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Volume 114 I No. 91

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State legislature talks

about death penalty.

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Residence halls to offer

tutoring services.

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Theatre department

presents “Dead Man

Walking.”

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Marshall men defeat Tulsa

79-61.

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News

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BY CRYSTAL MYERSTHE PARTHENON

A Marshall University student’s idea has become reality with the help of a few people and thousands of fans.

Derek Casteel, junior psychology major from Kenova, W.Va., posted on Herdnation.com to share his “glow-out” plans with other Marshall fans. The ball started rolling and has yet to stop. The Memphis men’s bas-ketball game jump-started his idea when 6,000 glow sticks were bought with donations from Herd Nation members.

“I knew the pre-game atmosphere is an important influence to the in-tensity of the game and knew this was a way to really get the crowd and team involved,” Casteel said.

During the introduction of the play-ers at the beginning of each game, Marshall fans are asked to stand and wave kelly green glow sticks in the air to welcome the team. Casteel said he was happy with the success of the first round of glow sticks and de-scribes the experience as electrifying.

Mark Campbell, Herald-Dispatch circulation director, Big Green member, Herd fan and cofounder of Herdnation.com, teamed up with Casteel to change the atmosphere at home basketball games. He said he hopes the “glow-out” becomes a tradition.

“Ultimately, we are fostering the glow sticks along in hopes to make it a game-day tradition,” Campbell

Glow sticks popular at basketball games

JOHN YEINGST | THE PARTHENON

Marshall basketball fans wave their glow sticks in Wednesday’s game against Tulsa. Marshall student Derek Casteel came up with the idea to distribute glow sticks at all home games.

BY PAUL RICHTER AND DAVID S. CLOUDTRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU(MCT)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama condemned Moammar Gadhafi’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Libya on Wednesday, saying he had ordered his administration to prepare “a full range of options” to handle the crisis as the death toll rose into the hundreds.

Although Obama described the vio-lence in Libya as “outrageous” and “unacceptable,” he did not specify any potential actions against Gadhafi and did not call on him to resign. A senior administration official said the White House does not want to give Gadhafi a chance to cast himself as a patriot resisting American pressure.

U.S. officials had avoided direct statements against the regime before Wednesday, partly over concern that Americans in Libya could face repri-sals or be taken hostage, officials said. Obama did not speak until a ferry had arrived in Tripoli to evacuate hun-dreds of U.S. citizens, including a few dozen diplomats.

At the United Nations, diplomats said they too were hesitant to act against Gadhafi while their citizens were still in the country.

Their statements reflected growing anxiety throughout the West about the spreading violence and the possible implosion of a country that is a key en-ergy source for Europe and other world markets. French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged the European Union to consider cutting all economic ties to Libya and weigh war crimes charges against officials involved in the killing of hundreds of Libyans.

“This is not simply a concern of the United States,” Obama said. “The en-tire world is watching.”

U.S. officials privately downplayed their ability to force a swift resolu-tion and said they hoped to work with allies to develop a package of multi-lateral economic sanctions, possibly including a freeze on Gadhafi’s per-sonal holdings.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will attend a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva on Monday to try to coordinate strategy with other nations, Obama said.

Yet diplomats acknowledged that there are few good points of leverage against an entrenched and isolated strongman who has vowed to cling to power, noting that military options could harden Gadhafi’s stand.

Local agency challenges Marshall students

Obama plans to deal with Libya crisis

ELIZABETH STEWART | THE PARTHENON

The pool at Green Acres Regional Facility in Lesage, W.Va., was dedicated to the victims of the 1970 Marshall University plane crash. Offi cials at Green Acres are challenging Marshall student groups to help renovate the facility’s recreation center and pool. Green Acres helps provide jobs for the mentally handicapped patients of Res Care.

BY ELIZABETH STEWARTTHE PARTHENON

Green Acres Regional Fa-cility in Lesage, W.Va., is experiencing hard times due to a budget crisis and is chal-lenging Marshall University students to help restore the program.

The recreation center on Green Acres’ campus is an old gymnasium that has fallen into disrepair and has not been used for more than 15 years. There is a pool outside the recreation center that has also seen better days. The pool was dedicated to the Marshall University plane crash victims in the 1970s.

The pool has been used in the past to help participants

with joint problems to exer-cise and as a leisurely activity for all the clients.

“I want to challenge all Marshall University student groups to come out and reno-vate the rec center and pool. We want to give this area to Marshall students to take care of,” said Rick Simmons, director of public relations at Green Acres Regional Facility.

Green Acres provides jobs for mentally handicapped cli-ents of Res Care, which is a human services company lo-cated in Huntington, Green Acres’ programs include a water bottling facility, a vocational agricultural train-ing program and a mowing service.

“We’re providing the oppor-tunity for these participants to help themselves,” said Devin Slone, director of facil-ities and programs at Green Acres.

Participants at the water bottling facility fill 20-ounce and five gallon containers that are shipped all over the state.

“This is what keeps Green Acres afloat,” said Jason Ha-gen, maintenance manager at Green Acres Regional Facility.

The mowing service is contracted by downtown businesses for landscaping and upkeep.

“Our guys do quality work

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BY DALTON HAMMONDSTHE PARTHENON

Residents have no excuse not to seek academic assistance thanks to the spring tutoring service.

Tutoring for the spring semester is available in Freshman-South Residence Hall, Gibson Hall in Commons and Twin Towers West.

The service is available to all resi-dents, not just to the residents of the buildings where it takes place.

Special focus is put on science classes where tutoring is available for chemis-try, biology and physics.

Other subjects in which tutoring is available include math, psychology, Spanish and sociology.

Katelyn Sheler, senior tutor in Fresh-man-South Residence Hall, said it’s good that the service is offered in the residence halls.

“It helps meet the residents’ needs when they don’t necessarily want to walk around campus to find tutoring,” Sheler said.

Emma Flaming, freshman elemen-tary education major from Clinton, Tenn., said she likes the idea of having tutors come to the residence halls to help students.

“I think it’s much more convenient, so the residents will want to get tutored more,” Flaming said.

Placing the service in the residence halls has some setbacks. For example, Sheler said sessions can be disrupted because of noise in the hall.

Sheler said she found out about the program through participating in tu-toring herself during her freshman and sophomore years.

“It’s my way of giving back to the pro-gram since it helped me when I needed it and it’s good work experience,” Sheler said.

Sheler said math is a subject the ma-jority of students who visit her have problems with.

“A lot of students have trouble with that, and sometimes with graduate teachers, it’s difficult for them since the teachers are new and the students have difficulties,” Sheler said.

Flaming said she thinks math is the hardest subject and is glad tutoring is available for it.

The service is available 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays and Sundays and resi-dents do not need an appointment to receive tutoring.

Sheler said those are good days to have tutoring offered because they are both at the beginning of the week, when students can focus on school after the weekend.

“I want to help students understand concepts so they can use that to help finish other problems they are having trouble with,” Sheler said.

Flaming said she would recommend the tutoring service to her friends if she thought they needed help.

“It’s one-on-one so it helped me much better than a teacher in a class would,” Flaming said.

Dalton Hammonds can be contacted at hammonds9@marshall.edu.

Tutoring service comes to residence halls

Obama plans to look at ‘full range of options’ to deal with Libya crisis

BY DAVID G. SAVAGE AND JAMES OLIPHANTTRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU(MCT)

WASHINGTON - In a historic shift on gay rights, the Obama administration announced that it believes the Constitution forbids unequal treatment of gays and lesbians in almost all cases, and specifically when it comes to federal benefits for legally married same-sex couples.

Attorney General Eric Holder said in a letter to Congress on Wednesday that the Justice Department would no longer oppose legal challenges to the De-fense of Marriage Act. The act, which was passed by Congress in 1996, bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages or extending them the same benefits as heterosexual couples.

Holder said President Barack Obama had decided that discrimination against gays can no longer be accepted as reasonable. Laws that allow such discrimination “war-rant heightened scrutiny” by officials and judges, he said, similar to the scrutiny that courts give to laws “targeting minority groups with a history of discrimination.”

This new stance by the administration was hailed as a “monumental turning point in the quest for equal-ity” by Jon W. Davidson, legal director for Lambda Legal, a gay-rights group in Los Angeles.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans were sharply critical. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, called the decision “deeply disturbing. President Obama’s personal policies are trumping his presidential duty.”

It comes just two months after Congress and Obama agreed to repeal the military’s ban on openly gay ser-vice members.

The immediate practical effect of the announcement may be limited. Holder said the administration would continue to enforce the law until a final ruling is made, most likely by the Supreme Court.

Long term, even if the administration’s view prevails it would not force states across the nation to grant equal marriage rights to gays and lesbians. Currently, five states grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

But Obama’s position, if accepted by the courts, would prevent federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, from discriminating against gays and lesbians who were legally married. Its legal rationale could also be used to challenge state bans on gay marriage as an unconstitutional violation of equal rights.

Gay rights advocates saw the decision as a break-through whose impact will be felt well beyond the dispute over federal benefits. It means “virtually all forms of discrimination” based on sexual orientation will be eventually judged unconstitutional, said Brad Sears, executive director of the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles.

A Republican-led Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act to prevent one state’s adoption of gay marriage from spreading nationwide. Usually, states are required to honor legal agreements made in an-other state, including marriage, under the so-called “full faith and credit” clause in the Constitution. In enacting the law, Congress said neither the states nor the federal government were obliged to recognize a marriage other than “a legal union between one man and one woman.”

But in recent years, the law has been challenged as a denial of equal rights by gays and lesbians who were legally married in their state. In New York, Edie Wind-sor sued after she received a $350,000 tax bill from the IRS after the death of her spouse, Thea Spyer. The two had lived together for 44 years in New York City and were married in Canada in 2007, yet the IRS treated them “as though they were strangers,” according to her legal complaint.

Until now, the Obama administration had taken the view that it had a duty to defend all laws, including discriminatory measures, so long as they could be jus-tified as constitutional.

But Holder said the case of Windsor v. the United States forced the administration to confront, for the first time, the question of whether discrimination against gays and lesbians is presumed to be unconsti-tutional. In the past, the Supreme Court has struck down several anti-gay laws, including one in Texas that made private sex between gays a crime. But the justices have not ruled on whether laws that treat per-sons differently because of their sexual orientation are generally unconstitutional, as are measures that dis-criminate based on a person’s race or gender.

In his letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Holder said the Justice Department will not defend against Windsor’s suit in New York or a similar suit in Connecticut. He said Congress may wish to appoint its own lawyers to defend the law.

A spokesman for Boehner criticized the White House for an unnecessary foray into a hot-button social issue.

“While Americans want Washington to focus on creat-ing jobs and cutting spending, the president will have to explain why he thinks now is the appropriate time to stir up a controversial issue that divides the na-tion,” said Boehner aide Michael Steel.

In a statement from New York, Windsor said, “There are not words to express my feelings today given that President Obama and the Department of Justice have done the right thing by recognizing this fundamental principle that all people and all marriages are entitled to be treated equally under the United States Constitution.”

The decision is Obama’s boldest so far in favor of gay rights. He opposed gay marriage during the 2008 cam-paign, and his administration defended the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in court while arguing it should be repealed by Congress.

Last December, Obama suggested that his position on gay marriage is not set in stone and that he might one day conclude that gays and lesbians should have the right to marry.

“I struggle with this,” the president said at a news conference. “I have friends, I have people who work for me, who are in powerful, strong, long-lasting gay or lesbian unions. And they are extraordinary people, and this is something that means a lot to them and they care deeply about.”

In an interview around the same time with a gay publi-cation, Obama said his attitude on the issue is “evolving.”

Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said the president faced little political risk by endorsing equal treatment for gay couples. “Voters are shifting in their attitudes on (gay) marriage and are now divided. Younger people and Democrats support marriage” for gays, she said.

In California, the administration’s stand should benefit about 18,000 same-sex couples who were married in 2008 before Proposition 8 banned such unions. It should also help gay federal employees who are seeking equal benefits for their partners. Karen Golinski, a staff attorney with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sued when the govern-ment denied health coverage to her legal spouse and partner of 21 years.

“This is really a wonderful day, for the Justice De-partment to be taking a hard look at this law and saying it’s unconstitutional,” she said. “I’m hopeful now for all of these cases.”

PHOTO BY OLIVIER DOULIERY | ABACAUSA.COM

According to Attorney General Eric Holder, President Barack Obama says discrimination against gays “can no longer be accepted as reasonable.”

Obama to stop defending federal gay marriage ban

wants to hear from

YOU!The Parthenon wants to hear from alumni from the classes of 1961 forward for a special March 2 edition to celebrate 50 years as a university. Send your Marshall memories - no more than 200 words - to parthenon@marshall.edu. Please include full name, major, year graduated, hometown and a

recent photo. The deadline is Feb. 28.

CORRECTION

In Tuesday’s edition of The Parthenon, Douglass High School was misspelled in the article about Carter

G. Woodson. The school was named for abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

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Day 1 Results from Conference USA Swimming and Diving Tournament

JOHN YEINGST I THE PARTHENON

Swimmers line up on the diving board during a home meet against Vanderbilt Jan. 30. The swim team will compete in the conference tournament in Houston until Saturday.

BY BRANDON ANICICHTHE PARTHENON

Things are on the up and up for the Marshall University women’s golf pro-gram. Nine seasons following its rebirth in 2002, the Herd are looking to make 2011 another step forward in the pur-suit of perfection. Coming off of a fall schedule that sent Marshall everywhere from Pennsylvania and Ohio to Tennes-see and Alabama, the Herd will kick off the spring schedule at the Barefoot at the Beach Invitational in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina March 6-8th.

“I think that we had a pretty good fall,” coach Knight Rowsey said. “It wasn’t completely up to a couple of our expectations, but it was a fairly well played fall. We’ve instituted a new in-door practice facility for our players to use throughout this winter, and a few of the girls have really truly impressed me with how hard they’ve been working on their game.

“A big thing we’ve pressed upon our players is a weight training program that is entirely golf specific, and a lot of the girls have seen that its really help-ing them out in their playing.”

While the roster may support more, collegiate programs are allowed five competitors in tournaments, a process that is constantly producing differ-ent results based on how each player is playing. With winter in West Vir-ginia placing hardships on any outdoor

practice schedule, it’s come down to work ethic indoors and training programs to keep the Herd in top shape for these spring tournaments. By all accounts, the women have been responding to that challenge with determination.

“The five that are traveling to the Barefoot at the Beach tournament, have all been showing an incredible work ethic,” Knight Rowsey said. “Their swings look good, really good right now— and the work we’ve been doing in the weight room has been paying off.”

Following the Barefoot at the Beach Tournament, Marshall will head to Florida at the end of March for the MSU Ocala Spring Invitational two-day event before staying to compete in the University of Cincinnati Spring In-vitational, which is also in Florida. In April, the Eastern Kentucky University Lady Colonel Classic in Richmond, Ky., will take Marshall as competitors for two days, wrapping up one week before the Conference-USA Championships in Gulf Shores, Ala.

“Our goals for this season will change with each tournament we compete in,” Knight Rowsey said. “But I think a goal to reach is to maintain a team match average of 310 or below all season.”

When asked if 310 was an obtain-able goal, Marshall’s head coach was confident.

“Yes. Absolutely.”Brandon Anicich can be contacted at an-

icich@marshall.edu.

Women’s golf looks to improve this spring

Herd defeats Golden Hurricane

1. SMU

2. ECU

3. Rice

4. Tulane

5.University

of Houston

6.University

of North Dakota

7. Marshall

BY PATRICK MILLERTHE PARTHENON

In a contest that was never really

competitive, Marshall (19-9, 7-6 C-USA) jumped to a 16-point lead and never trailed against Tulsa (15-12, 8-5 C-USA). Tulsa came into the game as the top rebounding team in Conference USA but was domi-nated on the glass, as Marshall out rebounded them 42-26 and 15-6 on the offensive.

“We came out with great energy from the start, defensively we re-ally locked down our guys and didn’t allow them to get back into the game,” head coach Tom Her-rion said.

The Herd started the game on an 18-2 run, dominating the Golden Hurricanes both offensively and defensively en route to a 42-28 halftime lead. Damier Pitts scored 15 of his 19 points in the first half, including a pair of three pointers at the beginning and end of the first half. Pitts also added eight assists and committed only one turnover on the night. The Herd out-rebounded the Golden Hurri-cane 20-14 and held them scoreless

for the first four minutes and forty seconds of the game.

“Some nights you just don’t have it, we had a lot riding on it which is really disappointing,” said Doug Wojcik, Tulsa head coach. “They played tough, and got a lot of nice pieces, people really don’t know how hard it is to come to Marshall and play.”

Senior forward Tirrell Baines scored a career high 26 points, several of which were dunks that brought the Henderson crowd to their feet.

“Team wise, this was one of the most complete games this year, it all started in how we practice, we gave everything we got and got the win,” Baines said. “Tomorrow we need to come in with the same mindset and execute, if we want to win.”

Pitts said that Baines has taken a stronger leadership role as of late and is acting as support for the younger players on the team like DeAndre Kane and Orlando Allen.

Wojcik said Southern Methodist, Marshall’s next opponent would be a different challenge because of their Princeton offense, and such

as the Conference USA race was wide open with every team having a chance to win the tournament.

Herrion sent out an email to Marshall students Tuesday urg-ing them to attend Wednesday and Saturday’s home games. In the email he said this week was one of the most important weeks Mar-shall basketball has had in a long time.

The Cam Henderson Center was almost completely full and atten-dance was higher than normal with 5,613 people in attendance.

Herrion reiterated his plea for fan support after the game, saying he needed a bigger turnout Satur-day against Southern Methodist and Conference Player of the Year candidate Papa Dia, a forward who averages 18.3 point per game and 8.8 rebounds a game.

“Please, please come,” he said. “There are a lot of empty seats, come here Saturday night. We need you and we need more of you for our last two home games, these kids deserve it.”

Patrick Miller can be contacted at miller490@marshall.edu.

JOHN YEINGST I THE PARTHENON

Senior Forward Tirrell Baines makes a dunk against Tulsa Wednesday night. Baines scored a career best of 26 points.

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Some of the best advice my father has ever given me is the best way to get out of debt is to not go into debt in the first place. It’s parental pearls of wisdom like these that often get tossed aside when

a boy becomes his own man in the workforce or on the path to higher education.

Credit card companies hang their services over our heads with tantalizing ease. The access to quick, invisible money we may or may not even have is far too easy to manipulate. It’s what ran us both into the Great Depres-sion and the current economic state we’re in. And it’s spending habits like this we need to elimi-nate if we, as young people, are going to take full advantage of this economic upswing.

Don’t get me wrong, as a na-tion, we’re not out of the woods yet, but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer. However, for many students and young workers, our journey in financial establishment is in rough waters. For the most part, we’re still at the mercy of mom and dad to some degree, but we can’t stay kids forever.

As kids becoming adults, we need to take more responsibil-ity with our money, because, whether we like it or not, the world moves with the flow of cash. In fact, using physical cash instead of swiping a card is al-ways interest-free and helps you keep track of what you’re spend-ing on whatever. If you lose cash, as opposed to a card, you only lose that amount and don’t have to spend time on the phone cut-ting through red tape to get your card shut down.

Often times, it’s the purchases you don’t make that are most im-portant. Saving an extra slice of cash instead of blowing it all on a night out or something extra will stack up after a while. You’ll notice it quicker than you think. Having a jar for loose change on your desk might sound lame, but it could potentially add up to something nice.

And that’ll be one nicer thing than you previously had.

My point is: Living in waves of splurging and scraping is not a way to live at all.

Contact Columnist Bishop Nash at nash24@marshall.edu.

EDITORIAL

The death penalty debate has been an on-going issue for years. West Virginia is one of 15 states that does not have the death penalty.

State Delegate John Over-ington, R-Berkeley held a hearing Feb. 15 with the House Judiciary Committee to discuss reinstating the death penalty. Overington is push-ing a bill that would allow the death penalty in at least one of 13 aggravating circumstances.

There are 35 states that have the death penalty. The last execution in West Virginia

was in 1959 and the death penalty was abolished in 1965.

Like many topics in Ameri-ca, the population seems to be split in their views and what the government should do.

According to a 2010 poll by Lake Research Partners for the Death Penalty Information Center, 61 percent of people would choose a punishment other than the death penalty for murder, including life with no possibility of parole with restitution to the victim’s fam-ily, 39 percent would choose life with no possibility of

parole plus restitution, 13 percent would choose life with the possibility of parole and 9 percent would choose life with a possibility of parole. A 2009 poll commissioned by DPIC found police chiefs ranked the death penalty last among ways to reduce violent crime. The police chiefs also considered the death penalty the least effi-cient use of taxpayers’ money.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, taxpayers have paid more than $250 million for each execu-tion. In Kansas, the cost of

capital cases are 70 percent more expensive than non-cap-ital cases and in Texas a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million which is about three times the cost of impris-oning someone in a single cell for 40 years.

Not only is the process ex-pensive, but states are also running out of the drugs need-ed to kill the people on death row, and every other means of killing someone has already been declared inhumane.

People are wrongfully con-victed and sentenced to death

for crimes they did not com-mit. West Virginia prisons are already overcrowded, and the state does not have the resources to build a maximum-security prison to house death row inmates.

We do not live in an “eye for an eye” society. Why should killers be sentenced to death. They are making the death penalty more humane, so why not abolish it?

Waves of splurging not a way to live

EDITORIAL CARTOON I LEE JUDGE I KANSAS CITY STAR

OpinionThursday, February 24, 2011marshallparthenon.com

Death penalty would be costly to W.Va. taxpayers

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THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICACongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble; and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

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Bush had not proof for war with Iraq

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday Rumsfeld covered a fairly wide range of topics from current levels of spending by the government to President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize.

The real take-home from Rumsfeld’s appearance on CNN was what he said about the lead up to the war in Iraq. Rumsfeld said the supposed presence of weapons of mass destruction was the largest issue.

“No question it was the big one,” he said.

No shock there. The justi-fication for the war was and continues to be that U.S. intelligence and the Bush ad-ministration believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. It was what the American people were told and what the world was told. It was what the West-ern media ate up and spit back out on televisions and com-puter screens without so much as a second thought.

When asked if he thought the U.S. would not have invaded Iraq if the adminis-tration didn’t believe weapons of mass destruction were pres-ent, Rumsfeld replied, “I think that’s probably right.”

I think that’s probably wrong.The Bush administration

never had any hard evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The in-telligence they gathered was almost exclusively from human sources. There was never any concrete proof. One source in particular, known ironically as “Curve Ball,” admitted he lied.

On the program, Rumsfeld had a momentary glimpse of enlightenment. People can lie.

In regard to sources, Rums-feld said, “Some are honest, some are dishonest. Some do it for money, some do it for self-praise. Some do it, apparently, to lie.”

Yes, people can and do lie. Es-pecially people who have been living under a brutal dictator for years and want nothing more than to see him deposed. Or, for those who have lived in exile and want nothing more than to return home. If only there was some way to get the most powerful nation in the world to perceive a threat so that they would intervene.

Are you ready for midterms?

What do you do when it’s warm outside?

■ Yes■ No■ I don’t have any midterms

■ Hang out with friends .........................................38%■ Exercise ................................................................. 32%■ I’m a hermit ........................................................... 29%

RESULTS

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and they love it,” Slone said.

“There are several greenhouses on Green Acres’ campus along with a tree nursery used to teach participants ag-ricultural skills.

Green Acres Regional Facility has three resi-dential buildings that house around nine participants each. Im-proving the lives of these residents is the goal of the restoration program.

“This is a work envi-ronment, but we want to show them the plea-sures of life, too,” Slone said.

Mismanagement of funds, government cut-backs and the rising prices of goods have left Green Acres with no money for improvements

to the dilapidated buildings.

“We’re calling upon the public to see what they can do to help us make things better and have a brighter future,” Simmons said.

“There is real poten-tial there, we just need help in realizing that po-tential,” Slone said.

Green Acres is also launching a fundrais-ing campaign called Operation Green Acres Rebirth to help restore their failing sewer sys-tem and revitalize the Green Acres campus.

“We want Marshall University to be a part of Green Acres and Green Acres to be a part of Marshall University, and this is a way to do it,” Simmons said.

Elizabeth Stewart can be contacted at stewart52@marshall.edu.

ChallengeContinued from Page 1

said. “We want fans to have the mindset where you do not attend a game without bringing your glow stick.”

Casteel said fan participation and responses have been outstanding. Yosuke Hioki, junior accounting major from Ravenswood, W.Va., attends basketball games regu-larly and said he thinks the idea is fantastic.

“When the lights go out during the introduction, it just seems like a complete different atmosphere then it ever has before,” Hioki said. “It almost feels like a party, the fans seem to love it, and I love it.”

There have been three home games since the original “glow-out.” With each game, the original idea to generate a better game at-mosphere continues to grow.

After the success of the first glow-out, Campbell ran with Casteel’s idea and created a “fan plan.”

“It went over so well at Memphis that the university approached me and said, ‘hey, I think you guys have a good idea here,’ and it kind of went on from there,” Campbell said.

“I thought to myself, if we’re

going to have 6,000 glow sticks, then what else can we do at the same time,” Campbell said. “So we put together four or five things that we thought would make the game day atmosphere a little better.”

The fan plan includes different chants and cheers Campbell and the Big Green suggest for the fans to participate in throughout the game. The plan coordinates with the university’s band and cheer-leaders to bring everyone together to support the basketball team.

The fan plan is being printed weekly in both the Herald-Dispatch and The Parthenon. The Herald-Dispatch has also agreed to print 2,000 copies of the plan to pass out to fans at the remaining games.

Campbell said Marshall Univer-sity is now onboard with the plans and has agreed to pay for the glow sticks, however he and Casteel said it is up to the fans to make these ideas stick around.

“It needs to be a fan initiative, we really feel like we can’t just sit back and wait for the university,” Camp-bell said. “We, as fans, have an obligation as well and we want fans to take some of these traditions and run with them on their own.”

“If it does catch on, then I’d like it to be one of the things Marshall

is known for. I’d like to claim it as our own,” Casteel said. “It is in the fans’ hands to make this happen.”

On the other hand, Casteel said the glow sticks and chants are not about the fans.

“It’s more so about the team. This is our appreciation to them for their performance this year,” Casteel said.

Hioki said he agrees the glow sticks show the fans’ appreciation.

“It’s almost like the fans get the chance to talk back to the players, as they get ready for the game,” Hioki said.

Campbell has already begun pre-paring for the seasons final game before conference play against UCF. He said 8,000 glow sticks will be handed out and it will by far be the biggest game of the season.

“If anyone is missing the Central Florida game, I think they’re just going to be crazy,” Campbell said. “It will really be a blast.”

Campbell and Casteel both said they have high hopes their ideas will become traditions here at Marshall University. They encour-age fans to bring glow sticks of their own and to participate in the cheers.

Crystal Myers can be contacted at myers132@marshall.edu.

GlowContinued from Page 1

BY SARAH BUTRYMOWICZTHE HECHINGER REPORT(MCT)

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Lehigh Uni-versity did a good job wooing Nezy Smith here. A Lehigh admissions of-ficer met the African-American honor roll student at her high school in Lebanon, Pa., then kept in touch for a year, urging her to visit the campus and helping her to fill out complex fi-nancial aid forms.

Smith arrived at Lehigh in 2008, elated to experience college life and dismissing cautions by some upperclassmen that as a minor-ity student she might sometimes feel unwelcome on the 146-year-old campus and in its social scene, including parties in the hilltop fra-ternity houses.

A few months into her freshman year, though, Smith and a group of black friends waited in vain outside a frat house while a member waved others in. And at times she felt un-easy being the only black face in the classroom, despite doing well in her business and German courses.

By the next winter, she was gone, joining the roughly 25 percent to 40 percent of black and Hispanic students who start at Lehigh but don’t finish, depending on the year. The institution that had worked so hard to attract Smith hadn’t done such a good job of keeping her, spotlighting a problem seen at col-leges nationwide.

A lot of attention has been given to the push to make higher edu-cation more diverse, with colleges trumpeting their enrollment of underrepresented students. But black and Latino students are, on average, far less likely to graduate in six years than their white and Asian peers.

Some colleges, however, defy the

trend, graduating all students at the same rates, according to a 2010 report by the Washington-based nonprofit Education Trust. Using these schools as an example, the Education Trust concludes that a graduation gap is not inevitable.

When a student drops out of high school, the tendency has long been to blame the school. But when a student leaves college, people typi-cally blame the individual. But many experts now argue that even at the post-secondary level, institu-tions must shoulder responsibility for their completion rates — and that their practices matter a lot.

Another way to look at it: While Lehigh lost Nezy Smith, might a different institution — such as the University of Notre Dame — have kept her?

———Like Nezy Smith, Dominique Hig-

gins distinguished herself in high school — in her case, Bonita High south of Los Angeles, where she served in student government, tu-tored others and was a shot-putter.

Last March, before its official let-ters went out, Higgins was among a group of minority students invited to one of three all-expenses-paid “diversity weekends” at Notre Dame’s South Bend, Ind., campus. They arrived on a Thursday eve-ning and assembled in La Fortuna Student Center, where their host went over the agenda for the week-end before casually announcing, “Oh, by the way, you’ve all been accepted.” After two seconds of stunned silence — Was it a joke? — the room erupted into cheers.

The extraordinary attention didn’t end when Higgins ar-rived last August. There was an event at the campus restaurant, where she was invited to a lunch with several political science

professors speaking that night on the future of the Latino vote. Not long after Higgins got settled, a man in a yellow vest came over to ask how she was keeping up with her studies amid all the dis-tractions of campus life like pep rallies and football games.

“I’m working on it,” she promised.“That’s good,” said Arnel Bulaoro,

who monitors the academic per-formance of minority students on campus. He’s keeping files on 421 this year.

Notre Dame is larger than Le-high, 8,400 students to 4,700, but both are selective private institu-tions with high price tags and solid student test scores. (In Higgins’ class at Notre Dame, incoming stu-dents in the 25th to 75th percentile on the reading and math sections of the SAT scored between 1315 and 1480, while students in the same percentile range at Lehigh scored between 1270 and 1410.)

The two institutions also have similar combined black and His-panic enrollments — 11 percent for the latest class at Lehigh, and 14 percent at Notre Dame.

But where Lehigh reported a 10-point gap in graduation rates between whites and their black and Hispanic peers in 2008, Notre Dame’s black and Hispanic under-graduates completed their degrees at a rate only 1.1 percentage points lower than the overall rate of 95.8 percent, according to the Education Trust.

At Notre Dame, Bulaoro is one of two assistant directors of Mul-ticultural Student Programs and Services. The other concentrates on the social side of things. The office also has a director, services coordinator, program intern, grad-uate student assistant and three undergraduate interns.

American universities try to keep minority studentsBY MICHAEL A. MEMOLITRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU(MCT)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama suffered an across-the-board de-crease in popularity throughout the coun-try in 2010 according to state-by-state data released by Gallup on Tuesday.

In only a dozen states is the president’s ap-proval rating above 50 percent, the information shows, and in 10 states his approval rating is lower than 40 percent. In no state did his ap-proval rating rise last year, and the most se-vere drops occurred in “red states” carried by Sen. John McCain in 2008 and battlegrounds he will need to win in 2012 to earn re-election.

Vermont registered the biggest dip in presi-dential job approval — 15.2 percent lower in 2010 than in 2009. It was followed by Ari-zona, where the Obama

administration’s lawsuit challenging the state’s illegal-immigration law made the political en-vironment even more toxic for Democrats.

For the second con-secutive year, Obama’s native state of Hawaii offers him the most sup-port, with 66 percent of voters approving of his job performance. Maryland, New York, Delaware and Massa-chusetts round out the top five. Eight of 12 states where Obama’s approval rating is above the national average are in the northeast region.

Obama is least popu-lar in Wyoming, where just 28 percent of voters approve of his perfor-mance. Gallup found that five of the top 10 least approving states were in the West, in-cluding Idaho, Utah, Montana and Alaska. A job approval rating is only one factor — al-beit an important one — in determining the strength of a president seeking re-election.

Obama’s ratings fall

Wednesday, February 24, 2011marshallparthenon.com

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BY ERIN MILLERTHE PARTHENON This week in Marshall his-tory: The year was 1960. Huntington residents and Marshall students found a way to enjoy the fresh snow, Marshall’s campus faces an-other vaccination season, and “Stinky”, the friendly little skunk, makes the cam-pus a little sweeter.

Frosty has grown! As Huntington’s streets filled with snow, resi-dents and students found a way to enjoy the weather. Marshall’s Sigma Alpha fraternity’s entry into the city-wide “biggest snow-man contest”, sponsored by WKEE radio, stood an impressive 12-feet tall and six-feet in diameter at the

base. Sigma Alpha’s giant snow-man entry was big enough to take home the $20 prize and the bragging rights that came with the wintery award.

Vaccines “You planned your life last week; preserve it this week.” This was the slogan used by the pre-med fraternity to encourage students to take advantage of free immuniza-tions offered by Marshall’s health clinic.Antibiotics are often given to treat illness and to help prevent serious illnesses such as Meningitis. The vaccines offered in 1960 in-cluded inoculations against diphtheria, typhoid, teta-nus, polio, small pox, and the Asiatic flu.

Charles Hegan explained the emphasis the university put on tetanus and polio by saying there has been a 98 percent decrease in polio cases among those who have had the shots. “We still give the polio vac-cine,” said Sharon Smith from the Cabell-Huntington Health Department. “It’s ac-tually required for children before they can enter the school system. But the small pox vaccine we don’t use anymore.” Students living on cam-pus are encouraged to get these vaccines to prevent bacterial meningitis and to discuss these vaccines with a physician.

“Stinky” Tua Kappa Epsilon fra-ternity’s mascot, Stinky

the skunk, became a little more loved as owner Jerry Schroger assured students that Stinky was deodorized. Schroger, a Huntington sophomore, said that Stinky will eat anything they feed him and is one of the frater-nity’s most active members. Stinky attends all fraternity meetings on the shoulders of fraternity members, happily chirping about or-ganization issues or the occasional treat. “Skunks are semi-popular pets in this area,” said An-drea Bul, worker at Petland in Ashland, Ky. “After you have them deodorized, they could make a nice pet. But after all, they are still a wild animal.” Erin Miller can be reached at miller652@marshall.edu.

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Frequency Notes

Iron & Wine—Kiss Each Other CleanBY CHRIS MILLER

About two-thirds of the way through “On Your Wings,” the first track on Iron & Wine’s second album “Our Endless Numbered Days,” it’s clear something new is happening. After a couple verses of muted singing and sparse guitars, the rest of the band enters and fully realizes the groove that had been hinted at the whole time. This was a pretty big step for an Iron & Wine record; the entire first release, the beau-tiful “The Creek Drank the Cradle,” was entirely hushed, acoustic and self-recorded by Sam Beam, the man behind the band’s name. But here and throughout the album it’s clear he is not afraid to alter this al-ready successful formula. Even though the songs were bigger and clearer on “Our Endless Numbered Days,” they were largely of the same brand as was on its predecessor. With his next 2007 release, “The Sheppard’s Dog,” Beam rein-vented himself again, using a full band throughout, dense arrangements and world-mu-sic influences — a far cry from “The Creek Drank the Cradle.”

Iron & Wine’s latest record, “Kiss Each Other Clean,” shows Beam completing this progres-sion. What was big on “The Sheppard’s Dog” is now huge — for example, the rollicking saxophone jam of “Big Burned Hand” or the climactic coda on the album’s closer “Your Fake Name is Good Enough for Me.” And Beam seems to have set-tled comfortably into his role as bandleader and singer, now us-ing layered arrangements and his full voice with confidence.

But the whole album isn’t this big. Beam has stated that with this release his goal was to cre-ate “a more focused pop record — like the music people heard in their parent’s car growing up.” “Tree By the River” and “Half Moon” are examples of this simple, direct method of songwriting. “Godless Brother in Love” and “Walking Far From Home” are also smaller in scale, harkening back to the songs of the first two Iron & Wine albums, though the result is still fuller than anything on either of those records.

The beautiful thing about Iron & Wine is, though every album sounds drastically different, the transition never seems forced or strained. Everything about this record is unmistakably Iron & Wine, but still very new at the same time. The central aspect of Beam’s identity remains the same throughout, and it is clear through these records, we are simply witnessing a more com-plete version of Sam Beam as an artist and as a person.Contact columnist CHRIS MILLER at miller545@marshall.edu.

“Dead Man Walking” presented at Marshall

BY JARED ROACHTHE PARTHENON

The Joan C. Edwards Playhouse hosted the first of four performances of the play “Dead Man Walking” Wednesday night. The show comes to Marshall from the Dead Man Walking Theatre Project which, since 2003, has produced the play in more than 170 high schools and col-leges across the country in an attempt to facilitate discussion on the issue. “A lot of the students involved in it have said for the first time in their lives they’re actually thinking ‘oh my gosh this affects me, this is something I should think about’, not that they’re on one side or the other,” said Julie Jack-son, chairwoman of Marshall’s theatre department. The play is about the relationship between Sister Helen Prejean and her struggle as the spiritual adviser to death row inmate Matthew Poncelet and her sympathy for his victim’s families.

“Certainly in the role of Matthew, Na-than is doing a great job and Chelsea as Sister Helen is just terrific,” said Jack Cirillo, director of the play. “I think they’re well prepared. I mean they’re ready to go, they’ve been ready for a few days now and so just having an audience here tonight kind of makes them step up their game.” The play itself does not take a side in the debate, presenting both sides and asking the audience to make their own decisions. “I think it’s smart because it challenges you,” said Kelly Bean, Marshall English professor. “The person on death row is not sympathetic. So it’s not like this easy ‘I’m against the death penalty because I like this guy’ argument. It challenges you to think about all the complications around the death penalty.” “One of the things the play asks is that you make some kind of connection to not only the incidents in the play but what’s happening with the death penalty

movement nationally. So there’s a good deal of information the playwright wants the audience to be aware of,” Cirillo said. “The projections give the audience some information about capital punishment and the number of people that are in prison and the demographics.” “I think it’s pretty shrewd,” Bean said. “Especially the information about how many people have become part of death row since 1980. It’s important that people see the show. It’s telling a very important story.” “Dead Man Walking” will be performed again Thursday, Friday and Saturday and a roundtable discussion on the death penalty will be held 3:30 p.m on Friday at the Francis-Booth Experimen-tal Theatre. “It’s gone well. I think the kids have done well and the audience seems very intense and interested in it,” Cirillo said. “That’s a good sign.” Jared Roach can be contacted at roach47@marshall.edu.

JOHN YEINGST | THE PARTHENONThe Dead Man Walking Theatre Project has been performed in more than 170 high schools and colleges in the U.S. The play focuses on the intensity of a death row inmate and his relationship with his spiritual adviser.