2013-02-28 The Auburn Plainsman

              The Auburn Plainsman
A SPIRIT THAT IS NOT AFRAID
Thursday, February 28, 2013 ThePlainsman.com Vol. 119, Issue 29, 16 Pages
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Campus A4
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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
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The Auburn Plainsman
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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
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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
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Contact
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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.
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include the author’s name, address and phone number for
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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
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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
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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 -
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Display Classifieds
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ads. Ads that seem too good to be
true usually are.
Line Classifieds
15 words . . . . . . . . . . . $6
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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
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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.”
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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