum. Another notable winner was Kanye West, who won four Gram-mys.
The big performances of the night came from Nicki Minaj, Paul McCartney and Jennifer Hudson. Minaj performed her new song “Roman Holiday” and left viewers stunned with her controversial performance full of religious imagery and an ex-orcism. McCartney performed three Beatle’s songs and a guitar solo battle that included McCart-ney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl and Joe Wash. Hudson per-formed Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” as a tribute to the late performer. Other notable performances were from Adele, Foo Fighters, Bruno Mars, Bruce Springsteen and Katy Perry.
For all the information on the Grammys, visit www.grammy.com.
THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRURARY 16, 2012 9
THE AQUINAS
“Montrone Hall.”
Tessa SadlockSophomore, Harrisburg
“At a law school.”
Mike MulraneySenior, Berlin, N.J.
“Gavigan.”
Blake LucasFreshman, Hamburg
BY MICHELLE D’SOUzA
Arts & Life Editor
BY JOHN NIEMIECStaff Writer BY kATHERINE OLIVES
Arts & Life Correspondent
“The Grey:” realistic story of survival
“I live in Gannon with a ten-yard commute. Why would I want to
live anywhere else?”
Rev. Rick MalloySuper-Sized Senior, Scranton
“An apartment in downtown Philly.”
Cait EhlySenior, Philadelphia
The grammys celebrate music
Liam Neeson stuns in his grip-ping performance as “The Grey”’s leading man, John Ottway. From the beginning, he captures view-ers with his character’s emotional story, and we are led into the saga that is John Ottway’s life.
After losing his wife, Ottway takes a job working for an oil drilling team. Among the other workers are unsavory characters, including convicts and addicts. Ottway, however, seems to be of a different breed. He, too, has a hardened exterior, but is por-trayed as the stereotypical Irish loner, grumpy and gruff (it is Liam Neeson after all).
The men soon travel into the Alaskan wilderness to the drill sight, and we watch as Ottway alienates himself from his fellow workers on the plane. Then, the plane goes down. Ottway sudden-ly becomes a leader to the survi-vors, gathering the living as they transition into survival mode. At first, it seems odd that the group adopts Ottway’s orders and deci-sions so easily.
It isn’t realistic, especially since Ottway wasn’t very well-liked be-fore the crash. It’s not long before the group begins fighting though, spurred by Diaz’s (Frank Grillo) opposing views. The group can-not afford in-fighting, because they must stick together in order to survive. Besides the fear of dy-ing from exposure, starvation or injuries, the men are constantly stalked by murderous wolves. As Ottway quickly realizes, they have landed within the hunting radius of a wolf den, and they are viewed as a threat to the pack. The group is heavily outnumbered, and must fight for survival in typical man versus beast style.
As the men try to make their
way towards civilization, they find themselves heading deeper into wolf territory. Nature and beasts claim more and more lives. We soon learn that Ottway, a respected Alaskan hunter, was hired to keep these wolves from killing the men working the oil drills. His intensive knowledge of the beasts help the men assert their power over the wolves. But when Diaz kills and eats a pack outcast, the alpha male howls for vengeance. The group must now find civilization before they be-come victims of the wilderness. This race against death tests the men physically, emotionally and spiritually. We, as viewers, seem to fight along with them, feeling their pain as they witness men die, and choking on their despair as their backpacks fill with the
wallets of the dead.Overall, the story is about
the human condition. It portrays an overwhelming tale of brother-hood, and shows the human quali-ties that set us apart from animals. “The Grey” causes tears to flow one minute, and hearts to race the next. The audience never knows what action-packed scene will be the group’s last. Liam Neeson is as physically powerful as ever, but it is his emotional performance that takes the spotlight in this film.
The audience will not forget Ottway’s favorite poetry lines, which makes them question hu-manity’s vulnerability in a uni-verse where people can’t control nature: “Once more into the fray. / Into the last good fight I’ll ever know. / Live and die on this day. / Live and die on this day.”
mySPAcE PHOTO“THE GREY”’s John Ottoway, played by Liam Neeson, fights for his life against a wolf pack.
wIkImEDIA cOmmONS PHOTO ADELE WON six Grammys, including Album of the Year.
usa network: ‘characters welcome’
by SHAwN kENNEy
Goldman Sachs just pur-chased $6.2 billion of risky mort-gage-backed securities that were previously purchased from AIG by the Federal Reserve as a re-sult of the 2008 bailout. This is the second time this year the Fed sold assets that it absorbed in the bailout to private companies. The proceeds of this sale to Goldman will cover the remaining balance of one of the three loans given by the government to private businesses as part of the bailout package called Maiden Lane I, II and III.
In January, the Fed sold $7 bil-lion worth of assets to Credit Su-isse AG at a closed auction, which has caused quite a stir. Last year, when the Fed auctioned off as-sets from the bailout, it invited upwards of 40 dealers. For this year’s sale, it offered all of Maid-en Lane II’s $13.2 billion in assets in auction form to only Gold-man, Credit Suisse and Barclays. What makes this situation more troubling is that last March AIG attempted to buy back all of the assets in Maiden Lane II for over $15 billion.
The Fed released a statement after declining the sale to AIG, justifying its actions by claiming that it could get a higher return
by auctioning segments of the to-tal portfolio to the market. Firms not involved in this exclusive auction are outraged and believe that the government did an injus-tice to its taxpayers, who funded the bailout, by not allowing the entire market to bid on it, which could have driven the price up to provide a higher return on invest-ment to the taxpayers.
The Fed took extraordinary, unprecedented measures in the form of the 2008 bailout to pro-vide economic stability to fi-nancial institutions that were exposed to mortgage-related products after the housing mar-ket crash in 2007. According to the Fed’s government website, they needed to step in because of “the ensuing funding pres-
sures on a range of financial in-stitutions and strained liquidity conditions across the financial system” as a result of the loss of confidence in mortgage-backed products.
In order to provide relief to the financial system, the Federal Reserve created three limited li-ability companies (LLC s) called Maiden Lane I, Maiden Lane II
and Maiden Lane III. They are to be overseen and are considered extensions of the New York Fed-eral Reserve. The name Maiden Lane comes from a street in New York’s financial district that is in close proximity to Wall Street. Maiden Lane I was created to absorb the toxic mortgage-backed assets from Bear Sterns to smooth the merger between them and JP Morgan. Maiden Lane II and III were created to provide capital and liquidity for AIG by purchasing its residential mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps, respective-ly.
The government may have valued the portfolio incorrectly by thinking it could have re-ceived more than the $15 billion offered by AIG, but these types of assets are very difficult to value. These assets are a collection of people’s mortgages bundled to-gether, many of them subprime, into a financial instrument that is considered an asset. The govern-ment could have reasonably be-lieved it could have gotten a bet-ter return. However, the limited amount of participants allowed to bid on Maiden Lane II’s assets is very questionable. The fact remains, however, that Maiden Lane II will be paid back in full next month, including interest – and that was the extent of the Fed’s responsibility.
THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012 10
Business Jonathan Danforth
Business Editor
MAJOR U.S. INDEXES
DOW
NASDAQ
S&P
NOTABLE QUOTES
NKE
MSG
PBR
TOP MOVERS
DF
ANF
WHR
COMMODITIES
OIL
GOLD
SILVER
CURRENCIES
EUR/USD
GBP/USD
USD/JPY As of press time Wednesday night
$107.415 -0.07%
$32.28 -0.37%
$26.80 -1.41%
$101.60 -0.2%
$1723.50 -0.27%
$33.335 -0.22%
12780.95 -0.76%
2915.83 -0.55%
1343.23 -0.54%
12.04 +10.3%
47.84 +8.32%
69.28 -3.77%
1.3028 -0.29%
1.5677 -0.01%
78.39 -0.04%
In an uncommon act of em-pathy, Chase Bank granted tem-porary forgiveness to a foreclo-sure case Monday. The act of kindness was taken after a pe-tition of over 82,000 signatures stirred up media pressures for the bank to reconsider its fore-closure policy.
The petition was organized for a 78-year-old grandmother, Helen Bailey, who was no lon-ger able to make her mortgage payments. Change.org, the pe-tition venue, was able to stir up large media names like MSNBC, the Associate Press, the Huff-
ington Post and others to place the pressure on Chase Bank to hold off on their eviction.
Bailey and Chase Bank were able to come to an agreement: it would permit her to live in her home until she passed away. The bank plans to collect the property in the future at an approximate loss of $30,000.
Despite the initial steps to-wards foreclosure, the response of the bank to media pressures highlights Chase’s flexibility as a corporation. While it normal-ly has to follow standard pro-cedures, Chase was able set an example of corporate responsi-bility in their response to the unjust situation that arose as a result of their regular business practices.
BY JONATHAN DANFORTHBusiness Editor
Chase recalls foreclosure
BY MARk WORMUTHStaff Writer
Fed’s biased sales disappoint taxpayers
wIkImEDIA cOmmONS PHOTO/DAN SmITHTHE FEDERAL Reserve headquarters in Washington, D.C. is part of the nation’s central banking authority. It develops monetary, economic and fiscal policy for the country.
Correction from previous issue:
“University students make post-gradua-tion plans” was written by Colin Gable,
not Joseph Bruzzesi.
The Business Section apologizes for this mistake.
Fed’s biased sales disappoint taxpayers
Many students are probably thinking about what they will do after graduation, where they can find a summer intern-ship or that job their parents expect them to obtain. A valu-able tool for this search is the College Central Network, an online job-posting board with positions geared towards Uni-versity students, and opportu-nities found across the inter-net. This makes the site a place to help kick students’ searches into action. Not only can they search for full-time, part-time, temporary and internship po-sitions, but students can also upload their resume to easily apply for them. The registra-tion process takes less than five minutes, and uploading a resume is as simple as upload-ing a picture onto Facebook. Once their resume is uploaded, a career services representa-
tive will review it and either approve it or email the stu-dents some suggestions to help make their resume stand out. Once their resume is approved, they can begin to send it po-tential employers with posi-tions posted.
It’s easy to access this amaz-ing site. It’s simple, just go to the Office of Career Services’ website, www.scranton.edu/careers, and click on the col-orful College Central Network icon, or go to www.collegecen-tral.com/scranton. After click-ing the student link, fill out the short registration form to join. Registered students get a per-sonal homepage with a num-ber of resources available. Stu-dents can also find copies of the Career Services newsletter, and other documents, such as a resume writing guide on the website. Upcoming events and programs are listed as well, keeping students up-to-date with events at Career Services.
On the other side of the
page are the search engines. Students can start with jobs posted specifically for the Uni-versity, jobs found on web-sites all over the internet and internships posted to the Col-lege Central Network. Students should take a look around to search for positions in Scran-ton, and near their home. Most employers will post specific job duties and any requirements they’re looking for. Applying for a position is as simple as clicking the “Apply Now” but-ton and submitting a resume.
On-campus interview op-portunities are also organized through this site. Employers will accept resumes until about a week or so before they are on campus. Cheryl Collarini, Career Services’ Career Rela-tions Manager, will work with students to set up an interview time with the employer. If peo-ple have questions about the site, or anything else at Career Services, don’t hesitate to call them at (570) 941-7640.
On Super Bowl Sunday, more than 100 million people were not only watching the New York Gi-ants and the New England Patri-ots battle over the title of Super Bowl XLVI Champions, but the comical advertisements as well.
It is widely known that com-panies pay large sums of money for 30-second advertisement slots. According to Forbes Maga-zine, NBC received $245 million in advertisements from compa-nies such as Volkswagen, which spent$3.5 million for one com-mercial slot on the network.
The first Super Bowl was played in 1967 and advertise-ments were much less expensive than the Super Bowl XLVI com-mercials. They were priced at $37,500 for NBC and $42,500 for CBS. According to Forbes, broad-casting companies such as NBC, Fox and CBS increase the price they charge each company by an
average of 5.7 percent each year. The question remains: Are the
advertisements worth the mon-ey?
“I liked some of the commer-cials, but they don’t convince me to buy anything. Humorous com-mercials may be funny but they do little to sell me the intended product in the way it is supposed to be used,” University sopho-more Carl Hughes said.
Senior Frantz Lucien Jr., a broadcast communication major, felt the same way about the ad-vertisements.
“None of them had much of an impact on me. I’m very criti-cal of commercials and I only found them funny and entertain-ing. Many of them barely sold the product,” he said.
Other students were also criti-cal of the advertisements. “I find them [the commercials] to be ei-ther annoying or humorous. They don’t compel me to want to buy any of their products. In fact, even though some people think the commercials are the best part of the Super Bowl, I find them to
be secondary entertainment. I feel that these Super Bowl com-mercials are not effective adver-tising. They are more like 30 sec-ond blips that prevent me from watching the game,” freshman Christopher Kustera said.
The reason behind Super Bowl commercial spending originated in 1984, with the Apple advertise-ment for the Macintosh comput-er. According to Superbowl-Info, advertising experts considered Apple’s commercial a success. Af-ter the 1984 launch of the Macin-tosh advertisement, companies considered the Super Bowl the best way to advertise their goods and services.
The main issue is that com-mercials are meant to appeal to a certain audience. According to Super Bowl Advertising Statis-tics, Super Bowl commercials are mostly car and beer commercials. Many college students simply will not go buy an Audi because of a funny vampire commercial. Advertisements, no matter how humorous, still need to sell their product.
11THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012
Fed hurts U.S. DollarBY JOSEpH BRUzzESI
Staff Writer
Political conditions and eco-nomic policies throughout the world prove to be the focal point in the news: the United States faces upcoming budget decisions that will set the tone for the elections in November. European economies are still hanging in the balance as lead-ers attempt to settle debt cri-ses efficiently amid social un-rest; China is on the verge of putting a new political leader in power, who visited the Unit-ed States this month.
The United States Federal Reserve is receiving a lot of criticism both from economists and citizens. The Fed has been running a bond-buying pro-gram over the last few years, which is planned to continue through 2014. In this program, the Fed purchases U.S. treasury bonds, keeping interest rates low. Low interest rates allow banks to lend out money at a lower cost, which should spur economic growth. However, buying these bonds comes at a cost: the value of the dollar is weakened. For example, if one were to look at future contracts for oil, there is a price decrease in the future explained by the fluctuation in the value of the dollar. As the Fed continues to buy bonds, the dollar loses its value; hence, it takes more dollars to buy the same bar-rel of oil than it would if the Fed weren’t buying as many bonds. If we look at prices for oil futures around 2014, we see a steady decline in the price. As the Fed slowly stops buy-ing bonds around this time, the dollar will be strengthened and the same amount of barrels of oil will be cheaper. The bond-buying program will be dis-cussed a lot as politicians try to fix the economy.
European stability is still in question. Reports claim that Greece is close to making an austerity deal to settle its debt. The austerity package would force many Greek citizens to
live below theier means. For example, citizens making 70,000 dollars a year will be expected to live on something like 50,000 dollars. Such cut-backs have caused up to 80,000 Greek citizens to riot in the na-tions capital. Reports show that many citizens of Greece are upset with the government. Ri-ots have broken out after word that Greece would cut its mini-mum wage, lay off thousands of government workers and even cut pensions. Countries and groups such as the Interna-tional Monetary Fund will only lend Greece money to escape this collapse if Greece agrees to massive reforms, now includ-ing a monitoring committee. Germany, for example, would like to oversee how the money will be spent on and how. If Greece does not come to some sort of deal, the country may experience social upheaval and revolution.
Chinese markets have been improving. However, concerns over inflation and a continued slow down are still present in investors’ expectations. A new political leader will be put into power soon in China, calling into question the future of Chi-na’s foreign affairs. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, China’s new leader be-lieves the U.S. should not view China as an economic rival, but as an economic ally. U.S. lead-ers are hoping to create a more stable relationship with China after announcing an increased military presence in the Asian Pacific. As the U.S. nears an election, global relationships will be a big topic of discus-sion and play an important role both in defense and economics.
As many nations move to-ward political and economic change, leaders have a chance to spell out their plans for suc-cess. Stability in Europe will continue to stir up optimism and pessimism in markets. Many changes will have to be made throughout the world to establish an efficient and ef-fective recovery.
Job search with career servicesBY LAUREN kELLY
Carreer Services Intern
BY MEgAN CAREYBusiness Correspondent
super Bowl advertisements fail to capture student marketSuper Bowl advertisement prices
wIkImEDIA cOmmONS PHOTO/AGENTbLATHE LINE graph shows the cost of 30-second advertising spots during the Super Bowl television broadcast since the Super Bowl’s inception. The data was compiled from Wikipedia ar-ticles and shows how steeply the prices have increased in the past decade. It is even more impressive in light of the fact that the price jumped to $3.5 billion this year.
Catherine Erbicella
Science & Technology EditorScience Tech12 THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012
Want to write for Science and Tech?Contact the editor at [email protected]
The state of Pennsylvania is currently in the process of pass-ing a “no-texting while driving” bill. The bill considers texting behind the wheel a primary of-fense, whereby the police can pull over drivers if they are ob-served texting while driving. Laws similar to the bill in Penn-sylvania are popping up across the country. Many speculate that precedent will need to be estab-lished concerning the definition of 'texting.' This precedent could have an interesting impact on the mobile application market.
For example, say a pizza de-livery driver uses the Google Maps application on his phone to locate the homes of custom-ers. The primary purpose of GPS applications like Google Maps or the popular MotionX application, MotionX GPS Drive, is to provide drivers with a visual represen-tation of their surroundings so they can easily get to their des-tinations. If a police officer sees a driver holding his or her phone to use the GPS, will this count as a texting violation?
These laws will provide a new opportunity for tech companies to tap into a market of anti-tex-ting while driving applications. AT&T recognized this opportu-nity and developed DriveMode – an application that is manu-ally activated by users before they start their cars. If the user receives a text, DriveMode will automatically respond and let the sender know that the recipi-ent is currently driving. Drive-Mode also turns off the sound of incoming notifications in an at-tempt to reduce the urge to look at the phone while driving.
With the rise of tech entre-preneurship across the country, what will these laws mean for companies that develop apps specifically designed for driv-ers? If the precedent is set that texting includes the use of any smartphone application while driving, many tech companies could be in danger of lawsuits from crash victims in the near future. These companies may be forced to adapt to the changing market or transition to a new one.
This legislation, coupled with the development of a new an-ti-texting application market, raises the question of how voice-activated features and applica-tions, such as Apple’s Siri, will be affected. Siri, a voice activated computerized assistant, requires the user to tap a button on the iPhone in order to say a com-mand or ask a question. Will the simple action of holding the iPhone and pressing the home button to communicate with Siri cause confusion among observ-ing officers?
Text’ n Drive, another voice-activated application similar to Apple’s Siri, allows users to safely send text messages and reply to emails while driving. Siri and other voice-activated applica-tions like Text’ n Drive will lead the way in the 'mobile' market of technology behind the wheel.
My guess would be that prec-edent will allow for the use of voice-activated software. Many companies like OnStar are al-ready leading the way with inno-vation by integrating new tech-nologies that will read Facebook messages aloud to the driver. Rest assured, you will be able to feed your texting addiction one way or another behind the wheel.
As originally posted on tech.li.
Movies are a large part of en-tertainment, especially on col-lege campuses. Students have a variety of movies to watch and a selection of places to watch them. The local movie theatre has to compete with The University of Scranton Programming Board, the RedBox and online DVD delivery services. Now, though, movie the-atres have an attraction that some people just cannot resist: 3-D en-tertainment.
2012 is going to be the year of the 3-D movie. Already, “The Beauty and the Beast,” “Titanic” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” are out in 3-D, and they are just a few movies on a very long list. Though 3-D movies are meant to appeal to the younger generation, the intended audience is not too excited, as some may have expected.
“I’m not really sure how I feel
about 3-D movies, it really de-pends on the genre, but I usually like 2-D better. Plus, I get dizzy and if you watch it for too long your eyes hurt,” Connie Wall, a
freshman from Clinton, Conn., said.
According to the UC Berkeley study on health effects of 3-D, the movies can actually cause “head-
aches and discomfort.” Many people wish to stay clear of 3-D movies because of this specific reason.
“Generally, I don’t think 3-D
movies are worth all the hype, es-pecially when they overdo the ef-fects in action movies. There are special cases though, like ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ where the 3-D real-ly enhances the film and brings it to life…if the effects are tastefully done, 3-D can be quite beautiful. When it looks cheap and over ex-aggerated, it loses its touch,” Me-lissa DeSoto, a sophomore from Port Tobacco, Md., said.
3-D glasses also pose an issue; the movie theatre charges the movie-goer an extra $3 for the 3D glasses, and then the staff collects the glasses at the conclusion of the movie.
“I don't think the price is worth it. Regular 2-D movies are just as good, and you don't have to wear the bothersome 3-D glasses the whole time. 3-D can be kind of trippy at times too, and I just like to enjoy my movies...I think a truly good movie shouldn't need special enhancement by 3-D,” Tim Janes, a freshman from Basking Ridge, N.J., said.
On Saturday, high school stu-dents from various regional schools competed in the 13th An-nual Northeast Pennsylvania Brain Bee. This Brain Bee is sponsored by The University’s Neuroscience Program, the Scranton Neurosci-ence Society and the Northeast Pennsylvania Area Health Educa-tion Center (NEPA AHEC). In this competition, individuals were tested on their knowledge of various aspects of neuroscience, ranging from brain development to the mechanical aspects of the neurological system, disorders, advances and even neuroethics. However, knowledge of these top-ics isn’t found among the average high school teaching material. Students had to read a relatively short primer called “Brain Facts,” published by the Society for Neu-roscience (SfN), which gave them all of the information that they would need to know for this re-gional competition.
After a fifty question written test, contestants went on to the live portion of the Brain Bee in which they had to successfully
answer neuroscience questions in order to win some scholarship money, along with going on to the National Brain Bee in Balti-more and perhaps some bragging rights. After eighteen rounds of questioning, the winner was Aid-an Crank from Stroudsburg High School, 2nd place was Gregory Cajka from Wyoming Area High School and 3rd place was Alison DePew from North Pocono High School. These individuals made it through some rather impressive questions to come out on top.
“It’s my second year. It’s good to win this year and I’m excited to go onto nationals, but I know it’s go-ing to be more challenging,” Aidan Crank, the winner, said.
“The Brain Bee has been go-
ing on for a long time. The whole reason behind the Brain Bee is to promote brain awareness. A lot of great kids come through it; they turn out to be great people. One of them is the president over at Sarah Lawrence College right now. They really are an elite group of kids. A good amount of kids show up too, we have about fifty who sign up [each year], and thirty who show. A lot of students here on campus have also been in the bee. It’s nice to see it cycle through. Also, par-ticipating in the brain bee doesn’t mean you have to go into neuro-science. In the end, we just can’t do it without the students,” J. Tim-othy Cannon, Ph.D. said.
Cannon moderated the event.
BY DAVID RENNEkAMpSci/Tech Correspondent
BY ANDREW TORBASci/Tech Correspondent
BY MEgAN CAREYSci/Tech Correspondent
SUbmITTED PHOTO: jOANNA ScALA fOr THE AQUINASBRAIN BEE moderators and winners pose for a photo after the 13th annual competition.
University students have mixed reactions about 3-D movies
University hosts Brain Bee neuroscience competition
how anti-texting laws affect start-ups
THE AQUINAS PHOTO/ jUSTIN kEArNSMATTHEW AUBERTIN (left) and Caitlin Zuilkoski (right) enjoy watching 3-D movies; however, not all University students feel the same way.
13THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012
Faith Andrew MilewskiFaith Editor
Mass ScheduleMonday-Friday
12:05 p.m. & 4:40 p.m.Chapel of the Sacred Heart
Sacrament of ReconciliationMonday-Friday 11:30 a.m.
Chapel of the Sacred Heart, Reconciliation Room
Sunday11 a.m., 7 p.m. & 9:30 p.m.
Madonna Della Strada ChapelRock Hall, 419 Monroe Ave.
Fr. Malloy offers advice for Lent 2012COMMENTARY BY
FR. RICk MALLOY, S.J., pH.D. Vice President
University Ministries
Lent is a time to open our lives, our minds, our hearts and our very souls to God. We be-come our deepest, truest selves when we live in real relationship with God.
Lent is not so much a time to give something up as a time to become someone who loves God, and others, and self. That loving of self may mean drop-ping something (for me it is the third donut; for you, maybe it’s beer or smoking).
Lent is a time of metanoia, radical change, radical restruc-turing of one’s way of thinking and being. The word “radical” means “to the roots.” The three traditional works of Lent are prayer, fasting and alms giving. During Lent, we strip away all that is non-essential and focus for 40 days on the roots of our spiritual condition. We take time for God and pray. We connect to the poor. Here are 10 suggestions for really getting into Lent this year.
1. Sure, cut down on food, but do you want to do some radi-cal fasting? Use your cell phone only one hour a day (or get very radical and do not use it at all for forty days and nights).
2. Get to the gym, eat right,
and sleep. Treat your body like the temple of God that it is. Seriously consider giving up alcohol for Lent. If you cannot quit drinking, you are not using booze; the booze, and those who make it and profit off it, are us-ing you. Go home; skip the pa-rade. You will not miss the room-mate’s puke on you, and you will get a nice Saturday in March to go fishing.
3. Read at least one good book on faith, God or spiritu-ality. Campus Ministers have dozens of titles to recommend. They may even suggest Fr. Rick’s book, “A Faith that Frees: Catho-lic Matters for the 21st Century”. At least read the Gospel of Mark. It is only 16 chapters, and it takes a half hour to read. In Mark’s gospel, you will meet Jesus, the most fascinating person in the Cosmos. Jesus is much more in-teresting than the Kardashians and the Jersey Shore crew put together.
4. Give Alms. The great Jesuit of New York and El Salvador, Dean Brackley, used to say, “We enter heaven with the permis-sion of the poor.” Find a way to connect to those who are suffer-ing the effects of a social system that leaves so few with so much and so many with so little. Our Community Outreach Office has many service sites. Spend less on junk and give to the needy.
5. Pray every day. Say a Rosa-
ry. Do the Examen. Go to Daily Mass. There are three Masses on campus every day, and there is the “upscale” Wednesday Mass at 9:45 p.m. Prayer gets us in shape spiritually, in the same way going to the gym regularly keeps us in shape physically. Going to the gym three times a week, once a year, does not work. Same with prayer.
6. Go on a retreat. Choose from the Busy Students retreat or SEARCH or the Cooperstown baseball retreat or Jesuit Novice Jason Downer’s Finding God in Harry Potter and Finding God in Billy Joel music. Campus Minis-
iranian christians face government persecutionBY ANDREW MILEWSkI
Faith Editor
Iranian Christians remain cautious about the practice of their faith as officials raided an-other house-church and arrest-ed six to ten members of the congregation Feb. 8. Church-houses are used for Christians to secretly come together and worship God.
The identity of only one of those arrested Feb. 8, Mojtaba Hosseini, is known. Authori-ties arrested Hosseini in 2008, along with eight other Christian converts, on charges of being Christians, according to Moha-bat News.
“I guess they have been watching Hosseini since then,” an Iranian Christian said,
Although Christianity along with Judaism and Zoroastrian-ism, is an officially recognized religion in Iran, Christian groups frequently face disadvantages. Religious institutions, including schools, hospitals and churches, need to be owned and managed by a Muslim, for example.
Authorities have prohib-ited musical worship and Bi-
ble distribution at the Central Church of Tehran, the largest and most visible Assemblies of God church in the country. Last December, officials enforced a policy under which only invited guests could attend a Christ-mas service at the church, and in December 2009 the church succumbed to intense pressure by authorities to discontinue its Friday services, which had attracted the most converts to Christianity.
Before the Iranian revo-lution, nearly four times as many Christians lived within the country. Now, however, Christians make up less than one percent of total popula-tion of Iran. Christians who stayed practiced their faith in their home. This practice arose because non-Christian Iranians often persecute Chris-tians. Many of these atrocities are accounted in The Voice of the Martyrs, a website created to reveal the problems Iranian Christians face.
“The church is exploding in terms of numbers, but it is com-ing with a price. The people are arrested, they’re harassed,
they’re persecuted, in some cases they are beaten severely. It is not an easy pathway,” Todd Nettleton, a member of Voice of the Martyrs, said.
Iran applies sharia law, which dictates that converts from Is-lam to other religions are “apos-tates” and thus punishable by death. Although judges rarely sentence Christians to death for leaving Islam, one Christian, Yousef Nadarkhani, is appealing such a decision in the north-eastern city of Rasht.
Robert Spencer, the founder of Jihad Watch, a website de-signed to combat Muslim ex-tremists, says that the Iran leaders are unaware that they are doing the thing that will produce more Christians. Clare Lopez, a senior fellow with the Center for Security Policy presented a similar sentiment, speculating that if the Iranian mullahs know persecution grows the Christian church, they don’t care.
“The issue has little to do with perceptions of how Chris-tianity might respond,” Lopez said, “but rather with the obli-gation under Islamic doctrine to
put and keep dhimmis in their ‘place’ within Muslim society.”
Lopez added that Americans need to remember that Islam does not focus on “Western” values and political ideas.
“Remember, pluralism and tolerance are totally Western ideas, completely foreign to Is-lam and certainly the Middle East,” Lopez said. “Recall that Persian history, aside from the brief interlude of the Pahlavi dynasty in the 20th Century, was one of dynasty, jihad and vicious anti-Semitism.
Christianity is not the only religious group to suffer perse-cution in Iran. Bahá’ís, a reli-gion which was founded in Iran, continues to be illegal. Accord-ing to a US panel, attacks on Bahá’ís in Iran have increased since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president in 2005. Cur-rently more than 20 Baha’is are imprisoned in Iran. Before that, in 2004, Iranian authorities de-molished the shrine and grave site of Muhammad-Ali Barfuru-shi, a Bábí leader.
Anti-Bahá’í media campaigns in Iran assert that the religion was created by colonialist pow-
ers to subvert Islam and to sub-jugate the Muslim peoples of Iran.
A report by The Baha’i Inter-national Community entitled “Inciting Hatred: Iran’s media campaign to demonize Baha’is” documented and analyzed more than 400 media items over a 16-month period. The result, the Baha’is say, is an “insidi-ous state-sponsored effort” to discredit the Baha’is with “false accusations, inflammatory ter-minology, and repugnant imag-ery.”
Among “recurring themes” in media coverage about Baha’is, the report said, is that they are “anti-Islamic,” a “deviant” and “cult-like” sect, agents of Zi-onism, spies for Israel and the West, morally corrupt and an influence in the shah’s govern-ment which toppled in 1979.
Persecution of religious minorities in Iraq have been steadily increasing since the revolution in the 1950s. Howev-er, since the 1990s media cover-age and poltical protest has in-creased. It is unlikely that major governmental changes will oc-cur in the near future.
try has many more options.7. See the movie “The Way”
starring Martin Sheen. It is a fas-cinating story about a father and son and a pilgrimage in Spain. We will be showing it several times in Lent.
8. Change your patterns. If you are cutting class, drinking too much, or just staying up late, choose to change. Start listen-ing for God’s quiet, transforma-tive presence in your life. Let the example of Jesus show you the way. Accept God’s grace, the power to do what you could not do before.
9. Come to the sacrament of
reconciliation. Confession is not just good for the soul. It is more than that. The God of love for-gives and makes us better able to love and live.
10. Finally, ask yourself, “Who am I really, and who do I really want to be?” Lent is a time for rigorously evaluating what we are doing with our lives, and who and what we are becoming. Am I who I say I am? What do I deeply desire? Am I living out of those deep desires or doing what others want me to do? What does Jesus really mean to me? What do I need to do to get back on track with God who loves me more than anyone else? God’s loves sustains me and promises me life and life eternal.
Come to Mass on Ash Wednesday. Hear again the an-cient truth, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you will re-turn.” We only get a short time on this earth. The point is to prepare ourselves for eternity. St. Ignatius puts it this way: We are created to praise, reverence and serve God, and to live with God forever. Everything exists to help us reach our goal. We must use other created things, as far as they help towards our end, and free ourselves from them if they frustrate us in reaching union with God. Lent is a time for freedom.
“For freedom Christ has set us free” (GAL 5:1).
THE AQUINAS PHOTO/PETEr POrTONOvAADAM GAULT (left) and Oliver Strickland (right) stand outside the Community Outreach Office, where a sign advertises the Mardi Gras celebration, which begins the Lenten season.
14 THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012
The Aquinas Crossword This Week in History
Across:1). 6 Across is the most famous child ____ .6). Carter discovered the tomb of this Egyptian (2/16/1923).9). To attract or seduce; equipment found in a bait-box.10). Irish philanthropist with 22 Grammys to call his own.11). Division of a theatrical production.12). To annoy.14). A moon of Jupiter.16). Celebrities like Brooke Shields and Mark Wahl-berg rocketed to worldwide fame after modeling for this fashion designer (abbreviation).17). A deer, a female deer.18). ___ Iver, 2012 Grammy Award winner for Best New Artist.19). English prefix for “not.”20). This family was rescued after resorting to can-nibalism on their sojourn to California (2/19/1847).25). George Costanza’s least favorite class as a child.26). Raison d’____.28). Paris Hilton home; ____ Cleary.30). German article.31). Republic of Ireland’s revolutionary organiza-tion.32). Spanish article.33). The U.S. defeated the ____ Curtain’s hockey team, later called a miracle on ice (2/22/1980).34). Bereaved; melancholy.35). Zero.36). An undefined measurement of time, originally meaning “life.”38). This raspy-voiced singer won a Grammy for
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2001 for “I Try.”Down:1). Lake where 33 Across’s defeat took place (2/22/1980).2). Famous Samuel Clemson character, seen for the first time Feb. 18, 1885.3). “A” in MoMA.4). A drop of golden sun.5). ____-American Unity, founded by Malcolm X, who was assassinated (2/21/1965).6). ____ and fro.7). The miracle on ice ended a four-year streak of victories for the Soviet ____ (2/22/1980).8). “Garfield” or “Rugrats,” for example (abbrevia-tion).12). Not working; doing nothing.13). ____stone state in which we live.18). Puccini’s “Madame ____” debuted Feb. 17, 1904. 21). Genre of 18 Across.22). Sierra ____, the mountain chain from which the party of 20 Across was rescued (2/19/1847).23). First word of song that helped Adele tie Be-yonce for most Grammy wins by a female in one evening.24). President who will be recognized doubly this month for his acts to improve African American civil rights, both during Black History month and Presidents’ Day. 27). ___ Bravo or Grande, depending on your side of the border.28). American buffalo.29). “The Biggest Little City in the World.”37). Prefix for “former.”
crOSSwOrD by TImOTHy mccOrmIck
Margarete Lieb Zalon, Ph.D., RN, CS, of the nursing department said she has occasionally had students unable to get their books on the first day of class, but does not believe it is a consistent problem.
“Usually, whenever there’s a problem, the bookstore works hard to try and resolve it as fast as possible,” Zalon said.
Patrick Daly, a junior at The University, said he has been unable to find required course materials only twice in his college career. He said he believes the bookstore “underesti-mated” the amount of people enrolled in the course.
Senior Matthew Smeltzer recalled an occa-sion where the bookstore refused to order the book. He said the class consisted of himself and one other student, adding that he could understand why the bookstore would not stock the book.
Drasba said that the time it takes for a book to reach the shelf upon ordering is also determined by a number of factors — who the publisher is, where the stock is being shipped from and whether or not it is a popular title.
“Students can reserve a copy of a textbook by filling out an order form and prepaying at the bookstore, so that when the book does ar-rive, the student simply receives a phone call letting them know the book is ready to be picked up,” Drasba said.
“BOOKSTORE” FROM PAGE ONE
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Feb. 9 Answers
Across: 1.Oscar3.Jumping5.Ceelo9.Martha10.Cadbury12.Amnesia16.Roses18.Purple19.Douglass20.Cherry22.Claudius24.Meg Ryan25.Flava Flav26.Malcolm
Down2.August4.Iwo Jima6.Leap7.Thurgood8.Patriots11.Eros13.Birmingham14.Wedding15.Mardi Gras17.Spring18.Phil21.Hallmark23.Lincoln
SPORTS 15THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012
“JAQUES” CONTINUED FROM PAGE SIXTEEN
BY JOE BARESSSports Editor
SUbmITTED PHOTO: mIcHAEL mArTIN fOr THE AQUINASTHE UNIVERSITY’S ice hockey team gathers on the ice in a game during the 2011-12 season. The Royals finished with a 12-14 record this season and finished fourth out of eight teams in the East-ern Collegiate Hockey Association. The Royals advanced to the ECHA playoffs after a 4-3 victory over Syracuse University.
BY kEVIN DERMODYStaff Writer
“I have grown up playing sports and watching my brothers and sis-ter my whole life,” Jaques said. “I was five for my first recreational team, and we had hot pink shirts. It was great.”
Jaques’ sister Ali, who is asso-ciate head coach at Northwestern University, won a National Cham-pionship playing for New York University in 1998.
“Watching her win the National Championship really portrayed femininity, hustle, heart and team-work in a way that is hard to come by,” Jaques said. “She has support-ed me through all my years of ups and downs with basketball, and always reminds me to play be-cause I love the sport.”
Growing up in a family of sports lovers, Jaques decided to stick with basketball. Her father coached her in the earlier years of her sports career.
“One of my deciding factors was that it was inside,” Jaques said. “The weather did not matter because it was always great in a basketball gym.”
Jaques also enjoys the speed of the sport, as well as the small number of players required to make a team.
“Everyone has to stick together and love to play in order to reach success,” Jaques said. “A team has no more than 14 or 15 players, so it is highly reliant on trust and team-work.”
Jaques didn’t have any trouble figuring out what college to at-tend and immediately settled on The University.
“I didn’t apply to any other school than Scranton, because of basketball and my ROTC scholar-ship,” Jaques said. “After I had my recruiting overnight visit in No-vember during my senior year of high school, I knew I was going to come to Scranton.”
Jaques said she feels lucky to have played for Coach Strong and alongside her fellow team-mates over the years. Jaques finds it overwhelming to think about what it means to be a Lady Royal.
“So many players, through their years of playing, get to a point where they don’t love to play any-more, and the fact that that has never happened to me is the best part of playing basketball,” Jaques said. “I think being able to play here is the reason I still love it.”
Jaques is a communication ma-jor with a track in public relations. She is also in ROTC with a leader-ship minor.
“The day before graduation I will commission into the U.S. Army as a 2nd lieutenant,” Jaques said. “I will enter the Adjutant General Corps.”
In April, Jaques and her boy-friend will participate in a Tough Mudder event, which is a 10-12-mile obstacle course created by British Special Forces.
In her free time, Jaques likes completing puzzles, decorating her room, going shopping and get-ting her hair done. She also enjoys doing Bikram Yoga.
“Free time does not come very often, so I like to do relaxing and low stress activities,” Jaques said.
Jaques is happy with the Lady Royals’ play so far this season and is confident the team can reach its goals.
“We have been dealt our fair share of adversities, and we have come together instead of fall apart,” Jaques said. “We have grown together, and it will be interesting to see how we pull through for the rest of our season.”
Jaques and the Lady Royals will face off against Moravian College at 2 p.m. Saturday before playing the first round of the conference tournament Wednesday.
“Everyone has a chance to win, but what matters is our relent-less attitude to never quit,” Jaques said. “You can’t ask for more than that, and if we have that attitude, we will win the conference.”
Ice hockey team advances to playoffsThe men’s ice hockey team
earned an Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association playoff berth Saturday with a thrilling victory over Syracuse University.
The Royals defeated the Or-ange 4-3 in a game that came down to a shootout. Brendan Hayes scored the game-winning goal for the Royals while goalie Sean O’Sullivan stopped all three Syracuse shots in the shootout.
Drexel University, Lebanon Val-ley College, the United States Na-val Academy, Lehigh University and Penn State Berks also earned playoff berths in the six-team playoff.
“We ended the season on a high note and there really isn’t a team that we cannot compete with,” defenseman and president of the ice hockey club Michael Martin said. “We have shown throughout the season that we can play with anyone.”
The Royals finished with a 12-14 record, but finished the season strong, earning fourth place in the ECHA.
“We played several tough op-ponents at the beginning of the season, but seemed to play our best hockey down the final stretch of the season,” Martin said.
Team captain Ryan Smith is happy with what the team accom-plished so far this season.
“We were able to upset some really good teams, including the Naval Academy,” Smith said. “We lost a good amount of seniors last year, but were able to pick up some young talent as well as bringing some players up from our B team, which proved help-
ful.”The team suffered a few inju-
ries during the season, but Martin is proud of how the team respond-ed to the adversity.
“You can’t help but be happy with the team’s performance throughout the season,” Martin said. “We’ve worked hard all sea-son and plan on taking that same attitude with us to playoffs.”
The Royals will face off against Penn State Berks at 2:30 p.m. Fri-day at Ice Line Arena in West Chester in their first game of the ECHA playoffs. Penn State defeat-ed the Royals in both meetings this season.
“If we continue to work hard and play within ourselves, there is no reason we cannot be successful in the upcoming playoffs,” Martin said. “We play as a unit and as long as we continue to play for the betterment of the team we can certainly win the league.”
If the Royals win the ECHA playoffs, they will earn an auto-matic bid to Nationals.
“We need to keep our heads held high, have good practices and work on our power plays,” Smith said. “We’ve had some trou-ble in that department recently, but if we start scoring on power-play chances I don’t think there’s a
team in the league who will beat us.”
When the season ends, the Roy-als will lose eight seniors, includ-ing Smith, Martin, Christian Craw-ford, Brendan Hayes, Joe Ballance, Sean O’Sullivan, Rich Corbett and Ed Banes.
“We graduate a lot of seniors who know that the playoffs are their last chance at winning the league, so we all have a lot to play for,” Smith said. “Our goaltending has been very good as of late, and we’ve had a lot of good games recently so I’m sure we can carry that momentum into the playoffs and do very well.”
women’s basketball team in hunt for #2 seed
The Lady Royals had a strong weekend with wins over Merchant Marine Academy Friday and Drew University Saturday. The Lady Royals are now 15-9 overall with a 10-3 record in the Landmark Con-ference.
The Lady Royals were extreme-ly motivated in their first game of the weekend, which ended with a 76-48 victory against Merchant Marine Academy. Scranton was led by a balanced attack from senior guard Sydney Jaques and sophomore guard Ali Sweeney, who each scored 13 points.
It was clear that Scranton came out determined to win from the opening tip. The Lady Royals led
40-17 heading into halftime and continued to dominate with up-tempo second half play to win easily.
After the game, head coach Mike Strong talked about how the team is more motivated and gell-ing at the right time as the post season looms.
At Drew University Saturday, the Lady Royals fought hard down the stretch and won a tight game, 60-56.
Scranton led 29-25 at halftime after a back and forth first. Drew came out hot in the second half and the Lady Royals had to battle back to regain the lead. It would take a pair of clutch free throws from freshman guard Lindsay Fluehr, with less than five seconds of play, to seal the win for Scran-
ton.Fluehr scored all of her eight
points in the second half and had key baskets to spark much-need-ed runs for the Lady Royals.
Freshman Meredith Mesaris had a game high 25 points for the Lady Royals and was the rock in-side for the team.
“I really don’t think about what points I have,” Mesaris said. “Good defense is as important as scoring and it’s crucial that we all work together.”
After her dominating perfor-mance against Drew, Mesaris was named the Landmark Conference Player of the Week. She is averag-ing 15.5 points and 4.9 rebounds in her 10 games since transferring to Scranton from Division I Ameri-can University.
Scranton now prepares for its final regular season game against conference foe Moravian College.
“Moravian is like a playoff game,” Strong said. “It’s a few lev-els above the games this [past] weekend.”
With a playoff spot locked up, Scranton is currently battling Catholic University for the second seed in the Landmark Confer-ence playoffs. A loss would most likely mean the Lady Royals will play their semifinal playoff game on the road at Catholic. A win against Moravian would increase Scranton’s chances of hosting the semifinal playoff game against Catholic. The Landmark Confer-ence playoffs start Feb. 22.
Scranton will play at 2 p.m. Sat-urday at Moravian University.
“BASKETBALL” CONTINUED FROM PAGE SIXTEENSophomore Tommy Morgan
scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half to fuel a late Scran-ton surge. Morgan also added four rebounds and four assists. Senior Luke Hawk also contributed with 20 points and six rebounds.
Scranton scored 14 points off Rangers’ turnovers and shot 60 percent from the field in a second half that saw the Royals improve on offense and defense. The Roy-als were still unable to find their shooting touch beyond the arc, missing all seven of their 3-point-
ers in the second half to finish 3-16 for the game.
The frantic final minutes of the game gave Scranton the per-fect opportunity to steal a win on the road. A shot in the paint by Hawk with 58 seconds remaining gave the Royals their first lead of the game, 72-71. The Rangers an-swered on the next possession when sophomore guard John Ford was fouled on a three-pointer and made all three free throws to put Drew back on top, 74-72.
Morgan would save his biggest
play of the night for the final 24 seconds of play. Following a Scran-ton timeout, Morgan received the ball on an inbounds play and drove to the basket, where he banked in a runner and drew a foul. Morgan converted the three-point play to give Scranton a 75-74 lead.
Scranton would not be able to celebrate for long. Capers hit his own runner in the lane with three seconds remaining in what would be the final basket of the game to give Drew the 76-75 win. Capers finished the game with 34 points
for the Rangers.The Royals’ record now stands
at 17-7 overall and 10-3 in confer-ence play. The Rangers improved to 7-17 overall and 5-8 in confer-ence play. It was Scranton’s sec-ond consecutive loss at Drew.
The Royals will play its final regular season game at 4 p.m. Sat-urday at Moravian College. Scran-ton will clinch the top seed and home-court advantage in the con-ference tournament with a win or a loss by Juniata College, who will play Susquehanna University.
Sophomores Sara Franciscovich, Jessica Merino, Kelsey McAnelly and Gillespie set a school record in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:39:87.
Junior Jenny Fitzmaurice, Meri-no, Gillespie and Gorge set a new school and Landmark Conference record with a time of 1:49.72 in the 200 medley relay.
The women also set records in the 400 medley relay (4:03.33), 50 free (0:24.33), 100 fly (0:57.18) and 100 breaststroke (1:08.52)
Paul DeAngelo, along with the rest of his staff, won Landmark Conference Coaching Staff of the Year honors.
Seniors Mark Dezii, David Hovey and John Hughes each
won gold medals. Dezii set a new school and Landmark Conference record in the 200 freestyle with a finished time of 1:43.47.
Juniors Andrew Urban, Stephen Nicolosi and Nathan Wynosky set school records in their events as well. Urban finished the 50 free-style in 0:21.94, Nicolosi finished the 200 fly in 0:51.73 and Wyn-
osky swam the 1650 freestyle in 16:50.14.
The 200, 400 and 800 freestyle relay teams set five relay records over the weekend championships.
Scranton will look to build off its success next year. They will return many key swimmers and divers who were vital to this year’s record performances.
“SWIMMING” CONTINUED FROM PAGE SIXTEEN
16 THE AQUINAS
iN tHiS iSSUe
ALSO INCLUDEDPlayer Profile: Sidney JaquesIce hockey team makes playoffs
Swim teams place second Men’s basketball loses heartbreakerWomen’s basketball defeats DrewSports
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012
See “JAQUES,” Page 15
-PATrIck O’brIEN DEmSEy, “mIrAcLE”
UpCOMINg gAMESwRESTLING
2/18 Muhlenberg 12 p.m.
2/18 NYU 2 p.m.
wOMEN’S LACROSSE
2/29 @ Haverford 4 p.m.
3/5 Neumann 4 p.m.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
2/18 @ Moravian 4 p.m.
2/22 Landmark TBA
wOMEN’S BASKETBALL
2/18 @ Moravian 2 p.m.
2/22 Landmark TBA
MEN’S LACROSSE
2/25 @ Farmingdale 1 p.m.
3/3 @ Muhlenberg 1 p.m.
See “BASKETBALL,” Page 15
“I play for...the United States of America!”
Jaques plans to make most of final year as Lady Royal
Swim teams place second at championshipsBY TOM FOTIStaff Writer
SUbmITTED PHOTO: cANDIcE cLIffOrD fOr THE AQUINASMEMBERS OF The University’s swimming and diving teams celebrate after placing second in the Landmark Conference Champion-ships this weekend at Marywood University. This year was the first time diving was offered at The University. Junior Tim McCor-mick and freshman Colleen Barry both dived for the Royals and won gold medals.
BY JOE BARESSSports Editor
SUbmITTED PHOTO: ALI jAQUES fOr THE AQUINASSENIOR GUARD Sidney Jaques, left, hugs her sister Ali, right, before the Lady Royals defeated Susque-hanna University 73-50 Feb. 4. Jaques scored a career high 22 points in what could be her final game at the John Long Center. Jaques comes from a family of sports lovers, including Ali, who played for a national championship team at New York University in 1998. Ali is now the associate head coach at Northwestern University.
In her final season with the Lady Royals, senior guard Sid-ney Jaques continues to fight for another Landmark Conference Championship.
During her freshman and soph-omore seasons, the Lady Royals won the Landmark Conference Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. With a playoff berth clinched, Jaques hopes to earn her third conference champi-onship in four years.
“We can do it,” Jaques said. “We just need to believe it as a team, which we do.”
With one game remaining in the regular season, Scranton is tied with Catholic University for second place in the conference. The final game will determine who secures the number two seed as well as home-court advantage
in the first round of the Landmark Conference Tournament.
Jaques made the most of what could be her final game in the John Long Center, scoring a career-high 22 points in a 73-50 victory Feb. 4 over Susquehanna University. Her efforts earned her The Univer-sity’s Athlete of the Week Award for the week of Jan. 30-Feb. 5. Be-fore the game, she also earned the Lady Royals’ Most Valuable Senior Award.
“I love this sport because in order for someone to be MVP or play all four years of college, it takes the team’s support,” Jaques said. “I would not have had so many points if it wasn’t for the great passes and confidence from my teammates.”
Jaques is the youngest of four siblings and starting playing bas-ketball at a young age.
men’s basketball team loses on last-second shot to drew
This past weekend is one that the University’s men’s and wom-en’s swimming and diving teams can look back on and be proud of what they accomplished. Despite a second place finish by both teams, the Royals broke numer-ous school records and the future looks bright.
Over the course of three days at the 2012 Landmark Conference Swimming and Diving Champion-ships, the women’s team won sev-en events, along with setting nine school records. The men’s team set a school record with 724 points. Only five-time defending cham-pion Merchant Marine Academy tallied more points with 828.
The women’s swim team fell by nine points to the defending champion Susquehanna Univer-sity. Susquehanna squeezed out a victory by .2 seconds in the 400 freestyle relay, the final event of the weekend.
In the first year that Scran-ton incorporated diving into the school swimming program, junior Tim McCormick and freshman Colleen Barry dominated off the board for the Royals.
“Our focus throughout the sea-son was qualifying for champion-ships and doing our absolute best 11 dives there,” McCormick said. “I think the divers really caught the entire conference off-guard by bringing all we had to champion-ships for the team.”
Freshman diver Colleen Barry set two school records in the 1-me-
ter and 3-meter diving event. She was also named Diver of the Year.
“I am extremely happy with our performance,” Barry said. “Every-one swam and dived their abso-lute best and we broke so many records. I don’t think we could have done any better.”
McCormick earned Diver of the Year honors after winning gold medals in the 1-meter and 3-me-
ter events. He also set two of the Royals’ 13 schools records over the weekend.
“To be honest, unlike many div-ers who grow up flipping on tram-polines and such, my skills on the board are not innate, and I had to work really hard in high school to get the feel for the sport,” Mc-Cormick said. “I broke it down to the physics of it and worked and
worked at it, so to receive these awards is really a testament to me of what can be done with dedica-tion.”
Barry and McCormick also earned Scranton Athletes of the Week honors for their accomplish-ments.
“I was not expecting the first, never mind these additional hon-ors,” Barry said. “It has been an
awesome feeling to receive so much recognition for diving.”
Seniors Carolyn Gillespie and Christine Gorge collected indi-vidual victories. Gillespie finished the 100 fly in 0:57.68, good enough for the NCAA Provisional Qualify-ing time. Gorge finished the back-stroke in 1:01.08.
The men’s basketball team clinched at least one home play-off game after splitting two road games this weekend, defeating Merchant Marine Academy 76-71 Friday but falling on a last-second shot to Drew University 76-75 Saturday.
Scranton entered Friday’s game against Merchant Marine Academy on a four-game win-ning streak. The Royals needed two wins in their final three games to secure the top seed in the Landmark Conference Tour-nament.
The Royals opened the game with a 6-0 run that helped set the pace for the first half. Scranton attacked the basket aggressive-ly, going to the free throw line 11 times and making nine of its attempts. At halftime, the Royals
led 34-28. Scranton’s shooting improved
dramatically in the second half. The Royals shot 62 percent from the field, compared to 36 percent in the first half. They also con-verted 21 of their 27 free throws. Junior Travis Farrell scored a game-high 23 points and fresh-man Ross Danzig contributed 22 on the way to a 76-71 victory.
The Royals looked to secure home-court advantage through-out the conference tournament with a win against Drew Univer-sity Saturday.
The game did not start out in Scranton’s favor, however. The Royals made only three of their nine three-point attempts and were outrebounded 22-17. Drew led 38-34 at the end of the first half. Danzig led the Royals with nine points, while senior Asmar Capers had 17 points for Drew.
BY CORY BURRELLStaff Writer
See “SwIMMING,” Page 15
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