December 8, 2011Volume XCVIIssue 3

TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY • TRANSYRAMBLER.COM • LEXINGTON, KENTUCKYRamblerThe

Got a news tip? Call us at 859-233-8315 or email rambler@transy.edu.

NEWS BRIEFBasketball tournament named for Deacon

Happy Holidays

from us to

you! Find

us on stands ag

ain

Jan. 19.

Campus Life, Page 3: Check out the details on Skyler Slone and Jamie Hagood’s adventures to Nashville to audition for Oxygen’s “The Glee Project!”

Opinion, Page 4: Make sure to read an address to the student body from SGA President Josh Edge, reacting to unsportsmanlike events at a recent Transy vs. Centre game.

Transylvania women’s basketball has hon-ored former coach Pat Deacon by naming its holiday tournament after her. The games of the first Pat Deacon Invitational will take place Dec. 19-20 at the Beck Center. Financial consultants Hilliard-Lyons will sponsor the tournament.

Deacon was a part of the Transy community as a coach, administrator and teacher before she retired in 1999.

For 28 seasons she coached field hockey and compiled a 98-55-3 record with eight con-ference championships between 1971 and 1999. She also coached women’s basketball for 16 seasons and had a record of 174-146 from 1971 to 1987. Deacon is currently ranked No. 2 on the all-time wins list for women’s bas-ketball at Transy.

During her final season, 1986-1987, the Pio-neers had a 21-6 record with a second-place finish in the district tournament. Deacon worked from 1987 to 1997 as an assistant to current women’s golf coach Mark Turner.

Deacon was also an associate athletics di-rector and coached tennis and softball during her time at Transy. She was elected to the Pio-neer Hall of Fame in 2000.

Before coming to Transy in 1971, Deacon taught at the University of Kentucky, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees and played both basketball and field hockey.

During the first game of the tournament Dec. 19, Deacon will be honored at halftime and there will be a reception following the game in the Pioneer Hall of Fame Room.

The Pioneers will play Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in the first game at 6 p.m., which will be followed by a game between Ke-nyon College and Maryville College at 8 p.m. The consolation game of the tournament will be Dec. 20 at noon with the championship contest following at 2 p.m.

-Abby Ferguson

When the Transylvania men’s basketball team beat Centre College 74-62 Nov. 22, the student section cer-tainly had something to cheer for.

Some cheers, however, occurred at the expense of a Centre basketball player, who was targeted as the vic-tim of racial slurs from the Pioneer bleachers.

After the game, Presi-dent R. Owen Williams received a letter from an angry Centre teammate and friend of the player who was singled out with the jeer “token.” This letter was forwarded to Director of Athletics Jack Ebel.

The student’s name is being withheld to protect the victim’s privacy.

“I heard the chant ‘token’ only because it was pointed out to me — because I wasn’t sitting originally where I could hear it,” said Ebel. “So I went over to the score table to say something to the announcer, and that’s when I heard it.”

The Centre basketball player who sent the letter was “very upset that his friend was treated inappro-priately,” Ebel said. Ebel added that the player also mentioned that he knew that the catcalls were not “indic-ative of the whole Transyl-vania community.”

Feeling that the young man “deserved a response,” Ebel replied to his letter,

and also called the Centre basketball coach to apolo-gize to him and his team for the actions of the Transy student section during the game.

Senior Kaitie Luckey was one fan present at the game.

“I have so much pride in this school, but being in the student section two weeks ago as they chanted, ‘To-ken!’ about the one black basketball player Centre had was very embarrass-ing,” said Luckey. “It called the attention of many peo-ple.”

As of now, Transylvania athletics has not received sanctions from the NCAA or the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference.

Understanding the se-riousness of the situation, Williams sought out Eduar-do Nino-Moreno, the direc-tor of campus diversity and inclusion.

Nino-Moreno was first informed of the incident while in the country of Pan-ama on an official school trip with other members of Transy’s administration to advertise the university to foreign students.

“There are many things that we can do, and will be doing,” said Nino-Moreno. “(Williams) wants to start early next (calendar) year. What we could do would be promoting discussion. It could be anywhere. We don’t need to be very for-mal about it.”

Molly CrainNews Editor

Incident leads to letter, diversity discussion

See DIVERSITY, Page 3

Expansion of ‘Transy Bubble’ continues

Students present to CabinetYesterday, President R. Owen Wil-

liams and members of his Cabinet took time out of their afternoon to watch Dr. Ashley Rondini’s Social Problems class present its term projects in the Cowgill Center, room 102.

Each of the five projects pointed out social problems they perceived within the Transylvania community, conclud-ing with proposals on how to change the problems presented. Diversifying Transy, dietary needs awareness, dis-abilities awareness, gender equity in Transy sport facilities and physical fit-ness were the five problems addressed.

Despite the fact that Rondini has only taught at Transy for a single term, she has been adamant about making a difference in the community and in the lives of her students.

“My hopes are that the students will come away with a critical lens that enables them to consider multiple perspectives on complex issues, and that they will have gained a ‘blueprint’ to use in future endeavors focused on

social change to work around what-ever is most important to them,” said Rondini.

The presentations each lasted about 15 minutes, as the groups issued their claims, research and the proposals they devised in order to fix the social problems they identified.

After the presentations, senior Nik-ki Skidmore, who was in the group that presented on diversifying Transy, described her experience.

“I think our project turned out very well,” said Skidmore. “There are ini-tiatives to have more diversity on cam-pus, but we want students to become more aware of this sooner than later.”

“I think that it would be fair to represent that each of you made sug-gestions that are implementable,” said Williams after listening to the presen-tations.

Promising to implement at least one suggestion of each team’s project in the Transy community, Williams thanked Rondini and her class for try-ing to “make Transy a better institu-tion.”

Senior Kaitlyn Foree, who partici-pated in the group interested in gen-

der equity in Transy sport facilities, commented on performing in front of members of the administration.

“The presentations with President Williams and the Cabinet ensured that our voices would be heard, so we were more motivated to put in the effort and create real change,” Foree said. “The class as a whole was unique in that it truly ended up impacting us beyond the syllabus. We learned that each of us has the power to take action and rally support. … The effects of our projects will definitely reach beyond the conclusion of the class.”

Rondini shared her thoughts on the results.

“I was deeply impressed and in-spired by the amount of work and thought that each group put into mak-ing the most of this opportunity to effect change in our campus commu-nity,” said Rondini.

“I learned a lot from this class, and I suggest this course to every student. It’s a great opportunity for students to learn how to change the world and be-come activists for their passions,” said Skidmore.

Molly CrainNews Editor

Several weeks ago, The Rambler reported in a Web exclusive that Transylvania University was in the process of acquiring several proper-ties off West Fourth Street.

This development came after approximately a year-long focused search for

“primarily vacant land,” ac-cording to Vice President for Finance and Business Marc Mathews.

The plots of land, lo-cated at 523, 551 and 555 W. Fourth St., will receive closure by the end of Decem-ber. This acquisition adds ap-proximately 10 acres to Tran-sy’s possessions, increasing the size of the 48-acre cam-

pus by 20 percent.“There’s just a lot

of things working that make that the ideal spot,” Mathews said. “Nothing’s ideal, be-cause it’s got something on it, it’s got things in the middle of it. … It’s going to take some creativity and imagina-tion.”

While the land’s ex-pected use is for a recre-ational complex, the lo-cation’s exact future will not be known until after June, when the strategic plan and the campus master plan will both be finalized.

The firm that will un-dertake the campus plan will be decided on in the near future.

“(This firm) helps us draw the vision for what the campus would look like 30-50 years from now,” said Mathews. “Once we confirm that (an athletic and recre-ational facility) is the use for it, we would hire a planner to specifically design that space.”

Mathews noted that the plan for expansion has been generalized,

but that reallocating the current fields, John R. Hall Athletic Field and Thomas Field, would allow for development of other facilities in that valuable downtown space.

“The exciting thing is we have land,” Di-rector of Athletics Jack Ebel said. “With the land they’ve purchased, I can’t envision any-thing other than athlet-ics. … I see it having a significant impact on the recruiting for the entire campus, because it will be a recreational op-portunity. What I would envision is that we’ll be having some athletic teams practicing there, but there will be, just like … in the Beck Cen-ter, intramurals going on, club sports, etc.”

According to Ebel, the construction of the Beck Center caused an increase in enrollment, and he suggested that this could happen as a result of this land’s de-velopment.

“We need a place for kids to go and throw a Frisbee, just two people,

Erin BrockEditor-in-Chief

Transy bids Ms. Letha farewellLetha Mat-tingly takes a seat in a rocking chair given to her by the uni-versity after 33 years of d e d i c a t e d service to the cafeteria and the Transy community. Displayed on the table be-hind her is an array of desserts pre-pared in her honor.

KELL

Y H

IERO

NYM

US

See EXPANSION, Page 3

Above, in red, is the newly accquired land. The black outline shows current campus property.

COUR

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Hidden in the heart of downtown Lexing-ton in this quaint deli that is serving up clas-sic sandwiches and their remakes: the Court-yard Deli. A big shout-out to junior Anna Tussey for telling me about this place; oth-erwise I never would have found out about it. The Courtyard Deli, located right off of Cheapside Street, is a place that you have to visit at least once in your time here at Tran-sylvania University.

Walking into this deli, you are greeted by the intoxicating aroma of griddled corned beef. I didn’t actually get the Reuben but I’ve heard from junior Alex Yaden that it is quite good. What I did get was the smoked salmon on focaccia. I have this minor obsession with smoked salmon that is quite possibly a bit unhealthy, but I digress.

What I loved about Courtyard Deli’s smoked salmon sandwich, what set it apart from others, was the fish itself and the cream cheese. The salmon was home-smoked, a delightful new twist on the traditional sand-wich. It was not salty like some smoked salmon can be; it was delicate, melt-in-your-mouth and flavorful.

Another thing that the deli did differently was add wasabi to its cream cheese. At first the idea sounds weird — smoked salmon, capers, onions and wasabi cream cheese — but when the whole thing came together it

Homemade & Hearty: The Courtyard Deli

All at aGlanceAddress: 113 Cheapside St. Hours: Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Phone: 859-252-3354 Pricing: ca. $10

If a horse has both front legs in the air for a historical figure’s statue in the park,

the person died in battle; if it has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result

of wounds received in battle; and if it has all four legs on

the ground, the person died of natural causes.

F u n F a c t :

Bubble in the Box

AND

REW

WIL

LIAM

S

As I sit here with my family I think to myself

Who am I? Am I a part of them? Or am I

by myself? Who’s to tell apart from us out

there? Although, you see that is not

the case. Inside I am different, not in personality or interest, but

physically. Physically I will never be the

same as them. Because, inside …

Inside my mind, my ears are made different than most.

my family. I am hearing impaired you see. Although, I like to thank I am

not impaired physically. But wait,

my family goes to a noisy restaurant,

or sits in a row around the edge of the hibachi grill at my

sister’s graduation dinner. And then it hits me I am back

to how it is. In the world where I can not

hear. In the world where I just sit. Sit with a smile on my face.

Faking how I feel, to my family. Until I can come home from a

dinner. Find a corner and sit, sit while

tears are falling.

Hearing Impaired at a Family Dinner

-Kim Guy ‘14

meshed so well. The only complaint I would have about it is that the wasabi can be overpowering at times.

In addition to sandwiches, the Courtyard Deli also serves up salads, soups, quiches and terrific sides. It usu-ally offers a soup of the day and a soup of the month. The soup of the day when I went was cream of broccoli, and it was hearty. I only had a bite but my friend was overwhelmed by its heartiness.

One of the restau-rant’s perks is that it does offer a couple of vegetarian options with the menu.

This restaurant

was a great find. I am in love with the fact that it makes its own corned beef and smoked salmon. Nowadays places like this are few and far between, and as soon as one is found I feel that ev-eryone should know about it and go try out its stuff.

Courtyard Deli is warm and charming inside and out.

KATI

E BR

EWER

http://greatfacts.com

Gleeks on Transylvania’s campus could spot a famil-iar face on a future season of their favorite show.

In November, first-years Jamie Hagood and Skyler Slone auditioned in Nashville, Tenn., for the second season of Oxygen’s reality television series “The Glee Project.” The show, created by Ryan Murphy, the ex-ecutive producer for “Glee,” serves as an extended and televised audition process for “Glee,” with episode arcs awarded to the final winner.

Slone, who has acted since age 9, has always wanted to get into television. He has auditioned for other televi-sion and film roles in the past, including several Disney pilot shows. This project particularly appealed to him as it brings together his interests in both television and musical theater.

Slone considered trying out for the series last year as well, but the idea of competing on a reality show put him off at the time.

“I have a mindset about not trying to achieve success through reality television, because you’re just a flash in the pan,” said Slone.

After realizing that “Glee” casting directors and not America’s votes determined the show’s results, Slone decided to take the chance on an outlet he felt could ul-timately lead to “the most substantial success” for him.

“The show has opened doors for a lot of people who were on it before,” said Slone.

Hagood decided to audition after hearing about the Nashville opportunity through Slone.

“ ‘Glee’ is one of my favorite shows,” said Hagood. “I thought it would be interesting and a good experience that would help me prepare for the future if I decide I want to pursue acting.”

The two traveled to Nashville Nov. 9-10 for the cast-ing call. On Wednesday, Slone waited outside the venue at 8:00 a.m. for two hours before having to wait another two hours inside just for registration. Hagood tried out the following day.

“We went in (the screening room) in groups of five

to perform for the judges,” said Slone.How did they feel going into auditions?“I was kind of nervous at first,” said Slone, “but then

I just thought, you know, this is one of the best chances I have of doing this, so I need to be as focused and con-fident in my own abilities as possible.”

Hagood was less anxious approaching his turn be-fore the judges.

“It wasn’t nerve-wracking. It was a totally relaxed atmosphere,” Hagood said.

Each had to choose one of eight previously selected pop songs to perform for the casting directors. Slone sang Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” and Hagood chose “The Edge of Glory” by Lady Gaga.

“That was tough for me, because that was not my genre really,” said Hagood.

Neither Hagood nor Slone was asked to perform again that day, but Slone is still in the running for a contestant slot. In addition to performing in Nashville, he also submitted an online video audition.

“Within the first two hours that my video was up, be-cause of people at Transy, at home and across the coun-try, my video was in the top one-third of auditions,” said Slone.

At the time of printing, his video was ranked 417th out of over 10,000 submissions. It has been viewed more than 1,700 times on the show’s casting website.

Both students are very thankful for the encourage-ment they have received from the Transy community throughout this process.

“Our professors were more than willing to let us go,” said Hagood. “It was a nice escape from the Transy Bubble for a couple of days.”

Campus LifePage 3 December 8, 2011

You’re one week away from total relaxation. Yes, you can make it one more week. Just think … ham, turkey, sweet potato casserole, corn pudding, green bean casserole, cookies galore, … it’s just around the corner.

But since this is a public health column, I have to play “Debbie Downer” for just a sec-ond. If you were unaware, grandma’s pumpkin pie probably uses more butter and sugar than actual pumpkin. But there is hope! Portion control is your best friend over winter break. I would never tell anyone not to enjoy food; not only would it be a hypocritical comment com-ing from me, but it’s part of our culture, brings people together and is one of the greatest plea-sures in life.

So when you’re about to fill up your plate, thinking somewhat strategically, put the veggies on your plate first. This will limit the amounts of other fattier foods and in terms of digestion will help to counteract the unhealthier choices.

Then go for a roll, because you’re going to eat one — it’s inevitable. (Don’t starve your-self and then raid the fridge for what you re-ally wanted when everyone goes to sleep.) The bread will take up space as well, and for every-thing else just limit yourself to what fits on your plate. If you’re curious, turkey is usually better for you than ham. And try to include food with cranberries or sweet potatoes, both of which have healthy antioxidants.

If I can stress the importance of any one of these tips, it would be to eat slowly, enjoy the people you’re with, listen without your face in your food and be active in the conversation. Eating slower will make you less likely to get seconds and will allow you to take in the whole experience. And as always, leave room for des-sert.

In terms of staying active, well, too often it doesn’t happen. I always use the excuse that grandma doesn’t have a treadmill. So in order to not be completely sedentary for a month, I’ve made a list of activities that are better than running in the snow, desperate for a tissue.

Fix your healthy holiday helpings

1. Walk faster when shopping (135 calo-ries/30 minutes).2. Park 5 minutes away from the store entrance (25 calories/5 minutes).3. Use the stairs (20 calories/flight).4. Take a 10-minute neighborhood walk (30-40 calories).5. Rearrange furniture (200 calories/30 minutes).6. Chop down a tree (270 calories/30 minutes).7. Hang Christmas decorations on a ladder (170 calories/30 minutes).8. Clean the house (150 calories/30 minutes).9. Shovel the driveway (200 calo-ries/30 minutes).10. Rake leaves (135 calories/30 min-utes).11. Kiss someone under the mistletoe (15 calories/15 minutes) — this not the typical mistletoe peck; just remember not to block doorways.12. Wrap gifts (70 calories/30 min-utes).13. Rock around the Christmas tree (200 calories/30 minutes).

Staying healthy with

Eryn

Transy first-years go for role on ‘The Glee Project’

First-years Skyler Slone, left, and Jamie Hagood have fun while practicing their singing. Both auditioned for Oxygen’s “The Glee Project.”

SARA

H A

LLIS

ON

First-year Skyler Slone’s “Glee” audi-tion video is still in the running! To view his video and vote for him, visit http://

thegleeprojectcasting.com and search for skyler93. Slone, who sings “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz, needs your ‘likes’ to progress

further in the competition.

Laura MillerStaff Writer

From Page 1DIVERSITY

From Page 1EXPANSION

Nino-Moreno also hopes to create workshops on campus for faculty, stu-dents and even staff.

“We cannot let it go … because of the immediate response as a commu-nity was practically nonexistent. … We have to go beyond writing a letter say-ing we are sorry,” said Nino-Moreno.

Student leaders on campus have taken to responding to the incident, and the underlying issues it alludes to. The President’s Circle, a campus initia-tive new this school year that attempts to gather together representatives from different student organizations, dis-

cussed possible responses at a meeting Tuesday.

“One of the ways we can deal with it is by talking about it,” said senior Josh Edge, president of the Student Govern-ment Association.

The group is currently organizing a night of discussion with students, fac-ulty, staff and the administration that could culminate in a speaker series that addresses all issues of diversity on cam-pus.

Even on the NCAA level, diversity has been a topic that has been empha-sized.

“Part of it is an education problem. We need more exposure for our stu-dents,” said Ebel.

Last year, the NCAA hosted a diver-sity convention for the HCAC in India-napolis, in which eight Transy students from various sports participated.

“In our new push to change our cam-pus demographically, we need to catch up,” said Ebel. “We need to try to edu-cate people.”

Ebel said he plans to continue to send Transy athletes to this conference in the future.

with nobody practicing or anything, just having fun, without running into the vol-leyball court in Back Circle,” Ebel said.

While Transy has ac-cumulated small portions of land slowly through the years, the restrictions of growth in an urban area have prevented any large land ac-quisitions.

Mathews stated that Transy’s previous strategy towards growth was to ac-cumulate “bits and pieces” of property, including about 100 more properties in the blocks between Fourth and Fifth Streets and Broadway and North Upper Street dur-ing recent years, something first discussed in the Jan. 20, 2011, issue of The Rambler.

The confining nature of an urban setting encouraged Transy to look into several modes of expansion, includ-ing purchasing land away from campus and casually approaching the Lexington Legends for potential use of their field.

“We really just opened our mind to any possibil-ity, … but the real goal was to come up with land that was proximate to campus,” Mathews said. “We couldn’t pin our hopes on any one plan, so we had multiple. … We just can’t limit what Transylvania’s going to be by saying we’re only these few blocks of land.”

Mathews believes that this land acquisition has the potential to bring a different

feel to Transy’s campus. “I think over time, we’ll

continue to creep down Fourth (Street) and we’ll grow up this way, and there won’t be much gap between Transy’s campus. It will only get better, and I think people will think that’s a short dis-tance after a while,” said Mathews. “I do think with the expansion and renova-tion of Jefferson (Street) and all of the businesses, and apartments and things down there, if we can kind of claim that in this, it will make the whole campus broader, just by association.”

Ebel agrees that the ac-quisition can alter the feel of campus.

“This may be a bigger transformative event because

we have been so cramped with outdoor facilities,” said Ebel. “I think we can actu-ally look at this as something that could change the whole character of the campus for recreation and athletics.”

Several opportunities re-lated to the development of the land have been brought up, including the potential expansion of the Colt Trol-ley routes and the possibility of the Legacy Trail adjoin-ing the land and expanding through campus. This is cur-rently a 12-mile walking and biking trail that runs from the east end of downtown to the Kentucky Horse Park.

“We can’t even envision everything that could take place there,” Ebel said.

OpinionPage 4 December 8, 2011

Editor-in-Chief.................................Erin BrockManaging Editor..........................Jake Hawkins Design & Layout Editor..............Sally JagielskiPhoto Editor..................................Katie BrewerNews Editor....................................Molly Crain

Etcetera Editor.......................Victoria Sullivan

Rambler The

Letters should be:•No more than 400 words. The Rambler reserves the right to cut letters to the editor to fit our length requirements, and we may edit your letters to fix grammar or spell-ing mistakes.•Signed, with contact informa-tion. Full name and telephone number or email address is need-ed.•Letters must be original. We will not accept form letters.

Send your letters to:rambler@transy.edu

Letters to the Editor

•Cheers to our beloved Ms. Letha Mattingly, who has dedicated over 30 years of her life to serving the Transylva-nia community. Happy retirement and thank you!

•Jeers to the online course evaluations that now require us to rate our classes on our own time. The days of writing page-long responses to postpone actual class appear to be officially over.

•Cheers to Think Your Drink for hosting a comedy night this past weekend, complete with O’Charley’s appetizers. However, …

•Jeers to the second comedian for leaving voice mails with certain members of the audience who chose to leave the performance early. Why would you draw attention to the fact

that people don’t like your jokes? Poorly played, my friend.•Cheers to the Student Government Association for pro-

viding doughnuts and coffee in the library during finals week this year. There’s not a whole lot to look forward to during this time of the year, so every little thing helps.

•Jeers to the recent water main break. Apparently every-thing has now been fixed, but I’d still stay away from the downstairs water fountain in the library if I were you. …

•Cheers to Brandon Rash and the Pioneers basketball team for recently defeating in-state rival Centre College.

•Jeers to the anticipated noise level in the library dur-ing finals week. You would think that the amount of talking would be inversely proportional to the importance of what students are studying for, but that simply is not the case.

•Cheers to President R. Owen Williams for inviting the senior class to his home for dinner. It’s a generous gesture to say the least — as long as he’s a good cook.

•Jeers to letters of recommendation. Students don’t like asking for them, I would assume that professors don’t like writing them, and I’m pretty sure that most of the time no-body ends up reading them.

•Cheers to Crimson Christmas and everyone who helped out and donated. It’s refreshing to be reminded of the true spirit of Christmas.

•Jeers to anyone who doesn’t like the movie “Elf.”

There has been a recent stir among college students, on our campus and others, concerning a potential reduction of financial aid. Due to the economic crisis and the increas-ing national debt, spending cuts are being enacted across all major government programs, including financial aid, in order to stabilize the country’s budget.

Understandably, many students have expressed concern about how this policy will affect them and seek a better un-derstanding of this issue. However, the facts of the current proposal have largely been misrepresented in an effort to rouse undue controversy over government plans. The cuts being planned are not nearly as drastic as some have por-trayed, and the outcry against them could lead to severe

problems down the road.Many students have panicked over the false idea that fi-

nancial aid might be thrown out in the midst of the debt crisis. However, this is simply not the case. The current au-tomatic spending cut system will only reduce 2013 spend-ing in financial aid by 7.8 percent, according to a Fastweb report.

This reduction in money is to be evenly distributed across all the major financial aid divisions, so no single program is at risk of being shut down. Because of this, the 86 percent of undergraduates who use financial aid across our country, according to Rutgers University, will see little significant reduction in the coming years.

It is also important to keep in mind the goals that these cuts are moving us toward. This spending cut, along with others across our military, administrative and welfare pro-grams, is working toward the resolution of the debt cri-sis and the creation of a growing American economy we haven’t seen in years, one that we can thrive in.

Because of the situation in which we live, we must be willing to sacrifice for the long-term good of the entire re-public rather than indulging in short-term benefits at the ex-pense of our future. Therefore, this columnist supports the policies of the current administration and supports deficit reduction.

Campus Life.................................... Erica ClarkOpinion Editor.............................Lyman StoneSports Editor.............................Abby FergusonArts & Entertainment Editor.........Holly BrownChief Copy Editor........................John JohnsonAdviser........................................Terri McLean

Cut high costs, not finanical assistance

Those days when you got money thrown at you to go to college are gone. Money for college is almost impossible to come by, and now Congress is working to cut even more money from the already limited supply of federal aid for higher education. College students are taking the hit for the government’s deficit, and scholarships and grants will be the first benefits to disappear.

The first two funds to be cut would be the Pell Grant and the TRIO program, which assists college students in difficult situations — such as being from a low-income family — continue on to higher education. The Pell Grant is federal money that students get based on their Free Ap-plication for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms. Both are need-based, so cutting them would reduce the ability of low-in-come students to go on to a higher educa-tion.

If we are going to cut spending, take it from universities’ paper funds. Paperless-ness has become a fad in schools, so why not just make it mandatory?

This would save universities the money it takes to have reams of paper on reserve for research papers as well as reduce the amount of waste the university has to pay to be taken away weekly. It may be an-noying at first with the hassle of professors not using their red pens or having to sift through excessive files on their computer until the system is less flawed, but it would be the simplest change.

While paperlessness is just one way to cut costs, the idea still stands. Why cut funding to send students to school when you can simply change what they do in school? The majority of students would not be attending school without work-study positions of some kind.

The government does need to cut spending, yes, but why not in another area? Instead of taking students out of colleges because they cannot get scholarships, pro-mote paperlessness and other cost-cutting initiatives, and encourage jobs in infor-mation technology work or with comput-ers. Give students a chance to better their future and not be stuck working in a fast-food drive-through.

One can only wonder what those Har-vard Law School graduates on the super committee had to do in order to get through school. If only they could try and get into school now with limited financial aid, knowing it could be cut even more.

Moderate cuts to student financial aid are necessary

I am deeply saddened by the comments that were made by some Transylvania spectators at the recent Centre College vs. Transy basketball game, where a player on Centre’s team was called a “token” player. While I believe that all of us under-stand that defamation, especially with a racial connotation, is un-acceptable at all levels, I think that we must reflect as a student body on why events like these occur.

The fact of the matter is that anyone could have stopped this chant from occurring. I was in the crowd, and while I refused to participate, I did nothing to stop those leading the cheer.

As the university attempts to increase school spirit, perhaps we also need to focus on holding one other accountable to the de facto rules of sportsmanship and to a high-er standard of inclusiveness. I believe that this event suggests that, as Pio-neers, we need to be more active by-standers when something serious like this occurs at any university event.

This is not an exclusive problem to our campus; every college in the nation at one point or another has to deal with inappropriate messages,

images, chants, etc. from small mi-norities of the student population, but I think that we need to begin a dialogue on how to rectify this issue.

Obviously, blatant racist com-ments like the ones made at the Cen-tre game are inexcusable, but other

comments made by the Transylvania community are often unnoticed. We should take this moment to consider how we treat not only racial differ-ence, but also diversity in terms of socioeconomic status, spirituality, gender, sexual orientation and dis-ability.

Diversity is not something that one can choose to do; we must all be a part of the conversation con-cerning individual difference. As the university begins to expand its effort

to attract more diverse students, we should continue to foster a welcom-ing atmosphere for students from all backgrounds.

To undertake this effort, Transy has hired a director of diversity and inclusion, Eduardo Nino-Moreno. He

has been very welcoming for sug-gestions and he would enjoy any comments on how we can address issues like these in the future.

Although we cannot change the comments made, we can take this opportunity to reflect on what it means to be different and to think about how we treat visitors to our campus. Diversity is more than just marveling at the novelty of something different. It’s about internalizing that realization so

that we may better understand a par-ticular culture’s worldview.

The Student Government Asso-ciation would love to hear any com-ments you would have about school spirit, diversity, inclusion, accessibil-ity and any topic on which students feel their opinions need to be repre-sented. I hope that as a community we can move forward proactively in light of these events, and I expect our strong tradition of sportsmanship to continue.

Racist jeers highlight need for campus diversity

SportsPage 5 December 8, 2011

There is little doubt that Tran-sylvania’s men’s basketball team shows promise of an excellent 2011-2012 season. As the team aims to win the Heartland Colle-giate Athletic Conference champi-onship, junior Ethan Spurlin will not only focus on bettering the team, but himself.

Spurlin’s breakout season has not been without hard work in “improving every day in practice, learning from my mistakes, mak-ing everyone around me better and focusing on the goals set by our team,” he said.

Spurlin averages 20 points a game, playing an average 35 min-utes in each contest.

Head coach Brian Lane noted that Spurlin does not say much while on the court.

“(But) his actions speak vol-umes,” said Lane. “He gives every-thing he can for his teammates to be successful.”

Spurlin focuses on consistency

and pushes his team-mates to do the same. He and the men’s bas-ketball team competed against the top-ranked Division I University of Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena in No-vember. While Transy didn’t win the “Battle on Broadway,” the experience was one that proved Transy’s

strength as a team. Despite the loss the men’s team

played strong until the fi-nal buzzer.

“Playing UK at Rupp Arena was an amazing opportunity that I will never forget, and I am grateful for it,” said Spurlin. “It gave us the chance to represent Transylvania and we

did everything we

could to do that.”As for the remainder of the sea-

son Lane can only see Spurlin con-tinuing his success.

“He has turned into a complete player,” said Lane, “one that under-stands how important his work eth-ic is to the other guys on this team.”

The basketball team has already defeated Transy’s rival Centre Col-lege, but the remainder of the sea-son is yet to come. Spurlin has dem-onstrated the benefits of becoming a complete player as seen by his improved statistics and amount of time played. He aspires to be an ex-ample for his teammates.

“(Spurlin) has made everyone around him better and can make this team even better,” Lane said. “When one of your top scorers is also one of your hardest workers in practice you have something spe-cial. He has been consistent in his effort and we rarely have to push him to play harder.”

Entering its match against Earl-ham College Wednesday, Transy held a 5-0 record, 2-0 HCAC. The Pioneers hit the road against Man-chester College Saturday before

Athlete of the Week:Ethan SpurlinAlissa Stieha

Staff Writer

Junior Ethan Spurlin has averaged 20 points per game, which has helped lead the Pioneers to a 5-0 start.

KATI

E BR

EWER

Swimming continues momentum•Just before Thanksgiving the men’s and

women’s swim teams swept their meets against Franklin College. They continued their success in the DePauw University Invi-tational, where the women finished fourth and the men fifth. Friday, the teams collectively dropped over 200 seconds, while both senior Yunan Yang and junior Amanda Skinner (in the 100-yard breaststroke and the 400 indi-vidual medley, respectively) achieved NCAA “B” cuts. For the women, top finishers were fourth place in the 200 IM by junior Lindsey Anderson, fifth in the 100 breaststroke by Skinner, which broke the school record she set last year, and sixth in the 100 freestyle by senior Ali Cahill. The relay team of Skinner, Cahill and sophomores Chelsea Diamond and Carly Hubbard finished third overall. For the men, the 200 freestyle relay of Yang and fel-low seniors Brent Vorst, Joseph Porter and Jonathan Rankin finished second.

•Skinner won the 400 IM Saturday, break-ing the DePauw pool and meet record, set in 2003. She also set a new school record. Other top finishers were Anderson’s third in the 400 IM, Cahill’s third in the 50 freestyle, Diamond’s second in the 100 backstroke and Hubbard’s fifth in the 100 butterfly. On the men’s side, the relay of seniors Rankin, Yang, Vorst and Porter placed second in the 200 medley relay. Other exciting finishes were Vorst’s third in the 50 freestyle and his second in the 100 butterfly. The men’s relay team also finished strong with a third-place finish in the 400 freestyle.

Men’s basketball continues success•The men are now 5-0, 2-0 in the Heart-

land Conference, after three more wins. They topped Centre College 74-62 before edging Thomas More College 85-80. Their latest win was over Anderson University in their Heart-land Conference opener. Sophomore Tate Cox had a career-high 26 points on seven for 10 shooting and junior Ethan Spurlin added a double-double (12 points, 12 rebounds) to lead the Pioneers to an 82-67 win over the Ravens. Other contributors were junior Bar-rett Meyer (16 points) and senior Chris Owens (14 points).

•Yesterday the men won 81-57 over Earl-ham College. Junior Brandon Rash and Spur-lin led with 20 points. Four others were in double figures.

Women’s basketball stifles Midway •In the Pioneers’ 70-49 win over Midway

College, first-year Alex McKenzie notched 20 points and eight rebounds. Other contribu-tors were senior Kennae Demus (six points, three steals, two blocks) and first-years Jari-ana Gillespie (10 points, three assists), Nicole Coffman (seven points, two steals) and Kayla Dodson (nine points, three rebounds).

•Last night the women won against Earl-ham 73-59. McKenzie had 16 points and ju-nior Terra Lucas added 13.

Transylvania athletics has expanded tremendous-ly over the last year. New additions announced this fall will bring an equestrian program and competi-tive cheer and dance come 2012-2013, in addition to the lacrosse program announced in the spring. The university also acquired new land that will potentially be used for an athletic complex for field hockey, soccer and lacrosse.

“The land purchase has the potential to transform not just athletics, but the whole Transylvania community. This also will have a significant impact on the city of Lexington and the down-town area,” said Director of Athletics Jack Ebel.

Along with these new additions this fall, Transy’s success in athletics again gained the university respect.

“All of our teams are well respected at the confer-ence level and regionally are always in the hunt for top billing,” said Ebel.

Here is a quick look at the 2011 fall season.Women’s cross-country was led by senior Betsy

Heines, who, after earning an All-Conference spot, finished 103rd among 251 participants at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional, helping Transy to a 33rd fin-ish. Others who helped lead the team were juniors Ria Keegan and Laura Clark, sophomore Erica Noe and first-year Alexis Carey.

First-year Stephen Hall led the men’s cross-coun-try team, while fellow first-years Shane Metzger and Ben Lyvers, and juniors Jordan Evans and Jett Glass, finished strong as well.

Both men’s and women’s golf had a strong fall showing. The women finished second in the Heart-land Collegiate Athletic Conference tourney for the third straight year.

Senior Megan Foley led the team yet again and was honored with All-HCAC honors for the fourth year in a row. First-year Jerra Kelsey also received honors by being named HCAC Freshman of the Year.

The men are now tied for 10th in the latest Golf World and Nike Golf Coaches’ Poll. They closed out their fall season by capturing the Manchester Col-lege Fall Invitational in October.

Senior Justin Tereshko led the way by earning medalist honors, while sophomore Clay Hinton tied for fourth and sophomore Jantzen Latham was sev-enth overall. They pick back up in the spring at the Jekyll Island Invitational in Georgia.

Success continued for the Pioneers as women’s soccer made it the HCAC semifinals. The nationally ranked women had five players earn All-HCAC hon-ors.

Senior Elizabeth Schmitt, junior Natosha Boden, sophomores Amy Ghibaudy and Anne Marie Du-maine, and first-year Alyssa Kruse were all chosen for the first team. Pioneers on the second team were

senior Kara Hansel and junior Ashley Cobane. Finally, sophomore Carley Williams was picked for the HCAC All-Sportsmanship team.

After capturing the HCAC regu-lar-season crown, the men’s soccer season ended in the semifinals of the Heartland Conference tourna-ment. Sophomore Evan Sizemore was named the HCAC Defensive Player of the Year for his success on the back line for the Pioneers.

For women’s tennis the fall season ended with a win over Anderson University, a victory that clinched the Heartland Conference tournament championship and earned the team’s second trip to the NCAA Division III championship. With this success came great honors. Head coach Chuck Brown was named Coach of the Year for the third consecutive year, and senior Kelsey Fulkerson earned the Heartland Conference Most Valuable Player honor for the second straight season.

Joining Fulkerson on the All-HCAC team were senior Stephanie Townsend and junior Kaitlyn Hizny. Senior Andi Mong and sophomore Torsie Haugli were honorable mentions while junior Caro-line Tapscott earned All-Sportsmanship team recog-nition.

Senior Rebecca Luking’s record-breaking season led volleyball to a tie for the regular-season HCAC volleyball title. Luking now owns the Transy career and single-season records for both assists and aces.

Luking’s success got her named to the All-HCAC squad along with sophomore Meghan Bowers. First-year Lauren Ketron was honorable mention. Ketron and fellow first-year Rachel D’Agnillo were voted to the HCAC All-Freshman team. First-year Amber Jackey rounded out the honors by receiving a place on the HCAC All-Sportsmanship team.

Field Hockey quadrupled its win record and was led by seniors Ruth Kloha, Laura Hammer, Alexis Schuman and Amelia Reesor.

Overall Transy received 10 HCAC Player of the Week honors in the fall. And with this success, the winter sports are off and running.

Abby FergusonSports Editor

Department expands, players up their game

COURTESY OF HTTP://COSIDA.COM

The zombie apocalypse is such a played out trope in pop culture that I’m surprised we don’t greet each new arrival with a collective eye roll. Been there, seen that. Yawn. Next! But any phenomenon that gains this much attention is bound to pro-duce some winners, and Isaac Marion’s “Warm Bodies” is one such piece.

It’s rare in the world of zombie litera-ture because its narrator, R, is a zombie. He can’t remember much about being alive, but he can relive moments by con-suming — what else — brains.

The zombies of this world have built a kind of society, despite their rotting bod-ies and limited capacity for language or emotion. R is still human enough to de-sire connection with others — he marries a fellow zombie and they adopt zombie “children” — but, save his friendship with the articulate and witty M, all interactions between zombies are unfulfilling and flat. They stumble around each other trying to remember how to feel.

Things change dramatically when R and his friends find a troupe of human sol-diers sent from the stadium settlement. R lives the memories of a young man named Perry, including his intense love affair with his girlfriend Julie, who is also on the mis-sion.

After the moment has passed, R retains

a shadow of Perry’s feelings for Julie, and refuses to let any other zombies touch her. He takes her to an abandoned 747 jet and keeps her there, bringing her human food and falling in love with her.

Julie, in turn, overcomes her fear and hostility and begins to see that he isn’t like the zombies she’s always imagined. Through each other, they really start to see what it means to be alive.

The strength of Marion’s writing is his narration. R is a vicious killer, but he’s also a developed character in his own right. He is kind, sensitive and funny. Marion does not rely on zombie stereotypes to build tension, but subverts them in an interest-ing way.

“Warm Bodies” is not a novel interest-ed in action, though there is action in it; it is interested in people and the ways people recover after disaster. Living people build isolated militaristic cities, and zombies de-velop culture after a fashion, including a violent parody of religion. They fight not to survive but because it is all they know how to do.

“Warm Bodies” is a very smart book. It contains humorous references to literature and film — the things the zombies remem-ber after death are often surprising. There is reason to laugh on almost every page. It also pays homage to a classic play by Shakespeare about a blood feud — “R” and “Julie” are your hints there, although Marion’s version turns out differently.

Under the dark humor and unembel-lished prose is a moving story. R is a lik-able guy who just happens to be a zom-bie, and it’s easy to understand why Julie would fall for him. This is a zombie novel that not only has brains, but also a far more important organ — heart.

Like local music?Like your opinions?

Want to share them?You might be a great

music columnist!If interested, PLEASE contact Holly Brown at hmbrown12@transy.edu.

Through the lens of the music in-dustry, sharing intellectual property via the Internet has considerable pros and cons.

On one hand, the Internet gives ris-ing artists an easy gateway to fame. As simple as a Blue Skidoo into the blogosphere and connecting with people through servers like Dropbox, uTorrent and YouTube, music can be shared almost instantly — and for free.

On the other, the Internet inhibits artists who already have a consider-able audience from receiving mon-etary feedback for their work. Sorry Beatles, but I’m not paying $200 for your entire discography. You don’t need it.

Considering that your favorite tracks are just a torrent away, I’d say that the Golden Age for downloading music is now.

However, our generation’s days of ripping tracks from the Internet are numbered — and you thought you were upset when the U.S. government took Napster away!

On Oct. 26, 2011, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was introduced to the House of Representatives.

Originally, the bill sought to “black-list and block websites from posting al-legedly illegal materials, without first taking court action,” quoted Pitchfork from a New York Times op-ed piece by Rebecca MacKinnon.

Causing uproar on Capitol Hill — as well as in the hearts and minds of every other tech-savvy American citizen — the bill was scheduled for a markup, which will happen Dec. 15.

Since then, the bill has undergone considerable changes that have given it ties to U.S. trade laws, which will ultimately make the consequences for illegally downloading music from for-eign servers akin to stealing foreign goods.

By attaching SOPA to foreign trade policy, the government will have less power to take down websites based on mere suspicion. Whew. Instead, a

board of magistrate judges at the In-ternational Trade Commission who are specialized in Internet file-sharing will drop the gavel if SOPA is passed. Gulp.

What is the reality of this? The age of the Internet as a free enterprise may soon be over.

Imagine every video that you’ve ever posted on Facebook, every link you’ve tweeted to Twitter, every MP3 you’ve ever posted to Tumblr and ev-ery Torrent you’ve ever downloaded. Don’t be modest. All of those forms of multimedia-sharing will be restricted, since the majority of that informa-tion is more than likely coming from a foreign server, and not your personal database.

Even more depressing, YouTube videos “going viral” may in fact be a novelty of the past. Remember Sophia Grace Brownlee, the sassy little girl who sang Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”? Not being able to view that won’t neces-sarily be the death of your musical excursions online, but it may however block off another audience from dis-covering Minaj — like your mom.

The issue is a double-edged sword. If the bill passes, perhaps artists will get the money they deserve for their creativity. From the self-employed musician’s perspective, “it’s about time.”

Rather, I think it’s as if America is shooting itself in the foot, and the only people who should be severely distraught about the situation are the artists who were around before the Internet to experience the stab. Poor Metallica.

It’s time for the music industry to adapt to the blessed and viral world the Internet has given them.

Now excuse me, while I ignore the consequences of Internet piracy and watch all three hours of “King Lear” for free on YouTube for my British lit-erature class.

A&EPage 6 December 8, 2011

Zombie novel offers both brains, heart

Juniors Cory Collins (Coby) and Cameron Lindsey (Graham) wrote and performed “Caroline,” which premiered at Transylvania Dec. 1.

COUR

TESY

OF

CORY

COL

LIN

SSOPA threatens Internet music

“Caroline” is a play co-writ-ten by juniors Cory Collins and Cameron Lindsey, two Transylva-nia English majors. Its premiere starred the same duo. The play tells the story of Graham and Coby, two vastly different people who have very little in common with the ex-ception of love for the play’s titular character. Following Caroline’s ac-cidental death, the play examines how a friendship can be affected by the loss of the central unifying factor of that relationship.

With a beginning consisting of two men standing behind a jar of ashes and an ending that contains an incredibly appropriate use of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” it was fairly easy to tell that this is quite the sad play. But thank-fully, not everything was doom and gloom here. The first half of the play was much more comedic than dramatic, showing two completely different characters come together through their love for Caroline.

Many people will greatly en-joy this first half, which is almost entirely aimed at taking shots at the absurdly dorky character, Gra-ham, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have. The problem for me lay in basing all the humor on something predictable, which hap-pened to be the teasing of the nerd for all of his cliché attributes by the also cliché elder character, Coby.

The teasing was fun for a while, but I was groaning by the time

Graham was asking for a juice box. Still, the rest of the audience was in constant laughter, so I have no doubts that many will enjoy the comedic first half; it’s just not my sort of humor. Regardless, the characters were undeniably well developed during this lighthearted phase, and without some humor I believe the play’s second half would have been much less effec-tive.

After all the fun and games are over, the play had a very obvious climax, which was stunning from both writing and technical aspects. Throughout the play the lighting was spectacular, subtle and effec-tive, but during the play’s climax it managed to make it feel like there were five or six actors on stage when, in actuality, there were still only two.

The writing was fantastic, and the plot itself was very moving and emotional from this point on. After the climax, the play did a complete 180, and any sense that this play might be a comedy was thrown out the window.

It was here, in the dreadful silent moments and the screaming rage, that the play was at its best. Pure emotion, wonderful acting and ex-cellent writing made this an incred-ibly effective dramatic sequence that somehow managed to avoid the cliché found in the first half, and deliver a memorable analysis of obsession and coping with loss through the heartbroken characters. In the long run, the post-climax se-quences were the things that make the play successful and special.

Tyler TurcotteStaff Writer

Comedy for some, drama for all

Multiple times during the play I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could actually see Caroline in-stead of merely hearing about her?” It wasn’t until the play’s dramatic ending that I realized the reason for leaving her out of the play.

With Caroline’s physical absence, her character was given no chance to be judged

by the audience, no chance to be ridiculed or seen as imper-fect; in Graham’s and Cody’s eyes, she is perfection, and that’s what she needs to be for the play to be effective. By not giving her a physical pres-ence, it raised the question that the characters might not be in love with Caroline, but instead with the idea of her, which was what the audience got to see.

Overall, I felt that this was a great play, and a very im-pressive one given the fact that the authors are still students. While the first half’s comedy may not work for everyone, the play’s dramatic second half is sure to move you and create a lasting impression. Congrat-ulations on a success, guys.