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College is expensive!Blue the Billiken

Case dismissed: Law School to leave Frost

The Joe and Loretta Scott Center is scheduled to house the SLU Law School as early as the 2012-13 academic year.

Photo Courtesy of Saint Louis University

Aspiring attorneys to attend classes downtownBy JONATHAN ERNST

Editor-in-Chief

Since dropping out of the U.S. News and World Report top 100 schools of law in 2010, falling from a Tier 2 universi-ty to a Tier 3, the Saint Louis University School of Law has searched for revitalization.

University administrators hoped that would come with a planned $35 million expan-sion of the current School of Law building at Morrissey Hall. Those plans were de-layed due to a faltering econ-

omy. Expansion appeared years

away, but on Tuesday, the School of Law received a boost as SLU announced that the school will move into a donated 11-story, 260,000-square-foot building in downtown St. Louis. The move will make SLU the larg-est educational institution lo-cated in downtown St. Louis with the school’s more than 1,100 students, faculty and staff.

“We are really excited about our new home. This is a

great opportunity for students and alumni to be in the heart of the legal community in St. Louis,” said Annette Clark, J.D., dean of the SLU School of Law. “This move opens up so many opportunities for our students.”

St. Louis businessman Joe Scott Sr., the founder and cur-rent owner of Scott Proper-ties, which owns and manag-es more than 2 million square feet of office space in the St. Louis region, and his wife Loretta donated the building, located at 100 N. Tucker Blvd.

In recognition of the dona-tion, SLU will name the build-ing the Joe and Loretta Scott Law Center.

“The donation of this build-ing is a true blessing,” SLU President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., said in a press release. “Thanks to generosity of Joe and Loretta Scott, we can now realize our dream of creating a modern space that reflects the outstanding teaching and scholarship taking place in

See “Law Center” on Page 3

Salaries stuck in neutral

By JAMES MEINERSManaging Editor

Saint Louis University will not be increasing salaries for faculty, staff or administration, except for those who have contractually obligated raises.

Interim Vice President and Chief Financial Officer David Heimburger said the University was very mindful of the financial situations of students and their families when setting next year’s rates.

President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., wrote a message to all SLU students, faculty, staff and trustees saying, “This year we spent $3.6 million above the $112.7 million we had previously budgeted to meet the financial needs of our students and their parents.”

The University maintains that the bottom line of family budgets weighed heavily in the decision-making process.

Another major reason for the wage freeze was the increasing uncertainty of SLU’s health care system, SLUCare.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care reform plan passed by Congress in 2009, will begin to be implemented at SLUCare in the next few years. Due to the new legislation, SLU must begin to deal with any ambiguities of the new laws.

Regarding the health care legislation, the President’s Message said, “Additionally, the potential for significant upheaval to the health care industry through legislative or legal actions remains a concern.”

Heimburger also spoke to the importance of SLUCare, adding that the physicians’ practice contributes about 30 percent to the University’s overall budget.

“Our clinical practice is dedicated to our mission, so we don’t have the same revenue stream coming in that an operation without the same mission does [like University of Missouri or University of Missouri-St. Louis],” Heimburger said.

According to the mission statement on SLU’s website, “[The University]

See “Salaries” on Page 3

SLU announces annual tuition increases

SGA president and Patankar promote forward thinking

SGA president Matt Ryan addresses the senate during their Jan. 25 meeting. Ryan presented the President’s annual State of the Assocation Address.

Minghao Gao / Staff Photographer

Thursday, January 26, 2012

The University NewsCelebrating 90 Years as a Student Voice of Saint Louis University

unewsonline.comVol. XCI No. 16

CRAVING MEXICAN FOOD?

Check out a new place to eat >> ARTS

SLU takes lead in Atlantic 10 conference >> SPORTS

SLU BEATS XAVIER

By KRISTEN MIANOAssociate News Editor

This Wednesday’s Student Government Association meeting largely focused on the future of the University and the senate.

The meeting started with a presentation on Recyclema-nia, an intercollegiate recy-cling competition in which schools compete to produce the most recycling per capita. The eight- week competition’s goal is to raise awareness and encourage recycling on col-lege campuses.

Vice President of Academ-ic Affairs Manoj Patankar pre-sented to the senate on the structure of Saint Louis Uni-versity’s strategic plan. The plan, which was approved by

the Board of Trustees, calls for the deans and vice presi-dents of the University to be-gin to develop their own plans for their respective areas. Pa-tankar said that the University is currently in the process of building teams and structures while collecting input from various stakeholder groups, including students, faculty and staff.

Patankar also talked of University plans to improve the core experiences for both graduate and undergraduate students and ways in which he hopes to see SLU become more globalized.

Flats Senator Krishi Ped-dada questioned how the stra-tegic plan hoped to increase the school’s rankings.

“We have been talking

about how to improve rank-ings across the board,” Pa-tankar said. “We are shooting for the top 50, but we want to focus on improving student interaction and quality of edu-cation as well.”

Education and Public Ser-vice Senator Nathan Klos-terman asked about the pro-cess by which the University has started assessing the aca-demic departments and col-leges. Patankar said that the plan involves using old and new processes to assess the effectiveness of the various academic programs, looking at how they can be improved or how they could be present-ed in different ways.

See “SGA” on Page 2

Source: The College Board

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

By BRIAN BOYDNews Editor

On Jan. 17, Saint Louis University President Fr. Law-rence Biondi, S.J., announced in his monthly President’s Message that undergradu-ate tuition would increase by 3.8 percent for the 2012-13 academic year, raising the an-nual amount to $34,740.

The SLU Board of Trust-ees approved the increase in December.

In the message, Biondi emphasized the University’s commitment to its mission of education, research, service and health care and acknowl-edged the need to keep tu-ition increases at a moderate level.

“To fulfill our mission --- while moving the University forward — means that we must keep tuition increases reasonable and affordable while controlling our expens-es in relationship to our ac-cumulative revenue sources,” Biondi said in the message.

In addition to the increase in undergraduate tuition ap-proved by the Board of Trust-ees, graduate and profession-al tuition will increase by 2 percent. Room and board will

also see a 2 percent increase. Student Government Asso-

ciation President Matt Ryan characterizes annual tuition increases as “tough,” but he sees SLU as a valuable univer-sity.

“If you look at our top Je-suit school competitors, out of the top 25 schools, we have the 12th highest tuition but are consistently ranked in the top five best schools,” Ryan said. “It’s not that we don’t need to be constantly cognizant of our costs. We need to match every dollar increase with an increase in value.”

Some students, such as senior Joe Andreoni, hope that the increased tuition brings some minor chang-es to campus.

“Hopefully, with the raise in tuition, they can afford to open DeMatt and Fusz food courts before 11 a.m. for hun-gry students like myself,” An-dreoni said.

The 3.8 percent under-graduate tuition increase stands as the lowest amount since the 2009-10 academic year. In 2010-11 and 2011-12, tuition increased 4 percent each year.

According to a 2011 report

titled “Trends in College Pric-ing” by The College Board, the national average under-graduate tuition increase for four-year private nonprofit colleges (such as SLU) was 4.5 percent in 2010-11 and 4.6 percent in 2011-12.

Interim Vice President of

of the changes in the price level of goods and services purchased by U.S. house-holds. It is published monthly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“A [college] education is expensive, as [students] know,” Heimburger said.

“Our goal was to keep our tuition rates manageable for our families.”

As a whole, the annual price increases in higher education have outpaced the CPI. According to the “Trends in College Pric-ing” report, from 2001-02 to 2011-12, tuition rates at four-year private colleges rose 2.6 percent above the inflation rate.

SLU Professor of Eco-nomics Lisa Gladson said that colleges and universities are human endeavors and there-fore possess high labor costs due to the need for highly skilled, and often times ex-pensive, labor in the form of faculty and staff.

Another factor affecting college costs is the need for schools to attract students and the resources required to do so. Above all, however, Gladson said that the increas-ing demand and necessity for

higher education drives the price.

“As the workforce becomes more skilled, the more the product, or college degree, will be needed,” Gladson said. “Over a lifetime, the degree reaps benefits and outweighs the cost. A college degree of-fers a higher wage profile and an insurance policy in the job market.”

In the President’s Mes-sage, Biondi said that SLU remains in a solid financial po-sition overall and cited the im-pact of external forces on the University, such as “the turbu-lent U.S. economy, growing challenges to student recruit-ment and retention, as well as the uncertainties of health care” and economic uncer-tainty in Europe.

“If a meltdown in the Euro-pean economy were to occur, it would significantly affect American markets as well as our endowment, which was significantly impacted by the economic crisis that began in 2008,” Biondi said in the mes-sage. “It is important that we prepare ourselves for similar stormy economic weather.”

A [college] education is expensive, as [stu-dents] know. Our goal was to keep our tuition rates manageable for our families.

“”

-David Heimburger, interim vice president of business and finance and chief financial officer

Business and Finance and Chief Financial Officer David Heimburger said that at least six other Jesuit universities will have higher tuition in-creases than SLU next year and that SLU’s increase will be in line with the expected U.S. Consumer Price Index. The CPI serves as a measure

Illustration by: Tess Hejna / Design Director

See “Tuition” on Page 3

Minghao Gao / Staff Photographer

unewsonline.comThursday, January 26, 2012

News2

Let Us Introduce YouNew dean of students is an avid sports fan, loves cookingMona Hicks

Be a Responsible BillikenSTOP. CALL. REPORT.

314-977-3000witness.slu.edu

dps.slu.edu

All Information Provided by Department of Public Safety

and Security Services

Friday, Jan. 20

11:55 p.m. - Accidental Injury A security guard lost control of his golf cart and collided with an en-trance gate arm. Upon impact, the guard struck his face on the steer-ing wheel causing a bloody nose. The guard refused treatment.

Sunday, Jan. 221:00 a.m. - Violation of Missouri Controlled Substances Law Officers met with an RA to check on an odor of marijuana. Upon inter-viewing a resident, he admitted to smoking marijuana outside and dis-carding the partial “roach”. The RA located a pipe with green residue in a desk drawer.

Tuesday, Jan. 2411:04 a.m. - Fraud Two students received emails stat-ing they would recieve checks in the mail. They were to cash the checks, keep ten percent and send the re-

maining money back to the sender of the email. One student tried to cash a check with U.S. Bank on campus. The bank refused to cash it. The other student called her par-ents and they advised that this was a scam.This matter was reported by DPSSS to the FBI, St. Louis Metro-politan Police, Information Technol-ogy Services Division, Marcom, General Counsel, and Student Devel-opment Division.

THE SLU SCOOP

There is one set of people who can do that, and it is all the people in this room.

“”

-Matt Ryan, SGA president

By KRISTEN MIANOAssociate News Editor

Like most new additions to Saint Louis University, Mona Hicks, the new dean of stu-dents, is baffled by the con-cept of the Billiken.

“I don’t know what a Bil-liken is, but so far I’ve heard a lot of different stories,” said Hicks, “and I know some are true and some are not. I’ve heard it’s like a some kind of Alaskan-indigenous, god of fortune thing.”

The Texas native officially began her new job at SLU on Jan. 11, though being a col-lege administrator has not always been her ideal job. Hicks attended St. Edwards University as a pre-med biol-ogy major with the hopes of becoming a physician.

“It’s something I miss,” Hicks said, “but it helps me think more of a pattern, sys-temic inquiry type of way.”

Hicks first heard about the position from Vice President of Student Development Kent Porterfield. While she was in-trigued by the position, it was what she learned about SLU students and the school’s Je-suit mission that really drew her to the job.

“I did what everyone does: I went to the website,” Hicks said. “Hearing students talk about what it means to be a Billiken was really compelling and felt sincere. I feel like I have been pursuing truth for ‘The Glory of God’ my whole life, so this was like hitting the professional jackpot.”

Since starting at SLU, Hicks said she has been im-pressed with how kind every-one has been. She said the experience has been exciting, but also extremely humbling.

“I’m not a morning person,” Hicks said. “I’m a grouchy-saurus in the mornings, but I feel like being at SLU might change that. I don’t know, maybe the Billiken is a morn-ing person.”

Hicks said she is most looking forward to meeting students, both as the dean and on a personal level. She regrets that, so far, she has been too busy learning about

her new job to really get out and meet the SLU population.

In her free time, Hicks enjoys cooking. She hasn’t found a place to live in St. Louis yet, and she said she misses cooking things that don’t just require pushing buttons on a microwave.

Hicks is also an avid sports fan. She played soccer for 28 years, but loves all sports.

“I check Sports Center ev-ery morning and I have it on my phone,” Hicks said. “It’s a little ridiculous. I promise, I’m going to be an avid Bil-liken fan.”

Hicks is also interested in the theater and the arts and is looking forward to seeing activities and events that SLU has to offer.

A recent love of Hicks’ is not a hobby or a sport, but is chocolate. Due to a childhood allergy, she spent the major-ity of her life avoiding it.

“I just started eating choc-olate in 2009,” Hicks said. “ I had some other food issues and the doctor just told me to start eating everything again so we could figure out the cause. So, now chocolate is back on the table.”

Since discovering choco-late, Hicks said she has cre-ated what she believes is the best brownie recipe ever.

“It’s a brownie that’s cakey and dense, but while it’s still warm, cut it in half and spread peanut butter on it. It’s great.”

As Hicks gets settled into her new role, she said she continues to be impressed by the sincerity and kindness of SLU students.

“When you transition, re-gardless the experience you have, it’s exciting but ex-tremely humbling. Its nice to know people sincerely care or do their part to say hello and good morning,” Hicks said.

Continued from Page 1

Patankar also presented plans to improve research on Frost Campus, to update classrooms and the plans con-cerning the new Law School.

After the presentation, the senate turned to new busi-ness, passing bills to seat two new senators and confirm the appointment of a new staff officer of promotions. A bill to amend the constitu-tion of the Diversity Leader-ship Cabinet to give voting power to all twelve members of DLC voting power has been tabled until next week.

Finally, a bill was passed to express gratitude for the donation of the AT&T build-ing as a location for the new law school building.

“We wanted to express how we felt in a resolution from the student body,” said author of the bill and Law School senator, Grant Fransworth.

SGA: Patankar presents strategic plan The meeting closed with SGA President Matt Ryan’s State of the Association Address. The State of the Association is historically given in the last SGA meeting of January; it looks at the accomplishment

ate has finalized plans to renovate the library, conclude the Oath of Inclusion and to improve updates via social media while creating better outlets for transparency. Ryan also said SGA has set fund-ing guidelines that focused on financial responsibility, pushed for improvements to the Vandeventer field and the Bauman-Eberhart building, implemented SLU Groups, and made sure student voic-es were heard on the hous-ing and security policies.

Ryan stated he was not yet satisfied and more can be achieved.

“There is one set of people who can do that,” Ryan said, “and it is all the people in this room.”

Ryan stated he wants to see more work done by the senate, including promot-ing the Oath of Inclusion to make changes on campus and taking a closer look at SLU’s Speaker Policy.

of senate and details plans for the future.

Ryan promised that de-spite the upcoming SGA elec-tions, his executive board will not be moving into a lame duck session. So far, the sen-

unewsonline.comThursday, January 26, 2012

News 3

After nearly a year of gath-ering student input, planning, revising, debating and plan-ning some more, Saint Louis University’s Pius XII Memo-rial Library will finally receive its long-awaited facelift.

Unlike the original plans put forth by the 2010-11 SGA which stressed an architectur-al revamping, Pius Library’s interior will receive the bulk of the improvements.

According to Director of Pius Library David Cassens, the project will begin on Jan. 30. The fourth and fifth floors of the library will be the first to be upgraded and will not be available to the public un-til their completion date on March 16.

Beginning March 19, the second and third floors of the library will begin their im-provement process and will remain closed until April 27. Finally, the first floor will re-ceive renovations beginning on April 30. Cassens said that the first floor, along with the entirety of the Pius Library improvements, should be fin-ished by June 1.

The upgrades include all new furniture through most of the library, additional di-rect lighting sources, new floor and ceiling tiles, added study spaces, improved wire-less internet connectivity, more electric outlets and an entire new entranceway to Pius Library.

Student Government Asso-ciation President Matt Ryan said that “95 percent” of the existing furniture in Pius Li-brary will be replaced.

“There will be almost all new furniture,” Ryan said. “We actually found that on the fifth floor people like the carrels, those really big study things, so they’ll stay. Some people like that boxed in feel.

We strive to provide an outstanding education for SLU students and want to work with the administration to make compensation a priority in the years ahead.

“

”- Sara van den Berg,English department chair

The second floor of the Pius Library stands barren.

Construction begins on Jan. 31, ending a year-long wait

Continued from Page 1

Library SLUth-ing for search efficiency

Pius upgrades come to fruition

Law Center: New seven-floor building provides students with pleasant surprise

Tuition: SLU focuses on student financial assistance

By MARTINA BOYTERAssociate News Editor

By BRIAN BOYDNews Editor

Continued from Page 1

Continued from Page 1

Ryan Doan / Staff Photographer

Shah (Yuqing Xia) / Staff Photographer

Justin Mulligan, first-year law student, enters Morrissey Hall, the current home to the SLU School of Law. The school will move to the Joe and Loretta Scott Law Center downtown.

Saint Louis University li-braries have introduced a Google-like search engine, SLUth Search-Plus, which revolutionizes users’ search for information sources.

SLUth was unveiled in De-cember of 2011, just six weeks after initiating discussion with providers of potential discov-ery services and assessing each option.

Implementation of the search engine was motivated by several factors, according to Georgia Baugh, Electronic Resources Reference Librar-ian. The libraries sought to satisfy students’ requests for a search system that covered many databases and other re-sources at one time. Students desire a program that helps them focus in on the most beneficial sources for their academic needs.

The SLUth program chose EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) as its new search pro-vider. EDS is also currently used by the University of Georgia Libraries and the George Washington Univer-sity Libraries, among others.

Several other universities have implemented similar technology. Baugh explains that two products similar to SLUth Search-Plus have gained popularity at other universities. SUMMON from Serials Solutions is used at University of Missouri—Co-lumbia. Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., uses another competing product, PRIMO from EX Libris.

The new search engine provides both electronic and print results. It scans the li-brary’s online catalog of hard-copy books available in any of the library locations, as well as online sources.

SLUth scans content from almost 20,000 publishers and

electronic resource vendors. Baugh said it is helpful to

have “more discoverable re-sources” where one search can reveal relevant materials in many disciplines and in special collections.

These electronic sources include online journals, digi-tal collections, and select databases available through SLU subscriptions.

The online databases from which results are offered in-clude Academic Search Com-plete, JSTOR, LexisNexis Ac-ademic, Web of Science, and more.

Baugh explains that, “In unfamiliar subject areas, they [students] will be able to dis-cover the databases or other resources that they should focus on for a given topic.” In addition, Baugh believes searching across multiple da-tabases simultaneously will save a great amount of time.

Students have already be-gun to discover the value of SLUth. Junior Rebecca Cal-lahan said, “I used the data-base for a short paper I just wrote. I liked how it cut out an extra step for me because I could view online articles and already had a list of books to pick up in Pius Library. I’ll definitely be using it a lot from now on.”

Amidst the efficiency of SLUth - Search Plus, Baugh warns it does not search all of the SLU Libraries’ databases. 

The program is still being experimented; the special col-lections resources, for exam-ple, are not yet complete.

Access to SLUth is avail-able on the home page of the SLU libraries website. For more information or help us-ing SLUth - Search Plus, con-tact your liaison librarian or use the Ask-A-Librarian ser-vice.

EDS raises expectations for the strength of students’ sources and the variety in their bibliographies.

our School of Law.”SLU plans to open the new

Law Center in August for the start of the 2012-2013 aca-demic year. The building cur-rently features seven occupi-able floors, a main lobby, an enclosed, three-story parking garage and a ground-floor au-ditorium.

“We are honored to donate this facility to Saint Louis Uni-versity, and we are excited to see it put to great use as the home of SLU’s renowned Law School,” Scott said in a press release. 

The building’s transition from an office building to the Law Center will be de-signed and developed by the Lawrence Group Architects, the firm that designed and developed Hotel Ignacio and several other University prop-erties.

Clark said that the plans are in the developmental stage, but a lot of emphasis will be placed on designing the facility to meet the direct needs of law students. Some of those needs include more state-of-the-art technology including video conference rooms and small collabora-tive legal spaces.

“Students will be instru-mental in this planning pro-cess ahead and so far, we have received a lot of posi-tive feedback on this move,” Clark said. “The needs of our students are always our first priority.”

The Law School hosted a question and answer ses-sion on Wednesday night to address the concerns of law students about this move and to gather feedback. Law stu-

Salaries: Wage freeze hits faculty, staff and admins

dents were informed about the move in an email sent by Clark on Tuesday morning.

Aaron Moores, a 2nd year law student, was “surprised” when he heard the news.

“We have been told for years that a renovation was coming, but I was really shocked and surprised when I heard about the move,” Moores said. “The current building is outdated and it will be really neat being down-town.”

Moores said he was con-cerned about studying away from the Frost Campus due to being away from dining fa-cilities and the Rec Center.

“It will be an adjustment for sure and it will be weird not having the campus around us,” Moores said.

A shuttle system is be-lieved to be in the works to transport students to and from the Law Center and the Frost Campus.

Faculty members were equally surprised by the news and some faculty were even more surprised of the Univer-sity’s plan to move into the new facility by August.

“This is a great opportu-nity for the Law School to get a building that is up to 21st century standards, but I think the timeline for that is a bit optimistic,” McDonnell Pro-fessor of Justice Peter Salsich, Jr. said.

SLU is not the first univer-sity to have a law school locat-ed in their cities’ downtown law community. Fordham University, Georgetown Uni-

Despite this, Biondi said that the University expects approximately $7 million more available for institution-al scholarships and financial aid in 2012-13, bringing the to-tal provided to approximately $123 million.

According to Assistant Vice President and Director of Student Financial Services Cari Wickliffe, the University

has increased the overall aid awarded to undergraduate students by $25 million over the past five years. SLU also offers aid to students whose families encounter sudden fi-nancial difficulty.

“The University has emer-gency scholarship and loan funds specifically for families experiencing unexpected fi-nancial changes,” Wickliffe said. “These programs were designed to be temporary but continue to be supported.”

In addition, SLU engages with the Keep Me In College coalition, an effort by the Mis-souri Independent College and University Association to preserve state aid available to Missouri college students.

Wickliffe said that stu-dents can take individual ac-tion to reduce their college costs by striving to earn their degree on time and searching for scholarships online.

SLU maintains an online database that shows addition-

al scholarship and funding op-portunities for students. She also said that small, personal changes may help students financially.

“It sounds simple, but bud-get wisely. It’s important that students track their spending. A good question to ask is, ‘Do I need a $5 cup of coffee five times a week?’” Wickliffe said.

SLU’s searchable financial aid and scholarship database can be accessed at www.slu.edu/x11511.xml

Fosters programs that link University resources to lo-cal, national and international communities in collaborative efforts to alleviate ignorance, poverty, injustice and hunger; extend compassionate care to the ill and needy; and main-tain and improve the quality of life for all persons [in sup-port of its mission].”

The ambiguities of the economy was also a factor in the decision making process.

Heimburger said uncer-tainties in the U.S. and Euro-pean economies were other factors that the administra-tion kept in mind w h e n b u i l d i n g the bud-get.

T h e s e uncertain-ties have a f f e c t e d the entire economy, as seen by the F e d e r a l Reserve’s statement t o d a y that they w o u l d keep in-t e r e s t s rates low for the foreseeable future. The compressed in-terest rates seek to stimu-late investment and stave off recession in the economy. However, given the recent fi-nancial climate, the economic climate remains uncertain.

These uncertainties led to the recommendation to freeze wages for the majority of em-ployees for the upcoming fis-cal year.

“The decision [to hold sala-ries] was not easy, but it was necessary to prevent dramat-ic cuts in the future,” Heim-burger said.

He noted that Washing-ton University had a salary freeze two years ago and that the University of Missouri-St. Louis had not given merit in-creases during the past two years.

“This is not an uncommon practice,” Heimburger said.

Faculty reaction to the an-nouncement last week was

mixed, but none of the fac-ulty members who were con-tacted wanted to go on record against the University’s plan.

“We hope that the issue of faculty and staff compensa-tion will be addressed in the University’s new Strategic Plan,” said English Depart-ment Chair Sara van den Berg. “We understand the many economic challenges that face the University, our students and their families. We strive to provide an out-standing education for SLU students and want to work with the Administration to make compensation a priority in the years ahead.”

Student reactions, in com-parison, w e r e largely against t h e w a g e freeze.

“ I f tu i t ion is being r a i s e d a s m u c h as it is, w h y exactly a r e t e a c h -ers and facul ty m e m -b e r s ’

salaries not going up as well?” John Cook School of Business First-Year, Stacey Tucker, said,

“I think that, next to the students, the administra-tion’s number one concern should be the teachers, be-cause without the teachers and their hard work—and they’re already probably un-derpaid—most people would agree there is no university” Jordan Slavik, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said. “People come here to get taught by teachers, and not giving them a raise when they clearly deserve a raise is unacceptable.”

Some students had a more nuanced view of the issues.

“It’s a complicated issue—a balance between students paying more and teachers getting paid what they more than deserve,” College of Arts and Sciences senior Alex Sala-zar said.

versity, Loyola Marymount and the Loyola University of Chicago all have downtown law centers.

“To be right in the heart of the legal community will be a huge benefit for SLU Law,” Professor of Law Michael Wolff said. “I think it is ter-rific to be able to walk to all the courthouses and major law firms.”

The Law Center will be lo-cated next to the Civil Courts and near the Thomas F. Eagle-ton U.S. Courthouse.

“The move of our Law School to downtown St. Louis will be a major highlight of my nearly 25-year tenure as president,” Biondi said. “This is truly a momentous day for Saint Louis University and our School of Law.”

Other than that, it’s 95 per-cent all new furniture.”

Ryan also added that new study rooms will be added throughout Pius Library, with capacities ranging from two to 10 students.

According to Cassens, con-struction on the new entrance will begin in mid-February. The entrance will lead to West Pine Mall and face the Simon Recreation Center.

“We’re returning to the original Pius,” Cassens said. “The footprint where the new entrance is going to be is where the original entrance to Pius existed when there was actually a street where West Pine Mall is.”

Cassens said that the new wireless internet will allow students to connect to more data points throughout the li-brary while increasing speed and user capacity.

“When the library is heav-ily used, particularly during exam period, a lot of people are trying to connect with tablets or laptops. We cur-rently have a simultaneous

capacity of 330 users. When approached it gets sluggish,” Cassens said. “The connec-tion will be improved, and it will be at least six times faster than it is now.”

During the construction periods, students will be able to check out books located on inaccessible floors via the cir-culation desk or by request-ing the book via the Pius Li-brary website.

The Lewis Annex and St. Louis Room will remain open throughout the entire semes-ter.

When construction on the first floor begins on April 30, Cassens said it will be “the most significant construction project”.

When all is said and done, the staff offices located on the first floor will be removed as well as the Knights Room. The computer area will be moved to the western side of Pius Library facing the Samu-el Cupples House.

In the meantime, the first floor computers will be moved to the second floor in

the Anheuser-Busch wing, allowing students computer and printer access.

Both Cassens and Ryan agreed that students will be accommodated and given study space in the library. Typically, students are forced to relocate to the first floor after 1 AM; however, Cassens said that students will be al-lowed in other parts of the library past this time.

With midterm and final exams leaving students seek-ing solitude, Ryan said that steps will be taken to ensure that student privacy remains respected.

“Construction is never pretty, we’re ready for that. Worked heavily to make sure that midterms and finals are respected and construction crew is aware,” Ryan said.

Cassens said that the Pius Library’s best efforts will be given to place students in quiet areas during midterms and finals.

“During midterms, we will place them in areas where noise is at a minimum.”

Even with a protracted pe-riod of construction looming, junior Eddie Desecki said he is excited for the updates.

“The construction will probably get annoying, but there are plenty of places to study on campus. It’s only one or two floors at a time,” Desecki said. “Plus, the new interior decorating is totally worth it.”

Cassens said that he is im-pressed with the University’s response to student needs and that the Pius Library is worthy of an upgrade.

“The university really re-sponded to the desires of stu-dents for an improved space. Pius is open longer than any building but dorms,” Cassens said. “Pius is viewed not only as the info center for students, but the 24-hour living room for students to study and so-cialize.”

unewsonline.comThursday, January 26, 2012Opinion Talk to us:

Parisa Rouie 314.977.2812

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Editorials are opinion pieces written by the Editorial Board of The University News. The editorials printed in this space represent the opinion of The University News. Commentaries and Letters to the Editor represent the opinions of the signed authors but do not necessarily represent the opinions of The University News.

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The University News reserves the right not to publish any letters that are deemed intentionally and/or inappropriately inflammatory, more than the 300-word limit or unsigned by the original author. The following are letters and/or website comments. Because the identities of website posters cannot be verified, all website comments should be treated as anonymous. Actual letters to the editor may be submitted online at unewsonline.com or e-mailed to opinion@unewsonline.com. Please include your cell phone number.

Lettersto the editor

With the purchase of the Pevely Dairy complex in August 2011, members of the Saint Louis University community began to question the soundness of the administra-tion’s financial decisions. As students, we now question the University’s aspirations and whether this educational institution is where it should be.

Although there were no plans originally made for how to utilize the building, the Uni-versity later decided to demolish the build-ing and construct space for SLUCare. This would allow the healthcare facility to expand and serve more patients. However, due to the St. Louis Preservation vote against the decision, Pevely will not be demolished and it rests forsaken until further notice.

The purchase of the Pevely complex has been justified with various excuses. With many of the recent purchases and actions taken by the University, such as Hotel Igna-cio and the new track and field on the Medi-cal Campus, there has been little mention of the University’s academic goals and needs.

Requests for creating more housing space for students remain rejected. Students are being left out of SLU’s decision-making pro-cesses. Furthermore, it appears that SLU joins the nation-wide university epidemic of mal-allocation of financial resources largely in favor of non-academic programs. We here-

by question whether SLU regards itself as an academic institution, a health care institu-tion, a business institution landmarks of the city or something else entirely.

While it is desirable for a university to show versatility in its scope and establish it-self as an integral part of the city it occupies, no university should neglect to perfect and expand its academic versatility and quality. What can be seen at SLU is continued atten-tion to a few successful programs of the Uni-versity, but we have also seen continued bud-get cuts and more recently the dissolution of the Counseling and Family Therapy program and possibly other programs that may not be regarded as “profitable.”

Students would like to see more of the Uni-versity budget spent on expanding SLU’s ac-ademic programs and opportunities. Hiring more full-time professors will build strong and lasting academic foundations. There is also room for many of the departments, such as Philosophy and Women’s Studies, to grow into outstanding programs of study.

The University administration must keep in mind its focus on students here now and prospective students in the coming years. Expanding academic programs and facili-ties most directly relevant to students should be the administration’s immediate concern, rather than its business objectives.

If there is one thing the Saint Louis Uni-versity community can rally behind, it is the Billikens.

More specifically, as basketball season rolls around, students find the Billikens to be one of the few uniting forces, and the bas-ketball atmosphere as become an atmo-sphere of hope and excitement.

Athletic programs are often under-rated among those students who do not have athletic inter-ests or aspirations. It is not often pondered how much having a strong basketball program adds to the image of a university.

Few can forget that only two years ago, Butler Univer-sity’s success in its new basketball program drew a record-breaking freshman class of 1,067 students, which was a 13 percent in-crease from their previous freshman class, according to the Butler University website.

At SLU, this strong basketball program

gives students something to reminisce about after they graduate. Particularly with free admission to games this year, more students have been taking advantage of basketball games. Basketball is becoming more a part of college experience.

Furthermore, a strong athletic pro-gram makes SLU ap-pear more inviting to prospective students. National attention and publicity not only uplift the University community itself, but it also attracts more incoming freshmen. A reputable basket-ball program may also compensate for SLU’s lack of a foot-ball program, which is often a disappoint-ment to students.

For students who have not yet taken part in SLU’s athletic programs and offerings, cheering for the Billikens is one of the best ways to feel unified with the University com-munity and become more a part of the Uni-versity itself.

University’s business focus detracts from enhancing academic programs

Basketball season lifts spirits, unites students

Cheering for the Billikens is one of the best ways to feel unified with the University community.

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I can recall the hour when Kent Porterfield and Roland Corvington entered the doors of SGA and told all of us what was going to take place. There were no questions asked about whether or not we approved of their actions. Several of us voiced sig-nificant criticisms, I personally made it clear that any ‘auto-mated’ system will never been as suffi-cient as one with actual man-power.

Cameras do not prevent crimes, they only help law enforcement identify criminals after the in-cident has been reported. And for the criminals smart enough to wear ski masks, and gloves, they can essentially leave no physical identity, and once this occurs cameras become useless. The chief ar-gument still lies on weak claims that cameras help prosecutors. But in the end, I’d much rather prefer that a crime never occurred... (read more online)

- Andrew Sova on “Overnight shifts raise concern for students, contradict University ethics”

Websitecomments

I think that this is another example of college students wasting their valuable time and resources. Chick-fil-A and no business for that matter needs to be subject to this progressive “accept gay people or you are a bad person” nonsense. Chick-fil-A has a right to do whatever they want and I will remain a loyal customer.

- RAD on “Chick-fil-A on the wrong side”

“[The Spring Fever concert] is a lot of work, but we’re hoping that the students will enjoy the final product.

”- Christi Thieben, SAB president.

See Page 7.

Quotesof the week

“We can see our morale is picking up and we are as strong as ever. We see the light at the end of the tunnel, and now that we have our goal in sight, we are focusing a lot better. ”- Taylor Streid, senior in the Doisy College of Health Science.

See Page 10.

“I’m not a morning person. I’m a grouchy-saurus in the mornings, but I feel like being at SLU might change that. I don’t know, maybe the Billiken is a morning person.

”- Mona Hicks, Dean of Students.

See Page 2.

unewsonline.comThursday, January 26, 2012

Opinion 5

While it may seem to many that the greatest inconvenience of the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act

was that we had to live for 24 hours without Wikipedia, the true horrors of the proposed bill are much greater. Thank-fully, SOPA (and its counterpart in the Senate, the Protect IP Act) has been shelved by Congress for the time being.

However, an in-depth examination and understanding of how this leg-islation would destroy the free and open Internet is crucial to ensuring that such an egregious attack on freedom shall never come to pass.

SOPA was first introduced in the House of Representatives on Oct. 26, 2011 by Lamar Smith (R-TX) with the expressed purpose of reducing online piracy of copyrighted images, audio, movies and other digital prop-erty.

This was, perhaps, a noble goal. However, the way in which the

bill was written puts a frightening amount of power and control in the hands of the government.

Section 102(a)(2) of the bill per-mits the Attorney General to take action against a website if “the owner or operator of such Internet site is facilitating the commission of [copyright infringement].” This may sound harmless on the surface, but let’s deconstruct the language.

Notice that the website need not have an expressed intent to engage in illegal activity; it must only facili-tate it. In theory, any website that allows any sort of submission of content from its users could be “fa-cilitating” the piracy of copyrighted material.

How many videos on YouTube contain copyrighted music or other content? How many pictures on Flickr would be infringing? Under SOPA, such a website is solely re-sponsible for the copyright infringe-

ment of its users and is subject to sanctions by the government.

Furthermore, it’s not the gov-ernment that determines whether or not a site is guilty of copyright infringement – it’s just the Attorney General. The power to banish You-Tube, Vimeo, Flickr and any other website from the Internet would rest in the hands of one person. An inher-ent trait of our nation is our reliance on a system of checks and balances. To give such power to one person is entirely un-American.

And what happens when the At-torney General deems a site to be a facilitator for copyright infringe-ment? Every Internet service pro-vider in America has five days to block access to it; search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing have five days to take the site out of search results; and payment gateways like PayPal have five days to stop servic-ing the website. In short, the site is permanently censored.

There is a possibility for the site owner to seek an appeal, but it must be presented in that same

five-day window. However, the bill doesn’t specifically say that anyone has to alert the site owner that he is breaking the law, meaning that in most cases they wouldn’t even know that their site has been cen-sored until service is shut down to it. This means that by the time the site owners realizes that he has been hit by SOPA, it’s too late to appeal anything.

But say an appeal is requested in the five-day window. First, the site owner must agree to put the site under U.S. jurisdiction permanently (meaning the government can still shut down the site in the future, whenever they feel like it, with or without our reason), even if they are a foreigner.

Then, they must swear under penalty of perjury that their site does not facilitate copyright infringement. According to SOPA’s definition, any site which allows for any sort of user submitted content at all is a fa-cilitator of copyright infringement, meaning that being able to swear otherwise and not commit perjury

is virtually impossible. So even the option for appeal is a lost cause in every regard.

The fact that this bill could sys-tematically block access to any web-site in America is scary. Its support-ers claim that the bill protects Amer-ican innovation by protecting the rights of artists, musicians and other creators of content for commercial purposes. However, innovation can only be stifled by censorship.

Though his musical talent may be doubted by some, pop superstar Jus-tin Bieber was discovered through videos he posted of himself singing songs on YouTube. Copyrighted songs. Under SOPA, Justin Bieber would not be famous; he would be a felon, guilty of the newly instituted felony of copyright infringement.

Clearly, SOPA is a toxic and dan-gerous bill which would create an Internet where everyone and every-thing is subject to censorship by the decision of one person.

Vinnie Schneider is a junior in the College of Arts and Science.

SOPA and PIPA endanger the future of the Internet

There are a lot of websites out there that are ruining our lives.

Remember LikeALittle? That sucked. Face-book? That one is ruining actual human commu-nication, leading to dangerous lev-els of stalker ac-tivity and provid-ing a plethora of opportunities for employers and parents to see us at our drunkest.

I am usually the first to bash

on popular websites. However, first-world-problems.com is hilarious.

Basically, the website presents a series of problems that can hardly be considered real problems. Some are funnier than others, but they all share a common theme: Only a per-son living in the First World would ever face (and be bothered by) these supposed problems.

When I heard about first-world-problems.com, I thought the idea was great. The term First World Problem was not one I had heard before.

Now, I can’t help looking at the majority of the problems in my own life as ludicrously inconsequen-tial. If a per-son were fac-ing extreme poverty or starvation and they heard us complain-ing about the short battery life on our iPod, they would probably want to slap us. And we would deserve it.

Over Christmas break, there were three particular occasions that made me reevaluate how spoiled I am. These were First World Prob-lems.

The first happened when a friend of mine came to pick me up one night. I came to the passenger door and had to wait for him to lean across and unlock the door. It didn’t take long, maybe 12 seconds, but I found that I was annoyed.

It was cold outside, and that door should have granted me access to the warm car at the press of a but-ton. Here I was, about to get into a motor vehicle and go wherever I wanted (probably to a bar or restau-rant or something), and I was ag-gravated by a lack of automatic door locks in my buddy’s car.

The second happened shortly after Christmas. My dad had just gotten a new, gigantic flat-screen television for Christmas, and we were working on setting it up. Both of us were getting frustrated as we tried to get the whole system func-tioning properly, and here’s why: We

could not get all of our electronic devices to work on the same uni-versal remote. The big-screen tele-vision, DVD player, Blu-Ray player, surround sound system receiver, VCR and cable box just would not cooperate, and that made us angry. After cursing at the uncooperative electronics, I took a step back and thought, “Man, I’m a jackass.”

We were setting up a rather opu-lent entertainment system in the basement of our house, and all we could do is complain about a misbe-having remote. Wow.

The third, and possibly most em-barrassing First World Problem I ran into over break involved Netflix instant streaming.

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, I was laying in bed at my parents’ house and streaming episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” through the tele-vision in my bedroom.

Time and time again, the connec-tion kept slowing down, and I had to wait (heaven forbid) for Netflix to buffer. This one annoyed me the most.

I literally yelled at the television. The concept of Netlflix is such a blessing in and of itself. It is a near-

ly limitless d a t a b a s e of movies and shows that we can watch at the push of a button. I was in bed doing exactly that. But when the connec-tion slowed, I was livid.

H a v i n g the term

First World Problem is a good thing because it gives us a title for our own ridiculous ideas of what we deserve.

Don’t get me wrong, living in the First World is absolutely fantastic. I love every minute of it. However, let’s remember how lucky we are. I don’t think I’m alone in my frus-tration with some of the aforemen-tioned issues (or similar ones). We all complain about inconsequential problems.

Perhaps if we take a minute to reflect on our own good fortune, it can put things into perspective. We go to a university that costs more than $33,000 a year. Granted, most of us have scholarships or financial aid, but we still manage to attend. I’m going to complain less about things that really aren’t worth com-plaining about; and I suggest you do the same. When the gentleman at the Grand Blvd. crosswalk cross-ing asks if we are able to give to the homeless, maybe we can give him something rather than avoid eye contact. After all, we suffer from First World Problems.

Doug Anstoetter is a senior in the College of Arts and Science.

First World grievances make up the next popular website

Stranded, alone, cold and ready for bed. We have all been there. A go-to solution previously was to

call SLU Ride to get chauf-feured across campus after the sun goes down and when the thought of cross-ing Grand Boule-vard is terrifying. Whether the re-quest is a matter of safety or try-ing to escape in-clement weather, SLU Ride used to

be a dependable source for travel-ing from Reinert Hall to the Lindell West Apartments without dilemma. Not anymore.

Upon calling 314-977-RIDE, the dispatcher will ask your name, phone number, location, destination and the number of riders. Beware, they will almost immediately offer you a walking escort instead of a van if you mention there is even one other person with you. Never mind that the callers could be two girls weighing a combined 210 pounds and could not defend themselves from a blindfolded toddler. Would an armed and dangerous criminal truly be deterred from approaching a group of three students if he knew he could restrain two of them with his left arm?

What are the requirements for these walking escorts anyway? The online Department of Public Safety and Security Services Student Em-ployment Application does not re-quire that the applicant list his/her height, weight or ability to protect defenseless girls. Furthermore, what about the safety of the walking escort after he or she drops off the student in need?

It is quite troubling that a SLU Ride dispatcher would consider the distance between Vandeventer Apartments and The Flats a “short distance.” It is completely in their power to judge whether or not the student calling for help even war-rants a ride. It is up to her if she would rather send the caller a walk-ing escort. Based on these varying

and subjective judgments, calling in is more like entering a SLU Ride lottery, and only few will be lucky enough to sit in the bucket seat of a mint-condition, University-owned minivan.

Even if an unoccupied SLU Ride vehicle is hailed down on Laclede Street after midnight, the driver fol-lows policy over ethics when deny-ing a cold, stumbling, lonely girl a ride across campus. Where is the line drawn for safety?

If you are lucky enough, you might even encounter a knight in shining armor, or at least a DPSSS officer in reflective gear. It is normal to be deterred from flagging down a man wearing a ski mask in the night, but in this case, make an exception. He could be your ticket to safety.

If SLU Ride is not able to comply with your needs, DPSSS is another - and an even more reliable - alter-native to arrive to the destination in one piece. Avoid any and all reckless college decisions until the number 314-977-3000 is programmed into your phone.

It is also a gamble whether or not the ride in the van will prove to ac-tually be safer than walking alone in the night. Whether the driver is tex-ting at red lights, taking sharp turns a little too quickly or just rocking out to Katy Perry, it is natural to wonder what kind of test they have to pass in order to be accepted as a driver.

We have a diminishing “student taxi service” that recently changed its policy for the worse. It used to be a breeze catching a ride late night, but now, for unknown reasons, the dispatchers feel far more entitled not to send a van. Is it really necessary to punish lazy students at the risk of putting their safety in jeopardy?

My suggestion would be to hire more students, acquire another van or even invest in several golf carts. If a walking escort is absolutely nec-essary, I request that he is a doppel-ganger of the young Hulk Hogan.

Please note that the number is not 977-RIDE to imply that you will ride piggyback to your destination if a walking escort is sent.

Stephanie Woods is a junior in the John Cook School of Business.

SLU Ride policy takes a gamble

If you turned on the television re-cently, you would have seen what ap-peared to be a remake of the movie

“Titanic,” which turned out to be the news. B r o a d c a s t i n g from the coast of Tuscany, numer-ous photos and videos showed a 4,200-passenger cruise ship sub-merged on its side.

These types of cruise ships are built to sus-

tain all sorts of weather conditions, so what happened with the Costa Concordia? Initial investigations ex-plained that the ship was simply too close to the coast and that the dam-age was caused by the ship’s colli-sion into the rocks by the shore.

Although the damage is obvious through the reports of 16 deceased and at least 20 missing passengers, the question still remains: Who let this happen, and how, in this day and age was this accident not prevented?

New versions of the iPhone and laptops seem to come out within months of their previous versions, and we seem to be obsessed with the idea of being the first to own something new.

Scientists and researchers are constantly working to make im-provements and advances to their current technologies, and, because of this, technology today is more advanced than anyone could have predicted 30 years ago. It is not un-common to hear people debate both the importance of technology and the fear of technology taking over the work of humans.

It is true that we depend on tech-nology for many things in our lives. No matter how early it is, students cannot deny that they use technol-ogy at least once before leaving for class, whether it be an alarm clock, cell phone, laptop, blow dryer, cof-fee maker or one of the many other things that we have started to de-pend on in our daily lives.

It is true that technology is ex-tremely helpful and, at times, can be smarter than us but there comes a point where people begin to fear the day that they will be officially re-placed by a machine.

The advanced technology in our lives can have both positive and neg-ative effects. In the case of the Costa Concordia, the captain of the ship was solely responsible for the acci-dent. He allowed the ship to travel more than two miles off course when he became distracted, and he decided to trust a machine with the lives of 4,200 passengers.

Although the ship was built with a system that was supposed to alarm the captain when the boat got off course, in this instance, the alarm did not go off and caused major dam-age. The captain of the ship relied too much on the power and technol-ogy of the ship and was convinced that it would be impossible for any technological glitch to occur.

As investigations continue, re-ports are saying that not only did the captain of the ship cause the ac-cident, he also failed to take action or any responsibility for it. Instead, he abandoned the ship and left the thousands of passengers stranded. Not only were his actions complete-ly unprofessional, they were inhu-mane.

Our actions cannot always be fixed by technology. This man should have taken responsibility for his mistake that could certainly have been prevented.

We can’t always rely on technol-ogy. We have to remember that ma-chines can break and that is one of the reasons why we will not be com-pletely replaced by them. We are not only responsible for researching about and advancing technology, we are responsible for initially creating it, and therefore, we are the only ones who can fix the little glitches that may occur.

Although it is great to have hi-tech gadgets and machines, we have to remember that these things break. Despite all of the research, tests and experiments, technology malfunctions from time to time, and we have to remember that we can never fully rely on it. We can’t let our lives be taken over by our things, and we cannot forget how to func-tion without them because one day, we may be put in a position where we have to survive without them.

Maeve Donahue is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Technology is great, but don’t forget the human factor

Erika Klotz / Illustrator

Starla Salazar / Illustrator

Commentary

Stephanie WoodS

Commentary

doug anStoetter

Commentary

Vinnie SChneider

Commentary

maeVe donahue

If a person were facing extreme poverty or starvation [...] they would probably want to slap us.

“”

UNEWSONLINE.COM >> For additional commentary on Obama’s State of the Union Address and student parking issues.

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Games

By Tyler Sondag

advertising@unewsonline.com / 314-977-2813

Tuesday, Jan. 31

8 p.m.Ryan adams

The Peabody Opera HouseDoors open at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 1

7 p.m.andy GRammeR

Old Rock HouseDoors open at 6:30 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 27

MidnightFiGht Club

The Moolah

Saturday, Jan. 28

7:30 p.m.bond-a-thon: CelebRatinG the 007 seRies with Goldeneye

Moore Auditorium atWebster UniversityTickets are $5

Saturday, Jan. 28

MidnightFiGht Club

The Moolah

Sunday, Jan. 29

7:30 p.m.bond-a-thon: CelebRatinG the 007 seRies with Casino Royale

Moore Auditorium atWebster UniversityTickets are $5

Sunday, Jan. 29

8 p.m.sCReen aCtoRs Guild awaRds

NBC

Thursday, Jan. 26

4:30 to 7 p.m.ChaRtwells and sab Chili Cook-oFF

Griesedieck cafeteria

Friday, Jan. 27

6 p.m.spiRit and histoRy aRt exhibit openinG and ReCeption

SLUMARuns through Mar. 4

Friday, Jan. 27

7 p.m.lunaR new yeaR Festival: “to be a dRaGon”Edison Theatre at Washington University

Friday, Jan. 27

7 to 10 p.m.open miC niGht

The Billiken ClubAdmission is Free

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OUTOn The

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OTHER

Diablitos: Open and cookingNew cantina adds zest, dinosaurs to local restaurant scene

By now you may have no-ticed that the once-vacant building on Laclede that

f o r m e r l y h o u s e d Iggy’s is v i b r a n t and alive a g a i n . From the creators of Café Ven-tana and C h u y ’ s c o m e s Diabl i tos C a n t i n a ,

the newest restaurant near SLU’s main campus.

The atmosphere

Upon entering the restau-rant, one cannot help but no-tice the copious amounts of lanterns and rustic artwork everywhere. They have ev-erything from fake shutters to depictions of the Virgin Mary. Even the chairs are decorated with little suns and flowers, and are covered in vibrant colors.

Add a canopy section out-side, and we are talking about the full dining experience here. The owners have done a stunning job of making this an attractive eatery.

There is a full bar with lots of drinks to choose from, in-cluding eight tequila cocktails alone. Other selections in-clude sangria, the house mar-garita, wine and more than 20 beers on tap or in bottles. With two big screens, this is a great place to watch your

favorite sports team and grab some drinks with your bud-dies.

On to the meat of the re-view: the food (pun intended.) Those expecting upscale fast food will be disappointed. This is a full-blown restau-rant, and you will have to sit down in order to be served by a waiter or waitress.

That being said, the food is worth the wait.

Appetizers and drinks

Our waitress sat us down immediately, and started us off with water to drink. One special touch is that drinking

Mark Campos / Staff Photographer

Diablitos, a Mexican street-vendor-themed cantina, opened in December. The restaurant, located on Laclede Street, was home to Iggy’s Mexican Cantina.

Mark Campos / Staff Photographer

According to Diablitos’ menu, the Baja Fish Tacos (pictured above) “put the B.A. in Baja! Rich and buttery Baja battered tilapia with cilantro cabbage slaw, lime and jalapeno tarter sauce.”

water is served in empty te-quila bottles. So, if a full bottle makes its way onto your table, remember not to act too ex-cited.

The first option, before any food is delivered, is the salsa bar. Four cups for a buffet of salsas to choose from and a bag of chips runs for only $2. Varieties of salsa include, but are not limited to, the house salsa, mango salsa, watermel-on salsa (not sure if that was ever a good idea) and roasted vegetable salsa.

These salsas are not any-thing to write home about, be-cause they lack flavor and the chips are paper thin, but, for

$2, they are certainly worth a try.

Entrées

The main menu is small, but has many options. The menu includes most of what you would expect from a Mex-ican restaurant, including enchiladas, fajitas, burritos, quesadillas and, of course, tacos. Almost everything has a vegetarian option, for those who prefer no meat. My table ordered a burrito, fajitas and a quesadilla. I thoroughly en-joyed my food. The burrito came filled with beans, let-tuce, pico de gallo and green

rice, wrapped up and placed in an “ocean” of queso blanco.

Needless to say, I left noth-ing on my plate. It was a nice blend of tender meat and crisp, spicy veggies. The rice and tortilla were a great base to bring it all together, com-bining the flavors in one easy-to-eat pouch.

The verdict

The food was full of flavor, but was not overwhelming. It seems Diablitos is com-fortable with what they are making, and I would not have been surprised if I had been told they had been open for several years.

These guys are ready for the long haul, and with a great drink menu and the late hours that the SLU campus is des-perate for, it should be a hot spot for years to come.

Important things to re-member:

1. This is a sit-down res-taurant, so plan your time and budget accordingly (ap-proximately an hour and fif-teen minutes and $12, without drinks).

2. This place has a full bar, so take advantage of it. Look for weekly drink specials in the near future

3. If you’re looking for something late, don’t forget about Diablitos. It is a great change of pace from chain fast food restaurants.

Best of all: they do carry out.

SAB plans to revamp Spring Fever concert

At the moment, it may seem like the pleasures of springtime are light-years away.

As students settle into the new semester and look over their syllabuses, it becomes certain that the luxuries of Winter Break are over and that tests and papers are looming in the near future. The old tale rings true — all things seem bleak when even the sun calls it quits by the time five o’clock rolls around.

Nevertheless, spring is on its way, promising sunshine, warmth and, of course, palm trees.

Along with these delight-ful feats of nature, this spring will bring with it a new SLU tradition. Instead of the usual Spring Fever concert hosted by the Student Activi-ties Board, SAB is planning a spring festival for students.

“We want this event to be a combination of Quad Day and the spring concert,” Christi Thieben, SAB President, said. “Students can expect an out-door festival in April, with at least three bands with differ-

ent types of music.” SAB is planning for the

music event to feature smaller artists playing throughout the afternoon. By having artists playing music from different genres of music, SAB hopes to reach a wide range of stu-dents.

businesses and restaurants for the event, and plans are being made to have free items and giveaways available for students.

Thieben said that the event will no longer be referred to as “Spring Fever,” as it has in the past. SAB hopes to create

a new image for the event, and felt a name change was necessary.

A tentative name for the event is “The SLU Festival,” but SAB is open to sugges-tions.

According to Thieben, one of SAB’s main goals is to “get people invested in the event.”

In addition to the student body, SAB also hopes to get various student groups involved with the festival, which will take place on campus. Games, food and activities

will stretch from the back of Griesedieck to the George-town parking lot.

When considering the de-cision to change from the an-nual Spring Fever concert to a festival style event, weather was certainly a factor.

“Everyone is happy in the spring, and there are good

vibes outside,” Thieben said. “College students seem to enjoy outdoor festival events, and many universities already have them.”

Putting on a big show like October’s Lupe Fiasco Home-coming concert is “really different from putting on a festival,” Thieben said. With-out the assistance of Chaifetz personnel provided for Home-coming, it is up to SAB to take further initiative.

Everybody on the board is on a committee, each of which is responsible for tack-ling a different aspect of the planning process.

“We wanted to do some-thing that the students felt like was theirs,” Thieben said of the festival, as opposed to a traditional Spring Fever con-cert event. “It’s a lot of work, but we’re hoping that the stu-dents will enjoy the final prod-uct.”

By EMILY CAVALIEREEnterprise Editor

Courtesy of Ben Folds and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

Singer-songwriter Ben Folds performed SAB’s Spring Fever concert in 2010, followed by Motion City Soundtrack in 2011.

Students can expect an outdoor festival in April, with at least three bands with different types of music.

“”

-Christi Thieben, SAB President

RestauRant Review

RichaRd Pugh

Outdoor music festival will replace traditional headlining performance

Hosting a few smaller art-ists, as opposed to one big performer or group, will be a relatively new feat for SAB, but they are excited for the challenge.

“Just because an artist is smaller doesn’t mean it isn’t what students want to hear,” Thieben said.

SAB is also hoping to col-laborate with different local

The University Newsunewsonline.com

Thursday, January 26, 2012Arts8

Mara breathes fire into ‘Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’

A-THE GOOD

THE BAD

THE VERDICT

Strong performances by Mara and Craig, with

Fincher at the helm, evoke strong emotion in the action hero genre.

The plot gets caught up in the tangled web of the mystery and sometimes

drags too much.

If you can stomach the film’s raw brutality, it is

well worth the watch and will not disappoint.

The Girl With the Dragon

Tattoo

Courtesy of impawards.com

Rooney Mara (left) and Daniel Craig star in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” based on the Stieg Larsson novel.

This adaptation of the Stieg Larsson novel of the same name begins with a gnarly

intro from Blur Stu-dios fea-t u r i n g r a n d o m bodies and m a s s e s e m e r g -ing from a dark liq-uid. Set to a cover of Led Zep-plin’s “Im-

migrant Song,” the intro sets the tone that this movie will be gritty and spare no gro-tesque detail.

David Fincher (“Fight Club,” “The Social Network”) is at the helm of this dark thriller about journalist Mi-kael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) and his unlikely partner, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), as they attempt to solve a mystery over 30 years in the making.

The film starts off with Blomkvist being convicted of libel for an article he wrote in his magazine about business tycoon Hans-Erik Wenner-strom, a shady character.

Knowing that he was set up but unable to do anything about it, Blomkvist decides to lay low. Blom-kvist is feeling down about himself and his career, and isn’t sure what to do, until a former CEO of the massive Vanger Cor-poration calls asking if he wants to solve a mystery.

Henrik Van-ger (Christo-pher Plummer) has been in agony for over 30 years, since the mysterious disappearance of his niece, Harriet Vanger. He believes that someone in his own family murdered her. He wants Blomkvist to inves-tigate the murder under the cover that he is writing a bi-ography of the deeply twisted Vanger Family, almost all of whom live on Hedeby Island in rural Sweden.

Blomkvist reluctantly ac-cepts after Vanger promises to help him nail down Wenne-rstrom for good.

Meanwhile, troubled youth Salander arrives on screen in full black leather, with pierc-ings aplenty and a spiky col-lar around her neck. She has been declared mentally incompetent by the state and she has almost no friends, yet she has become the best researcher at Milton Security.

Salander has been as-signed to do a background check on Blomkvist for Van-ger. She reports that he is clean and, when prodded, admits that she thinks he is innocent.

When Blomkvist needs help researching, Salander is suggested- and when he reads his own background check, he realizes that she is a world-class computer hacker.

The two become the most unlikely pair of coworkers and casual lovers, as the search for Harriet’s killer takes off on a twisted ride for the ages.

Fincher shows grit and brutality, along with an in-credibly in-depth look at the human psyche, as the viewer tries to analyze the mindset of each character.

The film is very graphic, and takes full advantage of its

“R” rat-ing by in-c lud ing b o d i l y m u t i l a -t i o n , s e v e r a l graphic r a p e s c e n e s and plen-ty of nu-dity to go around.

Craig c o n t i n -

ues his dominance of male leading roles with another solid performance. He comes off as a more realistic James Bond. Picture the spy a bit clumsier, while maintaining the usual staples of being good-looking, drinking a lot and, of course, womanizing. Craig nails the role as well as anyone could and will hope-fully be reprising in the rest of the trilogy.

But his costar Mara steals the show. Her transformation into Salander is nothing short of a miracle. Take a look at her as Mark Zuckerberg’s girlfriend in “The Social Net-work,” and you will see just how drastic the change is.

Mara’s portrayal as the icy cold Salander is spot-on, and she has received critical acclaim, including a Golden Globe nomination and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Don’t be surprised to see her showing up in more prominent roles down the road.

Salander is what makes this movie interesting. She is the definition of an unlikely hero, and her unorthodox ways and no-nonsense at-titude leave the viewer anx-iously waiting to see what she does next.

This movie is action-packed and, while it drags a little, with a running time of 157 minutes, it is definitely worth a watch.

Those who read the book will find some discrepancies in the plot but, as a whole, the adaption flows fairly well, and readers won’t be disap-pointed.

This is David Foster Wallace: ‘Long live the King’When David Foster Wal-

lace died in 2008, he left be-hind pages and pages of notes

on his next big proj-ect.

W a l -lace, called “one of the most influ-ential and innovative writers of the last 20 years” by Los Ange-les Times,

carved his own niche out in contemporary American fic-tion by responding to what he saw as the dangerous ten-dencies of postmodernism– namely, cheap cynicism and hip irony.

By age 46, when Wallace eliminated his own map (as he would say in “Infinite Jest,”) he had become one of the prophetic voices of his lit-erary generation. Forging the path into post-postmodern-ism, his encyclopedic yet ac-cessible essays, his insightful and incisive short stories, and his two voluminous novels (“The Broom of the System” and “Infinite Jest”) accounted for one of the most creative and observant minds in mod-ern literature.

Wallace’s editor compiled the notes Wallace left behind into a novel. Released in 2011, “The Pale King” is an incom-plete mess of a book. Charac-ters wander in and out of the story unexplained, only to ap-pear again 200 pages later, or not at all. The 540-page novel explores meta-modernist memoir, tax agencies in Peo-ria, Ill., Jesuit university pro-fessors, airplanes, loneliness and boredom. With his trade-mark hysterical realism and maximalism, Wallace paints an incredibly detailed account of his settings and his char-acters’ psychologies without ever seeming indulgent.

While “The Pale King” is so incoherent one can barely call it a novel, all of its errors can be forgiven when the reader

knows its genesis. Instead, what we are left with is a blue-print of an epic masterpiece, a magnum opus that could have rivaled Wallace’s own “Infinite Jest,” which clocks in at 1,100 pages.

In fact, reading “The Pale King” makes the loss of Wal-lace unbearable at times. The reader is treated to notes of a genius mind work, the vague sketches of a literary giant at the height of his pow-ers. America still obsesses about discovering “The Great American Novel.” “The Pale King” may not have been it, but one gets the sense that many great American novels could have flowed from Wal-lace’s pen.

“The Pale King” can be a tough slog at times, partly because of its maximalist nature. Like “Infinite Jest,” which contains 90 pages of endnotes, including the entire directorial filmography of one of his characters, “The Pale King” provides more informa-

Richard Pugh

Photo courtesy of davidfosterwallacebooks.com

“The Pale King,” David Foster Wallace’s last novel, was released unfinished in the spring of 2011 to critical acclaim.

tion than the casual reader would care to know. After reading the novel, I know way more about tax codes than I would ever care to. Entire chapters are given to intricate explanations of a “trickle- down economy,” etc.

Yet, the real strengths of “The Pale King” lie in the passages in which Wallace indulges in his true philo-sophical passions. One chap-ter, totaling about 100 pages, reads like a pseudo-memoir, where Wallace writes himself into the novel and addresses the audience directly. When describing how he got into ac-counting, Wallace describes one experience he had in a college classroom, where he felt the words of one profes-sor, a substitute, no less, were directed directly at him. He learned, as he remembers, that if one “can find the cure to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot do.”

In a similar passage, Wal-lace writes a 12-page tran-

script of the thoughts of one journey aboard a transfer flight from Chicago to Peo-ria, roughly 45-minutes. His bored mind wanders from passenger to passenger to the consequences of biting his own fingernails. I have never read anything like it.

Later, one of the chapters, almost a stand-alone short story, chronicles the des-perate attempts of a lonely schoolboy to create strategies to lessen his excessive sweat-ing and to keep his school-mates from noticing. At once sad and hilarious, this chapter recalls the best moments of “Infinite Jest.”

I would not recommend “The Pale King” to anyone who is not a self-defined Wal-lace worshipper. It is an im-portant work of contemporary American fiction, but frustrat-ingly enigmatic and obviously unfinished. But, for the fan of Himself, “The Pale King” is a must-read. The novel can be imagined as the fictionalized version of Wallace’s now-fa-mous commencement speech at Kenyon College titled “This Is Water.” Boredom, Wallace seems to suggest, can never be cured, but only treated by choosing what it is we let our minds wander and wonder about. The key is to avoid so-lipsism and dodge the notion that “I am at very center of my every experience.”

Perhaps, Wallace posited, this could offer the solution to the daily trenches of the day-in and day-out nature of adult life. Or else, it just might change your life. “This is in-credibly hard to do,” Wallace wrote. “Although, of course, you end up becoming your-self.”

An evening with piano

band Jack’s Mannequin Anyone who attended

Saint Louis University’s 2008 Homecoming concert at

C h a i f e t z A r e n a w o u l d have wit-nessed a f a m i l i a r scene at the Pag-eant last Thursday, Jan. 19. A h i g h - e n -ergy band four years

ago, Jack’s Mannequin con-tinues to rock out as only a piano band can.

Singer/songwriter Allen Stone performed first, fol-lowed by Jukebox Ghost— a young band eerily reminis-cent of early Jack’s Manne-quin. The two openers suc-ceeded in warming up the crowd and provided some good tunes to boot.

After a short break, Jack’s Mannequin took to the stage with force, headed by lead singer and pianist, Andrew McMahon. They began with two powerhouse rock songs: “Bloodshot” and “Spinning.” The songs, both from the band’s 2008 album “Glass Passenger,” set the tone with an energy that rarely let up throughout the performance.

With the baby grand set center stage, it was hard to pay attention to anyone be-sides the driving force be-hind Jack’s Mannequin. Un-like other piano performers, such as Ben Folds and Billy Joel, McMahon required two microphones, instead of one. One mic, to the left of the pia-no, allowed McMahon to turn his pretty, bearded face to the screaming audience and sing directly to the swooning la-dies.

A second mic, over the piano, was more conve-nient for the surprisingly r o c k t a s t i c piano solos he hammered out from time to time over the course of the night.

A true rockstar, Mc-Mahon left the piano on oc-casion to dance around the stage, flirt with the first row and generally act the fool. A bottle that looked suspicious-ly like booze occupied a spot atop the piano to complete the image.Unique for such a rockin’ show was the stage scenery. Under the piano lay a large Persian rug. Scattered around the stage, near each of the instruments, were lamps of varying sizes and shapes. The props made the entire set look more like a living room than a concert hall stage.

Even the piano, a beat-up Baldwin, looked like it had been used for years by a fam-ily with children. It was pretty cool, actually. The set up gave

the sense of watching a rock concert in your own home, rather than in a nearly sold-out arena. Atop the piano sat a synthesizer. McMahon used it sometimes exclusively on a few of the less piano-driven songs, but usually as a supple-ment to the piano, often play-ing both at the same time. Further illustrating his musi-cal talents, he even did some pretty sexy things with a har-monica once or twice, mak-ing more than a few audience members— I’m sure— jeal-ous of that harmonica.

One of the set’s highlights was “Holiday From Real,” from the 2005 album “Every-thing in Transit.” McMahon described his early days on the road and how much he missed “California in the summer.” Toward the end of the show, they played a single from their most recent album, “People and Things.” The song, “My Racing Thoughts,” received an enthusiastic re-action from the crowd and caused some conflict in the balconies. It was one of those awkward situations where some people wanted to stand and others wanted to sit. Luckily, folks at a Jack’s Man-nequin concert are not gener-ally a violent group, and this crowd was no exception.

Roughly an hour into the set, the band left the stage with some quick goodbyes, only to return moments later for an encore.

“We wouldn’t run off so fast,” McMahon announced, before serenading us with the song “A Lullaby”. While “A Lullaby” was not the best encore song, it transitioned spectacularly into the much faster paced “Dark Blue.” Anyone sitting down was quickly on their feet, and re-mained so for the rest of the

show. As the

last notes w e r e s t r u c k , c o n f e t t i e r u p t e d f r o m the ceil-ing and onto the crowd in a fitting end to an e x c e e d -

ingly energetic show.Jack’s Mannequin has a

history of great shows, and this one kept with tradition. Over the course of the night, McMahon joked with the crowd, telling one disappoint-ed fan, “You’re a dude. You can’t have my baby.”

He bantered with the crowd, but, most noteworthy, he made it clear that he rec-ognized his good fortune of playing music for a living. A survivor of Leukemia as well as a successful musician, Mc-Mahon has a lot to be thank-ful for— and he appreciates it.

It was an entertaining, en-ergetic show performed by a fantastic band that never fails to impress.

The two become the most unlikely pair of coworkers and casual lovers, as the search for Harriet’s killer takes off on a twisted ride for the ages.

“”

A survivor of Leukemia as well as a successful musician, McMahon has a lot to be thankful for— and he appreciates it.

“”

Jennifer Wang / Photo Editor

Jack’s Mannequin made a stop at The Pageant on Thursday, Jan. 19. The band performed at SLU in 2008.

SPECIAL FEATURE>> Check out www.unewsonline.com for coverage and photos from The Script at The Pageant on 9/14! UNEWSONLINE.COM >> Follow T.J.’s blog, Keeping it Reel, for more of his pop culture know-how.

Movie Review

RichaRd pugh

conceRt Review

doug anstoetteR

Book Review

t.J. keeley

unewsonline.comThursday, January 26, 2012Sports

The University News

Talk to us:Joseph Cacchione

314.977.2812 sports@unewsonline.com

69-44

58-68

Men’s Basketball

Women’s Basketball

W

L

Women’sSwimming and Diving

W 100-10

vs. IUPUI

vs. Duquesne

vs. Western Illinois

88-25W

L

vs. Xavier

BILLIKEN SCOREBOARD

W 64-47

vs. Xavier

Preseason BaseBall

The Atlantic 10 pre-season baseball coach-es’ poll predicts SLU to finish sixth in the conference this spring. The Billikens finished 10th last year and hope to take down defend-ing champion and early favorite, Charlotte. Twenty-one players are returning from last season for the Billikens including pitchers Alex Alemann and Damien Rivera. Darin Hendrick-son will once again coach the team.

Billiken Briefs

Tennis Begins

The men’s tennis team stumbled this weekend in a 6-1 loss to Wright State. The doubles pairings of Vuk Poledica/Drew Feder and Joe Flanagan/Dave Welkener won their matches against the Raiders. Dave Welkener and Patrick Kella had competetive matches in their losses. Their next meet is against Eastern Illinois University Feb. 6.

MLS team drafts Michael Roach in fourth round SLU soccer standout begins his professional career with New England

By CHARLES BOWLESAssociate Sports Editor

SLU triumphs over Xavier, 73-68Win over rival puts Billikens on top of Atlantic 10 conference

By CHARLES BOWLESAssociate Sports Editor

Mike McCall, Jr. drives towards the basket against Duquesne last Saturday at Chaifetz Arena.

Shah (Yuqing Xia) / Staff Photographer

Shah (Yuqing Xia) / Staff Photographer

Mike Roach gives it his all as he prepares himself to shoot in a game last fall. Roach will now be taking his shots with the New England Revolution.

W 68-41

L 73-68

W

@ Xavier

vs. Rhode Island

@ George Washington Men’s

Swimming and Diving

vs. Western Illinois

64-49L

67-44

vs. IUPUI

Michael Roach’s journey to MLS has been nothing short of a miracle.

In October 2005, while Roach was in high school, he was in a near-fatal car wreck that almost derailed his soc-cer future. His car flipped into a ditch, and as Roach struggled to get out of his car, something was wrong.

“Someone saw the acci-dent and asked me to sit back down and get my wallet,” Roach said, “and that’s right when I couldn’t reach into my car, and I was pretty much frozen. I just couldn’t believe that I couldn’t move.”

Roach had broken his sec-old vertebrae, and his bright soccer future suddenly turned bleak. He quickly shifted his focus on his recovery as soc-cer took a back seat, but it was not out of the picture.

“Soccer wasn’t really on my mind at that point. I just had to figure out what was wrong with me,” Roach said.

Before The Wreck

Roach started his soccer career at a young age with Scott Gallagher Soccer Club and continued playing there for many years.

After success at Scott Gal-lagher, Roach attended Cham-inade High School, where he continued to play soccer.

“I know when I was young-er that my dad took me to some of the Chaminade games, and I would look at those guys, and I would look up to them and want to be like them. I always thought one day that I wanted to play there, and then I actually end-ed up playing there,” Roach said.

Before the fateful car ac-cident, Roach had one of the best games of his high school career, as Chaminade de-feated Saint Louis University High, 3-0.

“He was on top of the world on Saturday, and then the next day he could not get out of bed. It was our worst night-mare,” Mike Roach, Roach’s

father, said.Recovery Begins

After the car wreck, the soccer player had two op-tions for recovery. Accord-ing to a 2006 article that ap-peared in Sports Illustrated, Roach could have had a screw placed in his spine, which would have ended his soccer career, or take a chance on a halo brace, "to get bone on bone to fuse,” which would have allowed him to continue to play soccer if successful.

Michael chose the halo, which gave him a chance to play soccer once again, but he was worried.

“There were times when I didn’t know if it was going to possible (to play again),” Roach said. “Before the ac-cident, I had a good run, and

then after the wreck, there were doubts in my mind. I wasn’t sure if I was ever go-ing to be the player I ever was before.”

After the operation, Roach had to endure a grueling six-month recovery period with three months in the halo and three months in a neck brace.

“Through the entire pro-cess, Michael never felt sorry for himself. He never com-plained, never shared his pain with anyone. I saw a very mature man who worked his hardest to get back on the field,” Roach’s father said.

Finally, in May 2006, Roach got clearance to play soccer again.

He started to play at the same high level he had before the wreck and began to win at Chaminade once again.

“A lot of guys on my team, when I came back, said that it did not look like I was out at all, and [they] probably thought that I had come back stronger than I was before,” Roach said.

After recovering, Roach and Chaminade won the Class 3 state championship with a 31-1-1 overall, and they won the state championship on Roach’s birthday. Roach had 54 points that year, with 17 goals and 19 assists.

“To go through everything that I did and to have all the guys around me when things were really bad, and then to win a championship with them, was definitely one of the better feelings of my ca-reer,” Roach said.

After Roach’s incredible comeback, he garnered the

attention of several of Divi-sion I schools for soccer. He ultimately decided to go to Indiana University, but after one year of playing, Roach decided to come back to St. Louis.

The Trials and Tribula-tions at SLU

Roach was recruited by Dan Donigan to come back to Saint Louis University.

Roach’s redshirt sopho-more year was his best year at SLU, as he had 30 points (14G, 2A). However, after that year, Roach’s strength would be tested once again.

Donigan left to become the head coach at Rutgers, and Roach sustained a knee injury that kept him side-lined the majority of his ju-nior year.

During his senior year, Roach saw limited action be-cause of injuries, but he lead SLU that year with 4 assists and had 8 points, which was third most on the team.

However, there was one dream that Roach wanted to reach: an opportunity to play professional soccer.

A Dream Realized

Roach had a dream. After all of his trials and tribula-tions, he still wanted the op-portunity to play professional soccer.

Roach sustained a few in-juries while at SLU, but that did not deter him. After all, this was the same person who fought for six months with a serious neck injury just to get an opportunity to play soccer again.

Angie Willis, assistant ath-letic trainer, oversaw Roach through his time at SLU and knew about his dream of playing professional soccer.

“Mike has always been very focused and vocal about his goal to play profes-sional soccer. We were both under the pretense of get-ting him back healthy not just for SLU, but for playing

See “Roach” on page 10

70-55

The Saint Louis University Billikens men’s basketball team defeated at Xavier on Wednesday night with a final score of, 73-68.

For this season, this vic-tory is a defining win for the Bills as they have beaten Xavier who won the previous five regular season Atlantic 10 conference titles.

This win leaves the A-10 wide open as Xavier has struggled since their infa-mous brawl with Cincinnati.

SLU is in prime position to take hold of the A-10 as this win gives them a share of the lead in the conference stand-ings.

“The guys did a good job,” SLU Head Coach Rick Maje-rus said.

The Bills (16-4, 4-2 A-10) were led by Brian Conklin, who scored 19 points. Ten of his points were scored in the second half. Roe Loe contrib-uted 14 points, and Kwamain Mitchell had 9 points and 7 assists. The Bills have won three straight conference games.

The Bills jumped out to an early 11-6 lead. The Bills maintained a slim lead for most of the first half.

The Bills slowly started to build their lead, but Xavier cut the lead down to four with 2:37 remaining in the first half.

After a Bills timeout, SLU went on a 9-0 run to extend their lead, 39-26 with 0:50 left in the first half. The run was capped off by a Cody Ellis 3- pointer.

The Bills took a 41-29 lead going into halftime. Roe Loe scored 13 points and El-lis scored 12 points on four 3-pointers both in the first half

SLU struggled out of gate in the second half. After the first media timeout, Xavier started an 8-0 run which cut the Bills lead, 49-46.

Xavier then scored four more points which tied the game at 50-50. This was the only tie of the game.

After Xavier tied the game, SLU went on a 6-0 run to re-take the lead 56-50.

Xavier began to foul the Bills. Brian Conklin and Kwa-main Mitchell began hitting some clutch free throws. However, Xavier continued to stay in the game.

With 35 seconds left, Xavi-er was within three points. Xavier fouled Mitchell who hit his two free throws to make it a five point lead, 71-66.

Jordair Jett fouled a Xavier player with 22 seconds left in the game and Xavier convert-ed their two free throws.

After fouling Mike McCall Jr., he hits his two free throws which sealed the deal for SLU.

“It is a big team win for us. We all came together and played great team defense.” McCall said.

With the victory, Saint Louis is now tied for the lead in the conference standings with Massachusetts, La Salle, Dayton, and St. Bonaventure. SLU will be playing all of these teams within the next two weeks starting with Mas-sachusetts.

Xavier has fallen might-ily since their brawl against Cincinnati. During the Cincin-nati game, Xavier was ranked 8th nationally and since then have lost 7 out of their last 12 games and are now unranked. Xavier also dropped their second straight conference game.

Xavier was led by Mark Ly-ons who scored 27 points and Tu Holloway who scored 22 points.

Xavier’s 43-game home conference winning streak was snapped. The last team to beat Xavier at the Cintas Cen-ter was Saint Joseph’s in 2006.

Two of Xavier’s regular starters, Mark Lyons and Kenny Freese, did not start the game due to a coach’s de-cision.

“It is an accomplishment to beat Xavier, I know they had a long home conference win-ning streak, but right now I’m excited and it feels so great to be a part of this,” Mitchell said.

Saint Louis continues their road trip on Saturday when they face Massachusetts.

Massachusetts (15-5, 4-2 A-10) will be a tough confer-ence challenge for the Bills.

UMass is led by sopho-more guard Chaz Williams who averages 15.9 points per game and 5.9 assists per game.

SLU has claimed a huge victory over traditional A-10 power Xavier, but with UMass waiting on Saturday, the Bills cannot celebrate this win for very long.

TEAM CONF OVERALL

Saint Louis 4-2 16-4Massachussetts 4-2 15-5

La Salle 4-2 15-6

Dayton 4-2 14-6

St. Bonaventure 4-2 11-7

Temple 3-2 14-5

Xavier 4-3 13-7

Saint Joseph’s 3-3 13-8

Duquesne 3-3 12-8

Richmond 3-3 12-9

George Washington 3-3 8-12

Charlotte 2-4 10-9

Fordham 1-5 8-11

Rhode Island 0-6 3-18

The University Newsunewsonline.com

Thursday, January 26, 2012Sports10

Who to

CHEER

Eli Manning

Courtesy of Askmen.com

Despite being over-looked for most of

the season, theGiants’ QB has pos-sibly been the best quarterback in the NFL. His father, Ar-

chie Manning, claims, “It’s pretty great. I

can’t think of the last time I loved Eli as much as Peyton.”

Who to

JEER

Billiken Media Relations

Billy Cundiff

The Ravens’ kicker missed a 32-yard field goal at the

end of the AFC Cham-pionship that would have tied the game against the Patriots.

While most agree that Cundiff’s foot was at fault, some

sources believe that Joe Flacco’s mus-tache scared the

ball away from the uprights.

Who to

FEAR

Courtesy of NBA Draft Depot

Andrew Nicholson

By: Jonathan AupingStaff Writer

The Billikens men’s basketball team will

welcomeSt. Bonaventure to

Chaifetz on Wednes-day, Feb. 1. Their

star big man, Andrew Nicholson,

is expected to be a first-round pick

in next year’s NBA draft. Some say that

Nicholsonshould be a top 10 pick, except that no one wants to draft a player from a team

called “the Bonnies.”

Lady Bills search for midseason rhythm

By CHARLES BOWLESAssociate Sports Editor

Ryan Doan / Staff Photographer

Junior Mallory Eggert pulls up for a jump shot against Rhode Island at Chaifetz Arena.

>>Women’s Basketball

>>Swimming and Diving

Swimming and diving thrives in Indianapolis

Courtesy of Saint Louis Athletics

The swimming and diving team has had recent success thanks to a successful tapering period following a brutal training period.

By JOSEPH CACCHIONESports Editor

>>Commentary

Pay for the play?

Courtesy of The Baltimore Sun

Continued from Page 9

Roach: SLU soccer star achieving his dream

after SLU,” Willis said.Also assisting Roach was

Assistant Coach Mark Santel. Santel worked with Roach be-fore his combine.

“Michael deserves a lot of credit. It is fantastic what he has done,” Santel said.

Santel helped simulate drills that Roach would have to go through during his com-bine and attempted to give him situations in front of the net and in full-team training.

“Michael has gone through some frustrating times, but he stayed strong physically and mentally,” Santel said.

However, there was still one question to be answered: Would Michael Roach be drafted by a Major League Soccer team? The answer was yes.

With the third pick in the last round of the MLS supplemental draft, the New

England Revolution selected Roach.

“The main thing is that Mi-chael has a desire to compete. He always loves challenges, and I’m very excited for him,” Mike Roach Sr. said.

However, being drafted is just one step of the process. Roach is currently in Arizona for an 11-day training camp with the Revolution.

“It is a completely differ-ent environment. People have kids and wives, and everyone is playing for a spot, so you have to be focused and bring everything you can,” Roach said.

It is a miracle that Roach has made it this far. From being on the verge of never playing soccer again to being drafted by a MLS team, Roach certainly recognizes the posi-tion that he is in and the op-portunity he must seize to live out his dream.

The women’s swimming and diving team begins their final stretch of the regular season this week after back-to-back successful meets at Washington University and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. The Billikens won two out of three meets, beating Western Illi-nois and Xavier, but losing to the host team, IUPUI.

Junior Taylor Streid, last year’s team MVP, excelled in Indianapolis, winning the 200-yard individual medley at 2:09.83, and the 500-yard free-style at 5:07.96. Streid also competes in backstroke and breaststroke events.

For the second straight meet, sophomore Lizzy Os-terman performed well, breaking the school record in the 200-yard freestyle at 1:56.17, and also winning the 100-yard freestyle. Lizzy broke another school record in the 200-yard freestyle dur-ing a meet at the University of Missouri on December 3rd.

“The meet at Missouri was a good indicator to where we were individually and as a team. We faced larger schools such as the Univer-sity of Missouri and the Uni-versity of Missouri-Kansas City and were able to hold our own,” Osterman said.

The Missouri meet was during tapering week, where the team does not train as rigorously as normal, giving

their bodies time to recover so they do not burn out dur-ing more competitive and important meets. Because of this tapering system, it is dif-ficult to predict which team is going to perform well on any given day.

This previous weekend was the middle of another brutal stretch of practice for the swim team as they pre-pare themselves for the con-ference tournament at the end of February. After two more weeks of strict, difficult training, the team will once again begin to taper and rest their bodies before the Con-

ference tournament.“We can see our morale

is picking up and we are as strong as ever. We see the light at the end of the tunnel, and now that we have our goal {swimming well at the con-ference tournament} in our sights, we are focusing a lot better, “ said Streid.

Having just beaten Xavier, the team is confident that they will perform better than last year during the tourna-ment. Then freshman Chris-tiana Eltiste won her diving event and hopes to repeat as champion this year.

“We have a lot of solid

freshmen this year. It adds more depth to our roster and makes us a stronger team than we were last year,” said Streid.

Other potential standouts are freshmen freestyle sprint-er Jalynn Gieseke, freshman breaststroker Keevyn Sholl, and the only senior on the team Molly Culver.

Culver will receive a nice celebration during this week-end’s “senior meet” against Eastern Illinois and Evans-ville. The final meet before the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship begins at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Name: Michael RoachPosition: ForwardJersey Number: 10 Highschool: ChaminadeHighschool Coach: Mike GauvainFormer College: Indiana UniversityCoaches at SLU: Dan Donigan, Mike McGintyCollege Stats:

Senior - 2 goals, 4 assists Junior - 1 goal, 1 assistsSophomore - 14 goals, 2 assists

By NICK SHACKELFORDStaff Writer

Picture an enormous num-ber of workers in an industry who attend school full-time, work full-time and produce millions of dollars for their employers.

No, this is not a labor camp; this is the multi-million dollar industry where stu-dent-athletes produce large amounts of revenue for the NCAA.

Controversy is now sur-rounding the NCAA and whether their decision to add $2,000 to current athletic scholarships for Division I athletics will come through.

It is understood that not all NCAA sports deserve to be compensated by means of a stipend.

But sports that generate large revenue and merchan-dise sales, such as Division I men’s football and Division I men’s basketball, would cre-ate an argument in receiving such stipend. This would also extend to other schools that excel in Division I women’s sports.

The NCAA website says, “Student-athletes are stu-dents first and athletes sec-ond. They are not university employees who are paid for their labor.

Many student-athletes re-ceive athletics grants-in-aid that can be worth more than $100,000.”

Athletic scholarships, un-like academic scholarships that are given as four-year scholarships, are given on a yearly basis.

If athletes decide for what-ever reason to no longer par-ticipate in their respected sport, the scholarship be-comes void.

If the NCAA elects to add a stipend for revenue-making sports at schools, it would indeed take away the tempta-tion that student-athletes have of selling personal items to af-ford daily living.

According to espn.com, Ohio State football’s star quarterback Terrelle Pryor and four other teammates were suspended for the first five games of the 2011 foot-ball season because they sold championship rings, jerseys and awards.

However, some athletes feel that they are entitled to sell their jerseys, socks, pants and awards because they were given to them.

Recent discussions have been held within the NCAA for an allowance of $2,000 of athletic scholarship to be add-ed annually by various con-ferences to existing athletic scholarships.

NCAA President Mark Emmert said, “I know there’s a lot of debate out there for pay for play, but that’s not even open for discussion. It’s so antiethical to what college athletics is.”

Generally, student-athletes spend between 10 and 15 hours practicing, depend-ing upon when seasons are and what sport it is. Add this to a general student-athlete course schedule, which falls between 12 and 16 hours of classes per week.

This does not take into con-sideration traveling and class work. This takes away any chance of obtaining an out-side job in order to gain some sort of income for living.

Without a football team or a perrenial NCAA basketball tournament qualifying team, SLU does not receieve as much publicity as teams with already strong athletic pro-grams.

Because SLU does not have as much money to spend on athletics, their recruitment efforts are not at the same level as the aforementioned schools.

This forces SLU to recruit and then develop a weaker caliber of players. The weak-er calliber of players causes the team to not perform as well, which continues the spi-ral of downward athletics.

Other schools with more revenue to spend on sti-pends only increases the gap between the top recruiting schools in the country and the weaker ones.

One can say that the schools in the Big Ten or SEC are “the one percent” and schools in the Atlantic 10 or SWAC conferences are the 99 percent.”

Maybe the A-10 and SWAC can join together to form an “Occupy NCAA” protest. I could write about, “Biondi and athletes joining hands against the University of Missouri.”

The Saint Louis Universi-ty women’s basketball team won their first Atlantic 10 conference against Rhode Island on Sunday, Jan. 22, 70-55. The game was broad-casted on national television.

The Lady Billikens (7-12, 1-3 A-10) were led by fresh-man Desirae Ball who scored a career-high of 18 points.

“What our fans saw today was a team that was hungry for a win, a team willing to do everything necessary to get our first A-10 win of the

season,” Head Coach Shim-my Gray-Miller said to Saint Louis Athletics.

Morgan Johnson had a career-high of 12 points, mak-ing four of her seven 3-point attempts and also contributed an assist and a rebound.

Lorreal Jones completed the trifecta of Lady Billikens in double digit scoring with her 14 points. She also re-corded 3 rebounds.

Mallory Eggert played solidy on both offense and defense with a game-high 11 rebounds and also 7 points.

The Rams took an early lead at 7-6, but it was the only

point in the game that they were ahead.

SLU extended their lead to 15-7 and never turned back in their rout of the Rams. An 11-2 run ended the first half with a 35-18 lead for SLU.

The Lady Billikens main-tained a double-digit lead the rest of the game with the larg-est lead being a 21-point ad-vantage with 16:37 left in the game

SLU dominated in every aspect of the game, dinclud-ing shooting, rebounding, and assists.

They shot 45 percent over-all, 50 percent from behind the arch and 70 percent from the free throw line.

Sloppy ball handing by Rhode Island cost them as the Lady Billikens scored 22 points off of Rhode Island’s turnovers.

Rhode Island has now lost 17 straight games and their overall record dropped to 1-19, 0-5 in A-10 conference play.

SLU ended their three game losing streak with this dominant victory and hoped to win consecutive games for the third time this season with a win over George Wash-ington University on Wednes-day.

However, the Lady Billik-ens did not achieve in their mission, losing to the Lady Colonials 68-58.

The Lady Billikens dropped to 7-13 overall, 1-4 in the A-10 in the one-sided af-fair.

SLU did lead by 10 in the first half, but an 18-5 run ig-nited the Lady Colonials, and they never surrendered the lead again.

As a team, the Lady Bil-

likens shot only 38.6 percent and an even worse 25 percent for 3 points.

Courtney Webb led the Lady Billikens with 14 points and pitched in 3 rebounds as well. Ball and Eggert both scored 12 points and brought in 6 rebounds, showing strong offensive and defensive play.

Nearly half of the Lady Billikens points came off the bench, including another 7 from Sophomore guard Halee Castleman.

23 turnovers cost the Lady Billikens though by not al-lowing them to set up a con-sistent offense and giving the ball to George Washington to continue to score.

The Lady Colonials scored 26 points off of SLU’s turn-overs, compared to just 13 from SLU off the Lady Colo-nials’ turnovers.

SLU’s defense could not stop star guard Tiana Myers, who scored a game high 24 points in just 34 minutes.

The Lady Billikens remain in 10th in the A-10 Conference and must face 15-5 Richmond University on Saturday at Chaifetz Arena at 7 p.m.

Jan 28 vs RICH

Feb 1 @ XAV

Feb 5 vs DUQ

Feb 8 vs TEM

Feb 12 @ JOES

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