The international community is on its toes after multiple developments in events unfolded over the weekend.

UKRAINIAN TEARSThe United States increased

sanctions on Russia and its officials, President Barack Obama announced Monday in a press conference. The sanctions came after a Crimean referendum where 98 percent of its voters said yes to independence.

“If Russia continues to interfere in Ukraine, we stand ready to impose further sanctions,” Obama said. “The international community will continue to stand together to oppose any violations of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, and continued Russian military intervention in Ukraine will only deepen Russia’s diplomatic isolation and exact a greater toll on the Russian economy.”

Vice President Joe Biden is currently in Europe consulting with NATO leaders, and Obama is doing the same next week.

“Our message will be clear,” Obama said. “As NATO allies, we have a solemn commitment to our collective defense, and we will uphold this commitment.”

Ukraine’s interim president Oleksandr Turchynov said Monday his country won’t recognize Crimea’s sovereignty.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday the U.S. will not recognize Crimea as an independent country.

“Neither we, nor the international community, will recognize the results of [the] referendum,” Kerry said in a

press conference. “Under the constitution of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Legislature in Kiev would have to vote to legitimize a secession effort by any state.”

SEARCH CONTINUES FOR FLIGHT 370

Search parties and investigators are looking into the crew and passengers of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 in hopes of finding answers.

While more than 20 countries are now searching for the missing plane, investigators have searched through the two pilots’ homes and each passenger’s history. One anonymous senior police official told CNN the search has turned up “nothing conclusive yet.”

However, Malaysian police found a flight simulator inside flight captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s home during their search, but officials are uncertain about what it was used for.

Another person of interest is Mohd Khairul, 29, a flight engineer who was on board the missing plane. According to The Daily Mail, Khairul has worked for a private jet firm as an aviation engineer.

There is no certainty as to where the plane wound up, but Malaysian officials have said it was purposefully diverted off its flight path and flew for hours after someone on board severed communication. The last words from the flight, spoken by co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid after the plane’s tracking systems were disabled, were “All right, good night.”

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CONSTRUCTION

PROGRESS. (Above) Construction moves forward on Lake Road west of campus. After Huntsville City Council passed a motion to construct sidewalks along Lake Road for students, contractors began work on the project Feb. 3. (Left) Construction continues on the new Student Health Center. This crane was brought in to aid workers in the construction of the building, which is planned to be open fall 2014. (Below) Junior biology major Anthony Williams utilizes the city’s new sidewalks on Avenue J.

Jay R. Jordan | The Houstonian

CAMPUS

COE dean search down to twoAfter months of deliberation,

Sam Houston State University’s College of Education has narrowed down its dean search to the final two candidates.

In January, a committee made up of several high ranking college officials began the search for a new dean with hopes of narrowing the results down to three finalists by

the start of February.Although the committee, led

by Vice Provost Richard Eglsaer, Ph.D., did not reach its immediate goal of an early end to the search, it has come down to the two final candidates.

Eglsaer didn’t reveal the identities of the two candidates.

“This week the final two candidates will be on campus,” Eglsaer said. “There were four finalists.”

According to Eglsaer, the

final two candidates have been reviewed and will presented before President Dana Gibson and Provost Jamie Hebert for a final selection.

Before any decisions are made, the committee has been sure to test the way the candidates interact with the SHSU community and their prospective colleagues, students and staff, Eglsaer said.

“Each candidate has met with faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students, superintendents

and administrators,” he said. Each group of these SHSU

community members were asked to submit their opinions on the way each candidate interacted with them.

These comments will subsequently be taken into consideration in the decision of hiring.

According to Eglsaer, the decision will not be made by the search committee, unlike all decision and continuations

leading up to this point, but instead will be handled by the dean and provost.

“The search committee will not rank the candidates for the provost, rather they will try to summarize the feedback from the various groups and highlight the strengths and challenges of each candidate,” Eglsaer said.

The final decision should be made soon, Eglsaer said.

KASSIDY TURNPAUGHAssistant News Editor

Three major beer companies withdrew sponsorship for St. Patrick’s Day parades on Sunday and Monday claiming the events prohibited members of the LGBT community from marching openly.

The companies that make Heineken, Samuel Adams and Guinness refused to provide funding for the annual celebrations in New York City and Boston, both of which have fallen under strong criticism for their prohibitions.

“Guinness has a strong history of supporting diversity and being an advocate for equality for all,”

a spokesman for the brewery’s parent company Diageo said in a statement. “We were hopeful that the policy of exclusion would be reversed for this year’s parade. As this has not come to pass, Guinness has withdrawn its participation.”

Coordinators of the parades decided to exclude gay groups from openly participating in the events because they believed allowing them to do so would be going against Ireland’s historically Roman Catholic roots, they said.

In addition to the breweries, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City also refused to march in the city’s 253rd parade due to its exclusionary principle. Likewise, Mayor Marty Walsh of Boston, the city’s first Irish-American mayor

in two decades, was also absent from Boston’s parade on Sunday in protest.

Prior to the last-minute decision made by Guinness on Sunday, Stonewall Inn, known as the birthplace of the modern gay civil rights movement, had threatened to stop selling the brewery’s product had they continued to support the discriminatory celebration. However, after the withdrawal of sponsorship took place, the boycott was cancelled.

Stonewall Inn was not the only entity pleased with the decision, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation had approached the sponsors on Friday in an attempt to help expand equality for the LGBT community.

“Today, Guinness sent a strong message to its customers and employees: Discrimination should never be celebrated,” GLAAD CEO and president Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement.

According to Sam Houston State University senior adaptive kinesiology major Andy Lada, the breweries made the right decision.

“I say good for the beer groups,” Lada said. “It shows what America’s all about. People have their own beliefs and if people want to be gay let them be gay—this is America so it shouldn’t matter.”

Criminal justice doctoral student Jessica Wells said she agrees with Lada and hopes for a brighter future in the expansion of civil rights for all people.

“Variety is what we love about Sam Adams beer; variety is what we love about the human race,” Wells said. “We as consumers, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, have come to support Sam Adams because they provide us richness in diversity and it is sorrowful that such communities cannot support diversity among their citizens.”

According to the brewery spokesperson, Guinness will continue to push for future citywide celebrations that are welcoming toward all groups of people.

“We will continue to work with community leaders to ensure that future parades have an inclusionary policy,” a spokesperson for Guinness said.

HANNAH ZEDAKERSenior Reporter

Breweries boycott St. Patty parades

All eyes on Crimea, MH370 JAY R. JORDANAssociate Editor

WORLD

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Sam Houston State University

From the Director’s ChairTuesday, March 25, 2014Book Signing • 9:30 am – 10:15

Lowman Student Center, Atrium

Lecture • 11:00 am – 12:00 pmJames & Nancy Gaertner Performing Arts Center, Concert Hall

815 17th Street, Huntsville, TX

There is no charge to attend.

For more information contact the President’s Office936.294.3415 or events@shsu.edu.

John AvildsenAcademy Award Winning Film Director

The HoustonianEditorial

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Tuesday, March 18, 2014Viewpoints

Articles, letters and cartoons by Houstonian staff members or others in this paper are their own and not the opinion of the Houstonian, unless it is noted as such. Submissions and letters to the editor are welcome. Please send submissions to viewpoints@houstonianonline.com. Articles may be edited for grammar and spelling at discretion of editor. Unsolicited oppinions should be 150 words or under. Please contact us if you wish to submit anything longer. Deadline for submission is by 5 p.m. on Mondays or Wednesdays.

EDITOR’S NOTE

The Houstonian was named in the top 100 college newspapers for journalism students by JournalismDegree.org. Members of Associated Collegiate Press and Texas Intercolligiate Press Association.

PAWS UP to Bearkat Men’s Basketball: Eat ‘Em Up Kats at the CIT against Alabama State

PAWS UP

PAWS DOWN

PAWS DOWN to Getting pinched: St. Patrick may or may not have driven the snakes from Ireland, but he sure didn’t pinch

a bunch of people for not wearing green.

PAWS UP to Chi Alpha: While plenty of people were partying during spring break, you gave

back to the community by renovating SAAFE House.

PAWS DOWN to Flight 370: The world is massive, but it’s

still difficult to comprehend a jet airliner disappearing.

PAWS UP to Big Bang Theory: Not the show, the science. More

evidence for the popular scientific theory for the origin of the

cosmos.

PAWS DOWN to Crimean referendum: Not even 95 percent

of people can agree that we actually landed on the moon, yet somehow that large a percentage voted for annexation into Russia.

Sure thing.

I have a new hero.@ExMediaMan, an anonymous

Twitter account claiming to represent a former writer for several viral media websites, hates everything you love on the Internet.

Media Man started tweeting Friday and dishes on supposed former employers including The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, Gawker, The Daily Mail and most deliciously, Buzzfeed.

I’ll include a necessary caveat about how the account could be a ruse, a work of fiction that simply fulfills my expectations for how these publications are run. However it just seems too spot-on to not be real.

His tweets run the gamut from absurd parodies of viral media headlines (“Is this the most handsome man from a Holocaust photograph? The internet says yes.”) to run-of-the-mill gossip (“Problem at Buzzfeed: linkbait aggregators jealous of political reporters who give the site its credence. But they sleep with them anyway.”).

Many of his substantive criticisms of new media and the culture of journalism run in a

similar vein to those levied against traditional media: the newsrooms of influential, wonky outlets are populated by people educated at expensive and selective universities.

“The dumb Columbia Journalism grads go to @bustle, the rich ones to @TheNewRepublic , the rich and smart, to @nytimes, the poor never went”

When not lampooning clickbait headlines or serving as a rumormonger dishing on his former colleagues, Media Man lambastes the new media business model, which has devolved into an unending race for more page views and social media shares at the direct expense of a well-informed and intellectually curious public.

“Editors at @buzzfeed wish Americans weren’t so stupid as to make their listicles popular. Writing them drives young aggregators to drink.”

His jaded cynicism is far from unfounded, as my recent foray back into Facebook proved. I got off the network about three years ago, because it had gone from a dynamic communication tool and creative sandbox to a superfluous popularity contest for attention-seeking acquaintances and former coworkers.

In January, I created a new account so I could quickly spitball ideas with the rest of the editorial staff. Over spring break, I looked at my newsfeed and discovered it was a deluge of listicles and quizzes from every “sponsored links” section across the web, a Mobius of thoughtless viral inanity broken only by the occasional selfie or random waning thought.

I got off the network again with the rationale that if I wanted a clearinghouse of trite quizzes and lists, I could visit Buzzfeed.com and eliminate the middleman.

Like Dr. Frankenstein, who lays eyes on his grotesque creation conceived with infinite potential, and subsequently flees in horror, Media Man escaped from the monster he helped bring to prominence.

He laments the proliferation of click farming, a method to artificially increase likes, tweets, Diggs or whatever else, by websites using low-paid workers. Articles appear to be substantially popular on social media based on their statistics when in fact those stats are driven by wholesale fraud.

“At least half of the sites I worked for continue to engage click-farms to drive traffic.” he tweeted.

Advertising in media predates the Civil War, and without ads, privately owned media would winnow into nonexistence. Advertisers pay TV and radio stations according to ratings and print outlets based on the number of readers their publication reaches either via subscription or from retailers.

On the web, ads are determined by traffic and enough legitimate social media shares will positively impact page views. On the other hand, dummy shares via click farming will not directly impact traffic in any substantial way.

This all ties into new media, because the advertising revenue model of any media website is impacted by social media shares. New media jockeys for hits in a race to the bottom by appealing to

the lowest common denominator through mindless content and dreck like lists and quizzes. The easy content of listicles maximizes shares and consequently revenue.

It’s immaterial whether or not someone actually reads the associated articles, as individual page visits are the primary concern for advertisers. It’s easy to understand why this cheapens content, because a clickable headline is more related to revenue than a readable article.

This should be immensely troubling to any aspiring journalist, because as Media Man puts it, “Since no one reads the articles, writers are treated like cattle.”

Writing people-pleasing fluff is one thing. Though they’re not groundbreaking, Pulitzer-caliber hard news, there’s a place in journalism for human interest feature articles. On the other hand, listicles and quizzes and the link are simply whoring for clicks, nothing more.

They add nothing to the discussion and are forgotten shortly after being read. They take little work, require no substantive editing and could be written by middle school students.

Unfortunately there’s a major financial incentive to publishing them, no matter how vacuous the content is.

Given this context, some of Media Man’s more esoteric tweets, like one about a cat romancing cereal, are illuminated. Pretty soon we’ll all be asking ourselves

“Why are Israeli viewers convinced that the #yellowking is #MichaelSam?” @ExMediaMan March 16.

COLIN HARRIS Viewpoints Editor

SOCIAL MEDIA

@ExMediaMan jabs at new media

TELEVISION

‘Cosmos’ is beautiful, relevant

When news first broke four years ago that Fox was producing an updated Cosmos, I was skeptical. I revered the Carl Sagan-hosted PBS original since I was a kid, a testament to which is the well-worn VHS boxed set nestled in my parents’ attic.

How could a network retread ever live up to the deeply personal and fantastic original?

After watching the first two episodes of the new series, I have my answer. The new Cosmos isn’t the original, but that’s OK. It’s still great TV.

The new host, mainstream face of astrophysics Neil deGrasse Tyson, is the perfect modern stand-in for Sagan. Tyson finds the sweet spot between his own usual boisterous enthusiasm for space science and Sagan’s trademark avuncular thoughtfulness.

Fox spared no expense on visual effects, and it shows. In the series opener, Cosmos recreates the Big Bang, renders the observable universe, and shows off the chromed surface of the newly redesigned and still terribly named “Spaceship of the Imagination.” The second episode takes viewers from the nucleus of an Arctic bear’s sex cell, to a depiction of the Permian extinction, to the icy surface of the moon Titan.

It’s all very striking.Perhaps the greatest

achievement of the new Cosmos is its frankness. When the original series was green-lit in the late 1970s, public support and acceptance of cutting-edge science was in its heyday. In the previous 10 years, NASA had landed 12 people on the moon,

put unmanned probes on the surfaces of Venus and Mars, and sent others hurtling toward the outer bounds of our solar system. America was proud of its scientific achievements.

Since then the insidious opposition to scientific fact has enjoyed a growing public profile. Cosmos faces these critics head-on.

How do you argue with someone who sincerely believes that Earth is only 6,000 years old? Cosmos answers that question in its premier with the “Cosmic Calendar,” boldly running through 13 billion years of cosmic history in the latter half of the episode. These are the facts, it says, whether you believe them or not. An animated side story on the life of Giordano Bruno tells of his persecution at the hands of the Catholic Church in the 16th Century for daring to challenge its god-tinged and geocentric view of the universe.

The second episode, dedicated to evolution, cuts even deeper into mainstream anti-science. Intelligent design gets far more

play in mainstream media than it should, but Cosmos quickly dismisses it. Tyson explains the mechanisms that drive artificial and natural selection, then takes on a common argument for intelligent design by charting the evolution of the human eye.

If you are not encumbered by anti-intellectual superstitious beliefs, Cosmos is mostly a visually stunning retread of middle school and high school science. It’s beautiful and informative, even spiritual at times, but it presents ideas you’ve already understood and accepted.

Cosmos is the story of everything, aimed to be accessible to everybody, and it succeeds there. If there is any doubt in your mind that science tells a more convincing and important version of the origin of all things than does any religious text, Cosmos is must-watch television. For everyone else, it’s great popcorn TV fare. Kudos to Fox for airing it on Sunday in prime-time where it can’t be ignored.

BRENT LEITHColumnist

Page 4

houstonianonline.com/a-eTuesday, March 18, 2014

Arts&Entertainment

Voted #1 Hair Salon for the 20th time

May 15, 2014

Voted #1 Hair Salon for the 21st time

CAMPUS

Houston Symphony to perform at SHSUThe Houston Symphony

orchestra spreads the classic sounds of Italy and Russia wherever it goes, and it plans to continue its 2014-15 season Tuesday with a performance at Sam Houston State University’s Gaertner Performing Arts Center.

Concertmaster and Sugar Land native Frank Huang will lead the symphony in Antonio Vivaldi’s most popular piece, “The Four Seasons.” The nearly 300-year-old Italian composition consists of four concertos, each representing a different season and is considered a warhorse in the classical music repertoire.

“Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’

is one of those pieces that must be heard and experienced live,” said Emily Binetti, marketing coordinator for the College of Fine Arts and Mass Communication. “It was picked by the Houston Symphony as the piece to present to several different cities including Huntsville.”

The symphony will also perform “Serenade for Strings” by Pyotr llyich Tchaikovsky, a romantic piece from Russia.

Huang will not only serve as conductor for the symphony, but also the solo violinist in Vivaldi’s concerto. He has established a career as a violin virtuoso, having first performed with the Houston Symphony at age 11. He began serving as concertmaster in 2010.

Huang has performed throughout the world with

orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the NDR Radio Philharmonic of Hannover, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and many more.

Huang has performed on several television shows such as Good Morning America, NPR’s Performance Today, and CNN’s American Morning. He was previously a violinist in the Grammy winning Ying Quartet and faculty member of the Eastman School of Music.

With a throng of classical music talent visiting Huntsville, sophomore music education major Taylor Hussey said the university is lucky to have such great musicians visit.

“I’m really excited to see them,” she said. “It’s my first time to hear them.”

Senior music education major Alex Harrison said the university’s venue will serve the orchestra well.

“It’s really great that they’re coming,” Harrison said. “They are going to sound great in our hall.”

Currently, Huang is a faculty member at Rice University and the University of Houston. He also attends and teaches at the Texas Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival and South Korea’s Great Mountains International Music Festival. Huang is also concertmaster and leader of Sejong, a New York chamber orchestra that performs without a conductor.

Huang is the top prize winner in the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition and the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis

and has received gold medals in the Kingsville International Competition, the Irving M. Klein International String Competition and the D’Angelo Young Artist Competition.

The Houston Symphony celebrated its 100th year during its 2013-14 season. The symphony’s first performance came in 1913, and the orchestra is considered one of Texas’ oldest performing arts organizations.

The performance is Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall. Tickets for the performance range from $30-35 and are available online at www.shsu.edu/boxoffice. For student discount information, contact the box office.

SEAN SMITHContributing Reporter

MUSIC

Miley Cyrus has made it clear that “Hannah Montana” is officially dead by shedding her long blonde wig along with her clothes and squeaking clean, Disney-made image.

Her “Bangerz” tour twerked through Houston on Sunday night at the Toyota center and included everything from hypersexual “S&M” images to singing kittens.

Concertgoers were greeted with religious protesters holding signs with Bible verses and a list of condemnations including Cyrus’s support for homosexuals, premarital sex and countless moral violations.

Once fans got past the holy buzzkill, they were immediately immersed in a circus-like atmosphere complete with rainbow balloons and twerking Miley impersonators. Fans of all ages were scantily clad and tried to outdo each other on what they could legally get away with for their poor clothing choices or lack thereof.

“I don’t care I love it” opening act Icona Pop sang, which set the tone for the main show.

The show began punctually and on time with a larger than life image of Cyrus’s face projected onto a video screen with a giant tongue-shaped slide projecting

from her gaping mouth and bringing her onto the stage.

She immediately went into “SMS (Bangerz)” with a team of dancers and a variety of stuffed animals raunchily dancing around the stage.

The opening number got the crowd moving, and Cyrus kept the party going with “4X4” and hip-hop inspired “Do My Thang.”

Continuing with the hip-hop theme, Miley changed into a sequined marijuana leafed outfit and performed “Love Money Party” on top of a moving golden SUV. She jumped off and made it rain on the audience by throwing money into the crowd.

Images of candy strategically placed to represent female genitalia splashed across the screen during “Get It Right.”

However, the weirdest segments were yet to come.

As the lasers distracted the audience, the screen spit in half revealing a giant dog almost as tall as the ceiling of the Toyota Center that came forward and took up a majority of the stage. Cyrus performed “Can’t Be Tamed” and twerked all over the giant dog before turning to the crowd for help with her next number “Adore You” in which she set up a kissing cam on the screen behind her.

However, to keep things raunchy, Cyrus asked the audience to compete with each other on who could be the “sluttiest” as the

camera panned the audience.Many awkward smooches

ensued but it was the lengthy and tongue-heavy male-on-male mini porn that got the crowd cheering and whipped into a frenzy.

Cyrus slowed it down by doing a few covers including her godmother Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and Coldplay’s “Scientist” before launching back into an all-out twerk fest with her dancers.

She later straddled a giant hotdog a rode it over the audience while she performed “Someone Else” while stuffed animals happily danced onstage.

She closed the show with her biggest hits ‘We Can’t Stop” and “Wrecking Ball” during which the bizarre singing kitten floating through space made an appearance. Cyrus literally went out with a bang with the infectious “Party in the U.S.A.,” and included a shower of confetti and fireworks.

With live singing and incredible range, her vocal abilities were sometimes overshadowed by her crazy onstage antics but in the end kept the crowd on their feet and dancing for the two-hour event.

Despite the bizarre, crazy and over-sexualized content, Miley proved that she is a true pop star with her highly entertaining “Bangerz” tour.

DHARMESH PATELAssistant A&E Editor

Miley Cyrus brings ‘twerk’ fest to Houston

Faculty recital impressesCAMPUS

A mix between somber and upbeat musical compositions captivated students and faculty at Monday’s Faculty Chamber Recital.

The Awea Duo, alongside Sam Houston State University Adjunct professor Bronwen Forbay, D.M.A., and collaborative pianist, Kaju Lee, Ph.D., performed original interpretations of classical pieces at the Recital Hall in the Performing Arts Center.

After to somber sounds of unconventional flute and saxophone to open the performance, Awea Duo member Mas Sugihara played his saxophone in an unconventional fashion with his back facing the crowd.

“We’ve done a lot of research and the sax sort has an obnoxious sound,” Sugihara said. “I’m facing [away from the crowd] to soften the sound. I’m not ignoring [the audience] on this side.”

Forbay’s soprano voice paired with Lee’s composition on the piano with “Scherzo” from William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Forbay sang with notes referred to by Cooper as “higher than her flute.” Lee complimented her voice with intricate piano strokes.

Despite Forbay singing the original Italian lyrics, audience member and

SHSU Adjunct Instructor of Piano James Cho, D.M.A., said that one did not need the lyrics to feel what Forbay was saying.

“We have this translation sheet, but it was pretty obvious what Dr. Forbay was singing,” he said. “I think whether or not you have a great understanding of the music doesn’t matter much with how she shows her emotions.”

According to Forbay, she was worried people would not attend the performance following Spring Break. However, she said, the evening show reeled in an acceptable turnout.

“I was glad to see that so many different people came to listen to us,” she said. “I know everyone is [exhausted] from traveling.”

Sugihara was responsible for putting together what Forbay referred to as a “happy accident.” The songs were placed in a way that would keep the audience’s attention Sugihara said.

“I wanted to have some contrast,” Sugihara said. “It’s really important that we keep our focus. We didn’t really plan it this way. We saw this opportunity about a month ago.”

According to the group of performers, they hope to come together again in the future.

For information about performances visit the College of Fine Arts and Mass Communications website at www.shsu.edu/academics/fine-arts-and-mass-communication.

KIZZIE FRANKA&E Editor

BANGERZ. Miley Cyrus belts her hits and dons a sequened marijuana-themed outfit as she shocks and awes the audience. She twerked her way across the stage alongside stuffed animals, little people and scantily clad dancers.

Associated Press

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Page 5houstonianonline.com/sports

Sports Tuesday, March 18, 2014

MEN’S BASKETBALL

SFA on to March Madness, SHSU to CITNineteen points kept Sam

Houston State’s men’s basketball team from dancing at the NCAA tournament as the Bearkats fell 69-48 to rival Stephen F. Austin State in the Southland Conference tournament championship Saturday.

Although SHSU must watch March Madness from the sidelines, the Bearkats did accept a bid to College Insider’s Postseason Tournament Monday.

“Playing in the post season will be a great opportunity for this team, and we are fortunate to be in the postseason for just the third time in school history,” head coach Jason Hooten said. “They have had a very good season and deserve to continue playing basketball.”

SHSU was only down by five heading into the second half after a strong first-half performance that held SLC’s Player of the Year Jacob Parker scoreless.

Yet, SFA’s arsenal of Thomas Walkup, Desmond Haymon and Deshaunt Walker helped the Lumberjacks axe the Bearkats. The trio combined for 38 of SFA’s 69 points.

The Lumberjacks took off with the game in the second half, going on a 21-5 run to lock their bid to the NCAA tournament.

“That was the difference in the ball game,” SFA head coach Brad Underwood said. “It really broke [the game] open.”

The Bearkats weren’t able to click on offense with no Bearkat finishing in double-digit figures. The Bearkats shot only 6 for 19 from the floor in the second half, ending the game shooting for 38.6 percent.

“It happens,” Hooten said. “When you don’t make shots you get a little frustrated, and we probably carried that over on the defensive end.”

Bearkat standouts Jabari Peters and Kaheem Ransom weren’t able to spark SHSU’s offense. The duo from Seward County Community College, who provided the Bearkats with offensive presence this season, were only 4 for 14 on shots, combining for 11 points.

“[SFA] frustrated us,” Ransom said. “It’s clear we didn’t take good shots in the second half and it showed.”

SHSU will host Alabama State in the first round of the CIT tournament Tuesday at 7 p.m.

JEREMY VILLANUEVASports Editor

UNTOUCHABLE. Stephen F. Austin’s Thomas Walkup led the Lumberjacks to SFA’s first NCAA tournament appearance since 2009, leading all scorers with 19 points in SFA’s 68-49 defeat over Sam Houston State Saturday night.

Bob Levey | Associated Press

Sam Houston State softball split their games over the break, finishing with a 3-3 record against the University of Texas-San Antonio, Texas State and conference rival Southeastern Louisiana.

The Bearkats started their spring break

off with a pair of wins against UTSA, and defeated the Roadrunners 7-3 and 4-3, respectively.

SHSU took their winning momentum on the road to Texas State but could not continue their victorious ways. The Bobcats sealed the Bearkats’ fate in the bottom of the fifth inning when their offense unloaded, tallying six runs.

Sophomore outfielder Jennie Kieval saw the fifth inning as the Bearkats’ Achilles’ heel.

“They really took advantage of our errors,” she said.

On two consecutive plays, the Bobcats advanced around the horn due to Bearkat throwing errors. Issues continued to snowball for SHSU as TSU’s first baseman

Kendall Wiley walked and pinch hitter Bianca Prado belted out a three-run home run.

With the score 8-3, SHSU had two more chances at the plate to try and salvage the game, but the Bearkats couldn’t get any offense rolling in the sixth or seventh innings, allowing the Bobcats the victory.

SHSU faced conference rival Southeastern Louisiana in a doubleheader Saturday but could not tame the Lions.

SHSU conceded the series with 10-3 and 6-4 losses but was able to scrape a 9-6 win in the final game.

“They brought their bats,” Kieval said. “They were hitting everything.”

Senior infielder Alyssa Coggins tried to give the Bearkats some life in the fifth inning during the series

opener as she reached first base on a Lions’ fielding error. Junior outfielder Tayler Gray came right behind her and got on base, but a late strikeout from senior outfielder Cecilia Castillo stopped their momentum.

SHSU couldn’t manage to cross the plate again.

However, home plate had the Bearkats’ name on it Sunday as they dusted the Lions 9-6.

The Castillo sisters, Cecilia and Tiffany, led the charge for SHSU.

SLU quickly put up six runs against SHSU, but senior right fielder Cecilia Castillo would not accept that. She posted two run-scoring doubles in the fourth and sixth innings to give the Bearkats leverage.

Freshman infielder Tori Koerselman opened up the fourth inning with a sacrifice fly that allowed Gray to score. Koerselman continued into the sixth inning, batting in two more runs, followed with sophomore catcher Tiffany Castillo’s two-run homer.

Gray topped off the Bearkats’ rally with her own home run, sealing SHSU’s come-from-behind victory.

The Bearkats will hit the field Tuesday as they take on Texas Southern. Opening pitch is set for 4 p.m.

MARISSA HILLSports Reporter

Bearkats split games during breakSOFTBALL

Kats sweep PrivateersCatcher Anthony Azar cemented

himself as a prominent offense threat in the Southland Conference, claiming the SLC Hitter of the Week for his performance in Saturday’s doubleheader against the University of New Orleans.

Azar effectively drove in eight runs during the three-game series, showing his power stroke by knocking out two home runs in the first game of the double header.

The senior catcher struck lightning for a third inning three-run homer to tie the game at 3-3 and the second coming off an eighth inning grand slam that solidified the 14-4 victory for the Bearkats.

“Azar is our rock as everyone knows,” head coach David Pierce said. “He does so much for us defensively and he stays in the middle of the lineup offensively. He’s just a solid hitter and he’s got power.”

Freshman pitcher Sam Odom pitched six innings, yielding three runs to the Privateers. Seth Holbert came in for relief for a solid seventh inning, recording a strike out. Dylan Ebbs closed out the final two innings in the win.

Consistent rallying late is a hallmark for the Bearkats this season, and the trend continued in both games.

In the second game, the Bearkats rallied during a 1-1 tie in the seventh inning for two runs. Colt Atwood plopped an RBI single in left center field with the bases loaded.

Atwood and Ryan O’Hearn contributed to a ninth inning four-run

rally to put the game out of reach for the Privateers.

Dirk Masters was on the bump for the Bearkats, pitching seven strenuous innings and giving up one earned run. Masters recorded his first win of the season while recording six strikeouts.

Closer Jason Simms recorded the final two outs to sweep the series for the Bearkats in the 7-2 victory.

SHSU hit the road to take on the University of Texas-Arlington Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

KYLE KELLYStaff Reporter

BASEBALL

BATTER OUT. Tyler Eppler had a great outing for Sam Houston, pitching six innings in the first contest of Saturday’s doubleheader, holding the Privateers to three runs.

Courtesty GoBearkats

Page 6

houstonianonline.com/newsTuesday, March 18, 2014

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App gives rape victims info

To supplement campus counseling centers and community sexual assault victim centers, a new app has compiled data and resource information in an effort to strengthen the combat against campus sexual assault.

The Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (TAASA) launched its Texas Safety University app for iPhone and Android in September to bring instant customized information for each of Texas’ 174 universities.

According to Glenn Stockard, deputy director of external affairs at TAASA, the app is designated to provide accessibility that may not be available on campus websites.

“If a student goes to the website of their university they may or may not find victims’ assistance,” he said. “Some of [the universities] don’t have them easily identified on the website.”

Campus Sentinel Co-Founder Gary J. Margolis, Ph.D., created the app over a period of two years. According to Margolis, the app makes a statement about “the importance of campus safety in today’s society.”

Once downloaded, users can pick customized information for their university. After the college or university has been chosen, the app checks the zip code of the respective geographic area for resources and counseling for sexual assault victims.

For Sam Houston State University, contact information and resources include university police, the counseling center, SHSU’s Title IX Coordinator and the Sexual Assault and Abuse Free Environment (SAAFE House).

According to a press release, prior to Texas Safety University’s launch, students were left to peruse through their college’s or university’s website for information. According to Stockard, the information wasn’t always easily available.

Stockard said the app hits on different levels including students, faculty, staff and parents.

“We want colleges and universities to see

that students are looking at our statistics so that students know that their college is a safer place,” he said. “If I’m a parent and I have a child going to one of the schools, this is a resource for the parent to look at the statistics for the school.”

SHSU University Police Chief Kevin Morris agrees.

Morris said although victims may not feel comfortable to report a case of sexual assault to the police, going to other resources is just as effective. Morris added the Texas Safety University app allows for victims to have additional sources that were previously unknown.

“I think the more information the better would make it easier for anyone,” Morris said. “Even if you don’t come to [UPD] we want you to go to other resources.”

Morris said he’d like to see SHSU’s dean of students, student activities or the counseling center promote the app.

Currently there have only been 50 downloads for Android, according to Google Play Store. Texas Safety University is currently available for download for iPad, iPhone and Android platforms.

CONNOR HYDEEditor-in-Chief

TECH

Jay R. Jordan | The Houstonian