The Rocky Mountain Collegian, Tuesday, November 27, 2012

BY AUSTIN BRIGGS The Rocky Mountain Collegian

For the fi rst time in a de-cade, CSU will host sections from the largest community art project in the world: the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

Twenty 12-foot square pan-els will be on display in the East Ballroom of the Lory Student Center through Friday. Each panel has six to eight sections with a name and visual me-mentos from the life of a person who has died from AIDS.

“Each of these individual panels represents an indi-vidual person and puts a face on and humanizes AIDS,” said Shauna DeLuca, assistant di-rector of international initia-tives for CSU’s offi ce of Inter-national Programs. “It’s more than a statistic. There’s a per-son who’s lost and that’s what we’re still fi ghting for and it’s a great opportunity for us to educate the CSU community.”

CSU’s offi ce of Internation-al Programs brought the quilt to campus to commemorate World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.

Seeing the quilt is a re-minder that people are still profoundly affected by the dis-ease and the fi ght continues to

raise public awareness and pay tribute to those who have lost their lives, DeLuca said.

Started in 1987 by the Names Project Foundation fi ve years after the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, the quilt is a powerful visual reminder of the lives lost to the disease and is also used to promote AIDS awareness and HIV prevention education efforts.

The quilt includes over 48,000 panels stitched together by the families, friends and part-

ners of people who have died from AIDS. Over 98,000 individ-uals have their names and sto-ries memorialized on the quilt.

Sections of the quilt travel across the country and are dis-played in schools, churches and businesses. When pieced together, the quilt weighs 54 tons, spreads out over 1.3 mil-lion square feet and has cov-ered much of the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Jeff Ogan, a junior zoology major, has volunteered to help

with the AIDS quilt while it’s at CSU. He said it’s a good op-portunity to meet people who have been involved with the quilt and to use it as a platform to talk about HIV and AIDS.

He added that many peo-ple in our community may be HIV positive and still not show symptoms and be healthy look-ing, so CSU students and com-munity members can come into contact with someone with HIV or AIDS and not know it.

“It can be a sensitive issue and diffi cult to talk about,” Ogan said. “There are people out there who might need your support.”

Lauren Shulman, preven-tion director at the Northern Colorado AIDS Project, agreed with Ogan, saying that many people with AIDS and HIV in the United States can now lead healthy, normal lives and are integral members of the com-munity.

“I think that people forget that in small communities, we probably run into folks every day that are living with HIV and we just don’t ever think about it,” Shulman said.

NCAP provides counseling and social services to 230 cli-ents living with HIV in an eight

county region in Northern Colorado, Shulman said. That’s about half of the total reported HIV cases in the region.

In spite of the advances in medicine allowing people with HIV and AIDS to live long, healthy lives and the increase in public awareness of the disease, there is still a “stigma and discrimination” piece that makes the subject taboo for many people to talk about, Shulman said.

“I think that’s one of the biggest barriers to getting test-ed, to talking about HIV,” Shul-man said. “Forever and always, that’s one of the biggest issues with HIV so I think it’s impor-tant we highlight it.”

Senior Reporter Austin Briggs can be reached at [email protected]

theSTRIPCLUB

A recent chain status update has every Facebook user’s attention. Supposedly, simply by claim-ing that you own copyright in a status update, you can stop any attempt to infringe upon your privacy. Here are some more useful ways to keep yourself private on Facebook.

COLLEGIANT H E R O C K Y M O U N T A I N

Tuesday, November 27, 2012Fort Collins, Colorado Volume 121 | No. 75

www.collegian.comTHE STUDENT VOICE OF COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1891

� e Strip Club is written by the Collegian sta� .

Second Half SurgeMen’s basketball rides strong second half to beat UNC

PAGE 3

Citizens United is a symptom, Amendment 65 an empty gesture | Page 5

Don’t Post Anything

Private� e old adage about not say-ing anything you wouldn’t want your parents to hear translates remarkably well to Facebook. Silent people leak no embar-rassing secrets.

Don’t Use Facebook

Whether you are aware of this or not, you agreed to Face-book’s privacy policy when you signed up for a Facebook account. You also can’t argue about your pri-vacy when you are essentially volunteering your personal information with Facebook’s service. So, to save your private information, just don’t get a Facebook page or deactivate your current page. It’s the best possible way to keep your infor-mation totally private.

Ways to Protect

Privacy on Facebook

Strong FinishWeak Record

Jim McElwain’s � rst season at Colorado State a struggle. Rams � nish 4-8.

By ANDREW SCHALLERThe Rocky Mountain Collegian

Nearly a year after Jim McElwain came to CSU with promises of bringing a bold new era to Rams football, the CSU football team fi nished the 2012 season with a vic-tory against New Mexico, and a marginally improved 4-8 re-cord.

Through its ups and downs, there are a few things to take away from the season, while looking ahead to next year.

The Rams underper-formed this season, especial-ly early in the year.

Much was made of the

Rams’ victory against CU-Boulder in the fi rst week of the season, but that optimism slowly faded.

CSU lost its next six games, each by 10 or more points, and what looked to be a promis-ing fi rst season for McElwain quickly turned into the pros-pect of another losing year for the Rams.

Three victories in the fi -nal fi ve games of the year salvaged a 4-8 record for the Rams, but it is clear for many involved in the program that the goals for 2012 were not met.

“I didn’t expect to only have this many wins,” McEl-wain said. “That’s unaccept-

able and that’s not in my vo-cabulary.”

Donnell Alexander will be the star of the offense next year

The rushing attack for the Rams struggled through-out the season, managing to average 128.8 yards per game, good enough to rank No. 100 in the nation.

One bright spot in the rushing attack for the Rams, however, was the emergence of redshirt freshman running back Donnell Alexander, who started receiving more carries after Chris Nwoke went down with an ankle injury in week two.

Alexander made his mark

on the offense later in the season, rushing for 100 or more yards in three of his fi -nal four games of the season, while averaging 4.98 yards per carry.

With Nwoke returning for his senior season next year, and Alexander coming back to play an increased role in

the offense, the future of the Rams’ backfi eld looks bright.

The quarterback position looks to be an open competi-tion next year

CSU shuffl ed through three quarterbacks this sea-son: sophomore Garrett

See FBALL on Page 3

TOP: Jim McElwain walks off the fi eld after a score in the fourth quarter of a game at Air Force Academy. The Rams fi nished the season with a win against New Mexico, and will walk away with a 4-8 record on the season.RIGHT: Chris Nwoke powers through two UNLV defenders during a 33-11 win over the Rebels late in the season.

PHOTOS BY NICK LYON | COLLEGIAN

Points per game: 21.17 (NCAA rank: 101) Passing yards per game: 210.17 (NCAA rank: 86) Rushing yards per game: 128.83 (NCAA rank: 97)

Points allowed per game: 30.25 (NCAA rank: 78) Passing yards allowed per game: 203.17 (NCAA rank: 26) Rushing yards allowed per game: 202.42 (NCAA rank: 104)

RAMS’ STRUGGLES IN 2012

Grant Sampson, 11, discusses images on the AIDS quilt in the Lory Student Center Ballroom Monday night.

ERIN MROSS | COLLEGIAN

Patchwork with purpose, a quilt of personal struggles AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on

display in the East Ballroom at the Lory Student Center from Tuesday, Nov. 27 to Friday Nov. 30.

A candlelight vigil along with guest speakers will take place Thursday, Nov. 29 in the Longs Peak room at the LSC at 6 p.m. to celebrate World AIDS Day.

DISPLAY SCHEDULE

Facebook

Set Info to “Only Me”One of the ways to hide more personal infor-mation is to set as much of it to the “Only Me” as you can. � is ensures that the only person who can see that you are in a secret relation-ship is you, and nobody else.

2 Tuesday, November 27, 2012 | The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Community Briefs

Naropa University professor of Buddhist studies speaking Nov. 29

Acharya Judith Sim-mer-Brown will be speak-ing this Thursday from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in the Lory Stu-dent Center (LSC), room 230. The title of the event is “Open Mind, Tender Heart: Buddhist Teachings on Compassion and Emp-tiness.”

Simmer-Brown is pro-fessor of Buddhist studies at Naropa University, and Dean of Shambhala Teach-ers’ Academy. She is author of “Dakini’s Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism.”

The event is being or-ganized by the Medita-tion and Buddhist Interest Club at CSU, who meet for a 30 minute meditation this semester every Tues-day at 5 p.m. in the East Atrium Room 114 of the LSC, and next semester every Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in Room 210 of the LSC.

“A Christmas Story” by CSU Theatre program runs through Dec. 16

The University Center of the Arts University Theatre at 1400 Remington Street will play host to CSU Theatre program’s performance of “A Christmas Story” by Philip Grecian.

Based upon Jean Shep-herd’s classic American 1983 motion picture of the same title, Director Laura Jones, CSU students and a slew of children from the “2012 Kids Do It All” Summer Mu-sic-Theatre program.

Showtimes are nightly Thursdays through Satur-days at 7:30 p.m. until De-cember 16. Matinees are at 2 p.m. on December 2, 9 and 16.

Come see the Red Ry-der BB gun, rich chocolate Ovaltine, the leg lamp and tongues sticking to flagpoles — the CSU Theatre depart-ment triple dog dares you.

-- Collegian Staff Report

fort collins focus

Senior biology major Ben Reichenbach and senior English major Nicole Kalstein dance in the entryway of the Lory Student Center. The pair meets twice per week with their group, Jump and Jive Cats, a performance dance ensemble made up of Colorado State students and alumni.

Dylan langille | COLLEGIAN

CorreCtion

In the Nov. 26 article, “SWAT team, fire dept. deploy 15 min from CSU,” it was incorrectly stated in both of the story’s photo captions that a man at the center of a police standoff was arrested by authorities. In fact, he was taken into custody, according to police. The Collegian regrets its errors.

COLLEGIANT H E R O C K Y M O U N T A I N

Lory Student Center Box 13Fort Collins, CO 80523

This publication is not an official publication of Colorado State University, but is pub-lished by an independent corporation using the name ‘The Rocky Mountain Collegian’ pursuant to a license granted by CSU. The Rocky Mountain Collegian is a 10,000-circu-lation student-run newspaper intended as a public forum. It publishes five days a week during the regular fall and spring semesters. During the last eight weeks of summer Collegian distribution drops to 4,500 and is published weekly on Wednesdays. During the first four weeks of summer the Collegian does not publish. Corrections may be sub-mitted to the editor in chief and will be printed as necessary on page 2. The Collegian is a complimentary publication for the Fort Collins community. The first copy is free. Additional copies are 25 cents each. Letters to the editor should be sent to [email protected].

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allison Sylte | editor in [email protected]

nic Turiciano | Content Managing [email protected]

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andrew Carrera | news [email protected]

elisabeth Willner | news [email protected]

Kevin Jensen | editorial editor & Copy [email protected]@collegian.com

emily Kribs | entertainment [email protected]

Cris Tiller | Sports [email protected]

Kyle grabowski | assistant Sports [email protected]

Kris lawan | Design [email protected]

nick lyon | Chief [email protected]

annika Mueller | Chief [email protected]

ADViSinG StAFFKim Blumhardt | Advertising Manager

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KeY PHone nUMBerSnewsroom | 970-491-7513

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editor’s note:News Editor Andrew Carrera interned with the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C. this summer. He has removed himself from all political coverage including writing, editing and discussions – this include’s the paper’s daily editorial “Our View.”

By Sean MeedSThe Rocky Mountain Collegian

Many opportunities are

available for students to catch up to or move ahead of their peers during sum-mer session — so much so that it’s causing CSU to offer more chances for students to enroll in summer programs.

Over the years, the course schedule for the summer ses-sion has retained 95 percent of the same courses. But in re-cent years departments have been adding new courses for students to take outside of the regular school year.

Some of the courses in-clude Evaluation of Primate Behavior from the Anthro-pology Department, Farm

Animal Anatomy/Physics from Animal Sciences and Environmental Economics from Agriculture and Re-source Economics.

One area of study that is utilizing the summer session is the Foreign Languages de-partment. LSPA 105, 107, 200 and 201 are all Spanish Im-mersion Courses that allow students the chance to use their language skills outside of the classroom.

“They might go to a His-panic restaurant and order their meals speaking only Spanish,” explained Barbara Gotshall, director for Sum-mer Sessions.

While the courses give students the opportunity to utilize their skills outside of

campus, Gotshall said that there has not been a big turnout for the courses. She went on to describe the two big barriers that stand in the way of students enrolling in summer session.

“The largest barrier to summer school is students needing to work,” she said. “The second barrier is finan-cial aid.”

Gotshall explained that when Pell Grants were taken away in 2012, the program saw a four percent decrease in summer enrollment.

Gotshall also said that the program’s website need-ed revamping.

“We found that students were not picking up the pa-per registration forms but

were going to our website to look at classes,” she said. “This year we are only allow-ing students to look at and register for classes online.”

There is one program that gives students the chance to earn credit even before they enter college. The Bridge Scholars Pro-gram lets students who have graduated from high school spend eight weeks in the res-idence halls while enrolled in six credits hours.

“Faculty members were surprised at incoming stu-dents writing skills,” said Oscar Felix, Executive Di-rector for the Access Center. “We saw that high schools were not preparing students for CSU.”

Felix said that this ex-plains why the students are enrolled in CO 150 and SOC 100 to improve incoming stu-dents’ writing abilities while also exposing them to a typ-ical lecture course that they can come to expect at CSU.

The students who are admitted into the program must be first generation students who come from low-income families on fi-nancial aid. Furthermore, they must have graduated from schools that are not as academically rigorous or that are situated in neigh-borhoods that are not quite so affluent.

Felix said the program has partnerships with high schools throughout Colorado.

“We receive students from Adams City High School and other Denver area schools,” he said. “We also get a lot of students from Greeley High School.”

Students in the Bridge Scholars Program are re-quired to study in the eve-ning from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. every weekday while under supervision and are also giv-en curfews. Felix calls it “ac-ademic boot camp.”

“It gets students used to the hours of study,” Felix said. “Many of them keep the skills as they get older and often come back to say thanks.”

Collegian Writer Sean Meeds can be reached at [email protected].

Colorado State prepares for the summer sessionCourses have mainly stayed the same, but enrollment is impacted by Pell Grants

Continued from Page 1

Grayson, senior M.J. McPeek and redshirt fresh-man Conner Smith.

After Grayson went down in week five against Air Force with a broken collarbone, McPeek start-ed in three games going 0-3. Smith started in four of the final five games for the Rams, and posted a 3-1 re-cord with him at the helm.

“I feel like I played okay throughout the year,” Smith said. “I couldn’t have done it without my team-mates. Most of my success

goes hand in hand with them. I’m fairly satisfied with it, but I feel like I could have done better.”

With Grayson com-ing back next year fully healthy, and Smith return-ing from the experience he gained this year, McEl-wain will have a decision to make when deciding who he wants to take the field as his starting quarterback to open the season next year against CU.

Football Beat Report-er Andrew Schaller can be reached at [email protected].

fBall | Showed fans glimpses of what to expect in 2013

Men’s basketball

By Kyle GraBowSKiThe Rocky Mountain Collegian

Listening to players talk af-ter the CSU basketball team’s 85-69 victory over Northern Colorado, you’d think they lost the game instead.

“We’re pretty disappoint-ed in the way we came out tonight,” senior guard Wes Eikmeier said. “We got out-toughed, and that’s some-thing we hang our hats on.”

Part of CSU’s lack of early fire can be attributed to the absence of senior forward Pierce Hornung, who sat out the game due to an illness.

“He’s the pulse of this team, and it kind of deflated us,” CSU coach Larry Eu-stachy said.

Northern Colorado lead by as many as seven points early in the game, and held onto the lead until sopho-more Jon Octeus made two free throws with 6:43 re-

maining in the first half to put CSU up 26-24.

The Rams scored the final eight points of the first half to take a six point lead, and kept their foot on the gas for the remainder of the game.

Senior center Colton Iverson gave the Rams their biggest lead of the game with a two handed dunk that put CSU up 69-50 with 9:17 re-maining.

Iverson recorded his third consecutive dou-ble-double with 18 points and 13 rebounds, and pro-vided a presence in the mid-dle that CSU lacked much of last season.

“It’s a luxury that we’re not taking for granted,” Eik-meier said. “Colton’s been great, Pierce has been great. They’re the heart and soul of our team so far, and why we’ve been successful.”

That size has contribut-ed to a decided rebounding

edge for the Rams, who won the battle on the boards for the fifth consecutive game, pulling down 37 to UNC’s 28.

“I thought their size one through five wore us out a little bit on the backboards,” Northern Colorado coach B.J. Hill said.

Five CSU players scored in double figures as the Rams shot 53.7 percent from the field, and held Northern Colorado to 42.4 percent shooting.

Senior guard Dorian Green lead CSU with 19 points and seven assists, while Eikmeier scored 17 points in 27 minutes.

The Rams will take a day

off Tuesday after playing three games in the last sev-en days, and plan to focus on the slow starts that have plagued them this season.

“When we come back to practice we’re really going to get after each other and real-ize that has been our weak-ness so far,” Eikmeier said. “It comes down to us being mentally prepared from the get go.”

With the win CSU im-proves to 5-0 on the season, the team’s best start since 2005, but that doesn’t mean the Rams are satisfied with where they’re at.

“We’ve won two road games, we’re 5-0 and we get no recognition whatsoever. None,” Eustachy said. “We’ve got a chip on our shoulder, and it’s motivating all of us.”

Assistant Sports Edi-tor Kyle Grabowski can be reached at [email protected].

Jonathan Octeus (5) and Wes Eikmeier (10) dive for the ball against Northern Colorado at Moby Arena Monday night. With the win, CSU improves its home winning streak to 16 games, the seventh best current streak in the nation.

Hunter tHoMPSon | COLLEGIAN

CSU wins 16th straight home game over UNC

Guard Dorian Green: 19 points Center Colton Iverson: 18 points Guard Wes Eikmeier: 17 points Forward Greg Smith: 14 points

BalanCed SCorinG

The Rocky Mountain Collegian | Tuesday, November 27, 2012 3

Future agricultural leaders of Amer-ica and the world: I would like to bring to your attention the future problem that you will be faced with and a solu-tion that can be initiated at this present time.

The population on the world as we know it is growing at an exponential rate. The land and resources that are available for agriculture to utilize is decreasing. The turmoil of today’s economy has re-sulted in a raise in the cost of energy.

It seems as people become more concerned with their food product, ag-riculture takes a hit in every possible way. This is dangerous, because as ag-riculture becomes more limited, there is a decrease in the amount of food that can be produced.

Agriculture is a commodity that life cannot go on without. With the many challenges that are brought against agriculture, an informative and reli-able source of agriculture communica-tion should be available to consumers through scholarly sources via Face-book, Twitters and various blogs.

The “scholarly” is where you come

in. As leaders and educated agricul-turalists, it would benefit the agricul-ture industry to directly communicate to the consumers the accurate and reviewed information on agriculture through popular networking sites.

This would work for many reasons, notably because people today obtain more information and spend more time on Facebook, Twitter and blogs, making this area of communication a convenient and effective way to reach out to the user.

The popularity and trendiness of these sites is reason for the agriculture industry to utilize this communication technology and present a reliable and trustworthy source of information that can be easily and directly revealed to the consumer.

In addition, these networking sites give the consumer a direct way to voice their concerns or give advice on the food product or aspect of agricultural concern. Today, people are more aware and more attentive about the quality of their food product.

Presenting a way for consumers to easily obtain information that addresses their concerns can be a way that the ag-ricultural community can reach out to their consumers and help answer their questions or receive feedback. Likewise, it is important to have the support of the consumer in order to fulfill the needs of the agricultural industry.

The last reason for this social net-working intervention is that if more consumers are aware of the future food shortage, a more aware movement may begin to develop. This could result in consumers helping solve the problem by contributing ideas to finding inno-vations and technologies that could

help initiate change and avoid the im-pending food shortage.

Customer awareness of the prob-lem may also allow agriculturalists to utilize technologies that have in the past been turned down or discriminat-ed against because of consumers’ opin-ions or fears based on lack of proper education.

I challenge you to set up a Face-book or Twitter account not as Jane Doe; college graduate, loves cupcakes, hates doing laundry, but as Jane Doe; agricultural graduate, animal science advocate, blogger of real and accurate agricultural topics.

Create a professional account that you can use as a way to post scholarly information about agriculture, bring the information right to the people. As a future leader, producer, farmer or rancher, you should make it your duty to directly connect and communicate with the world the many aspects of ag-riculture.

I am a future leader of agriculture and I plan to be a reliable source to help convey to the world how important ag-riculture is to the continuation of life.

As a future leader of agriculture you should feel the responsibility to provide this life sustaining industry with a voice and help it to stand up to question. I understand some people may personally attack you or chal-lenge your facts, but this is one way to ensure that the population can contin-ue to eat and survive.

Malinda DeBell is a sophomore ani-mal science major. Her column appears every other Tuesday in the Collegian. Letters and feedback can be sent to [email protected].

Christmas break is com-ing! Wait … that’s not proper form anymore, right?

Many rejoice in the des-ignated birthday of Christ. Others, the eight days of Hanukkah. Some, Kwanzaa. The list goes on and on.

Regardless of affili-ation, those celebrating a religious holiday over break, and I mean explicit-ly celebrating the religious element, have something new in common. They are becoming minorities.

Despite the U.S. being the melting pot of the world and having religious freedom, we have long been a country defined as holding “Christian ideals.” However, many indi-cators suggest this era is end-ing, if it hasn’t already.

Before people object to the idea that we are becom-ing a nation of heathens, let me be clear: That is not the implication.

How can we say with precision exactly how many people believe in what? Well, we can’t, but we can observe large puzzle pieces.

In the last two years, for the first time, those with a church membership com-prise less than half of the US population, about 48.8 per-cent, the Huffington Post reports.

Another telling trend: ABC reports that in 1972 only 7 percent of the population polled as nonreligious. That number is now 20 percent — 33 percent in regards to the under 30 demographic.

Who is this “none” group? Anarchists? Non-be-lievers? Atheists? Nihilists? Not quite. Most are simply those who don’t subscribe to any secular belief. In fact, the majority of this demo-graphic believes in some kind of Supreme Being in one form or another, only 27 percent give a definitive “No, there is no God”.

What this means: Americans are becoming comfortable with the ev-er-wise admittance of “I don’t know.” Our nation is experiencing a steady in-clination toward rejecting a singular and set ethos.

Spirituality in the US is far from the decline; in-stead, Americans are pick-ing and choosing from the buffet of religion and philosophy at our disposal creating hybrids to further spiritual growth.

Nothing is more liber-ating than embracing our lack of knowledge, allowing us to be immersed in ap-peals to logic and moral in-tegrity by everything from Islam to quantum physics.

Every CSU student at one point or another has witnessed some religious fanatic and staunch atheist in heated debate in the pla-

za. Personally, I find those who condemn non-believ-ers and skeptics who label anyone of faith as stupid as equally annoying big-ots.

One of the toughest aspects to the religion co-nundrum is the thought that cutting areas of mod-ern relevance from archaic text will diminish ethical merit. Conversely, skep-tics who hold moral codes derived from religion lose credibility amongst peers.

The trend we are now witnessing is, for me, one of the most seemingly log-ical moves society could make. It makes no more sense explaining the cre-ation of the universe from a book written thousands of years ago than it would teaching children right and wrong by preaching natural selection and sur-vival of the fittest.

Using a calculator won’t help me get over a breakup, and listening to Jeff Buck-ley doesn’t solve my calcu-lus homework. Likewise, scripture cannot solve an energy crisis and the Had-ron Collider will not reveal why we are here, although it might hint at how.

Americans at large are utilizing different tools — pious and intellectual — to develop dynamic beliefs in-stead of burrowing into one.

Disagree? Ask the Re-publican Party.

The Presidential elec-tion devastated Repub-licans. In regards to the number one issue of the campaign, the economy, Romney routinely polled better than his competitor, yet it wasn’t enough.

The party has seen their moderate voting bloc marginalized and, whether valid or not, are viewed as led by fundamental Chris-tian-conservative ideals.

This perception caused the majority of indepen-dent and women voters to lean toward President Obama and his liberal stance on issues like gay marriage and abortion.

Republicans now face a crossroads. They either must choose to reform their social influence to encom-pass a majority that desires not only their freedom of religion, but also their poli-cies’ freedom from religion, or they will perish.

Despite the increas-ingly large portion of the US who are not necessarily devout, a bulk of the nation still celebrates Christmas. For this reason I argue that Festivus is the real official winter holiday of our coun-try. We just don’t know it.

The celebration of Fes-tivus, made famous by uni-versally loved ‘Seinfeld’, in-cludes the essentials of our traditional holidays: time with friends and family and a feast. So why not make it official? Who could be bet-ter to lead us into a new era of free thinking than the cast of the world’s greatest show? Happy Holidays.

Bryce Liedtke is a senior finance major. His columns appear every other Tuesday in the Collegian. Letters and feedback can be sent to [email protected].

While Obama’s commitment to keeping 10,000 troops in Af-ghanistan until 2014 has been making headlines across the globe, another ongoing military issue deserves attention closer to home.

Since Nov. 16, Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, has been testing out a new policy to prevent sexual assault. Called the “wingman” policy, the strat-egy requires trainees to be with another trainee at all times. Ba-sically, an Air Force trainee can never be alone on the base.

The wingman policy is a misguided attempt to stem a deep-seated problem in the military. According to the De-partment of Defense, 19,000 in-tra-military sexual assaults were reported in 2011 alone. Given the low report rate for sexual assault, these numbers can only scratch

the surface.At Lackland, the wingman

policy was instituted because of an ongoing sexual assault

investigation at the base which began last summer. Twenty five instructors at the base are implicated with sexually as-sault, and 48 survivors have come forward.

Though it attempts to stem the problem, the wingman policy

places the responsibility on the wrong shoulders. Cadets, who have been the targeted group for sexual violence, should not also carry the burden of preventing the assaults in the first place.

Instead, the military should focus its prevention efforts on the group who has been per-petrating the violence: military training instructors. U.S. Reps. Loretta Sanchez, Susan Davis, and Jackie Speier have recom-mended changing military mea-sures to make it a crime for a supervisor not to report a sexual assault.

This would be a much better approach to the problem, since a permissive culture enables as-sault on military bases, not a lack of self-defense by cadets. The military must make sure that those who have built the culture are responsible for changing it.

OPINIONCollegian

Collegian Opinion Page Policy

The columns on this page reflect the viewpoints of the individual author and not necessarily that of The Rocky Mountain Collegian or its editorial board. Please send any responses to [email protected].

Letter submissions are open to all and are printed on a first-received basis. Submissions should be limited to 250 words and need to include the author’s name and contact information. Anonymous letters will not be printed. E-mail letters to [email protected]

Tuesday, November 27, 2012 |

our view

A better way to stop assault

The Collegian Editorial Board is responsible for writing the staff editorial, “Our View,” and for the views expressed therein. Letters and feedback in response to the staff editorial can be sent to [email protected].

Allison Sylte | Editor in [email protected]

Nic Turiciano | Content Managing [email protected]

Hunter Thompson | Visual Managing [email protected]

Andrew Carrera | News [email protected]

Elisabeth Willner | News [email protected]

Kevin Jensen | Editorial [email protected]

Emily Kribs | Entertainment [email protected]

Cris Tiller | Sports [email protected]

Kris Lawan | Design Editor [email protected]

By BryCe Liedtke

“Though it attempts to stem the problem,

the wingman policy places the

responsibility on the wrong shoulders.”

This is an unscientific poll conducted at Collegian.com and reflects the opinions of the Internet users who have chosen to participate.

yOur twO Cents

*31 people voted in this poll.

yesterdAy’s QuestiOn:

tOdAy’s QuestiOn:How would you describe this year’s football season?

Log on to http://collegian.com to give us your two cents.

Did you participate in Black Friday?

58% No. 26% Yes. 10% Protested Walmart. 6% Plaid Friday.

Rise of Festivus

By MALindA deBeLL

Waking the world to the impending food crisis

26%

10% 6%

58%

Over the past couple years I have developed a tradition of bringing in-ternational friends home with me over Thanksgiving break.

Highlights of the trip always in-clude sharing a traditional meal from a foreign country, the Thanksgiving feast, fellowship with family and friends and the infamous Black Friday shopping.

This year, however, two of my dear friends from the Middle East, Amanda and Elnaz, decided to join me in celebrating more than just Thanksgiving.

My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer back in May of this year. After six months of fighting, praying, crying, chemo, radiation, cards, scarves and a whirlwind of doctor visits my mother is done with her treatment —

she beat breast cancer.The end of treatment for a can-

cer patient is undoubtedly significant, however it can be anticlimactic. One day you are fighting cancer and the next a doctor tells you you’re finished with treatment. You have reached the sup-posed end of your battle, but there is no momentous change in how you feel or look. The negative effects of treatment can still be felt, and the “look” of having cancer does not vanish.

A cancer survivor must see small changes as representative of larger vic-tories.

Thursday came and my family and friends shared a quintessential Thanks-giving meal together. Muslim, Chris-tian, atheist, Arab, American, Native American, old, young — this described the individuals who sat around my ta-ble on Thanksgiving. Yet despite all our differences in age, religion and culture, we partook in breaking bread and cel-ebrating life together.

After we stuffed ourselves with tur-key and mashed potatoes everyone went around the table saying what they are thankful for.

Like many families, this is a tradi-tion that takes places every year around our table. Historically, my brother and I used this as an opportunity to say outrageous things in front of fam-ily members simply for shock value. Typically the conversation goes a little

something like this: “I’m thankful for good food,” “I’m thankful for the gift of family,” “I’m thankful for lamp.” Then an awkward silence follows, confusion and finally snickering.

This year my brother and I were in no mood for joking during the activ-ity — we had much to be thankful for, especially for the health of our mother. Everyone was quite serious in their re-sponses to the prompt. However, my mother’s answer as to what she was thankful for took everyone by surprise.

“I’m thankful for armpit hair!” She said with a huge smile on her face. As absurd as this statement sounded it was a sign of victory for my mother. Her hair was finally starting to grow back after losing it as a result of the chemotherapy.

Armpit hair means an end to “che-mo brain,” heat flashes and fatigue. It means she can watch her beloved Broncos play for years to come, eat normal food again and one day hold her grandchildren in her arms.

Armpit hair signifies triumph, mov-ing forward, life.

I think Amanda’s thankful tort adequately summarized everyone’s mindset,“I’m thankful for the gift of life.”

Editorial Assistant Brooke Lake is a senior international studies major. Her column appears every other Tuesday in the Collegian. Letters and feedback can be sent to [email protected].

Amendment 65 was passed on Nov. 6 by Colo-rado voters in a resound-ing: "Hey please do some-thing to reverse the 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United decision ... If you want to."

Sixty five encourages Colo.'s congressional del-egation to create and sup-port an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that seeks to limit spending by corporations and unions on political advertisements — but the amendment in no way actually does any-thing; it's purely symbolic.

No ballot measure can actually force Colorado’s congressional delegation or state legislature to propose or support anything at all.

This is why I voted against 65; I saw it as ex-traneous and worried that its broad language might encourage our represen-tatives to implement bills that could restrict citi-zens' free speech.

Contrary to typical connotations, Citizens United v. FEC is actually a freedom of speech case, which determined that any organization may expressly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate.

As an inadvertent result of the ruling, Su-per PACs were created, enabling unlimited spending by unions, cor-porations and other orga-nizations on commercials and other electioneering communications without any restraint.

In Richard Haen's Slate article, "The Num-bers Don't Lie," he reveals that total outside spend-ing jumped from $1.8 mil-lion in the midterm before Citizens United to $15.9 million in the midterm following it in 2010.

Similarly, Opensecrets.org shows that outside spending on the general election increased as well from $37.5 million in 2008 to over $1.3 billion this year.

Outside spending has seen a staggering increase, but I don't think this mas-sive influx of organizations throwing their money at political elections is nec-essarily all bad — there's a huge plus here.

All of that money that would’ve otherwise been hoarded by profit-driven corporations is now being pumped directly back into the economy via commer-cials, signs, campaign em-ployment, etc.

Colorado, a politi-cal battleground this last election, saw a ton of ben-efit to its economy as ad-vocacy groups and Super PACs injected money into the state, fighting for time on the airwaves.

Yes, we had to suffer from an unrelenting slew of campaign ads, but how much effect did any of those ads have on you? In fact, as the race intensi-fied and every single com-mercial turned political, weren't you even more likely to tune it all out completely?

But I guess it is too

much to simply ask the American people to wake up and stop being influ-enced by what they see on TV; political ads must have some effect, or else nobody would be spending the mil-lions that they are.

I don't see why, though. What's to keep the Ameri-can people from collectively deciding to completely ig-nore all political advertise-ments? It seems common knowledge that they are all misinformation usually, or half-truths at best.

Which ads are accurate? Assume that none of them are and do your own re-search. Then it won't matter how many ads are thrown at you, you won't get sucked in.

This is idealism, though, and no matter how many times it's reiterated, it prob-ably won't take hold. What can we do to fix the corrupt-ing influence of money in our system, then?

Any attempt to restrict free political speech to in-dividuals would cause all sorts of uncertainty for me-dia organizations, from the news to the movie and mu-sic industries — we'd have to arbitrarily decide which organizations get free speech and which don't.

Sixty five didn't actually do anything, but there's al-ready legislation that could mitigate the negative effects of big money influence in our elections, hopefully without stymieing free speech.

The DISCLOSE Act would require indepen-dent groups to disclose the names of contributors who give money for use in politi-cal campaigns, and the Fair Elections Now Act would require candidates to raise a large number of small con-tributions to qualify for Fair Elections funding.

Would these two pieces of legislation help combat the overt influence of big money in our system? May-be. Would passing them possibly have negative ram-ifications? Probably.

Will the DISCLOSE Act and Fair Elections Now Act tangibly alter our political system? Will they combat the quid pro quo dona-tions, revolving door lobby-ists and the underhanded, oligarchic corruption that is the basis of our govern-ment? Decidedly not.

The majority of the problem isn't that these organizations spend un-limited amounts of money on political campaigns, the real issue is that they get material benefits in return for their contributions.

Corporations, unions and organizations have mas-sive incentives to lobby the government for all sorts of benefits: bailouts, subsidies, and preferential treatment.

We should be trying to end our system of corporat-ism and crony capitalism. Let's demand an end to the preferential treatment, big government benefits and corporate welfare miring American taxpayers in debt.

This is what is incen-tivizing organizations to spend millions of dollars trying to influence our po-litical structure, and this is what must be stopped. Citizens United is merely a symptom of the underlying disease in our system.

Editorial Editor and Copy Chief Kevin Jensen is a senior English major. His column appears Tuesdays in the Collegian. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @kevinrjensen.

By Kevin jensen

Yays and Nays

OPINION TuesdayCollegian

Tuesday, November 27, 2012 |

Amendment 65, an empty gesture

YaY |to the football team ending the season with a win. A 4-8 record sure looks prettier than a 3-9!

naY | to Lindsay Lohan’s performance in the disappointing Lifetime movie “Liz and Dick.” What happened to the promising young actress we knew and loved in “The Parent Trap?”

Yay | to the basketball team’s strong start. It’s pretty rad that they’re two weeks into the season and already have more wins than the football team!

naY | to Justin Bieber wearing overalls to meet the prime minister of Canada. Come on, Biebs, don’t you know that a Canadian tuxedo is really jeans and a denim shirt?

YaY | to the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Hopefully this is the first step in restoring peace in a war-torn region.

naY | to those annoying Facebook chain posts claiming that by posting it, you’re protecting your posts. This is a lie. You signed your rights away the day you made your Facebook account.

Collegian Opinion Page Policy

The columns on this page reflect the viewpoints of the individual author and not necessarily that of The Rocky Mountain Collegian or its editorial board. Please send any responses to [email protected].

Letter submissions are open to all and are printed on a first-received basis. Submissions should be limited to 250 words and need to include the author’s name and contact information. Anonymous letters will not be printed. E-mail letters to [email protected]

Guest Column

“We should be trying to end our system of corporatism and

crony capitalism.”

Thankful for armpit hair after battling cancer

By BrOOKe laKe

As primitive as it is, hazing is a re-curring theme in universities, as well as innumerable other social, professional and athletic institutions across the na-tion.

New incidents, be they physically violent, psychologically malevolent, or anywhere inbetween, consistently find their place in national news and prove to dismantle the reputation of the insti-tutions and individuals involved.

However, institutions are only so vulnerable when they try to silence such reports in an effort to insulate themselves from reproach. Rather than transparency and honesty they choose to leave students in harm’s way.

Consider Robert Champion, the Florida A&M student and Marching 100 band member who was beaten to death by his fellows almost a year ago.

The band’s hazing rituals were known by band and university officials alike, who allowed them to continue relatively unchecked. It was this care-less and despicable level of ignorance that allowed the Marching 100 to take things too far in the name of “tradi-tion.”

Rather than making any serious ef-fort to stop it, the university officials turned a blind eye under the assump-

tion that members’ behavior wouldn’t go too far. Rather than admitting their obvious fault, the university denies any responsibility, claiming Champi-on knew what he was getting himself into.

When it comes to any on-campus or campus-related activity, the univer-sity itself is the most powerful entity involved and so is incapable of indif-ference. Such a luxury is not available to the administration of a university. By allowing behaviors to continue un-checked, the university implicitly con-dones them.

In incidents of hazing, this implicit allowance is accompanied by a com-plete disregard for students’ safety. A university that fails to actively prohibit such activities does so only for the sake of their own reputation.

Luckily, here at Colorado State, many officials are prepared to take steps to actively denounce hazing and quickly hold those individuals respon-sible. But this happens behind closed doors with the intent to keep incidents from becoming publicized; to protect the reputation of campus affiliated groups and CSU itself.

While this is done with no sinister intention on CSU’s part, it is a mistake

nonetheless. By promoting the per-ception that incidents — if uncovered — will be handled quietly rather than publicly, the university is eliminat-ing the greatest motivating factor that serves to prohibit behavior: social con-demnation. This process needs to be changed.

In addition to making hazing inci-dents public, there are additional poli-cies that can assist in CSU’s efforts to prevent hazing on campus. Front-end policies like including anti-hazing ed-ucation in orientation, training for all incoming students, and specific team-building exercises like rock climbing, backpacking trips, community ser-vice projects and similar activities are excellent alternatives and promote a healthy, respectful environment. These options are easy to implement considering CSU’s excellent on-cam-pus resources and proximity to the mountains.

An official anti-hazing policy is not enough, CSU. With a little effort and a little transparency, we can be a univer-sity that actively stands against hazing and protects its students, rather than quietly denouncing hazing behind closed doors.

Graeme Troxell, philosophy major

Daily cartoons and games available at Collegian.com. Send feedback to [email protected].

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

RamTalk compiled by Kris Lawan

I haven’t pooped since Thanksgiving. Fear is starting to set in.

Overheard: “Please, she’s heavier than a Clark bathroom door.”

Man there is nothing worse than when you’re in the library and you squeeze out a fart all stealthily only to be approached by a girl fi ve seconds later.

CSU: Where 4-8 means improvement.

Submit RamTalk entries to [email protected]. Libelous or obscene submissions will not be printed. While your comment will be published anonymously, you must leave your name and phone number for veri� cation.

Want more?The fi rst RamTalk Book is offi cially in stock at the Student Media offi ce in the Lory Student Center.

Buy your copy for $10, or get one online for your Kindle or Nook.

Find out if you got in!

Text your rants to 970-430-5547.

Follow us on Twitter @RMCollegian.

“Like” us on Facebook. Search for � e Rocky Mountain Collegian.

Today’s Crossword sponsored by:

Today’s Sudoku sponsored by:

Yesterday’s solution

Today’s RamTalk sponsored by:

Daily Horoscope Nancy Black and Stephanie Clement

Yesterday’s solution

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Across1 Pennsylvania city of about 100,0005 Fabled blue ox9 Tribe also called the Wyandot14 TV warrior princess15 LAX postings16 Prefi x with meter17 Señorita’s love18 Modernists, for short19 News anchor Connie20 Motor City’s state22 Striped zoo creatures23 Man, in Milan24 Chili spice26 Star footballer28 Emergency levee component32 Scottish hillside33 To the point35 Where Mandela was pres.36 Tonsillitis-treating MD37 London’s province39 Medit. land40 “C’est la __”41 iPod button42 Down Under greeting43 Insistent words of affi rmation45 Deal with a bare spot, perhaps48 Selfl ess sort50 French cathedral city51 Job listing of a sort54 A cut above, with “to”58 Two-time loser to Ike59 Caesar’s 10760 K thru 1261 Glowing signs62 Letters on a phone button63 Scads64 With 66-Across, one of fi ve found in this puzzle65 Caesar’s being66 See 64-Across

Down1 Midterm, e.g.2 Do followers, scalewise3 Protects from disease4 Batting helmet opening5 Orono, Maine, is a suburb of it6 Surveyor’s measure

7 Bucking horse8 Start of summer?9 Access illegally, as computer fi les10 “__ me, you villain!”11 Agree to another tour12 Former Atlanta arena13 Christmas quaffs21 Holy terror22 Gulf State resident25 Loan shark26 Immortal PGA nickname27 Thick29 Control freak in a white dress30 Syrian leader31 “CSI: NY” actor Sinise32 Bunch of beauties34 Andalusian article37 Rose-colored glasses wearer38 Wet behind the ears42 “Who are you kidding?!”44 Tropical lizard46 Ewing Oil, e.g.47 Notice49 Sends regrets, perhaps51 Pealed52 River of central Germany53 Gin fl avoring55 Direction reversals, in slang56 “Yeah, what the heck!”57 Communion, for one59 Miler Sebastian

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (11/27/12). Revise your routine. Consider what’s most important, and set up practices for that. Health is a treasure. Add daily fun. Social life buzzes this year; relationships are your jewels. Romantic sparks heat the winter. Keep fi nances organized, as work intensifi es next summer. Balance with play.

To get the advantage, check the day’s rating: 10 is the easi-est day, 0 the most challenging.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) ––7–– Don’t stop yet ... you’re so close! Keep playing the game, and beat the odds. Watch your language, but say exactly what you think. Gather strength from love.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) ––9–– Love grows stronger in spite of restrictions. Be thoughtful of others. An unstable fi -nancial situation could lead to a fi nancial revelation. Make sure you get your two-cents’ worth.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) ––6–– Consider another loca-tion. Stand back to let your mate express her/himself. Fi-nances are tight. And two plus two is still four. Don’t despair, there’s always tomorrow.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) ––7–– Your friends are there to help you dig for the treasure. Don’t fi ght, or sweat, over the small stuff. Listen to an older person. Follow your schedule.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) ––8–– The road to great communi-cation is paved with good intentions. Play by the rules and prosper, but don’t spend what you haven’t got. Rely on your community for what you need.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) ––8–– You’re tougher than you look. Be willing to play with others. The more you learn, the better you’ll understand the strategy. Meditate on it. Make another improvement at home.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) ––7–– Your discipline and sense of balance come in handy now and are admired. Don’t sell yourself short. Keep checking the quality. A female joins you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) ––9–– You’re breaking the glass ceiling, or at least pushing it open. Concentrate on the moment at hand, even if the progress seems slow. The depth of love given to you is revealed. Team members come to agreement.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)––8–– Listen fi rst, carefully, before jumping to conclusions, and avoid unnecessary up-sets. Follow the schedule, prioritizing the projects that you love. Don’t forget to chop wood and carry water.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) ––8–– Love is still in the air. Take a deep breath, and let it all soak in. Acknowledge anoth-er person’s wisdom. Don’t let the circumstances distract you from your plan or your promises.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) ––9–– For nearly four weeks, your ideas move forward rapidly. Another provides the right contacts. Be patient and understanding toward their ideas, it’s not worth the fi ght.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) ––8–– Ignore rumors. Love empowers you and opens up new opportunities among the reigning confusion reigns. Keep yourself to high standards. Voice your feelings.


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THE WEEKENDER

This Frid

ay

EVERY FRIDAY

Next Friday

By CURT BROWN and PAUL WALSHThe McClatchy Tribune

LITTLE FALLS, Minn. — A 64-year-old man was charged Monday with mur-dering two teenagers who broke into his home on the outskirts of Little Falls, Minn., shooting each of them at close range in the head after having already wounded them.

Byron David Smith was charged in Morrison Coun-ty District Court with two counts of second-degree murder without premedita-tion in the killings of Nicho-las Brady, 17, and his cousin Haile Kifer, 18.

The criminal complaint says that Smith shot the two as they came down his base-ment stairs several minutes apart on Thanksgiving Day. The complaint adds that he shot them numerous times.

He then waited a day before asking a neighbor to alert authorities about what he had done, the document added. Smith showed in-vestigators the bodies, was arrested and has remained jailed since.

Smith appeared for a 10 minute court hearing late Monday morning wearing an orange jumpsuit, his hands and feet in shackles. Bail was

set at $2 million, with the prosecution noting the de-fendant’s extensive travels to Beijing, Bangkok, Moscow and elsewhere overseas while he was working for the U.S. State Department.

In asking for the high bail fi gure, County Attorney Brian Middendorf said the incident was a case of cold blooded murder. “The cir-cumstances are appalling and far beyond any self-de-fense claim,” he said.

Sheriff Michel Wet-zel told reporters Monday afternoon that Smith ex-plained to authorities that he didn’t call immediately after killing the two because “it was Thanksgiving. He didn’t want to trouble us on a holiday.”

As for whether Smith could be justifi ed in shoot-ing intruders, Wetzel said that a citizen does have to right to protect person or property, but it has to be rea-sonable.

What Smith did “went further than the law. It doesn’t permit you to exe-cute once the threat is gone.”

Defense attorney Grego-ry Larson declined to com-ment after the hearing, say-ing he wanted more time to study the case.

About a dozen family members of the teens at-

tended the hearing.One of Brady’s aunts,

Sarah Schaeffel, said after learning of the details from the scene that “Nicholas was smart, and he knew right from wrong. Kids are kids, and they all do stupid things.”

Smith “could have just held them there and called police,” said Schaeffel, of Apple Valley, who is a sister to Brady’s mother and was not at the hearing. “The only people who know the truth are these two kids and the guy who shot them.”

At court in support of the defendant was friend John Lange, who said Smith had been targeted at least six times for break-ins and doesn’t deserve to be in jail for protecting his home. “They tortured him and targeted him, and it’s not good,” Lange said. “One time alone would be too much. It’s terrible.”

The Sheriff’s Offi ce said it has received only one pre-vious report of a break-in at the home, in October, and there have been no arrests in that incident.

According to the com-plaint, Smith told investiga-tors:

He heard glass break-ing around noon Thursday while he was in the base-

ment. It was the latest of several break-ins that he’s experienced. Brady started coming down the stairs, and Smith shot him with a rifl e by the time he saw the in-truder’s hips.

Brady fell down the stairs and was looking up at Smith when the homeowner shot him in the face.

“I want him dead,” Smith explained to the investigator for the additional shot.

Smith put Brady’s body on a tarp and dragged him to an offi ce workshop.

A few minutes later, Smith heard footsteps above him. Kifer too started down the stairs and was shot by Smith by the time he saw her hips, sending her tumbling down the stairs.

Smith attempted to shoot her again, but his rifl e jammed, prompting Kifer to laugh.

Upset, Smith, pulled out a revolver he had on him and shot her “more times than I needed to” in the chest, he said.

Smith dragged Kifer next to Brady as she gasped for her life. He pressed the revolver’s barrel under her chin and pulled the trigger in what he described as a “good, clean fi nishing shot” that was meant to end her suffering.

Minn. man charged with murder The Rocky Mountain Collegian | Tuesday, November 27, 2012 7


By Jane Stancill and Renee SchoofThe McClatchy Newspapers

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Scientists and inventors such as Joe DeSimone will be keeping an eye on the bud-get deal making in Wash-ington over the next month, because if negotiators fail to steer the nation away from the fiscal cliff, automatic spending cuts will chop back federal support for scientific research.

“The lifeblood of this country is research and the economic development that flows from that,” said DeSimone, an inventor with his name on more than 130 patents and an entrepreneur who has launched several spinoff companies. “This economy is driven by inno-vation.”

President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans are negotiat-ing to try to head off the “fiscal cliff” — the end of Bush-era tax cuts and the beginning of automatic spending cuts negotiated during the 2011 debt ceil-ing debate. Experts say the cliff could mean a new re-cession. Scientists say its impact could stunt innova-tion and the future of sci-ence in the United States.

Indeed, federally sup-ported science, research and innovation also has resulted in many of the benefits so-ciety takes for granted, such as vaccines and lasers, said Steven Fluharty, senior vice provost for research at the University of Pennsylvania, speaking at a recent briefing on Capitol Hill.

DeSimone, who holds chaired professorships in chemistry at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and chemical engineer-ing at North Carolina State University, said the possibil-ities are so catastrophic that political leaders will have to work out a deal.

“We’ll take a big hit if the research side gets ham-mered,” said DeSimone, whose work involves apply-ing lithographic fabrication technology from the com-puter industry to design new

medicines and vaccines.His lab alone typically

receives about $2.5 million annually in federal research funding from institutions such as the National Insti-tutes of Health and the Na-tional Science Foundation, compared to about $1.5 million in state and private support.

The automatic spending cuts would reduce federal research and development funds by $57.5 billion in the next five years, a reduction of 8.4 percent, according to a study by the American Asso-ciation for the Advancement of Science.

The impact could be wide-ranging, from cancer research to the development of new energy. It could also reduce the recruitment and training of the next genera-tion of scientists.

California, with its large university system and leading role in de-fense, energy and space exploration research, is the largest recipient of federal research dollars. It would also lose more than any state — $11.3 billion in the first five years of the cutbacks, according to the study. Other states high on the list for federal research funding include Texas, Pennsylvania, Washington and Florida.

A report by the American Association for the Advance-ment of Science said that even without the automatic cuts, spending caps already have begun to depress fed-eral research and develop-ment funding. Estimated federal funding for research is currently at its lowest point since 2002, adjusted for inflation.

Science hubs around the country would suffer if Con-gress and the White House can’t agree on a way back from the cliff.

“There is hope … but at this time we must be prepared in case this hits as scheduled in January,” University of Missouri Vice Chancellor for Research Robert Duncan said in an email to faculty last week.

The university estimates that it could lose about $16.7

million per year in federal re-search grants, or 8.4 percent of its 2011 federal research awards of $196.6 million.

In the Pacific Northwest, the University of Washing-ton received just over $1 billion in federal research grants in 2011, more than any other public university every year since 1974. Au-tomatic cuts would create problems for faculty mem-bers seeking funds to main-tain their active research programs, but they’d partic-ularly create difficulties for scientists at the beginning of their careers, Mary Lid-strom, the university’s vice provost for research, said in an interview.

Funding difficulties al-ready discourage graduate students from pursuing careers in academia and research, she said, adding “If that situation becomes worse, I think the impact on the future of the country in terms of our innovation workforce will be devastat-ing.”

Lidstrom said she and others at the school are con-cerned that the first funding to get cut would be under-graduate research, an im-portant means of mentoring young people in science, technology, engineering and math. About a quarter of the university’s undergraduate students have part-time jobs working on research proj-ects.

The budget cuts also would hit the nation’s fed-eral research and devel-opment centers. Among them: the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore national labs in California; Pacific Northwest Nation-al Laboratory in Richland, Wash.; Idaho National Lab-oratory; Argonne Nation-al Laboratory in Illinois; and the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses in San Antonio, Texas.

DeSimone said he was cautiously optimistic that fiscal cliff could be averted.

“I think level heads will prevail and this part of the budget will be protected,” he said. “That’s my hope, anyway.”

fiscal cliff threatens scientific research

By amy huBBaRdThe McClatchy Tribune

LOS ANGELES — NASA and Russia’s space agen-cy are pushing ahead with plans for a yearlong stay in space, choosing the two men who will undertake the mission.

Scott Kelly, a NASA vet-eran with more than 180 days in space, and Rus-sia’s Mikhail Kornienko are scheduled to launch in spring 2015 to spend a year aboard the International Space Station, according to a NASA news release. A main goal of the expedition is to determine the effects of such a long stay on the human body.

“The one-year in-crement will expand the bounds of how we live and work in space,” William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for human exploration and operations at NASA headquarters in Washington, said in the re-lease.

Scientists have been monitoring how shorter stays aboard the ISS — which has been occupied for 12 years — have affected physical aspects including muscle mass, strength and bone density. But horizons for manned missions have widened, and researchers are looking to move beyond low-Earth orbit and want to know how microgravity will affect humans in the longer term.

Documented effects of spaceflight include a host of sometimes nauseating problems — among them loss of bone and muscle mass, vision problems and redistribution of fluid in the body. Motion sick-ness can be severe — no-tably Jake Garn, the first member of Congress to fly in space, was retching and wretchedly ill during his April 1985 mission. Astronauts began jokingly to use the “Garn Scale” to rate their own space sick-ness.

A 1999 interview from a Johnson Space Center oral history project reveals this nugget: “Totally sick and totally incompetent” equals one Garn, with most astronauts attaining about one-tenth of a Garn.

A NASA source told the Los Angeles Times on Mon-day morning that the space agency will have details in about a week on the spe-cific tests and experiments that will be performed during the yearlong mis-sion.

Kelly, 48, has been with NASA since 1996. He became commander of Expedition 26 on the In-ternational Space Station in November 2010 and remained aboard for five months.

The plan is for Kel-ly and Kornienko to launch aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and to make their return trip to Kazakh-stan in spring 2016.

Astronauts chosen for ground-breaking yearlong mission in space

“The one-year increment will expand the bounds of how we live and work in space.”

William Gerstenmaier | NASA administrator for human exploration and operations

Starts the week of January 28th Saturday Morning Games with 2 practices per week Volunteer (Flexible Schedule!)

GREAT FUN! Contact Tom at 221.6385

BOYS BASKETBALL COACHES WANTED

Please call 224-6027, TDD/TTY 224-6002, for accessibility assistance.

The Rocky Mountain Collegian, Tuesday, November 27, 2012

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Transcript of The Rocky Mountain Collegian, Tuesday, November 27, 2012