nov. 29, 2011
DESCRIPTION
The student-run newspaper at the University of ArkansasTRANSCRIPT
PAGE 1 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2011 Vol. 106, NO. 52 UATRAV.COM
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2011VOL. 106, NO. 528 PAGESUATRAV.COM
WEATHERFORECAST
T O D AY T H U R S D AY F R I D AY S AT U R D AY S U N D AY M O N D AY53° 54° 61° 63° 66° 65°
! e closing of Lot 67 and Lot 2 will be postponed until winter break, said a Parking and Transit representative.
Lot 67, which is adjacent to the HPER building, was slat-ed to close a" er the last home football game against Tennes-see on Nov. 12.
But the closing was put o# “for commencement and [the] football season, basically,” saidAndy Gilbride, parking and transit representative.
! e transition to a closed Lot 67 will be easier at the start of a new semester rath-er than the end of the current one, Gilbride said.
Lot 2, a temporary gravel lot next to the UAPD head-quarters that has 91 parking spots, will be closed so the UA can erect a new Information Technologies building, Gil-bride said.
“Lot 2 will be closed per-manently. Parking didn’t pay for Lot 2; facilities manage-ment did, so it didn’t cost the students or sta# anything. We are not losing anything for it except the parking spaces,” Gilbride said.
! e UA will also perma-
nently close Lot 67, which holds 500 parking spaces. A one-story, 227-space parking garage under the new athletic training building will take its place, Gilbride said.
! e new parking garage may not be done in time for next school year, Gilbride said.
“! e practice facility should be done but I don’t know for sure [that] the park-ing lot is going to be built,” he said. “I understand the univer-sity wants to use it for scholar-ship parking, so that is the rea-son they want it ready for next year.
“! e university wants it to be open by next year, but I don’t see how it can be,” Gil-bride said. “It just takes time for construction.”
Closing Lot 67 and 2 will be easier in the winter because the marching band won’t be using Lot 56, which leaves an extra 500 parking spots, he said.
“We know we’ll have prob-lems, but we just do not know how bad it’s going to be,” Gil-bride said.
“! ere shouldn’t be really that big of a problem this se-mester,” he said. “We’re more worried about the beginning of next school year.”
Aron Ralston, the climb-er depicted in the $ lm 127 Hours, who amputated his arm a" er being trapped in Utah’s Bluejohn Canyon, vis-ited the UA, Monday, as part of the distinguished lecture series.
He was chosen by a stu-dent committee who compiles a list of possible speakers and then votes on the choices, said Steve Voorhies, manager of media relations. ! e distin-guished lecture series is fund-ed by student-appropriated funds released by the Associ-ated Student Government.
Ralston wants to encour-age people through the telling of his story.
“I think just in general that we have a lot of adversity in life and these are our boul-ders or sometimes are actual rocks,” he said. “How we react to them and respond can open doors and opportunities.”
Helping people take what could be a tragedy and turn it into a blessing is his goal, Ralston said.
“Something can be a trau-ma or a tragedy, but it can also be a blessing,” he said.
Nolan Richardson, former UA men’s basketball coach, was recognized Monday as a recip-ient of the Silas Hunt Legacy Award. In 1994, Coach Nolan Richardson lead the UA bas-ketball team to a NCAA cham-pionship, but of all the awards Richardson has won, he said that this was the best one.
“Everywhere he has been, everywhere he has gone, he has won. For 17 years, he was the beating heart of of the Univer-sity of Arkansas men’s basket-ball program,” said Chancel-lor David G. Gearhart. “Nolan was more than just a coach, he has become a part of Razorback lore. He gave us all the pride, all the respect, all the dignity, all the honor that anyone could hope for.”
Richardson has a deep re-spect for Silas Hunt and spoke during the reception about Hunt “paving the road.”
“To me that was one of my ultimate goals is to be the best
I could possibly be in order that others may follow,” Richardson said. “My grandmother raised me and she always would tell us that ‘if there is a crack in the door, that’s all you need.’ ! ere
was a crack in that door for Si-las and he kicked it down in or-der for us, African Americans, to move forward.
In 1948, Silas Hunt was the $ rst African American to at-
tend a public university in the South when he was accepted in the School of Law at the UA.
UA Officials to PermanentlyClose Two Parking Lots
Twirling In theFace of AdversityPage 7
by JACK SUNTRUPStaff Writer
From Tragedyto Inspiration
Richardson Recognized for Silas Hunt Award
by MEGAN HUCKABYStaff Writer
by SARAH DEROUENStaff Writer
LOGAN WEBSTER STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERAron Ralston, who was depicted in the film “ 127 Hours” by actor James Franco spoke in Fayetteville Monday.
New Bus for the Blue Route
Plans for New Parking Deck
The Art of Napping: A College Student’s Expertise
Harold and Kumar Bring New Flavor to Christmas
Regular Season in Review
#totalfreshmove: What I Learned at the UA
Parking and transit o! -cials added an extra bus to combat record enrollment.
Page 2
UA o! cials are plan to add a parking deck with 800 spaces.
Page 3
Getting shut eye during the day can be bene" cial.
Page 7
Not the typical Christmas movie, but full of laughs.
Page 5
Arkansas " nished the football season ranked in the top 10. Check out the good and bad of the regular season.
Page 5
Five things many freshman learn during their $ rst semes-ter at the UA.
Page 4
News News Features Features Sports Opinion
In T
his I
ssue
:
! e UA produces 192 tons of food waste every year, ac-cording to an audit by the Of-$ ce for Campus Sustainabili-ty, however several programs work to reduce this number by composting and $ nding industrial uses for the waste, o% cials said.
Chartwells, the company responsible for feeding UA students campus-wide, start-ed a program that prevented 15 tractor trailer loads worth of waste from going to the land$ ll in its $ rst year, said Kim Johnson, marketing di-rector for Chartwells. With enrollment continuously ris-ing, that number would have increased exponentially over the years, she said.
"! ree years ago we re-
moved trays from the dining halls,” Johnson said. “! at was big. It was when enroll-ment was about 17,000. Oth-er savings were seen in water, gas and electricity that were not used to wash the trays.
“Since going trayless, we’ve saved over 250 million pounds of waste from going into the land$ lls,” she said.
Other programs have been created to teach food-service employees how to conserve food waste when preparing meals.
“We have a program in place called Trim Trax,” Johnson said. “With this we teach the kitchen-production associates about minimizing waste as they are preparing foods for cooking or serving.
Chartwells Steps Up Sustainability Efforts
by ZEEK MARTINand LANDON REEVES
LOGAN WEBSTER STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERFormer men’s Razorback basketball coach Nolan Richardson was recognized as a recipient for the Silas Hunt Legacy Award Monday.
Follow us on Twitter atuatrav.com
see CHARTWELLSon page 3
see RALSTONon page 2
MIKE NORTON STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERLot 67 by the HPER will be closing after winter break. This marks the third lot this year that has closed because of construction.
see RICHARDSONon page 2
NEWS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2011 PAGE 2
The women and men of the University of Arkansas Police Department, in partnership with the community, are committed to protecting the future of Arkansas by promot-ing a safe and secure environment.
The Transit and Parking office handles parking permits and passes and transit for students, including bus routes and GoLoco Ride Sharing. Students with parking violations can contact the office to appeal their citation.
NEED TICKETS? CALL 1-800-982-4647
NEED A RIDE AT NIGHT? CALL 575 - 7233
NEED EMERGENCY HELP? CALL UAPD 575-2222
HAVE A TICKET? CALL 575-7275 TO RESOLVE IT
Otherwise known as 575-SAFE, the mission of the Safe Ride program is to provide students with a safe means of transportation from any uncomfortable or inconvenient situation. Safe Ride brings you home safely.
Don’t forget to call early and reserve your student football tickets for the 2010-2011 season. The ticket office is located on Razorback Road next to Baum Stadium.
CAMPUS NUMBERS
The Arkansas Traveler, the student newspaper of the University of Arkansas, is published every day during the fall and spring academic sessions except during exam periods and university holidays.
Opinions expressed in signed columns are those of the individual writers and do not necessarily refl ect the opinion of The Traveler. The editor makes all fi nal content decisions.
One copy of The Arkansas Traveler is free to every member of the UA commu-nity. Additional copies can be purchased for 50 cents each. Mail subscriptions for delivery within the continental United States can be purchased for $125.00 per se-mester. Contact the Traveler Business Manager to arrange.
CONTACT
STAFF
The Arkansas Traveler strives for accuracy in its reporting and will correct all matters of fact. If you believe the paper has printed an error, please notify the editor at 575.8455 or at [email protected].
SABA NASEEMEditor [email protected]
MATTIE QUINNManaging [email protected]
LAUREN LEATHERBYFeatures [email protected]
JIMMY CARTERSports [email protected]
ZACH TURNERAsst. Sports Editor
CANNON MCNAIRSales [email protected]
JAIME HOLLANDAccount [email protected]
ZACHARY FRYAccount [email protected]
SAMANTHA WILLIAMSEnterprise Editor
575-3226
CHAD WOODARDNews Editor
BRITTANY NIMSAsst. News Editor
KELSI FORDAsst. Features Editor
JORDAIN CARNEYOpinion Editor
SARAH CHAMPAGNEPhoto Editor
BEN FLOWERSAsst. Photo Editor
EDITORIAL
ADVERTISING & DESIGN
CORRECTIONS
ABOUT THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
ERIK NORTHFELLLead Designer/ Web Developer
CELI BIRKEGraphic Designer
DYLAN CRAIGGraphic Designer
MICY LIUCampus Account Executive
AARON TANCampus Account Executive
ANDY KOUCHYAccount Executive
SARAH COLPITTSNews Designer
LEAH YOUNG Features Designer
TAYLOR WHITESports Designer
EDITORIAL
ADVERTISING & DESIGN
119 Kimpel HallUniversity of ArkansasFayetteville, AR 72701Main: 479.575.3406 Fax: [email protected]
Scan to call us! facebook.com/uatravtwitter.com/uatrav
Facing record enrollment and increased ridership, Ra-zorback Transit o! cials have added another bus to the Blue route from 3:30 to 6 p.m., one o! cial said.
“A" er 10:30 [a.m.], we go down to two buses, tradition-ally,” said Mike Seither, Razor-back Transit manager. “Prob-lem was, between 2 to 5 p.m., the system started to break down.”
In October, the Blue route carried nearly 9,000 more pas-sengers than October of last year. Ridership in September increased from 51,345 in 2009 to 65,637 in 2011, according to the department website.
“# ere are obviously more riders [going home in the af-ternoon],” Seither said. “We added a bus in the a" ernoon to get more service for Blue because the schedule wasn’t being made.”
# e strip of apartments and housing along the route contributes to the large rider-ship, Seither said.
“# ere’s a ton of apartment complexes in that general area along Garland and Leverett [Avenues],” he said.
Records show a sharp de-cline in ridership during oth-er months of the school year. Ridership on the Blue route declined to 32,694 in Febru-ary.
Even so, other factors con-tributed to the department’s decision.
“# e system started to breakdown, sometimes be-cause of tra! c patterns,” he said. “It was slower and slower to get up and down the Blue Route because of tra! c sig-nals.”
New buses were slated to replace four old ones next school year, but Seither said increased ridership will make it necessary to expand the $ eet instead.
“We’re going to need to
expand the size of the $ eet even though we were going to replace old buses,” he said. “We’ll take two of them and expand the $ eet size from 21 to 23.”
At 11:30 a.m. Friday, as the Blue bus carried a standing-room-only crowd, students like junior Cassidy McCants were pleased with the deci-sion to add another bus to the
route.“# e a" ernoons aren’t too
crowded,” she said, “but it’s de% nitely a good thing they added another bus. I’m really happy with that.”
Blue Route Gets Extra P.M. Busby JACK SUNTRUP
Staff Writer
CHANDLER CRACRAFT STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERRecord enrollment has forced parking and transit officials to add an extra p.m. bus to the Blue Route, said Mike Seither, Razorback Transit manager.
Before the accident Ralston le" his job in order to be “a mountain man.”
“I was following my dream” he said. He did this all for his love of the outdoors.
He wants to inspire people to follow their passions.
“When I look back on it from the bottom of that canyon where I was trapped and I was going to die I realized all of the accomplishments that I have had in my life,” Ralston said. “# e one thing that I had that I was most proud of was quit-ting and leaving to go do what I actually wanted to do.”
His accident gave him a dif-ferent perspective on life.
“We also have the perspec-tive of ‘How bad is it?’ For me, I miss a plane, am late or delayed or forget a bag or something,” he said. “Or an [audio/visu-al] system melts down when I am speaking in front of 10,000 people, but did I have to drink my own urine today? No.”
Amputating his own hand wasn’t easy, but something he knew he needed to do.
“I can look at this, the am-putation on my arm, and know that while I was doing some-thing so horri% c, to contem-plate it as a healthy person: mobile and with our freedom and autonomy, that it would be terrifying to amputate your own arm,” he said. “Yet, I did it with a smile on my face be-cause it meant that I was going to get out of there.”
Ralston wouldn’t change anything, he said.
# is has been “the greatest gi" in my life,” Ralston said.
Ralston has given hundreds of lectures since his accident more than eight years ago, in-cluding more than 60 this year. # e response to his lectures has been very positive, he said.
He now has a wife and young son who enjoy moun-taineering, ra" ing and skiing, Ralston said.
He still climbs, even becom-ing the % rst person to climb all of the highest peaks in Colora-do during the winter, he said.
RALSTONfrom page 1
“# e Silas Hunt Award was inaugurated in 2006 as a means to recognize those who have helped to make our campus a
more diverse and welcoming place. One of the best features about the award is that is gives us the ability to simultaneous-ly look backward and forward. # e award allows us to com-memorate Silas Hunt and the
other pioneers of color that mustered the courageous and deal with the hardships asso-ciated with beginning the % rst to desegregate this institution” said Charles Robinson, vice provost for diversity.
RICHARDSONfrom page 1
NEWSPAGE 3 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2011
AD SPACEAD:Someone you know
needs affordable
birth control.
3729 N. Crossover, Ste. 107 | Fayetteville 1.479.443.7791 | www.ppaeo.org
UA o! cials is in the early planning stages of building a new parking deck with 800 spaces, o! cials said.
" e deck will be built # ve to 10 years from now, said Jay Huneycutt, director of Plan-ning and Capital Program-
ming, via email. It will be lo-cated north of Maple Street and east of Leverett Avenue.
" e need for parking is not as intense as students think, said Andy Gilbride, a Parking and Transit o! cial. " e main obstacle is informing people where the current lots are.
" e need for parking is not severe right now, Gilbride said.
“I think we will [need parking] next year with the loss of Lot 67 and the increase of enrollment,” he said.
Lot 67 will close on Dec. 19 so that construction can begin on the new football building, according to the University Recreations website. If need-ed, there will also be changes in Lot 55.
" e freshman class steadily
increases each year, and park-ing is already a problem, said Jared Heiles, senior biology major.
“I walk to class because I live close enough,” he said. “If I didn’t walk I would have no where to park.”
Paying to park quickly be-comes too expensive, he said.
UA Officials Plan New Parking Deckby MEGAN HUCKABY
Staff Writer
Outdoor Connection Cen-ter o! cials will sponsor a ski trip to Breckenridge, Colo., from Jan. 8 to 14, o! cials said.
“" e ski trip is always right before the beginning of the spring semester,” said Jennifer Hazelrigs, assistant director of the OCC.
" ere are 50 available spots for the trip, Hazelrigs said. Registration ends Dec. 6.
" e trip, which is not open to the public, costs university students $489 and university
members $549, according to the ski trip $ yer. A $99 non-refundable and non-transfer-able deposit is due at the time of registration.
" e cost includes one night of skiing at Keystone Ski Re-sort, according to the $ yer, but does not cover extra li% passes, transportation to oth-er mountains, food, souvenirs and ski or snowboard rentals.
" e price also includes the condominiums where partici-pants will be staying, which have two bedrooms with full bathrooms, a full kitchen, a dining area, a sleeper sofa,
and a # replace and balcony. Each room will hold a
maximum of six people. Sign-up for roommates will be con-ducted at a Dec. 6 pre-trip meeting in HPER 103 at 6 p.m.
“" e ski trip has been available to students since 2001,” Hazelrigs said.
" e pre-trip meeting will review details on equipment, food, what to pack, inherent risks and transportation, ac-cording to the $ yer.
Ski and snowboard rentals range from $100 to $150 per week, but students can learn
about discounted rentals at the Dec. 6 meeting. Attendees will be allowed to bring their own equipment, which will be stored under the charter bus, according to the $ yer.
“We o& er over 70 pro-grams per year to the student body,” Hazelrigs said.
“We go on trips such as climbing, mountain biking, road cycling, canoeing, kay-aking, skiing, international travel and backpacking. All are outdoor recreational and educational activities and we travel all over the United States,” Hazelrigs said.
OCC Offers Breckenridge Ski Tripby KAREN STIGAR
Staff Writer
Student’s Lives Intertwine
MADDIE LOGAN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERStudents took a break from classes to knit while nibbling on snacks in the Union Connections Lounge Monday.
“For example, something as simple as trimming an on-ion a certain way can lessen what goes out as waste,” she said.
Chartwells o! cials also keep track of how many stu-dents they serve each day of the week in order to cut down on the amount of food pre-pared each day.
“We carefully monitor our customer counts down to 15 minute service increments. We know how many more people we will serve at lunch on a Wednesday as com-pared to a " ursday at Brough [Commons]. We do this for every operation on campus,” Johnson said.
" e website for the Envi-ronmental Protection Agen-cy lists guidelines for manag-ing food waste. " e foremost step is to reduce the source; food le% from source reduc-tion should feed hungry peo-ple, then animals. EPA prefers what’s le% be composted or used for industrial purposes. " e least favored method of handling food waste is a land-# ll or incineration.
" e o! ce for campus sus-tainability composted food scraps from the Northwest Quad dining hall at one of the farms with two large contain-ers called earth tubs. It was Zoe Teague, a UA student, who thought to use the tubs.
What waste is le% in din-ing halls is collected by Chart-wells o! cials and taken to the university’s Agri Farm, where it is added to the earth tubs to be used in the Agricultural Research and Extension Cen-ter’s experimental plots.
" e O! ce for Campus Sus-tainability, which has man-aged earth tubs since April 2011, discovered that the tubs compost a maximum of 15 tons of food waste every year, said Carlos Ochoa, interim director for Campus Sustain-ability.
“We don’t have an organic composting system other than the earth tubs, and they are not accepting anymore food scraps because it doesn’t make sense to put in the e& ort, ener-gy, time and resources to con-vert # ve percent of food waste on campus,” Ochoa said.
Other technologies, in-cluding the ORCA compost machine, reduce the organic
waste le% over by the compost-ing program.
Pomfret dining hall was using an ORCA composting machine that converted 600 pounds of food waste a day into water that was drained into sewage and cleaned by the city of Fayetteville o! -cials, said Mike Johnson, as-sociate vice chancellor for Fa-cilities.
" e machine’s process of turning food waste into water uses “environmentally friend-ly microorganisms” to digest or compost food waste, ac-cording to greensmartfood-services.com, the machine manufacturer’s website.
Pomfret o! cials had the machine for a 60-day tri-al, which has now expired. UA o! cials are trying to get someone to pick up the ma-chine, Johnson said.
Oil from UA dining halls is also recycled and used for in-dustrial purposes.
“We collect used cook-ing oil from # ve cafeterias on campus and bring it out to the farm,” said Ron Cox, as-sistant director of the Agricul-ture Experiment Station. “We add some chemicals to it and run it through a processor, then the # nished product that comes out is biodiesel, and we use it on our tractors here at the farm.”
" e process can make three-fourths of every gal-lon of used cooking oil into usable biodiesel. Waste from this process is composted and used as fertilizer, Cox said.
“We make about 2,500 to 3,000 gallons of biodiesel a year. It cost us about a dollar per gallon to make,” Cox said. “With the price of diesel we are about to break even a% er three years. We save a $1.50 to $2 a gallon depending on the price of diesel.”
" ese sustainability e& orts are a step in the right direc-tion, some students said.
"I’m glad that they are at-tempting to reduce all of the waste students generate,” said sophomore Timothy Keas. “It’s great to hear that some of the food waste is being com-posted.”
“I’ve actually wondered about what happens to all of the waste,” said Nick Roberts, a student who is studying sus-tainability. “" ese e& orts give me a little bit more hope that we are heading in the right di-rection.
CRIME REPORT:
Sunday, Nov. 13Public Intoxication; Minor In Possession Of Alcohol A non-a! liated juvenile was found in Maple Hill South Residence Hall, and was transported to Washington Re-gional Medical Center and released to her parents.
Monday, Nov. 14Criminal MischiefA non-a! liated person reported someone scratched the hood, front bumper and right side of his vehicle while it was parked in Lot 73.
Tuesday, Nov. 15Battery Third-DegreeA student reported an acquaintance knocked on his door in Northwest Quad C Building and punched him in the head and face when he opened the door.
Wednesday, Nov. 16Breaking Or Entering; Theft Of PropertyA sta& member reported someone stole a parking per-mit from her vehicle while it was parked in Lot 40.
Thursday, Nov. 17 Theft Of PropertyA sta& member reported someone stole a parking per-mit from a shelf at the Service Center in the HPER Building.
Friday, Nov. 18 Theft Of PropertyA student reported someone stole golf clubs from the patio of his apartment at Duncan Avenue. Theft Of PropertyAn employee of UAMS reported someone stole an iPod Touch from a nurses’ station at the UAMS Northwest Campus.
CHARTWELLSfrom page 1
I’ve never been one for the ge-neric writing. Sometimes, how-ever, it’s inescapable. Regardless of who you are, what you believe in or the clothes you throw on your back; you’ve all heard a song on the radio, or watched a movie, and said, “! at’s me!”
Yet, this isn’t always limited to music or the silver screen, there are more than 4,400 freshmen at the UA, and we’ve all had some similar experiences. For those upperclass-men reading, while you’ve moved on from the semi-embarrassing time period that is, “freshman year,” hopefully you still remember the days of being fresh meat.
Now that my only semester as a UA freshman is coming to a close, I’ve drawn a few conclusions that I feel at least some of you has came to during the past semester.
1. ! ere is no such thing as a clean shower.
While Debra and Madeline do a phenomenal job of keeping Futrall Hall clean, by 6 or 7 p.m., one can be sure that the men’s showers will have gone from “spic
and span,” to abhorrent.! is poses a few problems
though; one has to take a shower. And by running the water for a while before jumping it, one can al-leviate the remains that “thought-ful” dorm mates have le" behind.
In a world where judgments are o" en made o# $ rst appearance, a solid shower could be the di# er-ence between a date, a job and the respect of one’s peers. Moreover, showers can decrease stress, in-somnia and even relieve coughs, according to a medically-reviewed livestrong.com article.
In a time when $ nals are rap-idly approaching, it may be even more necessary to brush up on hy-giene.
2. “It’s not what you make, it’s what you spend.”
I wish I could take credit for that, because it’s some of the best advice I’ve received since I started the semester in the fall.
Senior year of high school was a joke. Aside from AP classes, little time and e# ort was needed to get the same 3.5+ GPA I’d been mak-ing. Yet, while college so far hasn’t been impossible, it does require more time and e# ort. ! is has real-ly scaled down the workweek from an average 22 hours to maybe 11.
Because of the change and ex-haustion of my % ex dollars, I’ve had to become a better manager of money, which doesn’t necessarily entitle stretching every dollar, but means to spend wisely.
! is can be done in a few ways, like buying the 30-count package of water bottles at Walmart instead of wasting money at Club Red, or
using all the meals on a meal plan instead of hitting up popular res-taurants.
Save the money for the week-end.
3. Not all freshmen are created equal.
Some are better than others. It sounds snide, but it’s true. Unless you’re literally the highest-ranking student on the campus, someone will be better than you.
Yet, the trap one can get into is obsessing over it, and letting it pre-vent the skills that one does possess from % ourishing. We’re not super humans, we’re freshmen. We won’t be professionals at everything we do; yet it shouldn’t stop us from doing our best.
Moreover, by letting someone, especially a roommates’ perfect grasp on a foreign language, chem-istry or even H2P prevent one from doing one’s best, that’s when it becomes a problem. One should rejoice in the fact that they have an expert in the room and not let it be a means of degradation.
Finally, the competition should be a striving point, a friendly rival-ry to do the best one can.
4. ! e lucky bird gets the park-ing space
I can’t take credit for this one either, but it’s true. Many might be quick to rebut this by positing that if one gets to campus early, that there will always be a spot, how-ever, if that spot is in Lot 73, it’s far from convenient. ! e early bird doesn’t necessarily get the worm.
I’m lucky in that I live on cam-pus, so I don’t have to worry about $ nding a spot for class every day.
Also, because I work at the Univer-sity House for the National Phone Campaign, I have a maximum 25-second walk from the residence hall. Yet, I know there are those who aren’t so lucky.
! e sad part is that while get-ting here early might o# er a small cushion, parking spots at UA large-ly depend on luck. It may have been helpful had Parking & Transit not grossly oversold parking per-mits by 95 percent according to a 40/29 News article.
5. “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Benjamin Franklin’s above quote is open to reader interpreta-tion, but as far as my freshman ex-perience has been; it sums it up.
O" en people go into school with the mind set of drinking equals failure, or skipping a class ruins you, but for the helicopter parents reading, we can handle it.
! e point of this is: handle yourself. You know your limits, not your friends, signi$ cant other, parents, etc. ! e model student isn’t addicted to Club Mullins, the model student is one who can pri-oritize and balance their academic and social lives, and still be healthy.
So I’ve learned to make Frank-lin’s quote my motto, and always know that I’m prepared to succeed when I wake up in the morning, regardless of where that is.
Call me crazy, but while being a freshman was more than just $ ve things, this is what I’m taking away from the beginning.
Joe Kieklak is a Traveler colum-nist. His column appears weekly.
PAGE 4 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2011 EDITOR: SABA NASEEM MANAGING EDITOR: MATTIE QUINN
Scan here to go tothe Opinion section
on uatrav.comTHE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
OPINION
CONTACT US! e Arkansas Traveler welcomes letters to the editor from all interested readers. Letters should be at most 300 words and should include your name, student clas-si$ cation and major or title with the university and a day-time telephone number for veri$ cation. Letters
should be sent to [email protected].
EDITORIAL BOARDEDITOR
MANAGING EDITOROPINION EDITOR
ENTERPRISE EDITOR
Saba NaseemMattie QuinnJordain CarneySamantha Williams
High School to College: A Di! erent Mind Set
Well, it is the end of another semester here at the University of Arkansas. For some, this is the end of their $ rst semester and for oth-ers it is their last. And then there are those of us in the middle – with a few more semesters to go. No matter which category you $ t into, congratulations on making it another (or your $ rst) semester so far!
Hopefully the $ rst year stu-dents have noticed during their $ rst few months here that college is a lot di# erent than high school. We all know that there is more freedom, tougher classes, there are more people and skipping class is not exactly illegal. Besides those di# erences, I hope that the 4,400
Club has seen that college is gener-ally a lot more accepting than high school tends to be. I know this time last year I was exhausted. But it was a good kind of exhausted. I had nearly completed my $ rst semester of college, my grades were looking good and I had gotten many new opportunities. ! e transition from high school to college had not been as scary as I initially thought. A great part of this came from the UA being a place where everyone can $ nd a place where they $ t in. Sad to say, high school o" entimes falls into the stereotypes in which it is portrayed on television. Cliques, everything being about popularity and drama $ ll the hallways of high school. Of course, I cannot speak for all high schools, just the four that I attended.
Since coming to college though, I have noticed a di# erent mind set. Everyone here has bigger things on their mind than the petty issues of high school. First o# academics are more important now that it is no longer free. High school was about working hard to get here now we are working hard to stay here. Sec-ondly, I do not think that people feel the need to be apart of a certain “popular” group, but are more con-
cerned with $ nding groups that $ t their interests. With more than 350 Registered Student Organiza-tions, there are plenty of groups to choose from. Even for those want-ing to start their own RSO, the re-quirements for doing so are not that strenuous. According to UA RSO website, to start your own RSO you need to have at least six members and a full time faculty/sta# advisor from the UA. With a population of 20,000 plus, $ nding $ ve other people with similar in-terests and a faculty or sta# mem-ber to advise you should not be ex-tremely di& cult.
A third reason that college seems to be more of an accepting environment than high school is the lack of the whole “seniority” as-pect. In high school, being a fresh-man was possibly the worst thing you could be, but in college it al-most does not even matter. Besides the fact that upperclassmen get to pick classes before underclassmen, there is not much di# erence be-tween the classi$ cations. First year students can sit in class next to $ " h year students and sometimes no one can even tell the di# erence. Ev-eryone is here for similar goals: to have fun, to learn about themselves
and to graduate. ! e “I’m a senior, you’re a freshman, I’m better than you” issue doesn’t matter anymore.
! ere may be hints of high school here and there throughout campus but in some ways, these things are unavoidable. Drama just happens to be a part of life and therefore will be everywhere. I just think that it exists in much smaller portions here at the UA.
For those of who are complet-ing their $ rst semester here, I hope that you have found (or are $ nd-ing) where you $ t in on campus and have learned lots of lessons that you can apply to future se-mesters. For those who are $ nish-ing up and will be graduating next month, I hope you have had the time of your life while attending the UA and will take the skills you have learned with you to become successful in your post-college life. And for the rest of us – stuck in the middle or close to graduating, let us to continue $ nd our places and cultivate an accepting envi-ronment here while leaving all the high school problems back home.
DeShaun Artis is a columnist for the Traveler. His column appears every other Tuesday.
Expanding Horizons
by DESHAUN ARTISTraveler Columnist
MCT CAMPUS
FROM THE BOARD
#totalfreshmove: What I’ve Learned at the UARocket Science
byJOE KIEKLAKTraveler Columnist
Traveler Quote of the Day“We also have the perspective of ‘How bad is it?’ For me, I miss a
plane, am late or delayed or forget a bag or something. Or an [audio/
visual] system melts down when I am speaking in front of 10,000 people,
but did I have to drink my own urine today? No.”
-Aron Ralston, distinguished lectures committee speaker “Tragedy To Inspiration,” page one
It’s easy as students to get caught up in the mun-dane day-to-day grind: We didn’t do as well as we hoped on a test, we couldn’t find a parking spot or maybe we forget we had a quiz in French, but in the bigger picture none of these things really mat-ter. (Unless of course, you chronically forget about quizzes and end up dropping out of school. Don’t do that.)
Aron Ralston spoke at the Fayetteville Town Center Monday night. Rolston amputated his arm during a 2003 hiking trip in Utah.
Rolston’s speech and experience reminded us that despite how drastic or important things might seem in the short term, in the larger span of our life whether we had to park in the pit or on Lot 56, if we got a B+ instead of an A- on a quiz or if we don’t get to have another cup of coffee don’t really matter.
That isn’t to say that some college students haven’t faced serious things, but students should remember not to sweat the small stuff.
Don’t Sweat The Small Stu!
It’s Time For You To Get A WatchAssociated Student Government senators will
once again debate a resolution to recommends of-ficials synchronize all of the clocks across campus, creating a universal time.
First of all, we should say that we should just be thankful that senators are proposing legislation, and not creating a month gap between legislation being introduced like previous years.
But realistically, all of the clocks being synchro-nized across the UA campus isn’t likely going to happen.
This at least the third time that ASG senators have proposed and passed similar legislation, and the UA students still do not have a synchronized, university time.
Furthermore, the legislation states that a univer-sity-wide universal time, would be “a benefit to stu-dent punctuality.”
This might be true, but we doubt it. Most UA students have a cellphone, if not a
watch. Most of us are aware of what time it is when we’re heading from class to class. Even if we’re sit-ting in a class in Old Main, which is notorious for untimely clocks, and the clock says 4:45, students generally know that it’s really 10:23 and our profes-sor is running over the end of class. (There’s a gen-eral trend that once you get within five minutes of the end of class, students start messing with their stuff as class gets closer to being over.)
It isn’t that the legislation is pointless, we just don’t want ASG senators to get weighed down with smaller legislation, that likely won’t effect many students, when there are bigger issues at the UA senators could be going after.
PAGE 5 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2011 SPORTS EDITOR: JIMMY CARTER ASST. SPORTS EDITOR: ZACH TURNER
Scan here to go tothe Sports section
on uatrav.com:THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
SPORTSWhich
Bowl is Best?
Arkansas should be playing in a BCS bowl this year.
The Razorbacks are clearly one of the top five or six teams in the nation and both of their losses have come against teams that will likely play in the national championship game.
The Hogs will likely finish the regular season ranked as high or higher than they were last year in qualifying for the Sugar Bowl.
Arkansas won’t get a chance for a second consecutive BCS appear-ance because just two teams from each conference can qualify for a BCS bowl.
The exception is if Georgia beat LSU and the Tigers stayed in the top three with Alabama. The Bulldogs would earn the automatic bid, while LSU and the Crimson Tide could re-ceive at-large berths.
Any way it works out, the Razor-backs won’t play in the BCS.
I think that’s BS.If the system is supposed to find
the 10 best teams in the nation each year, how can it limit the number of teams from one conference?
It is basically saying we want the best teams as long as we can make everyone happy and appease each conference.
That is prioritized before getting the best teams.
Just look at the Big East and ACC the last several years.
Diatribe aside, the Hogs are likely headed to Dallas or Orlando in Janu-ary.
The Cotton and Capital One bowls aren’t the BCS, but they’re about as high-profile as a non-BCS bowl gets.
The Capital One Bowl has long been considered the premier non-BCS bowl. A strong argument can be made that isn’t the case anymore.
The Cotton Bowl has made strides in recent years, including last season when 10-win LSU beat a red-hot Texas A&M team.
The Cotton Bowl has the better venue hands-down. Cowboys Sta-dium is the nicest stadium in the na-tion, while the Citrus Bowl is a larger War Memorial.
The Capital One Bowl is a morn-ing kickoff on New Years Day and has to compete with other games.
The Cotton Bowl is a primetime kickoff Jan. 6, the final major bowl game before the national title. The entire country is watching.
The Cotton Bowl is also more beneficial for Arkansas specifically this year.
Playing the Cotton Bowl in Texas provides added exposure and helps the Razorbacks gain notoriety in one of their largest and most-important recruiting bases.
The Hogs have 14 scholarship players from Texas, just three from Florida.
Arkansas fans travel very well to Dallas, located just five hours from Fayetteville. Orlando is a nicer winter destination, but is an 18-hour drive.
In the Capital One, the Razor-backs would likely play the loser of the Wisconsin-Michigan State game, Penn State or Michigan.
In the Cotton Bowl, the Hogs would likely play the loser of the Oklahoma State-Oklahoma game or Kansas State.
An Arkansas-OU or Arkansas-OSU matchup would generate much more excitement than an Arkansas-Big 10 game.
It looks like an easy decision.The good news for Razorbacks
fans is the Hogs can potentially have their first top five finish since 1977 if they win their bowl game.
That’s regardless of the bowl.Jimmy Carter is the sports editor
of The Arkansas Traveler. His column appears every Tuesday.
Extra Points
JIMMY [email protected]
COMMENTARYFOOTBALL
Highlight Hogs
GARETH PATTERSON STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Arkansas junior linebacker Alonzo Highsmith scores his first career defensive touchdown against LSU on a 47-yard fumble return. Highsmith finished the regular season as the Hogs’ third-leading tackler with 73 tackles, including a team-high 10.5 tackles for loss.
Best Win: Arkansas 42 Texas A&M 38
! e Aggies failed to live up to their Top 10 ranking entering the season, but were still ranked No. 14 when Arkansas played them. ! e Razorbacks came back from an 18-point de" cit against the Aggies to avoid its second straight loss a# er the dismantling by Ala-bama.
Play of the Year – Joe Adams’ 60-yard punt return against Tennessee
Adams’ electrifying return will likely be a candidate to win an ESPY for Play of the Year in July. It has more than 1.1 million views on YouTube and garnered attention a# er he broke " ve tack-les and raced up the sideline.
O! ensive MVP – Junior quarterback Tyler Wilson
Wilson had big shoes to " ll replacing NFL dra# pick Ryan Mallett, but turned in an impres-sive year and has an opportunity to break Mallett’s single-season school records. With the bowl game remaining, he has 3,422 yards passing, 22 touchdowns and just six interceptions.
Aside from the statistics, he has a chance to lead Arkansas to more wins than Mallett could.
Biggest O! ensive Disap-pointment – Passing Game against Alabama, LSU
As good as Wilson was, Ar-kansas struggled to throw the ball mightily against the Crim-son Tide and Tigers. He threw for 392 yards and three interceptions, while getting pressured constant-ly.
Wilson was sacked " ve times and hit many other times in the two games, in part because the
Razorbacks’ highly-touted receiv-ing corps struggled to get open against top-tier secondaries.
Best o! ensive performance – Texas A&M
! e o$ ense racked up 582 yards of o$ ense and scored 25 second-half points to rally for a season-saving 42-38 win against then-No. 14 Texas A&M.
Wilson threw for a school-re-cord 510 yards and three touch-downs, while senior receiver Jari-us Wright showcased his big-play ability, hauling in 13 catches for 281 yards and two touchdowns.
O! ensive Area to Improve – O! ensive Line
! e o$ ensive line progressed throughout the season, but struggled to run and pass-block against elite defenses. Losing ju-nior running back Knile Davis before the season hurt and Wil-son took a beating throughout the season. ! e Razorbacks lose strong-side tackle Grant Freeman and weak-side guard Grant Cook and preparing a wealth of young talent for next season will be cru-cial.
Defensive MVP – Junior linebacker Alonzo Highsmith
! e junior college transfer has exceeded expectations dur-ing his " rst year in Fayetteville. Highsmith started all 12 regular-season games for the Razorbacks and was third on the team with 73 tackles, with a team-high 10.5 tackles-for-loss. ! e junior line-backer also had a fumble recov-ery for a touchdown and one in-terception.
Biggest Defensive Disap-pointment – Junior cornerback Darius Winston
! e 6-foot-1 cornerback completed his third year as a Razorback and still struggled to
show signs of the " ve-star rating he had coming out of high school. Winston struggled with injuries in a few games this season and logged just 17 tackles and quar-terback hurry.
Best Defensive Performance – Tramain " omas vs. LSU
Arkansas lost at No. 1 LSU 41-17 to end its regular season, but
the score could have been much worse without ! omas’ e$ orts. ! e senior safety had a game-high 14 tackles and forced a fum-ble that was returned for a Razor-back touchdown, before also hav-ing a tight-rope interception on the sideline.
Defensive Area to Improve – Secondary
Arkansas’ secondary was sup-posed to have increased depth this season and it was shown when starters Issac Madison and Darius Winston both went down in the Alabama and Texas A&M games, respectively. However, both play-ers, along with senior Greg Gat-son, struggled to have much of an impact in the big games for the Razorbacks this season.
BASKETBALL
Freshman Takeover
GARETH PATTERSON STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Arkansas freshman guard BJ Young has averaged 17 points over the Hogs’ past three games and is shooting a team-high 50 percent from the fi eld.
Arkansas is down to just nine scholarship players.
Four are true freshman.In the Razorbacks last two
games against Utah Valley State and Grambling State, both Arkansas wins, the four freshmen averaged 21.8 min-utes each after averaging 15.8 minutes the first four games.
Forward Devonta Abron is the only freshman to start a game this season, starting the past two games for Ar-kansas, but coach Mike An-derson said he sees BJ Young as a starter with all the min-utes the 6-foot-3 guard has logged.
“I think the most impor-tant thing is when you get the playing time that you make it quality playing time,” Anderson said. “I consid-er him (Young) as a starter. He comes in and is going to play the same way whether he starts or not.”
Young has been the Ra-zorbacks’ leading scorer in all three games since junior for-ward Marshawn Powell suf-fered a season-ending knee injury before Arkansas’ game against Houston,. Over the
past three games, Young has averaged 17 points per game and is leading the team in shooting percentage making 50 percent of his shots.
“I think he is doing a good job with his shot selection,” Anderson said. “A lot of them are layups and dunks so that is smart on his part, but even when he has open shots he is able to knock them down. He is getting into more of a rhythm and his body lan-guage is different in a game than it is in practice.
“In practice I am all over him, but in games it is like the light goes off and he just goes 100 miles an hour. I think he is getting more com-fortable with what we are do-ing and understanding what we are doing.”
Young is the only play-er on Arkansas shooting 50 percent or better and has made 7 of 18 3-point shots to go along with 10 of 11 free throws.
Sophomore guards Rickey Scott and Mardracus Wade, along with junior guard Ju-lysses Nobles and senior for-ward Michael Sanchez are the only Razorbacks to start all five games.
“It is getting competitive,”
Anderson said about poten-tial starting lineup changes. “The more games we play the more I get a chance to see and that’s why I am looking awful hard. For the guys that have been starting out it is not etched in stone they are go-ing to be the starters. I may end up having seven to eight starters when it is all said and done.”
Freshman forward Hunter Mickelson had his most com-plete effort in the Hogs’ 86-44 win against Grambling State. The 6-foot-10 Jonesboro na-tive played a career-high 25 minutes and scored 10 points to go along with eight re-bounds and five assists.
“I think Hunter played with the upmost confidence the other night,” Anderson said. “He played the most minutes of any of the big guys so that can only help him from an experience stand point. He made some tremendous passes out there and I like his aggressiveness going to the glass.”
Mickelson weighed just 185 pounds when he arrived on campus, but has bulked up and is playing at 235 pounds.
“He is moving real well with it and hopefully us-
ing that added strength even more so,” Anderson said. “He did it to go get the rebounds and now we need to get him around that basket and ma-neuver around some people. He is going to have an advan-tage on people at times.”
Freshman guard Ky Mad-den has also seen his role in-crease during the past few games. The 6-foot-5 Lepanto,
Ark., native scored a career-high 15 points and shot 3 of 5 from 3-point range against Grambling State.
“We are still a team that is a work in progress,” An-derson said. “Like I have told those guys, those (starting) slots are not in concrete. They have to compete each day and that only helps our basketball team get better.”
by JIMMY CARTER AND ZACH TURNERTraveler Staff
by ZACH TURNERAsst. Sports Editor
Arkansas’ four freshmen increasing roles, productivity.
Regular Season In ReviewRecord: 10-2. Southeastern Conference: 6-2, third in Western Division. BCS ranking: No. 8. AP ranking: No. 6. USA Today Coaches ranking: No. 10
2011 HighlightsFirst back-to-back 10-win seasons since 1988-89.No. 3 ranking the week of Nov. 20-26 was the program’s highest since October 1978.Eight consecutive weeks in the top 10 is the best stretch since 1985.! e matchup at No. 1 LSU was the highest-ranked game since a No. 2 Arkansas team lost 15-14 against top-ranked Texas in 1969. ! e Razorbacks are 25-6 in their last 31 games. Alabama, LSU, Virginia Tech, Boise State, TCU, Oregon and Stanford are the only teams better.
CROSSWORD
SUDOKU
TODAY’S SOLUTION
SOLUTION
Q: What does my fanger and lemon pie have in common?
A: My rang.
Q: What happens when two snails fi ght?
A: They slug it out.
ACROSS1 Wranglers and Patriots2 ! eater supporter3 Backstreet Boys contempo-rary4 Con5 Long-distance " ier’s com-plaint6 Jumped7 Sleep disorder8 Omar’s “Mod Squad” role9 Harsh, as criticism10 2007 “Dancing With the Stars” contestant Gibbons11 Horse and buggy __12 Christmas buy13 A# ernoon cup19 Longtime Pennsylvania con-gressman John21 Spirit __ Louis25 “Honest!”26 Zagreb native27 Natural dye28 Bit of dust29 Skin31 “Sure”32 Nary a soul33 Beardless Dwarf35 Partner of out36 Ballerina’s step37 Glimpse39 News exclusives43 Funny-sounding bone44 Plumlike fruit49 Paci$ c Sur" iner operator51 Walk casually52 Overact53 Mischievous kid54 Year’s record55 Tums target56 Beasts of burden58 Make do59 Rival of Cassio60 Ally of Fidel61 It may be " ipped62 Insert
DOWN
Crossword provided by MCT Campus
1 Co. that makes Motrin and Tylenol6 In __ land10 Flew the coop14 Happen next15 “Doctor Zhivago,” e.g.16 __ Lackawanna Railway17 Home of the City of 1,000 Minarets18 Ben Stiller’s mom20 Best Supporting Actress win-ner for “Vicky Cristina Barce-lona”22 Beehive St. capital23 Aqua Velva alternative24 Military division28 Classic sports cars29 Casino area30 ! e Columbia R. forms much of its northern border31 Edit menu command34 General’s level38 Night sounds40 Kilmer of “! e Saint”41 __ " u42 Quaint storage pieces45 Animal rights org.46 Arles “A”47 “__ Day Will Come”: 1963 #1 hit48 Set down50 Household attention getter52 Ancient Dead Sea land54 Org. o% ering motel discounts57 Major oil conferences (they’re found, in a way, in 20-, 34- and 42-Across)60 Where many tests are given63 Indian princesses64 Lie low65 Price-limiting words66 Playing marble67 Countercurrent68 Noticed69 Nuts for sodas
Di! culty:
PAGE 6 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2011 Comics, Games, & Much Much More!
THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
DOWNTIMELAUGH IT UP
THAT MONKEY TUNE Michael A. Kandalaft
BREWSTER ROCKIT Tim Rickard CALAMITIES OF NATURE Tony Piro
WELCOME TO FALLING ROCK Josh Shalek BLISS Harry Bliss
A terrible plane crash occurred in Lithuania last week. A two-seater airplane crash landed in a cemetery and exploded. They’ve recovered 300 bodies so far, and they’re still digging them up.
Q: What should you do if a Windows crash costs you a lot of money?
A: You should bill Gates.
THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
FEATURES PAGE 7 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2011 FEATURES EDITOR: LAUREN LEATHERBY ASST. FEATURES EDITOR: KELSI FORD
Scan here to go tothe Features section
on uatrav.com:
Kindergarten may not have anthropology, kinesiology or business classes, but it does offer something that all col-lege students envy: nap time.
It’s 1 p.m., and UA students may think that their large lunch from Brough is making them feel drowsy because of a “food coma,” but the real rea-son has nothing to do with food at all. According to the National Sleep Foundation website, napping occurs because the body is sleep deprived from the previ-ous night. There are three types of napping: planned napping, emergency napping, and habitual napping.
Planned napping can benefit the sleeper by al-lowing them to revive their mind after a long day of classes.
“I try to take a nap at least once a day, usually after I get back home from classes,” said Joe Witherington, a sophomore civil engineering
major. “After walking around all day on this hilly campus and working out my academic mind, taking a nap usually refreshes me.”
Emergency napping is when the person is sudden-ly so tired that they cannot function without sleep, while habitual napping is when a person follows a specific pat-tern of napping each day.
“I have pretty strange sleep-ing patterns. It isn't uncom-mon for me to feel
a little sleepy and just crash, only to discover that it's only 6 p.m., and I'll wake up at like 2 or 3 a.m.,” said Aaron Douglas, a UA sophomore majoring in mechanical en-gineering.
Tests cause many students to engage in last-minute cramming late at night before the test. This creates the ir-resistable urge to nap the fol-lowing day.
“All-nighters significant-ly affect my sleep schedule,” Douglas said. “Usually after a test for which I had to pull an all-nighter, I'll nap a bit during the day and sleep a lot that next night.”
As found in an ar-ticle in “The Boston Globe,” people should limit their naps to under 45 minutes. Taking
a longer nap can cause con-tinual grogginess throughout the rest of the day.
The best time to nap de-
pends on when you go to sleep. If bedtime usually oc-
curs around 10 p.m. a good n a p
time would be around 1 p.m., for those awake past mid-night that afternoon nap is most beneficial around 3
p.m.U n -
f o r t u -n a t e l y, napping can also h a v e n e g a -
tive effects, according to The National Sleep Foundation. If people nap for long periods of time during the day, it may
harm the quality and length of sleep at night.
A 2001 study in the “College Student Jour-nal” discovered stu-dents who slept less had a lower GPA than
students who slept lon-ger. Sleeping for lon-ger amounts of time al-lows the brain to process more information better.
“Naps are beneficial when the body demands them; especially when doing a lot of cramming it's often more helpful to take a brief, few-
The Art of Napping: A College Student’s Expertiseby STEPHANIE EHRLER
Staff Writer
COURTESY PHOTO
The UA Twirlers flip their batons high into the air and flawlessly catch them on the return. They have intricate moves like ballet dancers, but show-stopping style like the Radio City Rockettes.
Making the team is no easy feat. The twirlers have tryouts in April, but most of them have been twirling since they were in elementary school. The girls have a half an hour to warm up, and then they begin to learn the try-out routine in pairs. After per-forming the routine, they be-gin to narrow down the try-outs – which means letting girls go. Each twirler must try out of the team every year; even if they are a returner. Eighteen girls total tried out for the majorettes this year, and 11 girls were chosen for the team. Only three of those girls hadn’t made the team in past years.
“I used to not want to go to the UA, but I realized that twirling for Arkansas would be the ultimate thing,” said Kristi Pinekard, a second-year member of the Major-ettes.
The twirlers perform at pre-game, pep rallies and half-time shows for the UA. The team can have up to ten twirlers on the majorette line and two feature twirlers.
The feature twirlers are at a higher caliber of twirling and are known for their solo rou-tines, as well as their ability to twirl fire.
The majorette line, head-ed by captain Rosalyn Tay-lor, thrives on tight, precise movements and cohesiveness of the group.
“I was a cheerleader in high school. I stunted, I tumbled, and I competed – twirling is harder,” Taylor said. “Moves in cheerleading are stagnant, but when you twirl, you are an individual, and you have to forever better yourself.”
Their routines are often seen at the half-time show.
“Standing in the tunnel is the most nerve-rack-ing. My first time walking on the field, I literal-ly wanted to cry ‘I’m here,’” Pinek-ard said.
Taylor also had a similar ex-perience. “I get chills. I’m so
excited – it makes me smile because I know this is where it’s at — I’m so proud to be
representing every twirler be-fore us.”
Although they practice for
hours to avoid dropping the baton, it’s somewhat unavoid-able.
“A basketball player missing a shot is about equal to a twirler dropping,” Tay-lor said. “I can drop on the easi-est thing. Then I
have to stop, grab my baton, and pick up where I left off.”
Lack of funding doesn’t
prevent this team from put-ting on their best show for the 70,000 spectators at Don-ald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
This supposed time-hon-ored tradition is not getting nearly enough recognition, Pinekard said.
“Were not as respected, and it’s hard for us to be noticed,”
Twirling In the Face of Adversity
CONTESSA SHEW STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERThe UA twirlers perform before a crowd of nearly 70,000 spectators at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback stadium.
by SHELBY GILLStaff Writer
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas4 out of 5 stars
For most people, the “Christmas movie” genre is the last thing they would ever associate with a baby on drugs or an accidental burn-ing down of a Christmas tree by a joint. Sadly, A Very Har-old & Kumar 3D Christmas includes both of those acts of debauchery, along with many others, yet at the same time you’ll find yourself laugh-ing your head off. The film is raunchy, often in poor taste, and extreme at times—but it is one hysterical comedy worth a visit to the theaters this holiday season.
A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas is the third in-stallment in the Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) stoner-cult franchise, this time in glitzy 3D. It’s been seven years since the duo went to White Castle, and since then they’ve gone in the direction of political mock-ery of the U.S. in their second film, Escape from Guantana-mo Bay. Within these previ-ous films, characteristics of
the franchise were made. Mis-adventures on drugs, legend-ary run-ins with Neil Patrick Harris (playing “himself ”), and crass and offensive script writing became trademarks of the series. A little formu-laic, to be true, but in this in-stallment the film manages to stay fresh.
The setting is six years in the future, and the two guys have separated, living dif-ferent lives on their own. Of course, they couldn’t stay apart for long, and they’re brought together once again when a strange package ar-rives for Harold at Kumar’s apartment. So Kumar sets out to deliver the package to Harold and, sure enough, through unforeseen circum-stances, he manages to burn down Harold’s father-in-law’s cherished home-grown Christmas tree. Thus, the quest for saving Christmas begins with a night full of in-sanity and hilarity.
Let’s be honest here: this movie franchise isn’t some-thing held to high regard. Es-pecially with the gimmicky 3D tagged in the title of this one. But sure enough, this
COURTESY PHOTO
by NICK BROTHERSStaff Writer
Harold and Kumar Bring New Flavor to Christmas
HAROLD AND KUMARon page 8
TWIRLERSon page 8
“After walking around all day on this hilly campus and working out my academic
mind, taking a nap usually refreshes me.” -Joe Witherington, UA sophomore
NAPPINGon page 8
“My first time walking on the field, I literally wanted to cry ‘I’m here.’”
- Kristi Pinekard, UA majorette
FEATURESFEATURES TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2011 PAGE 8
movie stands tall as a nota-ble Christmas comedy. The film mocks religious holidays a little bit, but it’s all in good humor, and the performances and writing are great.
This movie is easily as great as the other two movies that preceded it. Whether it’s the sheer amount of irreverent jokes crammed in, the crazy situations the two find them-selves in, a baby on cocaine, or a creepy waffle-making ro-bot, the film comes through again and again as refusing to slow down.
The writing also pays hom-age to the other films from time to time, with some flash-backs and sly real-world com-ments about the actual actors thrown in. One example be-ing when Kumar’s annoying-ly stupid stoner friend Adri-an (Amir from collegehumor.com fame) tells Kumar his cover for the party they’re crashing is “You work for the White House,” to which Ku-mar replies, “They’ll never buy that.” It’s witty: in real life, Kal Penn is the associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.
With a comedy such as this, you can’t go in expect-ing high-brow entertainment and intelligent banter every step of the way — you just can’t with Harold and Kumar. Yes, there are some very stu-pid things in the movie, but you could easily find your-self laughing along the whole way. When you take the mov-ie for what it is it’s actually something to appreciate.
The whole 3D thing isn’t
that big of deal, and the movie manages to make witticisms about it while making you pay extra for the experience, possibly intending to make the movie 3D as a joke in it-self. Ironic, isn’t it? It comes off as laughable, though, as cheap as the laughs may be, with the over-the-top effects of weed smoke and various objects flying at you. Also worth noting in the effects department is the claymation section of the film. It’s col-orful, fun, and a little outra-geous — but that’s the idea.
The writing is hit and miss, but when it hits, it cleans up. There are times where you’ll either moan at the off-color humor or find a few jokes to be cheap. But the movie offers moments of belly laughs that end up being memorable.
The best scene involves Neil Patrick Harris. It’s a small part compared to the length of the movie, but it easily steals the show. His perform-ing is applaudable and price-less. The script makes real-world references to his status on ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and to his open homosexuali-ty, and even sneaks in an “Ah, see you in the next one guys,” in reference to his role in the franchise.
Again, this movie won’t be for everybody. The Harold and Kumar franchise is con-sidered a “stoner cult-clas-sic”. That in no way means if you don’t partake in the substance you won’t under-stand the humor. It’s laugh-out-loud funny all the way through, and one of the best modern Christmas comedies out there.
HAROLD AND KUMARfrom page 7
Bringing the Tunes Back Home
BEN FLOWERS ASST. PHOTO EDITORLocal favorite, Sarah Hughes, a bluegrass musician plays in her hometown, Forrest City, Ark., during Thanksgiving break with her cousin, UA junior Patton Hughes.
Pinekard said. The majorettes are not
technically part of the “Spir-it Squad,” but are part of the UA band. Their uniforms are paid for with money from the band but all of the extra gear is paid out-of-pocket.
“Shoes get worn out in a se-mester because we practice on concrete. If the UA paid for just our shoes we would be forever grateful,” Taylor said.
The majorettes are no lon-ger allowed to practice in the HPER and have had to move their practices outdoors.
“It wasn’t too bad, but the situation escalated. It went from ‘you can’t teach twirl-ing lessons here’ to ‘no twirl-ing in the HPER,’” Taylor said. “I don’t understand how the facility isn’t ‘fit for twirl-ing,’ but we can still reserve it – they want us to pay for it,
and we’re paying for it as in-dividual students most of the time.”
They now have to practice on the campus grounds or, if they are lucky, under aw-nings.
“We twirled in the rain last week,” Taylor said. “Then we have the danger of slipping in puddles. It’s not preferred, but we work with what we have.”
The girls now have the cli-mate working against them. Cold hands can cause the girls to fracture fingers when they catch the batons.
Despite adversity, the UA twirlers had one of their best years this year, Taylor said. The girls' scholarship was even raised this year to $1000, double the past schol-arship of $500.
“We exemplify tradition in its most rare form,” Taylor said.
TWIRLERESfrom page 7
hour nap and wake back up and grab some coffee and continue, rather than to just study through those few hours,” Douglas said. “I believe the mind can only absorb so much in one sitting, and sleeping allows the brain a break as well as a chance to absorb all that new material.”
Naps can benefit students by providing a break from a busy schedule.
“I take at least one nap a day because I work early in the morning, and naps help me not feel tired so I can be alert to get all my homework done,” said Amy Paul, a UA senior majoring in mechani-cal engineering. “Naps al-low me to clear my mind and de-stress from a hard day at school.”
Naps are so common that there are even “nap apps” available for smart phones and iPads. The “Naps Plus” app provides calming music that helps induce sleep while
the “Power Sleep and Nap” app lets the napper choose sleep frequency and then plays a tone in each ear to encourage the brain to sleep. Other apps provide sleep cal-culators and alarms so naps don’t take up too much time.
The best way to take a nap is to find a quiet comfortable place to lie down, accord-ing to a story in “The Boston Globe.” Listening to white noise or imagining a relaxing atmosphere, such as a beach, can help quiet the mind.
Even a 10-minute nap can boost productivity and in-crease alertness, according to Gerard Kennedy, a sleep spe-cialist based in Melbourne, Australia.
“I think naps are essential for college students,” Witherington said. “Depending on the major, we hardly get enough sleep as it is. Any opportunity you can to rest for a bit will help get you along throughout your college career.”
NAPPINGfrom page 7