Editor-in-Chief Managing EditorKevin Kunzmann Erica Averyeditor@thewhitonline.com managing@thewhitonline.comOPINION

The Whit Staff

Every day, many Rowan stu-dents have a reason to head over to Rowan Boulevard and the Whitney Center. The variety of businesses and services that accommodate college students have boomed in that quadrant in past years, and events like the Craft Beer Festival, last year’s ice skating rink and even this weekend’s PROFtoberfest Block Party have made the east side of campus the place to be.

Clearly, that isn’t coinciden-tal. Administration has been vocal in the past year about their intent to bolster univer-sity facilities, housing and local business through the untapped region of High Street. The open-ing of the 3,000 square-foot “Penthouses of Rowan Boule-vard” will move even more stu-dents to that end of campus and provide more opportunity for community growth.

While all of this planned expansion is greatly beneficial to the town and university, it’s important for administration to remember the significance of the campus’ west end.

With the South Jersey Tech-nology Park, Triad Apartments, Rowan Townhouses, ROTC building and other facilities lin-ing the Rt. 322 entrance to cam-pus, Rowan has shown a history of investment into expanding toward major highways such as Rt. 55, Rt. 42 and Interstate 295. However, not much west of Bunce Hall has seen a sig-nificant upgrade in some time — Pfleeger Concert Hall and Rowan Hall aside.

This is interesting because of the level of investment stu-dents have put into that side of campus. The Campus Crossings apartment complex currently has approximately 590 tenants — 573 of them are Rowan stu-dents. The Beau Rivage town-houses are also predominately students, and a portion of the neighborhood blocks off of ma-jor roads like Mullica Hill Road and Carpenter Street are com-prised of student-rented houses.

Additionally, venues such as Hunan Wok, Ciconte’s Italia Pizzeria, Smashburger and nu-merous franchise businesses are staples of student business.

Rowan Athletics even re-ceived a $100,000 alumni do-nation toward a planned multi-purpose athletic facility on the western end of campus this time last year. The most recent update on it is that the lot will serve as interim practice fields for the university while construction on Rowan Hall pushes Lot A to-

Since The Whit already has a story pertaining to sharks in the Features section, I thought it’d be relevant to take a moment to discuss just what exactly makes sharks the kings of the sea and not just because I want an excuse to rant about why sharks are one of the coolest animals to ever live.

Sharks are without a doubt the most well-known creature of our oceans, partly due to Hol-lywood exploiting the fantastical ideas of their potential power and violence. There are over 470 spe-cies of shark, and not all of them are spiky, murderous torpedoes. In fact, most of them aren’t at all. It’s just the few that give them that reputation. There are: mako, blacktip, silky, Caribbean, zebra, hammerhead and sand tiger — just to name a few.

Some people may not like sharks because they have pre-conceived notions, but I’m here to convince you that sharks have something to offer everybody. If you like giant, scary things, sharks are scary and awe-inspir-ing. If you appreciate beauty, sharks like the nurse shark are magnificent creatures. If you like nature, sharks are very interest-ing and unique animals. If you like good design, sharks are the ideal machine to rule the sea. If you like evolution and history, they have one of the longest his-

tories of any creature. There are few things sharks don’t have. They can’t write poetry. That’s about it.

If you’re someone who thinks of a powerful creature when you hear the word “shark,” yes, sharks are the ideal killing machine. Sharks are the Chuck Norris of the animal kingdom. They are underwater homing missiles that can smell out a single drop of blood in a ridiculous amount of

water. Certain sharks grow hun-dreds of teeth, in fact, the jaw is the only bone in their body, and their skin is covered in tough, barbed battle gear. Some sharks can bite people in half and have almost no predators. Bull sharks, for instance, are the Navy SEALs of sharks. Sand tiger sharks will eat each other in the womb in or-der to be the only surviving pup born.

You may not exactly be one to admire sharks for being vicious killers, but you have to give them some credit for being perfect at what they do. A well-designed machine is admirable if it does

an impressive job. People marvel at an amazing piece of new tech-nology that functions beautifully, and a shark is the biological ver-sion of that. Sharks are machines that are so perfectly made they haven’t even needed much evo-lutionary change for hundreds of millions of years, and they’re thousands of times more com-plex than the iPhone. What other fish do you know can sense the electromagnetic fields that all

living things produce?Evolutionarily, they’ve been

around significantly longer than the dinosaurs and will certainly outlast us. The history of the broad definition of a shark goes back more than 420 million years, before land vertebrates existed and before many plants had colonized the continents. If you ever wished you could see some living ancient creatures, they’re the closest thing we have to a real-life Jurassic Park. The largest shark that ever lived was megalodon, at over 70 feet long and weighing a whopping 50 tons with a bite-force stronger than

that of a T-Rex. For some per-spective, the largest great white sharks that ever lived are less than one-third that size.

If you want beauty, the whale shark is known to be the gentle giant of the sea. They are ma-jestic, docile and magnificent creatures, with tiny teeth which filter-feed small ocean creatures. Despite being the largest sea crea-ture in the world that isn’t a ma-rine-mammal (up to 30 feet) they are even friendly toward divers.

An important thing to know about sharks is that you are not on their menu. Most feed on plankton, crustaceans or mol-lusks, with several that feed on seals. Sometimes, to a shark, you may look like a seal. The average number of fatalities worldwide per year between 2001 and 2006 from unprovoked shark attacks was 4.3, according to the Interna-tional Shark Attack File. They are far more threatened by humans than we are of them. Contrary to popular belief, only a few sharks are dangerous to humans. Out of more than 470 species, only four have been involved in a signifi-cant number of fatal, unprovoked attacks on humans.

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Erica AveryColumnist Our own little “shark week”

It has recently come to most of the world’s atten-tion that Amanda Bynes is back at her outlandish, lunatic ways via social me-dia.

On Oct. 10, the once beloved and adored Nick-elodeon star went on a rapid Twitter rant accus-ing her father of physical abuse. In just under an hour, 14 tweets were sent out by Bynes, describing her father’s alleged abuse tactics and how she needs a “tremendous amount of facial surgery.” Since then, Bynes has been hospitalized and placed on a psychiatric hold. But despite this outrage and the hundreds of other de-bacles with the law that have come before it, true

Amanda Bynes fans know that the real star still shines brightly within. To reinforce what an amaz-ing actress she truly is, here are five of her best acting roles from the past and why these are the mo-ments we should remem-ber the real and normal Amanda by.1. All That: In her debut acting gig, Amanda played a young girl named Ash-ley who read letters from viewers seeking advice. In the “Ask Ashley” series, Bynes would read the let-ters in a sweet and girl-ish tone then suddenly respond in an angry and over-the-top manner with blatantly obvious an-swers. For an 11-year-old, switching from one dras-tic emotion to the other is pretty impressive.2. The Amanda Show:

Sketches include poor home-made renditions of famous movies that were apparently “much better” in Blockblister, dancing lobsters, fake punish-ments and an incompe-tent bailiff in Judge Trudy, a mom stranded in a hot air balloon and a miss-ing toe in Moody’s Point, and “I like eggs” in The Girl’s Room. Amanda per-formed in every single one of these short sketches, taking on an entirely dif-ferent role for each one. I guess you could say she’s a flexible actress. “Meh-hah!”3. What A Girl Wants: Set in London, England, Bynes plays a 17-year-old desperate to find her birth-father and form the father-daughter re-lationship she’s always wanted. As a free-spirited,

outgoing and hilarious All-American girl, Bynes really has what every girl wants in this movie.4. Easy-A: In this teen comedy, Bynes plays a strictly religious and slightly obsessive ring-leader trying to bring her school’s newest popular girl, Olive Penderghast, (Emma Stone) down to the ground. Throughout the entirety of the movie, Bynes — although the head of a religious clique — spreads rumors about Olive’s life and is not as nice as she pretends to be.5. She’s The Man: In my opinion, “She’s The Man” is Bynes’ best performing role in all of her acting ca-reer. Starring as an attrac-tive female soccer player who then transforms her-self to look like her twin brother in order to play

on the men’s soccer team, Bynes outshines all of the other stars in this movie (including Channing Ta-tum, sorry). Although the plot is a complete stretch from anything that would happen in reality, Bynes perfectly portrays every girl’s idea of what being a boy must be like. One of the most quotable movies of all time, “my favorite’s Gouda,” and “when I close my eyes I see you for what you truly are, which is ugly,” Bynes is the defini-tion of perfection in this movie.

We know you’re still in there, Amanda! Come back to us soon and be normal.

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Carly Lebel Columnist

...yes, sharks are the ideal killing machine. Sharks are the Chuck Norris

of the animal kingdom.

See Editorial, Pg. 6

Amanda Bynes’ greatest roles

Editorial: fixing up Rowan’s

west side