By MARLON SCOTT – mscott@my.apsu.edu
After the 2011 Step Off in the Red Barn, APSU President Tim Hall announced the 10 candidates for homecoming king and queen. The five homecoming king candidates are Trent Gaasch, A.J. Hall, Alejandro Herrera, Kelvin Rutledge and Branden Ward. The homecoming queen candidates are Kara Black, Cady Denton, Amanda Hoover, Laura Czecholinski and Ashley White.
The 2011 APSU Homecoming Court nominees
» By VALENCIA JOHNSON – vjohnson@my.apsu.edu
Director of Public Safety Lantz Biles was asked to be the guest speaker at the SGA meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 21, to discuss campus safety.
Biles said there are 25 officers on staff. Fourteen are sworn-in police officers of the State of Tennessee and three are administrators, like Biles. The other 11 officers handle calls of service such as escorting students. There are always at least two officers on campus per shift.
Biles does not see any plans for additional officers due to budget constraints.
Biles also said he does not publish the patrol patterns for the campus security because there is no set route at a specific time. Biles then briefly mentioned the Crime Prevent Program that is in place, with which some of the SGA staff has been involved in.
According to Biles, there are currently about 200 ACTV cameras on campus for security purposes.
Parking is also handled by Biles’ department. There is an adequate number of parking spaces, Biles said, but they may not be convenient for some students.
Seven new senators were sworn-in at the meeting. During this week’s SGA meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 28, the new senators will be photographed and the pictures will be uploaded to the website. There is currently an open seat for the College of Education senate position.
Greg Singleton, associate vice president and dean of students, congratulated the new senators on their positions and on such a wonderful turn-out for votes, stating this past election had the second highest vote count for the fall semester.
Chris Drew, graduate student senator, submitted legislation for ”comment box” to be considered so the student body can submit their ideas. Drew’s proposal will be discussed further at this week’s SGA meeting.
During last week’s meeting, a sign-up sheet was passed around for those in SGA who are interested in the Mudbowl tournament. Those who are in SGA working the event will be compensated with a free Mudbowl T-shirt.
Singleton said 64 teams signed up to participate in the Mudbowl.
Singleton also said that he wants SGA to address making possible changes to the Student Code of Conduct. It has been 18 months since the last revision.
GHOST was mentioned at the meeting as an upcoming event planned for Sunday, Oct. 30.
Later in the semester, SGA will be attending and representing APSU during a conference held in St. Louis. TAS
» By RAVEN JACKSON – rjackson@my.apsu.edu
APSU’s Center for Extended and Distance Education is used by many students and community members to attain valuable skills relevant to their careers. Students can also complete courses and obtain degrees online.
Through the extended classes offered, people in the community can achieve a certification in phlebotomy or complete parenting classes required for couples with children going through a divorce. “[The classes are] for people who need some training so that they can take another path,” said said R. Keith Gipson, Student Services Specialist in Distance Education.The distance education program reaches out to students who need to take classes online, whether it’s for military reasons or time constraints. “We have students who live in Clarksville and take classes online,” Gipson said.
“We also have a large population that is in other parts of the world. We have military [personnel] that are in Iraq and Afghanistan who take classes. It’s not uncommon for a spouse to start going to school here and then the other partner gets stationed someplace else … [if] they want to continue their education, they’re able to do that.”
Some students would rather be in the classroom instead of taking a course completely online. “The difference in difficulty between taking a campus class and an online class depends on what the class is,” said Eric Wiley, junior corporate communications major. “Sometimes an online class can be harder because there are some things that people learn better by being taught in person, but sometimes it’s easier because you can do things at your own pace,” Wiley said.
“If you’re a procrastinator, you’re not going to be successful at [online classes], because it is dependent upon you to do a lot more reading, instead of a professor standing up in front of you and giving you a lecture. You have to read the lecture or watch the lecture,” Gipson said.
The Regents Online Degree Program (RODP), and APSU Online, are also a part of the Extended and Distance Education program, and two ways of obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree, Master’s Degree, or a certificate online. Courses taken through the program are transferable to any participating fully accredited institution.
To learn more about the Center for Extended and Distance Education, visit McReynolds building or call (931)-221-7816. TAS
» By MARLON SCOTT – mscott@my.apsu.edu
The Lady Govs’ leading scorer, junior outside hitter Nikki Doyle, averaged over 14 kills per match at the Butler Invitational in Indianapolis, Ind., but it was not enough to keep the team from being swept 0-3 in the tournament.
After losing to Central Michigan (1-3) and Butler (0-3) on Friday, Sept. 9, the Lady Govs were also defeated by Elon (1-3) on Saturday, Sept. 10.
Inconsistency offensively and errors at critical times were the theme for the Lady Govs in all three matches.
After the third loss in a row to Elon, Head Coach Bill Egbert said, “We fought hard today. However we made mental errors that cost us the match. We’ll have to keep working on that part of our game with conference starting next weekend.”
Doyle led the team with 44 total kills in the three matches. She was named Copies in a Flash Player of the Game in the first match against Central Michigan.
It took four sets for Central Michigan to defeat the Lady Govs (19-25, 25-22, 14-25, 27-29). Down two sets to one, the Lady Govs led the fourth set 23-17 and went on to get a set point at 24-21.
However, Central Michigan forced the game to overtime with a 24-24 tie and earned the win after the Lady Govs committed four attack errors.
Doyle produced 15 kills. Freshman middle blocker Hillary Plybon added 12 kills in the losing effort.
The Lady Govs looked to rebound in the second match against tournament hosts, the Butler Bulldogs, but were again unable to close the sets and were swept in three (25-17, 17-25, 24-26). The first set was the closest of the match.
The two teams tied 17 times before the Bulldogs finally earned the 27-25 win. A 7-2 run early in the second set was all the Bulldogs needed to put the set away.
The Lady Govs were held to just 10 totals kills compared to Butlers 20 in the second set.
After the Lady Govs got to set point 24-23 in the third set, the Bulldogs scored the last three points for the three-set sweep.
Doyle earned her second Copies in a Flash Player of the Game honor after posting 15 more kills. No other Lady Gov produced more than 10 kills in the match.
Elon posted a 62-55 advantage in kills to win the Lady Govs’ final game in four sets (23-25, 21-25, 29-27, 26-28). Three Lady Govs produced more than 10 kills in the game.
Doyle and Kayla Grantham, senior outside hitter, posted 14 kills. Fellow senior outside hitter Ilyanna Hernandez added 11 kills.
The three losses drop the Lady Govs to 2-9 overall. They will begin OVC conference play on the road against Eastern Kentucky Friday, Sept.16. Their home opener will be against Eastern Illinois Friday, Sept. 23. TAS
»Ashlie Talley – atalley2@my.apsu.edu
AT&T made an announcement in March of plans to merge with T-Mobile for $39 billion. Since this announcement was made, there has been legitimate concern whether the merger is unlawful and should be permitted. There has also been some scrutiny over the motive for these actions. Considering it is a violation of the anti-trust laws, they should not be allowed to continue this merger.
AT&T has a history of being unable to keep up with growing data usage. It grew by 8,000 percent in 2007 and is expected to be eight to 10 times what it was in 2010 by 2015. Since AT&T is already having trouble supporting the customers it currently services, it is obvious they will be unable to support the vast increase without making a change.
The problem lies in AT&T’s growing network combined with its inability to gain enough spectrum, or government controlled airwaves a company must license in order to transmit wireless signals. Without enough wireless spectrum, AT&T’s subscribers will experience forced dropped calls and slow internet service. There are two ways in which the cellular company might be able to acquire wireless spectrum: the first is to build cell towers. The second would be to buy already existing towers from another company.
If AT&T were to build towers, it could take months or perhaps even years. They would first have to search out the properties for the large quantities of towers they need. Then, they would have to go through the Federal Communications Commission to get authorization as opposed to simply buying a tower and getting an immediate resolution to the problem. Of course, they’ve opted to buy towers. But they’re not just looking to buy towers from other companies, they want to buy out T-Mobile’s entire network.
T-Mobile’s infrastructure is viewed as a huge asset by AT&T. Their utilization of a technology known as GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication), as opposed to CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), will allow them to immediately move a large majority of AT&T’s network strain onto T-Mobile.
However, the same infrastructure that would allow them to transition all that build up easily and effectively is also an infrastructure completely differently to that of AT&T’s. For instance, T-Mobile doesn’t have LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology and therefore it cannot support LTE 4G. It can only support its own version of 4G which runs on HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) technology. It is for this reason there is speculation as to why AT&T is trying to buy them out. They don’t have enough spectrum for the short-term issue and need immediate relief. But T-Mobile’s infrastructure is going to need intense renovations in order to support the technology AT&T employs.
The Department of Justice has stepped in on the situation and is taking AT&T to court over the matter. While AT&T states the merger will be more beneficial, providing an extra 5,000 jobs to the economy as well as a higher quality of phone service, the Department of Justice argues the merger is anti-competitive and would increase prices for consumers.
They are relying solely on the anti-trust laws, which ban “unfair methods of competition” and prohibits mergers and acquisitions that may be used to substantially lessen competition.
This is a very true statement and justified concern. Not only will AT&T’s merger with T-Mobile boost AT&T into the number one spot by leaps and bounds, they’ll also be eliminating an aggressive competitor. T-Mobile implements some of the industry’s most popular technologies and for cheaper prices. To buy out this company would be a dramatic decrease in competition and an increase in prices. They shouldn’t be allowed to succeed in this endeavor. TAS
» By Jenelle Grewell – jgrewell@my.apsu.edu
“Some of you didn’t really know the impact on your lives, your parent’s lives and on the world,” Picciotto said in his New York accent about the attacks. He said those who are older would always remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Picciotto said he would relive the day and all his decisions a thousand times.
Picciotto said when he received the news a plane had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center ,he asked to be dispatched because he evacuated the World Trade Center in the 1993 bombing. “I knew I was the only person in the world who had ever evacuated that building.”
When he reached the scene he said he was overwhelmed by the sound of slamming. It was people jumping from the building. “The first NYC firefighter killed was killed by someone landing on him.”
Picciotto said he was told there were people trapped on the 20th and 23rd floor and he went to action running up stairwell C.
When Picciotto got to the 35th floor, he said he stopped to take a 15-second breather with a few other firemen when the building started shaking. “I don’t know what is happening but it’s loud,” he said.
In a matter of seconds the sound was not above them but around them. All of the sudden it stopped. He said the silence was deafening.
He called over the radio and found out the South Tower collapsed. “My first thought was how many of my friends just died?” He said with all the firemen there on the 35th floor, with him he had to make the toughest decision of his life.
He chose to evacuate. He knew the people trapped above him had no chance. He grabbed a bullhorn and shouted to evacuate down the stairwell and at every few floors when he did a sweep.
On the 27th floor, Picciotto said he encountered a man typing on his computer. When told to evacuate the man refused to move and continued typing. Picciotto then grabbed the man by the shirt and tossed him to the other firemen and forced the man to evacuate. “I hope he made it. Everyone asks me all the time.”
When Picciotto reached the 19th floor, he said he found people at a standstill in the stairwell. The stairwell was blocked with debris from when the South Tower collapsed. He searched and found stairwell A was also blocked, but stairwell B was unblocked. He started moving everyone down stairwell B.
Picciotto said on the 12th floor he found about 40 people sitting in chairs and desks. When he told people to start moving he realized a lot of them were handicapped, with wheelchairs and walkers.
Each handicapped person had a helper with them unwilling to leave their side. Picciotto said he got all the helpers out and then was able to evacuate the handicapped with the help of firefighters.
On the 7th floor, Picciotto said the shaking and noise started again. The shaking was a lot more violent and suddenly it went dark. The air pushing down from the floors collapsing above them caused them to be thrown around like rag dolls. “And then I prayed at that point what I wanted more than anything in the world. I didn’t want to suffer. Please, God, make it quick.”
Suddenly the floor disintegrated and he was free falling, then it was still and silent. “I guess I am dead now. I thought I was dead. I guess this is what happens … your thoughts just continue.”
Picciotto realized he wasn’t dead. He was covered with the dust created when everything collapsed.
One thousand people were never found. Not a finger, not a single piece of DNA, because they were reduced to dust.
He said there were 13 other people trapped in the void with him. He told them all not to move, to turn off their radios to save batteries and wait for help to come. He said it was an hour and a half before he even heard from rescuers.
Picciotto said he found himself wanting to take a nap when he noticed a dark gray spot in the black. He crawled his way up and he was free on top of the highest pile of debris. He sounded a siren with his bullhorn and rescuers came.
Picciotto said the first message he would like to send is you have to have priorities in your life. “Any time there is a tragedy, everyone becomes very focused on what is important.”
“We have to be prepared.” He said the support given to him by family, friends and the American spirit were tremendous. TAS
Today @ APSU From AP
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