2007-10-31, The Samford Crimson

Basketball preview Birds and the Bees Holiday fashion Get a sneak-peak at the women’s basketball Drew Davis comgaressexeducation Samford students show off their season, which starts Nov. 5 and nuclear power costumes for Halloween See page 6 See page 3 A Bk See page 4 Wednesday, October 31, 2007 www.samfordcrimson.com Volume 93 I Number 9 Students embark on nationwide field trips SU students attend conferences across the U.S. to learn with other universities Ashley Shelsby The Samford Crimson Samford is beginning to encourage several off- campus and real-life learning experiences by sending on-campus groups such as the Student Activities Council, interior design and journalism majors to par¬ ticipate in different seminars and workshops around the country. The SAC traveled to Charleston, South Carolina in September to the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA). At NACA, six SAC officers worked along-side other universities around the coun¬ try to better student activities and jump-start student involvement on campus. “It was great because we got ideas from other schools. We got to discuss problems that we had concerning student involvement on campus and got to bounce ideas off other students,” Cat Wilson, jun¬ ior communications major and Co-chairwoman of SAC said. At the conference the students participated in workshops and round table discussions about improv¬ ing student turnout at events. The council members also enjoyed many copedi- ans, musicians and speakers at the conference. Sever¬ al of the entertainers from NACA have performed on campus. One of the entertainers was David Coleman, otherwise known as the real-life Hitch, who spoke in Brock Forum last spring. ‘The great thing about NACA is that it puts you in contact with other universities and other students and also offers personality and leadership training. That’s not just something that I will use on campus; I will also use it in the long run,” junior biology major and vice president of programming for SGA Lee Ross said. Students from the journalism department had the opportunity to attend the National College Media Convention (NCMC), which was held at the Hilton hotel in Washington, D.C. this past week. Students holding staff positions on the Samford Crimson and WVSU radio station attended numer¬ ous seminars and lectures with hundreds of journal¬ ism students from different universities nation wide. Each hour, 10 to 15 seminars were held for students to attend. The seminars covered topics such as layout design, style writing, management, photography, internship tips, broadcasting and filmmaking. “I attended a seminar on how to promote radio on campus. That was something I could bring back home to WVSU and help radio have more of a presence on campus. It also gave me more confidence in my broadcasting abilities, which will better enable me to serve the student body,” Nathan Troost, journalism and mass communications major, said. The trips to both NACA and NCMC were paid for by the Crimson, WVSU and SAC budgets. Last week a group of interior design majors trav¬ eled to Chicago where they participated in architec¬ ture tours around the city. They visited the Frank Lloyd Wright District, named after one of American’s most prominent 20th century architects. Students also attended a merchandise mart, which consisted of hundreds of show rooms selling different fabrics, home appliances and office supplies. “The merchandise mart had anything a designer could dream of, and we were exposed to so many i' of Maggie Brown Interior design majors at Chicago's Millennium Park for architecture tours last week. different designers,” senior interior design major Blake Airdo said. Before the trip, students attended weekly meetings See TRIPS, page 2 — 4J U.S. relations with Middle \ Pompeii exhibit festivity in Bham Eastern ally jeopardized * . Ет^лфаачег I The Samford Crimson Break it down at Shire party Sophomore secondary education major Christine Storey danced at the Shire Halloween party last Saturday night. Storey was dressed as a 1920s gangster. “I never miss a Shire party. The Halloween ones are always the best,* Storey said. Rip to the Expressions section for more holiday-themed articles. Jodi Hug_ & Sarah Kate Boltz The Samford Crimson Recently, the United States has been involved in a political dispute regarding the mass killings of Armenians 92 years ago in the Ottoman Empire, now Turkey. “Students have a lot of questions and don’t under¬ stand (what is going on in Turkey). They need to get information from somewhere, and the media has not been focusing on much of this,” political science professor Andrew Konitzer said. Turkey is one of the few allies of the U.S. in the Middle East. If the U.S. decides to be the “24th country to officially acknowledge” the killings as a genocide our relations with Turkey will be seriously damaged, according to TIME magazine. “Why would we further damage our relations (with Turkey)?” Abbey Woodruff, senior interna¬ tional relations major, said. “Our foreign relations are bad enough.” The issue is complex because the U.S. must decide whether or not to risk its relationship with Turkey in order to make the point that the U.S. will not tolerate genocide. According to TIME, “some 70 percent of U.S. air cargo en route to Iraq passes through Turkey, as does about one-third of tire fuel used by the U.S. military there.” This U.S. air base is crucial to the American presence in Iraq because it is the only American air base in the Middle East. “I think it would be a mistake if they push the genocide issue too hard (on Turkey) right now,” Konitzer said. “We’re in a war against terrorism. A statement on genocide is going to harm that.” Amanda Slevin, senior communication studies major who lived in Turkey this past summer, said that the U.S. relationship with Turkey is too impor¬ tant for the U.S. to further offend. “Supporting the Armenian claims of genocide would be extremely detrimental to US-Turkish rela¬ tions— our only ally in that area of the world. This is an issue to be discussed by historians, not U.S. law¬ makers. Already, even though the bill was not com¬ pleted, our relationship with (Turkey) has been com¬ promised,” Slevin said. If this discussion is not causing enough political tension, Turkey is currently dealing with its own political problems. The Kurdistan Worker’s Party (also known as the PKK), which is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union, according to TIME, is the root of the problem. Weeks ago, Turkey accused the PKK of launching attacks from northern Iraq. The PKK has been attack¬ ing Turkish soldiers in an “escalating decades-long fight for Kurdish rights,” and 42 Turkish soldiers have been killed in recent attacks, according to TIME. The PKK accused Turkey of oppressing Kurdish people and culture, according to CNN. The Kurds, by definition, are “a largely Sunni Muslim people with their own language and culture, (and) most Kurds live in the generally contiguous areas of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Syria,” according to the Washington Post. “The problem is that Iraq has Sunnis and Kurds. We are getting along with the Kurds; they are our friends. To the Turks, Kurds are terrorists, and the two of them want to fight,” Konitzer said. Following the PKK’s accusations, Turkey sent a large number of troops with tanks and armored per¬ sonnel carriers to reinforce the area along Turkey’s southern border, according to CNN. The dispute over the 1915 massacre has created new challenges for the U.S. in its efforts to diplomat¬ ically diffuse the current situation. The House of Representatives will further offend Turkey if it passes “a resolution condemning the ‘Armenian genocide’ of 1915,” and Turkish General Yasar Buyukanit warned that Turkish “military ties with the U.S. will never be the same again” if the See TURKEY, page 2 Drought causes water war among southern states Shannon Dille The Samford Crimson New water problems have arisen from the drought-stricken states of Alabama and Georgia. Given the increasingly problem¬ atic circumstances of the drought, the commodity of water has gener¬ ated disputes concerning its distribu¬ tion and conservation throughout the South. This week, Alabama filed a can- plaint to challenge the Engineer Corps’ decision to reduce the amount of water being released from Lake Allatoona. The draining will raise issues fa Alabama's water-powered genera¬ tion as well as the navigability of the Alabama River. “Tire Caps has a longstanding pat¬ tern of favoring Georgia over Alaba¬ ma in its operations at Lake Alla¬ toona, and the Corps’ actions have only gotten worse during tire unprece¬ dented drought we are experiencing,” According to the Montgomery Advertiser’s interview with Alabama Attorney General Troy King. j The current issue involves the water in Lake Lanir and to whom its contents belong. According to the Birmingham News, Georgia Gov. Sonny Per¬ due wants to cut the downstream release of water from-Lake Lanier into the Chattahoochee River, tak¬ ing water from Alabama. The Alabama Advertiser’s inter¬ view with Terry Everett revealed some of the state’s about the ongoing water war. lack of rain has put the majority of the state into severe drought conditions, according to the Alabama Power Company’s poll taken on Oct. 23. Britney Almaguer The Samford Crimson The Birmingham Museum of Art will host a special event as part of the introduction to their new exhibition, “Pompeii: Tales from an Eruption.” The event, called Lavapalooza, begins Thursday, Nov. 1 and is open to both students and faculty members of colleges around the Birmingham area. The guests can participate in an audio tour guide of the exhibition, a scavenger hunt with small prizes, as well as art activity and including pizza, cookies and punch. Employees will walk around in gladiator costumes throughout the night posing for pictures and adding to the overall theme. As part of the art activity, atten¬ dees will create a laurel wreath to wear around their heads, mimick¬ ing ancient, Roman garb. The museum will also show Pink Floyd’s “Live at Pompeii” video. The exhibition features around 500 objects including sculptures jewelry, gladiatorial armor, fres¬ coes and plaster casts from the victims of the Vesuvius eruption. There will be mosaics and sculp¬ tures on display as well. The plaster casts are unique and “tell the stories of people caught in their last moments, struggling in vain to save themselves and the things they cherished most," according to the Birmingham Museum of Art’s website. “This is the first time that some of the objects have been seen out¬ side of Italy,” Assistant Curator of Education Kristen Greenwood said. The audio tour guide relates the story of the ancient city of Pompeii following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79. AD. The eruption caused the destruc¬ tion of cities including Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and the countryside surrounding these cities. Many of the victims of Pom¬ peii who were unable to escape the destruction were caught in buildings that collapsed or were See POMPEII, page 2 m t - Nv tv