The New HampshireThe New HampshireVol. 100, No. 21 November 19, 2010 Serving the University of New Hampshire since 1911Friday

The Red Carpet Flower Shop has suffered a tremendous loss of business the last couple of months since a fi re in the apartment above damaged the store this past September.

The stove fi re in the above apart-ment that caused the damage not only injured a UNH student, but also the busi-ness Kaitlyn Bassett is currently running,

under the ownership of her grandmother, who had been running it for nearly 50 years.

Water damage trickling down from the sprinklers above destroyed the ceiling of the fl ower shop residing at 58 Main St. Ceiling tiles were completely destroyed and even found on the fl oor the morning after the fi re.

“There was so much water damage

UNH has long been a leader in the area of envi-ronmental conservation and sustainability. On Mon-day, the announcement was made that one of the uni-versity’s programs will continue to give companies an opportunity to positively affect both the environment and the economy in New Hampshire.

Following a highly successful fi rst year, the Green Launching Pad, a UNH and state of New Hampshire program, will make $500,000 available to entrepre-neurs looking to expand or break into the burgeon-

The UNH School of Law has a new dean and president, as John T. Broderick Jr. was appointed to the position earlier this month.

Broderick had been a part of the New Hamp-shire Supreme Court for the past 15 years, and for the last six years of his tenure, Broderick had been serving as Chief Justice. Now he will start his new career leading the newly affi liated UNH School of Law.

“I am genuinely honored to have been selected to lead the law school at this time of great opportunity and change,”

Two months post-fi re, not all roses for fl orist

Julia MillerSTAFF WRITER

RAYA AL-HASHMI/STAFFRed Carpet Flower Shop is still feeling the effects of a September stove fi re.RED CARPET continued on page 3

PHOTO ILLUSTRATIONS/COURTESYThe town could approve a plan that would allow a large village of cottages to move into UNH.

IS THIS THE FUTURE OF OFF-CAMPUS HOUSING? Former state Supreme Court Justice named dean of law school

Green Launching Pad heads to second phase of funding

Ryan ChiavettaSTAFF WRITER

Justin DoubledaySTAFF WRITER

BRODERICK continued on page 3

GLP continued on page 3

BRODERICK

The town of Durham could approve a plan that would put UNH students in classier cribs through Capstone Devel-opment, a student housing fi rm that has built cottages, apartments and dorms on 57 campuses across the country.

The development fi rm went before the Durham Planning Board last month and presented a plan to build a large neighborhood-style housing development composed of cottages. Capstone is look-ing to house over 600 students.

It seems UNH students will have a plethora of choices for housing in the next few years, as Capstone is only one of the

many student housing development plans occurring in Durham. The lots on 10 Pet-tee Brook Lane, 1 Madbury Road and 9 to 11 Madbury Road are also being turned into mixed-use buildings likely to house UNH students.

A large village of cottages is what

Cottages appear headed for UNHTown could approve neighborhood-style housing option

Kelly SennottSTAFF WRITER

COTTAGES continued on page 3

Page 8 Page 4

UNH recognized National Smokeout Day yesterday, a day when smokers put down their cigarettes for 24 hours. The school has observed the day since 1986.

Despite being rated No. 2 among the top schools in the nation, the health services administration has seen an unusual drop in enrollment.

The New HampshireFriday, November 19, 20102

Contents

CorrectionsIf you believe that we have made an error, or if you have questions about The New Hampshire’s journalis-tic standards and practices, you may contact Executive Editor Thomas Gounley by phone at 603-862-4076 or by email at tnh.editor@unh.edu.

Economy takes toll on local landlords Sisters in Step to put on show

In an effort to attract new student occupants, Durham landlords are beginning to include more amenities in their rents and control their prices.

Sisters in Step will perform “Nerds Anonymous,” a show in which the members transform from nerds to hip-hop dancers, on Saturday night.

55 66

This weekin

Durham

19

21

20

224An article by U.S. News

ranked UNH’s Health Management and Policy program second among the Top Schools for Health Services Administration. And yet, the pro-gram seems to be overlooked by much of the student body as class sizes remain small.

UNH HMP program recognized

13The recent announcement of

the engagement between Prince William and Kate Middleton has spawned a discussion in England about how elaborate and expensive the royal wedding ceremony should be, and the indication is that it will be grand but cheap.

Royal wedding to be big, but cheap

The next issue of The New Hampshire will be onTuesday, November 29, 2010

Contact Us:

Executive Editor Managing Editor Content EditorThomas Gounley Chad Graff Amanda Beland

tnh.editor@unh.edu tnh.me@unh.edu tnh.news@unh.edu

The New Hampshire156 Memorial Union Building

Durham, NH 03824Phone: 603-862-4076www.tnhonline.com

Cornucopia 12 p.m. • Waysmeet CenterYoga 12 p.m. Wild-• cat DenMen’s Hockey 7 p.m. • Whitt

Football 12 p.m. • Cowell StadiumUNH Opera 8 p.m. • Bratton Recital Hall

Wind Symphony 3 • p.m. PCACThanksgiving 5 p.m. • Waysmeet CenterStick and Puck 5:45 • p.m. Whitt

Payton MacDonald • 11 a.m. PCACMeditation 12:15 • p.m. Health ServicesOpen Skate 6:15 • p.m. Whitt

Members of the UNH community abstained from smoking on Thurs-day in honor of National Smokeout Day.

The UNH men’s basketball team fought off a 17-point defi cit to defeat Dartmouth, 55-53, in Hanover, N.H., on Tuesday.

88 2020

UNH recognizes Smokeout Day Men’s basketball defeats Dartmouth

The New Hampshire Friday, November 19, 2010 3

Continued from page 1

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it was kind of hard to tell where it came from,” Bassett said.

Heat and smoke from the apart-ment above set off the sprinkler sys-tem of the fl ower shop, damaging 80 percent of their inventory, including ruined cards, plants, and chocolates.

Five days after the incident, the management of the fl ower shop had no choice but to start construction. After attempting to keep parts of it open and blocking the most dam-aged areas off, they had no choice but to close the storefront down completely.

“We lost all of our walk-in traf-fi c,” Bassett said.

They have tried their best to put signs up indicating that they are still open for business but the busi-ness has still suffered greatly.

Still open in the back, the Red Carpet Flower Shop is doing the best

they can to take phone orders and continue getting deliveries out.

The holiday season has slowed down greatly. People haven’t been able to walk in to see the fl owers and decorations.

Because of the small fi re that could have been easily prevented, the Red Carpet Flower Shop has missed the increased business that comes with Homecoming and Parent’s weekend and now, Thanksgiving.

They do not have a fi nalized date for reopening or an estimate as to the total building and inven-tory damage yet, but they hope to be open before Christmas, a season of increased business for the shop.

They intend to have a grand re-opening in December.

Orders for the shop can still be picked up at its sister store, Town and Campus, also located on Main Street.

Broderick said in a press release. “The affi liation with the University of New Hampshire will enhance and expand our reach and global infl uence, especially in the area of intellectual property.”

Broderick takes over the posi-tion from Dean John D. Houston, who recently announced his retire-ment. Broderick does not offi cially take over the position of dean until Jan. 28, and is only the dean desig-nate until his term offi cially starts.

Members of the UNH School of Law are excited to see what Broderick will do during his tenure as dean of the school, while being appreciative of the job that outgo-ing Dean Huston has done during his time in the position.

“UNH School of Law has gone

through many wonderful changes during Dean Houston’s tenure, in-cluding, of course, the affi liation with UNH,” Susan Richey, associ-ate dean and professor of law at the UNH School of Law, said. “Now, with Justice Broderick coming on board, we are ideally poised to make the most of our new partner-ship with UNH.”

The UNH School of Law was formally known as the Franklin Pierce Law Center before its af-fi liation with UNH. Since the UNH School of Law is only affi liated with UNH and did not merge with the university, Broderick also earns the title of president of the school.

Broderick has earned the praise of UNH President Mark Hud-dleston, who was supportive of his appointment.

“An extraordinarily thoughtful

man, as well as a truly distinguished jurist, Justice Broderick is ideally suited to provide the type of cre-ative, inspired leadership that will move UNH Law forward,” Hud-dleston said in a press release. “I’m excited to begin working with him to realize the full benefi ts of our new affi liation.”

As the new era begins for the newly founded UNH School of Law, excitement is coming from all angles.

“I am committed to working collaboratively with the distin-guished faculty at the law school, our 5,000 alumni, and UNH lead-ership to create new and exciting interdisciplinary curricula and joint degree programs for our mutual benefi t,” Broderick said in a press release.

Capstone is proposing, but these buildings would not be small and quaint, as cottages often are.

John Acken, the vice president of Capstone Development, said that each cottage would house between three to fi ve students. Each bed-room would have its own walk-in closet and bathroom.

Acken also said that the com-pany would work with UNH so that Wildcat transit would stop by the cottage complex.

In the center of the develop-ment, Acken said that they would like to build a “clubhouse” for the students who live in the develop-ment. This “clubhouse” would con-tain a computer lab, a gym, tanning beds, pool tables, and to top it off, a heated outdoor pool. Capstone is looking to build the complex off Technology Drive, which is close to the Route 4 Bridge.

But Mark Henderson, chair of the Durham Landlord Associa-tion, has serious doubts about the Capstone proposal. He recently sent a letter to Director of Planning and Community Development Jim Campbell requesting a Right-to-Know request to see all past corre-spondence between the Board and Capstone, as well as any future cor-

respondences. It’s not diffi cult to pinpoint why

local landlords might be concerned. Six-hundred more spots? However, Henderson said that his concern is more about the oversaturation. If this project goes through, it’s likely that there will be more beds in Dur-ham than there are students.

Some think that students would likely move into this housing devel-opment and therefore, move out of Durham neighborhoods, fi nally solving the case of the noisy college students.

Henderson disagrees.“The noise in the neighbor-

hood is a problem, and I empathize with the people, but I don’t think Capstone is the answer,” Henderson said.

Henderson said that having Capstone add a large complex of cottages would go against the Dur-ham Master Plan, and subsequently, it would negatively affect the Dur-ham businesses.

According to Todd Selig, the town administrator, the complex would broaden its tax base by $20 to $30 million. But Henderson said that a broader tax base would decrease the value of the existing properties, which ultimately, would not be good for Durham. He is also afraid that the Town Council will

not hold Capstone to the same stan-dards as other building proposals because of their eagerness to wel-come their project to the town.

Henderson said that the associ-ation’s goal is not to stop Capstone, but the group is concerned that the town will grant variances that they wouldn’t have given otherwise.

Capstone is scheduled to return to the Planning Board within the month to submit a formal applica-tion.

Prices have yet to be deter-mined, but Acken said he expects they’ll be competitive in the local market.

But as wonderful as a heated outdoor pool sounds to UNH senior Bailey Shea, she said that she per-sonally would not be interested in living in the neighborhood, primar-ily because of the location.

“I chose to live in Davis Court because I can still walk to campus and take the Wildcat transit sys-tem,” Shea said. She added that she enjoys living off campus in Davis Court because she can still walk to campus while experiencing freedom that off-campus housing allows.

Henderson agrees.“Part of the experience of col-

lege is being close to campus. I don’t see Capstone helping down-town Durham,” Henderson said.

ing green energy business. Now in its second year of funding, the Green Launching Pad focuses on creating jobs in the “green economy.”

The GLP will select fi ve busi-nesses early next year to get a slice of that $500,000. A.R. “Venky” Ven-katachalam, chair of the department of decision sciences and professor of information systems at UNH, is co-principal at Green Launching Pad. He explained that businesses com-peting for the funding must fall un-der one of four categories: renewable energy, energy effi ciency, emissions reduction and energy conservation.

There are fi ve criteria in which these companies and entrepreneurs are judged during the selection process. The fi rst is potential for environmental impact, as the GLP is centered on creating environmen-tally friendly businesses. The sec-ond criterion is economic potential, as the GLP is also intended to help create jobs in the state.

“The unemployment rate is still high [in New Hampshire],” Venka-tachalam said. “We want to help the state of New Hampshire prosper.”

The GLP, in its third criterion, looks at the technology used by the prospective company and whether it is both original and effective. The fourth criterion is whether the company will be able to compete in the market it is entering. If it is an entirely novel idea, the GLP will de-cide whether the company can cre-ate its own market. Finally, the ex-perience of the entrepreneur and his or her team will be weighed by the GLP. The companies that meet each of those fi ve criteria to the highest level will be selected by the GLP.

Venkatachalam said that the

GLP does much more than just fund-ing. In addition to giving these com-panies money, it provides accelerated business development support. This support includes advice and coach-ing from industry professionals, net-working with funders, access to of-fi ce and meeting space, and critical operating support from UNH.

“It is not just the funding,” Venkatachalam said. “Of course funding is important. But besides that, they get signifi cant help in mentorship and coaching.”

This year, the GLP hopes to give accelerated business support to every company that applies, not just the fi ve that win funding. Accord-ing to Venkatachalam, the point is to build a “community” of green en-ergy companies in New Hampshire.

In its fi rst year of operation, the Green Launching Pad received appli-cations from 71 companies. On May 1, fi ve companies were chosen to re-ceive upwards of $60,000 in funding, along with the accelerated business development support.

“They have come a long way. They worked so hard during the sum-mer,” Venkatachalam said. “And the process is still ongoing, those compa-nies are not done.”

One thing about the Green Launching Program that has sur-prised Venkatachalam is the entre-preneurial spirit in New Hampshire. The GLP expected a maximum of 30 companies to apply for funding, not the 71 that ended up sending in proposals.

“You feel very happy and de-lighted, and you wish there were more funds to give to everybody,” Venkatachalam said. “That shows how much innovation there is in the green sector here in New Hamp-shire.”

RED CARPET: Flower Shop struggling to regain business

GLP: UNH program begins second phase of funding green businesses

BRODERICK: Former state Chief Justice appointed dean of law school

COTTAGES: Village could represent the future of off-campus housing

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION/COURTESYDurham could approve a plan allowing a large village of cottages to move into campus.

The New HampshireFriday, November 19, 20104

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TNHWe have issues.

In the midst of economic and political strife, the healthcare indus-try seems to be a current hot-button issue. The industry, one of the na-tion’s largest and most dynamic, still showcases a thriving and com-petitive job market even in the dis-mal economic recession.

Rated second among the Top Schools for Health Services Admin-istration in a recent article by U.S. News, the Department of Healthcare Management and Policy at UNH is a largely overlooked program in the university academic body, but a recent overhaul in application re-quirements is better preparing stu-dents for the healthcare industry, and enrolled students are reaping the benefi ts.

It is unclear whether the de-

partment’s recent academic require-ments have impacted the number of declared students. Currently, the de-partment is experiencing an unusual drop in entrance enrollment. There are no more than 10 students this year in a sophomore class that typi-cally seats upwards of 50, according to department estimates.

Meanwhile, the number of up-perclassmen has increased from 50 to 60 students per class, according to Professor Jim Lewis, chair of the department.

Last year, due to increasing de-mand for the major, the department raised its admission standards. Stu-dents looking to enroll in the pro-gram this year must have an overall GPA of 2.75 or higher, raised from last year’s requirement of an overall GPA of 2.5.

“We’re not sure what the im-pact of that ultimately will be on our class size,” Lewis said. “[The department] is always looking for bright, motivated students who wish to pursue careers related to management of health care organi-zations, development of policy or design and delivery of public health services,” Lewis said.

The department of Health Management and Policy offers a B.S. degree with two tracks, one fo-cusing on health management and a

second on public health. “What I think is unique about

our program is that it puts the two together,” professor Les MacLeod said.

MacLeod teaches various healthcare management courses and serves as the standing faculty super-visor of the summer practicum, an internship required of students to be completed over the summer be-tween their junior and senior year.

The program is certifi ed under the Association of University Pro-grams in Health Administration, meaning that its curriculum, facul-ty, internships and placement rates have been found to meet the highest standards.

“There are only about 70 such programs in the country,” Lewis said. “We are one of the oldest un-dergraduate programs in the country and have well over 1,000 program alumni doing great things in the in-dustry,” he said.

Health Management and Poli-cy students learn a balanced blend of healthcare theory and practice, a sense of professionalism in admin-istration, and current knowledge of

the healthcare industry. The depart-ment is relatively small. On average, between 100 upperclassmen and 50 sophomores are in the program, for a total of 150 students enrolled each year. All academic advising is done exclusively by nine full-time faculty members, working one-on-one with students throughout their undergraduate career.

“Our relatively small size as a major is one of our principal as-sets,” Lewis said. “We really get to know and work with our students. We are able to identify and manage excellent internship sites.”

Described by faculty as a “dis-covery major,” most students trans-fer into the Health Management and Policy program their sophomore year.

Jennifer Alex, a senior and president of the Student Organiza-tion for Health Leadership, was a biochemistry major before declar-ing the HMP major her sophomore year.

“I originally wanted to be a doctor, but I wasn’t enjoying my classes,” Alex said. “With [Health Management and Policy], I still get to help people and work in public health.”

In addition to their curriculum on campus, students are also pro-vided with a great number of oppor-tunities outside of the classroom, from the required 400-hour sum-mer practicum, to networking with alumni and members of the New England healthcare industry, to fi eld trips to area health care centers such as Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. All have net-working links with the university’s department.

“Our alumni are very impor-tant to us in terms of lecturing in classes, helping students with career advising, resume reviews, acting as internship preceptors, mentors and employers of our graduates,” Lewis said.

Healthcare is among the largest industries in the country and one of the few that is projected to grow in the coming years, Lewis said.

UNH Health Management and Policy program rated secondAlexandra Churchill

STAFF WRITER

“We really get to know and work with our students. We are able to identify and manage excellent internship sites.”

Jim Lewisprofessor of Healthcare Mgmt. and Policy

NEW YORK - Sarah Palin isn’t done with Levi Johnston. And she isn’t crazy about “American Idol,” either.

The former Alaska governor

and GOP vice presidential candidate writes in her new book that it was “disgusting” to watch Johnston, the estranged father of her grandson, ex-ploit his sudden fame after she was chosen as U.S. Sen. John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 election. She alleges that he was absent when

her daughter Bristol Palin gave birth to Tripp and that he disgraced him-self by repeatedly criticizing the Pa-lins.

“Of course, we all had to bite our tongues - more than once - as Tripp’s father went on a media tour through Hollywood and New York, spreading untruths and exagger-ated rhetoric,” Palin writes. “It was disgusting to watch as his fi fteen minutes of fame were exploited by supposed adults taking advantage of a lost kid.”

Bristol Palin has been featured on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” but Sarah Palin has a few words for Fox’s “American Idol.” She re-fers to “talent-deprived” contestants who suffer from “the cult of self-esteem.”

“No one they have encountered in their lives - from their parents to their teachers to their president - wanted them to feel bad by hearing the truth,” she writes. “So they grew up convinced that they could become big pop stars like Michael Jackson.”

The Internet has been abuzz in recent days about how Bristol Palin, who has consistently landed at the bottom of the judges’ leaderboard on “Dancing With the Stars,” has been able to remain on the show. Some critics have suggested that voters - particularly supporters of her mother - have been voting in blocs and ma-nipulating the system.

AP StaffASSOCIATED PRESS

Palin’s new book knocks Levi Johnston and ‘American Idol’

The New Hampshire Friday, November 19, 2010 5

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It’s that time of year again. You’re sick of your classes, you’re sick of your homework and you may even be sick of your roommate.

No one can really do anything about those things, but if you’re one of the many students on campus who are sick of their tiny little dorm room, you may be thinking about looking into off-campus apart-ments.

On Thursday afternoon, the Strafford Room was fl ooded with students who were taking a peek at life off campus at the Apartment Fair, which featured 16 different landlords and property managers.

“I think that living in an apart-ment is like a bigger step toward independence and an easier way to transition into life after college,” Kimberly Greenwood, a junior currently living in the SERC dorm complex, said. “The earlier that I can learn about that kind of stuff, the better.”

Although many apartments ap-peared to be fi lling fast for the next school year, Durham landlords said the economy has taken a defi nite toll on business. As the economy dwindles, so does the rental market in Durham. Many landlords in the area are fi nding themselves hav-ing to work harder to attract new student occupants. Some landlords have been forced to include more amenities in their rents in order to encourage renters, while others are struggling to fi ll their units as they try to “wait it out”.

Paul Burton of UNH apart-ments said that he has to be more competitive with the school and the other landlords in the area. He said that the communities surrounding Durham are cheaper and that the newer dorms on campus have really made an impact on the local rental business.

“[The university] has a bunch of new beds on campus like the SERCs, which opened up in 2008, and we’re still feeling the effect of those,” he said. “We have new products off campus and we’ve had some new landlords that have built some beautiful apartments off cam-pus.”

Burton said that he has to be more price-sensitive and offer the right amenities in order to beat out the local competition. He said that his average price for an apartment is about $675, and most apartments include some or all utilities, such as heat, electricity and parking. He is also going to include cable televi-sion and Internet next year in order to keep up with the competition.

“Paul Burton has to do a bet-ter job,” he said. “It’s very competi-tive.”

Landlords are fi nding them-selves including more in their lease agreements, and even trying bribery to encourage new business.

Burton mocked how one land-lord was trying to bribe apartment-goers with a television set during the apartment fair. “I’m about to take it myself!” He laughed.

For some apartment-hunting students, however, an apartment

that includes amenities in is very at-tractive and important in their hous-ing choice.

“One thing that I really like about apartments is if the heat and electricity are included because you have a set price so it’s not re-ally questionable,” Renick Pesce, a junior currently living in the dorms, said. “You know that you can make the rent at the end of the month or not.”

However, Pesce said that with the economy the way that it is, he still might have to look toward housing in surrounding towns like Dover or Newmarket for cheaper living.

“The economy is such that Durham’s rental rates are not the lowest in the world,” landlord Perry Bryant of Bryant Properties said.

Bryant said that students are realizing that they can fi nd much more inexpensive living in the sur-

rounding towns, and parents are encouraging them to live there in-stead.

“There is a vacancy in Dur-ham, and Durham never really has a vacancy,” he said.

Bryant recently opened a brand new building off-campus, and said he could only fi ll about 85 percent of the apartments when he had ex-pected to fi ll it completely.

He said his new building is be-ing taxed at an incredibly high rate, and because of that his rental rates have to refl ect that of the previous years’ more lucrative rental market.

However, Bryant said he hasn’t really changed anything about his rental agreement in order to attract more students. He said he already includes many of the amenities and his rates are competitive with the school’s rates.

“I’m not going to knock it down too much,” he said. “I think [the economy] will come back. Nothing lasts forever.”

Ariella CoombsSTAFF WRITER

Local landlords struggle in current economy

“I think that living in an apartment is like a bigger step toward independence and an easier way to transition into life after college.”

Kimberly GreenwoodUNH junior

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats on Thursday pressured Majority Leader Harry Reid to strike a deal with Republicans to aid passage of a bill that would let gays serve openly in the military.

A dozen Democrats and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said Reid should allow an extended debate on a wide-ranging defense policy bill, which includes a provision that would repeal the 1993 law known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.

Lieberman said the Senate’s desire to adjourn before the holi-days was no reason to curtail de-bate and give Republicans an ex-cuse to block the bill.

“If that’s all that separates our military from getting all that they deserve in the defense authoriza-tion bill, including the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’, shame on us,” he said. “I’m confi dent we can and will” pass the legislation.

GOP senators united in sink-ing the measure in September af-ter Reid declined to give them two

weeks to debate it. Republicans said they needed time to debate a policy measure that addresses ev-erything from troop pay to how many cargo planes the military can buy.

Democrats expect to have the votes needed to advance the bill if Reid agrees to an extended debate and permits amendments. Reid spokesman Jim Manley said Thursday that no decision had been made on how much time would be allotted for debate.

Lieberman told reporters he wasn’t discouraged that Reid hadn’t struck a deal yet, calling it “the beginning of the process.” He said he has appealed to Sen. John McCain on the issue, so far without success. McCain is lead-ing GOP opposition to lifting the gay ban.

Meanwhile, the Defense De-partment said Thursday it would release a study on the impact of lifting the gay ban on Dec. 1, de-spite calls in Congress to release it earlier. Spokesman Geoff Morrell said more time was needed to col-lect information from the service chiefs and secretaries.

Senate Dems want deal with GOP on gay debate

Anne FlahertyASSOCIATED PRESS

The New HampshireFriday, November 19, 20106

Lauren White has been danc-ing since she was 7-years-old. When she transferred to UNH two years ago, she joined the dance group Sisters in Step so she could continue her love of dance.

“Dancing has always been my passion in life,” White said. “In the past 13 years, it has been the thing in my life that I have poured my heart into the most.”

Sisters in Step is UNH’s step and hip-hop dance group. It con-sists of 25 members and is led by two captains, Amy Dearth and Laura Duggan. Sisters in Step holds at least one show per semes-ter and spends its whole semester working towards this one show.

White has been practicing twice a week since the begin-ning of the semester to get ready for Sisters in Step’s semi-annual dance show on Saturday night.

Along with learning and danc-ing many different numbers, White will also have to make the trans-formation from nerd to dancer in one night.

This semester’s show is about the girls transforming from nerds into cool hip-hop dancers. The girls will showcase this in three different scenes: how to fl irt, how to dress and how to dance. The show will be called “Nerds Anon-ymous,” and it will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Granite State Room in the MUB.

The tutorial, taught by one of the Sisters in Step girls, will act as a way to show the girls how to change their nerdy ways.

In each set, the girls will be dancing to a couple of pop and hip-hop songs, nine in total, rang-ing from Ke$ha to Flo Rida.

By the end of the show, the girls will be trading in their Con-verses and suspenders for hip-hop attire.

“The show’s meant to mix comedy, acting, hip-hop and step,” captain Laura Duggan said. “It’s going to be a good time for every-one.”

The show will kick-off with a short performance by Maiden Har-mony, UNH’s all-girl a cappella group. Also, between each scene, WildActs, UNH’s improv acting

group, will be performing short sketches about the scenes.

White said she has been wait-ing all semester for this night.

“We’re excited,” White said. “We’ve been practicing all semes-ter. I can’t wait to fi nally show off what we’ve got.”

“I’m so proud of the work the girls have done,” captain Amy Dearth said. “We’re all just ex-cited to show all of our family and friends how hard we’ve been working.”

In addition to the show, Sis-ters in Step will be holding a bake sale and raffl e for Sisters in Step T-shirts. The group is not a rec-ognized organization, nor is it a recognized team, so it does not re-ceive funding. The girls must do it all own their own.

“The show’s going to be great because of how wonderful, talent-ed and hard-working the ladies of Sisters in Step are,” Dearth said.

Doors open on Saturday at 6 p.m. Tickets are available now and on the night of the show at the MUB ticket offi ce. Student tickets are $3 and non-student tickets are $5.

UNH Sisters in Step to perform this weekend

Brittany GivensCONTRIBUTING WRITER

WASHINGTON - Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s stunning write-in victory was a political poke in the eye to Alaska’s other favorite daughter, Sarah Palin.

The former governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate backed scores of congressional and guber-natorial candidates this election, a sought-after endorsement that helped lift several Republicans to victory.

But she and her husband, Todd, invested far more time and money for Joe Miller, a tea party-backed challenger who shocked Murkowski, the incumbent, by capturing the GOP Senate nomina-tion.

Murkowski’s write-in win over Miller in Wednesday’s count was a rebuke for Palin on her home turf by voters who know her best, the latest chapter in a bitter fam-ily feud that at times seemed more personal than political. It’s also an embarrassment as Palin considers a White House bid.

Even in victory, Murkowski sought to downplay Palin’s infl u-ence and painted her as an outsider in the state she once led.

“I think it’s important to rec-ognize that here in Alaska, we are looking at Alaska,” she told NBC’s “Today Show” on Thursday. “So endorsements from outside may not have as much pull, as much stroke as they do in the Lower 48. This was Alaskans speaking out.”

Just this week, Murkowski said she couldn’t support Palin for president.

“She would not be my choice,” Murkowski told CBS News. “I just do not think she has those leader-ship qualities, that intellectual curi-osity that allows for building good and great policies. You know, she was my governor for two years, about two years there, and I don’t think that she enjoyed governing. I don’t think she liked to get down into the policy.”

Palin had gone all-in on an ef-fort to oust Murkowski. Todd Palin lent a hand, too, raising money for what was then a long-shot Miller campaign. Weeks later, his wife jumped into the race after initially donating money to Murkowski.

“I’m proud to join so many other longtime Alaskans in sup-porting Joe Miller in the upcoming Alaska Republican primary,” Palin wrote on her Facebook page, her preferred form of communicating with millions of online supporters. “Joe is a true commonsense con-stitutional conservative, and we’re thankful he and his family are will-ing to offer us a choice in Alaskan leadership.”

The rivalry between the two women is bitter. Palin defeated Murkowski’s father in a rough gu-bernatorial primary in 2006. The women have done little to conceal a personal animus, and the Senate contest was an ideal vehicle for their feud and for Palin’s ambi-tions to be a kingmaker for conser-vatives.

Trying to downplay Palin’s infl uence, Murkowski said the former governor was credited for Miller’s primary win but also pointed to the California-based Tea Party Express, which sent mil-lions to the state.

“She gave the endorsement, but she wasn’t up in the state, go-ing around and doing events for him,” Murkowski said.

From Florida to Alaska, Pa-lin backed candidates and helped scores to victory. More than three dozen of the Republicans she sup-ported won seats in Congress. Palin helped South Carolina elect Nikki Haley its fi rst female governor; Marco Rubio is heading to the U.S. Senate after she rallied tea party ac-tivists in Florida.

It built up good will should Palin seek the White House in 2012. Yet she came up short in a state she led for part of one term and in a contest she never shied from touting.

No matter, Republican strate-gists said. Yes, it’s an embarrass-ment. No, it is not a roadblock.

“It’s such a parochial situ-ation,” said Michael Baselice, a pollster for Republican Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, whom Palin endorsed in the March primary. “There’s a lot of good talk and fod-der about endorsements; ultimate-ly, it comes down to candidates with a message.”

And voters in the states that hold early caucuses and primaries will have long forgotten the Alaska results.

“It really doesn’t mean any-thing up here,” said Rich Killion, a Republican pollster who is not working for a 2012 candidate. “New Hampshire voters aren’t go-ing to pay attention to intramural or interfamily affairs in someone else’s backyard.”

But don’t expect Palin and Murkowski to forget their sparring.

Palin repeatedly used her on-line accounts to tweak Murkowski during the campaign but had no re-action.

“Though Joe decisively de-feated the incumbent senator in the primary, and though she conceded the race to him, she reneged on her primary vow to not contest the will of the people,” Palin wrote in an earlier post. “She is now running a write-in campaign bankrolled by Beltway special interests.”

Murkowski win a blow to Palin’s infl uence at home

Philip ElliottASSOCIATED PRESS

The New Hampshire Friday, November 19, 2010 7

LISBON, Portugal - NATO is expected to set itself a 2014 target for handing over security to Af-ghans at a summit that starts here Friday, as the alliance’s appetite for the confl ict dwindles after nine years of fi ghting, growing Euro-pean war angst, and renewed criti-cism by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The allies appear to agree that the target year is realistic, but that hardly means the war is end-ing. The U.S. in particular is wary of giving the impression that the original aim of invading Afghani-stan in 2001 -to deny al-Qaida a base from which to launch more terrorist attacks on the West -will be achieved by then.

So NATO plans to pledge an enduring partnership with Afghan-istan at the two-day gathering in Lisbon, while admitting past mis-takes.

“I think that, seen retrospec-tively, we underestimated the challenge and our operation in Afghanistan didn’t have suffi cient resources, and yes, that was a mis-take,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Por-tugal’s Renascenca in comments broadcast Thursday as leaders of the 28 NATO member nations headed to Lisbon.

He added: “We’re on the right track now and that’s why I’m very optimistic about our Afghanistan operation and we’ll make a positive announcement in Lisbon -that the handover is about to begin.”

The escalating war has given the alliance its biggest challenge

since it was formed 61 years ago. But victory is far from assured, and a hasty pullout would seriously un-dermine confi dence in the alliance on both sides of the Atlantic.

Already, some key allies worry publicly that military force is not the best way to put Afghanistan on a track to stability.

France’s new defense minister, Alain Juppe, told a radio interview-er Wednesday that Afghanistan is a “trap” for allied troops. He added, however, that French forces will not withdraw fully until “Afghan authorities have the situation in hand.”

Some analysts see a grimmer scenario.

“Success in Afghanistan is al-most impossible,” said Shmuel Bar, a director at the Institute of Policy and Strategy in Herzliya, Israel. “If NATO is making its future contin-gent on victory in Afghanistan, they are not living in the real world. All they can expect to achieve are some limited aims, such as preventing the war from spilling over into Paki-stan.”

Karzai is scheduled to address Saturday’s session. He caused an international stir by demanding in a Washington Post interview last weekend that NATO reduce its military operations and stop what the military believes is a highly suc-cessful tactic -night raids conducted jointly with Afghan troops against suspected Taliban leaders.

NATO’s senior civilian repre-sentative in Afghanistan, Mark Sed-will, said Karzai’s comments were unproductive.

“We have different perspec-tives, that’s natural,” Sedwill said. “It is much better if we work those

different perspectives out in pri-vate.”

The Lisbon meeting unfolds against the backdrop of President Barack Obama’s internal review of the war strategy he announced in December 2009, which included sending 30,000 extra U.S. troops to Afghanistan to regain momentum from the Taliban. Obama is expect-ed to fi nish his review by year’s end and face a new Congress in January that may scrutinize his war strategy more closely following the Demo-crats’ loss of the House and setbacks in the Senate.

The NATO leaders are expect-ed to endorse Karzai’s proposal that Afghanistan take lead responsibility for security -and for the develop-ment of its government institutions and economic development -by the end of 2014. This process would be-gin in the fi rst half of next year with an unspecifi ed but small number of areas transferred to Afghan control.

The plan would allow NATO members to begin reducing their troop contingent of about 140,000, but the full timeline has yet to be determined. Obama has said he will start pulling out some of the approximately 100,000 U.S. troops there next July, but U.S. offi cials have said the number going home is likely to be small. Others are leav-ing sooner.

Canada said this week its 3,000 troops will end their combat mission next year, with 950 remaining to train Afghan troops, and Germany announced it will begin withdraw-ing in 2012.

The outlines of a plan to be-gin a transition to Afghan control, and to make 2014 the target date for completing the shift, have been in the works for many months. But Lisbon will mark the fi rst public embrace of the plan by NATO heads of government.

Working out the details has been diffi cult, hampered by compet-

ing interpretations of how the war is going. Last April, when NATO foreign ministers publicly approved a plan that said the shift to Afghan control would begin before the end of 2010, there were high hopes for an intensifying NATO offensive in southern Afghanistan. While that

offensive has succeeded in captur-ing or killing large numbers of Tali-ban fi ghters, the effect on the war’s overall direction is unclear.

U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, has offered upbeat public assessments lately. He is believed to be concerned, howev-er, that a too-fast pullout of allied forces could jeopardize chances for consolidating recent battlefi eld gains.

Other senior offi cials have stressed that the pace and scale of troop withdrawals be decided as circumstances unfold.

Sedwill has called the 2014 target date “realistic but not guar-anteed,” warning that allied fi ght-ing beyond 2014 may be neces-sary. NATO’s troop presence may not be heavily reduced by 2014, he said, but the mission is to have shifted to training and advising the Afghan army and police rather than leading combat operations.

In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron insisted Thursday that British troops will quit their combat role in Afghanistan by 2015, whatever the security condi-tions or progress made in tackling insurgents.

HAVANA - Fidel Castro says he is happy with the direction in which Cuba is moving under the leadership of his brother Raul, his most explicit remarks to date about the sweeping economic changes the country is un-dergoing.

“I’m content, because the coun-try is moving forward despite all the challenges,” the bearded revolution-ary icon told Cuban students in com-ments carried by the offi cial Com-munist Party-newspaper Granma on Thursday.

The elder Castro stepped down in 2006 due to a serious illness that almost killed him. He re-emerged from four years of seclusion in July, but has rarely spoken about Cuban current events, preferring to use his appearances to warn of what he fears is a looming nuclear war pitting the United States and Israel against Iran.

Castro, 84, remains head of

the Communist Party, though in his remarks to the students he gave the impression he had delegated many of his offi cial duties to others.

After telling the students he was not meeting with them in his capacity as party chief, Castro said, “I got sick and I did what I had to do: delegate my duties. I cannot do something if I am not in a condition to dedicate all my time to it.”

Castro described himself as a “soldier of ideas” and said he “did not hesitate for a minute to relinquish my duties,” an apparent reference to his decision to step down as presi-dent.

Part of the meeting with the students was carried on national tele-vision Wednesday, but not Castro’s comments about his brother or his decision to delegate offi cial duties. In the 90-minute broadcast, Castro read word-for-word from a long speech he gave to students in 2005 that he said continued to be relevant today.

NATO honing in on Afghan exit strategy at summitRobert BurnsASSOCIATED PRESS

Fidel Castro happy with direction Cuba is headed under brother’s leadership

Paul HavenASSOCIATED PRESS

“If NATO is making its future contingent on victory in Afghanistan, they are not living in the real world.”

Shmuel Bardirector of Institute of Policy and Strategy

The New HampshireFriday, November 19, 20108

One week before hot turkey hits students’ plates on Thanks-giving, UNH recognized National Smokeout Day. Thursday, Nov. 17 marked the day when those who smoke cigarettes put their butts down like their pants are glued to the fl oor and went cold turkey from cigarettes for 24 hours.

In 1977 the American Cancer Society started the Great American Smokeout and UNH has partici-pated in it since 1986. This year, Health Services had a table in the MUB and highlighted entrances and pathways in lime-green fl uo-rescent messages to spread aware-ness of the day.

“UNH chooses to recognize and participate in the national event to increase general aware-ness of the dangers of tobacco and to hopefully motivate and empow-er those who smoke with personal-ized tools, tips, and support to help them quit for good,” Melissa Nich-olson, alcohol, tobacco and other drug educator at Health Services, said. “We also take this opportuni-ty to remind people of that if they do choose to smoke, policy dictates that they do so 20 feet from all en-trances to public buildings.”

Nicholson said that 77 percent of UNH students in 2009 reported that they had not smoked cigarettes in the last six months.

“The 18- to 24-year-old age group continues to have the high-est smoking rate among all adults,” Nicholson said. “We know that some students begin using tobacco in college and that most students who smoke want to quit before they graduate.”

As a 22-year-old senior, Rory Cooper falls into the age demo-graphic. Cooper also fi ts the bill as someone who started smoking during college, his freshman year, and like many of those smoke on campus did not break habit for the Smokeout. He was smoking when he fi rst noticed the vibrant green writing judging him as he read it.

“I’m addicted and I will freely

admit that,” Cooper said. “I am to-tally aware of the ill health effects and it’s not due to a lack of educa-tion.”

Cooper said that he started smoking when he was a freshman because his friends would take smoke breaks and he would tag along. Since freshman year he has not only seen the price of cigarettes rise about 50 percent, but his intake of from once in awhile in a social weekend environment with friends has transformed into smoking a pack a day. He said he will stop for his family some day, or sooner if he has a hard time breathing when walking up a fl ight of stairs.

Katie Leonard, a junior who smokes fi ve cigarettes a day, said that she also hopes to quit eventu-ally.

“Hopefully when I get out of college or a couple years after graduating I will have stopped,” Leonard said.

She said that often when she goes a while without smoking, she will get a headache and the cure is a quick cigarette. She said she is well aware of the health risks, but is not worried about cancer because she does not use them with a high fre-quency and doesn’t plan to smoke for much longer. On Thursday, she was sitting down in front of

Dimond Library enjoying her sec-ond cigarette of the day. She said she had no idea that Thursday was Great American Smokeout prior to smoking her fi rst cigarette.

“It started out of boredom,” Leonard said while she recalled when she fi rst picked up the habit. “I wanted to learn how to blow smoke rings.”

Aaron Eckhart (“Thank You For Smoking”) was not there to aid big tobacco on Nov. 10, when the FDA issued the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which will require cigarette packages to be 50 percent cov-ered with graphic depictions of the negative health consequences of smoking.

There are nine textual warn-ing statements to cover: cigarettes are addictive, they cause fatal lung disease, cancer, strokes, and heart disease, they can harm loved ones, and not smoking reduces serious risks. The addition of the image is aimed to stop people from start-ing and start people in stopping. Though the act is set in motion im-ages will likely not appear on pack-ages until 2012.

“Tobacco sales are way down,” Perry Shaw, store manager of the Durham Market Place, said.

Shaw said by the time images are placed on packaging the locked case in his store will likely be cov-ered with a curtain to deter smok-ers as well. The store has in front of it a table from the Teen Challenge Program designed to get help kids stay off drugs and provide those who are addicted with rehab op-tions. Shaw has watched cigarette sales slow down over the years and said that the new packaging might stop people from starting up, but the long timers will likely not budge on their stance.

“All you have to do is walk

around somewhere in a public or semi-public environment and you see people smoking and 99 percent know it is not good for them,” Pe-ter Masucci, a marketing professor at UNH, said.

Masucci said that he suspects the graphics to have an effect on the products early, but is uncertain what will come once they have been in circulation for a while. He said that tobacco companies will likely focus on exporting their product once they see their num-bers drop from the mandated im-age. The companies may also put more effort into smokeless tobac-co, he said. Masucci thinks compa-nies will work hard to endorse ce-lebrities and athletes like baseball players.

He said companies would spread their product to developing countries because of less stringent policies.

“It is tragic because we are ex-porting a disease,” Masucci said.

He said that countries like China, Indonesia and different parts of Africa have many people smoking and getting into at an ado-lescent age.

Chris Brown was stationed in Korea when he started smoking at the age of 24. He said he started smoking because all of the guys he worked with did. He is now a 27-year-old junior at UNH and smokes a pack a day. He has seen cigarette packs from Canada that have imag-es on them and feels when they are implemented in America it won’t have much of an affect on people like him who are consistent and in-formed smokers.

“It will have more of an effect on people who don’t smoke yet,” Brown said. “I already know it is doing terrible things to me, and I do it anyway.”

National event helps smokers kick their habitGregory Meighan

STAFF WRITER

“I already know it is doing terrible things to me and I do it anyway.”

Chris BrownUNH junior

JULIE FORTIN/ STAFFUNH Health Services helped spread the word about the Great American Smokeout which occured yesterday. The goal was to help smokers kick their habit.

Done reading?PLEASE DO YOUR PART

RECYCLE ME

verbthe

helping you get action

19 november 2010

‘Hallows’ is the beginning of the end for Potter fans As the Harry Potter movies draw to a close, the generation that grew up with Harry looks back.

Now...

...and then

Th e Harry Potter franchise is arguably the biggest generational maelstrom since Star Wars. With seven books, six fi lms, one theme park and nearly 15 years invested in the series, it seems inevitable that “the beginning of the end” will in-spire some intense emotions.

Th e fi nal installment of the se-ries, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” has been split into two fi lms. “Part 1” premiered at mid-night.

Regal Cinemas at Fox Run Mall in Newington had fi fteen sold-out midnight showings. Tick-ets sold out at the beginning of the week. As of Th ursday afternoon, they had added a show at 3:15 a.m. for which tickets were still avail-able.

According to a theater em-ployee, the cinema usually starts with one showing and adds more depending on demand.

Several UNH students were among the attendees. A few dor-mitories, including Scott Hall and Lord Hall, went as a community.

Leading up to the event, Lord Hall had the “7 Nights of Harry Potter,” a series of socials meant to get its residents pumped up for the premiere.

According to sophomore Eliza Hunt-Hawkins, Lord Hall council president, emotions have been run-ning high.

“I’m pretty sure people will cry,” she said.

When asked how she felt about “the beginning of the end,” as the fi lm has been labeled, Hunt-Hawkins’ face fell.

“I hadn’t thought about it like that,” she said. “You just made me sad!”

She added that she is “not a crier,” but that she is as excited as her hall mates.

Junior Eva Skewes also had mixed feelings.

“It’s bittersweet,” she said. “Harry Potter encompasses my en-tire childhood, adolescence and the beginning of my adulthood.

Knowing that there will be nothing new is very hard to come to terms with, but then the wonder of Harry Potter is that it’s never re-

ally over.”Both Hunt-Hawkins and

Skewes planned to attend to the midnight premiere. Hunt-Hawk-ins planned to go with Lord Hall and Skewes intended to go with a group of close friends.

“I’m going as Ginny Weasley,” Skewes said with a laugh. “I have, surprisingly, never gone to a mid-night premiere. I went to a mid-night book release and that was insane.

It was in Exeter and they shut the entire street down. Working in a bookstore I can attest to the fact that there has been no book that has been bigger than Potter. It’s wonderful for everyone.

I hope it’s absolutely insane. I really do. It would be very appro-priate.

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 1” opens today nation-wide.

Follow Samantha Pearson on Twitter at twitter.com/theverbalth-ing

Samantha Pearson STAFF WRITER

Hanging out with one of UNH’s funkiest alums

Stu Diaz, singer and gui-tarist for the local funk phenomenon Gnarle-

magne, is relaxing on the couch with his dog, Duke, and unwind-ing after a long night of music and drinking. Yesterday, Oct. 22, was the release date for Gnarle-magne’s fi rst full length LP, Run For Shelter.

To celebrate, the band put on a Halloween-themed concert that night at the Stone Church in Newmarket, where folks came masquerading as everything from typical witches and warlocks to more unconventional guises like penguins and the Mario Brothers. Now, the following Saturday af-ternoon, Stu talks with me about the record, the time leading up to it, and what he and boys are up to now.

“We didn’t really start doing originals until about-” Stu hesi-tates, unsure of the time frame in which Gnarlemagne has been to-

gether. Waving off the thought, he continues, saying that they didn’t feel comfortable with any of the material that they were produc-ing early on. It seemed that writ-ing music was a necessary skill that would not come easily to the band.

Eventually, though, the early stages of songwriting began to fade away, and Gnarlemagne found some glitter in their pile of rubble. “Just, a song came to me,” says Stu. “I worked on it and it sounded like something new.”

Th at song, “Catalina,” is a hit with their fans, and for Diaz the story in the song is what makes it special.

“I like telling stories,” he says. “It’s a fun song for me to play.”

Diaz, one of the primary song writers in the band, wholehearted-ly acknowledges that his strength is not serious song writing.

“I realized a while ago that I wasn’t a serious lyricist. I wasn’t a Bob Dylan. I’m better at writ-ing songs that have a subtle dose of comedy and sarcasm. Because

there are people who do the seri-ous songwriting a lot better than I do, so I try to be as outrageous as possible. We have a new tune called ‘Underwater Love’, which is about sex with a mermaid,” he chuckled.

Gnarlemagne had been writ-ing for a few years before begin-ning work on Run For Shelter in January of 2010. According to Diaz, the tracks on the LP, re-corded in two weekend sessions and a live show at the Muddy River Smokehouse, were “thrown” down more than “laid” down, and it was this fast paced, hurried style of recording, says Diaz, that gave the record its fresh vibe.

“If you play a song and then practice it and then gig with it for a long time ...and then record too far after you’ve written a tune, it’s not as energetic on a take. It’s lost some of the fi re. I think the best way to do it is record something relatively after it’s written so that it’s still cookin’.”

Max Sullivan CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Singer and guitarist Stu Diaz performs during a show with Gnarlemagne.

COURTESY

COURTESY

Continued on page 10

When I fi rst heard Ke$ha’s new EP “Cannibal” leaked on the Internet, I had to make sure there was no more pressing issue to deal with.

I realized that I don’t care about Four Loko being banned, so I was completely free to tackle this new music coming from her.

If we were to compare popu-lar artists to television shows, Lady Gaga would be “Fam-ily Guy,” and Ke$ha would be “American Dad.”

In order to listen to “Can-nibal,” I found a stream of it on-line. I didn’t download it because I couldn’t fi nd a link, and I also didn’t want my computer to catch chlamydia.

On the comments under the playlist, someone said quite possibly the most honest state-ment ever written about the party girl with the lazy eye: “When it is Ke$ha, it’s not a leak, it’s dis-charge.”

Just so you can fully grasp what kind of music you’ll be lis-tening to if you pick up “Can-nibal” (and I honestly pray you don’t), here’s a sample of the lyrics on the fi rst and eponymous song: “I think you’re hot, I think you’re cool / You’re the kinda guy I’d

stalk in school / But now that I’m famous you’re up my anus / Now I’m gonna eat you fool.”

I’m not making this up. Hopefully (and mercifully),

the only song that will make rounds on party playlists will be “We R Who We R,” with Ke$ha telling people to be themselves. I’m not sure what else this song was about because I totally lost consciousness about a minute into it.

Th e fourth song, “Blow,” is about a club getting packed with people and everyone going crazy, I think. Ke$ha really captures the party experience in her music, as I threw up in my mouth after hear-ing this song.

After the fi rst few songs, I got much more impatient with keeping this up, even though the whole tracklist totals to a little more than 30 minutes.

“Th e Harold Song” sounded like someone took Katy Perry’s

“Teenage Dream” and dropped it down a couple fl ights of stairs, and then made it about the singer missing her old boyfriend instead of young love blooming.

I have no clue who Harold is, and it sounds more like the name of a Wal-Mart cashier instead of a past 20-year-old hookup.

“Grow A Pear,” besides be-ing adorably misspelled, is about Ke$ha being frustrated with her boyfriend not having anything between his legs, as she harshly states, “I just can’t date a dude with a vag.”

It’s probably the most enter-taining song to listen to on this album, but that’s not saying very much.

I didn’t even listen to the last song, called “C U Next Tuesday.” I thought that I was stoic enough to get through seven songs.

Besides, after the seventh song, my vision got blurry and I’m pretty sure my nose started to bleed.

Th e bottom line is: please, there should be no reason you can fi nd to buy this.

Follow Samer Kalaf on Twit-ter at twitter.com/samer_k

10 The New Hampshire • November 19, 2010

Diaz also points out how no two songs sound alike on Run for Shelter. Songs range from rockers like “Ain’t Asking For Much” to more “dialed-down, funky” songs like “Smokehouse Blues.”

He feels that the album’s di-versity helps to boost its overall appeal.

While Diaz has been known around campus for being a local rock star, he worked hard while attending UNH, where he studied biochemistry.

Currently he works on leuke-mia research at Children’s Hospi-tal in Boston.

He enjoys his work; but mu-sic is his real passion.

“I plan to get a Ph.D. soon, but I don’t know. If this music thing picks up I might not. One day at a time, man. Th at’s the way I look at it. It’s too fun and too enjoyable to put a cage around it.” He nods at his own thought.

“I was just thinking last night,” he goes on, “of how cool it is that I get to do this. To play music- ’cause it’s not something everyone gets to do.”

Neither Diaz nor the other members of Gnarlemagne grew up playing or listening to funk and soul.

Stu was into hard metal in high school, and it wasn’t until he heard the likes of George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic that he took any interest in funk music.

Clinton, famous for carrying funk to new experimental heights in the 1970’s, showed Diaz that there was more to funk than just imitating James Brown and helped him develop a passion for the music.

“[ James Brown is] what peo-ple think of when they think of funk, but when I think of funky, I think of George Clinton.”

Records like Clinton’s “Mag-got Brain” captivated Diaz, and by the time he was at UNH and began to meet his future band mates, the funk had set in, and he was hooked.

Whether he is working down at the children’s hospital with a Ph.D. on the wall fi ve years down the road or out gigging every night across the nation and liv-ing his dream, Diaz will always be thankful that he has gotten to play at the Stone Church and record an album.

“It would be like if I re-ally loved pizza,” Diaz said. “And people paid to come watch me eat pizza. You know, that’s what it feels like.”

Talking with Stu Diaz of Gnarlemagne Continued from page 9

Ke$ha’s ‘Cannibal’ makes me want to eat my own arm Samer KalafSTAFF WRITER

I didn’t download it, because I didn’t want my computer to catch chlamydia

Ke$ha, queen of glitter, eyeliner and brushing ones teeth with a bottle of Jack, recently had her second album leaked onto the web.

COURTESY

11The New Hampshire • November 19, 2010

MUSO Presents….

Movies for the Week of November 19-25

DESPICABLE ME

Friday, November 19 7:00 PM 9:00 PMSaturday, November 20 7:00 PM 9:00 PM Sunday, November 21 7:00 PM 9:00 PM

Tickets are $2 for students with ID and $4 for others. Movies sponsored by Film Underground are FREE.

Tickets go on sale 1 hour before show time. Cat’s Cache and Cash are the ONLY forms of payment accepted.

For more info contact:MUB Ticket Office - University of New Hampshire

(603) 862-2290 - Email: MUB.tickets@unh.edu 83 Main St, Durham, NH 03824

SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLDFriday, November 19 7:30 PM 9:30 PMSaturday, November 20 7:30 PM 9:30 PMSunday, November 21 7:30 PM 9:30 PM

for more details go to: www.unhmub.com/movies

Starts Thursday (12/02):This Film is Not Yet Rated 7:00 PM White Ribbon 9:00 PMA Prophet 7:30 PM 9:30 PM

Notes from an Audiophile: Up-and-comer Eric Stepanian

Eric Stepanian’s debut album, “Goodnight Scarlett,” has all the makings of a hit record. Produced by Malcolm Burn, whose work is behind the Grammy Award win-ning album “Red Dirt Girl” by Emmylou Harris, as well as albums by Iggy Pop and Peter Gabriel, “Goodnight Scarlett” combines several genres to produce a unique sound that can still mesh well with mainstream pop radio.

Stepanian wrote the album himself, working with a handful of musicians (including Burn) to record it in Kingston, N.Y. It was released Nov. 10.

Th e opening track, “Bitter-sweet,” contains Caribbean-style backing and introduces Stepanian’s rough-shod vocals well. It sets the pace for the rest of the album, which is upbeat but mellow, catchy enough to get stuck in your ear and stay there until the next time you hear it.

Tracks like “Everybody” and “Call Me When You’re Famous” are particularly quick to make you bop along as you listen, while “Last Goodbye” is more melancholy, giv-ing you a chance to refl ect once you’ve fi nished the album.

Th ere is a particular country twang to Stepanian’s vocals, which adds an interesting element to the album. While iTunes labels his work as basic rock, a more appro-

priate term would be alternative; admittedly, that term does not seem to hold much weight in today’s in-dustry anymore, it fi ts here because there are so many branches of rock represented in Stepanian’s sound.

Finally, the lyrical content is solid enough that most people should be able to relate. Stepanian croons about girls, life and experi-ences he’s had, utilizing metaphor but not to an obnoxious extent. His stories are clear, the interpre-tation such that it won’t give you a headache trying to fi gure it out.

For more information or to stream samples of “Goodnight

Scarlett,” go to ericstepanian.com. Th e album is available on iTunes and Amazon.

Samantha PearsonSTAFF WRITER

COURTESY

Art of the Week

A painting of Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth by artist Carol Aronson-Shore. Her work is currently featured in her show “The Shape of Color,” which is at the Museum of Art through Dec. 16. The museum is free and open to the public.

Vitamin V: Your Weekly Dose of Pop Culture

[Watch]: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. You’re never too old for some quality time with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

[Listen]: Pop fans will be psyched for Rihanna’ snew album “Loud” out this week, while devotees of the Boss will be lining up for “The Promise,” Bruce Springsteen’s (above) latest.

[See]: The PCAC has two new exhibits up, “The Shape of Color” (see left) and “Fusion: Merging the Arts in the PCAC”, through Dec. 16 at the Museum of Art.

COURTESY

COURTESY

12 The New Hampshire • November 19, 2010

Silly Bandz craze sweeps N.H. elementary schools

First, there were Pogs. Th en Pokemon cards. Th en came Beanie Babies.

Now, the newest hot com-modity for young children to trade? Rubber bands.

Silly Bandz, rubber bands that come in hundreds of diff erent shapes and colors, are the newest craze among young children across the country.

Th e rubber bands take the shape of anything from a prin-cess to a famous pop singer,and function like a regular bracelet on a wrist, but revert back to their original shape when taken off the wrist.

Silly Bandz are typically sold in packs of six, grouped by a spe-cifi c theme. (For instance the Hal-loween themed pack consists of a bat, spider, pumpkin, witch, ghost, and mummy rubber band, and the princess theme contains a wand, a glass slipper, a castle, a princess, a tiara, and a crown.)

Th e varying themes make the bracelets hot commodities for trading among children.

“We do a lot of trading,” said 11-year-old Nicole, a 6th grader at Plymouth Elementary. “I had this one Silly Band and I traded it with

a girl, then she traded it to another girl, and now a boy has it.”

Nicole sits at a table with four other girls her age, each with a pile of Silly Bandz in front of them. Th e girls spread each band out on the table, showing off a particular favorite.

“I’ll trade you a sparkling owl for a star,” Nicole says to her friend Julia, eying her pile eagerly.

Julia shakes her head. With over 100 Silly Bandz in

front of her, she is allowed to be choosy with her bargains.

Th e two haggle a bit more, be-fore they settle on a deal, one pen-guin shaped band for a turtle.

Julia carries her Silly Bandz around with her in a gallon-sized plastic bag, stuff ed in the bottom of her backpack.

She takes it out with a hint of pride, scattering the contents on the table in front of her and sort-ing through them casually.

None of the bracelets’ shapes come as a surprise to her- she has accounted for every single one of her Silly Bandz and sifts through her collection for only a moment before she

picks out her sought after bracelet.

“Th e whole thing started a couple of weeks ago,” Julia said. “I

saw how everyone else was wearing them and I knew I had to get some for myself.”

Julia then used her birthday money to buy her fi rst three Silly Bandz, glad to fi nally be a part of the growing craze at school.

Nicole had a diff erent strategy for starting her own collection.

“I started out by basically guilting people into giving me their Silly Bandz,” Nicole said. “I made everyone feel bad for me be-cause I didn’t have any and pretty much everyone gave me one.”

Now Nicole’s collection con-tains about 75 bracelets.

Despite their popularity among children, Silly Bandz have gained attention nationwide for their disruptive presence in class-rooms.

Many schools have even banned them due to the distraction that the bands cause.

According to many teachers, Silly Bandz are typically traded during class and sometimes stu-dents will fl ing the bracelets across the room, occasionally hitting and injuring students.

Cindy Moon, a second-grade teacher at Plymouth Elementary, fi nds Silly Bandz to be a distrac-tion and a hygiene issue.

She has a student in her class

who constantly fl osses his teeth with them, forcing her to take them away every class.

“Kids are just picking them off the fl oor and playground and put-ting them on,” said Karen McLeod, a fi rst-grade teacher.

Although trading between older students is much more civi-lized and fl ows usually without problems, it is a diff erent story with the younger students.

“At the fi rst grade level, the kids don’t really understand the concept of trading,” Lee Hunter, a fi rst-grade teacher at PES, said. “Th ey get upset if they decide they want them back and can’t have them.”

Silly Bandz are also receiving negative attention because of the way they are worn.

Many children who want to show off their Silly Bandz will wear their entire collection at once, sometimes extending as far as their upper-forearms.

Because the bracelets aren’t meant to be worn this high, the combination of the tightness and large number of Silly Bandz causes circulation to be cut off , sending many students to the nurse’s offi ce.

Carolyn Varin, Plymouth El-ementary’s school nurse, said she has not encountered any problems,

but has heard of other schools hav-ing issues.

Originally, Silly Bandz were smaller than the ones made today, and in much paler colors.

Now gaining popularity, Silly Bandz come in even more unique varieties.

Tie-dye, glow-in-the- dark, and scented Silly Bandz are be-coming the most sought after bracelets by children.

Silly Bandz also produces spe-cialty bracelets that are rarer and more expensive.

According to Julia, Michael Jackson and Justin Beiber bracelets are almost impossible to come by.

Although Plymouth Elemen-tary has experienced few problems when it comes to Silly Bandz, principal Julie Flynn is planning on sending a letter home to parents indicating that if they continue to be a distraction, the bracelets will have to be banned.

Jen Fitzpatrick, a Plymouth teacher, sees how entertaining the bracelets can be for her students, but would not be crushed if the school banned them.

“Generally, they are a big nui-sance,” Fitzpatrick said. “All the teachers and myself would be very happy if they were not allowed.”

Brianna HandCONTRIBUTING WRITER

‘Due Date’ is not worth the trip

How old is Zach Galifi anakis, really? He’s forty-one, to be exact. But if you choose to watch his re-cent fi lm, “Due Date,” with Robert Downey Jr., you’d think he was much younger, based on his behavior.

Th e fi lm follows Peter High-man (Downey), a father-to-be who must race cross-country from At-lanta to Los Angeles to witness the birth of his fi rst child. Th rough cir-cumstances, he ends up being put on a “no-fl y” list, and is forced to make the trip by car with Ethan Tremblay (Galifi anakis). Th e plot is similar to “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,” (1987), without Steve Martin.

Trembley, an aspiring actor tot-ing his father’s ashes and an ador-able French bulldog dubbed Sunny, is bracingly annoying. He spends most of the fi lm acting like a man-child, spouting lines such as “Good point, I need to take a pee-pee” and running into car doors.

It would be one thing if the backstory with his father was more developed, but it’s hard to sympa-thize with a character that has little redeeming qualities. He’s not even a character; that would imply depth. Highman is no better. Angry and controlling, there’s nothing relat-able about him, and he comes off as more of a jerk than a concerned husband.

It’s disheartening to see, be-cause Downey usually performs

well—it’s hard to say whether the fault lies with the script or if he’s simply phoning it in. Th ere aren’t many jokes in the fi lm that you can’t see in the trailer, and the humor stops being entertaining about a third of the way through the story.

Other notable names make ap-pearances: Juliette Lewis is a drug dealer, and Jamie Foxx shows up as Highman’s best friend, but they’re not really enough to carry the story. It’s not a good sign, however, when the side characters are more enter-taining than the main leads.

Overall, if you must indulge in some low-brow humor that won’t take too much of your time, check out “Due Date.” Todd Phillips of “Th e Hangover” directs it, but if you’re looking for a similar experi-ence, look elsewhere: the jokes are no where near as memorable, the plot is fl at, and the characters are no where near as entertaining.

Robert Downey Jr. in ‘Due Date.’

Caitlin AndrewsCONTRIBUTING WRITER

The New Hampshire Friday, November 19, 2010 13

LONDON - It’s a wedding planner’s nightmare.

The nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton have to satisfy the bride’s family and the groom’s royal relatives - but also a support-ive but recession-weary British pub-lic. It must be grand, but not osten-tatious; regal, but with a common touch; expensive but not a drain on taxpayers worried about their jobs and the nation’s fragile economy.

“I don’t even have enough money for my own wedding, let alone theirs,” said Scott North-grave, 39, a London construction worker. “They have a fortune, why not use it?”

Who will foot the bill for the wedding, likely to be millions of pounds (dollars), is still being worked out, but the royal fam-ily knows they must not seem out of touch with the public’s cash-strapped mood. William’s offi ce says “the couple are mindful of the current economic situation.”

Because William is second in line to the throne after his father, Prince Charles, the ceremony will not be a formal state occasion like the wedding of his grandmother the queen, then Princess Elizabeth, in 1947, or of Charles to Lady Diana

Spencer in 1981. Both Elizabeth and Charles were heirs to the Brit-ish throne.

It will not lack in grandeur, however. Westminster Abbey is the leading contender for a venue after Middleton was photographed leav-ing the central London landmark on Wednesday evening.

“Miss Middleton paid a short, private visit to Westminster Abbey in order to be able to consider it as an option,” William’s offi ce said Thursday. “The couple wish for a little more time to be able to consult family members and make a deci-sion for themselves.”

A spokesman for the abbey re-fused to comment, but it is, in many ways, the perfect venue.

The 1,000-year-old church where British kings and queens are crowned is grand but surprisingly homey, crowded with the tombs of poets, politicians and 17 monarchs.

It has both happy and sad memories for the royal family. The queen and her late mother both mar-ried there, and Princes Diana’s fu-neral was held there in 1997.

It can hold 2,200 people - plenty of room for guests - and does not cost anything to book. It is also likely to be available, since the list of people allowed to marry there is limited to members of the royal

family, abbey staff and members of the ceremonial Order of the Bath and their families. About a dozen weddings a year are held there.

Money for the festivities could come from the annual 7.9 million pounds ($11.6 million) in govern-ment funding given to the royal household to pay for salaries and of-fi cial functions, or from the queen’s personal wealth. Charles is also ex-pected to pay some of the bill, and Middleton’s parents - self-made millionaires who run a party-plan-ning business - will probably also help out.

“I’d imagine that the Middle-tons would like to make some con-tribution,” said Charles Kidd, editor of Debrett’s Peerage and Baron-etage, a guide to etiquette and the aristocracy.

“I’m sure they would like to have a signifi cant role in making the wedding run smoothly. They would pay for something as part of the reception, or the honeymoon, perhaps,” he said.

At the very least, taxpayers will have foot the bill for security, including the large number of po-lice on duty that day. Further public funding would have to be approved by Parliament and could spark a backlash - although some Britons said they’d be willing to contribute.

“If everyone paid out maybe fi ve or 10 pounds ($8 to $16), just think how that would add up,” said retiree Susan Dowling, 74. “I’m ex-cited for this wedding and I’ll surely help out.”

Julie Marks, a 25-year-old London chef, was also willing to chip in.

“I’d pay 50 pounds ($80) tops,” she said. “But if everyone did, it would certainly help.”

Analysts say the wedding will be an economic boon for Britain. Neil Saunders, consulting director at Verdict retail analysts, said the economic kick from the wedding could reach 620 million pounds ($985 million).

“If, as expected, it is a big set-piece event, it could well capture the nation’s imagination and pro-vide a fi llip (boost) to the retail sec-tor,” he said.

Saunders said sales of food and champagne for private celebrations could be worth 360 million pounds ($575 million) and tourism could benefi t by more than 200 million pounds ($320 million).

David Buik, market analyst at BGC Partners in London, said he was “much looking forward to the William and Kate feel-good factor taking effect on our economy and our morale.”

In addition to an expected ho-tel, restaurant and retail boom from tourists traveling to London for the occasion, retailers are rushing to cash in with Kate-and-Wills mer-chandise.

Asda, Wal-Mart’s British su-permarket chain, tweeted glad tid-ings that a commemorative mug would be available soon for 5 pounds ($8).

The royal wedding could also help raise the spirits of a country still recovering from the worst eco-nomic downturn in half a century, and facing the unknown impact of deep government spending cuts.

The queen’s wedding in 1947 lifted Britain’s postwar gloom and came just days after the government announced a reduction in rations.

Her ceremony at Westminster Abbey was described as simple: the same as for “any cottager getting married in her village church,” one of the priests said.

Well, except for the gilded carriage and a 500-pound wedding cake.

The spectacle of the hugely popular Prince William marrying his attractive - and seemingly down-to-earth - bride also should bolster a royal brand that has been tarnished by divorce, sex scandals and fi nan-cial indiscretions.

Royal wedding challenge: Make it grand, yet cheapJill Lawless

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - Republicans in the House Thursday blocked a bill that would have extended job-less benefi ts for the long-term unem-ployed beyond the holiday season.

An extension of jobless benefi ts enacted this summer expires Dec. 1, and unless they are renewed, two million people will lose benefi ts av-eraging $310 a week nationwide by the end of December.

The failed measure would have extended jobless benefi ts through the end of February at a cost of adding $12.5 billion to the nation’s debt. Republicans opposing the legislation said the measure should be paid for by cutting unspent money from last year’s economic stimulus bill.

The White House criticized Congress for voting to cut off unem-ployment benefi ts with the holiday break approaching.

“I don’t think we want to leave here having fought for tax cuts for millionaires and against unemploy-ment insurance for those that have lost their jobs,” spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Democrats brought the measure to the fl oor under fast-track rules that required a two-thirds vote to pass, so the measure fell despite winning a

258-154 majority. Republicans blast-ed the move since it denied them an opportunity to try to offset its cost.

“The fact is, we can both pro-vide this help and pay for it by cut-ting less effective stimulus spend-ing,” said Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La. “That’s what we should be debating today.”

Efforts to renew federally paid jobless benefi ts for people who have been out of work for more than half a year has bedeviled Congress for much of the year.

Every recession since 1950 has featured an extended federal benefi ts program fi nanced with defi cit dol-lars. That’s a precedent Democrats refused to break when battling with Republicans for months earlier this year to extend the program.

Republicans didn’t pay any po-litical price for stalling efforts earlier this year to extend jobless benefi ts that provide critical help to the un-employed - including a seven-week stretch over the summer when job-less benefi ts were a piece of a failed Democratic tax and jobs bill.

But allowing benefi ts to ex-pire in the holiday season may draw negative attention to Republicans, especially when measured against their insistence that tax cuts for up-per-income taxpayers not be allowed to expire.

House GOP blocks bill to extend jobless benefi ts past Dec. 1

Andrew TaylorASSOCIATED PRESS

The New HampshireFriday, November 19, 201014

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NEW YORK - A drifter was convicted Thursday of strangling a college student while watching a horror movie, after a chance en-counter between the sophomore from a small-town in Massachusetts and the drug user who would later tell police he killed out of boredom.

Jeromie Cancel and his vic-tim’s family showed no emotion as jurors delivered their verdict, fi nding the 24-year-old guilty of second-degree murder in Kevin Pravia’s August 2008 death. The defense said it planned to appeal the conviction, which carries a potential life sentence.

Prosecutors said Cancel de-liberately targeted the 19-year-old Pravia as part of a robbery, exploit-ing the Pace University student’s drunkenness after a night out to get invited up to his apartment.

“It was a simple intentional

murder, through and through,” as-sistant district attorney Steven Nuzzi said Wednesday in closing arguments.

But Cancel’s lawyer said his client suffered from deep psycho-logical problems that sapped his self-control and should lessen his responsibility.

“He was fi ghting his own de-mons on the day he was in Kevin Pravia’s apartment,” defense attor-ney Michael Alperstein said in his closing argument. “There’s no other explanation. If it wasn’t his mental illness that caused him to do this terrible act, what was the reason?”

He urged jurors to consider fi nding that Cancel acted of extreme emotional disturbance - an estab-lished defense, under New York law, that leads to a manslaughter conviction instead of a murder con-viction. The difference is refl ected in a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, instead of life.

Cancel smiled as he was led out of the courtroom. The judge encour-aged jurors not to discuss the case.

Paula Previa, the victim’s mother, calmly spoke through tears outside court as she thanked pros-ecutors and detectives for “the great job they all they did.” She had no further comment.

Kevin Pravia, a 19-year-old from Peru, Mass., and the then-homeless Cancel crossed paths in downtown Manhattan around 5 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2008, according to prosecutors and Cancel’s statements to authorities.

Pravia’s friends had helped him into a cab after partying to-gether, but he apparently didn’t go straight up to his apartment after be-ing dropped off. Instead, he appar-ently invited Cancel to his home.

Cancel told police that Pravia asked to buy cocaine from him and then invited him to share it. But an autopsy found no trace of any drugs

in Pravia’s system.

The young men drank together, Pravia fell asleep and Cancel gath-ered the sleeping student’s laptop computer and other electronics so he could steal them, Cancel told po-lice in a video-recorded statement.

Then, he said, he decided to kill Pravia because he was bored.

He choked Pravia with an

electric cord while smoking a cigarette and watching a movie he thought was the horror hit “Saw” before leaving, Cancel told police. The fi lm actually was the equally bloody “Hostel,” according to pros-ecutors.

He was arrested three days lat-er on a small-scale theft complaint lodged by his own father, police said.

Cancel abruptly confessed to the murder, according to an offi cer who said he found the story so far-fetched that he didn’t initially be-lieve it.

Cancel had a long history of emotional and psychological trou-bles, including suicide attempts starting when he was 10, mental health experts testifi ed. He attended schools for children with emotional problems and was hospitalized with physical restraints as a child, said his lawyer, Michael Alperstein.

Colleen LongASSOCIATED PRESS

Drifter convicted of murdering NYC college student

“If it wasn’t his mental illness that caused him to do this terrible act, what was the reason?”Michael Alperstein

Defense Attorney

LONDON - Prime Minister Da-vid Cameron insisted Thursday that British troops will quit their combat

role in Afghanistan by 2015, what-ever the security conditions or prog-ress made in tackling insurgents.

Ahead of a NATO summit in Lisbon on Friday, Cameron told a committee hearing with senior law-makers that the deadline for the ma-jority of Britain’s 10,000 forces to withdraw was not negotiable.

“Britain by 2015 will have played a huge role, made a massive contribution, made massive sacri-fi ces for a better, safer and stronger Afghanistan, and I think the British public deserve to know that there is an endpoint to all this,” Cameron said.

Giving evidence to Parliament’s liaison committee - a panel of the 33 heads of each of the other commit-tees - Cameron insisted he would not waver on the decision. “That is why I set the deadline of 2015, and yes it is a deadline,” he said.

Cameron was making his fi rst appearance before the panel, which conducts two lengthy evidence ses-sions each year with the incumbent prime minister to scrutinize policy on a range of issues.

Since taking offi ce in May, Cameron said his government had scaled back British ambitions in Afghanistan and acknowledged the dangers of waning public support.

He told the panel that shortly after taking offi ce he called in ex-perts from outside government to review Britain’s role - including for-mer special forces director Lt. Gen. Graeme Lamb, lawmaker and ex-diplomat Rory Stewart and Paddy Ashdown, a House of Lords legisla-tor and former U.N. High Represen-tative for Bosnia.

Cameron said there “wasn’t time for a great strategic rethink,” but that the session had led to a sub-tle revision of Britain’s approach to

the confl ict.“Since then it’s been much

more national-security-focused, more hardheaded in its approach ... and a bit more realistic about what’s achievable,” he told lawmakers.

Britain’s previous administra-tion had been more active in sup-porting efforts to improve health care and education, alongside secu-rity.

Cameron declined to say spe-cifi cally whether the U.S. and other allies, including Britain, are in dis-pute over political reconciliation in Afghanistan. He said he would talk “candidly as friends” with the U.S. over its reservations about Taliban fi ghters joining the country’s poli-tics, rather than comment in public.

Decisions over how to strike peace with the Taliban were for the Afghan government to make, but “most counterinsurgencies end through a combination of force of arms and a political settlement,” Cameron said.

He told lawmakers he had spo-ken Thursday with Afghan Presi-dent Hamid Karzai in advance of the NATO summit in Portugal.

“The idea that there’s some great disagreement between coun-tries in the alliance about the combi-nation of military success and politi-cal settlement - I don’t think that’s the case at all,” Cameron said.

Cameron also defended his four-year package of spending cuts worth 81 billion pounds ($128 bil-lion) announced last month to tackle Britain’s budget defi cit.

Cameron said he was forced to intervene personally between the defense ministry and treasury to strike an agreement on an 8-percent cut to the annual 37 billion pound ($59 billion) military budget.

UK’s Prime Minister Cameron says 2015 Afghanistan deadline is fi nal

David StringerASSOCIATED PRESS

p

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OpinionUNH New Hampshire The Nation The World

Deliberation on registrationIn college ritual, there are winners, losers

Perhaps nothing in college prompts more hesitation than registra-tion, that semester-end ritual of picking classes for the one to come. At UNH, the process is fairly smooth, but there are several groups that lose out—or aren’t served as well as they could be—each semester.

First of all, there is the situation that frustrates sophomores each fall. This year, freshmen are able to sign up for classes from Dec. 2-6. Only when they’re fi nished do sophomores get to make their selections, from Dec. 7-9. This episode of reverse-seniority doesn’t make sense.

Look, we understand that you want freshmen to enjoy their time at UNH (there is no other apparent rea-son for such a practice). You want them to return home for winter break with smiles on their faces. But screw-ing over those who’ve already been here for a year doesn’t make sense. There’s a high probability of fresh-men and sophomores wanting to take the same classes their second semester, particularly among those students who come in undecided and don’t decide on their major until their sophomore year. To have them compete with freshmen for those spots (though it’s not really a competition when they’re not on the playing fi eld at the same time) isn’t helping them.

Second, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s the curious over-lap in the registration dates for seniors and juniors. This fall, seniors will fi nd themselves with a registration window that opens between Nov. 22 and Dec. 1. Those who are lucky enough to get a date at the beginning of the range will only be competing with their class-mates. But the registration windows for

juniors open between Nov. 29 and Dec. 1, the end of the seniors’ span. Once again, seniors face competition from students looking to get into classes similar to them.

There’s a reason we call students “freshmen” or “seniors.” It implies seniority (in an academic sense). Yes, it’s unfortunate if you end a semester one credit short of being classifi ed as a junior or a senior, but a line has to be drawn at some point. To ignore this rank, particularly in the registration process (where it is most important), makes it pointless to have it at all. The whole point of having the labels is to provide a logical pecking order for situ-ations like these.

Simply put, the closer students are to graduation, the more priority they should have, since they’re more likely to have highly-specifi c course require-ments. The above disruptions in the natural order of things, though they may seem petty, are exactly what can lead to students being stuck around for that fi fth year (this is in contrast to the I-didn’t-really-pay-much-attention-to-my-major-requirements excuse, which

we don’t have much sympathy for). That may be a profi table course of ac-tion for UNH, but it isn’t helping its students out.

On that note, there’s the added problem that many students encounter during their years at UNH: adding that fi fth course. Yes, you can take 20 cred-its (fi ve standard classes) for the same price as 16 credits (four standard class-es), a practice that comes in help when you’re pursuing a rigorous course load, looking to graduate early or making up for past injustices rendered upon your-self by the registration inconsistencies outlined above.

Currently, students can only reg-ister for up to 18 credits on Webcat when their registration window opens. They can’t add a fi fth course until the semester begins, when they’re forced to go from department to department checking out open courses and thrust-ing add-drop forms under the noses of overwhelmed professors.

We understand the notion that stu-dents should be limited to 18 credits initially, so that students aren’t shut out of courses they need by students taking more classes than usual. However, stu-dents should be able to register for up to 20 credits online once all students have had their initial registration period. By that point, everyone has had a chance to select classes, and open classes are conveniently displayed online. There’s no reason to not allow students to reg-ister at that time.

Starting Monday, and for the next three weeks, students will roll out of bed, fumble for their RAC numbers, and (hopefully) select their desired courses. All the while, they’ll wonder how long it will take for UNH to fi gure this all out.

The whole point of having labels such as “freshman” and “senior” is to provide a logical pecking order for situations like these.

Can off -campus housing save Durham?It’s amusing to see Durham resi-

dents expecting off-campus housing to save them from, wait for it, off-campus housing.

The newest housing proposal from Capstone Development to build a student housing development for 600 students off Technology Drive down Route 4 has some residents convinced that it will draw all the students cur-rently living in their “traditional family neighborhoods,” once again restoring

that the piece that they had for all those years.

Whether the proposed develop-ment becomes a reality or not, the fact is that UNH students will live in those neighborhoods as long as space is rent-ed to them. Capstone Development’s proposed plan has its advantages, par-ticularly in terms of amenities offered. But off-campus neighborhoods closer to the university has the ever-important “location” advantage. To each his own.

Some will chose that second “own.”Student-only off-campus hous-

ing can’t mask the fact that both sides need to make concessions in the per-petual fued between students and resi-dents. Initiatives such as the Thompson School’s recent “Durham Dialogue” program are more likely to make prog-ress in this area.

Treat the problem, don’t run from it.

The New HampshireFriday, November 19, 201016

OP-EDFrom the Left: Education

A conversation with an educator

I fi rstly want to name and ex-pose my privilege: As a political writer for a student publication, at an elite academic institution, I have the authority and privilege to pub-lish my opinion often with little fi rst-hand experience on the topics I tackle, and motivated by my partic-ular sociopolitical interpretation of a given circumstance. Of course, all opinion writers deal with this ten-sion. In order to balance this tension, I decided to write about education this week, and interview a teacher fi nding connectivity between my hollowly abstracted view of educa-tion, and an educator’s fi rst-hand experience with the system.

I sat down with Scott Rush, a student in UNH’s M.Ed. (Master of Education) program, and instructor of Social Studies at a local Maine High School. I approached our conversation with three specifi c questions: What are your general thoughts on the American education system? What was your experience as a student in the system? And, what is your role now as an educa-tor?

Mr. Rush fi rst began by de-fi ning the public American educa-tion system as “fl awed,” yet “the greatest idea we ever had.” Flawed in the sense that the curriculum is rigid and the educational goal is incrementally moving towards cre-ating “workers” and not “educated citizens” (the worker model being one that is geared towards hyper-certifi cation and opposed to critical thinking.) I myself defi ne critical thinking as a pedagogical process, in which we conceptualize skepti-cism and use detailed scrutiny in understanding systems.

However, Mr. Rush also views the intent of our system as one of our “greatest ideas,” as it not only “expands access,” but allows every-one to experience education. It is exactly because of this democratic intention, that Mr. Rush believes that charter schools are not the an-swer in repairing a broken system: “They choose the talented students and leave many behind; they have no interest in dealing with special education students, or students with

emotional distress.” I could not agree more with Mr. Rush, if we want to repair this system, we must repair it within the margins of pub-lic systems-where access is avail-able to all.

Mr. Rush refl ected on a fairly positive experience with the edu-cation system; He fi rst recognized the privilege he held in going to a well-funded school and then at-tending UNH, but found very little difference between what he was taught, and what he is now teach-ing: “It seems to me that we teach the value of the middle class and the ultimate arrival to democracy- we study world culture, and assume that the culmination is American democracy.” Mr. Rush defi ned this as a “linear curriculum,” one that begins and ends; the end of course being Western tradition.

One of the most insightful comments Mr. Rush made during our conversation was a rather trans-parent observation on how students digest education. “They seem to al-ways skip ‘thinking,’ going straight to ‘doing’--ultimately arriving at ‘done.’ Furthermore, the fact that they are ‘done’ with an assignment

comes with a sense of entitlement, ‘I am done, therefore I have met the standard and deserve an A.’” This comment resonated with me par-ticularly; I fi nd that the connection between entitlement and standard-ized testing is quite obvious. Mr. Rush also commented on the lack of attention in the social sciences and humanities: “Social studies is one of the few disciplines in primary and secondary education that has to potential to develop good citizens, as it studies systems, as opposed to teaching systems.” The latter is a trend that needs to be reevaluated if we intend to expand critical think-ing.

I was pleased with my conver-sation with Mr. Rush; I refl ected back on my experiences as a student in a failing system, and I still am reassured with hope in the compul-sory expansion of public education. Author and social critic, bell hooks, reminds us in her lecture “Cultural Criticism and Transformation” about the fundamental component regarding justice-mass literacy. In-vesting in private education and charter schools while we allow the democratic practice of public edu-cation to decline through a lack of funding, a vicious systemic attack with standardized testing, and a dis-heartening approach that thinks the private sector should posses agency in primary and secondary educa-tion, will be, perhaps, one of the most foolish things we can ever do. To expand our understanding of jus-tice we must not allow our educa-tion system to fall into the hands of business, as productivity should not judge education, rather the ability to question. Education, among many things, should always remain dem-ocratic and public. It is bad enough we must suffer through one of the most inaccessible and elite higher education system in the world, let’s not expand that faulty model into primary and secondary education.

David Jacobsen is a senior po-litical science and women’s studies major. He considers himself a left-wing radical feminist and immigra-tion progressive. He is a member of the UNH College Democrats.

David JacobsenTNH COLUMNIST

To expand our understanding of justice we must not allow our education system to fall into the hands of business, as productivity should not judge education, rather the ability to question.

I’m guilty of using words as weapons against other people. And others have used words to belittle me. But on Oct. 14, 2010, a day I call “Purple Thursday,” I, and about 90 other people, decided it was time for us, and those around us to change our ways. So, proudly wear-ing purple, we marched across the UNH campus. Our message was and remains simple: Words matter.

Since mid-September, nine young men have ended their lives after being bullied in school about their perceived sexual orientation. Countless others have attempted suicide. These young people were made to feel worthless by empty words, usually voiced by someone who probably didn’t realize the con-sequences of their actions.

Over the past summer, I worked with a small group of un-dergraduates from the South and Pennsylvania. One of their favorite phrases to use was “That’s so gay,” or, when they would say something kind to each other they would often add, “No homo.” For the fi rst few weeks, I often smiled and laughed along, realizing that they didn’t ac-tually mean anything negative by the misused phrases.

While walking to dinner one evening, I noticed the words “Symz is fo faggs” (pictured above) writ-ten on the stairs leading into Hollo-way Commons and then it hit me: “‘That’s so gay’ is not okay!” At dinner, we discussed why seeming-ly harmless phrases like “no homo” were aimed at making someone else

feel inadequate, trapped, and even hated.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine was standing in line behind two male students. One said to the other: “I had no idea how bad ‘fag’ was. I’m not going to use that word anymore.” While it might seem like an exaggeration, these personal epiphanies actually save lives.

The world around us isn’t all that kind to gays, lesbians, bisexu-als, or transgender people. Our government systematically and in-stitutionally discriminates against individuals and families because of their sexual orientations. Hateful slander is spewed from the pulpits, and gay people are made to live in constant uncertainty and fear by those who would use violence to feel powerful. It’s not a surprise, then, that we would fi nd this hate reproduced on our playgrounds, school cafeterias, and yes, our col-lege residence halls.

We don’t have to accept the status quo. The change, the building of a better future, is our generation’s fi nest and most important business, and not just for gay people, but for anyone who feels cast out. This task is not for the “Pollyanna spirit,” but for one who can stand strong against powerful, degrading words. The change starts with you: elimi-nate those words and phrases that you know hurt others. Those around you will quickly pick up on your so-cial queues.

Remember that words are pow-erful; they speak into existence the substance of our hearts and minds. Remember that there are conse-quenc-es to our belittling of others, perhaps ones that will haunt you for a lifetime. Choose your words in ways that comfort and empower those around you.

Michael Staley is clerk and commissioner of the UNH graduate student senate and a member of the President’s Commission on the Sta-tus of LGBT People.

It’s time to recognize the power of words

Michael StaleyGUEST COLUMNIST

There are consequences to our belittling of others, perhaps ones that will haunt you for a lifetime.

Interested in writing for the Op-Ed section next semester?

CONTACT EXECUTIVE EDITOR THOMAS GOUNLEY ATTNH.EDITOR@UNH.EDU

WRITING SAMPLES REQUIRED.

The New Hampshire Friday, November 19, 2010 17

OP-EDFree the schools.Public education in America

today is faltering. Standardiza-tion of curricula across the nation along with a buddy-buddy relation-ship between teachers unions and government has yielded an educa-tion system that only serves to turn out unquestioning drones. In this week’s column, I hope to identify what I believe are the key problems with our system and offer ways to address them.

Let me begin by defi ning what I mean by “public education.” Pub-lic education alludes to access to el-ementary and secondary education for every American child, a general concept that our society regards as crucial for a stable and prosperous future. It does not have to be public in the sense that it is run solely by government at taxpayers’ expense. Recently, within the past 40 years or so, we have made sure to never for-get our education system in terms of funding. Per pupil spending on el-ementary and secondary education in America has doubled from 1970, yet test scores have remained stag-nant. Figures published yearly by the United Nations reveal that the United States spends more on edu-cation as a percentage of its gross national product than do most of the countries whose students outper-form U.S. students on standardized tests, including Japan, South Korea and Spain.

How did this happen? Why are we continually getting less for our educational buck? Are we adequate-ly preparing our youth to participate in a globalizing, ever-changing economy? The public school sys-tem, one that I, along with many of us at UNH, have survived, has become bloated, ineffi cient and fraught with misguided measure-ments and priorities.

No Child Left Behind, the federal program that ties grants for schools to nationally standardized test scores, was doomed from the start. The notion of casting a single measurement over an entire nation of 100 million schoolchildren could never have been realized, simply

because it does not allow teachers to teach. Furthermore, the incentives tied to these goals put the fi nancial interests of the school ahead of the intellectual development of the stu-dents. By tying federally mandated test scores to grants for schools— enabled by the Department of Edu-cation— the government encourag-es school administrators to fi ercely scrutinize their teachers in order to make sure their students learn what is federally required. Teaching to the test means big money for school administrators and teachers in the form of new technology or higher salaries and benefi ts. We can’t blame teachers and administrators for pursuing greater fi nancial re-lief, they’re paid too little as it is; the fault is with the system. The in-centives are all wrong. The problem is that we’ve tied the money to the schools instead of the students.

Too much power is given to big teachers unions that benefi t from the status quo. Teachers unions put too much pressure on administrators to keep teachers employed rather than to better serve students. Pro-ponents of today’s tenure process, unions encourage the employment of older, less-qualifi ed teachers over younger, possibly better teach-ers simply because of job longevity. Many schools have faced deep bud-get cuts in this down economy, and most end up fi ring young, untenured teachers because the tenured ones are untouchable, even if it would benefi t students if an older, unmo-tivated teacher were canned in-stead of the new, passionate young educator. Tenure allows teachers to elude professional evaluation for the remainder of their career, con-siderably reducing the incentive to educate effectively. Seniority in teaching should mean a teacher is good enough to be kept around, not that somebody was able to get through 3 years of evaluations and

has been coasting for 30. How can we fi x this system? I

believe that we have structured the incentives for teachers, administra-tors and parents all wrong. The way to get more for our educational buck in is to increase competition among schools for children, instead of just money. This does not mean de-facto privatization of our educational sys-tem, it means localization. The way to achieve this is to tie funding to the children, not to schools. Think of parents as investors and schools as businesses: schools compete to provide the best education while parents fi nd the best school for their child based on their personal prefer-ences. Take the tax money we spend on scores-based grants and issue it in the form of vouchers for each stu-dent. Set up a sort of transportation voucher for the family that chooses a school farther away than usual. Eliminate geographical boundar-ies that determine where kids go to school; let parents decide where to send their children. Allow educa-tional entrepreneurship to take the reigns and devise a set of best practices that the industry has been missing. Our current education par-adigm only values conformity to the system. Sit up straight, be quiet, and learn what you have to. If a student cannot learn this way, we medicate them to the point of submission, as-suming the child has ADHD. We need to cultivate the natural cu-riosity in our children in order to instill a thirst for knowledge, not suppress intellectual development for the sake of obedience (did you ever think giving Ritalin to children was a good idea?). Only through a system that allows schools to invent themselves through competition and market-based, instead of test-based methods of merit can we develop a quality public education system in America.

Nick Murray is a junior po-litical science major. Last fall he founded the UNH chapter of the National Organization for the Re-form of Marijuana Laws (UNH NORML). He is an active member of Young Americans for Liberty.

From the Right: Education

Incentives in education all wrongNick MurrayTNH COLUMNISTS

TNH picks the NFL: Week 11

Buffalo at Cincinnati

Detroit at Dallas

Washington at Tennessee

Arizona at Kansas City

Green Bay at Minnesota

Houston at New York (A)

Oakland at Pittsburgh

Baltimore at Carolina

Cleveland at Jacksonville

Tampa Bay at San Francisco

Seattle at New Orleans

Atlanta at St. Louis

Indianapolis at New England

New York (N) at Philadelphia

Denver at San Diego

TNH (Wins-Losses) this season : 88-55

BY GREGORY MEIGHAN

What are you most excited for about Thanksgiving?

the

Sp tn

“Grandma’s chocolate pudding pie.”Mike Morin, sophomore “Getting drunk with my

family for the first time. 21!”Lauren Brydon, junior

“The turkey trot.”Robert Hunter, senior “Pumpkin pie.”Rob Wise, junior

The New HampshireFriday, November 19, 201018

with UMass, netting three power-play goals in a 3-0 win Friday night and holding off a 5-on-3 Minuteman advantage in overtime to preserve a 3-3 tie on Saturday.

“We have done a good job on power play,” Umile said. “We try to score a power-play goal every game, and the power play was pretty good over the weekend, obviously.”

The Wildcats boast the best power-play unit in the conference in Hockey East games, converting on 26.3% of opportunities, while the Terrier power play is dead last in Hockey East, scoring on only two of 40 extra-man opportunities. The teams feature the two best penalty kill units in the conference, how-ever, keeping the puck out of the net on 94.4% and 92.5% of shorthanded situations, respectively.

“I think the power play is a lot [based on] momentum,” Sislo said. “It can change throughout a game.

And it’s still early in the season so those numbers can change very fast, but we’ve been just working on power play so whenever we get out there and get the opportunity we want to capitalize.”

This weekend’s series, Friday at the Whittemore Center and Sat-urday at Agganis Arena, will be a measuring stick of sorts for both teams. BU will look to prove to the doubters that it’s blazing start is no fl uke, and UNH will look to contin-ue the early season success that has eluded them in past years.

“They’ve got talented players and they have always been one of the top teams, so it’s a fun week-end,” Umile said. “I look forward to it and I’m sure the players do. It’s going to be good hockey, you’re going to see two teams going at it, playing hard and physical.”

Game time is 7 p.m. Friday in Durham and 7 p.m. Saturday in Boston.

Continued from page 20

HOCKEY: Wildcats battle No. 2 Terriers in two-game series

Wildcats also got another impres-sive game from redshirt freshman Kelsey Hogan, who scored 15 points to go along with 7 assists and 4 rebounds at the point guard posi-tion. Faziah Steen led the Big Green with 17 points.

McDonald and the rest of the frontcourt gave UNH a decided advantage down low, where the Wildcats outrebounded Dartmouth 38-28.

UNH at one point led by as much as 19 points in the second half, but a 10-2 run by the Big Green cut the Wildcat lead to 61-50 with three minutes remaining in the game. Ju-

nior Denise Beliveau ended the run when she picked up an offensive re-bound and laid it in, giving UNH a 13-point lead with less than 2:30 to go. The Wildcats (1-1) would hang on to that lead for their fi rst win of the year. Dartmouth fell to 0-2 in the early season.

“I’m extremely proud of the girls, we came up with a great game plan and they really executed it, es-pecially on the defensive end,” UNH head coach Maureen Magarity said. “We really played well, with a lot of intensity, a lot of enthusiasm. I’m really pleased.”

UNH will next take on Brown University at Lundholm this Satur-day at 4 p.m.

Continued from page 20

WOMEN’S BBALL: ‘Cats down in-state rival Dartmouth

TYLER MCDERMOTT/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERSophomore Cari Reed brings the ball up against Dartmouth in Tuesday’s 65-52 UNH win at Lundholm Gymnasium.

coach Sean McDonnell knows that his team cannot afford to be over-confi dent in such an important game.

“I think our kids are very aware that anybody at any time in this league can beat you,” McDonnell said. “This is the CAA, week in and week out [there is] great coaching, great playing, great competitors.”

The Wildcats have to feel con-fi dent in their own play, as they are coming off a close win on the road at Villanova last Saturday. With 13 seconds left in the game, defensive end Brian McNally strip-sacked Vil-lanova’s Chris Whitney on UNH’s fi ve-yard line and Cody Muller re-covered to secure the Wildcats’ 31-24 victory.

“I was nervous about the ‘Nova game,” McDonnell said. “I knew we’d have to have a great, great effort. And we all challenged each other to give that type of effort.”

UNH used a blistering run-ning attack and a hurry-up offense to score 31 points, tied for the most Villanova’s defense had given up all season. Sophomore Dontra Pe-ters rushed the ball 12 times for 157 yards and a touchdown, while se-nior quarterback R.J. Toman passed for two touchdowns and ran for an-other.

McDonnell said that the ex-ecution along the offensive line was improved from a week before, when the Wildcats scored just three points in their loss to William & Mary. The line allowed more time in the pocket for Toman and opened up big running holes for Peters.

“I thought our guys got on peo-

ple and blocked them pretty well,” McDonnell said. As for the hurry-up offense, McDonnell said he thought it would “be a good change-up, [if] executed the right way.”

Towson, meanwhile, limps into Durham with a 1-9 record, including 0-7 in the CAA. They will be with-out starting quarterback Chris Hart, the CAA’s leading rushing signal caller, who has been suspended in-defi nitely for violating team policy. Instead, backup Bart Blanchard will sit behind center for Towson on Sat-urday.

Defensively, senior defensive tackle Yaky Ibia is second in the CAA in tackles for a loss, while de-fensive back Jordan Dangerfi eld is eighth in the conference in tackles with 90 this season. According to McDonnell, Towson is improved from the past few years.

“They are much better defen-sively,” McDonnell said. “This is a team that can do something.... they’re good.”

For UNH, linebacker Alan Buzbee is doubtful to play with

a shoulder injury, while tight end Chris Jeannot is likely to be side-lined for the remainder of the sea-son with a concussion he has been battling for most of the year. Fresh-man kicker Mike MacArthur has been hampered by a hip injury all season and is questionable for Sat-urday’s game.

Saturday’s game will also be the last regular season game of the year for the seniors on the Wild-cat roster. Toman, running back Sean Jellison, wideout Kevon Ma-son, cornerback Dino Vasso and safety Hugo Souza will be among the players to fi nish their impressive careers at UNH after this season.

“Our guys have wanted to prove how good they’ve been and I think they’ve put themselves in a position to prove it,” McDonnell said of the senior class. “I think it will be a feather in their cap if they fi nish it the right way.”

Kick off is scheduled for 12 p.m. this Saturday at Cowell Sta-dium.

FOOTBALL: Lowly Towson comes to Cowell for fi nal regular season contestContinued from page 20

TYLER MCDERMOTT/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERSaturday will be QB R.J. Toman’s fi nal regular season game.

The New Hampshire Friday, November 19, 2010 19

For the second-consecutive year, UNH will be represented in the National Field Hockey Coaches As-sociation Division I Senior Game. Senior Midfi elder Kara Connolly will play in the game along with 27 of the best seniors from around the country. The senior game, which consists of a scrimmage between all 28 players and a game against the U.S. National Team, will be played on Saturday at the University of Maryland.

“It was kind of a shock.” Con-nolly said about being selected to play in the game. “It didn’t really cross my mind on being selected.”

While the senior game was not one of her preseason goals, Con-nolly said that being selected is a milestone both for herself person-ally and for UNH.

“Having a UNH player two years in a row shows people UNH has talent.”

Connolly will be the fi fth Wild-cat to participate in the NFHCA Senior Game this decade, the most recent being Meg Shea last year.

Connolly’s selection is just an-other testament to the success of the team this year. The team went 14–7 this season, including 5–0 in con-ference play. The 14 wins are the most wins the team has had since

the 2000 season. The Wildcats also won their fi rst outright America East regular season championship since 2000 and reached the championship game in the playoffs as the top seed before losing to the University at Albany.

Connolly believes that the suc-cess of the team this season was due to two key components: preparation and determination.

“Our coaching staff did a great job with preparing us. Anything we needed to win, we were given.”

This preparation helped the Wildcats rank in the top two of the conference in goals and assists. It also allowed the Wildcats to make their fourth-consecutive America East tournament appearance.

Connolly also states that the team really bonded well early on, which helped them with the team goals for the season.

“The girls all worked well, we had heart, we had fi ght, and we knew what we wanted,” she said.

As the lone senior on the team this season, Connolly was selected by head coach Robin Balducci to be the captain. With 10 incoming freshmen, Connolly said she credits the upperclassmen in times when she needed more voices.

“The upperclassmen stepped up,” she said. “I was named captain but I wasn’t the only leader on the team.”

Along with the four hours a day dedicated to fi eld hockey practice, lifting and fi lm sessions, Connolly fi nds time to focus on her studies. She expects to graduate with a de-gree in occupational therapy and hopes to continue on to graduate school at UNH. While Connolly says she’s ready to try other things when she graduates, she says she does see herself being involved with fi eld hockey in the future as a coach.

For someone who wanted to play soccer as a little kid and did not want to wear a skirt while play-ing sports, Connolly has embraced the game during her four years here at UNH. In her Wildcat career, Con-nolly played in 70 games and start-ed 50 of them. Her eight goals and 20 assists gave her 36 points for her career. Connolly was an America East All-Conference First Team se-lection this year after being picked as an America East All-Conference Second Team last year.

As her Wildcat career comes to a close, Connolly says that the fi eld hockey program is heading in the right direction. She said she’ll remember and take away a lot from this season’s success and says the underclassmen should too.

“The underclassmen now know the feelings and emotions,” she said. “All this success defi nitely puts UNH on the map.”

Ha HoangCONTRIBUTING WRITER

FIELD HOCKEY

Senior Game will be one last hurrah for Connolly

put back one of his six offensive re-bounds with 1.5 seconds remaining in regulation to give his team the eventual two-point winning mar-gin.

Jabari Trotter led Dartmouth with 18 points.

Trailing 40-23 with 15:11 to play in the second half, the Wildcats locked down and ripped off a 20-4 run to whittle the defi cit to one with 7:19 remaining. During the 8:13 span, which included a 7:13 stretch that featured a 14-0 run, the UNH defense forced Dartmouth to shoot 2-for-12 from the fl oor and forced four turnovers.

Conley, the America East Player of the Game, sparked the run with a 3-pointer before a jumper by Tyler Melville pushed the lead back to 16. Buckets by sophomore Ferg Myrick, freshman Jordon Bronner and Conley sliced it to 10, before a Bronner trey from the right wing made it 42-35 with 12:29 to play,

A pair of Myrick baskets cut the lead to three, and a DeAn-dray Buckley free throw drew the Wildcats to within a pair at 8:03. David Rufful’s layup pushed the lead to four, before an Alvin Abreu 3-pointer from straight away made it 44-43 with 7:19 to go. The lead was back to four at 51-47 with 5:02 on the clock until Myrick’s basket at

2:41 cut it to two. Myrick then sank a pair at the line on UNH’s next pos-session to tie the game at 51.

On the following possession, Conley knocked down a jumper from the right elbow that put the Wildcats on top 53-51 with 52 sec-ond left – their fi rst lead since they led 3-2 just 1:42 into the opening half. Rufful then answered with a

jumper on the other end 14 seconds later to tie it at 53.

After the Wildcats called tim-eout to reset themselves with 15 seconds on the clock, they were able to get an attempt off just before the shot clock expired with less than three seconds on the game clock. The ball hit the rim, which reset the shot clock, and DiLiegro alertly

grabbed the rebound and put it in the hoop with 1.5 seconds remaining to make it 55-53. Clive Weeden’s half-court heave hit the front of the rim as time expired.

Myrick fi nished with 10 points – all in the second half on 4 of 7 shooting. Abreu tallied eight points and fi ve rebounds, while Bronner chipped in with fi ve points and two

assists in 10 minutes. Junior Brian Benson ripped down seven boards and blocked a pair of shots, while sophomore Chandler Rhoads added six rebounds and two assists.

After a Conley 3-pointer six minutes into the game cut Dart-mouth’s lead to 10-9, a 9-0 Big Green run pushed the advantage to 10 at 9:47. A Conley jumper at 6:25 cut it to 21-15, but another 9-0 run by Dartmouth gave the Big Green a 15-point lead with 2:53 to go before the break.

Dartmouth would maintain that lead, heading into the locker room with a 34-19 edge. The lead climbed to 17 on a 3-pointer by Trotter at 16:33 of the second half before the UNH defense took over and helped the ‘Cats back into the game.

Dartmouth outshot UNH, 59 percent (16-27) to 23 percent (7-30), in the fi rst half. The Wildcats won the battle on the glass, 44-33.

Abreu fi nished the night with 1,172 career points and moved past Matt Acres (1,169) for 13th place on UNH’s all-time scoring list.

The Wildcats return to action Saturday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m. when they play host to the College of the Holy Cross at Lundholm Gymna-sium.

MEN’S BBALL: DiLiegro scores game-winner in fi nal secondsContinued from page 20

TYLER MCDERMOTT/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERFreshman point guard Jordon Bronner provided some key bench play for the Wildcats during their last second, 55-53 win against Dartmouth College on Tuesday night.

Sara Heldman, a senior setter on the UNH volleyball team, has been selected as America East Set-ter of the Year. Heldman, a second team All-America East honoree, headlines a group of three New Hampshire award recipients.

Heldman is joined on the Amer-ica East All-Conference second team by junior outside hitter Amy Keding. In addition to Heldman and Keding, freshman right-side hitter Destiny Tolliver was named to the All-Rookie team.

Heldman becomes the fi rst America East student-athlete to earn both Setter of the Year and De-fensive Specialist of the Year hon-ors as she was also selected as the co-Defensive Specialist of the Year last season.

In 2010, Heldman recorded 9.11 assists per set in addition to 2.76 digs per set. The senior served up 16 aces and recorded 26 blocks on the year.

Heldman fi nished her fi nal year at New Hampshire with a team-leading 13 double-doubles. She was named the Setter of the Week three times this season.

Heldman ended her tenure in Durham with 104 sets and fi nished

with 287 digs. She became the fi rst player in program history to win Setter of the Year and is a two-time All-America East honoree. Held-man is just the second player in UNH history to record 1,000 kills and 1, 000 assists.

Keding emerged as one the league’s top offensive players dur-ing her junior campaign. She paced a well-balanced offensive attack for the Wildcats and was among the league leaders in several categories.

Overall, Keding ranked ninth in points and fourth in kills. She ranked second on the team in kills (297) and points (339) and was third in blocks (62). Keding was the America East Player of the Week on Sept. 27.

Tolliver made an immediate im-pact for the Wildcats as a freshman, ranking seventh in the America East in blocks (65). Tolliver fi nished her fi rst year among the team leaders in several catagories with 125 kills, 91 digs and 182 points. Tolliver was named America East Rookie of the Week on back-to-back weeks on Sept. 27 & Oct. 4.

The Wildcats ended their sea-son on November 12 with a 3-2 win at UMBC. UNH closed out 2010 with a 10-17 overall mark and a 5-7 record in America East play.

Staff ReportsTHE NEW HAMPSHIRE

Heldman tabbed as America East Setter of the Year for Wildcats

VOLLEYBALL

sportssportsFriday The New HampshireNovember 19, 2010

To say it has been a bumpy ride for the UNH football team this season would be an understatement. The Wildcats have endured numer-ous injuries to key players. They have lost games in the last two min-utes, they have lost in overtime, and they have even lost to a third-string quarterback.

UNH has battled through it all, however, clawing their way to a 6-4 record while playing in one of the FCS’s toughest conferences in the Colonial Athletic Association. Now all that stands in the way of a spot in the FCS playoffs for UNH is the 1-9 Towson Tigers, who will take

on the Wildcats this Saturday in the last weekend of the regular season. If UNH wins the game, they are vir-tually ensured a spot in the playoffs; if not, it will likely spell the end of

the season for the Wildcats.Despite Towson’s poor play

this season (the Tigers have lost eight straight games), UNH head

State champions

See MEN’S BBALL on page 19

Staff ReportsTHE NEW HAMPSHIRE

UNH 55 Dartmouth 53

SCORECARD

STATof the

DAY 50.8UNH has scored an average of 50.8 points per game in its last fi ve meetings with Towson, winning all fi ve games. The Wildcats have never lost to the Tigers.

MEN’S BASKETBALL (2-0, 0-0)

UNH DARTMOUTHTuesday, Hanover, N.H.

5555 5353WOMEN’S BASKETBALL (1-1, 0-0)

UNH DARTMOUTHTuesday, Lundholm Gym, Durham

6565 5252

Justin DoubledaySTAFF WRITER

UNH 65 Dartmouth 52

BASKETBALL

Senior McDonald’s double-double leads UNH to fi rst win

Last-second bucket gives ‘Cats come- from-behind victory

TYLER MCDERMOTT/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER TYLER MCDERMOTT/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERJill McDonald (right) had 15 points and 13 rebounds in UNH’s 65-52 win over

Dane DiLiegro’s last second put-back off a rebound gave the Wildcats a two-point win.

In their fi rst home game of the season,

the UNH women’s basketball team did not disappoint, defeating Dart-mouth College 65-52 on Tuesday night at Lundholm Gymnasium.

The Wildcats took control of the game early and never relin-quished it. UNH took a 7-5 lead off of a Kate Early layup at the 16:20 mark and held that lead through-out the rest of the game. It was an encouraging performance for the Wildcats, who had been routed in their fi rst game of the season at Notre Dame last Friday.

Senior center Jill McDonald led the way for UNH, recording a double-double with 15 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. The

See WOMEN’S BBALL on page 18

FOOTBALL MEN’S HOCKEY

Nation’s longest unbeaten streaks collide at the Whit

Zack CoxSPORTS EDITOR

Win and they’re inWin on Senior Day will all but guarantee a postseason bid

Justin DoubledaySTAFF WRITER

TYLER MCDERMOTT/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERUNH’s Hugo Souza (33), Alan Buzbee (54) and Jared Smith (90) have been key parts of the Wildcat defense this season. UNH hosts Towson this Saturday at noon for Senior Day.

See FOOTBALL on page 18

Since dropping the fi rst game of the 2010-11 season, the UNH men’s hockey team has gone eight games without a loss, the second-longest unbeaten streak in the coun-try. This streak will be put to the test again this weekend when the own-ers of the nation’s longest unbeaten streak come to town.

The Terriers of Boston Univer-sity roll into the Whittemore Center this Friday boasting an unblemished 6-0-4 record (4-0-4 in conference) through their fi rst 10 games.

BU’s strong start (and No. 2 ranking nationally) comes as a sur-prise to some, as the Terriers were picked to fi nish fourth in the Hock-ey East preseason poll, but not to UNH head coach Dick Umile.

“I would never put them in that position,” Umile said. “They’re just

too good of a program.” BU has been led this season

by junior goalie Kieran Millan, who comes in ranked second in the Hockey East in both save percent-age (.938) and goals against average (1.92). Millan is in his third year as the primary starter for the red and white, including leading BU to a na-tional championship as a freshman.

“I think a big key for us is go-ing to be getting the puck on net and having bodies in front of the net,” UNH senior captain Mike Sislo said. “When you have a good goalie perimeter shots without screens and traffi c are going to be tough to score so getting dirty, getting in front of the net is going to be huge.”

This weekend will feature a battle of two of the conference’s best special teams units. UNH (5-1-3, 3-0-2 HE) displayed terrifi c spe-cial teams in last weekend’s series

See HOCKEY on page 18

Senior Ty-rone Conley scored 18

points and classmate Dane DiLiegro recorded his fi rst double-double of the season as the UNH men’s bas-ketball team erased a 17-point sec-ond-half defi cit to defeat Dartmouth College, 55-53, Tuesday night at Leede Arena.

The Wildcats improve to 2-0 for the fi rst time since the 2004-05 season, while the Big Green fall to 0-2. UNH head coach Bill Herrion earned his 60th win with the pro-gram, moving into a fourth-place tie on the wins list with Bill Olsen.

Conley, who netted 11 points in the second half, pulled down six rebounds in 35 minutes. DiLiegro posted 13 points and 10 boards, and

Apparently winning 13 games for the lowly Mariners is the equivalent of winning 20 games for a real team.