University of Maryland Undergraduate Magazine

2012 SPRING EDITION

Why do we love to drink in college?We are probably going to get drunk for

St.Patty’s Day...but why are we ? P.20

St.Patrick’s day approaches,

we all can’t wait to head on up

to Thirsty Turtle and get wast-

ed!. But, why do we do this?

Why do we get wasted? New

features

DEPARTMENTS

2012 SPRING EDITION

CONTENTS

ABOUTTHE

COVER

20 WHY DO WE LOVE GETTING DRUNK??

As St.Patrick’s day approaches, we all can’t wait to get wasted! But, why do we do we get drunk? We take a look at some of the reasons why we love to drink and get drunk.

24 THE MANY SOUNDS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

From the Memorial Chapel chimes and bells to the hum of airplanes all the way to the horns and rush of Route 1 traffic, the sounds of Maryland create a spectacular symphony.

28 A LETTER TO MY DEAR MOM...

Independence, freedom,excitement, and homesick?? The Maryland Survey Team goes around campus to ask students if they are homesick and lonely, and the results are shocking!

32 TESTUDO! ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIX YEARS!

Lights, camera, action! Student graphic designers collaborate to explore the design and logo history of Testudo the Terrapin throughout his 156 year existence.

36 IS CREATIVITY LINKED TO INSANITY?

Is it really a gift to be as talented as Van Gogh or Mark Rothko?? History and research work together to find a rather disturbing link between being creative and and being a crazy madman.

Culture Undergrad Zone 3

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6 EDUCATIONAll the tips and tricks you need in order to pass your exams before Spring Break.

8 WOW EVENTSFind out the ten hottest places to travel to during Spring Break.

12 UG SUCCESS STORIES

Undergraduate A++ success stories.

14 COMPETITIONSSpring competitions in school...includes the Sadat Peace Competition.

18 ATHLETICSIs Duke-Maryland a one-sided rivalry?

40 SCIENCEA discovery and exploration of the weird and the strange.

44 OUTSIDE THE SHELL

News and events happening outside the University and the world.

48 TERP “TV”TV, film, movies, reality shows...all done by Undergrad students.

50 TERP ART Undergraduate Art on school events and the season of Spring.

54 GRADUATING STUDENTS Graduation information

and career offerings for college students

Wait...Why am Idrinking?

Living a Wild AND

Educational Lifestyle


4 EXERCISE Studying can make

you tense up and become a ball

of nerves. Sitting on an uncomfortable

chair or stool doesn’t help. A quick workout -- even as simple as pulling out a yoga mat and relaxing in Child’s Pose or doing some squats and calf raises -- can relieve tension in your muscles, pump up your endorphins, and make you more alert and alot calmer for the exam.

5 EXERCISE YOUR HAND, TOO! It may sound

crazy now, but if your hand starts to cramp up during your first exam from extended writing, you could be in real trouble for your second exam. Practice writing in a note pad in the weeks before your midterms or your finals.

6 DDON’T CHEAT! Not to cheat, as straightforward

as it may sound, is perhaps the most important tip for

exam week. Nobody wants to fail or, even worse, face expulsion. Enter the final with a confident mindset and knowing as much as possible. If you happen to stumble upon a question or two that you just don’t know, come back to it or skip it entirely. It’s ten times better than the alternative.

MARYLAND’S NUMBER ONE CHEATER WRITES HIS

OWN HONOR PLEDGE!

I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this exam I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this exam I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this exam I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this exam I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this exam I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this exam I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this exam I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this exam I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this exam I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this exam I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this e

“The best way to relax my mind and body for

exam week has been to do yoga almost twice a

day--keeps me alot calmer and less stressed”

Senior Wei Ngao

“WHY DOES EVERYONE WANT A PIECE OF MY NOSE?”

A: RUBBING TESTUDO’S NOSE BEFORE AN EXAM IS CONSIDERED GOOD LUCK FOR PASSING YOUR EXAM!

1 NUTRITION Avoid things like junk

food, cigarettes, and caffeine in

the days prior to the test day. These

things take a physical toll on your stamina. Look for healthy foods that stimulate the brain cells, such as blueberries and bananas. A good and nutritious breakfast also helps in retaining information for the exam.

2 RUB THE TURTLE! Before your mid-term, make sure you find a statue

of Testudo (most notably right in front of McKeldin) and rub his nose! A cold-hard Maryland fact: 91 % of all the undergrads that passed their exams last year rubbed the Terp’s nose beforehand, proving that it’s more than luck!

3 SLEEP. Get a good night’s sleep and, if possible, don’t pull an all-nighter! Various

studies have shown that the brain requires rest to coordinate properly and during sleep, worn

out body cells are rebuilt. Try and get at least

eight hours of sleep before the big one...you’ll feel a lot more

energized and confident!

FRESHMAN REBECCA IS ANYTHING BUT ENERGIZED FOR HER MID-TERM :( :(

Six useful tips in order for you to pass your exams this spring!

6 Culture Undergrad Zone Culture Undergrad Zone 7

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4 Culture Undergrad Zone

6. Cancun, Mexico Cancun, you’re still the one! This little piece of Mexico is pure craziness during March and April: margarita madness and a massive influx of students doing the spring thing on drop-dead gorgeous beaches and in late-late-late night clubs. Hop the ferry to Cozumel or the bus to Playa del for slower-paced sandy para-dises. Xel-Ha is fun for snorkeling, and Tulum is worth a visit (90 miles south; go early a.m.) Do not forget to get a passport for this perennially popular paradise on Mexico’s Caribbean!

3. BahamasThe blue, blue water and white, white sand of extremely accessible Nassau will bring boatloads of breakers to its balmy beaches in 2012. There is plenty to do during the daytime as well, from hiking in Lucayan National Park to shopping in the Port Lucaya Marketplace. Cheap accommodations make it easy for students on a budget to en-joy all that the place has to offer.

4. San Padre Island, Texas This is where vacations are biiiig, Texas style! The gang’s all at South Padre, where not only will you find hundreds of miles of beach, but you will also find some fresh shellfish and every conceivable kind of water sport, along with events galore. Scooters are a great way to get around the whole island.

5. Panama City, Florida Panama City has Florida’s spring break top dog billing yet again in 2012, showing the planet that Panama City’s a sure bet for the kind of fantastic fun that makes a break memorable for the rest of your life. Take some time,too, to see Panama City’s 27 miles of sugary sweet sand on the Gulf of Mexico--west coast of Florida, where it can be blessedly cool at night. (Continued on page 10)


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Panama City,Florida

Ten of the best places to travel to during spring break!

Don’t get stuck sitting on your couch, eating potato chips

& playing video games in your dorm or at home this spring break! Adventure to some of the hottest places in the world! Let’s find out where ten of these places are...

1. Europe Europe is a great place to visit this spring. The majestic Coliseum and La Fontana di Trevi in Rome, the luxurious and romantic waters of Venice, and the beautiful Eiffel Tower in Paris, France are just few of the many diverse and historic attractions that Europe has to offer for us students at a reasonable price.

2. Cabo San Lucas, Mexico: Cabo San Lucas is the party capital of the southern Baja. Beautiful beaches such as Playa Medano draw students in need of some post-exam R&R, while nightlife hotspots like Casa de la Cultura and Cabo Wabo Cantina keep the energy and excitement going until sunrise.

WOW EVENTS

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Rome, Italy Rome, Italy Venice, Italy Paris,France

Cabo San Lucas,Mexico

8. Acapulco, Mexico Acapulco’s not Mexico’s best beachside city, but it is tried, true, and ready for you. Acapulco beaches range from quiet hideaways, like Playa Pie de la Cuesta, to elbow-to-elbow humans, like La Condesa. Stay in a hotel on the Costera (main drag) -- drop by the small Puerto Marques village for an afternoon or night.

9. Las Vegas, NevadaWhatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas! It is not your typical beach spring break location, however it makes up for it with it’s wild and rich nightlife. Home to also some of the wildest pool parties, with most of them being sponsored by MTV, Las Vegas is a definite must for the breaker not looking for sand and beach.

10. Miami Beach, FloridaAlthough it can be pricey, this Florida city is surprisingly accessible. Clubs and bars pack the colorful streets and encourage nightowls to stay out until the wee hours. By day, the long stretches of beautiful sand and clear waters are nice places to work on your tan and to recover from the previous evening’s festivities.


7. North American Ski ResortsUnlike current economic conditions, snow conditions are awesome and ski resorts are cool! Though a bit pricy, you’ll find plenty of fellow partiers boarding the days away and doing the apres-thing at the North America ski resorts. Check out some of the most beautiful slopes on the planet in Colorado, Jackson Hole, Heavenly, Canada’s wild Whistler, and Utah. When it is all said and done, it’s all good in the mountains, where there is still fun.

(Continued from page 9)

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Las Vegas, NevadaAcapulco, Mexico


LOLLOL LOL

8

Our rivalry with Duke hasn’t been competitive--the Devils have

dominated us from the start

Fear the Terp Blue Devil!!!

while downtown burned, Duke simply went home, regrouped and went on to win its 18th ACC Championship and fourth national title. That same year, the Terps were bumped from the ACC Tourna-ment without winning a game and then the NCAA Tournament in the second round. So, why is it that, even in early-season games against teams like Florida International, the sparse student section at Comcast Center can be heard interjecting “Zombie Nation” with chants of “F--- Duke?” How has it reached a point where entrepreneurial stu-dents who go through the dorms selling T-shirts with the obscenity plastered on the front for 20 bucks a pop know they’ll inevitably run and sell out?

It’s certainly not due to any rivalry. Abject hatred, maybe, but not any rivalry. Chalk it up to the fact Duke is everything the Terps wished they were. The Blue Devils are a perennial powerhouse. The Terps, especially of late, aren’t... do you know how many times the Blue Devils have missed the NCAA Tournament since 1984? Once. In that stretch, they’ve earned 12 No. 1 seeds, 11 trips to the Final Four and all four of their national cham-pionships. In the same time frame, the Terps have been left date-less at the Big Dance 10 times. Six times, including last season, they didn’t compete in the postseason at all. Outside of that memorable run from 2000-02, when the Terps reached consecutive Final Fours and won their only NCAA

title, they really haven’t done much of note on the national scale and rankings.

When it is all said and done, these Terps are just another team for Duke to roll past every season, no different than the Miamis and Boston Colleges that cower below the Devils and North Carolina in the ACC each season. If first-year coach Mark Turgeon is able to turn things around in College Park — “We’ll win plenty of big games,” the coach said yesterday — then maybe we can talk about a rivalry between the two very different teams.

It’s that time of year again. The time of the year that gives

university officials and police ulcers. The time of the year that students circle on their calendar when the Terrapins men’s basketball team releases its schedule. The time of the year when the athletics depart-ment digs up money it doesn’t have for free gold T-shirts. The time of the year when Duke comes to town.

But, let’s take a step back from all the hoopla that will no doubt en-velop College Park and really think about what actually constitutes a rivalry. It’s generally between two programs that develop a healthy dislike for each other after years of back-and-forth results. Having said that, when was the last time we saw that between Duke and

Maryland? The so-called rivalry that has this university’s students foaming at the mouth has become pretty much one-sided, and not much of one at all. In the past 20 years, the Terps are 14-34 against the Blue Devils, who will arrive at Comcast Center within the next week ranked No. 8 in the country. During that stretch, Duke has beaten the Terps in six or more consecutive games three separate times. The Terps have never won more than three straight.

In the past 10 meetings, the Blue Devils have won nine. The one Terps win — a Comcast Center classic that earned the Terps a share of the ACC regular season crown in 2010— resulted in a nationally televised riot in downtown College Park. But,

ATHLETICS


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College students like to drink - that’s nothing new. But why? New research from an author who has studied the college drinking scene suggests it’s because of “drunk support,” a term he coined for the social support college students give one another that encourages alot of drinking.

Consuming a moderate and responsible amount of alcohol is not a problem. Bars and

restaurants that serve alcohol are a fixture of our social scene. Drinking becomes a problem when college students indulge to excess, which to many is known as binge drinking. This puts them at risk for drunk driving and other run-ins with the law, decreased academic performance and a dependence on alcohol that canlead to a troubled relationship with the substance later in life.

In his new book “Getting Wasted:Why College Students Drink Too Much and Party Too Hard,” Ohio University associate professor of sociology Thomas Vander Ven argues a big part of the problem with drinking on college campuses comes from students and themselves. (continued on page 23)

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Whydo we love to get drunk in college ?

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BY STEVEN ARSHANY


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...and neither is the fun and games that drinking brings, such as Beer Pong.

By buying each other shots and playing drinking games like Beer Pong and Quarters, they goad each other into drinking too much. And, while it may be responsible for a friend to assist another who is drunk by offering water, a ride

home and a funny Facebook message in the morning, that sends the message it is okay to get intoxicated and reduces the negative repercussions of

drunkenness. Vander Ven reached this conclusion after interviewing 400 students and conducting 100 hours

of field research at parties and bars. He suggests colleges find a way to incorporate students into their alcohol-and-moderation efforts. If students did not promote drinking among oneanother, he argues, alcohol consumption might be less of a problem and issue.

Once again, alcohol itself is not a villain. But drinking too much is a problem for anyone. Binge drinking is the real issue behind it all. If you are a college student and you find yourself in trouble after getting drunk, consider how you got into this position and what you can do in the future to prevent it

from happening again. If it’s serious trouble, like a DWI or public intoxication charge, you might want to speak with anattorney. A lawyer who has worked with these matters before might be able to reduce thenegative repercussions of this perplexing situation.

Peer Pressure and the opposite sex are

two things that are not going to help St

even

stop from getting drunk...

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(continued from page 21)

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Culture Undergrad Zone 23 22 Culture Undergrad Zone

Is it really a gift to be as talented

and as creative as Mark Rothko

or Vincent Van Gogh--or perhaps

a curse?? History and recent

studies work together to

reveal a rather shocking truth to

the question of whether the

mentally ill and the creative

are linked.

by Junior Robert Dowry

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IS CREATIVITY LINKED TO INSANITY AND mental illness ?

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Culture Undergrad Zone 37 36 Culture Undergrad Zone


MARK ROTHKOSUICIDE- CONTINUOSLY

SLIT HIS VEINS IN HIS STUDIO

MICHELANGELOASPERGER’S DISORDER,

AUTISM, ANTISOCIALFRIDA KAHLO

DEPRESSION &SUICIDE-OVERDOSE

OF PAINKILLERS

C reative individuals have a disproportionately higher rate of

mental illness, including depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and they and their relatives aremore likely to work in artistic occupations, according to new research published in the November 2011 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry: “Creativity has long been associated with mental disorder, epitomized by Aristotle’s claim that ‘no great genius has ever existed without a strain of madness,’ ” lead author Simon Kyaga, MD, from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, told Medscape Medical Worldwide News.

And who could blame anyone on that assumption? Take a look at all the great artists who have suffered from some form of mental illness: Vincent Van Gogh, quite frankly the poster child of “crazy” artists, cut off his ear, went through depression phases, and eventuallycommitted suicide. Paul Gauguin suffered a mid-life crisis, battled constant alcoholism, and eventually relocated to Tahiti to get far away from civilization. New studies have revealed that Michelangelo was a loner, a control freak, and a stinker (rarely bathed) because of what he was said to be suffering from, Asperger’s Disorder, a high-functioning Autism form. Mark Rothko killed himself by continuously slitting his veins in his studio oneday. Frida Kahlo killed herself by taking way too many painkillers because of her depression. Georgia O’Keefee suffered from depression, too. At day’s end, the list goes on and on and Aristotle’s claim becomes more true. (Continued on page 39 )

But now, we have evidence that the claim is indeed a fact. Dr. Kyaga and colleagues performed a nested case-control study using a variety of sources to obtain information on the association between creativity and mental illness. The researchers compared 300,000 patients who had received inpatient treatment for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression and their relatives who did not have a diagnosis of mental disorder with a control group. They found that those patients with bipolar disorder were significantly overrepresented in creative professions compared with control patients, mainly as a result of their presence in visual and non visual

artistic occupations. In addition, first-degree relatives of people with bipolar disorder and depression were more likely than those in the control group to have a creative profession, especially in the arts. “We often encounter the suggestion that lithium reduces creativity in patients with bipolar disorder and that adherence therefore is difficult. Now we can say that it is true that bipolar disorder is in fact associated with increased creativity,” he continued.

In an accompanying editorial, Kay Redfield Jamison, PhD, the Dalio Family Professor in Mood Disorders and professor of psychiatry at the

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, writes that Dr. Kyaga and colleagues give support to accumulating evidence showing a disproportionately high rate of mental illness among the creative. She agrees that it is essential to develop treatments that minimize the adverse effects of medication on the positive effects of mood disorders. “Bipolar illness is devastating and this should remain the central focus of our scientific and clinical work,” Dr. Jamison writes. “But while doing so, we need to keep in mind the anciently observed thin partition between disease and imagination.”


(Continued from page 38)

VINCENT VAN GOGHCUT OFF HIS EAR ANDCOMMITTED SUICIDE


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