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The Auburn Plainsman A SPIRIT THAT IS NOT AFRAID Thursday, February 28, 2013 ThePlainsman.com Vol. 119, Issue 29, 16 Pages This week’s question THE PLAINSMAN POLL Last week’s question Online Campus A4 Sports B1 Vote online at ThePlainsman.com INDEX Campus A2 Opinion A6 Community A7 Sports B1 Intrigue B5 Trent Erwin WRITER Born and raised an Auburn man, Calvin Johnson will be-come the seventh dean of the College of Veterinary Medi-cine. Dr. Johnson is transition-ing from his previous posi-tion as department head of pathobiology to become the new dean of a college that has a 121-year legacy. “It was just an extreme-ly fortunate opportunity for me,” Johnson said. He steps into the position already ex-perienced, as he served as interim dean for 17 months before being selected as the permanent dean. “I had the 17 months of ex-perience and realized this was a tremendous opportu-nity to really serve veterinary medicine and to serve Au-burn,” Johnson said. “I’m ex-cited to be pursuing it.” He’s no stranger to the Au-burn area as he was born in 1961 raised in Auburn and the son of a former faculty member. He received his undergrad-uate and graduate degrees from Auburn finished with a doctorate of veterinary med-icine and made his way to North Carolina to practice. After only practicing a year, he returned to school, attending North Carolina State University where he conducted a residency in pa-thology through the Ph.D program there. He then became board cer-tified in pathology and took his expertise to the Universi-ty of Florida where he was on faculty for 11 years. In 2003, Johnson made his return to Auburn to join the faculty and teach pathobiol-ogy in the College of Veteri-nary Medicine. His concentration focus-es on disease of animals and how they correspond to oth-er species and even to hu-mans. “Dr. Johnson brings a breadth and depth to this position that is essential for leading a college. He’s an extremely dedicated and approachable professional.” —Frank Bartol ASSOCIATE DEAN OF RESEARCH AND GRADUATE STUDIES Johnson named dean of college of veterinary medicine Two options for Toomer’s Austin Lankford CAMPUS WRITER Mike DeMaioribus is one of two new members to the Board of Trustees. DeMaioribus filled John Blackwell’s District 8 posi-tion, which covers all the counties in north Alabama. “I can’t imagine any-thing more rewarding than to be able to give back to the University,” DeMaiori-bus said. “I am excited to get involved at a level that allows you to get a perspec-tive of all the things going on around campus and try to do your best to make the University better everyday.” DeMaioribus, a Hunts-ville native, graduated Au-burn in 1976 with a degree in electrical engineering. He then received his mas-ters in electrical engineer-ing in 1977. DeMaioribus said he nev-er considered anywhere oth-er than Auburn. “My dad was an engi-neer and we knew that Au-burn had an outstanding engineering program and it sounded great to me,” De- Maioribus said. “I knew I wanted to be at Auburn right when I got there.” DeMaioribus said he likes Auburn’s small college town feel and that he sent all four of his children to Auburn. “The University is there for the town and the town is there for the Universi-ty and they are really one in the same,” DeMaioribus said. “Everyone is so welcoming and friendly and it is a great setting for a school.” When he graduated, De- Maioribus moved to Hunts-ville and began to work for Dynetics Inc. He has been there for more than 35 years and is currently senior vice president of the company. DeMaioribus said Au-burn is trying to expand its research opportunities in the Huntsville area with the Huntsville Research Center, who he has also been work-ing with. DeMaioribus set as new trustee » See DEAN A2 JOHNSON Chandler Jones COMMUNITY REPORTER From the Auburn Plains to The Hill in Washington D.C., former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs spoke to the Boys & Girls Club at their annual “Champions for Kids Luncheon” Thursday, Feb. 21. Gibbs was born in Auburn in 1971. His parents, Robert and Nancy, worked for the Au-burn University libraries. “I learned from my parents and this community the val-ue of learning a good educa-tion and working hard,” Gibbs said. “Those are the tools that helped get me to that spot in the White House.” Gibbs graduated from Au-burn High School in 1989. He attended North Carolina State University to study political science. “I learned and one of the reasons I got into communi-cations, because in politics you can have great ideas and great solutions, but if you can’t communicate what those ideas and solutions are to peo-ple then they’re not any good,” Gibbs said. “Communications are the most fundamental im-portant aspect of any entity or project.” Gibbs is a celebrated pol-itician who has served Pres-ident Obama since 2004. He served as senate communica-tions director for Obama dur-ing Obama’s senatorial cam-paign. In 2008 he transitioned into the senior strategist for communications and mes-sage for Obama’s first presi-dential campaign. Gibbs served as White House press secretary for the 2008 term. “The one thing that you learn, that I think everybody learns working in the White House learns, is the unex-pected that really compli-cates your day and really com-plicates your life,” Gibbs said. “You name it; somebody’s launched a missile or there’s been an oil spill. Everyday something pops up that you have to react to that wasn’t necessarily on your to-do list that morning. It’s what makes that place both wonderful and stressful.” CHANDLER JONES / COMMUNITY REPORTER Robert Gibbs speaks to the Boys & Girls Club at Greater Peace Missionary Baptist Church. Intrigue B8 » See TRUSTEE A2 » See GIBBS A2 Former White House press secretary talks education DEMAIORIBUS “By being in the high technology business, I want to help support that endevour or to expand Auburn’s research opportunities.” —Mike DeMaioribus BOARD OF TRUSTEE MEMBER Dr. Calvin Johnson returns to Auburn as the Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine 1989 graduate Robert Gibbs returns to Auburn COURTESY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING The arcing path theme would allow straight walls connected to the gates with a brick path leading on campus. COURTESY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING The circle wall theme would feature a rounded brick wall behind the gates and porous unit pavers in front of the trees. Austin Lankford CAMPUS REPORTER Two designs were presented for Toomer’s Corner, in Foy Hall Wednesday, Feb. 7. This pre-sentation brings Auburn fans that much closer to establishing a new design and securing a fu-ture for the beloved tradition. The firms Nelson Byrd and Woltz and jB+a worked in collaboration to put the plans togeth-er and said they have been working on the de-signs for the last month. “The two new proposals were developed from the two most popular of the original four schemes that were part of the survey that went out a few months ago,” Byrd said. “Both schemes really emphasize the replacement of two very large trees, likely oaks in close proximity to where they currently are.” The first scheme is the Circle Wall. “This plan creates an intermediary space shaped by low brick walls making an area of gathering before going through the 1917 gates,” Byrd said. “There would be benches placed along the path leading toward Samford Hall.” The second scheme is the Arcing Path. “The primary difference with this plan is that it doesn’t create a singular and distinctive space on the other side of the existing gates,” Byrd said. Byrd said this plan expands the path that leads toward Samford Hall by four or five feet and would be lined with benches. He said this would still allow people to both gather on the sides and walk along the path. “The hope was that after what we hear today that there will clearly be a strong sense for one plan or the other or a combination of the two that will be the final one,” Byrd said. The designs to improve Toomer’s Corner are being developed in response to the alleged poi-soning by Harvey Updyke and eventual remov-al of the oaks. Updyke was arrested on Feb. 17, 2011, for a criminal mischief warrant in connection to the application of herbicide to the Toomer’s oak trees. Dan King, assistant vice president of facilities management, said the final plans for Toomer’s Corner will be announced after the A-Day game this spring and that the trees will probably be re-moved either one or two weeks after the game. » See GIBBS A2 Campus A2 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, February 28, 2013 Feb. 20 – Golf Club Drive Third-degree criminal trespass be-tween 3 p.m.–3:30 p.m. Feb. 20 – Engineering Drive Second-degree theft of a purse, wal-let, U.S. currency, credit cards, gift cards, checks and a drivers license between noon–2 p.m. Feb. 21 – Rosie Street Third-degree criminal mischief be-tween 10:45 p.m.–11 p.m. Feb. 22 – South Donahue Drive Third-degree theft of an iPhone between 10 a.m.–11:45 a.m. Feb. 22 – Enterprise Drive Third-degree theft of U.S. currency between 5:15–5:20 p.m. Feb. 23 – West Magnolia Avenue Third-degree criminal trespass be-tween 1:20 a.m.–2:15 a.m. Feb. 23 – North Donahue Drive Third-degree burglary of a television between 6 a.m.–7:45 p.m. Feb. 25 – Heisman Drive Third-degree criminal mischief be-tween 4 p.m.–12 a.m. Feb. 25 – Perry Street Harassment report Feb. 25 – Lee Road 43 Third-degree burglary of a televi-sion, laptop and jewelry between 11 a.m.–6:30 p.m. Feb. 26 – Biggio Drive Second-degree theft of a wallet, ID cards, U.S. currency and a debit card between 5:30–5:40 p.m. Feb. 26 – Alan Avenue Third-degree burglary between 4:30 p.m.–11:59 p.m. Feb. 27 – Opelika Road Third-degree criminal trespass report — Reports provided by Auburn Department of Public Safety CRIME REPORTS FOR FEB. 20 – FEB. 27, 2013 DUI ARRESTS IN THE CITY OF AUBURN FEB. 20 – FEB. 27, 2013 ■ Jeri Kirkpatrick, 43, Auburn Thursday, Feb. 21, 9:46 p.m. on Shug Jordan Parkway ■ Paige Kinghorn, 22, Auburn Thursday, Feb. 21, 2:26 a.m. on West Longleaf Drive ■ Woo Suh, 43, Auburn Friday, Feb. 22, 11:22 p.m. on Opelika Road ■ Michael Crump, 31, Jasper Saturday, Feb. 23, 1:02 a.m. at East Magnolia Av-enue and Debardeleben Street ■ Chiquita Dowdell, 34, Auburn Sunday, Feb. 24, 2:59 a.m. at East University Drive and South Donahue Drive ■ Alexander Bronson-Howard, 20, Danbury, Conn. Sunday, Feb. 24, 3:26 a.m. on Hemlock Drive Enjoy serving others? Seeking Christian young adults who want to serve at a youth missions camp in Alabama through home repair or children’s ministry for Summer 2013 Leadership Discipleship Service Spiritual Growth Ministry Positions available for: Day Camp Coordinato rs Construction Coordinator s Alabama Rural Ministry (334) 501-4276 serve@arm-al.org Applications can be found at: www. arm-al.org Currently interviewing, so apply soon! The Auburn Plainsman 255 Heisman Drive, Suite 1111, AU Student Center Auburn, AL 36849 Editor - Robert E. Lee Managing Editor - Nathan Simone Editor - Sydney Callis Reporter - Chandler Jones Writer - Abigail O’Brien COMMUNITY NEWSROOM ADVERTISING Editor - Becky Hardy Reporter - Corey Arwood Writer - Kailey Miller Writer - Austin Lankford CAMPUS Editor - Elizabeth Wieck Reporter - Anna Beth Jager Reporter - Caitlin Wagenseil Writer - Kelsey Davis Jason Bass Austin Haisten Justin McCroskey INTRIGUE Editor - John Burns Reporter - Will Gaines Reporter - Andrew Yawn Writer - Ethan Brady Writer - Lance Davis SPORTS Editor - Benjamin Croomes OPINIONS Editor - Raye May Photographer - Katherine McCahey PHOTO Editor - Rachel Suhs Graphic Artist - Emily Brett DESIGN Editor - Dustin Shrader Assistant Editor - Chelsea Harvey Multimedia editor - Daniel Oramas Webmaster - Zach McSwain ONLINE Editor - Melody Kitchens SPECIAL SECTIONS Newsroom - (334) 844-9108 Advertising - (334) 844-4130 DISTRIBUTION Lauren Darmanin Kathryn Holladay Ben Whitley Whitney Potts Ashley Selby Caitlin Piery Zoya Zinger ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVES SENIOR DESIGNERS JUNIOR DESIGNERS EDITORIAL ADVISER Austin Phillips (334) 844-9108 adviser@theplainsman.com OFFICE MANAGER Kim Rape (334) 844-4130 kelleka@auburn.edu The Auburn Plainsman is published in print weekly every Thursday. We can be found online at ThePlainsman.com. Editor - Bianca Seward Assistant Editor - Callie Ward COPY DESK GENERAL MANAGER & ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Judy Riedl (334) 844-9101 gm@theplainsman.com admanager@theplainsman.com Amber Franklin WRITER Marion Royston’s journey to be-coming one of 12 students in the na-tion to win a Mitchell Scholarship is the kind of story that gives truth to the quote, “You can do anything you put your mind to.” Royston, senior in history, is a re-cipient of a Mitchell Scholar Award and will study leadership for sustain-able and rural development at The Queen’s University Belfast in North-ern Ireland starting this September. The scholarship was awarded based on leadership, scholarship and commitment to a career in communi-ty and public service. “When I was applying, I applied for the Marshall (another scholarship) at the same time,” Royston said. “And I was like ‘I don’t know the Mitchell people only take 12 people. What’s the probability that I’m even in the running for this?’” Dr. Paul Harris, associate director for national prestigious scholarships and professor in the honors college, has helped Royston throughout her college career and said he has always known she was special. Harris met Royston three years ago, when she was a resident assis-tant in Aubie Hall, where he is a fac-ulty- in-residence. “After getting to know Marion I re-alized she had all the ingredients to be a national prestigious scholarship winner,” Harris said. “I just encour-aged her to continue to make good grades, pursue her undergraduate re-search and get involved with service and that’s exactly what she did.” Royston, who has a minor in com-munity and civic engagement, has taken advantage of every opportunity that has been put in front of her dur-ing her four years at Auburn. Royston attended a PACERS jour-nalism workshop, which solidified her decision to attend Auburn, took a trip to Appalachia, where she learned about poverty within the region and how people are working to combat it and worked with Living Democracy, a year-long program within the College of Liberal Arts. Through the Living Democracy program, Royston participated in a 10-week summer experience in Hob-son City, the first all-black municipal-ity in Alabama. She transcribed oral histories in Macon County in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Lee versus Macon case, which led to the desegre-gation of schools in Alabama. Royston was able to speak with An-thony Lee, the lead plaintiff, and Fred Grey, the lead civil rights attorney for the case. “It was super cool, and I got to mar-ry my two loves of history and com-munity involvement,” Royston said. Royston, who is from the rural community of Roanoke is hoping to use these experiences and the expe-rience she gains from her year in Ire-land to help rural communities de-velop. Royston said that she uses what her own community did to make her successful to compare to other communities and see what chang-es can be made to create communi-ty growth. “It’s an economic issue, but it’s also about investing in people,” Royston said. “Revitalizing those areas, be-cause they are in the middle of a crisis – people are leaving, plants are shut-ting down – so we’re kind of building them back up.” Many people who know Royston personally and professionally have no doubts about her abilities and the im-pact she is going to make. Morgan Dunn, sophomore in bio-medical sciences, has been working with Royston for the past year as resi-dent assistant in Sasnett Hall. “She’s such a joy and she’s so awe-some, but she’s also extremely intelli-gent and she’s got this easiness about her than just draws people in,” Dunn said. Harris, who has been Royston’s mentor for the past two and half years, is happy he was able to help Royston throughout this journey and is excited to see how she will be able to use this opportunity. “It’s giving her an opportunity that very few students will ever have,” Har-ris said. “You can imagine what that’s going to do for her, for her perspective and how much she’s going to learn. “She’s going to be a great ambassa-dor, not only for the U.S., but for Au-burn.” Royston is excited to begin her ad-venture in Ireland in September, but is still surprised and awed by all the things she has been able to achieve up to this point. “I didn’t come to Auburn planning any of this – I didn’t think it was possi-ble,” Royston said. “This Auburn expe-rience for me has been this really big journey of self-discovery, so I’m real-ly, really happy with where I am right now and I owe it all to seizing oppor-tunities that were put in front of me.” Student heads to Ireland after winning Mitchell Scholar Award CONTRIBUTED BY JEFF ETHERIDGE Royston will travel to Ireland this September to study sustainable and rural community development DEAN » From A1 “My interest in that was certainly for diseases of an-imals, but also the compar-ison of animal diseases and human diseases. That’s real-ly my background,” Johnson said. Currently, he’s research-ing a particular type of HIV in cats, called feline immunode-ficiency virus. This research is not only helping him understand the virus among animals, but also how it affects young children across the world. Dr. Johnson must direct the academic portion of the col-lege, but also correspond with directors to maintain the vet-erinary hospital and clinical science programs. Johnson isn’t new to the department and received en-dorsement by a majority of the staff. “Dr. Johnson brings a breadth and depth to this position that is essential for leading a college,” said Frank Bartol, associate dean of re-search and graduate studies. “He’s an extremely dedicated and approachable profession-al. He’s engaged in forward thinking of all aspects of our academic and research mis-sion here at the college.” Johnson is determined to lead the college into the fu-ture through maintaining high levels of research and quality academics. “He’s a very student orient-ed individual and really cares about both populations of students at the vet school,” said India Napier, second year Ph.D student in biomedical sciences. Johnson is prepared to con-tinue the 121-year legacy of the college through his po-sition as dean. “We want to make sure that education is as high quality as it can be be-cause we have an excellent reputation for training veter-inarians at Auburn,” Johnson-said. He resigned in 2011 and served as senior adviser to Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Gibbs returned to Au-burn to support and cele-brate the Lee County Boys & Girls Club. Gibbs is still a War Ea-gle sportier and says he is “on the Gus Bus.” In 2010 Gibbs was quot-ed saying that if Auburn won the national cham-pionship he would roll the White House. “That got a lot of at-tention when I said that,” Gibbs said. “I don’t think there were a lot of people that understood all that was involved. “It was fun to go back. I left working at the White House, but I got to go back when the team came up there.” GIBBS » From A1 “By being in the high technology business, I want to help support that endeavor to expand Au-burn’s research opportu-nities,” DeMaioribus said. “I am hoping to bring that aspect of my background to the University as best I can.” DeMaioribus has re-mained involved with Au-burn since graduating. “I have been involved with the University for a while when I chaired the Electrical Engineering Ad-visory Board,” DeMaiori-bus said. DeMaioribus said he also has worked with the dean of engineering. “I am excited now to be able to work across the whole campus and all the colleges and the different functions of the Universi-ty.” TRUSTEE » From A1 TOOMERS » From A1 “Whatever scheme we settle on, we don’t think could be accomplished be-fore the coming football sea-son,” King said. “The target will probably be the start of the 2014 football season, but it could go later than that.” King said they have been working with the city on in-stalling some temporary structures in the intersec-tion where cables would be strung so people can roll those during the football season. COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING The wall scheme option would offer brick seatwalls behind the oaks. Thursday, February 28, 2013 The Auburn Plainsman Campus A3 Help Kenny and Eric kickoff the hottest tour of the season in sunny Tampa Bay! S p r i n g B r e a k P l a n s ? PBTI-35670.1 BE NATURAL. $1000 Test Drive Every Bed*- All Week $10 Any Regular Spray Tan $10 *Enjoy one session each – Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond for $10 or any Regular Spray Tan for $10. Valid for new customers only, one time only. Sunbed sessions must be used within 7 days of date of purchase. Beds vary by location—substitutions may apply. Regular membership rules apply. Sunless session must be used at the time of purchase. Must present coupon to receive offer. Offers cannot be combined with any other coupon or offer. See salon for details. All rights reserved. Offer expires 3/31/13. ANNALUE 814A Annalue Dr. (Corner of Dean & Annalue) 25 Beds! 334-826-7778 COLLEGE STREET 1499-C South College St. 32 Beds! 334-826-7710 Retirement of professors brings changes in department Becky Hardy CAMPUS EDITOR With the baby boomer gen-eration coming close to time of retirement, the agriculture de-partment is seeing an increase in retirement for many profes-sors, as well as, an increase in new practices. Many of the senior profes-sors are retiring or are close to retiring within the next year or two. As a result of the GI Bill, many of the men who fought in World War II were allowed to complete Ph.D.s following their service. Many then pur-sued careers as professors. These professors were then re-placed with the professors that are retiring now. “We’ve all been here 30 years and it’s time for us to move on,” said Keith Cummins, retir-ing animal sciences professor. “Now you have this big slug that has moved through be-cause World War II took peo-ple out and then 30 years lat-er you educated us and then 30 years later we have another lump coming in.” All the senior professors in the department have grown up on some type of ranch or farm, which provided them with the hands on experience they needed to excel in the ag-riculture field, a strong advan-tage over those who did not. “Our departments have labs that have a lot more hand-on stuff that we would not have done when I was in college because everyone in my class when I was an undergrad grew up on a farm except one kid,” said Steve Schmidt, animal sci-ences professor. “He was very naïve about a lot of things, but we didn’t do those things in lab because we did those things at home.” Because many students in-terested in agriculture and an-imal sciences have grown up in urban areas, the department offers more hands-on experi-ence in labs. “Naturally hands-on experi-ence brings to the table some components that are not avail-able if you don’t have hands-on experience, especially in ag-riculture, particularly animal agriculture, whether it’s being hands-on with products and living animals,” said Bob Ebert, retiring extension animal sci-entist. “It is important, but the flip side of that is a college de-gree is nothing more than a li-cense to learn more, so if you’re truly dedicated to being a uni-versity employee you’ll make sure you keep updated on what’s going on in the animal agriculture world.” Cummins said the amount of ‘over-educated farm kids,’ students who learned more hands-on experience at home than in the classroom, that need to replace the senior staff do not exist anymore. “Those kind of people don’t’ exist anymore, but everyone still expects to eat,” Cummins said. “Agriculture is a huge, massive industry in the Unit-ed States, but students are just not all that interested in farm-ing. Everyone still has it in their head that farming is the little red barn form grandma and grandpa’s, but it’s not. It’s industrialized.” Although hands-on experi-ence is irreplaceable, science moves on, Schmidt said. “People are doing research that I was told was on the ho-rizon when I was in school,” Schmidt said. “Some of us that are older have to go back to school, so to speak, and get retrained and do some of the things that we are doing to-day.” Along with changes in train-ing students, teaching meth-ods have also changed. Cummins believes that most of the teaching styles will lean toward lectures after most of the senior staff retires. “It hasn’t started as a pro-cess yet, but I would not be surprised if you (ended) up with six to eight lectures at the master’s level if the (younger generations) did the teaching because money’s tight,” Cum-mins said. “You’re only going to get a professor’s job if you come in with two post docs and a grant in hand.” Although the retiring pro-fessors have enjoyed their time here at Auburn, it is time for them to accomplish other things. “I’m facing uncharted wa-ters because I have not been retired,” Ebert said. “That’s not saying I don’t have a little bit of regret, but the flip side of that is, like I told many of my co-workers, when it comes to retire, you’ll know. I know it’s time for me to retire.” Along with Ebert, Cummins said he has also enjoyed his time here interacting with stu-dents who are always chang-ing. “Change always happens and this department and this college is going to change,” Cummins said. “This college needs to move from growing food to producing food.” Although Schmidt is not re-tiring he said that he has faith in whoever takes his place. “We have lot of bright, young people and I’m not wor-ried that they won’t be able to carry it on,” Schmidt said. RAYE MAY/ PHOTO EDITOR The agriculture department is integrating more hands-on experience in labs for students who did not have that experience growing up. Air Force holds spaghetti dinner Will Gaines SPORTS REPORTER With the heavy rain that came through Auburn last Friday night not many people would be having outdoor ac-tivities on Saturday, unless you are associated with Air Force ROTC. On Saturday, Feb. 23, the AFROTC hosted its annual Spaghetti Dinner at the Nich-ols Center. The Spaghetti Dinner is hosted annually by the Arnold Air Society to help raise funds for their Squadron known as the John “Boots” Stratford Squadron. “The Arnold Air Society is a special service organization devoted to promoting aero-space power,” said Operations Officer, Cadet 1st Lt. Han-nah Beals. “So what that real-ly means is that we’re an orga-nization that’s only open to Air Force cadets. We get together and do extra stuff. We do com-munity service and work on our own things. It’s a national organization that does amaz-ing stuff throughout the coun-try.” Activities that were avail-able at the dinner on Satur-day were volleyball, music en-tertainment, a water slide and all-you-can-eat spaghetti. “We do it every year,” Beals said. “It’s just a fun relaxed day where we can have fellowship among our society and bring people in to promote what we do on campus so people can see what Arnold Air is all about.” The spaghetti dinner has been going on at Auburn for approximately 10 years. AFROTC cadets from oth-er schools have the opportu-nity to get together in a social event highlighted by competi-tive sporting events. “Auburn has a really long-standing tradition of winning the Gamma Cup,” Beals said. “So it kind of came out of that because this weekend is usual-ly Gamma Cup weekend. Ev-eryone would come to that and we would make them all dinner and raise a little mon-ey for our squadron. It was a great way to interact with a bunch of different detach-ments throughout the South-east.” The Gamma Cup is now hosted by Clemson Univer-sity, but the spaghetti dinner and the fundraiser remained uniquely Auburn. “Now it’s just a tradition we do every year and it’s just a great fundraiser,” Beals said. “We make a profit and it’s just fun.” Tickets were sold for $3 dur-ing the week or $5 at the door on Saturday, with proceeds di-rectly benefiting the Air Force ROTC. “We have a National Con-clave every year because the society is a national organiza-tion,” said Will Powell, squad-ron leader. “To send somebody to that is like $300 a person. So we do things like this to help raise money so we can send people to that.” The Air Force ROTC also holds events in the fall such as a Prisoner of War Missing in Action Day. The money raised at this event goes to support the Prisoner of War Initative. Powell believes, that more importantly than raising mon-ey, it also is something that is fun. “Its huge,” Powell said. “You get people out playing volley-ball, having dinner together and socializing.” CONTRIBUTED BY The Air Force was able to raise approximately $200 at the dinner. Campus A4 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, February 28, 2013 Thursday is Burger Night Burgers $5.99 where friends meet friends 1151 Opelika Road Auburn, AL 36830 334-821-3118 www.niffersplace.com The loss of a pilot, the gain of a legacy Corey Arwood CAMPUS WRITER The Department of Aviation and Supply Chain Manage-ment lost a faculty member, its students lost a professor, but the colleagues of Dr. Ray-mond Allen Hamilton II, lost a comrade. Hamilton, who had been an associate professor of aviation policy at Auburn since 2000 died on Saturday, Feb. 16. “People who are involved in aviation, there is kind of a camaraderie there; it’s un-like something, I don’t know, like an English major,” said Dr. Randy Johnson, associate professor in the Department of Aviation and Supply Chain Management. Hamilton was at Auburn when Johnson arrived about 10 years ago, both had military experience in common. Hamilton was born on Dec. 25, 1939, in Oklahoma. Having graduated in the USAF Acade-my in 1963, he went on to ac-cumulate more than 5,000 hours of flying experience; ap-proximately 300 of those were during combat. He was active in the Viet-nam War, having flown in 73 reconnaissance missions, and was commended the Distin-guished Flying Cross medal. Hamilton retired from the military in 1990 as a colonel. “He cared deeply about his students,” Johnson said. “He loved the program a great deal.” However it was not Ham-ilton’s first teaching appoint-ment. Before he came to Au-burn in 2000 he had been the dean of the USAF Air War Col-lege at Maxwell Air Force Base, in Montgomery, and had also worked with the University of Oklahoma as a director of ad-vanced programs. “When I look back he’s got a very long and distinguished career, and he didn’t need to come to Auburn and do this,” said Dr. Bill Hardgrave, dean and Wells Fargo professor, of the College of Business. “He did it because he want-ed to and because he loved be-ing around students. He loved introducing students to Avi-ation, and teaching them avi-ation. It was really the love of his discipline that really drove him.” Hamilton also received his Federal Aviation Administra-tion transport pilot and a tur-bojet flight engineer rating, during his time working with United Airlines. “He was a really good guy that cared about his students,” said David Wareham, senior in aviation management, and a student in Hamilton’s Glob-al Air Transportation Manage-ment class. “He made class in-teresting, and it was clear that he knew what he was talking about.” Hamilton received his DPA from the University of Ala-bama in 1990, and his mas-ters in science from Louisiana State University in 1973, fol-lowing his Bachelors from the USAF. He led research programs on attitude, strength and the personality attributes of pro-fessional aircrews, and also helped direct the Flight Man-agement Program after some time of working at the region-al airport. It was because of Hamil-ton’s extensive knowledge and his experience in the aviation field that he began serving as the Aviation Program Coor-dinator, for Dr. Joe Hanna, as-sociate dean of Research and Outreach, and also the Re-gions Bank professor, who at the time was the department chair. “He had a passion for the aviation discipline in gener-al but also just passion for the aviation program at Auburn; but certainly a passion to work with the students and put the students in a position to suc-ceed upon graduation,” Hanna said. “That was the thing that everybody knew about Ray, is that he was focused on helping his students.” He has two children, Mon-te Rex and Christine, and was married to Malissa Duggan of Albany, Ga., who died a few years ago. “I know he loved his wife deeply,” Johnson said. “She contracted Alzheimer’s, when I first came here and he stayed with her; never put her in a home, always kept her, took care of her. I know personal-ly it cost him a lot of money to do that. But he did it. He made sure she was taken care of and lived with her.” His obituary instructed all who wanted to send memo-rials in his name, to donate them to the Alzheimer’s Asso-ciation. Raptor Center releases owls into wild Lance Davis SPORTS REPORTER The Southeastern Raptor Center at Auburn Universi-ty released five owls into the wild Friday, Feb. 22, at the Lou-ise Kreher Forest Ecology Pre-serve. The Raptor Center released one Eastern Screech-Owl, two Barn Owls and two Barred Owls into the forest during a substantial rain shower. The owls were released right after 5 p.m., each one having recovered from injuries suf-fered from hitting a car. “I think all the owls we re-leased today were struck by cars or they were found with a broken wing, broken leg, head trauma,” said Rhett Laporte, sophomore in wildlife ecology. “Something dealing with hit-ting a car or hitting a window.” The Southeastern Raptor Center does not raise the owls from birth, but rather takes in injured ones. However, the center will take in baby owls in certain situations. “They don’t raise any,” said Jennifer Lolley, administrator of the preserve. “Occasional-ly they do get babies that have come out of nests that people think are lost and they prob-ably shouldn’t have touched them. They’ll bring them in and they have to just raise them for about six weeks or so.” It typically takes about six months to a year for owls to heal to the point that they can be released back into the wild. “It depends on what the in-jury is,” said Jamie Bellah, di-rector of the Southeastern Raptor Center. “If it’s some type of concussion or they had their bell rung, sometimes it’s just a few days. Some of the fractures can take as long as our fractures to heal, and that might be eight to 12 weeks. Bellah said that the birds have to regain muscle strength and evaluate how well they’re doing before they can be re-leased. “They have to be athletes,” Bellah said. “You saw how well these birds flew. A lot of them aren’t able to fly that well.” The owls have to pass a flight test before being re-leased. “They have to have enough endurance to be able to fly around,” Laporte said. “We have flight testing usually the week prior to the release to make sure that they’re go-ing to be able to survive out in the wild. They usually have to make a perfect score on the flight test to be released.” Owls are released into the wild often at the preserve, af-ter they have recovered. “We’ve released proba-bly about 150 birds out here, but it’s just whenever they’re ready,” Lolley said. “There’s no rhyme or reason to the set time.” Among the notable charac-teristics of the owl is its abili-ty to turn its head almost com-pletely around. “About 270 degrees,” Bellah said. “The owls tend to look like they’re always staring at you. They can’t move the globe in the socket of the eye, or the orbit like we can. We can keep our heads still and look to the right and left. An owl cannot do that. So if they want to look at something to the left, they look to the left. It’s a pierc-ing stare, but it’s because they have to.” CONTRIBUTED BY JENNIFER LOLLEY The Raptor Center released three types of owls inlcuding the Eastern Screech-Owl, Barn Owls and Barred Owls. George Nunnelley WRITER What would you guess Au-burn University budgets $23 million a year for? Athletics, right? Wrong; it’s water and ener-gy usage. For the fifth year in a row, the Office of Sustainability has organized a month-long ener-gy and water reduction com-petition called “Sustain-A-Bowl.” It is a competition among all dorms on campus to see who can cut back the most on energy and water usage. Over the last four years, the competition has saved $36,000 for the University. “People always tend to think about recycling when they think about sustainability,” said Jen Morse, communica-tion and outreach coordinator in the Office of Sustainability. “Don’t get me wrong, it plays a major part, but there is so much more to be understood.” The goals for Sustain-A-Bowl 2013 and the month of February are to reduce water and energy usage by 10 per-cent. The events that have been held throughout the month of February include a campus conversation, a recycling town hall meeting to raise aware-ness about what to recycle, a movie night (the watching of “Chasing Ice”) and an invasive-plant cleanup event called the Parkerson Mill Creek Round-up. Many of these races are very close, and at this point it is al-most any dorm’s competition to win. For additional information, visit ThePlainsman.com. Sustain-A-Bowl sparks competition among residence halls Eva Woghiren WRITER Students encouraging stu-dents, peers helping peers, friends educating friends, this is the idea behind The Be Well Hut student wellness program on campus. Auburn Health Promotions and Wellness Services brought a new outreach program to campus this semester. Each week the program hosts a dif-ferent theme to promote well-ness and health for students. Eric Smith, director of HPWS, and Brittany Lop-er, former health promotion specialist, wanted to bring a peer health education pro-gram to Auburn, so they visit-ed schools around the nation that had a similar idea to find out more. “We then talked with our learning communities in the fall and said, ‘Hey, this is our idea, do you think it would be something Auburn students would like and participate in?’” Smith said. “After we got good feedback we decided to pursue it.” They have volunteers to run the program and have two stu-dent co-directors, Lisa Gane, senior in exercise science, and Adam Sturdivant, junior in un-declared in science and math. Each team leader is re-sponsible for a different topic, which range from substance use to body image, every week . The program wants to pro-mote health and put it out there so students are more aware of their choices. Sunday, Feb. 24- Saturday, March 2, is National Eating Disorders Awareness week, so the hut is partnering up with Auburn University Body Image and Eating Disorders Aware-ness, AUBIE-EDA. “It is a touchy subject so we have to be careful,” said Emily Lewis, junior in nutrition and dietetics and team leader. For more visit ThePlains-man. com. The Be Well Hut promotes overall health on campus CONTRIBUTED BY MONTE REX HAMILTON Hamilton served in the Air Force for 27 years. Thursday, February 28, 2013 The Auburn Plainsman Campus A5 We Believe in each other! Become a Student Ambassador! For additional information or to complete an application, please visit the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs’ website at www.auburn.edu/dsa. The application deadline is March 8. The Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs is seeking energetic, self-motivated, enthusiastic students to become Student Ambassadors. Ambassadors help host official functions and events and act as student liaisons to various communities the office serves. Improve your interpersonal skills through interacting and networking with other students, faculty, administrators, alumni, and community members. •Get involved on campus •Meet culturally and ethnically diverse students •Contribute to Auburn’s diversity initiatives •Gain leadership, interpersonal, and public speaking skills AMBASSADORS_ Plainsman Ad_2013.indd 1 2/15/13 10:48 AM KSU Take Flight Want to pick up the pace for finishing your degree? Consider summer classes at Kennesaw Sta te University. KSU has flexible scheduling options and start dates, so you can get ahead with courses and still enjoy your summer. Choose from 2, 4, 6, and 8-week sessions. On campus, hybrid and online courses are available. • Transient student application and document deadline is April 19, 2013 • Classes begin as early as May 13 and end as late as July 28, depending on the session • Starting March 4, check the KSU Registrar’s website at www.kennesaw.edu for the schedule of courses for summer Apply online now at admissions.kennesaw.edu Office of Admissions • 770.423.6300 Three students named YMA fashion scholars Kailey Miller CAMPUS REPORTER Three Auburn students have been named YMA Fash-ion Scholars, each receiving $5,000 from the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund. Sara Gardner, senior in ap-parel merchandising; Hannah Blevins, senior in apparel mer-chandising; and Kelsey Reyn-olds, senior in apparel design, were the three recipients. None of them expected to actually win the scholarship. “It was kind of a shot in the dark,” Reynolds said. “I just wanted to go ahead and ap-ply for it and see if I could get it and see what opportunities came out of it.” The girls were among ap-proximately 100 other people who received the scholarship throughout the country, but many more applied for it. The YMA Fashion Schol-arship Fund is very selective with who they send their in-formation to. They select a number of universities across the Unit-ed States and then professors at those universities choose the students that they think should apply, Reynolds said. “They want the students who apply to do a job that will represent the university well,” Reynolds said. Each recipient was contact-ed by the dean of their college and given the guidelines for the process. The application process consisted of multiple parts. “We had to write a case study which consisted of a few different parts,” Gardner said. “We had a phone interview as well.” The case study was different for the design students and the merchandising students. The design students had to create a clothing line for pre-teens, while the merchandis-ing students created a finan-cial plan for the line, Gardner said. “We had to have mar-keting techniques, how we were going to advertise for it, where we were going to sell it,” Blevins said. “Every sin-gle component of a six month plan we had to come up with on our own within one month and had school on top of all of that so it was a lot of work for what seemed like I didn’t even know if I was going to win, but it was definitely worth it.” Reynolds said that she used more of the design techniques that she has learned through-out her major. The three scholarship recip-ients all said that the best part of the process was the connec-tions that they made for their future. The recipients flew to New York and met with college rep-resentatives from multiple brand name companies like Macy’s. “There was a ton of college representatives there for us to meet and greet with and real-ly just make connections with,” Blevins said. Blevins said this is really what she wants to do with her major. “I really wanted to be able to know what it’s going to be like when I’m out of college and what I am going to have to do on a regular basis,” Blevins said. The scholarship mon-ey comes from donors in the fashion industry and Geoffrey Beene, American fashion de-signer. “The Geoffrey Beene schol-arship donated a lot of money just for this cause because he believed in fashion students and what they could achieve,” Blevins said. “They really be-lieve that we are the leaders in the fashion industry.” CONTRIBUTED BY KELSEY REYNOLDS Reynolds’ design concept pictured left. Dining at the YMA event pic-tured above. Blevins and her design for the AMDA show when she en-tered the Experimental Hardware competition pictured right. GARDNER BLEVINS REYNOLDS A6 Thursday, February 28, 2013 ThePlainsman.com Opinions Opinions Mailing Address Auburn Student Center Suite 1111H Auburn, AL 36849 Contact Phone 334–844–4130 Email opinion@theplainsman.com Policy The opinions of The Auburn Plainsman staff are restrict-ed to these pages. This editorial is the majority opinion of the 12-member editorial board and are the official opin-ion of the newspaper. The opinions expressed in columns and letters represent the views and opinions of their indi-vidual authors and do not necessarily reflect the Auburn University student body, faculty, administration or Board of Trustees. Submissions The Auburn Plainsman welcomes letters from students as well as from faculty, administrators, alumni and those not affiliated with the University. Letters must be submitted be-fore 4:30 p.m. on the Monday for publication. Letters must include the author’s name, address and phone number for verification, though the name of the author may be with-held upon request. Submission may be edited for gram-mar and/or length. The Editorial Board ROBERT E. LEE Editor-in-Chief Nathan Simone MANAGING EDITOR Ben Croomes OPINIONS EDITOR Bianca N. Seward COPY EDITOR Dustin Shrader ONLINE EDITOR Daniel Oramas MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Sydney Callis COMMUNITY EDITOR Becky Hardy CAMPUS EDITOR John Burns SPORTS EDITOR Elizabeth Weick INTRIGUE EDITOR Raye May PHOTO EDITOR Rachel Suhs DESIGN EDITOR Our View His View Letter to the editor A big part of being a journalist is writing negative and sometimes heartbreaking stories. So this week, we’re taking a break from the downbeat and celebrating some-thing fabulous. The Auburn Gay-Straight Alliance is putting on its fifth annual drag show on Saturday, March 2, and we want to extend our support. On the national scale, gay rights are extremely controversial. Gay marriage should be a rather simple issue. If they’re in love, they deserve to get married and en-joy the same benefits as straight couples, no big deal. Unfortunately, the more narrow-mind-ed among us don’t agree. Whether they are citing religious rea-sons, political concerns or just plain old homophobia, those opposed to equal rights for the LGBT community see gay marriage as a threat to what they think is the core of our country: family. Of course, there is no credible data anywhere to sug-gest gay marriage will stamp out the Amer-ican family — whatever that means — but it still is a popular belief among the oppo-sition. As far as the South is concerned, the national anti-gay sentiments seem to be concentrated. Perhaps it is the tenden-cy for the South to always be behind the curve on civil rights, or maybe it’s the over-whelming religious presence, we can’t say for sure. What we can say is being gay in America is tough. Sure, gay men and women have it a lot worse in other places in the world, but those places don’t tout freedom and equality as part of their national ethos. Being gay in the South is even more of a challenge. The South, especially Alabama, has a long history of intolerance and bigot-ry. It’s only been approximately 50 years since black people were subjected to dogs and firehoses in Birmingham. Although the state doesn’t have the overt opposi-tion to the LGBT community it did to the black community, the intolerance is still there. It’s because of that undercurrent of prejudice that we support and encour-age our friends at Spectrum to say it loud and say it proud. The first drag show in 2009 was to raise awareness for the absence of Gen-der Identity and Gender Expression in the University’s nondiscrimination pol-icy. Last spring, the SGA passed a reso-lution to add the clause, and once it has moved though the administration, it will become official. We want to let Spectrum and the larger LGBT student population know The Plainsman has their back. We be-lieve that anyone can be part of the Auburn family, and we hope someday soon the rest of the country can learn that we’re all human, and freedom and equality doesn’t just apply to straight white Christian men. Professional baseball season is right around the corner, and for many, if not most of us, that means there’s another chance for us to follow the Braves to the postseason, only to see them collapse. At least, that’s what has happened (or similar to it) the last three years. Well I think this year is going to be different. Of course, I think every year is going to be different, but I truly believe this Atlanta Braves team is better than last year’s. Yes, Chipper is gone, so is Martin Pra-do, but there are some key additions that spell success for the Braves. In case you’ve been living under an anti-Braves rock for the past few months, Frank Wren, who is the gener-al manager, acquired B.J. and Justin Up-ton in the offseason to play center and right field, respectively. Both of the Uptons could definite-ly hit 30 home runs and have 20 steals next season. Couple that with Jason Heyward, who is capable of similar pro-duction, and you have the fastest, most powerful outfield in the majors. Now let’s have a look at the infield. We’ll start with catcher Brian Mc- Cann. He had probably his worst season ever last year, but had offseason shoul-der surgery, which could get him back to prime form. When McCann returns, presumably around mid-April, he should return to being one of the more clutch catchers in baseball, but only time will tell if he’ll be healthy enough to produce big num-bers. First baseman Freddie Freeman put on some serious bulk last offseason, and could be set for a breakout year. It was looking like last year would be his season, but he hurt his eye, which sent his production plummeting. A healthy Freeman in the heart of the Braves order would just add another huge bat to an already powerful team. At second base is Dan—waste of space—Uggla. He’s got power, there’s no doubt about that, but he hasn’t been worth the more than $10 million a year that the Braves have been paying him. On top of that, he’s always good for a rally-killing double play around the bottom of the seventh inning. On the optimistic side, if Uggla comes to play like he did for the Mar-lins, the Braves could be in some seri-ous business, but I’ve thought that for the last two seasons. Andrelton Simmons will start at shortstop, and though he was only a rookie last year, many experts believe he’s the best defender at his position in the majors. Though I’m biased, I tend to agree with them after watching him play last year. The young man is a baseball vacuum on the left side of the field. He’s also not a bad hitter, so his offen-sive production is just a bonus to his su-perb defensive play. At third base is newcomer Chris Johnson. I really don’t know much about the guy, and he could never re-place Chipper, but he is a career .276 batter, which isn’t bad in my book. OK, now on to starting pitchers. The ace is Kris Medlen, no doubt about it. When he became a starter last sea-son Medlen posted a 0.97 ERA in 12 starts, which is just filthy good. Auburn grad Tim Hudson will be a workhorse as always. My only concern is that Hudson is getting on up there in age, 37, so here’s hoping he has a few quality seasons left in the tank. Southpaws Mike Minor and Paul Maholm showed flashes of brilliance last season, and if they can both be a bit more consistent the top four on the Braves rotation will be solid. While the team waits for top pitch-er Brandon Beachy to return from sur-gery, the Braves will have to rely on Ju-lio Teheran. He’s a fairly good fifth choice, but will probably be sent down to the minors when Beachy returns. Finally, here’s the bullpen. It’s been tagged as the best bullpen in the Majors, and rightly so with the arms of Craig Kimbrel, Johnny Venters, Eric O’Flaherty, Jordan Walden and Chris-tian Martinez. Kimbrel is all but unhittable with a 98 MPH fastball that moves a lot, and the dirtiest slider in the game, while Ven-ters and O’Flaherty could be closing for most teams in baseball. What more do I have to say? On paper this team looks unbeat-able, so now the Braves just have to get the ball rolling to a World Series. OK, that’s looking way too far ahead, but this season it really isn’t out of the realm of possibility. It’s not because I am lazy or be-cause I did not like the people who ran in it — I have voted in past SGA elections. Those times, it was largely be-cause I knew the person who was running and liked them person-ally. This election cycle, howev-er, I choose to abstain from voting even though I knew many of the candidates and personally liked many of them... I chose not to vote on principle. I’m sure some people would read that and wonder: “what on earth would hold me back from voting in SGA elections?” The sim-ple answer is that I detest the po-liticization of society. People are more than ever try-ing to seek political solutions to problems that should be solved outside of the political realm. Peo-ple who wanted to change their community, their country, and the world used to go out and create organizations and businesses that really did change the world. How-ever, now people instead seek po-litical office for the sake of politi-cal office. An office is now the end, when it used to be a mean towards an actual political goal. Miss Auburn is a wonderful ex-ample of this. It is not that I dis-like any past Miss Auburns or any of their platforms, quite the oppo-site. I’m sure they’re outstanding people; moreover, I thought many of them supported outstanding causes. But why do we have to pick just one? It seems rather obvious to me that not all Auburn students are exactly alike. So why, then, do we have a one-size-fits-all Miss Auburn? It’s sad that simply be-cause the other four Miss Auburn candidates could not get enough votes to win the public will aban-don their admirable goals. SGA campaigns run on plat-forms such as: improving on cam-pus dining, transportation, park-ing and student life. Many of these areas of student life are a mess be-cause the school runs them in the first place. Why then are we using election politics to add to the bu-reaucracy? So many of these is-sues could simply be solved by vol-untary student interaction. Students should look for ways to solve these things through cam-pus organizations, educational campaigns, or markets. This way the students who really care can get involved without forcing the other students to participate as well. Voluntary participation will ALWAYS be more effective than in-voluntary participation or grossly generalized student representa-tion. There was something off about SGA week: everyone was out in force doing good deeds like open-ing doors, saying hello, and tak-ing more of an interest in the peo-ple they see all year long. The rest of the year they would likely let the door shut and ignore them. It bothers me that all these peo-ple around campus suddenly be-come very thoughtful when there is an election to win. This doesn’t mean these are bad people but it is incredibly disingenuous and, hon-estly, a little offensive. Ultimately, I wish that these proactive students would instead strive to be entrepreneurs, not politicians. Entrepreneurs are the people who bring us innovations like iPhones and Facebook; all vol-untarily. Last fall AU IJM launched a hugely successful student-led campaign to end slavery, all just because a few students saw a need and filled it. They did this all with-out dime from the school. These are the people who really solve problems. We should aspire to be like them—socially conscious and economically effective on their own time and funds. Michael Nathan Magan Senior Economics In the past two weeks, I have been extremely disappointed and frankly, screwed over by the Ti-ger Transit system. I have seen my driver peruse the smart phone on their dash while driving, which, for anyone who has been living under a rock, is extremely danger-ous when operating any vehicle, let alone a bus full of students… oh, and it’s illegal. One ride home had our bus pulling a U-turn in the middle of oncoming traffic on South Col-lege because the driver missed a turn. My driver often barely comes to a stop at my complex because it’s not a popular destination and I have to ask them to let me off. Multiple times I have been turned away from a bus because it was too full. The latest incident had me wait-ing in the cold rain for ten min-utes because all the buses on my line were bunched up at the same stops. Things happen, I under-stand. But as the minutes ticked away, I watched four buses come and go from the complex across the street. A bus finally pulled in, but all the students waiting were told, “Sorry. Too full. There’s an-other bus coming.” So despite the fact that I arrived at the stop early, I waited in the rain for twenty min-utes and was late to my first class. I live at the last stop of my line, so the bus is bound to be full, partic-ularly after picking up a number of students from the big apartment complex right before mine. How-ever, the large volume of students is to be expected, so why day after day does it seem to come as a sur-prise to the operators? We are told to ride the Transit in an attempt to alleviate the park-ing crisis on campus, but then we are left in the dust because the sys-tem isn’t efficient. I appreciate Au-burn’s attempt to provide alterna-tives for the $160-first-come-first-serve- Hunger-Games-style-lottery parking pass. Personally, I’m doing my best to work with the system by getting to the stops early and planning for slow travel times, yet more often than not, I’ve been up a creek due to poor operation. Auburn, your students are try-ing to contribute to the parking solution, but we’re tired of being thrown under, or rather, left be-hind by the bus. Ashley Selby Senior Journalism Homophobia is such a drag RACHEL SUHS/DESIGN EDITOR Commuters left out in the cold Why I didn’t vote in this year’s SGA election JOHN BURNS SPORTS@ THEPLAINSMAN.COM It’s the Braves’ year for playoff victory A7 Thursday, February 28, 2013 ThePlainsman.com Community Community Continual rise in gas prices is affecting citizens’ travel First Aubie now representing a different house Abigail O’Brien COMMUNITY WRITER Believe it or not, there was a time when the Auburn Family was absent of its most beloved tiger: the popular tail swinging, strut-walking, head bobbing, daredevil mascot who has be-come a seal of the Auburn spirit. The idea for a mascot suit came in the year of 1979, as Auburn’s SGA began to dream of a put-ting “flesh” to the idea of Aubie the Tiger. The student who would eventually win the slot to cheer and dance and sweat in the mas-sive ¾ inch thick suit was a Phi Kappa Tau from Montgomery: now state representative, Barry Mask. “It was just sort of a tough time back then,” Mask said. “Auburn was again in the shadow of Alabama. We just needed something to spark up some stuff.” Mask said James Lloyd, SGA’s spirit director, connected with Dr. Julian Holmes, associate di-rector of the Alumni Association. The idea for Aubie was essentially an experi-ment, Mask said. “And it just took off,” Mask said. Mask began his journey as Aubie the Tiger trying out with a skit he made up to Michael Jackson’s 1979 hit, “Working Day and Night,” he said. Mask was the first to wear the striped suit and is credited for setting the tone of the Aubie per-sonality. “Barry set the bar,” said Danny Richards, alumnus of ’82 and the 3rd Aubie. “Barry did so many things that we would try and emulate in a lot of the stuff that we did.” Mask said that Lloyd told him that it was up to him to figure out who the mascot would be. And so from the beginning, Mask decided the fun-loving, fur-covered tiger would have a few signature trademarks: “He’s going to be sort of like the Pink Panther…and he’s going to be all about the kids, he’s going to be a good dancer, and he’s going to be a ladies’ man,” Mask said. Richards remembers Barry as a risk-taker while in the suit, pioneering ahead with bold moves that would come to brand the mascot’s personality. One such move was leaning up against the goalpost, as was the tradition of Bear Bryant, dressed in a red coat and houndstooth hat. “There were no rules, there was no handbook, there was no committee, there was just making it up as we went along,” Richards said. Mask laughs as he talks about the advice he would give to the upcoming Aubies. “Cause I would tell the guys, ‘Hey, if you’re not pushing the envelope and perhaps getting into a little bit of trouble, you’re not being Aubie,’” he said. Stan McDonald, alumnus of ’83 who worked closely with the spirit committee and was a freshman during Mask’s year as Aubie, remem-bers vividly the first day he saw the tiger. It was a home game against Southern Missis-sippi, early September, McDonald said. “And all of a sudden, this hot air balloon- a huge one- shows up, flying over the stadium, and doggone, there’s somebody in it,” McDonald said. “Everybody’s laughing and pointing. And it’s this dressed-up tiger.” McDonald said Mask was an exceptional dancer and a natural-born artist, able to impro-vise while in the spotlight. “No one can dance like (the first)Aubie did,” McDonald said. McDonald also said he felt Barry as Aubie connected both the younger and older genera-tions to the joy, love and happiness of Auburn. “You know, when the young people saw that tiger, they saw fun, they saw confidence, they saw happiness and joy,” McDonald said. “When the older people saw Aubie, they thought of maybe some of their more mischievous days, maybe they thought of what it was like to have that ‘not care’ attitude, maybe they thought of days when they could dance real good or they were real funny.” Yet, Mask was more than a good dancer. During his time at Auburn, he was president of the Interfraternity Council and started the Dean Cater Shug Jordan Leukemia Fund. McDonald remembers his surprise discover-ing the depth of interest in people, politics and community beneath the gregarious Barry Mask Aubie persona. “When you saw him on the field, you’d say, ‘Now that’s a classic cutup, and he probably doesn’t have a serious thought,’” McDonald said. Mask had done SGA in high school and said he always knew he wanted to end up in the po-litical sphere. “Aubie pulls people together and unites peo-ple, and I like to think that’s what I try to do, and all the people that’s worn the suit, I think feel that same way,” Mask said. While serving as state representative, Mask is currently chairman of the House Economic Development and Tourism Committee, chair-man of the Legislative Building Authority, vice chairman of Internal Affairs and member of the House Ways and Means Higher Education sub-committee. In what little free time he has, he likes to boat or fish on Lake Martin or quail hunt. He has been a season-ticket holder for 25 years and continues to come to Auburn once a month, he said, to assist in his role as presi-dent of the house core of his fraternity, Phi Kap-pa Tau. COURTESY OF BARRY MASK Barry Mask dressed as Aubie while sporting a houndstooth hat during the 1979 Iron Bowl. Mask is currently the representative for Coosa and Elmore coun-ties in the Alabama House. Significance of revolutionary gardens to be discussed at JCSM Benjamin Hohenstatt WRITER Biblically, gardens played a funda-mental role in the history of man, but according to author Andrea Wulf, gar-dens were also extremely important to a more recent genesis; the creation of our country. Wulf, author of the book, “Founding Gardens: The Revolutionary Genera-tion,” will be speaking at the Jule Col-lins Smith Museum of Fine Art. The lecture will focus on the histo-ry of American gardens and their po-litical motifs. “We invited Andrea to speak be-cause she’s an interesting speaker and a great writer,” said Scott Bishop, cura-tor of education. However, this will not be Wulf ’s first time speaking in Auburn. “She’s a good speaker,” Bishop said. “She knows the University and the re-gional community.” The lecture is titled “Revolutionary Gardens” and will describe the involve-ment and evolution of gardens during the Revolutionary War time period. Wulf said that she plans to make the speech both informative and enter-taining. The audience should not ex-pect an instructive speech about gar-dening. Wulf became interested in garden-ing as a method for identifying with Britain after she moved there from Germany, however, it is in the sto-ries behind gardens and the symbol-ic statements that gardens make that appeal to Wulf rather than the activi-ty itself. “I don’t have a green thumb at all,” Wulf said. “I am not a gardener, al-though I’ve gotten much better.” Wulf was quick to elaborate on the element of gardening that she finds fascinating. “Gardens are statements,” Wulf said. “They can be statements of pow-er.” Wulf cited a letter written by George Washington as an example of the po-tential of gardens to send political messages. Days before the Battle of New York, Washington sent a letter to his home requesting that all of the plants in his garden be native to America. While it may seem odd that George Washington had time to send a letter about gardening, Wulf said it wasn’t trivial. “It was his horticultural declaration of independence,” Wulf said. According to Wulf, gardens and their political statements are largely influenced by their home country. “In America, historically the land is much more associated with freedom and liberty,” Wulf said. Wulf said that American gardens also tend to place equal importance on form and functionality. Examples of this characteristic ranged from a temple in the garden of James Madison that doubled as an icehouse to modern spice gardens ac-cording to Wulf. Bishop said Wulf ’s dual focus on history and gardening is appropriate for the event. The lecture will serve as the start of a joint educational program between JCSM and Donald E. Davis Arboretum. The educational program serves as a celebration of milestone anniversaries for both intuitions as JCSM is now in its 10th year and the Donald E. Davis Arboretum enters its 50th year. Bishop said that aside from the lec-ture, this program will also include the creation of walking maps illustrated by the museum’s James John Audubon prints. The lecture will start at 5 p.m. and include a question and answer session as well as a book signing. After the lec-ture, there will be a reception includ-ing hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar and free soft drinks. Tickets to the March 6 lecture may be reserved online. Sonya Lovejoy FREELANCE MULTIMEDIA Gas prices have been steadily climbing for the last month. While Alabama is typically below the na-tional average, there has been a for-ty- cent per gallon increase since last month’s average. According to AAA, the current Al-abama per gallon cost is $3.64 com-pared to $3.21 only one month ago. Although this appears to be a large increase in just one month, Alabama is only paying approximately seven cents more per gallon than last year at this same time. AAA also reports that the national average per gallon has increased for 33 consecutive days with a 14 per-cent increase. Gas prices typically increase dur-ing mid-February while U.S. refiner-ies perform seasonal maintenance. This year, refineries have been mak-ing the switch to summer blend gas-oline production earlier in the sea-son. In addition, higher crude oil prices have also contributed to the increased prices at the pump. Jessica Yunis, a graduate student in communication, thought that she would be able to handle the mid- February increase by purchasing the fairly gas efficient Volkswagen Golf. “Even though my car is pretty eco-nomic when it comes to gallons per mile, it has affected my traveling plans,” said Yunis. “I have friends in Nashville and Atlanta that I can’t go visit because of the high gas prices.” Alabama in particular has been a national leader in price increas-es over the last week as the average per gallon cost increased by 21 cents. Other states seeing significant in-creases over the last week include Tennessee, Arkansas, South Caroli-na and Mississippi. Citizens and students alike have been forced to seek alternative trav-el accommodations to fight the price hike at the pump. While many students are opting to ride the Tiger Transit or carpool to save money, many citizens don’t have this option. Local residents Shannon Thomp-son and Paul Savelloni have been dealing with gas prices affecting their everyday commute to and from Atlanta. Originally, Thompson and Savel-loni rented an eco-friendly Kia Forte for their commute. Due to the rent-al mileage limit they were forced to switch to their Chevy Equinox SUV. “The increase in gas is definitely affecting us financially,” Thompson said. “On the weekends we have to drive the Kia rather than the Chevy to make sure we are saving money on gas for money that we were not able to save during the week.” There is a light at the end of the tunnel, according to AAA, however. AAA reports that national gas pric-es should begin to decrease in April with a low in July before they are ex-pected to start climbing once again. While the City of Auburn wishes they could help with this gas crisis, they have no role in gas prices or aid-ing the community when prices in-crease. “It would be great if we could low-er them,” said City Manager Charles Duggan, Jr. Until the U.S. refineries have switched to their summer blend gas-oline and the crude oil prices drop, citizens can expect the prices at the pump to continue to climb. RAYE MAY / PHOTO EDITOR A report by AAA said gas prices have been on the rise for 33 consecutive days. “Gardens are statements. They can be statements of power.” —Andrea Wulf AUTHOR AND GUEST LECTURER AT JCSM Community A8 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, February 28, 2013 Available for a limited time at participating SUBWAY® restaurants. SUBWAY® is a registered trademark of Doctor’s Associates Inc. © 2012 Doctor’s Associates Inc. CHICKEN PARMESAN ITALIAN B.M.T.® CHICKEN PIZZIOLA MELT MEATBALL PEPPERONI MELT $10 10 Howie wings AUBURN 1409 S. College St. 1.5 Miles West of the University next to Acapulco’s Mexican Grille 826-5555 OVER 550 LOCATIONS DELIVERY • CARRY-OUT LUNCH • DINNER • LATE NIGHT and any regular sub Plus Sales Tax. Delivery Extra. Limited Time Offer 22063 HH Auburn Plains 1-10-13.indd 3 12/31/12 9:49 AM Rent one booth, get 1 free! Angel’s Antique and Flea Mall.com Attention: Interior Design and Business majors! (334) 745-3221 900 Columbus Parkway|Opelika, AL| 36801 Booths start at $115/month Grab a friend and make $$$! ThePlainsman.com Online Daily! Kiesel Park preparing to celebrate man’s best friend on Sat. March 2 Jherrica Luckie WRITER The Auburn Department of Parks and Recreation is calling all dogs to “Bark in the Park” on Saturday, March 2 at Kiesel Park. Dog owners are welcome, too. The Department of Parks and Recre-ation has gathered pet-friendly vendors from around the Auburn area to help pro-mote and celebrate responsible dog own-ership. “I love dogs dearly, and I oversee many of the activities that go on at the off-leash area of Kiesel Park,” said Melissa Weldon, youth enrichment manager for the Au-burn Parks and Recreation. “After meet-ing and talking with people, I realized that most people really love their dogs, and don’t do all of the things they should for them because they don’t have the infor-mation.” “Bark in the Park” will take place from 9 a.m.–noon and is free to anyone wanting to attend. Weldon said the only require-ment is that all dogs are on a leash at the event. Several local veterinary hospitals and clinics will be giving out information on various dog-related subjects, ranging from dog healthcare to behavioral issues, while other pet-friendly vendors will be selling pet-related products and handing out coupons. The day will begin with a flyball demon-stration by the Dixie Flyers from Birming-ham at 9 a.m. The Alabama Alliance Spay/Neuter Bus will also be on hand to give information on low-cost spaying and neutering, while Buddy Bruce from Opelika will be giving rabies shots for $10. “That’s a lot more affordable than peo-ple can get from their local veterinarian clinics,” Weldon said. Weldon said she believes the event will be a great place for student dog-owners to meet with local veterinarians if they do not already have one. “I think the event is a great idea,” said Tanya Schwab, a veterinary technician at Tiger Town Veterinary Hospital who has been involved with the event both years. “We had a big turn out last year and gave out a lot of information and had fun in the process. It is a win, win.” This year, Tiger Town Veterinary Hospi-tal will be informing people all about dog-allergies at their booth. “We will be talking about everything you can do to help your pet be allergy free,” Schwab said. Future dog owners are also invited to come see many of the dogs that the Lee County Humane Shelter, For Paws Res-cue and the Lee County 4-H Dog Club has available and are hoping to be adopted. “I would love to see the dogs that are looking for a forever home get adopted,” Weldon said. “That would make for a great morning.” Rebekha Perry, director of For Paws Rescue, said they will have five or six adoptable dogs at the event and will be accepting adoption applications. “It is a great opportunity to get our name out there and to try and raise mon-ey for the dogs and cats that we are trying to find homes for,” Perry said. Dog owners will also be able to receive information on micro-chipping from the Pet Vet Animal Hospital and have Kar-lene’s K-9 Academy conduct a CGC Test on the four-legged friend. CGC testing is a 10-step test that requires the dog to do things such as accepting a friendly strang-er and coming when called. Pet Palace, Tractor Supply Company, Sike’s Pet and Farm Supply, For Healthy Pets and Paula Davis Photography will also have booths at the event. Weldon said they hope to double or tri-ple the amount of people that attended last year. “It’s going to be a great day of all things dogs,” Weldon said. COURESTY OF AUBURN PARKS AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT Like at last year’s Bark in the Park event, there will be an opportunity to adopt dogs. Sports B1 Thursday, February 28, 2013 ThePlainsman.com Sports It seems like we’ve been bouncing around which of our coaches are on the hot seat. First there was Chizik, and now it’s none other than bas-ketball coach Tony Barbee. Brought in to replace for-mer coach Jeff Lebo, Barbee has underachieved in a big way since becoming the Tigers’ coach in 2010. This is his third season, and it’s also going to be the third season at the helm of an Au-burn basketball team with a losing record. While it may not have been entirely his fault after one sea-son, or even two, three seasons is enough time to turn a pro-gram around. That is, if you’re the man to do it. Right now it seems that the John Calipari protégé is not that man. His Tigers have an under-achieving record of 9–19 (3–12 SEC) this year with only three regular season games to play. Not to mention that they have lost 12 of their last 13 games, and six in a row. Compare that to his 2010– 2011 and 2011–2012 records which were 11–20 (4–12 SEC) and 15–16 (5–11 SEC) respec-tively, and it seems like the Ti-gers are going backwards. It seems like the basketball team is going backwards be-cause they are. If Barbee makes it to anoth-er season it’s not going to get any easier. The Tigers will lose senior starters Frankie Sullivan, Rob Chubb and Josh Wallace. Chubb and Sullivan are al-most undoubtedly Auburn’s key players, and the men still have a dismal record. It’s not like Barbee did poor-ly in recruiting last year either. In fact, he did well. He signed two four-star ESPN top 100 recruits in Sha-quille Johnson and Jordan Price, and another four-star in Brian Greene. Those players are the future of Auburn men’s basketball, and will need to become lead-ers in the next few seasons. I realize it’s difficult to come into college basketball and im-mediately play well, so obvi-ously the freshmen get a pass on this year, but once again Barbee has had two or three years with many of these play-ers, and still cannot get them to produce wins. The talent is there. Sullivan was close to the top of SEC scoring for much of the sea-son, and is still in the top 10, while Chubb is in the top 10 in rebounds. Since they will be gone next season, new players will have to step up if Barbee has any chance of making it to his fifth season as Auburn’s head coach, and it’s not even cer-tain that he will make it to his fourth. Basketball can be one of the most fun college sports to watch, and obviously most of Auburn’s students feel the same way. Before everyone found out that the team was not going to be anything special, students packed the Auburn Arena on home SEC games. Students were hoping to see something special out of Bar-bee’s side, but the coach let them down. The University would owe Barbee $3 million if it were to relieve him of his coaching duties, and some think that would be a small price to pay for a chance at watching good basketball. 40 yd dash - 4.94 s Bench press - 21 reps Vertical jump - 30.5 in Broad jump - 112 in Three cone drill - 7.15 s 20 yd shuttle - 4.35 s 40 yd dash - 4.34 s*** Vertical jump - 34 in Broad jump - 121 in 40 yd dash - 4.6 s *** Bench press - 27 reps Vertical jump - 33 in Broad jump - 119 in Three cone drill - 7.14 s 20 yd shuttle - 4.40 s Indy-vidual effort Corey Lemonier, Onterio McCalebb and Philip Lutzenkirchen went to Indianapolis Feb. 23-26 to participate in the 2013 NFL Scouting Combine. Here are the results from each individual’s performance. Corey Lemonier - DE/OLB Onterio McCalebb - RB Philip Lutzenkirchen - TE Negatives Positives Outlook Negatives Posittives Outlook Negatives Positives Outlook *** - First in position at event Lutzenkirchen didn’t have the best combine, but he did enough for a man who’s 13 weeks removed from hip sur-gery. His 4.94 second 40 time won’t turn any heads, but Lutzenkirchen still has time to continue his recovery and improve at Auburn’s Pro Day. Athletic tight ends are in de-mand right now, and Lutz has a lot of competition. Of all the events in the combine, McCalebb’s weigh-in probably hurt him the most. McCalebb weighed in at 168 pounds, about 20 pounds short of even being considered a Darren Sproles-type scat back. However, teams already knew how small he is, and, once drafted, McCalebb will have to work with the team on adding mass to his frame. Lemonier competed with the defenisve lineman at the combine, and as a result, his performance in events such as the bench press were overshadowed by the bigger, 4-3 linemen. While he was not bad in the shuttle and cone drills, he didn’t blow anybody away and showed he may need to work on coverage skills if he’s going to be drafted as an outside linebacker. Lemonier’s size compares well with the linebacker group. Lemonier ran the fastest 40 of any lineman and outsprinted all but two linebackers. With a good-sized frame and long arms, Lemonier needed to show teams his burst of the edge and he did just that. Being an extremely personable player also didn’t hurt when interviewing with teams. Overall it was a solid day for a guy already project-ed to be drafted early. Already considered a top prospect, Lemonier didn’t hurt his stock. The defensive end/linebacker ‘tweener group has gotten bigger every year. Lemonier didn’t set himself apart, but showed he belongs in the upper eche-lon of prospects. With more teams using the 3-4 defense, Lemonier will have to improve his covering ability, but sacks are the glamour stat, and Lemonier showed he has the speed to get to the backfield. McCalebb ran an unoffical 4.21 40-yard dash earning a jab from record holder Chris Johnson (4.27 in 2008). John-son’s record is safe – McCalebb’’s official time was 4.34 seconds. However, by posting the fastest time of all run-ning backs and the second fastest time of any player, Mc- Calebb showed his value. His results in the vertical and broad jumps were middling, but in league with other run-ning back studs such as Andre Ellington and Knile Davis. The depth at running back this year actually helps Mc- Calebb. While there are plenty of productive backs, none have stood out as locks for the first round. A team that al-ready has a workhorse on its roster may take a shot on McCalebb’s speed during almost any round after the first. Versatility is the name of McCalebb’s game, and if he can catch the ball well at Pro Day, his stock will rise even more. Lutzenkirchen probably didn’t boost his draft stock, but he certainlky didn’t hurt it. A scout big on intangibles will look to his community service efforts and willingness to play injured as positives. All in all, it was a good effort. Teams saw what he could do on a short recovery sched-ule , and his performance may attract more scouts to Au-burn’s Pro Day. Lutz was only cleared to participate in the drills three weeks ago. While he’s still not up to speed – literally and figurastively – he showed his agility and posted the fifth fastest time in the 20-yard shuttle run. Lutz also tweet-ed after the combine that he was the only tight end not to drop a pass. He also posted the sixth-best result in the bench press telling teams what they should have already known – he’s a strong tight end that can find ways to get open and catch anything thrown to him. Barbee blowing it Courtesy of Todd Van Emst Barbee has never had a winning season in his three years at Auburn. Courtesy of Todd Van Emst Auburn’s Kyle Owens swims a prelim of the 100 yard back stroke Friday, Feb. 22. Owens owns the pool John Burns Sports Edito r Last Saturday, Feb. 23, senior swimmer Kyle Owens walked out of Texas A&M’s Rec Cen-ter Natatorium with four gold medals after the successful 2013 SEC Swimming and Div-ing Championship. Owens defended his 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke titles, but also came away with a 400-yard medley relay gold and a 400-yard freestyle relay gold. “I was so pumped,” Owens said. “When I fin-ished and saw that No. 1 next to my name it was really cool. Being a senior and being able [to defend titles] for a great team has been really fun. It’s always fun to win for a second time, but really to do it for all the guys on the team is more important for me.” On that same note, Owens pointed out that while winning individual titles is great, win-ning with the team is much better. “The relay is always so much more fun,” Ow-ens said. “You have three other guys to cele-brate it with, and you really get so pumped up for the relays. Auburn is historic for their re-lay wins too, and it’s good to be a part of that.” Owens had a breakout year last season and was Auburn’s top scorer in the SEC and NCAA Championships. This season he was also the top scorer for the Tigers at the SEC Champion-ship, and was the runner-up by half a point to the Commissioner’s Trophy, which is awarded to the high-point scorer of the meet. » See Owens B2 “Kyle’s performance was outstanding. He was basically the highest point scorer at the meet. He had all best times and really helped us, especially on the relays.” —Brett Hawke Swim and Dive coach Compiled by Andrew Yawn John Burns SPORTS@ theplainsman. com Sports B2 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, February 28, 2013 Lemans square & Chateau apartments (334)-821-9192 560 North Perry St. Auburn, AL www.lemanssquare.com 1 BR-$420 2 BR-$495 3 BR-$570 Rates per apt. Scan for more info! Leasing Now for Fall! A great place to live. - Only 4 blocks from campus - Water/Garbage included - On Tiger Transit Route - Spacious Floor Plans - On-site Management - Sparkling Pools - Pet Friendly Sign NOW, Save LATER! Sign a lease by Spring Break to keep the 2012 rates! We rent apartments, not bedrooms! HUNGRY? Work at a fun location, happy work environment and a great place to eat! Now hiring hosts/hostesses and servers for the Downtown Opelika location. Applications available at: http://www.niffersplace.com/ Niffersplace/Employment.html 917 So. Railroad Ave. Opelika, AL 36801 334-787-5989 Men’s Basketball: The men’s basketball team lost three more games in the previous week against Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Alabama. The Tigers lost 65-56 to the Ag-gies and were crushed 88–55 by the Rebels. They lost 61–43 to Alabama. The men’s re-cord has fallen to 9–19 (3–12) SEC. What is more telling is that the TIgers have won only two games away from home and one of the contests was at a neutral site. Also, coach Tony Bar-bee’s squad dropped 12 of ther last 13 games, and lost their last six. Baseball: The baseball team continued to perform fairly well in the second week of the season as the Tigers moved to 6–2 in the season. The team was hitting .293 before the loss to Kennesaw State, while junior outfielder Ryan Tella was at a scorching .385. Before the Kennesaw State game Auburn’s bullpin was lights out, with an ERA of 0.95. Women’s Basketball: The women’s basketball team split a brace of games this week, falling short to Tennessee 83–61, and defeating Missouri 67–59. Senoir Blanche Alverson has put up double digit numbers in the last five games, averaging 16.4 points in each of those contests. She moved into 23rd all-time on Auburn’s all-time scoring list with her 19 points against Missouri Sunday, Feb. 24. Women’s Tennis: The women’s tennis team moved up 42 spots to No. 17 in the nation after winning all three matches the Tigers played in since Thursday, Feb. 21. The Ti-gers defeated then No. 19 Texas Tech, Tulane and UAB last week to move into the top 25 for the first time since the 1996 season. The women boast a record of 10-1, which is good for the best start in the program’s history. Gymnastics: The now No. 11 women’s gymnastics team had a historic meet against then No. 6 LSU Friday, Feb. 22. The Auburn Tigers set a school record of 197.175 against the Bengal Tigers, who scored 196.975 points. The gymnastics team also posted its fifth score of 196 or higher in a row, which is good for another school record. Freshman Caitlin Atkin-son was named SEC Gymnast of the Week for her performance in the meet. She won the all-around title with a score of 39.550. That is a season-high and it is also the third highest to-tal in Auburn history. Softball: The Auburn women’s softball team dropped three of five games in the last week but still maintain a strong record of 12–4. The softball team was defeated at home 4–1 by Georgia State Wednesday, Feb. 20 before it traveled to Corpus Christi, Texas where it won and lost two games. Equestrian: The No. 2 Auburn women’s equestrian team toppled the then No. 1 Georgia team and Delaware State’s team Saturday, Feb. 23. This is the second time the Ti-gers have triumphed over the Bulldogs this season. Auburn is now 8–1 (4–1 SEC) and will take an eight game win streak into the final regular-season competition Saturday, March 2. Track & Field: The Auburn men finished sixth overall at the SEC Indoor Champi-onships, while the women came in 13th. The Tigers were highlighted by junior thrower Ste-phen Saenz, who won the shot put Sunday, Feb. 24. Swimming & Diving: The men’s team came in second place at the 2013 SEC Swimming and Diving Championships Saturday, Feb. 23 while the women’s team finished in fifth. The men won five of six individual titles during the tournamen as senior Kyle Ow-ens won the 200-yard backstroke, junior Mario Chierighini swam the fastest time in the 100- yard freestyle, junior Zane Grothe won the 1,650-yard freestyle and junior John Santeiu took the platform diving event victory. The men also won the 400-freestyle relay. Men’s Tennis: The No. 21 men’s tennis team split their two matches last week starting with a 5–2 loss to Clemson and a 6–1 victory over Georgia Tech. The Tigers are now 8-2 on the season. A week of Auburn sports Courtesy of Todd Van Emst Second baseman Jordan Ebert gets an out for Auburn against Indiana State Sunday, Feb. 24. Courtesy of Todd Van Emst Auburn’s Marcelo Chierighini off the starting blocks in the 50 yard freestyle Wednesday, Feb. 20. Courtesy of Todd Van Emst Auburn’s Hasina Muhammad shoots over Missouri’s Sydney Crafton in the second half Sunday, Feb. 24. Thursday, February 28, 2013 The Auburn Plainsman Sports B3 February 28 Women’s basketball at Vanderbilt, Nashville, Tenn., at 8 p.m. March 1 Softball vs. Middle Tennessee State and Gardner-Webb, Auburn, at 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Men’s tennis vs. Mississippi State, Auburn, at 2 p.m. Women’s tennis at Mississippi State, Starkville, Miss., at 3 p.m. Baseball vs. Eastern Illinois, Auburn, at 3 p.m. Women’s gymnastics vs. Maryland, Auburn, at 7 p.m. Women’s equestrian at Texas A&M, College Station, Texas. March 2 Softball vs. Charlotte and Minnesota, Auburn, at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Baseball vs. Eastern Illinois, Auburn, at 3 p.m. Women’s soccer at Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Fla., at 6 p.m. Men’s basketball vs. Vanderbilt, Auburn, at 8 p.m. Swimming & Diving, Bulldog Invitational, Athens, Ga. Women’s equestrian vs. Baylor, Waco, Texas. Track, Last Chance Qualifier March 3 Men’s tennis vs. Ole Miss, Auburn, at 1 p.m. Women’s tennis vs. Ole Miss, Oxford, Miss., at 1 p.m. Baseball vs. Eastern Illinois, Auburn, at 1 p.m. Women’s basketball vs. Mississippi State, Auburn, at 2 p.m. Women’s equestrian vs. TCU, Fort Worth, Texas. Swimming & Diving, Bulldog Invitational, Athens, Ga. March 4 Men’s golf, Samford Intercollegiate, Hoover Country Club, Hoover. March 5 Baseball, Alabama Capital City Classic, Montgomery, at 7 p.m. Men’s golf, Samford Intercollegiate, Hoover Country Club, Hoover. March 6 Softball vs. Alabama State, Montgomery, at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Men’s basketball vs. Tennessee, Auburn, at 8 p.m. Women’s basketball, First round, SEC Championships, Duluth, Ga. Will Gaines Sports Writer With the loss of leading re-ceiver Emory Blake and coach Gus Malzahn reinstalling his high-tempo spread offense, no other position group is in more need of playmakers than the receivers. Along with Blake graduat-ing Auburn also lost Travon-te Stallworth and DeAnge-lo Benton, leaving the Tigers with four receivers that have already earned playing time in Sammie Coates, Trovon Reed, Quan Bray, Ricardo Louis and Jaylon Denson. Sammie Coates was Au-burn’s lone bright spot be-sides Blake last year. He fin-ished the year with six recep-tions for 114 yards and proved that he can be a reliable deep threat. In 2013 he will have to become more consistent, but has a good shot to be a major contributor this fall. To many, Trovon Reed has been a disappointment af-ter the highly touted recruit signed with Auburn. But af-ter suffering injuries in 2011 and having to switch to an of-fense in 2012 that did not fit his strengths as a receiver, he could be looking at a bigger year in 2013 with the return of Malzahn. Getting Reed into space where he can show his athleticism will be a must for him to succeed, but Malzahn has proven that his offense is capable of that. Bray is another receiver that will welcome the return of Malzahn. A very athletic re-ceiver that has shown promise in his first two years at Auburn, but after an arrest last season many have been question-ing his character off the field. If all that works out he should be an excellent slot receiver in 2013, and also could be a lead-ing candidate to replace Onte-rio McCalleb in this offense by getting the jet sweeps that Mc- Calleb excelled at. Ricardo Louis did not see a lot of playing time as a fresh-man in 2012, but when he did play he impressed with his athletic ability and aggressive-ness. With an off-season in the weight room and coach-ing from Dameyune Craig and Malzahn, Louis could be look-ing at a nice career for Auburn. Denson is a player that has seen little playing time since arriving at Auburn, but that could change in 2013. For play-ers like Reed and Bray to suc-ceed in Malzahn’s offense you have to have great perime-ter blocking from the receiv-ers. With Denson’s 6-foot-3 208-pound frame he could be-come an excellent perimeter blocker, which will help open up big plays for the offense. With what Malzahn wants to accomplish, offensive depth at the receiver position is a must. So Malzahn went out and signed four receivers: Ear-nest Robinson, Tony Stevens, Dominic Walker, Marcus Da-vis and possibly another de-pending on what position Ja-son Smith plays. Three of these signees are likely to earn playing time this fall. Stevens, Robinson and Smith. Stevens was a late, but great pick up by the Tigers. He is a big, tall receiver that could be an excellent deep threat this fall. Robinson is an in-state play-er that has the ability to make acrobatic catches and should earn significant playing time this fall. “(He’s) a wide receiver that’s been committed to us a long time,” said Malzahn at his signing day press conference. “I actually recruited him when he was a sophomore. I have a great relationship with him. I think the world of Earnest. He hung in there with us, too, dur-ing the change.” Smith is an interesting play-er because he has remained adamant that he will play quarterback when he arrives at Auburn. “He just has phenomenal skills. He can do a lot of dif-ferent things,” said Malzahn. “We’re very excited about Ja-son.” After earning MVP honors at the Alabama Mississippi All- Star Game playing receiver, he could be looking at early play-ing time at receiver instead of quarterback. Though the starting receiver positions are not set in stone it will be a much better group. Auburn receiving corps Courtesy of Tod Van Emst Trovon Reed, sporting a #37 jersey in honor of Ladarius Phillips, scores on a 40-yard pass against New Mexico State, Nov. 3, 2012. Ethan Brady Sports Reporter Water is a necessity to every athletics team on the Plains nutritionally. For some though, the liquid of life is essential to how their sport is played. Swimming, bass fishing, water ski-ing, snow skiing and snowboarding all require water in some way to properly compete, but the one common state of water these sports lack is what we know as the solid form of H2O, the phenomenon of ice. About 40 miles from campus lies the home of Auburn ice hockey, one of the newest club sports on the Plains. The Columbus Civic Cen-ter in Georgia has played host to the Tigers since the team’s rebirth in 2010 after a 27-year hiatus. Originally created in 1980 to compete against Alabama before a Birmingham Bulls game, the Auburn hockey program has since emerged as a competitive force in the South Eastern Collegiate Hockey Conference. The SECHC is comprised of 10 SEC affiliat-ed universities separated into two divisions based on their location in the South. This year, Auburn competed against six of those teams including others from across the country. The annual SECHC tournament recently took place in Huntsville where the Arkansas Ra-zorbacks won the championship for the third time in four years. The Tigers recently wrapped up their sea-son in the first round against Vanderbilt after losing in an overtime thriller 4-3. Finishing the year with a 7-17 regular season record, Dion Moore a sophomore defensemen for the team says the Tigers were somewhat disappointed in their play this season. “Although we had a rocky season, I’m proud of the progress my team has made. Everyone worked hard and we came a long way,” said Moore. “Our season was a bit rough due to the fact our team was very young, it takes time to develop chemistry on the ice. As the season went on the team became much more com-petitive.” The Auburn hockey program may come as a surprise to some students, but it was initial-ly created in 1980. In front of 10,000 fans at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center, Auburn won its inaugural match against Alabama 5-0. Original coach and player Emory Stapleton re-alized some of the Auburn students were ca-pable of competing collegially and scheduled more games against established teams in the southeast. The Tigers’ first official win came against Emory on Nov. 9, 1981 after an opening five game losing streak. Despite the 0-5 start, Au-burn finished their inaugural season with a 10-15-1 record including a 6-0 win over Ala-bama. Because of a lack of finances and char-ter from the University, the team went inactive until 2010. Assistant Coach Elliott Chenger and friend James Florkiewicz were the driving force be-hind revamping the Auburn hockey team and after years of attempts the University agreed to allow hockey to become an Auburn club sport. Most students who attend Auburn were raised in areas where hockey is rare. For the Tigers, most of their players were raised in northern areas where hockey is prominent or in large metropolitan areas where it was avail-able. For now the Tigers are growing as a pro-gram and have great expectations for the com-ing seasons. “Although the program is young, we are making great strides to become a powerhouse in the South,” said Moore. Courtesy of Sean Kemp The Auburn men’s hockey team before they wrap up their season against Vanderbilt. Tigers roar on ice Hockey team wraps up season The next week in sports Sports B4 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, February 28, 2013 ACROSS 1 Aphid’s meal 4 Marsh bird 9 Neil Simon’s “__ Suite” 14 Communication at Gallaudet U. 15 Concert venue 16 Bona fide 17 *Role in the films “Wichita” and “Tombstone” 19 Opposite of après 20 Place for un chapeau 21 Miracle-__ 22 Get-up-and-go 23 Opera featuring Iago 25 Lint collector 27 It may be set or set off 29 Glowing, perhaps 30 Cleaning closet item 33 Nautical pole 35 Spry 37 Will Smith title role 38 French noble 39 Trail behind 40 Grape-growing spot 42 Back when 43 Put to shame 45 Mutineer 46 Neither mate 47 Noisy quarrel 48 “Hotel Rwanda” tribe 50 Compote ingredient 52 Fired on 55 __ of Gibraltar 58 Source of lean red meat 60 Pertaining to planes 61 Pope after Sergius II 62 Rip to pieces, and a hint to what’s hidden in the answers to this puzzle’s starred clues 64 Lexus competitor 65 Malady with swelling 66 “Norma __” 67 Potter’s apparatus 68 “Count me out” 69 Part of DOS: Abbr. DOWN 1 Managed 2 So far 3 *Protection for jousters 4 “Mangia!” 5 Genetics pioneer Mendel 6 Derrière 7 2001 bankruptcy filer 8 Brew source 9 *2000s documentary whose first episode was “From Pole to Pole” 10 Video game stage 11 Ice cream thickener 12 Criticize with barbs 13 DOJ employee 18 “We want to hear the story” 22 Devil’s work 24 *One who was held up, most likely 26 Land 28 Mozambique neighbor 30 *Indoor antenna 31 Lotion addition 32 Gibson __ 33 Diagnostic test 34 Comic strip possum 36 Beetle juice? 41 Lather again 44 Flu fighter’s episode 49 Seizes unlawfully 50 Renaissance __ 51 Start a hole 53 Variety 54 Big name in raingear 55 Picnic side 56 One helping after a crash 57 Cad 59 Cass’s title 62 “Spare me the details,” in brief 63 Backpacked beast By Matt Skoczen (c)2012 Tribune Media Services, Inc. 10/10/12 10/10/12 ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, October 10, 2012 Los Angeles T imes Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis xwordeditor@aol.com Print Deadline Noon three business days prior to publication To Place an Ad, Call - 334-844-4130 or Email - classifieds@theplainsman.com Display Classifieds Local............$11 per col inch National......$16 per col inch 1 col x 4″ min to 1 col x 8″ max The Auburn Plainsman is not responsible for the content of the ads. Ads that seem too good to be true usually are. Line Classifieds 15 words . . . . . . . . . . . $6 Extra Words . . . . . . . . 40¢ Bold/outline. . . .$1 per ad FOR RENT Trailer for rent off Wire Road/Saddlebrook Park. Access to horse pasture. 2br/2ba. Available immediately. $450.00 deposit $450.00/month. 334- 319-2082. SPRING BREAK BAHAMAS SPRING BREAK $189 for 5 days. All prices include: Round-trip luxury party cruise. Accommodations on the island at your choice of thirteen resorts. Appalachia Travel. www.BahamaSun. com 800-867-5018 As close to a house as you’ll get! 2 & 3BR/2Bath mobile homes on large, spacious lots in scenic Arrowhead Park. All appliances; central H/A; off street parking; safe student environment; pets allowed; Tiger Transit. $450 to $600/mo. 334-703-6063; tcordi@charter.net Sudoku By The Mepham Group Solution to Saturday’s puzzle Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9. For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit www.sudoku.org.uk. © 2012 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved. 9/10/12 Level: 1 2 3 4 Sudoku By The Mepham Group Solution to Thursday’s puzzle Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9. For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit www.sudoku.org.uk. © 2012 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved. 9/14/12 Level: 1 2 3 4 10/28/12 Sudoku By The Mepham Group Solution to last Sunday’s puzzle Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box Level: 1 2 3 4 Are you and your pet tired of crowded apt. living? Only 6 miles from campus Whatley Farms is your place. Enjoy fishing, hiking etc. 2bedroom/1bath homes from $550.00/mo. 2bedroom/2bath homes from $650.00/mo. Charles Whatley 334-559-5554. Ernest Whatley 334-703- 7771. Enjoy Spring Break in a safe, family environ-ment. Sea Foam Motel, Panama City Beach. 1-800-97C-FOAM. Life is better at the Beech. Now leasing! See ad on pg. B5 3bd/2ba Duplex w/wd, dw, fridge @ 213 Martin Ave., near campus. Avail. Fall Semester. Fenced back yard great location. $750.00/mo rent w/&750.00 deposit. Hurry won’t last! 728-0400. GREAT VALUE- 3 BR/2BA TWO-STORY DUPLEX!!! Washer/Dryer/Yard Work Included. Pet-Friendly Walk-In Closets Email spatrick15@ hotmail.com EXTREMELY NICE 3BR/3BA HOUSE-WON’T LAST LONG!!! 9-Foot-Ceilings Corner-Lot Tiger Transit Washer/Dryer/Yard Work Included Email spatrick15@ hotmail.com Roommate Wanted (male). Looking for roommate in large 4BR apt. Each bed-room has own bathroom.. Address: The Edge (1114 S College, Auburn), #5- 201. Includes: pool, living room, personal BR, kitchen, balcony, W/D, parking. Next to: J&M Bookstore, Loco’s Grill, Toomer’s Coffee, restaurants. Tiger Transit stops here. Lease: $315/ month (12 months, Aug 2013-July 2014). No pets. Questions: Chris Karabinos (chriskarabinos@comcast. net; 770-490-4940) Will Gaines Sports Reporter Freshman gymnast Caitlin Atkinson was named SEC Gym-nast of the Week Tuesday, Feb. 26 after her season-high total of 39.550 last Friday against No. 6 LSU helped the Tigers score a program record of 197.175 in the victory. “I’m blown away by her a lot,” said Head Coach Jeff Graba. “She has some of the biggest gymnas-tics that I’ve been apart of, and I’ve been apart of a lot. Her dis-tance on the bars is just an un-believable thing to watch. She’s about five feet above the bar which means she’s about 15 feet in the air.” Atkinson equaled her career high on bars against LSU with a 9.90. “I watch scores, but I wasn’t even watching the scores, so I had no idea,” Atkinson said. “I don’t really think anyone did. We just went out there and did what we needed to do for ourselves.” The gymnastics team has had a good year, scoring above 190 in every meet this year, but still has lost seven meets on the year. Against LSU though, everything was able to come together for the Tigers. “I think we were finally just able to put it all together,” Atkin-son said. “We’ve had good meets where beams were amazing or bars were amazing, but last week we put vault, beams, bars all together at once. Not neces-sarily that we haven’t been doing that, but we did it with that extra oomph to it.” Even after Atkinson and the rest of the teams’ record night, Graba believes that the team is capable of doing that every time they compete. “We’ve been telling these guys that’s just an average night for us,” Graba said. “We feel that we are that good and we need to improve on that. The big bat-tle is getting them to believe that they’re that good.” Atkinson was also named SEC freshman of the week Tues-day, Feb. 5 for her performance on the road at Missouri. “It feels pretty amazing, but it also tells me that I have to keep working hard,” Atkinson said. “I can’t just give up because I got that title.” With Atkinson only being a freshman she has had to adjust to the pressure of competing as a team in college, instead of in-dividually. “If you mess up sometimes it can come back on you,” At-kinson said. “I’m later in a lot of the lineups so if someone earli-er in the lineup messes up then I know it’s going to fall back on me so it’s more pressure.” As the season has got further along though she has learned ways of dealing with the pres-sure. “We do a lot of pressure sets in the gym and we do a lot of lineup sets, and as the season goes I’ve got more confident in myself so it’s got better,” Atkinson said. For her, being comfortable and confident are the keys to having success. “If you’re on beam and your not comfortable with yourself then you’re probably going to make little mistakes,” Atkinson said. “If you’re comfortable with it then it’s going to be a lot better than if you’re thinking of every little thing that can go wrong.” The gymnastics team will re-turn to action Friday, March 1 against No. 23 Maryland for the annual Flip for the Cure Pink meet at 7 p.m. at Auburn Arena. Courtesy of Todd Van Emst Auburn’s Caitlin Atkinson competing on the beam against LSU in their college gymnastics meet Friday, Feb. 22. Freshman named SEC Gymnast of the Week Owens » From B1 “Kyle’s performance was outstanding,” said coach Brett Hawke. “He was ba-sically the highest point scorer at the meet. He had all best times and really helped us, especially on the relays, become No. 1 in the country in a lot of those re-lays.” Hawke has coached Ow-ens through his college ca-reer, and had nothing but praise for the senior. “He’s improved a tre-mendous amount,” Hawke said. “He came in as a reg-ular kid and has now be-come one of the best ath-letes in the world. His learning curve has moved a lot. He’s a vocal leader out-side the pool and tries to encourage other people to be at their best as well.” Owens has noticed a change in the level of his performance as well. “I think I’ve improved quite a bit,” Owens said. “Not resting for the SEC Championships and still hitting best times in my en-tire 12 year career says a lot about to program and about the training we’ve done this year.” Though Owens has had a career season, and there is more to come at the NCAA Championships, it will be his final year as a competitive swimmer. A Biomedical Science major, Owens will enter medical school in the sum-mer. “In July I’m going to start out at medical school,” Ow-ens said. “I’m not going to be swimming anymore, so it’s going to be hard to bal-ance that. I hope I can just go on to be a good physi-cian, but I don’t think any more swimming is in my future.” If Owens’ work ethic in the pool is in any way simi-lar to his outside of the wa-ter, there is no doubt that he will succeed in his ca-reer choice. Courtesy of Todd Van Emst Kyle Owens celebrates after winning the 100-yard back stroke Friday, Feb. 22. Intrigue Thursday, February 28, 2013 ThePlainsman.com Intrigue B5 Life is better at the Beech. Now leasing! 575 Shelton Mill Road | Auburn, AL | 36830 | (334)-821-8895 Jessa Pease WRITER Opelika’s many attractions include a quaint downtown to the Museum of East Alabama, but Spring Villa Man-sion offers more: ghosts and a bit of haunting. Spring Villa Park is a 350-acre park with many amenities including a horse shoe pit, a campground, walk-ing trails and picnic areas. Spring Vil-la also comes with a legend that the old mansion, built for William Penn Younge in 1850, is haunted. “The house is supposed to be haunted,” said Jeff Pokorney, manag-er of Spring Villa Park. “We have a lot of ghost hunters come and put cam-eras and things in the house.” According to Pokorney, legend states Penn Younge wasn’t liked by his slaves. One night when Penn Younge was walking up the spiral staircase to his bedroom, one of his slaves, who had been hiding next to the stairs, jumped out and killed Penn Younge on the 13th step of the stairs. “People say you better step over the 13th step or it will be bad luck if you step on it,” Pokorney said. “Ever since I’ve been here I always step on it and nothing happens.” Twin girls and two adults also died on the site. Pokorney said there was a 30-acre lake on the property, and the little girls drowned when they snuck out in a glass-bottom boat without their parents. The adults tried to save them, but also drowned. “Most of them, like these ghost hunters and paranormal groups that do come, get voice recordings when they go in the house,” Pokorney said. “Unless you are there with them, you don’t know if it is true or not.” Faith Serafin, founder and director of the Alabama Paranormal Research Team, led her group to research the Spring Villa Mansion. The team got a lot of feedback from the mansion. “We were anticipating on finding things that pertained to the legend of Spring Villa,” Serafin said. “That wasn’t the case.” The team first ran into a lot of ev-idence relating to children, Serafin said. They picked up the noises of balls rolling downstairs, children cry-ing, piano keys playing and a little girl asking where her mommy was. When the team found all of this in-formation that related to the drown-ing of the little girls more so than the legend of Penn Younge, they investi-gated the legend further. They found that the legend was made up in the ‘40s for campers. Jillian Capers, senior in psychol-ogy, and her friends went to go visit Spring Villa mansion in high school along with other spooky spots. “It excited us at the time,” Capers said. “I heard some strange noises, creaks and things, but not anything specific. That would really freak me out.” After 15 years of living on the prop-erty Pokorney only had one story to tell. “A few years ago, it was around Christmas, we had wreaths on the front of the house, and we were taking pictures in the front yard,” Pokorney said. “Probably about the sixth pic-ture, there was a cloud that came up in the picture. It looks like a lady and a little girl, and I don’t know what it is.” Kelsey Davis INTRIGUE WRITER Friends and fellow musicians di-rect Thomas Leonard toward the gui-tar pick he's dropped by telling him if he is hot or cold. After feeling around for the pick, Leonard finds it, resumes playing his acoustic guitar and says, “Well I’m blind, it’s not like I could see it anyway,” as he chuckles. He pauses from playing his guitar to tune it up, which he does by ear, lean-ing his head close to the sound hole. When he finishes on the guitar, he be-gins to assemble a drum set that he plays with the accompaniment of two other guitarists. As more musicians join in, Leonard moves on the key-board and tears it up. “I’m not entirely a traditional classi-cal pianist. I have my own distinctive style of playing piano, ranging from soul, to blues, to soul-gospel and more than that. When you hear what I play, you’ll notice that it’s got a lot of soul in it. That’s because I like to get people to feel what I’m feeling,” Leonard said. As Leonard’s hands dance across guitar strings, with drum sticks and on piano keys, it’s not at all hard to tune into the amount of pure soul that he pours into his music. Leonard picked up his first guitar when he was 6 years old, and contin-ued from there with the piano. He can now play every instrument, which he has basically taught himself, despite being completely blind since birth. His blindness stems from a lack of growth in the optic nerve. “I promised myself if I ever were to gain my eyes, I wouldn’t use them for me. I’d use them to help other people,” Leonard said. Until then, Leonard focuses on ab-sorbing the ins and outs of all that mu-sic has to offer. “My grandfather taught me the ba-sics (of guitar),” Leonard said. “He be-gan by giving me the notes and telling me what they were. He’d say, ‘This is F, this is F sharp,’ and would keep going up and down the fret board as he told me what the notes were.” He explained that this is how he de-veloped the case of “the perfect pitch.” If given a sound, no matter which in-strument it’s played on, Leonard can identify the note. Other than having deep running roots as a seasoned musician, Leon-ard has also been dabbling in the re-cording world for the past seven years. He admits to not entirely being a pro-fessional, but takes pride in his skill of being able to quickly polish off a ses-sion after recording. “I say this with the utmost humili-ty, but I’ve always had an ear for sound because I’m blind. One sense goes away, and the others pick up the slack,” Leonard said. Leonard is interested in working with local musicians who are looking to record their music, especially af-ter feeling the embrace of the Auburn community once he moved here. “Everybody out here is very gen-erous,” Leonard said. “I’ve never met people as generous as this. Never. They actually really take the time to just to sit and talk with you.” Though Leonard is passionate about Auburn and its residents, there remains one force that pulls at him stronger than any other - his music. “Music is kind of a gift and a curse to me,” Leonard said. “It’s a curse be-cause I feel it more than most. If it’s sad I become sad with it. If it’s soulful, I become soulful with it. It’s a part of me, just as an arm is a part of a shoul-der.” Anyone interested in recording mu-sic with Leonard may contact him at 251-454-9829 or taljazz@bellsouth. net. Man masters every instrument, despite being blind KELSEY DAVIS / INTRIGUE WRITER Leonard plays the drums during a rock jam session at The Guitar Shoppe. “I promised myself if I ever were to gain my eyes, I wouldn’t use them for me. I’d use them to help other people.” —Thomas Leonard Leonard jams to his original tunes at The Guitar Shoppe. Leonard accompanies on the keyboard for jazz session. RAYE MAY / PHOTO EDITOR The Spring Villa Mansion is located in Spring Villa Park on 1474 Lee Road in Opelika. The house was built in 1880. ‘Haunted’ Opelika mansion summons skeptics, believers Intrigue B6 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, February 28, 2013 Elizabeth Wieck INTRIGUE EDITOR For Scott Couch, being a photographer is a lifestyle. Despite having a full-time job, the ’94 Auburn grad dedicates as much time as he can to his part-hobby part-business venture in outdoor photography. Growing up in Pine Bluff, Ark., a place he refers to as the “duck capital of the world,” Couch spent a lot of his time hunting and fishing outdoors, which later inspired him to pursue nature photography. During his time at Auburn, Couch studied psychology and political science with the in-tention to go to graduate school. After study-ing abroad in Nottingham, England his senior year, he decided to change plans and pursue work elsewhere in Birmingham. Couch moved back to Auburn in 1998 and began running, mountain biking, hiking and backpacking. At one point, he was running 30–40 miles a week. “I was a machine,” he said. While going on a run down Gay Street, Couch suddenly went numb from the waist down. “I talked to a few people, and they told me to eat a banana because of cramps from sweating (too much),” Couch said. But Couch needed a bit more than a ba-nana. Upon going to another clinic, he found out he ruptured his L4 and L5 discs in his back– a nearly debilitating injury that forced him to have major spinal surgeries and two artificial discs put in. With sadness, he real-ized he could no longer continue with his ac-tive lifestyle. “After that, it really left my crippled,” Couch said. “I couldn’t run, I couldn’t bike. I couldn’t do most of the stuff I was used to doing.” While in recovery at a Birmingham hos-pital, Couch was trying to figure out what he could do and recalled a defining moment on a solo backpacking trip along the Appalachian Trail. On his journey, he walked around a cor-ner and saw a mother bear with her three cubs up in a tree, who climbed down right in front of him. With haste, he pulled out an ordinary film camera– a camera he brought for the same obligated reasoning any person might take a camera on a trip with them– and snapped a quick picture. Such an experience sparked an epiphany in Couch. “It hit me, and I was like, I can still camp, I can still travel, do what I like to do,” he said. “Rather than backpacking, I can camp in one place. I was an outdoorsman, I kind of transi-tioned from hunting and fishing to more pho-tography.” At the time of this decision, Couch knew very little about photography. During the next year, he immersed himself in the field and took online classes through the New York In-stitute of Photography. Initially, Couch started out simple, travel-ing to nearby states like Georgia, Mississip-pi and Louisiana to capture photos of ducks, geese, eagles, deer and Labrador retrievers. The hunger for more, however, quickly kicked in and he decided to venture to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennes-see and North Carolina. “I spend about 50 percent of my time (there),” Couch said. “That’s kind of my home base. I know everything and everybody up there. Simply by being there, I get unique pic-tures. It’s like anything you do; you get out what you put into it. I’m willing and able to put in more time than most people.” In recent years, Couch has made an an-nual trip out to Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Park in the fall. While many might consider going to such a beautiful part of the country a vacation, he insists it’s not easy work. “Some people say, ‘you’re on vacation,’ but if you’re with me, you wouldn’t call it (that). You’re up at four in the morning, going to bed late, it’s tiring. It’s butt–kicking when you go for 12 days nonstop, 16 hours a day.” Such hard work, though, has paid off, Couch said. “Having done that, I’ve got the best pic-tures of my life out there this past year when it comes to bears, owls and some other stuff,” he said. “That is by far my favorite place in the world. I hope to move there some day.” Working out in the wild does have its risks. Couch said he hasn’t had any life–threaten-ing encounters with animals, but has had a few scary run–ins with bad weather. While camping in a tent underneath a tree, a thun-derstorm blew a large branch off the tree and onto his tent, crushing it and barely missing him. “All in all, I use my best judgment,” he said. “Even though I push it, it’s not insanely crazy, just a few calculated risks.” While Couch is a hunter, he is also a con-servationist and tries to affect his animal sub-jects as little as he can. “There’s a very fine line when you’re pho-tographing animals, like deer or bear,” Couch said. “The second that you affect the animals behavior is the second that you’ve pushed too far.” Juggling his desire to blend in as naturally as possible with the unpredictable behavior of wild animals, Couch said it’s often difficult to get a good shot. “You know how you get to know your dog or your cat?” he said. “You get a general sense of how they’re going to act. All the animals I photograph are wild and are scared of people. Even though I’ve spent thousands of hours with animals, you like to think you know what’s going to happen, you don’t.” Couch explains being a wildlife photogra-pher requires a unique way of living due to so much time spent traveling. “I’ve had to rebase my life on the way that I want to live and travel,” he said. “If I chose to travel and do all of this, on the other end when I’m back, my social life is off. I’m happy with spending three weeks in a tent, with no electricity or running water, I love that. But that does set me apart from a lot of people.” The rewards, he insists, are entirely worth it. “You have to reinvent yourself and what you do to make it,” Couch said. “I don’t limit myself– anywhere or anything. For me, it’s a lifestyle. It’s who I am and how I live. You just go with it, good or bad, make the best of it.” Spring Break 2013 is Destin, Florida • Must Be 21 to rent • Quadruple occupancy in condominium suites • The area’s only lagoon pool • Deposit required for reservation • Beach Shuttle Call 877-44-RESORT visionarydestin.com Live Music Poolside BBQ Drink specials Promotional offers available only when you rent with us Get a Room ! SCOTT COUCH / PHOTOGRAPHER Couch had the opportunity to shoot a Grizzly bear at 10 meters away in Grand Teton National Park. Alum photographer goes into the wild 1. Abbreves - They’re dying, just let them. Srsly. (Except for SMH, that one will live on forever.) 2. Anything that’s a little bit too punctually sophis-ticated. Example: Status updates like, “Just went to the Overall Company with mah bestie!!! Best. Popsicles. Ever,” or comments like, “This. Is. Too. Cute,” on a pic-ture of your ex with her new boyfriend. 3. The phrase “Leggoooo,” ...? What are you saying? 4. The Harlem Shake - MAKE THE MADNESS STOP. I mean, I guess it’s cool that everyone wants to spread videos of themselves having awkwardly staged danced parties. Actually, I take that back. There’s liter-ally nothing cool about that. 5. Gallon Smashing Prank - All right, I’ll admit that I chuckled a little the first time I watched this one. It was a nervous laugh though, given how uncomfort-able slap-stick humor makes me. Three straight min-utes of someone busting ass on two gallons of milk he spastically threw shouldn’t even be entertaining enough to hold a toddler’s attention, but somehow non-toddlers everywhere are captivated. It’s time we all ask ourselves, “What the hell?” and move on. 6. Anyone else think this type of post has gotten a little out of hand? Dear whoever, Insert generic phrase here. That is all. I can’t explain why, but something about this makes me feel weird. Maybe because everyone is sending mini letters to everyone via Facebook. •The Twitter - Just kidding. That one can stay. Social media trends to ditch Kelsey Davis INTRIGUE WRITER Couch has spent two weeks every fall in the Grand Teton National Park over the last four years. EMILY BRETT / FREELANCE GRAPHIC DESIGNER Thursday, February 28, 2013 The Auburn Plainsman Intrigue B7 Bianca Seward COPY@THEPLAINSMAN.COM App of the week: get paid to watch T.V. Caitlin Wagenseil INTRIGUE REPORTER Will Campbell, sophomore in public adminis-tration, has always felt the need to help people. As an aspiring firefighter, he’s been given the op-portunity to do just that. “I always thought ( firefighting) was cool, but it was my roommate who got me interest-ed because he is an EMT at the fire department,” Campbell said. “Plus, I always wanted to help people.” Campbell is currently attending fire school at the Southwest Fire Department, a volunteer fire department in Lee County. He feels Southwest will prepare him for what he will hopefully go through at Auburn’s fire school. In order to be accepted into the fire school, Campbell had to complete an application, go through a rigorous physical fitness course to en-sure he was in good enough shape for the inten-sity of the job and lastly had to interview. Campbell said the volunteer fire department doesn’t mandate its firefighters be at the fire-house all the time, but requests they come when they can. In Campbell’s case, because he is go-ing through fire school, he has to attend class at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then has hands-on training on Sunday. “It’s been a great and fun experience,” Camp-bell said. “A typical day is hanging out at the fire department until getting a call to go on scene, where the majority of the time the calls are for medical care or car accidents.” In addition to those calls, Campbell regular-ly directs traffic on scene, helps patients onto stretchers and assists the paramedics in any way he can. Because he is still going through fire sc
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Title | 2013-02-28 The Auburn Plainsman |
Creator | Auburn University |
Date Issued | 2013-02-28 |
Document Description | This is the volume 119, issue 29, February 28, 2013 issue of The Auburn Plainsman, the student newspaper of Auburn University. Black and white version digitized from microfilm. |
Subject Terms | Auburn University -- Periodicals; Auburn University -- Students -- Periodicals; College student newspapers and periodicals |
Decade | 2010s |
Document Source | Auburn University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives |
File Name | 20130228_color_a.pdf |
Type | Text; Image |
File Format | |
File Size | 29.4 Mb |
Digital Publisher | Auburn University Libraries |
Rights | This document is the property of the Auburn University Libraries and is intended for non-commercial use. Users of the document are asked to acknowledge the Auburn University Libraries. |
Submitted By | Coates, Midge |
OCR Transcript | The Auburn Plainsman A SPIRIT THAT IS NOT AFRAID Thursday, February 28, 2013 ThePlainsman.com Vol. 119, Issue 29, 16 Pages This week’s question THE PLAINSMAN POLL Last week’s question Online Campus A4 Sports B1 Vote online at ThePlainsman.com INDEX Campus A2 Opinion A6 Community A7 Sports B1 Intrigue B5 Trent Erwin WRITER Born and raised an Auburn man, Calvin Johnson will be-come the seventh dean of the College of Veterinary Medi-cine. Dr. Johnson is transition-ing from his previous posi-tion as department head of pathobiology to become the new dean of a college that has a 121-year legacy. “It was just an extreme-ly fortunate opportunity for me,” Johnson said. He steps into the position already ex-perienced, as he served as interim dean for 17 months before being selected as the permanent dean. “I had the 17 months of ex-perience and realized this was a tremendous opportu-nity to really serve veterinary medicine and to serve Au-burn,” Johnson said. “I’m ex-cited to be pursuing it.” He’s no stranger to the Au-burn area as he was born in 1961 raised in Auburn and the son of a former faculty member. He received his undergrad-uate and graduate degrees from Auburn finished with a doctorate of veterinary med-icine and made his way to North Carolina to practice. After only practicing a year, he returned to school, attending North Carolina State University where he conducted a residency in pa-thology through the Ph.D program there. He then became board cer-tified in pathology and took his expertise to the Universi-ty of Florida where he was on faculty for 11 years. In 2003, Johnson made his return to Auburn to join the faculty and teach pathobiol-ogy in the College of Veteri-nary Medicine. His concentration focus-es on disease of animals and how they correspond to oth-er species and even to hu-mans. “Dr. Johnson brings a breadth and depth to this position that is essential for leading a college. He’s an extremely dedicated and approachable professional.” —Frank Bartol ASSOCIATE DEAN OF RESEARCH AND GRADUATE STUDIES Johnson named dean of college of veterinary medicine Two options for Toomer’s Austin Lankford CAMPUS WRITER Mike DeMaioribus is one of two new members to the Board of Trustees. DeMaioribus filled John Blackwell’s District 8 posi-tion, which covers all the counties in north Alabama. “I can’t imagine any-thing more rewarding than to be able to give back to the University,” DeMaiori-bus said. “I am excited to get involved at a level that allows you to get a perspec-tive of all the things going on around campus and try to do your best to make the University better everyday.” DeMaioribus, a Hunts-ville native, graduated Au-burn in 1976 with a degree in electrical engineering. He then received his mas-ters in electrical engineer-ing in 1977. DeMaioribus said he nev-er considered anywhere oth-er than Auburn. “My dad was an engi-neer and we knew that Au-burn had an outstanding engineering program and it sounded great to me,” De- Maioribus said. “I knew I wanted to be at Auburn right when I got there.” DeMaioribus said he likes Auburn’s small college town feel and that he sent all four of his children to Auburn. “The University is there for the town and the town is there for the Universi-ty and they are really one in the same,” DeMaioribus said. “Everyone is so welcoming and friendly and it is a great setting for a school.” When he graduated, De- Maioribus moved to Hunts-ville and began to work for Dynetics Inc. He has been there for more than 35 years and is currently senior vice president of the company. DeMaioribus said Au-burn is trying to expand its research opportunities in the Huntsville area with the Huntsville Research Center, who he has also been work-ing with. DeMaioribus set as new trustee » See DEAN A2 JOHNSON Chandler Jones COMMUNITY REPORTER From the Auburn Plains to The Hill in Washington D.C., former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs spoke to the Boys & Girls Club at their annual “Champions for Kids Luncheon” Thursday, Feb. 21. Gibbs was born in Auburn in 1971. His parents, Robert and Nancy, worked for the Au-burn University libraries. “I learned from my parents and this community the val-ue of learning a good educa-tion and working hard,” Gibbs said. “Those are the tools that helped get me to that spot in the White House.” Gibbs graduated from Au-burn High School in 1989. He attended North Carolina State University to study political science. “I learned and one of the reasons I got into communi-cations, because in politics you can have great ideas and great solutions, but if you can’t communicate what those ideas and solutions are to peo-ple then they’re not any good,” Gibbs said. “Communications are the most fundamental im-portant aspect of any entity or project.” Gibbs is a celebrated pol-itician who has served Pres-ident Obama since 2004. He served as senate communica-tions director for Obama dur-ing Obama’s senatorial cam-paign. In 2008 he transitioned into the senior strategist for communications and mes-sage for Obama’s first presi-dential campaign. Gibbs served as White House press secretary for the 2008 term. “The one thing that you learn, that I think everybody learns working in the White House learns, is the unex-pected that really compli-cates your day and really com-plicates your life,” Gibbs said. “You name it; somebody’s launched a missile or there’s been an oil spill. Everyday something pops up that you have to react to that wasn’t necessarily on your to-do list that morning. It’s what makes that place both wonderful and stressful.” CHANDLER JONES / COMMUNITY REPORTER Robert Gibbs speaks to the Boys & Girls Club at Greater Peace Missionary Baptist Church. Intrigue B8 » See TRUSTEE A2 » See GIBBS A2 Former White House press secretary talks education DEMAIORIBUS “By being in the high technology business, I want to help support that endevour or to expand Auburn’s research opportunities.” —Mike DeMaioribus BOARD OF TRUSTEE MEMBER Dr. Calvin Johnson returns to Auburn as the Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine 1989 graduate Robert Gibbs returns to Auburn COURTESY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING The arcing path theme would allow straight walls connected to the gates with a brick path leading on campus. COURTESY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING The circle wall theme would feature a rounded brick wall behind the gates and porous unit pavers in front of the trees. Austin Lankford CAMPUS REPORTER Two designs were presented for Toomer’s Corner, in Foy Hall Wednesday, Feb. 7. This pre-sentation brings Auburn fans that much closer to establishing a new design and securing a fu-ture for the beloved tradition. The firms Nelson Byrd and Woltz and jB+a worked in collaboration to put the plans togeth-er and said they have been working on the de-signs for the last month. “The two new proposals were developed from the two most popular of the original four schemes that were part of the survey that went out a few months ago,” Byrd said. “Both schemes really emphasize the replacement of two very large trees, likely oaks in close proximity to where they currently are.” The first scheme is the Circle Wall. “This plan creates an intermediary space shaped by low brick walls making an area of gathering before going through the 1917 gates,” Byrd said. “There would be benches placed along the path leading toward Samford Hall.” The second scheme is the Arcing Path. “The primary difference with this plan is that it doesn’t create a singular and distinctive space on the other side of the existing gates,” Byrd said. Byrd said this plan expands the path that leads toward Samford Hall by four or five feet and would be lined with benches. He said this would still allow people to both gather on the sides and walk along the path. “The hope was that after what we hear today that there will clearly be a strong sense for one plan or the other or a combination of the two that will be the final one,” Byrd said. The designs to improve Toomer’s Corner are being developed in response to the alleged poi-soning by Harvey Updyke and eventual remov-al of the oaks. Updyke was arrested on Feb. 17, 2011, for a criminal mischief warrant in connection to the application of herbicide to the Toomer’s oak trees. Dan King, assistant vice president of facilities management, said the final plans for Toomer’s Corner will be announced after the A-Day game this spring and that the trees will probably be re-moved either one or two weeks after the game. » See GIBBS A2 Campus A2 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, February 28, 2013 Feb. 20 – Golf Club Drive Third-degree criminal trespass be-tween 3 p.m.–3:30 p.m. Feb. 20 – Engineering Drive Second-degree theft of a purse, wal-let, U.S. currency, credit cards, gift cards, checks and a drivers license between noon–2 p.m. Feb. 21 – Rosie Street Third-degree criminal mischief be-tween 10:45 p.m.–11 p.m. Feb. 22 – South Donahue Drive Third-degree theft of an iPhone between 10 a.m.–11:45 a.m. Feb. 22 – Enterprise Drive Third-degree theft of U.S. currency between 5:15–5:20 p.m. Feb. 23 – West Magnolia Avenue Third-degree criminal trespass be-tween 1:20 a.m.–2:15 a.m. Feb. 23 – North Donahue Drive Third-degree burglary of a television between 6 a.m.–7:45 p.m. Feb. 25 – Heisman Drive Third-degree criminal mischief be-tween 4 p.m.–12 a.m. Feb. 25 – Perry Street Harassment report Feb. 25 – Lee Road 43 Third-degree burglary of a televi-sion, laptop and jewelry between 11 a.m.–6:30 p.m. Feb. 26 – Biggio Drive Second-degree theft of a wallet, ID cards, U.S. currency and a debit card between 5:30–5:40 p.m. Feb. 26 – Alan Avenue Third-degree burglary between 4:30 p.m.–11:59 p.m. Feb. 27 – Opelika Road Third-degree criminal trespass report — Reports provided by Auburn Department of Public Safety CRIME REPORTS FOR FEB. 20 – FEB. 27, 2013 DUI ARRESTS IN THE CITY OF AUBURN FEB. 20 – FEB. 27, 2013 ■ Jeri Kirkpatrick, 43, Auburn Thursday, Feb. 21, 9:46 p.m. on Shug Jordan Parkway ■ Paige Kinghorn, 22, Auburn Thursday, Feb. 21, 2:26 a.m. on West Longleaf Drive ■ Woo Suh, 43, Auburn Friday, Feb. 22, 11:22 p.m. on Opelika Road ■ Michael Crump, 31, Jasper Saturday, Feb. 23, 1:02 a.m. at East Magnolia Av-enue and Debardeleben Street ■ Chiquita Dowdell, 34, Auburn Sunday, Feb. 24, 2:59 a.m. at East University Drive and South Donahue Drive ■ Alexander Bronson-Howard, 20, Danbury, Conn. Sunday, Feb. 24, 3:26 a.m. on Hemlock Drive Enjoy serving others? Seeking Christian young adults who want to serve at a youth missions camp in Alabama through home repair or children’s ministry for Summer 2013 Leadership Discipleship Service Spiritual Growth Ministry Positions available for: Day Camp Coordinato rs Construction Coordinator s Alabama Rural Ministry (334) 501-4276 serve@arm-al.org Applications can be found at: www. arm-al.org Currently interviewing, so apply soon! The Auburn Plainsman 255 Heisman Drive, Suite 1111, AU Student Center Auburn, AL 36849 Editor - Robert E. Lee Managing Editor - Nathan Simone Editor - Sydney Callis Reporter - Chandler Jones Writer - Abigail O’Brien COMMUNITY NEWSROOM ADVERTISING Editor - Becky Hardy Reporter - Corey Arwood Writer - Kailey Miller Writer - Austin Lankford CAMPUS Editor - Elizabeth Wieck Reporter - Anna Beth Jager Reporter - Caitlin Wagenseil Writer - Kelsey Davis Jason Bass Austin Haisten Justin McCroskey INTRIGUE Editor - John Burns Reporter - Will Gaines Reporter - Andrew Yawn Writer - Ethan Brady Writer - Lance Davis SPORTS Editor - Benjamin Croomes OPINIONS Editor - Raye May Photographer - Katherine McCahey PHOTO Editor - Rachel Suhs Graphic Artist - Emily Brett DESIGN Editor - Dustin Shrader Assistant Editor - Chelsea Harvey Multimedia editor - Daniel Oramas Webmaster - Zach McSwain ONLINE Editor - Melody Kitchens SPECIAL SECTIONS Newsroom - (334) 844-9108 Advertising - (334) 844-4130 DISTRIBUTION Lauren Darmanin Kathryn Holladay Ben Whitley Whitney Potts Ashley Selby Caitlin Piery Zoya Zinger ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVES SENIOR DESIGNERS JUNIOR DESIGNERS EDITORIAL ADVISER Austin Phillips (334) 844-9108 adviser@theplainsman.com OFFICE MANAGER Kim Rape (334) 844-4130 kelleka@auburn.edu The Auburn Plainsman is published in print weekly every Thursday. We can be found online at ThePlainsman.com. Editor - Bianca Seward Assistant Editor - Callie Ward COPY DESK GENERAL MANAGER & ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Judy Riedl (334) 844-9101 gm@theplainsman.com admanager@theplainsman.com Amber Franklin WRITER Marion Royston’s journey to be-coming one of 12 students in the na-tion to win a Mitchell Scholarship is the kind of story that gives truth to the quote, “You can do anything you put your mind to.” Royston, senior in history, is a re-cipient of a Mitchell Scholar Award and will study leadership for sustain-able and rural development at The Queen’s University Belfast in North-ern Ireland starting this September. The scholarship was awarded based on leadership, scholarship and commitment to a career in communi-ty and public service. “When I was applying, I applied for the Marshall (another scholarship) at the same time,” Royston said. “And I was like ‘I don’t know the Mitchell people only take 12 people. What’s the probability that I’m even in the running for this?’” Dr. Paul Harris, associate director for national prestigious scholarships and professor in the honors college, has helped Royston throughout her college career and said he has always known she was special. Harris met Royston three years ago, when she was a resident assis-tant in Aubie Hall, where he is a fac-ulty- in-residence. “After getting to know Marion I re-alized she had all the ingredients to be a national prestigious scholarship winner,” Harris said. “I just encour-aged her to continue to make good grades, pursue her undergraduate re-search and get involved with service and that’s exactly what she did.” Royston, who has a minor in com-munity and civic engagement, has taken advantage of every opportunity that has been put in front of her dur-ing her four years at Auburn. Royston attended a PACERS jour-nalism workshop, which solidified her decision to attend Auburn, took a trip to Appalachia, where she learned about poverty within the region and how people are working to combat it and worked with Living Democracy, a year-long program within the College of Liberal Arts. Through the Living Democracy program, Royston participated in a 10-week summer experience in Hob-son City, the first all-black municipal-ity in Alabama. She transcribed oral histories in Macon County in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Lee versus Macon case, which led to the desegre-gation of schools in Alabama. Royston was able to speak with An-thony Lee, the lead plaintiff, and Fred Grey, the lead civil rights attorney for the case. “It was super cool, and I got to mar-ry my two loves of history and com-munity involvement,” Royston said. Royston, who is from the rural community of Roanoke is hoping to use these experiences and the expe-rience she gains from her year in Ire-land to help rural communities de-velop. Royston said that she uses what her own community did to make her successful to compare to other communities and see what chang-es can be made to create communi-ty growth. “It’s an economic issue, but it’s also about investing in people,” Royston said. “Revitalizing those areas, be-cause they are in the middle of a crisis – people are leaving, plants are shut-ting down – so we’re kind of building them back up.” Many people who know Royston personally and professionally have no doubts about her abilities and the im-pact she is going to make. Morgan Dunn, sophomore in bio-medical sciences, has been working with Royston for the past year as resi-dent assistant in Sasnett Hall. “She’s such a joy and she’s so awe-some, but she’s also extremely intelli-gent and she’s got this easiness about her than just draws people in,” Dunn said. Harris, who has been Royston’s mentor for the past two and half years, is happy he was able to help Royston throughout this journey and is excited to see how she will be able to use this opportunity. “It’s giving her an opportunity that very few students will ever have,” Har-ris said. “You can imagine what that’s going to do for her, for her perspective and how much she’s going to learn. “She’s going to be a great ambassa-dor, not only for the U.S., but for Au-burn.” Royston is excited to begin her ad-venture in Ireland in September, but is still surprised and awed by all the things she has been able to achieve up to this point. “I didn’t come to Auburn planning any of this – I didn’t think it was possi-ble,” Royston said. “This Auburn expe-rience for me has been this really big journey of self-discovery, so I’m real-ly, really happy with where I am right now and I owe it all to seizing oppor-tunities that were put in front of me.” Student heads to Ireland after winning Mitchell Scholar Award CONTRIBUTED BY JEFF ETHERIDGE Royston will travel to Ireland this September to study sustainable and rural community development DEAN » From A1 “My interest in that was certainly for diseases of an-imals, but also the compar-ison of animal diseases and human diseases. That’s real-ly my background,” Johnson said. Currently, he’s research-ing a particular type of HIV in cats, called feline immunode-ficiency virus. This research is not only helping him understand the virus among animals, but also how it affects young children across the world. Dr. Johnson must direct the academic portion of the col-lege, but also correspond with directors to maintain the vet-erinary hospital and clinical science programs. Johnson isn’t new to the department and received en-dorsement by a majority of the staff. “Dr. Johnson brings a breadth and depth to this position that is essential for leading a college,” said Frank Bartol, associate dean of re-search and graduate studies. “He’s an extremely dedicated and approachable profession-al. He’s engaged in forward thinking of all aspects of our academic and research mis-sion here at the college.” Johnson is determined to lead the college into the fu-ture through maintaining high levels of research and quality academics. “He’s a very student orient-ed individual and really cares about both populations of students at the vet school,” said India Napier, second year Ph.D student in biomedical sciences. Johnson is prepared to con-tinue the 121-year legacy of the college through his po-sition as dean. “We want to make sure that education is as high quality as it can be be-cause we have an excellent reputation for training veter-inarians at Auburn,” Johnson-said. He resigned in 2011 and served as senior adviser to Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Gibbs returned to Au-burn to support and cele-brate the Lee County Boys & Girls Club. Gibbs is still a War Ea-gle sportier and says he is “on the Gus Bus.” In 2010 Gibbs was quot-ed saying that if Auburn won the national cham-pionship he would roll the White House. “That got a lot of at-tention when I said that,” Gibbs said. “I don’t think there were a lot of people that understood all that was involved. “It was fun to go back. I left working at the White House, but I got to go back when the team came up there.” GIBBS » From A1 “By being in the high technology business, I want to help support that endeavor to expand Au-burn’s research opportu-nities,” DeMaioribus said. “I am hoping to bring that aspect of my background to the University as best I can.” DeMaioribus has re-mained involved with Au-burn since graduating. “I have been involved with the University for a while when I chaired the Electrical Engineering Ad-visory Board,” DeMaiori-bus said. DeMaioribus said he also has worked with the dean of engineering. “I am excited now to be able to work across the whole campus and all the colleges and the different functions of the Universi-ty.” TRUSTEE » From A1 TOOMERS » From A1 “Whatever scheme we settle on, we don’t think could be accomplished be-fore the coming football sea-son,” King said. “The target will probably be the start of the 2014 football season, but it could go later than that.” King said they have been working with the city on in-stalling some temporary structures in the intersec-tion where cables would be strung so people can roll those during the football season. COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING The wall scheme option would offer brick seatwalls behind the oaks. Thursday, February 28, 2013 The Auburn Plainsman Campus A3 Help Kenny and Eric kickoff the hottest tour of the season in sunny Tampa Bay! S p r i n g B r e a k P l a n s ? PBTI-35670.1 BE NATURAL. $1000 Test Drive Every Bed*- All Week $10 Any Regular Spray Tan $10 *Enjoy one session each – Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond for $10 or any Regular Spray Tan for $10. Valid for new customers only, one time only. Sunbed sessions must be used within 7 days of date of purchase. Beds vary by location—substitutions may apply. Regular membership rules apply. Sunless session must be used at the time of purchase. Must present coupon to receive offer. Offers cannot be combined with any other coupon or offer. See salon for details. All rights reserved. Offer expires 3/31/13. ANNALUE 814A Annalue Dr. (Corner of Dean & Annalue) 25 Beds! 334-826-7778 COLLEGE STREET 1499-C South College St. 32 Beds! 334-826-7710 Retirement of professors brings changes in department Becky Hardy CAMPUS EDITOR With the baby boomer gen-eration coming close to time of retirement, the agriculture de-partment is seeing an increase in retirement for many profes-sors, as well as, an increase in new practices. Many of the senior profes-sors are retiring or are close to retiring within the next year or two. As a result of the GI Bill, many of the men who fought in World War II were allowed to complete Ph.D.s following their service. Many then pur-sued careers as professors. These professors were then re-placed with the professors that are retiring now. “We’ve all been here 30 years and it’s time for us to move on,” said Keith Cummins, retir-ing animal sciences professor. “Now you have this big slug that has moved through be-cause World War II took peo-ple out and then 30 years lat-er you educated us and then 30 years later we have another lump coming in.” All the senior professors in the department have grown up on some type of ranch or farm, which provided them with the hands on experience they needed to excel in the ag-riculture field, a strong advan-tage over those who did not. “Our departments have labs that have a lot more hand-on stuff that we would not have done when I was in college because everyone in my class when I was an undergrad grew up on a farm except one kid,” said Steve Schmidt, animal sci-ences professor. “He was very naïve about a lot of things, but we didn’t do those things in lab because we did those things at home.” Because many students in-terested in agriculture and an-imal sciences have grown up in urban areas, the department offers more hands-on experi-ence in labs. “Naturally hands-on experi-ence brings to the table some components that are not avail-able if you don’t have hands-on experience, especially in ag-riculture, particularly animal agriculture, whether it’s being hands-on with products and living animals,” said Bob Ebert, retiring extension animal sci-entist. “It is important, but the flip side of that is a college de-gree is nothing more than a li-cense to learn more, so if you’re truly dedicated to being a uni-versity employee you’ll make sure you keep updated on what’s going on in the animal agriculture world.” Cummins said the amount of ‘over-educated farm kids,’ students who learned more hands-on experience at home than in the classroom, that need to replace the senior staff do not exist anymore. “Those kind of people don’t’ exist anymore, but everyone still expects to eat,” Cummins said. “Agriculture is a huge, massive industry in the Unit-ed States, but students are just not all that interested in farm-ing. Everyone still has it in their head that farming is the little red barn form grandma and grandpa’s, but it’s not. It’s industrialized.” Although hands-on experi-ence is irreplaceable, science moves on, Schmidt said. “People are doing research that I was told was on the ho-rizon when I was in school,” Schmidt said. “Some of us that are older have to go back to school, so to speak, and get retrained and do some of the things that we are doing to-day.” Along with changes in train-ing students, teaching meth-ods have also changed. Cummins believes that most of the teaching styles will lean toward lectures after most of the senior staff retires. “It hasn’t started as a pro-cess yet, but I would not be surprised if you (ended) up with six to eight lectures at the master’s level if the (younger generations) did the teaching because money’s tight,” Cum-mins said. “You’re only going to get a professor’s job if you come in with two post docs and a grant in hand.” Although the retiring pro-fessors have enjoyed their time here at Auburn, it is time for them to accomplish other things. “I’m facing uncharted wa-ters because I have not been retired,” Ebert said. “That’s not saying I don’t have a little bit of regret, but the flip side of that is, like I told many of my co-workers, when it comes to retire, you’ll know. I know it’s time for me to retire.” Along with Ebert, Cummins said he has also enjoyed his time here interacting with stu-dents who are always chang-ing. “Change always happens and this department and this college is going to change,” Cummins said. “This college needs to move from growing food to producing food.” Although Schmidt is not re-tiring he said that he has faith in whoever takes his place. “We have lot of bright, young people and I’m not wor-ried that they won’t be able to carry it on,” Schmidt said. RAYE MAY/ PHOTO EDITOR The agriculture department is integrating more hands-on experience in labs for students who did not have that experience growing up. Air Force holds spaghetti dinner Will Gaines SPORTS REPORTER With the heavy rain that came through Auburn last Friday night not many people would be having outdoor ac-tivities on Saturday, unless you are associated with Air Force ROTC. On Saturday, Feb. 23, the AFROTC hosted its annual Spaghetti Dinner at the Nich-ols Center. The Spaghetti Dinner is hosted annually by the Arnold Air Society to help raise funds for their Squadron known as the John “Boots” Stratford Squadron. “The Arnold Air Society is a special service organization devoted to promoting aero-space power,” said Operations Officer, Cadet 1st Lt. Han-nah Beals. “So what that real-ly means is that we’re an orga-nization that’s only open to Air Force cadets. We get together and do extra stuff. We do com-munity service and work on our own things. It’s a national organization that does amaz-ing stuff throughout the coun-try.” Activities that were avail-able at the dinner on Satur-day were volleyball, music en-tertainment, a water slide and all-you-can-eat spaghetti. “We do it every year,” Beals said. “It’s just a fun relaxed day where we can have fellowship among our society and bring people in to promote what we do on campus so people can see what Arnold Air is all about.” The spaghetti dinner has been going on at Auburn for approximately 10 years. AFROTC cadets from oth-er schools have the opportu-nity to get together in a social event highlighted by competi-tive sporting events. “Auburn has a really long-standing tradition of winning the Gamma Cup,” Beals said. “So it kind of came out of that because this weekend is usual-ly Gamma Cup weekend. Ev-eryone would come to that and we would make them all dinner and raise a little mon-ey for our squadron. It was a great way to interact with a bunch of different detach-ments throughout the South-east.” The Gamma Cup is now hosted by Clemson Univer-sity, but the spaghetti dinner and the fundraiser remained uniquely Auburn. “Now it’s just a tradition we do every year and it’s just a great fundraiser,” Beals said. “We make a profit and it’s just fun.” Tickets were sold for $3 dur-ing the week or $5 at the door on Saturday, with proceeds di-rectly benefiting the Air Force ROTC. “We have a National Con-clave every year because the society is a national organiza-tion,” said Will Powell, squad-ron leader. “To send somebody to that is like $300 a person. So we do things like this to help raise money so we can send people to that.” The Air Force ROTC also holds events in the fall such as a Prisoner of War Missing in Action Day. The money raised at this event goes to support the Prisoner of War Initative. Powell believes, that more importantly than raising mon-ey, it also is something that is fun. “Its huge,” Powell said. “You get people out playing volley-ball, having dinner together and socializing.” CONTRIBUTED BY The Air Force was able to raise approximately $200 at the dinner. Campus A4 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, February 28, 2013 Thursday is Burger Night Burgers $5.99 where friends meet friends 1151 Opelika Road Auburn, AL 36830 334-821-3118 www.niffersplace.com The loss of a pilot, the gain of a legacy Corey Arwood CAMPUS WRITER The Department of Aviation and Supply Chain Manage-ment lost a faculty member, its students lost a professor, but the colleagues of Dr. Ray-mond Allen Hamilton II, lost a comrade. Hamilton, who had been an associate professor of aviation policy at Auburn since 2000 died on Saturday, Feb. 16. “People who are involved in aviation, there is kind of a camaraderie there; it’s un-like something, I don’t know, like an English major,” said Dr. Randy Johnson, associate professor in the Department of Aviation and Supply Chain Management. Hamilton was at Auburn when Johnson arrived about 10 years ago, both had military experience in common. Hamilton was born on Dec. 25, 1939, in Oklahoma. Having graduated in the USAF Acade-my in 1963, he went on to ac-cumulate more than 5,000 hours of flying experience; ap-proximately 300 of those were during combat. He was active in the Viet-nam War, having flown in 73 reconnaissance missions, and was commended the Distin-guished Flying Cross medal. Hamilton retired from the military in 1990 as a colonel. “He cared deeply about his students,” Johnson said. “He loved the program a great deal.” However it was not Ham-ilton’s first teaching appoint-ment. Before he came to Au-burn in 2000 he had been the dean of the USAF Air War Col-lege at Maxwell Air Force Base, in Montgomery, and had also worked with the University of Oklahoma as a director of ad-vanced programs. “When I look back he’s got a very long and distinguished career, and he didn’t need to come to Auburn and do this,” said Dr. Bill Hardgrave, dean and Wells Fargo professor, of the College of Business. “He did it because he want-ed to and because he loved be-ing around students. He loved introducing students to Avi-ation, and teaching them avi-ation. It was really the love of his discipline that really drove him.” Hamilton also received his Federal Aviation Administra-tion transport pilot and a tur-bojet flight engineer rating, during his time working with United Airlines. “He was a really good guy that cared about his students,” said David Wareham, senior in aviation management, and a student in Hamilton’s Glob-al Air Transportation Manage-ment class. “He made class in-teresting, and it was clear that he knew what he was talking about.” Hamilton received his DPA from the University of Ala-bama in 1990, and his mas-ters in science from Louisiana State University in 1973, fol-lowing his Bachelors from the USAF. He led research programs on attitude, strength and the personality attributes of pro-fessional aircrews, and also helped direct the Flight Man-agement Program after some time of working at the region-al airport. It was because of Hamil-ton’s extensive knowledge and his experience in the aviation field that he began serving as the Aviation Program Coor-dinator, for Dr. Joe Hanna, as-sociate dean of Research and Outreach, and also the Re-gions Bank professor, who at the time was the department chair. “He had a passion for the aviation discipline in gener-al but also just passion for the aviation program at Auburn; but certainly a passion to work with the students and put the students in a position to suc-ceed upon graduation,” Hanna said. “That was the thing that everybody knew about Ray, is that he was focused on helping his students.” He has two children, Mon-te Rex and Christine, and was married to Malissa Duggan of Albany, Ga., who died a few years ago. “I know he loved his wife deeply,” Johnson said. “She contracted Alzheimer’s, when I first came here and he stayed with her; never put her in a home, always kept her, took care of her. I know personal-ly it cost him a lot of money to do that. But he did it. He made sure she was taken care of and lived with her.” His obituary instructed all who wanted to send memo-rials in his name, to donate them to the Alzheimer’s Asso-ciation. Raptor Center releases owls into wild Lance Davis SPORTS REPORTER The Southeastern Raptor Center at Auburn Universi-ty released five owls into the wild Friday, Feb. 22, at the Lou-ise Kreher Forest Ecology Pre-serve. The Raptor Center released one Eastern Screech-Owl, two Barn Owls and two Barred Owls into the forest during a substantial rain shower. The owls were released right after 5 p.m., each one having recovered from injuries suf-fered from hitting a car. “I think all the owls we re-leased today were struck by cars or they were found with a broken wing, broken leg, head trauma,” said Rhett Laporte, sophomore in wildlife ecology. “Something dealing with hit-ting a car or hitting a window.” The Southeastern Raptor Center does not raise the owls from birth, but rather takes in injured ones. However, the center will take in baby owls in certain situations. “They don’t raise any,” said Jennifer Lolley, administrator of the preserve. “Occasional-ly they do get babies that have come out of nests that people think are lost and they prob-ably shouldn’t have touched them. They’ll bring them in and they have to just raise them for about six weeks or so.” It typically takes about six months to a year for owls to heal to the point that they can be released back into the wild. “It depends on what the in-jury is,” said Jamie Bellah, di-rector of the Southeastern Raptor Center. “If it’s some type of concussion or they had their bell rung, sometimes it’s just a few days. Some of the fractures can take as long as our fractures to heal, and that might be eight to 12 weeks. Bellah said that the birds have to regain muscle strength and evaluate how well they’re doing before they can be re-leased. “They have to be athletes,” Bellah said. “You saw how well these birds flew. A lot of them aren’t able to fly that well.” The owls have to pass a flight test before being re-leased. “They have to have enough endurance to be able to fly around,” Laporte said. “We have flight testing usually the week prior to the release to make sure that they’re go-ing to be able to survive out in the wild. They usually have to make a perfect score on the flight test to be released.” Owls are released into the wild often at the preserve, af-ter they have recovered. “We’ve released proba-bly about 150 birds out here, but it’s just whenever they’re ready,” Lolley said. “There’s no rhyme or reason to the set time.” Among the notable charac-teristics of the owl is its abili-ty to turn its head almost com-pletely around. “About 270 degrees,” Bellah said. “The owls tend to look like they’re always staring at you. They can’t move the globe in the socket of the eye, or the orbit like we can. We can keep our heads still and look to the right and left. An owl cannot do that. So if they want to look at something to the left, they look to the left. It’s a pierc-ing stare, but it’s because they have to.” CONTRIBUTED BY JENNIFER LOLLEY The Raptor Center released three types of owls inlcuding the Eastern Screech-Owl, Barn Owls and Barred Owls. George Nunnelley WRITER What would you guess Au-burn University budgets $23 million a year for? Athletics, right? Wrong; it’s water and ener-gy usage. For the fifth year in a row, the Office of Sustainability has organized a month-long ener-gy and water reduction com-petition called “Sustain-A-Bowl.” It is a competition among all dorms on campus to see who can cut back the most on energy and water usage. Over the last four years, the competition has saved $36,000 for the University. “People always tend to think about recycling when they think about sustainability,” said Jen Morse, communica-tion and outreach coordinator in the Office of Sustainability. “Don’t get me wrong, it plays a major part, but there is so much more to be understood.” The goals for Sustain-A-Bowl 2013 and the month of February are to reduce water and energy usage by 10 per-cent. The events that have been held throughout the month of February include a campus conversation, a recycling town hall meeting to raise aware-ness about what to recycle, a movie night (the watching of “Chasing Ice”) and an invasive-plant cleanup event called the Parkerson Mill Creek Round-up. Many of these races are very close, and at this point it is al-most any dorm’s competition to win. For additional information, visit ThePlainsman.com. Sustain-A-Bowl sparks competition among residence halls Eva Woghiren WRITER Students encouraging stu-dents, peers helping peers, friends educating friends, this is the idea behind The Be Well Hut student wellness program on campus. Auburn Health Promotions and Wellness Services brought a new outreach program to campus this semester. Each week the program hosts a dif-ferent theme to promote well-ness and health for students. Eric Smith, director of HPWS, and Brittany Lop-er, former health promotion specialist, wanted to bring a peer health education pro-gram to Auburn, so they visit-ed schools around the nation that had a similar idea to find out more. “We then talked with our learning communities in the fall and said, ‘Hey, this is our idea, do you think it would be something Auburn students would like and participate in?’” Smith said. “After we got good feedback we decided to pursue it.” They have volunteers to run the program and have two stu-dent co-directors, Lisa Gane, senior in exercise science, and Adam Sturdivant, junior in un-declared in science and math. Each team leader is re-sponsible for a different topic, which range from substance use to body image, every week . The program wants to pro-mote health and put it out there so students are more aware of their choices. Sunday, Feb. 24- Saturday, March 2, is National Eating Disorders Awareness week, so the hut is partnering up with Auburn University Body Image and Eating Disorders Aware-ness, AUBIE-EDA. “It is a touchy subject so we have to be careful,” said Emily Lewis, junior in nutrition and dietetics and team leader. For more visit ThePlains-man. com. The Be Well Hut promotes overall health on campus CONTRIBUTED BY MONTE REX HAMILTON Hamilton served in the Air Force for 27 years. Thursday, February 28, 2013 The Auburn Plainsman Campus A5 We Believe in each other! Become a Student Ambassador! For additional information or to complete an application, please visit the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs’ website at www.auburn.edu/dsa. The application deadline is March 8. The Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs is seeking energetic, self-motivated, enthusiastic students to become Student Ambassadors. Ambassadors help host official functions and events and act as student liaisons to various communities the office serves. Improve your interpersonal skills through interacting and networking with other students, faculty, administrators, alumni, and community members. •Get involved on campus •Meet culturally and ethnically diverse students •Contribute to Auburn’s diversity initiatives •Gain leadership, interpersonal, and public speaking skills AMBASSADORS_ Plainsman Ad_2013.indd 1 2/15/13 10:48 AM KSU Take Flight Want to pick up the pace for finishing your degree? Consider summer classes at Kennesaw Sta te University. KSU has flexible scheduling options and start dates, so you can get ahead with courses and still enjoy your summer. Choose from 2, 4, 6, and 8-week sessions. On campus, hybrid and online courses are available. • Transient student application and document deadline is April 19, 2013 • Classes begin as early as May 13 and end as late as July 28, depending on the session • Starting March 4, check the KSU Registrar’s website at www.kennesaw.edu for the schedule of courses for summer Apply online now at admissions.kennesaw.edu Office of Admissions • 770.423.6300 Three students named YMA fashion scholars Kailey Miller CAMPUS REPORTER Three Auburn students have been named YMA Fash-ion Scholars, each receiving $5,000 from the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund. Sara Gardner, senior in ap-parel merchandising; Hannah Blevins, senior in apparel mer-chandising; and Kelsey Reyn-olds, senior in apparel design, were the three recipients. None of them expected to actually win the scholarship. “It was kind of a shot in the dark,” Reynolds said. “I just wanted to go ahead and ap-ply for it and see if I could get it and see what opportunities came out of it.” The girls were among ap-proximately 100 other people who received the scholarship throughout the country, but many more applied for it. The YMA Fashion Schol-arship Fund is very selective with who they send their in-formation to. They select a number of universities across the Unit-ed States and then professors at those universities choose the students that they think should apply, Reynolds said. “They want the students who apply to do a job that will represent the university well,” Reynolds said. Each recipient was contact-ed by the dean of their college and given the guidelines for the process. The application process consisted of multiple parts. “We had to write a case study which consisted of a few different parts,” Gardner said. “We had a phone interview as well.” The case study was different for the design students and the merchandising students. The design students had to create a clothing line for pre-teens, while the merchandis-ing students created a finan-cial plan for the line, Gardner said. “We had to have mar-keting techniques, how we were going to advertise for it, where we were going to sell it,” Blevins said. “Every sin-gle component of a six month plan we had to come up with on our own within one month and had school on top of all of that so it was a lot of work for what seemed like I didn’t even know if I was going to win, but it was definitely worth it.” Reynolds said that she used more of the design techniques that she has learned through-out her major. The three scholarship recip-ients all said that the best part of the process was the connec-tions that they made for their future. The recipients flew to New York and met with college rep-resentatives from multiple brand name companies like Macy’s. “There was a ton of college representatives there for us to meet and greet with and real-ly just make connections with,” Blevins said. Blevins said this is really what she wants to do with her major. “I really wanted to be able to know what it’s going to be like when I’m out of college and what I am going to have to do on a regular basis,” Blevins said. The scholarship mon-ey comes from donors in the fashion industry and Geoffrey Beene, American fashion de-signer. “The Geoffrey Beene schol-arship donated a lot of money just for this cause because he believed in fashion students and what they could achieve,” Blevins said. “They really be-lieve that we are the leaders in the fashion industry.” CONTRIBUTED BY KELSEY REYNOLDS Reynolds’ design concept pictured left. Dining at the YMA event pic-tured above. Blevins and her design for the AMDA show when she en-tered the Experimental Hardware competition pictured right. GARDNER BLEVINS REYNOLDS A6 Thursday, February 28, 2013 ThePlainsman.com Opinions Opinions Mailing Address Auburn Student Center Suite 1111H Auburn, AL 36849 Contact Phone 334–844–4130 Email opinion@theplainsman.com Policy The opinions of The Auburn Plainsman staff are restrict-ed to these pages. This editorial is the majority opinion of the 12-member editorial board and are the official opin-ion of the newspaper. The opinions expressed in columns and letters represent the views and opinions of their indi-vidual authors and do not necessarily reflect the Auburn University student body, faculty, administration or Board of Trustees. Submissions The Auburn Plainsman welcomes letters from students as well as from faculty, administrators, alumni and those not affiliated with the University. Letters must be submitted be-fore 4:30 p.m. on the Monday for publication. Letters must include the author’s name, address and phone number for verification, though the name of the author may be with-held upon request. Submission may be edited for gram-mar and/or length. The Editorial Board ROBERT E. LEE Editor-in-Chief Nathan Simone MANAGING EDITOR Ben Croomes OPINIONS EDITOR Bianca N. Seward COPY EDITOR Dustin Shrader ONLINE EDITOR Daniel Oramas MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Sydney Callis COMMUNITY EDITOR Becky Hardy CAMPUS EDITOR John Burns SPORTS EDITOR Elizabeth Weick INTRIGUE EDITOR Raye May PHOTO EDITOR Rachel Suhs DESIGN EDITOR Our View His View Letter to the editor A big part of being a journalist is writing negative and sometimes heartbreaking stories. So this week, we’re taking a break from the downbeat and celebrating some-thing fabulous. The Auburn Gay-Straight Alliance is putting on its fifth annual drag show on Saturday, March 2, and we want to extend our support. On the national scale, gay rights are extremely controversial. Gay marriage should be a rather simple issue. If they’re in love, they deserve to get married and en-joy the same benefits as straight couples, no big deal. Unfortunately, the more narrow-mind-ed among us don’t agree. Whether they are citing religious rea-sons, political concerns or just plain old homophobia, those opposed to equal rights for the LGBT community see gay marriage as a threat to what they think is the core of our country: family. Of course, there is no credible data anywhere to sug-gest gay marriage will stamp out the Amer-ican family — whatever that means — but it still is a popular belief among the oppo-sition. As far as the South is concerned, the national anti-gay sentiments seem to be concentrated. Perhaps it is the tenden-cy for the South to always be behind the curve on civil rights, or maybe it’s the over-whelming religious presence, we can’t say for sure. What we can say is being gay in America is tough. Sure, gay men and women have it a lot worse in other places in the world, but those places don’t tout freedom and equality as part of their national ethos. Being gay in the South is even more of a challenge. The South, especially Alabama, has a long history of intolerance and bigot-ry. It’s only been approximately 50 years since black people were subjected to dogs and firehoses in Birmingham. Although the state doesn’t have the overt opposi-tion to the LGBT community it did to the black community, the intolerance is still there. It’s because of that undercurrent of prejudice that we support and encour-age our friends at Spectrum to say it loud and say it proud. The first drag show in 2009 was to raise awareness for the absence of Gen-der Identity and Gender Expression in the University’s nondiscrimination pol-icy. Last spring, the SGA passed a reso-lution to add the clause, and once it has moved though the administration, it will become official. We want to let Spectrum and the larger LGBT student population know The Plainsman has their back. We be-lieve that anyone can be part of the Auburn family, and we hope someday soon the rest of the country can learn that we’re all human, and freedom and equality doesn’t just apply to straight white Christian men. Professional baseball season is right around the corner, and for many, if not most of us, that means there’s another chance for us to follow the Braves to the postseason, only to see them collapse. At least, that’s what has happened (or similar to it) the last three years. Well I think this year is going to be different. Of course, I think every year is going to be different, but I truly believe this Atlanta Braves team is better than last year’s. Yes, Chipper is gone, so is Martin Pra-do, but there are some key additions that spell success for the Braves. In case you’ve been living under an anti-Braves rock for the past few months, Frank Wren, who is the gener-al manager, acquired B.J. and Justin Up-ton in the offseason to play center and right field, respectively. Both of the Uptons could definite-ly hit 30 home runs and have 20 steals next season. Couple that with Jason Heyward, who is capable of similar pro-duction, and you have the fastest, most powerful outfield in the majors. Now let’s have a look at the infield. We’ll start with catcher Brian Mc- Cann. He had probably his worst season ever last year, but had offseason shoul-der surgery, which could get him back to prime form. When McCann returns, presumably around mid-April, he should return to being one of the more clutch catchers in baseball, but only time will tell if he’ll be healthy enough to produce big num-bers. First baseman Freddie Freeman put on some serious bulk last offseason, and could be set for a breakout year. It was looking like last year would be his season, but he hurt his eye, which sent his production plummeting. A healthy Freeman in the heart of the Braves order would just add another huge bat to an already powerful team. At second base is Dan—waste of space—Uggla. He’s got power, there’s no doubt about that, but he hasn’t been worth the more than $10 million a year that the Braves have been paying him. On top of that, he’s always good for a rally-killing double play around the bottom of the seventh inning. On the optimistic side, if Uggla comes to play like he did for the Mar-lins, the Braves could be in some seri-ous business, but I’ve thought that for the last two seasons. Andrelton Simmons will start at shortstop, and though he was only a rookie last year, many experts believe he’s the best defender at his position in the majors. Though I’m biased, I tend to agree with them after watching him play last year. The young man is a baseball vacuum on the left side of the field. He’s also not a bad hitter, so his offen-sive production is just a bonus to his su-perb defensive play. At third base is newcomer Chris Johnson. I really don’t know much about the guy, and he could never re-place Chipper, but he is a career .276 batter, which isn’t bad in my book. OK, now on to starting pitchers. The ace is Kris Medlen, no doubt about it. When he became a starter last sea-son Medlen posted a 0.97 ERA in 12 starts, which is just filthy good. Auburn grad Tim Hudson will be a workhorse as always. My only concern is that Hudson is getting on up there in age, 37, so here’s hoping he has a few quality seasons left in the tank. Southpaws Mike Minor and Paul Maholm showed flashes of brilliance last season, and if they can both be a bit more consistent the top four on the Braves rotation will be solid. While the team waits for top pitch-er Brandon Beachy to return from sur-gery, the Braves will have to rely on Ju-lio Teheran. He’s a fairly good fifth choice, but will probably be sent down to the minors when Beachy returns. Finally, here’s the bullpen. It’s been tagged as the best bullpen in the Majors, and rightly so with the arms of Craig Kimbrel, Johnny Venters, Eric O’Flaherty, Jordan Walden and Chris-tian Martinez. Kimbrel is all but unhittable with a 98 MPH fastball that moves a lot, and the dirtiest slider in the game, while Ven-ters and O’Flaherty could be closing for most teams in baseball. What more do I have to say? On paper this team looks unbeat-able, so now the Braves just have to get the ball rolling to a World Series. OK, that’s looking way too far ahead, but this season it really isn’t out of the realm of possibility. It’s not because I am lazy or be-cause I did not like the people who ran in it — I have voted in past SGA elections. Those times, it was largely be-cause I knew the person who was running and liked them person-ally. This election cycle, howev-er, I choose to abstain from voting even though I knew many of the candidates and personally liked many of them... I chose not to vote on principle. I’m sure some people would read that and wonder: “what on earth would hold me back from voting in SGA elections?” The sim-ple answer is that I detest the po-liticization of society. People are more than ever try-ing to seek political solutions to problems that should be solved outside of the political realm. Peo-ple who wanted to change their community, their country, and the world used to go out and create organizations and businesses that really did change the world. How-ever, now people instead seek po-litical office for the sake of politi-cal office. An office is now the end, when it used to be a mean towards an actual political goal. Miss Auburn is a wonderful ex-ample of this. It is not that I dis-like any past Miss Auburns or any of their platforms, quite the oppo-site. I’m sure they’re outstanding people; moreover, I thought many of them supported outstanding causes. But why do we have to pick just one? It seems rather obvious to me that not all Auburn students are exactly alike. So why, then, do we have a one-size-fits-all Miss Auburn? It’s sad that simply be-cause the other four Miss Auburn candidates could not get enough votes to win the public will aban-don their admirable goals. SGA campaigns run on plat-forms such as: improving on cam-pus dining, transportation, park-ing and student life. Many of these areas of student life are a mess be-cause the school runs them in the first place. Why then are we using election politics to add to the bu-reaucracy? So many of these is-sues could simply be solved by vol-untary student interaction. Students should look for ways to solve these things through cam-pus organizations, educational campaigns, or markets. This way the students who really care can get involved without forcing the other students to participate as well. Voluntary participation will ALWAYS be more effective than in-voluntary participation or grossly generalized student representa-tion. There was something off about SGA week: everyone was out in force doing good deeds like open-ing doors, saying hello, and tak-ing more of an interest in the peo-ple they see all year long. The rest of the year they would likely let the door shut and ignore them. It bothers me that all these peo-ple around campus suddenly be-come very thoughtful when there is an election to win. This doesn’t mean these are bad people but it is incredibly disingenuous and, hon-estly, a little offensive. Ultimately, I wish that these proactive students would instead strive to be entrepreneurs, not politicians. Entrepreneurs are the people who bring us innovations like iPhones and Facebook; all vol-untarily. Last fall AU IJM launched a hugely successful student-led campaign to end slavery, all just because a few students saw a need and filled it. They did this all with-out dime from the school. These are the people who really solve problems. We should aspire to be like them—socially conscious and economically effective on their own time and funds. Michael Nathan Magan Senior Economics In the past two weeks, I have been extremely disappointed and frankly, screwed over by the Ti-ger Transit system. I have seen my driver peruse the smart phone on their dash while driving, which, for anyone who has been living under a rock, is extremely danger-ous when operating any vehicle, let alone a bus full of students… oh, and it’s illegal. One ride home had our bus pulling a U-turn in the middle of oncoming traffic on South Col-lege because the driver missed a turn. My driver often barely comes to a stop at my complex because it’s not a popular destination and I have to ask them to let me off. Multiple times I have been turned away from a bus because it was too full. The latest incident had me wait-ing in the cold rain for ten min-utes because all the buses on my line were bunched up at the same stops. Things happen, I under-stand. But as the minutes ticked away, I watched four buses come and go from the complex across the street. A bus finally pulled in, but all the students waiting were told, “Sorry. Too full. There’s an-other bus coming.” So despite the fact that I arrived at the stop early, I waited in the rain for twenty min-utes and was late to my first class. I live at the last stop of my line, so the bus is bound to be full, partic-ularly after picking up a number of students from the big apartment complex right before mine. How-ever, the large volume of students is to be expected, so why day after day does it seem to come as a sur-prise to the operators? We are told to ride the Transit in an attempt to alleviate the park-ing crisis on campus, but then we are left in the dust because the sys-tem isn’t efficient. I appreciate Au-burn’s attempt to provide alterna-tives for the $160-first-come-first-serve- Hunger-Games-style-lottery parking pass. Personally, I’m doing my best to work with the system by getting to the stops early and planning for slow travel times, yet more often than not, I’ve been up a creek due to poor operation. Auburn, your students are try-ing to contribute to the parking solution, but we’re tired of being thrown under, or rather, left be-hind by the bus. Ashley Selby Senior Journalism Homophobia is such a drag RACHEL SUHS/DESIGN EDITOR Commuters left out in the cold Why I didn’t vote in this year’s SGA election JOHN BURNS SPORTS@ THEPLAINSMAN.COM It’s the Braves’ year for playoff victory A7 Thursday, February 28, 2013 ThePlainsman.com Community Community Continual rise in gas prices is affecting citizens’ travel First Aubie now representing a different house Abigail O’Brien COMMUNITY WRITER Believe it or not, there was a time when the Auburn Family was absent of its most beloved tiger: the popular tail swinging, strut-walking, head bobbing, daredevil mascot who has be-come a seal of the Auburn spirit. The idea for a mascot suit came in the year of 1979, as Auburn’s SGA began to dream of a put-ting “flesh” to the idea of Aubie the Tiger. The student who would eventually win the slot to cheer and dance and sweat in the mas-sive ¾ inch thick suit was a Phi Kappa Tau from Montgomery: now state representative, Barry Mask. “It was just sort of a tough time back then,” Mask said. “Auburn was again in the shadow of Alabama. We just needed something to spark up some stuff.” Mask said James Lloyd, SGA’s spirit director, connected with Dr. Julian Holmes, associate di-rector of the Alumni Association. The idea for Aubie was essentially an experi-ment, Mask said. “And it just took off,” Mask said. Mask began his journey as Aubie the Tiger trying out with a skit he made up to Michael Jackson’s 1979 hit, “Working Day and Night,” he said. Mask was the first to wear the striped suit and is credited for setting the tone of the Aubie per-sonality. “Barry set the bar,” said Danny Richards, alumnus of ’82 and the 3rd Aubie. “Barry did so many things that we would try and emulate in a lot of the stuff that we did.” Mask said that Lloyd told him that it was up to him to figure out who the mascot would be. And so from the beginning, Mask decided the fun-loving, fur-covered tiger would have a few signature trademarks: “He’s going to be sort of like the Pink Panther…and he’s going to be all about the kids, he’s going to be a good dancer, and he’s going to be a ladies’ man,” Mask said. Richards remembers Barry as a risk-taker while in the suit, pioneering ahead with bold moves that would come to brand the mascot’s personality. One such move was leaning up against the goalpost, as was the tradition of Bear Bryant, dressed in a red coat and houndstooth hat. “There were no rules, there was no handbook, there was no committee, there was just making it up as we went along,” Richards said. Mask laughs as he talks about the advice he would give to the upcoming Aubies. “Cause I would tell the guys, ‘Hey, if you’re not pushing the envelope and perhaps getting into a little bit of trouble, you’re not being Aubie,’” he said. Stan McDonald, alumnus of ’83 who worked closely with the spirit committee and was a freshman during Mask’s year as Aubie, remem-bers vividly the first day he saw the tiger. It was a home game against Southern Missis-sippi, early September, McDonald said. “And all of a sudden, this hot air balloon- a huge one- shows up, flying over the stadium, and doggone, there’s somebody in it,” McDonald said. “Everybody’s laughing and pointing. And it’s this dressed-up tiger.” McDonald said Mask was an exceptional dancer and a natural-born artist, able to impro-vise while in the spotlight. “No one can dance like (the first)Aubie did,” McDonald said. McDonald also said he felt Barry as Aubie connected both the younger and older genera-tions to the joy, love and happiness of Auburn. “You know, when the young people saw that tiger, they saw fun, they saw confidence, they saw happiness and joy,” McDonald said. “When the older people saw Aubie, they thought of maybe some of their more mischievous days, maybe they thought of what it was like to have that ‘not care’ attitude, maybe they thought of days when they could dance real good or they were real funny.” Yet, Mask was more than a good dancer. During his time at Auburn, he was president of the Interfraternity Council and started the Dean Cater Shug Jordan Leukemia Fund. McDonald remembers his surprise discover-ing the depth of interest in people, politics and community beneath the gregarious Barry Mask Aubie persona. “When you saw him on the field, you’d say, ‘Now that’s a classic cutup, and he probably doesn’t have a serious thought,’” McDonald said. Mask had done SGA in high school and said he always knew he wanted to end up in the po-litical sphere. “Aubie pulls people together and unites peo-ple, and I like to think that’s what I try to do, and all the people that’s worn the suit, I think feel that same way,” Mask said. While serving as state representative, Mask is currently chairman of the House Economic Development and Tourism Committee, chair-man of the Legislative Building Authority, vice chairman of Internal Affairs and member of the House Ways and Means Higher Education sub-committee. In what little free time he has, he likes to boat or fish on Lake Martin or quail hunt. He has been a season-ticket holder for 25 years and continues to come to Auburn once a month, he said, to assist in his role as presi-dent of the house core of his fraternity, Phi Kap-pa Tau. COURTESY OF BARRY MASK Barry Mask dressed as Aubie while sporting a houndstooth hat during the 1979 Iron Bowl. Mask is currently the representative for Coosa and Elmore coun-ties in the Alabama House. Significance of revolutionary gardens to be discussed at JCSM Benjamin Hohenstatt WRITER Biblically, gardens played a funda-mental role in the history of man, but according to author Andrea Wulf, gar-dens were also extremely important to a more recent genesis; the creation of our country. Wulf, author of the book, “Founding Gardens: The Revolutionary Genera-tion,” will be speaking at the Jule Col-lins Smith Museum of Fine Art. The lecture will focus on the histo-ry of American gardens and their po-litical motifs. “We invited Andrea to speak be-cause she’s an interesting speaker and a great writer,” said Scott Bishop, cura-tor of education. However, this will not be Wulf ’s first time speaking in Auburn. “She’s a good speaker,” Bishop said. “She knows the University and the re-gional community.” The lecture is titled “Revolutionary Gardens” and will describe the involve-ment and evolution of gardens during the Revolutionary War time period. Wulf said that she plans to make the speech both informative and enter-taining. The audience should not ex-pect an instructive speech about gar-dening. Wulf became interested in garden-ing as a method for identifying with Britain after she moved there from Germany, however, it is in the sto-ries behind gardens and the symbol-ic statements that gardens make that appeal to Wulf rather than the activi-ty itself. “I don’t have a green thumb at all,” Wulf said. “I am not a gardener, al-though I’ve gotten much better.” Wulf was quick to elaborate on the element of gardening that she finds fascinating. “Gardens are statements,” Wulf said. “They can be statements of pow-er.” Wulf cited a letter written by George Washington as an example of the po-tential of gardens to send political messages. Days before the Battle of New York, Washington sent a letter to his home requesting that all of the plants in his garden be native to America. While it may seem odd that George Washington had time to send a letter about gardening, Wulf said it wasn’t trivial. “It was his horticultural declaration of independence,” Wulf said. According to Wulf, gardens and their political statements are largely influenced by their home country. “In America, historically the land is much more associated with freedom and liberty,” Wulf said. Wulf said that American gardens also tend to place equal importance on form and functionality. Examples of this characteristic ranged from a temple in the garden of James Madison that doubled as an icehouse to modern spice gardens ac-cording to Wulf. Bishop said Wulf ’s dual focus on history and gardening is appropriate for the event. The lecture will serve as the start of a joint educational program between JCSM and Donald E. Davis Arboretum. The educational program serves as a celebration of milestone anniversaries for both intuitions as JCSM is now in its 10th year and the Donald E. Davis Arboretum enters its 50th year. Bishop said that aside from the lec-ture, this program will also include the creation of walking maps illustrated by the museum’s James John Audubon prints. The lecture will start at 5 p.m. and include a question and answer session as well as a book signing. After the lec-ture, there will be a reception includ-ing hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar and free soft drinks. Tickets to the March 6 lecture may be reserved online. Sonya Lovejoy FREELANCE MULTIMEDIA Gas prices have been steadily climbing for the last month. While Alabama is typically below the na-tional average, there has been a for-ty- cent per gallon increase since last month’s average. According to AAA, the current Al-abama per gallon cost is $3.64 com-pared to $3.21 only one month ago. Although this appears to be a large increase in just one month, Alabama is only paying approximately seven cents more per gallon than last year at this same time. AAA also reports that the national average per gallon has increased for 33 consecutive days with a 14 per-cent increase. Gas prices typically increase dur-ing mid-February while U.S. refiner-ies perform seasonal maintenance. This year, refineries have been mak-ing the switch to summer blend gas-oline production earlier in the sea-son. In addition, higher crude oil prices have also contributed to the increased prices at the pump. Jessica Yunis, a graduate student in communication, thought that she would be able to handle the mid- February increase by purchasing the fairly gas efficient Volkswagen Golf. “Even though my car is pretty eco-nomic when it comes to gallons per mile, it has affected my traveling plans,” said Yunis. “I have friends in Nashville and Atlanta that I can’t go visit because of the high gas prices.” Alabama in particular has been a national leader in price increas-es over the last week as the average per gallon cost increased by 21 cents. Other states seeing significant in-creases over the last week include Tennessee, Arkansas, South Caroli-na and Mississippi. Citizens and students alike have been forced to seek alternative trav-el accommodations to fight the price hike at the pump. While many students are opting to ride the Tiger Transit or carpool to save money, many citizens don’t have this option. Local residents Shannon Thomp-son and Paul Savelloni have been dealing with gas prices affecting their everyday commute to and from Atlanta. Originally, Thompson and Savel-loni rented an eco-friendly Kia Forte for their commute. Due to the rent-al mileage limit they were forced to switch to their Chevy Equinox SUV. “The increase in gas is definitely affecting us financially,” Thompson said. “On the weekends we have to drive the Kia rather than the Chevy to make sure we are saving money on gas for money that we were not able to save during the week.” There is a light at the end of the tunnel, according to AAA, however. AAA reports that national gas pric-es should begin to decrease in April with a low in July before they are ex-pected to start climbing once again. While the City of Auburn wishes they could help with this gas crisis, they have no role in gas prices or aid-ing the community when prices in-crease. “It would be great if we could low-er them,” said City Manager Charles Duggan, Jr. Until the U.S. refineries have switched to their summer blend gas-oline and the crude oil prices drop, citizens can expect the prices at the pump to continue to climb. RAYE MAY / PHOTO EDITOR A report by AAA said gas prices have been on the rise for 33 consecutive days. “Gardens are statements. They can be statements of power.” —Andrea Wulf AUTHOR AND GUEST LECTURER AT JCSM Community A8 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, February 28, 2013 Available for a limited time at participating SUBWAY® restaurants. SUBWAY® is a registered trademark of Doctor’s Associates Inc. © 2012 Doctor’s Associates Inc. CHICKEN PARMESAN ITALIAN B.M.T.® CHICKEN PIZZIOLA MELT MEATBALL PEPPERONI MELT $10 10 Howie wings AUBURN 1409 S. College St. 1.5 Miles West of the University next to Acapulco’s Mexican Grille 826-5555 OVER 550 LOCATIONS DELIVERY • CARRY-OUT LUNCH • DINNER • LATE NIGHT and any regular sub Plus Sales Tax. Delivery Extra. Limited Time Offer 22063 HH Auburn Plains 1-10-13.indd 3 12/31/12 9:49 AM Rent one booth, get 1 free! Angel’s Antique and Flea Mall.com Attention: Interior Design and Business majors! (334) 745-3221 900 Columbus Parkway|Opelika, AL| 36801 Booths start at $115/month Grab a friend and make $$$! ThePlainsman.com Online Daily! Kiesel Park preparing to celebrate man’s best friend on Sat. March 2 Jherrica Luckie WRITER The Auburn Department of Parks and Recreation is calling all dogs to “Bark in the Park” on Saturday, March 2 at Kiesel Park. Dog owners are welcome, too. The Department of Parks and Recre-ation has gathered pet-friendly vendors from around the Auburn area to help pro-mote and celebrate responsible dog own-ership. “I love dogs dearly, and I oversee many of the activities that go on at the off-leash area of Kiesel Park,” said Melissa Weldon, youth enrichment manager for the Au-burn Parks and Recreation. “After meet-ing and talking with people, I realized that most people really love their dogs, and don’t do all of the things they should for them because they don’t have the infor-mation.” “Bark in the Park” will take place from 9 a.m.–noon and is free to anyone wanting to attend. Weldon said the only require-ment is that all dogs are on a leash at the event. Several local veterinary hospitals and clinics will be giving out information on various dog-related subjects, ranging from dog healthcare to behavioral issues, while other pet-friendly vendors will be selling pet-related products and handing out coupons. The day will begin with a flyball demon-stration by the Dixie Flyers from Birming-ham at 9 a.m. The Alabama Alliance Spay/Neuter Bus will also be on hand to give information on low-cost spaying and neutering, while Buddy Bruce from Opelika will be giving rabies shots for $10. “That’s a lot more affordable than peo-ple can get from their local veterinarian clinics,” Weldon said. Weldon said she believes the event will be a great place for student dog-owners to meet with local veterinarians if they do not already have one. “I think the event is a great idea,” said Tanya Schwab, a veterinary technician at Tiger Town Veterinary Hospital who has been involved with the event both years. “We had a big turn out last year and gave out a lot of information and had fun in the process. It is a win, win.” This year, Tiger Town Veterinary Hospi-tal will be informing people all about dog-allergies at their booth. “We will be talking about everything you can do to help your pet be allergy free,” Schwab said. Future dog owners are also invited to come see many of the dogs that the Lee County Humane Shelter, For Paws Res-cue and the Lee County 4-H Dog Club has available and are hoping to be adopted. “I would love to see the dogs that are looking for a forever home get adopted,” Weldon said. “That would make for a great morning.” Rebekha Perry, director of For Paws Rescue, said they will have five or six adoptable dogs at the event and will be accepting adoption applications. “It is a great opportunity to get our name out there and to try and raise mon-ey for the dogs and cats that we are trying to find homes for,” Perry said. Dog owners will also be able to receive information on micro-chipping from the Pet Vet Animal Hospital and have Kar-lene’s K-9 Academy conduct a CGC Test on the four-legged friend. CGC testing is a 10-step test that requires the dog to do things such as accepting a friendly strang-er and coming when called. Pet Palace, Tractor Supply Company, Sike’s Pet and Farm Supply, For Healthy Pets and Paula Davis Photography will also have booths at the event. Weldon said they hope to double or tri-ple the amount of people that attended last year. “It’s going to be a great day of all things dogs,” Weldon said. COURESTY OF AUBURN PARKS AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT Like at last year’s Bark in the Park event, there will be an opportunity to adopt dogs. Sports B1 Thursday, February 28, 2013 ThePlainsman.com Sports It seems like we’ve been bouncing around which of our coaches are on the hot seat. First there was Chizik, and now it’s none other than bas-ketball coach Tony Barbee. Brought in to replace for-mer coach Jeff Lebo, Barbee has underachieved in a big way since becoming the Tigers’ coach in 2010. This is his third season, and it’s also going to be the third season at the helm of an Au-burn basketball team with a losing record. While it may not have been entirely his fault after one sea-son, or even two, three seasons is enough time to turn a pro-gram around. That is, if you’re the man to do it. Right now it seems that the John Calipari protégé is not that man. His Tigers have an under-achieving record of 9–19 (3–12 SEC) this year with only three regular season games to play. Not to mention that they have lost 12 of their last 13 games, and six in a row. Compare that to his 2010– 2011 and 2011–2012 records which were 11–20 (4–12 SEC) and 15–16 (5–11 SEC) respec-tively, and it seems like the Ti-gers are going backwards. It seems like the basketball team is going backwards be-cause they are. If Barbee makes it to anoth-er season it’s not going to get any easier. The Tigers will lose senior starters Frankie Sullivan, Rob Chubb and Josh Wallace. Chubb and Sullivan are al-most undoubtedly Auburn’s key players, and the men still have a dismal record. It’s not like Barbee did poor-ly in recruiting last year either. In fact, he did well. He signed two four-star ESPN top 100 recruits in Sha-quille Johnson and Jordan Price, and another four-star in Brian Greene. Those players are the future of Auburn men’s basketball, and will need to become lead-ers in the next few seasons. I realize it’s difficult to come into college basketball and im-mediately play well, so obvi-ously the freshmen get a pass on this year, but once again Barbee has had two or three years with many of these play-ers, and still cannot get them to produce wins. The talent is there. Sullivan was close to the top of SEC scoring for much of the sea-son, and is still in the top 10, while Chubb is in the top 10 in rebounds. Since they will be gone next season, new players will have to step up if Barbee has any chance of making it to his fifth season as Auburn’s head coach, and it’s not even cer-tain that he will make it to his fourth. Basketball can be one of the most fun college sports to watch, and obviously most of Auburn’s students feel the same way. Before everyone found out that the team was not going to be anything special, students packed the Auburn Arena on home SEC games. Students were hoping to see something special out of Bar-bee’s side, but the coach let them down. The University would owe Barbee $3 million if it were to relieve him of his coaching duties, and some think that would be a small price to pay for a chance at watching good basketball. 40 yd dash - 4.94 s Bench press - 21 reps Vertical jump - 30.5 in Broad jump - 112 in Three cone drill - 7.15 s 20 yd shuttle - 4.35 s 40 yd dash - 4.34 s*** Vertical jump - 34 in Broad jump - 121 in 40 yd dash - 4.6 s *** Bench press - 27 reps Vertical jump - 33 in Broad jump - 119 in Three cone drill - 7.14 s 20 yd shuttle - 4.40 s Indy-vidual effort Corey Lemonier, Onterio McCalebb and Philip Lutzenkirchen went to Indianapolis Feb. 23-26 to participate in the 2013 NFL Scouting Combine. Here are the results from each individual’s performance. Corey Lemonier - DE/OLB Onterio McCalebb - RB Philip Lutzenkirchen - TE Negatives Positives Outlook Negatives Posittives Outlook Negatives Positives Outlook *** - First in position at event Lutzenkirchen didn’t have the best combine, but he did enough for a man who’s 13 weeks removed from hip sur-gery. His 4.94 second 40 time won’t turn any heads, but Lutzenkirchen still has time to continue his recovery and improve at Auburn’s Pro Day. Athletic tight ends are in de-mand right now, and Lutz has a lot of competition. Of all the events in the combine, McCalebb’s weigh-in probably hurt him the most. McCalebb weighed in at 168 pounds, about 20 pounds short of even being considered a Darren Sproles-type scat back. However, teams already knew how small he is, and, once drafted, McCalebb will have to work with the team on adding mass to his frame. Lemonier competed with the defenisve lineman at the combine, and as a result, his performance in events such as the bench press were overshadowed by the bigger, 4-3 linemen. While he was not bad in the shuttle and cone drills, he didn’t blow anybody away and showed he may need to work on coverage skills if he’s going to be drafted as an outside linebacker. Lemonier’s size compares well with the linebacker group. Lemonier ran the fastest 40 of any lineman and outsprinted all but two linebackers. With a good-sized frame and long arms, Lemonier needed to show teams his burst of the edge and he did just that. Being an extremely personable player also didn’t hurt when interviewing with teams. Overall it was a solid day for a guy already project-ed to be drafted early. Already considered a top prospect, Lemonier didn’t hurt his stock. The defensive end/linebacker ‘tweener group has gotten bigger every year. Lemonier didn’t set himself apart, but showed he belongs in the upper eche-lon of prospects. With more teams using the 3-4 defense, Lemonier will have to improve his covering ability, but sacks are the glamour stat, and Lemonier showed he has the speed to get to the backfield. McCalebb ran an unoffical 4.21 40-yard dash earning a jab from record holder Chris Johnson (4.27 in 2008). John-son’s record is safe – McCalebb’’s official time was 4.34 seconds. However, by posting the fastest time of all run-ning backs and the second fastest time of any player, Mc- Calebb showed his value. His results in the vertical and broad jumps were middling, but in league with other run-ning back studs such as Andre Ellington and Knile Davis. The depth at running back this year actually helps Mc- Calebb. While there are plenty of productive backs, none have stood out as locks for the first round. A team that al-ready has a workhorse on its roster may take a shot on McCalebb’s speed during almost any round after the first. Versatility is the name of McCalebb’s game, and if he can catch the ball well at Pro Day, his stock will rise even more. Lutzenkirchen probably didn’t boost his draft stock, but he certainlky didn’t hurt it. A scout big on intangibles will look to his community service efforts and willingness to play injured as positives. All in all, it was a good effort. Teams saw what he could do on a short recovery sched-ule , and his performance may attract more scouts to Au-burn’s Pro Day. Lutz was only cleared to participate in the drills three weeks ago. While he’s still not up to speed – literally and figurastively – he showed his agility and posted the fifth fastest time in the 20-yard shuttle run. Lutz also tweet-ed after the combine that he was the only tight end not to drop a pass. He also posted the sixth-best result in the bench press telling teams what they should have already known – he’s a strong tight end that can find ways to get open and catch anything thrown to him. Barbee blowing it Courtesy of Todd Van Emst Barbee has never had a winning season in his three years at Auburn. Courtesy of Todd Van Emst Auburn’s Kyle Owens swims a prelim of the 100 yard back stroke Friday, Feb. 22. Owens owns the pool John Burns Sports Edito r Last Saturday, Feb. 23, senior swimmer Kyle Owens walked out of Texas A&M’s Rec Cen-ter Natatorium with four gold medals after the successful 2013 SEC Swimming and Div-ing Championship. Owens defended his 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke titles, but also came away with a 400-yard medley relay gold and a 400-yard freestyle relay gold. “I was so pumped,” Owens said. “When I fin-ished and saw that No. 1 next to my name it was really cool. Being a senior and being able [to defend titles] for a great team has been really fun. It’s always fun to win for a second time, but really to do it for all the guys on the team is more important for me.” On that same note, Owens pointed out that while winning individual titles is great, win-ning with the team is much better. “The relay is always so much more fun,” Ow-ens said. “You have three other guys to cele-brate it with, and you really get so pumped up for the relays. Auburn is historic for their re-lay wins too, and it’s good to be a part of that.” Owens had a breakout year last season and was Auburn’s top scorer in the SEC and NCAA Championships. This season he was also the top scorer for the Tigers at the SEC Champion-ship, and was the runner-up by half a point to the Commissioner’s Trophy, which is awarded to the high-point scorer of the meet. » See Owens B2 “Kyle’s performance was outstanding. He was basically the highest point scorer at the meet. He had all best times and really helped us, especially on the relays.” —Brett Hawke Swim and Dive coach Compiled by Andrew Yawn John Burns SPORTS@ theplainsman. com Sports B2 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, February 28, 2013 Lemans square & Chateau apartments (334)-821-9192 560 North Perry St. Auburn, AL www.lemanssquare.com 1 BR-$420 2 BR-$495 3 BR-$570 Rates per apt. Scan for more info! Leasing Now for Fall! A great place to live. - Only 4 blocks from campus - Water/Garbage included - On Tiger Transit Route - Spacious Floor Plans - On-site Management - Sparkling Pools - Pet Friendly Sign NOW, Save LATER! Sign a lease by Spring Break to keep the 2012 rates! We rent apartments, not bedrooms! HUNGRY? Work at a fun location, happy work environment and a great place to eat! Now hiring hosts/hostesses and servers for the Downtown Opelika location. Applications available at: http://www.niffersplace.com/ Niffersplace/Employment.html 917 So. Railroad Ave. Opelika, AL 36801 334-787-5989 Men’s Basketball: The men’s basketball team lost three more games in the previous week against Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Alabama. The Tigers lost 65-56 to the Ag-gies and were crushed 88–55 by the Rebels. They lost 61–43 to Alabama. The men’s re-cord has fallen to 9–19 (3–12) SEC. What is more telling is that the TIgers have won only two games away from home and one of the contests was at a neutral site. Also, coach Tony Bar-bee’s squad dropped 12 of ther last 13 games, and lost their last six. Baseball: The baseball team continued to perform fairly well in the second week of the season as the Tigers moved to 6–2 in the season. The team was hitting .293 before the loss to Kennesaw State, while junior outfielder Ryan Tella was at a scorching .385. Before the Kennesaw State game Auburn’s bullpin was lights out, with an ERA of 0.95. Women’s Basketball: The women’s basketball team split a brace of games this week, falling short to Tennessee 83–61, and defeating Missouri 67–59. Senoir Blanche Alverson has put up double digit numbers in the last five games, averaging 16.4 points in each of those contests. She moved into 23rd all-time on Auburn’s all-time scoring list with her 19 points against Missouri Sunday, Feb. 24. Women’s Tennis: The women’s tennis team moved up 42 spots to No. 17 in the nation after winning all three matches the Tigers played in since Thursday, Feb. 21. The Ti-gers defeated then No. 19 Texas Tech, Tulane and UAB last week to move into the top 25 for the first time since the 1996 season. The women boast a record of 10-1, which is good for the best start in the program’s history. Gymnastics: The now No. 11 women’s gymnastics team had a historic meet against then No. 6 LSU Friday, Feb. 22. The Auburn Tigers set a school record of 197.175 against the Bengal Tigers, who scored 196.975 points. The gymnastics team also posted its fifth score of 196 or higher in a row, which is good for another school record. Freshman Caitlin Atkin-son was named SEC Gymnast of the Week for her performance in the meet. She won the all-around title with a score of 39.550. That is a season-high and it is also the third highest to-tal in Auburn history. Softball: The Auburn women’s softball team dropped three of five games in the last week but still maintain a strong record of 12–4. The softball team was defeated at home 4–1 by Georgia State Wednesday, Feb. 20 before it traveled to Corpus Christi, Texas where it won and lost two games. Equestrian: The No. 2 Auburn women’s equestrian team toppled the then No. 1 Georgia team and Delaware State’s team Saturday, Feb. 23. This is the second time the Ti-gers have triumphed over the Bulldogs this season. Auburn is now 8–1 (4–1 SEC) and will take an eight game win streak into the final regular-season competition Saturday, March 2. Track & Field: The Auburn men finished sixth overall at the SEC Indoor Champi-onships, while the women came in 13th. The Tigers were highlighted by junior thrower Ste-phen Saenz, who won the shot put Sunday, Feb. 24. Swimming & Diving: The men’s team came in second place at the 2013 SEC Swimming and Diving Championships Saturday, Feb. 23 while the women’s team finished in fifth. The men won five of six individual titles during the tournamen as senior Kyle Ow-ens won the 200-yard backstroke, junior Mario Chierighini swam the fastest time in the 100- yard freestyle, junior Zane Grothe won the 1,650-yard freestyle and junior John Santeiu took the platform diving event victory. The men also won the 400-freestyle relay. Men’s Tennis: The No. 21 men’s tennis team split their two matches last week starting with a 5–2 loss to Clemson and a 6–1 victory over Georgia Tech. The Tigers are now 8-2 on the season. A week of Auburn sports Courtesy of Todd Van Emst Second baseman Jordan Ebert gets an out for Auburn against Indiana State Sunday, Feb. 24. Courtesy of Todd Van Emst Auburn’s Marcelo Chierighini off the starting blocks in the 50 yard freestyle Wednesday, Feb. 20. Courtesy of Todd Van Emst Auburn’s Hasina Muhammad shoots over Missouri’s Sydney Crafton in the second half Sunday, Feb. 24. Thursday, February 28, 2013 The Auburn Plainsman Sports B3 February 28 Women’s basketball at Vanderbilt, Nashville, Tenn., at 8 p.m. March 1 Softball vs. Middle Tennessee State and Gardner-Webb, Auburn, at 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Men’s tennis vs. Mississippi State, Auburn, at 2 p.m. Women’s tennis at Mississippi State, Starkville, Miss., at 3 p.m. Baseball vs. Eastern Illinois, Auburn, at 3 p.m. Women’s gymnastics vs. Maryland, Auburn, at 7 p.m. Women’s equestrian at Texas A&M, College Station, Texas. March 2 Softball vs. Charlotte and Minnesota, Auburn, at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Baseball vs. Eastern Illinois, Auburn, at 3 p.m. Women’s soccer at Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Fla., at 6 p.m. Men’s basketball vs. Vanderbilt, Auburn, at 8 p.m. Swimming & Diving, Bulldog Invitational, Athens, Ga. Women’s equestrian vs. Baylor, Waco, Texas. Track, Last Chance Qualifier March 3 Men’s tennis vs. Ole Miss, Auburn, at 1 p.m. Women’s tennis vs. Ole Miss, Oxford, Miss., at 1 p.m. Baseball vs. Eastern Illinois, Auburn, at 1 p.m. Women’s basketball vs. Mississippi State, Auburn, at 2 p.m. Women’s equestrian vs. TCU, Fort Worth, Texas. Swimming & Diving, Bulldog Invitational, Athens, Ga. March 4 Men’s golf, Samford Intercollegiate, Hoover Country Club, Hoover. March 5 Baseball, Alabama Capital City Classic, Montgomery, at 7 p.m. Men’s golf, Samford Intercollegiate, Hoover Country Club, Hoover. March 6 Softball vs. Alabama State, Montgomery, at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Men’s basketball vs. Tennessee, Auburn, at 8 p.m. Women’s basketball, First round, SEC Championships, Duluth, Ga. Will Gaines Sports Writer With the loss of leading re-ceiver Emory Blake and coach Gus Malzahn reinstalling his high-tempo spread offense, no other position group is in more need of playmakers than the receivers. Along with Blake graduat-ing Auburn also lost Travon-te Stallworth and DeAnge-lo Benton, leaving the Tigers with four receivers that have already earned playing time in Sammie Coates, Trovon Reed, Quan Bray, Ricardo Louis and Jaylon Denson. Sammie Coates was Au-burn’s lone bright spot be-sides Blake last year. He fin-ished the year with six recep-tions for 114 yards and proved that he can be a reliable deep threat. In 2013 he will have to become more consistent, but has a good shot to be a major contributor this fall. To many, Trovon Reed has been a disappointment af-ter the highly touted recruit signed with Auburn. But af-ter suffering injuries in 2011 and having to switch to an of-fense in 2012 that did not fit his strengths as a receiver, he could be looking at a bigger year in 2013 with the return of Malzahn. Getting Reed into space where he can show his athleticism will be a must for him to succeed, but Malzahn has proven that his offense is capable of that. Bray is another receiver that will welcome the return of Malzahn. A very athletic re-ceiver that has shown promise in his first two years at Auburn, but after an arrest last season many have been question-ing his character off the field. If all that works out he should be an excellent slot receiver in 2013, and also could be a lead-ing candidate to replace Onte-rio McCalleb in this offense by getting the jet sweeps that Mc- Calleb excelled at. Ricardo Louis did not see a lot of playing time as a fresh-man in 2012, but when he did play he impressed with his athletic ability and aggressive-ness. With an off-season in the weight room and coach-ing from Dameyune Craig and Malzahn, Louis could be look-ing at a nice career for Auburn. Denson is a player that has seen little playing time since arriving at Auburn, but that could change in 2013. For play-ers like Reed and Bray to suc-ceed in Malzahn’s offense you have to have great perime-ter blocking from the receiv-ers. With Denson’s 6-foot-3 208-pound frame he could be-come an excellent perimeter blocker, which will help open up big plays for the offense. With what Malzahn wants to accomplish, offensive depth at the receiver position is a must. So Malzahn went out and signed four receivers: Ear-nest Robinson, Tony Stevens, Dominic Walker, Marcus Da-vis and possibly another de-pending on what position Ja-son Smith plays. Three of these signees are likely to earn playing time this fall. Stevens, Robinson and Smith. Stevens was a late, but great pick up by the Tigers. He is a big, tall receiver that could be an excellent deep threat this fall. Robinson is an in-state play-er that has the ability to make acrobatic catches and should earn significant playing time this fall. “(He’s) a wide receiver that’s been committed to us a long time,” said Malzahn at his signing day press conference. “I actually recruited him when he was a sophomore. I have a great relationship with him. I think the world of Earnest. He hung in there with us, too, dur-ing the change.” Smith is an interesting play-er because he has remained adamant that he will play quarterback when he arrives at Auburn. “He just has phenomenal skills. He can do a lot of dif-ferent things,” said Malzahn. “We’re very excited about Ja-son.” After earning MVP honors at the Alabama Mississippi All- Star Game playing receiver, he could be looking at early play-ing time at receiver instead of quarterback. Though the starting receiver positions are not set in stone it will be a much better group. Auburn receiving corps Courtesy of Tod Van Emst Trovon Reed, sporting a #37 jersey in honor of Ladarius Phillips, scores on a 40-yard pass against New Mexico State, Nov. 3, 2012. Ethan Brady Sports Reporter Water is a necessity to every athletics team on the Plains nutritionally. For some though, the liquid of life is essential to how their sport is played. Swimming, bass fishing, water ski-ing, snow skiing and snowboarding all require water in some way to properly compete, but the one common state of water these sports lack is what we know as the solid form of H2O, the phenomenon of ice. About 40 miles from campus lies the home of Auburn ice hockey, one of the newest club sports on the Plains. The Columbus Civic Cen-ter in Georgia has played host to the Tigers since the team’s rebirth in 2010 after a 27-year hiatus. Originally created in 1980 to compete against Alabama before a Birmingham Bulls game, the Auburn hockey program has since emerged as a competitive force in the South Eastern Collegiate Hockey Conference. The SECHC is comprised of 10 SEC affiliat-ed universities separated into two divisions based on their location in the South. This year, Auburn competed against six of those teams including others from across the country. The annual SECHC tournament recently took place in Huntsville where the Arkansas Ra-zorbacks won the championship for the third time in four years. The Tigers recently wrapped up their sea-son in the first round against Vanderbilt after losing in an overtime thriller 4-3. Finishing the year with a 7-17 regular season record, Dion Moore a sophomore defensemen for the team says the Tigers were somewhat disappointed in their play this season. “Although we had a rocky season, I’m proud of the progress my team has made. Everyone worked hard and we came a long way,” said Moore. “Our season was a bit rough due to the fact our team was very young, it takes time to develop chemistry on the ice. As the season went on the team became much more com-petitive.” The Auburn hockey program may come as a surprise to some students, but it was initial-ly created in 1980. In front of 10,000 fans at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center, Auburn won its inaugural match against Alabama 5-0. Original coach and player Emory Stapleton re-alized some of the Auburn students were ca-pable of competing collegially and scheduled more games against established teams in the southeast. The Tigers’ first official win came against Emory on Nov. 9, 1981 after an opening five game losing streak. Despite the 0-5 start, Au-burn finished their inaugural season with a 10-15-1 record including a 6-0 win over Ala-bama. Because of a lack of finances and char-ter from the University, the team went inactive until 2010. Assistant Coach Elliott Chenger and friend James Florkiewicz were the driving force be-hind revamping the Auburn hockey team and after years of attempts the University agreed to allow hockey to become an Auburn club sport. Most students who attend Auburn were raised in areas where hockey is rare. For the Tigers, most of their players were raised in northern areas where hockey is prominent or in large metropolitan areas where it was avail-able. For now the Tigers are growing as a pro-gram and have great expectations for the com-ing seasons. “Although the program is young, we are making great strides to become a powerhouse in the South,” said Moore. Courtesy of Sean Kemp The Auburn men’s hockey team before they wrap up their season against Vanderbilt. Tigers roar on ice Hockey team wraps up season The next week in sports Sports B4 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, February 28, 2013 ACROSS 1 Aphid’s meal 4 Marsh bird 9 Neil Simon’s “__ Suite” 14 Communication at Gallaudet U. 15 Concert venue 16 Bona fide 17 *Role in the films “Wichita” and “Tombstone” 19 Opposite of après 20 Place for un chapeau 21 Miracle-__ 22 Get-up-and-go 23 Opera featuring Iago 25 Lint collector 27 It may be set or set off 29 Glowing, perhaps 30 Cleaning closet item 33 Nautical pole 35 Spry 37 Will Smith title role 38 French noble 39 Trail behind 40 Grape-growing spot 42 Back when 43 Put to shame 45 Mutineer 46 Neither mate 47 Noisy quarrel 48 “Hotel Rwanda” tribe 50 Compote ingredient 52 Fired on 55 __ of Gibraltar 58 Source of lean red meat 60 Pertaining to planes 61 Pope after Sergius II 62 Rip to pieces, and a hint to what’s hidden in the answers to this puzzle’s starred clues 64 Lexus competitor 65 Malady with swelling 66 “Norma __” 67 Potter’s apparatus 68 “Count me out” 69 Part of DOS: Abbr. DOWN 1 Managed 2 So far 3 *Protection for jousters 4 “Mangia!” 5 Genetics pioneer Mendel 6 Derrière 7 2001 bankruptcy filer 8 Brew source 9 *2000s documentary whose first episode was “From Pole to Pole” 10 Video game stage 11 Ice cream thickener 12 Criticize with barbs 13 DOJ employee 18 “We want to hear the story” 22 Devil’s work 24 *One who was held up, most likely 26 Land 28 Mozambique neighbor 30 *Indoor antenna 31 Lotion addition 32 Gibson __ 33 Diagnostic test 34 Comic strip possum 36 Beetle juice? 41 Lather again 44 Flu fighter’s episode 49 Seizes unlawfully 50 Renaissance __ 51 Start a hole 53 Variety 54 Big name in raingear 55 Picnic side 56 One helping after a crash 57 Cad 59 Cass’s title 62 “Spare me the details,” in brief 63 Backpacked beast By Matt Skoczen (c)2012 Tribune Media Services, Inc. 10/10/12 10/10/12 ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, October 10, 2012 Los Angeles T imes Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis xwordeditor@aol.com Print Deadline Noon three business days prior to publication To Place an Ad, Call - 334-844-4130 or Email - classifieds@theplainsman.com Display Classifieds Local............$11 per col inch National......$16 per col inch 1 col x 4″ min to 1 col x 8″ max The Auburn Plainsman is not responsible for the content of the ads. Ads that seem too good to be true usually are. Line Classifieds 15 words . . . . . . . . . . . $6 Extra Words . . . . . . . . 40¢ Bold/outline. . . .$1 per ad FOR RENT Trailer for rent off Wire Road/Saddlebrook Park. Access to horse pasture. 2br/2ba. Available immediately. $450.00 deposit $450.00/month. 334- 319-2082. SPRING BREAK BAHAMAS SPRING BREAK $189 for 5 days. All prices include: Round-trip luxury party cruise. Accommodations on the island at your choice of thirteen resorts. Appalachia Travel. www.BahamaSun. com 800-867-5018 As close to a house as you’ll get! 2 & 3BR/2Bath mobile homes on large, spacious lots in scenic Arrowhead Park. All appliances; central H/A; off street parking; safe student environment; pets allowed; Tiger Transit. $450 to $600/mo. 334-703-6063; tcordi@charter.net Sudoku By The Mepham Group Solution to Saturday’s puzzle Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9. For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit www.sudoku.org.uk. © 2012 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved. 9/10/12 Level: 1 2 3 4 Sudoku By The Mepham Group Solution to Thursday’s puzzle Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9. For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit www.sudoku.org.uk. © 2012 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved. 9/14/12 Level: 1 2 3 4 10/28/12 Sudoku By The Mepham Group Solution to last Sunday’s puzzle Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box Level: 1 2 3 4 Are you and your pet tired of crowded apt. living? Only 6 miles from campus Whatley Farms is your place. Enjoy fishing, hiking etc. 2bedroom/1bath homes from $550.00/mo. 2bedroom/2bath homes from $650.00/mo. Charles Whatley 334-559-5554. Ernest Whatley 334-703- 7771. Enjoy Spring Break in a safe, family environ-ment. Sea Foam Motel, Panama City Beach. 1-800-97C-FOAM. Life is better at the Beech. Now leasing! See ad on pg. B5 3bd/2ba Duplex w/wd, dw, fridge @ 213 Martin Ave., near campus. Avail. Fall Semester. Fenced back yard great location. $750.00/mo rent w/&750.00 deposit. Hurry won’t last! 728-0400. GREAT VALUE- 3 BR/2BA TWO-STORY DUPLEX!!! Washer/Dryer/Yard Work Included. Pet-Friendly Walk-In Closets Email spatrick15@ hotmail.com EXTREMELY NICE 3BR/3BA HOUSE-WON’T LAST LONG!!! 9-Foot-Ceilings Corner-Lot Tiger Transit Washer/Dryer/Yard Work Included Email spatrick15@ hotmail.com Roommate Wanted (male). Looking for roommate in large 4BR apt. Each bed-room has own bathroom.. Address: The Edge (1114 S College, Auburn), #5- 201. Includes: pool, living room, personal BR, kitchen, balcony, W/D, parking. Next to: J&M Bookstore, Loco’s Grill, Toomer’s Coffee, restaurants. Tiger Transit stops here. Lease: $315/ month (12 months, Aug 2013-July 2014). No pets. Questions: Chris Karabinos (chriskarabinos@comcast. net; 770-490-4940) Will Gaines Sports Reporter Freshman gymnast Caitlin Atkinson was named SEC Gym-nast of the Week Tuesday, Feb. 26 after her season-high total of 39.550 last Friday against No. 6 LSU helped the Tigers score a program record of 197.175 in the victory. “I’m blown away by her a lot,” said Head Coach Jeff Graba. “She has some of the biggest gymnas-tics that I’ve been apart of, and I’ve been apart of a lot. Her dis-tance on the bars is just an un-believable thing to watch. She’s about five feet above the bar which means she’s about 15 feet in the air.” Atkinson equaled her career high on bars against LSU with a 9.90. “I watch scores, but I wasn’t even watching the scores, so I had no idea,” Atkinson said. “I don’t really think anyone did. We just went out there and did what we needed to do for ourselves.” The gymnastics team has had a good year, scoring above 190 in every meet this year, but still has lost seven meets on the year. Against LSU though, everything was able to come together for the Tigers. “I think we were finally just able to put it all together,” Atkin-son said. “We’ve had good meets where beams were amazing or bars were amazing, but last week we put vault, beams, bars all together at once. Not neces-sarily that we haven’t been doing that, but we did it with that extra oomph to it.” Even after Atkinson and the rest of the teams’ record night, Graba believes that the team is capable of doing that every time they compete. “We’ve been telling these guys that’s just an average night for us,” Graba said. “We feel that we are that good and we need to improve on that. The big bat-tle is getting them to believe that they’re that good.” Atkinson was also named SEC freshman of the week Tues-day, Feb. 5 for her performance on the road at Missouri. “It feels pretty amazing, but it also tells me that I have to keep working hard,” Atkinson said. “I can’t just give up because I got that title.” With Atkinson only being a freshman she has had to adjust to the pressure of competing as a team in college, instead of in-dividually. “If you mess up sometimes it can come back on you,” At-kinson said. “I’m later in a lot of the lineups so if someone earli-er in the lineup messes up then I know it’s going to fall back on me so it’s more pressure.” As the season has got further along though she has learned ways of dealing with the pres-sure. “We do a lot of pressure sets in the gym and we do a lot of lineup sets, and as the season goes I’ve got more confident in myself so it’s got better,” Atkinson said. For her, being comfortable and confident are the keys to having success. “If you’re on beam and your not comfortable with yourself then you’re probably going to make little mistakes,” Atkinson said. “If you’re comfortable with it then it’s going to be a lot better than if you’re thinking of every little thing that can go wrong.” The gymnastics team will re-turn to action Friday, March 1 against No. 23 Maryland for the annual Flip for the Cure Pink meet at 7 p.m. at Auburn Arena. Courtesy of Todd Van Emst Auburn’s Caitlin Atkinson competing on the beam against LSU in their college gymnastics meet Friday, Feb. 22. Freshman named SEC Gymnast of the Week Owens » From B1 “Kyle’s performance was outstanding,” said coach Brett Hawke. “He was ba-sically the highest point scorer at the meet. He had all best times and really helped us, especially on the relays, become No. 1 in the country in a lot of those re-lays.” Hawke has coached Ow-ens through his college ca-reer, and had nothing but praise for the senior. “He’s improved a tre-mendous amount,” Hawke said. “He came in as a reg-ular kid and has now be-come one of the best ath-letes in the world. His learning curve has moved a lot. He’s a vocal leader out-side the pool and tries to encourage other people to be at their best as well.” Owens has noticed a change in the level of his performance as well. “I think I’ve improved quite a bit,” Owens said. “Not resting for the SEC Championships and still hitting best times in my en-tire 12 year career says a lot about to program and about the training we’ve done this year.” Though Owens has had a career season, and there is more to come at the NCAA Championships, it will be his final year as a competitive swimmer. A Biomedical Science major, Owens will enter medical school in the sum-mer. “In July I’m going to start out at medical school,” Ow-ens said. “I’m not going to be swimming anymore, so it’s going to be hard to bal-ance that. I hope I can just go on to be a good physi-cian, but I don’t think any more swimming is in my future.” If Owens’ work ethic in the pool is in any way simi-lar to his outside of the wa-ter, there is no doubt that he will succeed in his ca-reer choice. Courtesy of Todd Van Emst Kyle Owens celebrates after winning the 100-yard back stroke Friday, Feb. 22. Intrigue Thursday, February 28, 2013 ThePlainsman.com Intrigue B5 Life is better at the Beech. Now leasing! 575 Shelton Mill Road | Auburn, AL | 36830 | (334)-821-8895 Jessa Pease WRITER Opelika’s many attractions include a quaint downtown to the Museum of East Alabama, but Spring Villa Man-sion offers more: ghosts and a bit of haunting. Spring Villa Park is a 350-acre park with many amenities including a horse shoe pit, a campground, walk-ing trails and picnic areas. Spring Vil-la also comes with a legend that the old mansion, built for William Penn Younge in 1850, is haunted. “The house is supposed to be haunted,” said Jeff Pokorney, manag-er of Spring Villa Park. “We have a lot of ghost hunters come and put cam-eras and things in the house.” According to Pokorney, legend states Penn Younge wasn’t liked by his slaves. One night when Penn Younge was walking up the spiral staircase to his bedroom, one of his slaves, who had been hiding next to the stairs, jumped out and killed Penn Younge on the 13th step of the stairs. “People say you better step over the 13th step or it will be bad luck if you step on it,” Pokorney said. “Ever since I’ve been here I always step on it and nothing happens.” Twin girls and two adults also died on the site. Pokorney said there was a 30-acre lake on the property, and the little girls drowned when they snuck out in a glass-bottom boat without their parents. The adults tried to save them, but also drowned. “Most of them, like these ghost hunters and paranormal groups that do come, get voice recordings when they go in the house,” Pokorney said. “Unless you are there with them, you don’t know if it is true or not.” Faith Serafin, founder and director of the Alabama Paranormal Research Team, led her group to research the Spring Villa Mansion. The team got a lot of feedback from the mansion. “We were anticipating on finding things that pertained to the legend of Spring Villa,” Serafin said. “That wasn’t the case.” The team first ran into a lot of ev-idence relating to children, Serafin said. They picked up the noises of balls rolling downstairs, children cry-ing, piano keys playing and a little girl asking where her mommy was. When the team found all of this in-formation that related to the drown-ing of the little girls more so than the legend of Penn Younge, they investi-gated the legend further. They found that the legend was made up in the ‘40s for campers. Jillian Capers, senior in psychol-ogy, and her friends went to go visit Spring Villa mansion in high school along with other spooky spots. “It excited us at the time,” Capers said. “I heard some strange noises, creaks and things, but not anything specific. That would really freak me out.” After 15 years of living on the prop-erty Pokorney only had one story to tell. “A few years ago, it was around Christmas, we had wreaths on the front of the house, and we were taking pictures in the front yard,” Pokorney said. “Probably about the sixth pic-ture, there was a cloud that came up in the picture. It looks like a lady and a little girl, and I don’t know what it is.” Kelsey Davis INTRIGUE WRITER Friends and fellow musicians di-rect Thomas Leonard toward the gui-tar pick he's dropped by telling him if he is hot or cold. After feeling around for the pick, Leonard finds it, resumes playing his acoustic guitar and says, “Well I’m blind, it’s not like I could see it anyway,” as he chuckles. He pauses from playing his guitar to tune it up, which he does by ear, lean-ing his head close to the sound hole. When he finishes on the guitar, he be-gins to assemble a drum set that he plays with the accompaniment of two other guitarists. As more musicians join in, Leonard moves on the key-board and tears it up. “I’m not entirely a traditional classi-cal pianist. I have my own distinctive style of playing piano, ranging from soul, to blues, to soul-gospel and more than that. When you hear what I play, you’ll notice that it’s got a lot of soul in it. That’s because I like to get people to feel what I’m feeling,” Leonard said. As Leonard’s hands dance across guitar strings, with drum sticks and on piano keys, it’s not at all hard to tune into the amount of pure soul that he pours into his music. Leonard picked up his first guitar when he was 6 years old, and contin-ued from there with the piano. He can now play every instrument, which he has basically taught himself, despite being completely blind since birth. His blindness stems from a lack of growth in the optic nerve. “I promised myself if I ever were to gain my eyes, I wouldn’t use them for me. I’d use them to help other people,” Leonard said. Until then, Leonard focuses on ab-sorbing the ins and outs of all that mu-sic has to offer. “My grandfather taught me the ba-sics (of guitar),” Leonard said. “He be-gan by giving me the notes and telling me what they were. He’d say, ‘This is F, this is F sharp,’ and would keep going up and down the fret board as he told me what the notes were.” He explained that this is how he de-veloped the case of “the perfect pitch.” If given a sound, no matter which in-strument it’s played on, Leonard can identify the note. Other than having deep running roots as a seasoned musician, Leon-ard has also been dabbling in the re-cording world for the past seven years. He admits to not entirely being a pro-fessional, but takes pride in his skill of being able to quickly polish off a ses-sion after recording. “I say this with the utmost humili-ty, but I’ve always had an ear for sound because I’m blind. One sense goes away, and the others pick up the slack,” Leonard said. Leonard is interested in working with local musicians who are looking to record their music, especially af-ter feeling the embrace of the Auburn community once he moved here. “Everybody out here is very gen-erous,” Leonard said. “I’ve never met people as generous as this. Never. They actually really take the time to just to sit and talk with you.” Though Leonard is passionate about Auburn and its residents, there remains one force that pulls at him stronger than any other - his music. “Music is kind of a gift and a curse to me,” Leonard said. “It’s a curse be-cause I feel it more than most. If it’s sad I become sad with it. If it’s soulful, I become soulful with it. It’s a part of me, just as an arm is a part of a shoul-der.” Anyone interested in recording mu-sic with Leonard may contact him at 251-454-9829 or taljazz@bellsouth. net. Man masters every instrument, despite being blind KELSEY DAVIS / INTRIGUE WRITER Leonard plays the drums during a rock jam session at The Guitar Shoppe. “I promised myself if I ever were to gain my eyes, I wouldn’t use them for me. I’d use them to help other people.” —Thomas Leonard Leonard jams to his original tunes at The Guitar Shoppe. Leonard accompanies on the keyboard for jazz session. RAYE MAY / PHOTO EDITOR The Spring Villa Mansion is located in Spring Villa Park on 1474 Lee Road in Opelika. The house was built in 1880. ‘Haunted’ Opelika mansion summons skeptics, believers Intrigue B6 The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, February 28, 2013 Elizabeth Wieck INTRIGUE EDITOR For Scott Couch, being a photographer is a lifestyle. Despite having a full-time job, the ’94 Auburn grad dedicates as much time as he can to his part-hobby part-business venture in outdoor photography. Growing up in Pine Bluff, Ark., a place he refers to as the “duck capital of the world,” Couch spent a lot of his time hunting and fishing outdoors, which later inspired him to pursue nature photography. During his time at Auburn, Couch studied psychology and political science with the in-tention to go to graduate school. After study-ing abroad in Nottingham, England his senior year, he decided to change plans and pursue work elsewhere in Birmingham. Couch moved back to Auburn in 1998 and began running, mountain biking, hiking and backpacking. At one point, he was running 30–40 miles a week. “I was a machine,” he said. While going on a run down Gay Street, Couch suddenly went numb from the waist down. “I talked to a few people, and they told me to eat a banana because of cramps from sweating (too much),” Couch said. But Couch needed a bit more than a ba-nana. Upon going to another clinic, he found out he ruptured his L4 and L5 discs in his back– a nearly debilitating injury that forced him to have major spinal surgeries and two artificial discs put in. With sadness, he real-ized he could no longer continue with his ac-tive lifestyle. “After that, it really left my crippled,” Couch said. “I couldn’t run, I couldn’t bike. I couldn’t do most of the stuff I was used to doing.” While in recovery at a Birmingham hos-pital, Couch was trying to figure out what he could do and recalled a defining moment on a solo backpacking trip along the Appalachian Trail. On his journey, he walked around a cor-ner and saw a mother bear with her three cubs up in a tree, who climbed down right in front of him. With haste, he pulled out an ordinary film camera– a camera he brought for the same obligated reasoning any person might take a camera on a trip with them– and snapped a quick picture. Such an experience sparked an epiphany in Couch. “It hit me, and I was like, I can still camp, I can still travel, do what I like to do,” he said. “Rather than backpacking, I can camp in one place. I was an outdoorsman, I kind of transi-tioned from hunting and fishing to more pho-tography.” At the time of this decision, Couch knew very little about photography. During the next year, he immersed himself in the field and took online classes through the New York In-stitute of Photography. Initially, Couch started out simple, travel-ing to nearby states like Georgia, Mississip-pi and Louisiana to capture photos of ducks, geese, eagles, deer and Labrador retrievers. The hunger for more, however, quickly kicked in and he decided to venture to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennes-see and North Carolina. “I spend about 50 percent of my time (there),” Couch said. “That’s kind of my home base. I know everything and everybody up there. Simply by being there, I get unique pic-tures. It’s like anything you do; you get out what you put into it. I’m willing and able to put in more time than most people.” In recent years, Couch has made an an-nual trip out to Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Park in the fall. While many might consider going to such a beautiful part of the country a vacation, he insists it’s not easy work. “Some people say, ‘you’re on vacation,’ but if you’re with me, you wouldn’t call it (that). You’re up at four in the morning, going to bed late, it’s tiring. It’s butt–kicking when you go for 12 days nonstop, 16 hours a day.” Such hard work, though, has paid off, Couch said. “Having done that, I’ve got the best pic-tures of my life out there this past year when it comes to bears, owls and some other stuff,” he said. “That is by far my favorite place in the world. I hope to move there some day.” Working out in the wild does have its risks. Couch said he hasn’t had any life–threaten-ing encounters with animals, but has had a few scary run–ins with bad weather. While camping in a tent underneath a tree, a thun-derstorm blew a large branch off the tree and onto his tent, crushing it and barely missing him. “All in all, I use my best judgment,” he said. “Even though I push it, it’s not insanely crazy, just a few calculated risks.” While Couch is a hunter, he is also a con-servationist and tries to affect his animal sub-jects as little as he can. “There’s a very fine line when you’re pho-tographing animals, like deer or bear,” Couch said. “The second that you affect the animals behavior is the second that you’ve pushed too far.” Juggling his desire to blend in as naturally as possible with the unpredictable behavior of wild animals, Couch said it’s often difficult to get a good shot. “You know how you get to know your dog or your cat?” he said. “You get a general sense of how they’re going to act. All the animals I photograph are wild and are scared of people. Even though I’ve spent thousands of hours with animals, you like to think you know what’s going to happen, you don’t.” Couch explains being a wildlife photogra-pher requires a unique way of living due to so much time spent traveling. “I’ve had to rebase my life on the way that I want to live and travel,” he said. “If I chose to travel and do all of this, on the other end when I’m back, my social life is off. I’m happy with spending three weeks in a tent, with no electricity or running water, I love that. But that does set me apart from a lot of people.” The rewards, he insists, are entirely worth it. “You have to reinvent yourself and what you do to make it,” Couch said. “I don’t limit myself– anywhere or anything. For me, it’s a lifestyle. It’s who I am and how I live. You just go with it, good or bad, make the best of it.” Spring Break 2013 is Destin, Florida • Must Be 21 to rent • Quadruple occupancy in condominium suites • The area’s only lagoon pool • Deposit required for reservation • Beach Shuttle Call 877-44-RESORT visionarydestin.com Live Music Poolside BBQ Drink specials Promotional offers available only when you rent with us Get a Room ! SCOTT COUCH / PHOTOGRAPHER Couch had the opportunity to shoot a Grizzly bear at 10 meters away in Grand Teton National Park. Alum photographer goes into the wild 1. Abbreves - They’re dying, just let them. Srsly. (Except for SMH, that one will live on forever.) 2. Anything that’s a little bit too punctually sophis-ticated. Example: Status updates like, “Just went to the Overall Company with mah bestie!!! Best. Popsicles. Ever,” or comments like, “This. Is. Too. Cute,” on a pic-ture of your ex with her new boyfriend. 3. The phrase “Leggoooo,” ...? What are you saying? 4. The Harlem Shake - MAKE THE MADNESS STOP. I mean, I guess it’s cool that everyone wants to spread videos of themselves having awkwardly staged danced parties. Actually, I take that back. There’s liter-ally nothing cool about that. 5. Gallon Smashing Prank - All right, I’ll admit that I chuckled a little the first time I watched this one. It was a nervous laugh though, given how uncomfort-able slap-stick humor makes me. Three straight min-utes of someone busting ass on two gallons of milk he spastically threw shouldn’t even be entertaining enough to hold a toddler’s attention, but somehow non-toddlers everywhere are captivated. It’s time we all ask ourselves, “What the hell?” and move on. 6. Anyone else think this type of post has gotten a little out of hand? Dear whoever, Insert generic phrase here. That is all. I can’t explain why, but something about this makes me feel weird. Maybe because everyone is sending mini letters to everyone via Facebook. •The Twitter - Just kidding. That one can stay. Social media trends to ditch Kelsey Davis INTRIGUE WRITER Couch has spent two weeks every fall in the Grand Teton National Park over the last four years. EMILY BRETT / FREELANCE GRAPHIC DESIGNER Thursday, February 28, 2013 The Auburn Plainsman Intrigue B7 Bianca Seward COPY@THEPLAINSMAN.COM App of the week: get paid to watch T.V. Caitlin Wagenseil INTRIGUE REPORTER Will Campbell, sophomore in public adminis-tration, has always felt the need to help people. As an aspiring firefighter, he’s been given the op-portunity to do just that. “I always thought ( firefighting) was cool, but it was my roommate who got me interest-ed because he is an EMT at the fire department,” Campbell said. “Plus, I always wanted to help people.” Campbell is currently attending fire school at the Southwest Fire Department, a volunteer fire department in Lee County. He feels Southwest will prepare him for what he will hopefully go through at Auburn’s fire school. In order to be accepted into the fire school, Campbell had to complete an application, go through a rigorous physical fitness course to en-sure he was in good enough shape for the inten-sity of the job and lastly had to interview. Campbell said the volunteer fire department doesn’t mandate its firefighters be at the fire-house all the time, but requests they come when they can. In Campbell’s case, because he is go-ing through fire school, he has to attend class at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then has hands-on training on Sunday. “It’s been a great and fun experience,” Camp-bell said. “A typical day is hanging out at the fire department until getting a call to go on scene, where the majority of the time the calls are for medical care or car accidents.” In addition to those calls, Campbell regular-ly directs traffic on scene, helps patients onto stretchers and assists the paramedics in any way he can. Because he is still going through fire sc |
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