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ICIndependent Collegianwww.IndependentCollegian.com

Issue 1092nd year

Monday, September 26, 2011

The

Blown call sends Rockets to 1-3 after overtime loss

Sports, A6

Rounding up the ‘Usual Suspects’

Arts & Life, A5

Student organizations raise money for Somalia

Blackboard causes problems for studentsBy Casey CheapFor the IC

Students and faculty alike have been expressing frustration with Black-board, the online learning management system stu-dents can access through the MyUT Portal.

The testing function of the site has reportedly been prone to freezing up and kicking students off the site before they can save and submit their test results.

“It is a particular ‘test’ setting, one that many in-structors are most likely to use,” said Benjamin Pryor, vice provost and dean for the College of Innovative Learning. “It is the test for-mat when questions are presented one-by-one.”

Despite having problems since the beginning of the school year, Pryor said in-structors on campus did not notice the problems with Blackboard until more testing took place as the semester rolled along.

“We really started getting some complaints about two weeks ago and, as testing went on, we started realiz-ing this was happening,” he said.

Chinese population at UT triples

Arnaud Finistre/Abaca Press/MCT

Refugees appear at the refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya, Au-gust 11, 2011. The camp is home to almost 400,000 refugees, mostly from neighboring Somalia.

Barbara Davidson/Los Angeles Times/MCT

Hawa Barre Osman looks for a sign of life from Abdi Noor Ibrahim, her severely malnourished 1-year-old, inside the Doctors Without Borders therapeutic feeding center at the Dadaab complex in Kenya. She walked for a month with her five children from Somalia to reach the camp.

Barbara Davidson/Los Angeles Times/MCT

Two-year-old Habido Sharif Hassan lies severely malnourished inside a United Nations High Commission for Refugees hospital inside one of the three refugee camps just outside Dadaab, Kenya.

World renowned trumpet player promotes awareness of American music heritage

By John GumersellIC Staff Writer

Two years ago, the University of Toledo established an initia-tive seeking out Chinese stu-dents. Since then, the number

of Chinese students at UT has tripled.

UT created a partnership through a sister-city program with Shiwanda, China. This al-lows two international cities to

share one another’s culture and understanding according to Lar-ry Burns, vice president for ex-ternal affairs and interim vice president for equity and diversity.

Burns said China is a perfect candidate for a sister-city pro-gram due to its cultural back-ground and large population.

“Most international students that are from China

bring expertise in fields such as engineering,” Burns said. “Fam-ilies in China value such termi-nal degrees due to their

Photos by Diane Woodring/ IC

Remembering Troy DavisThe Black Student Union hosted a memorial service for Troy Davis Thursday. Davis was convicted for allegedly murdering a police officer while he was working security at a Burger King in Savannah, Geor-gia and he was sentenced to death in 1991. Many, including those in different countries, have protested Davis’ execution due to the murder weapon never being recovered and several retrials. Davis was exe-cuted last Wednesday. Director of Toledo Excel David Young (bottom left) spoke at the memorial.

By Danielle GambleIC Copy Editor

Wynton Marsalis believes

this country yearns for an

American mythology, a yearn-

ing that has grown out of years

of rich culture and beautiful

music.

Marsalis made a plea to

Americans to claim their heri-

tage in the presentation “The

Ballad of the

American Art,”

where he argued

that musical re-

sources in the

US are being

wasted.

Marsalis visit-

ed UT Wednes-

day as part of the

sixth-annual Sha-

piro Lecture series hosted by

the College of Language, Liter-

ature and Social Sciences in

the Student Union Building

Auditorium.

“We have an embarrassment

of artistic riches,” Marsalis

said. “Our arts, they have no

value to us. They are for kids.

Who calculates the value of

‘Amazing Grace’ or ‘Yankee

Doodle’ or ‘Go Down Moses’?”

Marsalis is considered one of

the most influential trumpet

players of this generation. His

achievements include winning

nine Grammy Awards, receiv-

ing honorary degrees from

over 25 leading universities

such as Harvard, Columbia and

Yale as well as receiving the

first Pulitzer Prize awarded to

a jazz musician.

Marsalis described the histo-

ry of America

in his lecture,

highlighting

African Amer-

ican struggles

and musical

influence. He

also stressed

the impor-

tance of jazz

c o n c e r n i n g

the Civil

Rights Movement.

“No one remembers that mu-

sic was integrated before base-

ball,” he said.

Marsalis did not only dwell

on the past, but lamented the

present struggles of American

youth and claimed the reason

for their difficulties lay in their

inability to reclaim their roots.

“Who will rescue our kids

No one remem-bers that music was in-

tegrated before baseball.

Wynton MarsalisJazz Musician ”

“

— Blackboard, Page A2

— Chinese, Page A2

— Shapiro, Page A2

By Sura KhuderIC News Editor

Over 12.4 million people across the horn of Africa have been affected by what experts call the worst fam-ine in a generation.

Located at the Eastern tip, Somalia has experi-enced the greatest brunt of the devastation with a dys-functional government and Al-Qaeda-linked militants blockading aid to victims.

After seeing how success-ful student organizations were at benefiting victims of the Haiti earthquake dur-ing the 2009-2010 school year, Idris Yakubu, a sopho-more majoring in pharmacy, decided to approach stu-dent organizations to join forces for Somalia.

Students in the Muslim Student Association, Black Student Union, African

— Somalia, Page A2

Independent CollegianTheMonday, September 26, 2011A2

Pryor sent a memo to all UT faculty members in-structing them how prevent some of the problems from occurring. Some sugges-tions included cleaning out the web browser’s cache and using Mozilla Firefox 3.6 or Internet Explorer 8.

Some faculty members have been so furious over the problems, they have sug-gested the university re-place Blackboard with an alternative web assistant for classes next school year.

“Since we have installed Blackboard, we have not been happy with the service, and it has always had bugs with it,” he said.

Pryor ruled out

Blackboard being replaced any time soon, however, and the site is constantly offer-ing new releases and repairs.

“A couple of weeks ago, [Blackboard] gave us a patch, but some of the solu-tions they have given us ac-tually made things worse,’ he said. “Some of the ser-vice packs they give us actu-ally cause other problems. It is unfortunate, but we will make it better.”

Pryor said he does not blame people for being frus-trated and wanted to stress it is a problem with the soft-ware, not the university’s fault.

Pryor said before an al-ternative could be imple-mented at UT, the issue would have to be investi-gated and faculty members

would have to come to an agreement.

At the very earliest, this lengthy process would not

lead to an implementation of a Blackboard replace-ment until fall 2012.

“The consensus is split,” he said. “Some faculty mem-bers love it and others don’t want to get near it. Black-board could still recover

enough, but if this keeps up, we might have to consider a change.”

Carrie Conlon-DeChamp-lain, a graduate assistant of music, vented her frustra-tion with Blackboard after a recent online test went poorly in one of her classes.

“The main issue I have with Blackboard is depend-ability,” he said. “I have a large lecture class of 160 students, and I need it to be dependable for them and myself.”

Because the system has not been reliable, DeChamp-lain’s recent online test did not go as smoothly as it could have.

“I got a flood of calls and emails,” he said. “If Black-board claims to be a leader in the industry, they need to

be a leader and get the prob-lems fixed.”

DeChamplain claimed to be experiencing the same problems students and fac-ulty across campus have complained about.

“Different students had different issues [with the test], but Blackboard should address the problem with more transparency so stu-dents and teachers can un-derstand and prepare,” he said.

Christopher Dean, a se-nior majoring in history, had another issue with Blackboard.

“Blackboard has a mobile app you can only use with Sprint,” he said. “The uni-versity pays for advertising all over the business college and most people can’t even use it.”

CampusBriefly

Want to be included in the next campus briefly? Send events for consideration to News@IndependentCollegian .com.

UT Center for Religious Understanding

Ovamir Anjum will reflect on his time spent in Egypt when he delivers the Annual Imam Khattab Lecture in Is-lamic Studies today at 7 p.m. in the Law Center Auditorium. His lecture, “Egypt Today: Field Notes on Islamism, Lib-eralism and the New World Order,” is the first in a series presented by the UT Center for Religious Understanding. The free public Imam Khattab Annual Lecture is sponsored by the UT Center for Religious Understanding with funds from the Anderson Founda-tion and Muslim communities of Greater Toledo.

University Women’s Commission

Diane Docis will present “Always on My Mind: The im-pact of rape prevention mes-sages on women’s lives,” a pre-sentation on rape prevention tomorrow from noon to 1 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room in the Health and Human Servic-es Building. Food and refresh-ments will be provided start-ing at 11:30 a.m.

UT Urban AffairsJoin the UT Urban Affairs

for a free screening of the film “Truck Farm” as part of the Film for Thought series on food and sustainability. The film will take place tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the Clean and Al-ternative Energy Incubator on UT Main Campus.

College of Innovative Learning

Dean and Vice Provost of Learning Ventures Benjamin Pryor will present a meeting with faculty and students on recent renovations to the li-brary, OhioLink and other con-cerns Wednesday at 3 p.m. in Carlson Library Room 2000.

Department of Social Work

The eighth-annual Interna-tional Conference on Human Trafficking, Prostitution and Sex Work will be held at the Student Union Building Thurs-day from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The conference is held to bring to-gether researchers and practi-tioners in an effort to lay the groundwork for future collab-orative research, advocacy, and program development. In addition, it functions to edu-cate social service, health care and criminal justice profes-sionals on human trafficking and the needs and risks of those victimized by the com-mercial sex industry. The con-ference is free for students. UT professors and staff are asked to make a donation. All proceeds will go to support Second Chance, a local non-profit organization that works with trafficking victims and women currently involved in prostitution.

Catholic Student Association

Come hear Ken Leslie, cre-ator of Tent City, talk about how students can get involved and help those less fortunate. Tent City is a weekend-long event that helps homeless men and women get supplies, health screenings and other much needed items. The meet-ing will be in the Ottawa East Multipurpose Room 1101, di-rectly across from the dining hall Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m. The event is sponsored by the Catholic Student Association CSA and all people are wel-come. Please contact Marga-ret Kanney at margaret.kan-ney@rockets.utoledo.edu for more information.

Center for International Studies and Programs

Applications for a travel grant during spring semester are due Oct. 7 at 5 p.m. Travel grants provide needed funds for University of Toledo stu-dents to participate in quality international programs. Stu-dents must be registered full-time and have applied to a university-affiliated interna-tional program to be eligible for grant assistance. Appli-cants must complete CISP’s online application, submit an unofficial transcript and one letter of recommendation from an instructor, advisor or employer to be considered for the grant.

BlackboardFrom Page A1

Nick Kneer/ IC

Renowned trumpet player Wynton Marsalis came to UT Wednesday to talk to the community about the imporatance of American music history.

A couple weeks ago, [Blackboard]

gave us a patch, but some of the solutions

they have given us actu-ally make things worse.

Benjamin PryorDean,College of Innovative Learning ”

“

creditability. These students come to the U.S and contribute a tremendous amount of research to the field of study.”

According to Burns, after 9/11, many universities closed their doors to international student programs.

UT stayed active by giving rec-ognition to the program.

Funding for students from China does not dip into state subsidies, according to Burns. Families of these students usu-ally pay for tuition out of pocket, making the process affordable for UT.

UT set its eyes on smaller cit-ies in China, such as Shiwanda, because smaller cities are over-looked by major universities in the U.S. for partnership programs.

Burns said this gives UT a positive reputation in China.

Ainge Guo, head of the Confu-cius Institute and interim direc-tor of Global Intiatives, said the Chinese community at UT offers a tremendous amount of stimu-lus to the local economy.

“These students come here and spend their money on books, clothing, television and other sources of entertainment and businesses,” Guo said.

According to Guo, most of the students coming from China are graduate students and this num-ber has been increasing for the past 10 years.

“Some of these students will stay here to research in their field and gain experience while in their graduate studies and transfer to other schools in the U.S.,” she said. “Some students will return to China with their degrees.”

The Confucius Institute is working with the College of Business and Innovation to pro-mote abroad study programs in

China. They are working to create a

program that will enable Ameri-can students to study for two weeks in China and become fa-miliar with the culture.

In addition, the Confucius In-stitute works with local schools to establish a Chinese curricu-lum and assign teachers to those curriculums.

“I’m fascinated by the fact that China is becoming a partner of Toledo,” Burns said. “It is my hope that we broaden the per-ception of majors and programs to Chinese students and their families. I would like to see more of these students pursue degrees in arts and science backgrounds.”

Emily Hou, a freshmen major-ing in business, is an interna-tional student from China.

She said she discovered UT over the Internet and chose to come here due to the scholar-ships the university offered her.

ChineseFrom Page A1

Peoples Association and Catholic Student Associa-tion are working together to organize events to ben-efit Somali famine victims.

Yakubu said he thinks not many students are aware of the severity of the famine in Somalia. He asked students at a BSU meeting how much they knew about the crisis.

He said by show of hands, about 30 percent of students said they knew what was going on.

“I think students only have an idea of what is go-ing on,” he said. “We need to do a good job to make students more aware so they contribute to the aid.”

By the first or second week of October, the mon-ey raised by all of the stu-dent organizations will be sent to AmeriCares Disas-ter Relief and Humanitari-an Aid Organization.

Michele Martinez, assis-tant dean of students, will write a check on behalf of the organizations to the charity.

Somalia native Abdi Guled, a junior majoring in respiratory therapy, has been in the United States for five years. He has cousins on his father’s side who have been dis-placed by the famine. He said starvation has always been a problem in Somalia but it has recently become much worse.

“Before, the government would support the people when the starvation would come, but now we don’t have a government. Now, nobody will help them,” he said. “You see your peo-ple dying for hungry; it fills your heart.”

Guled said compared with other universities,

not enough has been done at UT to raise money for Somalia. He said this is because there are only five Somali students cur-rently enrolled at UT.

So far, the MSA Fast-a-Thon, held in the Student Union Building Auditori-um on September 8th, was the first event of the year where students experi-enced what famine vic-tims endure each day.

“You can’t understand until you know what it feels like to be hungry,” Asma Niazi, MSA vice-president, said.

MSA donated $2 on be-half of participants who pledged to abstain from food and drink from sun-rise to sunset. This year, 120 students pledged to fast.

“The Somalia famine happens every day- at least we get to eat after sunset,” Niazi said.

Along with pledges, MSA raised almost $1,500 through donations to ben-efit Somalia victims, an increase from last year.

Niazi said she believes donations increased this year because participants knew what it felt like to be hungry.

“We have all these bless-ings, we live in a nice envi-ronment and have access to food,” Yakubu said.

The MSA Fast-a-Thon is only one event UT stu-dents are planning to ben-efit Somalia famine victims.

A soccer tournament was held at the Student Recreation Center Satur-day from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. Ten students played and raised $90 for the cause.

Guled plans on creating a Somalia student organi-zation next year as he an-ticipates students trans-ferring from Columbus State Community College next year.

SomaliaFrom Page A1

from the isolation of techno-

logical gadgets,” Marsalis

asked. “If you don’t know

where you’ve been you

might just end up where you

started or further back. Now

is the time to realize this is

our story, this is our song.”

Christopher Williams, vis-

iting assistant professor of

musicology, said Marsalis

was effective in showing

how music speaks to soci-

ety about themselves and its

place in culture. He enjoyed

the delivery of the speech

just as much as the

message.

“Clearly, he had given

variants on this speech be-

fore,” Williams said. “His

spoken cadence had a lyri-

cal, poetic quality that

smoothly prepared mo-

ments in which he burst out

singing familiar old gospel

tunes or scat syllables that

had the eloquence of

words.”

John Richardson, chair of

the Shapiro Lecture and

part-time instructor at the

Honors College, said Marsa-

lis fit the qualifications of

the lecture series speaker.

“Edward Shapiro believed

the city and university

should be brought together

by a speaker of sufficient

gravitas,” Richardson said.

“The person cannot be just a

name, but they also have to

be intellectually important.”

According to Richardson,

choosing the Shapiro speak-

er is a long process that

starts every year as soon as

the previous lecture finish-

es. During the following

year, the committee meets

several times to discuss can-

didates and ultimately votes

on the lecture choice.

“Every committee mem-

ber brings a wish list. First,

we have to think do they fit

under Ed’s criteria. Second,

we have to see if we can get

them,” Richardson said.

Richardson said Marsa-

lis’s influence on music

made him an important Sha-

piro choice, ranking Marsa-

lis with previous speakers

like author Toni Morrison,

neurologist Oliver Sacks

and Bobby Kennedy Jr.

“Not only is [Marsalis] a

musician, he’s a student of

American culture,” he said.

Katie Giese, a junior ma-

joring in music education,

thought Marsalis was a su-

perior speaker that seemed

at ease with the crowd

“Well, I thought it was

really interesting,” Giese

said. “I liked how he really

took history and turned it to

a perspective that people

usually don’t think about.”

She said Marsalis didn’t

just give a speech, but capti-

vated the audience.

“People weren’t sleeping

— they really wanted to

hear what he had to say,”

Giese said.

We have an em-brassment of artis-

tic riches. Our arts, they have no value to us.

They are for kids. Who caluclates the impor-

tance of ‘Amazing Grace’ or ‘Yankee Doodle’ or

‘Go Down Moses’?

Wynton MarsalisJazz musician ”

“

ShapiroFrom Page A1

- in our opinion -

Moving out on shaky ground

Forum A3Monday, September 26, 2011

Randiah GreenEditor-in-Chief Sales Manager

Mike Dumont

Forum EditorMegan Gross

Independent Collegian Staff

Contact usThe Independent Collegian

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The

Editorial

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The editorials contained on this page represent the opinions of the student editors or the column’s listed author and not those of the Collegian Media Foundation.

News EditorSura Khuder

Arts and Life Editor Megan AherneSports Editor Joe MehlingAssistant Sports Editor

Nate Pentecost

Director of Photography Nick Kneer

Copy Editors Allison Seney

Danielle Gamble

Managing EditorVincent D. Scebbi

Use of religion in devel-oping a government can raise some concern for most Americans. Based on western ideals, religion and

g o v e r n -m e n t s h o u l d n e v e r meet. In the Mus-lim world, Islam and g o v e r n -ment have always in-t e r a c t e d , but reli-g i o u s

ideas can only influence political decisions, not dic-tate them.

It is in this way that Americans and Egyptians are similar. Citizens of both countries consider them-selves to be rather reli-gious, the only difference being the religions themselves.

Ovamir Anjum, Imam Khattab and chair of Is-lamic studies at the Univer-sity of Toledo, recently traveled to Egypt and found a striking difference be-tween what is shown to and perceived by western society about the reality in Egypt. Tonight at 7 p.m., he will be giving a lecture on his research in the Law School Auditorium.

In the United States, we are not afraid to create laws concerning moral be-havior. Due to separation of church and state, it is not stated these laws were derived from Christianity — instead, they are said to come from reasoning.

In a democracy where

roughly 70 percent of the population identifies them-selves as Christian, it is difficult to say these laws are derived exclusively from reason. It is unlikely the Christian majority in the United States would vote for any moral based law that went against their Christian convictions.

In Islam, it is similar — the duty to preserve human life might lead to the cre-ation of a law to maintain the safety of a populace.

The government would have no ability to punish individuals based on the rules of religion because the government can only work with the laws it makes, no matter if that law is inspired by the reli-gion or not.

If Egypt becomes a secu-lar democracy, the Chris-tians of Egypt could actu-ally lose their basic reli-gious rights traditionally given to them by Islam.

If the government be-comes completely secular, the Muslim population of Egypt — over ninety per-cent — would outweigh the five-to-seven percent popu-lation of Christians.

In a purely secular demo-cratic system, the Muslim majority would have an easy time voting on laws that align with Islamic ideals.

As a hypothetical exam-ple, consider this — in Is-lam, it is prohibited to con-sume or sell alcoholic bev-erages. If a law were pro-posed prohibiting the sale and consumption of alco-hol, it would most likely pass easily due to the Mus-

lim majority in Egypt. In Christianity, no such

prohibition exists and, in fact, consuming wine is part of a Christian religious rite. If a law like this were to be passed, the Christian minority would lose its reli-gious rights.

Historically, Islamic-based governments have preserved the legal rights o f n o n - M u s l i m communities.

They granted a status to non-Muslim communities that allowed them to live by their own religious laws, provided they pay certain taxes.

In a democratic govern-ment with an Islamic framework, the Christian minority would have more rights and protection than they would in a purely sec-ular democracy.

And what does all of this have to do with us as Amer-icans and students at the University of Toledo? Sim-ply put, we are the future leaders of our world and with globalization making this world so small, even the smallest issues abroad could affect us here at home.

It is our responsibility and duty as future leaders to understand our world, its people and our relation-ship to them. By under-standing issues abroad and behaving accordingly, we can better maintain safety, stability and peace in our country and communities.

— Jantzen Ridenour is an IC columnist and a se-nior majoring in religious studies.

From Cairo with candor

Purchasing a home can be an important stepping stone for anyone, especially when it’s a first-time purchase for a student. Pay-ing bills and keeping a home clean may not be something every young adult is ready for.

With today’s struggling economy, it’s risky for a student to put themselves in the midst of the fragile housing market, espe-cially since they’re so inexperienced. Some commuter students are still willing to live under the same roof as their parents, while others would rather make a move towards independence.

Not many students would consider them-selves “financially savvy.” Establishing credit and having money saved is impor-tant as well as being aware of spending habits. You need to establish a savings ac-count and be aware of spending habits.

Is it really necessary to purchase a Star-buck’s latte every day? Take that four or five dollars spent every morning at the lo-cal coffee joint and hold onto it. “Saving” isn’t a word many students know well, but it’s one they need to understand for their future.

We’re in a time of economic distress. Ac-cording this past Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, the sales of existing homes rose almost 8 percent from July’s numbers. The article states this was the highest home sales have been in the last five months, but overall, the market is still sensitive.

For every 100 homes sold in the U.S. al-most 30 of them were foreclosure sales last month. This means the lenders let owners of a house sell for less than the home loan’s value and forgave the difference.

Also reported this week, new-home

construction decreased 5 percent, leaving construction workers uncertain about job security in their industry.

So while existing home sales improved slightly, there is no reason to believe our economy is headed toward recovery.

Prices on homes this year are expected to decrease 2.5 percent but they’re expect-ed to rise 1.1 percent every year until 2015. The middle price for a home now is less than $170,000 compared to $177,300 earli-er this year.

To the average student, it’s scary to think whether or not they’ll be ready to enter the housing market while trying to find a suit-able job to pay the bills. The reselling of homes at the national level may be up for this past month, but there’s a lot ahead to push through.

So what can students do to prepare for post-college life on their own?

Start saving. . The best thing to do is have a checking

and savings account, one for money when you need it and another to use only in an emergency.

Make it a habit to put at least half of the paycheck’s amount into a savings account. The savings account should only be used to build up for the future. So, every so of-ten, transfer money over from the “I need money now” account to the “I’m building my future” account.

Students can only do so much in an economy they know little about, but what they can do is save and prepare.

So, save and spend wisely. Every student dreams of their own place one day. If you want do the independent move yourself, start planning today and be prepared for what’s out there.

During the last four years, students around the state of Ohio have encouraged greater dialogue about what suffrage entails and its relevance to member schools of the Univer-sity System of Ohio.

Student trustee suffrage can be many things, but mostly it is an idea that should be qualified as a serious issue students should be interested in.

Suffrage is not merely a right to vote. Many have possessed a right to vote while others have not. Suffrage, distinct from mere voting rights, is the attain-ment of those rights through the democratic process.

The popular concept of suf-frage originated after freed men, natives and women were able to own property.

To protect property, among other reasons, many people with voting rights affirmed, via the democratic process, the suffrage of blacks, natives and finally, women.

Historians assess recent suf-frage movements as coinciden-tal with other movements such as temperance, religions of protest and pioneers.

Suffrage bares no resem-blance to a person, it does a

device. This year, two ideas about student trustee suffrage exist throughout the state.

The first involves the meth-od of selection. Suffrage allow-ing students to directly vote from ten finalists at their public university, to send one final student nominee to the gover-nor would be like having mem-bers of committees and admin-istrators choose five applicants to send for governor of Ohio.

The second,idea is granting student trustees rights to vote on the Board of Trustees at universities. This has been her-alded by student campaigns for the past four years, and idle-ness has given way to apathy.

The ballot is a powerful thing, the offering of pioneer-ing voices.

The frontiers-people, mostly Scot-Irish Catholics, fugitive black slaves, freed men, trap-pers and various clans of Shawnee, who pioneered this wilderness, have not lost their echoes in the course of history.

Is youth more forgotten than remembered? Progress cannot be an afterthought.

To keep it, we stay out of the clouds, nearer to friends who

need us and who want to see progress but don’t. We lift each other up, in good times and bad, no matter the cost. We do what’s right, what’s hard and what’s got to be done.

We hope for a better life, a freer world, a greener planet and all subjective things. We decide to leave youth because others leave it too. We try to find it again to put ourselves to rest.

It’s another sight, taste, feel, mood or whatever kept us go-ing before. Youth isn’t decep-tive, but we do numb ourselves for nothing. Why would we want to wake up to a reality where we are speechless?

There’s a higher calling than progress, right? Maybe not.

Students, faculty, parents and administrators should make Ohio the state where his-tory’s alive, and our voices, shouts, conversations and whispers are heard.

We need our suffrage in 2011. We’ may be young, but we’re not in college forever.

— Christopher Myers Athens, Ohio

- Letter to the editor -

In the last 20 years our lifestyle has changed rapidly because of two things -- technology and easily accessible informa-tion. New versions of technology seem to hit the market monthly.

As soon as you buy the newest and latest form of technology, manufacturers quickly try to figure out how to make the product “better,” and in some cases, the product is hardly any different.

Technology has become a living, breathing organism in society. It’s a part of everyday life and, more than ever, part of education. This year, students were told the majority of their classwork would be dealt with through Blackboard.

In the past, only few professors would use the site for PowerPoint storage, assignment posts, practice tests and posted grades. Now, almost every professor uses Black-board for their class.

Recently, some students have been com-plaining about Blackboard and its tendency to randomly kick users out of the program -- even in the middle of taking an exam or quiz.

Not only are students frustrated, but so are professors adjusting to the program. Up-loading documents and receiving student complaints has become too much of a hassle for professors teaching multiple classes.

Another addition to this year’s curriculum is Mediasite, a way for professors to record

themselves live in class during lecture. If a student knows that a professor uses Media-site for every lecture, they wouldn’t be re-quired attend class. They would just have to log into Blackboard and access them.

Are we too dependent on technology? Healthcare facilities are moving into the electronic phase, restaurant venues offer op-portunities for online ordering and banking activities can be done over the Internet.

Practically everything can now be done online for UT as well. Parking services, bill payments, ordering textbooks and meal plan details can all be handled electronically.

Sooner or later, students won’t even have to live on campus or even attend school. They can do that in their room, still dressed in their pajamas.

Technology seems to have invaded our way of life. Our society is so dependent on what technology can do that we’ve stopped thinking for ourselves.

Is there any way to stop this technological movement? Technology has become so much a part of our lives that it will probably just continue improving and updating itself until the end of time.

Therefore, be smart about using technolo-gy and don’t depend on it for every single thing. It’s alright to incorporate it into daily life, but don’t lose sight of life happening now.

Technological overload

The life of a working parent is like learning how to juggle -- add the word “student” to this and life is a circus act.

As a working parent of five, I know how hard it is to balance my professional and family life. I am also a UT student majoring in English and communication, so it gets really hard to balance my many titles.

It is very important to know you are doing what is best for your family, even though it is hard to see the curious little eyes of your children as you walk out the door for work or school.

One word I find very comfort-ing is “quality.” Instead of wor-rying so much about the quan-tity of time you are spending with your children, it is more important to make sure the time you are able to spend with your children is quality time.

If you have more than one child, it is also important to spend some one-on-one time with each of them as much as possible. This could be as sim-ple as reading to your children or having your child read a book to you for 15 minutes a night.

I like to go on what I call “mommy dates” with each of my children at least once a month. This is when I take one of my children out to do some-thing special with them.

This can be very inexpensive

-- for example, if your child likes to read, take them to the library. You could also take your child to the park for a nice “walk and talk.”

After a long week of work, school, homework and chil-dren, I am extremely tired by Saturday. I know, however, a lot of other things still need to be done on the weekend. Yes, I’m going to say it — housework.

One great thing to remember is you are the “king of your cas-tle,” and as such, you have the responsibility of delegating. If you are married or live with your significant other, then you can start separating the work load.

That’s right everyone, we no longer live in the 1950s, and these days it takes two to run a household.

Also, don’t forget about the older children of the family, be-cause if they are old enough to ride a bus to school, then they are old enough to have some chores.

Getting homework done be-tween taking care of children, going to class and heading to work can be tricky.

I was pretty late when it came to registering for classes this semester, so it turned out my classes were on Mondays and Wednesdays from 12:30 p.m. to 9:10 p.m. with a four hour gap in between my first two classes.

I was not happy about the

time gap because I would be away from my family all eve-ning and only be able to work three days a week. That is, how-ever, until I realized the beauty of my situation.

This gap of time is allowing me to do my homework for the week every Monday and Wednesday without the distrac-tion of everyday life.

This way, I don’t have to wor-ry about it when I am at work or with my family. If your schedule does not allow a huge gap of time, then just set up some time every night where you will con-centrate only on homework.

A good time would be after the children go to bed and dur-ing the commercials of those all-important television shows.

Well, I hope you liked my first column of many more to come. I will be trying to form organiza-tions for working parents who are also UT students and I would like these organizations to provide some scholarships for hard working parents.

I would also like to add a little “Q&A” in my next column, so please send all of your ques-tions about parenting, children, etc. to frances.barror@rockets.utoledo.edu.

— Fran Barror is an IC Staff Writer and a junior ma-joring in English.

The real juggling act

JantzenRidenour

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SolutionComplete the grid so each row,column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9.

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ArtsandLifeMonday, September 26, 2011

www.IndependentCollegian.com Megan Aherne — EditorPage 5

Rounding up the ‘Usual Suspects’By Caitlin ArthursIC Staff Writer

Making their debut perfor-mance in the Glass City comes Springfield, Mo. natives Ha Ha Tonka at Frankies Inner City in downtown Friday at 10 p.m.

Their push into the popular music scene began in 2007 with their debut album “Buckle in the Bible Belt” and followed in 2009 with the album “Novel Sounds of the Nouveau South.”

Ha Ha Tonka was recently featured on the new music por-tion of MTV’s “The Seven,” Na-tional Public Radio’s Song of the Day for their song “Usual Suspects” and an Ozarks epi-sode of Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations.”

The Independent Collegian spoke with guitarist and front-man Brian Roberts about the band and their upcoming performance.

IC: So, what kind of genre do you classify Ha Ha Tonka as? Because you don’t really fit into any kind of generic genre and you seem to be more of a cross between some.

BR: Well, somebody once

described to us that they thought it sounded like – and we like this description, so we repeated it – but they said it sounds like the “O Brother, Where Art Thou” soundtrack.

IC: In a couple of reviews, you were compared to Mum-ford & Sons and bands similar to that, due to your sound. How do you feel to be com-pared to bands such as those?

BR: I think it’s flattering whenever we’re compared to acts like that and so we defi-nitely take it as a compliment.

IC: Now, your name is very interesting. One might not know what to expect when they hear it. So, where did the inspiration for that come from?

BR: Well, it’s the name of a state park of the Ozarks area, which is the area that we’re from and we thought that we’d name ourselves that state park because number one, it’s a unique name, and number two, whenever we’re doing in-terviews, we could reference the area we’re from [in] the Ozarks.

IC: You were actually just featured on an Ozarks episode of Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” and a couple of other popular television shows. How does it feel to be receiving that kind of publicity?

BR: I think it really helps. It definitely exposes you to a wider audience, so it helps a lot. I was really shaken by how many people know that show and watch that show and we get lots of people coming up to us who hear about us through that appearance.

IC: So, how do you feel that you’re going to be performing in Toledo, the most awesome city in the world?

BR: Well, honestly, we’ve never been to Toledo, so I hope that people show up to the show, because we’ve never been to Toledo and there’s a first time for every-thing. We’ll get to experi-ence all that Toledo has to offer.

The doors open at 9 p.m. and tickets are $8 in ad-vance or $10 at the door.

Courtesy of Bloodshot Records

The members of Ha Ha Tonka (left to right) are Brian Roberts, Lucas Long, Lennon Bone and Brett Anderson of Ha Ha Tonka who will be performing at Frankies Friday night at 10 p.m.

New opportunities for film studentsBy Leila ElhilalFor the IC

The UT Film and Video So-ciety wants to bring all per-forming arts majors and en-thusiasts together for training, workshops, socializing and unity as they revive from their short hiatus.

Their last meeting was held in fall 2010 and was not con-sidered a group until this semester.

“This is not a one-man op-eration—strength in number,” said Katie Martin, president of the society and a senior major-ing in film and video. “If last year we had an adequate amount of members, there would not have been an over-whelming workload on the ex-ecutive board and the group would have survived.”

The society went over their agenda for the year during their first meeting Monday. Each member had the oppor-tunity to get involved with the UT Student Film Showcase, a directory for crew members

and other activities.“The group is starting anew

and trying to take a different direction—in essence, re-building it so that it can en-compass more events and ma-jors,” Martin said.

Students do not have to be film majors to join. Those present at the meeting includ-ed theatre, communication, business and music students. UTFVS is looking for students interested in helping as crew members, actors, musicians and film enthusiasts.

“It’s a group meant to be a resource to film students and to encourage collaborative ef-forts between performing arts majors,” Martin said.

The society created a direc-tory of its members to help student filmmakers collabo-rate and find people to work on student films as crew or actors rather than struggling to find helpers by themselves. Only members in the directory have the ability to use the di-rectory, which includes

members’ specific interests and qualifications

Members will also be able to participate in the UT Student Film Showcase. This annual showcase displays the best of student films from various production courses.

UTFVS is trying to get their members to put more effort into the showcase which is tentatively scheduled for March 2012. There will be op-portunities to work on party planning skills, as there will be a dinner before the show-case and an after party.

Film screenings will be lim-ited, but not absolutely abol-ished from the group’s agenda.

“We’re meant to have some fun, make friends and appreci-ate all the creativity we can offer our department. We’re not just focused on screen-ings,” Martin said.

The group decided it would be best to leave the majority of film screenings to the film department since the

department runs Film Fridays as it is. The few screenings that will be shown by UTFVS involve current film profes-sors’ pieces.

To connect with others on campus, the society plans on helping promote other groups through their film training. The group discussed doing various commercials and edit-ing work for different campus organizations during the meeting.

Throughout the year, there will also be various opportu-nities for training sessions. Final Cut Pro workshops and a potential steady cam ses-sion are some of the possibilities.

The next meeting is Sunday at the Center for Performing Arts Room 1039 at 7 p.m.

For more information about UTFVS, or to become a member, send an e-mail to: utoledofilmsociety@gmail.com.

Diane Woodring / IC

From left to right are Leila Elhilal, public relations director, Katie Martin, president and Matt Sauter, vice president, of UTFVS. The UTFVS held their first meeting Monday.

Ask me about my dragon

In order to perform certain ac-tions that involve chance, the player must roll the dice and add any bonuses their character has accumulated.

A roll of 20 means that no mat-ter how difficult the task, the character has successfully ac-complished their goal.

A score of one means a serious misstep at the discretion of the Dungeon Master. A one has left several characters in hot water, including a time when one of my cohorts stood two feet from a 100-foot wide zombie and instead

of hitting his target, stabbed him-self in the foot.

D&D is often scoffed at for its use of fantasy settings and its reli-ance on imagination. This aspect of the game, however, is the most charming and beneficial.

Call me old-fashioned, but I ap-preciate the ability to laugh face-to-face with my friends as we use logic and resourcefulness to bend rules and outwit foes.

Of course, the game is not al-ways so high minded—we spend many an evening cracking crude jokes, participating in imagined

bar brawls and making way too many Monty Python references.

This game, however, helped me become open minded and allowed me to appreciate the remnants of my innocence.

I am proud to admit that I am a fully-functioning member of society who enjoys the occa-sional D&D session in my mother’s basement.

— Danielle Gamble is an IC Copy Editor and a junior majoring in music education.

Photo illustration by Nick Kneer / IC

The three core texts for Dungeons and Dragons include the “Monster Manual,” “Players Handbook” and “Dungeon Master’s Guide.” The infamous d20 inserts the element of chance into the game.

Imagine a medieval time filled with magic and bravery, quirky characters and ferocious beasts. Now, imagine that you are a key player in this world, a champion that can cut a path of good or evil into history.

This is the world of Dungeons and Dragons.

For those that don’t know, D&D is a fantasy, table-top role-playing game, also known as a pen-and-pa-per game. The term ‘pen-and-paper’ refers to the way in which the game is run — a group of three to seven players gather to-gether with D&D rule books, pencils, pens, character sheets and their own imagination to aid them.

To keep order, a game leader known as the Dungeon Master is appointed to create and rule the world in which the players oper-ate. He or she must voice antag-onists, describe situations and surroundings as well as keep the game under control — in a word, the Dungeon Master is God.

The game involves whimsical settings like Abeir-Toril, the classic D&D land, Eberron, a

darker, more technologically ad-vanced setting and even Oriental and Arabian settings. Each set-ting can be tailored to fit each group of gamers and the journey these participants take is re-

ferred to as a campaign.

The members must each pick comple-mentary characters that can work togeth-er to accomplish the campaign goals, whether they be ac-cumulating wealth, creating chaos or saving the world.

Players can choose to be human or they can become any number of crea-tures — an elf, an orc, even a kobold, though I’m not sure that would be wise unless you’re building Pun-Pun.

These characters then chose a role to fill, including classic ar-chetypes such as Fighter and Wizard. Players can also choose to be a tricky Rouge, an explo-sive Barbarian, an inspiring Fa-vored Soul or any number of other premade or home-brewed characters.

D&D was originally created by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. in 1974 and quickly became a cult phenomenon. The original three booklets outlined flexible rules

that allowed gamers to create their own world. Based off of war and strategy games, D&D sought to individualize the play-er experience by bringing cre-ative characters into a mytho-logical setting.

It was the precursor to the video game, fueled by imagina-tion with none of the restrictions of a gaming console.

As more players got involved, the company began issuing revi-sions to the original books and in the 1990s, TSR was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, a gam-ing company that also hosts the card game Magic: the Gathering.

Wizards repackaged D&D and created the versions gamers know and love today, including revised editions D&D 3, 3.5 and most recently, 4.0.

Personally, I’m a 3.5 kind of girl — I understand 4.0 is “easi-er” and “more fun” to some, but I cut my teeth on 3.5 and I’ve grown to love the technicalities and flaws in the old system.

Today’s version of D&D utiliz-es four, six and eight-sided die; but the star of the show is the infamous 20-sided die known as a d20.

This icosahedron is used to create a sense of drama in what might otherwise be an unbal-anced game.

By Danielle GambleIC Copy Editor

Ha Ha Tonka to play songs from their new album ‘Death of a Decade’ Friday downtown at Frankies

SportsMonday, September 26, 2011 Page6

www.IndependentCollegian.com Joe Mehling – Editor

This is an incorrect call ... Admitting is one thing. Cor-

recting it is another. I believe in the end of the regulation, the score 30-29 is the correct call.Tim BeckmanUT Head Football Coach ”“

Blown call sends Rockets to 1-3 after overtime loss

File Photo by Nick Kneer

University of Toledo wide out Eric Page hauled in 13 catches for 158 yards in the controversial loss at Syracuse on Saturday.

By Nate PentecostIC Assisntant Sports Editor

A blunder by Big East offi-cials cost the Rockets dearly in a 33-30 overtime defeat to Syracuse at the Carrier Dome on Saturday. The loss ended Toledo’s run of five consecu-tive seasons of beating a BCS opponent.

“It was a tough loss, there’s no question about it,” said UT head coach Tim Beckman. “These last three opponents we played have been very good. I think Syracuse de-serves some credit. They fought for four quarters and ended up with the victory. We have a couple guys bumped and bruised, but we came in here to win a football game and we fell a little bit short again.”

After the Orange (3-1) took a 29-27 lead with 2:07 remain-ing in the fourth quarter, sophomore kicker Ross Krautman appeared to miss just left but the kick was ruled good. Several replay angles indicated otherwise, but the referee’s call was up-held by the replay officials.

“Upstairs in the box they said it was no good,” Beck-man said. “I don’t know other than what they tell me up in the box. It looked like it was a little bit off to the left. When you come into these games, you learn as a team and coaching staff that it’s us against the world. We have to make sure we don’t give the touchdown up, so they can’t kick that PAT.”

Toledo junior quarterback Austin Dantin battled illness all game but was on the field for all 30 UT points. Dantin managed to rack up 258 yards on 22-of-32 passing with a touchdown and an interception.

Sophomore quarterback Terrance Owens played just two drives, completing 6-of-10 passes for 42 yards.

“[Dantin] was throwing up all night,” Beckman said. “We had an IV in him this morn-ing. It was questionable if he was going to play for us. T.O. tweaked his back slightly, so Austin Dantin stayed in the football game. I think that proves what type of young man Austin Dantin is. He fought to the end. He’s still

sick. I think he’s over there getting sick right now but he willed himself to give us a chance to win and I think it speaks a lot about the char-acter of Austin Dantin.”

Dantin’s interception came on the first play of overtime on an adventurous play call in which he heaved a deep ball to the corner of endzone. Syracuse cornerback Kevyn Scott took advantage of the gamble, snatching the ball away from intended receiver Bernard Reedy.

Seven plays later, Kraut-man kicked the 27-yard game-winner, his fourth field goal of the afternoon.

Only adding to Toledo’s woes, several Rockets left the game due to injury on Saturday.

Senior running back Adon-is Thomas broke his arm on his first carry of the game, and did not return, watching the rest of the game from the sidelines with a soft cast. Beckman said Thomas will miss the next three to four weeks.

Toledo may also be without injury plagued sixth-year se-nior cornerback Desmond Marrow for an extended pe-riod of time after he left the game in the third quarter on a stretcher. Both his CT scan and MRI came back negative but his status for next week’s showdown with Temple (3-1) is now questionable.

“He was talking when I was out there on the field, so he felt like he was okay,” Beck-man said. “He was moving his hands and legs. The lack of movement had more to do with the concussion than anything else.”

The Rockets opened the game with their longest drive of the season. The 22-play 75 drive lasted over ten minutes before the offense stalled in-side the 5-yard line. Casano would chip in a 20-yard field goal to give Toledo the 3-0 lead.

Syracuse posted the next 13 points to take the lead on a 31-yard Krautman field goal with 1:06 left in the half.

On the ensuing drive, Dan-tin completed a 14-yard pass to junior wideout Eric Page to set up a 52-yard field goal by freshman kicker Jeremiah

Detmer. The kick was the first of Detmer’s collegiate career.

Detmer’s kick was the sec-ond longest in program his-tory, topped only by Todd France’s 55-yarder against Western Michigan in 2001.

Page finished with 13 catches for a career-high 158 yards.

Toledo snapped the tie with a 29-yard pass from Dantin to sophomore running back Da-vid Fluellen with under five minutes to go in the third quarter. Fluellen led the To-ledo ground attack in Thom-as’ stead, rushing 12 times for 62 yards and catching four passes for 43 yards.

“You have big shoes to fill coming in for Adonis,” Fluel-len said. “Me and Morgan [Williams] had to come in and hold it down for the team. It’s going to be hard these next couple games without Adon-is, but our team believes in us and we’ll get the job done.”

The Orange pulled even again on the following pos-session with a 20-yard rush by senior tailback Antwon Bailey, then recaptured the lead in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter with a 29-yard field goal.

Williams scored on another direct snap from inside the 5-yard line to give UT a 27-23 advantage with 10:54 to go.

The lead would be the Rock-ets last of the contest.

Syracuse senior quarter-back Ryan Nassib responded for the Orange by leading a scoring drive capped off by an 18-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Alec Lemon.

Krautman’s controversial extra point attempt gave Syr-acuse a 30-27 edge.

Toledo countered by driv-ing 65 yards on 9 plays to set up a 20-yard field goal by Ca-sano which sent the game overtime.

The Rockets would fall 33-30 in overtime on a Krautman field goal resultant from Dan-tin’s interception.

“We were trying to take ad-vantage of something we had been doing well in the bubble game,” Dantin said. “We thought that he [Scott] would knife out like he had been do-ing but he obviously didn’t. I had a little pressure in my face and I couldn’t get it out there like I wanted to. I tried to get it out there to where only he [Reedy] could get it. He made a good play on it and they won the game.”

The Rockets will begin their Mid-American Confer-ence schedule on Saturday, Oct. 1st at East Division pow-erhouse Temple. Kickoff from Lincoln Financial Field will be at noon.

Beckman, O’Brien want Big East to vacate gameBy Nate PentecostIC Assistant Sports Editor

University of Toledo Ath-letic Director Mike O’Brien and head football coach Tim Beckman made a formal written request to Mid-Amer-ican Conference Commis-sioner Jon Steinbrecher ask-ing that he request the Big East Conference vacate Syr-acuse’s win yesterday.

Following an 18-yard touchdown pass by Syracuse senior quarterback Ryan Nassib to junior wide receiv-er Alec Lemon, sophomore kicker Ross Krautman trot-ted out to what is usually a mindless extra point.

Except this time, the ball appeared to miss just left, but the kick was ruled good by the officials.

The extra point was re-viewed for several minutes, and though replay angles in-dicated otherwise, the refer-ee’s call was upheld by the replay officials.

Had the Big East game of-ficials made the correct call, UT senior kicker Ryan Casa-no’s 20-yard field goal as time expired in regulation

would have given the Rock-ets a 30-29 win.

“I think it’s important that we show our football team that we truly support them,” O’Brien said. “That we show our football coach and our staff that we are here for them and tell our fan base that it wasn’t the kind of sit-uation where the University of Toledo just lays down. When I left that stadium yes-terday I said ‘this is differ-ent.’ It was clearly a missed call. It was admitted that it was a missed call. Thus, the reaction from me this morn-ing was to ask that the win be vacated.”

Following the game, Big East Conference Coordina-tor of Football Officiating Terry McAulay issued a statement admitting the offi-cials made a mistake.

“After studying the videos of the Syracuse extra point attempt at 2:07 of the fourth quarter, we have concluded that the ruling on the field that the kick passed between the uprights was incorrect, and that the replay official made an error in failing to

reverse that ruling. In re-viewing the video, we have determined that the angle from behind the kicking team shows conclusively that the ball passes outside the right upright.

“Our review of the process determined that the replay official mistakenly focused his attention on the sideline angle, which proved to be distorted. We are confident that our officiating staff will learn from this situation in order to prevent a reoccurrence.”

Beckman said after McAu-lay made his statement, he emailed Big East Director of Communications Chuck Sul-livan about the matter.

“This is an incorrect call,” Beckman said in the email. “So what is getting done about it? Admitting is one thing. Correcting it is anoth-er. I believe in the end of the regulation, the score 30-29 is the correct call.”

Beckman and the Rockets return to action on Saturday as they begin conference play at Temple in Philadelphia.

File Photo by Nick Kneer

University of Toledo head coach Tim Beckman and the Rockets are now 1-3 in the 2011 season.